Member Involvement

We're trying to make a lot of changes in the mission, which means less talking to people on the street, and more visiting with church members and other people. We're trying to be as creative as we can with activities and service opportunities, so if you have any ideas, pass them along. This past week we tried to visit as many members as we could. 

On Monday night, we went to one member and he made us a rotisserie chicken (we've been to his house before and he made us the same chicken) and it was super good. We found out he actually used to be a chef in Italy. He grows all his own spices at his house out in the village. Tonight, he wants to make us his homemade lasagna, should be tasty. Of course, we'll be buying all the ingredients, but as long as he cooks it that's fine with me.

On Tuesday of last week, we went to another member. He knows English well enough to communicate with and he loves getting the practice. He actually requested that we be his home teachers so we can help with his English. He's working on the Pathway program with BYU-I, so he asks for our help every once in a while. He's a super awesome guy and he's always willing to help us out, so it's fun hanging out with him. He even made us pizza. It was kind of different (no tomato sauce, chicken, tomato slices, and mayonaisse,) but it actually turned out really, really tasty. He makes homemade pizza dough and he's very proud of it. 

On Thursday we visited an inactive member to try to talk to him a bit. I was on exchanges with the missionary from Armenia, and so he and the member pretty much spoke Russian the entire time, so I really had no idea what was going on. All I know is that he really, really, really loves green tea and doesn't really want to come to church. Last time we went there I tried sharing a spiritual thought in broken Ukrainian and he got kind of mad at me. So I pretty much just let them speak Russian.

On Saturday, our member meeting was just coming to the church and helping a member clean. We've started helping them clean as a way to get to know them better. This member just so happens to be the guy that's in charge of the building maintenence for this part of Ukraine, so he wanted the building really, really clean. So we spent a while doing that and talking with him. He's a really cool guy with a cool family. 

Then on Sunday, we stopped by an inactive member and talked for about fifteen minutes. He's a really nice guy that knows good English (it's always nice when that happens--it rarely does) so we just asked about his work and his family. Hopefully, we'll be able to meet with him a bit more. 

So, it's a very different kind of work than what we've been doing before. Before, we would never ever have this many meetings with members of the church, and I definitely like it this way a lot more. Hopefully, it will work.

On Saturday we also went to an English-speaking club to teach them how to order at restaurants in America. My companion apparently never went to a restaurant in his whole life, so I did it mostly by myself. Luckily there were some Ukrainians there who knew pretty good English and could help me with everything I didn't know how to say in Ukrainian. 

Easter-Island-head-looking-thing

It's getting warmer here -- it was up to like 50 degrees this past week! So there's a lot more people outside and everything just seems a lot happier. We walked through a park the other day and found a really sweet ropes course that we might have to check out when it opens up. At this park there was also a huge Easter Island head looking thing--no idea why but I thought it was interesting.

Oh, also can you send me some pictures of grandpa and great-grandpa? One of the Ukrainians here says I look like a pure Ukrainian and she wants to see what they look like.

Hope everything is going well and I miss all of you!

Alec​