WEEK 21: I finished training and I'M TRAINING?!?!?!?!?!

Hello everyone!

Yeah you read that right! Yours truly is training a greenie straight from the MTC! Ahhhhhhh! I don't know a thing about her yet since they don't tell us until tomorrow, but I will let you know how that goes.

How is it, you ask, that I was able to inherit a greenie? Well, it is because my trainer, Sister Sutton, is leaving home today. I already miss her. She was literally the best. I make it sound like she's dying, but really her 18 months are just up. She has been such a good influence for me and I will miss her so much.

We definitely had a packed week for her and fit in some experiences last minute before she went home including, but not limited to:
-Getting her foot stuck in the mud
-getting lemon coke-the new love of my life (other than Jesus and missionary work)
-sweater weather in June? I'll just briefly testify that I know God knows me because He knew I couldn't handle the heat any longer! Every time it gets too hot for too long- boom- breezy day and happy Sister Vehar
-getting a makeover from 11 and 12 year-old Ukrainians and looking like 80's/Barbies

Sorry for the short email but it was a really good week and I'm looking forward to how this next week goes. Hopefully it will be good and full of miracles!

Have a great week everyone!
Sister Vehar


Our makeover- and our best comp photo somehow?

Our dirt hill and Sister Sutton's muddy foot

SASHA

Email from Elder Caron

Hello from Kyiv. My wife and I are currently serving in the Ukraine, Kyiv Mission (we’re in the beautiful country of Moldova). This week we had the pleasure of meeting your sons and daughters, who are also serving in our mission.

We took a couple of photographs and thought we’d send them to you. I will tell you that we really enjoyed the smiles and friendly greetings we received from your missionaries. (Every time we met one of them, they had huge smiles on their faces and were just excellent representatives of Christ, the Church and their families.)

Thank you for sharing your sons and daughters with us. We hope to see them on our next visit to Kyiv.

Elder and Sister Caron

Week 20: My First Time Out of Kiev and a BAPTISM

Happy Monday everyone!

This week was amazing just in the fact that SASHA WAS BAPTIZED! I had to give a talk about baptism, which was pretty rough, but no one left so it must not have been too bad (I also bore my testimony in sacrament this week... so that was a lot of Russian in two days)! But wow, she was so ready. She came ready to give a talk and everything! She was so excited and she brought her daughter too, who totally felt the spirit. She was a little scared when it came time to go under water, but she did it and she is so happy now! She is almost done reading the Book of Mormon, which is insane! She is reading faster than I am and I sit down and read it for an hour every day! She is amazing and already talks about reading it again! It is really great that we haven't had to push her too hard since she is so self motivated! I swear she'll be called into primary or something.

There isn't much other news this week other than my second exchange was in a small town outside of Kiev, called Zhytomyr and it was GORGEOUS. The city has grown on me, but I would LOVE to go serve somewhere like there. It's also where my trainer spent 9 months of her mission so it was really cool to be down there for her since she leaves this week. The English class scene was way more interesting with crazy Ukrainians and we also got to meet one of the sister's relative of some sort, who may or may not be the richest man in Ukraine. His house was three times the size of mine in America and he built it himself. It was quite the shock when we showed up because for the past three months, I've met people in apartments the size of a living room and a half with walls everywhere.

This week I feel super touched because of a lot of things I have heard and I just want to share with you that Heavenly Father knows each and every one of us because we are His children. He gives us some things we might think are hard, but He gives them to us so we can grow and He will always provide a way for us. He loves you and I love you too! I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Love,
Sister Vehar

Our sweet Sasha and her daughter

A gorgeous view of the temple on a day we got down-poured on

The forest we past outside of the city

Sister Pixton and I went to visit her Uncle Victor in Zhytomer

Sister Pixton says in her letter about visiting Victor: "Sooo I found out that my Aunt Olya, from Russia has relatives in Zhytomyr. So my momma sent me the contact info of this guy named Victor, that she knows/is related to. We called him and he was totally down to meet us the next day. So after our lesson he shows up to the church, we hop in his car and he drives us to this cake shop and buys this big fancy chocolate cake. Then we drove to his house, sat by his pool and chatted with him about why we're here and told him what our church is all about over chai and tort."

