Armenia with the President

FAMILY!!! 

Wow, sounds like a huge week for you all with all the change and the moving and everything.  Its crazy how everything is unfolding as we all grow up step by step.  So as you must have heard a little already, I was in Armenia for a few days this past week with my President and His wife.  

 

But the story starts before we got there.  For some reason we had to fly through Austria before getting to Armenia.  We had a 5 hour layover in the Vienna airport...you can only guess what happened.  Yup, we definitely talked our president into going in to down town Vienna...he did want to go so he waited our stuff as I, Fish and Hardy found our way through a huge airport some how exchanged money into Euros and found a bus that works on the half hour to and from down town Vienna to the airport...NO BIG DEAL!!!! I was just in VIENNA AUSTRIA!!!!!  It was BEAUTIFUL!!!  I saw some amazing things and we even found our way to a crazy awesome palace.  It was fun to literally have no idea how to speak German and to try to get around was way fun!  We, on our way back to where we needed to get on a bus back to the airport, saw a small pizza place that was around 2-4 euro a pizza. The man working was way awesome and made our pizzas in less that five minutes.  We didn't speak German and he didn't speak Russian or English, but some how it all worked out, its was too fun. I'll send some pictures.  In Armenia we were absolutely pampered!  The reason being that we were President Campero and his wife.  We went to an ancient monastery that was built in the side of a mountain, where we listened to a monk priest guy sing to us in a place that a resonance of 40 secs per tone.  He could make chords with his voice that would resonate for up to 40 seconds...everyone there looked like ME!!! its was so awesome!!  I totally fit in, it was hilarious.  we also ate at some of the amazing places EVER and the best part was...it was free for me!  I was honestly on an all expense paid vacation. 

 

We stayed at the mission home and met amazing people including the Stones that the Bybees know.  



With Grigor renewing our Visas

A man who is a "visa clerk" for our mission in Armenia, his name is Grigor, had become an idol to me.  He is 26 and is a Branch president and very successful.  He told us that he had three dollars, three ties, and no home when he asked his wife to marry him.  He said he knew that God would provide and he does everything in His power to make the right decisions and He credits everything to God. He served a mission in Kiev and was a killer missionary.  He taught me so much about who I want to become and what kind of character I want to have. We ( the missionaries) got our own little taxi and told tour driver to take us to center Yerevan ( the capital of Armenia) and luckily he spoke Russian (b/c Armenia was in the former Soviet Union)  so He took us and I swear I saw half of Mom's family and all of our Persian friends running around everywhere...it was super trippy. The women were dressed modestly and it was such a huge blessing!  Everyone was really nice.  I saw the Mount Ararat which according to the Bible Dictionary is where Noah's ark landed and the mountain is 13 miles into Turkey...as in,  I saw TURKEY!  I was maybe an hour from the boarder.  It was honestly the nicest break b/c we were not allowed to proselyte so we were just pampered b/c President Campero was with us. Yea....it was so fun.  I learned a lot about how much I am worth to my Savior this week. He purchased me with His life.  If you ever feel like things are hard or that you are not loved or anything at all, reflect on your relationship with our Savior and truly try to understand how much He loves you.  He understands, anything is possible when we put our trust in God.  Anyways, I love you all!!  have a great week!!

-Sean

Bannana Splits after a Fireside at the Armenian Mission Home

At the Armenian Mission Home with the Senior couple missionaries and the Mission Presidents

Wild Wild....Weather!!

