Hello America

Well, hello America. and hello Big Sky Country 

good old sunsets in big sky country 

It is definitely bitter sweet. In the short 5 months that I was there (in Ukraine) I learned to really love the culture, places and people. I  hope I get to go back and visit some of those places some day. But it is good to be in America. On the first full day back we went to Cafe Rio for lunch and it was delicious as always. I loved it haha There are so many things we take for granted here and we dont realize how blessed we are in this country.

  such a beautiful temple 

Good to see my MTC buddies one last time

We live with members who have had missionaries live with them before. They are really nice people. They have 4 boys and two still live at home a 17 year old and a 14 year old. They are a fun and really nice family. Even though our area, Frenchtown, is really small and has had missionaries there for 35 years and you could probably tract every house in a transfer, we have still been able to have success so that has been fun.

 We have met with a lot of less active and part member families and have found some new people tracting who seem to have a ton of potential. It is weird here because members give a lot of referrals and we eat at members houses every night. If there was a night that wasn't filled the members are like oh no we have to feed the missionaries! ha so it is cool I guess that the members want us in their homes. Just if you ever feed the missionaries though, make them something besides pasta, even though it is always good that is what everyone feeds us haha 

It was good to meet the members yesterday and be able to understand what was going on and what people were saying to me haha so that has been nice. 

My comp Elder Beck is pretty cool too he is from Cedar City Utah and has been here for about 14 months. 

It was good to talk to you all on mothers day. That was fun. I dont know if you guys watched that video the church put out called "It was Mom" it is a pretty sweet video. So again Happy Mothers day mom Love you! 

another video I really like that the church just put out is the Because of Him video, it is awesome that we can have it on our ipads and take it around and show people, its great. 

It is funny to see some of the missionaries here talk about getting transferred and then I just think well at least you will get to see them again sometime in the near future haha 

It will be good to talk to people from the Donetsk mission though and see how they are all doing in different parts of the U.S. 

For those of you who didnt know or a refresher for my fam I was serving in Donestsk, we got evacuated to the Kiev Mission and we were there for about a month, then we got a call from President Klebingat saying that all of the Donetsk missionaries will be getting reassignments and we would find out in 2-12 days when and where we were going. We got that call on a Tuesday then Wednesday morning we got a text saying we were leaving Friday early early in the morning so we needed to be at the mission office on Thursday no later than 3pm. So we had to buy some souvenirs and get all of  our stuff packed. So we did that then we all got together President Klebingat gave a farewell speech and stuff then read off our names and said where we were going. there were 5 other missionaries that got called to the Montana Billings mission. Then we got on planes the next day at like 3am and went to our missions. 

awesome people from Ecuador

 It isn't every day you have a Mission President who is in the 70 (they are both awesome) 

It has been a crazy  month but I am glad to be here in Montana and I know that the Lord has a plan for every single one of us and it is all up to Him and as we trust in Him then we will find happiness and success. President Mecham and his wife seem really nice so it should be a good 17 months. 

Love you and hope you have a good week.

Love Elder David Witt 

PS hopefully all of that made sense haha and had all the important deets, my mailing address is 

Elder David Witt

18435 Buckskin Ln

Frenchtown, MT 

59834 

Quite the Transfer

It has been an interesting rainy day for us. We got news that Elder David Witt is getting a transfer and that all the Donetsk missionaries are getting transferred to stateside missions.  Shocking, yes it is, but it is OK.  They will be in their new areas this Friday!  Elder David Witt has been assigned to the . . . . .

Montana Billings Mission!  Here is information about his new mission President and wife. 

