Elder Michael Steven Woodhead

April 6, 2009

2009-04-06T08:28:00.002-06:00

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

2009-03-11T20:16:00.004-06:00

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

2008-11-27T20:53:00.008-07:00

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

2008-11-17T21:30:00.002-07:00

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

2008-11-04T10:27:00.005-07:00

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

November 3, 2008

2008-11-03T10:42:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-27T11:31:00.002-06:00

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

It's a small world

2008-10-24T08:27:00.003-06:00

We received an email from a friend of Steve's mom who happens to be the cousin of a senior missionary couple serving in Michael's mission. Got it? Well anyway, to make a long story short, she asked her cousin in an email if she knew Elder Woodhead. Here is her response:

Dear Carol,
We do have an Elder Woodhead and we know him very well. He is an outstanding missionary. In our last Zone Conference he played a violin/piano duet and did a great job. He is coming well with his language and has a real desire to be a good missionary. We're so grateful he is here. He is serving with Elder Dorman whom we know and love as well. They are doing a great job together. His parents can be very proud of him...we certainly are. Love, Jim and LaDawn

To tell the truth, I didn't even know there was a connection, so this came as a nice surprise to us when they forwarded it on to us.....

October 20, 2008

2008-10-20T11:29:00.001-06:00

Hey everyone! Well Friday is my year mark. I can't believe it. I'm already half way through my mission. That sounds so weird to say! Oh man....

On Sunday for the second and third hour of church we got to watch the last session of conference. Of course it was in Russian, but it was still great being able to watch all of it. I have never loved conference so much! It is such a blessing to have a living prophet and apostles on the earth today. We usually use that as an approach because it is such a big difference than the proveslavnian church and the Jehovah's witnesses.

We are still teaching Erik. He didn't show up for our lesson on Saturday night though. And he didn't come to church. He had his bag stolen from his locker a while ago, so he doesn't have a phone right now and it's really hard to get a hold of him. But he is still progressing as far as we can tell. I have high hopes for him.Vetalik on the other hand still is really going anywhere. He can't quit smoking, and it is very obvious when we talk to him that he is doing everything one hundred percent for sveta. So we will keep doing what we can, and hopefully he'll come around.

It's starting to get really cold. I think snow will come soon. I'm not too excited about it, but we'll make the most of it.

We are also planning a Halloween party for our branch and our English students. We are still working on it, but if everything goes well it should be really fun!Well the church is true! I love my mission and am excited for the second half!

I love you all! Elder Woodhead

Photos from the Kinghorn's!

2008-10-17T21:31:00.004-06:00

I just spent time loading these photo to the blog that I thought was Michael's but it was actually my blog. These are from Sister Kinghorn and from the same zone conference as the picutres Michael sent this week. Thanks again Melinda!

Monday, October 13th, 2008

2008-10-13T14:52:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone! I hope you got all the pictures I just sent! It kinda took a long time to upload them all. So I can't believe it's already half way through October. I think this is how I start my letters every week, but is absolutely crazy how fast time is going. I can't believe it. This transfer is already half way over. It really is amazing.

So yeah, today for P-day we went to this art museum of famous artists all from Ukraine. It was pretty interesting. I think next week we are going on a tour of all of Xharkov.So. We are teaching Vetalik still. I don't know if we should drop him or not. He really isn't progressing at all. He says he wants to be baptized and quit smoking and all that, but really doesn't do anything to change his life. He and Svetlana are going to get married soon. I really don't think it's a good idea for her. But I hope everything will work out in the end.

Erik, on the other hand, is coming along really really well. He has already quit smoking. He just decided one day that it was finally time for him to quit, and he hasn't smoked a cigarette since. He accepts pretty much everything we tell him right away. He has a few questions about why we aren't supposed to wear an earring, or drink tea. But those are really small concerns and I think he will have no problem with them through time.Even though he is having a lot of trials and problems right now, he always tells us how happy he is, and how good he feels. It's been a real testimony booster seeing the Gospel change his life for the better! I think he will be baptized pretty soon!

