Hello All,
So I don't really have a whole lot to write about this week. It was pretty much the same old. We are having a baptism this Saturday! Valentina this woman that the elders and we have been working with is getting baptized, it's really exciting. She's awesome and has so much faith. She has two daughters that live down in Southern Ukraine, they are 13 and 14 and she's been trying to find the branch down in their hometown so they can go there.
As for transfers which are this week. I'm sending Sister Chang home to Taiwan and then I will get Sister Ebeling back! It's a small world, or just a small mission, LOL. I'm really excited to serve with her again, it will be interesting to see how we've grown since our companionship the first time.
Next week our p-day is on Tuesday(Christmas) so we'll just skype on Christmas, you won't get an email from me on Monday. I don't want to write too much because we'll talk a lot next week. I'm spending Christmas at President's house. We've been invited to be there at 2pm our time which is 7am for you. So either we can go late (Sister Klebingat wants us a little later than 2) or we can skype while we're at president's. I was really hoping you'd email me back while I was on today but that didn't happen. I don't know what your plans are and honestly Sister Ebeling is already coordinated with her family for 4pm our time which is 9am for you so plan on that. 9am, be aware that I'll be at president's so be presentable because he's really nosy. LOL.
So as for visiting my mission at the end of it...here's the thing it doesn't end on May 1, our date got moved so I will be released on MAY 29th. This is a whole month later, but is the best weather in Ukraine. So change your plans I'm done and you can tour my mission on May 29th.
K. That's it. I hope you're having fun in sunny California, I'll stay on for 5 more minutes and hope that Mom can email me back so that we're okay to skype at that time on Christmas. LOVE YOU!
--
Sister Daniel
Friday, December 21, 2012
HELLO!! E-mail - December 10, 2012
Hello Everyone!
Well, just when I thought it couldn't get any colder, winter finally hit here in Ukraine. Ice and snow abound and I've only fallen on my butt three times! I thought that was a really good sign, and then I realized that we've really only had a bunch of snow on the ground for about a week. I might be in for a long winter with a very sore lower body...pray for me.
It's weird to think that I'll be sending home Sister Chang next week. She's wrapping things up and starting to pack. It's taking me back to my trainer and when I sent her home. There's not so much anxiety now as there was then. She's been passing down all of her knowledge to me, and some Chinese food, which is fun. Speaking of food, we went to one of the embassy families for dinner last night, and after a real American meal, they gave us food to take home! She gave us Lucky Charms and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. It was so cool. I'm not going to lie though, the whole time I was just staring at the JIF creamy peanut butter in her cupboard. Now I know why I've lost weight on my mission.
I did get my Christmas package from you and the Wagstaffs. Thank you so much! I immediately hid everything so that I wouldn't be tempted to open them. Out of sight, it's kind of working. I finally broke down the other morning and decided I wanted to peek in the stocking, but mom you know me way too well. I went to go see what was in it, and every thing was wrapped!! I couldn't help it, I bursted out laughing, and then I felt bad and went and repented. I think being a missionary is good for me, at least I know that I'm much more repentant now.
We had a mission conference with Elder Bennett of the 70 this week. It was an amazing training on how to have more charity and what it really means to love yourself and love others as yourself. It resulted in us having 11 sisters in our apartment to take showers and to sleep. It was crazy! We are continuing to meet with Luda, she is still set to be baptized on December 22, but in order for that to happen a lot of work will need to be done. But I'm keeping confidence and faith. We're also helping out with the elders' investigator, Valentina and she will be baptized on the 29th. A busy December for us. But some stress is off, our Christmas pary has been cancelled. It was a bummer, but for the best.
As for skyping on Christmas, I'm not sure when we will but it will probably be earlier in the day, we have an invitation to a family for Christmas day, so I would suggest looking presentable when we skype, they'll probably want to meet you. Everything will be fine with a new companion. I'll be able to tell you more next week because I'll "officially" know who my companion will be.
Oh...one more side note. I wouldn't make any reservations for your trip out here, on the missionary grapevine we've been told that our release dates are changing a little bit. I have no idea how, but hopefully I'll know more soon. I just didn't want you to get stuck with any reservations you can't get out of.
LOVE YOU ALL!
--
Sister Daniel
Well, just when I thought it couldn't get any colder, winter finally hit here in Ukraine. Ice and snow abound and I've only fallen on my butt three times! I thought that was a really good sign, and then I realized that we've really only had a bunch of snow on the ground for about a week. I might be in for a long winter with a very sore lower body...pray for me.
It's weird to think that I'll be sending home Sister Chang next week. She's wrapping things up and starting to pack. It's taking me back to my trainer and when I sent her home. There's not so much anxiety now as there was then. She's been passing down all of her knowledge to me, and some Chinese food, which is fun. Speaking of food, we went to one of the embassy families for dinner last night, and after a real American meal, they gave us food to take home! She gave us Lucky Charms and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. It was so cool. I'm not going to lie though, the whole time I was just staring at the JIF creamy peanut butter in her cupboard. Now I know why I've lost weight on my mission.
I did get my Christmas package from you and the Wagstaffs. Thank you so much! I immediately hid everything so that I wouldn't be tempted to open them. Out of sight, it's kind of working. I finally broke down the other morning and decided I wanted to peek in the stocking, but mom you know me way too well. I went to go see what was in it, and every thing was wrapped!! I couldn't help it, I bursted out laughing, and then I felt bad and went and repented. I think being a missionary is good for me, at least I know that I'm much more repentant now.
We had a mission conference with Elder Bennett of the 70 this week. It was an amazing training on how to have more charity and what it really means to love yourself and love others as yourself. It resulted in us having 11 sisters in our apartment to take showers and to sleep. It was crazy! We are continuing to meet with Luda, she is still set to be baptized on December 22, but in order for that to happen a lot of work will need to be done. But I'm keeping confidence and faith. We're also helping out with the elders' investigator, Valentina and she will be baptized on the 29th. A busy December for us. But some stress is off, our Christmas pary has been cancelled. It was a bummer, but for the best.
As for skyping on Christmas, I'm not sure when we will but it will probably be earlier in the day, we have an invitation to a family for Christmas day, so I would suggest looking presentable when we skype, they'll probably want to meet you. Everything will be fine with a new companion. I'll be able to tell you more next week because I'll "officially" know who my companion will be.
Oh...one more side note. I wouldn't make any reservations for your trip out here, on the missionary grapevine we've been told that our release dates are changing a little bit. I have no idea how, but hopefully I'll know more soon. I just didn't want you to get stuck with any reservations you can't get out of.
LOVE YOU ALL!
--
Sister Daniel
Monday, December 3, 2012
E-mail - December 3, 2012 - From Sister Lily Chang; Sister Daniel's Companion!
Dear all,
IT SNOWED TODAY! MY PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED. I'm so excited! I was worried that I might not be able to see snow before I go home but Heavenly Father loves me <3
Sister Daniel's mom told me apparently I write a lot of "hahaha's" at the end of my sentences. So I went back and re-read all my letters and yeah, I obviously think I'm really funny because I write a TON of "hahaha's"... :P oops, I'll stop laughing now... ;)
Mom asked in me in her letters to me today if I feel like I've changed on my mission; what have I learned. I think, coming to the end of my mission and unavoidably thinking about life after mission, I realized that more than anything the mission has given me a perspective on life. President Klebingat encouraged us to keep a personal Book of Revelation a couple of months ago and I've been doing that. I wrote a huge list of life-long resolutions. Things that I want to do, things that I don't want to do, the person I want to become and yes mom, I already have a list of to-be-husband qualities. Don't worry ;)
Well, I'll leave the touchy end-mission stuff for two more weeks. Some exciting stories this week:
We were riding the eletric-bus system home the other day and the guy sitting across the aisle leaned across and asked us about the book. I started to answer but it was too loud, so he came over and squeezed himself next to us and made us tell him about the book. Then he started to laugh and told us that it's all a joke. Then he told us that he believes only in God - the Father who answers his prayers and he knows he's on the right tract. But the bible is a big jewish lie and Christ doesn't exist and so forth. It was an interesting conversation so we rode all the way into Center Kiev (another proselyting area) to try to convince him to pray about it. It didn't work. :( But this might have been the first strong anti-Christ I met on my mission... reminds me a lot of some of the characters in the Book of Mormon. :D
We went into Center the next day as well to meet with a woman who lives 3 hours outside of Kiev. She rode in on a train and we set a time to meet at McDonalds. So we went into center to meet her. But she never showed up so we just ate at McDonalds. There was a big street-market by the train station so afterwards, we went shopping for the Christmas party so we don't feel so bad about having ridden all the way into city center. We spent all the money we had on us though... bought lots of plates and cups and napkins and table cloths. We're super excited about the Christmas party. It's going to be a ton of fun! We even got all the young women together yesterday after church and made decorations together for 2 hours <3
So, updates on Brother Sergei (see two weeks ago). We never made it to his house for thanksgiving because Sister Hadejda got really busy, which is too bad. Then he got his monthly pension pays and was drunk for two days after that so we stayed away. But after that, we went back and visited him again this week. He was very testy. I guess being drunk for two days does that to you. We were well prepared with a grand plan though - we went over and to break the ice, we made TACOs because Sister Daniel's mom sent her a whole package of TACO-seasonings. So I've been sharing them with our investigators as a way to get into their house a second time. I don't think Sister Daniel appreciate me sharing her food with everyone we meet... but she hasn't mentioned it in companionship inventory yet so I think I'm good still. Oh, and she figured how to make re-fried beans.
Oh! Last story. There's this huge part-active/less active/anti-church/non member family in our ward. We went by once to try our luck and see who will be home that we can meet with and found a 18 year old less active boy and his non member cousin and the active grandma. So we had a lesson with them and I felt really strongly that the 18 year old needs to go on a mission. So we told the elders about it and asked them to go visit him and get him active but they couldn't ever set up a meeting with him. We were in their neighborhood yesterday so we called the active grandma and found out he was home so stopped by again. He was locked up in his room and wouldn't come out to talk to us. But then his little cute niece knocked on the door and he opened it so I squeezed myself in there behind her and made him come out to talk to us. hee hee. We ended up having another great lesson. Every time I have a lesson with him, I feel the spirit super strongly and I still really, really want him to go on a mission. He knows the church is true just has the hardest time making the first step and it's hard for him to remember that he likes this churchy-stuff when he's in the house and surrounded by all sorts of wordly temptations. :( It's okay. We're working on it. We're going to send him off on a mission :D
With love and frost,
Sister Chang :)
IT SNOWED TODAY! MY PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED. I'm so excited! I was worried that I might not be able to see snow before I go home but Heavenly Father loves me <3
Sister Daniel's mom told me apparently I write a lot of "hahaha's" at the end of my sentences. So I went back and re-read all my letters and yeah, I obviously think I'm really funny because I write a TON of "hahaha's"... :P oops, I'll stop laughing now... ;)
Mom asked in me in her letters to me today if I feel like I've changed on my mission; what have I learned. I think, coming to the end of my mission and unavoidably thinking about life after mission, I realized that more than anything the mission has given me a perspective on life. President Klebingat encouraged us to keep a personal Book of Revelation a couple of months ago and I've been doing that. I wrote a huge list of life-long resolutions. Things that I want to do, things that I don't want to do, the person I want to become and yes mom, I already have a list of to-be-husband qualities. Don't worry ;)
Well, I'll leave the touchy end-mission stuff for two more weeks. Some exciting stories this week:
We were riding the eletric-bus system home the other day and the guy sitting across the aisle leaned across and asked us about the book. I started to answer but it was too loud, so he came over and squeezed himself next to us and made us tell him about the book. Then he started to laugh and told us that it's all a joke. Then he told us that he believes only in God - the Father who answers his prayers and he knows he's on the right tract. But the bible is a big jewish lie and Christ doesn't exist and so forth. It was an interesting conversation so we rode all the way into Center Kiev (another proselyting area) to try to convince him to pray about it. It didn't work. :( But this might have been the first strong anti-Christ I met on my mission... reminds me a lot of some of the characters in the Book of Mormon. :D
We went into Center the next day as well to meet with a woman who lives 3 hours outside of Kiev. She rode in on a train and we set a time to meet at McDonalds. So we went into center to meet her. But she never showed up so we just ate at McDonalds. There was a big street-market by the train station so afterwards, we went shopping for the Christmas party so we don't feel so bad about having ridden all the way into city center. We spent all the money we had on us though... bought lots of plates and cups and napkins and table cloths. We're super excited about the Christmas party. It's going to be a ton of fun! We even got all the young women together yesterday after church and made decorations together for 2 hours <3
So, updates on Brother Sergei (see two weeks ago). We never made it to his house for thanksgiving because Sister Hadejda got really busy, which is too bad. Then he got his monthly pension pays and was drunk for two days after that so we stayed away. But after that, we went back and visited him again this week. He was very testy. I guess being drunk for two days does that to you. We were well prepared with a grand plan though - we went over and to break the ice, we made TACOs because Sister Daniel's mom sent her a whole package of TACO-seasonings. So I've been sharing them with our investigators as a way to get into their house a second time. I don't think Sister Daniel appreciate me sharing her food with everyone we meet... but she hasn't mentioned it in companionship inventory yet so I think I'm good still. Oh, and she figured how to make re-fried beans.
Oh! Last story. There's this huge part-active/less active/anti-church/non member family in our ward. We went by once to try our luck and see who will be home that we can meet with and found a 18 year old less active boy and his non member cousin and the active grandma. So we had a lesson with them and I felt really strongly that the 18 year old needs to go on a mission. So we told the elders about it and asked them to go visit him and get him active but they couldn't ever set up a meeting with him. We were in their neighborhood yesterday so we called the active grandma and found out he was home so stopped by again. He was locked up in his room and wouldn't come out to talk to us. But then his little cute niece knocked on the door and he opened it so I squeezed myself in there behind her and made him come out to talk to us. hee hee. We ended up having another great lesson. Every time I have a lesson with him, I feel the spirit super strongly and I still really, really want him to go on a mission. He knows the church is true just has the hardest time making the first step and it's hard for him to remember that he likes this churchy-stuff when he's in the house and surrounded by all sorts of wordly temptations. :( It's okay. We're working on it. We're going to send him off on a mission :D
With love and frost,
Sister Chang :)
Hello Hello From the SNOW!!! E-mail - December 3, 2012
Hi Everybody!!!
So first note, it's snowing here, I guess Heavenly Father liked Sister Chang's prayers more than mine. She's from Taiwan and will be going home to Taiwan in a couple of weeks, where they very decidedly do not have snow, ever. So she wanted some before she left. Well, she got her wish.
Mom, Sister Chang wrote you a note on her blog and her's updates automatically so you should see it today. She got an email her dad today, her parents live in China right now, but her mom is heading back to Taiwan for a little bit and her dad said that she was packing her bags. Well she packed his small bag full of edible tree fungus and skin of bean curd. This is what she makes me eat. Not really she stops at curry and just laughs at me when I won't eat the fish.
It's always crazy to me serving in this area, on one hand because you get to see how precious the temple is to people. They come from all over the area. Apparently it is the largest temple district in the world and we're always running into Russians, Armenians, Bulgarians. They come by bus, train, and the Americans come by airplane. They love the temple and for some of them it will be their only time. I've learned a lot about the temple and how precious it is by serving here.
