Week 23 - January 27, 2020

GUESS WHAT!!

The sirens went off this week!!  The ones they have go off just in case Russia invades (although it was just a drill, don't worry haha).  They sound like the purge sirens, or just literally like the ones you hear in war movies haha.  They are so so loud!!  Not once... BUT TWICE!!!  They were so flipping cool to finally hear in person for the first time!!  I wanted to get videos so bad, but I was in the middle of giving a lesson, so I'll try to get one next time haha.  

Some other fun things this week... we almost got the cops called on us in one of the apartments we were tracting in. Some guy came out and kept telling us to leave and wouldn't leave us alone until we did, pulling his phone out, kept threatening to call, even though what we were doing was totally okay to do lol.  On a brighter note, we organized a game night for all the kids in the Kharkiv area!!  It was super super fun!!  We made tons of snacks and set up a bunch of games, and ended with a nice spiritual thought!! 

Today, for p-day, we actually went and did something fun instead of sit at the church!! 😂  We invited a bunch of the other districts in our zone to come to Alekseevka for a hike!! We all hiked to this area that has a long marble path, and at the end, stands a HUGE bob (Russian for grandma) statue, with a bowl of fire in front!!  It was a war memorial site.  It was way cool, and so much fun to be with so many of the other Elders and Sisters as well!!  

Oh, also, this little girl came to our game night and she was like a PROOOO piano player!!  It was legit insane!!  I will send videos!! 

Oh also, this morning I was grabbing eggs out of the fridge to make my morning omelet, and the eggs were frozen!!  They would crack!!  I was even squeezing them in my hand to see if it would crack, but it wouldn't!!  I had remembered seeing people have eggs like that and drop them, and not crack, so... I tried that.  And boom, egg all over the floor 😂😂 - video attached.  It was pretty funny lol.  Also, there's a video of our rocket ship washing machine, legit shaking everything above the machine, as if it were an earthquake 😂. 

I had a spiritual thought for today, but ran out of time because of the hike we went on!!  So, I will try to get that out next week!! 

Love you all!!

старейшина вайлд

Week 22 - January 20, 2020

Hello, everybody!! 

Great week here!!  I got a new companion!!  Elder Hansen!! He has been out for a little more than a year and a half, so he speaks super good Russian!!  For sure learning a lot.  Of course, I'm missing my dad (trainer), a lot though!!  He is off killing it in Dnipro, but that's a given haha. 

Elder Hansen and I had a solid amount of meetings this week!!  I think about five!!  Which is a total win here!!  haha. We, also, made it into a nice Indian family's home this week while tracting!!  We sat down with them.  They gave us some hot chocolate, and we shared with them some of the main principles of the gospel of Jesus Chrsit!! 

This week, we, also, ate at Bob's house who is known for giving the missionaries SOOOOOO much food!  There was so much, and it was all SOOOOO good haha.  

I've, also, become a master omelet maker!!  Throwing some good kielbasa in it haha.  

Elder Hansen started petting a pigeon this week, too, so that was exciting 😂. 

Love you all, (sorry for a short one this week)

Elder Wilde

Week 21 - January 13, 2020

AYOOOO!! 

Waddup yall!!  Your boy is officially out of training!!  Although it hardly feels like it sometimes.  I still got so much to learn, haha.  But, so big news big news!!  Transfers came!!  Elder Williams is being transferred to the Dnipro Zone as a district leader!!  So happy and excited for him!!  He was the greatest trainer ever and is going to do such great things there!! Meanwhile, I will be staying here in Alekseevka, Kharkiv Zone!!  I get the great opportunity to serve with an Elder named Elder Hansen!!!  From what I have heard, he only has two transfers left in his mission!!  It's most likely that I will be his last companion and be sending him off.  I believe he even was trained here in Alekseevka as well!!  Which is super crazy. He's coming back here to finish his mission where he started!!  At Least I think he started here, I will double check when he comes haha.  Apparently, he has AMAZING Russian, so that'll be very exciting and good for me!!  Its weird to be changing from someone who was super new in the mission field with me as my trainer, to someone super old in the field haha. 

