Week 52- APRIL-Христос Воскрес!

 Well hey there P-day! Another week gone...has it really been a week since we fed our new converts Alex and Kingsly our our special Salt Mayonnaise Peppered Banana Bread? It was pretty brilliant if you ask me. We were trying to prove our point that a life without following a recipe will not have good results. Plus we had the benefit of seeing their faces when they took the first bite. Poor Kingsly, bless his heart, downed a whole piece, then asking to excuse himself for some water only to then hear disgusted spewing and sputtering from the kitchen. They got the point. Life is just better when we have a recipe, but then Alex brought up a good point. "But i have had lots of delicious food without following a recipe." But what about this? Would you mix mayonnaise with bananas? Would you add a half cup of salt to just a couple teaspoons of sugar? It's all about balance and what you mix with what? In order for something to taste good the ingredients must compliment each other, and too much of one certain ingredient can spoil an entire batch! Do you see the message here? Or do i need to send you a special batch of banana bread?

So this week he had a special mission conference with not only the 3 zones of the Kiev mission, but the additional 96 missionaries from Donetsk! The Donetsk mission has officially been adopted into the Kiev mission, making our missionary force double to over 200 missionaries. Some missionaries living with up 6 to an apartment! Sometimes when you are off and away in your little area tucked away in the upper north corner of Ukraine you can feel very similar to a speck. Yes, a speck. But then when all of the Lord's servants come together united in purpose it's like we become this mass spiritual blob!

There's the big man himself....wow, i just realized how that this is bordering stalker status...

It was our first time seeing President Klebingat since seeing him on the big screen, and the man even gave us a personal tour of his process of being called to the 1st Quorum of the Seventy, with a the aid of snuck pictures. He would. Couldn't help but laugh as i see that sister missionaries are still managing to rock some sense of style as i still work the flipped backwards necklace, crotch sag tights, and realizing that the new "perfume" that i had been wearing was in face spray deodorant. It now explains all the strange looks we got as Sister Anderson and I sprayed the variety of, what we now know to be deodorant, on our necks and wrists to test the scents. Now i don't know if i smell good or if i just smell like an armpit.

All thoughts of smelling like a tropical armpit flew from my mind as i was reunited with Sister P! I've never been of those who needs a million friends, and it's interesting how one can feel a tad bit lonely in a mass of 200, but being reunited with her...well, i think the 5 minutes Ive been stuck here thinking of how to describe it explains how indescribable it is. Wow, did this become some sappy love story or what?

 During this time of intense trials and growth, and i still testify to the fact that i will be coming how as just one big stretch mark, the Lord blesses us with times of being able to "see" more clearly. The best way i can explain it is having your vision being blurred by veil upon veil and having one of those veils being pulled up to allow you to see just a little more clearly. Like one morning i was studying for a lesson we had with a recent convert, and i was worried he was overwhelmed by the expectations of a new member of the church and the inadequacies that punk Satan likes to emphasis in our heads. So i pulled out a talk by President Klebingat himself called, "Be Ye Therefore Perfect...Happily." And reading how wonderfully realistic Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's expectations of you really are. He says ,"My heart goes out to conscientious Saints who because of their shortcomings, allow feelings of depression rob them of happiness in life...You will be depressed and your faith weak if you expect of yourself eternal perfection, like God is in His sphere, when mortal perfection is what you should strive for in your sphere."  So don't beat yourself up for feelings of the natural man. They're called the natural man because that's what they are...NATURAL. They're normal, necessary, and part of God's plan. They are not evil and do not make you bad, it's what you choose to do with them that counts. How will you feed them? How will you act? Go with the flow or swim against the current? I've sometimes thought, "What's wrong with me?" or, "If I didn't feel this way I would be stronger, it's my weakness that brings this upon me." Not. True.
"Each of you can indeed be perfect now and today by doing as well as YOU know how." Don't. Compare. "Constantly wallowing in your own shortcomings is prideful and reflects a lack of understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ...I wonder everyday if what i am doing and how i am doing it is really my best, but i don't beat myself up over it...Heavenly Father has planted within each of s seeds of divine discontent to prevent us from becoming stagnant and comfortable." It's times like these that i realize why President was called to the 70.
One of my sisters also helped me this week as she suggested a talk that i should read which told a story of how a gardener went out to prune a current bush that over time had grown but also bore no fruit, and the gardener, knowing what needed to be done to get the bush to bear fruit pruned it down to nothing but a stump. Then seeing this stump, and as us Mormons are really good at finding life learning lessons in inanimate objects, this is what happened next...
Gardener- "What's the matter current bush? What are you crying about?
Current Bush- "How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. I was almost as large as the fruit tree and the shade tree, and now you have cut me down. And all in the garden will look upon me with contempt and pity. How could you do it? I thought you were the gardener here."
Gardener- "Look, little current bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what i want you to be. If I let you go the way  you want to go, you will never amount to anything. But someday, when you are laden with fruit, you are gong to think back and say, "Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for cutting me down, for loving me enough to hurt me." 
To make this easier you can just watch the Mormon Message: THE WILL OF GOD
This transfer is soon coming to an end and i don't think i could find a better life learning lesson from an inanimate object to describe this past transfer if not the past 5 months i have spent in Brovary. You can defiantly say i felt i was "stump" status, but over this time i have felt growth. The speaker goes on to say, "Whatever undertakings may demand of you and your attention...you can not make a better resolution than this: I am going to understand Him better, and understanding Him, I will understand myself and will try to put my life into harmony with His."

