Happy Martin Luther King day! Thank you for all your letters this week, thank aunt Liz and Grandma for theirs as well! It is so good to hear about what is going on in your lives. Amanda, you are a cutie:) I can't quite speak fluently yet but I am working on it every day! Emily, you sure looked good in that basketball jersey, I hope I get a chance to play some ball here but we will see. Jessica:) Your temple trip sounded great! And having dad baptize you makes it that much more special. Mom and Dad, your pictures with the Ukrainians were awesome! I am super jealous.

Guess what? We finally had church in our own building. We got a small renovation done on it to make it church standard, but it was all ready for sacrament yesterday. It has three rooms, a hallway and a bathroom. Not to small, but not that big either. We had eight people at church yesterday, four missionaries, three of our investigators, and our faithful member! I gave a talk... ha ha everyone pretty much gives a talk every week! Oh, and I am also the chorister. Its tough because we have no piano, no way to play the music, and only four missionaries who know the tunes of the songs. However, we make do.

One of our investigators is a really cool older woman, who loves everything we have to say about families! She has a wayward son and her husband has passed away. She really loves her son and wishes he would visit every once in a while. She loves to show us pictures and stories of her son and her own childhood. She is big on "Mothers know best." I showed her a picture of Mom and I and she really liked it. She has cooked for us twice. To answer your question about food, it is amazing here. Its hard to explain but everything is good (except meat jello, which I have been fed). She always tells us to make sure to wear our hat's so we don't get cold. We are not sure if we are her grand kids or her missionary's, but either way we are teaching her the gospel. She has even became good friends with our one member. After church yesterday they took us to a Ukrainian Culture festival a short walk away from our church building and gave us a rundown on the history of culture in Uzhhorod! It was so fun.

I had a good week, and I am seeing the blessings of the Lord in everything that I do. I pray for you daily just as I am sure you pray for me. Until next week,

Love,

Старйшина Хадфілд

Happy New Year!!!!! Once again, I am not going crazy, but today is Ukrainian New Year. We are living it up here, and we said goodbye to the first thirteen days of 2013 with a bang. We went to a city that is close by with permission from the president. It is a joke inside our mission that if you are bad you will get sent to there because it is the farthest city away from Kyiv in our mission. We went there with the intent to spend the whole day there, but to make a long story short they didn't even have an Internet cafe or anything. It was so small. We took two hours and we saw everything there was to see, then we had lunch, then we took a bus back to our area. Plus in the small city we visited, everyone speaks Russian, so the small amount that I normally understand was non-existent.

Last Monday, after I sent you my email, my companion, another companionship and I went to see the castle in our area. Tickets were on sale since it was "Christmas." It was a very pretty castle. Nothing as big as the ones that we went to in Germany, but none the less it was pretty fun. There were a lot of odd statues in the castle, so I posed by all of them and got a lot of really sweet pictures.

The highlight of my week was two 16 hour train rides! Let me explain... There was a leadership meeting at the mission headquarters and my district leader asked me to go on an exchange with him for three days. So we took a train to Kyiv, and while my District Leader was at his meeting I got to go out and talk to people downtown. It is a whole new world in Kyiv. The metro system is just like DC though, so I felt right at home. I even got to go to McDonald's (one of just a few in Ukraine). It tasted so good. The cherry on top was the opportunity to go through the temple. That was actually the first time I had a chance. I just had the most peaceful feeling in the world. I sent you a letter with my train ticket in it, I thought you would like it. It looks pretty cool. Oh, also when I was in Kyiv I got the Christmas package that you sent! It was great. Thank you so very much. Santa knew exactly what I needed in my stocking. I also got some letters from you and others. Oh, and a bunch of letters from the Activity Day Girls from our ward. Please tell them thank you for me. That was very nice of them to do for me.

In other news, we are trying to get some other activities started, to mix up the ways we contact people. One of the ways we thought of was basketball. We found a rec center, with a pretty decent court by Ukrainian standards. We met with the president of the rec center and asked him about using his facilities. He told us that it wouldn't work out, because you have to be a legit team to play there. But he told us we could join any team we wanted and travel all over Ukraine and play basketball with them. He told us "He was super excited for two tall Americans like us to play basketball for him." We didn't feel like breaking his spirits by telling him we were not allowed, so we just left. Oh well, we will find another place to play basketball.

