Tuesday, February 22, 2011

1st Week in Ukraine

Hey guys sorry this weeks letter is going to be so short I have had to
try to figure out this email and keyboard and everything so I've lost
a lot of time but next week you'll be getting a super long email.
So the flight to ukraine was crazy as in almost missing out flight,
not getting bags, windows cracking super crazy hence why I couldnt
call you. so I got to ukraine, meet my new Companion, Elder Larsen
(hes really cool has some crazy stories and is from draper, I'll tell
you more next week) we've been out tracking a lot and teaching a lot
of lessons but I have no idea whats going on its so crazy! but good
news! I'm serving in a area named vineyard so I'm serving in the Lords
vineyard! haha oh and we have an english/international ward which is
great cause at least I can help in some way. We asked our golden
investigator to be baptised this week and he said he probably will. I
know he will hes just so honest and good, I love him things are going
to be great with him. I feel like most of the time I'm just smiling
out here but everyone says I'll learn the language so I'll stick with
it. I hope you are all doing well I will write you a crazy long letter
next week. tell everyone I love them!
Dear Parents,

Sister Steinagel and I were pleased to welcome your son, Elder Kevin Carlisle, to the best mission in the world, the Ukraine Kyiv Mission. He is well and happy and we are impressed with his enthusiasm and preparation. After he arrived, we took the new missionaries for a visit to the mission office and the adjoining Temple and surroundings. Elder Carlisle and I also interviewed together after enjoying a meal together.

This morning, the assistants gave him a brief orientation to the mission. Elder Carlisle then attended a transfer meeting where he met his new companion, Elder Larson. This evening they will depart to their new area in Vinnogradar which is in the northern part of Kyiv. Trainers are chosen for their competence and dedication, and you can have confidence that your son is in good hands. We have enclosed a photograph of them from this morning.

Please know what a privilege it is to work with your son. He has now joined the family of missionaries serving with us, all of whom are committed to build Zion here by helping as many souls as possible to come unto Christ through baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. It is my prayer that the Lord will sustain Elder Carlisle in this new assignment.

You might be interested to know that our missionaries have preparation day on Mondays. On that day they have time to write home and will email you. Please keep in mind that we are nine hours ahead of Utah time.

If you have any questions please contact us, or email us at 2012235@ldschurch.org. Thank you again for sending us your precious missionary.

Sincerely,

President Lane O. Steinagel and Sister Jennefer Steinagel





Well I just want to let you guys know I made it to ukraine safe, but I do
have a lot of crazy stuff that happened on the plane but I tell you about
that on P-day. its really nice out here and I cant wait to hear from you
guys. tomorrow I'll be sending you a picture of my new compainion and tell
you when my pday is. pass this email along and tell everyone I love them
Love, Elder Carlisle

Week 8 or Something (Week 9)

so this week was pretty good, I feel like Ive learned a lot I hope you all get my letters soon! but here is my weekly report, sorry its gonna be kinda short but I have several people who emailed me that I need to write back.
1-26-11
today was a good day, I found lots of new ways to help me improve my language study. Elder Flint and I have even made it a goal to speak 100% ukrainian till lunch every morning. other then that its pretty much been like everyother day here in the mtc
1-27-11
Today is service day and like the past 3 weeks Elder flint and I took on the task of vacuming rugs, we are pros at it now! Today was a preety hard day to keep myself motivated, but I dont want to waste a min in here cause soon I'm going to be in Ukraine and I'm going to have to talk to everyone! its gonna be so hard but I know if I can keep myself motivated I can learn Ukrainian.
1-28-11
Today was another pretty chill day one of my teachers came pretty late but its because he just had a kid! hes a really cool guy I cant wait till next year when he moves back to ukrainian and maybe I'll serve in his home town (hes from ukraine) guess what! I now weigh 147 lbs now! I've gained 7 pounds here in the MTC I wanna gain like another 10 then I'll be set for the winter :)
I feel like I wasnt really ready for a mission before I left but that I'm really learning a lot here and that I will be a great missionary
1-29-11
today was interesting because I hed to learn Russian because I'll end up hearing it on my mission a lot, I've decided that russian is very ugly compared to ukrainian, mostly today was MDT time or just personal study time so I spent time looking up questions I might be asked on my mission
1-30-11
Today was a great sunday! Brother Seamon gave a talk that was really cool about how to get through hard times here were his suggestions on how to better get through hard times
1. Know who you are and whose you are
2. Understand the plan of salvation
3. be odedient!
the devotional tonight was also amazing! it was all about it you can feel the spirit then you are ready to teach, it doesnt really matter if you dont remember everything perfectly but if you can feel the spirit then it can guild you.
1-31-11
Well today was interseting, we've started speaking 100% ukrainian all day everyday and I can tell its going to be super hard for me cause the only person I can talk to in ukrainain is Elder Flint! and he knows even less then I do! these next two weeks are going to be rough. I'm also starting to feel old here cause everyone is looking to me for how to study better or how to teach better and I have no Idea but I always try to teach them how to do it and for some reason I can always feel the spirt teaching me while I teach them its really cool

