We were able to meet with some of our branch members this week and I was reminded again how awesome the people here are. We met with a member from center and she talked about how her son was inactive for a long time and she at first tried to force him to come to church and not smoke, but eventually she realized that ultimately it was his choice and that all she could do was love him and help him however she could. She said that through that experience she was able to better understand how our Father in Heaven feels when we make wrong choices. He is always there, but he will never force us to do something--even though it's hard to not intervene. Only when we are able to choose for ourselves are we able to learn and grow. Eventually her son returned to church and now he's active in the church. She said her joy could never compare to what Heavenly Father feels when we come back to Him. He loves us perfectly, and because of this, he gave us agency to choose for ourselves. But He also gave us more than enough help for us to return to Him.
We also had Zone Conference this week and we focused on The Book of Mormon and we all thought of questions that we've been asked and how we could answer them using the Book of Mormon. It was so awesome! The Book of Mormon can answer like any questions, it's so cool. I loved hearing all the references that people gave for the questions, but it also made me want to know The Book of Mormon way better than I do now! We also got smartphones this week and it is so nice! We got a call on Viber a day after we got them from a guy from Odessa that's living in Malta for work and he said he got a Book of Mormon a while ago and just now started reading it and he loves it! We're hopefully going to do a Skype lesson with him on Wednesday so that should be fun! Not going to lie, wasn't totally sure where the country of Malta was before then.
On Saturday we did balloon contacting in the park and it was so much fun! We had a lot of really great conversations with people about the church and I am now able to make a dog in like a minute--pretty proud. Pro missionary tip: people are way more willing to talk to you if you give their child a balloon first :)
On Sunday it was Ukrainian Easter (Пасха/Pas-ha) which is officially my favorite day now. They do a thing here where you say "Christ is risen!" to anyone on the street and they respond "truly He is risen!" and it is the BEST. It made me so happy! We also ate their Easter bread (which actually is super good. It's basically like a sweet bread with dried fruit in it). We also visited a Ukrainian Orthodox church and it was super interesting. They get their baskets full of food blessed by the priest and they light candles and it made me happy but also sad at how many people were there. The people here have such great faith--they just don't know where to find the truth. That's our job :)
We also ate at an investigator's home in center on Sunday and I had my first holodets (meat jello) and all I will say is it is by far the wierdest and nastiest thing I have thus tried in my life. I figured out a pretty good system of taking a bite, shoveling in some potatoes and then chugging some compote (fruit juice). Still didn't really help, but now I can say I've tried it!
We're going to meet with Zeena on Wednesday because she is finally back at work after being sick (yay!) so hopefully next time I'll have some more on her. I miss seeing her! It's been way too long. We're also still trying to contact Alina--hopefully now that we have Viber and smartphones it'll be easier to communicate with her even though her phone isn't working. Keep praying for them!
Thank you all for your prayers and love, things are pretty good here in Odessa. A trio is different but I love it and Sister Hatch and Sister Butler are so great and they make even the hardest days not so bad. I love them! And I love you all. Until next week!
Love,
Sister Kropelnicki
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