Dear Everyone!
so check it out this last week was nuts! I'm still not all there though in the head. The YSA conference that was planned went great!! We ended up getting more than 40 people to it. Honestly we didn't really do anything, we just thought of the Idea, and then I "signed my life away", and the leaders from all the cities did their thing! it was kind of crazy, and at times a giant pain in the backside but it was варто! Of course the missionaries were not really apart of it, which makes sense because it was a YSA conference... also known as "a conference of potential marriages". However, some of the members here were pretty stubborn and not really looking to marry Ukrainians :) it was awesome! I ran my companion dry! haha as soon as we got home to plan he was in bed with the lights out! lol poor elder. I had an awesome time! we saw alot of familiar faces, alot of new ones. that was pretty much the end of the week! President has set a few standards as pertaining to the missionary work here, one that he is really going to town on is the investigators, always be finding. My companion has really jumped on bored! he was not really excited about transfers because of his new companion... however, right now I'm sitting in the mission office right next to the temple. No I do not stay at the mission home with president haha thats kind of silly. Elder Hofeling and I have a ..... (humbly saying) a VERY nice apartment here in kyiv. I have been there before. I'll have to fix my camera and takes some pictures at some point. by the way dad I had to take some money out because of the conference so, I still have all the money that I took out on me. I just had it reimbursed. afterwards was sunday, I gave myself the responsability to speak which was really nice! Some of our members broke down... I felt really bad. Almost didn't want to come. I'm very excited to be here in kyiv with Elder Hofeling! its way cool to be serving in our Third area together, for the Third time for only,... once again ONE transfer!!! and then he is going to leave me to figure out how to be an assistant with my next companion... lol whom I already know ;) anyway we jumped on a 7 hour bus because, there are no trains that went at the times we needed. It was very hot!!! and thats saying alot!!! I'm a warm person I know but everyone was complaining! so I finally got up and fixed the problem... which in response about 20 minutes later they cranked the heater right back on! some weird russian movie was on! I didn't like it. we got in about 12 at night :(... I'm way tired... I was just trained on how to run the office.. so yeah in one ear out the other... and then we have some funny transfers going on right now because Ukraine just made some new rules which makes it hard and this transfer impossible for the missionaries to come from America. I wanted to send pictures but .. . uh well I haven't touched my bags yet! so I'll send them next week. I'll be working around computers alot! so that will be different! We are deffinently headed into winter, I'm way excited to be working with president Klebingat. I wont know anything about travel unitl my last couple transfers and they will send the info to you before I get it. No dad I dont get a full ride scholarship lol thats just weird! so sister Garritt is trying to hook me up with a ukrianian??? lol thats kind of .. interesting I suppose. Yeah Elder Hofeling kind of remembers the Longhurst's! really is a small world anyway I'm way tired! I know that my emails are normally far more interesting but honestly I just want to sleep! I'm excited to serve! and we are going into the holidays so that is going to be way fun! tell everyone state side that I love em and will see them sooner than I want to haha
Monday, October 31, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
don't worry
Dear Wonderful everyone!
well to start off the letter, no I'm not in Kyiv yet to serve. We went there this last week for Leadership Training and then 7 hour train ride back. It was deffinently an interesting experience. (no dad the travel is on the mission) at the endof this week in principle I will be in Kyiv to serve. so yeah we started off the week in a threesome. my new companion, Elder Hair, and I and it was interesting, we found some cool people that later decided to investigate the church. What I have to report on this week is basically what went down in Kyiv. President said that this was the first one that he had heard of as far as what we did there. We had a skype call with another mission president and his assistants. It was the Samara Russia mission. they are the highest baptizing mission in Eastern Europe and have half the number of our missionaries. it was cool! I really enjoyed it, infact one of the missionaries on the screen there was one that was in the MTC when I was there... says alot about how old I am :S so anyway thats pretty much all the good news. all the rest of the news is not so great... and I would send dad his own specific email but I've learned from the past that mom knows the password. So yeah honestly I tried to stay away from trouble...lol yeah actually dad more of the craziness in Ukraine happens in Kyiv. So I'm on exchanges in Kyiv with Elder Reynolds (if you notice, he is the same elder that I ran into trouble with last year... about this time lol) so we are walking out around 6 or 7 and its pitch black. we are trying to find some people to talk to on the busy street. its tough because we dont know the area at all.. I have never served in Kyiv and he hadn't either. We were walking by one of the resteraunts there when these three guys were talking amongst all these other people but I noticed these three in specific, anyway so I keep watching while walking and I can tell its an arguement. one of the guys takes two swings, a right and a left and knocks