Elder Spencer Halls

Alright Everybody since I skimped out on a lengthy email last week with details about everything this week I have some extra work to do to catch you all up on how things are going here in Ukraine for us! Lets see if I even know where to start haha 2 weeks is way long ago on the mission a lot happens in that kinda time. Last week we were getting ready for Christmas and we had our special Christmas Sacrament meeting as well as this combined Branch Christmas party and the building in Center so getting ready for that we wanted to get invitations out to both the party and the sacrament to a bunch of the less active members in our area so we grabbed Polyakov and he joined us as we went searching for where these people live. In Ukraine like everyone lives in these big old apartment buildings like there aren't really any house in the city only these apartment complexes and there are soooo many oh my so it was a little difficult tax but it was fun we were searching for these less ac...

This week is gonna have to be a little different email because I don't have tons of time to email because or P-day is on Christmas and we have a party with all the missionaries in Dnepr so it's not going to be a huge one but thought I would just share a few things from this week! Had a super super awesome week! There were tons of great things that happened!! I literally have like no time to write about them though! WE GOT ALEXANDER AND MARINA ON DATE so that was awesome somehow all is well with them again despite all the craziness the last little while we are excited about that we just need to get them to church! That is our main focus right now getting people to church! I think we just found a new person to teach that I talked to on the marshrutka like 10 minutes ago super excited about him I'll write more about that on monday! His name is Kulia!  I'm doing well one of the members gave me like 3 huge compliments on my Russian different days this week so...

Hello everyone back home and out on missions across the world! This is Elder Halls coming in from Dnipro, Ukraine hope that you are all doing well and had good weeks!! I can't roll my r's at all and in Russian all the r's are rolled at least a little bit so this week I've been trying to work on that, Elder McMaster told me if I'll say pot of tea over and over again really fast and then try that's how you can learn and it legit worked now I can do it I'm amazed. This week has been crazy oh my goodness... We probably didn't have a single day where anything went according to plan. I'm not going to lie it was a little frustrating. However, this week I think I learned so many great lessons because of that! Even though it was a roller coaster of a week and not a lot of things went how we thought they would. Monday this week we had registration, all the missionaries within there first transfer have to get this Ukrainian document that basically ...

My first transfer here in Ukraine is down and the books and it was so great!! It's crazy to me that I have already been here in Ukraine for a month and a half because it feels like just the other day I was back home in South Jordan! I feel extra blessed though with how well I have been doing and how great I have been able to adjust to becoming a missionary! And how much of the language I have been able to learn and understand and I know that all of that is through the help of the Lord!  This week was really good a lot of great experiences! Monday was my companion Elder Rodgerson's birthday so we celebrated with McDonald's and bowling and that was really fun. My bowling skills have not improved in the slightest but that doesn't mean we can't still have some fun! It was really funny that we all showed up to the bowling alley in shirts and ties some in suits it was fun to imagine what everyone else was thinking but to us now it just is normal!  We met again wit...

Another really wonderful week! This week was especially good though! I think it was just a combo of seeing lots of success as well as the Christmas season beginning! Whatever it was it was all just wonderful all rolled up into one really great week!  We were finally able to meet with Davie again after it had been like 4 WEEKS ahhh. But it was really good to see him and understand what has been going on and why he hasn't been able to meet with us very easily. He's the guy from Ivory Coast I wrote about a few weeks ago! He's English isn't super great but he's really such an awesome guy! We took him to the branch and showed him around and he saw the piano and was super excited about that. He told us how about he knew how to play in Ivory Coast so we told him we wanted to hear some and he sits down and starts just playing I don't even know what but it was awesome he was into it just wasn't super super good on the piano. I played for him too and then we sang ...

Hello All!! Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and was able to spend time with their families and enjoy some good food! As well as think about all the many things that we have been blessed with! I hope we all recognize where it is that all those blessings come from and that being our Loving Heavenly Father! This was a pretty normal week! I don't want to say it was not exciting because that wouldn't be true missionary work is always exciting and important and I'm loving it but I just say it's not super exciting because I don't have any super cool stories for you and we weren't able to teach any lessons at all! BUT! I still learned so many great spiritual lessons and had a great week as well! We've been trying to meet with the guy we met from the Ivory Coast for the past two weeks and he's been dipping us repeadetly, but he always calls us and tells us some excuse and that he wants to meet again so we set up another appointment but it has been t...

Another awesome week of missionary work as always! It's never a bad thing to be on the Lord's errand! I wanted to start by just telling you some things I've noticed about Ukraine that I think you all might enjoy! -Leaves: So there are a lot of trees and since it's almost winter all the leaves are on the ground and there are Babushkas (Grandmas) out on the street everywhere all the time just brushing leaves into piles, I don't know if they get payed or what inspires them to do this but it cracks me up! -Pigeons: In the states pigeons are kinda tame like not really scared of people or anything but here they're even less scared of people oh my goodness. The other day this guy was feeding them and they started landing on his arms his daughters head it was a mess. -The Sun: By 4:15 the sun starts going down and so by like 4:30 it is pitch black! super strange. -Crossing the Street: I still don't know any traffic rules or if they exist at all so this is ...

Hello Everyone!! It feels crazy to me that I am writing another email already this past week seems like it just flew by! This has been an amazing week I''ve seen many so many miracles and ways the Lord has helped us to find people this week to teach and really it has just been super incredible!! I wanted to write about just a few cool experiences rather than go through the whole week and everything that happened each day! So on Wednesday we needed to go to the office to get a bunch of things done and we figured it'd be like a quick in and out. Well we were super wrong it seems to always take A LOT longer in there than we anticipate but anyways we got out like an hour later than we were hoping but we got on the bus back to Pobeda and we were super excited about contacting today because we really needed to find some people to teach but we get back to the apartment and we get a call from the office saying we need to go back. So we go back for another 2 hours and we ha...

After months and months of anticipation I'm finally here in Ukraine!! It's super great! I remember touching down in Ukraine and just feeling that this is where the Lord needed me! I was so filled with love and excitement and I was so ready to get to work and start to invite others to come unto Christ!  We left the MTC on monday in the afternoon it was happy and sad! We were all happy to see our fellow missionaries head out to Russia and the Baltics and Kiev Ukraine but at the same time we've all become such close friends that it was hard to see everyone go and know that we wouldn't be serving in the same areas and it'll be a long time before we can see each other again! It's amazing how close we came together as a district in those 9 weeks and I know that I have made wonderful friends that will be friends throughout my life! Love my MTC district! Well we had a long day of flying monday to tuesday and by the end of it I was so beat! I couldn't for the...

We are here in Dnipro safely! It was a lot of travel and we're tired but we are all very excited to be here! My companion is Elder Rodgerson from Draper, Utah and he already seems super awesome! I'm sure we'll do great things Our area is here right next to Dnipro in a city called победа (Pabyeda) Super stoked! more to come on p-day  Lots of Love!! Elder Halls (On the way to the airport Spencer ran into Eddy Renteria at the trax station and Dave's cousin's wife, Adriann Goodwine  at the airport. Such tender mercies from the Lord that He is aware of us and watching over our son.) From President Wirthlin: Dear Brother and Sister Halls, We completed this afternoon a wonderful day of welcoming and orienting our seven (six Elders and one Sister) missionaries. They are all outstanding and we love them already. It was a wonderful day; much was shared and the Spirit was in abundance.  Attached are some photos from last night an...