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

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

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

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