Week 19: Slang and Members

Hello friends and family!

This week was really great! We met with lots of members of our church and it was honestly so awesome to get a better hold on this huge ward. We met with both active and less active members and I think I honestly love working with the members the most because we ask them for people who are interested in the gospel or need support, and we almost always get less actives, but I still love it because we go over and strengthen them! This week was really neat though because all the less actives we met with came to church! There is one, Tatyana, who had a hurt back so she didn't go to church and we asked if she at least read the book of Mormon and she said no. We challenged her to read it everyday and then bam she was at church. All I have to say is that the Book of Mormon works miracles.

This week our mission president asked us to clean up our language and eliminate slang. I didn’t realize how much slang I use! It has been really funny though. The companionship with the most slang has to bring treats to district meeting and we didn't lose so we're doing good so far.

We had zone conference this week and it was really motivating to get me contacting which has been the bane of my mission, but not anymore! Sister Sutton bore her last testimony because she leaves in exactly two weeks! That is really crazy and weird to see, but all is well and we are trying to cram all of the Ukrainian experience in for her these next couple of weeks!

Sorry it's short this week! But here are some funny pictures of ads I see everywhere for computer services that people use old pictures of actors as their picture and also Sister Sutton wearing a really good camouflage skirt.

Have a great week everyone!

Love,
Sister Vehar

Week 18: "No Subject"

Hello everyone! Happy Monday!

I honestly don't know how to describe this week. We didn't meet with hardly anyone because school is out and everyone is heading to the dacha (*small, little countryside homes outside the city) for vacation. We had one lesson with a member who was in town and it was definitely one of our odder ones. These ladies love cats and are notorious for it. Surprisingly, they only had two this week, but it was apparent that was one of their lowest numbers as they showed us pictures, each with a minimum of four cats and they were never the same??? One of them actually tried to keep one of my photos from my album to put it in her collection. I came out of their apartment feeling like I had sniffed a sharpie the whole time from all of the cat smells. At the end of our lesson we asked them if there was anything we could help them with and they look up to the light above us and say something along the lines of "You can come back and clean our dirty light". On our way out, these pigeons were flying around in the apartment hallway, and one of the sisters just picked one up. Apparently, they were the neighbor's "pets". So we will be going back to visit all the animals and to clean these ladies' light in the next week or so. What a place this is, Ukraine.

We had another lesson with Sasha this week about temples, eternal marriage, and family history. It was super special because Tad R. Callister came and spoke to the adults and Sasha went and they talked about families and temples a lot! It was so good for her and she is really excited to get baptized. When Sister Sutton showed her her family tree, she realized that our names on our tags were our last names and not our first names (those are all people use here). She felt a little lied to, but it was really funny because she told us she had thought our last names were really weird first names, but we were from America so she didn't say anything. So now everything makes a little more sense.

We had a Mission Meeting this week with Tad R. Callister and it was amazing! It was eye-opening and I feel like I learned so much! The whole mission was there so it was wild. I focused on getting to know younger missionaries since most of the ones older than me are going home soon. Our mission is so young in terms of the length of time the missionaries have been serving (elders 2 years and sisters 18 months)! Most of the sisters are going home this transfer, so starting in July there will be three whole Russian-speaking sisters who have been in the field longer than me. It's a great comfort to know there are sisters in Lviv who will join us. But for now I am gonna have to step up my game!

Today we went to center Kiev and it is gorgeous! I took some pictures for you!

I hope everyone has a great week!
Sister Vehar

💙💛🇺🇦💙💛🇺🇦💙💛🇺🇦💙💛

A sculpture of the Archangel Michael as a coat of arms of the city of Kyiv on the gate

Monument to the founders of Kyiv

Sisters Sutton & Vehar

All 14 sisters in the Ukraine Kyiv mission

The entire Ukraine Kyiv Mission (62 missionaries, 9 senior couples and President/Sister Kumferman and their daughter, Maggie

Some of us sisters enjoying a delicious meal (L-R: Sutton, Vehar, Eakins, Reid, Soucie, Flukiger, Pixton, & King)

One more of Sister Vehar and Sister Sutton

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!