So we had our zone conference this week. I always love it. It's a good opportunity to re motivate yourself for the next few weeks. Even though everyone was already feeling amazing after General Conference. We talked a lot about our mornings. About how important it is that we get up on time so that we can exercise, so that we can stay awake during studies, so we can have the spirit with us through the day. They all go together. Elder Holland said that from 8-11 every morning will determine how the rest of your day will go. Elder Dorman and I are working really well together. We get along great. It's been a great transfer so far.Well I think that's about all I have right now... I love you all so much!Elder Woodhead

Pictures!

2008-10-13T11:55:00.001-06:00

A museum on P-day (today)A statue of Lenin outside of the museum One of the many Provaslovnian temples.At Zone Conference last Saturday. These are all the Elders in Xharkov.Transfer dayTransfer day with Elder Ashby and me.
Transfer Day

Elder Burrup and me. He goes home in a few weeks. He's one of my best friends.

Last Transfer with two investigators. The one kneeling in front is Erik.

New Companion Elder Dorman. I guess he stole my camera and took this...I dunno.

Monday, October 6th 2008

2008-10-06T14:45:00.000-06:00

Hey there! How is everyone doing?

Well its been another great week in Ukraine. Until Saturday I was in a threesome with Elder Burrup and Elder Wadsworth. It was fun, but it's good to be back in my own area with Elder Dorman. He got back into Ukraine with no problems, and two more missionaries left last night. They predicted that when you have been in country for a year you will have to leave and get a new visa. So that would mean I will leave in January. But so far it's been kinda random, so who knows.

We are still teaching Vetalik. We don't really know what else to do with him. He just needs to quit smoking still.

We also have another investigator named Eric. He is from Kenya. We gave him a book and told him to read and pray about it. So we set up a lesson with him, and before we even started he told us that when he was praying he felt this amazing feeling come over him that he had never felt before. He has gone to a lot of different religions before, but said that he had never felt anything like this before. He said he already knows the Book of Mormon is true and wants to be baptized.He still has a lot to learn and change. But I think he will be baptized eventually. It is very hard to live in Ukraine as a foreigner. There are a lot of people here who are really racist, and don't like foreigners. He had a problem at his work on Saturday, his boss wouldn't pay him the right amount of money, and people broke into his locker and stole his passport and all of his other documents. He told us the cops were really unsympathetic and no one would really help him. The police system is really corrupt here, they just accept bribes from people. So if you don't have money, you are in trouble. So anyway, he showed up drunk to conference. It was pretty sad. but We are having a lesson with him tonight and hopefully we can get him back on the right track.

It was wonderful being able to watch conference! We were able to watch all of them except Sunday Afternoon session. We watched Saturday morning live, then we watch priesthood session Sunday morning. Then we watched the Saturday afternoon and Sunday Morning sessions after that. So we'll have to wait to hear the Sunday afternoon session until the conference ensign comes out.

I don't think I have ever looked forward to conference as much as I did this time. It was so great hearing all the amazing talks. I really love Elder Holland and President Uchdorfs talks. We had a few people come and it was really good to have them hear those wonderful talks. We are so blessed to have the knowledge that we truly do have a prophet on the earth today. I don't know where I would be without the church.

I love you all so much. Thanks for everything you do!Elder Woodhead

Monday, September 29th 2008

2008-09-29T14:41:00.000-06:00

Hey there! Can anyone else not believe it's basically October? Holly smokes. It really seems like it was just barely June! But I am super excited for General Conference this week. I don't even remember being this excited to see conference before haha. For us, the Saturdays morning session with start Saturday night at 7 PM. I don't know how it's all gonna work out. If we were to watch them all live we would be up till about 2 in the morning.So it has been a pretty crazy week. Like usual.... but on Friday night my companion got called by the office and said he had to get ready to leave the country. I guess the government just passed a new law that has to do with peoples visas and passports and stuff. So there was some problem with his so he had to leave Ukraine Saturday night. So I have been in a threesome with the other Elders in Alexevka for the last 2 days. They said they are hoping he will be able to come back in about a week. So he is just in Bulgaria somewhere haha.... really weird. But they said it's very likely that this will happen to a lot of missionaries over the next few months.So that has kinda been a blow to our work. We have to balance both of our investigators. But we aren't doing too bad. We had a few lessons with Vetalik. He is still trying to quit smoking. He is a very weird guy, he makes a lot of weird comments. But I think within the next month or two he will be baptized. He is our main investigator we are working with.