one out cold and the other guy just gets knocked back he then proceeds and flips out a knife. obviously that was our exit. any walking furthur away but down by the apartment that we were going to stay at. its really hard ( I think) to contact at night but we were still trying, talked to some nice people in the apartment complex, found out where some members lived, lol that was a funny story. anyway Elder Reynolds contacts these two people, older, man and woman and they were way nice. we finish the conversation and walk off. as we do this guy in a tuareg SUV has his door open, or opens it I dont remember about 20 paces from us, he beckons us to come over. This was right after the previous contact so we thought that perhaps he wanted to know more or what was so interesting about it. I came over to him and he asks in Russian what we are doing here, I told him we were representatives of our church, of Jesus Christ. He then said something in Russian that I didn't quite understand and I thought he asked about our Visa's, but now that I had time to think about it he was using the word "to see" in the conjigated "I" form which sounds like Visa. Anyway at the time I didn't understand so I said "what?" he then said something totally different. Now I was pretty sure I understood him, but the languages can be so unpredictable with Idioms, culture, so I asked to say it again but in Ukrainian... well .. unfortunantly it was exactly what I thought he had said. He reached for my dangling tie from his sitting position and what I had asked him to repeat was "I'm going to break you legs". Anyway This guy yanks down on the tie bringin me in closer( a really nice tie, one that I really liked...jerk lol) I stepped back and slammed my left hand down on the tie to break his grip mean while cranken up the right one to "clean is clock". I dont know how I was thinking normally at this time but I thought to myself ... this man isn't drunk. I couldn't smell anything, nice car, and he was dressed nice... and he started the fight without any invitation from us. well 1+1=2, I figure if I was him I wouldn't start some random fight with strangers unless I had the advantage, especially rich lookin guys like ourselves. I didn't want to find out the advantage. Stocky guy, had a gut, but was built in the shoulders. I got loose and he tells me that he never wants to see us here again. I told him that was stupid that we live here, he then asked where....lol well duh, what was I born yesterday. said I'm not stupid and I'm not going to tell him, he says "fine, then you live in that apartment quietly and I dont ever want to see or hear from you again" I called him a "fool" and walked off. (yeah probably shouldn't have called him a fool but still, we hadn't done anything) yelled after us, "did you understand me!!!" and we just kept walking. problem was is this was like right next to the assistants apartment. an apartment that as far as I understand it... I'll be occupying soon. oh boy.. yeah so... it wasn't the best experience. but what do you do... our fellow brotheren that we love and hope to convince dont' always use there God given heads. anyway! later! so I have pretty much signed my life away! haha in Kyiv I had to figure out how to pay for this Youth Conference that we organized... talked to elder Park at the office (you need to talk to the office if you coming) and he made me sign this paper and then he gave me 10 "G"'s to pay for this thing... woof! so I'm hoping to get rif of it all soon. because of circumstances we couldn't do it Electronically. this sunday was kind of stressful... president took the assignment of assigning talks from me this week and then assigned me to talk....lol what the heck! so I prepped a talk that I actually felt ready for.. I still had to play the piano this week again... :( poor members. and then found out that everyone who was supposed to prepare the lesson for the second hour didn't... oi vey. so I pounded on the piano, DIDN"T give me talk because we had a member talk for a half hour ... :S and then the sunday school lesson was mine! aug! lol I couldn't but laugh at it all but still... I was happy to sleep last night. this week was interesting and so yeah I'll be in Kyiv I beleive at the end of this week! right after the conference which should be really good!
GET CHRIS"S PAPERS DONE! and dont tell me that there done... until there done! lol he bryndon good job! I hope you get the job! that would be sweet! heard nothing from taleya today... so hope she is well and thank you mom and dad for the fact that you exist. I told you that thats a big compliment here when you thank someone for the fact "that they are" is how you say it. my birthday was alright. the entire city was out of water so resteraunts were pretty much a no go! but it was still cool! had people call and sing me happy birthday from cities that I have served in. another called that I didn't know and after singing just hung up, lol however we have connections and I figured it out. ... I think. all is well I suppose here... the holidays are right around the corner so this is going to get alot faster! ... and so you know its Elder Hofeling, thats his name... not Elder Hofelinger. The sisters said that the members in Rivne put up a video of the wedding... lol kind of emberrassing because I did mess up. tell me how it is. Love you guys! keep me posted
