This year Easter and General Conference lined up pretty well. Not only for all of you Americans but also for all of us here in Eastern Europe. For you Easter was on the 1st of April and so was General Conference. For us we watch General Conference the week after because it takes some time for all of the translations to be done and it just so happened that this year Orthodox Easter was on the same day that we would watch General Conference. Us missionaries here in Vinnitsya got to listen to it in English throughout the week and might I say that I don't remember a General Conference being so powerful. I felt so inspired to be better and to study the scriptures more intently and not to mention all of the surprising new changes in church programs. Here in the Europe East Area the Area Presidency has instructed that all ward and branch units hold sacrament meeting during general conference weekend. So the way it works here is that the week after all of you watch General Conference we have sacrament meeting but watch at least one session of General Conference after that ordinance of the sacrament. We got to as a branch watch the Sunday morning session and I think it was cool that when they would say something like "On this beautiful Easter morning. . ." it was actually Easter for us.
Before we watched the Sunday morning session we watched and took part in the "Solemn Assembly". That was a really awesome experience to see these faithful Ukrainian members stand and sustain their church leaders. We have one Deacon and it was cool for him to stand and sustain the Prophet and Apostles.
After we watched conference the branch put on a little Easter party that was pretty tasty. Here in Ukrainian there are a lot more traditions than we have in the U.S. Here it is very popular to back these special little Easter cakes called "Pas'hachki" and decorate eggs in very elaborate ways and take them to the Provoslovny "Orthodox" churches to get them blessed by the priests. It is always fun to see these families walking or getting on the tramvay to go to the church with their basket of eggs. So our members of course made the special Easter cakes (which actually aren't the best, mostly pretty bland but you can get lucky sometimes and get a good one) and lots of colored eggs as well as a variety of other tasty Ukrainian dishes. Another Easter tradition is to have "egg battles" where you and another person take and egg and hit them together to see which one will win and stay whole and which one will loose and crack. I grabbed an egg and with all of the little kids that were there had these little "egg wars" and without meaning to (because I think that there is some element of strategy involved) won every single time. I even tried to use the seemingly weaker part of my egg but still I remained undefeated. I feel a little bad that I broke all of those kid's eggs but mostly feel accomplished.
We here have been trying to make a bigger effort in getting more new people to come to our pretty big English Practice. The problem isn't in getting people but in getting people who aren't young girls and 55-65 year old men. We are pretty good at getting those types of people to come, especially Elder Clifford in getting those younger women to come. We recently went out one night and talked with a whole bunch of people about English and we met quite a few people who are very interested in our English Practice and have seen a few of them in our most recent English Practice.
Other than that we didn't get to do very much this week. I spent some good time in the beginning of the week getting all the way better from last week. But now I am 100% better. I think that I might have to do with the amazing Spring weather that we have been having. Today it has gotten up to 19 degrees C! I think that equates to about 67 degrees F. I thas been so warm and you can see all the green starting. Spring is something else here in this part of the world. It comes so fast, almost over night, and it is intense green. I have experienced two Springs in Eastern Europe before this and I can feel it here. There is also a special Spring smell that is only here that I have started to notice again.
On a diferent note, I have been accepted to Utah State University and am very excited to see what my future will hold. I have had lots of help in getting these things all sorted out since I haven't done anything with applying for college after I graduated High School.
Things are going well here in Ukraine. We recently got new missionaries which we are very grateful to have here in our little mission. Due to all of those missionaries that have been going home who have ended their missions we have been getting smaller and smaller but we have had some relief with getting groups of new missionaries.
I would invite all of you to pay closer attention to what our church leaders have counseled us in doing and make a greater effort in carrying out what they have said, especially our Prophet.
I am very grateful for all of your support and prayers and am looking forward to another great week here in the misison field in the service of my God!
Старейшина Класон / Elder Clawson
Elder Clifford really wanted to play basketball so we went to a court that we knew of but it was locked tight. So we resorted to setting up to broken hoop that is at our church and had a little fun and ate some pizza form the "Silpo" grocery store near us.
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