The city is near the mountains, but everything here is green and it rains almost everyday. (I asked whether Ivano-Frankivsk was part of the Carpathian mountains or just the region.) As far as food, we buy food every Monday and cook our own meals. (I asked whether he eats at member homes much or cooks most his food.) I have learned a lot of cooking skills which is good. Yesterday I even helped Sister Park, one of the senior sisters make dinner for ten people. It was fun. Members do feed us every once and a while and usually we eat at a restaurant on p-day. We don't do much on p-day. Email, shopping, and lunch with the district takes up most of our time. (This was in response to what he does on p-day.)
Our district has 4 Elders, Elder Clemmens and Kuczak, and then Elder Belashov and I. It is really fun with Elder Belashov. He is from a town called Sumy in Eastern Ukraine, so Russian is easier for him, but almost all the youth in the country (and most of the people altogether who live in the west) speak both fluently. They just have preferences. It is really interesting with Elder Belashov, because he is the second counselor in the branch presidency and the president is a senior Elder (Sister Park's husband) who lives in Kyiv and doesn't speak Ukrainian, so he has a lot of responsibility to help the branch along. The branch is pretty small, about 30 a week on sacrament meeting with 70 total members. The members are truly great though and many of them are great missionaries. A couple of the older sisters have served missons too which is cool. It is a lot of fun here.
Our only investigator right now is a member's son, Sasha. He is an interesting guy and used to be very against the church, but he saw the temple and now he is opening up a bit. We have met with him a couple of times and he is a really neat guy, who just needs to act on the things we have taught him. He seems to agree that the church is true, so now we just have to help him make the steps to acting upon that. Action is so important in the gospel of Christ. If we believe, but don't act, our faith goes nowhere, just as James taught (James 2). He is progressing though which is great. He prayed for the first time on one of our lessons the other day (prayer is an action). Yesterday, he came to church with his mom too for the first time, another act! We have a meeting with him tonight so hopefully we will be able to see more progress.
Other than that, we have a lot of inactive members to try and work with. The branch is very small and many people live far away from the city which is a problem, but we are working hard and those who are ready will take those steps as we invite them. I love to see people progress as we invite them to repent and make little changes in their lives. It is also very difficult to see people reject the gospel and the love that Christ offers, but all we can do is show our love for them. There is a wonderful article in the Liahona for August about how we are all different and we must accept and work with those differences. What is important to remember is that God created us and to Him, we are perfect, even if we have some defects or weaknesses. We are His children and He loves us and that is why He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we can change and overcome our weaknesses. It is so important to remember that as we look at others.
Well, I need to wrap up, but I just want you to know mom, that I love you. Thanks for all that you have done and the support you continue to give me. Tell the girls I love them too. And Dad, I guess.
With Love,
Elder Jones
p.s. could you forward the middle three paragraphs to Curtis. Just leave out the business items ;P
p.p.s. photos - # 1 is Pres. Monson, Ucthdorf, and Elder Nelson at the cultural event.
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