President:  Kris J. Mecham Spouse: Stephanie Bessire Mecham

Served: 2012 - 2015

Comments: Kris J Mecham, 58, and Stephanie Bessire Mecham, five children, Montana Billings Mission; Ashley Park Ward, Sandy Utah Granite South Stake. Brother Mecham served as a stake mission preparation leader and temple preparation instructor. He is a former president of the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission, stake executive secretary, high councilor, bishop, Young Men president and missionary in the Scotland Mission. Director of community services, Corporation of the Presiding Bishop. Born in Blackfoot, Idaho, to Alvin John and Nina Mecham. Sister Mecham serves as a stake mission preparation leader and temple preparation instructor. She served with her husband in the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission and is a former stake history compiler for the 25th anniversary, tri-stake family history center director, Young Women president, Primary president and counselor in a Relief Society presidency. Born in Rupert, Idaho, to Duane Merrill and Carole Ann Cahoon Bessire.

We are sad of all the unrest that has occurred in the Donetsk Mission and that all the missionaries in this mission will have new assignments or go home earlier than planned.  We know some transfers aren’t what we are expecting, but we do trust the Lord sees the bigger picture and inspires His leaders in His affairs here on this earth.  

Please pray for Elder David Witt and all the missionaries from this mission that they will have positive attitudes, trust the Lord, go forward with faith, have the ambition to work hard and do missionary work wherever they are assigned and make the necessary adjustments that are ahead of them.  We never know what cards will be dealt to us in the game of life, but we do know that we can make the best of each situation with the help of God and knowing that He is preparing the way for us to be successful.  We are grateful for the opportunities we have had in having Elder David Witt serve in Ukraine.  We are grateful for President Lochhead and his wife who were watching over the missionaries and keeping them safe.  We express gratitude for modern technology that allows us to have instant updates. We are grateful for the Ukraine people who provided love, meals and support to our missionaries, along with the companions and Elders who have served or worked with Elder David Witt in the Donetsk Mission.  We know that Heavenly Father is in control of the situation and is well aware of what is happening.  We will always remember the picture Elder Witt bought in the MTC that had a picture of Christ walking down the middle of the battle field with the words “Peace Is Coming!”   By Jon McNaughton.

How did he know to buy this picture and how did he know he was going to be in the middle of a battle field?  The spirit helps us along our path to face the difficult situation ahead of us.  We think these are only the beginning of the storms we will face in this earthly battle.  These battles can only be fought by righteousness.  The word of God is more powerful than a two edge sword.  Are we prepared to defend the truth and stand for righteousness?  Let’s continue to have daily personal and family prayers, read and study our scriptures daily, and have weekly Family Home Evenings.  These are the strong weapons that will be needed to endure the battles ahead of us.  Isaiah 41:10 states, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee:  be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Vs 13 For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.”

We love all of you and look forward to talking with Elder David Witt this Mother’s Day!   

Love, Mom & Dad

Short and sweet

Well it isnt every week that two general authorities come to your zone conference. haha We had President  Bennett (Area presidency) and President Klebingat.

It was a  great conference getting us all pumped up to be better and it is cool the missions are good for now plus the prepare us for the rest of how we want to live our lives. oh on the way to the conference it was really cool we were walking up and this dude got out of his car and motioned for us to come over and he is like what is that building right there (pointing to the temple) and Elder Brough (Bro) and i were able to talk to him for a bit get his number give him a book of Mormon and stuff so it was really cool, using the little Russian that we knew haha but it was fun. 

This letter will be a little short since I will be talking to you again pretty soon! which will be exciting. and plus i forgot my other planner(for last transfer) at home so yeah but we did some more service helped two people move one of which lived on the 9th floor and the elevator didnt work haha 

We also had a lesson with a Muslim baptist preacher. and I we should have ended the lesson much sooner than we did since it was mostly bible bashing so it was dumb. 

We also met with the guy named Aleksander he is getting baptized on Saturday and he is was cool. he is deaf so we either have to have a member who knows Russian sign or we just write everything down, but he is so prepared and has done so much to be prepared he has read the bible Book of Mormon and d and c. too bad his wife isnt taking the lessons but she will see his example and join.They have three kids i met two of the boys who are about 10 and 8 and they are both so funny and cool even though they are deaf as well. But it is cool that you can feel the spirit even without words. it is cool.

Well i love you all and hope you have a good week cant wait to talk to you love you!

