Sister Kropelnicki in Ukraine: Week 47: Conference and Crepes

Hello everyone and happy Monday! I'm pretty sure winter is here to stay in Kharkiv and Sister Egbert even busted out her big winter coat so its official! This week we also got caught in some crazy rainstorms that came out of nowhere and we had a few babushky tell us that we were going to get sick and would never recover from it so now we're being more careful to check the forecast so we don't die ;)

This week was another good one in the books, and it ended with a miracle and General Conference (!!) so I can't complain. On Tuesday we had to help the Shepherds with registration stuff at one of the government buildings and while we waited for them to do finger prints and stuff we met some people from Iran and talked to them for a while and invited them to English practice. We talked with them about their families and what they're doing in Ukraine and it just made me happy to meet some cool new people. People are the best.

We also met with Sister Tamara who is one of the most solid members I know! It was awesome. She made us some of the best borscht I've ever had and blinchiki (like crepes) and we talked about The Book of Mormon with her, and how she came to know that it was true. She told us that the minute she started to read it, she knew it was true. She said the hard part for her was just starting, and she said that she wished so hard that she had just gotten over her own pride and taken the step of faith to read it! She is so cool.

We also had a lesson with Peter and Janna and it was ok, we pretty straight-forwardly asked them about baptism and what is keeping them from baptism and how we can help them, but they just told us that they weren't ready and they still see themselves as having a long ways to go. We talked about how important The Book of Mormon is because basically everything we talk to them about hinges on that book. And if it's true, then this is the restored church of Jesus Christ, and Peter told us that he hasn't yet prayed about The Book of Mormon, so we challenged him to do that this week. They are just so stinkin' ready, but they just don't see it yet and that's so hard to see. I feel like on my mission I've been able to feel the tiniest piece of what Heavenly Father feels when we aren't able to see our true potential and we are just standing still because we don't know how bright our future could be with His help and guidance. We all have limitless potential and there is so much more ahead! I just want to shake the people that we are teaching right now when they just can't see it, and I can't imagine how He feels.

We were also able to do exchanges with the Sisters in Saltovka this week and it was great! I was with Sister Deahart, who is on her second transfer and wow she is so cute and so amazing! We had a really good conversation with a guy that was really interested in our church and he talked about how he's never really felt comfortable in any church before. We talked about The Book of Mormon and we exchanged numbers and it was really cool. Being an STL is seriously so fun, I'm not prejudice at all, but we have the best sisters in our mission :)

Saturday night we watched the Saturday morning session of general conference live and it was SO GOOOOD. Wowwy, from the get-go of Elder Holland's "Welcome to General Conference" it was just such a needed lift and answer to my prayers. And we haven't even watched the Sunday sessions yet (we're watching them next Sunday. Count your blessings you lucky ducks in the states!). Our branch went all out and made a bunch of food for the session and we ate as we watched and it was a great time. The branch here is so good.

That is about all for this week, Nastia is doing well in Poland, she just started her new job and is liking Poland, but she misses Kharkiv and man we miss her too! But we sent her the link to watch conference so she was excited about that. Also, everyone here thinks I'm from Poland and sometimes they don't really believe me when I tell them I'm not haha. never thought I would have to convince people I'm from America! But Poland seems like a cool place and everyone here knows that my name is Polish so it makes sense! Also, it's really funny because literally everyone pronounces my name KropELnicki instead of KrOPelnicki and at first it kind of bugged me but now I'm kind of used to it. I thought my last name troubles were going to be over here... but to no avail haha. I love it!

And I love all of you!! Have a wonderful week!!!

С любовью,
Сестра Кропельники