My language is getting better every day. I am studding really hard and talking to the people here all the time. I am starting to understand a lot more, but speaking is still quite a challenge. That is OK, I knew it would not be easy. We had dinner with an investigator the other day and I talked for a little bit. It is not much, but it is progress.

I love you all so much. Until next week!

Love,

Elder Hadfield:)

Merry Christmas!

If you think I have gone crazy and forgot what day it is, let me reassure you, I am OK. Today is Ukrainian Christmas. I am not really sure why they have another Christmas, but I am not complaining. It was a semi-white Christmas today. Big white flakes are falling but nothing is sticking so I don't really think it counts for much! I am really sorry about not sending pictures yet, we are still trying to find an Internet cafe that will allow us to use the USB port to send things. I will do my best to be able to send some home next week.

In Ukraine, Christmas eve is a pretty big deal. Last night my companion and I decided to go caroling. We went door to door and sand songs. Sometimes we would switch of and sing in English (on a funny note some of the English songs we sang were "if you could hie to kolob" and "we thank thee o God for a prophet"). They people we sang to loved it and thought we were great! Then after we finished singing we would give them a family proclamation. They took it happily and thanked us. I felt some pretty strong Christmas Spirit last night. Which seems weird because it is already January, but I am not going to question it. We did run into a few problems though... In Ukraine it is customary to give carolers money, which obviously we aren't allowed to accept. This one family was so adamant about it that they forced us to take some money. So we decided we will find someone who is homeless and buy food for them with our caroling money.

Good News! We found a church building! What a relief... Like I said, my companion and I had been doing some major hunting for a building all week, and all of the sudden a building just fell into our laps, that is perfect for what are needs are at this time. The land lady is super nice, and willing to help us get the place ready. We are allowed to start using it on the 15th of January. It has a great location in the middle of town, right next to a castle and a big cathedral. The funny part about the whole thing is that we didn't find the building through our own efforts. It was a miracle from God that just came to us. I am reminded of a scripture in Moroni (excuse me, I only have my Ukrainian scriptures with me right now), where Moroni says something to the effect of "you only receive the miracles after the trial of your faith. We have been showing our faith by doing our best to find a building, and a miracle came. Speaking of miracles, we have seen countless this week. I really wish I had time to type them all out:(

This might seem odd, but would you mind sending me the nutrition facts of Honey? My companion and I love the Honey here. It is way different from the stuff that we get back home and we ate a whole tub of it last night with dinner ha ha. OK, it was a smaller container, but still! We are pessimistic that it is good for us because it tastes so good! We also go through milk like crazy. Anyone who knows me will not be surprised by that. We joke around a lot that we could really use the promise in the Book of Mormon of "Milk and Honey without price." Speaking of food, I am learning to cook some really great Ukrainian food. Mom, I know I didn't want them when I was at home, but I would would send me some fun recipes I will use them for sure:) Vegetables are dirt cheap here, so anything with that would be great! You can use your discretion with what recipes to send!

I loved all of your letters:) They make my day! I miss my sisters so much! Amanda, thank you for the scripture, Emily, feel better:(, Jessica, you are so sweet! Good luck with the work rush! I also loved the pictures, please keep including those. I was sad to hear about the Cowboys, but I love to see that dad is still repping them! I wear my Cowboys sweatshirt every day! It keeps me nice and warm. I wore it on our EPIC run to Slovakia! I will send a picture of it. We took a back road and honestly we were not sure how close we got. We are pretty sure we were there since on the map the border where we are is a huge forest, and we got to a huge line of trees! Well, I love you all, I will write more next week.

Love,

Elder Hadfield

Happy New Year!