The second thing I've learned about serving here is that Americans live and exist outside of the United States. Katja Klebingat (president's daughter) was helping us out last night and she was shocked to find out that this is my first time out of the states. She's lived in the states and everywhere in Europe, Russia to Germany. She couldn't understand how I could exist only staying in the states. I told her she'd find out when she goes to BYU next year. But anyway, they all exist just fine. They live like Americans and have really cool experiences. There are international schools for their kids, a whole network of them actually. It's really opened my eyes and expanded my horizons about what I could do for the rest of my life.
Don't freak out mom, I don't want to go live in Europe right away, and I'll stay near a major airport :).
Read Sister Chang's blog for a story on the anti-Christ we met this week, he was way fun. She's writing stories purposefully for you today.
We're still working a lot with part-member families here, maybe that's what has sparked my interest in our conversion, what I wouldn't give to see our teaching record! We're working with a part-member with an alcoholic husband he's hilarious and in some respects reminds me of certain family members. Life is always really interesting when you look at it from a missionary perspective.
Love you all!
--
Sister Daniel
So first note, it's snowing here, I guess Heavenly Father liked Sister Chang's prayers more than mine. She's from Taiwan and will be going home to Taiwan in a couple of weeks, where they very decidedly do not have snow, ever. So she wanted some before she left. Well, she got her wish.
Mom, Sister Chang wrote you a note on her blog and her's updates automatically so you should see it today. She got an email her dad today, her parents live in China right now, but her mom is heading back to Taiwan for a little bit and her dad said that she was packing her bags. Well she packed his small bag full of edible tree fungus and skin of bean curd. This is what she makes me eat. Not really she stops at curry and just laughs at me when I won't eat the fish.
It's always crazy to me serving in this area, on one hand because you get to see how precious the temple is to people. They come from all over the area. Apparently it is the largest temple district in the world and we're always running into Russians, Armenians, Bulgarians. They come by bus, train, and the Americans come by airplane. They love the temple and for some of them it will be their only time. I've learned a lot about the temple and how precious it is by serving here.
The second thing I've learned about serving here is that Americans live and exist outside of the United States. Katja Klebingat (president's daughter) was helping us out last night and she was shocked to find out that this is my first time out of the states. She's lived in the states and everywhere in Europe, Russia to Germany. She couldn't understand how I could exist only staying in the states. I told her she'd find out when she goes to BYU next year. But anyway, they all exist just fine. They live like Americans and have really cool experiences. There are international schools for their kids, a whole network of them actually. It's really opened my eyes and expanded my horizons about what I could do for the rest of my life.
Don't freak out mom, I don't want to go live in Europe right away, and I'll stay near a major airport :).
Read Sister Chang's blog for a story on the anti-Christ we met this week, he was way fun. She's writing stories purposefully for you today.
We're still working a lot with part-member families here, maybe that's what has sparked my interest in our conversion, what I wouldn't give to see our teaching record! We're working with a part-member with an alcoholic husband he's hilarious and in some respects reminds me of certain family members. Life is always really interesting when you look at it from a missionary perspective.
Love you all!
--
Sister Daniel
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Another week in Ukraine! E-mail November 26, 2012
Well another week here in Ukraine. The girl that we've been working with, Luda
(she's 19 a university study studying biology) has agreed to baptized toward the
end of December. Also we met her sister this week and she also said she would
read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. It's been a long road with her, and
we still have a long way to go to see her baptized but we're really
excited.
We've also been working a lot with the part member families in our ward. There is one couple the wife is a member and the husband is not, but we're seeing a lot of progress with him, however, he's a really slow go. We also have another husband we're teaching who reminds me a lot of John, attitude, countance, everything. I hope he had a good birthday this week. I sent out birthday cards to both Mom and John this week sorry they'll be late.
About the package coming is it the type of package that can wait until Christmas or can I open it because things are wrapped? Let me know:).
Thanksgiving for us was uneventful, Ukrainians are very interested as to where that holiday actually comes from. The men really seem to like the idea of a holiday where the women cook all day, they eat all day and watch sports. Several requested that their families start celebrating Thanksgiving. I made tacos and Sister Chang and I went out and worked, that was our day. I know that a lot of missionaries went to a senior couples' to celebrate and had great food but we kept walking. It's getting cold, but not dreadful yet. At least until you have a 20 minute conversation on the street where you just stand still, then you start to feel it.
The Christmas party is coming along. I'll send you pictures when it happens. It's on your birthday mom.
Okay, now the big favor. Missionaries who were not born in the church are a rarity here in Ukraine and everyone always asks me about our conversion, honestly I don't remember a whole lot. Can everyone write what they remember and send it to me. People are always interested and I don't have much to tell them that I can remember. Hope all is well.
Love you all.
--
Sister Daniel
We've also been working a lot with the part member families in our ward. There is one couple the wife is a member and the husband is not, but we're seeing a lot of progress with him, however, he's a really slow go. We also have another husband we're teaching who reminds me a lot of John, attitude, countance, everything. I hope he had a good birthday this week. I sent out birthday cards to both Mom and John this week sorry they'll be late.
About the package coming is it the type of package that can wait until Christmas or can I open it because things are wrapped? Let me know:).
Thanksgiving for us was uneventful, Ukrainians are very interested as to where that holiday actually comes from. The men really seem to like the idea of a holiday where the women cook all day, they eat all day and watch sports. Several requested that their families start celebrating Thanksgiving. I made tacos and Sister Chang and I went out and worked, that was our day. I know that a lot of missionaries went to a senior couples' to celebrate and had great food but we kept walking. It's getting cold, but not dreadful yet. At least until you have a 20 minute conversation on the street where you just stand still, then you start to feel it.
The Christmas party is coming along. I'll send you pictures when it happens. It's on your birthday mom.
Okay, now the big favor. Missionaries who were not born in the church are a rarity here in Ukraine and everyone always asks me about our conversion, honestly I don't remember a whole lot. Can everyone write what they remember and send it to me. People are always interested and I don't have much to tell them that I can remember. Hope all is well.
Love you all.
--
Sister Daniel
A black cat named Obama. E-mail November 19, 2012
Hello
Family,
Well, here I am a whole year into my mission, it feels really weird to celebrate Thanksgiving on my mission twice! I sent a happy birthday to john via email, hopefully you got it. Life here in Kyiv is pretty much the same, always getting colder.
I love having Sister Chang as a companion. She has a way of pushing me to do exactly what I need to do to be better. For example, we're planning a Christmas party for our wards. It's a nightmare, who knew all of this work had to go into it. I can't decide whether or not it would be any easier if I could talk to people in English. Our ward party is going to be on your birthday, Mom. I think I tried to plan it that way as a sort of proxy Christmas present subconsciously.
Something really interesting to me is that I will be Sister Chang's last companion on her mission. It's always fun to see President interact with the departing missionaries. On Sunday at church he asked her if she wanted to extend. But then withdrew the offer saying that she needed to go and find her "Prince Charming" the funniest thing is Sister Klebingat's reaction "don't worry about it...he doesn't exist". HILARIOUS!
So a quick funny story that has to do with the title of the email. Last Monday we met a family and started teaching them, they were a referral from one of our members. We went in and met the family and their really cute black kitten. They had named it Barack Obama, then after finding out it was a girl called it Michelle Obama. So basically, this little kitten who is always running around making a mess is always being yelled at by the family members. So whenever you pass their door you're likely to hear someone scream "OBAMA, NO". With a really thick Ukrainian accent. I love serving here. Ukraine is awesome.
--
Sister Daniel
Well, here I am a whole year into my mission, it feels really weird to celebrate Thanksgiving on my mission twice! I sent a happy birthday to john via email, hopefully you got it. Life here in Kyiv is pretty much the same, always getting colder.
I love having Sister Chang as a companion. She has a way of pushing me to do exactly what I need to do to be better. For example, we're planning a Christmas party for our wards. It's a nightmare, who knew all of this work had to go into it. I can't decide whether or not it would be any easier if I could talk to people in English. Our ward party is going to be on your birthday, Mom. I think I tried to plan it that way as a sort of proxy Christmas present subconsciously.
Something really interesting to me is that I will be Sister Chang's last companion on her mission. It's always fun to see President interact with the departing missionaries. On Sunday at church he asked her if she wanted to extend. But then withdrew the offer saying that she needed to go and find her "Prince Charming" the funniest thing is Sister Klebingat's reaction "don't worry about it...he doesn't exist". HILARIOUS!
So a quick funny story that has to do with the title of the email. Last Monday we met a family and started teaching them, they were a referral from one of our members. We went in and met the family and their really cute black kitten. They had named it Barack Obama, then after finding out it was a girl called it Michelle Obama. So basically, this little kitten who is always running around making a mess is always being yelled at by the family members. So whenever you pass their door you're likely to hear someone scream "OBAMA, NO". With a really thick Ukrainian accent. I love serving here. Ukraine is awesome.
--
Sister Daniel
The Fall in the Ukraine.... E-mail - October 22, 2012
Hello Family!
Well another week here in Ukraine come and gone. With it were four cold
fronts from Siberia. It's kind of a joke back home about how cold Siberia is,
then you live in a place where you feel their leftovers! It's definitely not a
joke. We've got a nice warm day here today again, and according to the lady at
the coat store we'll be in for another really cold day tomorrow. (she might have
said that because she wanted me to buy a coat...well it worked!)
Halloween in Ukraine isn't really celebrated all that much. I think it's
becoming increasingly bigger as the years pass, there are a couple of big
Halloween parties being advertised here in Kyiv. It's interesting how American
traditions are slowly leaking into the rest of the world.
Speaking of America, anyone want to tell me what's going on with the
election? I signed up online to get a ballot so hopefully that will happen and
I'll get to vote online. But all we get are snipets from President and seeing as
he's German, I don't know how much actually gets through. When we asked him if
we could have time to do absentee ballots he said..."only if you're voting for
Romney!" President Klebingat reminds me a lot of John sometimes.
We had the awesome opportunity to hear from Elder Steven E Snow (the church
historian and recorder) and some of his associates today. They were here touring
the country and talking to members about how it was when the church first
started here. He told us how much of a miracle it is that things like the stake,
and the temple have happened here.We got to meet them and shake their hands,
they talked a lot about recording our experiences on our missions. We had stake
conference this weekend and all of the leaders spoke. It was really fun to watch
President Klebingat speak in Russian and President Gailbrath (the temple
president) bear his testimony in Russian. You can see how much they both love
the people here.
I had a neat experience with a lady named Galina the other night. When she
first started talking she went on and on about how she was a doctor, but
couldn't afford anything. Meanwhile, doctors in America are highly established.
At first, it was really hard for me to have love and truly be there for her, but
about halfway into the conversation I started praying that I would find love for
this woman. Almost immediately it was as if I could see her whole life before
me, the struggles she had had, how hard she had worked. Life seemed to take on a
new meaning and suddenly I knew that the Lord loved her so much and he trusted
us enough to have that time with her, to strengthen her and give her comfort and
hope. By the end of our conversation, we were laughing and her whole countenance
had changed. I'm so grateful that the Lord gives me many opportunities to help
change the lives of others. It is a great blessing.
I hope everyone had a great week. Zach, I expect a doubly long letter next
week.
Sister Daniel
PS Mom, thanks so much for the card, and please tell Candy I got hers, and
I loved it!
Hello! E- Mail November 12, 2012
Hi
Everybody!
Well, another week has come and gone here in Ukraine. Sister Chang and I are doing great, and we just found out that we will be together for another transfer here in Borshahivsky. So I will be her last companion. This next transfer will only be 5 weeks, they changed it because the missionaries going home in December would have gone home the day after Christmas so they moved it up a week. The weather is slowly becoming worse and worse. We luckily haven't seen any snow yet, but Sister Chang has been praying for it so most likely we'll see some soon.
So I was on an exchange in center Kyiv this week. It is such a pretty area. A lot of hills, but it's definitely the most European-looking area in Kyiv. I've been starting to think about places I want to take you all to when you come in May.
Missionary work here continues to grow. We are finding new families every week. Sister Chang's dream is to baptize a whole family together, because that's how her family was baptized so we're working on it.
I heard about the election. I was really bummed. But then we got to go to Center's English group. They have the funniest people that come to their group. They spent the first 15 minutes arguing about the election in America, which was already over at that point. Then one of them said, well Romney will win next time right, I like him! They also have a lady who is determined that British English and American English are two completely different languages. She always says. I don't speak American, I speak English!
A quick side note for mom. There is a senior couple here, the Welty's they are the CES couple so they work with the institute here. But he was born in Huron, SD. I don't know how close that is to Lemmon, but he knew where Lemmon was.
Have a great week!!
--
Sister Daniel
Well, another week has come and gone here in Ukraine. Sister Chang and I are doing great, and we just found out that we will be together for another transfer here in Borshahivsky. So I will be her last companion. This next transfer will only be 5 weeks, they changed it because the missionaries going home in December would have gone home the day after Christmas so they moved it up a week. The weather is slowly becoming worse and worse. We luckily haven't seen any snow yet, but Sister Chang has been praying for it so most likely we'll see some soon.
So I was on an exchange in center Kyiv this week. It is such a pretty area. A lot of hills, but it's definitely the most European-looking area in Kyiv. I've been starting to think about places I want to take you all to when you come in May.
Missionary work here continues to grow. We are finding new families every week. Sister Chang's dream is to baptize a whole family together, because that's how her family was baptized so we're working on it.
I heard about the election. I was really bummed. But then we got to go to Center's English group. They have the funniest people that come to their group. They spent the first 15 minutes arguing about the election in America, which was already over at that point. Then one of them said, well Romney will win next time right, I like him! They also have a lady who is determined that British English and American English are two completely different languages. She always says. I don't speak American, I speak English!
A quick side note for mom. There is a senior couple here, the Welty's they are the CES couple so they work with the institute here. But he was born in Huron, SD. I don't know how close that is to Lemmon, but he knew where Lemmon was.
Have a great week!!
--
Sister Daniel
Hello! E-mail October 29, 2012
Hello
Family!
Well, it's been another week here in the mission field and winter is upon us. Living in a country that uses Celsius instead of Farenheight is interesting. We've been in single digits all week and automatically it makes your bones hurt just to think about it, but in reality it's really like a manageable 30-something degrees. We've been going back and forth on our temperatures, extremely cold, then back to warm.
This will be a very interesting few weeks for us here in Borshahivsky. We get to go on two exchanges! Exchanges are a time that we spend with other missionaries to train and to learn from one another. So this week the Cherkassy sisters are coming here. Sister Chang will work with Sister Wease, love her, she's so funny. And I will get to work with Sister Filipovska. They're both younger than us in the mission so Sister Chang and I will be doing a little bit of training, it should be really fun. Then next week is normal Kyiv sisters exchanges. I'll work in Center Kyiv, I'm so excited it is so pretty there, very European. With Sister O'Neil. She's in the same group as sister chang so this time I'll be the one getting trained. Fun!!
So we've been walking a lot. We've learned or are learning the art of layering, and we're definitely getting our excersize in. We were out one night and Sister Chang said that she was tired. And she was tired because she's not used to walking in her winter clothes yet! It takes a lot of extra energy to walk with our winter clothes.
