Sister Kropelnicki in Ukraine: Week 65: All-nighter Trains and Deportation

Hello everyone and happy Monday! This past week was crazy but so so good and was probably one of the quickest I can remember. Sister Sowards and I went all over Ukraine and it was so cool to see other parts of the mission and get to know other areas and missionaries and people! Hard part was that we didn't sleep in our own beds from Sunday night until Friday night, weird. But we're so happy to be back in our beloved Dnipro.

I don't even know where to start! Real quick,
-Got on our train Monday evening to Odessa. 12 hours later and too many rounds of Old Mexico with the AP's (assistants to the president) we arrived in Odessa (my first area!!) It was so weird to be back I can't even explain it. Every street and building and random things like the baby park and the crazy passing up your money on the marshrutka and trying to time it with your stop and the cemya grocery store and the big steps and wow it was so great to be back! We had zone conference there and then Sisters Perry, Demonja and I hopped on a marshrutka and went to Suvorovski to do family night. It was the first time I saw the new branch building (we used to always have to come into center Odessa to do branch things) and I saw Olga and Nadya and Artyome and Sasha and Lesya and Thomas and it made my heart so happy. I missed the people there a lot. And now I could understand them and talk to them! hahaha. The rest of the exchange was not as eventful because poor sister Demonja got food poisoning! No fun, but she was a trooper and we still got lots done. Too soon it was evening and we said goodbye and then I was reunited with my favorite sister Sowards. We had a few hours before our 12 am train (woo) and we both served in Odessa so we spent it in the city and it was just like when I served there all those months ago! It was good to be back :)

-Also had Zone Conference in Zaporozhye (my first time there! Now I've been to every zone in our mission, check that off my mission bucket list haha). It was a great zone conference and it was our third one so we were pros at our parts that we did in it as STL's. For my spiritual thought at the end (the leaders always have a few minutes to share their thoughts) I talked about how when I would go sailing with my family and we would drop anchor in a rocky bay compared to a sandy bay it was always easier when it was sandy. I compared it to times on your mission when you feel like you are just in a hard place! But the rocky bays are usually where there is the most life and variety and beauty, and looking back it is sometimes the hardest times on our missions that we have the opportunity to see the most good.

-I also got to see Elder Cottom and Holt, who were in my district in the MTC! Also, my falling record on my mission is no longer clean...pro tip, do not run after a tramvi whilst snow is falling and you have a bottle of yogurt in your hand... shout out to the babushka that helped me up and picked up my bottle haha.

-Little miracle that I made it to Zap (Zaporozhye) zone conference because we got back from Odessa in the morning on Thursday and then we had district council and then I was scheduled to have registration but the snow made the power go off in the government building and Tatiana, the lady in charge of doing missionary visa stuff told me that I could either do registration the next day and miss Zap zone conference or get kicked out of Ukraine and make it to Zap zone conference! haha. Luckily Heavenly Father answers prayers and the power got back on and we ran to the office and then ran and caught our bus to Zap (KFC in tow, the AP's asked us to get a 30-piece bucket of chicken for one of the elders in Zap who just had a birthday haha. 300 grivna!! so much.

-Sunday we had branch conference and it was awesome because lots of people from Kharkiv came down to Dnipro and it was so awesome!!! Misha and Sophia and Vlad and Brat Kavolyov and it was great. We did a musical number and the talks were really good. The elders also met a girl the day before and we had a lesson with her before church and it was really good and then we sat by her during church and she stayed for both hours! And she asked us when she could meet up with us again! Her name is Lisa and she is super cool.

That's about it for this week, in a nutshell. Sorry it was kind of all over the place, we just had taco soup in the office with the Shepherds and the elders and now I'm trying to write as I talk to Sister Shepherd about life and her cute grandchildren. I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week!

LOVE,
Sister Kropelnicki