Sister Beaudin got a transfer call :( She'll be leaving and I'll be getting a new companion this Thursday! Scary! But I'm grateful for the time we got to spend together here in 'little America." Best Buds forever :)
Speaking of little America. Today we did out grocery shopping at a supermarket that is basically Walmart. They have EVERYTHING! (including brown sugar!!!) SO we stocked up on some essentials and now our apartment really does feel like America. Probably not exciting to any of you, but I feel like the richest person in all Ukraine! :D
I guess since I haven't written much about this transfer at all I can talk about some of the highlights:
There was this man on our records named Alexay who was GOLDEN, but his number didn't work and when we stopped by his address they people there told us he didn't live there. All we knew were a few random facts about his family, like that he had a giant white dog. A week after we had given up hope, we were looking for someone else, and sat down on a bench outside this Dom to call and confirm our plans for the night. Just as the lady on the phone was cancelling on us, this giant white dog runs up and jumps into Sister Beaudin's lap. The man walking him was super nice to us and said, "are you the Mormons? Oh, how wonderful!" We asked his name, but I already knew the answer - it was Alexay! And by a total random coincidence, in a city of millions of people, he found US. Miracle of the transfer for sure.
Another highlight of this transfer was teaching a Muslim man. We taught him in Russian mostly because obviously we don't know Arabic and our Russian was a little better than his English. However, when we asked him to say the closing prayer, he asked if he could say it in Arabic. Of course!! Never thought I'd be able to hear someone just offer a prayer, in their own words, in Arabic. Somehow serving in Ukraine is like serving multi-nationally. Whenever we go to the Bazaar here, people from all different countries always come up to us and talk to us in English, its so cool.
We also had a really awesome Sisters conference (pictures soon to come). It was just like a giant sleepover with all the sisters in the mission at President and Sister Lochhead's house. 25 girls on one floor, ha ha. It was way fun though, despite the fact that I ate more than probably ever before in my life, and got pretty sick. But that didn't stop me from celebrating Halloween the next day! (Don't worry mom, after suffering an entire week from sugar withdrawals, I have improved my eating habits...)
We had another funny lesson with a man named Feodor. He has this vision of how to make the world a better place, and basically it is just to give to all the youth what our church has. He gave us his plan on how we could incorporate the society that our church has with good morals, activities, and education into the lives of these groups of young people he's working with. He even invited us and the member who came with us to speak at a seminar they're having soon! Ha Ha. I don't think he understood that our goal is the same... And I guess it really would be a perfect world if everyone had what the church does.
Well I will close there. More to come after transfers, I'm sure. I love you all and keep up the good work. Stay warm and stay happy and carry on!
Love always,
Sister Villerz
Selfy Sunday with Sister Beaudin
(and a photo bomb!)