yeah I know this isnt all 7 days but you'll just have to read my journal when I get back, I leave out a lot of stuff, I just want you guys to see a little of what my life is like I love you all and I hope your doing well! write me soon
Love,
Elder Carlisle

Week 8

this week has been pretty good so far heres my weekly update!

1-18-11
I love p-days! I got all my letters done before 6 which for me is a
record cause I get about as many letters by myself as the whole zone
get :) but like every other week most of my mail didnt come till after
6 so I could write those people back. yesterday was my companion,
Elder Flints birthday so we have a lot of junk food to eat that his
family sent him! not a lot happened but guess what! Brother Wong(?)
from our old ward came and spoke!
1-19-11
today was a good day, its package day! I love package day! I'm going
to miss them when I go to ukraine. (sorry i've been pretty bad at
writing in my jounal this week)
1-20-11
Service day! I love thursdays because there almost like tuesdays. a
teacher told me today that I'm like a rock climber and instead of
looking down and seeing how far I've come with ukrainian i keep
looking up at where I want to be and that I need to change my
perspective and look at all the great things that I've done. i'm
having a really hard time with ukrainian.
1-21-11
Today was a awesome day! I've decided that I'm going to run a mile in
6 min before I leave the MTC. I love setting goals! today was really
good cause it was a good review, I'm learning a lot more about our new
distric that just came in. were becoming really good friends
1-22-11
Today was a great day! elder Flint and I are starting to go crazing in
here cause we have to look at the same wall all day! I think were
getting cabin fever! I had to teach my "drunk" teacher today about the
word of wisdom, haha it was so funny i cant wait to see drunk people
in ukraine, my teachers tell me there everywhere. haha
1-23-11
today was a good sunday and I think I stayed way more motivated today
then I ever have one a sunday, i got to go to the temple today at 3, I
missed it last week cause I had an interview with the bishop which
sucked cause that means I couldnt go out and breath the fresh air! i
miss the outside world!
1-24-11
today was pretty good, it was more of a english day which kinda sucked
cause I need more help in ukrainian but our teacher did break down the
book of mormon and but stuff in a time line which was really cool!,
everyone keeps telling me i will be a good missionary and i really
hope I will be, its been really hard to keep myself motivated and tell
myself I've been doing good.
Sorrry this one is so lame, I've been doing really bad in writing in
my journal everyday, i'll try to do better this week.
I love you guys and I hope your all doing well!
love
Elder Kevin Carlisle

