Ryan 2011

Ryan is on his Russian-speaking mission in Ukraine.  He has spent most of his time in "the Crimea".  Crimea is the peninsula Republic at the bottom of Ukraine.  On the map here, Ukraine is white, and Crimea (which is part of Ukraine) is red.

Mission life is split into "transfers", or about 6 weeks.  This is when most of the missionaries who are transferred to another area is transferred.  Ryan has been in the mission office in Dnipropetrovsk for 3 transfers, and they just got their "transfer" letter to let them know that he will be staying in the office for another transfer, but his companion will be transferred and Ryan will get a new companion. (Dnipropetrovsk is two oblasts - like a county - above the Crimea/Simferopel Oblast.)

Below is the Ukraine Dnepropetrovsk Mission (Dnipropetrovsk is the Ukrainian way to spell it, but we were given the either Russian or English way to spell it, with Dne instead of Dni) boundary map:

I (Angela) write to Ryan every Sunday morning before everyone wakes up.  At about 6:00 am our time Monday, which is 5:00 pm his time (I think) Tuesday, Ryan reads his letter and then writes back to me.  Often we are on the computer at the same time.  We don't take the time to have conversations, which would be possible, but sometimes he'll respond to my letter with a question, then I'll write the answer back to him, and he'll respond to that.

You're supposed to touch this painted, hollow, wooden egg and make a wish.  That's the significance of it.

See that Ryan has his CTR ring on his right hand, because in our country we don't usually wear rings on our left "marriage" finger?  In Ukraine the right hand is where you wear your wedding ring, so he was asked a few times if he was married. (I don't know if he switched his ring to the other finger or not.)

Ryan always makes comments to my letter and often he writes about his mission so that I can forward it to his grandparents, dad, and a few others.  He has given us challenges in reading the scriptures, taught us words, phrases, and pronunciations of Russian names and language, told us about some of his friends and investigators, lets us know how he is feeling and challenging himself, and he always sounds upbeat and positive about the possible outcome to anything.

While working in the mission office, he has a variety of duties which I am unaware of, but what I do know is that "Elder Merrick" is the one who receives all the mail and packages to the missionaries then redirects them to the missionaries' street addresses.  He has also been typing Scripture Mastery cards with English on one side and Russian on the other to help new missionaries. They also do typical contacting a couple hours in the evenings.

I think Tuesdays are his Preparation Day.  This is the day the clean their clothes, do shopping, and play.  That's where we get the really neat pictures that show the uniqueness of Ukraine, as compared to the USA.

 

We get to Skype with Ryan again at Christmas.  Is that next week?  Wah-hooo! 

Ryan's lovely girlfriend, Chiara, is still devoted to her Elder Merrick, and we love when she visits us.