KYLE IS DONE!!!  YEAA!!!  I know he's been dying to get out haha.  He'll do great up at school.  It sounds like everyone has been having a great time.  My birthday was pretty awesome.  President Rasband spoke to us and it was our mission conference!  I walked in and everyone sang happy birthday to me...it was way cool. I got a phone call from one of the girls from my area who was in the PMG class and who is now on a mission, at 6:31 am and she (with the other sisters) sang happy birthday to me and its was super funny.  Ukrainians are all tone deaf so it was pretty terrible to listen to especially at 6:30 in the morning, but the thought was nice.  I haven't had a chance to make my cake yet b/c we've been busy but I will make it and it will taste SO GOOD!  I've been living in a 4some right now due to some interesting problems that have happened in my apt...I won't get into detail but everyone is safe and the Lord loves his servants :)  Its been fun but I feel like I haven't just had a "normal" companionship where everything is fine...in DAYS!  I think you will all be interested to know that I leave to Armenia tomorrow!! for 4 days!  Its pretty crazy too, b/c my visa expires on Friday...if I would have left any later...I would have been deported, BUT I'm sure things will all work out.  Right now in Donetsk is the Euro Cup 2012 and its been so awesome to see all the people here! today we are going to the stadium where Ukraine will play England tonight and we hope to find some people from England b/c we're so ENGLISH TRUNKY! I go through spurts of being OVER Russian haha.  I got to hear from my best friend from BYU today, Aaron, that was so cool.  He just finished his time serving and is now getting on with his life.  He's been a huge example for me during my mission.  I'm so glad our family is close. It makes me sad to see people here that aren't close with their family.  Its the coolest thing to see married couples holding hands on the streets! I never see that anymore so when I do, it makes me happy.  I've been going through a ton of refiners fire this past week. Its been super hard but very rewarding. its interesting to me that when you give yourself to the Lord, you truly gain everything (especially "humble pie").  I'm so grateful for all of your examples, and testimonies. It honestly helps me so much.  I was having a really hard day today to the point of getting teary eyed just before coming to Internet (which hasn't happened on my mission until today).  I just feel so inadequate.  I feel like nothing ever just works out with me.  But after reading emails from everyone and hearing how everyone is doing and hearing your testimonies, I felt your love and felt a ton much better, so thank you for writing me.  I look up to you all so much, and I am so proud to call you my family. Anyways, last thing....we had a CRAZY storm roll through. It was by far the most insane storm I have ever seen!  We were caught in the rain waiting for a train trolley bus thing on tracks (I don't know what its called in English) and we were soaked. Then one came up, and we started going then the bus thing stopped and the Storm got CRAAAAAAZZZZYYYY!!!!  No one knew why everything stopped but we could see anything it was raining so hard and the wind was insane!!  we decided to get out and walk home after the rain chilled out.  Well, turns out the reason why everything stopped was b/c the storm ripped trees down to the ground.  Like electrical wires were owned b/c trees fell on them (big trees) and the roads flooded and everything was covered in branches from trees and things that had been blown off of the roofs, including cement roof tiles...I have never seen anything like it but had we been walking in the middle of it, we honestly would have gotten super hurt.  The sky was dark green and it look like something from harry potter with all the lighting and thunder.  It was SO COOL!  Anyways, thanks again for everything, I love you all so much.  I'll try and send some pictures

have a great week! 

- Sean

Trials and opportunities

I cant believe kyle is graduating high school?!  Where did time go?  Tomorrow is going to be awesome, Elder Rasband is coming to Donetsk for a question and answer session for 2 hours...if i get the chance, i will ask him this question (b/c I've been studying this lately in my studies and I haven't come up with a sound answer ) How do our temple covenants help us utilize the Atonement of Jesus Christ? Do they?  Its been a great opportunity to study this and I'm interested to see what he says about it.  This past week has been a killer hard week.  Satan works so hard and I have learned valuable lessons from this experience. (By the way... I HATE SEEING SO MUCH FILTH ON THE BILLBOARDS AND ON ALL ADVERTISMENT!!!)  But, what I learned came from a great study that i had this morning.  Mosiah 24:14-15, I'm sure you are all familiar with these verses, But I really saw what I was lacking in myself after trying to apply this concept in my life.  Alma and his people are enslaved and the Lord provides a way, but its really important to see what the people did (well there are a ton of great lessons to learn from these few verses).  What impacted me this morning is that they "did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord."  I really had to step back and look at how I handle myself ...I realized that my patience in God and in myself is lacking...big time.   I also opened my eyes more to the fact that I go through trials in my life so that i can become better.  In reality, my afflictions and infirmities in my life are blessings in the sense that God sees it fit that I go through another trial b/c I past the last one.  He is only trying to help me in my quest to become more like my Savior. I need to be more like Paul in 2 Corinth. 12:7-10...read those verses and learn from the confidence and trust that Paul has in God.  ( I think that those are the right verses...)  Anyways, its been intense in my tiny little mind this past week.  The more i learn the more i realize that I don't know anything!!  Ok, enough about that...I found out my release date...April 6th, 2013!!  My two year mark on the dot.  So we'll see what happens with my life when i get home.  I love being a missionary and I've learned so much and I just want to always be doing better.  Thanks for all of you love!

