This week. Wow. It was so good!! Every week's got good stuff, but this week was just one of those special ones, we saw so many blessings and miracles. Also, I got yelled at over the intercom in the metro for drinking yogurt on the escalator, so for all of you thinking about visiting Kharkiv, drinking is запрещены! Haha, bad things just seem to happen to me in the metro here... which I'm going to be using for the next 12 weeks at least because transfer calls came on Saturday and I'm STAYING in Kharkiv and I'll be Sister Egbert's last comp and then I'll most likely train the next Sister Training Leader (STL) and then who knows after that! But I am SO happy, and our district is staying the same as well so that is great because we have the greatest district.
This week! On Monday night we had family night with Aliona and Misha (they're siblings and Misha just got back from serving in the Kiev mission and Aliona just got engaged), and it was such a fun time! We had dinner and did a spiritual thought and then we played a game that was kind of like a Russian version of Settlers of Catan and sister Egbert won like a boss.
Tuesday we had exchanges with Novy Doma and I was with my angel of a (old) companion Sister Bevziuk and also with Sister Smith! They are in a trio right now training Sister Wilhite and so I was with them in Center and it was a blast. We met with a member, Sister Labonova and contacted in the park and it was a good time. Sister Smith is amazing and even though she visa waited for a transfer, she is so ahead of where most missionaries are at in their third transfer! And it was sooo good to be with Sister Bevziuk again, man I love that girl. We also made сырники (syrniki) together (little cottage cheese type pancakes which are the best!) and listened to Russian Disney as we cooked. Being an STL is the best!
Wednesday was a CRAZY day but SO good. We went contacting in Tye park with the elders but we did something new! We used pages of the Book of Mormon and had people underline wherever it mentions Jesus Christ and then we had some other questions that they would answer as well! I honestly didn't know what to expect but it was a hit! It was so cool! I don't think there was one time when we didn't all four have someone we were talking to, and it just made my heart all happy to see people actually reading The Book of Mormon and then we would ask them "what is this book about?" and they would say, "well, God and Jesus Christ of course!" We even had people come up to us and ask us what we were doing... we needed more missionaries! We definitely want to do it again, and next time we want to tweak a few things. But overall it was a great contacting idea and we were all four blown away by how well it went.
After contacting, Sister Egbert and I went to meet with a returning member who lives kind of far away and it was our first time meeting her and she was so cool! Her name is Nadia and she is the mother of the first counselor in our branch. She and her husband haven't come to church in a long time and we're trying to help them come back! It was a great visit and she gave us some of this delicious cake she always makes for missionaries and she gave us the rest to take home. She is so sweet!
From there we met up with Sister Shepherd at the branch and went to visit a cute couple in our branch, Brother and Sister Kalashnuk, and they made us borscht (yuss) and these delicious boiled stuffed peppers. It was sooo good! And we talked with them about how they first met the missionaries and Brother Kalashnuk has the best story! So he picked up this Jehovah's witness pamphlet one day and on the back it listed a bunch of books like the Bible and the Koran and so forth, and at the end of the list was The Book of Mormon, and he was like, huh weird, I've never heard of that book before. And then a few days later he was standing in the metro and a girl came up to him and gave him a church card and he decided to go and see. He walked into the building and there were the missionaries and one of then was carrying a Book of Mormon! And the rest is history. Haha, so good!
We also were able to meet with Peter and Zhanna and Danya and it was a pretty good lesson, we talked about prophets and covenants and why we are on earth and we watched some of a really good talk by President Nelson. They also talked to us about how they are working to have prayer as a family every day and how they feel a difference from doing it.
Friday we also met a woman on the street, Karina, while we were contacting and she is so cool! She has an adorable 2-year-old son, Mark, and she asked about how we can know what truth is and she was interested in meeting with us! We also called her the next day to invite her to a baptism that was happening in the Novy Doma branch and she said that she could come! So we met up with her on Saturday and took her to the baptism and she really liked it, and she commented about how she felt really good and she loved the people there. We're planning on meeting with her tomorrow!
Sunday was probably one of the best days of my mission, it was really just чудесный (chudesnyy--wonderful). Peter, Zhanna, and Danya came, and so did ZOIA (Nastia's Mom who we've been calling and checking up on and she just works so much), and Karina and Mark came as well! It was amazing! And then right after sacrament we met with Zoia and went over the baptismal questions with her and it was really good and she said that she will come every Sunday! And the elders also had a lesson with Martin, the man from China and he wants to be baptized in two weeks (!!), and there was also 8 people at the English group, including a member that has kind if dropped off our radars for a while since he's been baptized but he came! And sister Egbert spoke in sacrament! And! There were a lot of returning members that came to church as well! It was so good to see and wow I am still so blown away by everything that happened yesterday. So cool.
Well that is it for this week, Sister Egbert and I are running around Kharkiv today getting sisters on buses and trains heading to and from their new or old areas! It's a fun time but kind of crazy. But I am so happy to be staying here!! It's the best and so are all of you!
Have a wonderful week!!
С любовью,
Сестра Кропельники
Visited some awesome members! And their cute cat
This is some of the sisters we were with today! (They all got on their trains and buses safe and sound)
Ukrainian roads!
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