It is really crazy to think that 2012 has already come and gone. Oh, and guess what... the world didn't end. We have been joking about that the whole week. Remembering the MTC, there is a phone company here in Ukraine with the initials "MTC." It's kind of funny because we see it everywhere. We can't do a whole lot for New Years because we have a curfew at 10:30, and we have to be in our apartment tonight at five o'clock because our mission president wants us to avoid all the drinking that goes on here. Something that is kind of cool though is here in Ukraine they have their own special new year’s day. It is on the 14th of January. Don't ask me why, I am not really sure, I will try and find out and get back to you about that.
Currently we are still searching for a church building. This Sunday we held church at a business center where you can rent rooms by hour. Our plan is to keep doing that until we find a building. What was really cool is that ten minutes before church started, my companion and I invited the security guard to come with us. He agreed and he stayed for the whole thing. We had a grand total of eight people there! It was the four elders, our one member, two investigators, and the security guard. The hardest part about church is singing hymns. Because we have no piano and the missionaries are the only people who know the tunes to the songs. It has been such a great experience. After church we gave the security guard a Book of Mormon and he agreed to meet with us this week.

We looked at seven church buildings this week. None of them have been what we needed unfortunately. It has been really fun though! I feel like one of those people on the Home Network shows trying to find a home. It's a little stressful because we want to make sure we have a spiritual atmosphere so people can have a good experience at sacrament meeting. I will keep you posted on our real estate endeavors!

Well, it’s time for me to go again:( I feel like I never have enough time to say all the things that I want to. I love you all! I look forward to writing you again next week.

Love,

Elder Hadfield

Hello! This email may seem a bit jumbled because my thoughts are all over the place. There are a lot of things I need to tell you since this will be my last email in the United States. First of all, I just wanted to say I have the best aunts ever. Aunt Jenny and aunt Liz you rock! I love you both so much. I brag about you all the time! I also got an amazing package from Kendall this week:) And to top it all off, grandpa and Sister Howard sent me some goodies!

Well, here is the fun part! My travel plans! I am the travel leader of our group flying to Ukraine. All that means is that I have to make sure everyone is on our flights before we take off at the different airports, and if anything bad happens I have the number to call the mission home to let them know what is going on. On Tuesday morning we report to the MTC travel office at five in the morning to get our visa's and our plane tickets. A bus will then pick us up shortly thereafter and take us to the Salt Lake City airport. We will then fly from Salt Lake to New York, and then from New York to Amsterdam. We have about an hour and a half in Amsterdam and then we fly to Kyiv, where we will be met by president Klebingat and his wife. Then I am not sure what will happen from there. I am sure they will let us send you an email so you know we have arrived safe in Kyiv. So just be expecting an email on Wednesday!

I had a really fun week this week. For our devotional on Sunday, instead of a speaker, the BYU men's chorus came and sang like six Christmas songs, and in between each song someone from the chorus came up to the microphone and shared a story from their mission. It was awesome! We are not allowed to use our iPod's here at the MTC so there seems to always be a shortage of music. But soon I will be in Ukraine and I can listen to hymns in the morning while I work out. Plus I will get there in the middle of Christmas season, and from what our teachers tell us there is a lot of carolling!

Thanks for all the dear elders:) I think I got one from everyone this week. That was great! Jessica it sounds like you had a great birthday on the ice, but it sounds like mom might have needed some ice after help her bum not be sore ha ha. Just kidding. Amanda I love you! I sent a letter home this week and I hope you all enjoy it! I included some funny comments in it about heath cake:). Well its time to go, I love you all! I look forward to calling home from the airport! And also calling home for Christmas. I hope all is well.

Love,

Elder Hadfield



Another Beautiful Day at the MTC.



Hello! Another week has gone by. Thank you for your package! I loved it so much. I drank like all of the chocolate milk in one day ha ha, are you surprised? Thank you for all the dear elders. Dad, I love reading the ones you send to me. Please tell Grandma thank you from me, for the box she sent me with goodies. She is so sweet! Well, I don't have a whole lot to report this week. Although tomorrow I should get my travel plans and my Ukrainian Visa, so I will let you know all the information that contains next week. Can you believe that I leave the United States in less than two weeks? Its pretty crazy, soon I will be in a county where I don't speak the language (at least not well), I pretty much don't know anyone, and where I will live for the next 22 months. I am very excited though. We might even fly through DC. I only say that because the last group who flew to Ukraine went through DC and the through Germany. It is really weird, but as I have been getting better and better at Ukrainian, my German is getting harder and harder to use. The first few weeks I was here I would go and speak German with the German missionaries quite often. The last few weeks I have tried to do that, but as I talk all that comes out is a mix of Ukrainian and German. It sounds really weird. And when I am able to speak German, it is with a Ukrainian accent.

