Sister Emily Daines

I get to talk to my family tomorrow so here is just a Christmas card for my companionship to yours. MERRY CHRISTMAS! Love, Cectpa Daines

This week I hit my 6-month mark! Wow the time has flown by so fast and it just makes me realize how short a time we have on the mission and we have to use it to its fullest!  In other news, transfer calls came and IM LEAVING PECHERSKY! I'm going to Nova Darnitsya which is still in Kyiv but about an hour and a half away from where I am now. And I'm going to be in a TRIO! I'll be serving with Sister Flake who I was in the MTC with and Sister Pixton who is also from Utah. It will be a very fun Christmas! It is so hard to leave Pechersky though and all of the amazing people but I'm excited for a new adventure!  This week we had some fun experiences. We went to a members house, Sestra Vika, and showed her how to make Americanski Pachenki (American cookies). She loved it and ended up writing recipes for all kinds of American treats from my recipe book from home. That night we went to a babushka's house who is just the sweetest angel ever but is very old and frail....

Wow wow wow okayyy here we go, another weekly email! I hope you aren't getting sick of reading this yet cuz we still have a long way to go.  So this week our district did an English fast competition. Basically, we speak only in Russian (or Ukrainian for the one elder who is Ukrainian speaking) from 9 am to 9 pm. If anyone says anything in English they have the "curse" and whoever has the most curses at the end of the week has to bring a treat to district council. So yes you could say I'm DEAD every night by 9 pm but my Russian has improved so much already! So I've gone from a level -2096 to a level -1114 but by small and simple means are great things come to pass! With Russian, I've definitely learned that PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE.  Update on our investigator Luda! She has a baptismal date set for December 29th and we couldn't be more excited for her! She also found work at a pizza place in the city so things are looking up for her! We are excited to mee...