Hello Family,
Well, this is my first official email from Ukraine on a p-day. I think I fooled myself. You see, I've been so excited about getting to Ukraine that I forgot that it really is a different culture. We got here on a Wednesday night (I think) and immediately went from the airport to the temple. On the way we got an idea of what our mission president is like, he spoke almost the whole way there. He's a very strict guy that values a lot of honesty. Overall, he's exactly the mission president that I'm supposed to have. He also does crack jokes. Anyway we got to the temple (the mission office is on the grounds) and took some pictures. President loves taking pictures so if you've been on that website you know exactly what happened those first few days. We got to stay in a hotel the first few nights just because there were so many of us. That first night I was the first to be interviewed. It was kind of weird just because I was so tired that I was tired anymore. Sister Ebeling and I went back to our room and pretty much passed out. We didn't have an alarm clock that first night so we prayed really hard that we'd wake up at 6:30. We woke up at 6:27am. Thursday was a long day of orientation and training. We spent a lot of time together as we learned more about the mission. One thing I wasn't expecting to find out right away was my assignment. Apparently, in most missions the president doesn't assign you a trainer until you're here and he's met you. But because of the new laws associated with our visas, we have to be registered by our landlords, which means President has to assign us before we even get there.
On Friday we met our companions and headed out. I about had a heart attack when Sister Jacobson sat down and I realized that she's a Russian speaker!!! We're the only training pair that has different languages. She's from Idaho, Swan valley, and went to BYU-I. She's already done with school, but she was a math education major and a geology education minor. We had some of the same teachers! She is almost done with her mission, in fact this is her last transfer. Which is weird, this means that I'll have a different trainer that will finish my training next transfer.
So Bila Tserkva. There was one thing that I heard about Bila in the MTC and that was that it was known for it's Surgick (spelling??). Which is basically a mix of Ukrainian and Russian. Which means, there is no just Ukrainian here. In order to get to Bila we had to take a taxi, to get to a marshutka (bus) to take us here. Bila is about an hour and a half Southwest of Kyiv. It's named for a white church (that's what Bila Tserkva means) in the middle of the city. We walk, a lot. I guess that just means that I'll finally lose all of my weight. And I'll tell you, I'll never complain about potholes in the US roads ever again.
So the water. Ukrainian water is interesting, it has a light brown tint to it sometimes, therefore it is necessary to have our monster water filter. It filters the water 3 times, then it is drinkable. The apartment is basically one room. The toilet is in it's own closet size room, the sink, bathtub/shower, and washing machine are in another little room. The kitchen's actually a nice size, the living room/bedroom is the main room. We sleep on what are basically pull out couches. It's a really fun experience. Don't worry mom, I'm being safe and healthy. Our apartment is on the 5th floor and has a very interesting elevator though.
We cover the two branches that are here in Bila, along with two sets of elders, one for each. Elder Fisher is the district leader and he's training one of the elders that came out with me. Elder Greenwell and Newsome are the other companionship. They're also a new one in Bila, but Elder Greenwell was Elder Fisher's comp, and Elder Newsome is almost done with his mission. They're all really fun and we see them a lot. Mainly because our area covers both of theirs.
Ukraine is an experience, but I love it.
That's all for today!
Sister Daniel
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