ANYWAYS, SO NOW THE TRACTING!!  Elder Williams and I were making our ways from apartment to apartment.  While we were on the street, we found someone and gave him an English card!!  As we were approaching the next apartment, we got a call from him asking us to come over and talk!! While we were there, he was showing us all his stuff and we just hung out and talked about life and everything!!  He gave us some cake, chocolate, Ukrainian coke, it was awesome!!  He offered us tea and coffee a couple times, and we had to explain for about 10 minutes that we couldn't drink it.  He wasn't really understanding the point 😂.  Before leaving, I decided to attempt and share a spiritual thought with him about the Book of Mormon!!  During that lesson, I spoke the cleanest Russian I have ever spoken!!  My companion said that was definitely the Gift of Tongues working through me. By the enв ща our time together, we convinced him to hold onto a Book of Mormon.

I have so much more I want to write about this week, but I don't have any time, so I will try and write more next week!! Today, we had to go and meet all the other missionaries leaving this Zone in center, and now we are on mini exchanges until the new missionaries come in!!  I'm on an exchange with an Elder named Elder Durfey!!  He is super cool!!  I'll send pics!!

Love, Elder Wilde

Week 20 - January 6, 2020

Yo yo yo!!  Elder Wilde here, all ya'll!!

I got a quick speed email out right here!!

Lemme tell ya'll, boy did we have a busy week!!  It was long lol.  We contacted for about 4-5 hours each day, one day even hit 6!!  Also, speaking ONLY Russian all day everyday makes it all so much harder lol.  BUT AYOOO WERE ALIVE!!  Grind doesn't stop though!!  We plan to go at it this next week again!!  Especially with the possibility that our District could all be split up this week because of transfers!!  Transfers come this Saturday!!  Meaning my training is about to end, just right around the corner!!

We also had two really awesome member visits this week!!  It was so crazy, one of the member's family we would meet with every week--and every week, I would have no Idea what they were saying... but the other day when we were there, I held conversations with them straight up and it was amazing!!  Haha. 

On a side note - It was so weird, there were absolutely no people out on the street the day after New Years!!  It was a ghost town!!  That's how I had heard it was like before, and it turned out to be 100% true!!

For our member visits this week, I led the spiritual thoughts!!  We talked about Stephen W. Owen's talk, which he gave, just this last conference!!  We discussed how when the deer were fed hay, to try and have them last the winter, they died.  The hay is not what the deer needed to be properly nourished.  

We them discussed what we need to do throughout our lives to be properly nourished!!  Of course phones, movies, music, and so on, are all fun and good!!  But we need to fill our bodies with what's more important and what will inevitably, bring us back to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  We need to read the scriptures, go to church, pray, etc.  These are the things which are going to keep us on the right path, nourishing our souls, so that we can make it back to live with our families again:).  Yes, these are the obvious Sunday School answers on what we need to do to be spiritually nourished, but it's so obvious because it's so simple!!  Its that clear!!  So everyone, remember to nourish your body with what it is that's important :)) the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Love you all!!  Elder Wilde :))

Week 19 - December 31, 2019

Hello Hello Hello!!

I don't have a lot of time today!!  Over New Year's and New Year's Eve, we are required to be back to our apartments by 4:00, just for safety!!  We spent the night finishing up our studies and playing some games.  At 12:00, the fireworks started to light the sky!!  Definitely kept me up for a little bit haha.  It was so crazy though, someone in the apartment building right next to us was literally shooting fireworks outside his window, from inside his apartment!!  In all honesty though... I'd be lying if I said we weren't rooting him on from our window 😂. 

This week, we went to Mcdonalds and I ate the most at Mcdonalds I think I have ever eaten before.

Even bigger news... Elder Glass beat the Konteek record!!! The mission record for how many Konteeks someone can eat in one sitting was 20... We got Elder Glass to eat 22!!!!!! It was a long drawn out process, and numerous times he begged it to stop, but we encouraged him to keep going 😂. It probably took an hour and a half lol.  He threw up after the 22 Konteek, but boy did he make mission history 😂!!!!  So big shoutout to Elder Glass!!  They are trying to convince me to eat Konteek for a straight week now, and only Konteek lol.

 

For New Year's, our whole district has made a resolution to only speak Russian for this next year!!  It's already hard lol. Sometimes English just comes out and you're like, "OOPS, NOPE", and go back and repeat it in Russian.  We gotta stay strong!!  I would love to hear all y'alls goals!!  I have a couple more as well!!  Only sugar on P-Days!!  Haha. 

Love you all,

Elder Wilde