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
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Friday, January 11, 2013
Merry Christmas Again.... E-mail -- January 7, 2013
Hello and Merry Christmas!!
Today is traditional Ukrainian Christmas and last night for their Christmas Eve we got to go carolling on Khreshatik (Ukrainian Times Square). It was really fun and the street is just gorgeous. There was a nice light snow and it really felt like Christmas Eve as we sang our traditional Christmas carols in Ukrainian as well as some traditional Ukrainian carols. Life in Ukraine is one big party right now. I've never seen so many smiling Ukrainians all at one time...they're all so happy. This is unusual because overall Ukraine has a hard time feeling hope. Most people we talk to don't have much hope for the future, they feel very limited and very oppressed.
For our English group last week we watched the Mormon Message about the 9/11 survivor and we talked with one of the guys there about disasters here in Ukraine and how people have been effected. Interestingly enough, he didn't really mention Chernobyl, but he did mention an artificial famine that occurred here in 1931? When Stalin took all of the wheat from Ukraine to feed the rest of the Soviet Union. Something like 10 million people (1/5 of the population of Ukraine) died. Petro (the guy we were talking to) said that entire families died out because of it. He said that his grandparents still talk about it.
It's always interesting to me that a people can be so beaten down and still be the most generous, helpful people you will meet. These people literally give clothes off their back to complete strangers, walk grandmas home in the ice so they don't fall, and the kids can't accept anything without first giving something. It's absolutely amazing to me.
Mom- I did get Jessie's letter, I keep meaning to write her back but p-day time just flies here.
I also saw the picture you sent from Cincinnati, Kharkiv is in Eastern Ukraine, the Donetsk mission, but I've heard it's a beautiful city. It's just cool that Cincinnati has a sister city in Ukraine. You have to let me know as soon as you know who the new bishop will be, the mission has to know the change of information.
Cool story, we've been teaching Luda for a while now, well she went home to visit her family for the holidays, well we found out she's been reading the Book of Mormon every night with her parents and sister. They all went to church in her home town this week! The coolest thing is, the town she lives in doesn't have missionaries yet full time because we can't get permission, right now the elders just go every Sunday to go to the branch there. It was such an answer to prayer and fasting.
--
Sister Daniel
Today is traditional Ukrainian Christmas and last night for their Christmas Eve we got to go carolling on Khreshatik (Ukrainian Times Square). It was really fun and the street is just gorgeous. There was a nice light snow and it really felt like Christmas Eve as we sang our traditional Christmas carols in Ukrainian as well as some traditional Ukrainian carols. Life in Ukraine is one big party right now. I've never seen so many smiling Ukrainians all at one time...they're all so happy. This is unusual because overall Ukraine has a hard time feeling hope. Most people we talk to don't have much hope for the future, they feel very limited and very oppressed.
For our English group last week we watched the Mormon Message about the 9/11 survivor and we talked with one of the guys there about disasters here in Ukraine and how people have been effected. Interestingly enough, he didn't really mention Chernobyl, but he did mention an artificial famine that occurred here in 1931? When Stalin took all of the wheat from Ukraine to feed the rest of the Soviet Union. Something like 10 million people (1/5 of the population of Ukraine) died. Petro (the guy we were talking to) said that entire families died out because of it. He said that his grandparents still talk about it.
It's always interesting to me that a people can be so beaten down and still be the most generous, helpful people you will meet. These people literally give clothes off their back to complete strangers, walk grandmas home in the ice so they don't fall, and the kids can't accept anything without first giving something. It's absolutely amazing to me.
Mom- I did get Jessie's letter, I keep meaning to write her back but p-day time just flies here.
I also saw the picture you sent from Cincinnati, Kharkiv is in Eastern Ukraine, the Donetsk mission, but I've heard it's a beautiful city. It's just cool that Cincinnati has a sister city in Ukraine. You have to let me know as soon as you know who the new bishop will be, the mission has to know the change of information.
Cool story, we've been teaching Luda for a while now, well she went home to visit her family for the holidays, well we found out she's been reading the Book of Mormon every night with her parents and sister. They all went to church in her home town this week! The coolest thing is, the town she lives in doesn't have missionaries yet full time because we can't get permission, right now the elders just go every Sunday to go to the branch there. It was such an answer to prayer and fasting.