have a great week!!

ELDER ROONEY!!

The rain falls mainly on the plains..... and all the missionaries!!!

No longer a threesome, YAY!

HI!!!

It was soo good to hear from you all today! I'm happy to hear that all is well!  that's crazy that Kyle is going to college!! WHAT?! Time flies. This week was so great!  To start things off, I'm no longer in a THREESOME!! YAY! Its so nice and a ton less stressful.  My really young companion left us and well, I'm still in the same area which is completely fine b/c I LOVE this area.  The Elliots from the ward wrote me and sent me a picture and I was so pumped to hear from them, they are super cool.  Tell them thank you for me!  So we now have sisters in our area and they absolutely rock.  One is from Russia and the other is a greenie from Armenia.  Its been going great and we will see some major transformations here in this area.  THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGE! Of Course I already opened it and read the letter :) but don't worry b/c I'll read it again when its actually my Birthday!  We made fajitas yesterday and they were so good!  You would all be so proud of the cook I've become.  I'm having the best time with my comp, we are actually friends...in the sense where I feel like I'm not trying to work on our relationship, its just there.  Its been so much fun and I'm pretty sure this is the happiest I've been on my mission.  So now for the good news.  I don't know if you remember me telling you about the PMG I tried starting for the youth not too long ago, but it worked out and a some youth came almost every week, well, this is the First time I've seen the fruits of my labors on my mission, from something that I have personally started...2 of the youth from our class are now on "short term missions" in there own mission, The Donetsk Ukraine.  They have name tags and everything and are companions with missionaries.  One is a girl named Alyona, and the other is a boy named Kostya. They are both 17 years old and have such solid testimonies.  I can't imagine myself at 17 years old taking 3 months of my summer vacation to go be a full time missionary...these kids blow me away.  Its been so nice seeing this place transform.  Ok, so here is why this place frustrates me a little.  The people have a mentality of "as long as I'M comfortable".  We started this youth night things every week that is basically mutual that was HUGE. We had the first one my first week in this area back in Jan.  It had a great turn out and everyone loved it. Now it is no longer our responsibility, we had to turn it over to the branch which is good so that they can give callings and get things going.  Well, as soon as we did that, nothing happened. Its very different here than at home b/c here, if the missionaries don't put it together...no one puts it together.  They rely so much on the missionaries that they are not letting themselves as a branch grow.  So at district meeting with  the new sisters, we brainstormed.  We created a plan of all these things that we could do to help this place out and it was so nice to have a sister the spoke their language literally and figuratively. A lot of it was rejected b/c change would make it so these people would have to get out of their routine and leave their comfort zone.  Well, we cant do our presidents job for him but everyone needs a calling and everyone needs at least home teachers!!  In branch council they brought less actives and asked about a woman that i met with not to long ago.  They started telling me all about how she's worse than an investigator and that she needs to be taught all the lessons over again. They gave me the task...I of course accepted but completely grudgingly b/c when i asked if she has home teachers they said no...and they didn't seem to want to do anything about it.  AHH!!!  We cant be doing everything for everyone and I think that the most frustrating part is that I'm a MISSIONARY not the Branch president, and Its not with in my stewardship to tell him how to do his job.  I cant do that so we are in a dilemma in that we have a district full of Zealous missionaries and the leaders of the branch kind of reject our ideas...but, its part of the process and I understand that.  God has a plan and one way or another this land will be scattered with temples.  I'm honored to be a part of it. I love my Savior and I'm grateful for this opportunity to be humbled over and over and over and over.......again :)  B/c my edges are being smoothed (I don't even know how to say that?..) and I'm grateful for everything I've learned and I will continue to learn till the day I die b/c its SO AWESOME!  I love you all