Friday, January 21, 2011

Week 7

Hey everyone! so heres my weekly update!
1-11-2011
I just got back from the temple and oh boy was it amazing!!! I love going to the temple I wish we could go like everyday! today was like the first p-day that at the end of the day I didnt feel like I spent most of my time writing letters. Jeffery R Holland came to the devotional and talked to us about how to become better missionarys and how we should live after our missions, it was so amazing that about one out of every three guys were crying afterwards just because the spirit was so strong! today was a great day full of inspiration.
1-12-2011
Today was the best TRC day ever! (by the way the trc is where we go to teach investigators) we played some simon say in ukrainian, it took us 30 min just to get out side which the door was only 30 min away. We had the TRC tonight and I taught in 100% ukrainian and I wasnt nervous at all... well I was for the first half then I calmed down and it went really well, we coud even feel the spirit :) I know the Lord helped me today. oh yeah I forgot my Companion Elder Flint traded a B.o.M for a tie haha it was so funny!
1-13-2011
well its thursday which means it was a really chill day, I think we need to push ourselves more on thursday. cause I dont feel like I really ever do anything, oh but I did get a letter from JESS!
1-14-2011
Today was a lot like yesterday except I spoke a whole lot more ukrainian today which was really good, I am starting to make some more new friends which is good, I've noticed a lot of the people I'm becoming friends with are the "popular" people I didnt care much for in high school, whats up with that?
1-15-2011
well I had class like every other day but today was fun because I got to play b-ball and review ukrainian, I love when we have activitys in class, I also learned that I'm not very good at teaching a 10 min lesson when I only have 2 min to prepare.
1-16-2011
today was kind of a crazy day, it was a really emotional day but good. I did the usual, studied a lot of ukrainian, wrote my 5 min ukrainian talk, thankgoodness I didnt have to give the talk though cause it would have been bad. I talked to the bishop today cause I've been getting a little home sick so he told me I just need to look for the positive things in life and that I need to relax, he said I am to uptight.
1-17-2011
Today was a hard day too, but I had my first good dream! and by that I mean I dont have many dreams and most of the time my dreams are about me having fun before my mission and then I wake up and realize I'm really on a mission and cant do that for the next 2 years. oh but I read some cool stuff in Alma 22 today! I love the things you can learn from the scriptures (read alma 18 and then 22) I found out that Aaron copies exactly what Alma did in the way they teach it was so cool to see how that worked.
This week was a hard week, but it was a good week,
I sent out my mail already so you should be getting it in the next day or two, but I didnt get much mail so I didnt really know what to write about.
anyways I love you all I hope your doing well
Elder Kevin Carlisle

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Dear Family

Dear family,

How's it going? What have you guys been up to? Anyone in any plays or dances, or choirs, or sports? How's that going for you?

Not a whole lot happened this week, I feel like every week is the same here but let me think... in TRC we had to "buy" some clothing and teach the store owner about the Book of Mormon so guess what my companion and I did, we traded a B.O.M for a tie haha our teacher was laughing so hard afterwards what else did I do... oh it was Elder Flint's birthday yesterday so we had a party wahoo! which really just means we ate a lot of junk food.

I don't know what else to write it's 10am right now and I've only gotten like 3 letters this week so I don't have a lot to write about but I will give you a spiritual thought that also apply's to everyday life. So read Alma 18. See how Aaron teaches the exact same way as Alma? Now what I want you to take from this is that you should learn from others see what works for them and copy it, you will be way more successful in life if you do this

Love you all

Elder Kevin Carlisle

P.S. did Isaac take all the ties? If he left any and no one wants them I want them. 1st cause I need more and 2nd I can trade my ugly ties with other elders here cause everyone wants ugly ties but I want nice ties... so send me some ties!

P.S.S Anyone that didn't get a letter its cause I don't think you've written me yet so get writing!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Week 6

1-4-2011
its p-day! i got to go to the temple with the older district for the last time this week cause they all leave by wednesday :( its so hard to feel good about a p-day i always feel like I've wasted it even though i write like a million letters and I do everything that i really need to do. i cant wait to meet all the new elders next week though!
1-5-2011
Well the older district left this morning at like 5 am, it made me really sad to see them go i wish that i could have gone with them because they were all really cool, but i guess i'll just have to see them in two years :D oh I got to be a new missionary host today! it was way fun showing new elders to the rooms and classes it was way cool being able to see their excitment and worries haha there was this one kid who was pretty chill with everything and the only question he asked me was "hey when is lunch? did I miss it?" it was fun meeting new strangers! I also had the TRC tonight lets just say my head was ready to explode. we had to teach in 100% ukrainian and i have the vocab of a 5 year old.... but i made it out alive and the teachers seemed really impressed so thats good and to finish off the great day I got a package from Jessica! dang i love that girl :D
1-6-2011
today was pretty laid back, I feel like they really push us the first half of the week and the second half is all just review, which is pretty nice I guess. its also service day which was way fun, elder Flint and i took some sweet pictures! I think he and i make a really good companionship
1-7-2011
Today was another uneventful day. i went to class and my head, like every other day, really hurts.... not a whole lot happened sorry guys
1-8-2011
got up....went to gym...kicked butt... had a hard time with the door approach in all ukrainian....watched a movie... wrote a talk (100% ukrainian).....dinner...MDT... and now here i am...
i did have to teach a principle today from PMG and my teacher said I use to much logic, that I answer every question with a scripture and that I need to rely more on the spirit and what i feel not what i know. that's gonna be really hard for me cause i learn thing based on if its logical or not and so i need like a million scriptures to know something is true.
1-9-2011
lets just say it was the most stressful sunday ever! I had to cunduct music, say a prayer(in ukrainian), teach a lesson, and give a 5 min talk in 100% ukrainian....MY HEAD HURTS. I've been a little homesick these past couple of days but its getting better :) I learned a lot about repentace today i'll have to send you my notes sometime.
1-10-2011
So I had to teach a lesson today and I had no idea what to say my mind was completly blank, but as soon as i started to speak the words just came to me and I and my teacher knew exactly what I was saying, it was so cool. oh and I have to speak only ukrainian durning lunch and I did it! I spoke to the russians in 100% ukrainian and any of the other words I didnt know I had to make guestures but it was so cool cause we understood each other! \\
This week was really hard for me but I really started to grow and to see what it means to work, and to be a missionary. I love you all!
oh by the way tell jessica she doesnt have to send me a package this week, I'll live with out, but if she really needs to send me something, just send me ravioli or something i dont know I dont really need that much here, or she could steal my ugly ties from you guys and send me those
i love you all
Elder Kevin Carlisle

