Week 21 Time to show the new boys the ropes

Hello everyone back home!! I hope you are all having an amazing week! Things are going well for me here in Dnepr! This week I learned so much and I really feel so so much growth! I'm super excited to keep working harder and becoming more dedicated and focused because I know there is always things I can do to improve!

Alright lets get to maybe the biggest news of the week! The transfer calls came and me and Elder Rodgerson got a call from president. Elder Rodgerson is off to Kharkov to be a zone leader there and I've got two new companions coming here to Pobeda! Elder Pierce and Elder Hansen! We are a pretty young companionship so it'll be exciting! Elder Pierce got here 2 transfers ahead of me and Elder Hansen just 1 ahead of me so Elder Rodgerson has more transfers under his belt than the three of us combined. My companions will get to dnepr tomorrow and wednesday and then I'll be showing them the ropes of Pobeda! It's an exciting change and I think that it gives me a huge opportunity to come out of training and hit the ground running! President said that we are going to take weeks rotating and one of us will work in the office all week for the whole day and I'm not stoked about that but there is lots to do there and it'll be good to serve the other missionaries!

There is a lot a lot of snow on the ground right now last night it just totally dropped on us! and we woke up and there is a good foot already and it hasn't stopped yet!

We had one of our people we were teaching drop us this week and that was a little sad because it was really our only one right now that was progressing turns out he just was trying to get money out of us so that one hurt a little bit...

We do have a lot of potential though that we are working on and trying to start teaching!

On the work side of this this week we didn't see a ton of success in finding anyone new to teach but there was one really great miracle that I saw. There is a part member family in our branch and the mother (Elena) is a member but her son (Sasha) and grandson (zhenya) aren't members. However, sometimes they will come to church which is super great! We've been trying to find a way to develop a relationship there and try to start teaching this father and son, we weren't sure how to build that relationship but we made it a matter of prayer and asked for help! Tuesday this week the phone rang and we picked it up and it was Elena and she asked us to come over to here apartment and help her grandson with his english! So we went over that night and we were able to meet here grandson and his friend and serve them! We've really built a good relationship now with Elena and were able to teach her and she's actually at a kind of tough point in here life so I felt it was really great that we were there! We hope that we can begin to teach the son and grandson here in the near future!

This week we had a branch activity, "Мексиканская Еда" ("Mexican Food") and I didn't realize that I missed Mexican food up to this point. Anyways we were working on getting the activity ready with Polyakov and we were on the hunt for Фарш (Ground Meat (I hope beef still not Точно (sure) on that one though)) Anyway in Ukraine very few people have cars so were we in America would have like one Walmart for like a pretty big area there would have probably about 10 or 15 (АТБ) ("ATB" it's like there grocery stores here.) In addition to all of those there are like meat shops and butchers everywhere too and just little huts that sell bread or water, just tons of them. There are like 6 ATB on our block and like 10 butchers and then like 15 just little stands with old ladies selling things basically there are many many options. ANYWAYS, back on the hunt for farsh. We going to all these different butchers and since we are with Polyakov he knows good farsh from bad and we get to like the 4 butcher and this is the one. The butchers are horrible places there is just meat everywhere in these tubs behind the counter sitting on the ground! I'm terrified of that meat. Anyway on top of the counter there is something sitting in this tub and there are a bunch of them but I can't really tell what they are and I'm to scared to get close to all these scary meat but I read the sign and it says, "Головы" (Heads) Then I realize that there is just this huge tub filled with chicken heads they're selling man there is lots of gross stuff there. I will also mention I didn't realize how big cow tongues actually are... MASSIVE. And I hope no one is buying the pigs feet that still covered in hair and mud that the pigs were walking in when they passed away. And I'm still not sure what it meant when there was just this pink cube next to a sign that said "Кожа" (skin).

No one from the branch ended up coming to the activity but hey the tacos were good!

Saturday was baptism day or something here in Ukraine I still don't quite understand what that means or who's holiday it is or what religion is celebrating it but anyway they cut crosses into the Ice of the river Dnepr and people went in the freezing cold water and dunked themselves three times. Some of them with like there 4 year old kids. I don't claim to understand... but it was pretty strange haha.

I spoke in sacrament this week and that was a really great opportunity! I went through it and practiced a few times and I when it was the really thing It went really well and I was super happy with it! Nikolai and his mom came to church! Nikolai is a little crazy I don't know if I wrote about him last week but he scares me a little bit but when his mom is with him she straightens him out!

The church is true everyone!! Prayer works Heavenly Father is always there and wanting to listen. The gospel is restored and on earth! We can all become clean through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and live together as families forever! I know living the gospel brings so much joy happiness and peace!

Love,
Elder Spencer Halls