GOING PRIVATE

By next week this blog will be private...so if you'd  like to continue reading David's letters/posts and seeing pictures on this blog then please put your email address in the comments and I will add you. THANKS!!

Another week here in Ukraine! I will first start out with we just heard this guy talking on the phone right next to our computers and he was speaking English so we asked where he is from and he is from Ireland picking up his wife he met on the internet..haha but he had to leave because he had to take the tv remote back to the house because he had put it into his pocket thinking it was his phone..haha good old old people. but it was good to hear English ha last night I tried borsh for the first time and it was actually not too bad, Elder Newey made it and it tasted like beets (dirt) but it wasn't too shabby. 

I would like to apologize for having to make my blog private, I just found out that the area presidency has asked that missionaries here make it private, so if you could mention that on FB and then put my email and my other address on there that would be fantastic.

 It was very good to hear from you guys on Christmas! Thank you so much for the Christmas presents you sent me they were all awesome. It didn't feel like Christmas too much though becasue there weren't tons of presents, music and decorations. And plus they celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January so no one else was celebrating ha but it was still a good day and it was good to reflect on what Christmas is about, the birth of our Savior and brother Jesus Christ.

We decided to do some secret santas for some people in our branch, so we went to some stores and while looking for stuff we came across some ties, so we bought some for them and some for us and it was like 12 ties and it cost 34 grieven so thats like a little more that 4 dollars for 12 ties, what an awesome deal haha so we were talking them to houses  yesterday and it is much harder to do secret santas here than it is in America becasue in America you just set it on their porch, ring the door bell and run, but here you have you have someone who lives there push a button to open a metal door then you have to ring a bell to another door and behind that door is 2-4 appartments which also have doors, so basically if a zombie appocolypes happened they would be safe behind all these locked metal doors, but anyway after we finally got in, after somone had opened the door and left we went in, but we got to the second door and no one answered and sometimes the doorbells dont work so we werent sure if it was working then a neighbor came out and opened that door so we were finally able to just leave the present infront of the door of the person who we were trying to give the gift to ha so it was a little more challenging than at home ha but it was still good that we gave some stuff to less actives and investigators. 

On Friday we went to a reception, a missionary who was here about 6 months ago came back and has been dating someone and will be married soon, hence the reception..anyway there was some dancing, that we as missionaries watched..haha and then there were like 20-30 people there and we sat around some make shift tables and had cake that was pretty good and that was it. 

A few days before that we taught this girls, who is getting married, family becasue he just got baptized not too long ago, and guess who baptized him..? his future son in law haha but we taught them and I led the lesson, well I guess it was more of a spiritual thought, we read from the Book of Mormon then we talked about it and it went pretty well actually.They are a really cool family though so it was nice to teach them.

And the last little bit I will add is we went tracting and we found this one old man and at first he said talk to my nieghbor and shut his door ha then we were still on his floor so when he came out to go somewhere he started talking to us and we invited him to church and he came yesterday! so that was really cool and he has read a little bit of the Book of Mormon and wants to meet with us so hopefully it works out! 

I love you all!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

-Cтарейшина Витт

Merry Christmas from Ukraine

More than a full week down now here in Ukraine! again I would like to apologize in advance if my typing is a little off becasue of the Ukranian spell check. But it has been a good week even though it has been kinda crazy, so My companion is still in Bulgaria and the said it will take 7-14 business days,from today, for them to return..so we will see haha On Thursday the AP's came and I was with one and the other Elders in my zone were with the other, his name is Elder Stoker and from Vegas, so he has some funny stories, but he is cool and a awesome missionary.One really cool thing that happened when I was with him was we were teaching this man on the street and it was basically the whole first lesson and we totally could feel the spirit and you could see it in his eyes and in his face that he could too, but because he is Pravoslavnian he can not read books that have not been "okayed" or something, by their church leaders, so it kinda sucked that he didn't want to meet again but it was awesome we felt the Spirit way strong even on the busy streets.

