One Crazy Week!!

FAMILY!!!
K so right now...life couldn’t honestly get much better. Sounds like Kimi's talk went great and that’s awesome for Todd! I love that guy it'll be crazy when I see him again haha. I GOT YOUR PACKAGES!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!! The music the pictures the candy! The COOKIES!!! Ukraine just isn’t up to par with pretty much anything haha. Except for juice, they've got us beat with that one. I know you've been planning (I think) to pick me up from the mish...if that’s the case, please rethink your decision. It honestly is not safe here unless you go to Kiev. Other than that, if you’re not doing God's work....you should have no business here haha seriously. Kimi is in Utah already? Crazy! My sources tell me that the waffle party was a blast! That’s awesome, great to hear. Time is just absolutely flying by.

This week was the craziest week of my mission...to start, two of my boys have their exit interviews today...the mission never ceases to throw crazy emotions at you. Even though I’ve only known them for a transfer, we became way tight. So it'll be sad to see them leave. But it’s cool, the work goes on. We got our transfer calls....we're getting 2 sisters in my District! I haven’t worked with sisters yet so I’m excited to see how things turn out. Ok, I’ll probably have one life threatening experience about once a week that I’ll write you about cuz i think that they're fun hahaha. I just know that if I’m doing my part, God will do his...and I’m doing my part so there's nothing to worry about :). Ready? K, so it all starts contacting, which is what we do all day everyday cuz we have only a handful of investigators, and we were seeing no success. So, I said a quick prayer to myself that we could at least talk to someone. As we know God answers prayers and about a minute later a guy walks up to us and asks us if he can have a copy of the Book of Mormon. WOW! God answered my prayer way fast it was SO COOL. We get his contact info and everything, it was awesome! His name was Victor and kind of weird but everyone is a little off here so it didn’t phase us. We had great conversation and just went on with our day. That night we get a phone call from this guy super late at night which we thought was weird but kind of just ignored. I woke in the morning with a text message from him saying he needed money which we also ignored cuz people tell us all the time that Americans are rich and that they need money....we thought it was a little weird but didn’t think much of it cuz he was probably just drunk like all the rest of the people here haha. So we set up a time to meet at his place and we head over there pretty stoked on this lesson we're about to have. I’ve got the Joseph Smith story memorized cuz i had been working in it so i could use it in our lesson...k the sketchiness begins....we go up to his apt and knock. we hear him come up to the door but then he starts talking to himself asking himself if he speaks English...in English! Then he starts making noises like he was moving things around and starts knocking on the door...we were just like, great...this guy’s drunk. So he finally finds the door knob and lets us in. His place was as bare as bare could be. Literally nothing on the walls, floors ....anything. We walk into his room slash living room and it’s just waaaay dark. Except for the TV was on. Immediately we both get this weird feeling, not to the extent that we needed to leave but, just that this guy seems like a nut. The TV looked like the TV from the movie "the Ring"...and it was playing weird children’s cartoons...static filled and everything. We look around and there were little Barbie’s kind of lying around and all that was in his room was this tiny TV, weird girl toys and a chest of some sort. He goes on to tell us that he is an "een-val-eed", mentally handicapped. then in broken English says" i kill, i kill" and something about Americans. So I’m starting to get a little freaked out and my comp and i give each other the “bro, this guy is literally crazy" look. We asked what that meant that he "kill"s. Well, that wasn’t the best question cuz he turns around and starts shuffling through his chest thing on the ground and through his bed sheets for something. me and my companion brace ourselves....we didn’t know what was about to go down so we were prepping in our minds what we would do...turns around with something that looks like a knife sheath thing and comes at me acting like he's trying to stab me with this thing he had in his hand. I probably soiled myself...i can’t remember. But after he stopped the eerie-est feeling came over the both of us. The guy starts to tell us that in 1991 he was put into a mental institution and was released in 2003.....the guy killed his dad with a knife and threw him off a "balcone"...balcony. And he started to act out how it all went down with that THING he had in his hand!! Coming at me!!!! We took off...never been so scared in my life. It was just a creepy strange environment...we thanked God that nothing happened to us. :)


We get to see Roza this week again! Pray for her! And there were 2 baptisms in our branch on Saturday! There really is no greater feeling than watching someone receive the Holy Ghost. Words can’t describe the feeling of watching some change their life. I love this work. I see blessings every day, I’ve never been so happy in my life. I know that you can literally go to God for anything cuz he's there for you. Have a great week. I loved the packages, you honestly have no idea how it feels to get things like that when you're on a mission, unless you've been here. Be happy, life is great. You literally have the choice to have a good day or not, it’s all up to you. I love this Gospel and know that it changes lives and brings true happiness to all. Love you all!!
- Старейшина Руни

