Hello Hello
Well, what can I say? Kyiv Ukraine is buried under about 3ft of snow, or something crazy like that. It all started on Friday and Sister Ebeling and I had to walk home from the metro, none of the buses would stop. It was about an hour long walk, but wasn't bad with the wind at our back. We walked in what felt like a pioneer trek with people lining the sides of the street. After that adventure, Sister Ebeling woke up with a temperature so we ended up staying inside all day Saturday. The elders told us that if there was any day to be inside, we picked a good one. The snow continued and there was no public transportation except for the metro so the whole city was just walking everywhere. Apparently some of our members walked 4-5 hours to the temple and then made the long trek home after they stayed for a few sessions. Talk about dedication.
The elders were asked to participate in a stake Young Mens activity where the youth would go on splits with the missionaries. Out of the whole stake, only 2 youth made it to the center building, one of which is in our ward. They went out for a few hours on the streets, mainly just helping people push their cars out of the snow...then they realized that Maksim (the young man) lived in the village and there was no way for him to get home except by tank. (which they actually use here to get around in the snow, I've seen them) So he ended up staying the night with the elders with President's permission. He said it was awesome and I think his resolve to someday serve a mission is firmly in place.
Other than the blizzard, which has been the highlight of our week, we went to a school and did a presentation for a bunch of 3rd graders. I was actually surprised by how similar the school is to American schools but it was actually a school for well-to-dos so maybe not the most accurate representation. They were so fun though, and really smart. We had met their teacher on the street the week before and invited her to know more. Turns out, she just really wanted us to talk to her class because we're American. Interesting how many doors I've gotten into because of where I was born...thanks Mom!
So we're teaching this girl named Oksana, she's the daughter of two members and just hasn't been baptized. She's 24 and really cool, but she is struggling to see why she needs the church/needs to be baptized. She loves music, she went and saw Yellow Card when they were here so we decided to show her Brandon Flower's "I'm a Mormon" video. It started and she just turned to us with a look of utter shock and said..."HE'S A MORMON?!?!?" I think she thinks that we're all a little cookie cutter, maybe that helped her realize that she can be a Mormon and still be cool, I mean, I'm cool.
We spent yesterday at President's house...well part of it. We had Sacrament meeting, there weren't very many people there, every one in the stake just had Sacrament meetings. Then we went to President's to celebrate Katja's (his daughter) birthday. It was a good day and ended with us taking the first of the buses home.
Have a good week!
Pictures: Me walking on Kiltseva, the largest road in Kyiv, the cars were on the road with us! and the snow drifts.
--
Sister Daniel
No comments:
Post a Comment