Rostov Center Week 8

September 5, 2016

Здравствуйте

This week has been awesome(like every week)! We've had a bunch of different service opportunities and activities this week, and it's been super fun! We went and helped out at a local orphanage, and moved a ton of furniture up and down stairs, which was way fun! The people there were all super nice, and seemed pretty appreciative of all of the help that we gave. There were probably around 20 people there, including all of us volunteers and the elders quorum in the Severny Rostov branch! 

We've also been stopping by a member in the branch that's paralyzed on the left side, and has a hard time doing a lot of things. Her daughter usually helps out most of the time, but she's on vacation this week, so we've just sort of taken her place. We've picked up groceries for her, helped her prepare some food, clipped her fingernails, and all kinds of other small things. Every time we would come over, she just got the biggest grin on her face, and just showers us in compliments telling us how great we were, and how much she appreciated us for doing all these small things! 

We also had a way fun game night with some members and some non-members. We played the game "mafia", which was ridiculously confusing for pretty much everyone involved. There were a few students from Africa there that didn't speak the best Russian, so we had a few translators at different places to help them along, but even then it was still pretty rough. It was way fun though, everyone seemed to enjoy it! Then later in the week we had an institute kick off for the new semester, and most of the youth from the Rostov district were there. They served this drink(I can't remember what it's called) but it was basically just hot, melted jello, it was super tasty, but super weird at the same time. Other than that, not a whole lot has happened this week! Hope all is well with everyone! Love ya!

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)

Talent Show

August 29, 2016

Здравствуйте

Hey everyone! This week's been way awesome! I'm just having a great time serving people, and helping out the members here! This week we had a branch talent show, and it was seriously one of the greatest activities I've been to so far on my mission! There were almost 50 people there (which is a LOT of people compared to regular activities), and a good amount of them participated in the talent show! I got to play the guitar with the senior couple and another volunteer, which was super fun! It was just really cool to see everyone come together and have a good time with each other! We're hoping to have activities like this more often, just to help everyone become a little closer as a branch! 

We also were able to go down to that animal shelter again, and help rebuild some dog houses! When we showed up there was another 20 year old guy there that we hadn't met before, so we started talking to him. It turns out that he just showed up to help out. He said that he usually volunteers at different places that seem like they could use some help in his free time. He was honestly one of the coolest people I've ever met, so we all decided to take our dinner block at the top of this hill with a giant statue on top and eat some ice cream with him! He showed up to the activity and had a way good time! It was just really awesome to meet someone that cared about others and was so willing to give up his free time to help them! 

Other than that, not a whole lot has happened this week! We're still looking around for places we can help out on a more regular basis, but we haven't had a whole lot of luck as of yet! We're still hoping and praying that we'll find something though! I love you all, and hope everything is going great for ya! 

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)

Talent Show!

Transfers!

August 22, 2016

Здравствуйте

Hey everyone! It's been a way exciting week over here in Rostov Center! We got transfers this week, and I'll be staying here, but my companion and I are getting split up. He's headed over to another section of Rostov called Сельмаш (Selmash). There are a lot of less-active members over there that just need a little more attention so President decided to send an additional pair of missionaries there to work specifically with those members. There used to be an entire branch for that area, but it closed down awhile back. The church still owns the building though, so they'll be using it to hold branch activities for the members there! It should be way exciting! I'll continue to serve here in Center with my new companion Elder Macabee, who will be our new district leader! It should be a fun next transfer, and I'm looking forward to all kinds of fun stories!

This past week has been way awesome as well. This Thursday we flew out to Armenia to renew our visas, and it was awesome as always. I can't remember if I mentioned it last week or not, but we've been volunteering at a local animal shelter here and it's been a great experience to help these people! We made a ton of progress last time we went, and it was all worth it to see how grateful everyone there was for everything we'd done for them, even though it really didn't seem like much. 

We were also able to help out at a branch activity here this Saturday. We organized a Luau for the youth in our district, and held it out in a forest in the middle of the city! It was so fun, and everyone seemed to have a great time. That's pretty much all that happened this week though, hopefully I'll have more to send next week! Love you all, and hope you're doing well!

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)

 Boat Ride on the Don River with Elder Kempton's District.

Hi Everyone

August 15, 2016

Здравствуйте!

Hey everyone! Sorry this email is coming so late(actually, it's probably at a reasonable time in the morning over there, but it's like 7p.m here). I don't have a whole lot of time to email today, so I'll keep this email pretty short! This week has been way awesome! We've been having all kinds of way fun service activities! 