Our mission goal is to get 15 total lessons. That includes member lessons and everything. It is a hard goal to reach, but it keeps us motivated to keep going.There is a big talent show coming up on October 11th. Lost of people have told me I should play my violin. I don't know if I will or not. I actually hate playing it because it is soooooo bad! It's Chinese and to me it sounds awful. There is a member in the branch who loves music. He teaches the Gospel Principals class every other week, and he normally asks me to bring my violin and play the opening and closing song haha. It was really fun with Elder Ashby because he was amazing on the piano. He is really good at just making up arrangements and it was really fun playing. So yes, I have had several opportunities so play my violin.Well I love hearing from everyone! Thanks for all the emails! I love you all!

Thanks for everything!Elder Woodhead

Monday, September 22, 2008

2008-09-22T14:36:00.000-06:00

Hello from Ukraine!

Well It's the first day of a new transfer today. I am now with Elder Dorman from Seattle, Washington. He has been out about three months longer than me. I'm excited to be his companion and I think we will be able to work well together.We also have Elder Burrup and Elder Wadsworth in our district now. Elder Burrup goes home in six weeks, but he is so awesome! And Elder Wadsworth is straight from the MTC. I'm really happy about our district. It should be a really good transfer!So Vetalik I guess worked everything out with Sevetlana. They were back at church again together, and we are teaching him a lesson on Tuesday. Elder Dorman had some new ideas of how we can teach him and I think it will help a lot. Well like two weeks ago it was vetalik's birthday and we gave him a copy of the Testaments. I guess his DVD player didn't work, so we are going to watch it with him on Tuesday at the branch building. Then we are going to talk more about baptism and confirmation and why we need to prepare ourselves and be clean before baptism.Everyone in Ukraine always has to have all there documents with them at all times that says they are a citizen of Ukriane. There are always cops that stop random people to see if they have their passport with them. I guess he has been having some trouble with some of his documents and he said it has been really stressful. I think that was just his excuse to tell us he started smoking again. But he said that as soon as his papers clear up it will be a lot easier for him to stop smoking.So yeah, he is our main focus right now. We have some other people like Andrei who have just kinda disappeared and we are working hard to get back going with them. The work is definitely going slow, but we can see little bits of hope with some people we talk to.We still spend all of our free time street contacting, but the weather is getting colder and colder. Pretty soon we will be tracting. Winter time is a lot harder for missionary work here. But we still do the best we can, and we still have a least a few more weeks before it gets really cold.The work is really hard and frustrating at times, but I know that it is worth it.

I love you all so much. Thanks for everything!Elder Woodhead

Monday, September 15, 2008

2008-09-15T14:32:00.001-06:00

First off, it has been transfer calls week, and this is going to be a HUGE transfer. It seems like everyone is being moved. Elder Ashby is leaving to go back to Donestk, and so are the other two elder is the Alexevka area, which means I have to know like everything about the area.The mission also gave every companionship a cell phone. It will be really convienent being able to call investigators and member without going all the way back to our house. We can also always be in touch with pretty much anyone we need to. I forgot how it feels to have a cell phone!I has been really crazy with Vetalik also. He were still meeting with him and everything was going fine. He had completely stopped smoking, which I'm sure is really hard for someone who has smoked for 38 years. We even had a lesson with him Sunday after church. Well, Sunday night we had a fireside, Betalik and Svetlana we supposed to come. We got there and saw Svetalana and she told us that she told Betalik that they can't be together as much anymore. I guess they we spending like every moment possible together. But anyway, Betalik kind of flipped. He has he doesn't want anything to do with church anymore, and he doens't believe any of it. So Svetlana was kinda freaking out, but we are hoping it is just like a reaction to his quitting smoking. Svetlana is going to see him today at work, and hopefully everything will smooth over.It was kinda a bummer finding out about all that last night, but we sill hope everything will work out for him.

