New area, New Companion.....

Hey family!!

  Thanks so much for writing me!  I love you all so much.  So I’m in a new area with a new companion... my comp is from Arizona and his name is Elder Garlock.  It’s been interesting; he's definitely one of a kind.  He's pretty much known as the most disobedient missionary in the mission and I was SUPER afraid to serve with him from the stories that I heard.  And yup, they were all right and it’s been really hard.  But I’ve learned a ton. I judged my comp so hard in the beginning and I feel super bad about it, but after having a few one on ones with God, my heart has been softened and I LOVE my comp. I’m not perfect and I’m still learning too, and I’m NOT God's gift to missionary work.  This new transfer has taught me to stop focusing on myself and care more for others.  I’m so grateful for this lesson b/c I realized how selfish I was being.  I’m reading a book by Neal A. Maxwell right now and in it, it talks about selfishness.  He stresses the point that selfishness is a form of self-worship and when we worship ourselves, we're not putting God first...therefore breaking one of the 10 commandments.  It’s a little harsh but I understand where he's coming from.  My life has been flipped 180 and it’s hard but when I put others first, it gets a ton easier.  God has helped me truly love my comp; I still try my best to be exactly obedient at all times given the circumstances.  My comp doesn’t really get up till 8 30/ 9 ish (among other things) and it’s really hard b/c I want the blessing of being an instrument in the Lord's hands but I can’t do it alone! We’re a team and that’s the way it’s meant to be, not only for missionary work but for the individuals going through the experience, learning and growing. It's been an interesting experience so far but I’m grateful I’m going through it, this experience helps show me my imperfections and how I can work on them.  So that’s a bit about my new comp, now...my area...is SO COOOOOOOOOL! At church yesterday there were about 95 people there!! It was crazy, the branch actually functions and it makes missionary work so much easier!  We held a youth night on Friday night and it was the 1st one...and we had 5 people show up and 2 brought friends and we had an absolute blast.  The youth in this branch are super strong and way cool, we probably have 5 or 6 return missionaries in this branch and it’s so cool to finally see things moving.  I’ve been noticing the effects/affects (I have no idea which word I should use anymore haha) of maintaining worthiness of the spirit with thoughts and actions...etc., we had a lesson but it was SO GOOD!  It was in part English which is always a blessing, we'll work with what we can get, and the spirit guided the whole thing.  On my mission I’ve learned to recognize the promptings of the spirit which I thought I could do at home...nope, not at all.  I see more and more why missions are important, it is so important b/c (for me) it takes practice to work with the spirit and to recognize how the spirit works with you, and I don’t know if I ever would have learned the importance of the spirit if I had not come here.  Anyways, I hope you all have a great week! I love you and think about you often!!

-Elder Rooney

So Long to Gorlovka

HI Family!

 So this week was absolutely nuts!  First I want to say that I got the Bybees letter with shirt in it and the Kidd's letter, THANK YOU SO much!!!!  I loved reading all the letters and the shirt was a perfect fit and I appreciate it a ton, so thank you.  Mom and Dad, thanks for your emails, they encourage me so much and every time I hear what I needed to hear. I love you both with all my heart.  This week was crazy. I went on a miracle split with one of my best friends in the mission. We both had the best attitude and we saw miracle after miracle and it was an absolute a blast.  Not too long ago we got a call from the office in Donetsk and they said that our landlord person was selling our apt...In 3 weeks, and we have to find a place to live...so that has been crazy.  Today we moved in and everything worked out fine. However since it was a short notice and some other issues with money going down in the office, we had to pull out personal money to pay for the apt, as to why I have some money pulled out (Dad) but we will get paid back here shortly.  I got a transfer call so I’m am leaving Gorlovka, I’m sad :(  I loved this area so much. My district both transfers have just been so solid and so fun and I’ll miss them a ton. We’ve been meeting with some members for the last time and it’s been sad to say goodbye, we administered another blessing last night to the man whose wife left him with nothing and took the kids too. He told me to tell my parents (YOU) a ton of way nice things about me, he complemented my companion and I a ton, just know that they were too nice.  He called us his brothers and that it was so nice to have missionaries be real and not just missionaries.  He said that he will never forget us and the help that we rendered during his hard time (along those lines).  He is a very humble man that I have learned a ton from. I grabbed a picture with him on his chair that we sit on when we go over for lessons, bless his soul, my feet are pretty much numb when I leave his apt and he has to live in that...strong man. He asked us for oil b/c he was going over to give his kids, and I think wife too, a blessing and he didn’t have anything  so I gave him my container thing with some consecrated oil that I always have on me...then he as he was throwing on a shirt and tie to be as dressed up as he could for the blessing, he was looking around  for something and I asked him if he was looking for his tie, he goes on to say that he doesn’t have one and that he misses having a tie for church and stuff like that....he's got a pretty good looking tie now....it’s crazy how much you want to serve someone when they have a special place in your heart. I learned a lot this week about helping the poor and needy and it was cool to see my studies applied in my life, yet again.  I have SO MUCH compared to some of these people, I’ve been so blessed. Read Mosiah 4 (I think) and learn about "beggars". It’s really cool to see how we are all beggars and to see how much we all use and need the Lord.  It really helps me want to help out a ton more b/c we're all in the same boat.  I love you all and I hope you have a great week! You’re in my thoughts.

