I have had sad experiences and super good ones so we'll start with the bad. I don't know if this was just a weird meal or not, but my love for the food is wavering. We'll start at the beginning. Olga flower bab(ushka) is a potential investigator. We add nicknames to all of our investigators and what not because there are only like 7 names here and they hate using last names so we don’t even know them. Point being, we know like 20 Olgas and Olga flower bab is a grandma (babushka or Bab for short) who loves gardening. She loves to feed us missionaries, but isn’t interested in the church for now. But she fed us a really sketch meal which included Kholodets. For those of you who do not know, Kholodets is an infamous Russian/Ukrainian dish which can be basically described as meat jello with questionable meat chunks in it. I have heard that people go months before they have the opportunity to try it on the mission. But not me. I had it on my seventh day in Ukraine and I will never be the same. The rest of the food was better, but that doesn’t mean much. Somehow I was able to push my picky side away and try everything on that table. A full tomato, once a fiend, became an ally in that moment.
Side note- the pasha cake (Easter fruit cake) is literally still everywhere, but I finally tried it this week and somehow we ended up with four. People just keep giving them to us because they think we’re hungry or something.
The saddest experience: Valerie (our first lesson and inherited baptismal date) has decided she does not want to be baptized and dropped our lessons. I was not ready for that being a week into the missionary work. She'll be ready one day. It’s a good reminder that all of us have free will.
Time for some good news!
First, I had my first successful contacting experience all by myself on the marshrutka! It all started with a really bad Russian accent on my part and the determination on my part to continue opening my mouth and saying "Good day" in Russian four times without crying before this man understood, BUT he asked me where I was from, most likely because of my awful accent. We passed the temple on our ride so I told him about it and then he said something about "clean" so I told him we keep it clean because it is the House of the Lord and such, but I misunderstood him because he asked me if America was clean. Then he asked me if they sell cannabis in California. Such a great experience, but I think he'll come to our English practice.
Second, we have a new investigator!! She is GOLDEN! Her name is Sasha and she came to watch General Conference with her friend and afterwards asked if she could be baptized. WOW! We had our first lesson with her on Saturday and we're really excited to work with her. She's trying to adopt a kid so we can already tell she's a great person. She's the cutest.
Some funny blunders this week:
I still don't know Russian, so I can’t understand what members say or what questions investigators ask. I just smile and nod and gesture nervously to Sister Sutton when I think there's a question because I have no idea how to answer. The other day we talked to a random babushka on the street and she had all her teeth so I could hear clearly what she was saying even though I didn't understand. Afterwards, I told Sister Sutton that was the clearest Russian I've heard in weeks, to which she laughed because turns out, she was speaking straight up Ukrainian. So if that tells you anything about how my language is coming.
A bigger one was that I biffed it in the crosswalk this week and destroyed my knee and best tights (it’s really scandalous if you don't wear tights here until it's so hot you’re sweating, so Im dying!!) and walked around with ripped tights and a bloody knee for half the day. Nobody noticed thank goodness because my long skirt covered it.
Not a blunder on my part, but at Olga flower bab's, her sister was there (actually a former investigator in Russia) and was asking us a lot of questions. They were really confused why two 19 and 20 year-old girls were not trying to get married (they're older). Since we were not married, they asked us if we had boys at home. When we said no, they asked "Well, what about here?". We told them of course not because we are missionaries and our lives are focused on the Lord, to which they responded, "Then what are the boy missionaries for?!". I guess they don't quite understand yet what we do as missionaries.
Also, the ONLY word in Russian that has any resemblance to my name (вихар) is вихрь, which means whirlwind/tornado, so whenever I tell people my name they twirl their finger in the air. They always tell me that I must be a very active missionary.
That was my crazy week and I apologize for not writing anyone last week! I hope you all have an amazing week!
Love,
Сестра Вихар
The saddest experience: Valerie (our first lesson and inherited baptismal date) has decided she does not want to be baptized and dropped our lessons. I was not ready for that being a week into the missionary work. She'll be ready one day. It’s a good reminder that all of us have free will.
Time for some good news!
First, I had my first successful contacting experience all by myself on the marshrutka! It all started with a really bad Russian accent on my part and the determination on my part to continue opening my mouth and saying "Good day" in Russian four times without crying before this man understood, BUT he asked me where I was from, most likely because of my awful accent. We passed the temple on our ride so I told him about it and then he said something about "clean" so I told him we keep it clean because it is the House of the Lord and such, but I misunderstood him because he asked me if America was clean. Then he asked me if they sell cannabis in California. Such a great experience, but I think he'll come to our English practice.
Second, we have a new investigator!! She is GOLDEN! Her name is Sasha and she came to watch General Conference with her friend and afterwards asked if she could be baptized. WOW! We had our first lesson with her on Saturday and we're really excited to work with her. She's trying to adopt a kid so we can already tell she's a great person. She's the cutest.
Some funny blunders this week:
I still don't know Russian, so I can’t understand what members say or what questions investigators ask. I just smile and nod and gesture nervously to Sister Sutton when I think there's a question because I have no idea how to answer. The other day we talked to a random babushka on the street and she had all her teeth so I could hear clearly what she was saying even though I didn't understand. Afterwards, I told Sister Sutton that was the clearest Russian I've heard in weeks, to which she laughed because turns out, she was speaking straight up Ukrainian. So if that tells you anything about how my language is coming.
A bigger one was that I biffed it in the crosswalk this week and destroyed my knee and best tights (it’s really scandalous if you don't wear tights here until it's so hot you’re sweating, so Im dying!!) and walked around with ripped tights and a bloody knee for half the day. Nobody noticed thank goodness because my long skirt covered it.
Not a blunder on my part, but at Olga flower bab's, her sister was there (actually a former investigator in Russia) and was asking us a lot of questions. They were really confused why two 19 and 20 year-old girls were not trying to get married (they're older). Since we were not married, they asked us if we had boys at home. When we said no, they asked "Well, what about here?". We told them of course not because we are missionaries and our lives are focused on the Lord, to which they responded, "Then what are the boy missionaries for?!". I guess they don't quite understand yet what we do as missionaries.
Also, the ONLY word in Russian that has any resemblance to my name (вихар) is вихрь, which means whirlwind/tornado, so whenever I tell people my name they twirl their finger in the air. They always tell me that I must be a very active missionary.
That was my crazy week and I apologize for not writing anyone last week! I hope you all have an amazing week!
Love,
Сестра Вихар
My knee- I had to clean it up to take off the tights
Ukrainian McDonalds- so good
Our cake collection
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