Trouble's a-brewin!

Hey there friends and fam! Long time no talk! ha ha... guilty. Sorry about that. But now I've finally got some good updates for y'all.

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!)

Nuff Said...

We did helping hands and saw tons of miracles. Nuff said.

(Okay we did more than that but not much- I promise to actually write a mass email update soon!!)

Love you!!

Just So...

Well, I am both pleased and dissappointed to report that there is not much to report on here. Still starting from scratch and doing LOTS of finding. But it's good - we're starting to get real creative with our approaches (handing out candy to kids on the street - that's not creepy is it??; going door to door with a restoration video - hey wanna watch this with us?? and one time I even saw this old guy with really long, curly hair and said hey! we're like twins. No better way to start a conversation with a hippie :) )

I'm really loving the area though - it's SO beautiful and it's just a completely different experience. AND best news of the century - almost all of the sisters in my MTC district are serving here! I got to see them all yesterday and the day before when we watched conference. Speaking of - WHAT A CONFERENCE. I'm kind of biased as a missionary and all, but I hope everyone got to see at least both the Saturday sessions. And you should all just watch them again, просто так.

Well I love you all and you are always in my prayers and thoughts and everything else that a person can be considered "in". Wow, I'm getting really weird...

Love you!!

Sister Willerth

Baby it's Cold Outside

Well it's begun. The snow started on the first of October. And there's no sign of it getting warmer from here. Bring on the winter!! I'll be spending the first half of it in....

KHARKOV!

That's right - been transferred to the promised land. I've heard so much about it since being here but I didn't realize how beautiful it was. It's a super old city, and during soviet times was the capitol of Ukraine - so it's really well developed too. It almost just looks like the rest of Europe! I love it. Also in my new area is "Barb"!! The second largest street market in the world! (next to somewhere in China). When we first got here, we spent the next day there getting winter clothes for the 2 brand new elders in our district (woo greenie power!!) and dear Sister Beaudin! My new companion is from Texas and I don't think she really knows what a winter is. Luckily she got to come to Ukraine THIS year, which is rumored to be the coldest for over 50 years. (of COURSE that would be the one winter I spend here...) More on her - she's just a transfer younger than I am on the mission, and she has an AMAZING voice, and she's a tiny little thing (4'11) with a great big personality. And so far we re getting along just fine :)

Little victories: People keep telling me I look Russian! It's that time of year again where I get reeeeeally really pale, and they just love it! ha! Take that to everyone who has ever made fun of me for how pale I am.

But what's even better than looking Russian is sounding Russian. I love it, because Ukraine is known for having kind of a lazy accent, so if they hear you speaking clean Russian, even if you have an accent, sometimes they think you're from Russia. It's especially good being here, because people always try ripping you off at the market when they know you're an American. Next goal - learn to barter like a Ukrainian!

As far as the missionary work, we're kind of starting from scratch... There wasn't too much happening in this area when I got here, but that's going to change real fast. It's a good opportunity to step up to the plate and see what I'm made of. And I'm excited to see what happens. I love my companion, I love our district, and I love this area. (I'll try really really hard to love the winter, too.)

Stay warm!

Love

Sister Willerth

P.S. Identity crisis! I am now known as Sister "uillerc". Hopefully that'll be a little easier for these people!

Before they turned the heat on in the city!

Matching Companion PJs

Whispers

Hi Fam!!

Big news first:
After 4 months in this area (and our 6 month anniversary on the mission - what?!) Sister Reece and I both received  a transfer call! We will be whitewashing out of Makeevka. At this time next week I will have a new area and companion!! I'm excited of course, but super bummed to leave Makeevka! Confession: for the first 2 months of my mission, I hated this area. (ha ha blogs private now so all the truth comes out!) But after time and learning independence and finding my own groove as a missionary, I absolutely fell in love with this area and the people here this transfer. I really thought I was going to stay here forever. So this week mostly consisted of saying some of the hardest goodbyes of my life... But, I guess the bright side is, that now I get to go meet even more people, that it'll be just as hard to say goodbye to. And such is the life of a missionary.