Happy Birthday Jessica! I know it is not your birthday today but it will be on the 8th. How does it feel to be 18 (please answer after your birthday)? I hope you have fun partying or doing whatever you have planned. I'm sorry that I can not be there to celebrate with you. Just know that I love you!

Something cool happened to me this week. I got to meet an Elder who red shirted for the University of North Carolina for basketball. He didn't play during the season, but he did get to play during the NCAA tournament. It was neat to hear him explain why he decided to give that all up and come on a mission for two years. His name was Elder White and he said that he was planning on going back to North Carolina to play basketball after his mission. But still, that is really hard as an athlete to put that all on hold. My allotted time on the computer is winding down. I love you! Its about time for me to go. I hope you are having a great Christmas season. Remember to focus on the Savior, from what dad tells me you are doing a great job so far. I am proud of you. Talk to you next week.

Love,
Elder Mitchell Gregory Hadfield



Two Weeks and Counting



Sister Garret and I in the MTC.

Hello again, boy does time go by fast when you are busy. It feels like I was just sending you an email yesterday. I hope you enjoy all the pictures! Most of them are from thanksgiving. Its a little crazy, but the night of thanksgiving there were Christmas lights up all over the MTC. That's pushing it if you ask me:) Just kidding! The picture of me is with Sister Garret, who I was telling you about. 

Well let me tell you about my thanksgiving! After breakfast we had a devotional, and guess who came? Elder Holland! It was really exciting to see an apostle. He talked about what a blessing it is to live in the latter days when the fullness of the gospel is restored. He said that he thinks that is one of the most overlooked blessings that we have. Living during this time in the world's history is an amazing opportunity with all the innovations and technology that we have. With all those blessings comes a great responsibility of sharing the gospel with those who do not yet know about it. Elder Holland also had his granddaughter sing "If the Savior Stood Beside Me." She looked like she was about ten years old and she had an amazing voice. After the devotional we went on a walk as a district, it was a little cold but I love to be outside and see the beautiful mountains. We got back from our walk and then we went to have thanksgiving dinner (lunch). It was pretty good! Don't worry mom, it can't even compare to your thanksgiving cooking, but I was still thankful to have a nice meal.

After we ate (it was hard to walk haha) we had a play we got to watch about the first thanksgiving. It was missionaries dressed up as Native Americans, settlers, and turkeys. It was by no means politically correct, but it was a lot of fun! At the end we sand over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go.... don't ask me why. Then came my favorite part of the day. We were able to do a service project for children in Africa (I forget exactly which country it was for). We put together school kits and first-aid kits for them. I was in charge of putting in calculators! It worked like an assembly line, the bag would be passed down the row and we would put our item in. It was something really small but it felt really good. Well that's pretty much everything exciting that happened on thanksgiving!

As I was reading my scriptures I was thinking about what it means to be a representative of Jesus Christ. And then a thought came to me. When Jesus Christ suffered the Atonement he acted as a Representative for me.In the Garden of Gethsemane He stood in my place, with my name on His chest, as He felt the pain of every single sin I have ever committed and bled from every pore. I am so thankful for Christ's willingness to be my proxy. Now I have the opportunity to do my best to thank Him by standing in as His proxy. Though I will not bleed from every pore, I promise that I will sweat from every pore as I work my hardest to do Justice to the name on my chest.

I love you all! I hope you had a good week! Thank you so much for your love and support (and your letters:).

Love,

Elder Mitchell Gregory Hadfield

Happy Thanksgiving from the MTC.

Elder Kelley and I teaching the Gospel "Uk-Raine Style"