Good to hear about what's going on with the election. The reason we haven't heard much here is because Ukraine had it's own election yesterday. We were over at a members and they couldn't tear themselves away from the TV watching the results come in. We had to calm the contention sometimes. One time we were talking and the two ladies started going at it. So I said, "here's my family!" and we amused them with my pictures. Mom you'll be very happy to know that all Ukrainian women think you are very pretty.
As for Christmas, I assume that we will Skype. If we don't go to a member's house, we'll be at an internet cafe. I don't know what day Christmas is on, but they don't really celebrate Christmas on the Catholic date Dec. 25, they more commonly celebrate it earlier in December.
As for presents. I don't really need anything. By the time Christmas rolls around I'll only have four months left. Maybe you could just buy me a few movies or something and they can wait until I get home.
Love you!
--
Sister Daniel
Well, it's been another week here in the mission field and winter is upon us. Living in a country that uses Celsius instead of Farenheight is interesting. We've been in single digits all week and automatically it makes your bones hurt just to think about it, but in reality it's really like a manageable 30-something degrees. We've been going back and forth on our temperatures, extremely cold, then back to warm.
This will be a very interesting few weeks for us here in Borshahivsky. We get to go on two exchanges! Exchanges are a time that we spend with other missionaries to train and to learn from one another. So this week the Cherkassy sisters are coming here. Sister Chang will work with Sister Wease, love her, she's so funny. And I will get to work with Sister Filipovska. They're both younger than us in the mission so Sister Chang and I will be doing a little bit of training, it should be really fun. Then next week is normal Kyiv sisters exchanges. I'll work in Center Kyiv, I'm so excited it is so pretty there, very European. With Sister O'Neil. She's in the same group as sister chang so this time I'll be the one getting trained. Fun!!
So we've been walking a lot. We've learned or are learning the art of layering, and we're definitely getting our excersize in. We were out one night and Sister Chang said that she was tired. And she was tired because she's not used to walking in her winter clothes yet! It takes a lot of extra energy to walk with our winter clothes.
Good to hear about what's going on with the election. The reason we haven't heard much here is because Ukraine had it's own election yesterday. We were over at a members and they couldn't tear themselves away from the TV watching the results come in. We had to calm the contention sometimes. One time we were talking and the two ladies started going at it. So I said, "here's my family!" and we amused them with my pictures. Mom you'll be very happy to know that all Ukrainian women think you are very pretty.
As for Christmas, I assume that we will Skype. If we don't go to a member's house, we'll be at an internet cafe. I don't know what day Christmas is on, but they don't really celebrate Christmas on the Catholic date Dec. 25, they more commonly celebrate it earlier in December.
As for presents. I don't really need anything. By the time Christmas rolls around I'll only have four months left. Maybe you could just buy me a few movies or something and they can wait until I get home.
Love you!
--
Sister Daniel
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Another Week! E-mail -- October 8, 2012
Hello Family!
Another week come and gone and I'm here with a new companion. Sister Chang
is awesome! She's nearly done with her mission which means she gets to
teach me how to be the most effective missionary I can be. She's the bomb
at Russian and is even making me learn our purpose and D&C 4 in Russian. I
may come back being able to speak both Ukrainian and Russian. She's from
Taiwan and has been telling me about life there. Apparently there is more
food readily available. That would be what she tells me, the girl loves to
eat!
It's been kind of weird without Sister Moore, always is when you first
switch. There's like this panic stage when you realize you're with someone
new and they don't know your area, only you do, and you feel totally lost
without your former companion. Then you quickly realize how awesome of a
missionary you really are and how much you do know. It's an interesting
phenomenon.
The change in the missionary age has been the talk of the mission, and of
the International Branch. One thing I've noticed while serving here, if you
want to know what's going on...ask the Americans that live here! My
district leader called me Saturday night and asked me if I'm ready to train
a 19 year old at the end of my mission. (We won't actually watch conference
until this next week)
Life in Ukraine is awesome, especially when you have a companion who
understands everything, it's been really weird because my last two
companions and I were all on the same language level.
I don't really know what else to say except for I love you all! Have a
great week!
Love,
Sister Daniel
Another week come and gone and I'm here with a new companion. Sister Chang
is awesome! She's nearly done with her mission which means she gets to
teach me how to be the most effective missionary I can be. She's the bomb
at Russian and is even making me learn our purpose and D&C 4 in Russian. I
may come back being able to speak both Ukrainian and Russian. She's from
Taiwan and has been telling me about life there. Apparently there is more
food readily available. That would be what she tells me, the girl loves to
eat!
It's been kind of weird without Sister Moore, always is when you first
switch. There's like this panic stage when you realize you're with someone
new and they don't know your area, only you do, and you feel totally lost
without your former companion. Then you quickly realize how awesome of a
missionary you really are and how much you do know. It's an interesting
phenomenon.
The change in the missionary age has been the talk of the mission, and of
the International Branch. One thing I've noticed while serving here, if you
want to know what's going on...ask the Americans that live here! My
district leader called me Saturday night and asked me if I'm ready to train
a 19 year old at the end of my mission. (We won't actually watch conference
until this next week)
Life in Ukraine is awesome, especially when you have a companion who
understands everything, it's been really weird because my last two
companions and I were all on the same language level.
I don't really know what else to say except for I love you all! Have a
great week!
Love,
Sister Daniel
An influx of revelation (aka General Conference) E-mail October 15, 2012
Hello Family!!
Well, it's been another week here in Ukraine and while it's fall for you mom, we're definitely on our way to winter here. Or what American winter would be at least! Don't worry, I'm staying warm, the heat finally came on so we're staying rather toasty in our apartment. Ukraine has an interesting heating system. Basically it is hot water running through the pipes. It's actually really effective.
We had the opportunity to watch General Conference here this weekend. It was awesome! We watched the Saturday and Sunday afternoon sessions with the International Branch so we got to see them in English, and then Sister Chang and I decided to watch the Sunday Morning session with our local ward. They played it in Russian, so I'll probably watch it again at some point, or wait for the Liahona to show up...in December. One thing I thought was really interesting during conference was the music, just some interesting arrangements, and selections. Life in another language is an interesting phenomenon during conference. I find when you sincerely pray to Heavenly Father for help, he'll deliver. Despite my lack of knowledge when it comes to Russian I still have a page full of notes from that session.
We've met some really interesting people in the last week. Each time we met them we really felt that the Lord had lead us there. We're hoping, praying, and working for a baptism soon, so I hope that we'll be able to share in someones joy. One sister just came into the mission and had a baptism that week. What a blessing that is. I remember in my first few weeks in Virginia and baptizing Norma there, it is an incredible boost to see someone in the waters of baptism.
There's not much more to say, I'm praying for you! Share the gospel. Lighten someones load. Love you!
Sister Daniel
PS- I've sent in a ballot request so I hope to vote in a few weeks!
Well, it's been another week here in Ukraine and while it's fall for you mom, we're definitely on our way to winter here. Or what American winter would be at least! Don't worry, I'm staying warm, the heat finally came on so we're staying rather toasty in our apartment. Ukraine has an interesting heating system. Basically it is hot water running through the pipes. It's actually really effective.
We had the opportunity to watch General Conference here this weekend. It was awesome! We watched the Saturday and Sunday afternoon sessions with the International Branch so we got to see them in English, and then Sister Chang and I decided to watch the Sunday Morning session with our local ward. They played it in Russian, so I'll probably watch it again at some point, or wait for the Liahona to show up...in December. One thing I thought was really interesting during conference was the music, just some interesting arrangements, and selections. Life in another language is an interesting phenomenon during conference. I find when you sincerely pray to Heavenly Father for help, he'll deliver. Despite my lack of knowledge when it comes to Russian I still have a page full of notes from that session.
We've met some really interesting people in the last week. Each time we met them we really felt that the Lord had lead us there. We're hoping, praying, and working for a baptism soon, so I hope that we'll be able to share in someones joy. One sister just came into the mission and had a baptism that week. What a blessing that is. I remember in my first few weeks in Virginia and baptizing Norma there, it is an incredible boost to see someone in the waters of baptism.
There's not much more to say, I'm praying for you! Share the gospel. Lighten someones load. Love you!
Sister Daniel
PS- I've sent in a ballot request so I hope to vote in a few weeks!
Monday, October 1, 2012
Transferes! E-mail - October 1, 2012
Well, the dreaded (or highly anticipated depending on your experience) six week mark is on us once again and Sister Moore is headed out to Lviv and I'll be staying here in Kyiv. My new companion will be Sister Chang. I've been on exchanges with her twice and I really like her. She's from Taiwan and is so funny. She also rocks at the mission language...well, her mission language which is Russian. Yep, I'm headed back into a companionship with a Russian speaker. It's a good thing we both speak English or our companionship unity might suffer. The last time we were on exchanges we had someone ask us if she spoke Russian and I spoke Ukrainian, how did we communicate. We just looked at her (she's a returned missionary) and told her, we speak in English. She also speaks Chinese so I might come back speaking more than one new language.
Mom, I think it's really interesting that you're taking an ASL class. I'm learning RSL/USL here. This isn't a joke actually, some members in our ward are deaf and they teach me how to say things every Sunday, it's fun. It's also cool that you're painting the entire house (or making John do it). I know that you've wanted to do that for a long time. I'm finally sending out postcards this week, one will be coming to you so let me know when you get it. Also, Sister Ricks, the office sister should have sent you some information on a hotel that is here in Kyiv close to the temple, I hope you got it. My official release date is May 1, and she said that you could come in April 30 and after departure meetings I could just be released to you. That's actually a really good time of year to be here, I'm not looking forward to winter coming. Hopefully I'll be warm enough. I think I'm going to buy better boots.
Zach, your email was very creative. I'll have you know that I read it out loud every week. Sister Moore always laughs with me. I hope everything is going okay at school. Keep your head above water and your GPA up. It's important. Also don't forget, no matter how good a date, you can't get married before I get back! That's an order!
John, you haven't written me so there's nothing to say.
But seriously, I love you all and definitely feel your love and support so thanks so much. The mission is great, trucking along. I'm hoping I'll be able to send you baptism pictures this transfer. Scary thought: at the end of this next transfer in a month and a week, it will be my one year mark!
I ran the 5k this week, President was very impressed. He bragged to the seventy that was here visiting, Elder Don Clarke. My face was redder than a tomato. After our special conference with Elder Clarke, on Saturday, Sister Moore and I ran to the temple from our apartment. Not an easy task. I'm excited to come home and run with you mom.
Love you all!
Sister Daniel
PS, If you want to keep up with my study, I finished the Book of Mormon a while ago. New goal: Read the New Testament. After that, I'm going to work on the Doctrine and Covenants. A cool section I found today in the Old Testament. Proverbs 31:10-end of chapter describes a virtuous woman. I thought it was really cool.
Mom, I think it's really interesting that you're taking an ASL class. I'm learning RSL/USL here. This isn't a joke actually, some members in our ward are deaf and they teach me how to say things every Sunday, it's fun. It's also cool that you're painting the entire house (or making John do it). I know that you've wanted to do that for a long time. I'm finally sending out postcards this week, one will be coming to you so let me know when you get it. Also, Sister Ricks, the office sister should have sent you some information on a hotel that is here in Kyiv close to the temple, I hope you got it. My official release date is May 1, and she said that you could come in April 30 and after departure meetings I could just be released to you. That's actually a really good time of year to be here, I'm not looking forward to winter coming. Hopefully I'll be warm enough. I think I'm going to buy better boots.
Zach, your email was very creative. I'll have you know that I read it out loud every week. Sister Moore always laughs with me. I hope everything is going okay at school. Keep your head above water and your GPA up. It's important. Also don't forget, no matter how good a date, you can't get married before I get back! That's an order!
John, you haven't written me so there's nothing to say.
But seriously, I love you all and definitely feel your love and support so thanks so much. The mission is great, trucking along. I'm hoping I'll be able to send you baptism pictures this transfer. Scary thought: at the end of this next transfer in a month and a week, it will be my one year mark!
I ran the 5k this week, President was very impressed. He bragged to the seventy that was here visiting, Elder Don Clarke. My face was redder than a tomato. After our special conference with Elder Clarke, on Saturday, Sister Moore and I ran to the temple from our apartment. Not an easy task. I'm excited to come home and run with you mom.
Love you all!
Sister Daniel
PS, If you want to keep up with my study, I finished the Book of Mormon a while ago. New goal: Read the New Testament. After that, I'm going to work on the Doctrine and Covenants. A cool section I found today in the Old Testament. Proverbs 31:10-end of chapter describes a virtuous woman. I thought it was really cool.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Fall in Ukraine! E-mail - September 24, 2012
Hello Family!!
Well the weather has caught up with us and it is officially fall. The temperature here has been floating between 10 and 20 degrees Celsius. I don't really know what that is in Fahrenheit, I just know that at 20 and below you need to wear at least a light jacket and around 15 you start wearing tights and boots. Ukraine is an interesting place when the weather changes. The grandmas tell you what you're supposed to be wearing and if you don't have the appropriate attire you will be told.
So this week I spent 2.5 days in Voskresensky. The Northeastern corner of Kyiv. It was really fun to see a different area, meet other members and spend time with a different sister. Sister Chang is from Taiwan, she is totally awesome! This was my second exchange with her and it was just a lot of fun. I'm going to send you a picture of us doing the "GET BAPTIZED" wave! She helped me prepare to surprise Sister Moore on her birthday which was this last Friday. It was really cool to be able to spend our birthdays with each other, it was like being able to say thank you for when we celebrated my birthday.
So we went to see a less active on Sister Moore's birthday...they gave her a stuffed pig that says "я люблю тебя" (I love you in Russian) when you squeeze it. Saturday we went to a baptism, it was fun, the other sisters were late so we had to set up. It's all okay, until your mission president shows up! He has a habit of showing up to everything in our area, probably because he lives here, but it's just extra stress that I could do without. On Sunday we went to church and then went to see one of our really great families in the ward.
Oh...almost forgot the "I'm a Mormon" campaign came to our mission and were taping some of our members for the website, well they came to our ward on Sunday and filmed everything. Apparently it's for church training or something, but if you see random pictures someday with me in them it was in Ukraine.
So people here are kind of obsessed with us getting married after our missions. The sisters especially when I left Bila Tserkva all of the grandmas blessed me with a cute husband and good kids, and I learned another secret from the member we went to see last night. She says it really doesn't matter what you look like or how much make-up you wear, the most important thing to a man is the smell coming from the kitchen! She then went on for a half an hour about how if we wanted a husband we need to learn to cook well. It was hilarious.
Speaking of Bila Tserkva, I had the great joy of seeing Pasha and Marina at the temple on Saturday just after they had been sealed!
I love this work!
Love you all,
Sister Daniel
Well the weather has caught up with us and it is officially fall. The temperature here has been floating between 10 and 20 degrees Celsius. I don't really know what that is in Fahrenheit, I just know that at 20 and below you need to wear at least a light jacket and around 15 you start wearing tights and boots. Ukraine is an interesting place when the weather changes. The grandmas tell you what you're supposed to be wearing and if you don't have the appropriate attire you will be told.
