Monday night we had Family Night at the Lobanova's! They LOVE their board games and I think their game collection would make my mom cry haha, except most of them are in Russian so there's that (but they even had Settlers of Catan in Russian!). We played games, ate candy and gave a spiritual thought (we're doing the post baptismal lessons with them and we had them teach us the restoration). It was also really cool to get to know their dad, Sasha, better. He is so funny and is also really good at board games... He is just a good guy and there was definitely a different spirit in their home compared to before their baptism. It was really cool to see the difference in their family.
This week was also jam-packed with back to back zone conference preparations, driving to Dnipro for Mission Leadership Conference (MLC), doing exchanges with the Sumy sisters, and then Zone Conference. It was great.
MLC! So we went to the train station... because the elders had our tickets and thought that they were for a train... figured out we misread the tickets and we were supposed to be at the bus station...good thing we were early! All is well.
MLC was soooo good. Elder Boom of the seventy is doing a mission tour right now and he joined in and wow he is so cool and Sister Boom is the sweetest person. And I literally saw almost all my old companions because they're all Sister Training Leaders right now! Good day. We then went back to Kharkiv with the Sumy sisters and started an exchange. Also our driver kind of forgot that he needed to pick us up from Dnipro so we got back to Kharkiv a little late but we were up and ready the next day, all is good and we even tried a new yogurt flavor on the way that was literally black... not my favorite but we couldn't not try it.
Exchanges! I was with Sister Pope who is from Provo Utah and she is hilarious! And she also introduced me to taco seasoning in smetana with vareniki so I already have mad respect for her ;) We contacted and talked to some really awesome people, met a guy from China and exchanged numbers (always weird to do it in English), met with Jane, a returning member that we're working with right now (had a really good lesson about the liahona) and ate шоколадные трубочки. Her favorite. And even though she was sick she still came! She's the best!
Zone Conference! So good and everything went without a problem (what a relief). There were soooo many good thoughts shared and I am so excited for CHRISTMAS. We watched a video called "The Christ Child" and it comes out officially in a few weeks but OH my goodness it is sooo good and wow just a wonderful video. You all have to watch it the minute it comes out it will make you feel all the Christmas feels. Elder Boom also talked about a time he was able to assign individuals their mission calls with Elder Anderson and every time I hear about how that process works I am reminded of how true it is that we are called to the precise place that we are needed. He shared an experience when there was an individual who was assigned to serve in a group of islands, and elder Anderson went over it and said that he was close, but he needed to serve one mission over because that's where his last name comes from and their ancestors need to be taught by him. Wow. He knew the geographical location of where the missionary's last name came from and he was assigned to go there!! So cool.
Saturday morning we did another round of the Book of Mormon project #easternukrainestyle! It was so good and we got some great contacts.
Saturday was game night and Misha usually leads it but he was out of town so we did it instead and Natasha (from Novy Doma) came and it was really fun and a good chance to check up with her. She also did a little Russian grammar lesson for me so that was fun :) Russian is so cool but MAN it gets me sometimes.
Sunday! Zoia wasn't able to come and Zhanna is sick :( So that was a bummer. But for the upcoming Harvest Day that our mission is doing we had all our members write their testimonies in copies of The Book of Mormon (priceless! Our members are so solid!) and the elders had a lesson with Martin, who is the greatest human and he is getting baptized this Saturday!! Woohooooo. We were so excited when they told us after their lesson! We also helped the Hong's (one of the senior couples. They're in charge of the English group) teach a man and he had tons of great questions, but he isn't really progressing. He asks questions but is still working on acting on the answers and seeking his own answers. It made me think of Joseph Smith and if he had only had good questions, but didn't act on the answers he got to them. Acting is so important, and questions mean nothing if we don't plan to act on our answers (or even lack of answers sometimes).
Well that is all for this week! I love you all so much and hope all is well wherever you are. I pray for you and never forget you are the wonderfullest!
С любовью,
Сестра Кропельники
Natasha and Sister Egbert waiting for the metro :)
Zone Conference!
Cool metro station :) Ukraine colors are the best!!
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