As the mom, I feel that this story is one that will increase everyone's testimony that the prayers that we offer on behalf of the protection of our missionaries are heard and answered.
Last week, as Chris and his companion were walking the streets of his area, they were stopped by two policemen. The policemen asked them for their identification papers. Chris pulled his papers out and presented them. They were carefully read and handed back. Chris claims that they didn't really converse with him after this point.
The police officers requested that Elder Beck hand over his papers, they were told by Elder Beck that he didn't have his identification papers with him. Elder Beck Told them that he was Elder Russell's companion but the police took both Elder Beck and Chris to the Police Station that was located in the nearby Metro Station.
At the police station, the police grilled Elder Beck as to what he was doing in the Ukraine, etc... After some time, they came to believe his story that he was a missionary, he then was raked over the coals for being on the streets without his proper paperwork. The two elders were then released.
As a mother, I feel for both young men and the scariness of this whole situation. Before Chris left for the MTC, I felt prompted to speak with him about the importance of ALWAYS carrying proper identification; I also went over how important it was to comply with the requests of the police if he ever had any encounters with them.
We are thankful that Heavenly Father was mindful of these two missionaries and enlightened the police officers with the sense that Elder Beck truly was working for the Lord in a missionary capacity.
A special thank you to all our dear family and friends who pray for our son and his safety and success. Elder Russell and our family, truly appreciate them.
DeLisa
Sunday, February 27, 2011
2/6/2011 Year of the rabbit - It's been positive celsius outside!
Hello family and friends!
This week wasn't too exciting, but everything is melting here. Not only that, but the winds have been pretty crazy the last 2 days.
We met with Susanta(our investigator) this week. He's from Sri Lanka and grew up budhist. We're trying to get him a testimlny of Jesus Christ. He just seems too caught up on the facts.
We also met with our Landlady and read a pamphlet with her. She's nce... a little odd, but nice.
I made another batch of cookies this week and they're already gone.
On Wednesday, my companion made me senior for the day and had me do all the phone calling and such. It was good for me but a little on the scary side.
Then we had a split the next day where I visited an investigator in the hospital of the elder I was on splits with, the man had had a stroke. We also visited a less active's home and she had some inappropriate pictures on the wall along with some budhist art..yeah. She went through my photos and she saw the one where Ashlyn is holding a rabbit and said how cute it was, that it's the year of the rabbit, and that eating them is bad. I withheld the fact that we raise them all for meat.
This Friday we get transfer calls so that will be intresting. Kharkov had 6 branches that were combined (so now there are three) and when an elder asked President Fry when he was at our district meeting last week something about transfers he said, "Sometimes 1 + 1 doesn't equal 2.), which he took from me at our district meeting with him.
This week we're planning on making a huge pot of borshe that will last us 4 days... that will be good for the digestive system. But hey! It's been Positive Clesius outside!!
Love you all! Have fun out there!
Elder Russell
This week wasn't too exciting, but everything is melting here. Not only that, but the winds have been pretty crazy the last 2 days.
We met with Susanta(our investigator) this week. He's from Sri Lanka and grew up budhist. We're trying to get him a testimlny of Jesus Christ. He just seems too caught up on the facts.
We also met with our Landlady and read a pamphlet with her. She's nce... a little odd, but nice.
I made another batch of cookies this week and they're already gone.
On Wednesday, my companion made me senior for the day and had me do all the phone calling and such. It was good for me but a little on the scary side.
Then we had a split the next day where I visited an investigator in the hospital of the elder I was on splits with, the man had had a stroke. We also visited a less active's home and she had some inappropriate pictures on the wall along with some budhist art..yeah. She went through my photos and she saw the one where Ashlyn is holding a rabbit and said how cute it was, that it's the year of the rabbit, and that eating them is bad. I withheld the fact that we raise them all for meat.
This Friday we get transfer calls so that will be intresting. Kharkov had 6 branches that were combined (so now there are three) and when an elder asked President Fry when he was at our district meeting last week something about transfers he said, "Sometimes 1 + 1 doesn't equal 2.), which he took from me at our district meeting with him.
