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
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