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
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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.

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

Christmas Phone Call Recap and Interesting tidbits about Kharkov and the Ukraine

It was wonderful to hear our son's voice over the computer(we used skype) Christmas morning.

He's doing fabulous, even though a little home sick during this holiday time.

He was grateful for all that was sent for his Christmas and told me to make sure that I thanked everyone. He enjoyed the homemade gifts, like the conversion stores, and the warm ones and the yummy ones and the useful ones and the fun ones. So thank you one and all.

Here are some interesting things that we learned. Next transfer is in 2 weeks and supposedly he will be getting the box that I sent with thermals in them. I'm hoping. When there is a transfer, all those missionary companionships that are affected metro in to the mission home in Donetsk and do there changes there; unless you are doing a companion switch in Kharkov, you would then pack your stuff and move to one of the other apartments.

Chris says that he is definetely keeping warm with the scarfs, gloves and socks people have gifted him. Thanks to all.

The most spiritual experience he has had to date as been the baptism that was held on Christmas day for a child of record and an African man who was converted.

The only have open House twice a year.

There are l0 different kinds of ketchup in the Ukraine.

Chris really enjoyed the electronic Christmas card that alot of the extended family spoke on and then we sent to him. *(thanks to Auntie Ilana for thinking of such a great idea) He's played it and played it!

I asked him what people do for work. He said that One of the families that seems to do well the wife is a music teacher and the husband works as a sales clerk.

Evidently if you have a car you're doing pretty good. I guess the branch president has a vehicle but Chris didn't know what he did for a living.

One of the member's is a beekeeper and the other is a security guard for the soccer stadium.

I did ask him what we could do to help the missionaries have success in the Ukraine and he said to continue to pay for the Ukraine missionaries that they will have success in contacting individuals and that the Ukrainian people will be receptive to their message.

There are 4 missionaries in their branch. He really enjoys a young man by the name of Sasha who was baptized the first weekend he was in the ukraine.

Since his Companion makes alot of Mexican food, he is getting tired of it.; He was very grateful for the gift of a Christmas dinner out to a restaurant for him and his companion. They had real Ukrainian food.

As of this date, Chris has not eatten at a member's house. The people make so little money, the retail worker in the ward makes $150 a month and his wife, the music teacher makes $350, that there isn't much left to purchase food and feed missionaries. That's okay though because the dollar is strong there and they can buy food from local vendors for $l or so.

Thanks again for all your cards, gifts and prayers on Chris' behalf!

12/27/2010 Christmas Eve and Translating The Russian is getting better!

Merry Christmas!
This week I had a split with the person who trained my MTC compantion; that was interesting, but I got my first contact, in that he actually talked with me.

I saw someone flying a kite the other day and they had it so high up that you could see the curve in the string.

On Christmas Eve we went caroling which was interesting. It was the grand opening of their equivalent to Christmas in the Park in San Jose only l0 times better. So there were thousands of people there and after the amazing fireworks show everyone came down the street passing by us as we caroled. We had a member talk to those that stopped. We had many people take a picture of us and leave, one man put money in our flyer box, and one may was a recent convert from San Diego and we told him where the church is and he came on Sunday.

yesterday we had one of our investigators and one of the other elders' show up and to the Christmas celebration that night. She saw me talking with our senior missionaries, the Reeds , and she said to them how grateful she is for us and our visits and how we keep coming and teaching her.

Then I translated for the Reeds because no one wanted to and I thought it would be fun. I thought I did terrible but they told me I did an amazing job and "if i can do this now, I'll get better really quickly." Then later, a returned missionary in the ward asked me how I learned Russian so quickly, I replied that I don't know Russian and she said, "Whatever?, You translated today, really good job." So my Russian is coming along.

You asked for this word to practice so here it is in print: ycoBepweHcTBOBaT6C(backwards R).

I almost found down this week in a metro station and these two girls laughed at me from behind but that was taken care of by my companion who happened to be angry at the time and made them a look that made them stop.

Dexter is going to back to America soon; so he's been busy trying to finish some work.

And while on the split, Elder Beck got some new contacts so we should have some new investigators.

Love you all,
Have a fun Christmas

12/25/2010 Chris and the Christmas Family Phone Call

THE RUSSELLS WERE ABLE TO SPEAK WITH CHRIS FOR AN HOUR ON CHRISTMAS DAY! HOW FUN THAT WAS FOR MOM AND DAD TO HEAR HIS VOICE...

The Christmas phone call was wonderful and we learned a lot more about Christmas in the Ukraine and what goes on in the City of Kharkov.

First of all, the plaza that sits close to the Elders' appartment building, had a huge beautiful tree that was decorated with lights and ornaments to the hilt. It actually could compete with the tree in Times Square, I'm told.

Chris said that one day, a truck pulled up with Logs on it dumped them off at the plaza and then workman came out of nowhere and started making a log house with windows. It was a couple of stories high and at the end of the day there were several slides that extended out of the windows. The people would pay to ride the slides.

Also, A cement mixer showed up one morning and proceeded to pour cement into one of the streets next to the plaza. Later the cement area was used as an ice skating rink. Chris said that it was fun to watch everyone ice skating but he was puzzled as to why you'd cement up a major street.

