Sketchy Ladder??

FAMILY!!
Wow, you guys just never stop going. it’s great to hear from everyone and to hear that everything is awesome at home. DAD!!! wait what?! huh?!! What am I supposed to call you now? "Dad"? "Brother Rooney"? hahaha what are you feeling like right now?!! Bishop Okerlund?!! that’s sickkkk!!! He’ll do great, not doubt in my mind. Sounds like a full house at the Rooney's, as it should be. Your week sounds like it was a blast. I haven’t gotten a package yet but it'll come...hopefully haha. Diana! I need recipes for anything good to eat with limited supplies ASAP. You would be proud o0f me, I’m becoming a cook! I made apple cobbler literally from scratch and it turned out AMAZING!! Maybe a pizza recipe? Anything would be great. Thanks :)

I’m having the best time out here!
This week literally flew by. I’m afraid this whole experience is going to go by too fast. Well, I had my first "funny member family feeding you till you feel like you want to explode then they whip out more food and nasty candy stuff and watch you eat it ALLLLLL" experience this week :). It was a nightmare but we were glad that someone actually met with us so we were grateful haha. So, on my split this week, in my area, therefore I was the one leading...which was a blast and a scary thing at the same time....we went to see Galia. She lives about a 30 min walk away through a maze. Anyways, she's a J dub and we've seen here twice before. So we get up to the top of her "dome", apartment building, which is one of the worst ones in the mission and she lives at the top. We knocked and waited and then knocked and waited again. She didn’t answer which was usual. So just to the left of her door, there is a ladder...a sketchy broken that goes to the top of the entire bldg. So being 20 year olds, we decided to climb it, obviously. I went first...I made it safely and waited for elder Jensen, the one I was on a split with who had never met Galia at all, and as I was waiting for elder Jensen at the top of this ladder thing I was standing on when the door opens....Galia came out!! I was standing at the top of this thing where she couldn’t see me and my companion started talking to her and she started asking where "the other American" was...she eventually figured out that I was at the top of her dome and climbed that sketchy ladder that no one climbs....they started talking and I wasn’t sure what to do! I froze like a typical greenie. Anyways I decided that I should probably come down and talk to her too being that there should always be two missionaries together...it seemed like a good idea until I had to climb back down the ladder!!! The thing was out to kill me. I tried to be as quiet as possible but with the death ladder that wasn’t even connected to the ground, that didn’t work out so well. Anyways, I got down and said hi haha she thought it was funny and the mood lightened up a ton. At the end she invited us back and said that we could go on her roof whenever, making fun of me, haha. It was SO FUNNY! I was so scared...but it all worked out because if she hadn’t started laughing she probably wouldn’t have seen that even though we're missionaries, we're still real people. When the mood lightened up, she began to soften her heart and eventually invited us back which was an absolute miracle. Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways. Next story, there was a rain storm...by far the worst I’ve ever been in...yup we were just contacting and the biggest drops of water I’ve ever seen were falling by the buckets from the sky...honestly it felt like I was in a shower with all my clothes on. People were hiding under trees and doing anything they could to get away from this thing, it was a lost cause and we walked the 15 minutes it took back to our home. I looked like I jumped in a pool...this week was a great week.

McDonald’s here is a delicacy its super weird but every time you see a McDonald’s here, you eat there cuz you never know when you'll be close to one again. But other than always sweating and dogs chasing you, OH! I got chased by a crazy dog that was on a mission to end my life!!! People on the mission here get bit all the time and have to go to Germany for rabies shots....anyways, I literally am livin the dream. Thanks for all the love and support. I love you all, have a great week!

