Hello All,
Well, there isn't much to write, we had a fun week, finally got some rain. Most of my time is up because I had to figure out some emailing and picture stuff on the computer. I'll be in Kyiv next week.--
Sister Daniel
Thursday, May 23, 2013
The Second to Last Email! E-mail - May 20, 2013
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The Post-Skype Email... E-mail - May 13, 2013
This is always the hardest email because I often don't know what to write. I guess I could write some funny stories.
Side note first: Mom you will be eating Borshch when you come here, you have to, it's like the only food that's actually Ukrainian. It's actually really grown on me...I really like it. The plans sound fine. It's going to be so cool staying in the hotel in downtown Kyiv. It sounds like Sister Olds and I will actually be in Kyiv that Monday. But I don't want to see you until Tuesday. So you would just need to be at the temple at 230 at the latest on Tuesday, but if you wanted to come a little earlier than that please do.
I got emails from Jolene and Joyce this week...that was a nice suprise!!
Okay...funny story time. So we were here in our little town of Khmenitsky and we were with Sister Olds' sister and her friend and this pack of little girls come up and ask "where are you from?" (we had been speaking in English) We said..."America"...all of the sudden we were the celebrities of Khmelnitsky the little girl and all of her little friends wanted to give us a tour and show us around. It was so funny, she walked forward a little bit to a tree and said, pointing to it "This is a tree". Apparently that's as interesting as it gets in our city LOL.
We had a great time in L'viv hanging out there, and doing missionary work. It is a gorgeous city!
That's about it...It was good to see you. I'm excited to see you in person! Love you!
:)
Sister Daniel
Pictures: the view from a tower in L'viv and the running team in the morning.
-- Sister Daniel
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Easter in Ukraine...a cultural experience E-mail - May 6, 2013
Easter in Ukraine is an interesting phenomenon. Basically everyone actually goes to the Orthodox church and they walk around all day saying "Jesus is Resurrected" and then you say back "Yea, he's resurrected." We decided to go contacting with the tactic of just saying the normal greating and giving people the "Living Christ". It works extremely well, but I couldn't decide if it was almost inappropriate to do that and if most people think that we're actually orthodox. Maybe we'll have a ton of new people at church next week expecting an orthodox church and they'll see how absolutely true our church is and we'll convert a ton of people.
We went to shashlik this Saturday. Shashlik is Ukrainian for shishkabobs and I'm sending you a picture of the event. So normally we have about 20 some people at church but we had over 40 for Shashlik and about half were investigators, it was really cool to see everyone interact.
So for this last week we've been trying to invite all of our members including the less active ones to the shashlik event, needless to say, some of them were not super happy to see us. We went to a village to see one of them. Turns out 3 of our less actives live out there, one of which tried to sick her killer German Shepherd on us. Kind of scary. The funny part is that I couldn't understand every one very well in the village and that was freaking me out. I've been here long enough that I understand just about everyone. Then we figured it out...they were all Polish! There is a village here full of Polish Catholics...and 3 less active Mormons. They were all really nice and it was my first experience with Ukrainian/Polish rather than Ukrainian/Russian.
My companion is great we've become like best friends. She's just really cool. And really fun, and really supportive. AND this note is specifically for John...my companion's best friend/cousin is married to Marie Osmond's son. My companion has met her, talked with her, spent time with her family. And she says that Marie works a lot in the temple in Las Vegas, so maybe when you move out there, you should increase your temple attendance :).
I'm excited for skyping on Saturday...12pm your time.
Love you!!
PS...I almost forgot, I'M GOING TO L'VIV!!!! We're going this week for zone conference, I'm so excited!
Monday, April 29, 2013
Hello Hello! E-mail - April 29, 2013
Okay, so I'm sending some pictures of Khmelnitsky so you get an idea of what it looks like here. There are no mountains, it's pretty flat. On the roadtrip here it reminded me a lot of South Dakota. The people here are really cool in a small isolated place kind of way. They just have so much character, they could be their own movie cast, it's really funny.
The branch is small, on average about 20 people every week including the 6 missionaries. Sister Olds is the Young Womens president, and I'm first counselor in the Relief Society, the president has only been a member for a couple of months so we're helping her out a lot. It's so interesting to me that missionaries in our mission can have two different experiences here. I served in Kyiv for so long and understood pretty well how large wards work and the missionaries role there, but there are a lot of missionaries that serve here and they are basically running the branches. It's been really cool to see how the church progresses in an area. Khmelnitsky is tiny and is just at the beginning, then there is Bila Tserkva, also small but building up, it now has 80+ people at church, awesome!! And then the large wards in Kyiv. You really get to see how the Lord prepares people here to grow the church.
Pictures, Rainbow over the river, and sunset on the river
--
Sister Daniel
Sister Daniel
OkaOkay
A Whole New Life! E-mail - April 22, 2013
Wow, I've forgotten what it's like when you're moved to a new area, it seems like your whole life is starting over. Khmelnitsky is about halfway between Kyiv and Lviv and it's a good
size town. The branch here is famous for being one of the smallest in the mission. When our group first got here there were only 11 people coming to Sacrament meeting and 6 of them were missionaries. Now we get a good 20 maybe. The members here are completely insane. Like, mom's clients crazy. But it is so much fun, they are always just a hoot, and something is always going on.
