Life

One time Sister Palmer (who is basically amazing!) and I were inadvertently matching, which of course necessitated a picture.

For some reason "Nay" is highly difficult for a lot of Ukrainians to say. They must feel that a word sounding strikingly similar to "days," "her," and "no" shouldn't be a last name. It's pretty funny when I have to tell people several times what my name is, and they keep adding something to the end of it to make it longer, until I convince them that it is in fact просто Нэй (simply Nay). Some of my fellow missionaries, trying to help me out, have suggested various solutions if I were to get a new nametag printed. These helpful hints range from changing my name to Naya (a more complete and feminine last name, which would help out the Ukrainians), or simply changing the spelling to Дней ("days;" pronounced basically the same as "Nay"), or calling myself Neygazovana (which happens to mean non-carbonated). ;) But I think I'll stick with Nay. Sometimes people (usually babusky), becoming frustrated with my last name, will ask my first name. (I always silently laugh, knowing that's not going to be any pronunciationally easier for them.) Usually that results in them deciding that Nay is actually easy enough to say and they'll stick with that. But I've had two babusky independently give me the name Shurichka, (the diminutive form of Shura, which is a nickname for Aliksandra) which I've decided I like. I think I'll take that for my Russian name.

During district meeting this week, a huge shipment of copies of the Book of Mormon arrived, so our district headed downstairs to help bring up the 26 boxes of my favorite book in the world. (Luckily the shipment came during district meeting, otherwise our poor office couple would have been left to the task themselves. ;) ) Our mission has seen a dramatic increase in the number of copies of the Book of Mormon we've given away ever since "flooding our mission with the Book of Mormon" became a goal a month ago at zone conference. Right around zone conference, President had ordered 1000 copies of the Book of Mormon. And those have all basically been distributed, thus necessitating this additional shipment of books, which thought amazed me as we carried in the boxes. It is exciting to put the Book of Mormon into the hands of the people of Ukraine. There is so much power in that book, and I know if they will just read it and pray about it, they will understand and know its truth. I'm excited that our mission is focusing on distributing copies of the Book of Mormon and helping fulfill President Benson's vision of the earth being flooded with the Book of Mormon.

This transfer we had two native-Russian speakers join our mission. One is from Latvia (and I still haven't met him) and the other is Elder Krook from western Ukraine. Elder Krook is in one of the districts I work in, so I've gotten to know him pretty well already, and he's basically amazing! Before his mission, he served two or three mini-missions in Kyiv, so he's already incredibly prepared. A couple weeks ago, as we were doing our weekly hospital cleaning, the hospital worker who directs our service was talking to us. She, having worked with missionaries for some months and knowing well our language skills, turned to Elder Krook and said, "You speak Russian very well for a new missionary!" That quite made me laugh, and he explained that he's from Ukraine. So he also speaks Ukrainian. And English. Pretty cool. I'm glad I get the opportunity to work with him. And with all the missionaries here - this is such an incredible group of people and I'm constantly amazed and inspired by the strength and talents of the missionaries with whom I work.

This Saturday and Sunday were "Day of the City" for Dnepropetrovsk. Which basically equals for 48 hours, the biggest party I've seen in Dnepr took place. Despite the fact that Ukraine seems to be in a constant state of holiday (they have an incredibly amount of holidays, and it feels like it's been a continual party since I've arrived), I was nevertheless amazed at the extent of this weekend's parties - people everywhere, so many concerts, more than the usual amount of fireworks, a billion motorcycles, traditional Ukrainian costumes etc etc etc. On Saturday they'd closed off a number of the roads in Center and people were just milling around listening to the music, parading, and buying and selling really cool Ukrainian things. (There was also a group of kilted people with one bagpiper and some drummers - I still don't know the connection between Dnepr's founding and Scotsmen, but it was entertaining.) There was a really big party going on just outside the branch on Sunday, which was kind of funny, but not super distracting with the windows closed. Today things seem to be a bit calmer.

I had a really enjoyable nerd moment during a particular tracting excursion this week. We'd just had a man tell us that he couldn't come to church or accept our message because he was going to die in five days as a result of Chernobyl (he actually looked pretty healthy to us and I'm pretty sure he's not dying anytime soon, and he did end up accepting a pamphlet and an invitation to church) which sparked a conversation between my companion and I on radiation (in English - I don't really know those words in Russian yet. Although, this week I did learn how to say Big Bang Theory and endocrinologist in Russian in two separate lessons. More nerd moments!). Between doors, I explained all about radiation and its effects on the body, beginning with the electromagnetic spectrum and going up to the DNA repair mechanism. It felt like MMBio240 all over again, rolled together with discussing scientific concepts with my roommate Allison. 'Twas highly enjoyable. Right in the middle of a riveting explanation of telomerase, somebody came to the gate! And not only did she come to the gate, she invited us in! (Always one of the most exciting moments of the day, when somebody lets you in.) We sat down with this old woman and her grown son and daughter. All of them are extremely religious and love the Savior and the Bible deeply. And they know the Bible extremely well. We talked with them for over an hour and had an incredibly spiritual first lesson. The Spirit was so strong as we testified of the Savior and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. When we handed them a Book of Mormon, however, they refused to take it, basically saying that they love the Bible too much to read anything else. I felt such love for these people, and I wanted nothing more than for them to accept the book! But hopefully someday they will remember what we taught them and will accept the gospel.

Hurrah for Israel!

-Sharisa