A farewell Tribute from theYSA

Our Youth put on a farewell tribute for us as they do for all the Senior Missionary couples that come and go. Our night was very special. Our Youth prepared and put on this skit that perfectly describes what we learned and how we grew.

Traditional Ukrainian Dinner Prepared By Our Youth

Our last Sunday and our last Council Dinner. We prepared dinner for them and they prepared a dinner for us. What  a  great night we had, reminiscing, talking, laughing, loving, none of us wanted the evening  to end. Many tears were shed and much love filled the room. It will be a lasting memory in my mind forever. 

Last Weeks of Our Mission

The last weeks of our mission have come and gone.  What a wonderful experience and opportunity we have had to  be on a mission in Kharkov Ukraine. We came with high expectations but we didn't really know what to expect. We have left with our buckets overflowing. We hope that we have been the kind of missionaries our Lord sent us to be. I know  that we have left gaining the most. Our Beloved Youth have made a deep impression upon our hearts that will remain there forever.

A Special and Extraordinary Experience

     Once a year all the Eastern Europe Area CES couples join together for a training. This year we were privileged to go to Turkey. I never realized before the significance of the country of Turkey. It was well traveled by the ancient Apostles and many converted Saints lived in that country in the early days of the church after our Savior had died. We had wonderful instruction from great men who lead the Seminary and Institute Program here in the Eastern Europe Area. They are all natives from Russia and Ukraine. They are great leaders, men of great testimony, and great faith. This year we had President and Sister Lawrence, the Europe East Area President (right here on the front row, 5 and 6 from the left) with us. Each night they gave a wonderful spiritual and edifying fireside.
    One afternoon of our training conference we took a field trip to Ephesus and walked through the restored and uncovered ruins of ancient Ephesus. The top picture: we are standing in front of  the ancient Library and the bottom picture: we are sitting in the Colosseum, the very Colosseum where the Apostle Paul spoke to the Ephesians. It was a most wonderful experience and one of the most awesome places I have ever seen. 
     Being together with all these great senior couples is also an edifying and uplifting experience. There were 18 couples. Together we had 107 children and 318 grandchildren. One couple even had 57 great grandchildren. The ages ranged from 51 to the late 70's. Wonderful people and a wonderful experience.

Daughters, Angels, Friends, Beloved

As our time here draws quickly to an end our hearts are full and our thoughts are many. This has been a life changing experience. The blessings we have received are many. Our cup is definitely overflowing. With much love and tears in our eyes we spend a few more tender moments together with our Beloved youth. I made each of the girls one of my little crocheted dolls. I was amazed at their joy over these little dolls. You would have thought they were little girls again playing with dolls, creating new hairdo's and adjusting the dress to fit their style and even swinging them by their arms. It was delightful!  We have indeed been blessed in our year and a half here. It is so hard to leave them, not knowing when we can be among them again.

We found the funnest yarn here in Ukraine. You make these scarfs by knitting on your fingers. We planned a service project and made these scarfs modeled here by some of our fun youth and a mother. We spent one day delivering these scarf's to widows and shut ins. We sang a Christmas carol and gave them a gift. Many  shed tears of joy and expressed appreciation as we spent a few minutes with them and it was a great experience for the youth as they witnessed the miracle of giving.

Our District Ukrainian Style

Part of the mission is the regular pattern of change. Every six weeks there is a transfer within the district and zone, sometimes new missionaries coming in and other missionaries going home. This is a picture of our 2nd to last district before transfers. We are all wearing the fashionable traditional winter head wear for this part of the world. It is a must to keep our heads and our ears warm as we tromp around the streets of Kharkov. If our head and ears and necks are warm then usually the rest of us is warm. We as missionaries don't actually wear these hats, only for a picture.

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.

District Conference in Kharkov - November

I'm not very good at keeping the blog updated. Many preparations and projects going on all the time. I was searching through my pictures tonight and found this one. Here is a group of our missionaries inviting by song. It was District Conference in Kharkov this day. They sounded very good as well. From left to right, Elder Kline, Andre Kharkov CES youth, Elder Karly, Elder Sanger, Elder Golushokov, Elder Johnson, Elder Coakwell, and Elder Rooney.

Our Mission in Ukraine

With just a little less than 4 months left in our mission I have been reflecting upon our experience here and desired to share some thoughts as well as pictures of our special time here.

In the words of President Monson: None of us will honor our Heavenly Father and our Savior more than by serving as a devoted compassionate missionary.  1 Samuel 2:30 "For them that honor me I will honor".

Missionary service is a labor of love but also of sacrifice and devotion to duty.

As I think about my service here in Ukraine I ask myself, Today, have I increased in faith, in hope, in charity, in love?  I can honestly answer in the positive to each of those four characteristics. I never imagined the great love I would feel for the people here in Ukraine. They indeed are my brothers and sisters. I cry with them and for them when their trials are heavy, I laugh with them when they are happy and full of energy and youthful playfulness, I love them as if they were my children.  I hope that each of our youth will realize their dream of a temple marriage with a worthy companion and raise a righteous family and strengthen the church here with families. I used every ounce of faith I had to accept this assignment and leave my own family and travel and live on the other side of the world to answer a call from our prophet. I have been rewarded greatly with love and my family has survived without me, and  my faith has been strengthened because of it.   Was it a sacrifice? Yes, but where much is given, much is required. I can not complain about my sacrifice when my life is so full with the treasure of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

District Farewell Pictures before Transfers

I didn't get it that we were suppose to be goofy. Starting at the back row. Elder Butterworth, from Australia on the left, Elder Coakwell, from all over, family currently in Germany, originally from U.S., Sister Paletta, from Utah this was her send off photo, Sister Baguinets from Donetsk, Ukraine, Elder Kline from Texas, Elder Sanger from Utah. Front Row starting at the left, Elder Harris from Davis County, Utah, Elder and Sister Bailey and Elder Henrie from Michigan.

Family Home Evening

Every Monday night we have a group of youth in our home for family home evening. It's a fun time for us to have them in our home and to share a spiritual lesson with them, some kind of food or treats and a game or two that usually brings much laughter. We have a large group of young men from Nigeria that have accepted the gospel here. They are students here in Ukraine. They bring a very fun spirit with them to our home. To entice them into coming Elder Bailey promised food. One single man gave our family night the nick name of "Eating Monday". One Monday we went to another town for the day and night and so we told the young men we would not be holding f.h.e. on that Monday. So they gave that night the nick name of "Fasting Monday".

What is a Metroshky Doll?

Every missionary from Ukraine comes home with a Metroshky doll or two. They open up and inside is another doll which opens to another doll which opens until it gets so small that it's impossible to open. These two 25 feet dolls were at the entrance of the Fan Zone for the Euro Cup right here in Center Kharkov. It's always fun to see what the city is going to put up in there big square for a celebration.

Summer 2012 Memories Bus Ride to Donetsk

In July all the missionaries in Kharkov filled a very large bus and we had the special treat of going to Donetsk for a missionwide conference with Elder Razband of the Presidency of the Seventy. The bus ride took 7 hours. Now I ask you what do you think that bus ride was like. Actually it was okay as far as a 7 hour bus ride goes. These are great young men and we have grown to love them and appreciate their different personalities. It was wonderful to be in a room full of missionaries and President Razband. He is a great teacher and we felt great love from him as he spoke to us. I would ride another 7 hours there and back to hear a servant of the Lord.