Easter morning was just about the most beautiful morning I had ever seen, and the walk to church was like a slice of peaceful heaven. Not a soul could be seen for a while and all you could hear were birds chirping, but then the further into the park we got we could hear the faint sounds of angelic singing, but not any kind of angelic of singing, it was the kind of angelic singing like you would hear if you were to find the holy grail. It got louder and louder and we soon began to see that there were people all walking towards the golden domed cathedral with their wicker baskets filled with their паска bread to go and be blessed before eating. I can't stress how much i love the Ukrainian culture here

ПАСКА

 I love church on an Easter morning. Us Sisters performed a musical number in Ukrainian for all our dear branch members, including the Clark family who came for the first time in over two months! I have never been so happy to see a family come to church! Not only that but we had a baptism for the son of my dear Ukrainian uncle! With the addition of the Donesk missionaries our transfer info has been postponed, so i don't know yet what will happen, but with Stake Conference next Sunday i shouldn't be surprised if this was my last Sunday with my Brovary branch...

OK, here are some moments for ya:
AWESOME

• Being told you texted at just the right time
• Finally getting our sink fixed! We at long last said farewell to the bucket! For the past two weeks, and after a failed attempt of our landlady sticking literal sticks she pulled off the tree outside to unclog our sink, we have had a bucket under the drain that the water goes strait into, and every time the bucket gets full we just dump it in the toilet.
• Learning how to make potato vereniki. Prepare yourselves family, your taste buds are going to explode.
• Reading the Book of Mormon in English with one of your English students and him pronouncing "Yea" as "YEAH-YUH"
• This may be strange but those moments when you're tracting and you get ignored, rejected, get shut down through a closed door, get a slammed door after a, "hello" it's just one of those moments when you like, "Cool, I'm a missionary!"
• Getting asked out on a park date by your potential investigator babushka and chit chatting on a bench over a meal of homemade hot and steamy mystery meat blinchiki
• Popcorn trees and Spring, whoever does not like Spring is either blind or a fool
• When it's Easter here in Ukraine you can be walking and say "Христос Воскрес!" (Christ is risen!) to a random stranger and getting an equally vibrant "Воистину Воскрес!"(It's true! He's risen!) in return
• Big hair photo shoots

AWKWARD

• Smelling like an armpit
• Getting hit on my 3 different drunk men all within 30 minutes
• Drunk men with greasy comb overs saying, "Come to me." Ew, icky
• When you are dreaming...about sleeping. Yeah, im that tired
• Not understanding that the congregation was only singing the first and second verse of the hymn and as a result giving a very individualized loud one note of the third verse
• Playing with a stray pack of pups and giving them as much patting, and petting, and nuzzling, and baby talk you can muster and then watch them cheerfully run their way back to.......eating a half rotted dead pigeon.....