Turns out big news is only news because we're out of time already. But just a few highlights so you know that it wasn't a boring week:

We went to the doctor to get sister Reece's mole removed! Just she, I, and our trusty Russian-English dictionary! talk about an adventure - lets just say she's a lot braver than I am.

Got kissed by one of the guys from English club when we told him we weren't coming back. (Wow, I think that story is almost better without an explanation ha ha)

Well I love you all! Have a great week and I'll let you know about all the changed next week!

Love

Sister Willerth

P.S. I'd say you're making progress in a language when you can talk with someone in Whispers. Woo! Take that Russian!

I Have It All !!

The word "possess" in Russian is kind of funny - they use it in lots of ways. One of the most common ones is about talents and abilities. If you can't draw, you'd say "I don't possess it" or "I don't have it". If you want to ask someone if they can sing, or play the piano, you say - "Do you have it?"

This is how we were talking with our recent convert (and very favorite person) on the subject of our (still broken) refrigerator. She says "You are children! You don't possess to live without a fridge!"
"But YOU live without a fridge."
"I'm almost 100 years old - I have it all."

Of course, in this context, she was actually saying that she possess the ability to do anything, but I kind of like the second message - I'm almost 100 years old. I have it all! I think the same applies as I get more experienced on my mission.

After being in Makeevka for so long (and honestly, starting to feel like I would die in this area) this week I realized - I really wouldn't mind being here forever. I LOVE it here. I love the branch, I love the people, I love living in the Suburbs close to a big city - it reminds me of home. And as I finally get to a point where I can understand and communicate with people I realize - we have the coolest members in the ward! I've lived here for 4 months now, and they're my family! On Sunday we said hi to one of the members who always helps us and he just pulled us into a group hug before we could do anything about it. (And I thought I wouldn't hug a man for another year still.. psh.) Point is - I LOVE these people.

And on the subject of understanding people more now, I had a really cool experience the other day - we had a lesson with a less active in our branch and we didn't have a super solid plan what we wanted to teach yet. But talking to her about what was going on in her life, my mind kept going back to the exact thing I read during personal study. So that's what we shared with her. And because I understood what she was saying, I could relate it to her life and her situation. And it meant so much to her! I mean, the work will go on no matter what - we will never be perfect instruments and God will do with us what he needs to do. But finally feeling like you have some ability to personally contribute to the work - it's a good feeling! Never mind that it's only happening almost 6 months into my mission...

Woahhh 6 months?? Who said that! That can't be right?! Can anyone else believe how fast it's already gone?? That's it's almost October?? Conference is already next week. Whoa.

The weathers been getting cold here real fast and I'm already busting out the fleece tights and leggings!! Woo! I know I know, I'm probably babying myself and I'm in for a rude awakening when winter ACTUALLY comes, but I just hate the cold so much! Plus, it makes it really hard to do missionary work. People here are a tad bit superstitious so if it's cold or rainy they just don't even leave their house at all. If you get wet, you're wet all day! This happened with a member - we saw her and she explained how she couldn't come help us because she was wet.
"How'd you get wet?"

"I forgot my umbrella on the way back from work this morning."

"That was 5 hours ago - and you changed your clothes."

"Yes, but my spine is still wet."
ha ha ha okay okay whatever you say.

I love their ideas on these types of things. Everyone I talk to is SUCH a character, like they come right out of movies. And don't even get me started on all their ideas for sickness! I've had a cold for over a week now, and every one's got an idea on how to cure it.

Stay at home and don't get out of bed for 10 days!

Drink onion and sugar juice!

Smell garlic!

And then all other sorts of recipes and tea and remedies from tons of people. I'll keep you posted on what works best ;)

Well I hope every thing's going well and that the weather's warm there and that no one is sick or left handed! (bad omens, both.) I love you all, and don't forget your umbrellas!!

Love

Sister Willerth

We're going private

Just wanted to let everyone know that this blog is going private so contact me via email (willerth11@aol.com) if you are still interested in viewing Diana's posts.  Thanks