Another Email

Hey everyone!

So, this week, we've had a lot of fun.  My companion and I are really just loving working, learning, practicing, and teaching together.  The Branch here is very supportive and loving.  The members love to help out, and are always pleased to be part of Missionary work.  I don't think there much more a missionary could ask for.

I'm feeling pretty good. 

Our investigator pool is growing!

We have a new family to teach, and we're going to them on Wednesday!

We had a great conference on Thursday, and we talked about the importance of preparing for the sacrament, budgeting your money, and always working on self improvement.  It was really great, and I loved the spirit that was present in the room the entire time.

Just remember that family is very important!  Do family home evening weekly, take care of eachother, and try your best to help all of our brothers and sisters everywhere find their way back home.  

I love you all!

Have a good week!

A "Black" Sort of Week.

Hah.. This is gonna be fun.

Hi family and friends! I hope you are all doing really well!

My companion has spent the last 2 days trying to convince me that hippos can run over 50km/hr.  I've informed him time and time again that legs like that don't run, and that maybe they can roll that fast.

Amongst other things in relation to fun times, we has a Branch Talent Show!  *cheers*  And the missionaries got to take a small part in it.  We were amazed by the incredible talent of the branch members!  One of them paints almost as well as Alyssa does, and she had some pretty cool portraits that she had done on display.  Another woman is a great seamstress, and has stitched countless "wishiwanka" patterns, some of them even themed after Christ.  An investigator played his bass guitar while the sisters accompanied him on the piano and a recorder.  We sang Amazing Grace as a district with the Dragoon Guard bagpipes playing in the background.  We had a skit where we had to "be our companions arms" and do the 3 bears skit (You know, with goldilocks or whatever her name is...)  and it was hilarious.  I got to be the arms thankfully... and my massive companion was the baby bear.  HA!  Our investigator Yaroslav came, and he loved it!  I was way happy to see our investigator having a good time, and getting to know the members.

Finally, we had one last act...

Brother Yehorov and I sang a song called 'Чорний Кадилак" By a group called Dzidzo.  It translates as "Black Caddilac" (or however you call that car).  Look it up.  It's pretty awesome.  I haven't seen the music video though, so you might just want to listen to the song.  No swears, promise *cross my heart* (hope to move on to the spirit world).

Then, we went to Ternopil.  That was pretty cool.  We met with two of our student members there from Africa.  So.... two awesome black guys basically.  They sang like gospel singers, conducted the meeting like it was general conference, and blessed the sacrament like pros.  It was so awesome!  We need to open Ternopil for full time missionaries sometime.... maybe when we have more than 36 missionaries throughout the whole western Ukraine...

And... I'm finally getting my black suit dry-cleaned for the first time at a real dry-cleaning place.  Those actually exist in this city!  Whowzers.

I would send you pictures, but I'm in one of those internet clubs where pictures don't work... later I'll send you a sweet shot with "mah bruthus".

Well, keep your prayers going for Volodya and Yaroslav.  Pray for our missionaries and the country of Ukraine.  Hopefully things will get a bit more 'missionary friendly' round these parts.

Love you all very much!

Elder LeBaron

Fun Tours

So, we had a crazy adventure this week....

Actually, a lot.
I'm really good at getting lost in this big city.

Basically, we have this potential investigator who likes to take us around the city and show us things like;  A big old church, the oldest pharmacy in Ukraine, and much more!

So that was pretty darn cool.

We have a new investigator names Yaroslav.  He's praying about the decision to be baptized.  He wants to wait until he knows the members of the church a little bit better before he jumps aboard.  It's cool though, because he needs to come to church 5 times at least anyway.  He's got this "how to become a member" thing figured out!

We had a Sunday School class that I got to help teach and translate, and it was AWESOME.  Brother Yehorov taught the most of the lesson, and then had me come up in the middle of trying to explain everything to the senior couple... and had me testify of Christ.  It was so great!  The room was silent, and some people even cried.  The lesson just was incredible!  Yaroslav loved it!  It was SO SO Good!

So things are going good.

I'm gonna attach some pictures.

To help you out, the word on the bench is just an adjective for things that are from L'viv... like me.  I am a L'viv missionary *Wink*.

Love ya all!

One More Transfer Here

Well, I'm sticking around in the office!

I've got a great new companion names Elder Шнирьов (shneer-yov).  

He's REALLY cool.  Our apartment is so much cleaner now, and our Area book is heading in that direction as well :)  We're really getting along, and I really am enjoying myself.  It's his 3rd transfer in the field, and he's already an incredible elder!

I have so many great miracles and experiences I want to share with you all... but so little time... ugh.

We basically got held up today because we went shopping for a big cooking pot, and the salesman talked to us for a really long!