This week we're planning on making a huge pot of borshe that will last us 4 days... that will be good for the digestive system. But hey! It's been Positive Clesius outside!!
Love you all! Have fun out there!
Elder Russell
1/30/2011 Hospital Horrors and Loving Primary
Hello Family!
This week started out with a family night where the non-member boyfriend of the district president's daughter was basically told every bible story there is. All the while, I've got a four year old climbing all over me.
The next day, we went to a hospital. We first went to someone's house, literally picked them up and walked them down 4 stories, put them into an ambulance, followed the ambulance, unloaded the man from the ambulance onto a stretcher, unloaded the man from the stretcher to his hospital bed, and waited for paperwork to be filled out. All doctors wear these tall white hats like a chef and the hospital looked like a horror film. And the guy's house, had wooden tikis everywhere.
Then we had a district meeting with Pres. Fry and interviews followed by a split. I was with Elder Loveridge who is being trained right now. My Russian during that time was the best that I've had in country and my confidence really improved from that. We did some contacting, taught two lessons, and were supposed to teach a third.
This lady wants us to help her daughter with English homework but we waited for l1/2 hours because, even though we tried to get the daughter while it was going on, we didn't start until the end of a Relief Society thing. We went to looked for the girl and the Relief Society saw us and gave us food... The lady did say I had a Kiev accent though.
We visited the old branch president and he seems to be doing better.
The Reeds gave me things for my shoes which are awesome! Hopefully, I won't fall again.
Then on Saturday Elder Beck scheduled 2 meal appointments back to back and the first lady fed us so much food we didn't think we could do the second one.
Then, we taught primary again and the same four year old mentioned above was sitting on my lap, grabbing my ear, nose, and nametag, and randomly hitting me. I love Primary!
Church is at l0 am every week and is held in the building with the spires(one of the photos).
We have cell phone here and are supposed to limit our phone calls to 5 minutes. We cannot text but other missions, like Kiev, can.
And, the music lady from the old area taught choir.
Until next week!
Elder Russell
This week started out with a family night where the non-member boyfriend of the district president's daughter was basically told every bible story there is. All the while, I've got a four year old climbing all over me.
The next day, we went to a hospital. We first went to someone's house, literally picked them up and walked them down 4 stories, put them into an ambulance, followed the ambulance, unloaded the man from the ambulance onto a stretcher, unloaded the man from the stretcher to his hospital bed, and waited for paperwork to be filled out. All doctors wear these tall white hats like a chef and the hospital looked like a horror film. And the guy's house, had wooden tikis everywhere.
Then we had a district meeting with Pres. Fry and interviews followed by a split. I was with Elder Loveridge who is being trained right now. My Russian during that time was the best that I've had in country and my confidence really improved from that. We did some contacting, taught two lessons, and were supposed to teach a third.
This lady wants us to help her daughter with English homework but we waited for l1/2 hours because, even though we tried to get the daughter while it was going on, we didn't start until the end of a Relief Society thing. We went to looked for the girl and the Relief Society saw us and gave us food... The lady did say I had a Kiev accent though.
We visited the old branch president and he seems to be doing better.
The Reeds gave me things for my shoes which are awesome! Hopefully, I won't fall again.
Then on Saturday Elder Beck scheduled 2 meal appointments back to back and the first lady fed us so much food we didn't think we could do the second one.
Then, we taught primary again and the same four year old mentioned above was sitting on my lap, grabbing my ear, nose, and nametag, and randomly hitting me. I love Primary!
Church is at l0 am every week and is held in the building with the spires(one of the photos).
We have cell phone here and are supposed to limit our phone calls to 5 minutes. We cannot text but other missions, like Kiev, can.
And, the music lady from the old area taught choir.
Until next week!
Elder Russell
1/24/2011 A quick week in Saltovka - Yay!
Hello Family and Friends!
