Good Week!

Ah man this week was a good week. Much better than last week. It was kinda crazy but it was fun and it was good, full of lessons and such. First, I made some German pancakes for breakfast the other day and they were a lot better than I thought they were going to turn out haha 

I went on a few splits this week, both with Elder O'leary and Newey, and they are both pretty cool. When I was with O'leary we taught 2 lessons 1 to a recent convert, Vladimir, and he is way cool and definitely the future of Lugansk. Then we went to another Vladimir's house, and we were picking up elder Newey's gloves cause he had left them there and this guy kinda kicked us out last time, so we were kinda scared haha but we went over and he invited us in for borsht and it was better then the first time haha then we started talking about the gospel and it wasnt really going anywhere but when we testified the Spirit was there, so hopefully his heart will soften and he will want the missionaries back. Then I went to get registered and I am officially registered here in Ukraine, thankfully the church has someone who talks to the people and does all the paperwork and stuff cause we just walked in signed some stuff and walked out while there were a ton of other people there waiting ha 

ah yes it snowed a little bit more and the roads and sidewalks are all way icy and it isnt uncommon for people to slip all the time haha so yes I unfortunately have fallen a few times haha then when I was with Elder Newey we taught some brothas and they were pretty cool, their teaching records said they werent too serious but they seemed serious so hopefully they will start reading the Book of Mormon. 

Then here is the story I have been waiting to tell you haha we were tracting Saturday night and it was pretty cold, but as we were tracting these old people were coming up the stairs and they started to talk to us and then they realized we were American and they invited us in haha so we walked back up to the top floor where they lived. Then we walked in and they told us to have a seat in their kitchen and right when we walked in I noticed some fish hanging from a line. We later find out these fish had been caught by a friend, and what they do is catch the fish, soak them in salt to preserve them, then hang them on a line to dry by their eye sockets( Is that graphic? sorry haha) 

but I thought to myself oh man that is so gross I hope they dont offer us any haha and sure enough they offered us some, so I just tried to picture it as some beef jerky, it didnt quite taste like that so I swallowed most of my pieces whole hahaha then the guy started drinking and swearing and every time he did his wife would slap his mouth ha so we decided it was probably time to go, and we didnt get their number and she is a JW so we probably arent ever going back haha so now I can say I have eaten some weird food here haha cant wait for more food like this...haha

Then last night it was about -17C and we were tracting again and we went into this small padyez(?) like little apartment with two floors and as we walked up the stairs we heard something growl haha then Elder Riley said Run run haha and some dogs chased us out of this little apartment and down the street a ways then they left us alone haha but it was pretty scary and funny at the same time. 

The lady we had a date for baptism isnt ready and hasnt been coming to church becasue she is sick or is out of town, but hopefully we can continue to teach her and set another date for her to work towards. 

like I said this week was a good week and we had some solid lessons and more set up for next week. 

Love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Love 

Elder David Witt

Rest from your troubles

You know it is cold when you walk about 5 minutes to the internet cafe and your boogers start to freeze haha this past week was a little more rough than most but we have lessons set up for this week so it should be pretty good!  

ah man that is so sad about Barbara. She has been in my prayers and I guess she finished what she needed to do here on this earth. We were watching some Mormon messages last night and one of them was about a guy who read Alma 40 and it was so powerful that is what made him want to join this gospel.  40:12 "And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of^ahappiness, which is called ^bparadise, a state of rest, a state of ^cpeace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow." and now reading about aunt Barbara made me think of it again. What a wonderful blessing and promise that we have been given after we have endured the trials of this life. 

