Possibly Insightful Ramblings

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity of attending church in the Bogatoye branch. I'd heard a lot about this little branch of 15 people from Sister Bates who has told me that one day they're just going to get translated, so I was excited to meet them. And after having been there, I am of the same opinion on the translation discussion. These faithful members in the little village about an hour outside of Simferopol are incredible! They are so stalwart in the gospel. And so kind. I quite love them.  Also yesterday was the Simferopol branch Christmas party. (They're very kind to the missionaries and did it corresponding the date of American Christmas instead of Ukrainian Christmas.) That was honestly one of the happiest moments of my life! It's difficult to top listening to the Christmas story and Christmas songs surrounded by some of your favorite Ukrainian people. Also, I was the luckiest person in the entire room, because the four Primary children invi...

This week was one of the most incredible weeks of my mission (and thus of my entire life, because - let's be quite honest - missions are amazing). It started out Monday evening with one of those stories that you read about in the Liahona and wish that they happened to you on your mission. Before we get to the climax, I shall share some details explaining how we got to the exact location at the exact time that God needed us to be. Bear with me. Monday evening we had planned to go tracting in a specific neighborhood. Partway through the day, we got a call about registration endeavors, meaning we would have to go pick up some documents in the evening in a different area. After picking them up, we reevaluated our plans, and decided that, yes, even though we did now how have less time than planned, we would still go to that area. On the way there, however, we ran into our friend, Lenid. Lenid is not really an investigator, but he's a good friend of all the missionaries, an...

We had an absolutely wonderful baptism on Saturday. Katya is the niece of a very solid couple in the Sevastopol branch, and she has been investigating the church for four years (since she was twelve). After all those years of work and preparation, everything came together and Katya entered the waters of baptism with incredible support from the branch and missionaries. Even thought I'd never had the opportunity of teaching her, it was incredible to watch her enter into that sacred covenant with the Lord. The baptism was held at a beautiful spa (that was the first baptism I've seen in Ukraine in something that actually resembles a font, so that was really neat) and quite a few members came. The Spirit was there in rich abundance, and we were all so happy to be there with Katya. She's going to be an incredible strength to the church here! One day, Sister Bates and I had a rather neat bus experience. Meaning, between the two of us, I think we talked to almost half of the p...

I have to say that I am absolutely convinced that I live in the most gorgeous region of the entire world. Hands down. Yesterday I had the incredible opportunity of going to Yalta for the second-ever Sacrament meeting to be held in that city. The drive there quite possibly consisted of the most gorgeous 2 hours of my life - I'm not quite sure how to describe the stunning beauty of driving along a autumn-colored mountain ridge overlooking the Black Sea, but it was incredible. (I highly recommend that you all go look up some pictures of the Crimea, because it is stunning.) As I looked down the mountain into the sun-sparkled sea, my breath was taken away and I thought to myself, "God really loves Ukraine." After being lost for a little while in the beautiful Yaltian streets (which actually turned out to be a tender mercy for a couple reasons), we made it to the member's apartment where we would be having Sacrament meeting. There were about 15 of us there, consisting...