August 26, 2013

Mother,

     So I am now in Lutsk. It is also a really old city like L'viv and there are lots of statues and memorials everywhere. My new companions name is Elder Cazanave and he is from California, despite his italian sounding last name. He is a pretty cool guy. I don't know him too well yet, but we have six weeks and probably longer than that. The day after I got here, there was a senior couple serving in Odessa (Ukraine, not Texas) who were here to do some registration stuff and had a day with nothing to do, so they asked if we could give them a tour in the morning. Well, I obviously just got here and didn't know anything, so I got a tour from my companion too, so now I know the city a little better. We went to the castle which is really cool. It was built in the 14th century I think. We actually do service there sometimes, so I'll see it pretty often. Yesterday I got to meet a lot of the active members here, which was good. There aren't as many as in L'viv, but they are all really cool. My trainer Elder Dorius served here for like seven transfers and they all loved him so they get so excited when I say that he trained me. There are also a lot more children in the branch here than there are in L'viv, which is good for the future of the branch.

     That is probably it for me this week. I haven't heard anything for a while, so how's the driving going? Oh, and before I forget again, could you send me Bishop's email address? I hope everyone is excited to start school. I'm really excited to not start school. Well, still working hard here and I hope that all is going well at home. Love you!

Elder Jolstead

August 19, 2013

Mother,

     Well, making Brady Bunch boxes is one way to get everyone in the family picture. I'm glad everyone enjoyed the rest of your time with Krystal's family while they were there. I'm looking forward to this week. I like it when everyone goes to school and I don't have to. Missionary work is hard, but at least the only "homework" is the area book and all the "reading assignments" are in the scriptures, which I love to read anyway. Still no luck getting people registered to proselyte, which will be interesting this next transfer. I am finally getting transferred! It will be sad to leave L'viv, because I've been here for so long and I love the people so much, but I am ready to leave. The next city I will be serving in is called Lutsk (pronounced Lootsk). I'm excited because that is the other city that I really wanted to serve at while I was in the MTC. It is also an old city, but quite a bit smaller than L'viv. The coolest part is that there is a castle in the middle of the city. I will be sure to get lots of pictures.  My first two companions are going home on Wednesday, which will make Elder Naumann my only surviving companion. The Elder that I will be serving with in Lutsk only has two transfers left too, so I will be keeping my record of only serving with a companion for two transfers. No one can stand me for any longer. Ha ha. At least I won't be in a leadership position. I have a goal to be one of those missionaries that every says "wow, he was such a great Missionary. I don't know why he never served in a leadership position". Ha ha. The only leadership position I want is trainer and with the lack of Elders coming in, that doesn't seem likely. President said that at the end of the year, there will be 29 Elders and 26 Sisters. Crazy. My group was the last big group of Elders. We are calling what comes after us the lost generation. Ha ha. Not really anything else to say. I hope everyone is ready for school. Love you all!

Elder Jolstead

August 12, 2013

Mother,

     It looks like everyone had a lot of fun together and the pictures were awesome. It's wierd to see all the changes in people. Nathan's face has matured alot, Jared looks like he's gained weight, Mark's neck looks like a freakin' tree trunk, and Braeden is almost as tall as Mikey. Have you gotten a picture of the whole family, yet? I'm glad Kayla and her family were able to come up. Oh, and Shantewa didn't write me or send me anything, so let her be very ashamed and sad. I loved the pictures of my little nieces and nephew! Kahlan totally terrorized that cake like a monster. I hope you got it on film so that we can put scary music to it. Makayla is so cute and she looks so girly. I hope that all the uncles and aunts were very tired after trying to keep up with Daniel. I like the sledgehammer to the wall idea. I have been looking for an excuse to buy and use a sledgehammer for years.

     So the investigator famine is continuing, which is pretty disheartening. We are the only companionship that can proselyte and we can't find anyone to teach. I hop this isn't one of those seven transfers of plenty followed by seven transfers of famine kind of things. I didn't even get seven transfers of plenty! So we have about a week and a half of the transfer left and we are going on permanent exchanges with the District Leader companionship until the end of the transfer, so that we have two proselyting companionships instead of one. Sister Lattin actually told us yesterday that it looks like the guy in the government who doesn't like us is about to get kicked out, so hopefully next transfer the district will be up and running. I will be very surprised if I am still in L'viv at that point, though.

