Monday, January 2, 2012

There is a holiday for a holiday, Ukrainian Rule of Thumb

Dear Everyone!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope it went well for you all and your not to tired. As for us on the 31st we were in by 4 o clock but we didn't let the schedule stop us. That morning we were about 30 min away from the temple contacting around our apartment when the temple front desk calls and says "hey! there is a man here that wants to get baptized". If there were ever more perfect words for a missionary to hear I do not know of them. We stopped what we were doing immediantly and booked it to the bus stop almost considering just taking a taxi. The bus finally dropped us off and we ran as fast as we could to the temple (it had been about 20 min driving there, we only hoped he was still there) so we are running and running... honestly a lot more than I'm usually used to. In fact I became very aware of the geography of the Temple grounds as the pitch in the ground ever so slightly started rising up and up as I paralleled it getting more and more tired... aug! we finally got to the doors of the temple breathing as if somebody just tried to drown us. "good (breath,breath) morning (breath breath breath) where is (breath) he?. The gentleman was waiting patiently in the temple waiting room (go figure). Apparently he had been taught before earlier this last year and wasn't ready to get baptized at the time. Now he felt ready and wanted to do it.. we didn't know anything about him and as much as we had already decided in our minds to baptized him on the spot something told us to give him a week or two. It was way cool! and an awesome start to the day and end of the year. His name is Ihor and will be getting baptized on the 18 of Jan if all goes well. After we went out and tried to find some of our lost sheep (innactives) we looked forever for this one guy. We finally found his street and he happened to live at the other end of. To our surprise we were met with the ruins of a burnt down house. lol as much as we should have been sad for he mans loss our first thoughts were... REALLY?? all this way for a few pieces of burnt wood!? lol we spoke with the neighbors and ended finding this guy who not only knew the man who had the burnt down house but bought him a new Apartment to live in after the catastrophe. Way nice guy who helped us figure out where to go and then gave us a ride there.. it was way cool! then next part of the New Year was honestly really boring. Elder Saltmarsh and I tried to keep busy and entertained. it was way hard. I'm going to send you a picture of our doings. So that night we are sleeping and we already planned on getting woken up because of the Fireworks... however we heard them in the distance so everything was fine. And suddenly they were right next to our house! BIG ones! I thought world war 3 had just started! it was nuts! woke me up and I realized that my stomach was killing me!!! so I get up to run to the restroom. meanwhile as I'm leaving we get a call from a crazy drunk guy wanting to talk to me wishing people a happy new year. just alot of different sensations all at once! lol those few minutes were all a blur to me. and so here I sit! tonight we are headed to Odessa to start our exchanges. Hopefully we will plan part of the mission tour with president today but who knows. So yeah Chris about your Visa stuff! you have to get that sent in Yesterday!!! because they have to register you not only for your passport, but they use the passport to apply for the visa. so you have to hurry up and get it done or there going to reassign you for a while! and believe me! staying at the MTC after 12 weeks you will be chomping at the bit to get and finally do something. so get er done! and the acceptance letter and all of that is way easy, you give them your testimony kind of, tell them you want to go and have bishop sign it! vuala! easy! anyway keep me posted on all that stuff! keep sending pictures to! The office staff thought paisley was so darn cute! lol I love you all and am greatfull for everything you all do! keep your head in the scriptures!

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Старійшина Джонсон

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