Transfers!

Last night we got the famed 'transfer text' which contains all the changes that will be taking place on the mission for transfers this Thursday. (With President Nielsen we wouldn't get the text until Monday morning after studies, so the Sunday-night revelation was quite exciting.) I was quite surprised to discover that I will be moving to Dnepropetrovsk Center - I was kind of expecting to stay in Left Bank and show a new companion the ropes here. But Center will be fun, too! I've worked with the Center and Pobeda branches before, so I'm excited to get to spend more time with them. This basically equals that I will be staying in the same apartment (although moving bedrooms - sadly I have to give up my top bunk bed view of the Dnepr River, but that's okay) and one of my current roommates, Sister Kochel, will be my companion. I'm quite excited! Sister Kochel is wonderful (she's the one from Canada) and we laugh a lot together. We're looking forward to great things in Center. It's kind of sad to have to say goodbye to my investigators, considering we were pretty sure I would be staying so I won't even get to see all of them before I'm transferred. (Valentina told us yesterday that she was praying that both of us would stay here, so she'll be a little bit sad tonight when she finds out. But at least Sister Hooker can still take good care of her.) But I'll still be able to see Vloda get baptized, which will be great!

We had a mini-zone conference last week to get to know President and Sister VanBruggen better. It was a combined conference with the Poltava/Zaparozhzhya zone, so there were 40 missionaries there. And Sister Dimick (from my MTC district) got to spend the night at my apartment! It was a lot of fun to spend time with her and her companion. The conference was an incredible experience. The Spirit was so strong there, and it felt neat to be gathered with so many missionaries. The VanBruggens talked to us about their lives and how they came into the church. Sister VanBruggen joined when she was 19, having been introduced to the church by President VanBruggen, as well as her best friend and Elder Bennett who is now in the Europe East Area Presidency. President VanBruggen actually baptized her. They both served missions, and returned home within a week of each other . . . and were engaged three days after he returned home. :) They did a lot of missionary work in Canada, helping to establish a branch where there had previously been nothing. President shared the story of his father's conversion. His parents had come to Canada from Holland, and a missionary from Colorado (I think - somewhere where he worked with horses) found them. It took a while for his father to join, and that missionary never saw President's father baptized. In fact, he served the full 30 months of his mission without seeing a single baptism. But because of that missionary, President's whole family is now in the church. That missionary, now an old man, was even able to participate when President was set apart as a mission president. That was a really inspiring story - even if our efforts seem insignificant, they mean the world to those who we help to find the truth.

After the conference, President talked with some of us sisters. (He has a soft spot in his heart for the sisters and thinks quite highly of us, which is cool.) We were talking about the work going on here, and he asked who of us had the most time left. Sister Dimick and I indicated that we did. He turned to us and told us that we were going to be able to see and take part in great things here. (Not that the older missionaries won't, but that we'll get to see more of it.) That was really cool. We talked about the prophecy in the dedicatory prayer for Ukraine where President Packer says that the spires of temples will dot this land. I am excited to be able to play a part in laying the foundation for that to happen. I feel, like Alma to say, "would to God that (the temples) might be (built) in my day(/mission), but let it be sooner or later, in it I will rejoice."

We had quite a good Independence Day. Our district met up at McDonald's (the most American thing we could really think to do) for dinner, which was a lot of fun. My favorite part was possibly when Elder Nishademov came up to each of us, shook our hands, and in Russian congratulated us on our independence. (It doesn't sound quite as funny in writing, but I was cracking up.)

Lena was baptized on Saturday! She is in Center (my new area!) so I'd never taught her, but I've talked to her a lot and she is one of the sweetest girls I know. She's about 21 years old and is just so kind and good. She was basically glowing at her baptism. She had asked Elder Merrill (a senior missionary) to perform the baptism. Last time he baptized someone, he did it in English, so I was expecting that again this time. But he began pronouncing the prayer, I was moved to tears to hear him say it in halting, deliberate Russian. It was really beautiful. Two of our investigators were able to come to the baptism, and they had a good experience. I asked Valentina if she wanted to get baptized, but she replied that she'd already been baptized (basically everyone is baptized into the Protoslavic church as infants), so we'll keep working on that.

For p-day last week, were were able to go to a couple museums in Dnepr. One was a World War II museum, and it was really neat to see all the uniforms and other artifacts of the war. It was a pretty moving experience, thinking about all the people from this city who served and gave their lives in that war. Toward the end of the tour, I overheard two men speaking in German, and I got all excited inside. Despite the fact that I somewhat struggle to form German sentences (Russian somehow always comes out), I think it's still easier for me to understand German than Russian. I was about to go ask them if they were from Germany (since they spoke Russian too, I figured my Russian-laden German could be comprehensible) but they left before I could. But it was still fun to hear a little German. The other museum was an archeology museum, which meant that Sister Hooker (who studies archeology at BYU) was in heaven. She told me cool little tidbits about the arrow-head (appropriately called 'projectile points,' in case you were wondering), pots, and other cool artifacts. The museum started back . . . I'm not sure when, but really long ago with the pots and arrowhead, and then it went through Ukrainian history up through Stalin. I really enjoyed seeing the thousands of artifacts that were educational, beautiful, and sobering in turn. This country is so rich in history, and I definitely want to learn more about it.

We had three investigators at church yesterday, which made me happy! It was Galina's first time, and she absolutely loved it. She talked about how everybody there just had light coming out of them. I really want her to keep coming and keep feeling that light and power and accept what we have to offer, because right now she still is holding to her old beliefs. But I feel like the Spirit she felt yesterday will help her desire to change. Valentina also came (she's the one with a solid doctrinal background who believes almost like we do) and she gave me and Sister Hooker a huge bag of the most delicious apricots I've ever eaten. :) The people here are seriously so kind - they have so little, but they are absolutely delighted to share whatever they have with us. Our other investigator at church was Laresa. She knows the Bible basically inside and out and interprets a lot of things in a way I've never heard before. Because she knows the Bible so well, she often argues with things (often due to semantics or a less-than-fluent Russian presentation) that we teach. Yesterday, between classes, she asked me a question that, although very sincere, was on a rather controversial topic. Knowing her tendency to become upset over doctrine, I was a little nervous that she would react angrily to my answer, but I felt strangely calm as I opened my mouth and began teaching her the doctrine and sharing my beliefs. That was an incredible experience - I wasn't worried about the Russian at all and just felt the words that I needed come out of my mouth. When I'd finished, she simply said, "I understand. Thank you." I was completely shocked by that response, expecting her to have tried to argue with me. It was an incredible witness to me of the power of teaching with the Spirit. And of the gift of tongues. The Lord truly is with His missionaries, guiding their words. I'm very grateful for moments like that when I feel that I can simply say what needs to be said.

I'm excited for this upcoming transfer - it will be a lot of fun to stay in my beloved Dnepr and still get to see a lot of the people I know and love here.