"It just went from pretty warm to totally freezing!" 2/14/2011

Zach with Gena

District Meeting in Vinnitsya

Elder Munzer and Zach with Lena, Zina, and Tanya

As for this week, it was definitely busy but good. Yes, I am familiar with the concept of the "Elect of God". "The Elect" is what most missionaries refer to it as. We pray to find these people all the time. Normal people who are ready and willing to accept the gospel. Combined district meeting was great! We went up to Житомир (Zhytomyr, I decided I am going to type more in Ukrainian) on Tuesday. It was about a three hour bus ride from here to there. It was good. We talked about the Doctrines of Christ: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to End. We talked about how they must be taught simply, but powerfully. We must teach in a way that it  always leads to baptism. President always wants us to talk about baptism. He says he sees missionaries bringing it up when they give a date, and then don't talk about it again until like a week before the baptism. My interview with President was good also. He basically said that Elder Munzer told him everything he needed to know about me, which was that I knew the lessons really well, I knew the scriptures really well, and I already knew the language really well. He asked me what I thought and I replied "Well President, I sure hope that all of that is true!" He said according to our numbers here he agrees. He then asked if there was anythiing I needed and I said no. He then asked if he could tell me elephant jokes. He then told me these jokes that were about elephants for like ten minutes and I just sat there with a smile on my face. He then ended the interview by saying "Elder McEntire, I sure hope you are having fun! It sounds like you are! Missions are suppose to be fun. If you are not having fun then you aren't doing it right!" I am definitely having fun out here in Vinnitsya. Exchanges were good too. Elders Morrison and Doutre came over from Хмельницький (Khmelnytski) and I was with Elder Doutre all day Thursday. He is the District Leader in  Хмельницький (Xmelnytski). It was a good way to know just how much I progressed this transfer.  Since I wasn't around Elder Munzer that day, it tested my knowledge of the city and Ukrainian.  Elder Doutre has only been here once and he speaks Russian. I knew my way around pretty well and I held my own with the language even when the lessons were in half Russian, half Ukrainian. I still have a long way to go, but I was surprised about how much I have progressed and knew. Anyway, this week is transfer week and one of the members, Sister Gavrilyuk, who helps with registration of the missionaries here let it slip that Elder Munzer was leaving.  So we will be going to Kyiv on Thursday.  As for me... I could still go, but I will probably stay here and get a new companion.

So the weather here has been pretty crazy. On Saturday, it started out snowing in the morning and it was 5 C. It snowed the whole night before, but because it wasn't that cold, none of the snow stuck. When we left for sports day that morning (an activity where we get together with members and investigators and play ping pong and other sports) there was slush on the ground. After sports day, it was snowing again and dropped down to like 0 C and was windy. We went back home for lunch.  Then after lunch the slush turned into ice because of the wind, and it dropped down to -5 C. At the end of the day, it was -15 C and the ground was totally iced over with the wind blowing crazy in every direction. You could really stand on the ice and just let the wind blow you home.

Love you all,

Elder Zach McEntire