This week went by a lot quicker than most which is good because it means that I'm working!
We had some hamburgers this week using our Mansmith's seasoning. They were GREAT.... aside from the fact that we had Ukrainian meat!
One of the days the hot water shut off and didn't turn back on until 2:30 in the afternoon; Elder Beck waited to take a shower until then. Didn't bother me because i shower at night.
On Wednesday of this week, we have Pres. Fry coming to our district meeting (our district leader told us not to mess it up) and then he will do interviews. Then on Thursday, I go on a split with Elder Toveridge(greenie) who has been here 3 weeks. Should be an adventure.
We visited an inactive who is really nice and has a great testimony, he just can't come to church because of a nerve problem.
Then we had several contacts, one of which said he'd come to church, but haven't seen him yet.
Everyone continues to ask me if I'm related to Russell M. Nelson or M. Russell Ballard and one time, Kurt Russell...which made no sense.
We bought a microwave for the apartment which is great...except we used most of the money we had left for the month to do it and because of the holidays, things are a little slow. So we hope to have the money on our cards today so that we can buy groceries.
They sell things differently here. We picked out the microwave that we wanted and the store clerk took it down, put it on a table asked us to feel a cup of cold water. Then he put it in the microwave for a minute, then took the cup out and had us feel the water again to show us that it was warm. Then he took the same microwave and put it in a box for us.
We got a new branch president on Sunday, but the old branch president (Vladamir) seemed really down in the dumps and he was the same way when we visited him on Saturday. Just pray for him, I think his family left him when he joined the church, he's not working, and sometimes Ukrainians get offended when they are released from callings like that.
Also, we have two contacts that we are trying to meet with, Alexander and Victor.
I'll write next week!
Elder Russell
This week went by a lot quicker than most which is good because it means that I'm working!
We had some hamburgers this week using our Mansmith's seasoning. They were GREAT.... aside from the fact that we had Ukrainian meat!
One of the days the hot water shut off and didn't turn back on until 2:30 in the afternoon; Elder Beck waited to take a shower until then. Didn't bother me because i shower at night.
On Wednesday of this week, we have Pres. Fry coming to our district meeting (our district leader told us not to mess it up) and then he will do interviews. Then on Thursday, I go on a split with Elder Toveridge(greenie) who has been here 3 weeks. Should be an adventure.
We visited an inactive who is really nice and has a great testimony, he just can't come to church because of a nerve problem.
Then we had several contacts, one of which said he'd come to church, but haven't seen him yet.
Everyone continues to ask me if I'm related to Russell M. Nelson or M. Russell Ballard and one time, Kurt Russell...which made no sense.
We bought a microwave for the apartment which is great...except we used most of the money we had left for the month to do it and because of the holidays, things are a little slow. So we hope to have the money on our cards today so that we can buy groceries.
They sell things differently here. We picked out the microwave that we wanted and the store clerk took it down, put it on a table asked us to feel a cup of cold water. Then he put it in the microwave for a minute, then took the cup out and had us feel the water again to show us that it was warm. Then he took the same microwave and put it in a box for us.
We got a new branch president on Sunday, but the old branch president (Vladamir) seemed really down in the dumps and he was the same way when we visited him on Saturday. Just pray for him, I think his family left him when he joined the church, he's not working, and sometimes Ukrainians get offended when they are released from callings like that.
Also, we have two contacts that we are trying to meet with, Alexander and Victor.
I'll write next week!
Elder Russell
1/17/2011 Transfer to Saltovka and Flying Fish
Hello family and friends,
Okay, I'm going to try to answer some of the dear elder questions:
1. Sasha, the young man in one of the past pictures, is a convert who was baptized during my first transfer here in the country. I had one lesson with him while I was on a split after he was baptized and talked to him on Sundays.
2.The way we contact people here is similar to other areas: we talk to people on the street, knock on their doors, call people on the phone...it's just a little harder to knock on a door when you can't even get into the apartment building.
