Thanksgiving Week in Ukraine!

So here is what's happened this week, mixed in with some fun facts about Ukraine. 

Food: I've been eating a lot of healthy food. Can you believe that? My diet consists of lots of veggies and bread (I don't know if I said this or not, but you can get a loaf of homemade bread for just under 40 cents. Potatoes are dirt cheap too) The milk...well, the milk isn't that good. It tastes like you're sucking it right out of the utter. I try to stay away from milk. ;)

This week we've been teaching a lot of people, so we haven't had too much time for contacting on the street. I never thought I'd like talking to random people so much, but I do! I guess part of it is because I don't really understand when they're swearing at me or making fun of me. I went up to one guy to talk to him, and he started yelling and waving his hands, kicking his legs out and just throwing an all around fit. It was funny! I started to laugh and nod, then said "Very nice to meet you! Goodbye!" The guy was left with a blank stare on his face. Nothing really to say. Some people know English, but the extent of it is "Hello America!" or "(expletive America!), so that kinds of leaves out any chance of them picking up what I'm saying in English.

 I don't know if you noticed, but we don't have a dryer. We have to hang our clothes all of our apartment to dry them. Normally I wouldn't care, but for some reason when we wash them here the water makes them smell like they've been rotting in some smokers apartment for 3 1/2 years. When we went shopping today, I dropped some money on the best Tide clothes smelling stuff they had.

Fun fact: 81% of senior missionaries who get called to Europe East reject it. Hahaha

This Sunday I gave a talk in sacrament. Of course it was the week that the AP's showed up. It wasn't too long, and I was happy to get it over with. Afterwards people told me it was good, and someone thought I'd been here for 6 months because apparently I have a good accent? Needless to say, it felt good knowing people can see that I'm trying. I've been talking to people on public transportation lately. Everyone looks at us funny because we stand out as Americans so much, and on transports every looks at me because I"m too tall and I have to duck forward. That's why I always have my goofy looking smile plastered on my face. If people are always watching, I might as well look happy. You wouldn't believe how many people give me the strangest looks because I Look happy! Haha.

Another fun fact: A lot of the men around here work in a local coal mine. You can tell they're miners because it looks like they have eyeliner on 24/7. At first I thought it was some weird Gothic movement, until Smith told me what was going on. It reminds me of the movie October skies, where they all go down into the shaft. It's tough work, and a lot of people get sick from it. I doubt the mine would be open if it had to follow American health regulations. Actually, I know it wouldn't be open. 

This goes back to contacting, but I don't think I've ever smelled so much alcohol in the morning, let alone the whole day as I do when I'm contacting around here. People are drunk 24/7! It reeks. We go out at 7Am to talk to people, and we see them walking to work holding a bottle of vodka. Welcome to Ukraine.

Oh! Here's something that will make you be grateful for the roads back home. So next time you see a pothole and complain, be grateful! The potholes here at several feet deep! And man holes that lead into the sewer, they just leave open! I saw a poor old babooska almost fall into one. Some are so deep that they plant trees in them to try and prevent people from falling into them. I swear, if this city was in America there would be sooooooo much money to be made in lawsuits. It's ridiculous! Every where I go I think "Liability! Liability! Liability!" 

Thank you for all of the support back home. I love you all! I hope that your lives are all going well, I've been thinking about you all. Even though I make fun of Ukraine, I love it here. The people here are....special. They hold a special place in my heart! Sorry this is short, but once again we're short on time. I'll send some pictures now.

Love,
Kyle

"The best buy since I've been in Ukraine: A new toilet seat. We couldn't find any that didn't have dolphins or dragons on them. I guess they like dolphins?"

"When the sun hits the air right here, it lets off the most gorgeous reflection ever, regardless if it's a dumpy apartment complex."

"Our church building! It's a lot nicer than I ever thought it'd be."

"Enchanted forest from Winnie the Pooh right next to the church"

"Statue of Stalin (tons of them around here)"

First week in Ukraine!

