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 :)
hey! I wrote this! that's awesome!
ReplyDeletemiss you Meaghan! Hang around Provo a little more and maybe i'll come visit you! :)