Also, many carnival rides were brought in aan set up for the festivities. If you've been to the San Benito Fair, there were more rides than what you see there.

Christmas Eve in the plaza was very active with lots of fireworks; just like 4 th of July in the States, Chris said. As the people descended from the viewing of the fireworks, the missionaries were on the edge of the Plaza singing Chrismas Carols. Many individuals stopped and listened and took pictures of them. There were members there to hand out flyers about the church and answer questions. They received many contacts from this unique way of contacting.

Chris said to thank all who had sent things in his Christmas box and for all the dear elders that everyone continues to send.

I asked him what we could do to help the Ukraine Donetsk mission, he said that praying for the Donetsk missionaries to find people to teach is what they need most at this moment in time. They do not have a Stake formed in this mission and it will be a great blessing to have a Stake so that the people can govern themselves. Of course, there have to be a certain amount of members in the area to create a Stake.

So this new year, let's make a point of praying for the Donetsk missionaries to find those spirits who are just waiting to be taught and baptized and enjoy the many blessings that the restored gospel of Jesus Christ has to offer them.

May you and yours be blessed this up-coming new year!
DeLisa

12/13/2010 Falling on Ice - Fathers and Sons

Hello family and friends!

So it has been snowing out here which means that there is a nice layer of ice on the ground and in 2 days I have managed to fall more times than either of my Zone leaders have their entire missions! Because of the ice we didn't do sports last week but we did end up bowling. That was pretty fun.

Dexter, our American investigator, called almost every day this week asking for advice with his girl problem. The first time he did it he was very stressed so I told him to read from the Book of Mormon and he called me back after reading 3 Nephi 27, which is pretty much all about baptism, and I told him to be baptized! He quickly changed the subject! Ugh!!!!

We ran into some Budhists who started telling us that reincarnation and resurrection were the same thing.

A drunk man thought that I was Swedish and started talking to us and then he said I must be Ukrainian and spoke to us in Ukrainian. It was pretty weird.

The sun now come's up at 8 am every day and goes down at 4 pm. It's really strange. Not that we see the sun because of the fog, cloud coverage and pollution.

My companion is cool, he just doesn't speak to me in Russian at all so I'm not sure how helpful this is to my learning Russian. He convinced me to buy some Ukrainian candy, because it is 3 times cheaper than m & ms, so I did and it was really good.

We still have not found the record for our investigator but she's giving us some strange information. For example, on Sunday she said that she saw Jesus Christ at the bedside of her husband. Not that it's impossible, but it's odd.

I'm excited because we should be gettting a French speaking investigator passed to us which should be cool since he doesn't know any Russian and I know French. We are looking forward to meeting this investigator.

Here is something that we saw today on the streets. A Father is pulling his young son on a sled. He runs ahead and when they cross the street, the sidewalk drops off, so the kid jumps a little, then the sidewalk starts back up on the other side. But the Father runs him straight into it and he flies out of it and the sled lands on top of him and he's just laughing hysterically.

Well, Thank you all for your love and support.
Elder Russell

FYI from the missionary mom, I got this off the Mission's Blog:

Sis. & Pres. Fry will be visiting Kharkov this Wednesday and Thursday and they have a special Christmas celebration set up for the missionaries in that area. They are keeping everything a surprise but they are supposed to be doing a special service project, games and a special dinner. I'm looking forward to hearing about it.

Happy Holidays! DeLisa

12/6/2010 First Snow, 13 celcious,

Hello family & Friends,

I will try to get better at writing a letter for everyone every week. Last Sunday was the first snow that we had in the Ukraine; then on Monday, we played sports in snow, then rain, then hail. And my companion hurt his leg a little but he's fine now. We went to the Barabashova and got some more ties, but our hands were freezing. It got down to 13 celcious here this week which was pretty cold but it means all the mud is gone ony it's replaced by ice.

Our landlady raised the rent, which I guess isn't odd, but we had paid for November and December and she tried to add the extra to those two months too. So we told her there was a mistake and had the office talk with her and everything is fine now.

One day we woke up and the cold water had been shut off completely. That was wierd. I am warm if there are concerns about that, and I'm fairly confident I can survive the winter

To answer Grandma Wises's questions, we have one child in our Branch. He's about 6 years old and he's a fireball!

And if any were curious, this is how Roxlana works: Instead of doing custums in Ukraine (like the regular post) they do customs in America, thereby stopping the Ukrainian post service from taking things out of boxes.

Christmas traditions here aren't terribly different, except that it's in January and it's actually New Years not Christmas. Walking to Church we saw people setting up a Santa's village thing and they have decorated trees everywhere.

Dexter hasn't been reading or coming to church and when he calls us he monologues for 20 minutes about the bad people he meets in the Ukraine. But, our other investigator, Pricup Bknragphka, came to church and stayed for a lesson afterward. The thing is, is that one of the RM sisters in the ward talked with her and apparently she's already been baptized! So we're trying to figure this out because she doesn't remember who did it , when it was, or what branch the baptism was performed in. Our Investigator turned into a less active!

Well, love you all! Thank you for the letters! I have all the dear elders sent before November 21st! Love, Elder Russell

FYI: On extremely cold days, the Elders are instructed not to go out of their apartments!