So this week I spent 2.5 days in Voskresensky. The Northeastern corner of Kyiv. It was really fun to see a different area, meet other members and spend time with a different sister. Sister Chang is from Taiwan, she is totally awesome! This was my second exchange with her and it was just a lot of fun. I'm going to send you a picture of us doing the "GET BAPTIZED" wave! She helped me prepare to surprise Sister Moore on her birthday which was this last Friday. It was really cool to be able to spend our birthdays with each other, it was like being able to say thank you for when we celebrated my birthday.
So we went to see a less active on Sister Moore's birthday...they gave her a stuffed pig that says "я люблю тебя" (I love you in Russian) when you squeeze it. Saturday we went to a baptism, it was fun, the other sisters were late so we had to set up. It's all okay, until your mission president shows up! He has a habit of showing up to everything in our area, probably because he lives here, but it's just extra stress that I could do without. On Sunday we went to church and then went to see one of our really great families in the ward.
Oh...almost forgot the "I'm a Mormon" campaign came to our mission and were taping some of our members for the website, well they came to our ward on Sunday and filmed everything. Apparently it's for church training or something, but if you see random pictures someday with me in them it was in Ukraine.
So people here are kind of obsessed with us getting married after our missions. The sisters especially when I left Bila Tserkva all of the grandmas blessed me with a cute husband and good kids, and I learned another secret from the member we went to see last night. She says it really doesn't matter what you look like or how much make-up you wear, the most important thing to a man is the smell coming from the kitchen! She then went on for a half an hour about how if we wanted a husband we need to learn to cook well. It was hilarious.
Speaking of Bila Tserkva, I had the great joy of seeing Pasha and Marina at the temple on Saturday just after they had been sealed!
I love this work!
Love you all,
Sister Daniel
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Swan Lake and Chernobyl E-mail September 17, 2012
Hello Family,
I realize this is a little later in the day but we had to change our p-day
schedule around a bit. Really what it was is that we have this part-member
family in our ward, Andrei and his wife Svitlana. Svitlana isn't a member and we
really want to baptize her, she's actually a former who found the church for her
husband. Well, now her husband wants her to get baptized so that they can get
sealed in the temple. I think this is a great idea! So we tried to meet with
her. The thing is she works on Sundays so she took off right after Sacrament
Meeting, so as any good missionary would do, I chased her down. I mean really,
the woman comes to church every week, and her husband has been a member for
about 3 years and is totally solid, she needs to meet with us. So we asked her
about life, and before we could get to the part about us meeting with her she
said she works at a salon. Well, Sister Moore has been needing a haircut. So she
said come tomorrow (today, Monday) so we went, expecting her to be there to cut
Sister Moore's hair, and she wouldn't let Sister Moore pay for it. We got there,
and she wasn't there, but it turns out she's like the boss at this salon and
they wouldn't let Sister Moore pay them! So Sister Moore got a free haircut but
we didn't get a new investigator. Will someone please tell this woman that all
we really want to do is meet with her so she can be baptized, get sealed in the
temple, and have eternal happiness?
So after that debacle in center Kyiv, Sister Moore and I decided to hang
out there today. Center Kyiv is beautiful and I definitely feel like I'm serving
in Europe when I spend time there. We decided to go to the Chernobyl museum, and
it was awesome! They have these headsets you can wear so that you can hear the
whole display in English. It was really interesting and kind of uneasy feeling.
I think I have a whole new perspective on the situation because I live here and
have totally fallen in love with the people. They are so resilient, they take
everything in stride and even the oldest grandma won't let you help her with the
sack of potatoes she's carrying on her back. (or the basket of mushrooms she's
got...there must be a mushroom convention in Kyiv today)
This last week we actually had the majority of our p-day on Thursday night.
We went with the Ricks (the office couple) and Elders Newton and Newman (our
zone leaders) to see Swan Lake. It was incredible. The ballet dancers here are
so precise and the theater is really cool. Sister Ricks did a really good job
picking out the seats. The theater here still has individual chairs for every
person. I took a lot of pictures but forgot to bring my camera to Internet
today.
This coming week we have exchanges so for a few days I'll be on left bank
in Voskresensky. I've never been there in that part of Kyiv, but I'll be with
Sister Chang, she and I had an exchange together a couple of transfers ago.
That's pretty much it. I don't know if you keep up with the mission website but
apparently president puts up all of the letters he sends to us each week,
they're interesting if you want to read them.
Love you bunches,
Sister Daniel
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Behind the Iron Curtain E-mail - September 10, 2012
Hello!
Well, according to the Ukrainians it is officially fall. Fall starts on the first of September and apparently even the weather listens to the babushkas. The temperature has dropped and we can now see our breath in the morning when we go running. We had zone conference this last week, President went in depth with the Plan of Salvation, it was really cool. We also talked a lot about just telling people what our purpose is when we meet them on the street. In case you don't understand that means telling people on the street that we want to baptize them! It's actually started some really great conversations.
This week I've been continuously amazed at the strength of the members here. They come out and help us and just tell of their conversion stories and you just know that the Lord puts people in certain places for a reason. In International branch this week the stake president came and spoke. He gave his whole talk in English! President Konchenko is so cool. He came up to us before the meeting (we had met him and had a lesson with him and an investigator about a month ago) and told us this joke. Well, first he asked us what language we spoke, when we replied "Ukrainian" he immediately switched from Russian into Ukrainian something that a lot of people here have trouble with. So here was the joke (he said it in Ukrainian so this is a rough translation). He had a Chinese friend who worked here in Kyiv. He studied and spoke Russian fluently. He met this girl, also from China but she only speaks Ukrainian. President Konchenko asked them how do you understand one another if one of you speaks Russian and the other Ukrainian. The man said..."easy, when we're together we speak in Chinese". Maybe you had to be there but watching him it was like an older Ukrainian man telling a joke to his two granddaughters, he was so cute!
He's also an extremely smart and spiritual man. He joined the church in 1994. The church had been here for 2 years. He was approached by two missionaries on the street. He accepted it and got baptized, it wasn't until a year later that he even had Doctrine and Covenants in Russian! He's also a physicist. He talked today about Neil Armstrong and how he remembered when he walked on the moon. One of my favorite things about serving here is talking to the older generation who were living here at the time of communism. I never thought I would be able to see how life really was for them here, but I've seen pictures and heard their stories and felt their pain. President Konchenko said that one reason he stopped and talked to the missionaries is because they had a Book of Mormon, he said at that point in their country they weren't even allowed to open the Bible.
What a beautiful thing the gospel is, it unites people. A physicist from the former USSR and a 23 year old American girl believe the same things, have the same hopes, understand and rely on the same Savior. How blessed I am to see the gospel change lives, and to see my life improve is merely a really great side effect.
LOVE YOU ALL! Keep sharing the gospel.
Sister Daniel
Well, according to the Ukrainians it is officially fall. Fall starts on the first of September and apparently even the weather listens to the babushkas. The temperature has dropped and we can now see our breath in the morning when we go running. We had zone conference this last week, President went in depth with the Plan of Salvation, it was really cool. We also talked a lot about just telling people what our purpose is when we meet them on the street. In case you don't understand that means telling people on the street that we want to baptize them! It's actually started some really great conversations.
This week I've been continuously amazed at the strength of the members here. They come out and help us and just tell of their conversion stories and you just know that the Lord puts people in certain places for a reason. In International branch this week the stake president came and spoke. He gave his whole talk in English! President Konchenko is so cool. He came up to us before the meeting (we had met him and had a lesson with him and an investigator about a month ago) and told us this joke. Well, first he asked us what language we spoke, when we replied "Ukrainian" he immediately switched from Russian into Ukrainian something that a lot of people here have trouble with. So here was the joke (he said it in Ukrainian so this is a rough translation). He had a Chinese friend who worked here in Kyiv. He studied and spoke Russian fluently. He met this girl, also from China but she only speaks Ukrainian. President Konchenko asked them how do you understand one another if one of you speaks Russian and the other Ukrainian. The man said..."easy, when we're together we speak in Chinese". Maybe you had to be there but watching him it was like an older Ukrainian man telling a joke to his two granddaughters, he was so cute!
He's also an extremely smart and spiritual man. He joined the church in 1994. The church had been here for 2 years. He was approached by two missionaries on the street. He accepted it and got baptized, it wasn't until a year later that he even had Doctrine and Covenants in Russian! He's also a physicist. He talked today about Neil Armstrong and how he remembered when he walked on the moon. One of my favorite things about serving here is talking to the older generation who were living here at the time of communism. I never thought I would be able to see how life really was for them here, but I've seen pictures and heard their stories and felt their pain. President Konchenko said that one reason he stopped and talked to the missionaries is because they had a Book of Mormon, he said at that point in their country they weren't even allowed to open the Bible.
What a beautiful thing the gospel is, it unites people. A physicist from the former USSR and a 23 year old American girl believe the same things, have the same hopes, understand and rely on the same Savior. How blessed I am to see the gospel change lives, and to see my life improve is merely a really great side effect.
LOVE YOU ALL! Keep sharing the gospel.
Sister Daniel
Hello Family! E-mail September 3, 2012
Hello My Favorite People!
Well another week here in Ukraine.
As always life here is full of adventure. We went to a village this week called Irpin. The road we drove in on was called Karl Marx street and we found this huge statue of Lenin. See Picture below. We went there to see a former investigator who wanted to meet with us. The only thing is she told us that she couldn't once we got there after standing on a bus for 40 minutes. We then decided to visit some less actives that lived there. We tried to find one of them and instead ran into a guy wearing a Yankees baseball cap. I asked him if he liked the Yankees just to start a conversation and he tried to give me the hat! He doesn't understand what the Yankees are, in fact, I'm pretty sure the whole idea of baseball has never crossed his mind. When we informed him that we had hideous accents because we were Americans his whole demeanor changed. Suddenly, we were creatures of legend, and he actually tried to kiss my hand. Then he invited us to come and see how real Ukrainians live. (NO THANK YOU!) Anyway, on our way out of Irpin we found this really cool lady that wants to meet with us and talk in English.
Our investigators are doing great. Both of them (Olga and Luda) have come to church more than they've actually met with us one on one. Those of you who are recently returned missionaries will understand how weird that really is. Luda had been in her home town (3 hours by train away) for the last few weeks and we were worried she would come back with no desire to meet with us. We were pleasantly suprised to see that in fact she read the Book of Mormon with her family, and read a lot of Doctrine and Covenants and all of the Pearl of Great Price. She's awesome!
We got to help our members build their house, that is really fun.
The work rolls along...
Love you!
Sister Daniel
Well another week here in Ukraine.
As always life here is full of adventure. We went to a village this week called Irpin. The road we drove in on was called Karl Marx street and we found this huge statue of Lenin. See Picture below. We went there to see a former investigator who wanted to meet with us. The only thing is she told us that she couldn't once we got there after standing on a bus for 40 minutes. We then decided to visit some less actives that lived there. We tried to find one of them and instead ran into a guy wearing a Yankees baseball cap. I asked him if he liked the Yankees just to start a conversation and he tried to give me the hat! He doesn't understand what the Yankees are, in fact, I'm pretty sure the whole idea of baseball has never crossed his mind. When we informed him that we had hideous accents because we were Americans his whole demeanor changed. Suddenly, we were creatures of legend, and he actually tried to kiss my hand. Then he invited us to come and see how real Ukrainians live. (NO THANK YOU!) Anyway, on our way out of Irpin we found this really cool lady that wants to meet with us and talk in English.
Our investigators are doing great. Both of them (Olga and Luda) have come to church more than they've actually met with us one on one. Those of you who are recently returned missionaries will understand how weird that really is. Luda had been in her home town (3 hours by train away) for the last few weeks and we were worried she would come back with no desire to meet with us. We were pleasantly suprised to see that in fact she read the Book of Mormon with her family, and read a lot of Doctrine and Covenants and all of the Pearl of Great Price. She's awesome!
We got to help our members build their house, that is really fun.
The work rolls along...
Love you!
Sister Daniel
Transfer Week in the Home Area E-mail - August 27, 2012
Hi Family!
So this week was really interesting. It was transfer week and even though Sister Moore and I are not getting transferred, since we're in the area with the mission office/mission home we end up hosting a lot of those who are transferring. This meant that all week we had about 5 sisters in our apartment. Needless to say by the end of the week we were really tired. It was really cool to spend time with all of them though. Sister Stiles went home this week, that's just kind of weird because she's Sister Ebeling's trainer so by default she was kind of like the mom of the Ukrainian speaking sisters. Sister O'Neil who is a Russian speaking sister is getting sent out to Lviv. That never happens because they only speak Ukrainian out there. It gives me hope that maybe I'll be able to serve a transfer in Odessa at some point. It would be really cool to run into some long lost relatives.
So we spent a lot of time on the streets this week just talking with people. We do this a lot. You meet some of the most interesting people. We have a couple of solid investigators right now. Luda is 19. She's studying at a University here and she's totally solid, reads the Book of Mormon, comes to church. I really hope I get to see her in white and in a baptismal font soon. We also have Olga. She's funny, I like her a lot. She teaches philosophy at a university and is extremely intelligent. When we first found her, she had a lot of misconceptions of the church, like women in the church are uneducated. I did my best to disprove that one. I think she's going places too.
Sister Moore and I are in matching yellow today. I'm running out of things to say. Zach, are you excited about school? Where are you living? You're going to have so much fun!
I don't know what else to say.
So I love you... Have a good week!
Sister Daniel
So this week was really interesting. It was transfer week and even though Sister Moore and I are not getting transferred, since we're in the area with the mission office/mission home we end up hosting a lot of those who are transferring. This meant that all week we had about 5 sisters in our apartment. Needless to say by the end of the week we were really tired. It was really cool to spend time with all of them though. Sister Stiles went home this week, that's just kind of weird because she's Sister Ebeling's trainer so by default she was kind of like the mom of the Ukrainian speaking sisters. Sister O'Neil who is a Russian speaking sister is getting sent out to Lviv. That never happens because they only speak Ukrainian out there. It gives me hope that maybe I'll be able to serve a transfer in Odessa at some point. It would be really cool to run into some long lost relatives.
So we spent a lot of time on the streets this week just talking with people. We do this a lot. You meet some of the most interesting people. We have a couple of solid investigators right now. Luda is 19. She's studying at a University here and she's totally solid, reads the Book of Mormon, comes to church. I really hope I get to see her in white and in a baptismal font soon. We also have Olga. She's funny, I like her a lot. She teaches philosophy at a university and is extremely intelligent. When we first found her, she had a lot of misconceptions of the church, like women in the church are uneducated. I did my best to disprove that one. I think she's going places too.
Sister Moore and I are in matching yellow today. I'm running out of things to say. Zach, are you excited about school? Where are you living? You're going to have so much fun!
I don't know what else to say.
So I love you... Have a good week!
Sister Daniel
Friday, August 24, 2012
Another Week in Borshahivsky! E-mail August 20, 2012
Hello Family,
So first of all, if you got an email today with a picture of me on it with some sisters you probably don't know, one of the former sisters that served here a long time ago was back visiting and wanted to send you a picture.
Another point, we got transfer calls yesterday. Sister Moore and I will be together for another six weeks here in Kyiv. We're both really excited. We'll get to celebrate her birthday together too.
Well, it has rained for a week straight here in Ukraine. At the beginning of it, last Monday, Sister Moore said, this will clear up tomorrow, right? Obviously she lives in the deserts of Utah. When I informed her that we were probably in for a wet week she didn't believe me.
