Week 68- AUGUST- Awkward & Awesome In Kiev Ukraine

AWESOME

• When your Zone Leader appoints you as District Leader for the day and the entire district texts you telling you that they are home. Is this what power feels like?
• Scarfing down Sharma and a banana right outside the house of your lesson, nothing like meaty, pickled carrot, banana breath for a lesson on the Plan of Salvation
• When members call US and invite US over for a lesson! And all after only sending a simple, "Happy Anniversary! Hope your day is full of love!" text. It really goes to show what little acts of kindness really can do. (READ: FOLLOWING UP. This is where true missionary work comes from!)        
• When you investigator is progressing great! Progressing investigators are great!
• When you have a big empty chunk to your day that destiny would not allow you to fill up (aka everybody you call tell you ,"No") and happen to have the perfect amount of time to go and say goodbye to Sister Anderson.
• Learning that PROGRESS=PERFECTION (in our own sphere)
• While others plan weddings and baptisms on their mission we are trying to get sweet girls to break up with their punk boyfriends
• Introducing Ukrainians to the delicious art of SMORES
• When you have a good classic "bad" day: 5 seconds outside and saying "Good Evening" to a woman and getting cut off with a big and bold "DASVIDANYA!" 5 minutes later getting splashed by gutter water while standing at a crosswalk, and while sitting on a bus making a girl so scared she ran out of the bus dropping her wallet along the way, and then accidently contacting your way to Maidan (forbidden for missionaries) and then getting, once again, gutter splashed on the way home. Good day.

AWKWARD

• Body pains of being a missionary
• Asking a taxi driver if he has a family and him replying, "Why? YOU WANNA MARRY ME?!" 
• When the pay for youth in Ukraine is on the verge of employment abuse. 100 greiven a day= $8 a day= $1 an hour, oh but don't forget you get to eat one whole corn on the cob for the day. 
• When a Provoslavnic priest blesses you with a sprinkling of holy water on your way over the metro..."Oh! and thank you for that refreshing splash in the eye."
• Washing the dishes and lifting a plate to find a big fat soggy dead cockroach chilling out in some soggy bran flakes
• Fishing out a big fat soggy dead cockroach with two spoons. One to catch, one to nudge it in the right direction
• When you're sitting with one of your English students listening to an Elder tell a story about scars he received but can't show due to the location (upper right shoulder) and then hearing her yell, "STRIP! WHOO!" And proceed to attempt to laugh the awkwardness right out of the room...
• When it's actually painful to wake up
• When a fellow missionary's face gets bit by a dog...
• When your having a lesson in a beautiful forest and begin to testify and have a spider crawl on your shoulder
• When homeless people in Kiev start to cause an unstable situation by throwing riots when militia tries to clear them out of Maidan
• Considering to cancel Sports Night due to the bomb threat down in the metro...

Random color shot....this is me and Liza! Just walked up to her in the Metro one day, and now visit her once a week because she is no longer able to come to English due to employment abuse

On the job.

It's a short one this week, speaking of weeks....have a great one!

XOXOXOXOXO
-Cестра Po

Week 67- AUGUST-Crunchy Socks

Now for all of those who know the classic black and white Three Stooges, you'll know what im talking about. If you don't, repent and watch. Do you remember the episode when the three stooges are working in a drycleaning shop busilly ironing away, wearing holes into into pants rubbing away at "sun spots", or trying to flatten a pair of pants that rolls up like a fruit roll up because it got stuck in the pull down window shade. This is really all beside the point, what I'm focusing on is the socks. There was a scene when a pair of socks were so stiff with starch that they thudded to the ground like a pair of cement blocks still holding the shape of a foot. This is the 1 second scene that pops into my head every time i put on or take off my own crunchy socks. It's gotten to the point that i can't even wash my socks because by the time i would need them they wouldn't be dry (i suppose the consequence of having only one pair of socks left) and every evening, when we come home is filled with that same stiff "THUD" sound.

Call me a broken record, but goodness I'm tired. But it's OK, "Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great." (D&C 64:33) Sister Robertson and I just have to laugh when all our bodies want is a nap and we have to tell ourselves we will get that needed nap in 4 or 5 days, depending on how soon Monday is. In 4 days time i will be on my 15 month mark on the mission, how time flies! Seriously these past 2 or 3 weeks have been some of the fastest! Oh, and how do you know that you companion is on her last transfer of her mission? When she tries jumping across you to get a pen on the other side of the room and it sounds a warehouse of bubble wrap exploding. Never in my life have i heard so many "pops" and "cracks" coming from one body frame.