Love elder witt

Good Week

Another week in Ukraine.

Last Monday after we got done with everything we had a lesson with the Podvodov Family who use to be a  mission President for the Donetsk mission years and years ago. they now live here and are awesome. They have two sons who are 17 and they are both way cool and it has been fun to get to know them and see youth of the church here. Everyone in our apartment got sick this last week so that was no fun ha we all had at least a cold then the other Elders had other sicknesses, but we are all doing better now. 

Today we took Elder Claypool to the mission office so they can go to the temple(lucky) have meetings with president and all the departing stuff and such, so they all leave tomorrow morning so it was weird saying goodbye to him and getting all of his stuff ready to go back to america, but it was awesome that he worked so hard even until the last day. He was great. I learned so much from him and am glad that I got to be his last companion. 

During the week Elder Claypool and I made Family history signs so we could do a "Family History Night" and I forgot to take pics but they turned out pretty nice even though we only got to use them once, which I will tell you about. After we finally finished them which took longer than expected, on Saturday we went to a park with a little table and family history booklets and sheets, the ones where you can fill out you and your parents and stuff and stood there by it at the park, I dont know if I can say this but I felt like a JW with their display boards with books and stuff ha It was really awkward at first but hey it was a good experience haha I dont think anyone has tried it before and we didnt get that much success but we got "Family Search" out there and we were able to set up a lesson with a guy who wasnt interested in family history just meeting. Like I said it was a good experience haha 

We also met with a less active this week, because it is hard for her to get out of her house since she has health problems, but we were able to meet with her and we invited her to stake conference and she came and she saw friends she hadnt seen in a while and it was good. 

We also did some service on a member's  дача this week and that was fun, we pulled out trees and weeds and left over stuff from last growing season threw it into a huge pile and had a huge bonfire haha it was cool, I think i got a little too close since I dont have any arm hair anymore haha 

Oh yeah we had our ward activity this week and it actually turned out pretty well! There were four cultures, Asian, itallian, South American and American. We had food,spaghetti, rice, bean dip, brownies, and games, pizza tossing, pin the tail on the donkey, pinata, and there were a lot of people, lots of members and non members so it was really good and fun, I was serving our spaghetti so I didnt get many pics so I will have to get them from someone and then send them. 

We found a brotha from Camaroon and had a lesson with him, Patrick and he is cool, believes in God and wants a stronger relationship with him so hopefully we can help him with that. 

then yesterday Elder Claypools last day was good, like I said our less active came to conference, we had a lesson with the guy we set up with from family history finding, at the park which was alright some people just like to talk a lot and not listen to what we have to say to what they asked or their comment or something, but that is alright we are meeting again so it should be good. When we were finished we felt like we should walk to the center of the park and we did and we found this guy named Roman and he is solid, doesnt really have a religion likes buddhism and just way down to earth and friendly so we gave him a Book of Mormon then afterward he is like well can I get a picture with you guys? haha so we did and it was cool, he is really awesome, he is going out of town and wont be back until end of May so hopefully I will still be here and be able to meet with him again. Then we went to a members house had some good food and the mom of this family lives with them and she was one of the people who helped translate the Ukrainian Hymn book so she told us of some of those experiences and  that was pretty cool. So it was a good day.

It was a good week. in other news Mothers day is coming up and we have a big window that we can call. We can call from the 9th-14th of May so all of you pick a day and time that will work best and we will plan in from there!

Another thing if for some reason you wanted to send mail it needs to go to this address because there isnt anyone in the Donetsk office, The Lochheads are still running the area but are in America. So here it is.. 

