Hello!
What a great blessing it is to be companions with Sister Ebeling. I've decided I'm going to be the best person ever after this transfer. Right now, we are making goals for the rest of our missions. Like mom so graciously pointed out we're down to 15 weeks. There's a lot of work to in 15 weeks. So right now I'm making a goal to write in my journal every single day until the end of mission and take a picture every day.
So we're still working with our investigators, new ones keep popping up. Like Tanya, here's the story:
Sister Ebeling and I had plans to meet with the new Relief Society President in Svyatoshinsky Ward. We wanted to touch base with her and see if she needed anything, if she knew of anyone in her ward who needed the sister missionaries and also to report on our work with the less-active sisters in the ward. (we take care of three wards in this area) We set up a meeting and she ended up being about an hour late and said she'd meet us at the ward activity that was to start that next hour. So we spent the hour out on the streets talking to whomever we could, contacting. We called the elders to see what the activity was, and we were told that they didn't know there was an activity. It turns out that the elders didn't know about it because it was a Relief Society activity. They were making palmeni and vereniki! (you'll quickly find out what this is when you come to Ukraine) We decided to stick around and wait until the Relief Society President had time to talk and in the meantime get to know the sisters in the ward. Shortly an older woman walked in with her 16 year old, nonmember granddaughter. One of the members quickly invited the granddaughter, Tanya to have a lesson with us, which we did. It was amazing, she was so prepared for the gospel. She accepted a soft baptismal commitment and we set up a meeting for the next day. We don't know what will happen with her, but it was a testimony to us that these activities are definitely something to be around for, we had a similar experience in Borshahivsky (the other ward) the next day! Our members want to invite their friends and family to learn about the gospel, but most of the time don't know how to do it. It very often happens that they will bring their friends and loved ones to fun ward activities, and the missionaries never know that this person came.
So I invite you to invite other people to any ward activities coming up, and tell the missionaries that they're coming! Do this!
Something I've heard a lot on my mission is that this is the Lord's work. He has a plan for everyone to receive the gospel, the only choice is whether or not we will have a part in their story. Whenever you're feeling scared to invite someone to learn more about the gospel, just remember that the Lord is giving you that opportunity to be a part of someone's conversion. I know that the joy we will receive from our friends and family coming to the gospel far outweighs the awkwardness we might experience at the beginning of the exchange.
Love you all! Don't forget to do missionary work!
--
Sister Daniel
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Friday, February 8, 2013
Winter Wonderland E-mail -- February 4, 2013
Hello!
Well, everything is alright health wise, maybe that helped me overcome something that might have befallen me. I'm always really touched to know that there are people praying for me. You know, we know that there are our families, all primary kids everywhere, that sort of thing but it's really nice to just know that there are people thinking of you. Life here in Ukraine has actually been relatively warm. Around 30-35 all this week. I'm hoping that this year we'll escape from the normally terribly cold February. Just about everything melted with the rain this week but then we woke up this morning and we're back to a white winter wonderland.
Big news in our missionary work, our investigator who is 19 came to church yesterday and brought a friend and bore her testimony in front of our 250 member ward. Plus her family, younger sister, and parents went to church in her hometown, our church! Her mom even said that she (the mom) needs to get baptized! So we're hoping that will spur our investigator into actually doing something herself. This is the one I've been meeting with for the last six months. What's interesting though is that Sister Ebeling and I were talking and we came to the conclusion that even if she never gets baptized maybe it all happened so that her parents could find the church. Interesting how the Lord works.
As for transfers I'm going for another one here in Kyiv with Sister Ebeling. I'm really excited about this, honestly. I love the members here and the work, it's hard, and draining but honestly the hard part is always that desire to just see more of your mission and not feeling like you're stuck. But there are definitely worse places to be stuck. Plus I'm building some great friendships here in the ward, and when you've been in one place for a long time they seem to trust you more to do your work. Just in the last few weeks we've really built relationships with the Bishop and Relief Society President. They're all so amazing!
Sister Ebeling and I are doing great, I've determined that she and I have known each other for a long time and that our friendship is going to last long after this life. We just get each other. We're both very opinionated which means life isn't always sunshine and roses, but it is always fun. I love her so much, we're really more like sisters. We also just have the best time together, we're always laughing about something. Like this week we had the most awkward day ever. I don't remember what happened but all of these really awkward conversations and experiences with members kept happening. Also even though we really planned this week all of our plans would fall through and we'd end up doing something else. I think the Lord gives us these weeks to remind us that it really is His work.
Life's good, the work's good, We just keep moving forward.
LOVE YOU!
--
Sister Daniel
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Still Slippery! E-mail January 28, 2013
Hello all!
Well another very cold week in Ukraine, but I finally bought new boots. No more super slippery, my feet are wet, my toesies are falling off! I now have very warm feet. And my toes are very happy, but the funny thing is no matter how much traction your boots have, unless you have Ukrainian genes, you're going down! I guess the fact my ancestors lived in Ukraine isn't enough to give me the anti-slip gene. The first hour that I had my new boots I fell flat on my butt. More than the pain to my tail bone was the anger that not all of my slipperyness was solved.