So as for me, I have lost some weight. I do have goals to lose more, but we'll have to see. I ran 2.5km on Saturday! And today we ran from our apartment to the temple. It was really fun, we had other sisters with us.
I really don't know what to say other than I love you all so much! Keep sharing the gospel and loving life!
Sister Daniel
So first of all, if you got an email today with a picture of me on it with some sisters you probably don't know, one of the former sisters that served here a long time ago was back visiting and wanted to send you a picture.
Another point, we got transfer calls yesterday. Sister Moore and I will be together for another six weeks here in Kyiv. We're both really excited. We'll get to celebrate her birthday together too.
Well, it has rained for a week straight here in Ukraine. At the beginning of it, last Monday, Sister Moore said, this will clear up tomorrow, right? Obviously she lives in the deserts of Utah. When I informed her that we were probably in for a wet week she didn't believe me.
So as for me, I have lost some weight. I do have goals to lose more, but we'll have to see. I ran 2.5km on Saturday! And today we ran from our apartment to the temple. It was really fun, we had other sisters with us.
I really don't know what to say other than I love you all so much! Keep sharing the gospel and loving life!
Sister Daniel
Hello Family! E-mail August 16, 2012
Well...it was just another week here in Kyiv! NOT! This past week was my
birthday and because I have the most awesome companion ever we had a lot of fun
this week.
As part of our transfers here in Ukraine we get to go on exchanges in week 4. All of the sisters in the Kyiv zones get to do exchanges for a few days. And Zach, the reason that they're a couple of days instead of 24 hours is because some of our areas take a good 3 hours to get to. So this week I stayed in our area here in Kyiv with Sister Pliha. She's from Latvia and really cool and so much fun! Sister Moore went to her companion, Sister Karpenko who is Ukrainian. So Sister Moore and I we're actually together on our half-way mark. Which was on Thursday!! I can't believe we're 9 months through already.
As part of our transfers here in Ukraine we get to go on exchanges in week 4. All of the sisters in the Kyiv zones get to do exchanges for a few days. And Zach, the reason that they're a couple of days instead of 24 hours is because some of our areas take a good 3 hours to get to. So this week I stayed in our area here in Kyiv with Sister Pliha. She's from Latvia and really cool and so much fun! Sister Moore went to her companion, Sister Karpenko who is Ukrainian. So Sister Moore and I we're actually together on our half-way mark. Which was on Thursday!! I can't believe we're 9 months through already.
I was glad to hear that Zach's talk went well. About 3 months ago,
president told us that the only thing we're allowed to have up on the stand with
us when we give talks are our scriptures. It is so nuts trying to talk in
Ukrainian with nothing to help but your Ukrainian scriptures! It's so
interesting here because in the smaller branches like in Bila, if we messed up
on phrasing or didn't know a word the congregation just shouted it at you. It's
actually kind of funny. I had to give a talk in Bila once and president happened
to show up for that branch. It's a good thing he doesn't understand Ukrainian
very well. He's fluent in Russian.
So Saturday, it was my birthday so we decided to do some fun stuff. We went
for our morning run at 6 like usual, no deviation, president is giving me
monthly goals on my running. Supposedly by the end of this month I should be
able to run 2.5km without stopping. I'm getting there. (just in case you were
wondering, president is a mountain marathon runner, so basically I'm getting my
own boot camp!) Then we came home and Sister Moore made blinchikies...basically
crepes but the Ukrainian version. She also gave me some presents she very
sneakily bought. Then we did our study and went to Puzata Hatas for lunch. It is
this restaurant that you will be going to when you come to Ukraine, all very
Ukrainian food, and a missionary favorite. After pigging out we went and bought
some birthday cake for me. (we had already had a cake earlier that week. We
celebrate mine and Sister Filipovskaya's birthdays at the exchange) I overcame
my natural man, and instead of buying a whole cake we only bought a piece each,
along with a pony candle. So we did missionary work the rest of the day with
some phone calls from other missionaries very loudly and off-key singing happy
birthday, but I was very grateful. Then we returned home for the night and had
our slice of cake with caramel ice cream! And because it's our tradition to go
to a movie on our birthdays, we watched "Mountain of the Lord". That was my
birthday, it was awesome.
That was my really big week, it was super fun. I'm one year older and on
the downward slope of my mission having crossed the half way mark.
Love you all,
Sister Daniel
Hello Family! E-mail - August 8, 2012
Well another week gone by and I have no idea what to write. We're sitting
here doing our email time with the assistants. It's kinda funny you don't
really get to know your assistants until you work in the same district with them
I think.
This week coming up is a big week. Not only is it my birthday (only the
most important day of the year), and on top of that this week also marks my
halfway point on the mission. On August 9, I will have been a missionary for a
total of 9 months. Crazy!
We are having success here, we're teaching a 19 year old girl, her name is
Luda and she is awesome! She asked about baptism when she came to church this
week, and we got to show her our baptismal font and asked her if she would be
open to being baptized and she said "yes"! VICTORY! Now we just have to actually
ask her to be baptized.
I don't know what else to say other than I've very grateful for the
birthday presents all of the clothes fit. And are very cute, I'll send you
pictures over the next few weeks.
Zach I want more information from you, spend some time and write to
me!
Love you all so much!
Thursday, August 2, 2012
A Lesson With the Stake President E-mail - July 30, 2012
Hello Family!!!
Congratulations to Zach for making it home safe! All is well here in Ukraine. How are the Olympics? You have to keep me updated! Do you all remember back in February when a senior couple came to your ward from my mission. They were on their way home from their mission here. Their names are Elder and Sister Terry. Well, they're back in Ukraine for a mission again! They said they were in the Hebron ward last week! I know you weren't there, but I just thought it was cool that they were there.
I can't believe that I'm going to be 23 in 2 weeks which also means that my halfway mark is coming up. It all happens in the same week! Mom - I was going to email the form back to them but after looking on their website I think it would be easier to fax it. So I'll try and get it done this week. I don't know if I need my account number or not.
Things are speeding up here in Borshahivsky. Our first week together was kind of a mess, because I was a mess. I'm going to try to get some letter writing done today while we're on the Metro, but grandma is the priority. I'm going to write her first.
Kyiv is a lot of fun. Much busier than Bila and it takes us an hour to get anywhere! We also meet some crazy people. I've met 3 people since I've been here who are totally racsist, and there is always some drunk guy trying to talk to us. Life is an adventure here.
So about the title of my email. We were sitting in International branch (it is a branch, mostly missionaries) and in walks one of our walk in investigators. She sits down. Then at the end of the meeting our stake president walks in and sits down next to her. After the branch he starts talking to her, and she stays for the Borshahivsky ward. This is like 5 hours of church total. He talks with her inbetween the meetings and then asks her to come to a lesson right after the ward. She agrees. So she's been at church for like 7 hours. We have a lesson with him and her, he answers all of her questions and gets her to meet with us again. After the whole experience, he just says that he felt like he needed to come to our building today. Normally he goes to church downtown. The whole thing was one big miracle.
Last week for p-day we went the spoosk. It is the souvenuir street in Kyiv. I bought all of you something but it may be a while before I get to sending it out. We're going back today, I hopefully won't spend as much money this time.
I'll send some pictures. Love you!
Have a good week!
Sister Daniel
Congratulations to Zach for making it home safe! All is well here in Ukraine. How are the Olympics? You have to keep me updated! Do you all remember back in February when a senior couple came to your ward from my mission. They were on their way home from their mission here. Their names are Elder and Sister Terry. Well, they're back in Ukraine for a mission again! They said they were in the Hebron ward last week! I know you weren't there, but I just thought it was cool that they were there.
I can't believe that I'm going to be 23 in 2 weeks which also means that my halfway mark is coming up. It all happens in the same week! Mom - I was going to email the form back to them but after looking on their website I think it would be easier to fax it. So I'll try and get it done this week. I don't know if I need my account number or not.
Things are speeding up here in Borshahivsky. Our first week together was kind of a mess, because I was a mess. I'm going to try to get some letter writing done today while we're on the Metro, but grandma is the priority. I'm going to write her first.
Kyiv is a lot of fun. Much busier than Bila and it takes us an hour to get anywhere! We also meet some crazy people. I've met 3 people since I've been here who are totally racsist, and there is always some drunk guy trying to talk to us. Life is an adventure here.
So about the title of my email. We were sitting in International branch (it is a branch, mostly missionaries) and in walks one of our walk in investigators. She sits down. Then at the end of the meeting our stake president walks in and sits down next to her. After the branch he starts talking to her, and she stays for the Borshahivsky ward. This is like 5 hours of church total. He talks with her inbetween the meetings and then asks her to come to a lesson right after the ward. She agrees. So she's been at church for like 7 hours. We have a lesson with him and her, he answers all of her questions and gets her to meet with us again. After the whole experience, he just says that he felt like he needed to come to our building today. Normally he goes to church downtown. The whole thing was one big miracle.
Last week for p-day we went the spoosk. It is the souvenuir street in Kyiv. I bought all of you something but it may be a while before I get to sending it out. We're going back today, I hopefully won't spend as much money this time.
I'll send some pictures. Love you!
Have a good week!
Sister Daniel
The Closest I'll Get to Being a Temple Square Sister Missionary E-mail July 23, 2012
Hello Family,
I'm glad that everything seems to be slowing down, and that recovery is taking place. Zach I'm sure is more than a little excited to be home. Are you one of those weird RMs who has no idea what to do now that they're not a missionary?
Well, with everything going on, I'm not sure how much I've told you about my new area and my not so new companion. So as you'll remember Sister Moore and I were companions in the MTC. She's awesome...I love her a lot and she's been a godsend this week. She's just as great as she was in the MTC and she and I know Ukrainian better. It's actually really cool that I'll hit my halfway mark in the mission with the same companion I started with. We've already planned that on our 9 month mark (August 9) that we're going to tell each other how much we've progressed throughout our missions.
So I'm in Kyiv. We actually have the western part of the city, about a third of it. Ours is the largest area in the mission and it's a lot of work. We have the international branch, which includes all of the temple missionaries, the people that come here with ILP which is a program where college age kids come and teach English (a lot of them are LDS), and the people that work at the US Embassy in Kyiv. There are a couple of families that fit that description. Then we have the Borshahivsky ward. This is our main ward. It's huge! Being in Bila for so long, I forgot that wards are hundreds of people, not just 100 people in the whole city. The members here are really fun and totally cool. A lot of them serve in the temple. Then we also have Svyatoshinsky ward. We don't go to that ward, they meet in another building but we have their area and are going to start working with the members there.
Borshahivsky is the home area. It's where President lives (he's in the international branch) and where the temple is, and where the office is. And about once a week we walk the temple grounds because people just go there to be in a peaceful place so we teach them if they show up. This also means I get mail as soon as it gets here. Mail comes every Tuesday so I'm looking forward to tomorrow.
Work here is starting over again, we're a new companionship and we have to jumpstart it.
This week was hard, but we have Sister Ricks, our senior office sister and her husband Elder Ricks, they're from Rexburg, like half of our senior couples. And they are awesome and basically like a set of grandparents for us here. She's been taking good care of me, and we see President often, and he always checks in. So I'm good.
I love you guys, Zach just because you're not required to write emails weekly doesn't mean you can stop writing me!
Have a good week!
Love,
Sister Daniel
я вас люблю дуже багато. I love you a lot.
I'm glad that everything seems to be slowing down, and that recovery is taking place. Zach I'm sure is more than a little excited to be home. Are you one of those weird RMs who has no idea what to do now that they're not a missionary?
Well, with everything going on, I'm not sure how much I've told you about my new area and my not so new companion. So as you'll remember Sister Moore and I were companions in the MTC. She's awesome...I love her a lot and she's been a godsend this week. She's just as great as she was in the MTC and she and I know Ukrainian better. It's actually really cool that I'll hit my halfway mark in the mission with the same companion I started with. We've already planned that on our 9 month mark (August 9) that we're going to tell each other how much we've progressed throughout our missions.
So I'm in Kyiv. We actually have the western part of the city, about a third of it. Ours is the largest area in the mission and it's a lot of work. We have the international branch, which includes all of the temple missionaries, the people that come here with ILP which is a program where college age kids come and teach English (a lot of them are LDS), and the people that work at the US Embassy in Kyiv. There are a couple of families that fit that description. Then we have the Borshahivsky ward. This is our main ward. It's huge! Being in Bila for so long, I forgot that wards are hundreds of people, not just 100 people in the whole city. The members here are really fun and totally cool. A lot of them serve in the temple. Then we also have Svyatoshinsky ward. We don't go to that ward, they meet in another building but we have their area and are going to start working with the members there.
Borshahivsky is the home area. It's where President lives (he's in the international branch) and where the temple is, and where the office is. And about once a week we walk the temple grounds because people just go there to be in a peaceful place so we teach them if they show up. This also means I get mail as soon as it gets here. Mail comes every Tuesday so I'm looking forward to tomorrow.
Work here is starting over again, we're a new companionship and we have to jumpstart it.
This week was hard, but we have Sister Ricks, our senior office sister and her husband Elder Ricks, they're from Rexburg, like half of our senior couples. And they are awesome and basically like a set of grandparents for us here. She's been taking good care of me, and we see President often, and he always checks in. So I'm good.
I love you guys, Zach just because you're not required to write emails weekly doesn't mean you can stop writing me!
Have a good week!
Love,
Sister Daniel
я вас люблю дуже багато. I love you a lot.
The Gathering E-mail - July 16, 2012
Dear Family,
Okay, so I did want to write a little bit about what I learned at Sister's conference this last week.
Okay, so I did want to write a little bit about what I learned at Sister's conference this last week.
President Galbraith came and spoke, he's the temple president and he began
talking about Elijah and his importance. We talked about how nearly everyone in
the world knows that Elijah will return before "the great and dreadful day of
the Lord", but as to what his mission is and how we can understand that mission,
really only the church knows. We then talked about April 3, 1836. It was a
holiday that is celebrated by the Jewish faith, Passover. On that day Joseph
Smith and Oliver Cowdery were visited by four men.
The first of course being the Savior accepting the Kirtland temple.
The next being the great prophet Moses, who gave Joseph Smith the keys to
the gathering of Israel. (Interesting note here: this is not the keys to
missionary work, that was restored by Peter, James, and John)
Then came Elias and he committed the dispensation of the gospel of
Abraham, or for those of us who don't understand that (me) he gave the
ability to organize people into family groups.
Then finally came Elijah and he gave the keys to sealing those families
together for time and all eternity. What a tremendous responsibility and awesome
blessing. President Galbraith went on to talk about how important these keys are
and how a very small amount of men hold these keys. At the time the coolest part
about what he said came next.
He talked about how after Babylonian captivity the ten lost tribes became
even more lost when they decided not to return to their heritage but instead
went to the land northward to practice their religion. And where is that land
northward? It's Ukraine! Every tribe in the house of Israel is represented here.
Even one of our sister missionaries who is from Ukraine is from the tribe of
Dan. President went on to say the reason why this temple here is so important is
because we as missionaries (the great majority of us Ephraim) are here gathering
the house of Israel. And we are gathering them not to a far away place, we're
gathering them to their covenants. We're gathering them to the temple. These are
the last days, Ephraim is gathering the lost, and it's happening right here in
our mission, at our temple.