3. As far as ethnic food goes we have some pizza places, I've seen some Chinese food places, and I think I saw a Russian restaurant. We also have American McDonald's!
4.The one senior couple, the Reeds, are going home some time in February.
5. The Mission president and his wife go home at the end of June or beginning of July.
Okay, on to this week. We spent all of Thursday moving into our new apartment and getting settled, which was a mess because we needed to move all of the church's stuff along with our own.(the branch is still there but the missionaries were removed from the area) We had a van though so it was alright and only took 4 hours.
This apartment is smaller than the last one so our stuff is kind of everywhere looking for a place to be. I'll send some pictures so you know what I'm talking about.
Elder Beck's l8 months work was on Saturday, so we had pizza delivered and I made about 9 dozen cookies. Yum!
Yesterday we had church and someone in the branch presidency had all the elders shovel the snow off the walkway.
Our new district consists of Elder Beck, Elder Tilgner(he's German), Elder Toveridge(he's being trained now), and I. These are all the missionaries that go to our ward.
So on Sunday, the four of us shoveled snow off the walkway, Elder Beck gave a talk with 5 minutes notice and all four of us taught primary... Yikes!!! Imagine 12 kids, all different ages, in the same room with four elders (two of which don't always understand them) yelling and throwing rubber light up fish everywhere (don't know why the church would have those). Needless to say, we escaped with our lives.
Elder Toveridge is really cool and I'm glad he's being trained in my district; He really wants to work.
We got the conference issue of the Liahona, finally, along with the December one.
Hope everyone had a good week!!!
Love you all,
Elder Russell
Okay, I'm going to try to answer some of the dear elder questions:
1. Sasha, the young man in one of the past pictures, is a convert who was baptized during my first transfer here in the country. I had one lesson with him while I was on a split after he was baptized and talked to him on Sundays.
2.The way we contact people here is similar to other areas: we talk to people on the street, knock on their doors, call people on the phone...it's just a little harder to knock on a door when you can't even get into the apartment building.
3. As far as ethnic food goes we have some pizza places, I've seen some Chinese food places, and I think I saw a Russian restaurant. We also have American McDonald's!
4.The one senior couple, the Reeds, are going home some time in February.
5. The Mission president and his wife go home at the end of June or beginning of July.
Okay, on to this week. We spent all of Thursday moving into our new apartment and getting settled, which was a mess because we needed to move all of the church's stuff along with our own.(the branch is still there but the missionaries were removed from the area) We had a van though so it was alright and only took 4 hours.
This apartment is smaller than the last one so our stuff is kind of everywhere looking for a place to be. I'll send some pictures so you know what I'm talking about.
Elder Beck's l8 months work was on Saturday, so we had pizza delivered and I made about 9 dozen cookies. Yum!
Yesterday we had church and someone in the branch presidency had all the elders shovel the snow off the walkway.
Our new district consists of Elder Beck, Elder Tilgner(he's German), Elder Toveridge(he's being trained now), and I. These are all the missionaries that go to our ward.
So on Sunday, the four of us shoveled snow off the walkway, Elder Beck gave a talk with 5 minutes notice and all four of us taught primary... Yikes!!! Imagine 12 kids, all different ages, in the same room with four elders (two of which don't always understand them) yelling and throwing rubber light up fish everywhere (don't know why the church would have those). Needless to say, we escaped with our lives.
Elder Toveridge is really cool and I'm glad he's being trained in my district; He really wants to work.
We got the conference issue of the Liahona, finally, along with the December one.
Hope everyone had a good week!!!
Love you all,
Elder Russell
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Packing Up and Moving Out, and notes from Mom
Hello Family and Friends,
So this week started off with a split on P-day with my trainer. So after we sent our e-mails, Elder Rader, my original trainer, and I went and played Risk at a part member home. That was fun. After wards Elder Rader and I talked. Apparently he's been having trouble with his companion. So, I was a nice change for him. He's now training someone else.