Ukraine Kyiv Mission

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyevo-Svyatoshinsky Rayon

Kyiv Oblast 08131

Ukraine

have a great week love you all

Love,

 Elder David Witt

Happy Easter

This week really flew by even though it feels like we have been in Kiev for longer than a week. Sleepin on the couch and being with the other Elders hasn't been bad at all, except we go through a ton of food every meal haha since they are working their area it is hard to also work the area with investigators and such, so we have planned to split up meeting with investigators this week and such. We have been trying to get with the less actives and work with them, we have only been able to meet with one of them though haha but that's alright We were able to meet with someone who came to English, by the way did I say that the English groups here are huge like 20-30 people come so we have to split into 3 groups sometimes more, it is really cool. He has met with the missionaries before and he wants them in English so we will see where that goes. We were able to have a zone meeting with President (now Elder from the 70)  Klebingat and his wife. They talked about the culture of the mission here a little bit and about themselves so it was cool to get to know them a little more. Oh yes I also saw Sister Aubrey Thomson so that was kinda weird and kinda cool that we are in the same mission now, hopefully she sent a pic to Sab that we got (does she have your email?)

It was a good Easter, they make these little cupcake things (they arent really little..but) Paskha is what they are called it is a bread with raisins and such. Elder Claypool and I bought some candy for us and the other Elders and we put them in makeshift easter baskets (bowls) ha and made a good french toast breakfast. then we went to church, they have wards here instead of branches it is so cool, the people here are awesome btw the first Ukranian to be baptized is in our ward he is pretty solid, and all the former Donetsk missionaries bore their testimonies and It was really powerful Elder Claypool and another missionary who is going home on Monday sang Come Thou Fount and it was just awesome. yes the older group of missionaries is going home, So like my comp and Elder Newey and such so yeah, there are 204 missionaries in the Kiev mission and our President said it could probably function with about 70..so haha there are a lot of missionaries here and who knows what will happen besides this oldest group going home.

 Paska's (we made them into french toast, by slicing it up)

our Easter Baskets 

Today we went to some stores so Elder Claypool could buy some new suits and some other going home stuff, so it is kinda weird haha but yeah

We also had meetings this week with our district to keep getting things and areas and sch organized and for our ward party that we are going to have on Friday. It is going to be a culture night with a few different cultures adn the missionaries will be in charge of each area and such with food activities and yeah it should be good

oh yeah Sanya is doing really well he walks around with his Book of Mormon everywhere and his friends have asked him about it and he gave one to one of his friends haha it is great, he is doing awesome and still getting ready for May 3rd, hopefully his mom will also want to be baptized on the same day with him! but yeah it has been a good week and hopefully we can find some more awesome people to add to this ward here. 

Love you all and hope you have a good week! 

Love Elder David Witt 

Emergency Transfer

Emergency transfer! haha but yes we are in Kiev! we got a call Wednesday morning during personal study from President and Sister Lochhead saying we would all be leaving so that say and the next we cleaned our house, packed our bags, gave our food away, got on a night train (kinda like Harry Potter but definitely not as cool) and ended up in Kiev. Yeah ha 

but let me back up a bit even though you probably want more deets. 

We had Family night with brother and sister Житников with Саня (Sanya) who is doing so much better, we watched the Restoration film with him and he loved it. It was so good for him to develop a better relationship for all of them (I think this was crucial, even though we didnt know, Heavenly Father knew) But yeah then wednesday rolled around and such, and it was sad to get that call because I didnt want to leave our investigators with baptismal dates just hangin. But thankfully my comp and I have been pushing hard to work with member present lessons the last few weeks and they are all left in good hands We left Sanya in brother Zhitnikovs hands to keep teaching him the lessons  and still preparing him for May 3rd. His mom went to general conference with them, they both loved it and I am pretty sure she will be ready on the same date as well. Sasha the 17 year old, we told his dad to keep working with him and preparing him for the 26th of April and we let Brother Sergei take care of Yori (who knows if that is how you spell it in English) Юри. He has been sick so it was hard to meet with him, but hopefully he is doing better and coming to church and such still.

oh yes we also did helping hands here where we did service by raking up sticks and leaves and cleaning up garbage at a park #goodtimes

We met with our ward mission leader and gave him a copy of our Potential Investigators and all that jazz and made sure he was going to follow up on the ones with dates. We gave them and Sanya all of our food since we needed to get rid of all of the perishable items and such. 

