One Month in Ukraine

May 22, 2012

In Ukraine. Elder Graham, Sharisa, Nina who got baptized!, Sharisa's companion

I can't believe that I've already been in Ukraine for over a month! It's probably been the longest and shortest month of my life. Dnepropetrovsk is definitely starting to feel like home - I'm coming to recognize and love different places in the city. I also got to eat my first sharma - it's kind of similar to a gyro, and I quite liked it.

Mom asked a while ago for our daily schedule, so I thought I'd share it with you all. It often varies from day to day, but usually it is something akin to the following:

We get up at 6:30 and have until 8:00 to exercise and get ready for the day. Every other day, Sister Hooker and I go running at this park just outside our apartment complex. (BTW, there are a TON of parks in Ukraine! They're mostly these old Soviet parks with metal playground equipment, and you can find them all over the place in between apartment complexes. There are also some newer ones that have exercise equipment - those ones are pretty cool, like playgrounds for adults. We think they should get them in America.)

In Ukraine - Metal Playground Duck

We have personal study from 8 to 9. That is one of the fastest hours of the day! I absolutely love that opportunity to study the scriptures and words of the prophets - an hour a day is seriously not enough! Sometimes I feel like I could spend all day studying the gospel. But we have to share it, too!

Companionship study is from 9 to 10. During that time we recite things from Preach my Gospel, read the handbook, sing, talk about what we learned in personal study, and plan for our lessons. For the first 12 weeks, new missionaries and their trainers do what is called 4th hour in which we study the gospel more and practice teaching skills. That's been fun. (Our study schedule often gets changed because of meetings in the morning or whatever, but that is how it theoretically works.)

We eat lunch then do an hour of language study, and by that time it's 1:00. What we do after that pretty much depends on the day. We usually have a lesson (or two or three) each day. And we've been doing a lot of trying to find less-actives who don't have a phone number in the area book. We also go contacting, go to branch activities, etc. Every Tuesday we have district meeting in which the six of us in our district get together and talk about our investigators and practice teaching. I always enjoy those meetings - we have a great district leader, and I've learned so much from the other missionaries. On Sundays we have a member-missionary training meeting before church. It's a really cool program that Elder Nisademov (he's from Russia, and probably one of the most incredible people I've ever met. He also looks almost exactly like Mr. Smith, which kept throwing me off right after I met him.) just started. We missionaries teach the members about the 8 fundamentals and help them learn how to use Preach my Gospel to do missionary work with us. Then we have the three hours of church and afterward we have missionary meeting in which the branch president discusses our investigators with us. Our branch president is great and is really excited about missionary work. It's wonderful to be able to work with him.

Sometime during the evening we eat dinner. We work until 9, then plan until 9:30 and go to bed at 10:30. It's pretty fun - every day is different, and I'm learning so much all the time.

This week we had zone sports, which was fun. All 20ish of us got together and played basketball on a dirt/sand court for a couple hours. It was fun to get to know people a little better there. There are some incredible missionaries here! I definitely feel blessed to be able to work with them and learn from them. One missionary rule is that sisters have to guard sisters in basketball, and elders have to guard elders. Which meant that I ended up guarding my 6'3" companion . . . That didn't turn out too well for my team. ;)

The elevator in our apartment complex broke the other day, which means we get the blessing of hiking 10 flights of stairs each time we come home! That might even counter-balance all the Ukrainian cookies that get consumed in our apartment. They'll probably be fixing it soon, though, so that's good.

The other day we were waiting outside the branch for an investigator to meet us. The branch is right next door to a cultural center, and there must have been some sort of production going on, because there were a dozen or so young men and women in traditional Ukrainian dress outside. That made my day. :) That was the first time I've seen people wearing those costumes in Ukraine.

I got to teach my second English class this past week. We hold it at the branch, and it's open to the public. There are three levels, and I've gotten to work with the intermediate and advanced. It's super fun to be able to not only speak a language I understand, but to be able to help people learn it. As I watch the Ukrainians speak in English and work to learn new words, I'm encouraged with my own language study and I'm also amazed at what a miracle it is that we can learn different languages.

Through working with the people here, I have gained a deepened appreciation for what I have. I have truly been so blessed of God - I have a loving family who supports me, I have the gospel, I have the opportunity to go to school, and I have all my physical needs met. I am grateful for the opportunity to be here and help to make the lives of my brothers and sisters better. I love the people of Ukraine so much!

-Sharisa