We got evacuated

We received this email on January 4, 2022.

Привет всем и с новым годом!

Our entire mission got evacuated to Kiev, and we've been doing remote missionary work in our respective areas. On Christmas Eve we got up early and got on a bus down South to Poltava, then met with all 19(?) missionaries in the Kharkov zone and rode on another bus west to Kiev. The majority of our mission is living in the Kiev temple housing now, which is pretty cool. It's probably like how having in person MTC would have been except we get to do real missionary work. Being with fifty something other missionaries is pretty cool. I played a game of basketball for my first time in Ukraine! We can finally do district council (a weekly meeting of missionaries) in person. It's a big change from being the only two missionaries in a city of probably 200,000.

We're still getting used to doing missionary work completely remotely, but we're way excited and we know there's a lot of work to be done!

Hope y'all have a great week!!

-Elder Olivier

Очень Большие Новости

We received this email from Elder Olivier on December 20, 2021.

A week and a half ago Elder Knight and I received a call from the mission president saying that Elder Knight, my trainer, was going to be a Zone Leader and that I would be leaving Poltava and going to Sumy! This was big news for both of us. So last Monday I spent my time packing up and heading north to Sumy, where I got a new companion, Elder Silvenoinnen from Finland! He's a super cool guy and he and I both arrived in Ukraine at the beginning of October! He basically perfected English from watching Youtube. Also one of the funnest things is to use google translate to translate a sentence and read it off to him in Finnish.

The weather in Sumy so far definitely has that "series of unfortunate events" vibe, but this week was pretty exciting. We had quite a few lessons with people and gave out 6 Books of Mormon. On Saturday we had a lesson scheduled with a man named Vladislav, but when we tried contacting him he said he was busy and asked us to call later. Disappointed, we assumed he wasn't interested in our message- but then to our delight, he said he was ready to meet with us at the very end of the day! We ended up meeting with him and he had a lot of questions and it was super tricky with the language barrier, but he was defnitely interested which was awesome to see.

I gave my first in-person talk in Russian yesterday at church, which was super cool. The members are few but mighty in spirit, and I can't wait to get to know them more. One of the scriptures we shared this week comes from the Book of Mormon at the end of 3 Nephi chapter 9, which says, "Behold, I have come unto the world to bring redemption unto the world, to save the world from sin. Therefore, whoso repenteth and cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive, for of such is the kingdom of God. Behold, for such have a laid down my life, and have taken it up again; therefore repent, and come unto me ye ends of the earth, and be saved." I'm grateful for Jesus Christ, and I love the marvelous promise in these verses.

I hope y'all have a great week!!

Elder Olivier

1. View from the new place

2-3. Goodbyes to Elder Knight and Danil

4. Classic selfie with the companion

5. I saw some blue sky today for the first time in Sumy

Первый Снег!

We received this email from Elder Olivier on December 6, 2021.

Hi everyone!!

We had snow this week for the first time!

We met with our friend Vladimir this week, and had a great experience sharing the message of the Restoration with him. He seemed to take it well, and hopefully we will continue to work with him!

We also had an exciting experience with our friend Danil, who loves coming to church with us every week. After church yesterday, he asked the bishop how one would go about joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That was the start of a very good conversation about baptism and the Restoration of the fulness of the gospel of Christ.

One of the most exciting things I've got to do as a missionary is to go contacting in public, or to walk up to any person in public and start a conversation about religion. This has resulted in some very awkward as well as very rewarding and positive interactions. My companion and I were about to go home when we started a conversation with a woman. We told her about the Book of Mormon, and that it is evidence of God's love for us. She seemed very touched by the Spirit and our message, and accepted the Book and told us she would read it. I'm glad we had the courage to open our mouths and share the message that she needed to hear.

Have a wonderful week 

Elder Olivier

Happy Thanksgiving!

We received this email from Elder Olivier on November 29, 2021.

Привет Всем and Happy Thanksgiving!

I don't have much time to write today, but it was a cool week. We got to celebrate Thanksgiving as a district, which is cool because we don't live close to each other. I'm grateful for my family and the opportunity to serve a mission!!

Hope you'll have a great week!

Elder Olivier

KFC

We received this email from Elder Olivier on November 22.

Hey everyone!

I hope you all are doing well! The mission is going by super fast... I feel like just yesterday I arrived in Ukraine, but an entire transfer has already passed!

The first thing to report since my last email is that my companion and I had the opportunity to go to KFC. Before coming to Ukraine, I heard a few people say that KFC is super good out here, and it's true. The food is better. The only downside is the ketchup costs money and comes in pretty small packs. Still, 11/10 would recommend and no I was not paid to write this.

We had exchanges recently, so the companionship in Kremenchug came to our area in Poltava for a day, which was super fun. I worked with Elder Riley for the day. We ended up teaching a girl name Diana. Then we introduced her to our favorite book, the Book of Mormon. When she asked why it was our favorite book, we opened the book to 2 Nephi 26:33 and handed it to her to read. To our surprise, she ended up reading that verse and the entire following chapter to herself right in front of us! I won't quote the entire 27th chapter, but verse 33 of chapter 26 says, "For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile." I love this verse because God loves all of His children and wants the best for all of us.

Elder Olivier

1.USA technology peanut butter

2. Pizza with our friend Danil

3. Fresh haircuts

4-5. KFC

6. Us jamming out to Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up"

7. Our birthday present for Danil

Один Месяц в Украине!!

We received this email from Elder Olivier on November 8.

Привет всем!!