Today was really hard. But I know that we have the ability to live as a
family together forever through our temples. When President called me this
morning to tell me the news he asked if Aunt Barb had been a member. When I told
him she wasn't, he said there was work to do. And it's true, we'll do the work,
and we'll all go home, together.
I know this church is true, I know that my service as a missionary isn't
wasted, and that as hard as it will be for the family to understand my calling
is here right now. I love you all so much. I'm grateful for the knowledge I have
that this life is not the end, that God loves us and that we will be able to
return and live together in the prescence of our loving Heavenly Father. I will
continue to pray and devote my time and energy to my work here and know that the
Lord blesses his faithful servants.
John 14:27 aPeace I leave with you, my bpeace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto
you. Let not your heart be ctroubled, neither let it be afraid.
I love you.
Sister Meaghan Daniel
Monday, July 9, 2012
Goodbye Bila ... Hello Kyiv! E-mail July 9, 2012
Hello Family,
Well as the title suggests I have been transferred, or will be transferring on Thursday. I'm moving to Borshahivsky which is the home area for the mission. I'll be at the building where the temple is, have a full ward, and the international branch, which is in English! As you can imagine it is kind of sad for me. Bila is a beautiful place with awesome people and I have no idea what I'm going to do with nearly a fourth of Kyiv! I also get Sister Moore for a companion! Yep, back with my MTC companion, we'll hit our halfway point together. Most importantly, I'll be at home base so I can get my birthday package when it comes in! I did get my pens it came in on July 3.
As for the triumphant return of Elder Daniel, I want pictures of mom hysterically crying and John just chuckling in the background! I can't believe you're almost done! I hope that you hold on to all of your stories for about 9 months, then we'll swap and just share stories for a whole week! Plus watch movies, I'll have a lot to catch up on!
So this week was awesome because we got to go to Kyiv to do baptisms for the dead at the temple with Angela! I can't believe she's been a member now for over a month, time flies! She's totally determined that she wants to serve a mission, and she really wants to serve in America, she has a few years yet, but she's totally on her way. She's super strong and has a ton of good friends in the church. Plus, Sister Ebeling will be staying here so she'll be taken care of.
So the elders made us American cake, Funfetti and chocolate for the Fourth of July. We have music night on Wednesday nights, but no one came this week, so we sang American songs together to commemerate. It was the most interesting Independence Day I've ever celebrated.
It is so hot here and we're outside all of the time. I have a really nice tan, but I can't wait until fall rolls around, it's absolutely brutal when you don't have air conditioning and just fans.
Other than that, all is good. Have a good week!
Sister
Well as the title suggests I have been transferred, or will be transferring on Thursday. I'm moving to Borshahivsky which is the home area for the mission. I'll be at the building where the temple is, have a full ward, and the international branch, which is in English! As you can imagine it is kind of sad for me. Bila is a beautiful place with awesome people and I have no idea what I'm going to do with nearly a fourth of Kyiv! I also get Sister Moore for a companion! Yep, back with my MTC companion, we'll hit our halfway point together. Most importantly, I'll be at home base so I can get my birthday package when it comes in! I did get my pens it came in on July 3.
As for the triumphant return of Elder Daniel, I want pictures of mom hysterically crying and John just chuckling in the background! I can't believe you're almost done! I hope that you hold on to all of your stories for about 9 months, then we'll swap and just share stories for a whole week! Plus watch movies, I'll have a lot to catch up on!
So this week was awesome because we got to go to Kyiv to do baptisms for the dead at the temple with Angela! I can't believe she's been a member now for over a month, time flies! She's totally determined that she wants to serve a mission, and she really wants to serve in America, she has a few years yet, but she's totally on her way. She's super strong and has a ton of good friends in the church. Plus, Sister Ebeling will be staying here so she'll be taken care of.
So the elders made us American cake, Funfetti and chocolate for the Fourth of July. We have music night on Wednesday nights, but no one came this week, so we sang American songs together to commemerate. It was the most interesting Independence Day I've ever celebrated.
It is so hot here and we're outside all of the time. I have a really nice tan, but I can't wait until fall rolls around, it's absolutely brutal when you don't have air conditioning and just fans.
Other than that, all is good. Have a good week!
Sister
Monday, July 2, 2012
The Manicure Miracle - E-mail July 2, 2012
Hello Family!
First of all, will you pass along a great big "Happy Birthday" to grandma for me. I've just decided that I will try and send cards for birthdays (Zach I hope you got yours, sorry it's in Russian and not Ukrainian, I couldn' t find any in Ukrainian here in Bila). But as for presents, I'm just going to buy all of you special gifts from Ukraine and give them to you at the end of my mission.
Mom, thanks so much for the setting apart, I got it and was able to open it. Also ......
So I realized from Mom's emails that I haven't been keeping up with my time schedule here in Ukraine. Right now, we've just started week 5 in this transfer which means we find out this week where we'll be for next transfer. So I'm still in Bila Tserkva with the amazing Sister Ebeling. Life here is great, we got a break in our heat wave and had a comfortable week. But like all Mondays, it's back to being extremely hot again today. Bila is a very green place, we have this extremely large park called Park Alexandria and it is absolutely beautiful, I'll send you some pictures.
This week has been really fun. I want to tell you about the manicure miracle.So last p-day we got a call while we were paying for our internet from a very mysterious fellow named Volodimir. He told us that he had this friend a girl, and he gave her a Liahona (Ensign) and she's been reading it! Well, this particular woman is a manicurist and he didn't want us introducing ourselves as missionaries and going from that route so he ordered us (no asking, they don't ask here) to set up an appointment to get manicures and talk to her there. Well, backstory: Ever since the beginning of my companionship with Sister Ebeling I've wanted a manicure, just a strange desire for one, and she's never had one. So we called this lady and went and got manicures! She wasn't super interested in the gospel but it was a really cool experience and I couldn't help but think how ironic it was that I had to come to Ukraine and speak with her in Ukrainian in order to actually understand my manicurist. (Any of you who normally get manicures will understand how strange it is to actually understand your manicurist.)
So we did our duty and then Volodimir called, and he's called every other day asking us about her. We still don't know exactly who he is because he's not a member here in Bila, my vote is for one of the three Nephites, but Sister Ebeling is taking the practical approach and says he's a member from Kyiv.
So that is our manicure miracle. We recieved a referral and got to get manicures!
Everything else is fine, I'm excited for Zach to be home too, it will just be really weird.
Have a good week!
Sister Daniel
First of all, will you pass along a great big "Happy Birthday" to grandma for me. I've just decided that I will try and send cards for birthdays (Zach I hope you got yours, sorry it's in Russian and not Ukrainian, I couldn' t find any in Ukrainian here in Bila). But as for presents, I'm just going to buy all of you special gifts from Ukraine and give them to you at the end of my mission.
Mom, thanks so much for the setting apart, I got it and was able to open it. Also ......
So I realized from Mom's emails that I haven't been keeping up with my time schedule here in Ukraine. Right now, we've just started week 5 in this transfer which means we find out this week where we'll be for next transfer. So I'm still in Bila Tserkva with the amazing Sister Ebeling. Life here is great, we got a break in our heat wave and had a comfortable week. But like all Mondays, it's back to being extremely hot again today. Bila is a very green place, we have this extremely large park called Park Alexandria and it is absolutely beautiful, I'll send you some pictures.
This week has been really fun. I want to tell you about the manicure miracle.So last p-day we got a call while we were paying for our internet from a very mysterious fellow named Volodimir. He told us that he had this friend a girl, and he gave her a Liahona (Ensign) and she's been reading it! Well, this particular woman is a manicurist and he didn't want us introducing ourselves as missionaries and going from that route so he ordered us (no asking, they don't ask here) to set up an appointment to get manicures and talk to her there. Well, backstory: Ever since the beginning of my companionship with Sister Ebeling I've wanted a manicure, just a strange desire for one, and she's never had one. So we called this lady and went and got manicures! She wasn't super interested in the gospel but it was a really cool experience and I couldn't help but think how ironic it was that I had to come to Ukraine and speak with her in Ukrainian in order to actually understand my manicurist. (Any of you who normally get manicures will understand how strange it is to actually understand your manicurist.)
So we did our duty and then Volodimir called, and he's called every other day asking us about her. We still don't know exactly who he is because he's not a member here in Bila, my vote is for one of the three Nephites, but Sister Ebeling is taking the practical approach and says he's a member from Kyiv.
So that is our manicure miracle. We recieved a referral and got to get manicures!
Everything else is fine, I'm excited for Zach to be home too, it will just be really weird.
Have a good week!
Sister Daniel
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Hello!!! - E-mail - June 25, 2012
Hello Family!
So this week was really interesting. We had sister exchanges. We exchange with both Kyiv zones so you can go anywhere in the area, and Sister Ebeling stayed here and I went to Cherkassy! It's the farthest area out for sisters from Kyiv and is still in the Kyiv zones. We spend three hours on a marshutka that doesn't have air conditioning (it's about 90 degrees here) and it was just really interesting. I got to serve with Sister Chang. She's from Taiwan and is totally awesome! She knows English very well, went to BYU and lived in Australia so I think that helps. Kyiv is a flurry of activity with the EuroCup going on. It's kind of nice though that Ukraine is done, there's not as many creepy drunk guys that go around screaming "U-KRAIN-A".
I got kinda homesick this week. We were driving out there to Cherkassy and I we passed right by the airport, plus when we were driving through the countryside it looked so much like South Dakota I almost cried. It has a little bit of a European feel to it here though.
I can't believe Zach is going home in less than a month! That's so crazy! You'll have to send me pictures of the triumphant return. It will be weird when I can't tell people that I have a brother who is also on a mission, people like it when I say that.
Life here is good, the cookies are great, right now I'm eating my favorites, they're called ears! Because they look like ears!
I don't know what else to say, we're just trucking along in Bila waiting for our next elect person. Angela told us this week that she really wants to serve a mission! She has a couple of years yet but we're going to do temple baptisms with her either this week or next! We also get to have a sister's conference with president at the end of the transfer in about 3 weeks and we're all looking forward to it.
Love you all!
Sister Daniel
So this week was really interesting. We had sister exchanges. We exchange with both Kyiv zones so you can go anywhere in the area, and Sister Ebeling stayed here and I went to Cherkassy! It's the farthest area out for sisters from Kyiv and is still in the Kyiv zones. We spend three hours on a marshutka that doesn't have air conditioning (it's about 90 degrees here) and it was just really interesting. I got to serve with Sister Chang. She's from Taiwan and is totally awesome! She knows English very well, went to BYU and lived in Australia so I think that helps. Kyiv is a flurry of activity with the EuroCup going on. It's kind of nice though that Ukraine is done, there's not as many creepy drunk guys that go around screaming "U-KRAIN-A".
I got kinda homesick this week. We were driving out there to Cherkassy and I we passed right by the airport, plus when we were driving through the countryside it looked so much like South Dakota I almost cried. It has a little bit of a European feel to it here though.
I can't believe Zach is going home in less than a month! That's so crazy! You'll have to send me pictures of the triumphant return. It will be weird when I can't tell people that I have a brother who is also on a mission, people like it when I say that.
Life here is good, the cookies are great, right now I'm eating my favorites, they're called ears! Because they look like ears!
I don't know what else to say, we're just trucking along in Bila waiting for our next elect person. Angela told us this week that she really wants to serve a mission! She has a couple of years yet but we're going to do temple baptisms with her either this week or next! We also get to have a sister's conference with president at the end of the transfer in about 3 weeks and we're all looking forward to it.
Love you all!
Sister Daniel
Another Week In Ukraine - E-mail - June 18, 2012
Hello Family!!
Well this week has been interesting. We were in Kyiv on Monday and then it was back to work. We're preparing for sister exchanges this week. I'll be in Cherkassy with Sister Chang, she's from Taiwan?? possibly. I'll tell you more about her next week.
This week seemed to go by really fast, well really time is starting to fly on the mission. We just got done with the very painful process of dropping investigators. It is always very sad when you realize that they're just not progressing. It's like losing a really good friend. But we do have investigators who are coming closer to Christ everyday and miracles abound!
Angela, our recent convert has decided that she wants to serve a mission! She's almost 19 so she's got a couple years yet, but she's determined. We are on cloud nine with that girl. We watched The Testaments with her and of coarse I cried when Helam's eyes were healed, like that's a change.
Other than that things have been mellow here. Not so much everywhere else in Ukraine. The EuroCup is being played here and in Poland and the whole country is going crazy!
Not much more time,
Love you!!
Sister Daniel
Well this week has been interesting. We were in Kyiv on Monday and then it was back to work. We're preparing for sister exchanges this week. I'll be in Cherkassy with Sister Chang, she's from Taiwan?? possibly. I'll tell you more about her next week.
This week seemed to go by really fast, well really time is starting to fly on the mission. We just got done with the very painful process of dropping investigators. It is always very sad when you realize that they're just not progressing. It's like losing a really good friend. But we do have investigators who are coming closer to Christ everyday and miracles abound!
Angela, our recent convert has decided that she wants to serve a mission! She's almost 19 so she's got a couple years yet, but she's determined. We are on cloud nine with that girl. We watched The Testaments with her and of coarse I cried when Helam's eyes were healed, like that's a change.
Other than that things have been mellow here. Not so much everywhere else in Ukraine. The EuroCup is being played here and in Poland and the whole country is going crazy!
Not much more time,
Love you!!
Sister Daniel
Mission Conference - Email- June 12, 2012
Hello!
First of all I'm actually really suprised that I don' t have a hundred emails from mom wondering what happened yesterday. I don't have a lot of time because I spent some getting the pictures together, but just want to give you some words from me.
We had mission conference yesterday in Kyiv, and all of the missionaries were there, it was so much fun to see everyone. I'm sure if you go on the mission website there are pictures up already. See Elder Christofferson came to stake conference in Kyiv this last weekend with Elder Rasband. Well, Elder Rasband stayed to speak to us yesterday, it was so cool.
We learned a lot. Like that our mission is one of the great finding missions in the church. We find investigators and double the rate of anyone in the Europe East Area! That was a great comfort because I know we both come home at the end of a day and if we haven't found anyone we're really depressed. We also found out that we need to work on actually baptizing those we find. Well, there's always room for improvement right?
This week was interesting. We had a ward activity where we went to this bird zoo thing. I sent a picture of the peacocks. We've spent a lot of time outside, I don't know if you can tell in the pictures but I'm quite tan. It's definitely summer here, hot and humid.
We also went to a rinok to buy things it was fun. (if you come to pick me up at the end of my mission we'll have to go rinok shopping) The shirt I'm wearing in the mission photos is what I bought.
The language is still difficult but it's getting to a point where I can't remember certain words in English, only in Ukrainian.
I don't really know what else to say.
Love you all!
Sister Daniel
PPS Zach - President says it's all about how you end your mission so make sure you make your last transfer your best! I know you've been an awesome missionary, just keep it up!
First of all I'm actually really suprised that I don' t have a hundred emails from mom wondering what happened yesterday. I don't have a lot of time because I spent some getting the pictures together, but just want to give you some words from me.