- Старейшина Руни

More Miracles

HI family!!!
 Thanks for all the love you all give me. I pray so that I can feel your love and that you can feel mine.  You are the best family EVER!!
Cami no big deal just went SKY DIVING!!! WHAT!!! I want to go SOOO bad.  That sounds like a blast. Sounds like a great week!  This week for me was incredible.  My mission is a roller coaster.  I want to tell you some awesome miracles that went down this week.  #1 - We decided that there are too many people that are members that aren't coming to church. haha which is almost everyone...anyways, we started calling less actives.  We ended up calling a woman named Natasha, I think, and she agreed to meet with us! MIRACLE!  She actually said yes!  It was so amazing! But it gets better, we get there and her son has a friend over who sat in on our lesson, so our lesson plan quickly changed to the restoration.  Long story short, the friend is 21 ish and super interested. We hope to meet with him this week. He accepted our invitation to read and pray, it was awesome.  #2 - with our new schedule, we "find" a ton, so one night it was about 6 pm and time to find...and we were NOT in the finding mood.  It was way cold, pitch black and we just had no hope that we would find anyone.  We needed and attitude switch bad.  So what did we do? We threw on a recording that I have of me and Jarom (with some other BOYS including Dick) jamming on Ukuleles and the piano at BYU.  We listened to One Day, and made our selves be happy and have the right attitude.  We decided that it was pointless to go out and try to help people if you yourself were beat and with no hope.  So we charged up and went out with the best attitude that we could come up with.  And then we witnessed a miracle. The first man we spoke with invited us on the street to walk with him to his apt.  So we started walking home with him, he had just finished work. On the way to the apt he tells us that his wife was baptized in 2008 into our church!! He wasn’t baptized but pretty much took all the lessons with his wife, who is inactive.  But we went in and they gave us tea (fruit tea...relax) and we talked a bit.  They have 3 young kids that were way cool and not against talking about the church at all.  So we hopefully are going back with a member (her visiting teacher) to have a lesson this week with her and him.  CRAZY!!!! We are so blessed, and we wouldn't have has that opportunity if we didn’t take the time to "get in the mood" aka, regain some real hope and faith that we were going to find someone.  I learned a ton of lessons this week. My personal study has been way good and I’ve been able to apply the things I learned.  I was studying about trusting in God, and thought to myself, when you read things and it always says that God is our “loving Heavenly Father". I thought and pondered this for a long time.

I have a picture of our family on my desk and I looked at Dad.  I thought about the amazing feeling it will be when I am able to be embraced in his arms again, and about how I can go to dad for anything. I thought about how I can feel his love for me and about how strong that bond is.  Then I honestly thought about my Father in Heaven.  I came to the conclusion that I don’t have that bond with God.  And to think that God loves my perfectly.  I've always thought of God as the "Big scary God" guy who can forgive me of my sins if I do what he says.  But I’ve never really honestly taken the time to think about God as our loving Heavenly Father and what that REALLY means.  So right now, I’m working on making my relationship with God better.  It’s been interesting and inspiring.  I have a LONG way to go. But I’m learning a ton.  I’m grateful for all of you, have a great week! and DO MISSIONARY WORK with someone this week!


- Старейшина Руни

New Working Hours....