It's weird being in a small branch again where everyone knows you and the life of the branch is dependent on the missionaries. It's also scary being with a younger companion, in a younger district. We were in branch council on Sunday and I realized that really only myself and Elder Callister, he came in with me, understood what was going on 100% of the time. Scary! Also, none of the missionaries here understand a lick of Russian. So the branch members when they don't want them to understand something, start speaking in Russian. I'm going to be very useful here. The branch president has realized though that I understand him. He's a taxi driver and that is how we got to Khmelnitsky. We paid him round trip and he got to go to the temple for 2 days. I got sick on the way and ended up throwing up. The roads here are terrible and there was too much swerving. We've already decided we'll be going back to Kyiv on a train.
Sister Olds is awesome, she's from Arizona/California/Las Vegas and she's much more similar in personality to me than any other companion I've had. She's also relatively new on her mission, I'm her first companion after her trainer, so she's been telling me about all of the changes in pop culture in America. We've been talking non-stop since we got put together.
Everything is going good. Love you all!
PS. Mother's Day skyping...probably Saturday the 11th. Around 12pm your time, but we still need to coordinate the time.
--
Sister Daniel
size town. The branch here is famous for being one of the smallest in the mission. When our group first got here there were only 11 people coming to Sacrament meeting and 6 of them were missionaries. Now we get a good 20 maybe. The members here are completely insane. Like, mom's clients crazy. But it is so much fun, they are always just a hoot, and something is always going on.
It's weird being in a small branch again where everyone knows you and the life of the branch is dependent on the missionaries. It's also scary being with a younger companion, in a younger district. We were in branch council on Sunday and I realized that really only myself and Elder Callister, he came in with me, understood what was going on 100% of the time. Scary! Also, none of the missionaries here understand a lick of Russian. So the branch members when they don't want them to understand something, start speaking in Russian. I'm going to be very useful here. The branch president has realized though that I understand him. He's a taxi driver and that is how we got to Khmelnitsky. We paid him round trip and he got to go to the temple for 2 days. I got sick on the way and ended up throwing up. The roads here are terrible and there was too much swerving. We've already decided we'll be going back to Kyiv on a train.
Sister Olds is awesome, she's from Arizona/California/Las Vegas and she's much more similar in personality to me than any other companion I've had. She's also relatively new on her mission, I'm her first companion after her trainer, so she's been telling me about all of the changes in pop culture in America. We've been talking non-stop since we got put together.
Everything is going good. Love you all!
PS. Mother's Day skyping...probably Saturday the 11th. Around 12pm your time, but we still need to coordinate the time.
--
Sister Daniel
Moving on...for 6 weeks. E-mail - April 15, 2013
Well, hello family!!
I have to say Mom, your email was very exciting today, I already told Sister Ebeling about everything that is happening. It's really funny because today we have to register her for her classes at BYU and I just remembered how much I love scheduling for classes. It's made me really excited for when I get to do it. I have to admit- we saw conference yesterday and while normally when they speak about marital relationships I just see how that could be used for a companionship, I started to think about an actually marriage. It freaked me out. I'm so not ready to get married, but honestly I feel a lot more ready than I did before my mission.
Anyway, conference was awesome! Our recent converts, the sisters, loved President Monson. Luda said that she was waiting for his talk because, well he's the prophet. She thought he was going to be really serious and never smile. I just had to laugh when I heard that because there's never been a conference when President Monson has even really been somber. I always love to see people when they hear the prophet for the first time. We also had an investigator who came to the English, so she watched it with us. She's 24 and had a hard time sitting still for the whole thing, but she did great. I've really been blessed on my mission to be able to sit and receive a lot of personal revelation, something that I had a hard time with before my mission.
So as the title says, it is time for me to move on from Borshahivsky and from Kyiv really. I'm finally heading out west. I will be serving the next, my last, transfer in Khmelnitsky. It's about halfway between Kyiv and L'viv. And we're having a zone conference this transfer, so I'll finally see L'viv. I'm really excited. My companion's name is Sister Olds, I'll be her first companion after her trainer. We'll transfer on Thursday. This will be interesting because she'll be the first companion that is younger than me in the mission. I sent Sisters Jacobson and Chang home and Sisters Moore and Ebeling are going home with me, so any legacy that I leave in the mission will have to be done through Sister Olds. It's going to be interesting knowing that I only have 6 weeks left, one transfer for sure. Weird.
Love you all, Looking forward to Mother's Day. Easter here is on May 5, so we have a lot of holidays coming up again.
--
Sister Daniel
I have to say Mom, your email was very exciting today, I already told Sister Ebeling about everything that is happening. It's really funny because today we have to register her for her classes at BYU and I just remembered how much I love scheduling for classes. It's made me really excited for when I get to do it. I have to admit- we saw conference yesterday and while normally when they speak about marital relationships I just see how that could be used for a companionship, I started to think about an actually marriage. It freaked me out. I'm so not ready to get married, but honestly I feel a lot more ready than I did before my mission.