I talked to a young man names Sylvester today on the bus.  I didn't know that was a Ukrainian name.  He spoke PERFECT English.... super weird.  Extraordinary young man.  Hopefully he comes to our English practice!

Um... yeah.

I don't have a lot of time, like I said, but I love you all!

I know the Church is true, and that God is our Loving Heavenly Father!

​Talk to you all later!

:D

OH NO! Transfers

Not really though.  Because I get to stay :)

Hello everyone, from snowy, frosty, hot-chocolate weather L'viv!

Man, I love the winter.  It's great!  It's just like you would imagine when you think of Eastern Europe in the winter time.  Well, maybe some of you don't have much of an imagination of what that is.... maybe you do.  It's beautiful, to say the least.

And, to top off all of this beautiful weather, we also have so many holidays!  There are SO many things that people find to celebrate here!  I love that the members like to celebrate, because we love to have fun with them.  Ukraine is great, and I especially love the members here in L'viv.

We have the traditional Christmas Celebration on the 7th.  That means that we get to go with all of the Active members, and sing Carols to the Less-Active ones.  Pretty cool, huh?  The branch president here has really got his head on his shoulders.  I love the fact that we're doing missionary work with the members here.

I've got to learn a lot of fun traditional Ukrainian songs this past little bit.  It makes me pretty happy, considering how much I love singing.  Man, it just can't get any better...

OH, but it can!  

This next transfer, I'm getting a new companion named Elder Шнирьов (Shnyriov).  He's the beast-from-the-east, standing at bit over 2 1/2 meters, and hailing all the way from the land of the Odessa Oblast.  He's gonna help me rock this district next transfer.  I'm taking my companion, Elder Coumb's, place as district leader here, and my Zone Leader, Elder Asay, is coming up to become the new assistant with Elder Vandermark!  We also have 2 of the most righteous powerhouse sisters (Edwards and Snyder) of our whole mission serving here in L'viv, and because of them, we had 75 people at sacrament meeting!  That's pretty righteous people. 

L'viv can't even handle how great the Lord is going to make it here!

Our goal;  Make L'viv one big family by the time we're out of here.

We're having a rough spot with investigators again...

Volodymyr, our investigator with the smoking problem, is still missing and not answering his phone.  

Yevhen is off at some other church's Christian Camp... Bleen...

Anton doesn't want to meet until after Christmas... as well as all of our Potential buddies....

BUT!

We will get things rolling again soon!  The best part about being low, means that you've only got up to go! *GRIN*

Thank you all for your love and support.

If you could, be sure to pray for the health of our missionaries around the world, as I've seen many of my friends and love ones suffering from a lot of ailments and struggles physically and mentally.   Your prayers will mean a lot, especially when you pray with all of your heart!

We pray for you all the time!

I hope that you will all keep your New Years resolutions somewhere close, and think about them often.  If you forget them, you can forget about the success accomplishing them will bring! 

Ether 12: 27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them theirweakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble;and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and havefaith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

If we want to become strong, we have to make goals WITH the Lord, and then work work WORK, we'll become strong.

I know it.  I love it, and I'm trying every day to live it.

May the Lord Bless you,

Till' we meet (or I shoot you another email...)

ELDER LeBaron!

What Happened This Transfer?

HIYA!

I'm happy to say hi to you all.

Skyping with the family on the 25th was pretty cool. I got hit with the trunkiest wall of my entire life though... It's taking a lot of will power to push all thoughts from home out of my noggin.  Luckily, having a MILLION CRAZY THINGS happen helps a lot with that.

This transfer has gone so fast... it's like I barely even just started....

Our investigator, Volodymyr, has dissapeared off of the face of the earth.  We have no idea what happened to the guy.  He's not picking up the phone, and he didn't come to church this week!  He was communicating with us everyday and meeting with us all the time to try and quit smoking and get onboard with the word of wisdom and then... poof.  We're hoping that it just has something to do with him being with his family for the holidays... but that could also be bad, because we don't want him to hop back onto the "party train" and throw off all of his hard work to get clean!  

​Hopefully he comes up soon...

We have a couple of great new potentials that are coming out of our formal lists -- The only problem is that the Christmas Season in this country lasts from the beginning of December all the way until Mid-January.  Every says "YES! I want to know more about Christ!  NO! I don't want to meet this month!"

*Sad shoulder shrug*

It's okay though, because salvation comes on the Lord's time, according to the faith of those with work with, and according to our faithful work :)

The office is.... well, it's definitely the office.  My latest project that I've gotten assigned is designing the departure Slideshow DVD's for the Departing missionaries.  *TRUNKY SHEILDS ACTIVATED*  It's kind of torturous from that point of view, ​ but fun from the idea that I'm making people something they'll have to remember for the rest of their lives.

But it's a mess.

OH OH.

Our power shut off in our apartment.  That's usually not a big problem...