It is funny when we were street contacting someone asked where we were from and we said America and he said "I can totally tell he is from America" haha but it is because most of the time I smile at people and such haha but I bought a shopka, a russian hat, so maybe I fit in a little better. Coke is really cheap here so we get that sometimes and it is actually kinda good, it is like a not of good as flavor as Dr. Pepper haha They eat a lot of mushrooms, I have had them on a few wraps that we have gotten, from off the streets, hopefully I dont get worms, haha, just kidding but I don't know if I will ever come to like them they are pretty gross haha One food, well I guess it is a treat, is Kontik, it is like a chocolate cracker type thing and you bite two ends and use it as a straw to suck milk out a bowl or soemthing, they are pretty dang good ha. I guess they have them in America or something like them called tim tams, so if you ever find any bite each end and give it a whirl haha

We taught a guy this week who said a long time ago he had a dream that his baptism as a baby wasn't valid and he needed to pray and he had that happen to him a few times then one time after he was done praying, like in the middle of the night, his sister called him, who is a member, and told him about our church. So he has been investigating and knows it is true but his wife is against the church and won't let him get baptized. We set a date with him and told him to pray to have Heavenly Father soften her heart so he can be baptized and we are praying too, so hopefully she will let him be baptized by the end of January. 

I guess quite a bit of people here in Lugansk have dreams about the missionaries and joining our church and looking for us and stuff, so it is pretty cool that I got to serve in this area first. 

We made some cookies for less active members and we keep our tortillas in our toaster oven, so those got burned and our cookies got burned so that didn't really work out haha but we made some more and delivered them to a family well a mom and her son and it was cool to show them my pictures of home, they really like that and they like pictures of big families, so it was cool to meet with them.

The weather here hasn't been too cold, and a lot of the snow has melted, so I guess global warming is working..haha the only part that gets cold is when the wind blows and yeah that is chilly haha I am still trying to get used to having the sun go down around 4 pm every day ha it is like 6pm and it feels like it should be 10 haha it is weird 

Oh yeah one last thing, there money is pretty colorful so it looks like monoply money haha but it is pretty cool and mostly everyhting here is pretty cheap it is like 30 cents to ride the marshootkas (I am not quite sure how you'd spell it out in English) but that is the transportantion we used. It is like a big van that there is room to stand up in and such and sometimes they get crammed packed haha but other than riding that we just walk around everywhere, which isnt too bad. 

Well it was a good week here in Lugansk, Ukraine and I am very greatful to be here. I am also glad that we teach and believe that both members and non members of our church can choose whether or not our church is true and they can investigate it for themselves rather than just keeping people in our church just becasue someone said we had to or because of traditions. I really enjoy it here and it should be an intersting yet good Christmas being away from home haha 

Merry Christmas!

Love you all!

Love,

-Elder Witt

Lugansk

Alright! I am here in Ukraine! I got here safe and sound. Like I said our flights were all good and everything was pretty smooth.President Lochhead met us at the Donetsk airport and was with Vladimir, a member in the ward and they took us to the Presidents house where we had dinner and went over a few things. Then we stayed at the AP.'s house, they were pretty cool and funny then we woke up the next morning and had a delcious breakfast at the Presidents house then we headed over the church where we had a transfer meeting and talked about some better ways to teach, then we found out where we were going and who our companions were. So, the moment we've all been waiting for..I am in the Lugansk area with Elder Riley.

Lugansk is a satellite city, really small and really far away from everyone else, so there are 6 of us in our zone. We have 4 Elders and 2 Sisters and they are all pretty legit. We are the furthest mission east, so the closest to Russia. It is a pretty cool city. my apartment is actually pretty nice it has a front room kitchen bedroom and bathroom, even though it is small it is nice. We are on the 6th floor and we have an elevator so that's nice.

Elder Riley is from California and has trained few people and people say he is really good, which he is. He is really smart and is very good at Russian. He is also studying Ukrainian haha he also knows some German too He is pretty cool. So I've got to teach, well listen I guess since I have no idea what they are saying haha, to a few lessons. We taught Lila with 2 sister members and it went well, she was supposed to come to church but then she was in another city so she didn't end up coming. Then we taught Roman. This was in English because we have an English club, which he was the only one who showed up this week. So we had English and talked about meeting new people and such then after my companion and I taught him. He was talking about how he is interested in Monks and Mormons and can't decide which one he wants so he does both ha. I guess they have been teaching him for like 5 years or something and supposedly has made progress, so hopefully we can make some more progress with him. 