So starting last Monday i was going through a serious "Growing Up" crisis! Email after email of updates and people moving on and growing up in life seriously popped my bubble of "life is just as i left it." Which meant that certain people weren't married, certain  people didn't have mission calls, certain people were still living in the same homes, had the same jobs, certain best friends weren't getting sun friend and in every bike disaster possible serving a misson in Argentina, certain people weren't in hospitals, certain little sisters didn't have boyfriends they were adorably in love with, certain people weren't going to college, or getting pregnant, or a certain little brother to me was still walking shirtless around the house eating smoothies with protein powder, not serving the Lord for two years in Tonga!

To be honest i still feel like an 18  year old Senior in high school! Waiting to go home and go break the frozen yogurt record with a night on the town with my best friends. It was one of those moments i just wanted to pick up my life and put it all in Never land, so that life would stop growing up without me. So all you people who are a part of my life. Stop it. You're freaking me out.

You know, it also has been a blessing to have been almost literally ripped out of your life and placed into another. It's an opportunity to actually look onto your life and see the fixes you want to  make. Things you wished you would have done, things you wished you hadn't, and now the things you will do, and the things you wont. It's a time to readjust, and really come to appreciate the blessings you took for granted in what was just everyday normal life, because...well, we didn't know anything different!

INTERMISSION: A man selling a hammock on the side of the highway.

So the word "CHANGE" was on my mind, and i went searching for help and answers, and i came across "The Transforming Power of Faith and Character" by Richard G. Scott. It wasn't the word "CHANGE" but seeing how Transformers were pretty professional changing from a pimped semi truck into a massive, ammo loaded, 4 limbed, talking machine filled with fire to save the Earth from death and destruction, it seemed like the next best thing.

I was worried that i would go home to a life that wasn't even my own anymore and go home with nothing but better intentions and desires. I was wanting help in forming actions from desires, and habits from action. I realized that i was defining the meaning of building CHARACTER.

FAITH and CHARACTER are intimately related, and they work to strengthen one another. The more character you have, the more faith you have. The more faith you have, the more character you have. We already know that faith is hope in action. As Joseph Smith said, "Faith is the principle of action and power." So what is CHARACTER? From my studies this is my personal definition. CHARACTER is you "inner" personality woven by countless consistent decisions (be they bad or good) that create who you are. It is when things become "natural" to you that they are woven into your character. So how do you build character? I liked this quote, "We BECOME what we want to BE by consistently BEING what we want to BECOME each day." In other words, "You fake it till you make it." Another great way of forging CHARACTER is to simply, LOSE YOURSELF. This is struggled with for a little bit, being so worried about myself, but there is such truth to, "You find yourself by losing yourself."And to be perfectly honest, it's refreshing!

OK, one more little rant and then I'm done on this subject. "Noble CHARACTER is like a treasured PORCELAIN made of select raw materials, formed with FAITH, carefully crafted by consistent righteous ACTS and fired in the furnace of uplifting EXPERIENCE. It is an object of great BEAUTY and PRICELESS worth." I just loved that because it captured the  heart of the ceramicist inside of me.

OK, so what has this week been like for Sister Roe?

This week was exchange week and i was back with Sister Hardy! It was a fast one, but that didn't stop us from having a great lesson with an inactive member who just doesn't see that to love God is more than just saying it but showing it through daily actions, or stopping us from seeing someone walking their pet ferret which gave us an excuse to stop a woman asking simple, "Umm how do you say THAT in Russian?" which turned into one of the most pleasant friendly on the street conversations I've ever had. It also didn't stop us from buying delicious peaches on the way home from a street vendor starting up friendly "fruit" conversation. Seriously if you want to talk fruit or weather with anyone in Russian, i am your girl. Also, a large leap was made on my athletic scale that night as i, for the first time ever, HULA HOOPED! And this wasn't some wimpy hallowed plastic circle, this was a fellow sisters workout hoop which she likes to call The Hoop of Hell Death" which is seriously the most deathly intense hoop Ive ever seen. I still to this day don't understand the point of it being lined with hard bumps but my entire upper torso is still bruised.

