Week 65- JULY- 3rd Time's The Charm

Last P-day, after 3 months of try and try again, we finally succeeded in visiting Rodinamat!  And let me tell you, this is one BIG MAMA. Even as a missionary, every once in a while you just need a good ol' soviet culture filled tourist moment, and i was in soviet tourist heaven. While walking the boardwalk towards Rodinamat music was being played over the speakers that lined the walk, and our ears were filled with the song of, "Kasoosha." I fear only those who served there time in the MTC would know the power of this song, but then again for all you normal people out on the world, you always have YouTube...

#Ukrainian Humor

Just smile...

...that's more like it.

It's tough, but im so proud to be a Kiev, Ukraine missionary

Oh, and we got transfer information this week. Sister Robertson and I will be together for our 3rd transfer! Like i said, 3rd time's the charm!

I caught this photo shoot at juuuust the right time

I mean how can you serve in Kiev, Ukraine and say that it's not one of the most beautiful countries? This country has seen a lot of turmoil, seeing to be more fact, but this country is know and blessed, and I'm blessed to serve in it.

Our FHE called and canceled on us just hours before and so we went out with a vengeance to seek out and contact the elect wearing glasses to win the Waldo of the week. Every week we are giving a certain category of people to contact, this week was glasses. While down the metro we contacted to nice looking, but slightly rebellious looking girls to invite them to English and sports night. We said goodbye and headed out determined to tackle if needs be, so as to win the crowing ice cream cone at District Meeting. We even ran into the golden man! We caught him in the moment of trying to startle public restaurant eaters...

We were calling it a night and heading back to the metro when I looked over and saw the two girls we had just contacted in each others arms in a very, much more than friendship way....whoops.

It's been a good week, but not going to lie this week has been a beat up week. I caught my reflection on the elevator mirror yesterday and all i could hear was the dying putting of a car as i saw the frizzy haired, deep eye bagged, and crumbling mascara missionary looking back at me.

It's been tough. Not tough as in trials too numerous and challenging to conquer, but just a lot of learning. A lot of spiritually learning and as i was saying my prayers last night i felt as if i had just ran a spiritual marathon and just felt...exhausted! Spiritually beaten but stronger, and with more spiritual knowledge and nourishment. I can't tell you how many times i was just thinking, or not thinking at all, and all of a sudden scrambling for a pen and paper to write down a thought i had, a new view on things, or something i realized i wanted to study and learn more about, and just about any other thought a 22 year old would have while soaking up the flames of the Refiners fire.

For instance we had just come home for dinner after an afternoon of contacting and i immediately went to a pen and paper, I wrote, "Today not too many people wanted to talk to us today, most shaking their heads and waving us off or saying that they don't have time. The streak stopped when i stopped a woman and introduced ourselves telling her our purpose and how we have prophets today. She wasn't interested nor wanted to give us her number, but the fact that she actually stopped, looked at me, and stayed to listen was enough for me to bear simple testimony and hand her a pamphlet on families...my mission may not see the immediate "success" of some, but you know what? I'm happy with  my mission. Everything about it, all the moments of good and the bad have made me into who i am. Yes, i would love those moments, what missionary wouldn't?" Then i just go on to say how ever since i prayed to see things as they really are it has drastically changed how i view myself and my mission. If I'm so bold to say, it's changed my life. My eyes were really opened to how life really is just this big mash pot of highs and lows, experiences of bad and good, proud memories, and maybe not so much, moments of try try again, but in the end that's what life is. It's not the moments of the past or the lows that define you, those are the things that, in fact, refine you. And yes, i did just quote an EFY song for all you EFY junkies out there.

A week wouldn't be complete without an evening of contacting in the rain. I have to admit i was tired and the rain just sang to me like a lullaby, but we slipped on our already cold soggy shoes and went out, and at first is was tough, people hurriedly passed by, the member babushka we stopped by said we couldn't come in because she had a flu, on the way back i stopped to buy some muddy potatoes from a babushka looking like she just wanted to pack up and go home, and on our return trip home we ran into Jane Rain! At least that's what we call her now. She is an angel, and Sister Robertson and I both admitted to already saying she is worthy of facebook friend status, and we are so excited to meet with her again. Just like everybody else she was hurrying to get out of the rain, but unlike everybody else...she stopped! Not only that but she saw our name tags and didn't even flinch, which is actually quite a common thing around here.

Had my first interview with President Packer and he asked me if Ukraine and my mission has changed me for the better, and I replied with a 100%, "YES." Missions are strange in that way. You can feel so beaten, so bruised, so stretched, so tested, and yet still feel you will cry when it comes to an end and have the utmost confidence that you are leaving a better and stronger person than you were before. I still have a TON to work on, perhaps more than i thought when i started my mission, but as Elder Holland said about his mission it was, "the major spiritual turning point of my life—the beginning of my beginnings." I really have come to find myself more, my strengths and, because every positive has a negative, my weaknesses. For example i never would have thought my observations for the little things was such a defining attribute for me until almost every companion i have had told me that, "I would have never noticed or appreciated that before you." Sometimes a good thing, like noticing a sunset, and sometimes bad, like noticing the practically nude tanning beach below us as we crossed a bridge.

This was just a moment caught as Sister Robertson and i had a surprise trip to the beach along the river today trying to surprise our good friend Liza who works at one of the food shacks. Although we didn't find her we found plenty of Ukrainians with a lot of bod and zip shame. You go Ukrainians.
At our English class this week we had the brilliant idea to play Mad Libs and  creating stories about flying mothers and green talking bears who clapped their faces together while begging for porridge. I also learned the hard way that Ukrainians obviously do not understand nonsensical humor as i do...
Highlight of the week: After two long months...we have hot water!! It took my brain to comprehend as warm water was actually coming out of the bath faucet and i realized...."wait, you mean everybody doesn't take pot baths?" Standing under that shower head i have never felt more spoiled in my life.
Not so much highlight of the week: Our investigator Ina was dropped this week, or more she dropped us with a month of no church attendance and not picking up her phone. Investigators: 0. Potential: Limitless.
Been a tough week for Sister Robertson and the knees. Apparently she has been serving her entire mission through the pain of one damaged meniscus on one knee and a torn on the other. She is a great example to me of enduring and just giving the Lord everything she has got.  This week she is due for another doctors appointment, and we are waiting to hear from Salt Lake City about her results and if her return date will come sooner than expected.
The weekend the ward held a ward picnic with us missionaries hosting as their Indians tribe leaders. Never in my life would i have ever thought my dad's Indian war cry would actually come in handy, but life's always full of surprises.

This is the first member of the church in Ukraine! And he has a chihuahua, this man know's what he's doing...

Praying to see things as they really are has really changed my life, and changed my whole view of my mission and my success as a missionary. I think that's the trick. To not try to fix things as YOU see things, because most likely it's a tainted view point, but to see things as the Lord sees them, and THEN adjust. I guarantee you will find more hope and that things are not as bad as you felt or thought. I really loved this quote, "I believe happiness comes from striving for a better understanding of ourselves."
Have a great week!

THE END.

XOXOXOXO

-Сестра Ро