- Sean

oh and I played a ukulele the other day (a real one)  I almost died I miss it so much haha

Things couldn't be better!!!

HI!!!

  So going against moms request of writing a long email...I was talking to my siblings so this could be short, but I'll try my best!  This week was incredible.  My mission is going through an "up" right now and things couldn't be better.  According to transfer calls, I'm staying again in the same area. I'm really excited being that this transfer things are going to blow with our investigators!  Yesterday I translated for Sis. Campero b/c they showed up to our branch for church, so I sat up on the stand with President and did my best to translate from Russian to broken rearranged English (being that a lot of things don't translate well in to English) then from that to super simple English b/c She doesn't speak that well....my head exploded. it was fun though. I've been in this area since January and a lot of members here have become family to me.  I LOVE THESE PEOPLE!  they are so amazing and so strong with their beliefs.  Yesterday also, we had an amazing time on the streets finding Israel. This man came walked by and my comp stopped him and he speaks pretty good English but the cool part was that as he walked away, he told us that he had the chills and would be reading and waiting for our phone call...its was SO RAD!  last night wrote down 7 contacts in our area book...that NEVER HAPPENS its was so awesome.  I'm in love with the kids all around this area. today we should be having a pretty massive game of soccer with the missionaries in my district verse Ukraine...I'm really excited for it today. Its been so much fun walking around and hearing "Rooney! Rooney!" everywhere I go. I feel like I'm actually doing something here. The girl that just got baptized that I had the honor of being apart of, told us that she wants to serve a mini mission (go on a transfer long split with the missionaries) and that she wants to do it next transfer...she awesome!  I got to teach her the plan of salvation again and about temples and its was so cool to teach the doctrine to someone who is accepting and zealous to do more.  I love being a missionary and I cant tell you the things that I have learned. I've learned a ton about how true happiness comes from making righteous decisions. In 2 Ne 2:25 "men are that they might have joy" what do you think that means?  Were people in Heaven in the premortal life happy? were there some there that were not happy?  What happened to those that were unhappy? why were they unhappy? are they happy now?  They bounced with our brother out of the presence of God. They did not have joy b/c they did not live according to Gods law and His plan.  So, those who were happy and had joy, were those who followed God's commandments and did what God asked. SOOOO when it says that men are that they might have "JOY".  I firmly believe that we are here to make the Righteous choices and follow God.  If obedience to God's commandments =Joy...then "men are that they might [follow the commandments of God]". B/c by doing so, we are living according to the plan of salvation which is the reason that we came here.  There is my little study and I hope that it helps you out in some way, I love you all so much and I cant wait to email NEXT WEEK!

- Старейшина Руни

ps We had a hail storm and  crazy amounts of rain and it looked like I jumped into a pool I was so wet.

pss I'm going to Armenia on the 20th of June!! for a visa trip cool huh?!

psss i tried to send pictures and nothing happened :(

Mother's Day Call

FAMILY!!!