well to start off the letter, no I'm not in Kyiv yet to serve. We went there this last week for Leadership Training and then 7 hour train ride back. It was deffinently an interesting experience. (no dad the travel is on the mission) at the endof this week in principle I will be in Kyiv to serve. so yeah we started off the week in a threesome. my new companion, Elder Hair, and I and it was interesting, we found some cool people that later decided to investigate the church. What I have to report on this week is basically what went down in Kyiv. President said that this was the first one that he had heard of as far as what we did there. We had a skype call with another mission president and his assistants. It was the Samara Russia mission. they are the highest baptizing mission in Eastern Europe and have half the number of our missionaries. it was cool! I really enjoyed it, infact one of the missionaries on the screen there was one that was in the MTC when I was there... says alot about how old I am :S so anyway thats pretty much all the good news. all the rest of the news is not so great... and I would send dad his own specific email but I've learned from the past that mom knows the password. So yeah honestly I tried to stay away from trouble...lol yeah actually dad more of the craziness in Ukraine happens in Kyiv. So I'm on exchanges in Kyiv with Elder Reynolds (if you notice, he is the same elder that I ran into trouble with last year... about this time lol) so we are walking out around 6 or 7 and its pitch black. we are trying to find some people to talk to on the busy street. its tough because we dont know the area at all.. I have never served in Kyiv and he hadn't either. We were walking by one of the resteraunts there when these three guys were talking amongst all these other people but I noticed these three in specific, anyway so I keep watching while walking and I can tell its an arguement. one of the guys takes two swings, a right and a left and knocks one out cold and the other guy just gets knocked back he then proceeds and flips out a knife. obviously that was our exit. any walking furthur away but down by the apartment that we were going to stay at. its really hard ( I think) to contact at night but we were still trying, talked to some nice people in the apartment complex, found out where some members lived, lol that was a funny story. anyway Elder Reynolds contacts these two people, older, man and woman and they were way nice. we finish the conversation and walk off. as we do this guy in a tuareg SUV has his door open, or opens it I dont remember about 20 paces from us, he beckons us to come over. This was right after the previous contact so we thought that perhaps he wanted to know more or what was so interesting about it. I came over to him and he asks in Russian what we are doing here, I told him we were representatives of our church, of Jesus Christ. He then said something in Russian that I didn't quite understand and I thought he asked about our Visa's, but now that I had time to think about it he was using the word "to see" in the conjigated "I" form which sounds like Visa. Anyway at the time I didn't understand so I said "what?" he then said something totally different. Now I was pretty sure I understood him, but the languages can be so unpredictable with Idioms, culture, so I asked to say it again but in Ukrainian... well .. unfortunantly it was exactly what I thought he had said. He reached for my dangling tie from his sitting position and what I had asked him to repeat was "I'm going to break you legs". Anyway This guy yanks down on the tie bringin me in closer( a really nice tie, one that I really liked...jerk lol) I stepped back and slammed my left hand down on the tie to break his grip mean while cranken up the right one to "clean is clock". I dont know how I was thinking normally at this time but I thought to myself ... this man isn't drunk. I couldn't smell anything, nice car, and he was dressed nice... and he started the fight without any invitation from us. well 1+1=2, I figure if I was him I wouldn't start some random fight with strangers unless I had the advantage, especially rich lookin guys like ourselves. I didn't want to find out the advantage. Stocky guy, had a gut, but was built in the shoulders. I got loose and he tells me that he never wants to see us here again. I told him that was stupid that we live here, he then asked where....lol well duh, what was I born yesterday. said I'm not stupid and I'm not going to tell him, he says "fine, then you live in that apartment quietly and I dont ever want to see or hear from you again" I called him a "fool" and walked off. (yeah probably shouldn't have called him a fool but still, we hadn't done anything) yelled after us, "did you understand me!!!" and we just kept walking. problem was is this was like right next to the assistants apartment. an apartment that as far as I understand it... I'll be occupying soon. oh boy.. yeah so... it wasn't the best experience. but what do you do... our fellow brotheren that we love and hope to convince dont' always use there God given heads. anyway! later! so I have pretty much signed my life away! haha in Kyiv I had to figure out how to pay for this Youth Conference that we organized... talked to elder Park at the office (you need to talk to the office if you coming) and he made me sign this paper and then he gave me 10 "G"'s to pay for this thing... woof! so I'm hoping to get rif of it all soon. because of circumstances we couldn't do it Electronically. this sunday was kind of stressful... president took the assignment of assigning talks from me this week and then assigned me to talk....lol what the heck! so I prepped a talk that I actually felt ready for.. I still had to play the piano this week again... :( poor members. and then found out that everyone who was supposed to prepare the lesson for the second hour didn't... oi vey. so I pounded on the piano, DIDN"T give me talk because we had a member talk for a half hour ... :S and then the sunday school lesson was mine! aug! lol I couldn't but laugh at it all but still... I was happy to sleep last night. this week was interesting and so yeah I'll be in Kyiv I beleive at the end of this week! right after the conference which should be really good!
