Week 17: A Great Finding Week

Hello everyone!

This week was amazing! First, we met with Olga, our investigator, again and actually got to talk about the restoration finally. She read the brochure we gave her very thoroughly and started firing off questions. Thankfully we had a member on the lesson because I was so lost and Sister Sutton would have been on her own. She was really interested in reading the Book of Mormon because she's sure it will answer her question about whether our church is right or not (which she is completely right about), but she is really skeptical. It's odd though because she is really aggressive with her questions and skeptical and it seems like we're gonna lose her, and then we answer her question the best we can and she says okay... I'll try it. She really wants to believe because she tells us it makes no sense how a family could sail in a boat across the Atlantic and then have wars when it's only one family but she'll just read the book and see what she thinks of it then. She's really awesome because even though she doesn't get it right away, she doesn't give up on it and throw us out like most people do. She really wants to understand and I love it!

Sasha and Kira are doing great, post-baptism life. They are WILD kids but hopefully having the Holy Ghost in their life will help them tone it down eventually.

We have another recent convert we work with who is in her late 70s and is paralyzed and mute. Don't ask me how she got baptized in the past year, but we're glad to have her. It was definitely an interesting scene as we talked with her I guess you could say.

We had some pretty AMAZING potential investigator work this week. We got a referral from a member and she really wants to do missionary work so she set it up so she could be on the lesson. This lady's name is Ludmilla and she's a cool babushka, looking to understand the Bible better. Her friend, the member, set up a lesson with us, but turns out Ludmilla has been gathering countless religious materials to read at the dacha this summer so we won't see her for a few months. But, she loved our lesson and she wants to restart the Book of Mormon (she had started and gave up not understanding why it was related to the Bible) and she made me promise to teach her when she returns because she has a lot to learn still. She definitely felt something because she was crying occasionally and she is really excited to start up with us later.

We realized this week that we hadn't placed a single Book of Mormon together due to business with established investigators and members and whatnot. We decided that we would put aside time to go contacting specifically with the goal of placing 4 Book of Mormons. We set out and for a while we got some Bible bashers asking why God would make races (of course in very nationalist and race-focused Eastern Europe) but then as we were walking we came to a cross roads and we weren't sure where to go. We were definitely being led by the spirit up until this point and I felt confused why I wasn't feeling that we should go either way set before us. I thought I just wasn't being guided anymore or something and it was awkward as we kinda stood at this marshrutka stop for a minute, but then a lady came and stood next to Sister Sutton and she seized the opportunity as she was separated from the others. This lady's name is Tanya and she was super cool! She has heard of our church (some nasty things, of course untrue) and steered the conversation towards English and America as people do when they are uninterested in the gospel. We were about to end the conversation and go home without giving away a single book, when she asked "So what is in this book?", and took it out of Sister Sutton's hand. She said some elders a while back had tried to get her to take one and read it a year or so ago and she said she wouldn't so why bother taking it?. We told her about it and she asked to keep it! That is called the Lord's timing! Hopefully we'll see her at English and she has our number so we're hoping she'll call.

We had a picnic with Sasha today and it was awesome! We had a lesson about the Priesthood too and she took that really well. The picnic was amazing! We met her kids and it was in a forest of pine trees and it felt like camping! Her kids are so cute and one of them actually asked us about God and judgement and then Sasha started telling her and testifying and that was the coolest experience because once upon a time she had no knowledge and no testimony. It made my mama heart swell! She also is bringing her girl to church this Sunday without us asking her too! She's gonna be a great missionary! I'm so excited for her!

That's all I have for this week! Love you all!
Sister Vehar


Sister Sutton, Sasha , Sister Vehar

Our fresh berries

The Ukraine heart people

The beautiful forest

KFC

Week 16: Week One of Transfer Number Two

Hello everyone!

This week was rather uneventful after last week. The only real newsworthy things this week were the weather and our lessons.