I can't believe I've already been here for a month! I had a pretty solid week here in Ukraine. On Tuesday, we had exchanges, which means we got to work with a new companion for one day. The missionaries in Sumy came down to Poltava, which was way cool. We ate at this awesome Georgian restaurant, and all four of us ordered a giant pizza-looking thing that was super good. Exchanges were super fun and a good opportunity to get a new perspective on missionary work.

We also had zone conference on Friday over zoom. Zone conference is a big training meeting for missionaries that happens every six weeks. The theme of the conference was focusing on centering our message on Jesus Christ, and all the missionaries got to share their favorite verse about Him. Sister Cheban, President Cheban's wife, also organized food deliveries to all the missionaries' apartments so we could eat "together" which was super nice!

On Saturday, we had a lesson with our friend Женя, and we also had help from one of the church members here, sister Tatiana. Женя is a super cool guy, and he has read a lot from the Book of Mormon. At the beginning of our meeting with him, sister Tatiana asked him if he believed the Book of Mormon was true. He said yes, and then she immediately brought up baptism! Elder Knight and I were so surprised (it was our first time meeting with him). We taught him about God's plan for us, relying heavily on the Book of Mormon because it speaks better Russian than us. We ended up inviting him to be baptized and he accepted! We are super excited for him, and super grateful that sister Tatiana was there to help us.

Yesterday we had an interesting lesson... We were at a church member's house teaching two people, and one of them was very drunk and was super talkative, so it was pretty hard to have a productive discussion. He did have some interesting things to say though. We ended up just doing our best and I think it turned out okay.

One of the most important messages we try to share as missionaries is that God loves us. I really like the verse from the Book of Mormon, Alma 5:33, which says, "Behold, he sendeth an invitation unto all men, for the arms of mercy are extended towards them, and he saith: Repent, and I will receive you."

I hope you all had an amazing week!

Старейшина Оливье

1. Our zone conference lunch

2. A cool burger... also apparently they wear gloves to eat burgers here?

Борщ, the emperor of Ukraine, and more

We received this email from Elder Olivier on October 25, 2021.

Привет всем!

This week was pretty good.

We went street contacting (going outside, talking to people and trying to find people interested in our message) one pleasant evening at Corpus Park. We saw two men having a conversation, and decided to greet them with a classic "Здравствуйте!" To our surprise, they seemed happy to see us, almost as if we had previously arranged to meet with them. One of the men had to leave shortly thereafter, but the other was very interested in talking to us and even walked like half a mile with us. I didn't understand most of what he said, but it's funny how a lot of people talk to you anyway. Naturally, as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints do, we introduced him to the Book of Mormon (another testament of Jesus Christ, a book of scripture, and companion to the Bible), handed him a copy and invited him to read. Since then, we've run into him twice, and to our delight, both times he told us he has been reading! It's awesome to see people take action to come closer to Jesus Christ.

We also had English practice on Saturday. Every Saturday, we have the opportunity to teach English to some Ukrainians. Everyone that comes to practice though is so advanced in English already that it's basically just a conversation in English, so it's a nice opportunity for me to get a break from Russian.

Yesterday, our friend Danil came to church again! He also wants to invite his mom to come next week which is super cool.

We had the chance to share a scripture from the Book of Mormon with a woman. My companion wanted to share Alma 26:37, but he accidentally mixed that up with Mosiah 26:39 haha. When the lady read the verse, she was a bit confused. Luckily, elder Knight quickly realized his mistake and we were able to share the correct verse, which says, "Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen." I think this is a really cool verse. It's one of the many verses in the scriptures that point to the love of God for His children.

I hope you all have an outstanding week!

Старейшина Оливье

Photos:

1. Me at Corpus Park

2-3. We made борщ!

4. Elder Knight and I with the Emperor of Ukraine. Very nice guy. 

Dinner Appointment

Wild Hedgehog

First Email from Ukraine!!!

We received this email from Elder Olivier on October 18, 2021 not long after arriving in Ukraine.

Привет всем!

Sorry, I didn't get a chance to email last week because I had a super busy p-day. It's been an adventure adjusting to life as a missionary and living in Ukraine. When I arrived in Dnipro on the 8th, I met my companion, Elder Knight. Elder Knight is a pretty new missionary, but he is awesome and super hard-working. He also went to BYU for a year before coming on his mission like I did, so it's fun to talk about that. I was assigned to a city called Poltava, and it's been awesome so far.

At church last Sunday, I was able to see some of the church members. It was testimony meeting, which means anyone in the congregation who feels the urge can share their testimony of Jesus Christ. It was great to hear many of the church members' testimonies, and even though I could only understand part of them, I could tell they were powerful.

Yesterday's church meeting was also a highlight because our friend Danil was able to attend! He's super cool. He's trying to learn English, so he loves talking to us.

We had a couple of lessons this week, and we also got to mail a few Books of Mormon out to peole who requested them which was great.

Speaking of the Book of Mormon, one verse from the Book of Mormon I read recently was Alma 42:15, which says, "And now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made, therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also." I love this verse and I'm grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, who made God's plan of mercy possible.

I hope y'all are doing well!

Старейшина Оливье

More Photos from Home MTC

It was nice having Elder Olivier in our home during his Home MTC experience. He enjoyed his MTC district and looked forward to traveling to Ukraine to meet them all in person. His P-day was on Wednesday, so he spent Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in classes with his district learning to be a missionary and immersed in Russian language training. 

Lunch with Cameron

Labor Day with Oma and Opa

Hurricane Ida Remnants Hit Philadelphia

Service Project to Cleanup Flooded Basement

Home MTC Desk

Long Run

General Conference

Cameron's Birthday at Home

On October 7, Elder Olivier departed the Philadelphia Airport, first to Detroit to meet a few missionaries, then they flew together to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, then to Kyiv, Ukraine, then to Dnipro, Ukraine.