  It was so good to talk to you all!!  It’s crazy how today's technology allows us to do things like that. It was so much fun, our family ROCKS!!  It’s crazy, I wish we would have spoken 2 days later b/c we had President and Sister Lawrence from the (our Area President) come and its was NUTS!  they blew my mind with so many things.  Sister Lawrence is the smartest person I’ve ever met when it comes to the Gospel. She truly is a scholar and loves the scriptures.  I learned what it means to be a part of the House of Israel and I wish I could talk to you personally about it b/c I cant type for my life but I will say that my mind was worked over....hard.  I never knew the significance of being a part of the house of Israel.  I never realized how my role as a member of the Tribe of Ephraim truly meant, and now I can’t imagine doing missionary work or studying the scriptures without this knowledge.  It was so cool; we all got personal interviews with Pres. Lawrence and got to ask him anything we wanted.  He is a very wise and loving man, and I was truly lifted after I spoke with him. Well, I pretty much learned that our role as the house of Israel is truly an honorable calling. And we need to do everything we can to find our brothers and sisters b/c they're just waiting for us.  On Saturday, we had a baptism!  When I was in a threesome when my comp went to America, we had a member bring literally an acquaintance to church and she's 23 and speaks great English.  Anyways, she was the most elect person I have ever taught on my mission.  So technically it doesn't count as "my" baptism, but who cares she’s baptized and I’m honored to have taught her. Our 1st lesson with her, she was put on date and she has had crazy trails ever since then.  Her fiancé, to whom she was going to be married in 2 weeks, died in a car accident soon after she was put on date.  She's so strong and got a brand new job as a stewardess and had to change her schedule right after she just got hired. She was way scared obviously after just being hired but prayed and her hours were changed so she could come to church.  She truly has amazing faith.  I was asked to be a part of the confirmation yesterday at church and that was a huge honor.  I’m so grateful for this opportunity to be mentally and physically beat up here in Ukraine...b/c this experience is changing my life.  I know that the Gospel is true and will help every single one of us out.  I love my Savior.  Have a great week!

-Sean

Now you see him, Now you don't!!

Hey all!

 I cant wait to see you next week!!!! I'm going to try and work everything out with the whole Google thing.  I think I'm going to do the same thing that I did last time, sooo I'm going to try and call my Monday morning/ your Sunday night b/c I'll most likely be in an Internet club.  I'll try and be on around    730-8 ish in the morning (here...so like 930 or 10 on Sunday night for you) depending on if transport is up and running.  Just be alert to any email I send b/c it may change but for now that's the plan. If anything happens I'll send an email during the week to let you know.   Wow, I cant believe Tyler met Dianna...literally my best friend on the mission.  That's so crazy!!  This week has been full of miracles and I don't even know where to begin, but that's ok b/c I GET TO TALK TO YOU ALL NEXT WEEK!!  (by the way this email will be short b/c I'm going to try and set up that Google thing). OK so I'll tell you one story. our branch had a picnic thing on Saturday and it was an absolute blast.  There is a woman who grew up here and moved to America but is visiting and she is a professional piano player...and we jammed for like an hour an a half during the picnic and provided the entertainment, but that's not the story I wanted to talk about. So I was out by the picnic table thing outside getting some food and talking with some members when way at the end  of the parking lot I see this little boy, his name translates to Benjamin, and hes about 2 years old.  And I see him with a basketball that's bigger than he is and he's just having a good time.  Well, he wonders into the corner of the parking lot, and sits down with the ball on top a light green mat thing on the asphalt. and before you know it I see him disappear!!  Turns out the mat was covering a man hole thing...like imagine going out to the street and seeing someone sitting on a man hole then suddenly that person is gone under the street...and that's what I saw, and the kid was 2.  Me and the kids mom were some of the only people who even saw him luckily, so I went into a dead sprint to the other side of the parking lot (about half a football field away) going through scenarios in my mind of things I would see and/or and it was SO scary. Ben fell about 4 or 5 feet under ground and rolled half way under some other concrete thing under the street.  So I reached down and picked him up and he was balling.  He banged his head pretty bad but was virtually unharmed...miracle? yes.  It was so scary, my heart was pounding so fast.  But all is well and I was just happy that that fall was only 4ish feet and that there wasn't any water or anything crazy down there.  Anyways that's my story haha.   I have a ton to tell you when I see you,  but that's all for now.  I love you all so much!

Have a great week!