It's still dreadfully cold here. It's doing a rain/snow mix for us today with some serious wind gusts. Drats, we thought it would be a really nice day but it clouded over. As for the questions, yes I have gotten grandma's and Zach's letters. I was hoping to be able to send some out today, but I don't know if that will happen, our p-day schedule is kinda bonkers today. P-days here are very different in Virginia. There, my companions were very into naps. Here, we always go out and do stuff together. Today we had to help one set of elders move to a new apartment. We also had to pay our rent to our landlord. It's kind of fun to hand over a huge stack of cash. Mom, the package is alright. I understand that it doesn't make much sense to send something unless it is worth sending. Mail here is a little weird. Because we live about an hour and a half from the office, they send our mail with the senior couple (the Mayberrys...love them!!) that come every week. But because we went to Kyiv this week we got our mail when we were there. I got two letters from Grandma, two from Zach, and Sabrina's wedding announcement! I also got Rachael's email this week updating me on the group.
So I'll just take you through what we did this week. Monday was p-day and we spent the majority of it playing American Football with the elders. We played on the field of a school that is right next to the prison here in Bila. It was weird to see the white concrete wall with barbed wire at the top and the guard towers at every corner. According to Elder Newsome, this prison is for repeat offenders, and it's right next to what would be an alternative school in the states. The whole time we were playing, a man was watching us from the Baptist church on the other side of the street. He probably thought it was really funny to watch 5 Americans with a Ukrainian playing American Football and screaming at each other in Ukrainian and Russian. It was a lot of fun and good exercise. Tuesday is district meeting day, and it hardcore snowed during and after our meeting. We went out to eat afterwords and had to trudge through the snow. Every time someone would dip their head back to catch snow in their mouth, someone would mention Chernobyl. We saw our investigators and taught our English class on Tuesday night.
Wednesday we had kind of a strange day because the Mayberry's were around so we visited a couple of families and then they came to inspect our apartment. We made them lunch and they told us about how the elder's apartment smells like cats, but it's bigger than ours. Elder Mayberry halfway through the inspection clapped his hands together and said, "Okay, let's see the bedroom". We just laughed and said "Elder Mayberry, you're standing in it!" I don't think Sister Mayberry is very fond of our one room apartment. The next day we went to Kyiv for specialized training, there are pictures up on the mission website. We had interviews with president and then we got to go to the temple!!! The Kyiv temple is gorgeous and as we were sitting in a session with our headphones on because the main language there is Russian, it hit me just how global the church is. It felt so good to have the time to just feel closer to Heavenly Father. Friday was a crazy day, some dropped appointments and weekly planning. We went to go see Sister Larisa, and washed her hair, face, and hands like we do every Friday. She's always so excited for company. She dictated to us so that we could write a letter in English. One of the sisters that had been here had sent her her wedding announcement.
On Saturday I learned why sometimes Ukrainians can be a little sour. We stood for an hour long marshutka ride to the sello (village) to see Alona and Stan. During which, I sweated like a pig and almost had my back broken by a babushka. We got to the sello and they came and picked us up at the bus stop. I don't think you've experienced Ukraine until you've gone to a village here. Stan is the American who is married to Alona, she's a recent convert. He grew up in Utah and I assume has been a life long member. They're a fun couple who are building a nice house out in the middle of nowhere. They have cows, horses, geese, turkeys, dogs, cats, and I think chickens. I also saw a chicken cross the road, now I know the answer to the riddle. Chickens cross the road so they can poop in the middle of them!
Sunday was an interesting day. In both branches elders became a part of the branch presidency. Elder Fisher and Elder Newsome are 2nd counselors and Elder Olson in 1st counselor in the Elders Quorum. They've pretty much told us that they'll be calling us to something so don't be surprised if next week I have a new calling.
We got to watch the first session of conference on Saturday night, it starts at 7pm here! We'll get to watch the rest of it next week in English and it plays in Ukrainian in our building this coming week. They don't celebrate Easter this week, it's next week, and from what I've heard it's going to be big. We get to go to Kyiv this week for Sister Exchanges, Sister Smith will come here to Bila with me!
Well, that's all the time I have.
Love you all!
Sister Daniel
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