Week 37: "Jesus is a good driver"

Happy Monday everyone!
    It's already been another week- trust me I'm shocked too. We shared lots of laughs this week! It was just one of those weeks where everything is hilarious and you constantly are laughing, which I am always happy to have!
    I love the people in my area! Unfortunately, not a lot of those people are those who we are teaching- our teaching pool is so small I might go insane, but it's okay because we are learning to find people better since we are doing it so much recently!
    One of the finding activities we do in the Kharkovsky area, now that it is getting colder and darker. is Bible videos! We project them on the wall of the church and it is so cool. This week we made hot cocoa to give out to people and it was a HIT! We will be doing it as often as we can.
We meet with an adorable less active family about every week named the Daniels (they're half Welsh) and they have a 4 year-old, Ethan, who is honestly the love of my life- he is the cutest and the source of this week's email's subject line. As part of our spiritual thought, we asked what characteristics Christ has and precious Ethan's first response was, "Jesus is a good driver- the best people always are and Jesus is the BEST"! This kid had me dead! This was honestly the highlight of my week other than the womens' session- those talks were BOMB! I don't care if you aren't a woman- go watch them. They are very secretly talking about missionary work and we can all improve on that.
    If we're going to be honest, there were a lot of downs this week, but I know that my Heavenly Father loves me because He also gave me a lot of ups- just a lot of small tender moments that made each of my days; such as Jesus being a good driver. Heavenly Father knows just exactly what we need each day and we can choose to focus on the good or we can just take a second to enjoy the tender mercies and just revel in how much our Heavenly Father cares for us. This world is amazing and I am reminded of that as I look around and see the trees changing colors or see a bunch of cute little puppies. So who cares if it was a rough week. This world is gorgeous and wonderful! We are so lucky to be here! I love you guys and so does Jesus!! Have amazing weeks and remember the tender mercies!

Love,
Sister Vehar
1. Selfie
2. Sister Soucie is a model
3. Modeling continued
4. Our Bible and hot cocoa night
5. Our book table

Week 36: What even is time??

Hello everyone and happy Monday!

    короче, this week has been insane and I have felt like I haven't had time to do anything whatsoever- which is really ironic because in zone conference this week President Kumferman focused on time management and told us the 5 myths about time and the most emphasized one was "We cannot have or not have time". Regardless of what I learned, I still had no time this week.

Zone Conference was bomb, except for the fact that we had to prepare for 15 minutes of it as well as a role play #sistertrainingleaders. We'll have our first exchange for the transfer this week so we'll see how that goes.

    With zone conference comes interviews which was just so great especially since we didn't have any last transfer. As STLs we also went to MLC which I thought I was going to hate because it's just another long meeting, literally I loved it so much because I swear any meeting I have with President is just so spiritually uplifting.

    Yesterday, one of our potential investigators just randomly showed up to church after not answering our calls, and agreed to have lessons and we're just really excited for this work to pick up.

We had a musical concert on Saturday- your girl sang in it and it was tons of fun! I can't guarantee the quality because I haven't listened to worldly music in 8 months and we practiced literally once because sitting down six busy missionaries at one time is nearly impossible. But, it is over now and I have time to just relax and just start over and have a normal week. Hahaha if only, we can only hope.

    The highlight of my week was just sitting down and watching General Conference, where we get to hear from a living prophet every six months. It is a wonderful opportunity to learn how we can improve ourselves and apply the Lord's teachings in our lives. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have that we still receive direction from the Lord in order to run His church exactly how He needs us to in order to prepare us for His coming. It is because God loves us that He continues to provide revelation to us through His prophets, and I cannot express how grateful I am to have a Heavenly Father who loves me. He loves each of you, and consequently sent His only begotten Son to suffer and die for us, so that we would never be alone and that we could have the opportunity to live with Him again. I've just been thinking about this a lot this week, especially with conference and I just can't get over how much our Savior loves us.

    I hope you all had the chance to watch conference and that you loved it- I certainly did! I love all of you and I hope you all had amazing weeks! Talk to you next week!

Sister Vehar

Our band!

https://youtu.be/nqEgkWZolXg

The elders were pretty sick too.

https://youtu.be/xKDjEtgdvgM

Week 35: I hit my 8 month mark this week!

Hello everyone!

I've got quite the surprise for you this week...I am low on time! Haha jk nothing new at all. Anyway, not a whole lot of typical missionary work happened this week because our only investigator was sick and somehow between the service and who knows what else, we weren't able to do a whole lot of contacting either.