By the way, how is your Preach My Gospel reading going? Pray for missionary opportunities people! Thank you for all of you who shared what you thought my spiritual gifts are! You get a big fat A+

XOXOXOXO
-Сестра Ро

Week 51- APRIL-Because Of Him

Well i did have some ridiculous title planned for you but because of recent events and still trying to recover from the seizure of chills i just got from watching the recent BECAUSE OF HIM addition in honor of Jesus Christ and the Easter holidays in celebrating the most miraculous and beautiful moment on Earth i just wanted to give this piece of art the spotlight. Sorry cheesy title, guess you're just gonna have to wait for next week.

I hope you watched it. And then again. And again. And again. Can i even explain to you how much i love my Savior and all that He has done for me? An impossible task. To calm down your own chill seizures ill go ahead and tell you about my week. Good gosh it's been a long week. Funny some of the hardest weeks go by the fastest and what seem to be some of the best seem to be an enternity. The hard days seem to travel at snail pace, and the easy days seem to just slip between your fingers like a slimy frog you just found and decided to adopt as a outdoor pet for the space of 30 seconds. His name is Maskeemovich. 

I couldn't help but laugh as we were out contacting and after facing another denial hearing Sister Anderson say, "Wow, that was a very nice denial. I like that man." When you can appreciate someone just by the rate of harshness of the denial you know you're serving in Ukraine. Thoughs of my setting apart blessing have been popping into my head a lot this week, the particular term of "seed planter." For most of my mission i have been wanting crops, "grow baby GROW!" were always my thoughts! Sometimes i would think that i just don't have that green thumb to missionary work, but  now i can feel the Lord softening my heart. If i bee a seed planter so be it, i'll sow where i walk, and have a heck of a harvest in the next life!

 Things were shaken up a little bit and this week we were actually dogged by one of babushki members, all is well in Zion though because during the walk of "Shut doooown" i got some pictures. Always a good pick me up.

A Ukrainian Soviet Workout Playground

I am still trying to find the moment where i can capture the babushki in action on these things, they work this equipment a lot better than me i assure you

Our Clark adventure this week was filled with a lot of dirt, a lot of shoveling, and a lot of.....alien embryos. At least that's what im betting my money on. There is no other explanation to explain these things....

This week i hit my 11 month mark! Time is a funky thing on the mission. Can't decide whether to say it is flying by or that it's been an enternity since i've had a Cafe Rio burrito. I celebrated by befriending an entire of bench of babushki, diving into an amazing talk called "The Fourth Missionary", recieving news that we would be recieving the entire population of missionaries from the Donesk mission as they have all been evacuated due to civil unrest (in just one day we DOUBLED our missionaries!), and then by throwing a Movie Night! It was such a success! It sparked an interest in one father who's wife is a member (helloooo enternal family!) and brought in quite a few others! Nothing like a good blinchiki buffet and a can of whip cream to bring eternal salvation to mankind.

In celebration of inheriting two new elders, Elder Rice and Elder Lubeck we grabbed our most recent convert Kingsly and took a district field trip to the temple! And get this....we were allowed to do baptisms! Rumor had it that it wasn't allowed for missionaries but with a little arm twisting there are now 45 baptized souls on the other side of the veil. I also learned something at the temple. If you want to look 10 years younger just put yourself in a baptisimal suit and top it with a fluffy white scrunchie.

We made a pit stop at Ocean Plaza, just about the fanciest mall on the planet. Seriously America, Ukraine has got you beat big time. But still supporting the American pride within we feasted down on some KFC.

THE CHICKEN BUCKET

The traveling home is one of my favorite parts

Last night we stopped by our dear Sister Oksana who is an inactive with a husband who is not quite there, but she has the kindest heart and did not hesitate to embrace us, literally, and teach us the ways of knitting. I don't really remember much about those moments, just a lot of hot breathing in my ear....