Anyway, conference was awesome! Our recent converts, the sisters, loved President Monson. Luda said that she was waiting for his talk because, well he's the prophet. She thought he was going to be really serious and never smile. I just had to laugh when I heard that because there's never been a conference when President Monson has even really been somber. I always love to see people when they hear the prophet for the first time. We also had an investigator who came to the English, so she watched it with us. She's 24 and had a hard time sitting still for the whole thing, but she did great. I've really been blessed on my mission to be able to sit and receive a lot of personal revelation, something that I had a hard time with before my mission.
So as the title says, it is time for me to move on from Borshahivsky and from Kyiv really. I'm finally heading out west. I will be serving the next, my last, transfer in Khmelnitsky. It's about halfway between Kyiv and L'viv. And we're having a zone conference this transfer, so I'll finally see L'viv. I'm really excited. My companion's name is Sister Olds, I'll be her first companion after her trainer. We'll transfer on Thursday. This will be interesting because she'll be the first companion that is younger than me in the mission. I sent Sisters Jacobson and Chang home and Sisters Moore and Ebeling are going home with me, so any legacy that I leave in the mission will have to be done through Sister Olds. It's going to be interesting knowing that I only have 6 weeks left, one transfer for sure. Weird.
Love you all, Looking forward to Mother's Day. Easter here is on May 5, so we have a lot of holidays coming up again.
--
Sister Daniel
What a week! E-mail April 8, 2013
Hello Everyone!
So I'm still here in Ukraine, weird, every time we see President, which is a lot, he reminds us that we're close to the end and gives us some sort of advice. It's kind of funny. Not to mention that Elder Hair, one of the assistants is going home in our group and he's been telling everyone in the ward that we're all going home really soon. Basically, this next week will be General Conference for us, then Stake Conference, and then Easter is on May 5, so he basically said that before they knew it, we would be gone. So all of the members came up to us yesterday in a panic. Including our recent convert who was almost in tears. I was just so frustrated, we had to calm everyone down.
We got to go visit some members this week that we've never been to before, mainly because they live out in the villages and it's just now nice enough to go out there. A member of our bishopric, Denis kept telling us how far out his house was, turns out it's only like 30 minutes from our apartment. Half of our area is farther away than his house! Then the next day we went out to another member who really does live far out there, almost an hour and half away, now they're far. It's always an interesting experience to go out to the villages. It's a simpler way of life. There are really two different kinds, the first is the type of people that live out there so they can have a really nice house and live on their own. The second type is the kind that live there because that's where there family has always lived and they live in a very humble home.
We got some really good news, this week too! Our recent convert in Bila Tserkva, Angela was in Kyiv to meet with President. She had her last interview for her mission papers! Now we're all just waiting on her call! What an exciting thing to be a part of, she's just so excited about the whole thing and really wants to serve in America, we'll see what happens. We also tried to go running again...it wasn't quite melted enough...luckily neither one of us fell.
Right now we are dealing with some more sickness. My body is just giving out...I think it's just a sinus infection, and Sister Ebeling is making me drink everything that is liquid in sight and I can only have soup. That and I can't taste anything because my nose is so clogged. It's miserable. But I got a blessing and everything will be okay. Just got to keep moving.
LOVE YOU!!!!!
--
Sister Daniel
So I'm still here in Ukraine, weird, every time we see President, which is a lot, he reminds us that we're close to the end and gives us some sort of advice. It's kind of funny. Not to mention that Elder Hair, one of the assistants is going home in our group and he's been telling everyone in the ward that we're all going home really soon. Basically, this next week will be General Conference for us, then Stake Conference, and then Easter is on May 5, so he basically said that before they knew it, we would be gone. So all of the members came up to us yesterday in a panic. Including our recent convert who was almost in tears. I was just so frustrated, we had to calm everyone down.
We got to go visit some members this week that we've never been to before, mainly because they live out in the villages and it's just now nice enough to go out there. A member of our bishopric, Denis kept telling us how far out his house was, turns out it's only like 30 minutes from our apartment. Half of our area is farther away than his house! Then the next day we went out to another member who really does live far out there, almost an hour and half away, now they're far. It's always an interesting experience to go out to the villages. It's a simpler way of life. There are really two different kinds, the first is the type of people that live out there so they can have a really nice house and live on their own. The second type is the kind that live there because that's where there family has always lived and they live in a very humble home.
We got some really good news, this week too! Our recent convert in Bila Tserkva, Angela was in Kyiv to meet with President. She had her last interview for her mission papers! Now we're all just waiting on her call! What an exciting thing to be a part of, she's just so excited about the whole thing and really wants to serve in America, we'll see what happens. We also tried to go running again...it wasn't quite melted enough...luckily neither one of us fell.
Right now we are dealing with some more sickness. My body is just giving out...I think it's just a sinus infection, and Sister Ebeling is making me drink everything that is liquid in sight and I can only have soup. That and I can't taste anything because my nose is so clogged. It's miserable. But I got a blessing and everything will be okay. Just got to keep moving.
LOVE YOU!!!!!
--
Sister Daniel
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