Happy New Year!

Happy (almost) New Year! I quite like being in Ukraine at this time of year. It's almost like getting three Christmases - American Christmas on the 25th, then New Year (which is the biggest holiday here - complete with Santa Claus, trees, and presents - very similar to how we celebrate Christmas), and then Orthodox Christmas on January 7th. I approve of the continuation of the Christmas season - I enjoy having an excuse to keep up our decorations and continually sing Christmas hymns everywhere. I also love how complete strangers will pass you on the street and wish you a happy new year (snastupayashim = with the upcoming season = happy New Year). Ukrainians have a very wonderful tradition of wishing blessings on you, even if you don't know them very well. Most often it is the babushky who, after we've talked with them from anywhere from 2 seconds to half an hour on the street, wish us: everything the very best, good health (because that's the most important, as they always say), happiness, wonderful husbands (our future husbands should feel pretty blessed - they have so many Ukrainian babusky looking out for them), warm homes, true friends, that God will bless our path, and anything else that happens to come into their minds that these little American girls seem to need. Sometimes these Ukrainian blessings carry on for a number of minutes. It's absolutely delightful! And these well-wishings have seemed to increase in intensity and frequency as the New Year has been approaching. It makes me happy. My heart was especially warmed yesterday when our branch president gave the entire branch a Ukrainian greeting for New Year.

We had a wonderful (American) Christmas holiday. This Christmas Eve was one of the sweetest and most magical of my life, and I shall long remember it. Nothing particularly special happened, but as Sister Bates and I read the Christmas story from Luke together and as we sat around our tiny tree (opening the Crimean cutting boards we'd gotten as 'surprises' for each other), I was filled with the spirit of Christmas. I know that Christ lives and that He truly did come to earth to be our Savior, and I am so grateful that I get to be His full-time representative right now. Dad wrote me and shared some of his Christmas mission experiences, and President and Sister VanBruggen gave each of us a talk from Elder Holland with his Christmas mission reflections. And I am quite in agreement with both of those great men that there is something incredibly special about Christmases on a mission. I shall always treasure this one.

On Christmas day itself we went to visit an older woman from the branch who has health challenges and is inactive. She is the cutest ever - we asked what we could do to help her, and she refused to let us do service because she knew it was our holiday, and she felt it would be wrong to make anybody do service on a holiday. ;) So we read with her from the Liahona and she showed us pictures of her baptism. And she consented that we could come back the next day to do service, since that would not be a holiday. Then after a wonderful skype conversation with the best family in the world (no worries, I am not biased), we delivered some cookies to members of the branch. After planning that evening, we again sat around our 6 inch tree and took turns opening packages from home. I don't think I've ever in my life so much loved Christmas gifts and goodies - something about being on a different hemisphere from where you grew up greatly heightens the value of Rolos, cheesecake, and scarves. And something about being a missionary also heightens the joy of remembering the Savior's life and mission.

This week we spent a lot of time serving members of the branch, whether it was helping them walk across town so they could pay their utility bill, delivering cookies, taking groceries to widows in the branch, or cleaning the branch building. I quite enjoyed it, especially in light of the emphasis at zone conference this week on building relationships. We talked a lot about how important our relationships with the branch members are. We are here as missionaries to find, teach, and baptize, yes, but we are also here to establish the church - we were called to support, strengthen, and train the members so that they can reach their potential, stay true to the gospel forever, and help bring their friends into the Church, too. I'm so grateful that I get to work with so many choice sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father and hear their testimonies and work with them in the gospel. I'm grateful that these relationships can be eternal.

I could talk a great deal about zone conference and all that I learned and felt, but that would probably take more time than I currently have. But it was highly inspiration and motivating, and I'm excited to work on building all the relationships I have with the members, non-members, investigators, and other missionaries here. Another bonus of zone conference was that we got to talk with people who had recently been in Dnepropetrovsk! (Meaning the VanBruggens and the assistants to the president.) And I was excited to learn that the church building in Dnepr finally opened!!! The construction on this beautiful, two storied, spired house of prayer was finished around the beginning of July and ever since then we have been waiting on clearance from the government in order to use it, which process we were told could take a year. But the long wait is finally over, and now two of the three branches in Dnepr get to meet in this actual church building each Sunday! (Left Bank branch will still be meeting in its rented rooms for now.) ALSO, (this is the most exciting part!) Vloda got baptized! I don't know if any of you remember me mentioning her, but she is the 13 year old girl from Povelgrad who we thought would get baptized in the summer. It turned out, however, to be more of a rocky road than we'd thought to gain and maintain her mother's permission, but all of that was finally resolved and Vloda is now officially a member of the church! I quite love that little girl, and I know she's such an incredible strength to the (hopefully soon-to-be-) branch in Povelgrad.

If anybody would like to hear a cute story about penguins, I have one. (If not, that's okay too - I shan't be offended.) Yesterday after church we helped an older sister (Lubov) home and brought her the groceries that were a New Year's present from the branch. As we sat in her living room talking, I showed her the family pictures I carry around with me. For those of you who know me, it will not be a surprise to know that one of the pictures I show people who want to see my family is of me, Mom, and Robert in the Living Planet Aquarium with a penguin by our feet. It's always a good conversation-starter and it helps me fulfill my goal of making as many Ukrainian as possible smile and laugh. But Lubov surprised me by telling us that picture reminded her of her testimony of President Hinckley. She then related that story President Hinckley shared one time at conference where he told several other general authorities (if I am remembering correctly? Lubov thought it was to a choir) that they looked like a bunch of penguins in their suits. That made me laugh quite hard. It was a nice reminder that not only are penguins incredibly cute and evidence that God loves us because He created such a wonderful creature, but also that even penguins can help us remember that we have a testimony that God has called a prophet in our day. Hooray for penguins!

I hope that you all have an absolutely wonderful New Year! (And in case anybody was wondering, the overabundance of snake-related items being sold here has taught me that it will indeed be the year of the snake.) May the Lord bless all of you and direct your path and give you and your family health and happiness. And maybe even a penguin. And maybe by the time I'm home I'll know how to give a proper Ukrainian blessing. :)

- Sharisa