And the other lesson we taught was Alexander. He wanted us to buy him butter so he could feed us but we didn't have time, but we went to his house and he rinsed out a few stained tea cups and pulled out some crackers and we had chai and crackers. I am not sure why he needed the butter haha but it was a small house with a kitchen bathroom and bedroom and it was very small, and run down, a lot but I guess that's how most of the houses are here. Talk about culture shock hahaha a lot of people drink tea, but herbal kind is the okay kind we just can't drink the black tea.

Yesterday we had church in this small building, it has a big room then about 5 or 6 other rooms for classes. There are about 50 people in the branch and they all seem pretty cool. They would say oh you're new! then some other stuff and I'd just smile haha Then they had me bare my testimony which was nice, I said good duck then just kidding I know the word it is good morning, cause duck and morning are similar, anyway I thought it was funny I don't think they got it though haha 

Oh yeah so my companion had to go to Bulgaria to renew his visa so I am with Elder Newey, he is a cool cat, so we have to cover his area and our area, then the sisters do their area. He is new to the area but has about six months left, so he knows Russian but doesn't really know how to get around so thankfully we haven't gotten lost yet haha  They said my companion could be gone from 5 days to a month so we will see haha 

Last night was my first experience tracting so that was a good time! haha I guess some lady said to us "What have you heard" after we knocked haha then we said we were missionaries and she flipped out and was swearing and said she would call the police haha Oh yeah there are 2 doors to houses there is an inside door and an outside door, they open the inside door then say, Who's there through the other door so we rarely even see their faces ha but it was a good time, I was told I would have some interesting experiences while tracting so I can't wait haha 

Anyway it has been a good first week I am still trying to settle in and not be so culture shocked hopefully it wears off soon haha but it has been a good time and I am glad that I am finally here. Oh yeah both packages were here when I got here so thank you so much for sending them! I can't wait to open the Christmas ones and finish opening up the 12 days of Christmas ones! Oh yeah one of the sisters in my zone thought my real name was  Veet, haha ah good times, so We just said it is the Russian way and Witt is my English last name haha
Love you! 

oh yeah one other thing I just remembered, we watched the Christmas devotional from the First Presidency of the Church at the MTC and it was way good, so look it up and watch it if you didn't watch it on tv!

http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/watch/christmas-devotional/2013/12?lang=eng&vid=2912344387001

Love,
Cтарейшина Витт

Elder David Witt 

He made it to Ukraine today

Emailing from Ukraine! It is Legit and i am so excited! We made it here safe without any problems and all of our flights were on time and everything! then we met our mission president at the airport in Donetsk and now we are at the mission home! I think Pday is Monday so I will email again then! Love you all! 

-Elder Witt

Last email from America

This is our zone doing the Russian smile. 

(starting left back) Elder Luekenga,Elder Parker, Elder Puckridge, Me, Elder Maltba, Elder Horn, Elder McDonald, Elder Alvord and Elder Lusk

then in the front row Sister Anderson, Sister Bruening, Sister Watts, Sister Farmer, Elder Houston 

Ready or not here we go! I just wanted to send one last email today since I'm not sure when the next time I will be able to email. I just want to say that I love you guys and thanks again for all of your prayers and support, I am glad I am going to teach people about Jesus Christ and not going off to war haha I can't believe we leave Tuesday morning at 3:30 am! We have been packing and I can't believe how fast nine weeks has gone by! I have enjoyed hearing from Dallin H.Oaks, L. Tom Perry and Russel M. Nelson and so many other members from the 70 and their wives while here at the MTC and I know that they are definitely apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ. It has been a good  time here at the MTC and I am so grateful for my teachers, district and zone but I am so excited to get to Ukraine and help guide people to the light and gospel of Jesus Christ, even though they won't have any idea what I am saying haha 

Oh yeah we got new Sisters and Elders this week for our zone! so we hosted on Wednesday and brought in, I think it was, 750 new missionaries then on Thursday night my companion and I and the Sister Training Leaders got to have a meeting with the new Sisters and Elders that came into our zone. So that was fun getting to meet them! Too bad we only get a few days with them though haha We also did infield orientation Thursday, that was long but it was good and it makes me more excited to get there!  

