An "Ahaw" moment...

Hey family!
С Днём Рождения Dad and Kyle!!


This week was really great. My companion and I are doing really well together. I got over the lump that I went through the last few weeks and I am back to normal Elder Rooney. I just love being here and serving with such wonderful people. I have truly made some life time friends that have made a wonderful impact on my life. This week I started to kick my missionary work up a knotch (notch? I can't remember how to spell that to be honest...).  We had a meeting this past week for some district and zone leaders about how to work with our Branch presidency in our area more effectively.  I was so pumped afterwards,  that I called up our branch presidency (which consists of one man...the Branch president. Our 1st councilor just moved and there was never a 2nd councilor...) and we met with him that night and laid down some of our expectations for this area and asked for his helped to get things going. It is so important that we have the support of our leaders b/c missionary efforts in the branches, at least here in Ukraine, will start to move forward if it comes from the "Top" down, and not from the "bottom" up. Anyways, we went and tried our best this week to get our Branch president on board with some things that we have been asked to do by our mission president.  By the way, our Mission president is sick and flew out today to America to go to Salt lake to see if they can fix some problems he has been battling as of late. So, we're kinda just waiting and praying that everything works out and so he can come back soon.
   If you haven't had the opportunity to read the Liahona for this month..do it!  Tad R. gives a wonderful presentation about integrity and it is really cool.  So, my thoughts for today come actually from my friend Alex Bertha's mom, Sandy.  First of all, she has written me my whole mission pretty much and for that I am very grateful. But the idea that was shared with me was that of the definition of the "Real World". The Real world in actuality is the time spent in the temple, in the service of others, and being constantly on the Lord's errand.  I love the idea about how this life time in the "world" is so short and so not what "real" life is. I see people all around here that are so stuck in the world that they become blind and numb to the things of God.
  I have had so many experiences that I wish I could share with you but I'm sure you will all hear about them soon enough. I am really excited to come home!! but Don't worry, I'm working super hard still. We actually have been blessed with a ton of lessons and are actually leading our mission in that area.  Now its time to help these people enter into the waters of baptism and start their journey back home.  I have learned something that I think is very interesting. I was sitting in church  and looked at a man who is a recent convert.  He is very lively, loud, funny, and a little too crazy at times.  And sometimes his ideas don't quite match up with the doctrine of the church...but as I was sitting there, I remembered an old investigator of ours who came to church 13 plus times, took all of the lessons, participated well, and seemed to be a man of sound understanding.  I remembered a conversation with him when we asked me how it was possible for a man who had such little understanding and such interesting ideas can be a priesthood holder of God and perform ordinances such as blessing the sacrament and so on, as was with this recent convert. And sitting in church yesterday, the answer came as I sat in gospel principles with the recent convert and with the absence of our investigator.  We had to drop our investigator unfortunately b/c he accepted everything and knew it was all true but rejected being baptized multiple times and he just wasn't progressing. But as i sat there in class, I understood that the reason why one of the men help the priesthood of God while the other didn't was b/c one of them had sufficient humility while the other did not.  And b/c the recent convert was humble enough to get baptized and take upon him the name of Christ, he will continue forward while our investigator will not. And b/c he is humble, he will learn and understand the true doctrine of the church and accept it, in time.  Its fun to see the events in my life and in the lives of others and say to myself over and over again.."Man, Jesus totally knew what he was talking about!" haha. Its true though, the "humble will be saved with their little ones".
 Thanks for everything you all do, I love you all!


- Elder Rooney

The back up plan.....