And here's the best part of the week! General Conference! We settled ourselves down and feasted on banana and nutella blinchiki and the words of the Lord! Given to us by our prophet Thomas S. Monson and his apostles. I couldn't even tell you my favorite talk, but the Sunday Morning Session was to die for. As soon as i get this sent i am finding those babies and printing them off.  Uchtdorfs talk on gratitude, Ballard's talk on following up and the importance of Preach My Gospel, oh my gosh i loved it! EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU SHOULD OWN A PREACH MY GOSPEL. That's your challenge. And i WILL follow up. Oh, and remember the words from our prophet and LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR. Believe me, im working on it too.

On another sick day for Sister Anderson i hunkered down with some as close as you can get to a Chips Ahoy cookie and some Russian textbooks. Sister Anderson has been to the hospital twice this week, she has had two MRC scans, and has visited with a nerophycologist. We're not quite sure what is going on but the doctors are pin pointing all her dizziness and headaches and lack of energy on her "little brain" i thought this was a mean "dumb" joke until i realized who was the dumb one and found out that we have infact have a large and small brain. Hmmmm....learn something every day.

Can i ask you for something? Just a little favor for Sister Roe. Would you mind emailing me this week at allison.roe@myldsmail.net and tell me what spiritual gifts YOU think I have? Other Sister have done this and my first opinion was, "Come now, must we really ask for compliments?" But curiousity has hit and now i wonder what others may see that i can not. Come on now, look into those eyes and try to say no.

Happy Easter!

XOXOXOXO

-Сестра Ро

Week 50- APRIL- From The Inside Out

I just have my fingers crossed that this email doesn't disapear without a trace just like two of my others, may they rest in peace
Well hasn't this been a tough but fast six days? I say six because last P-day we weren't even able to do our emails as Sister Anderson was sick and i spent my fulfilliny my duty as companion nurse caring for her as my greasy bangs are being held up with last resor office supplies because of unsolved case of the bobbypin thief. Even being indoors all day Ukraine never seems to give you a little culture shock as i looked out our kitchen window to see....an open coffin funeral service? It would appear so as i watched black cladded spectators, and a poor weeping dedushka (grandpa) weep over the open coffin as little children  watched as they walked home from school.
In celebrationg of April Fools i made a fool of myself in a Ukrainian version of Best Buy as i attempted to buy a new camera. All pride down the drain, and becoming a more and more of a professional of charades with each passing day, i walked out with a newly purchased camera! And let me tell you, it's a beauty! And just in time for exchanges too!
Our sister training leaders made the two hour trip to have a two day slumber party and exchange, and i got to spend an entire day preaching the gospel and digging up setting weed piles on fire, digging up strawberry plants and the occasional frog with her! She is such an awesome sister and a great example of hummble leadership. My favorite quote from her, "Im the kind of sister training leader that makes sisters love their companion when i leave."

This week has really been an up and down week with Sister Anderson and her health. For the past month it has been a roller coaster of staying inside, going outside for literally 3 seconds, getting a sniff of fresh air, and having to go back inside to have your companion collapse on her bed. This week held a particular strange day when all of Sister Andersons emotions gave in and after peeking in a room to see what appeared to be a sobbing rabid raccoon i scooted in our last chocolate bar, my jar of JIF peanut butter and put a "DO NOT DISTURB" sign on the door. Time, chocolate, and peanut butter...give me a time when a situation can't be fixed by these things. We still don't exactly know what the problem is but just this past week she went to the hospital in Kiev, coming back with a bag full of medications and still no solid diagnosis, as i was on a day split with Sister Winsor and the Elders learning how to plant potatoes!

With the weather warming up Ukrainians are catching the potato planting fever and so we pulled out our green thumbs and came to the rescue to help Sister Nina, a member of our branch, with the the dirty work. Turns out we were the ones needing help as Sister Nina climbed over fences twice her size, pushed wheel barrows five times her weight, and came up behind us fixing just about every potatoe hole we dug.
What do you get when you put a German, a New Zealander, and two Utahns around a slab of wood, call it table, and in the middle of the Ukrainian cellos? A Ukrainian tea party! Probably one of the most pleasant times of times of the mission knawing on chicken, mashed potatoes seasoned with melted sala, cracking walnuts with nothing but the pure muscles of our thighs, and sipping fresh from the bush mint tea.