I remember dad saying "you will forget all of the Spanish you have learned" and I didn't believe him but I have ha and only Russian words come to my mind, but I guess it is a good thing since I will be speaking that for the next two years. haha I love you so much and can't wait to be in Ukraine in less than 48 hours! 

Thank you for the Thanksgiving, Christmas  and other letters and gifts I have loved them. 

Even though I only know a little bit of Russian I am again so excited to serve and love the people in Ukraine! 

Until next time, and I will be writing from Ukraine..

Я тебя люблю!

-Cтарейшина ДавиД Витт 

Last Week in the MTC

здраствуйте! 

How are you doing? It was a good week and I can't believe this is our last week here! Time flies! 

Today was an especially good day because it snowed a bunch here so we made a snowman and played in the snow and such and it was a good time. I love my district haha

Thanksgiving was a way good day! I mean the food obviously wasn't as good as homemade, but it was still good! It was my companions first Thanksgiving so that made it even better! In the morning our zone started off with a little Turkey Trot and we ran around the MTC a few times haha so that was fun.

Like I told you the MTC  did this huge service project providing meals for over 350,000 people here in Utah. Here is a link with more info, and my companion is in one of the pictures hahaha http://www.ksl.com/?nid=1284&sid=27822133#x1WiYiORwl5iU285.99 

Since we are Zone Leaders we got to help be in charge of it a little bit, we got to be in charge of one of the 70 tables and get the people going and such. My companion and I got to help refill the lentils and rice bins and figured out that together we moved about a ton of food, literally a ton haha 

But it was really cool seeing everyone work hard and fast to get as many meals done that we could. We also got to listen to one of the Apostles. Elder Nelson, from the 12, and his wife came and spoke to us. It was really awesome  He said how important it is to get to know and love the Bishop and Ward Mission Leaders so we can serve with them to lead people to Christ more effectively. 

Then we had a Thanksgiving program and it was funny and fun. a few people we called on to help give a little skit and that was funny. Then we also go to hear people play music and we got to hear Cтарейшина Maltba play the piano. He is so good and I wish I could play the Piano haha it is an awesome talent. Then to finish off our Thanksgiving day we watched Ephraim's Rescue. Such and incredible movie. Like I have said before I do not comprehend the pioneers. His story and faith is incredible. It was such a good movie I loved it and recommend it to everyone. It was a great Thanksgiving! 

This week also got our travel plans and it is so real now haha 9 weeks flew by! We leave the MTC at 3:30 am then fly from the SLC airport to Chicago to D.C. to Munich to Donetsk! I hope our Russian name tags get here this week too! Yesterday we had a culture meeting with all the Russian speaking Elders and Sisters and it makes me more excited to get there and embrace the people and culture. 

This week Nikoli finally got baptized after being pushed back for 7 lessons because of different reasons so that was exciting. I love that we can teach so much but not know that much Russian. I only know a tiny tiny bit of Russian but I am so excited to learn more and become fluent in the language. 

On Sunday we had Mission Conference and one thing I liked was how a man was a stone cutter and could make awesome designs in stones and such but the architect had asked that they be plain square stones. The Stone cutter didn't want to but did them how the architect had asked. When the project was complete the stone cutter saw how beautiful the arch was from the stones that he had cut and was glad he left them plain so they could be beautiful how they were. And then it was related that Jesus Christ is our Architect and he knows what the end result we can be and so we need to trust in him and know that even though we may want to choose something else that we like or that is more fun, we need to follow the His plan cause he knows what is best. Then we had sacrament and testimony meeting as a zone and it was great. I love my zone! It was another good week here at the MTC!   

Я тебя люблю!

