Well I'm doing much better, and am back to normal again. Thanks for all the updates and the emails from everyone! It's so good to hear from people.
To start off, our investigators are doing really well. We have such great people we're teaching. Two of them expressed the desire for baptism this week, but they don't want to set dates yet. We'll have to work on that.
Pauvlina (the 13 year old aughter of the woman who is getting baptized) was one of them. She feels like she wants to know more about the church before she gets baptized, but she's doing awesome. Yesterday when my comp was getting ready to teach Gospel Principles, Pauvlina went up to the front and said, "I'll teach today!" and grabbed her book out of her hand. We laughed, but she was serious. She sat down at the desk and skimmed the lesson, then wrote a bunch of stuff on the board. She picked the hymns, picked the prayer-givers, and then jumped right into the lesson. She had a little bit of help from my comp, but she took the lead and did a great job! I was so impressed with her. The people in the class were just eating it up, they loved that she was teaching. The branch pres and RS president absolutely adore her, which is so great. Fellowshipping is one of the most important parts of missionary work. They could have a burning testimony of the gospel, but if the members don't accept them, there's a really high chance that they won't stay active for very long. Her babusya goes "proti" (anti, or against) the church every other day. She'll be totally fine with it one moment, and then totally against it another. She always comes to the church when she doesn't know where Pauvlina is, and she'll interrupt our lesson and tell Pauvlina to go home. Then she'll sit and talk with us about how she doesn't want her daughter or her granddaughter to get baptized and the reasons why. Then we'll sit and talk to her and she'll start feeling the spirit and get really nice for a few minutes and then remember that she's supposed to be angry and get all mad again. It's actually kind of funny, but it's a pretty serious matter. Ahhh family members haulting the work. What can you do. I guess we'll just have to really work hard at convincing her to give her blessing on their decisions.
Saturday we got transfer calls. One of our Elders is going home this week, and our district leader is getting transferred. He's going finish training one of my MTC elders, E. Schindler! Two of my MTC elders got taken from their trainers. Luckily that didn't happen to me! That would be so hard. Now we only have 4 people in our district, and the zone leaders called us the "dating district" in the mission, so we can't do anything together on Pdays anymore because it's just 2 sisters and 2 elders. Lame.
The language is coming along............ish. There are some conversations that blow my mind because I can follow what we're talking about. Then there are conversations where I'm thinking...."okay. I'll probably recognize a word soon...wait for it. wait for it.....okay, she just said, 'Yes'" Ugh. frustrating. My companion keeps playing this mean trick where she'll refuse to speak when we sit down for a lesson, or when we get up to a counter to ask for something. I know it'll come so I can't complain too much.
I'm glad Madi's doing great in the 70 degree weather of NC, and I'm glad she has a beautiful apartment that overlooks a golf course, and I'm glad she gets to drive a car everywhere. So glad. I'm glad I get to be in the beautiful snow, and I'm glad my apartment overlooks other apartments, and I'm also glad that I get to take the bus everywhere.
But really. The snow is beautiful, and the city is incredible. Our apartment has heated towel racks, and we even have a microwave. And the busses are like that bus on Harry Potter 3 where it's driving around like crazy and zooming in between traffic. There's really no such thing as organization on the roads, and people just drive where there's room. It's a miracle we make it anywhere. My comp says she hasn't seen an auto accident since she's been in Ukraine, which is seriously hard to believe if you knew how they drive here.
Thanks for all the support and the prayers. We had a few incidents this week where I could feel the influence of guardian angels, and it was the greatest tender mercy. Don't be worried, just continue to pray that I'll be safe and follow the spirit. Obedience is key here, that's all I can say. I love you all so much, and pray for you daily.
Until next week,
Sister Webber.
ps. My comp got an email from her mother saying she was in the temple this week when she met a woman who was visiting the netherlands from America and knew her daughter's companion, Sister Webber in the kiev, ukraine mission! She's starting to get a glimpse that I can literally make connections with anyone around the world. Hahaha....kills me.
(I would love to know who this is.....please let me know! - Jana)
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