Our English class has been completely transformed and I'm happy to announce that ever companionship in our district, as a result, had a new investigator at church on Sunday! And to think all it took was plate full of brownies and juice. The power of food. It's almost disgusting how well it works.

Sister Robertson and I joined the Elders for a service trip out to the cellos for some service! The Elders chopped at a tree with good ol' fashioned axes while we sweated under the blaze of the sun weeding out the pumpkin patch. Now how it usually happens is that you just barely get started into the knitty gritty of service when you are being called in to eat, and you usually end up eating double the amount of food that you actually worked for. SO, with that in mind, i didn't give myself warm up time and dug right down into that pumpkin patch full throttle. By george i was going to earn that бутерброд (booterbrod= open faced sandwiches)! Now something you should know...Sister Lukach, the member who "hired" us is a professional photographer so after our feast of cucumbers, tomatoes and slices of meat on bread we had a.....photo shoot!

The most adorable couple in Ukraine. Can you believe they only married 20 years ago?! She was lying out on the beach when we walked up to her saying, "What a woman!" Now that's true love right there.

We put a new meaning to the phrase, "Thrust in your sickle"

American PUNCH!

#compstudy after service

Thursday was a great night when we went over to visit some new members to our ward who were living in another members empty home, as they just recently left their home due to the rising danger in Donetsk. Ludmilla and Vladimir and what an amazing couple these two are! They both have such amazing talent, ludmilla is an amazing violinist, raising all three of her daughters in the art, and Vladimir is a religious poem writer, finding his inspiration soon after his baptism into the church. Sister Robertson and I had a thought prepared for them, but the evening drew out into just filling the home with music and poetry which just filled the room with the spirit, better than our thought would have i dare say. Sitting there while listening to Ludmilla play the violin i actually started to cry just thinking of all they are going through. They don't know when they'll go back home, or if they will even have a home if they ever go back. An even greater love for these people grew and such a gratitude to be able to enter the homes of these amazing people who others around the world only watch the news about, and that love motivates me more and more each day.

A classic walk to the metro past the street vendors. Boxes of fruit, veggies, or raw meat, they got it

It has been a HOT week this week! And on our way to the metro i couldn't believe that i was actually starting to see crunchy leaves on the sidewalks! What the....where did summer go?! Speaking of the metro....Sister Robertson and I were just about to get on the escalator going down when our phone started to ring, and knowing that we always lose service underground i pulled to the side to stop and answer the phone. Well....Sister Robertson was completely oblivious to this and got right on. It was just a few seconds later that i all of a sudden heard a lot of commotion coming from the escalator and saw some fool, no joke, running UP the DOWN escalator! Yup, that was my companion. She was plowing and pushing and tackling like a football player with fire in her eyes. Too bad for me that fire was directed directly at me...
Had a cool moment yesterday when we were going on the hunt to track a building and "accidentally" track into a couple from our English class. We realized we really didn't have time, turned the corner...and ran strait into our couple! The creepiness didn't end when Sister Robertson and i would sit on opposite ends of the bus, but facing each other, so that we could broaden the range of victims. You even want to be a stalker spy...go on a mission.

I had the most pleasant surprise and Alex and Kingsly from Brovary came and joined our sports night! It was a little blast from the past and so nice to see them again! Speaking of Brovary, Sister Anderson, my companion from Brovary called and told me that she will be on a plane home on Wednesday. For the past few months her symptoms of dizziness have been getting worst and they have yet to  pinpoint the problem. I am so sad to see such an amazing missionary go. Seriously, she was a better example of a missionary in her short time serving than it takes for a full time missionary to reach by the end of their mission. She was born a missionary, probably came out with a name tag. And as her trainer, i was honored to be trained by her.

A crisp morning view from our back window

So as I'm still on the hunt of building character, can you do me a favor? I once asked for your help in pointing out my strengths, but can you help a sister out and direct me to my WEAKNESSES? Don't worry, this sister can handle it. I know I'm a lot harder on myself than needs be, and would like to get your opinion.

Oh and here's a new Mormon Message for you about THE HOPE OF GOD'S LIGHT. Every day more and more hearts are hummbled and prepared, so let's let that light shine bright, and yes, even bless the hot dogs.