GET CHRIS"S PAPERS DONE! and dont tell me that there done... until there done! lol he bryndon good job! I hope you get the job! that would be sweet! heard nothing from taleya today... so hope she is well and thank you mom and dad for the fact that you exist. I told you that thats a big compliment here when you thank someone for the fact "that they are" is how you say it. my birthday was alright. the entire city was out of water so resteraunts were pretty much a no go! but it was still cool! had people call and sing me happy birthday from cities that I have served in. another called that I didn't know and after singing just hung up, lol however we have connections and I figured it out. ... I think. all is well I suppose here... the holidays are right around the corner so this is going to get alot faster! ... and so you know its Elder Hofeling, thats his name... not Elder Hofelinger. The sisters said that the members in Rivne put up a video of the wedding... lol kind of emberrassing because I did mess up. tell me how it is. Love you guys! keep me posted
Старійшина Джонсон
--
Monday, October 17, 2011
.....oh boy.. Patriarical blessing moment
Dear beloved family and friends,
so this was week 5 of 7 weeks this transfer, and we did pretty good. Elder larson and I found quite a bit this week, had some funny experiences, some rough ones, the YSA activity that we have planned to go down here in K ville is running into some bumps, and the branch is still small (5active members strong/with 40 on the list), we still meet in the soccer stadium where you can enjoy the sound of a nice soccer game and then the beat from the music of the strip club just below us. This week the responsability of not just sitting next president on the stand but occupying myself with the chair behind the paino aswell was given to me, trying to pound the notes hoping to overpower the 1300 watt bass below :P then friday. so I'm sitting in my chair waisted from working out and tired because its the morning about 7:30 and I get a call from president Klebingat. assuming he is going to address the questions I had about the YSA activity that I have been bugging him about. "good morning president, this is Elder Johnson" replies "good morning, is your companion next to you?" (that always means something is about to go down) so I speaker the phone and we sit there as he explains to us that he is about to do something a little crazy! one of our other cities is not really taking head to presidents council at all, and they dont see any success, there kind of waisting time and so he tells us he wants to do a mini transfer (ninja transfers we call em, because nobody really knows about them right away )before transfers... I thought to myself... "self, you have been here for 3 transfers already.... looks like your headed out" and then came presidents statement "Elder Larson you are leaving to Vinnitsya" (wheeew dodged that bullet!, I really wanted to stay) so cool alright I'm getting a new companion (elder Carnes) for the next two and a half weeks. It felt like president said it in one breath, all this info, and we are stuck there still kind of just blinking our eye's trying to soak it all in in the morning, because it sure threw a wrench into our plans.... had planning, meetings, also another news intereview (that was cool) oh by the way! your boy Elder Johnson and his englishman friends made the front page of the city magazine! and they stuck a picture of me on it. they interviewed us again and we will be on another one this thursday haha anyway! so now elder Larson has to pack and he starts freakin...well we do! because we both are silently in our heads trying to figure out that day and how we are NOW going to be able to do everything.... so meanwhile we are in our heads trying to give attention also to president he mentions one more bit of info that he said had to stay inbetween the three of us. obviously that caught our attention and he tells me that he has requested me to come to kyiv at the end of the transfer to come work by him as Assistant for probably the rest of my mission...... with Elder Hofeling haha AGAIN!!!! hehe a third time. Now you have to understand that first of all transfer information for one reason or another is very important to missionaries especially when it relates to you, and yeah every missionary has his ideas secretly back in his head of where he might be going next... wether he voices them or not, I honestly thought I was headed to Leviv to replace Elder Angerhofer. Neither one of us expected the mini transfer let alone where I was going to be headed... so .. yeah once we got our jaws back up and sat in our chairs for a good 5 silent minutes! we just busted up laughing! haha it was way funny! neither of us could have even fathomned what was going to happen. president said they will be there today and told us to have a great day! haha so they came, said our goodbye's and hello's and off we went... that was one of the more successful days of the mission... and also one of the wierdest weathered. We got snow in the morning (light) and it stopped, then me and Elder Carnes are out and about trying to find and starts REALLY snowing! and then raining, and then hailing! haha I just laughed. sometime between the snow and the rain we did end up finding two brand new people who wanted to know more and have scheduled other meetings for this week! cool guys, one is 16! so we have a successful day! I honestly think the only reason they were not have success down in their city before he got here was just lack of the drive because he was working great with me! and still is! he will be "dying" soon is what we call it, and has only a transfer left on his mission after this. (he is the next Ukrainian Group ahead of me... if that puts it into perspective, it goes first ukrainian elders come in and then 6 weeks russian elders come in and then after 6 weeks ukrainian and so on and so on)so yeah! this is one of my last couple pdays here in K ville :( but way excited not only to serve with Elder Hofeling again but with President aswell! Thanks for the birthday wishes.... yeah I know I'm old! ... but taleya! you have a kid already so... I mean you can just call ME old... but sista you gots ProoF!!!! haha and she's about 8 ounces :D I'm glad Chris is ready to go on the mission! bryndon keep it up! and dad your are a Молодец!! keep it up! Love you mom and I'm glad that right around the corner I'll be talking to you ALLLL ( I hope) on skype come Christmas! ... lol And I'll be reporting from Kyiv as it were... kind of funny I never wanted to serve in Kyiv, I like the west, and I hope my last transfer they let me loose again out that way! well I love you and I'm grateful for all of the emials. yes dad I'll be careful with the funds thanks again. by the way.. had a man tell me that Joseph (earthly father of Jesus) was half Ukrainian haha ... I said to myself "yeah just like you guys think you won world war two haha " funny ... anwyay bye!
