SCRIPT & POSY: Week 42- FEBRUARY- IT'S A GIRL!

Only in Ukraine would you be approached by a drunk babushka on your way walking to the church and then find yourself running away as she threatens to shoot her dentures at you....

WOW. What a great long week! Nothing like a good classic, tear jerking, climatic, piano violin duet to cheer me on as i imagine myself passionately running to the top of THE MISSION HUMP, reaching the top, doing a fist pump, failing at the heel click (as always) and saying, "I DID IT! I REACHED THE HUMP!" Yes! This sister has officially reached THE HUMP of the mission. 9 MONTHS! (View inappropriate picture at bottom. I had a serious debate about this one, and i dont think we need to guess as to who won the fight.) Where did the time go? I would like to say that it is all downhill from here, but where is the fun in that? I have a feeling the Lord has a lot more in store for me, and wouldn't be surprised if i end up coming home as just one big ol' stretch mark from all the growing i will have done.

This week has just been chuck full of big days! What a week! Easily the longest week, but i can not come to say the worst! Not only did i reach the big "YOU'RE HALF WAY THERE!" mark but i also had my last day as a threesome companionship and, lack of a better word, we celebrated the occasion by going out with a bang! A bang to our wallets that is. After too many times of walking past and slipping on the puddles of frozen drool, that must have only been from all the pedestrians who would look in on the fine dining of LIMON, we decided enough of the dreaming, let's make it reality. By far the comfiest chairs known to man, the smallest portions on the biggest plates i have ever seen, and the most delicious vereniki (potato dumplings) and cheesecake i have ever had. I was dining in class, though my frumpy boots, DI skirt and greasy surf wave swooped bangs would say otherwise.

Verinki. Ukrainian cuisine in style.

What is this? A salad for ants?!

New York Cheesecake....you guys gotta try this.

I got half way through this bad boy when i finally stopped thinking....."this taste is oddly familiar....."when it suddenly clicked. LIVER.

Can you figure out what this says? P=R, E=E, C=S, T=T, O=O, A=A, H=N. Congratulations. You can read Russian.

The Tri-cycle.

I'm not gonna lie, as hard as it was i was really going to miss Wallace and Winsor, and was feeling pretty scared for what the future had it store for me. Training?! Me?! I thought that was just a joke we would make in my MTC district! Well ready or not i was about to start a whole new threesome. Me, the Lord, and Sister Anderson!

I love our trips into Kiev and the sights to be seen!

Sister Anderson is an amazing 19 year old sister from New Zealand! Did i mention that she lived 45 minutes away from the Hobbit homes from Lord of the Rings? How do you like that mom? She loves to dance, always has a smile on her face, she loves animals just as much as i do, OK, maybe not THAT much, also has brother who is out serving the Lord in the Philippines, and has helped me so much already in our short time together to come closer to the Lord and feel the power of the Holy Ghost, and that by exact obedience, and with faith you can truly feel and recognize the power of the Holy Ghost when your heart is fully dedicated to the Lord's work. She has been such a blessing as both of us have set the transfer goal of truly being SPIRIT LED! To come to know and feel how each of us feel the Holy Ghost in our lives, become sensitive to it's promptings and therefore become followers and teachers of the spirit. I never would have thought that a 2nd transfer missionary could teach me so much and be right beside me doing the Lord's work. This girl has no fear and has been a complete answer to my prayers!

Our first night together we went out to find some of the in actives of our branch and with nothing but an address and complete lack of a map we.....got lost. Figures. Not only that but i must have forgotten my brain as i couldn't remember the word for, "building". That night i found that you really can find your answers in the Book of Mormon as we found ourselves huddled in a dark street hovering a flashlight over a Russian Book of Mormon looking for 1 Nephi 8:27 for the word, "building" so that we could ask for directions and afterwards worrying that i was going around asking for the "great and spacious 9." 1st day. 1st adventure. Check.

Traditional 1st night Kontik slam!

Another BIG day happened this week...I hit my, "I DONT KNOW ABOUT YOU BUT IM FEELING 22..." mark! That's right 22 years old and i dont feel, or look at day over 15! Well that's what the guys would always say whenever they started hitting on my little sister only to find I (emphasis on I ) was the babe that could legally (by Mormon standards) date. Nice try boys.