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

THE HARDEST THING IVE EVER DONE - Mkeebka

FAMILY!!!
Hi...so I’ll get just get started...THIS IS THE HARDEST THING IVE EVER DONE IN MY LIFE. I’m in my 1st area called Mkeebka ( "mak-ee-yev-ka" ) i guess its one of the "hardest" areas of the mission? Anyways my trainer is a friend of mine that i went to BYU with!! Tyler Pulsipher! SMALL world! Things are great. The people of Ukraine are so nice!.....just kidding. For real, everyone here is just cold. That’s all i can really say, but my area is probably the most rundown communist places I’ve ever seen. My apartment is hilarious it’s so bad haha, but it’s becoming home. But it’s bad, like you don’t walk around barefoot or in socks cuz...well, bad things would happen to your feet if you did. Don’t freak out but we totally have bed bugs...we're looking in to how to get rid of them, but we'll be fine :)...hopefully haha. Our apt isn’t that bad, i mean, we get water twice a day, which is fun because it shuts off around 9:30 pm so if you have to use the restroom at night...well, good luck, hahah. Living conditions here for everyone is absolutely horrible and no one does anything about it. Morality is down the drain here and everyone is drunk throughout the day...literally. The buses here are way funny, people are all up in your face...personal bubble?...you don’t get one here, haha. The best is when you're on the "mar-shoot-ka"...bus...and a Babushka grabs the rail above you and her dang nasty hairy sweaty arm pits are in your face...deodorant? nope, you don’t get that here either, haha. It may sound bad...cuz it is, BUT i still love it. It’s hard but i love it. I’m speaking Russian!! to Russian people!! It’s crazy how when you open your mouth, the Lord blesses you with things to say! I bore my testimony on Sunday in our branch! and they all said that i did great. Also, a lot of people thing that i have a good accent! oh! and twice someone came up to me and asked me if I’m Armenian, haha, its way funny. I don’t "look" American i guess. It’s really weird to see everything in Russian! and everyone is speaking Russian too, my brain probably explodes 3 times a day. But I’m beginning to see how and why people grow on the mission. Personal study in the morning is like gold for me, it helps me get away from things. My comp is kind of disobedient which is a little bit of a bummer but when we get out on the streets, he works hard. It’s really hard to put my thoughts all in order, but when i get you some pictures, you'll understand. K funny story, so our bathroom is getting fixed and the guy working on it, Cawa " Sasha", is way sick. When he finished the other day, he started talking to my comp and i about the shower and stuff and he straight up strips!!!! down to this nasty little thong thing!!! My comp and i almost died!!! The best part was, he was still talking to us like it was no big deal hahaha! Oh man, it was bad haha but it was way funny. So now after that, he does it every time he's done working for the day. I’m getting used to it now, i don’t think that’s healthy. Anyways PLEASE send pictures. Family, friends, hobbies all the above. people love it and it helps a ton. I love you all and i pray for you every day. Going to pick up Kimi will be a blast. Keep reading and praying together every day. Man...the mission is no joke. I love you all!
Ct. Rooney

I'm Here!!!

K, so I don’t have much time but I’m supposed to let you know that I’m here! Everything went perfectly. So i woke up at 4:15 am then left for my flights, it’s now 6:22 pm the next day and I still haven't slept yet.....crazy! I’m waaaaay beat but I’m doing great. This is CRAZYYYYY!! This place is absolutely nuts. I love it though, dirt slash broken sidewalks, way nice cars everywhere but the buildings and sceneries are rundown but it’s beautiful. And there is green everywhere!! I’m so stoked to be here! I got to talk to dad when I was in SLC but when i tried to call the house in NY, my card said I had insufficient to make any calls and I tried a bunch to call! BUT because of that, I had the opportunity to place a book of Mormon with a man name Muhammad...I got to teach the whole first lesson and then talk about modern day prophets...he was way interested! So I’m sorry I couldn’t call but God had greater things in store! It was an amazing experience and its gunna be even more amazing in Russian! Anyways my P day is Monday from now on. I met my president and he's rad, but I get a new president next week so I won’t really get to know him. Anywaaays, I have to leave now but I LOVE YOU ALL!

-Ct. Rooney