Getting Colder....

SUP FAM!
Sounds like everything at home is getting into the groove with school, work, and a MARRIAGE! It’s great to hear from you all. I love you SOOOOOO much. Things here are going well. The weather for starters is ALREADY colder than Utah and it’s not ever NOVEMBER! I’m gunna die out here. The temp isn't that low yet but for some reason it likes to be reallll realllly windy when it’s cold out...:) we're doing great though, we're having a great time. This week will be SO COOL. On wed we are having a Young Single Adult fireside and Elder Bennett and Elder Richardson will be speaking to us and yes, it will be in Donetsk at my branch bldg of all places!! It’s for the whole Europe east area I think. Anyways, I’ll be there and it will be awesome! What won’t be awesome is the fact that there will probably be more missionaries there than actual youth. People here just don’t get it and it breaks my heart. We've been working with a less active named Michael and he has a smoking problem (like everyone else here) and we found out that he really wants to do family history work and the best part is that he has a testimony of it and its way strong. What makes me super frustrated is when the home teacher gets called to go over and help him out with it and does nothing. Then our branch president calls Him AGAIN, and still, the home teacher does nothing. Then I spoke with the branch pres. and he told me that Michael's home teachers just aren’t going over there. So we devised a solution, talk to the family history lady for the branch and the missionaries will go with her to teach him how to use family search. So we go over to her place last night to ask her for her help and she kind of just goes off about how this man doesn’t need family search but that he just needs to stop smoking and all about how he pretty much is a lost cause and how she won’t literally walk 5 min to the NEXT APT COMPLEX and spent one half hour with us, to teach him. And it’s just gets frustrating when I want to just take over everything and get things moving here...but it’s not in my stewardship. My job is to invite others unto Christ....Oh and our branch president hasn’t been to church in a month now. Like my companion has never seen him at church yet :) there are also a ton of other problems about how things are run here and well, it’s not run correctly and I just want to help but it’s not my job. Its soo hard to do missionary work here b/c there is no branch bldg. in my area b/c there aren’t enough people at church. So when I tell people on the streets that our bldg. is in Donetsk...an hour away on buses (b/c no one here has their own car unless you're part of the mafia) they get turned off to everything. There used to be a bldg. in our area but then everyone decided to go inactive and so then they combined braches. And the best part is...that we have an area that the church bought and is ready for construction for a brand new bldg. in our area...but we just need members to come to church then they'll ok it for building. It’s a paradox really, people don’t want to listen to us b/c the church is so far away and its costs a ton of money just to get there and back. But if the members just went to church then they could have a closer bldg. and investigators would come more often. Things here are just slacking. We really do have awesome people who really have a true desire to come to church but the honestly just can’t afford it. as;dlkthaeoith;askldjhg;oearit! Anyways, thanks for letting me vent to you all, I feel better :) other than that, things are great! I’m becoming great at having almost nothing to cook with and making edible things! Now I just have to work on making it all taste good haha.. No really though, we're having a great time together and missionary work is great. My mission prep class is turning out good too. Next week I’m taking my class out to a park right by the church and we're going to practice contacting! We practiced it yesterday in class so next week they get to really experience it, it'll be way fun, and I’m stoked for it. Well, that’s all for this week. We pretty much just looked for all the youth to try and invite them to this fireside on wed b/c it’s our priority for now. I really am super happy though, it’s crazy how when you just trust in God, EVERYTHING will turn out. I love personal study; right now I’m studying the time line of the Book of Mormon, in comparison with the Bible...its super interesting and actually kind of fun to see all the connections. Well, I’m going bowling right now so I hope you all have an AWESOME week! I love you all!


- Старейшина Руни