We had mission conference yesterday in Kyiv, and all of the missionaries were there, it was so much fun to see everyone. I'm sure if you go on the mission website there are pictures up already. See Elder Christofferson came to stake conference in Kyiv this last weekend with Elder Rasband. Well, Elder Rasband stayed to speak to us yesterday, it was so cool.
We learned a lot. Like that our mission is one of the great finding missions in the church. We find investigators and double the rate of anyone in the Europe East Area! That was a great comfort because I know we both come home at the end of a day and if we haven't found anyone we're really depressed. We also found out that we need to work on actually baptizing those we find. Well, there's always room for improvement right?
This week was interesting. We had a ward activity where we went to this bird zoo thing. I sent a picture of the peacocks. We've spent a lot of time outside, I don't know if you can tell in the pictures but I'm quite tan. It's definitely summer here, hot and humid.
We also went to a rinok to buy things it was fun. (if you come to pick me up at the end of my mission we'll have to go rinok shopping) The shirt I'm wearing in the mission photos is what I bought.
The language is still difficult but it's getting to a point where I can't remember certain words in English, only in Ukrainian.
I don't really know what else to say.
Love you all!
Sister Daniel
PPS Zach - President says it's all about how you end your mission so make sure you make your last transfer your best! I know you've been an awesome missionary, just keep it up!
Thursday, June 7, 2012
A Wedding, A Pinata and An Orthodox Holiday! E-mail - June 4, 2012
Hello Family!
Another week has gone by and I think Sister Ebeling and I are coming down from baptismal high pretty hard. We ended up getting dropped, and then we dropped investigators it's always really sad when that happens. There isn't a whole lot to write this week so I'll just explain my title.
A Wedding - Pasha and Marina are members of one of our branches. They've been dating for about a year now, and Marina is a recent convert of almost a year. Well, this Saturday they finally tied the knot. The crazy thing was, they invited all of the missionaries to the wedding so we got to see a traditional Ukrainian wedding. They will be sealed in the temple next month but right now they just got married civilly. So we all went to the City Hall here to see them get married. I have pictures but I forgot the cord to hook up my camera, sorry. Anyway, they go in to get married and they have a pretty "normal" ceremony then the Ukrainian comes out. So the parents of the bride and groom have this crazy intense bread that is decorated with like birds and flowers (I'll send a pic next week). Well, at the end of the ceremony the couple bows to the parents three times and kisses the bread! It was really fun. What was also cool is the majority of the people at the wedding were church members. It just goes to show you that the branches here are like family they are so tight-knit. There was even a returned missionary that came to see the wedding from America.
A Pinata - So apparently over time missionaries have been sharing American culture with our Ukrainian members because last week one of our members asked us to make a pinata for her son's birthday party. Needless to say, it was an interesting endeavour and I will have pictures next week, the party is today.
An Orthodox Holiday - Tradition here is tradition and there is no breaking it. Every member of the church at one point was orthodox and nearly all of them have a babushka (grandma) who cursed the day they were born when they joined the church. This devotion to tradition is never more apparent than on an orthodox holiday. This week it was "Green Saturday" we're not really sure what the purpose of this holiday is but every person goes out and buys palms to put somewhere, I don't really know, the guy who was explaining it was in a hurry but it was really interesting to see a bunch of people walking around with this big green palms. Oh the things we do. One thing I've been really grateful for on my mission is just to experience and gain respect for another culture. It's always really fun too, to see how people celebrate their faith in Jesus Christ.
Have a good week everyone! Look out for deer, apparently they like to hurt people in Kentucky. Much Love!
Sister Daniel
PS Just so I don't forget...when Zach comes home I want to see pictures of the triumphant return!
Another week has gone by and I think Sister Ebeling and I are coming down from baptismal high pretty hard. We ended up getting dropped, and then we dropped investigators it's always really sad when that happens. There isn't a whole lot to write this week so I'll just explain my title.
A Wedding - Pasha and Marina are members of one of our branches. They've been dating for about a year now, and Marina is a recent convert of almost a year. Well, this Saturday they finally tied the knot. The crazy thing was, they invited all of the missionaries to the wedding so we got to see a traditional Ukrainian wedding. They will be sealed in the temple next month but right now they just got married civilly. So we all went to the City Hall here to see them get married. I have pictures but I forgot the cord to hook up my camera, sorry. Anyway, they go in to get married and they have a pretty "normal" ceremony then the Ukrainian comes out. So the parents of the bride and groom have this crazy intense bread that is decorated with like birds and flowers (I'll send a pic next week). Well, at the end of the ceremony the couple bows to the parents three times and kisses the bread! It was really fun. What was also cool is the majority of the people at the wedding were church members. It just goes to show you that the branches here are like family they are so tight-knit. There was even a returned missionary that came to see the wedding from America.
A Pinata - So apparently over time missionaries have been sharing American culture with our Ukrainian members because last week one of our members asked us to make a pinata for her son's birthday party. Needless to say, it was an interesting endeavour and I will have pictures next week, the party is today.
An Orthodox Holiday - Tradition here is tradition and there is no breaking it. Every member of the church at one point was orthodox and nearly all of them have a babushka (grandma) who cursed the day they were born when they joined the church. This devotion to tradition is never more apparent than on an orthodox holiday. This week it was "Green Saturday" we're not really sure what the purpose of this holiday is but every person goes out and buys palms to put somewhere, I don't really know, the guy who was explaining it was in a hurry but it was really interesting to see a bunch of people walking around with this big green palms. Oh the things we do. One thing I've been really grateful for on my mission is just to experience and gain respect for another culture. It's always really fun too, to see how people celebrate their faith in Jesus Christ.
Have a good week everyone! Look out for deer, apparently they like to hurt people in Kentucky. Much Love!
Sister Daniel
PS Just so I don't forget...when Zach comes home I want to see pictures of the triumphant return!
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Another Transfer Come and Gone May 28, 2012
Hello Family,
Well, as you might have read, we are just finishing our second transfer here in Ukraine and Sister Ebeling and I will continue together for at least another transfer, here in Bila Tserkva. We also ended it on a high note! Our investigator, Angela, got baptized! She's 19 and we've been teaching her all this transfer, she's totally awesome and it has been so fun to see her progress in the gospel. She says her favorite part of her day is reading her scriptures, she's in Mosiah right now. She also yesterday expressed a desire to serve a mission!!!
We were also a little heartbroken. As you know we went to Kmelnitsky a couple of weeks ago to do Sister Ebeling's registration, while we were there she got to teach an investigator she had worked with when she served there. They set a baptismal date and it was supposed to be yesterday. Anyway, they had everything ready and waiting for her baptism, and she never showed up. Sister Stiles was so sad, and we felt so bad for her. How absolutely heartbreaking to work so hard on preparing someone for baptism and then to be stood up.
Life in Bila Tserkva is wonderful. The pollen count here is ridiculously high, which means my allergies are in full swing. The sun rises at 4am here, which is really fun because our apartment is East facing. We run now every morning starting at 6am, and I'm actually running to the park and back! I think we're planning on doing some shopping today for p-day. The district is changing this week. Next transfer, our district leader will still be here, with a new trainee. But then it's just his companionship and ours. They call it a dating district and President had to get permission from the Area Presidency to even let it happen. Elder Newsome goes home tomorrow, crazy! And his companion, Elder Newton is becoming one of our new zone leaders.
This week was hard, just before good things come the trials, just Satan trying to get under my skin. I'm having trouble over thinking with the language and it's limiting my ability to speak with people. But I got a blessing from one of the elders and I feel much better. One thing I've really learned so far on my mission is just the importance of relying on the Lord 100% and learning to pray for everything. Overall, I think I will be a very different person when I come home.
Love you!!!
Sister Daniel
Well, as you might have read, we are just finishing our second transfer here in Ukraine and Sister Ebeling and I will continue together for at least another transfer, here in Bila Tserkva. We also ended it on a high note! Our investigator, Angela, got baptized! She's 19 and we've been teaching her all this transfer, she's totally awesome and it has been so fun to see her progress in the gospel. She says her favorite part of her day is reading her scriptures, she's in Mosiah right now. She also yesterday expressed a desire to serve a mission!!!
We were also a little heartbroken. As you know we went to Kmelnitsky a couple of weeks ago to do Sister Ebeling's registration, while we were there she got to teach an investigator she had worked with when she served there. They set a baptismal date and it was supposed to be yesterday. Anyway, they had everything ready and waiting for her baptism, and she never showed up. Sister Stiles was so sad, and we felt so bad for her. How absolutely heartbreaking to work so hard on preparing someone for baptism and then to be stood up.
Life in Bila Tserkva is wonderful. The pollen count here is ridiculously high, which means my allergies are in full swing. The sun rises at 4am here, which is really fun because our apartment is East facing. We run now every morning starting at 6am, and I'm actually running to the park and back! I think we're planning on doing some shopping today for p-day. The district is changing this week. Next transfer, our district leader will still be here, with a new trainee. But then it's just his companionship and ours. They call it a dating district and President had to get permission from the Area Presidency to even let it happen. Elder Newsome goes home tomorrow, crazy! And his companion, Elder Newton is becoming one of our new zone leaders.
This week was hard, just before good things come the trials, just Satan trying to get under my skin. I'm having trouble over thinking with the language and it's limiting my ability to speak with people. But I got a blessing from one of the elders and I feel much better. One thing I've really learned so far on my mission is just the importance of relying on the Lord 100% and learning to pray for everything. Overall, I think I will be a very different person when I come home.
Love you!!!
Sister Daniel
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Across Ukraine and Back Again E-Mail May 21, 2012
Hello Family,
Well, it's been another week here in Ukraine. This week for us was full of adventure. Our p-day was a little different, we had a lesson (or were supposed to have one) in the morning. Being stood up is one thing, being stood up when you go out of your way to meet with an investigator on p-day is just plain mean. So we ended up just going grocery shopping and hanging out at home last week. This week we are spending some quality time with the elders. Elder Newsome goes home in two weeks, so we're having a party complete with volleyball and a grill. We're all anxiously awaiting transfer calls this Saturday. Sister Ebeling and I are pretty sure we're staying the same, but with Elder Newsome leaving and Elder Olson finishing his training we expect big things to happen in Bila. Speaking of big things, we have a baptism this week! Actually on Zach's birthday! Her name is Angela, I'll send you a picture next week.This will be the first baptism when I've taught the investigator from the beginning of her investigation of the church.
As far as investigators go, we have a lot like I was saying on Skype and they're all so different. My personal favorite right now is Natasha and her daughter Tamara. Tamara is 12 and they originally called us to help her with her English, but after some crafty planning by yours truly they ended up participating in Youth Night and then coming to Sacrament Meeting. Needless to say, they're most definitely on the path of true investigatorhood. But the best thing about them is every time without fail, they bring us flowers, chocolate and give us kisses on the cheek. It's like having a really awesome boyfriend! Another investigator we have is Katya. She's a babushka that was given to us by our other investigators, her son and daughter in law. She's been meeting with JWs for about 20 years but seems really open to our message and hasn't officially joined the JW church. Granted I don't really know how you do that so she might actually be a JW at this point.
So our adventure this week. We left Bila on Tuesday night on a marshutka to Kyiv. We got there and got to go on the metro to meet the Center Kyiv Sisters who had our train tickets. They met us at a centrally located metro stop and gave us the tickets and we made our way to the train station. All was well and we were actually early. After waiting for about an hour and a half in a place that is as busy as any American airport we got to board our train. It was a total Harry Potter moment. We got to our compartment which has four beds. And found a guy already in there. It was then that we realized the mistake. As missionaries it is required that we have our own compartment when travelling overnight by train. Someone had messed up on ordering our tickets. But because we're greenies and have no idea really how to do anything outside of Bila we just sucked it up and went. So we shared the compartment with a really nice and respectful guy and another girl. At least we were all in our 20s. We left Kyiv around midnight and got to Khmelnitsky about 6am. The next few days we spent meeting with the other sisters' members and investigators, and going on crazy exchanges. Then the freak thunderstorm happened. We were soaked! And Sister Ebeling and I only had clothes for 3 days! Well, the zone leaders were there in Khmelnitsky and they fixed the tickets problem for the way back to Kyiv. Then we ran into another problem. We couldn't find our train! It was midnight in Khmelnitsky and we're running around on the train tracks. After an extremely stressful 15 minutes we were in our very own compartment heading for Kyiv. We got back to Bila at 9am on Friday and it was back to work.
Then we found out we have to do it all again in 3 weeks.
So needless to say, my sleep pattern is a little off. I woke up this morning and my body was convinced that it was 630 and time to get up. So I knelt in my bed to pray. Then I decided it wasn't time yet and went back to sleep. This happened two more times until finally the alarm went off. During companionship study Sister Ebeling told me she had woken up a couple of times and every time she did I was kneeling in my bed praying.
Yep. At least I know that one thing has changed thanks to my mission, my first instinct when I wake up...kneel and pray.
All my love.
Sister Daniel
Well, it's been another week here in Ukraine. This week for us was full of adventure. Our p-day was a little different, we had a lesson (or were supposed to have one) in the morning. Being stood up is one thing, being stood up when you go out of your way to meet with an investigator on p-day is just plain mean. So we ended up just going grocery shopping and hanging out at home last week. This week we are spending some quality time with the elders. Elder Newsome goes home in two weeks, so we're having a party complete with volleyball and a grill. We're all anxiously awaiting transfer calls this Saturday. Sister Ebeling and I are pretty sure we're staying the same, but with Elder Newsome leaving and Elder Olson finishing his training we expect big things to happen in Bila. Speaking of big things, we have a baptism this week! Actually on Zach's birthday! Her name is Angela, I'll send you a picture next week.This will be the first baptism when I've taught the investigator from the beginning of her investigation of the church.
As far as investigators go, we have a lot like I was saying on Skype and they're all so different. My personal favorite right now is Natasha and her daughter Tamara. Tamara is 12 and they originally called us to help her with her English, but after some crafty planning by yours truly they ended up participating in Youth Night and then coming to Sacrament Meeting. Needless to say, they're most definitely on the path of true investigatorhood. But the best thing about them is every time without fail, they bring us flowers, chocolate and give us kisses on the cheek. It's like having a really awesome boyfriend! Another investigator we have is Katya. She's a babushka that was given to us by our other investigators, her son and daughter in law. She's been meeting with JWs for about 20 years but seems really open to our message and hasn't officially joined the JW church. Granted I don't really know how you do that so she might actually be a JW at this point.
So our adventure this week. We left Bila on Tuesday night on a marshutka to Kyiv. We got there and got to go on the metro to meet the Center Kyiv Sisters who had our train tickets. They met us at a centrally located metro stop and gave us the tickets and we made our way to the train station. All was well and we were actually early. After waiting for about an hour and a half in a place that is as busy as any American airport we got to board our train. It was a total Harry Potter moment. We got to our compartment which has four beds. And found a guy already in there. It was then that we realized the mistake. As missionaries it is required that we have our own compartment when travelling overnight by train. Someone had messed up on ordering our tickets. But because we're greenies and have no idea really how to do anything outside of Bila we just sucked it up and went. So we shared the compartment with a really nice and respectful guy and another girl. At least we were all in our 20s. We left Kyiv around midnight and got to Khmelnitsky about 6am. The next few days we spent meeting with the other sisters' members and investigators, and going on crazy exchanges. Then the freak thunderstorm happened. We were soaked! And Sister Ebeling and I only had clothes for 3 days! Well, the zone leaders were there in Khmelnitsky and they fixed the tickets problem for the way back to Kyiv. Then we ran into another problem. We couldn't find our train! It was midnight in Khmelnitsky and we're running around on the train tracks. After an extremely stressful 15 minutes we were in our very own compartment heading for Kyiv. We got back to Bila at 9am on Friday and it was back to work.
