An Anamolly (Week 7)

So, thanks to leap year, this transfer is 7 week long! Woo! So that's cool.

On monday night we went and met an investigator at the branch, but the timing worked out that we had to end P-Day early and we didn't get to eat dinner. So, after our meeting, we went to McDonald's, because we were hungry.

Tuesday... What happened on Tuesday. On Tuesday we got on a bus from the 1950's and rode out to a village near Kherson to meet a member that lives out there. We got there and went into his home. He's basically just remodeling this shell of a house out in the middle of nowhere, so that's cool. He took us into his room, because that's the only part of the house that's really a house at this point. We stepped in and saw that the concrete walls had Bible verses, mathematical equations, and train routes scratched into them. We thought we had walked into the room of some villain from a Batman comic. Turns out, when he doesn't have paper on hand to make a note, he just gets a screwdriver and scratches it onto the wall. He plans on redoing the walls, so he doesn't really care how much writing is on the concrete.

He also fed us some 3 day old greasy meat-pies and weird cola that we were almost certain were going to destroy us. We ended up being fine, but Elder Ditty had a bit of an upset stomach that night.

Wednesday, I went back to Nikolaev! I really don't like it there. I really just don't.

Thursday, a member came by and picked us up for a lesson... in his CAR. It's super rare to even meet somebody here who has a car, let alone ride in one. It was pretty funny though, because he was listening to some Bob Marely song about marijuana. Ukrainians really don't care that they don't understand some of the songs they listen to, it's pretty interesting.

That night, before English practice, a couple of drunk soldiers showed up and wanted to play ping-pong. We let them, because what else can you say? They were telling some pretty offensive stories and jokes, but they left after a little bit. That was totally stress free for me, you know, just being the senior companion with 2 elders who don't speak Russian... and also not being able to speak Russian.

Friday, we returned to Kherson, but Elder Ditty had gotten sick in Dnepropetrovsk.

Saturday, we were ordered to stay home so Elder Ditty could recover. We didn't, because we had a branch activity planned. We went to that, it was pretty fun. Then we went home. Elder Ditty died, so I went and studied Russian and did a bunch of paperwork. I found some records that ended up being pretty useful, so that's good.

Sunday, we were again told to stay home, but Elder Ditty is branch president, so if he doesn't show up, nobody's there to conduct. So, obviously, we did the rebellious thing and went to church. There were 23 people there! It was amazing! I can't even believe it! We also met a new investigator.

We tried to do finances, but Elder Ditty had left the money at home. So we took the hour-long round trip to get it. When we got back, we discovered that we couldn't do finances anyway, because my membership records got removed from Ukraine, meaning that I'm no longer the branch seceratary, meaning I have no authority, meaning the sytem won't let me give the mandatory second authorization of any inputs. At this point, Elder Ditty and I curled up into little balls on the floor and died.

So, that was my week. Yay!

 This is the drink called Chambo

It's strangely good.

This may look like my bed, but really, this is Elder White's bed! I was annoyed that I had to be in Nikolaev, so I shortsheeted him. I know you can't see it, but just imagine it. 100% worth it.

Sometimes, Things Are Just On Fire (Week 6)

So, I don't know that I've mentioned this before, but sometimes, in Ukraine, things are just on fire. No explaination as to why, or how. Things are just on fire. Not just smoldering, or a little bit crispy, but genuinely engulfed in flames. I noticed this on my second or third day here, when I was on the road down to Kherson. We passed by a whole bunch of very square patches of burning earth immediately next to the road. We even passed a single tree which was entirely immersed in inferno, all of its neighbors totally untouched.

I pointed this out to Elder Ditty, and he didn't believe me. That is, until we walked a few more meters and turned a corner, only to find that the corner was on fire. No reason, just on fire.

So, Monday, I made some traditional Ukrainian pastries. They didn't turn out great, the recipe was vague and poorly translated. I will figure it out though!

Tuesday, I'm sure things happened, but I can't remem... oh... wait... no, I remember. We did an audit! For three-and-a-half hours! It was not fun. Not fun at all.

Wednesday we went all around the city, all over the place. It was fun.

Thursday we taught a lesson to a less-active who has been lovingly dubbed "The Tank", because he's just that cool. He actually finally came back to church after 3 years of not coming. It was awesome! Anyway, Thursday night, we went to Nikolaev. Again. This time for Zone Conference with President Sullivan.

Friday, I was on exchanges with Elder Kalt again. We walked all over Nikolaev, and I came to realize that I don't really like Nikolaev all too much. We did talk to a cool guy though, and interestingly enough, young women there aren't totally terrified of talking to missionaries, so we were able to invite quite a few people to come to church.

Saturday was Zone Conference, and it was awesome! I love President Sullivan! I have a feeling he's the only person outside of our district who sees Kherson's potential. He's also just a great guy all around, very spiritual, but also very funny and personable.

Sunday, The Tank came to church! And there were 20 people there, more than I've ever seen here! Then we went and talked with the Elder's Quorum president here so we could strengthen him a little bit. He wants to go on a mission around November.

And that's all... Yup... That's my life. One other funny thing, Elder Ditty is 100% addicted to deviled eggs. Apperantly they aren't a thing in Utah, because no one from Utah that I've talked to has even heard of them. Anyway, I made some for Sunday dinner one week, and now he's hooked. He always wants them!

Peace out

Elder Robison

Pictures, what?

Elder Ditty, Elder Newberry, Elder... Don't know him, Elder Kalt. That's the gang! Gonna be with Elder Newberry and Elder Kalt next week while Elder Ditty is at Zone Conference. Sure wish I could figure out who that tall guy is, he's in a lot of my pictures!