Service was really cool because I picked beans for hours in the freezing cold! It was lots of fun and we were fed well for our efforts. I also got to witness a cat eat a mouse. It was way anticlimactic and faster than I ever imagined it would be.

We didn't have time to go shopping on Pday because of our band practice- which, by the way our huge music festival got rescheduled to a Sunday because of the rain here and therefore servants of the Lord couldn't participate, bummer- so we had no food all week basically. The elders literally came in clutch and brought lunch to the church for us yesterday. We also had wafers for two meals this week which is really funny because Sister Soucie is on a no sugar diet. They were absolutely delicious though.

I'm hoping the work picks up or I at least figure out how to pick it up. #IknownothingandI'mliterallyoneoftheoldestsistersinthemission. Life is fun. It's getting really cold all of a sudden- so cold I voluntarily put tights on. The bishop told us it's going to be the coldest winter yet! I hope he's joking because these two Arizona girls are going to freeze our booties off! It's gonna be a ton of fun- especially since Ukrainians literally disappear when it becomes slightly colder!

I hope you all have amazing weeks and I can't wait to talk to you all next week!

Love,
Sister Vehar
1. Two former investigators who will be baptized!

2. Check those clouds!

Week 34: Kharkivsky is BOMB

Happy Monday Y'all!

What's up my people?? Life is fun and great here in Kharkovsky with the new comp, Sister Soucie. There is lots of work to do here and it's one of the busiest areas so I am super pumped to be here.

Shortly, because I am out of time, not much happened this week with transfers and getting to know the area. Sister Moore and I did go to the Kyiv zoo (real legit!), and this week there will be a huge festival that missionaries get to be in a band for and perform pop songs so we've had some band seshes and this mission is really full of talent and I'm really jealous! I don't know if the videos will attach, we'll see!

I'm so excited for some new scenery and a great fresh start and the people here are great! Talk to you more next week!

Sister Vehar

Week 33: Sorry, I have a wife

Happy Monday!!

This one will have to be quick as I am out of time.
Here's a shock- all of our investigator lessons fell through! But we were able to meet with members and less actives so it was all good- just because we aren't helping someone towards baptism, doesn't mean we aren't helping them come unto Christ.

The funniest moment this week was when we were contacting and Sister Moore tried to give a man an English card to which he responded, "Sorry, у меня ест жена"- hence the subject of my email this week. I guess here in Ukraine "free English practice" translates to "learn English so I can marry you". In his dreams!

The biggest news of the week- I am finally being transferred! I will be leaving the beautiful area of Borschagovsky and my daily view of the wonderful temple to go to the city of Kharkivsky! I'll be a Sister Training Leader with Sister Soucie- a sister who came into the field the same day as me from the Spain MTC! I am really excited. I'm sad to leave Sister Moore, this ward, and the daily ATB runs (about a fifth the size of Walmart and I know it like the back of my hand), but I am excited to have more experiences and learn so much more as a missionary!

Also, we had a branch talent show today and let me tell you, I just love old people! Needless to say, the talents were pretty creative and out there. For example, one included a nose flute duet. Did I know what a nose flute was until today? No. Learn something new everyday! (*From our hangouts chat this morning:) Sister Moore and I got wrangled into singing a Latin song (Donna Nobis Pacem)-throwback to Trivium days.

I love you all so much and I'm sorry it wasn't much today, but there will be more to come! Have amazing weeks!

Sister Vehar

(More from hangouts:)

Mom- Are you excited about Kharkivsky?

K- I am STOKED

Mom- Two "Arizona" girls in winter lol (Sister Soucie is from Scottsdale, AZ)

K- Yeah, must be President's funny joke

K- They play volleyball there for sports and they have 8 investigators there right now

Mom- I heard the members feed you in Kharkivsky. Have the members fed you much in Borshagovsky?

K-I heard! I am PUMPED. Heck no. They never feed us. I went to one family twice these past few weeks and they fed us, but it's rare compared to America.

Mom-How's your Russian?

K- Probably 7. I'm starting to understand Ukrainian

Mom-You're saying your Russian is a 7 out of 10?

K- Depends. I understand a lot at church, but not so much on the street

1. Selfie with the rebyonik
2. Vorobyobs! love them! They have a youtube video of the "Laban Murder" you should really look it up. It's worth it.
3. The Gerra-Mirandas!

Week 32: Less Active Adventures

Happy Monday!

