Sister Kaeleigh Vehar in Ukraine 2018-2019: 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