April 6, 2009

This is doing some service at a members house. Elder Woodhead, Elder Hammond and Elder Williams.

This is an investigator who Michael thinks will get baptized soon.

Transfer Day

Michael was transferred this week after spending almost seven months in Kharkov. He is now with a threesome in Mariuple which is a city down by the Sea of Azov. His new companions are Elder Haymond who will go home in about three months and Elder Williams who is from Draper and in Grandma and Grandpa Woodhead's home ward. Thank you Sister Kinghorn for sending us these photos! I am sorry to be so behind on this blog....AAAHHH!

Thanksgiving in Ukraine November 27, 2008

When we got up this morning, the first thing we did was to check the email to see if Michael had sent a letter yet, and he had not. We knew it would come some time during the day, so we kept checking our email. At about 9:30 the first email came!! He sent several pictures but was only able to send about two pictures at a time, so we are glad to get them. It was fun to know he was actually on the other side of the world sitting at his computer at the same time we were. We weren't really able to communicate back and forth with him, (even though we wanted to) but it was great knowing he was there! Enjoy the photos! Apparently ties are extremely cheap over there and all the missionaries have quite a collection. Notice the color coordination.

This is Suleman. He is Michael's first baptism. Michael has been on his mission for 13 months and was thrilled to find Suleman.

Suleman is in the middleBefore the baptism on Saturday.

They don't fill the font very deep and Suleman is very tall. It took three tries until he was finally submerged completely. I got a lump in my throat and a little teary when I saw this photo.

This is the turkey bowl team. I don't know who else they played but he said they all got pretty muddy. Under "America" it says, "Home of the Brave". I love it! Again, more watery eyes

Individual uniforms!

There's that great lefty arm!Michael said there was ice on the field when they first started.


I am so thankful there are wonderful couples (thank you Brother and Sister Jacobs) who feed these missionaries on special occasions like Thanksgiving!! They all look pretty happy and excited for the meal!Yes, Michael ate all of this! Our prayers have been answered :) Okay, I will admit that yes, again, I got teary when he said he ate this!
Love this shot!Handsome missionaries! Here is part of his letter today:

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! My thanksgiving is basically over... but yours is just beginning. It's still weird for me to think that everyone is nine hours behind. It doesn't make sense haha.Well Thanksgiving here was wonderful! We got up and headed out for the Turkey Bowl. We started at nine AM, and there was still a thin layer of ice on the field. But after a few games the sun came up over the doms and turned the ice to mud. It was really fun! I''t trying to send pictures right now, but these dang computers take so long!!!

The best part was dinner at the Jacobs. They fed us SO much food! And yes, I ate it!!! And again, I'm trying to send pictures of that...But it's been a long time since our last P-day. We had our Zone conference on Saturday. There are two zones in Xharkov, but President Gibbons came, and he wanted smaller groups so it really was just a zone conference. It was really good and spiritual and everything, but I was really nervous for the baptism that night, I probably didn't get as much out of it as I should have. But it was all about working with members, and different ways we can use the members to help us find people to teach. It was good.And the baptism was great! I can't believe it actually happened! I'll send pictures, but sulemon is kinda tall and really skinny, and the font doesn't fill up with much watter, and it took him three times to get all the under! So I really got three baptisms! haha. Finally we just told him he had to bend his knees more, and everything was fine. He receive the Holy Ghost on Sunday, and will get the priesthood next Sunday!

So I am going to answer the questions now... The keyboards in this Internet club are in English and Russian. So you just have to switch over to English before you start typing... it takes like two seconds, see. фылодш флвокц фэлоптмвм фэжокуц тфлоэваклофэлв уцщлофжы. That doesn't mean anything because I don't know where the Russian letters are on the keyboard and it would take too long to figure it out haha.

I think that's about all I got.... It's been another great week! I can't believe November is gone! It really is unbelievable. I love you all so much! Thanks for everything!Elder Woodhead

November 17, 2008

Hello there. First of all, before I forget, I'm not sure when our P-day is going to be next week. I don't know if they are going to have it on Thanksgiving or what. So if you don't get a letter on Monday that is probably why. We have had our Turkey Bowl teams picked out for a while now, and everyone is getting excited for Thanksgiving! And I am already way excited for Christmas!!! We started listening to our Christmas CD's a few weeks ago! It's been fun!

So I'm going to try to answer every one's questions haha. Alright. That picture of the frying pan right? I think the one I sent was of fried eggs ham and potatoes. And I made it and ate it of course! haha. I have actually gotten a LOT better at eating. I'm really happy about it. I'm not sure if I have gained or lost any weight.... If I have it's probably not by much.