--
Sister Daniel
Sunday, January 6, 2013
An Early P-day Morning E-mail - December 31, 2012
Hello Everyone,
Well, Christmas (our Christmas) has come and gone and the good news is, Ukrainians celebrate holidays the whole month of January basically. Jan 1, tomorrow is New Years, the big holiday in Ukraine. Then the 7th is Christmas here, then the 14th is Old New Year. Basically January is one big party. This can also make missionary work more difficult and we've been warned to keep all diligence in the month ahead.
It was so great to see all of you! I didn't get in trouble, it's just that Sister Ebeling wanted to skype and then she told that to Sister Klebingat and I had no idea how long I had been on, so it was just coordinating with everyone.
So right now we're in a "tripanionship" Sister Ebeling is with me, but we also have Sister Karpenko with us, she's waiting on her companion, she'll have a short-term missionary this transfer and they'll be ready to go in a couple of days. It's been to merge personalities, but honestly I'm getting to the point where there is just too many people in the apartment. It's amazing how much junk you have when there is just one more of you. That and I've just been really easily annoyed all week. That might have been because I've been like deathly ill.
Basically, Wednesday night I just crashed. It was a flu bug and I was up all night throwing up, I can't remember the last time I was that sick. We ended up having to stay inside for two days straight. Luckily we have some awesome members who came and would take Sister Ebeling to a lesson and bring her back. Our elders were also really helpful in giving blessings and bringing medicine and sprite.
But as for Christmas, we woke up and opened presents. Sister Karpenko didn't have anything to open and is not used to the American celebration of Christmas so we made her open a few of our presents, she thought it was fun. I was so happy with all of my presents, thank you so much.
Just before Christmas we had a baptism, her name is Valya and she is so fun. She showed up for her baptism in leather pants. We knew she didn't have any skirts so we gave her a few from the office, she seemed really happy with them and showed up to church the next day in a skirt, only it wasn't one we had given her, and it was leather. Fun.
Sending you a couple of pictures...I hope, okay so I forgot my cord to connect the camera to the computer. I'm so sorry please don't kill me. I'll try next week.
LOVE YOU!!
--
Sister Daniel
Well, Christmas (our Christmas) has come and gone and the good news is, Ukrainians celebrate holidays the whole month of January basically. Jan 1, tomorrow is New Years, the big holiday in Ukraine. Then the 7th is Christmas here, then the 14th is Old New Year. Basically January is one big party. This can also make missionary work more difficult and we've been warned to keep all diligence in the month ahead.
It was so great to see all of you! I didn't get in trouble, it's just that Sister Ebeling wanted to skype and then she told that to Sister Klebingat and I had no idea how long I had been on, so it was just coordinating with everyone.
So right now we're in a "tripanionship" Sister Ebeling is with me, but we also have Sister Karpenko with us, she's waiting on her companion, she'll have a short-term missionary this transfer and they'll be ready to go in a couple of days. It's been to merge personalities, but honestly I'm getting to the point where there is just too many people in the apartment. It's amazing how much junk you have when there is just one more of you. That and I've just been really easily annoyed all week. That might have been because I've been like deathly ill.
Basically, Wednesday night I just crashed. It was a flu bug and I was up all night throwing up, I can't remember the last time I was that sick. We ended up having to stay inside for two days straight. Luckily we have some awesome members who came and would take Sister Ebeling to a lesson and bring her back. Our elders were also really helpful in giving blessings and bringing medicine and sprite.
But as for Christmas, we woke up and opened presents. Sister Karpenko didn't have anything to open and is not used to the American celebration of Christmas so we made her open a few of our presents, she thought it was fun. I was so happy with all of my presents, thank you so much.
Just before Christmas we had a baptism, her name is Valya and she is so fun. She showed up for her baptism in leather pants. We knew she didn't have any skirts so we gave her a few from the office, she seemed really happy with them and showed up to church the next day in a skirt, only it wasn't one we had given her, and it was leather. Fun.
Sending you a couple of pictures...I hope, okay so I forgot my cord to connect the camera to the computer. I'm so sorry please don't kill me. I'll try next week.
LOVE YOU!!
--
Sister Daniel
Friday, December 21, 2012
CHRISTMAS AND MISSION VISITS. E-mail - December 17, 2012
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
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)