I forgot to say meanwhile president calling, our power decided to go out right before he called but right after Elder Larson had started his laundry and before I had taken a shower ...haha a man that was good stuff! what can you do but laugh
Старійшина Джонсон
--
so this was week 5 of 7 weeks this transfer, and we did pretty good. Elder larson and I found quite a bit this week, had some funny experiences, some rough ones, the YSA activity that we have planned to go down here in K ville is running into some bumps, and the branch is still small (5active members strong/with 40 on the list), we still meet in the soccer stadium where you can enjoy the sound of a nice soccer game and then the beat from the music of the strip club just below us. This week the responsability of not just sitting next president on the stand but occupying myself with the chair behind the paino aswell was given to me, trying to pound the notes hoping to overpower the 1300 watt bass below :P then friday. so I'm sitting in my chair waisted from working out and tired because its the morning about 7:30 and I get a call from president Klebingat. assuming he is going to address the questions I had about the YSA activity that I have been bugging him about. "good morning president, this is Elder Johnson" replies "good morning, is your companion next to you?" (that always means something is about to go down) so I speaker the phone and we sit there as he explains to us that he is about to do something a little crazy! one of our other cities is not really taking head to presidents council at all, and they dont see any success, there kind of waisting time and so he tells us he wants to do a mini transfer (ninja transfers we call em, because nobody really knows about them right away )before transfers... I thought to myself... "self, you have been here for 3 transfers already.... looks like your headed out" and then came presidents statement "Elder Larson you are leaving to Vinnitsya" (wheeew dodged that bullet!, I really wanted to stay) so cool alright I'm getting a new companion (elder Carnes) for the next two and a half weeks. It felt like president said it in one breath, all this info, and we are stuck there still kind of just blinking our eye's trying to soak it all in in the morning, because it sure threw a wrench into our plans.... had planning, meetings, also another news intereview (that was cool) oh by the way! your boy Elder Johnson and his englishman friends made the front page of the city magazine! and they stuck a picture of me on it. they interviewed us again and we will be on another one this thursday haha anyway! so now elder Larson has to pack and he starts freakin...well we do! because we both are silently in our heads trying to figure out that day and how we are NOW going to be able to do everything.... so meanwhile we are in our heads trying to give attention also to president he mentions one more bit of info that he said had to stay inbetween the three of us. obviously that caught our attention and he tells me that he has requested me to come to kyiv at the end of the transfer to come work by him as Assistant for probably the rest of my mission...... with Elder Hofeling haha AGAIN!!!! hehe a third time. Now you have to understand that first of all transfer information for one reason or another is very important to missionaries especially when it relates to you, and yeah every missionary has his ideas secretly back in his head of where he might be going next... wether he voices them or not, I honestly thought I was headed to Leviv to replace Elder Angerhofer. Neither one of us expected the mini transfer let alone where I was going to be headed... so .. yeah once we got our jaws back up and sat in our chairs for a good 5 silent minutes! we just busted up laughing! haha it was way funny! neither of us could have even fathomned what was going to happen. president said they will be there today and told us to have a great day! haha so they came, said our goodbye's and hello's and off we went... that was one of the more successful days of the mission... and also one of the wierdest weathered. We got snow in the morning (light) and it stopped, then me and Elder Carnes are out and about trying to find and starts REALLY snowing! and then raining, and then hailing! haha I just laughed. sometime between the snow and the rain we did end up finding two brand new people who wanted to know more and have scheduled other meetings for this week! cool guys, one is 16! so we have a successful day! I honestly think the only reason they were not have success down in their city before he got here was just lack of the drive because he was working great with me! and still is! he will be "dying" soon is what we call it, and has only a transfer left on his mission after this. (he is the next Ukrainian Group ahead of me... if that puts it into perspective, it goes first ukrainian elders come in and then 6 weeks russian elders come in and then after 6 weeks ukrainian and so on and so on)so yeah! this is one of my last couple pdays here in K ville :( but way excited not only to serve with Elder Hofeling again but with President aswell! Thanks for the birthday wishes.... yeah I know I'm old! ... but taleya! you have a kid already so... I mean you can just call ME old... but sista you gots ProoF!!!! haha and she's about 8 ounces :D I'm glad Chris is ready to go on the mission! bryndon keep it up! and dad your are a Молодец!! keep it up! Love you mom and I'm glad that right around the corner I'll be talking to you ALLLL ( I hope) on skype come Christmas! ... lol And I'll be reporting from Kyiv as it were... kind of funny I never wanted to serve in Kyiv, I like the west, and I hope my last transfer they let me loose again out that way! well I love you and I'm grateful for all of the emials. yes dad I'll be careful with the funds thanks again. by the way.. had a man tell me that Joseph (earthly father of Jesus) was half Ukrainian haha ... I said to myself "yeah just like you guys think you won world war two haha " funny ... anwyay bye!
I forgot to say meanwhile president calling, our power decided to go out right before he called but right after Elder Larson had started his laundry and before I had taken a shower ...haha a man that was good stuff! what can you do but laugh
Старійшина Джонсон
Monday, October 10, 2011
Go through the finish line, not to it.