This week wasn't too eventful, sorry to disappoint. Our teaching pool is literally so small right now so we did a lot (like everyday a lot) of less active "hunting" (is what they call it here) and unfortunately lots of people are still gone despite the fact that school started this week. We only met with our recent converts, but they are so cute. Our dear nine-year-old friends are so crazy- we're in the middle of our lesson and Sasha asks when we're going to start our lesson (because we got stuck on one of their questions for a while or something else who knows what) and Kira thought it was really funny when I told him it started 10 minutes ago when he prayed.

Our other Sasha just got a calling as a Sunday school teacher and she is doing so great. We love her to pieces. She was so nervous for her first lesson she had to teach yesterday, but we heard she rocked it! She's going places.

We did some service this week by helping a less active lady move in to a hoarders apartment, so that was an experience. We went to take down wallpaper and she was disappointed that we weren't elders so she didn't let us do much since we're not as muscular or something. I didn't realize wallpaper was so heavy. Must be a Ukrainian thing.

We met with Baba Anna again- we asked if we could take pictures with her which are included- she said she didn't look good since she didn't wash her hair so I told her she was a красавица (good looker) and she sang a song about it. She's the cutest.

Also it's sweater weather again and Ukraine has a happy Sister Vehar in it. Except for when the cars hit puddles in high speeds and send a tidal wave your way. Fun stuff.

That's really all I got for you today, sorry it isn't much. I would just like all of you to know that God watches our efforts. We did all of that less active finding this week and though nothing has come out of it yet, we had a lady get in contact with us who wants us to come over for FHE and teach her non-member family, which is a really cool blessing.

I hope you all have amazing weeks! Love you all!

Sister Vehar

Week 31: I love ABBA now

Happy Monday!

This week flew by! We were lucky to see many miracles this week. My favorite day this week was Friday. It's confusing to me because so many things went wrong, but went right at the same time. I'll just take you through my day-

We made brownies for the family we were going to visit that day and as we were packing them up we had the thought- what would happen if we gave Baba Anna a brownie? And suddenly extra brownies were added and we were off. We were early to Baba Anna's (which never happens) and she was so happy to see us! Her blood pressure was good so we gave her a brownie (which she called a brownik) and she popped it in her mouth and her face lit up like the sloth's on Zootopia and she just yelled "OM NOM NOM", which I think is pretty universal for she liked it. We left her a couple more to enjoy and we went to the members who live out in the boonies. It took us like an hour to realize that we were on the wrong street waiting for a certain bus which obviously made us late. We finally found the right bus on the right street and got on. We only knew what the name of the stop we needed to get off at- not at all what it looks like. I knew it had to take a turn first though so the first stop after the turn I asked a man behind me if it was the stop and the guy next to him said no- It's the next one but you have to hurry cause he won't stop unless he hears you (we're in the very back) and we'll be there in a few seconds- GO! And so we went and barely made it and we had a great time with the family who speaks like perfect English thank goodness and they were so cute. They made us sign a contract saying that we had to visit a second time before we get transferred out. We had to run out because there was a baptism we invited someone we are teaching to attend and even though we left 30 minutes before it started, we were only 15 minutes late! We got all the buses we needed which never conveniently line up with our schedule, but they did that day! They had just started! When we walked in. Unfortunately, our gal wasn't able to make it, but she called us to set up an appointment this week so there's hope for her. The baptism was wonderful and it was really motivating to get the people we are teaching back on track for baptism. After the baptism, a different person we are hoping to teach more came to say goodbye to an elder who was leaving and offered us a ride home. We accepted and we drove home as their 4 year-old danced to Abba all the way home. It was pretty epic. I dare say one of the hardest laughs of my mission. He was definitely going for it.

On Saturday we were English contacting and as we're talking to an interested girl, This 70 year-old man comes up to us and tells us we need to leave (because Ukraine isn't safe or something) in Ukrainian. It was funny cause the girl understood, we didn't, and she was defending us and hiding behind us and this man was not leaving us alone- in the end he offered his 43 year-old son to me and I politely declined. We quickly left. Things are still fun in Ukraine. We went to the temple and that was cool too. I love you all so much and I know that our Heavenly Father is a God of miracles. He loves each one of you! Have amazing weeks!

Sister Vehar

Sisters Moore, Vehar, Osguthorpe and Pixton in front of our "Jesus wall".

My favorite graffiti 

I'm a professional apple stacker- You're welcome