February 25, 2013

Family,

     Yay for the first email in three weeks! This was an amazing week! Yes the new mission is going to effect us here. President Klebingat told us on Tuesday before it was officially announced that on July 1st they are splitting the Kyiv mission in two and making the L'viv, Ukraine mission! We got a few more details this weekend at Zone Conference, but I think that President will get more specific instructions as to which missionaries will be serving where this weekend. He did tell us that it looks like the L'viv mission is going to be all Ukrainian speaking and the Kyiv mission is going to be all russian speaking, which makes sense because the farther east you go, the less Ukrainian you hear and the more Serjic and Russian there is. President Klebingat said that he may keep some of his Ukrainian speakers though, so I guess we'll have to see. It looks like I will be serving most of my mission in a different mission than I was originally called to. It's really exciting and there are only two downsides. The first is that I will no longer be serving in a mission with a Temple in it, so I will try to go at least once before we split, since I haven't been to the Kyiv Temple at all yet. The other downside is that President Klebingat will no longer be my mission President, which is really sad because after Zone Conference I got to see how awesome he really is. More on that later. My new mission President is named President Lattin. He actually served senior couples mission with his wife in Ukraine, but it was in Donetsk I think, so he doesn't speak Ukrainian, only a little Russian. They live in Utah right now, but I think when President Klebingat was reading off their biography he said that Sister Lattin had served most of her callings in Spokane, so I don't know if you know the name, but maybe Brother Lee will. I think he knows just about every member in Spokane.

     So zone conference was really really awesome! It was here in L'viv so I didn't have to go anywhere, but I got to see all of my district from the MTC again, which was really cool. President Klebingat talked to us about the Gathering of Israel. He really impressed upon us that that is literally what we as Ukrainian missionaries are doing. Eastern Europe is full of the lost tribes of Israel. According to the Patriarchs who travel around and give blessings here, Ephraim and Mennasah are in the minority when lineage is declared in the Patriarchal Blessing. Yep, I'm in the north country. It's really amazing to think about how much of the scriptures is devoted to talking about the gathering of Isreal in the last days and then to think that that's what my job is here. It's also really motivating. Sister Klebingat also gave a really awesome talk about the ministering of angels and she is just as amazing as here husband. She is really smart too. Elder Dorius said that she just got a masters degree in something in german, which isn't her native language, so there you go. I have no doubt that one day I will be hearing Presidents name at General Conference when he is called as a seventy or something.

     Shantewa's idea for Nathan's birthday is actually pretty clever, I have to give her some credit for thinking it up, although I don't know how much Nathan will like it. Ha ha. Eating garlic. Hmmm... I only like a couple of miles away from the Carpathians and I don't even eat garlic. I hope you had an awesome birthday, Ma! I'm not even sure what a Kindle Fire is so moladets (good job), you're definitely up with the times. Nathan sent me some pictures of Kahlan and Daniel and they are so cute! Kahlan looks a lot like Rebecca and she has changed so much! It was good to finally see her smile. Well this letter was really long so I should probably end it here so that I can write Krystine and Mark. I love you all and I hope that you enjoy the rest of your February!

Elder Jolstead the Younger

PS. Ma, if you want to, you can send the emails that didn't get to me again. I still want to read whatever you wrote and I have unlimited time to read emails and an hour to answer them, so it won't effect me time wise. Love you!