     Church yesterday was really awesome, because there were a lot more people than usual there. I recent convert I taught also blessed the Sacrament for the first time which was really cool. He was called as the librarian a few weeks ago and he loves his calling, which is great. That's honestly about it this week. Next week I will know what's happening next transfer, so that's something to look forward to in my next email. I hope that you have lot's more fun while the family is still together and I love you all!

Elder Jolstead

August 5, 2013

Mother,

     I'm glad the week was so eventful. I loved the Harry Potter Day pictures and the ones of Braeden's birthday, especially the one of Nathan in full wrapping paper samurai armor. It looks like everyone wore the traditional wrapping paper hats as well. That's too bad about the cake, but at least Braeden saw it first and the Hulk thing was a stroke of genius. I promised others in emails that I would send pictures of my visit to the Harry Potter restaurant here in L'viv so I hope you enjoy those. I don't know if you should post them, because we were told not to send pictures that would look wierd on a missionary blog. I don't know if they are wierd or not so you can be the judge. It's still wierd for me that Riley is leaving. I didn't even know Justin Anderson had left already, but that's less wierd because he's my age. I'm glad to have a cousin who will soon be serving a mission, because I think I am the only one in the family right now.

     Well, I am trying not to get frustrated at the lack of investigators right now, but it is getting difficult as the days keep passing with no success. I have a feeling that I will leave L'viv this transfer, but I think that it is a good thing. I am the only one who can proselyte right now and when I am gone, english and members will be the only sources of finding. I think that the members will step up and actually start helping us. I think that is Heavenly Father's plan for L'viv. If He wanted His missionaries to have proselyting rights right now, they would have them. This way the members will get more involved and the Branch will be blessed. Not much else to report. I hope everyone has a great week with almost all of the family home and that they aren't too anxious for summer to end. Love you!

Elder Jolstead

July 29, 2013

Mother,

      Well, I hope you fixed the problem with the hacking. I didn't get anything wierd from you, but that could have been awkward to something weird in my missionary email account. That's really awesome that the band got back together to play for at least one more time. Was Merrill there too? That's really awesome that we have grown so much that we need a new building. Which neighbor lady was this again? The crazy one with all the dogs? "Goliath!" Ha, ha. That's cool that you are all getting missionary opportunities. Looking back, we really get a lot more than we think. We just need to look for them more. I also have something for Kelleene to help gain weight. My companion has this recipe for something he called Fatty-Fat-Fat that we made. It's a bunch of sliced up potatoes with a layer of chicken breasts on top and then a whole bunch of cheese and Mayonaise on top of that in a pan. Then you cook it until the mayonaise has melted into the rest of it. That should put the pounds on. I would also say to eat Kontik's which are a really awesome type of cookie, but I think those only exist in Ukraine.

      So, a few exciting things happened this week. We started a new program for teaching english this week which is a lot better and more fun than the old one. I think we will be able to attract a lot of potential investigators. Elder Naumann and I teach th beginning group, which is really fun, because they know practially no English. You say something and they are like "write that down!" I am also learning a lot of basic Ukrainian words from them that I didn't know before.

     On Wednesday we took a trip to the city of Ivano Frankivsk, because my companion had to do some registration stuff, so that was pretty cool. Before this week, the only city that I had seen in the new mission was L'viv. I don't get out of L'viv very often. Funny story. When we were heading back on a train, the train had stopped twice for some reason so we thought that we were going to get to L'viv a little late. Now, just so you know, the trains in Ukraine are very accurate when it comes to arrival time. Within like two minutes of the time they say they will be there. So when the train stopped again twenty minutes before the estimated arrival time, we were like, "what the heck. Why did it stop again?" Well we sat and talked for about ten minutes in our compartment, but the train still hadn't moved, and we were very confused. Then my companion lookds out the window and says, "We're in L'viv!" So we had to hurry super fast to get all of our stuff together to get off before the train started moving again. So we get off and I'm like carrying all of my stuff and my tie is just hanging on my neck untied running out before it started moving. It was really funny. If we hadn't gotten off, we would have ended up in Kiev.