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Week 4

12-21-2010
Today was a good day, i got up at 6:30 today and got ready for the
day. The temple was closed which was really sad but guess what?!?! i
got to clean the temple today! it was great. wanna know how i cleaned
it? with toothpicks and q-tips! yep i deep deep cleaned today! so mom
and grant, when you guys use those lockers just know your son cleaned
them for you!
I got my hair cut for the first time and it was pretty cool, I've
decided that i'm good enough to work there.
i washed my clothes today but when i went to dry them they just
wouldnt dry so i had to hang dry them. stupid dryers!
i got presents from Jess and Jamba today i cant wait till christmas

12-22-2010
today the TRC wasnt half bad, i could really tell that i dont know any
ukrainian but i do know that I can teach a great lesson in english!
i think something is wrong with me because i cant eat very much sugar
now before i start to feel sick, i cant even eat a whole bowl of ice
cream anymore :(
i checked mail after dinner today and guess what!? i got my presents
from my family! Ya! i love getting packages and letters! they make me
soooo happy and loved.
i cant wait till christmas

12-23-2010
today was like any other day, woke up, did service (the cleaning guy I
work with likes to tell us random princples from the gospel everyweek
and I'm pretty sure he has no idea what hes talking about) Ukrainian
is hard i hope I can pick it up. 2 days till christmas!!!!

12-24-2010
today was a good day. i had class all morning long but then had MDT
(missionary directed time) for the rest of the day, I goofed of a lot
more then i should have but i did learn some really good stuff on how
to teach about Chastity, which i think could be a hard principle to
teach, and hey its christmas eve I've got to have some time to goof
off :)
We had a good devotional where the MTC presidency taught us the
importaince of the gifts god has given us and how we can share them
with others. when the devotional was over we got to watch Mr. Krugers
Christmas! it was really fun they even gave us popcorn! i really
thinked it helped me get into the christmas spirit.

12-25-2010
8;15 am
i got up today at 5:30 and opened my presents with all the other
elders! it was so much fun! it made me think of all the great
christmas traditions we have and how much I was gonna miss cinimon
rolls this year :( i think i got as many presents as the whole zone
got combined, I love everyone thanks so much everyone! i then went to
a talent show! one of the elders could some how turn $1 into $20 it
was crazy! there was a lot more cool stuff and i recorded it all so
you guys already can watch the cool stuff that happened
4:45 pm
I just got done with a devotional where Elder Russel m. Nelson gave a
talk, it was so good! it was all about Jesus christ and what he did
for us, I have the notes in my study journal so I'll have to send them
to you guys next week.
Christmas dinner was good it was just turkey, potatoes, stuffing,
rolls ect. loved it all!
elder snow got an ipod with some music on it, it was really cool to be
able to hear music again but later we were told no more music in the
MTC, I'm not really sure why we cant have church music in the MTC but
i guess i cant question it.
10:22 pm
we had another fireside tonight it was really cool cause it was a
reading play of "the christmas story" the actors were really good, i
really wish i could have recorded it.

12-26-2010
I am in so much trouble, I need to teach my "investigators" tomorrow
and I didnt study im gonna die! sunday is such a good day for relaxing
though i hate studying


Well im out of time cause i cant type on this broken keyboard but I
love you all please pass this on to everyone alan, jess, brig, family,
ect
I cant wait to hear from you guys i love you all so much and i miss
you more then you know

Love elder Kevin Carlisle