Week 15: Balloon Animals

Hello everyone! Our emails were down today so this will be a little shorter. But this week was so good!!

We did table contacting in the park this week and Elder Barlow can make balloon animals and so we handed them out to kids (it was a BIG hit) and then talked to their parents about the Family: A Proclamation to the World. It was awesome. People actually came up and took one of the copies without us even handing it to them. We also did table contacting another day and we talked to people about the Book of Mormon and gave out a lot of copies (and randomly saw an older couple that we had helped get a taxi last week because the wife had fallen and broken her wrist. They want us over for tea sometime now). We also made a dog friend while we were contacting and he was cute. He just chilled by our table for a while. He was a spiritually-sensitive dog haha.

Zeena finally found an apartment and our branch president helped her to move her stuff there and so now she has a job and an apartment so everything's good now, which is a big relief. When we met her at her work yesterday she told us how she always feels so light and happy when she's with us, and that God sent us to her. She is the sweetest lady!

On Saturday we had a lesson with Alina and her mom (she met us through english practice) and it was the best. In our personal study earlier in the day, Sister Larson felt impressed to talk about President Nelson's talk on receiving personal revelation. So we printed it off before we went to their house and before we even started our lesson, they both had a question about revelation and how we can receive it for ourselves and Sister Larson and I were in shock haha it was crazy! When Sister Larson pulled the talk out that exactly answered their question they were so blown away!! And then we had the most spiritual lesson I've ever been a part of and it was so so great. And then to top it all off, they have both set a baptismal date for the end of next month!! It was the best lesson. They are both so ready for baptism.

Other random stuff that happened:
-I gave my first talk yesterday. It was like 10 minutes and I was a little nervous, but I think it went ok! Sister Larson helped me a ton and the members were so nice about it afterwards (even though I know I butchered some words).

-There are a ton of bakeries in Odessa and we tried this new pastry at our favorite one and it's literally a sunday dinner mashed into a bun and it was delicous. It had chicken, mashed potatoes, onions, mushrooms and this gravy stuff and it was bomb. Sister Larson and I were very satisfied.

That is all for this week! I love you all and hope you have a wonderful last few days of February! Spring is almost here (even though it snowed here this week and was so so freezing and windy and felt like I was in the north pole)!

Love,
Sister Kropelnicki

Table contacting in the park with our dog friend

Week 14: Fasts and Night Trains

Hello from Odessa! I know back at home they're having crazy weather but here in Odessa it feels like spring and it's GREAT. People are out more and I almost don't have to wear my huge jacket everywhere!

This week's big miracles are brought to you by fasting haha. Zeena, one of our investigators that we found through our english practice asked us to fast for her on Tuesday to help her to find a job (we had already fasted on Sunday but I would literally do anything for that sweet lady so we fasted with her), and that SAME day she finally found a job!! It was such a miracle and now Zeena has 100% faith in fasting. She works close to our branch building in Odessa Center so we visit her whenever we're around there. She is the bestest babushka and I love her so much. She is learning english and I am learning russian and sometimes all I can do is tell her I love her and hug her and she will say "I love you too" in english with a big smile and in her thick Russian accent and it's the best.

Wednesday was a long day. We left Tuesday night for a training conference back in Dnepr (a 12-hour ride) and went straight to the mission office on Wednesday morning for meetings. It was great to see some of my MTC district and catch up with all of them. We talked about the hard parts and the great parts and it was really helpful for me. Sometimes I'll feel like my confidence level in myself and my abilities is not where it should be, but we talked about how our confidence is and should be in the Lord and is NOT dependent on how many people agree with us. It was really something I needed to hear. After our meetings (and some of Sister Wirthlin's bomb sugar cookies) we got back on a night train (kind of starting to hate trains now. Also people were 100% smoking on our train hahaha) and went back to Odessa. Sister Larson and I were SO tired Thursday haha, but we were busy so we didn't really have time to be tired!

We're teaching a less active member, Elma, and she is really awesome. She just randomly showed up to church last Sunday and we've been "practicing" our lessons with her and she said her first prayer with us in 3 years and the spirit was so strong. It's so cool to see even after years of being inactive, the spirit is just as strong, if not stronger with that person when they decide to come back.

We also taught some english at an orphanage/shelter (they showed us their turtles) for families and kids who have been displaced from Donesk, and we visited the beach (gave me some serious home vibes--I miss the ocean!) and visited some of our members. I've said it before, but we have the best members here. Sister Larson and I and the other Elders that are in our district sang "I Need Thee Every Hour" in sacrament in 3 languages (Elder Ospina is from Colombia so we sang in Russian, English and Spanish) and it was really good!