Dear everyone,
I would like to start off this letter with ... (ahem) YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! haha I'm so glad that Paisley is finally here, however I dont understand still why we call her paisley when her first name is Jordyn... somebody explain please. this week I must say was probably one of the best weeks of my mission! It was slow but we saw miracles happen. One of them being the marriage between some really close friends back in Rivne! I asked around to the leaders when Volodimyr asked me to come sing at his wedding. President Klebingat told me that it was up to me... I pondered for a while and then read in my Patriarical blessing about how I can invite other people by the talents that I have... so well long story short I went and I sang my heart out with a sister there! it was probably one of the best contacting Ideas we have ever done! I had a member go on and make me add them so that she could put pictures up. Ira Yakavenko is her name, she is a cool photographer, taleya you would like her. oh by the way... in Conference when sister Elaine S Dalton made her comments you know who I thought of? lol I was like wow this is specifically for them! haha great conference I thought it was awesome! oh yeah by the way I also ... random note if Josh was ever Ukrainian I found him. this guy who drove us to Rivne was like the spitting image of Josh but with a russian tongue. I really enjoyed this week and am way happy that everyone is doing well! so yeah ... yeah so um family! I had a quick question, have you talked to mr. mac yet about the suit? also I was curious about my computer... so the computer I bought is completely distroyed now? thats really stinks.... :S well on a better note I'm sending pictures this week. so here ya go ... love ya!
--
Старійшина Джонсон
I would like to start off this letter with ... (ahem) YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! haha I'm so glad that Paisley is finally here, however I dont understand still why we call her paisley when her first name is Jordyn... somebody explain please. this week I must say was probably one of the best weeks of my mission! It was slow but we saw miracles happen. One of them being the marriage between some really close friends back in Rivne! I asked around to the leaders when Volodimyr asked me to come sing at his wedding. President Klebingat told me that it was up to me... I pondered for a while and then read in my Patriarical blessing about how I can invite other people by the talents that I have... so well long story short I went and I sang my heart out with a sister there! it was probably one of the best contacting Ideas we have ever done! I had a member go on and make me add them so that she could put pictures up. Ira Yakavenko is her name, she is a cool photographer, taleya you would like her. oh by the way... in Conference when sister Elaine S Dalton made her comments you know who I thought of? lol I was like wow this is specifically for them! haha great conference I thought it was awesome! oh yeah by the way I also ... random note if Josh was ever Ukrainian I found him. this guy who drove us to Rivne was like the spitting image of Josh but with a russian tongue. I really enjoyed this week and am way happy that everyone is doing well! so yeah ... yeah so um family! I had a quick question, have you talked to mr. mac yet about the suit? also I was curious about my computer... so the computer I bought is completely distroyed now? thats really stinks.... :S well on a better note I'm sending pictures this week. so here ya go ... love ya!
Старійшина Джонсон
Monday, October 3, 2011
Happy Birthday to those who are on their first and those beyond half a century :P
Message body
Hello everybody!
well its about time! I saw the pictures that dad sent of Jordyn! she is way cute! and that is still so weird! I'm way excited to meet her! I'm glad everything went well. Im sorry the birth problems you had going on Taleya... but I'm way glad she got here ok! wow guys thats way cool! I've totally forgotten all that I wanted to say! I'm so distracted by the pictures and the wonderful good news. this week was alright! the next week will be better! I'm headed to Rivne for Vova's wedding. I think I told you that he requested that I sing at his wedding.. its way cool and president Klebingat is down with it. so we will be there this week. yeah I did see a little bit of the first saturdau session of conference..I did see president monson and what he said, and the news about the temples are awesome! I'm way stoked! wow gosh guys I dont know what else to say! i'm an uncle! wow! I'm old! but you wanna know who's older? DAD!!!! haha happy birthday! bet you thought I forgot huh!? well Happy Birthday everyone! I"m sorry thisis so short but I forgot alot of what I wanted to say! i'm way excited for everyone! Cool!
so Happy Birthday! Love you all!
--
Старійшина Джонсон
so Happy Birthday! Love you all!
Старійшина Джонсон
Monday, September 26, 2011
Bryndon and Christopher
Hello Hello Hello!
Greetings from Ukraine! I'm doing well, we just finished our first week on a new transfer and well ... its going. This week was interesting because it was the cities birthday. This city has been a city longer than our country has been a country. 580 years old. so ... naturally, everyone was drunk. :S The World is on its way to ........ a really really bad place. :P It made it really hard to contact people because one they didn't want to talk to us and two if they did it was because they were plastered. Obviously we deviated and tried by other means to talk to people but yeah... was really tough. One of our member here Roman, He is 17 and plays the drums, he was in the parade on saturday and then wanted us to go support him on sund around 5 in the park. we figured cool we can do that and maybe talk to some of his friends there, maybe get a few cool people to teach. well we go there and ... apparently the celebrations just go until they say because according to them it was still the cities birthday. Everyone was drinking, some were dancing. It was a small stage that he was going to be playing on and he told us that he was the 2nd one. ..... long story short .. he wasn't. instead about 9 belly dancers came out!!! for the love of pete! it literally smacked us all in the face and I looked towards Roman, he gives me an "I have no idea" look. and so I sent the other elders on exchanges, we ditched the tags and left to another end of the park until they were done. came back. more belly dancers. ...ou vey! same ruitine. He FINALLY got to play and it was way good. He felt way bad but he didn't know. This week we found two new investigators, way cool people! I gave her husband a requested blessing. I commanded him to stand and be with health. he started to cry, when he arose he did so without us. you see we had to basically carrying him in the room. He recently suffered a stroke. so we carried him in the room and he carried himself out! we hope to have them baptized in 3 weeks. next meeting is this week. that was one of the more perfect lessons Heavenly Father helped us teach. awesome experience!