So I stepped off the plane in Donetsk to smell the ripe scent of burning trash and metal. We were shuttled into a little airport, and had to show our passports to a guy in a warehouse thing. He didn't look too happy. Welcome to Ukraine. We got in the Van, and went to the presidents house and Office. That's when I emailed last. From there, I stayed the night in an apartment with 6 people in the Donetsk area, and attended zone conference the next day. I sat next to Jones anxiously awaiting my call when all of a sudden....dun dun dun, "Elder Litzenberger will be trained by Elder Smith in Gorlovka. They will be white washing in" Elder Smith was the AP that I met the day prior, and I was pretty happy to find out he was training me. After the announcement, a guy in front of me turned around and said "Good luck, whitewashing into Gorlovka, you've got your work cut out for you.." So whitewashing is when they take two missionaries out, and replace them with two others that aren't familiar with the area. Usually it wouldnt be too bad, but there are generally 3 sets of missionaries in gorlovka, and because of housing issues theres only two. We have the privledge of picking up their extra space. IN short, we have a TON of area we get to cover. Woohoo, right? Haha. Gorlovka is, well, the definition of Ukraine slums. I love it though! Even though the transports all smell like rotten fish, and our apartment is 6 stars short of motel 6, I love it to death here. 

So let me tell you some random things that have happened since I've gotten here

First off, we've been teaching a black french guy named Jared. He's here for school, and luckily for me the lessons are in English so I feel like I can somewhat contribute. In our first lesson with him, he opened up to us and poured his heart out. We got him to commit to baptism for the 22nd of December. How cool is that, my first lesson here and I got a commitment  We will be meeting him again on the weekend. (If I have time I'll come back and add more to this story)

The Southams (senior couple) are having a taco party to try and get members to bring their friends to a church activity. We announced this in the morning branch meeting, and had to spend 15 minutes trying to explain what a taco was. When the announcement was made over the pulpit, everyone looked around confused when he said the word "Taco" 

SO the first full day I was here, we stopped by a members apartment. She wanted us to give her mom (stereotypical babooshka) a blessing. We were with the branch president at the time (Pres. Agarkov), so I wasn't too worried about it. When we got there, he said "Do svidaniya" and left. It then occurred to me that I would have to anoint, in Russian. Needless to say, it wasn't that high on my priority list to study when I was in the MTC. Smith had a card I could read off of, so I wasn't too worried after I found that out....until I asked for her full name. Imagine the hardest Russian name you can think of, and double the length .That's about what it was. I had to write it out on my hand so when I put my hands on her head I could read it. And I did! I read it around .5 miles an hour. It was rough. ON the bright side, Lyubof called us today and said her mom is doing a lot better. That's always good to hear. Apparently the first 3 blessings elder smith gave on his missions, the people ended up dying a couple hours after. I'm pretty happy that I wasn't given his curse, haha.

The shower. I'll send pictures, but you have to know something about this shower. It's the shower from hell. Let me tell you about what happened the other day. As I was showering (if you can call it that), the water started getting really hot. I mean, REALLY hot. I pointed the water thing to the ground so I could fix it. I saw steam everywhere, it was hot. Around 90 Celsius  CELSIUS. So guess what happens? The tube that carries the water to the shower head, yeah, it melted. It melted and shot out literally boiling water right onto me. Not just anywhere, but all over my groin. I have a second degree burn on both of my thighs and...yeah. My whole groin. It hurts, and I'm waddling. I have to admit, it's funny. Funny but painful. At least it will make for a good story when I can walk normally again, haha.

As for my last name, it's not so much that people don't like me, it's just that I've only heard 2 people actually try to say my name. I've started introducing myself as Elder Litz now, and plan on ordering new name tags. No one, and I mean NO one can say it. They grab my name tag, look at it for 30 seconds then just say, Elder German, go do this. In 6 weeks I'll be Elder Leets.

This is random, but I just wanted to assure you all I"m not getting fat! My comp and I do P90x each morning, gotta stay toned. You know how many pounds that watered down cabbage soup can add? ;)

So we went to a Pblhok the other day for me to get a coat. I needed to exchange my money, but there was no place to do it. We walked over to some sketchy looking kids smoking and asked where to do it, and they pointed down the street. We went down the street, and Smith turned and walked into an alley where a happy looking man in an Adidas track suit was standing. We told him the situation, and he snapped, and another guy walked over with bags full of different currencies. We exchanged my USD for Grieven at an 8.2 ratio with no charge. Pretty good deal if you ask me. I transferred over 200 dollars, and the guys were super surprised I had that much. If you haven't figured it out by now, these guys were mafia. Don't worry! The mafia likes missionaries over here. Well, from what I've seen haha. Not only did I meet some mafia guys that day, but I also bought a sick peacoat, I'll take some pics in the next couple of days and send them over!