Random stuff:
-Shashleek (not sure how to spell it in english) is this delicious pastry they have here. Its seasoned chicken and potato wrapped in a croissant. I'm eating one as I email and its wonderful.
-Things here are so fresh. Their fruits and vegetables might not look the prettiest, but man they are SO good.They also have bagged milk here that you don't have to refrigerate which I'm still trying to figure out.
-We also found a really good shwarma place here and its right on the main street that we walk on and every time we pass, the owner pokes his head out the window and says HI!!!! super loud haha. People here are the best.

That is all for this week! I love being a missionary and I love you all!!!
Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister Kropelnicki

Sister Larson and me with the Opera House in the background

Holding the turtles at the shelter

Week 13: Questions only God can answer--AKA The Book of Mormon

Hello everyone! This week was great and it's crazy that it's the end of my 3rd week here in Odessa. Time is flying by its weird (but I still have loads left so we're good).

Sister Larson and I decided that we wanted to run this week so Tuesday morning we went out and 10 minutes into it, Sister Larson started to feel a little sick so we turned around and headed back to our apartment. Then she started to feel really sick and we sat on a bench. She got super pale, almost passed out and was in a lot of pain. She couldn't move and we had no idea what to do (on top of it we didn't bring our phone which I know, is like the dumbest mistake). Long story short, I ran back to the apartment to get the phone to call the elders (and somehow found my way back to Sister Larson amid all the apartment buildings and streets that all the look same and usually don't have the best signage. Definitely felt someone else helping me there because I am terrible with directions), the elders came, they called president and by that time Sister Larson was starting to feel better and after she talked to our mission doctor, he told her that it wasn't apendicitis (thank goodness! That would SO not be fun here, the health care system is a little different :) and we helped her get home. President told her not to leave the apartment that day haha which was so  hard for Sister Larson because she is the best missionary. She's all good now and apparently it was some "spasm" but it was crazy she was in so much pain! But anyway, the rest of our week was not as exciting as that but still good.

We contacted a lot and tracted with the elders in some apartments (you just call a random apartment on the doma phone until someone lets you in:), had some interesting conversations with athiests and visited some of the members homes. We have the best members here it's awesome.

We're continuing to teach Zeena and she is just having the roughest time! She can not catch a break. She found a job but after one day they told her they found someone else, and she is possibly getting kicked out of her apartment. But she is progressing so well its incredible. We were walking with her the other day and when we asked her about her Book of Mormon reading (she's finished 1 Nephi), she said it was going good, but she has "some questions that only God can answer" like what happens between death and judgement (YES such a good question!) and she didn't think the whole Adam and Eve thing makes sense in the way that most churches see it. Sister Larson and I were so happy and Zeena was a little confused as to why her questions made us smile so big haha. We opened the Book of Mormon and answered both of her questions with it--it was so cool. She loved it! It was such a testimony to me of how the Book of Mormon is so important. It literally does answer the questions that most people think before reading it that only God can answer (and they are right, but He has answered them in the form of the Book of Mormon!). It is such a revelatory book. Read it every day! Please!!

Olga is also progressing really well. She's kind of been an "eternal invesigator" for a while but she told us this week that she knows the Book of Mormon is true and she's started to read the Doctrine and Covenants. She is so awesome. She has the driest sarcasm and I appreciate that haha. After coming with us to church yesterday she says that she didn't think that people like the people in our branch existed in the world because they are so good and kind. We told her she would fit right in with them. That made her happy.

Thank you for all your emails and prayers, the work is moving along here in Odessa Ukraine, definitely have daily ups and downs but I have the greatest companion and a stinkin awesome branch and the people here are definitely not as mean as they look haha. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister Kropelnicki

Eating at a restaurant by our apartment (we had SO MUCH FOOD an it was like $7.00 a person! It's crazy! And it was delicious!)

Sister Larson and Olga

Our church building (during choir practice)

Week 12: Sunny Odessa!

Hello everyone! The sun is shining in Odessa and it is a wonderful break from the cold and fog. This week has been weirdly warm and it almost feels like spring in Seattle! The warm has been great, but it also means lots of mud and hot marshrutka rides haha.