The church is true people, it's a pretty awesome thing that there is NOTHING in your life, no concern, doubt, question, or trial in your life that this gospel can't help you with. 

Enjoy your week and SHOUT OUT TO TALLSKI AND HER 17TH BIRTHDAY!!!

XOXOXOXO
-Сестра Ро

Week 66- July- Lauvf, Truuue Lauvf, Lauvf Is Whaut Bwings Us Togetha Today

You know, love really is that binding element that this world just needs, And this week i got a good taste of it. I kid you not, Ukrainians are the most compassionate people on the planet. Example #1: Last Monday we got a personal invitation to leave our area and have FHE with my favorite little family in Borshagovsky, my first area of my mission. How she managed for form such a lasting love for a socially awkward Russian speaker such as myself i will never understand, but I'll take it. She told us not to bring anything, so of course we completely ignore her wishes and bring her a Roshan torte. I don't know if you heard but the new President of Ukraine is THE Roshan, the maker of the most popular chocolate company in Ukraine. It somewhat explains how over half the population are missing over half of their teeth...

Now there are two types of Roshan cakes. The delicious kind with the decadent chocolate frosting in between layers of fluffy sponge cake. And then there's the what i like to call, "THE DIABETES." Which is nothing but sugar and a Ukrainian version of Crisco mixed together, held together with slabs of  egg white sugar styrofoam. Top it with a layer of 3" frosting and shredded chocolate and you got yourself a Roshan torte. Ukrainians go mad for this thing. However, knowing i was going to be eating the cake, i went for the fluffy sponge cake. Well, at least i thought i did until the cake was getting cut into and as soon as i heard that first sugar Styrofoam "CRUNCH" the horror hit as all i thought was,"....Oh no...what have i done?" Oh, and another thing about Ukrainians and their torte: there are no leftovers. Mom and dad...im in high need of a dentist. I swear weight loss is nothing but a dream as for every bran of bran flakes i eat in the morning there is a slice of Roshan torte as big as my face just waiting for me in the future. On the bright side though we all got a good laugh and ab workout as i messed up the word "write" and "pee" which happen to be only one reflex different. "...when you study and 'write' out your thoughts, and look back and study what you 'read', i promise the Lord will bless you and you will feel an ever great desire to 'write' as you study from the scriptures."

Compassion case #2: We had a lesson with an inactive member of our church and saw that though she is struggling with money, and living in a 3 room apartment, she has taken in a woman and her daughter who have left their home in Donetsk. This woman has never met missionaries before and was fascinated by us. I'm telling you, the Lord's had is over this, He knows what He is doing.

Compassion case #3: Walking home we happened to come across a VERY drunk man who was swerving right and left at a very dangerous rate. Not a single soul was mad that he cut them off or bumped into them, i even heard a woman saying she was worried he would fall, then when he began to fall two or three men went over to help lift him up and safely put him somewhere where he can sit. When i saw his face, it was not what i expected. I expected a swollen and puffy beat up face, but instead i saw such a kind face, drunk yes, but i could just see that this man needed help. I wondered, "what in your life are you trying to drink away?" It's so sad to see the life style that these people have accepted, what their "standard" is, which makes it all the greater to lift their eyes a little and see what God really intends them to be and wants them to have!

Compassion case #4: A new family who left their home in Donestk just moved into the ward and are now currently living in a home of another member who gave their home over while they lived in their summer cottage. Their homes are not much, but whatever they have they will give. 

Compassion case #5: A sister in relief society made a cake for the entire relief society just to say "thank you" for all the love that she has felt from them since she was baptised into the church

Me and "Toothpick" He has a growth deficiency and is actually 5 years old, but he's a mad Frisbee player

Had a really tough day this week, a day i would rather not remember, but let's just say there was a moment when i just had to sit on a bench at a bus stop and cry. I testify that missions test you to the limit in every extent possible. 

But it's always darkest before the light, and one day as we were returning home after a morning pulling weeds with the Elders (a babushka hurt her leg and she paid us in the form of...you guessed it, cake. Except it was homemade and i guess she ran out of frosting so just used smetana (sour cream) instead of frosting) and we got a text from one of our English students asking us if we could meet that night to talk about who Heavenly Father is! You would think it would be a pretty simple subject but we spent a whole lesson just talking about the character of a loving Father in Heaven, and we now have a new investigator! She has actually done a lot of research on the church, admitting she had read a lot of good but also bad, but she chose to believe the good just from the feeling that she gets from the church and the people there, and also found it very interesting after noticing our prayers were different every time and that they weren't read prayers. 

