One Highlight of our Mission

The young man here is Andre Lukashuk. One evening in November Elder Bailey and I walked into a tiny local market and while I was searching for what I needed Elder Bailey had a brief conversation with this young man. Elder Bailey is great at inviting and gave him an English Conversation invitation and a Missionary Prig. A 'Prig'  has information of our church on it as well as the addresses of all the branches. In Russian 'priglashaem' means "invite". Well this young man walked into church about a week later. The missionaries greeted him and invited him to stay. Andre stayed for the whole 3 hour segment that day and three weeks later after meeting with the missionaries almost every single day for that time period and he was baptized on December 8th. He is truly a remarkable young man. I call him our 'Golden Boy'.  A week after he was baptized President Campero our mission president invited him to serve a mini mission. A mini mission is an opportunity for the youth here to serve for a period of 6 weeks to 3 months as a full time missionary teamed up with another full time missionary. It's a great experience for these youth. The interesting thing about this story is Andre had recently graduated from his Institute Studies. He had only been working at this market as a manager for a short period of time. About two days after we had our brief meeting in that store or around that period of time he was let go from this work, the higher ups said he didn't have enough experience. Elder Bailey and I had not been in that market for over 6 months and I was not intending on going into that market that night either, but a different one up the street farther. The hand of the Lord was truly evident as Elder Bailey said let's go in this market and there was our Andre. Andre had been applying and interviewing for a new job the whole three weeks he was having lessons with the missionaries. We were all praying for him to find a new job that would allow him to be active in church on the Sabbath day. He had rejected a few job offers not feeling right about them and then he received an invitation to go on a mini mission. He was excited but overwhelmed. He made the decision to serve for one transfer. Three days into his service he called up the mission president and told him he wanted to extend his service for two transfers. Wow, how great shall be his joy! Oh I almost forgot Roger had the great privilege of baptizing this young man. We recognize that we are only tools here for our Lord and our Heavenly Father and we are grateful for this wonderful privilege.

2012 Christmas Dinner

Christmas this year came on a Tuesday. Here in the mission Christmas is a regular missionary working day. It just so happened that we have district meetings on Tuesday and along with district meeting we feed our district a good homemade meal. So on this district meeting day which also was Christmas we had a grand Christmas Feast. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, candied yams, pumpkin pie and I can't remember but it was yummy and it was wonderful that we got to share it with our missionary family.

Our Youth of Kharkov Board

We have truly been blessed with a sweet blessing on our mission. We have had the wonderful privilege of getting to know these young people and spending a great deal of time with them. They are our reason for being here. They have hopes and dreams and great expectations just like every other young adult throughout the world. Their challenges are great. Their love and testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ is strong. They are inspiration to us and we LOVE them with all our hearts. We would love to bring them home in our suitcases, but they are needed to strengthen the church here and lead this nation in great spiritual strength. They are a chosen generation in this land that is young and new to the gospel.

Our District

Every six weeks it is time for transfers. This has been our district from November 15th to December 20. Each transfer we always lose a missionary or two as they get shuffled to new areas. It is always a great opportunity to rub shoulders with these awesome young people. They are amazing to me. They come here from all different states and countries and learn a very difficult language and serve with all their might and always have smiles on their faces. It is great to be a part of this great work with them.

Zone Leaders

Elder Butterworth on the left from Australia and Elder Coakwell on the right, an American, but has lived many places in the world with his family have been our zone leaders for the past three months. Two great youth men and great future leaders of the church wherever they will be. We have had many great opportunities to watch them in action to search out less actives with them, to be a part  of the great finding of the elect with them. Elder Coakwell was just transferred to a new assignment. We love him and will miss his fun personality and sense of humor but know that he will be of great service in his new area.

Family Home Evenings or Eating Monday

Family Home Evenings are very delightful here. The young man in the middle hosted FHE at his apartment. Many of our African brothers came,  missionaries with 4 investigators, and some of our CES youth were here tonight. We had quite a feast, as well as laughter and fellowship. We usually have our family home evenings in English, many of our youth know English which has been a great blessing for Elder Bailey and myself. Tonight we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, and now as I wright this post three of those investigators have been baptized this Christmas month.

December Was A Great Month

Here in Kharkov we have a group of outstanding youth. It has been a great privilege for us to be able get to know them and have them be a part of lives. It is always wonderful when we get to spend time with the youth. The young man in front and the young lady on the far right in this picture are new converts this year. They are fantastic and will be a great asset to the church here in Kharkov.