Sister Wallace and Winsor gave me an unexpectedly bright and early surprise by....cooking me breakfast? *Sniff sniff* is that bacon i smell? Why yes it is! Im telling you, if you are ever feeling homesick for America, bacon is where it is at folks. Oh glorious greasy sodium! The W&W companionship have got to be one of the biggest hearted sisters i have ever met, and i usually try to reserve the big "L" word, but... I LOVE THEM.

Ok so i feel i should explain the state of my appearance right now. Had i know that i was going to get a face full of party poppers, hash browns, bacon and jam filled blinchiki while walking out of the bathroom at 6:32 a.m. i would not have been sporting the David Bowie T-shirt...OK, so maybe that isn't true. Please pardon for the cowlick upon cowlick, crusty eyes, and partial mullet. Just trying to be like David.

Hey if middle schoolers can do the "Looking up" selfy in a bathroom than i can do it with my breakfast

I feel i should explain the broken key in the palm of my hand. As Sister Anderson was locking the door after W&W left and i was gobbling the grub i just hear a big gasp and "Uhhhh.....sister?" Long story short, she's too strong for her own good and for a good half day or so we were under house arrest.

Besides the bacon i must say that the best present you can receive are the things that you can't eat. Remember this moment because you will probably never hear that from me again. To be honest i forgot a lot of the time that it was my birthday but i got a lot of LOVE and that's good enough for me. Thanks for the birthday card family!! The wait was worth it <3

Alex, one of our recent converts, bought me a coffee flavored cake! Ok, so he still has a little learning to do, but it's the thought that counts, right?

Hey, you didn't think that mine and Sister Anderson's adventures ended there did you? You didn't really expect that i wouldn't get us lost in a forest on my first week of training, did you? Oh ye of little faith, of course i got us lost in a forest looking for inactive! Hey, no effort is wasted, right?

The last bit of civilization we would see for a good hour or so...

Behold! Look! Through the brushes! Civilization!

And so a lot of rose thorn scrapes and tree branch bruises later we finally made our way back to Brovary. Here's a little look see of some of my day to day Brovary views...

The Atomic statue where i once stargazed

A classic death trap elevator

I have been so blessed with such amazing exemplar family and friends, I so much in life to thank the Lord for. This week has just been filled with blessing after blessing after blessing. Of course these blessings did not come until after the trail of my faith, and thanks to Sister Anderson i can feel my faith and dependence on the Lord grow every day. (Just thought you should know that that dramatic piano violin duet just started again. Talk about dramatic!) I'm gonna quote my brother from his email here and say, "the size of your faith, or the degree of your knowledge is not the issue, it is the integrity you demonstrate toward the faith you DO have and the trust you already know." "Be not afraid, only believe." Mark 5:36

By exact obedience and really trying your best in all things the Lord truly does bless. From finding amazing potential investigators while English contacting, to making a friend while spending those last "pointless" 15 minutes contacting in the dark and dreary fog, to bearing an emotional testimony of the Book of Mormon to a non member husband with an amazing family with strong testimonies of the gospel, to even getting stopped in the middle of the street being asked, "Hey, what's that book you have?" and once more finding yourself saying not only what you have always been taught is true, but truly coming to feel is true. Our lives are so blessed. We just need to do all we can because as the Lord said, "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." D&C 82:10

I have never had such a strong testimony that, "in Christ there should come every good thing." There is nothing good in this life that is not a blessing from our loving Heavenly Father. These things should not be expected, nor taken for granted. Swallow some of that pride and give the one who lovingly placed you here some credit! We are so loved and we have been provided with every possible thing we will need to succeed in life. Because of a lack of time i can't touch too much on this but PLEASE read the talk, "LIVING A LIFE OF PEACE, JOY, AND PURPOSE" by Richard G. Scott from this months February issue of the New Ensign. It was a good chunk of my personal study this morning and it really hit home for me that this mission is such a privilege and is preparing me for life!

My first day with Sister Anderson she asked me, "what are you wanting to accomplish during your mission?" And all i could think of is this fear of returning home after my mission and not reaching my full potential, not becoming the daughter that Heavenly Father intended me to be. Come on! That's a scary thought! But i am going to take to heart what Richard G. Scott said when he said, "May the Lord strengthen your resolve your exercise of faith, and your growing character so that you may be the instrument of good He wants you to be." Half way mark and I'm felling like im becoming a new girl! I guess you can call it a "new birth" in a way...