     We also had a really fun branch picnic on Saturday. It was very hot and I got pretty fried, cause I was in shorts and my legs haven't seen the light of day since before I got out here. We played a lot of soccer, talked about the pioneers and ate really really good sausages. Everyone had a lot of fun, I think. The members are all getting really excited about helping us since they found out that most of us can't proselyte right now. Oh, I don't remember if I told you but, the government here didn't like that we made a new mission here and are making it very hard to get missionaries proselyting rights here in L'viv. My companion and I and the APs are the only ones who can wear name tags right now. Even President and Sister Lattin can't. It's very sad. So pray for a miracle there. Well that's about it this week. Love you!

Elder Jolstead

July 22, 2013

Mother,

     Kelleene is looking pretty thin in that photo. What exactly is she allowed to eat? I hope that she got the email I sent. I realized that the only address of hers that I had was her college one and I didn't know if she still had access to that. Maybe you could send me a different one if not. I can't believe that Makayla is one! I didn't even realize it. I need to send a birthday card. I'm glad you are starting to drive again. You and Nathan can practice together! That's awesome that Jackson is home. Kind of wierd being out here for long enough for that to happen. I loved the pictures of Kahlan. My nieces change so fast that I have to look close to see if it is Kahlan or Makayla whenever I get a picture. Kahlan being blond helps a lot.

     First week of the new transfer and we are really trying to turn things around as far as finding new investigators. We had a lot of trouble and very little success last transfer and we are hoping that the investigator drought has ended. We went to see a family that my companions bishop actually knows, which is weird but kind of cool. They were really nice and also very, very Catholic. That's okay, you know what they say about catholics making the best mormons. One thing that Satan has done really well here in Ukraine is to get people comfortable with there religion and settle for just good. Other religions really do teach good things. If people lived there religions as best they could, they really would be good people. But we should never settle for good when we can have best. Only with what we have been given can we return to live with Heavenly Father and our Savior as an Eternal Family. We were meant for more than just having something good. I feel like we should keep visiting this particular family and let the Spirit work there.

     Yesterday was a really awesome day! A less active family that I have been working with from the beginning finally all came to church and it was amazing! It's crazy how much you can care about people when you are serving them 24/7. I also spent the second and third our standing in front the Branch Presidents office keeping people from going in while President Lattin did interviews. You know how back home people knock and wait to be invited into the Bishop's office. Yeah, that doesn't happen here. They just walk right in, so you have to have someone guard the door. Not much else too exciting happened. I hope that all is going well. The best way to start doing missionary work is to set goals. You can also ask Bishop Cox what you can do to help the missionaries. Oh, and you are a great missionary, whether you think so or not. Anyway, love you and hope you have a great week!

Elder Jolstead

July 15, 2013

Mother,

I hope everything is doing well with Kelleene. Is her back bugging her again, too? I think that I will keep this email short and write her after this. I usually only write those who have written me, but she probably isn't able a lot of the time, so I will make an exception. Nathan wrote me a little about the trek, but I didn't get anything from Derek, so he'll have to fill me in next week. I don't know this Morgan Martin person that Derek was flirting with, so I'll have to see a picture before I decide whether I should scold him or give him a high-five from across the planet. The only really exciting thing that happened this week was that we split up the city of L'viv into areas! I think that President is going to do this in every city in the mission so that the work can be more concentrated. I think that the members are getting excited about the new mission and hopefully we will be able to work with them better now. It really is crazy that a new mission was created here. We have only seven cities with small branches. No wards or stakes and we were the only new mission created in Europe. This is a testimony to me that Heavenly Father is telling us that L'viv is ready to grow and that the work is about to get a lot faster here. I am so grateful to be here at this awesome time. I hope everyone is still enjoying their summer. Love you!

Elder Jolstead