Except we discovered that we have an Buglery Alarm system in our house.  Man, that thing was beeping relentlessly... and then, we call our landlord for the code,

"You must press dees buttonz; The 1, the 2, the 3, the 4, and then *Crazy russian words*"

"Push what?"

"Uh... The Star"

"Oh.. *Click*"  

BWEEEP BWEEP BWEEP *SCREEEAAAACH*

"TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!"

*Panic* 

It was a long night.

We had to put shoes in front of the sensors in the top corners, move our beds to the corner of the apartment, and not move too aggressively or make much noise.  We didn't want to anger it.  Elder Coumbs tried army crawling to the Kitchen.  That seemed to be the most effective mode of getting oneself some food in the night time.

It's just lots of fun living here :)

Anywho!

I love you all!

I hope that you all make some new-years resolutions and really stick to your new goals!

Try looking up the Christ-Like Attribute section in Preach my Gospel, and pick one of those to really focus in on this year!  I promise that as we grow closer to the Savior, we will become happier, cleaner, and ultimately prepared to return to our Father in Heaven.

I love you all, have a great new-years

Elder LeBaron

PS.

We were told that we will be staying inside all of new years, cleaning.

It's gonna be so CLEAN! LIKE A TEMPLE!  AHAHA!

PPS.

I met some Australians.  Walter and Lucy.  

They're in Ukraine because, "Why not?"

HA! I wanna be like that when I'm older.

We're Alive!

*Deep Breath* 

The sound of missionary shoes thundering through the streets of L'viv has quieted to the clamper of 6 personages....

The Christmas carols haven't ceased, but the immense choir that sounded like angels has returned to their respective cities....

Slowly, the heads of the poor office elders elevate above the back of the couch, far enough to scan the ruins of what they once called an apartment...

We recoil in disgust.

More stories in a bit.

AIR MATTRESSES EVERYWHERE!

​Sweet mercy.  That was a blast.

As you can guess, Christmas Conference was a HUGE success here in L'viv, and we're seeing a lot of Christmas miracles everywhere we go!  

Our mission, looking at many others across the world, is very small.  I mean to say, we have very few missionaries.  We cover quite a bit of ground for 40 total missionaries though.  Sister Lattin (Mission President's wife extrordinaire) gave every missionary a little origami angel figure, and sent us out into the world to share the Christmas message with people on the street!  We put a lot of effort into trying to help people appreciate Christ this Christmas! 

Um... but Christmas happens on January 7th for Orthodox Church members.  So that made some encounters kind of weird.  

BUT, we gave our Angel to a nice man with a beard.  He smiled, and thanked us. He said he'll be thinking of the real first gift this year :)  The Heisthegift initiative is kind of difficult to do here, but we're trying to do our best! 

Okay, story time;

So, after we get up the next morning, looking at all of the havoc from mission conference, we decided that at some point, we were going to need to clean the place up...

I (in a half cognitive state that we find ourselves in at 6:45) decided that I wasn't going to be able to work out with the smell of a rotten milk container sitting on our counter.  I dumped it down into the sink... to find that the sink was completely clogged.  Bleen.  Okay... so I'll just get a really big pot, and drain it all out by pulling out the drainage pipe... then I can flush it down the toilet.  My logic is flawless in the morning, no?

*Tug, tug, tug* POP.

I learned that morning that we do not only have rotten milk in our drainage pipes, but old vareniki, plimeni, and black mold.  You could say that this lesson quite literally smacked me in the face.  I guess there was some sort of air vacuum in that pipe... so PERPLOW!  I was covered with gnarly sink bile.

Elder Coumbs exiting the bathroom; "AW MAN!  Did you rip one right in front of the door!?  That's not cool!"

Me; *Shivers*  You wish that was all that I did while you were in there...."

It's all clean now.  Nobody flip out.

That's just what happens with you stick 8 teenage boys in one apartment for 2 days...

In other news, our apartments electricity also went out, right after we had just boughten(??) groceries (I forget how to english sometimes).  

And I was at the train station this morning at 6:50 to send documents on a train to Ivano Frankivsk...  WOO!

This is the weirdest place I have ever served in.

Christmas Miracle:  VOLODIYA STAYED ALL 3 HOURS AT CHURCH AND DIDN'T HAVE TO GO OUT FOR A SMOKE BREAK!

AW BUDDY! YEAH!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND 

BAPTISM!

Misha, our investigator, finally got baptized on tuesday, and recieved the Holy Ghost on sunday!  He's awesome. Gave his first talk too! *Sniff* So proud!

Workin on that priesthood!

Okay, I think that's all for this week...

Have a great christmas everyone!

Elder LeBaron  

P.S. Family; Thank you for the package!  I got it!

I'm gonna open it on Christmas!

:)