Thursday! We met with a member that Vitya in our branch got us in contact with and she's been living in China for the past few years with her husband. She talked about how it is to be a member of the church in China (they do sacrament meeting over skype and it's all foreigners because the laws there are kind of crazy) and it made me so grateful for our religious freedom and being able to believe and worship how we want to. She also talked to Sister Chen in Chinese and sister Deheart and I was like "wut" but it was cool! She loved The Christ Child and wants us to come over to her apartment once her husband comes to Kharkiv from China next week.
We also met with Sister Olga, a babushka in our branch whose daughter is married to a non-member and is less active and Sister Olga watches their daughter (her granddaughter) during the day while they work. She told us about how she has other grandkids in Donetsk (where she is originally from) and they wanted to get baptized a few years ago but there weren't missionaries and most of the church buildings there are abandoned/bombed out from the war and time passed and now they don't really talk about wanting to be baptized anymore. It broke my heart and made me realize how important it is that we get missionaries back there! There are so many people ready to accept the gospel! Sister Olga also told us that she knows the church will be back there someday, maybe while she's living or maybe after, but she got emotional as she talked about how badly she wanted her whole family to enjoy the blessings of the gospel (her husband was against the church most of his life, but one day he said that he supported her decision and then he got sick and died before he could join, but before he died he told her that it was his last wish to see them all join and enjoy the happiness that he noticed it brought to Sister Olga). She is so awesome and we are praying for her daughter and her daughter's husband!
We also met with an investigator that Sister Deheart and her old companion were teaching and she really wants to be baptized, but she is having a hard time not drinking green or black tea (super popular here). We talked about the Word of Wisdom and how Heavenly Father blesses us when we commit to keep His commandments. It was a really good lesson, and we're planning on meeting with her this week as well!
We did a table with our members by one of the entrances to the metro and it was great!! And freezing! We used the whiteboard that we used from a few days ago with questions written on it that The Book of Mormon answers and we would bring people over to it and our members would tell them about The Book of Mormon. We got some really good contacts and we have a few meetings set up this week with them.
We met with Peter and Janna and showed them a Book of Mormon video about when Nephi breaks his bow and then makes a new one while everyone else is complaining that Heavenly Father abandoned them. We talked about going on faith and how sometimes you just have to act on what you already have in order to get where heavenly Father knows you can be. I also told them a story about one of my ancestors, Luman Andros Shurtliff, who had a really powerful experience with going off of faith when he chose to be baptized.
We had exchanges with the Sisters from Poltava also and Poltava is notorious for people speaking a mix of Russian and Ukrainian (or just straight up Ukrainian) so they were so blown away by all the Russian in Kharkiv haha. We contacted in the park together and met a weird man who followed us after we ended and wanted to give us chocolate. We politely declined, but it was a nice gesture? We also met a guy from Vietnam, Bin, and he ended up coming to church yesterday! It was awesome and he went to the English group and liked it! The Elders are hopefully going to do a lesson with him this week.
Sunday was a miraculous day! Because I saw Nastia who I taught when I served in Novy Doma and she got baptized a few weeks after I got there, but a few months ago she kind of dropped off the face of the earth a little and no one really knew what happened to her! But we were contacting by the big square and I heard her voice and I was like "huh??" and I turned and there she was! So crazy!! We hugged and exchanged numbers and she said she will be working there (doing pony rides, there are SO many horses there right now because of the holidays and you have to be careful not to get run over!) for the rest of the week woot!
We also set up a meeting with a sister in our branch and her husband who is a nonmember and just got back from being in Poland for a year. They are super awesome and Sister Ira was so excited for us to come and teach him! Also, this Sunday was the first lesson on the Book of Mormon for Come Follow Me and it was so good!! The members here just have such strong testimonies of the Book of Mormon, it is so inspiring. They know it personally and they are goals!
That is all for this week, more or less, and I hope you have a wonderful week! Love you all!
Love,
Sister Kropelnicki
Saw Nastia in Center!
The Vareniki!
Concert
Yummy food!
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