This week was also the ending of a transfer and the beginning of another, so i am officially into Transfer 10 of my mission, to think that i only have 2 more after this blows my mind. And it was really sad to see a good chunk of a really close district leaving, but I'm also super excited to see what this new transfer will bring. President Packer has assigned the Assistants to serve in our area, saying that the Perchersky district will be the "example" district  to the entire mission. It's a bit of pressure, but let's bring on the miracles!

BEST DISTRICT IN THE WORLD

Farewell Elder Bro!

Farewell Elder Hale!

Farewell Sister Nikogosyan!

Sister Nikogosyan LOVES sharks and her favorite color is yellow so this is what she got from me in her friendship book

That awkward moment when you are running toward the open metro doors thinking that they are going to close at any second and ram into a wall of humans, and then end up standing and waiting there for the doors to shut...

Another "face palm" moment was when at long last Sister Robertson and I planned a lesson that just so happened to be right next to the Bible store. We have been trying to get our hands on a Russian Bible for months and so when we showed up and saw that it was closed i can't deny that i may or may not have had a freak out "cursing" moment right there on the steps of the bible store. Yes, the "F" word....."Freaking." I repented and quickly gathered myself when i saw the worker approaching the shop coming back from his lunch break. 

I am proud to say that the mission really has made me into a professional stalker. A girl walked past with the best perfume i had ever smelt and a whole lot of potential and before i knew it i was on the prowl. Speed walking to catch up, stopping when she stopped to buy some gum, bought water as we waited for her to come out of a electronic store, standing next to her on the metro, and then "boom" attack. What a Sister missionary does to save souls and find a new perfume...

"Gullivers" not even a block away from the church

Sister Robertson and I had a little adventure to a Ukrainian hospital for her knee appointment, it was actually quite nice, except that wrote on her paper with crayon...and i quote, "Me- Ok, so where do we need to go? Rob-"I don't know they wrote it on my paper" Me-......."is that....crayon?" Rob- *scratching sound on paper*.....yup."

On the way home there was a girl head bobbing so bad that you could have placed her right in a hard rock concert and she would have looked right at home. The poor thing. So i talked to her using the most creative phrase i could come up with, "Are you tired?" Hey, it worked!

There was another really neat moment on the metro. I was just standing there when i saw a girl in a floral dress catch my attention more than usual. I took that as a prompting to talk to her, so i was just making my way over when the girl moved and got off of the next stop! I was pretty bummed at missing the opportunity when i made eye contact with the woman who was sitting down and who i happened to move right in front of. I started up a convo asking if she knew who we were and she said she had no idea but could see that we believed in Christ and that was enough to smile about. It was a bummer when i heard that she actually doesn't live in Kiev but going home to the Czech Republic in two days, so i handed her a Mormon.org card and a pamphlet, telling her to get in contact with the missionaries there, and just have the best feeling about her. God works in mysterious ways and im confident that that woman was placed in our path.

Sister Roberston and I went to the temple on Saturday feeling we needed a little temple time, and i ran into Sister Parish and Gillespie who are now companions!

MTC Sisters united!

A quick trip to Dominoe's on the way home....well of course i didn't forget to advertise Mormon.org (bottom left hand corner)

HOME SWEET HOME.
(Topmost right hand corner is the balcony to our bedroom where we dry our clothes)

This.....this is true love. Lemon chocolate ice cream and pistachio. 

It's been a great fast week this week! Full of trials and learning! I hope you can all learn a little something about compassion this week and apply it in your lives. "We must remember that those mortals we meet in parking lots, offices, elevators, and elsewhere are that portion of mankind God has given us to love and serve. It will do us little good to speak of the general brotherhood of mankind of we cannot regard those who are all around us as our brothers and sisters" -Spencer W. Kimball

"Of all sad words of tongue or pen, 

the saddest are these:

'It might have been'"

"I have wept in the night 

For the shortness of sight

That to somebody's need

made me blind;

But I never have yet

Felt a tinge of regret

For being a little too kind"

I have full and absolute confidence the Lord's hand is over Ukraine and that compassion are stronger than you think!

XOXOXOXO

-Сестра Ро