- Старейшина Руни

My family does exist!!
60 hours in a car?...shoot me now. I’m sure it was WAY fun! Sounds like your trip was a blast. I’m especially stoked that you got to see Danny more than anything. My zone leader looks EXACTLY like him but with brown hair...i honestly feel like I’m talking to Danny every time I talk to him. I’m learning so much every day! More about life I feel than anything actually. This place is perfect for me, it really is. The days here just keep getting faster and faster. This place is unreal. I’m beginning to see why people say that it’s tough. This week was full of emotion. For starters, Roza dropped us...but we got her back. But ALL the rest of our investigators followed in Roza's footsteps. We just haven’t gotten them back YET. It’s getting way hot here and I’m never not sweating. Step out of the cold shower...give it 10 min, and you're sweating again haha. And when you're in the internet club...you better look at your own screen cuz it’s the ONLY thing that is anything close to pure in the entire place. It blows my mind everyday how immodest people here are. Just walking around outside is worse than walking down the Strip in Vegas on a major holiday, by far, and in every aspect. The people here are so lost and it kills me how none of are willing to change. Whenever I ask someone if they are happy, almost every single person says no, and they say that they have their OWN church that they've been going to their whole lives. When we say that the Gospel will help them be happy, they can’t except it; which i understand because they all live extremely difficult lives that change seems impossible, I get that. But if they're so miserable, then why not take a chance on the gospel?!....it can’t hurt ANYTHING. Everyone is SOOOOOO stubborn, its annoying. But the work goes on. This mission is a contacting mission I guess. It’s what we do. All day every day, on the streets yo! Right now is DEAD. Yesterday was in the 40's (Celsius) and this whole next week will be just the same. So everyone is gone "to the sea", which means in my area where there is no one anyways, there REALLY won’t be anyone out on the streets. I'll definitely say Hi to Pres. Velikano and his wife (our branch Pres), they are awesome. My money situation is an interesting question....I’m not sure. We’re in to personal at the moment but we're supposed to get things work funded that haven’t been so that should give us a little more money....we'll see :)
How’s the summer so far? Kyle, do you have any camps left? Kimi, are you adjusting well? Cami, you are going to be loaded its sounds like haha. But I’m proud of you for being patient dude, its pays off. DAD!!!! you’re a boss (that means you are "cool") thanks for working out my money situation so quickly, I’ll see soon today if i can get money out. I find myself saying those lame "Dad" jokes every once in a while...thanks a lot haha. MOM!!!! Hi. how are you? how's your summer? Thanks to you people point and laugh at me because they all think I’m Armenian (I have no clue how that’s spelled) and probably make fun of because all Armenians can speak Russian minus me haha. But I can’t tell what they're saying anyways so it’s cool :) I know this is where I need to be. I know that the only reason I’m slightly healthy slash alive is because I’m on the Lord's errand and His people need this message. This experience really teaches me to appreciate the Gospel because it really is the only way to true happiness. I love you all! Have a great week!!
Ct. Rooney
ps. thanks for the pictures

WELCOME HOME KIMI YEEE HAAA!!

HOWDY Y'ALL!! WELCOME HOME KIMI YEEE HAAA!!
haha I thought that I could contribute to the western theme a bit even if i wasn’t at the airport!! I’m stoked that you've done it Kimi! Just being here makes me realize that people that even make it through a mission are BALLERS. So way to go dad, mom, Cami, and Kimi! How’s Texas?! I’m so happy that you got to spend time with Danny! I hope he's doing well it’s got to be way tough doing what he's doing, give him my love. I was dieing when I got your emails about dressing up to pick Kimi up, my family rocks. Let the heat slash humidity begin! It’s in the mid 90's here with a stupid amount of humidity..it’s crazy. At night you have to take a cold shower if you even want to think about falling asleep. Cami...I’m so glad things are picking up with Matt...dude, kill it. He's a boss and I’m sure you have a blast working with him. I’m think I’m going to try and email some pictures today we'll see what happens. I think about my family all the time! You all rock. k so this week we found 3 more investigators!! Edeek is in his 40's and then Sasha and Dasha...they're 20 year old identical twins! They are the sweetest, nerdiest girls you've ever met! and the best part is...they speak English! So now we have 4 investigators which is unheard of I guess and we contacted all of them! People here are still nice and cold but Heavenly Father blessed us with these amazing people. Being on a mission makes me feel so many emotions that I have never felt before; it’s crazy. I guess this mission is known in the Russian missions as being the place that no one wants to go to...and the area that I’m in right now is known as a place that no one in the mission wants to go to....nice. I love it though, a lot of it feels like South America when you get outside the city and i love it. WE FOUND A WATERFALL!!! It’s near a village maybe about a 20 minute walk from our place it’s SO COOL! Oh and this place is nuts by the way...have I said that before? There is one "major" street in our area if you can even call it a major street. And people just walk around drunk or drinking at all hours of the day! Today for example at 8 am, we saw old guys sitting at the place where they sit everyday drinking vodka, which they do every day also. People tell us to go home a lot, even in English sometimes. OH! last week we were walking parallel with that "major" street I just wrote about and this dude probably in his 50's was facing us and was only maybe 25 feet in front of us..and he was PEEING like it was no big deal. Like I mean he was PEEING!! We saw everything...literally...it was sooooo funny. It was in front of everyone and people just disregard it...that’s not cool. The best is when you get an old Babushka (grandma) and she just goes and finds a nice wall...pulls up her dress...posts up...and starts pooping. You know you're having a good day when you come across that haha. This place is pretty dangerous to be honest but it’s a one of a kind. I’m really excited to for tonight and tomorrow, we have two lessons with a couple and another with Roza...we'll see what happens. Sounds like you all had an awesome week going to the lake, Kimi came home, and the fam went to Texas...awesome keep it up! Today we went bowling and it cost us 47 gr. for the 6 of us for the hour...about 2 games. That comes to be about just under a dollar per person...yup loving it. And it was a way nice place to bowl. K I’m gunna try and send some pics so that’s all for this week! I love you all SOOOOOOOOOOO much, keep praying and reading every day! Have fun in Texas!
ct. Rooney

