Week 52: A small email

Happy Monday Everyone!

    This week has been so amazing! Sister Thompson is absolutely wonderful and we are getting along just fine and getting lots of work done at the same time.

WE HAVE CONTACTED A TON THIS WEEK AND I LOVE IT!
    Honestly, it has only been a couple of days, but I feel like this companionship is truly inspired. I think it is just what I needed. I feel like my eyes have been opened regarding how to more effectively talk to people and open them up to us and the Gospel, whether or not they are pravelslavny or atheist. I have already learned so much and I just know I will learn so much more from Sister Thompson.
    We stopped by Svetlana this week unannounced and we got to talk to her about her expectations for baptism. She still doesn't quite understand, but she is now reading the Book of Mormon, sincerely, and I believe that it will be so much easier to help her understand if she is reading now. We are so excited for her!
    I don't have anymore time or pictures, but I love you all! Have great weeks!
Sister Vehar

Week 51: I learned how to play tic tac toe in a metro

HELLO EVERYONE
HAPPY MONDAY!

    Alright, I wish I had as much to update you on as last week, but we'll see. I'm having a hard time remembering what we even did this week.
    We started the week off with interviews with President and it was awesome! I always learn so much whenever I talk to him. We played a game of Five Crowns and I whooped everyone's butts at it for the second time at interviews. That's what they get for playing with a pro. hahaha
    We had our exchange with the Pechersky Sisters (Sister Moore and Sister King), literally some of my favorite sisters ever- haha. I swear that's how I feel about all the sisters in my zone- I love being an STL! It just got nostalgic though cause I was with Sister King and we were reminiscing about Sister Sutton, all the good times on the mission together, etc. since she goes home in a transfer and apparently my flight home has already been booked and I haven't even hit my year mark yet???? Anyway, highlights- I burnt my tongue on fresh hot tea, I dropped a tomato in my shoe (basically we decided that we never got to be companions because we would have fallen apart together), an old guy on the metro contacted us to play Tic Tac Toe with him and he explained to us every strategy possible- I might actually win that game now haha, we were all screaming together in the sisters’ apartment about who knows what, and their crazy downstairs neighbor came and kicked their door in- yeah we were freaking scared out of our mind and we are trying to move their apartment because this is a regular occurrence. ALSO, we met Dasha, my new best friend! We're going to a play together tomorrow and we are so excited! She is so cute and normal! And she might be interested in the Gospel! We are excited for her.
    Also we have some sad news- SISTER SOUCIE IS LEAVING ME FOR ZHYTOMER! My new companion will be Sister Thompson, who was in a trio with me and Sister Soucie already! Sister Soucie and I are really sad to say goodbye to each other, but we are so excited for what the next transfer brings us! Man I am so happy to be here in Ukraine at this time! I have a feeling that a lot is about to happen! I love you all and I hope you all have amazing weeks!

Sister Vehar

Week 50: The Kharkivsky Sisters-a Walking Comedy Act

Happy Monday dear family and friends!

    Well tons happened this week. We went on exchanges and performed in two concerts... Maybe I'll remember what else happened later in this email.
    Exchange: We went with the Nova D sisters who are literally the funnest trio ever- So Cute!- and we did a huge finding activity. We asked them to guess how many gummy bears were in a jar and if they were right, we would give them a prize at English practice. It was really funny cause everyone was so confused. I had a guy, Anatoly, come up to me and talk about how he had been with Jesus for 11 years now after he saw my name was Sister haha. Now he's the elders' investigator- we'll see for how long!
    The concerts were both put on for the psychiatric ward at a military hospital. Here's a story for you- Remember when we were sick for three days and practiced the cup song from Pitch Perfect forever? Well, it finally came in handy and was almost as impromptu as in the movie. The church leaders asked us if we could sing something for them and we were just going to pull out a basic Christmas carol cause what else (btw it is still Christmas here), but as we are sitting in this small concert with an audience of ten PTSD patients, we all perform and of course it's way casual. Then Sister Soucie leans over and says давай (let's) cup song! I say "No way! Besides, with what cup?!" She points across the room and dramatic slow camera pan to one of the patients holding an empty cup, in which I hope was a smoothie or something because it looked way dirty. Before I can say anything else she leans over and announces that we are going to sing now and grabs this poor man's cup out of his hands. I played my humble instrument for a verse before we messed up and the crowd burst out laughing and applauding. Good times. Don't worry we returned the cup. Hopefully we didn't add to his PTSD too much.
    I don't know if I've ever told you this, but Sister Soucie is the absolute worst when it come to performing because she can't take a darn thing seriously so she always busts out laughing during our songs (which happen far too often) and leaves me singing a solo- If y'all know me you know I HATE solos more than anything on this earth. So anyway, we sing Jingle Bells with the elders and one of them is on the harmonica. Elder Wilson starts laughing. As you can guess, so does my lovely comp, so I sing a solo for two lines before I decide that ain't no way in heck I'm salvaging this performance by myself. Всё пока! So I stopped trying and Elder Crnoglavac (harmonica) was so disappointed, but it was funny so I guess we were just the comedy act that day.
    The next concert went pretty well actually. It was bigger and more professional. The people loved it! We got to go to some rooms for the people who weren't able to make it to the concert and honestly the smiles on their faces just made my entire life. Service is just great.
    Another story- We tried to start sports night back up- so far not good. It was so ineffective that we left to go contact. It was actually way fun. I met some cute ladies who just wanted to learn English so bad! They were all named Tanya haha. But then I ran out of cards, so I waited for Sister Soucie to finish her contact so we could go back and start our exchange. I wait forever and eventually joined them. She was talking to a guy named Andre and he is golden! After we finished, I asked Sister Soucie if she had gotten his number before I got there and she said "No, should I have?" I wasn't sure cause he was so far away at this point. A minute later she screams, "I need to get his number!" She runs after this man, who is literally so far away that we run after him for ten minutes (he's really tall so we know it's him from a mile away). I'm just surprised that neither of us slipped on ice. We caught up and he wasn't weirded out at all, thank goodness. He gave us two numbers! Way to go Sister Soucie!
    That's really all I have for this week. I guess it was my birthday too- so anticlimactic on the mish. Except I guess the Silly String ambush from Sister Soucie from my Christmas/Birthday package. We keep it interesting in Kharkivsky! But THANK YOU ALL FOR THE BIRTHDAY WISHES! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Всё,
Sister Vehar

Week 49: The shortest email of your life

So I'm done emailing-sorry. I think the first email of the year is just a representation of how short this year is going to be.

We just went to MLC (mission leadership conference) and zone conference- so nothing else really happened. Just going stir crazy from being locked in for 24 hours- happy new year everyone!
I'll just attach pics cause literally 0 time.
Love you all!
Sister Vehar

 Sister Soucie trying the Vehar family's traditional Sugar Pancakes.