This is President Sullivan destroying Elder Kalt. This probably needs some explaination...

So, President was doing an example here. The left side of the room is drawing closer to God, and the right side is Satan's territory. President had Elder Kalt move towards God for a while by doing worthwhile things (Praying, studying the scriptures, helping other people, keeping the Sabbath, etc). Then, as Elder Kalt stopped doing those things, he drew closer to Satan's territory. Then Elder Kalt made a mistake, and he slipped into Satan's territory. Upon entering, President Sullivan snatched him and reastrained him, representing Satan's ultimate goal of trying to make us feel hopeless and without agency. It was mostly just impressive how President, a man in his 60's was able to launch Elder Kalt into the air.

Re: Protect Your Beliefs (Week 4)

So, this week, we met Batman. Straight up, Batman. We were out talking to people, and we stopped this one guy and talked to him. He started telling us about how he was bullied as a kid, and how he doesn't ever want anyone to feel bullied, and then we gave him a Book of Mormon. As we said goodbye, he turned to us and said "Protect your beliefs". Hence the title of this week. Later on, he texted us and said "Never give up. Never". He's a pretty interesting guy.

We have 2 people who are getting ready to be baptized now! And they're both named Sasha! And they're both getting baptized on the same day! Which just so happens to be the last day of the transfer! And the day of the Branch Activity that we're planning! That day will be told of for many transfers as a day of hectic and frenetic work.

We also have another investigator, Dan, who speaks English. Dan is hilarious, we love him! Except for when he doesn't come to church because he woke up at 2 in the afternoon. He's super cool though, and he has accepted to be baptized! No date yet, he still is finding out if he really believes, but he said if he finds out it's true, he'll be baptized. We told him we'd play Uno together if he comes to church, so hopefully that's enough motivation for him.

Guess who got to play some guitar at a Ukrainian music shop. Me! It was boatloads of fun, it felt good to play guitar again. I'm now set for another 5 months of not playing guitar!

On friday, we had to teach institute. Institute is a course for young adults, ages 18-30, where we talk about the gosple and have good discussions. We don't normally do institute right now, because there's only one active young adult in our Branch, and he can't make it to the course because of school. Of course, none of this mattered to the man from the office who called Elder Ditty and told him he had to teach institute.

The office guy came all the way down here from Днепропетровск to try and help us find some of the less-active young adults, something Elder Ditty and I have been doing for a transfer and a half now. I think that Elder Ditty summed up the experience best when he said, and I quote, 

"...unfortunately, one is now a prostitute, and the other is faking a temperature to avoid us...".

You can't make this stuff up.

We went on Wednesday or Tuesday to a pizza place called Al Capone's. It's a pretty nice place and the pizza's really good there. We're friends with the host, he's a super cool guy. When we got there, he took our coats. I always carry at least 2 copies of The Book of Mormon in the pockets of my coat, because my coat's pockets are big enough. He felt how heavy my coat was, and then got this little grin on his face and said, "What's in here that's so heavy? Pistols? Grenades?".

"No, it's just books."

"Oh. Just books. Right..."

And then he laughed a little and put our coats on the rack. On the way out, he handed us our coats back and said, "Just books, right? If the police ask, that's what I'll tell them."

And then we all had a good laugh.

That pizza really is good.

So, that's been our week pretty much. I'm gonna make some bread today, I feel like making bread. I'll send some pictures of that next week!

Peace out!

Elder Robison

That back there is the Dnepr river. It's contaminated by heavy metals due the Chernobyl incident.

Cheesecake 

Just doing some finances... 

Post-finances faces... 

The pancakes WILL be eaten! 

The guitars WILL be played! 

That's a really big blanket hanging from a door. Elder Ditty really wanted to wash it, so he did. It turned out to be a bad idea, because big comforters like that are really heavy and soak up a lot of water. It ended up almost breaking our washing machine, and then it took a long time to dry. It was insanely heavy.

Panther Attack: A Thunderstorm of Wailing Walruses (Week 3)

That is the official name of this tranfer in Kherson. We decided it unanimously.

This week was fun/interesting/stressful!

First off, the new investigators weren't as promising as we'd thought they were. Second off, I spent most of the week being the senior companion to 2 newish missionaries! It's so much fun/interest/stress being the one who knows the most Russian in the companionship, especially when you don't really know that much Russian! We taught some good lessons though. And then our power went out for all of Thursday, so we had to drink all of the milk in our fridge. It's OK, we drank it all through Kontik!

I also introduced Elder Mayberry to something called Чамбо (Chambo). It's a carbonated beverage of some sort that's caffiene free, and, according to the bottle, alcohol free. Of course, I can't be totally positive, because it's in Ukrainian.

That's besides the point! Чамбо is amazing! It doesn't really taste that good at first, but the more you drink, the better it tastes! Elder Mayberry is pretty excited about it.

Those two new elders are fun, and they're doing very well with the language. At least until I showed them some Ukrainian. Ukrainian is so interesting! I'm getting a member friend to teach me the Ukrainian alphabet, that way I'll at least be able to read Ukrainian. I have a feeling that will help a bit with the fact that we don't know Ukrainian. Wish me luck on that!

Elder Ditty and I ended up getting lost on tranports on Friday, so we didn't get to teach our weekly Book of Mormon study class. And then we got stuck at the branch again all day on Sunday fixing a finances nightmare.

Anyway, today we have a bunch of stuff planned for lessons tonight, and I'm making Elder Ditty go with me to a music store and look at guitars. I'm going to try and convince him to buy one for the branch, because that would be AWESOME! Most of the other branches have one, but we don't. This is clearly just an oversight htat must be remidied, right? Wish me luck with that!

Elder Robison