My companion is Elder Wadsworth. He is great. This is only his second transfer in country, so he is still not so great at Russian. But for only being in Ukraine for like 2 and a half months, he is a TON better at it than I was when I was his age on the mission. He's picking it up pretty quick. We get along great, and are working hard.Alrighty... Mom's questions. I am over my sickness now. It was just annoying for a while, but everything is fine now.For my year mark I really didn't do anything that special. We had a member lesson that night. I didn't even burn a shirt!!! haha.I got your letter you sent this week with Mitch's and Marlies' school pictures! Thanks so much for sending it! I love getting letters, so you can send as many as you want to write haha. But if it's a pain E-mails are great!I think I am accustomed to the food. I can eat a whole bowl of Borscht and not want to kill myself after now haha. This is pretty much the only area in the whole mission where we get fed by members on a regular basis. But I do pretty good at eating whatever they put in front of me.The language is definitely still hard. But I get better and better ever day. I can pretty much get by in whatever situation I'm in. But it is definitely still hard. I don't think anyone ever feels completely comfortable with it.Our investigators... We have Sulemon! He is going to be baptized this Saturday! I can't believe it! I am so excited for him. It's so cool seeing him in church answering questions and being so excited about the scriptures. It's been really cool watching him grow and change for the better! It's what makes this all worth it! And it's been a really testimony builder for me too!I love you all. I hope I answered everything!Elder Woodhead

Photos From November 3rd, 2008

I don't have details about these photos, but it was so great to get them!!

November 3, 2008

Hey everyone! I Hope everyone had a great Halloween. Ours here was really fun! Ukraine doesn't celebrate Halloween, so the missionaries in Alexevka decided we wanted to throw a big party for our branch and our English students. I don't think we realized how much work it would take when we came up with the idea though haha. It took a TON of work, but we got everything ready right in time, and everyone had a great time I think. I will be sure to send some pictures. It might have to be next week though, because I forgot to bring my camera to the party... (I can't believe it...) so I'm going to copy the pictures from Elder Wadsworth's camera onto mine, then send them. But we had probably about 50 or 60 people show up, which was a lot more than we expected. I wish we could get that many people to show up to church!This was Elder Burrup's last week. It was weird to see him leave. His parents came to pick him up. It was fun to go to some of the members with them. They were at the Halloween party too.

So it's a new transfer. I switched area's in Alexevka...So yeah, I am with Elder Wadsworth now. He has been in Ukraine for six weeks. He is a great missionary, and we will work hard together. He is from Arizona, and was a state champion wrestler. We already knew each other because we were in the same district last transfer.

It's great being on a mission. Of course it is really hard sometimes, but I love it.I love you all! Thanks for everything you do! Elder Woodhead

Monday, October 27, 2008 - Michaels birthday

Hey there! Another week down already. And my first year. I can't believe it. And this is the last week of the transfer! We got our transfer calls last night. Elder Dorman is staying in Alexevka and he is going to train. So that means I am being transferred again. I know I am staying somewhere in Xharkov, but after that I have no idea where or with who I will serve. But transfers are on Friday, so next week I will be somewhere new.

We are still teaching Vetalik. But he still isn't able to quit smoking. Maybe eventually though. And Erik has basically disappeared off the face of the earth. We ran into him last Monday I think and he was drunk again. And ever since then we have no idea where he is.We have started teaching a new man named Sasha. He is about 50 years old. We have only taught him the first lesson but he seemed to take it really well. I have high hopes for him. But I am going to be leaving this week, so I probably won't know if he ends up going anywhere.

This last week we have spent a lot of time planning and getting our branch Halloween party ready. I can't believe how much work it takes to get a party ready. Holy smokes. I never really appreciated all the activities that were planned when I was home. But it should be pretty fun. We are inviting all of our English students and we are hoping they will all like it. Haha the four Elders here figured out this whole big dance thing we are going to do for everyone.... I'm not too happy about it haha, but it should be pretty funny.

We had our region conference this Sunday. It was really good! It was broadcast from Salt Lake. Elder Cook and President Monson spoke. And also Elder Pieper of the seventy. He is the president of the Europe east mission, so he gave his talk from Moscow and did it in Russian. It was really cool. Vetalik and Sasha were there, and I hope they were able to feel the spirit.

I really try to write as much as I can. But really that is all that has happened this week haha.I love you all! Elder Woodhead