Hi!
 So I loved hearing from you all! And mom, I'm sorry to say but your have 6 letters to write still...not 3 haha. I had a really hard week to be honest.  I absolutely love my comp, he reminds me of Aaron Rowan (one of my best friends from BYU) he is such a blessing.  The past 3 weeks have been hard actually. I have really been tried with serving God with all of my might, MIND, and strength. MIND....the end of my mission is coming and I know it is, and at this point in my mission I have a constant battle of keeping my thoughts HERE and not in the future. I get it now when we hear to serve God with our mind. I'm going through a battle right now feeling that when the end comes, I can say that I gave everything.  I know that I can constantly do better and there have been times where I have made good decisions, just not the best. I'm just trying to stay here and work hard. I was going to tell you all a story of what missionary work in Ukraine is like sometimes but I think that it would not be the best idea haha.  I'll just say that a few days ago after our 4 lessons fell through, we decided to refer to our back up plan.  We prayed to God to tell Him everything that we had done so far that day and with the best of our knowledge and with the time that we had left, we were going to refer to our back-plan for the last hour of our day (which consisted of stopping by a former investigator in his apt bldg, and if he wasn't home, we were going to go to the top of the bldg and stop by other investigators who live in the same place, and if THEY weren't home, we were going to tract the bldg) and we asked God to sanctify our plan b/c things just weren't working out for us that day.  So we went to the first guy, and he wasn't home, then we went to the second guys and they weren't there, so we started tracking ..at about door 4 or 5 a drunk guy walked up the stairs, maybe mid-20's, and muttered something in drunk Russian which is a different lang than regular Russian haha so I had no idea what he said.  He repeated himself  but I seriously couldn't understand him...our experience got a little physical...and I can't remember all of the details. However, my comp and I are both fine.  After our experience, we walked home b/c my comp had to change his pants being that they had been ripped from what had just happened from about the hip to the knee...so we went home to change and it was only 8 pm   So, we contacted home being a little shaken up, sat down for a little, made a nice hot beverage, got ourselves together and then went back into to the cold for the remainder of the night for some more contacting.  Things like that happen from time to time here but it was the first time for me when things got physical. Don't worry, My comp and I didn't fight back or anything but after I pushed the guy to get off of my comp just enough so he would stop getting crazy...my comp said that it was the first time that he heard me use "angry Russian" .  Anyways, even in situations like that I feel completely watched over by God and I felt watched over, I understand even more so now why we travel in two's or three's as missionaries.
       To answer Dad's question about Joseph Smith, He is important for me for some many reasons. I don't know where to start. I guess to some everything up, He is important b/c he was a significant tool in the hand's of God to bring to pass God's work and His glory. Meaning that he was worthy and humble enough to be the tool that God was able to use to restore His living church with priesthood power here on the earth, for our benefit.  B/c Joseph was humble and had a profound reverence for God and His ways, we now can all benefit from the Restored Gospel and The eternal plan of happiness, which God has perfectly designed to, if we allow it,  take weak things (us) and make them strong while binding families together, forever. Giving us as God's eternal children the opportunity to become like Him, through His Son, Jesus Christ.  Sooooooo, yea, Joseph Smith was a pretty cool guy :)
  Anyways, Thanks for all the letters, I love you all! Have a great week

-Sean

Tracting in the cold

Enduring to the end....

HII!
  I'm going to be kinda short this week b/c I went CRAZY and sent you a ton of pictures b/c I never send any. But I am doing really well.  It has been a BREEZE this winter with the weather. Its not cold at ALL.  Usually at this time of year its pushing lower than negative 20 but right not its super nice. Last year at this time was a JOKE.  It was too cold.  So I would not mind if this was a record breaking warm winter in Ukraine, but I doubt it haha, I'm sure it'll get cold by next week.  Anyways, I have a new companion!!  His name is Elder Jones, form West Jordan Utah.  He is a really good kid. He is in his 3rd transfer just like my last comp when he came to me. I'm still in Alekseevka and yes I still have no oven.  So for the last 6 months of my mission, I will have had no oven...my meals are very limited...I will never take an oven for granted again haha. The past 6 weeks have been nothing short of miraculous. Last transfer ago, My companion and I were leading the mission in investigator lessons and our goal was to beat our last goal...and by the grace of God we did.  We shattered our last results.  Now its time to get some of our investigators to enter in the the covenant of baptism and get them started on their way back to the presence of God.  I am happy to be here. I guess I thought that the end of my mission would be cake as compared to the rest of my mission, but for me, it has been very difficult.  I truly understand the principle of enduring until the end.  I want to finish the strongest at the end of my mission b/c that means that I am always striving to progress, but man its tough sometimes.  On Sunday I had a tender mercy, during one of the talks...I was able to translate it really well and it wasn't super hard.  It was still hard, just not super hard. It was nice to see that I am progressing with the Russian language slowly. Its been difficult for me b/c I have been the older companion since my 6th transfer...so I haven't had a ton of comps that have helped me improve a ton with Russian. So it was nice to see that God always helps you out when you try and put forth an effort.  Anyways, I grateful to be here. Its crazy to here about Todd Love and Jordan Smith eating Lunch together. and that Todd is getting married!!!  That's nuts. But super cool, I'm way happy for him.  K, I have to go, but I love you all! And enjoy the pictures of your malnourished and very white son (slash brother slash friend) out here in the former soviet union :)

have a great week!

--
- Старейшина Руни

Early morning street contacting

 Paddy, my favortite brother here. He is one of my best friends

Sean and the Brothas

The Poet....

Hi family!