We met with the only family in our branch that has a young kid...he's a fireball, and since Elder Beck wanted me to direct the lesson; I was struggling a little bit. Then after our lesson we ended up playing Twister with their family.
Since Friday, things have been a little hectic. We didn't get transfer calls last week which usually means that we're staying; but we were also told that we were getting rid of the apartment.
So, we called the office to see if we should be looking for a new apartment, and they told us that they would call us back.
On transfer day, we get a call from the Assistant to the President, he says, Elder Beck, you're being transferred along with Elder Nielson" and Elder Beck is confused as well as me. Then the A.P. says, "of, wait, I mean Elder Russell, you and Elder Russell will be going to Soltivka."
So we are expected to be out of here by this coming Thursday. We have to move all of the church stuff too. Things like pots, irons, books, church materials, and two beds... Yeah! We have a member helping us with a van for five hours on Thursday. Hopefully, it will all be fine.
Lots of people are sad to see us leave and the branch president thanked us for all that we've done here. Our whole area is being closed down for now, so it will be interesting to see what happens.
This week I tried on my ice shoes that were made out of wire(they attach to my shoes with shoelaces) and they didn't work very well. Elder Beck says that I shouldn't buy boots because you won't use them for that long and they take up a lot of room in your suitcase.
I found out that there is also a holiday here for "old New Years, going by the old calendar. I'm sad to leave, but Elder Beck is really excited about Soltivka and the area might not be so hard to do missionary work in.
Love to all,
Elder Russell
---------------------------------------------------
From the Missionary Mom:
I checked Sis. Fry, the Mission Pres. wife's blog, on Friday of this past week and she had all of the transfers listed. Chris and his companion weren't mentioned.
I am sure that this was a split second decision but one that was prompted by the Holy Ghost, and I know that Elder Russell and Elder Beck have great work to do in their new city. Our family is excited for them and what lies ahead.
So this week started off with a split on P-day with my trainer. So after we sent our e-mails, Elder Rader, my original trainer, and I went and played Risk at a part member home. That was fun. After wards Elder Rader and I talked. Apparently he's been having trouble with his companion. So, I was a nice change for him. He's now training someone else.
We met with the only family in our branch that has a young kid...he's a fireball, and since Elder Beck wanted me to direct the lesson; I was struggling a little bit. Then after our lesson we ended up playing Twister with their family.
Since Friday, things have been a little hectic. We didn't get transfer calls last week which usually means that we're staying; but we were also told that we were getting rid of the apartment.
So, we called the office to see if we should be looking for a new apartment, and they told us that they would call us back.
On transfer day, we get a call from the Assistant to the President, he says, Elder Beck, you're being transferred along with Elder Nielson" and Elder Beck is confused as well as me. Then the A.P. says, "of, wait, I mean Elder Russell, you and Elder Russell will be going to Soltivka."
So we are expected to be out of here by this coming Thursday. We have to move all of the church stuff too. Things like pots, irons, books, church materials, and two beds... Yeah! We have a member helping us with a van for five hours on Thursday. Hopefully, it will all be fine.
Lots of people are sad to see us leave and the branch president thanked us for all that we've done here. Our whole area is being closed down for now, so it will be interesting to see what happens.
This week I tried on my ice shoes that were made out of wire(they attach to my shoes with shoelaces) and they didn't work very well. Elder Beck says that I shouldn't buy boots because you won't use them for that long and they take up a lot of room in your suitcase.
I found out that there is also a holiday here for "old New Years, going by the old calendar. I'm sad to leave, but Elder Beck is really excited about Soltivka and the area might not be so hard to do missionary work in.
Love to all,
Elder Russell
---------------------------------------------------
From the Missionary Mom:
I checked Sis. Fry, the Mission Pres. wife's blog, on Friday of this past week and she had all of the transfers listed. Chris and his companion weren't mentioned.
I am sure that this was a split second decision but one that was prompted by the Holy Ghost, and I know that Elder Russell and Elder Beck have great work to do in their new city. Our family is excited for them and what lies ahead.