Oh yeah, on Friday Queen came to Xharkov and played a free concert. We got invited like a million times to go by all our our friends we play sports with and who come to youth night and english, but of course we couldn't go. But I guess over 400,000 people showed up. It was HUGE! Kinda crazy.Anyway, I'll let you know what happens with Betalik this next week. I love and miss you all! Thank you for everything!Elder Woodhead

Monday September 8th, 2008

2008-09-13T09:20:00.007-06:00

Here is part of Michael's letter on Monday:

We are still trying to meet with Andrei. He is really really busy with school right now, so it's been kinda hard. But we set up a appointment with him tonight. We are going to try to give him a date to be baptized! I hope he will accept it. I know that he knows it true. I think he is just waiting for some big answer to come, when sometimes it just come line upon line. He is a good guy and would be a great member.

We are also teaching Vetalik. He is the guy who has smoke since he was six. But he told us yesterday that he is down to two a day, which is a TON less than he used to smoke. He still is doing everything for svetlana, we think. But he is keeping all of our commitments. He has now been taught all the lessons and wants to be baptized! He is going to be baptized on September 20th. That is the goal anyway. Elder Ashby and I were talking aobut it, and we think he is doing a lot of it for Svetlana, but a lot is for the right reasons too. We decided it is a lot like some missionaries. Some missionaries just come out on their mission for a girl, or for their family, or for whatever reason, but they realize why they really go out eventually. We are hoping that is what will happen with Vetalik, so we are going to go ahead and baptize him.

We will find out about transfers this next week. It's pretty sure Elder Ashby will be leaving, I hope he gets to stay for one more though. This has been the best transfer of my mission. We are working really hard, but having so much fun too. It's been great. This church really is true, and is really lead through President Monson. I am so excited for conference coming up! I never thought I would be able to say that. It used to just be a day off from church, but I really am looking forward to it now.

I love you all so much! Thanks for everything!Elder Woodhead

Stake Conference

2008-09-07T18:08:00.002-06:00

Today was our stake conference. The adult session was all about missionary work. There was someone who spoke about preparing our children to go on missions and another who spoke about their mission as a couple. There was a choir made up of some of the parents who currently have missionaries serving and then at the end they had a video presentation where they showed pictures of all the missionaries serving from our stake. The full time missionaries serving in our stake said the prayers.

I submitted three photos of Michael for the video presentation, one of which is the picture on the title page of this blog... When I'm my other computer, I'll post the photos I sent them for the presentation.

It was great to have Michael be a part of that presentation, although, I have to admit I did feel sad for those in the audience who don't or haven't had their sons serve for one reason or another. I wonder if it was hard for them to sit through. Either way, I felt motivated to be a better missionary myself here at home and it was a wonderful conference. I love being all together at stake conference and feel like it is truly a place I feel is home for me.

Can't wait for his letter tomorrow!

Monday, September 1, 2008

2008-09-01T18:01:00.001-06:00

This is part of Michael's letter this week. I don't put all of his letters up, just a little for everyone to get a feel for what he is doing. We are so proud of him and love him so much and know what he is doing is what he should be right now.

We have a member in the branch named svetlana. She is probably between 50 and 60 years old. She isn't married, I'm not sure if she ever was, but she has an inactive daughter. Anyway, she brought one of her friends from work to church. His name is vetalkik. We have been teaching him at svetlana's house. We didn't really know much about him, but we talked to svetlana and asked how he became interested in the church and she said.... “well... He asked me to marry him. I said that if you get baptized, receive the priesthood, and can go to the temple I'll think about it.” It kind of shocked us haha. She keeps talking about it like he is for sure going to be baptized. But we are kind of worried that he is just doing it all for her. He has smoked since he was six years old. But he is working to quit. So it will be interesting to see how things turn out with him over the next few weeks.

So right now we have three main investigators. Andrei, Patrick, and Vetalik. We hare hoping in the next few weeks to have all of them on date for baptism. It will take a lot of work. But we think we can do it. Thank you all for the love and prayers. I love you all so much! Thanks for everything!Love, Elder Woodhead

Monday, August 25th 2008

2008-08-25T09:30:00.001-06:00

...we helped one of the members move into a new apartment. His name is Harold. He is from Nigeria, and probably one of the coolest people I have ever met. He came to Ukraine to go to school but married a Ukrainian. He's lived here for about ten years. But anyway, he went on a trip to Germany to go to the temple, and for some reason the Ukrainian government wouldn't let him come back in the country. So he was stuck in Germany for two months. His wife if very pregnant. But while he was gone they got kicked out of their house, because he wasn't there to pay for it, and he lost his job. He just barely got let back into the country about two weeks ago, so we've been helping him out a lot. He found a really good job, and an apartment, so we had to help move him back in.