get the bad things from this week out the way. Elder Riley, my trainer, said he hates training, maybe because he is good at Russian and expects everyone to be like him, who knows, but he siad he doesn't like training so we are not going to finish the 12 weeks together haha I mean I am not hard to get along with so who knows what he wants. It has been rough without lessons and just contacting and tracting all day everyday. It is hard to talk to the poeple since they have been screwed over (I am allowed to say that sorry if not)  from Communism and being told there is no God and then religions comming in and taking their money. Another thing that is hard is translation messes things up ha. Sabbath in Russian is Saturday so some people think Sabbath has to be Saturday and pegion is the same word for dove, so a pegion came down like the Holy Ghost not a dove. That is what their Bible says and that is why some people think the pegions here are holy. Since it was a little rough I went on a split with Elder O'leary and he is pretty cool, we had a lesson with a recent convert brotha (someone from africa coming to the University here) So we taught him in English and he is pretty cool! Our English group keeps getting bigger and bigger and it is pretty cool, we have to do a beginners group for this one lady and it is good because it gives me an opportunity to learn some Russian at the same time haha 

Ah yes I got my first haircut here in Ukraine  I had no idea what she was saying so my comp had to translate haha speaking of firsts, it is the first time that it has snowed and stuck to the ground since I have been in country. someone yesterday said it got to -22C the other day but it didnt feel that cold, it felt colder last night and we say a sign and it said it was -8C. 

I really love the juice, fruit, bread and yogurt here oh and the ice cream it is way cheap and way good, people think we are crazy though when we get it since it is so cold outside haha 

In a meeting this week we found out that 2 of our strongest/coolest sister members (they are in their 20's) parents are protieve (against) the church and dont want them to come to church anymore so that was some sad news, hopefully they can come with us on some lessons though. Speaking of lessons we have some set up this week so it should be a better week than last week, not as much tracting and street contacting.We met this guy on the street who wanted to buy us some coffee and we said we couldnt so he said how about beer and we said we cant to that so we settled for some coke haha and he still got a beer but we talked to hime for a bit and he seems pretty cool even though he has a problem with the word of wisdom, he also smoked like 5 cigarettes while we were talking to him ha but maybe he will get rid of some of his habbits. He also thought it was weird that I stopped him and wanted to talk to him but didnt say much after he started talking to us haha but I only have a limited vocab haha 

I look forward to another week and love and miss you! Tell Barbara's family they are in my prayers and may she rest peacefully with grandma and grandpa

love you! 

have a good week

love Elder David Witt

McDonalds

Hello Fam 

and whoever else reads this. How's it goin? this week was nice. I forgot to tell you that my companion came back and he was at the New Years party in Donetsk. On Christmas here we didnt really do anything, christmas here isnt tooo much different other than the fact that it isnt as big as it is in america. And it still didnt feel like Christmas haha I guess the only thing different they do, I heard this and am not sure if it is true, they open all their presents on Christmas Eve. BUt then I went on a split to Donestk with the ZL becasue he had a meeting and so I went with a missionary from another zone and he was pretty cool. Elder Christensen. He is from New Mexico and is way good at Russian even though he has only been here 2 transfers more than me. We taught a recent convert and it was half English half Russian so that was fun and she look like a solid member who loves the church and was just way friendly. While in Donestk we got McDonalds which was so delicious haha it was nice to have some fries and hamburger, I actually ordered two Big Mac combo meals haha (I can picture dads face while he reads this) hahaha but it was way good.

 Then when we were riding a bus to the train station it was haulin and the roads arent too smooth so we were literally flying off of our seats haha Then we have had lessons set up and stuff but most of them have fallen through so we have done a lot of contacting and that has been rough but we have found a few people so hopefully they saty interested. We called to set up lessons and two of the people we called thought that Mormons cant use the computer and the other thought we were Amish haha and they both didnt want to know more and didnt believe that we could use computers and internet and stuff.  We did have one lesson and it was outside in someones backyard on a wet log, in the dark haha but I said a few things and my Russian was terrible but hey I said some stuff right haha then tracting last night we talked to this kid who was like 18ish and he said he wanted to know more and agreed to let us talk to him for like 10 minutes then his babooshky came and said we dont need this and closed the door on him and us ha but we were able to give him a pamphlet some hopefully he calls or comes to church. 

