Life on the other side of the river and the hall

This past week was pretty much incredible! Quite loved it. I spent the first half of the week in Left Bank, and then began working in my new area on Thursday. Because of transfers, Sister Dimick and her companion Sister Clark came down from Poltava. Sister Clark had finished her final transfer and was heading back home. Which meant that Sister Dimick got to spend a couple nights at my apartment and be in a threesome with me and Sister Hooker! That was a lot of fun. Sister Dimick is absolutely wonderful, and I enjoyed showing her around my (old) area and teaching and contacting with her. Definitely a wonderful experience and I learned a lot from her. 

We had a cool finding experience during our p-day time. We were visiting this lady who paints commissioned nesting dolls and eggs (she's done a lot of painting for missionaries, and her work is basically incredible). As we were leaving her doam, I greeted a couple grandmas who were sitting on the traditional Ukrainian bench just outside the door. They returned the greeting, but then called us back, asking if we were from America. We replied that we were and began talking with them. They knew why we'd been there (to visit the woman who does the painting) and they knew that we were missionaries - and I wondered how many times they had watched friendly young American missionaries walk out of that very door before they stopped us. They were both very eager to learn more about the church and readily gave their phone numbers and accepted our literature. It was really cool to think about how long they must have been wondering about the church before they stopped us and asked. It was definitely a reminder to me that we don't always know how influential our example is and how we may be planting seeds just by walking out of a door and saying hi - because someday that person may remember you and ask another missionary why they're there. 

Wednesday we were supposed to go to the airport to pick up the new missionaries (one of the benefits of being a Dnepr sister ;) ), but my registration ended up taking longer than planned so we just met them at the office after President picked them up. There are two elders and one sister and they're all wonderful! It's been a lot of fun to get to work with them the past few days and get to know them. (It seems simultaneously seems like yesterday and ages ago that I was in their place, completely jet-lagged and wide-eyed with excitement in this new country. It's been fun to kind of re-live that a little bit.) Sister Palmer (the brand-new sister) is taking my place in Left Bank, and it's so much fun to have her in our apartment! She's 5'11", and it's kind of fun to see Sister Hooker with a companion about her height. :) 

The welcome party for the new missionaries was Wednesday night. After a lot of work on the part of some elders and members in Left Bank, a flute was procured for me to play at the party. It felt so good to be able to play again after not touching a flute for a few months. Made me happy. :) In addition to my musical number, some of the members performed traditional Ukrainian songs and dances. (We also watched a rather comical presentation on the merits of salla on a member's ipad. [Salla is this Ukrainian food that is rather iconic, and it's basically just fat. Not my favorite. But it's kinda funny.]) After eating the delicious Ukrainian dinner, we returned home and I made the lengthy move across the hall - it's quite nice when it takes 15 minutes to get settled in to your new area. 

My new companion is Sister Kochel, and she's basically incredible! It's a joy to serve with her. She's from Canada and studied at BYU-Idaho before her mission. We've had a lot of fun together already, as well as a lot of sweet, spiritual experiences. 'Twill be a good transfer. Thursday we started work together by doing about six hours of contacting/tracting/tabling. It was a lot of fun to see my new area. One of the places we work in (in addition to Center) is called Pobeda, which means 'victory'. (And the branch is on Geroev street, which means 'hero,' so it's kind of perfect.) It's a really pretty area of the city, and a lot quieter than Center. 

Saturday there was another picnic with Center branch. We went to that same spot by the Dnper River that we used last time, and it was quite pretty. I really enjoyed talking with the members and investigators. There are these two awesome investigators from Nigeria who are in their 20's and are here for school. We had a lot of fun playing sports together and socializing. Good stuff. 

I had a couple fun experiences this week that showed me how connected Ukraine is. Thursday night I got a call from Marina, one of my favorite members who just recently returned from her mission in Samara. She told me she'd been in Donetsk the day before and had talked with Sister Armknecht! (a.k.a. Megan) It was really fun to talk with Marina about Megan and hear about how she was doing. Then on Sunday there was a young man, Vitalia, visiting from Kyiv, and he told me that Sister Busch is in his ward! So that was fun - I felt pretty connected to my missionaries in the other Ukrainian missions. Go Ukraine!

We had two very spiritual lessons with our investigators this week. Both Anya and Yulia are around 20, and they are so sincere and eager to know truth. Both of them expressed a need for more time before getting baptized, but I really feel that they both will. As we taught them, it was incredible to feel our words and thoughts directed by the Spirit - I don't really know how to describe how incredible it is to feel words come out of your mouth (in a foreign language) that touch someone else in a way you didn't know how to. It's a blessing to be able to have the Spirit with us to do the Lord's work. And the only way we can do His work is with His Spirit.

I quite love my new area! (It was also quite a perk to have air conditioning at church yesterday! Somehow Russian is a lot easier to understand when you're not melting. ;) ) I'm excited for this transfer - I know we're going to see a lot of miracles, and I'm looking forward to being a part of that.