Saturday we played in a basketball tournament. There were 66 teams. We played five games and won them all. The announcers would make it a big deal whenever we played, because we are Americans, so EVERYONE would crowd around the court and watch us play. It was pretty fun. But because the announcer talked about us so much, a lot of people came and talked to us. We got a TON of contacts, and taught more lessons in one day than I ever have before. It was really cool! The tournament finished on Sunday, so of course we couldn't play, but it was really fun, and we met a lot of cool people.

We are still teaching Andrei. We are meeting him tonight, and are going to try to commit him to be baptized on September 27th. We hope that he will show his faith and he accept, and receive a stronger testimony.

Today for personal study I read in 2 Nephi. I think chapters 2-4 might be my favorites in the whole book of Mormon.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

2008-08-23T18:59:00.003-06:00

Michael's letters are sounding so good! Here is another part of his last letter:

Hey there! Well it's been another week already! I can't believe how time is flying by.We had a great zone conference on Saturday. President Monjos came and spoke to us. He is in the 70 I think, but he is from Ukraine. So he spoke to us in Russian and it was really good. I understood everything he said. Even though I think he was talking very simply so people would understand.They are doing a few new things in the mission that I think will be good. First of all, we are doing a 40 day fast. Meaning one companionship will fast for a day. So there will be people fasting everyday for 40 days. We are specifically fasting to unify out mission more, and to find people that are ready to accept the Gospel. I think it will be great. We also started a mission prayer. Every night at 10 PM you kneel down as a companionship and pray for your investigators and to find people to teach. It is pretty powerful knowing that at 10 every night there are 60 other missionaries, all over eastern Ukraine, kneeling and praying too. That's always how I feel at 11 AM every day when we leave our apartment. I think of how many other people are heading out preaching the Gospel all over Ukraine too.

So my companion is Elder Ashby, and he is from Tennessee. He goes home in December, so he's almost done. He is really really smart, and knows Russian very well, I'm happy he can help me with mine!

We are teaching a guy right now named Andrei. He is probably about 27. He has been investigating the church for a while, but hadn't been to church until my fist Sunday in Alexevka. He has been taught all the lessons, and knows basically everything about the church. We had a lesson with him this week, and it was kinda easy to tell he is still kinda critical of a few things. We talked about fasting and praying, and he said he would fast this week to try to receive a testimony. He has already said that he wants to get baptized, but he just wants to receive a testimony first. We are going to try to put him on date for a baptism this week.

I guess these are the moments mothers always wait for, when their sons are on a mission and are learning and growing at an incredible rate. Now that Michael's been gone for almost 10 months, I still find it hard to believe that he is actually a world away, on his own and becoming a man. If he can do this, he can do anything...and so can we!

Until next week

Wednesday August 13, 2008

2008-08-16T13:04:00.003-06:00

Michael had zone conference this weekend so he was excited for that and excited to have an interview with President Fry. He said he loves his new companion and area. Here is a bit of his letter.

So last friday we had transfer meeting. It was a good meeting, but they are really short. Anyway, we loaded our bus with all the missionaries luggage and headed of to Harkov. It was about a 4 1/2 hour bus ride. There were five missionaries being transferred from the Donetsk area to the Harkov area, but the bus ride was pretty quiet. We finally arrived at the center branch building at about 9:30 pm, where all of our new companions were waiting for us. We grabbed all the luggage and took the Metro to my new appartment. It's a really nice appartment compared to normal missionary appartments. The only bad thing about it is there is no oven...

Elder Ashby and I have already been working really hard. Harder than I have worked my whole mission probably. We spent a good amount of time going through the area book and have set up some appointments for next week. We mostly do street contacting in our free time, which has been kinda hard, because no one seems to be interested.The branch here is amazing. Everyone says it's the best branch in the mission. The branch president is great. It is still a pretty small branch, but there is a lot more preisthood than in Makevka. Since Friday we have already been fed twice by members. I was very worried about it, but I actually did alright. It was pretty american food though, so nothing too crazy. We go to the Cherivakov's house every thursday and they feed us and we give a little lesson. I gave it last night. They loved all of my family pictures I showed them!