The leaves have already been changing and the chill is in the air and I think we can expect a REALLY cold winter! because we had a really mild summer. Dad as for flight numbers I wont find out until about the last 3 months and even then they are going to send them to you. If you are connecting to my flight then we are leaving like the 6th or 7th of march. I cant really do anything you guys have to contact the mission office here and talk to them about the whole thing. I beleive this is the email to the mission office. The names are Elder and Sister Park 2012235@ldschurch.org so you will have to get intouch with them. They pretty much leave me out of the whole thing until the end. I honesntly think it would be better if you guys came back with me, meaning so I go home and then we go back. because I will be a missionary while here and so I wont get to do alot of things you might want to do. I dont know if the stake president can release me over the phone but I just think it might be better that way. you'd get your money's worth out of it because then I could show you Ukraine. and not just Kyiv. but thats all up to you.
the work is way hard right now! we are you could say just nourishing the garden, hoping for an awesome bloom. I'm glad Chris is getting done! get the signature and get him out! tell bryndon he is a молодець . yeah the travel by taxi is a huge cost but president says if the presidency says no more night travel then we are going to do anything to obey! money isn't an issue. In October we are are doing an activity that our district thought up of and we are inviting 3 other cities to come join in with us. we have made alot of progress thus far. it will be a YSA and president Klebingat is on board. we are way excited!
Also I recieved a call from Rivne, and they want me to come sing at a wedding of some close members of mine down there. I really want to! awesome chance to share my talent, my comp doesn't really want to. President thinks its cool but he is going to let me decide wether ornot to go. the Zone leaders siad do it! so we will see, I might just go on exchanges to do it. well yeah so family I love you, I hope you ALL are doing well! Yes Aunt Robin I got the package a while back! it was way cool! and I appreciated it big time! tell Rosy and Uncle Brett I said Hi! Taleya... just go jump on a trampolien :D ..kidding dont do that! Я вас люблю!
Greetings from Ukraine! I'm doing well, we just finished our first week on a new transfer and well ... its going. This week was interesting because it was the cities birthday. This city has been a city longer than our country has been a country. 580 years old. so ... naturally, everyone was drunk. :S The World is on its way to ........ a really really bad place. :P It made it really hard to contact people because one they didn't want to talk to us and two if they did it was because they were plastered. Obviously we deviated and tried by other means to talk to people but yeah... was really tough. One of our member here Roman, He is 17 and plays the drums, he was in the parade on saturday and then wanted us to go support him on sund around 5 in the park. we figured cool we can do that and maybe talk to some of his friends there, maybe get a few cool people to teach. well we go there and ... apparently the celebrations just go until they say because according to them it was still the cities birthday. Everyone was drinking, some were dancing. It was a small stage that he was going to be playing on and he told us that he was the 2nd one. ..... long story short .. he wasn't. instead about 9 belly dancers came out!!! for the love of pete! it literally smacked us all in the face and I looked towards Roman, he gives me an "I have no idea" look. and so I sent the other elders on exchanges, we ditched the tags and left to another end of the park until they were done. came back. more belly dancers. ...ou vey! same ruitine. He FINALLY got to play and it was way good. He felt way bad but he didn't know. This week we found two new investigators, way cool people! I gave her husband a requested blessing. I commanded him to stand and be with health. he started to cry, when he arose he did so without us. you see we had to basically carrying him in the room. He recently suffered a stroke. so we carried him in the room and he carried himself out! we hope to have them baptized in 3 weeks. next meeting is this week. that was one of the more perfect lessons Heavenly Father helped us teach. awesome experience!
The leaves have already been changing and the chill is in the air and I think we can expect a REALLY cold winter! because we had a really mild summer. Dad as for flight numbers I wont find out until about the last 3 months and even then they are going to send them to you. If you are connecting to my flight then we are leaving like the 6th or 7th of march. I cant really do anything you guys have to contact the mission office here and talk to them about the whole thing. I beleive this is the email to the mission office. The names are Elder and Sister Park 2012235@ldschurch.org so you will have to get intouch with them. They pretty much leave me out of the whole thing until the end. I honesntly think it would be better if you guys came back with me, meaning so I go home and then we go back. because I will be a missionary while here and so I wont get to do alot of things you might want to do. I dont know if the stake president can release me over the phone but I just think it might be better that way. you'd get your money's worth out of it because then I could show you Ukraine. and not just Kyiv. but thats all up to you.
the work is way hard right now! we are you could say just nourishing the garden, hoping for an awesome bloom. I'm glad Chris is getting done! get the signature and get him out! tell bryndon he is a молодець . yeah the travel by taxi is a huge cost but president says if the presidency says no more night travel then we are going to do anything to obey! money isn't an issue. In October we are are doing an activity that our district thought up of and we are inviting 3 other cities to come join in with us. we have made alot of progress thus far. it will be a YSA and president Klebingat is on board. we are way excited!