So after the scorching heat, I think the weather realized it forgot about the April showers and that it shouldn't be summer quite yet, so it decided to turn the heat on the oven down a bit and cool it down with some rain. Sometimes that means downpour. We got caught in some rain a couple times throughout the week, sometimes with umbrellas, sometimes not. Thankfully, the one time it was bad and we didn't have umbrellas, a member gave us a small umbrella we struggled to fit under, but we were thankful nonetheless. On Sunday, we had decided to walk to church in the "light sprinkle" of rain. 10 minutes into our 45 minute walk I was soaked and I had water sloshing in and out of my shoes. We got to church and my hair was wild, curly and frizzy, I was drenched, and my feet were cold. All the International branch members Ubered so they were fine and the natives came to church after the rain stopped, so only Sister Sutton and I looked like a train wreck, and nobody said a thing about the obvious dishevelment.

We had another "lesson" with Olga this week. She is amazing and the only reason I say "lesson" is because she is a talker! She could go on for hours on end (she has had more near death experiences than anyone I ever met and she brings them up like it was just another casual day) and so we were only able to get two points in from our lesson, but honestly it was still a great lesson. This woman is so great and when we taught her about how proud Heavenly Father is of her, she got goosebumps. Yeah, that was the Spirit. It was so cool.

Sasha is doing great as always and is really excited for her baptism. She stayed for all three hours of church yesterday and that was awesome! She learned so much and even found out about Personal Progress and has a book now and wants to work on it. Also, somehow she's reading in Alma already. She's AMAZING.

That's all the time I have for today. I love you guys! Have a great week!

Sister Vehar
*Kaeleigh didn't have any pictures to send this week. Here is a picture of her zone prior to transfers:

Back row: Elder Uchytil, Elder Roberts, Brother Andrus, Brother Foley, Elder Read, Elder Hatch

Front row: Sister Sutton, Sister Andrus, Sister Foley, Sister Vehar

Mom- How old is Sasha? I had thought she was an adult. Maybe she’s a young woman.

Kaeleigh-She turns 32 tomorrow and has two kids. We told her that doing Personal Progress isn’t necessary for her, but that there is no harm in doing it, that she will only learn more doing it. She is soaking up this gospel like a SPONGE

Mom-Which new missionaries did you get in your area with transfers?

Kaeleigh-We got Elder Horton for Elder Hatch, and new office Elders Beckett and Dymock for our area. Sister Soucie is opening a new area in our zone now!

Week 15: A week of many miracles

Happy Monday everyone!

I can sum up the entirety of my week by simply listing the miracles.

First, we had two baptisms on Saturday! It was amazing because we weren't even sure if it was going to happen at the beginning of the week. But yeah that's right. Sasha and Kira entered the waters of baptism and they were so excited. PLUS our investigator Sasha was at the baptism, which leads us to miracle number two.

Mark your calendars for June 16th! Sasha accepted a baptismal date! More accurately, she asked us to set a date for her. She accepted our commitment to fast last Sunday and she felt like she was doing the right thing and that she needed to set an absolute date. It caught us off guard since we had already made a plan to set one on Saturday, but she beat us to the punch. We're excited either way. She really wants this. We've come to the conclusion that she was under the impression that she had to finish reading the Book of Mormon before she was baptized, which makes sense why she panicked when we tried to set her date for the end of May. In our lesson we taught about the Word of Wisdom, which naturally brought up Doctrine and Covenants and she looked a little worried and just said, "There's another one?! There's no way I'm going to finish that AND the Book of Mormon before I'm baptized!" We set the record straight and she is a lot more relieved. I hope she keeps cruisin through the Book of Mormon because she's already on Jacob! She is seriously golden and the cutest. We told her about tea (which is HUGE here) and she was just shocked about green tea, since it's "soooo healthy". We were worried we were going to lose her over her chai habits, but she literally in three seconds got over it and just said, “Oh whatever, I can do it”. I freaking LOVE Sasha.

Also, we got a new investigator! Her name is Olga and she's a teacher. She has too wild of a story to even try to fit in an email. Basically, she has a near death story because of all the crazy political stuff that happened here a while ago, but left seconds before it got violent. We're glad she's here today so we can meet with her! She is a Christian, but doesn't believe in God or Jesus Christ..... not sure how that works either, but that's her story. Right now she's just on the hunt for a church and she's pretty religious, like she prays and stuff (not sure how since she doesn't believe in God, but we'll find out). A lot of people hate church here because it appears to be a business. She knows we are all volunteers, so I think she likes that about us and she's about to learn so much more.

