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!
No comments:
Post a Comment