Ukrainian Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving last week! Seeing as how it was quite possibly the only Thanksgiving I shall ever spend in Ukraine, I'm quite glad it was fully Ukrainian. (With the possible exception of a pumpkin pie that my companion and I made. It tried really hard to be an American pumpkin pie, but it turned out more like a bubbling volcano of spaghetti squash with a vague pumpkin pie flavor. If any of you are interested, we're going to do a reenactment of it in Utah next Thanksgiving. 'Twas quite exciting. And [nearly] everybody approved of its existence, so we're content.) The branch president of Simferopol and his wife (the Solodovnik family) invited all of the missionaries and our American friend Jill over for Thanksgiving dinner. So after some good weekly planning and missionary work that day, we all headed over to their place for Thanksgiving. The fare was entirely Ukrainian - complete with cute little salads and some lettuce wraps and curry chicken. And compot. Also, I wish I could send you all a picture of the gigantic tower of bread in the middle of the table - it definitely spoke Ukraine to my heart. The Solodovniks have a little boy named Pasha, who is possibly the most energetic child I have ever met. He absolutely loves missionaries and was playing with us the entire evening. After the meal, we all wrote down what we were grateful for and went around the table expressing gratitude. I quite enjoyed teaching our Ukrainian friends about Thanksgiving, and they informed us that they are going to now celebrate it every year. Hooray for Thanksgiving!

Speaking of holidays, Sister Bates and I did some Christmas decorating last p-day. We have a cute little . . . I'm not sure how to describe it - it's a little box-like area inside/between the mirrored china cupboards where one would usually put a TV. We decorated it up all fancy with a tiny Christmas tree we bought for 20 griven, a nativity set, pictures of Christ, and then some garland and tissue paper that was lying around the apartment. It's quite festive and we get super happy every time we look at it. I basically just love Christmas!

This week we went out to a city called Alushta. It is also on the shore of the Black Sea. (And there are palm trees! Seriously. I kind of feel like I'm in Hawaii, except for the part about it being cold here, but all the same, it's wonderful!) We met up with our recent convert Yasna and had a wonderful lesson with her. It was pretty great, because we all just sat on these wooden bench things on the beach and listened to the waves crash a few feet away from us as we read together from the Book of Mormon. *happiness* I feel like I may have said this before, but I don't really think that life could get much better. Yasna is incredible! She's 23 and was baptized in September. Her testimony is such an inspiration to me, and she is honestly one of the sweetest, kindest people you will ever meet. I'm really excited that I get to know her.

On Friday we had a lesson with our investigator Gosha and his mom. Gosha is nine, and his mother is a less-active member. He is one of the cutest little boys in the world! (Although he probably wouldn't appreciate being called a little boy . . . but still.) My favorite part of that lesson was when he sang "I hope they call me on a mission" while him mom accompanied him on the piano. It was so cute! I really hope that he stays true to the gospel (because I don't doubt that he will get baptized) and does serve a mission some day. (As a side note, it brings such joy to my heart when people from Ukraine and Russia serve missions! Seriously, there are few things in this world that make me happier than that.) I'm also super excited to get to work with him and his mother.

On Saturday we helped a member of the branch move. That was quite the project, but it was a lot of fun. Jill came with us, and it was a lot of fun to spend time with her and the missionaries and members. At one point, we had unloaded most of the things and there were only a couple (rather large) cupboards still in the truck. Almost everybody had left by that point, so it was just the missionaries, Jill, and the woman who was moving. Jill looked in the truck and said, "If we can move that all by ourselves, that's something that you can add to your testimony!" We ended up getting it (and taking it upstairs, too . . .), but it was just really funny and awesome how she is already making jokes like a member of the church. I secretly hope she does get up next fast and testimony meeting and talk about that . . . ;)

We had a really neat experience this week. (Well, a lot of them, but I'll just share one.) On Tuesday, on the trolley bus to Alushta, I met a woman named Lena. She is a Jehovah's witness and is very kind. We talked for a long time about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. She told me that she was excited, because she'd never seen or talked to anybody with my badge before. Due to circumstances, I didn't get her number and she had to exit the bus rather abruptly. We went on with our work and I didn't think any more of it until the next night during call-ins. My district leader told me that he had met the same Lena on the street, and that she'd given them her number and wanted to meet with us. I was really surprised by that - she'd never seen missionaries before and then suddenly she meets two companionships in just as many days. So we were excited. Well, then the next evening (at Thanksgiving dinner) the other companionship of elders in our district told us that they had also run into Lena on the street and gotten her number, and that she was asking them when her meeting with us was going to be. By this point, we were rather stunned - three companionships in three days running into the same woman. She definitely needs to be hearing this right now. On Friday we met with her, and it was a really good first lesson. She agreed with parts of the Restoration, but not everything. But she's very excited to meet again tomorrow, and we'll see how everything goes. That was a pretty powerful witness to me that God is exactly aware of where all of His children are at all times and what they need. There are no coincidences in missionary work.

Life is good! Being a missionary is kind of incredible. Hurrah for Israel!

- Sharisa