Another miracle- drum roll....... MY ANKLE IS NO LONGER SWOLLEN! It only took 8 weeks, but the swelling is all the way down now. My shoes finally actually fit. It's been weird and a lot more people noticed than I thought would, but I'm glad they'll see now that I have two normal ankles and I'm not sick or dying or anything. I got a lot of pity for it from the babushki here.

Yesterday was Mother's Day and I got to talk to my family on the first transfer! It was lots of fun and I was so happy to see the fam bam growing up. Plus we got to finish the Book of Mormon together over skype and that was super cool. I love my family.

The ward here actually took Mother's Day to a whole new level. Before church, the missionaries usually greet everyone in the foyer as they file in, and as we were standing there, these men set up shop with bags full of these boxes of cupcakes and a speaker and start blasting music. And we're not talking hymns either. These were wicked instrumental versions of today's pop. It was like an anthem as all the women walked in like they knew they were the boss and took their cupcakes. It was pretty epic as we watched this for a half hour or so.

This week was amazing and it was a really great one to end the transfer on. Another miracle is that I get to finish training with Sister Sutton in Borschagovsky! I love it here, but we're switching out a lot of elders so our entire district is essentially whitewashing. It's going to be so cool to be the ones who know more than everyone else though!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Mother's Day and I wish y'all an awesome week!

Sister Vehar

Skyping with the family

 More service with Olga flower Bab

Her sketchy, rusty knife and dew rag (working the tulips)

Kira and Sasha's baptism 5/12/2018

Week 14: ONE MONTH IN UKRAINE

Hello everyone!

That's right! I have survived and thrived one month in the wonderful Ukraine. This week was amazing as we met with a bunch of members and investigators and got fed plov (*a rice dish much like pilaf with carrots and meat in it) a bunch of times, which is now my absolute favorite! The people here are amazing because the church is so fresh here that almost everyone is a convert. These people have crazy and awesome conversion stories that you feel like you would only hear in general conference or something. The members here are great, to say the least.

We had an awesome chance to do some gardening with Olga flower bab, our potential investigator. We've been trying to get in on serving in her huge garden, but she hasn't trusted us until last week. We're really growing on her because she invited us to do it again. She is so old, but we couldn't even tell cause she works so hard and now I think she's glad to use our help because it is getting HOT here. She even pulled us inside for an hour or so because the next section of land we wanted to work on was in the sun and it wasn't good for our health, so instead she shoved chocolates down our throats for an hour. I’m not complaining though because they have some good chocolate here.

We had our first exchange (where we split up and go out with a different missionary than our usual companion) and it was super awesome, even though it started out with us dropping our keys down to the sisters to let them into our building and the keys landed on a roof below us!! When we went to go down to help them get the keys, we had locked ourselves in! After a bit of panicking and deciding we didn't care about the bystanders' opinions, we dropped a broomstick out the same window to assist the sisters in getting the keys. Mission success. I'm not making any of this up. The exchange went on great! I was with Sister King and she is so cool. We got to teach our investigators and do some survey finding and even pay the rent, since she was the only one who knew how, being the only sister that ever served in this area before us. It was so fun.

Great news! We have two baptisms this week if all goes according to plan. Up until yesterday, this baptism seemed like it was not going to happen, but we have seen a lot of miracles and we are so glad it worked itself out. We're hoping one of our other investigators will attend and agree to a definite baptismal date because right now she wants to wait until June.

This has been an amazing week full of miracles and I have learned so much. We have gotten so many referrals from members and people who just walk into the temple asking to be baptized. Sometimes it's discouraging after a whole day of contacting with no success, but we are still so blessed here and the Lord definitely blesses us for our work, even if it isn't a direct correlation. I love this work and I'm so glad to be here. I love each and every one of you and hope you all have awesome weeks and Mother's days! Especially you missionary mommas!

Love,
Sister Vehar​

 Working the dew rag!

Check out that skyline!