Photo from the Sister Kinghorn

2008-08-08T13:56:00.005-06:00

Can you believe this was taken today at a transfer meeting (His hair is so short)! I don't know who the other missionaries are but they all look so good! He is going to a place called Aleksevka. I believe it is four hours away from the mission home.

This is probably the last current photo for awhile (maybe ever) from the Kinghorn's as he will not be in their zone anymore. For those of you who are new to mission life, the missionaries are only allowed 45 minutes of computer time once a week and even then we don't ever get pictures because it just takes too long...or at least Michael doesn't want to mess with it. As a senior couple, the Kinghorn's have much more leeway on their computers and have been able to send a few photos now and then to two worried parents!

Getting current photos from the Kinghorn's has been absolutely wonderful. It's very hard to explain but Steve and I feel like Sister Kinghorn's photos have been a blessing to us. It has helped get these rookie mission parents through the first few rough months of Micheal's mission.

Letter for August 6, 2008

2008-08-06T13:38:00.000-06:00

The letter this week was very short because he is getting transferred and I think was very busy going to say goodbye to the people in this area. So there's really not much to say other then he is very excited!! He really likes his new companion and is optimistic about getting a lot of work accomplished.

Here is just a small portion of his letter:

"I had my last English class yesterday, it was weird saying bye to everyone. Especially this guy named Sasha. He has been coming to English for years, but never really goes anywhere the Church. He is actually very spiritual, and a way cool guy. We can just see how happy the Gospel would make his life."

We were also thrilled to hear he finally received the package we sent May 27th. It took two months to get to him. I guess it was in customs since June 2nd. Frustrating!! So we are now working on getting his birthday package sent to him (which is in about two months).

Till next week!

Another letter!

2008-07-30T09:53:00.002-06:00

Here is part of his letter today...he is sounding great!!!

"I am really loving my mission! I am beginning to see how it will actually be hard to leave. There are so many amazing members here, and I love the mission life. It's so great having three hours set aside everyday to study the Gospel. Well I guess one hour is Russian, but still. I am so happy being here in Ukraine, and serving the Lord. It is very hard sometimes and you have down days, weeks, and even transferes, but this work is true. I know it. "

He also said to keep praying for the missionaries!

More Photos

2008-07-28T14:46:00.015-06:00

Here are some more photos from Michael's mission. I'm not sure who the people are or where they are because we get these on a CD but they're fun to look at anyway.

Do you think Michael ate that?
Sightseeing on P-Day

These next photos are more recent pictures take by Sister Kinghorn who is serving in Ukraine with her husband. They are on a humanitarian mission and doing some wonderful things. We are so grateful to her for taking time to email us these photos!! It's been great to get "current" photos. The man in the middle is the new mission president, President Fry.

This is Elder Woodhead and Elder Kinghorn during an apartment check.

Great Letter!

2008-07-23T15:15:00.005-06:00

The letter we received today was really good. Michael talks about his new mission president. I thought I would share some of what he said in the letter.

Hello everyone! I hope everyone will have a good 24th of July tomorrow. It will be president Fry's first zone conference tomorrow. I always love zone conferences because it gives you an extra little kick and reminder why we are here. President Anderson always told us that we are here planting seeds, but something president Fry has said is that the time for planting seeds is over. It's now the time to reap in the harvest. I thought about that a lot, and wondered how two different mission presidents could say something opposite like that, but I realized this is God's work, and he can do anything. I am so excited to start reaping in the harvest! I really believe there are people out there who have been prepared to hear our message, and are waiting for us to give it to them.

I can't tell you how happy we were to hear President Fry's words. The work has been very slow and so it's good to hear some optimism and great expectations.

A new blog!

2008-07-23T14:36:00.002-06:00

I finally decided to make a blog for Michael. I think it will take me awhile to get caught up on some of the information and photos (9 months worth tomorrow). I'll probably put portions of his letters up and especially photos... At the airport I think in Germany
First apartment in Lugansk

At the MTC
At the MTC
Meeting President Anderson after first arriving in Ukraine