President and Sister Lochhead came to our branch yesterday so it was good to see them and they both said some cool things. President shared how the branch is like a family and if you move a coal away from a fire it gets cold so we need to stay close to the fire and keep warm and such then Sister Lochhead did a presentation in Sunday School about how when we are free to choose we arent necessarily free because disobeying God's commandments takes away from freedoms and weighs us down and she had someone hold books and was blindfolded and tied with rope and said well this doesnt look very free at all. ha it was funny but very true and very cool.

This week I also made the mac and cheese that was sent to me for christmas and it was way good so thanks mel! I also had a dream a while ago that mom was speaking to me in Russian and I had no idea what she was saying haha so the russian is there somewhere in my brain haha 

love you all and hope you have a good week! 

-Love Elder David Witt

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! It is crazy it is 2014! Let me first start off with a few goals I have. 

1- Unlike most people I want to gain weight, maybe 15-20 pounds. Preferably muscle but if not that's fine (hopefully I don't get a worm and lose any weight) 

2- Not see too many people peeing on the side of the road. 

3- Get along with my companions. 

4- Find a friend that I can be friends with after my mission (no not any girls). 

5- Do something cool or give something cool to a member or investigator that they remember forever. 

6- See someone get baptized in a river (it'd be cool) 

7- Read all of the Bible. 

8- Learn how to play the top hand on the piano.

9- And of course learn the Russian language, the grammar, learn how to speak and understand them and have a conversation with them and know what is going on. 

Those are a few goals. 

Here are some pics from Christmas Eve and Christmas. 

 and some giant statue..

On Tuesday we left early in the morning for Donetsk by train, not as cool as I thought. nothing like Harry Potter and it doesn't help when you are squashed between two larger women, so we could spend the New Years there. We watched the Nutcracker that day and it was better than I remembered and the live music was way good! Then the next day we had mission conference and it was way good! We talked about how to be a real missionary and we watched a clip from the movie "The Miracle" i think. it is about the USA hockey team and it looks like a good movie so I will probably watch it when I get back, anyway, we have already joined this team so we need to work hard for the team we are on. Another cool line was the name on the back (last name) isnt as important as the name on the front (USA) and it is just like our tags, our names are on there as well as Jesus Christ's name and his name is most important since this is his work. But we need to embrace the challenges in life and on the mission and "Just Do It". We had to be in early the few nights we were in Donetsk because people get crazy haha 

Some lessons we have planned have fallen through and so we did a lot of contacting and that is a lot of work, especially since I am still not use to it getting dark like at 3:30 haha there wasn't much success in that either but we did find one lady we asked her for directions and she didnt know so she went  into some store and yelled asking if anyone knew and everyone was quiet and staring haha but then no one knew so she said well come to my place and I will look it up on the computer, so we did and we still couldn't find it..haha so she offered us some tea and she didnt have herbal tea so she said hold on a sec and went outside then came back with some berries that she picked, haha so she smashed them up and put them in hot water and we drank it, no it wasn't that good but she was nice ha then after she said let me come with you to find this place so we walked around some more haha and she was just talkin to us telling us about her life haha Then we encountered some more drunks on the bus and they were being stupid ha but no scences. 

Church was good yesterday and the man who we found tracting came again so that is good. They always ask me to do stuff and I dont know what they ask so I have to have it translated haha and so I just bear my testimony cause that's about all  I can say haha 

this is a member in our ward who is blind and he plays the accordian, very very cool and such a cool man

one quick last little story, we just ate some blinok, delicious crepe things and I bet they would be a big hit in America so maybe I will open one one I get back, but the wild dogs smell those and they just follow you around wanting some haha thankfully they aren't too ferocious so we didn't get attacked but it followed us until we came to this cafe to use the internet haha I'm glad we don't have too many strays in America haha 

Love you all and hope your Christmas break was nice 

Merry Christmas (the Russian one) haha
с Новым годом

love you! 
-Cтарейшина Витт