Monday, January 3, 2011
New Years Meals/Fireworks and Ice Shoes
Hello family and friends!
So this week was pretty slow on account of the biggest holiday of the year being this week, but we still got some things done.
Almost all of the members wouldn't meet with us until after New Years but we got to go to a family's home that lives in a village. It took an hour to get there and it was expensive because we took a taxi instead of a bus (all the buses were full) It was fun though, they have around 8 children so we taught our lesson and the Reeds(the senior couple who came with us) taught theirs and then they fed us(it was a really interesting meal) and then we played a game. It was New Years eve so we needed to be in at 6 pm.
Insert of Meal Description from DeLisa in a subsequent communication she discovered that the meal consisted of the following:
cold soup, cold fish, sala (bacon fat), fish casserole, coleslaw, sausage, bread, cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers.
We are grateful that this very large family generously shared their New Years Meal with Chris and the others.
After returning home, we had some dinner, made some brownies, watched the testaments, I made my Lego and my ice shoes, and Elder Beck cut his hair. At midnight, we looked out our window and saw people shooting up fireworks everywhere. The whole city had fireworks going off the rest of the night.
The next day it sounded like a war zone because fireworks were just going off every l0 minutes or so.
One day we were walking this week and contacting, and we talked with someone who actually took a book from Elder Beck's hands and gave us his contact information before we finished talking. We're excited about this contact.
We went to buy some wire so that I could make ice shoes and we got to the hardware store and couldn't find any. But they had a little hook that used the wire I wanted so we asked if they sold more of that there. They thought that we wanted the hook, neither of us knew the word for wire and began to explain they just made it. We eventually explained it and they showed us where it was. We took around 3.4 meters but they sold it by the kilo and what we had was probably 50 grams. So they said "Happy New Years Presents" in English and gave it to us for free.
I got my passport back this week from registration and it said that I was registered to a city near Donetsk. My Zone leaders thought that meant that I was going to be transferred there, but I'm not. I'm staying here in Kharkov where it's awesome!
Love you All!
Elder Russell
So this week was pretty slow on account of the biggest holiday of the year being this week, but we still got some things done.
Almost all of the members wouldn't meet with us until after New Years but we got to go to a family's home that lives in a village. It took an hour to get there and it was expensive because we took a taxi instead of a bus (all the buses were full) It was fun though, they have around 8 children so we taught our lesson and the Reeds(the senior couple who came with us) taught theirs and then they fed us(it was a really interesting meal) and then we played a game. It was New Years eve so we needed to be in at 6 pm.
Insert of Meal Description from DeLisa in a subsequent communication she discovered that the meal consisted of the following:
cold soup, cold fish, sala (bacon fat), fish casserole, coleslaw, sausage, bread, cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers.
We are grateful that this very large family generously shared their New Years Meal with Chris and the others.
After returning home, we had some dinner, made some brownies, watched the testaments, I made my Lego and my ice shoes, and Elder Beck cut his hair. At midnight, we looked out our window and saw people shooting up fireworks everywhere. The whole city had fireworks going off the rest of the night.
The next day it sounded like a war zone because fireworks were just going off every l0 minutes or so.
One day we were walking this week and contacting, and we talked with someone who actually took a book from Elder Beck's hands and gave us his contact information before we finished talking. We're excited about this contact.
We went to buy some wire so that I could make ice shoes and we got to the hardware store and couldn't find any. But they had a little hook that used the wire I wanted so we asked if they sold more of that there. They thought that we wanted the hook, neither of us knew the word for wire and began to explain they just made it. We eventually explained it and they showed us where it was. We took around 3.4 meters but they sold it by the kilo and what we had was probably 50 grams. So they said "Happy New Years Presents" in English and gave it to us for free.
I got my passport back this week from registration and it said that I was registered to a city near Donetsk. My Zone leaders thought that meant that I was going to be transferred there, but I'm not. I'm staying here in Kharkov where it's awesome!
Love you All!
Elder Russell
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