HAPPY FOURTH!!!

Don’t worry we're having a bbq today to REPRESENT! wow...sounds like an awesome week at home. KYLE!!!!! how was EFY?!! tell me about it! your counselor? friends? spiritual experiences? Let me know! KIMI COMES HOME THIS WEEK!!!!! CRAZYYY!!! Give her my love when you see her. k...ready?
Here we go...SO, Ukraine is nuts, absolutely nuts. BUT I’m beginning to see why people love their mission. The first few days...hardest days of my entire life hands down but I’m beginning to see why people love it.

I got to see the rest of my area. Everyone here lives in giant rundown apt buildings and the way poor or way wealthy live in what’s called a "chas-nie dome" it’s pretty much a little make shift home. I have a few villages in my area!!! It’s so cool!! Yesterday we went around kicking doors to try and get people to come out of their homes to their gate door thing so that we could sing to them...it was rad. We handed out three books of mormon!! That’s a stellar day by the way. Also, we have an investigator that WE found contacting!! This never happens I guess. everyone says I’m getting spoiled here, in my first week we got let in to a home and we taught the 1st lesson AND we found an investigator! I guess that’s rare here. Like a few elders in my district that go home at the end of the month have never gotten in to anyone’s apt let alone found an investigator and they're hard workers that I can see. But we met this random lady named Roza and gave her a book of mormon and got her contact info; we felt WAY good about that cuz she was actually nice to us. We called her and met with her 2 days later!! She’s 50 and has had a tough life but is truckin along. So we teach her the first lesson and she breaks down. She tells us how she's divorced and has two kids, a daughter and son, 26 and 22. Her daughter moved out and they don’t talk really and her son is a drug addict. We asked her if she had a DVD player to show her a video, but she said her son took it and sold it for his drugs...I’m sure it’s not the first time too. Oh and everyone does drugs here, and when I say drugs, I mean needles and everything. There are used needles on the ground everywhere...skecthy;

anyway, we teach her and she cries twice and then prays at the end, where she cried again and thanked God for sending us to her. She originally wanted us to teach her English but we told her that we would have to teach doctrine too but before our lesson, she told us to just teach. That’s huge. It was the most spiritual experience I’ve had in a long time. My comp said that that’s never happened to him on his mission. Roza wants to meet with us regularly and feed us and everything! She told us that we teach perfectly together and that we stand out. It really strengthened my testimony that everything happens for a reason and that me and ct. Pulsipher were supposed to meet at BYU in the summer and become friends so that we could be companions and meet Roza so that we could help her change her life. God is perfect. I know that this is the perfect mission for me and that just meeting Roza is why I’m supposed to be here at this time. Writing letters about the mission is SO HARD! I have SO much to say! So much has happened this week it’s crazy. OH! we got a new mission president haha I guess that’s worth telling. He’s Bolivian and his wife barely speaks English let alone Russian but I guess he's already doing more for the mission than our last president did? I don’t know, I didn’t really know the last one so I can’t say anything really but he's a boss. soooooo cool, and really little. By the way, I eat way good. I’m becoming a way good cook. I eat better here than at home most days. it’s like camping, we always eat good when we go camping, and my apartment.....well let’s just say that I’ll be eating good for a while :). We jamm to “Wicked” almost every night...I’m sorry for ripping on it Cami/Kimi, I think NOW it’s the best thing ever! also, Cameron if you're reading this, remember that Disney cd we jammed to when I was in Utah? Well someone burned it and put into my apt before I got here haha we jamm to that almost every day too :) it’s cool. Anyways….I love you all and thanks for writing me!!
Have a great week!

-Ct. Rooney