President Bountiful Temple

I'm sure everyone remembers Elder Douglas L. Callister who was the Euorpe East Area President while we were in Ukraine. He has been called to be the new President of the Bountiful Temple. His wife Sister Jeannette Callister will be the temple matron. We are excited because this is our temple and we will be able to see him often.

Visits End of May 2009

We spent Thursday night with Sister Tegeder and the Bostons. It is so much fun to get together and talk about the future. Sunday the Rolfes and Sister Grigoryan came to our house for a visit. It was nice to see them. We are so happy people are maintaining their friendships. I forgot to take pictures on Sunday. The Rolfes and Sister Grigoryan look great.

Ukraine Donetsk Mission Rap

Use your imagination and get the correct rap beat and then start:

Think I'll try,
This mission thing.
Think I'm ready,
Think I'm clean.
Tuesday night,
Did some confess'in.
To the bishop,
And President Session.
They were cool,
Now we're tight.
They told me,
I'm going to be alright.
Book of Mormon, D&C,
Bible study,
Now interests me.
Got'ta leave my friends,
Got'ta leave my girl,
I'm so homesick,
I might hurl.
The MTC's,
Tell'in me,
No Cell phone,
And no TV.
Heard we study,
Day and night,
Gassy food, no coke,
Just sprite.
Got a companion,
Twenty-four seven.
This can't be,
Wha'cha call heaven.
Hope I make it,
Times are tough.
Lots of my friends,
Think I'm nuts.
Best two years,
Is all I hear.
I love Jesus,
And hope He's near.


I would like this to be a work in progress for all of us. I've got a some what interesting start now let's see how creative you can be. Email me your thought and Iwill add them - davidmmcqueen@comcast.net. If you send me anything inappropriate I will haunt you.

Church News

Elder Dupre or should I say 2LT Dupre or should I say "sir" with Elder Nelson. Elder Nelson was at Walter Reed hospital in Washington and I guess Elder Dupre was on duty there. I would really love to hear the story behind the picture.

Elder Lopez

We had an interesting email from one of the "old guys" from the mission Elder Lopez. Elder Lopez was in Kharkov when we arrived in the mission. He was one of the first missionaries I ever went tracking with while in Ukraine. As I remember it, we entered the stairwell of a four or five story apartment building and Elder Lopez explained to me that he always started at the top of the stairway and worked his way down. He asked if this would be a problem for me. I replied that it would not. He then started running up the stairs and did not stop until we reached the top of the stairs. I was still in fairly good shape and I stayed up with him and was trying to catch my breath when he asked me to say the prayer before we knocked on the first door and between deep breaths I said the prayer. He walked with a purpose, had a daily schedule that was programed down to the minute, and had a no nonsense approach to missionary work. He was less than thrilled when I called him to be my secretary in the office. He did not want to leave the "field". In the office, we worked through the crisis of missionaries getting kicked out to Kharkov, the Ministry of State Security guy telling us we had to get a law firm to take over our registration of missionaries in each city, and our first mission tour. I really felt I let him down because I had told him and his companion that they could sleep in one morning after they had been up late with us getting new missionaries on the late train to Kharkov. The missionaries were asked during the mission tour if they had gotten up at 0630 in the morning during the past week and he had to reply with a no. He looked at me as if he had let me down and I could only whisper to him from the stand to not worry about it. The fun thing about working with the office elders was Sue and I got to know them very well. They usually helped us eat the leftovers from the missionary arrival and leaving meals and every once in a while we had them for breakfast when we were in town. He also helped us with numerous Christmas functions in 1999. Elder Lopez quickly came to the understanding that he was privy to lots of confidential information, that he was given a great deal of latitude in making decisions, and that when we were away he as the defacto leader of the mission. I had full faith and trust in his abilities as I did with all of my secretaries. Along with his leadership abilities, was a deep sense of humility for being able to serve in Ukraine. He expressed his love for the mission, the church, the prophet, the scriptures and most importantly the Book of Mormon during every zone conference testimony meeting. Those of us who were privileged to hear his final testimony before getting on the train to come home will never forget the tender way he touched his worn Book of Mormon and testified about what a wonderful missionary tool it was and how much he loved it. I think we all started crying at about three o'clock that afternoon and didn't stop until the train had pulled out of the station in Donetsk. His most current email touched on the same firm testimony about the church, the prophet and his local leaders. It was our honor to serve a season with him.

That's It

That is about all of the writings I have concerning the mission. If some one has a favorite subject that they would like me to write about I would consider it.

Arriving

We arrived in Kiev on the 29th of June 1999. Going through customs was an experience. The customs officials were not the most pleasant people to deal with but we made it and finally made contact with the people from the Kiev Service Center, who got us to the train station for the over night trip to Donetsk. It was so hot and humid that day, that we were perspiring profusely when we finally got all our bags on the train. We sat down and started to wonder how we were going to smell in the morning when we met the missionaries and President and Sister Manzhos. Being military people we are always prepared and with the help of some baby wipes and deodorant, we decided we smelled just fine. Once the train started moving the compartment cooled off and we had a pleasant trip watching the country side pass by. We discussed at length what was going to happen to us in the morning. We wondered what the next three years would bring. Thinking about this was both wonderful and scary. We prayed that we would be able to do all that was asked of us. We went to sleep with the clickety clack of the train tracks and the faint smell of the bathroom. Our train was supposed to be in Donetsk at 0930 but it didn’t arrive until 1230. The office Elders, the assistants, and President and Sister Manzhos were there waiting for us. We got into the van and quickly drove to our new apartment. When I say quickly, I really mean fast. I couldn’t believe how fast and furious the driving habits were in the Ukraine. We tailgated, sped around, and held on as we watched the semi-controlled chaos of Ukrainian driving. We were taken to our brand new apartment. The apartment was nice and we had two bathrooms and three bedrooms and a great living room and a nice office and a great kitchen-all the comforts of home. The place even had a room heater/air-conditioner in each room. We had a Ukrainian lunch and then unpacked a little. We both love cabbage and potatoes and almost any fruit or vegetable along with all meats. The meal was great. We talked with the Manzhos’ about the apartment, the garage, the old mission home, and other housekeeping issues. We didn’t talk much about the mission or the missionaries. We went to the office and prepared to take the Manzhos’ to the train station for the ride back to Kiev. We met a lot of missionaries and members that night at the station. They wanted to say good bye to the Manzhos family. Once they boarded the train and left, we went back to the apartment, finished unpacking, and tried to calm our nerves. We were now on our own. We were responsible for about 130 missionaries in a country where we couldn’t communicate. Exactly the type of experience we had been praying for. At about 10:00 we received a call that some missionaries had been in a fight with some local boys. Nothing really serious but enough to give us a reality check. It seems to me that those first few months missionaries were getting in fights on a weekly basis. Either the beatings slowed down or we got used to the situation because after a while it just didn’t bother us as much as it did that first night. We had written the assistants and asked them to schedule a mission tour as quickly as possible. We wanted first and foremost to meet all the missionaries and as many members as possible. When we arrived home from the tour, we were convinced that we had the best missionaries in the world. Because of the missionaries, we knew the next three years were going to have great spiritual experiences.