Also I recieved a call from Rivne, and they want me to come sing at a wedding of some close members of mine down there. I really want to! awesome chance to share my talent, my comp doesn't really want to. President thinks its cool but he is going to let me decide wether ornot to go. the Zone leaders siad do it! so we will see, I might just go on exchanges to do it. well yeah so family I love you, I hope you ALL are doing well! Yes Aunt Robin I got the package a while back! it was way cool! and I appreciated it big time! tell Rosy and Uncle Brett I said Hi! Taleya... just go jump on a trampolien :D ..kidding dont do that! Я вас люблю!
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Hello again,
so a long week of traveling (by taxi) and we are finally back in Kmelnitsky. this week has been sort of a run around. Lots of meetings, lots of... self reflection. which I think happens when you dont have to start thinking about a zone anymore. I've come accross the subject of repentence. Its really a cool thing aside from its reputation as being a horrible word, and hard to accept. Its a gift and good news for us, however, not surprisingly satan has certainly capitalized on making it something bad or something we fear. Repentance- in hebrew means "return to God". It was a gift bestowed on us by the Savior so that we can return back and live worthy of the blessings of heaven with our Heavenly Father. I Thought a little more about it this week and came to an understanding that the Gospel of Christ (faith, repentence, baptism, gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end) is a earthly principle. Its a "till death do we part thing" if you will. Faith- is not a perfect knowledge of things, but we will have that perfect knowledge of things in the next life, Repentence - Christ mission is fullfilled when we return into the presence of our Heavenly Father. Baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost are normally just a one time thing. and enduring to the end... well there will be no end.Repentence is such an awesome step closer to our Heavenly Father, a step to become better. I wonder why people are so afraid of it. maybe yeah its because you dont want to maybe accept that you did this or that, or maybe you dont want others to know because how you said it in you letter mom, people judge. I think that what first has to happen is to have an understanding that the One who can make this all go away, and who's judgements yes you should be afraid of is waiting for you to make a decision. He is waiting for you to "return to God". repentence requires a person to be humble, its not a choice you have to be humble for true repentence. If your still fighting and justifying, and still trying to hide parts of you away, something is wrong. we are not to hide our God given light, we are to let it shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven. and if its not shining then we should do something quick to flick it back on. We were ment to shine the verse says and not to hide. to keep shining until that light can become brighter and brighter until the perfect day.
Everyone seems to be doing great! I'm glad to hear, yeah taleya I hope you pop soon. that will be a once in a lifetime I suppose (atleast with your first) I'm doing good here, I'm helping people, trying to get them to change for the better....with the thought that if I'm out inviting people to change for the better then I had better be doing the same. I hope all is well. and i'm sorry this is short. lots to do today. Love you guys
--
Старійшина Джонсон
so a long week of traveling (by taxi) and we are finally back in Kmelnitsky. this week has been sort of a run around. Lots of meetings, lots of... self reflection. which I think happens when you dont have to start thinking about a zone anymore. I've come accross the subject of repentence. Its really a cool thing aside from its reputation as being a horrible word, and hard to accept. Its a gift and good news for us, however, not surprisingly satan has certainly capitalized on making it something bad or something we fear. Repentance- in hebrew means "return to God". It was a gift bestowed on us by the Savior so that we can return back and live worthy of the blessings of heaven with our Heavenly Father. I Thought a little more about it this week and came to an understanding that the Gospel of Christ (faith, repentence, baptism, gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end) is a earthly principle. Its a "till death do we part thing" if you will. Faith- is not a perfect knowledge of things, but we will have that perfect knowledge of things in the next life, Repentence - Christ mission is fullfilled when we return into the presence of our Heavenly Father. Baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost are normally just a one time thing. and enduring to the end... well there will be no end.Repentence is such an awesome step closer to our Heavenly Father, a step to become better. I wonder why people are so afraid of it. maybe yeah its because you dont want to maybe accept that you did this or that, or maybe you dont want others to know because how you said it in you letter mom, people judge. I think that what first has to happen is to have an understanding that the One who can make this all go away, and who's judgements yes you should be afraid of is waiting for you to make a decision. He is waiting for you to "return to God". repentence requires a person to be humble, its not a choice you have to be humble for true repentence. If your still fighting and justifying, and still trying to hide parts of you away, something is wrong. we are not to hide our God given light, we are to let it shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven. and if its not shining then we should do something quick to flick it back on. We were ment to shine the verse says and not to hide. to keep shining until that light can become brighter and brighter until the perfect day.
Everyone seems to be doing great! I'm glad to hear, yeah taleya I hope you pop soon. that will be a once in a lifetime I suppose (atleast with your first) I'm doing good here, I'm helping people, trying to get them to change for the better....with the thought that if I'm out inviting people to change for the better then I had better be doing the same. I hope all is well. and i'm sorry this is short. lots to do today. Love you guys
Старійшина Джонсон
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)