So this week we decided to go through with our finding ideas, all went well and I've learned to bake from scratch! I know mom probably just fell out of her chair. We've been making banana bread and brownies like crazy, the only problem is that sometimes we end up eating just as much as we give away! It's interfering with my plans to be thinner when I get home. I would make Sister Ebeling eat them all so there was no temptation but she's trying to lose weight too. Really I'm too nice.
So I read the scripture assigned by Zach (Moses 6:31-34), and yes we read it in companionship study. I liked it. Especially the part when Enoch says that he's slow of speech, that's how we feel everyday. Everything's good here still finding teaching and baptizing.
We'll get transfer calls this week so I'll find out soon what my fate is. It's so weird that Sisters Smith and Dally are going home this transfer. They're the next Ukrainian group up. Which means that we'll be the senior Ukrainian sisters and not very long until it's our adventure home. I really enjoyed Sister Chang's.
Hope everything is good for you! LOVE YOU MUCH!
--
Sister Daniel
Well another very cold week in Ukraine, but I finally bought new boots. No more super slippery, my feet are wet, my toesies are falling off! I now have very warm feet. And my toes are very happy, but the funny thing is no matter how much traction your boots have, unless you have Ukrainian genes, you're going down! I guess the fact my ancestors lived in Ukraine isn't enough to give me the anti-slip gene. The first hour that I had my new boots I fell flat on my butt. More than the pain to my tail bone was the anger that not all of my slipperyness was solved.
So this week we decided to go through with our finding ideas, all went well and I've learned to bake from scratch! I know mom probably just fell out of her chair. We've been making banana bread and brownies like crazy, the only problem is that sometimes we end up eating just as much as we give away! It's interfering with my plans to be thinner when I get home. I would make Sister Ebeling eat them all so there was no temptation but she's trying to lose weight too. Really I'm too nice.
So I read the scripture assigned by Zach (Moses 6:31-34), and yes we read it in companionship study. I liked it. Especially the part when Enoch says that he's slow of speech, that's how we feel everyday. Everything's good here still finding teaching and baptizing.
We'll get transfer calls this week so I'll find out soon what my fate is. It's so weird that Sisters Smith and Dally are going home this transfer. They're the next Ukrainian group up. Which means that we'll be the senior Ukrainian sisters and not very long until it's our adventure home. I really enjoyed Sister Chang's.
Hope everything is good for you! LOVE YOU MUCH!
--
Sister Daniel
Hello from the Snow! E-mail January 21, 2013
Hi Everyone!
Okay, so what a week it has been and this one is starting off really fast. Today we're only doing email and doing the rest of p-day on Wednesday, that's because we had so many people who could only meet with us today so we're running literally all over Kyiv, literally. I've already been in Center and back in 3 different areas today! What a workout. Normally when we have days where we just run I know it's a gift from Heavenly Father because mostly likely that morning I didn't run. But this morning we did a really good workout on the stairs and I even did an ab workout. Life on the mission I guess, I'm determined to be healthier when I get home.
We're finding a whole ton of people right now, referrals mostly. Just proves that the ward loves us! And I love them. I'll be really sad if I ever have to leave, some of the best people ever live here. No baptisms on the immediate horizon, but they'll come. We're working on creative contacting in the mission right now. Basically, it's too cold to walk around and get people to talk to you which is our bread and butter here, so we've been challenged to come up with more creative ways to find people. Sister Ebeling and I put our heads together and decided to sing. So we put out a book table and with our district leader and his companion we did some singing of hymns at the metro. It was kind of cool, at least one Book of Mormon disappeared and we had fun. The only downside is that people kept giving us money. So at the end we gave it to one of the beggars that sit at the entrance of the metro. The funny thing was this was Saturday which was an Orthodox holiday, commemorating the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. So then we went around and contacted people by talking about baptism. We didn't do it enough to have a funny story from it, but we did find a new investigator.
Exchanges were great I was with Sister Russavage who is from Chino Hills, CA. She's awesome and so much fun. She taught me how to make brownies from scratch, another new contacting method.
As for the temple, we're allowed to go 3 times a year, so now that the calendar has reset, Sister Ebeling and I are thinking of going soon. Mom, when I get home we'll go to the temple. Often. Speaking of coming home, the release date is MAY 29, 2013. That's a Wednesday I'm pretty sure.
Give Sister Cortez, Rose, and Candy big hugs from me. I've been thinking of them.
Zach thanks for the email, I'll respond next week. John, still haven't heard anything from your end in a while ;).
All's good in the mission. LOVE YOU!
--
Sister Daniel
Okay, so what a week it has been and this one is starting off really fast. Today we're only doing email and doing the rest of p-day on Wednesday, that's because we had so many people who could only meet with us today so we're running literally all over Kyiv, literally. I've already been in Center and back in 3 different areas today! What a workout. Normally when we have days where we just run I know it's a gift from Heavenly Father because mostly likely that morning I didn't run. But this morning we did a really good workout on the stairs and I even did an ab workout. Life on the mission I guess, I'm determined to be healthier when I get home.
