Kharkov Zone Conference July 2009

3 Very Important Men in my Life right now!!! - Vladimir - Our driver - he is a very important part of what makes the mission function properly. We are so grateful for him and his family for supporting him. When we go to Kharkov we are gone for a week and we know his family sacrifices for us. Jeff our son is visiting and has brought a bit of home with him. It has been so fun to have him here. And the most important man in my life - Moey Mooshj. He puts in long hours and puts his heart and soul into everything about this mission. He is dedicated to serving the Lord.
Elders Ehrisman, Greener, Ketchum, and Eckersley. What's up Elders?
Elders Dietrich, Howard and Green. Great smiles men! Keep up the good work! Zone Conference was wonderful. We talked about chapter 4 in Preach My Gospel - Teaching with the Spirit. As part of my presentation (at the beginning of the meeting) I talked about Pioneer Day and how every country the Church enters has their own "Pioneers." Ukraine is very much still in the Pioneer stages which means these missionaries are "Pioneer Missionaries!" I asked some of the missionaries from other countries to share Pioneer stories from their country or to tell their conversion story. It went great! Then I challenged everyone to memorize the song "Come, Come ye Saints" in Russian.
Elders Green and Howard. Yummy treat for the road!
A great group of Missionaries - Elders Dietrich, Summerhays, Miganov, Elder and Sister Crittenden and Elder Misiurenko. The Crittendens leave the end of August - Boo Hoo!!! Elder Misiurenko is from Kiev and he shared about the Church in Kiev in the 90's. He said the Saints there waited patiently for scriptures to be sent in Russian and when they came, there were not enough so the members took turns reading them. They were so excited when the Hymnals were finally sent too! When he was telling about this - I could just imagine the joy and excitement when the Saints received them. We sure take things for granted in the States!
Elder Stirling and Vladimir. Great looking ties and smiles!! Elder Stirling was adopted by an American family from Russia when he was 15. His family are members of the Church. He talked about his conversion story at Zone Conference. He has the sweetest spirit and he says the Gospel has changed his life and helped him overcome so much. He is so grateful to his family and talks about them with so much love. We too are grateful to his family for finding him, teaching him the Gospel and then sharing him with us!!!
Elders Wright, Tsaturyan and Hyer. I'm telling you - between the ties and the smiles - we've got the best looking missionaries out there!!
Elders Steele, Whitehead and Norman. Elder Norman leaves in August! Another boo Hoo!!!
Elders Richardson and Beus. Zone Conference was great!!! The spirit at this meeting was wonderful!
Elder Miganov, Sister Mark and Elder Mark.
Our son Jeff and Elder Whitehead. Two young men from St. George Utah!
Sister Crittenden, Elder Rosen and Elder Crittenden. Elder Rosen (he is from Sweden)shared about a man from his home town traveled to America, joined the church, met the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, traveled to Salt Lake Valley and was called to serve a mission back in Sweden. He brought the church to Sweden, baptized, and was met with much opposition. A lot of the countries over here in this part of the world are still very young to the church and share much hardship as did the early Saints of the church. We appreciate Elder Rosen in sharing that with us. His message really added to our meeting.
Elder Rader and Elder Greener.
Elders Ketchum, Moore, Hyer and Shipp. Yes! We are as the Army of Helaman!
Elders Howard, Jones and Rosen. They all came out together and they will soon hit their year mark!
Elders Hansen, Putnam, Ehrisman, Miganov, and Nersisyan. Elder Nersisyan shared his family's conversion story. His grandmother joined first, then his father, himself and his mom. His grandmother had a friend that was a member and she could see something different in her friend's eyes and she wanted to know what that was. We talked about the Holy Ghost in this conference and the story fit right in. It was a very touching story and I could feel the spirit fill the room as he spoke.
I was taking a picture of the construction in Kharkov and ran into these fine looking missionaries.
"Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day." We are so blessed to have great young men in our mission that work hard and give it their all!!!We love our Missionaries!