Then we found out we have to do it all again in 3 weeks.
So needless to say, my sleep pattern is a little off. I woke up this morning and my body was convinced that it was 630 and time to get up. So I knelt in my bed to pray. Then I decided it wasn't time yet and went back to sleep. This happened two more times until finally the alarm went off. During companionship study Sister Ebeling told me she had woken up a couple of times and every time she did I was kneeling in my bed praying.
Yep. At least I know that one thing has changed thanks to my mission, my first instinct when I wake up...kneel and pray.
All my love.
Sister Daniel
Monday, May 14, 2012
Summer...kinda... E-mail - May 14, 2012
Hello, everyone!
Well, it seems weird to write you when I just talked to you a few days ago. Life in Ukraine hasn't changed much since then, except for the weather. It's a roller coaster here. Yesterday it was really cold after the terribly hot day it was on Saturday. All of the decorations are still up here for Victory Day. It kind of caused a depression when we realized it was our one and only Victory Day in Ukraine. Right now, it looks like our release date is April 30, 2013.
So I realized today that I didn't tell you a funny story that I wanted to. To preface this one you should know that in Ukraine there are only like 15 names for women so everyone has the same names. Well, a few weeks ago we received a referral from one of our branch presidents. It was a lady named Natasha. We got her phone number and called her, she never answered. (This is extremely frustrating because cell phones in Ukraine don't have answering machines, you just wait until someone picks up.) So the next week we asked our branch president if we had the right number for the referral, Natasha. He looked at what we had and said "no". Then he gave us another number, and we finally got ahold of her. We called and set up an appointment and were super excited. We found a member to go with us, the branch president's sister-in-law Marina and we were all ready to go! So we call her back because we are very polite missionaries to ask her if it was okay to bring a member of the church with us to help us share our message. Then Natasha said "I'm already a member, I've accepted the restored gospel!" We were really confused. Then we found out that we had called and set up a meeting with Natasha, the branch president's wife! Not Natasha the referral! Needless to say we have one Natasha who thinks that we're crazy and one Natasha who still won't answer her phone.
The work here is going great, we're always running around trying to see everyone. Our investigator who is getting baptized is getting over smoking. She asked for a priesthood blessing! It was really cool to see her show her faith in the priesthood. This is one thing about which my testimony has grown immensely. There is no question in my mind that this is the restored Church of Jesus Christ, and that it is lead by prophets and apostles who possess the Priesthood power of God.
Don't have a lot of time left. I love you. Zach the address makes sense in Ukraine. Put my name on stuff. I like that everybody else is getting my address right except for my immediate family. I hope I didn't scare John away from coming to Ukraine at the end of my mission. Until next week!
Love,
Sister Daniel
PS I'm now in 2 Ne 31
Well, it seems weird to write you when I just talked to you a few days ago. Life in Ukraine hasn't changed much since then, except for the weather. It's a roller coaster here. Yesterday it was really cold after the terribly hot day it was on Saturday. All of the decorations are still up here for Victory Day. It kind of caused a depression when we realized it was our one and only Victory Day in Ukraine. Right now, it looks like our release date is April 30, 2013.
So I realized today that I didn't tell you a funny story that I wanted to. To preface this one you should know that in Ukraine there are only like 15 names for women so everyone has the same names. Well, a few weeks ago we received a referral from one of our branch presidents. It was a lady named Natasha. We got her phone number and called her, she never answered. (This is extremely frustrating because cell phones in Ukraine don't have answering machines, you just wait until someone picks up.) So the next week we asked our branch president if we had the right number for the referral, Natasha. He looked at what we had and said "no". Then he gave us another number, and we finally got ahold of her. We called and set up an appointment and were super excited. We found a member to go with us, the branch president's sister-in-law Marina and we were all ready to go! So we call her back because we are very polite missionaries to ask her if it was okay to bring a member of the church with us to help us share our message. Then Natasha said "I'm already a member, I've accepted the restored gospel!" We were really confused. Then we found out that we had called and set up a meeting with Natasha, the branch president's wife! Not Natasha the referral! Needless to say we have one Natasha who thinks that we're crazy and one Natasha who still won't answer her phone.
The work here is going great, we're always running around trying to see everyone. Our investigator who is getting baptized is getting over smoking. She asked for a priesthood blessing! It was really cool to see her show her faith in the priesthood. This is one thing about which my testimony has grown immensely. There is no question in my mind that this is the restored Church of Jesus Christ, and that it is lead by prophets and apostles who possess the Priesthood power of God.
Don't have a lot of time left. I love you. Zach the address makes sense in Ukraine. Put my name on stuff. I like that everybody else is getting my address right except for my immediate family. I hope I didn't scare John away from coming to Ukraine at the end of my mission. Until next week!
Love,
Sister Daniel
PS I'm now in 2 Ne 31
It's definitely summer in Ukraine! E-mail - May 7, 2012
Hello from beautiful Bila Tserkva, Ukraine!
Well, life here is a test in endurance. Yesterday was one of my best days as a missionary, and today started off with an angry babushka. So I'm going to tell you all of the ups and none of the downs. K? As you all know by now I'm in Bila Tserkva with Sister Ebeling, who is the best person ever! So she's basically a genius when it comes to Ukrainian, but she refuses to let me lean on her language skills. It's the best thing for me, but also really hard. We were in the MTC together and had so much fun singing during shower time. She's also got an incredible voice. I've decided she's the best companion I could have had coming into taking over an area. She's super supportive and talks to everyone. So we have a good time and we're also really good for each other because we work hard. Okay, so that's one great thing right now. My companion.
Another great thing are our members. They are the coolest people ever! All of them are 1st generation members in fact I think the first baptisms in Bila Tserkva were in 1998. They've been baptized in the river, in swimming pools, and finally in an actual baptismal font. Their testimony of the gospel and their willingness to share that testimony makes life as a missionary very easy. Sister Larisa is one of my favorites. She's an invalid, she hasn't walked in 30 years, but she is so solid in the church. Before the temple in Kyiv she travelled to Germany twice. Every week we go over and wash her hair, face, and hands. She's an amazing woman. Then we have the fun group of young moms. Ina, Olga, Marina, and Luda are some of the greatest people ever and so much fun! We have youth here who are growing up with the gospel and bringing their friends. It is an incredible place to be a missionary where the spirit is so strong.
Our district is totally awesome! Our district leader and his companion have one branch and we have another set of elders who are over the smaller branch. Plus we have the senior couple the Mayberrys who come every Sunday for church and Tuesday for English. I love them, you can just tell how grateful they are to help. We're always doing something together as a district and everyone helps each other.
Then there are our investigators. This week we taught Angela. She's 18, a member brought her to church one week and she's been coming ever since. Yesterday she told us she was ready to be baptized on May 27th! She's our miracle and we feel like we really didn't do much to get her to that point. We had other investigators at church yesterday Natasha and her daughter Tamara have been meeting with us to learn more English. We never thought they would progress very fast but they want to know more about the church and Tamara is coming to youth night!
Needless to say, we have really seen the hand of the Lord here in Bila. We're both really new but we know that the Lord blesses us when we have faith and obey the commandments. I'm so excited to talk to you this week. On Wednesday we hit our 6 month mark. It seems crazy that we've been out for 6 months and that I haven't seen you in that long.
Well, until Saturday. Love you!
Sister Daniel
PS ZACH- when you send letters to Ukraine you actually have to put my name on them, they've had to open them twice to find out who they were for.
PPS MOM- you look awesome in the picture you sent.
PPPS- EVERYONE- I'm actually sending out postcards to you today!
Well, life here is a test in endurance. Yesterday was one of my best days as a missionary, and today started off with an angry babushka. So I'm going to tell you all of the ups and none of the downs. K? As you all know by now I'm in Bila Tserkva with Sister Ebeling, who is the best person ever! So she's basically a genius when it comes to Ukrainian, but she refuses to let me lean on her language skills. It's the best thing for me, but also really hard. We were in the MTC together and had so much fun singing during shower time. She's also got an incredible voice. I've decided she's the best companion I could have had coming into taking over an area. She's super supportive and talks to everyone. So we have a good time and we're also really good for each other because we work hard. Okay, so that's one great thing right now. My companion.
Another great thing are our members. They are the coolest people ever! All of them are 1st generation members in fact I think the first baptisms in Bila Tserkva were in 1998. They've been baptized in the river, in swimming pools, and finally in an actual baptismal font. Their testimony of the gospel and their willingness to share that testimony makes life as a missionary very easy. Sister Larisa is one of my favorites. She's an invalid, she hasn't walked in 30 years, but she is so solid in the church. Before the temple in Kyiv she travelled to Germany twice. Every week we go over and wash her hair, face, and hands. She's an amazing woman. Then we have the fun group of young moms. Ina, Olga, Marina, and Luda are some of the greatest people ever and so much fun! We have youth here who are growing up with the gospel and bringing their friends. It is an incredible place to be a missionary where the spirit is so strong.
Our district is totally awesome! Our district leader and his companion have one branch and we have another set of elders who are over the smaller branch. Plus we have the senior couple the Mayberrys who come every Sunday for church and Tuesday for English. I love them, you can just tell how grateful they are to help. We're always doing something together as a district and everyone helps each other.
Then there are our investigators. This week we taught Angela. She's 18, a member brought her to church one week and she's been coming ever since. Yesterday she told us she was ready to be baptized on May 27th! She's our miracle and we feel like we really didn't do much to get her to that point. We had other investigators at church yesterday Natasha and her daughter Tamara have been meeting with us to learn more English. We never thought they would progress very fast but they want to know more about the church and Tamara is coming to youth night!
Needless to say, we have really seen the hand of the Lord here in Bila. We're both really new but we know that the Lord blesses us when we have faith and obey the commandments. I'm so excited to talk to you this week. On Wednesday we hit our 6 month mark. It seems crazy that we've been out for 6 months and that I haven't seen you in that long.
Well, until Saturday. Love you!
Sister Daniel
PS ZACH- when you send letters to Ukraine you actually have to put my name on them, they've had to open them twice to find out who they were for.
PPS MOM- you look awesome in the picture you sent.
PPPS- EVERYONE- I'm actually sending out postcards to you today!
Life in Bila Tserkva E-mail - April 30, 2012
Hello Family,
Wow this has been a week. It's totally bizarre to be a senior companion. I don't really feel like one for the most part because Sister Ebeling is a superstar with her Ukrainian so she's taking the lead in contacting a lot. Apparently I know more Russian though. It's really funny, her first district was all Ukrainian speaking missionaries, but here all of the elders are Russian speaking. She gets this funny look on her face when she tries to understand what they say. This week has been a lesson on relying on the Lord. More like a crash coarse really. We ended up having a crazy insane week with 9 new investigators! We were just constantly meeting with people.
So in my personal study I've been starting to read the Book of Mormon all the way through. Right now I'm in 2 Nephi tomorrow I'm reading chapter 4 just in case you wanted to study together. I'm also reading Jesus the Christ. I've been working on it since the MTC and am proud to say that I'm almost done. I love it, it is such an addicting book. The only problem is that my head wants to explode after I read it. I've really gained a new view on who Christ was and is through it. What kind of teacher and man. It's been really interesting for me.
This week nothing extremely crazy happened. No creepy guys trying to kiss me. We didn't hear anything about the terrorist attacks here. Things have actually been really mellow in Bila. Well, things are always mellow in Bila. Bila Tserkva is more of a rural city. We're about an hour out of Kyiv. We go into the city at least twice a month. Bila is named for the white church in the city. I need to take a good picture of it. It is also surrounded by farmland and small villages. It actually looks a lot like South Dakota out in the country part. It is really hot here, and has been for a couple of days. Like in the 80s and humid. I plan to get really tan. It's also very green here. Trees everywhere.
Things with Sister Ebeling and I are going great! We're working really hard and trying to talk to everyone. We had an interesting experience with one investigator. We are encouraged to pray with people on the street when we contact them so we did with this girl named Ina. When I had finished praying we looked up and she was crying. We met with her later in the week and taught the first lesson. She told us that she knew it was true but she wasn't ready to hear any more information, be baptized, or even meet with us. It was depressing but built my confidence in knowing that people are feeling the spirit when we talk with them. Then we have another investigator. Her name is Angela and she's really good friends with one of our branch presidents. She is very open and I think very close to baptism. It's actually kind of bizarre how fast it is going with her.
Well, that's all my time today. I love you all so much. I'm doing good. I'm trying to send mail out but we never have enough time on our p-days. I'll keep trying but I haven't sent anything yet. Love you!!
Sister Daniel
Wow this has been a week. It's totally bizarre to be a senior companion. I don't really feel like one for the most part because Sister Ebeling is a superstar with her Ukrainian so she's taking the lead in contacting a lot. Apparently I know more Russian though. It's really funny, her first district was all Ukrainian speaking missionaries, but here all of the elders are Russian speaking. She gets this funny look on her face when she tries to understand what they say. This week has been a lesson on relying on the Lord. More like a crash coarse really. We ended up having a crazy insane week with 9 new investigators! We were just constantly meeting with people.
So in my personal study I've been starting to read the Book of Mormon all the way through. Right now I'm in 2 Nephi tomorrow I'm reading chapter 4 just in case you wanted to study together. I'm also reading Jesus the Christ. I've been working on it since the MTC and am proud to say that I'm almost done. I love it, it is such an addicting book. The only problem is that my head wants to explode after I read it. I've really gained a new view on who Christ was and is through it. What kind of teacher and man. It's been really interesting for me.
This week nothing extremely crazy happened. No creepy guys trying to kiss me. We didn't hear anything about the terrorist attacks here. Things have actually been really mellow in Bila. Well, things are always mellow in Bila. Bila Tserkva is more of a rural city. We're about an hour out of Kyiv. We go into the city at least twice a month. Bila is named for the white church in the city. I need to take a good picture of it. It is also surrounded by farmland and small villages. It actually looks a lot like South Dakota out in the country part. It is really hot here, and has been for a couple of days. Like in the 80s and humid. I plan to get really tan. It's also very green here. Trees everywhere.
Things with Sister Ebeling and I are going great! We're working really hard and trying to talk to everyone. We had an interesting experience with one investigator. We are encouraged to pray with people on the street when we contact them so we did with this girl named Ina. When I had finished praying we looked up and she was crying. We met with her later in the week and taught the first lesson. She told us that she knew it was true but she wasn't ready to hear any more information, be baptized, or even meet with us. It was depressing but built my confidence in knowing that people are feeling the spirit when we talk with them. Then we have another investigator. Her name is Angela and she's really good friends with one of our branch presidents. She is very open and I think very close to baptism. It's actually kind of bizarre how fast it is going with her.
Well, that's all my time today. I love you all so much. I'm doing good. I'm trying to send mail out but we never have enough time on our p-days. I'll keep trying but I haven't sent anything yet. Love you!!
Sister Daniel
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