White Christmas

Merry (second) Christmas! This time, the snow actually stayed for Christmas, and Simferopol looks quite lovely covered in white. Also, I love how strollers are no longer the mode of transportation for all the babies, but that their parents pull them around the snow- and ice-covered sidewalks on little sleds. Quite adorable. Anyway, I feel like I'm probably one of the luckiest missionaries alive, because I get to celebrate two Christmases in the mission field while only missing one Christmas at home. I approve.

Last night (Orthodox Christmas Eve) we were tracting. At one apartment, a very nice woman opened the door, and came out to greet us with her hands full of chocolate truffles. She looked at us and said in surprise, "Oh! I thought you were (insert Russian word here that neither of us knew, but that we assumed to mean something akin to trick-or-treaters)! But here, take these anyway!" Slightly taken aback, Sister Bates and I politely took a truffle, to which meager gesture the woman replied that we needed to take all of the candy. All three of us were laughing, and the woman then asked why we had come. We explained that we were missionaries, and unfortunately she was not interested, but it was probably the happiest rejection I've ever experienced, what with all of us laughing and wishing one another a merry Christmas. So now I have inadvertently gone trick-or-treating in Ukraine. I still need to play the "ask your friendly neighborhood native" game to figure out what that was all about, but I quite enjoyed it. And the truffles are delightful.

This morning we did some Christmas caroling via telephone to members and a contact, and that was a lot of fun! Everybody was pretty surprised, and the cutest part was probably when our little 14-year-old friend told us that he had "tears from smiling". Hooray for Christmas!

Due to the holidays, we've been focusing a lot on finding lately, since most of our investigators have been in other cities or countries or otherwise occupied. So one day this week, as I was reading in 1 Nephi about Nephi building the ship, I was very moved by the verses in which Nephi asks the Lord where he should go to find ore, and then the Lord shows him. It takes a lot of faith to find, whether you are finding ore that God has been preparing for hundreds of years so that you can build a ship, or finding people who have been prepared by God to receive the gospel. Sister Bates and I talked a lot that day about having the faith to find, and we decided that we were going to find somebody to teach and baptize that day. After district meeting, we began contacting along the little riverlet where we'd planned to contact. After not too long, we saw this older woman sitting on a bench and we decided to go talk with her. She invited us to sit with her, and we talked on that little bench for about an hour. Her name is Lubov, and she is one of the most incredible people I have ever met, and her life is fascinating! Her whole family took part in WWII in various ways, and she even let us hold this time-worn document containing Stalin's personal thanks to her brother who had been the only man left standing at a particular battle. In addition to a fascinating history lesson and getting-to-know-you session, we talked about the gospel. When we asked her if she would like a Book of Mormon, she gave the best answer I think I've ever heard to that question - "That is a very big gift. And I promise it won't just sit on my shelf, but I'll read it." (And then she went into a ten minute discussion of how she loves to read, combined with a European history lesson.) Anyway, that was a really neat conversation! She is from a different city, so we won't get to teach her, but I'm very excited that someone will get to.

About 40 or 50 minutes into the conversation with Lubov, we noticed this man standing by the little river nearby us. It seemed that he was waiting to talk to us, and all three of us were slightly confused as to what was going on and we kept awkwardly making eye contact with this man who was not going away. Eventually, we finished talking with Lubov and we stood up. The man came up to us and (in English) began talking to us. Long story short, he is going through some difficult times in his life right now and really needs help. He had seen elders before, and recognized in us something that could help him. We sat back down on that same bench, and talked with Andrey for a long time as well. He accepted a Book of Mormon and promised to read. (He actually even promised to do anything we asked him to do to help get his life back in order - we hope he sticks to that promise!) All three of us recognized God's hand in bringing us together at that moment, and I have no doubt that God is looking out for Andrey. Two days later, we met with him again, and he had already read 50 pages of the Book of Mormon! He doesn't think it is true yet, but he promised to pray about it (except he doesn't want to pray about it until after he's read it all - but at the rate he's reading, he will soon be praying, so I guess it will be okay). He even stayed after English practice and watched the Restoration film with the elders. We're hoping that his wife will also be interested so that we can teach the entire family together!

(Back to that same night - after the bench lessons.) That evening we went tracting, and we met this absolutely wonderful family! We mostly talked with the wife, and she is one of the happiest people I have ever met. She accepted a Book of Mormon and told us that she would be waiting for our call. (Unfortunately, she was sick then and still is, but hopefully she will be well enough to meet soon.) That was honestly one of the most miraculous finding days I've experienced on my mission. It was a witness to me that God really does know exactly where all of His children are, and He knows what they need. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to be a missionary and rely on the Spirit to find and help God's beloved sons and daughters. This is a glorious work, and there are no words to describe how much I love it and how happy I am to be here! Life is good.

Happy Christmas!

- Sharisa