Hermana Mathews i just got to tell you that i totally and completely understand that "puff" sounds you used to explain  yourself when you saw yourself in the mirror. Just the other day i pulled out my wallet to pay the marshrutka driver and Elder Roggow saw my drivers license and said,"....is that....you?" Yes, yes, the mission does wonders to you, as i stand there in my "traveling pants" that seem to fit me no matter how many Ukrainian bread treats i devour, and my running sneakers. The Sister Roe before her mission, who took the oath the never, no matter the circumstances, do such a thing, was shaking her head in disbelief and shame that day.

You know, God is a cunning God. I will never figure Him out. This week i have expecially gotten a feel that of what the the Lord tells  us in D&C 58:3-4, "Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.
For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory."
Now none of you know this but MY temple is the Provo tabernacle temple, and it's not even yet a temple! A little more than 3 years ago a fire gutted the interior of the historic tabernacle in Provo. Many wondered, "Why did the Lord let this happen? Surely He could have prevented the fire or stopped it's destruction." 10 months later, during the October 2011 conference President Monson announced that the destroyed tabernacle was to become a holy temple. Suddenly we could see what the Lord had always known! He didn't cause the fire, but He allowed the fire to strip away the interior. He saw the tabarnacle as a magnificent temple...the Lord allows us to be tried and tested, sometimes to our maxium capacity. We have seen the lives of loved ones-and mayve our own-figurativly burned to the ground and have wondered why a loving and caring Heavenly Father would allow such things to happen. But He does not leave us in the ashes...He is building our lives into magnificent temples where His Spirit can dwell eternally...the Lord has a plan for each of our lives. Nothing that happens is a shock or a suprise to Him. He is all-knowing and all-loving. He is eager to help us, to comfort us, and to ease our pain a we rely on the power of the Atonement and honor our covenants. The trials and tribulation hat we experience may be the very things that guide us to  come unto Him...and we bind the Lord to keep his promises when we keep our covenants to exercise our faith...but we sometimes, as woman, have a tendency to be very critical of ourselves. During these times we need to seek the Spirit and ask, "Is this what the Lord wants me to think about myself, or is Satan trying to beat me down?" Remember the nature of our Heavenly Father, whose love is perfect and infinite. He wants to build us up, not tear us down."
I could go on and quote the entire talk  (Claim the Blessings of Your Covenats) but i just know that the Lord is teaching me and preparing me for things i can't even see. I relate to my temple. From the day i heard that the tabernacle was going to be a temple i hopped into my Ford station wagon and drove downtown, parked my car, and just stared at that empty but soon to be transformed shell.And thanks to often updates from the pops i get to feel that me and my temple are being built up together! Ok, i guess im not quite done quoting this talk, ""Look unto God with firmness of mind, and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions...lift up  your heads and recieve the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love."...I testify of the strength and power of prayer as we express our deepest pains and desires to our Heavenly Father and of the answers that are recieved...and He has helped me to feel great peace about prayers that have not yet been answered."
My trails are not gone, infact i know that there are more ahead of me than i can even imagine. Some trials i have had and am going through now i still can't understand, but i feel the Lord teaching me that when all is said and done all Heavenly Father wants is for us to ove and trust Him more than anything else and in all that we do. Our times of trials are for us to depend and come closer to the Lord. Like my mom said, "Trust in the one who sent forth the winds and the waves." and embrace Moses 6:34, "Thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me."
And now for the big news....for any of you who were actually paying attention to the announcments of the new additions to the General Authorities you might have caught a name that sounded slightly familiar....does Jorg Klebingat ring a bell? Let me tell you it was caused quite an uproar as we were sitting watching General Conference to hear and then see OUR MISSION PRESIDENT taking his seat as one of the newest additions to the first quorom of the Seventy! He was a sneaky president, sneaking away on "vacation", but even he couldn't trick us. Little did he know that bets were going around the whole mission as to him becoming an addition to the 70. I mean come on, it's President Klebingat! Needless to say he is going to get a piece of me in his letter this week. Well that's my week for me! Im still a missionary under construction, but the Lord is working on me from the inside out, and fingers crossed the Lord starts working on the outside soon...

XOXOXOX
-Cectpa Po