It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

-

Well, this week was one of the craziest so far. So many ups and downs.

On Monday we started off strong with going to eat at a member’s house! It was a fun night filled with delicious Ukrainian food and lots of pictures! She emailed all of our parents the pictures and videos they took of us. 

On Tuesday we went to Evalina's house. She is less active that we visit every week. She wanted us to do service for her this week but we weren't wearing service clothes. She made us sweep the floor and the ceiling. Ummm so let me just say her house is really dirty. Like really dirty. It is filled with all sorts of unidentifiable crawling objects haha. We don’t put our bags down there because of the spiders and cockroaches. But yeah I swept the floor and the entire trash pile was crawling. Sister King swept the ceiling and what we thought were paint cracks were actually hundreds of spiders haha. We were both dying. We felt a little sick after but we bounced back the next morning haha. 

On Wednesday we had the sisters from Moldova come to stay with us! We had a mission conference on Thursday so everyone from far away was coming to town! Our area is only an hour away from the mission office so we got to have the Moldova sisters stay with us! We also went contacting at Maidon which is the big monument that is in the center of Kyiv with about 10 other missionaries! It was awesome and also really cold haha. It was so fun to have everyone in town that we don't get to see very often. 

Thursday was MISSION CONFERENCE WITH ELDER COOK! It was an amazing day! We were so excited to meet him and when we got to the church everyone was running around scrubbing the carpets and practicing our musical number and it was just crazy! Our mission just combined with 2 other missions so it was the first time that everyone got to be together. It was awesome! We got to take a picture with Elder Cook and we all got to shake his hand and introduce ourselves. He gave amazing counsel for us missionaries and also bore an amazing witness of the Savior. One of the best days on the mission! To top it all off when we got back to our church building we were meeting with Kcenya but it turned out that the whole stake was at our church building. We asked what was happening and they said Elder Cook was coming! So we sat with Kcenya in the sacrament hall. WE GOT TO HEAR FROM HIM TWICE IN ONE DAY! It was THE BEST!!!

Anyway, Friday came along and we got transfers! (When the missionaries find out if they are leaving or staying in their area every 6 weeks). And... I'm staying for another transfer in Pechersky with Sister King! We are so excited because there is so much going on in our area right now! I am also done with training so I'm not a greenie anymore yay! Even though I still speak Russian like a greenie haha. 

Saturday was a good day. We had English practice and as we were leaving for the night we locked the church up and started walking towards the metro. Sister King asked if I locked it and we started doubting ourselves even though we were sure we locked it. We decided to walk back to the church to check. As soon as we got to the church we saw Sister Olena from the ward run into the church. She had a suitcase and was obviously distraught. We talked to her and it turns out her husband died. He is from America and so she needed us to talk to the funeral home to make the arrangements. It was so sad but we are so glad we followed the spirit so that we could help and comfort her. 

Sunday was a great day too but Sister King and I ended up getting sick so that was not fun. But I'm feeling better already and was able to get a flu shot today so yeah it has been a CRAZY week but I loved every second of it! (almost every second haha). Being on a mission is amazing and challenging but I love it so much! 

Love you all, Cectpa Daines  

Pictures:
1. Another temple selfie
2. Dinner at the Lukach's
3. Mission conference with Elder Cook!!!
4. Moldova Sisters
5. Ketchup and Mustard







Popular posts from this blog

Слава Украине

-
Image
This is it... 18 months later and I am coming home this week. I can't believe how fast the last year and a half have flown by but looking back, there has been so much change, growth, and learning I have experienced in this short time.  This week we went out with a bang. Faith was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! Her baptism was a special day and many people came to support her. She was baptized by a member of our ward who's family was involved in the finding and teaching process, it was such a cool experience! She got a new wave though so she had to put a plastic bag over her hair when she was baptized and we were dying! After the baptism a bunch of us went out for burgers and then I had my closing interview that night. So bittersweet! We also had a thanksgiving dinner this week where we ate lots of food, celebrated a Ukrainian/Hungarian wedding, and bore our closing testimonies. What a week.  It has been a huge bless...
Read more

Я люблю Украину ❤

-
Image
Woahhhh man this week has been a busy one but it has sure been a blast. I just got to my new area and me and my companion, sister innes, are loving it! My new area is a ward in Kiev right by where I served in Kiev a while ago. This whole week honestly every other word out of my mouth is "I LOVE UKRAINE!!" I seriously loved moldova too but for some reason Ukraine just feels like home to me. And I love these people soooooo much (even though they hate talking to us and reject us a ton). I'm so happy to be back in kiev for the next couple transfers!  So on Wednesday I woke up  at 4 am  and flew out here and man I was so exhausted because my comp and I just came back and taught lessons and did a ton of planning. The next day we also had a ton of meetings with the zone leaders to plan our zone activity for Monday and zone conference for tuesday! Everything is coming right at the beginning of the transfer. Contacting here is definitely different than in moldova, I forg...
Read more

First Women Witnesses Ever!

-
Image
Jk! I have no idea if that is actually true but literally a couple days after the announcement a woman in our ward called and asked us to be the witnesses at her son's baptism! It was actually super special because she is someone I have known throughout my mission! My parents were in her ward when they were first married and living in England and when I got my call to Ukraine they immediately connected through Facebook and now I am serving in her ward! We went to family home evening at their house on Monday and were really excited to find out that their 8 year old son would be baptized on Saturday. Little did we know that we would actually be able to be the witnesses! It was so cool, I love modern revelation. Other than making history, this week was crazy as usual. On Tuesday we had MLC for all the leadership in the mission at the Kumfermans' house which is always the best when we get to be there. We also went to the Temple and did baptisms with our recent convert Natash...
Read more