-Cтарейшина ДавиД Витт 

P.S. 

my address in Ukraine for now will be 

Elder David Charles Witt 

Ukraine Donetsk Mission

Prospekt Bogdana Khmelnitskogo 67a

Donetsk 83087 

Ukraine

So Thankful

здраствуйте! 

How is it going? Another week! And now down to 2 more weeks here! Time flies! This week was a pretty good week! We got pushed back on all of our investigators so we didn't teach that much this week, mostly book work and reading and such.  

This week for TRC we taught only one lesson that was 40 minutes long. We usually write down a majority of what we want to say but this week my companion said let's just go in with bullet points for topics and write down a few scriptures. I didn't want to because I wasn't sure if I would remember any words, but that's what we did. And we talked for 40 minutes and we both talked about 50/50 so that was a cool experience of how we just need to have faith and trust that the Spirit can lead us what to say. I also saw a glimpse of the gift of tongues cause I was using grammar that I have no idea how to use haha and I know I couldn't have done that by myself.  I can't wait to get into the field and exercise more faith and learn more language. 

The lady who makes the Russian name tags came in today to make sure our names were spelled right so that was exciting and it made this even more real, so we will probably get them at the end of next week..? I think and I hope haha but I will have 2 T's instead of just one so that's cool. 

Sister Jackson's birthday was this week and so we used the glow sticks to spell happy b-day and put sticky notes everywhere haha it was a good day and she was way grateful. Brother Holt was talking about his mission and people he taught and stuff after we had found a video of the dedication of the Kyiv temple. He also said how there is a lot of hands on service because a lot of people have gardens, so I am excited about that!  I am glad to have good teachers. Our district has been doing Purple Пятница and it has carried over to the other district (our 2 districts are the whole zone..ha) so I will have to get a picture from someone and send it haha  

I can't believe Thanksgiving is already here. There are so many things I am grateful for! I am grateful for my parents, my sisters and their families and my brother. This week I have had the opportunity to learn more about  and review Joseph Smith. I know that there has never before or never will be again a 14 year old boy who gets persecuted day in and day out and until he gets murdered for what he said he saw and knows and expect no recognition, giving it all to God. "Millions shall know brother Joseph again"  I am so grateful for him adn his willingness to endure so we could enjoy the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and the truth it has in it. And most importantly I am so grateful for my Savior, Brother and Redeemer Jesus Christ. We would be nothing without him. I am grateful for this time of the year that we can be reminded of all of the things we have been given and all of the things that we have. It is a wonderful time of the year. I love you and miss you but I know it is just a short time in the eternal perspective . 

Until next week 

Love, 

 -Cтарейшина ДавиД Витт 

Mormon Memes

A few funnies that I sent David

Helaman 5:12

Zdrastvweetyeh! 

I'm not sure how to spell it so I will just sound it out haha This week was another good week. For our fireside Sister Mary Ellen Edmunds came and spoke and she was hilarious. This week I also did a Plan Study Teach Cycle (PSTC) with another one of the teachers and we taught Maria. I found out stuff that we weren't able to communicate very well with her before...haha the teacher was rerally cool, брат(brother) Parson. We said a few prayers while we were planning and made me realize how important it is while planning for our investigators. 

I have the First Vision down, in Russian, so I am glad I can say that now. We have just been teaching and learning and reading and studying. So a lot of work but it is good. We taught our investigator, Nikoli, in English, just to make sure my companion and I could both make sure we know the doctrine and such. It is exciting but also nerve racking that we leave so soon! 3 more Sunday's and we are out. 

Oh yeah this week there was a Russian teacher, from Russia, that sat in in our class sicne her district just left and it was cool to hear how she spoke and such, I really can't wait to get over there and teach.

I used Helaman 5:12 a few times this week, I really like that scripture it is way important that we build our foundation on our brother and Savior Jesus Christ. Another thing I was reading was Ether 12, and I didn't realize how many times faith was used. It obviously is saying how important faith is.

Today was the last day we will be able to go to the temple because they will be cleaning it and such, so it is the last time we will be able to go for two years. I love the temple so much and know we can receive revelation and guidance when we go there. There is no other place in the world that you can feel how you can there. It is such a wonderful blessing and we need to not take it for granted since we live so close to temples! 

