Sunday, July 22, 2007

Matt's Letter

May 23, 2007

alright so news for this week is almost all entirely good! its been apretty crazy week. the first good news is...well wait...no bad newsfirst. so I thought I'd get everyones pouch mail this week but theydidnt have any for me so I'll get it next time pres comes up (which maybe sooner than usual I'll tell you why later) ok so first, thursday wehad another lesson with our best investigator christina. She told us shereally wanted to get baptised but still had some things she was reallyworried about and had been having some hard opostition but was justtrying to figure things out. so we gave her a blessing and then taughther a first discussion in russian (even tho we usually teach her inenglish). we told her we were gunna do that because I needed practice(which I did) but we really did it just cause we wanted to bring thespirit of the first lesson back into her life. (BTW if you dont knowwhat the first lesson is I'm not gunna tell you cause all of you shouldhave a copy of Preach My Gospel that you are reading cause its crazyamazing k?) So then thurs night we had our zone conf interviews withpresident. which went really well. I did tell him that I was having somepain in my knee (DHUN DHUN DHUN!) but he just said he has faith that itwill continue to heal so I'm going with that. we talked about christinaand some of her concerns and he said he would like to meet with her. sowe set up a meeting for friday.So then friday we went with her to see president and they decided thatshe would get baptised NEXT WEEKEND! but president wanted to be able tobe there and getting up to harkov is difficult so she was gunna go downto Donnetsk to get baptised. so that was our plan was for all of us(her, me and my comp, and her fam) to go down to donnetsk. so we werestoked and kinda in a daze cause thats such a weird way to do things butwe were excited that she would just be baptised (oh yea she had alsoasked president to baptise her and he said yes) So then saturday we hadZone conf and president gave some REALLY good talks as did the 4 zoneleaders (it was actually a bi zone conference I guess but yea anyway) sothen saturday night was one of the craziest nights. We were just gunnago back and try and visit some inactives that live a few miles from us.so we left our Dom (appt building) at about 7pm (for those of you VERYEuropean people thats 19:00) and we started around the corner of ourbuilding and an old guy called out "Ribiata" (which means like younglads) so we turned around and he told us like 15 years ago he hadinvestigated in Donnetsk but moved up here and hadnt seen us since so wegave a quick first discussion on a bench outside his relatives Dom andinvited him to church. As we were walking away marvling that somebody,ANYBODY, had stopped us on the street, cause things like that just donthappen here, people never stop missionaries on the street wanting totalk to them. So we were still recovering from shock when another guystarted walking towards us (this was just too weird) so he stopped usand started talking to us. Then two Ribiata from across the street cameover and started talking to me in broken english, cause they wereenglish students, while my comp talked to this other guy. So I gave theRibiata invitations to our english classes and they said they'd come. Sothen this other guys (who we decided wasnt drunk but was just crazy, myvote is PTSD because he turned out to be an soviet vet) He asked us tocome over to his friends. so we started following him (the whole way meand my comp asked eachother in english if this was a good idea) but wegot over to this apt building and he introduced us to the nicest familyI have met here in Ukraine. Mother and father, and ~17 year old daughterand a 9 year old son. They brought us into the kitchen (which is almostwithout fail where we end up teaching if we get into the door) andtaught them a first discission and left them with a Book of Mormon and apamphlet on the restoration. So we just went back to our Dom totallyconfused by the fact that 4 people had talked to us on the street, 1crazy guy led us to an amazing family, and we had an investigatorgetting baptised in a week.So we then had District Conference (getto stake conference) the nextday. which I didnt understand a single word of but I hear is was reallygood. so then christina met with president one more time and now it isdecided she will be baptised two weeks from now, in harkov by elder cox.but the cool thing is president said because he had grown so close withher he was gunna try and come up for her baptism in two weeks. (well aweek and a half now) SO that was way exciting. (and is also why I stillmight get your mail) umm...so yea wow I've writen alot of stuff. ok soone more story and this is from yesterday.so yesterday afternoon we went Inactive/former investigator hunting. wewent out to a little town thats juts a lil far away from ours (they'realmost attached) and went looking we found 3 of the addresses withnobody there. then we went to the fourth and it was a chasti (a privatehome) and there was a lady in the yard so we asked if Egor was there andshe said he had moved. she gave us an address and kinda how to getthere. so we go get on this electric train and go clear the heck awayfrom the city (we're still not sure if we accidentally left our area butyea...) so we get out to this place and there is just woods and woodseverywere it was so beautiful (unfortunately this computer wontcooperate so I cant post the pics) so we go over this old cement bridgeand up this long dirt footpath and we get up to this area of just littlechasti and like its all dirt roads with just super nice people (we alsofound a beatle that was like 2 1/2 inches long...that was scary) and wefind the house and talk to this man egor and hes just like how did youget out here (Cause he was an inactive and knew we didnt have cars) andwe told him the crazyness that it took to get out there and he was justlike impressed that we came all the way out there to find him and talkto him. we asked him to come to church and he said he'd see. so that wasmy crazy week pretty much.Now odd cultural things...1 the metro here its amazing! its alot likemoscows but not as deep underground but its beautiful, well kept, andfaster than New Yorks. 2 dogs...EVERYWHERE! and cats. they need they'reown lil bob barker here "help control the pet population, have your petsspade or neutered!" umm so I cant remember much more and I've beenwriting forever. but thanks for all your letters and support! I'll writemore when I can (and I'm betting I'll forget something and be sendinganother e-mail in about 2 secs as per usual) but untill then have a nicelife
Ct. Ctat

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