Week 4

Hi Family,

Well this week was an entertaining for the most part.

Let me tell you guys a little bit about our branch. We have three hours just like back home. The missionaries, this boy right here, teach the gospel doctrines class but that's only when investigators show up but no one has showed up since our first week here so that's a bummer. After church, we go to this old Бабушка and we administer her the sacrament. She is a nice lady who loves to sing hymns. And the rest of our day is really just filled with contacting. Not the best fun in the world.

On Wednesday we had our English Club and we taught our class a little about time, days and the months. It was really fun. I'm surprised at how much they know. Our spiritual thinking thought was about the Book of Mormon and where it came from and why we have it. Hess, Shorthill and I bore our testimonies on it and it was really good. I know that they all felt something there as well. From English we have this investigator named Artem. He speaks English really well. We gave him a Book of Mormon in English and we read the Introduction with him and everything. It was great. I know that he feels the spirit when he is reading the book and I know that he feels that this is right and true but he just refuses to let it work on him and it is sad to see that. But we are working with him and we are going to commit him to read and pray about it again cuz I know he will find that this is the best path for him to be on. He is such a great guy and I know the Lord wants him to be baptized. I pray for him to know this for himself every night. I hope he sees it.

On Friday we had a training meeting and it was really good. President Fry talked a lot about planning and getting investigators on a baptismal date and letting them know when it is so they know to prepare for it. It was really good. I enjoyed it a lot. Saturday, I had my first infield interview with President and it was good. We talked about the investigators we have and how to better get them to be involved with church and stuff.

On Sunday, we had a little meeting with this college student Zhang. He is from China. He is here studying to be an aviation engineer. He was baptized in January I believe. He is a solid kid with a strong testimony. I like what he said to us last night about why he became religious. He said that he wanted to live by good principles. How many college students would say that? Not many. I was very impressed by that kid. He has an awesome spirit about him.

As for the language. It is coming along but it still isn't there yet. I understand more and more each day and I learn more and more. It is really good. Studying is hard, but I know it's worth it because I see the diffirence throught out the day.

Thank you all for your support. I love you all,

Bubbs

•••••Funny story as told by Elder Hess---his trainer.

Ukraine almost gave me the best birthday present ever on Saturday. We were walking down the street to a lesson and two cops stopped us and demanded to see our passports and registration. Well I showed it to them and as we were going through it, I realized that we didn't have our registration stamp in our passport. That was odd because we had given in our passports like before.

Well all in all, these guys said we were under arrest (one of them turned to Elder Garlock and said it in English "You are under arrest.") We had some other papers that said we were allowed to be here to preach but we didn't have the proper registration. They said that they were going to have to take us in to the police station and I said "Okay, there is nothing that we can do and we technically aren't registered according to the law, so let's go." They didn't think that I understood because I was smiling, kind of laughing, and calm. They explained it to me one more time and I said that I understand perfectly and that we need to go with them to the police station and be put under arrest. Well one of them started to go and the other one stopped and said, "There is another way, you don't have to go with us........." Well he was hinting at us paying them a bribe and I immediately said "We won't pay anything, let's go to the police station to figure everything out legally."

With that, one of them touched my nametag and said, "My grandmother was a believing lady and she died not to long ago. Have a goodnight." With that they let us go. They could have taken us in, but it all would have been figured out pretty quickly because I did have some papers saying we could be here but it wasn't the exact registration that they wanted. They thought they could get some quick cash, but I wasn't about to pay so they let us go. Man, that would have been the best birthday gift ever to have been thrown into a Ukrainian Prison.