Thank you for your love and support! 

 Love you!

Love,   

Cтарейшина Вит

(Elder Witt)

Month Mark

This week was a quick week and I can't believe it is already pday! The older Elders and Sisters left this morning and it has already been weird without them. There will be 14 people including the Branch Presidency so that'll be weird ha. There was this Elder I met and he is from Switzerland and is going to the Murray and Taylorsville area haha so look out for him! His name is Elder Bolognesi. The first out two things I remember from this week and that I really liked was a talk by Elder Holland, such an excellent speaker, fire and brimstone, but it was about when after Christ died he came back and saw Peter fishing and asked him three times, "Peter, do you love me?" and he said "yea Lord" and the third time after Christ had repeated himself he said he needed disciples not fish, if he wanted fish he could get fish. I really liked this one so look it up. The other thing I liked was a quote that I heard "a bell isn't a bell until you ring it, a song isn't a song until you sing it and love is a verb, so we need to use it" It is just sayin we need to love everyone no matter what, share the Light and Love of Jesus Christ and love them. Our Investigators are doin alright, Nikoli is progressing and Maria is doing some stuff but she still doesn't seem interested. We also taught one on ones just another companion in our district, that went well, I taught Elder Maltba. Then my companion and I also taught CT. Maltba and CT. Horn, who were posing as friends or family members that they know and we get to be someone we know that is a non-member. Thank you for the letters and such! can't wait to hear from you again next week! 
 
Love,
Cтарейшина Witt

Zone Leaders

Hey! It was a good week this week and I was so glad to get the packages of candy and such! Even though I have a ton of candy..I feel like I am going to get diabetes by the time I leave here! haha I can't believe that  this week it has been a month! It has gone by fast! another month of here seems pretty long ha but I am pretty sure we will be on a plane to Donetsk before we know it! I can't wait for that day! haha It was so good to get pictures from Mel and Shar from your guys' Halloween Party! I love the pics so send more! 

This week then my companion and I got called to be Zone Leaders because the other ones leave next Tuesday for Ukraine! So it has been a unique experience. On Sunday we had a ton of meetings and it felt forever especially since we were fasting haha but it was still a pretty good day. On Sunday I got to see Hayden one more time and we both had our cameras so we finally got a picture! so hopefully the attachment sends! I know he will do awesome things for the Hmong (is that how you spell it?) speaking people in California and all the other people he comes in contact with. He has always been a good example to me and am grateful for him. I am also grateful for tender mercies that our Heavenly Father! 

This week we have continued to teach our investigators and they are both progressing pretty well! Some days are better than others but overall going well. We will now be teaching another missionary in our district then my comp and I will be teaching another companionship in our district portraying someone they know who they think would be someone who needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives. 

We did this activity in class where we would ask the investigator if they would be willing to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized and they were told to say no. We were then supposed to wait a minute to get impression as of what to say so we could soften the hearts and I think that is an important lesson that we are quiet for a minute and wait for inspiration so we can be a clearer window for the Holy ghost to touch their hearts. 

We had some extra time one night so we did some family search and I got all the way back to Adam and Eve! haha It was pretty sweet! I did it twice with two different lines both from the Witt side, I wrote down the second one, but I didn't on the first and on the first one I went through Constantine and such! it was pretty cool! check it out and see if you run into Constantine again!

Thank you for the emails, letters and candy haha 

I love you all and cant wait to hear from you again next week!

Love, Elder David Witt

Happy Halloween

Another week come and gone! It is crazy how fast the week goes and how it feels like it was just a blur. Last Wednesday we did TRC which is where people who speak Russian come and we have to teach them. They tend to be people who have come back form their missions who went Russian speaking since there aren't really native Russian speakers here in Utah..haha But my companion and I did a pretty good job even though we had no idea what we were doing haha. 