Ward family-The members here are old. And I mean old. Babooshkas, and great war vets. Their Young Mens program has like 2 people in it. They're both strong though, and super good kids. The ward lives all over, and many of them live in different cities and have to commute up to an hour to get to church. Everyone is so kind, and our building is gorgeous. It's an actual church building .I still have to get a picture of it (I forgot), but I'll send one out soon. If you look up Gorlovka LDS building on google it might show up. But yeah, the ward family is all super tight knit, and nice. Half of their names are either Olga or Natalia, so if I don't remember a name there's a good chance it's one of those. Not that many families are there. Or married couples for that matter. 

Area- Gorlovka. We cover the center region and kvartal. If we want to get to most members apartments, we have to take transport. It's a ways away. I'll be here for 3+ transfers, so you'll hear a lot about it in the next coming weeks. Sorry these are getting short but I"m short on time.

Companion- Jordan Smith,  He's from Cali, and a super hard worker. I'm glad I'm with him, because all of our goals are well above most of the mission goals, so it's a good start for my mission. Now, if I aim any lower I will know that I can do better because of what we're shooting at right now. I will hopefully have high standards for the next 2 years. 

Spiritual Experience- Man, I've had a ton. I only have 5 minutes, but the main one was the lesson with Jared. It truly was a testimony builder of how sharing testimonies can invite the spirit. Every concern he had we were able to solve by bearing our testimony. Contacting too. It's amazing how sometimes we think "We need to talk with him" even though a guy is speed walking, and he turns out to be super nice and giving us his number for lessons. This happened last night with a guy named Ylder. I saw him and pretty much chased after him. BY following the prompting, I was able to hopefully get a new investigator.

Love,
Kyle

Pictures of Kyle's new apartment!

He Made It To Ukraine!

After traveling for 33 hours Kyle has finally made it to Ukraine! Here is his first email he sent!

"We are finally here! As I walked off the plane I was greeted with cold weather and multiple people in big, fur hats. I stood in line in a sketchy passport line in what looked like an airplane hanger, later to find out that it is a brand new 'airport' and the pride of the city. The flight went well, I was able to sleep a little bit on the last flight. Everyone could tell we were Americans. Well, at least Sister pharis and jones. they thought I was German I guess, because they kept trying to speak to me in German. Once I got to the baggage claim, I was greeted by the AP's and President Campero. We were driven across Donetsk, and it was uh..yeah, different! haha. I'm hoping that my apartment isn't like half of the ones i saw coming here. Anyways, after this email we are headed to the mission home. I didn't end up tracting because even though it is only 4:21 pm here, it's dark and no one is out right now. I will include pictures during next pday, I have a lot from the mtc I still need to send and im sure I will have a lot by the time Monday rolls around (that is my pday"

**If you would like to write Kyle he has a new address! Here it is!

Elder Kyle Litzenberger

Ukraine Donetsk Mission

Prospekt bogdana Khmelnitskogo 67 a

Donetsk 83087 Ukraine, украина

-Christina

 Kyle with President Campero and his wife!

Elder Jones, Kyle, and Sister Pharis at the mission home in Donetsk!

Week 1

We finally got our first update from Kyle! He is doing very well! He seems to be enjoying the MTC and is working really hard on learning the Russian language! He loves his companion, Elder Jones and has made quite a few other friends in the past week. 

He didn't have much time to talk but I asked him a few questions about life in the MTC and these were his responses...

Do you get along with all the Russian missionaries?

As for the Donetsk elders, yeah we all get along great! They're really laid back, so if it means anything I'm pretty much the most disciplined out of all of us haha. 

What's your schedule like on most days?

My schedule is pretty much wake up at 6:30, eat at 7:10, go to the class for 3 hours, study language for a couple hours, lunch, back to the class for 3 more hours, then an hour of individual study time, a couple random study block period things, then dinner, then more studying and bed. It gets pretty old haha. I can't believe I've been here for a week though! 

What do you do in your free time? 

In my freetime I usually read the book twice, go through pictures and letters, workout a little bit, and play some basketball. I play basketball about an hour a day,

How are you handling all that cafeteria food?

The cafeteria food is fine, so far. I know it's taking a toll on some of the guys here though haha. I haven't drank any soda, I stick with OJ every day haha :P 

Is there anything you need I can send you?

Please send me bread! MMMMmmm i need homemade bread! :)

His response was so typical,  if you know anything about Kyle, it's that he loves his bread!

 

Kyle with another Elder that is also going to Ukraine.

Kyle with some other Russian speaking Sisters and Elders.

                                                     

His awesome Russian name tag!

Russian looks pretty hard!

Don't forget to send Kyle letters! He says they are the highlight of his day and they help keep him motivated! 

-Christina