We're finding a whole ton of people right now, referrals mostly. Just proves that the ward loves us! And I love them. I'll be really sad if I ever have to leave, some of the best people ever live here. No baptisms on the immediate horizon, but they'll come. We're working on creative contacting in the mission right now. Basically, it's too cold to walk around and get people to talk to you which is our bread and butter here, so we've been challenged to come up with more creative ways to find people. Sister Ebeling and I put our heads together and decided to sing. So we put out a book table and with our district leader and his companion we did some singing of hymns at the metro. It was kind of cool, at least one Book of Mormon disappeared and we had fun. The only downside is that people kept giving us money. So at the end we gave it to one of the beggars that sit at the entrance of the metro. The funny thing was this was Saturday which was an Orthodox holiday, commemorating the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. So then we went around and contacted people by talking about baptism. We didn't do it enough to have a funny story from it, but we did find a new investigator.
Exchanges were great I was with Sister Russavage who is from Chino Hills, CA. She's awesome and so much fun. She taught me how to make brownies from scratch, another new contacting method.
As for the temple, we're allowed to go 3 times a year, so now that the calendar has reset, Sister Ebeling and I are thinking of going soon. Mom, when I get home we'll go to the temple. Often. Speaking of coming home, the release date is MAY 29, 2013. That's a Wednesday I'm pretty sure.
Give Sister Cortez, Rose, and Candy big hugs from me. I've been thinking of them.
Zach thanks for the email, I'll respond next week. John, still haven't heard anything from your end in a while ;).
All's good in the mission. LOVE YOU!
--
Sister Daniel
Hello Hello E-mail - January 14, 2013
Well hello everyone!
I hope your first week of life after holidays has been good. They're still celebrating here! Well, all of the kids are back to school today but today is Old New Year (don't ask me...kind of an oxymoron right?). At least the fireworks have chilled out. That was always the most annoying part. It's kinda hard to sleep when it sounds like bombs are going off. Life in Ukraine is coooolllldddd. It seems like just yesterday we were hoping for cooler weather and now I can only pray for April. The worst part is everyone just keeps saying it will get colder. Yeah, that's exactly what I want to hear.
Thanks for all the ward updates mom, it sounds like things are moving right along there.
Sister Ebeling and I are settling back into our companionship, this week is sister exchanges so I'll be spending some time on left bank. That's the part of Kyiv that's on the right side of the river on a map. I'll be getting to know Sister Russavage, one of our newer sisters.
Nothing really exciting happened this week, it was just normal trying to stay upright in the snow. We sang a musical number in international branch and spoke on missionary work. After having to give talks in Ukrainian, English is a piece of cake, I don't think I'll ever really be afraid to get up and speak ever again.
Staying warm, thinking of you often. Mom, the baptismal record was really cool, I might have a member of the ward look at it for us and see if he knows anything else. Don't get your hopes up, I might not get to that until after my mission, I have a lot of things to do you know.
Got an email from Sister Chang, sounds like she's doing great back in Taiwan. Mom, I can see why you loved her blog after I read her email. She is hilarious, who would have known? I did!!
Have a good week everyone, Zach I hope you feel better, I've got an ear/throat thing going on so I feel you!
--
Sister Daniel
I hope your first week of life after holidays has been good. They're still celebrating here! Well, all of the kids are back to school today but today is Old New Year (don't ask me...kind of an oxymoron right?). At least the fireworks have chilled out. That was always the most annoying part. It's kinda hard to sleep when it sounds like bombs are going off. Life in Ukraine is coooolllldddd. It seems like just yesterday we were hoping for cooler weather and now I can only pray for April. The worst part is everyone just keeps saying it will get colder. Yeah, that's exactly what I want to hear.
Thanks for all the ward updates mom, it sounds like things are moving right along there.
Sister Ebeling and I are settling back into our companionship, this week is sister exchanges so I'll be spending some time on left bank. That's the part of Kyiv that's on the right side of the river on a map. I'll be getting to know Sister Russavage, one of our newer sisters.
Nothing really exciting happened this week, it was just normal trying to stay upright in the snow. We sang a musical number in international branch and spoke on missionary work. After having to give talks in Ukrainian, English is a piece of cake, I don't think I'll ever really be afraid to get up and speak ever again.
Staying warm, thinking of you often. Mom, the baptismal record was really cool, I might have a member of the ward look at it for us and see if he knows anything else. Don't get your hopes up, I might not get to that until after my mission, I have a lot of things to do you know.
Got an email from Sister Chang, sounds like she's doing great back in Taiwan. Mom, I can see why you loved her blog after I read her email. She is hilarious, who would have known? I did!!
Have a good week everyone, Zach I hope you feel better, I've got an ear/throat thing going on so I feel you!
--
Sister Daniel
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