This week, my weeks go from Tuesday to Tuesdays..ha, we taught our investigators Maria and Nikoli again and for the most part they went pretty well. Nikoli said he would be baptized on Nov. 15 so that is exciting! Right on Jackson's birthday! :) Maria is a little more difficult to teach she basically just says "I don't know" to almost everything we say. Like I said in my last letter..it is cool that even though they are acting as one of their investigators, my companion and I can still love them and really want them to change their lives for the better so that they can be happier than they are currently.

I love hearing my teachers talked about their missions! Sister Jackson served in Russia and so did Sister Harrison and Brother Holt served in Ukraine and Moldova, so he would switch almost every transfer between countries. But they just talk about how awesome the people are and even though it may have taken forever for their investigators to become members, they said all the experiences were so neat. I can't wait until we can go out and start teaching real people.

I have been reading "Our Heritage" and it is so awesome! I would definitely recommend it  I love the pioneers so much! It is crazy to read about how much they suffered and I don't know why any of them would keep pushing through and enduring and believing if they didn't know what they were doing was true! It literally blows my mind that they would go through so much persecution from city to city to city to city. I have so much respect for all of the pioneers. 

We do another TRC tomorrow so hopefully that goes well. We are still learning a bunch and vocab and stuff and it is going pretty well. Can't believe it has already been almost a month! Time is going by fast. "The days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days" Love you all! Happy Halloween!

Love,
 Elder David Witt  

PICTURES

Where is Ukraine?

 P Day is Tuesday

 Temple day with the District

 Provo temple

 Russian

Elder Witt

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Letter #2

Week 2! Well technically its week 3 but it's letter 2. Anyway so far so good! The days are seeming to go by faster and faster, we get to our rooms and ask what we even did that day, but we are still learning a bunch. This past week one thing we learned was a case chart in Russian, which is coming along slowly, but it's like what tense each word should be in so you don't sound like as much of an idiot when speaking haha. Today I brought my camera and I plugged it in and it wouldn't upload the pictures..so I'm not sure why but I guess I will have to look into that, so it will be another week until you get pictures, even though they really aren't that excitinghaha 

Last Tuesday night we had a fireside and we got lucky because we got to listen to Elder Dallin H. Oaks speak. They told us that apostles don't come very often but it was nice to hear from him. He just talked about when we are teaching we need to make sure we don't talk down to or act superior to our investigators, because well..none of us really are. I love that because we aren't better we just want to be their guide and help them have a closer relationship with Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. We were talking about it after as a district and someone said Elder Oaks reminded them of a quote, "We must do something for someone that we know they can't" I love it. It is just so important to serve others no matter what the do or believe or anything. Just serve them and you will both be happy. 

Another thing i have learned here is  it's not what we want to learn more, it's do you want to teach better. We also came up with a class motto, since we aren't the best at speaking Russian it's "First we teach then we speak" so we teach by the Spirit not as much by Russian. Which I think is important to remember. We committed our investigator last week to baptism after we had taught him, and even though it was a proxy it was still cool and the Holy Ghost was felt. We also got 2 new investigators this week, Maria and Nikoli, we taught Maria and she is pretty tough to talk to but we teach her again Thursday so we will see how that goes. Today we went to the temple again and that was pretty good. 

The other day Elder Puckridge wrote a fake letter to Elder Houston from his "girlfriend" and we had the district leader hand it to him when we got the mail, so that was pretty funny. Other than that we've just been reviewing vocab, studying and such. Love you guys! Thanks for your love and support!

Love, Elder Witt

It's official...I'M A MISSIONARY! 10-8-2013

 All my nieces and nephews!

 We are so silly!

 Talking to Sabrina on facetime.

Nice kiss Oakley!

David's first letter

Cemya N friends! 