  Sorry I dropped the ball on telling you that P-day was going to be on Wednesday this and not on Monday due to a new schedule to work well with transfers this week.  I read through Kimi's Statement and its sounds great however in the 4th paragraph there is a random "e" kinda just hanging out by itself...I know my English is going down hill fast thanks to Russian but you might want to look at the that...Anyways thanks for the updates on everything!  I can't believe that Danny is already home! I'm so happy that he's safe. I definitely kept in him in some prayers.  I just found out that I'm staying in my area until the rest of my mission, It will be my second 6 month area in my mission.  My companion is leaving me so I will get a new one tomorrow. This is my last full transfer b/c I will leave about 2 weeks into the next one. I can't believe Elder Smith is going to be home today!! I was in the MTC with him!!! Things are great here. There is too much to talk about in one whole day let alone one small letter. So I will give you bits and pieces about what happened and then later i can give you the full ish detail.  On Sunday night, we went to Theddy and the boys were we had a lesson in the equivalent a college dorm, with 6 Africans.  It was SOOOO AWESOME! 4 of them are already investigators and out of the other 2, 1 became a new investigator.  Those guys are party animals but when it comes time for the Gospel, they really know how to focus...well most of the time haha.  My comp and I are having a wonderful time teaching and seeing such great progress in people. I just heard last night that a man that I started teaching again in my last area is getting baptized on Saturday.  That brings peace to my soul that I am actually making a difference. With in the last 2 weeks or so I have heard from other missionaries currently serving in some of my old areas say that while street contacting, they had random people they met tell them to tell Elder Rooney that they said hi. I can't remember who they are all the time  b/c I meet a ton of people everyday but apparently they remembered me which I thought was really nice.  It makes me want to never forget anyone that meet with. even If it just on the street. It actually been a goal that I have given myself, is to invest in people.  For example, If I am talking to some one to if someone is talking to me...they get ALL of my attention. Its really interesting to me, that after analyzing why some of the missionaries here became some of my really good friends, I understood that they were the ones that cared enough about me to give me their attention. They invested in me and it made me want to be around them.  And b/c they did give me their whole attention, they were able to remember somethings that I considered important to me, and they were able to relate that back to me at later time in my mission, which made me feel that I was important to them.  So, I made it a goal a while back to do the same, and its been a great experience.  Sooooo, relating to this goal I had set,  I have an experience I want to share with you.  

   We went to a woman's place, her name is Sveta, I have talked about her before. She is a member of the church and is in her 70's.  She is the saddest woman I think I have ever met.

Sveta the Poet

 At the beginning of our lesson, I asked how she was doing, she just went on and on about her problems and how she tries and tries to have a good relationship with her son but he won't talk to her b/c she's "Mormon". She told us that she is not living, she just exists.  She gets up in the morning, bathes, eats breakfast, and goes to sleep again. She never leaves her apt and no one comes to visit her.  We started talking about the Atonement b/c the Atonement fixes everything...literally. then the  thought came to my mind that I need to ask her what she is good at. The whole time, and every time we visit her, she is always so negative and talks about things that she doesn't have (life, family...etc).  The thought of the parables of the talents came to my mind.  The reason why this woman feels as though she has nothing is b/c she is focusing on what she doesn't have and not focusing on what she does have. The parable teaches us that we must work well with the talents that we have been given and THEN we will receive more.  It doesn't say focus and the things that you don't have and you will be added upon. So, I ask her. " What things to you do well?"  (that is a hard question to answer by the way, Anyone can say anything that they need improvement on or something that they are struggling with but, its not as easy to say something like "I am great at.....".  When we look at the things we are good at, then we start to understand what beautiful things with which God has entrusted us). She said "I'm old, and its all gone from me now", "I'm not good at anything".  Then I felt prompted to ask her " When you were young, what things were you good at?" She began to answer the same way....."I'm not good at anything..." BLAH BLAH BLAH. Everyone has been given talents, I won't accept an answer of "I'm not good at anything".  I gently stated that everyone has talents.  Then she stopped and said "I liked to write poems".  And when she said that, the world stopped. She began to think about the things she loved to do. The room went silent.  She said that she also enjoyed reciting them for others.  We told her to tell us one!!! and she was like " No,  no I can't remember any of them....It's all left form me now..." Then we started talking a little and she stops randomly and she started to say this beautiful poem that she wrote years ago, that she STILL remembered.  As she did so, she started to smile. I was so happy when I saw her smile. She forgot what it was like to use the talents given to her, and she also forgot what it was like to feel the joy from God when He sees us using them.  So I asked her to write me a poem and then recite it to us next time we see her. She said that she wouldn't make any promises.  So I said " I'll tell you what, You write a poem and I'll write a poem and we'll both share them to each other on our next visit."  She said she wouldn't make any promises.  But I think she will :) I of course reassured her that I'm terrible with writing poems in English and that if I tried to write one in Russian it would be a nightmare haha. however, when she prayed to close the meeting, she was a different person. She offered a beautiful prayer that was full of thanksgiving and hope.  I felt as though I was I actually helping someone. It was a very tender experience that I will always cherish.  Yesterday, I started my poem for her and I can't wait for the day when I can share it with her.

 I have a firm testimony through experience on both ends that when you invest your time and attention in someone, you not only better the lives of those around you, but you also begin to see the hand of God work in your own life. How grateful I am to have had these wonderful experiences on my mission that have given me such great knowledge and joy.  have a great week! 

- Sean