This week was packed and Sister Larson and I saw so many miracles and tender mercies. Once of which was Зина (Zeena). We were english contacting (where we pass out cards for our english practice here) and when we gave one to Зина she almost burst into tears when she heard it was free. She told us that she recently quit her job and was looking for work but she needed english for a job she is trying to get. She came to english practice and afterwards we talked about why we are here and what church we are a part of. She was really interested and we have met with her every day this week and taught her a few lessons. She is amazing! She calls us her angels that God sent to her and it has been so incredible to see the progress she has made in just this week. She has been struggling to find work and pay her rent and our elders gave her a blessing on Wednesday in one of the members homes and it was such a sweet experience. Зина said she felt warm and calm and just really good during the blessing and she says she knows this church is true! She also read some of the Book of Mormon and she said she knows its the word of God and she came with us to church this past Sunday. Wow she is amazing. Keep Зина in your prayers! Her friends and family are pretty anti Chruch of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints but hopefully we can change that:)

This week we had District conference with all the branches in our area and Elder Martino (the President of the Europe East Area) and President Wirthlin (our mission president) spoke along with the branch presidents. It was such a good meeting, and it was nice that some of it was in english (and a translator would translate it into Russian for the congregation). Almost all of the speakers talked about how important it is for our conversion to this gospel reading the Book of Mormon every day is. I have read the Book of Mormon every day for the past 3 months and I can add my testiomony to theirs that it is the simplest and easiest way to stay near to God and stay firm in the faith. Read it!! Even if its a few verses, it will bless you. They also talked about how important members are in finding and bringing back people that have left the church. People leave for different reasons, but regardless of why, we can always be the reason they come back.

Some quick random other things:
Marshrutkas (the bus/van things that people use for public transportation) are crazy and you will be packed into one so tight with 30 other people and you will think "there is no way that another person can fit in here" and then the next stop two more people squeeze their way on and its great. Personal space really has no meaning here haha. Also, I am not looking forward to summer on a marshrutka because in the winter its hot in there as it is! Also, the drivers are like cash registers on top of being drivers and they will get peoples change as they're driving and will more than occasionally text as they drive and its great. I love Ukraine.

We had zone conference (which is just for the mission president and the missionaries in our zone) and some of us missionaries sang I Need Thee Every Hour and it was really nice. Singing in Russian is so fun. We talked about getting to know the members and how important they are in missionary work because we won't always be here, but the members will be.

Speaking of singing, after district conference on Sunday, Sister Larson and I joined in on the members' choir practice and it was one of the greatest thing I have ever been a part of. The warmups they did were kind of hilarious and everyone was just laughing as we forcefully breathed in through our noses while squatting or turning to the side or biting our tongue but our choir director was dead serious that these techniques would revolutionize our singing. Sister Larson and I were dying. It was awesome and was by far the best choir practice I have ever been a part of (sorry Mr. Riggs;).

The tale of the twin companions continues because every night over dinner Sister Larson and I ask eachother questions and we are consistently blown away/slightly freaked out at how similar we are. This week we found out that we both loved Breyer Horses when we were young, would make jumps for ourselves to jump over when we were "horses," we both played Zoo Tycoon for hours on end, we were obessed with The Saddle Club, and all of my family's favorite movies are her family's favorite movies. The list goes on but to summarize I love her to death and is the greatest companion. She never wastes any time and she loves the people and the people here love her so much. I feel so lucky.

I had my first raw herring this week (which is popular here) and it was interesting. The texture was what kind of got me. But in general I love the food here, and they have a lot of dishes that remind me of polish food that my Papa and Nana make (but not quite as good as their homemade pierogi ;). The fruit here is really good and fresh and they have a million different fruit juices and they are delicious. The only thing Ukraine needs to work on is brown sugar and cream of tartar (they don't have those anywhere and so chocolate chip and snickerdoodle cookies are kind of ruled out for the time being, but its ok, they have so many different types of candies and lots of yummy bakeries). I've also had borscht which was actually really delicious!

Russian is coming along and it is really cool to see the little bits of progress that I make every day (sometimes every few days) and I know that as I keep practicing and opening my mouth, I will continue to improve and hopefully be able to find people that have been prepared like Зина. Being a missionary is hard sometimes, but the good parts are so good and I know this is where I am suppose to be. I love Ukraine and I love the people I am serving.
Until next week! I love you all. Thank you so much for your prayers and emails. You're the best.

Love,
Cectpa Kropelnicki
Pictures:
1. Giant chocolate croissant!
2. Dinner with our branch president & his family
3. All us sister missionaries who serve in Odessa Center