Baptisms All Around

I hit my 1,000th email on the mark today. Does it surprise anyone that it was from the one and only Sister Madison Webber in Charlotte, North Carolina? So you'll be getting a little Christmas package from Ukraine. Congrats! With the amount of emails I get from that girl, it doesn't really surprise me.

 

Just so everyone knows with my vague stories, we're not allowed to put real names of investigators...

 

We had a meeting with that wonderful Audrey Hepburn woman on Monday, and she did a few "Role Plays" with us, which I thought was super entertaining, since that's what we do as missionaries. To explain what's going on with her: She is secretly investigating the church, but is being very subtle about it. She meets with the sisters each week, and helps us with our ukrainian. She will ask us questions that people would probably ask us on the street, and then she corrects our language so we can sound intelligent. She'll sneak in things like, "Okay, now tell me what will happen if I read the Book of Mormon." "What makes your church different." "Why do you believe in ______" and it's hilarious. We answered a bunch of questions from a "persistent woman on the street" this week concerning the gospel. At the end she asked if we had anything going on this week that was open to more than just members, and I brought up General Conference. I explained what it was, and she lit up. She was so excited, and said she'd come.

We then had a meeting with a cute girl who's been investigating for a year. She says she'll get baptized in Utah with her Uncle in 3 years when she saves enough money, but we had a meeting with her to extend the baptismal commitment. Sister Henrichson practiced it all day so she could say it flawlessly on the lesson, and she was a little nervous. We met with the girl, and we got to the point where it was time. Sister Lewis and I turned to our new little trainee, and she gets a huge smile on her face and says, "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the proper priesthood authority of God?" The girl smiled and said Yes. Then Sister Henrichson's eyes got real big, and she said, "We'll be holding a baptismal service on November 30th. Will you prepare yourself to be baptized on that date?" The girl got really surprised and said, "That's so soon!!" We waited for what felt like a whole minute, and she said, "I don't know!" I told her to pray about it, and come to conference this weekend with the date in mind. She said she would, and she left with a skip in her step.

 

To fast forward: Audrey Hepburn, this girl (I'll call her Sasha), and the man from last week in the park ALL CAME TO CONFERENCE. At the end, Sasha went up to the Branch President and told him she was going to be baptized on November 30th. Big. Deal.

 

Back to wednesday. I got a call wednesday night from President. he said, "Can you be in L'viv tomorrow? Your companion will be here this week." we had exactly 30 minutes to get to the train station and buy tickets. When I got off the phone, I realized that I would be missing the baptism that we had set up for Saturday. And I cried pretty hard. But the other sisters were able to get back in time for the baptism, so that's what was most important. I heard it went so well, and she was so happy! She's already preparing to go on a mission next year. I love that girl. I was privileged enough to be able to teach her, and she's going to be a rock solid member.

 

I got to L'viv, and got my new companion, and things are going so well! We got in way late last night, and I'm so tired. But I'm excited to be back in Chernivtsi, the city of miracles. I love this place, and I'm so glad I'm here. :)

 

The work is moving forward. I love it.

Love Sister Ukrainian Webber

 

ps. With all my time with President, I got to see what he's like at home, with his wife, talking to his kids, and everything. It made me want a family of my own so badly. Seeing how happy they were together, and when they were group skyping all their kids simultaneously...I was just dying. One of the nights when we were at dinner, President said, "If you want to be exalted, you have to practice living an exalted life here on earth. You can't have it there, or be happy there, if you don't have it here and are happy about it on earth." He talked about how having a family is just practicing for exaltation. That's what we'll be doing for eternity, so we might as well get started here! And love it with all our hearts.

Basically, I want a family. That's all. See what missions do to you? I thought It would never happen.