This has been one of the craziest weeks of my life.
First off, conference was GREAT! We are pumped for Russia’s big news (they are getting a temple)!!! Lots of changes, but all so good. I’m watching it twice because no one’s watched it here and it’s just as good the second time.
Saying goodbye to everyone was honestly the WORST. I absolutely hated it. I miss all my people from the MTC. Im sure my trainer is so fed up with “in the MTC this, and in the MTC that”, because I talk about all of our good times so much.
I flew alone for what seemed forever! I barely slept at all, despite trying the whole time. Bless the soul who watched The Greatest Showman next to me. On my last flight, this lanky African-American guy sat next to me which was weird. Turns out he’s going to Kiev to intern for a religious position so he can create his own church. We talked about the Book of Mormon a lot and he was really interested in it, but "only for research". If he does his research well, he’ll be baptized in no time.
Kiev is crazy. I love it here, but the FOOD!!!!! I have a testimony that God knows each of his children. I have gained about five pounds since I’ve been here. I drank 3.2% milk here and that was a religious experience. I will never be able to drink skim milk again. So yeah, we basically drink half and half here.
Our transportation here is wicked crazy. I am surprised I haven’t witnessed an accident. Ukrainians are insane drivers! There aren’t really lanes here or right of way. It’s all about who’s more aggressive. We ride the marshrutkas. Picture the knight bus from Harry Potter and you’re not far off. They barely stop for you to hop on or off and cross the street. I have no fear of cars now. They come within inches of you. No one here is phased by it.
Easter here was amazing. Иисус воскрес! в истину воскрес (You greet each other by saying, “Jesus is risen" and the other person responds back, "In truth He is!”)!! I loved hearing that all day-that’s what everyone says to each other on Easter. We also ate some of the пасха cake and i think it’s the Ukrainian version of our fruit cake. Everyone eats it, but you need a lot of milk to help it go down.
Oh yeah, I am in the Borshagovsky area and Sister Sutton is my trainer. I have the temple in my area and that is honestly the coolest. I love my trainer so much, but unfortunately I’m killing her off, meaning when she finishes training me, she goes home. It’ll be sad to see her go, but I’m so glad to have someone so experienced training me.
I had my first lesson my first full day here and that was crazy. BUT it was in English. It is so hard to learn Russian here because the members just want to practice their English with you. A lot of the members I’ve met speak English. Hopefully I’ll get the language down enough that they trust it enough to converse in Russian.
We are whitewashing the area (we’re both new) so we inherited two investigators with baptismal dates. We’re aiming for the 28th if they can go to church each week and keep all the commitments. Valerie is 18 and Kira is 9. It will be fun to see baptisms so early into the mission. The field is definitely white and ready to harvest. We have found so many potential investigators here this week. I can’t wait to see what comes of it.
This week has been so amazing despite some late jet lag and walking all the time. I love the beautiful Ukraine and this people so much.
Love you all and hope your weeks are amazing!
Сестра Вихар
"Slamming" cookies-missionary tradition to suck milk *through* a cookie
Milk in a bag
Kiev, Ukraine LDS temple
From Facebook mission page: Sister Foley welcoming Sisters Sutton and Vehar to English Practice today. Nice to have these two wonderful sisters in the Borshahivsky District. It will be really a lot of fun to get to know them and work with them.
The District watching General Conference together
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