Sister Katie Webber: Goats, Mafia and Bus Contacts

There's a special feeling that comes with going to a Ukrainian село (pronounced sello, means villiage).

First, we go to the bus station and buy a ticket to a random town. Then we wait for that bus. Anywhere between an hour and 2 hours later, it drops us off at a stop in the middle of no where, and we get to walk. And walk. And walk....and walk. About an hour later, we come upon a few houses, and we've finally arrived.

This has happened a few times and it's always a treat. I'll attach pictures. We got to meet a very rambunctious goat named Ivan on our село trip as well! What fun.

At English this week (I'm in charge of the Advanced English group because I can't really speak Ukrainian), I was going around asking everyone what they do for a living. We have this one young, massive guy--massive as in super tall, and pure muscle--who said...."It's, well, a secret." I tried asking more questions to get more than that, and he said, "Let's just say, it's a service. And it's secret. We'll call it the secret service." I just laughed and brushed it off, but mentally took note that I want to stay on his good side. It's a good thing he LOVES the missionaries.

Something fun we do occasionally is "маршрута" contacting, or bus contacting, and we just talk to strangers while we ride. This guy offered me a seat next to him and I asked him where he was from, and he said, "I'm not from Germany!" I was confused by that answer, and told him I was from America and asked if he knew any English, which he didn't, but then went and told me a 5 minute story about his friend who works in Jersey. The bus came up to my stop, and my comp got out of the bus, and I was standing up to leave, and he grabbed my hand and said, "WAIT! Before you go back to America!!" And then said something that I couldn't understand. The boys sitting behind us on the bus were cracking up, and I'm assuming my gift of tongues was taken away for a reason. I just laughed and tried to get off the bus before it pulled away from my stop. I'm not sure he was all there.

We've found quite a few people to teach the last few weeks and we're getting together a missionary plan for the branch to handle more missionaries in the future. It's been a lot of work, but in the long run it's sure going to pay off. We've been having some really meaningful lessons with some awesome investigators, and one of them is pretty fluent in English and prefers to speak in my mother tongue. Hallelujah. I get to take the reigns on her lessons, and I invited her to be baptized earlier this week. She's been praying to get an answer about the Book of Mormon right now, and has already read it in Ukrainian and English!

Well, I'm grateful for all the updates! Sounds like my Lone Peak pride is still justified. That's awesome that they're probably National Champs. Woo! Go Knights! Thanks for the picture of my "colony" clan at the game. I was so excited.

Madi the trainer who trains. So proud of my little sugar. (ps. Whenever I meet a man named Yuri, I say, "Yuri the trainer who trains." Crack myself up every time.)

Tiana-my love. thanks for the update, I don't have time to write back today :( :( But I love you and I'm thinking about you!! Keep me posted on things. I seriously love it.

Trevor-I get your letters tomorrow!! I'm so excited. Thanks in advance. You're awesome!

Well, something that I'm learning is that there's little I can do for anyone here. It's all the Lord's work, and I'm literally just his instrument. I merely have to be worthy, and willing to work, and miracles will happen. I've noticed that there's few things more powerful than a simple testimony given by a young girl who doesn't know the language. It really forces people to be humble enough to really try and figure out what the heck I'm saying, but it's worked wonders during contacting. I love it. I am learning so much, and am learning to LOVE so much. This is a gospel of love. Love from God, and love FOR God.

As Dieter F. Uchtdorf once said, "God does not need us to love Him. But oh, how we need to love God!"

Oh how true that is.

лубов,

Сестра Вебер

PS!! Happy birthday to Gramma Patti last week! Lots of love!! :)