That's family and friends if you didn't catch that! It is so nice to be able to use the computer to communicate with you all. I bet you were expecting a letter yesterday but today is our P-day! It has felt like we have been here quite a while and it hasn't even been a full week haha. I got to see Elder Witt (Hayden..haha) right after I got my room key and badge and such, so it was good to see him, but I haven't seen him yet, but hopefully I will get to again and get a picture or something before he leaves but I'm not sure how much more time he has here. I also got to see Elder Black just for a minute when we were walking to class, so it was good to say hi, but he is on west campus and I think leaves today so I think that's the only time I'll see him. So the first day I got here and went to class after I put my stuff in my room and I thought I was going to get my companion but he hadn't arrived yet. So I got to choose between the three other sets of companions who are in my district who I was gonna be with. Our District leader is Elder Walker his companion is Elder Farnsworth, then there is Elder Houston and Elder McDonald and they are all in the room next to ours, then in our room it is Elder Maltba and Elder Horn. So yes, it is a district full of just Elders! haha We are all going to Donetsk except Elder Farnsworth and Elder Walker they are going to Russia and they leave in 3 weks to go to the Spain MTC..and I'm not sure why. We have two sister teachers Sister Jackson and Sister Harrison. They both went to Russia on their missions and they both are pretty good teachers. Then on Saturday my companion from Australia finally came! Elder Puckridge. He has a pretty cool accent and he uses heaps of new words that are pretty funny, yeah heaps is one of them haha. We all try to talk like him but it doesn't work and says we have horrible accents haha. He is pretty cool and a good example and companion. That first night we went around to different rooms and had scenarios of investigators and we taught them and such.  On the second day, so Thursday, we had to teach and "investigator" Boris. He is working here but is acting as his friend Boris who knows a little bit about the gospel and lives in Russia and only speaks Russian...haha We went in there to teach him so we read some of the notes we had taken from class and from a book we got and had no idea what we were saying or what he was saying haha It was quite the experience. We have been teaching him every day and it seems to get better and better each day and we are able to speak and understand more and more. Elder Puckridge taught with me yesterday and he was able to pick up Russian so quickly, he was able to teach without hardly any trouble ha. It is good though because he tells me to just use the words we learn in all of my conversations then I will be able to remember them more easily. It is crazy to think that I haven't even been here a week and I can teach, say prayers and say other  simple words and phrases in Russian. Saturday we had classes. Sunday we had Priesthood and then Sacrament and I said the prayer and had to say some of it in Russian so that was tricky haha. It is a totally different environment than in our home ward haha but it is a good one. That night we had a fireside about the Holy Ghost being the teacher and not us. Then we watched a video of a talk by Elder Bednar about not being self centered and look outward like Christ did. He is such a great speaker and leader. Monday we had class and gym at night, we played volleyball and that was pretty fun. Then today we just got back from the temple and it was a really cool experience and the Provo temple is so beautiful. It was cool to go to the temple with our whole zone. There are 2 sets of Sister missionaries then 2 sets Elders and they are cool, but of course not as cool as our district ;) 

The rooms all have bunk beds and I sleep on the bottom bunk. The bed isn't as big or as comfy as my king size at home but that's alright haha. We spend a lot of time personal reading and studying on our own, but I think that schedule is going to change since the Russian speakers from west campus are coming here today. The rest of the time is in class studying, listening to people speak, such as in district meetings or devotionals and eating. The food isn't too bad here and it's nice that we can eat however much we want but I think they prepare us to eat the food in the country we are going to no matter the taste..haha. 

Like dad said the language has been very difficult and a little frustrating, but I know that the people will be taught more by the Spirit than by my Russian, but I am definitely still working hard and trying to learn as much as I can. Thank you mom and Marcus for the letters and package. Marcus you make me laugh and good job on your football games! It was good to hear about what you have all been doing. Thanks Leslie and fam for the other package of goodies. I heard a quote and I am sure I am going to butcher it the gist of it is The more you suffer for something the more you learn to love it. So I know that I will eventually learn Russian haha. I forgot my camera in my residence so I will have to load my pictures on next Tuesday..sorry

Thank you so much for everything and I love and miss you, but not too much since it's only been a week ;) 

Keep the letters and emails coming they are great!

Love,

Elder Witt

And he's off...

Saying our last goodbyes for 2 years!

 

 We'll see how tall Marcus grows in 2 years...

 

 In front of the Missionary Training Center (MTC)

 

All crammed in one car to drop him off at the curb! Literally...

He got his bags and we waved goodbye!!!

Here are a few more pictures from my farewell day and ordination!