But yeah we got the call I was sad and we canceled the lessons and plans that we had that day and organized our area book and cleaned our apartment and started packing. We thought we were leaving the next morning but thankfully we had a full next day and left Thursday night. We were able to meet with Sanya and his mom (brother  Житников was able to be there so that was nice) and say goodbye to them. by the way Sanya has been alcohol free since last Tuesday and said today he was quitting smoking, you can tell the change that he has had. The Book of Mormon is powerful. so so true and so awesome. I know I will one day return and get to see him baptized and such.

 But after we got everything done in Kharkov we got a taxi went to the train station, we got there early to help others so it was a long night but it was still good. People were trippin when they saw tons of people with tons of baggage all getting onto one train hahaha 

But we got onto our train, which was kinda like a HP train but yeah smaller and yeah but it was fine. then we arrived in Kiev about 7:30 in the morning and kak raz (russian phrase) we went to the branch building that was right ,oh wait they are wards and stakes not branches..but anyway we got the the church building and it was right next to the Kiev temple, we didnt/probably wont be able to to inside but hey I got to see it and walk on the grounds so that was awesome. 

hey it's the Kiev temple! 

We had a little meeting and all got sent to different areas, it was sad to say bye to the other missionaries in my mtc group cause who knows when I will see them again. but it was good to see them. I am in Perchersky (which is center Kiev, and yes Midon is in my area but we cant go there and yes it is safe there now and surprisingly clean) I am with Elder Bro from Kentucky (he was in the group older than us at the mtc so i knew him a little bit) and elder Jensen from Utah,they are both pretty cool and it is kinda weird to have all four of us living in the same apartment, Elder Claypool is still my comp so we kinda do our own thing,for the most part, when we go out and work and such. 

Last night we went to a members house and they are all deaf so we wrote most of it down but it was such a cool experience and the spirit was there so it was awesome and hey I learned some Russian sign language who would have ever known, oh yes they speak Ukrainian here, so yeah it is trippy but it is alright I will just learn Ukrainian and Russian I guess haha 

District lunch in Kharkov for Elder Claypool's birthday. this was like the only time we [Our District] did something

General Conference Saturday and Sunday were so good all 16 (yes there are 16 now haha) of the missionaries in our district all watched conference at the church and it was so so good, we will not sleep through the revolution (too soon? haha) (it is funny because that is what President Uchtdorf talked about in one of his talks) 

It is all a change with Wards, new area, new mission president (ours is still in Donetsk along with the senior couples) language and all that but it will be good once we start getting back into things, the work is true whether we are here or there or over there, it is true and no unhallowed had can stop this work. So basically we will be going back to our mission sometime (who knows when but I really hope we do haha) 

ah well we are safe and I love you all thank you for your prayers and such, love you. have a good week hopefully I added everything if not next time haha 

love Elder David Witt 

Update from the News today

The LDS Church continues to monitor the unrest in Ukraine. The church's first priority is the safety of its missionaries in the area.

The Church of Jesus of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released an update April 11 at 8 a.m. regarding missionaries serving in Ukraine.

"Due to continued unrest in the region, the church has chosen to transfer the 85 missionaries from the Ukraine Donetsk Mission to serve in other areas within Ukraine. The well-being of missionaries is always our first priority, and every effort is being made to keep them safe," Mormon Newsroom reported.

Donetsk is one of three eastern cities where Pro-Russian protesters are occupying administrative buildings, according to CNN.com.

Previous updates about missionaries in the area and additional information about the church in Ukraine can be found on the Mormon Newsroom website.

This video makes me sad and also so grateful for our freedom here in the United States-

http://www.standard.net/stories/2014/02/19/ukraine-violence-distresses-utahns-relatives-and-friends-there

We received a letter from David's mission president and he has been relocated, as of Wednesday, to serve in the Kyiv mission. Where one door closes another door opens! Please continue in your faithful prayers for Elder David Witt, all the missionaries and the people in Ukraine. 

Proverbs 3:5-6  "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."  

Follow the promptings you have every day, we never know when we will make a difference.