Wow, thank you so much mom and dad for your letters, they were both powerful and exactly what I needed to hear. I love the council mom gave, “look with the Lord's eyes". I've actually been trying to do that. When I’m on a bus or something and no one is talking to us, I try and look at people as "they really are" (Jacob 4:13...I think). They are all children of our Heavenly Father, which means that they have all the potential that I have to receive all that the Father has. It puts things in a different perspective. So thanks mom.
This past week was tough and great all at the same time. We had a zone conference and our mission is changing little by little. We just received a new schedule. Up at 6:30, out the door by 7...finding people till 8:30 (in the FREEZING COLD!!), then coming in for exercise and breakfast. Our studies are broken up and it’s just crazy how tired I’ve been getting. They decided to shift around the schedule for the whole mission to compensate for light and when men are going to work, lunch break, and coming home from work. With no real light up in a lot of areas at night, it’s hard to find people in the pitch black and it doesn’t help that by 4:30pm every day it’s already dark. It’s been interesting but I’m trying my best b/c I love my president and he holds the keys to lead this mission. This past week has taught me a ton. I went on a split with one of my favorite people in this whole mission. We had a KILLER lesson in English with a guy who is in a band, doesn’t believe in a "middle man" aka, Jesus Christ or prophets, and only wanted to practice English with us. But Since God always wins, the spirit directed our entire lesson and it was one of the most powerful experiences on my mission. Then we met a guy right after the lesson who, if we hadn’t been so full of the spirit from our lesson, we wouldn’t even have given a second thought to, but we spoke with him. He just went on and on but we stood there in the middle of the street, both as calm as could be (it was already almost 9:20 at night...) and by the end of this conversation with a very bitter atheist man, we testified and told him we would answer his questions (one of them being, "If you have a God who loves us so much, why does he let bad things happen to good people?"). He then smiled and said thank you and that he just wanted to know the answers to these questions. The Spirit softened this man's heart and it was all just amazing. Then looking back on our circumstances, we spoke with that man at night, already late to be inside (b/c of a lesson that got out late...haha so we were still obedient), we just happened to stop that man underneath the ONLY light on the entire street which was about a quarter mile long...think God had anything to do with that? Me too…. It was amazing. There were so many other miracles that I want to talk about but writing is not a strength of mine so I’ll just tell you when I’m home haha. I had a killer week and I could not be so dead and beat, but it’s all worth it. I received a ton of complements from other missionaries for some reason recently. I've learned a ton about putting effort towards a relationship. Before my mission I remember Dad told me that “in order to have a successful relationship, both people have to put in 115%", I’ve lived on that quote. And I see the BIGGEST difference in a relationship when the other person puts in just as much as you. I’m just waiting for my "Jarom" haha. We'll see if he shows up. Anyways I love you all so much. Have a great week!
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- Старейшина Руни

PS: thank the Kidd family for the gift please!
- Also duct tape would be HUGE! :) And maybe just a TON of pictures....if there is going to be anything sent my way soon!

Happy New Year!!

HI family!
I’m speechless. I had the best time with you all last week! Skyping was so rad. It’s good to hear that everything turned out well. I’m way bummed about Bro Schwab passing on. But at the same time, I’m way excited for him. He has truly lived a life of service and can expect LOTS to come. It was so cool to see you all last weeeeeeeeeeek!!! I understand more and more of God's plan and how perfect it is almost every day (some days are way harder to understand than others haha), Family is truly where it’s at. I love you all so much and can’t wait to party with you guys when I get back! But that can wait; I know that I’m supposed to be here.
This past week was insane. Alexander, the guy that we taught who was baptized, got on the internet and looked up some unfavorable information about the history of the church, has lost almost all of his friends, and called us drunk out of his mind the other day.....it was a hard day. So the next day we took a member with us and had a lesson with him and had the member just answer questions and we shared some scriptures and bore testimony. Alexander is a good person; he's just going through a hard time. I've added to my testimony through this experience that you will find what you are looking for. If you look at something and think negatively about it, that’s exactly what you will find negative things. Then eventually everything you look at will just be dim and negative. It’s not worth. Work should never be something to complain about (in Alexander's case), be grateful that you even have a job. I know that as a missionary it’s easy to think that way but with a positive perspective, things are so much easier to understand and handle. New Year’s was great! We went to bed at 10 -10 30 and set our alarm for 11:55! We woke up and did the count down and everything. We tried to find something of the Martinell’s and whipped that out at midnight. It ended up being way nasty haha but it was a good memory. we hit the sack again I think 35 seconds later...At church the next day there was almost no one there, b/c New Year’s is the BIG holiday here so people get a little crazy. We had to be in by 4 pm and 6 pm on eve and New Year’s Day. But President Camero was there at church and we all got have interviews with him...that man is AMAZING! He gave me a powerful blessing. He's just so loving and in tune with the spirit. I've learned so much since just talking with you all. The scriptures are powerful and I’m sad that I never saw the importance of them before. One thing I’ve learned recently is that I always have to have no regrets on my mission. Don’t make any mistakes..this that and the other, but something that I’ve realized more and more, is that the missionary I am today, is b/c of those mistakes that I’ve made and those regrets that I have. I learn so much from experiences that I’ve gone through on my mission, good AND bad. I've learned that God doesn’t tempt you (obviously) but allows you to be tempted. B/c if He took our temptations away, then that would also take away our opportunity to choose good or evil; thus taking away our agency. He can’t take our temptations away b/c we live in the world. But he can help us overcome them. I love being a missionary especially here in good ole' Ukraine. I love you all! Have a great week!

- Старейшина Руни