One of the members here, Kostya, called us and asked if we could help him tear up some concrete for him, so of course we said yes! We showed up expecting some sort of power tool or something like that to do it, but when we got there he literally handed us a giant metal pole that was somewhat pointed on end and flattened on the other and told us to go to work. I don't know what it's called in English, but in Russian it's called a лом. It took way long, and by the end we had some pretty sweet blisters on our hands, but we got the job done! The guy we did it for is actually a teacher at an English school here, so we were able to meet with him and he helped us a lot with our Russian, and gave us help with our accents! 

We also went down to an animal shelter and helped some people out there unload a big truck full of wooden planks, and hopefully next week we'll be coming back to build some dog houses! Other than that, not a whole lot has happened this week, and I don't really have a whole lot of time left to write, so I'll just call it good right there! I love you all, and hope everything is going great with you back there in the States or wherever you may be!

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)

Dustin's hands after doing concrete work!

Dustin has been enjoying cooking.  He is really enjoying it and is trying all sorts of new things!

Service

August 8, 2016

Здравствуйте!

Hey there everyone! Another super great week here in Russia! We're still looking all over the place for service opportunities, and trying to figure out how to adapt to all these changes that are taking place here, but we're having a great time doing it! We were able to head back to that same house where we got to use the scythe, and continue working on her yard! Her yard looks about 100 times better now that we're done with everything over there, and she's super appreciative of it. 

We also went over to a less active named Toma this week. She's super awesome, and has a firm testimony of the gospel, but she's paralyzed on her left side, so she can't really walk anywhere. We cleaned out a bunch of stuff in an old house on her property that's pretty much only held up by a stick and a couple of poles. 

We've been doing a lot of indexing here lately when we have absolutely nothing else to do, and I've been doing it in Russian, which has been pretty interesting. I've learned the older Russian alphabet used before the most recent language reform, and have pretty much gotten used to reading the cursive, which has been pretty fun! On the tops of all of the baptism, birth, and death records in Russia they used the really old alphabet, which looks pretty unrecognizable at first, but I've pretty much figured out all of the letters! That was pretty much our week though! Love you all, and hope all is well!

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)

The Moratorium is Almost Over

August 1, 2016

Привет!

Hey there everyone! This week's email is going to be pretty short as well, as we've pretty much been inside all week minus a few experiences that I'll explain later! But today is the last day of this little "freeze" so I'll hopefully have all kinds of way awesome stories to tell you all come next Monday! 

We've still been able to do some service though, which has been way fun! We went back to that house we were at last week where I learned how to use a scythe and finished everything up there, and it looks way awesome! We're hopefully going to plant a garden or do something there to make it look even better, because we have all kinds of time to do that now! 

This week we're also going over to a member named Toma, who's pretty much the coolest person ever! Every time we talk to her she tells us how smart we are, and that we're the best missionaries ever(which is what she says to everyone) but you always feel great after visiting her! Her house needs some major cleaning up, so we're pretty pumped to help her out! That's pretty much what's going on over here though! The work is still moving forward! We've got tons of baptisms lined up mission wide, and we'll only continue to have more! I love you all, and hope everything is going great with all of you!

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)

Volunteer Work

July 25, 2016

Здравствуйте!

Hey everyone! This week has been pretty uneventful, as may have been expected seeing as we're basically on holiday lockdown over here until next week! It's been a really awesome time to get a lot of things done that I usually don't have time for though! Our phone and area book are super organized, and we did a deep clean of our apartment, so everything is just awesome! 

I've had a lot of time to do some extra language study though, so that's been pretty awesome! I've got a stack of 125 new words that I wrote down this morning that I'm gonna try and learn today just to see if I can do it! Haha, other than that, not much has happened! 

We've had a couple of service opportunities this week that have been pretty entertaining! We went to do some yard work for a lady, and we she handed me a scythe and told me to go to work cutting down a huge field of weeds in her yard! It was pretty entertaining, and actually went pretty quick! Also, this week our zone leaders had me prepare a lesson on the history of Russia, and gave me a whole bunch of stuff to read and study, so I was able to learn a lot of really cool stuff about the culture here, and then share it with everyone else! To make it better. I showed up to teach it, and they had a Dr. Pepper with them! For those of you that don't know, Dr. Pepper is pretty much impossible to find over here, but apparently they know a place where you can buy some, and had heard that I really enjoy Dr. Pepper, so they bought me one! That's pretty much been this week though! I love you all, and hope everyone is doing well!

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)