Meeting With Wonderful People!

Great news! We get to have the English Sacrament meeting every week now! It went really well yesterday. A lot of new people came, and everybody really liked it. (There was a 14:1 investigator:member ratio, which was kind of fun.) Sister Bates and I were especially excited that a boy we met a couple weeks ago named Albhi came. He's from Mexico and India and he knows several languages. He'd promised to come last week and we told him we'd give him a Book of Mormon then, but he didn't make it. So it was wonderful that he showed up yesterday! The branch members here are really excited about this English group. Apparently, the first mission president of the Dnepropetrovsk mission was down in Simferopol several years ago. While there, he made a promise that one day, Simferopol would have two branches - one in Russian, and one for native English-speakers. It's been really neat to see that prophecy begin to come to pass. There are three of those English-speaking investigators that currently have a date for baptism, so hopefully pretty soon this little group can become a branch!

While we were inviting people to come to English church, we met a couple of really wonderful men - Andrew and Joseph. They are from Africa, and they are some of the kindest, funniest men I've ever met. Joseph had apparently met with missionaries back at home, and he was explaining to his buddy Andrew that we were Mormons. He talked about how Mormons are the most diligent people he knows, and he highly extolled the merits of my beloved Brigham Young University. :) That was the first time I've talked to any non-member here who had any idea what BYU was, so Sister Bates and I were super excited and told him that we happened to study at that particular university. Joseph also said that he wouldn't mind becoming a Mormon, so we'll see where that goes. 

Sister Bates and I got to go to Bogotaye for Russian church yesterday. I love that little branch so much! There is so much love among the members and to the missionaries. There is a woman there named Galina who is not a member of the church, but has been attending for years. Everybody there knows and loves her, and she was even the piano teacher for most of the children there. She's basically a member, but just has not been baptized - she even pays her tithing! She has a testimony of the church and when we asked her yesterday, she said that she knows that God wants her to be baptized, so we're not exactly sure what is holding her back, but we'll keep working with her. 

On Saturday the Relief Society put on an Enrichment activity focused on taking care of our physical bodies. (Don't worry - we ended the activity in the only logical way possible - by consuming copious amounts of sugar. ;) ) It was a lot of fun to spend time with those wonderful sisters! I especially enjoyed as all the babusky joined in singing their beloved Ukrainian and Russian folk songs - 'twas absolutely delightful. But since they regaled us Americans with their folk songs, they insisted that the four of us (me, Sister Bates, Jill, and Sister Dudley) sing some of our American folk songs. After much debate, the best we could do was to sing them "My country, 'tis of thee" and "O, Holy Night," both of which they greatly enjoyed. I love the branch here!

In the opening prayer at the Relief Society activity, the sister offering the prayer plead that more young people would join the branch. That's something I've thought about quite a lot recently, and it's something that is very important to the branch here. Especially to the babushky who have been in the church for a long time and are worried that the lack of youth in the branch is going to cause it to stagnate and slowly wane. So that made what happened this week even more exiting. When we were out contacting one afternoon, we walked up to this girl and said hello. Before we could say anything else, her face lit up and she began talking to us excitedly in English. (I guess something about an American accent and a missionary nametag give away who you are pretty quickly.) We sat down with Kristina right there (well, not exactly right there - we found a bench first) and talked with her about prayer and the Restoration. She was excited to read the Book of Mormon (which we actually gave to her on our second lesson with her, since she didn't have room to take it the first time) and to meet with us again. She is one of the most loving (and funniest!) people I know, and it makes me happy how excited she is to meet with us. On our second lesson with her, the Spirit was so strong, and it was clear that she was understanding and feeling the truth of what we were saying about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration. She told us she wasn't ready yet to make the decision to be baptized, but she promised to read the Book of Mormon and pray and come to church, and we're confident that she will get her answer and want to be baptized. She ended up not being able to make it to church yesterday, but she said she will next week, so we're excited. She's about the same age as Nadia (the active young woman in the branch), so we're super excited for the two of them to become friends. I really love Kristina, and I pray that she will want to accept the restored gospel.

I feel like the more opposition we face here doctrinally, the firmer my testimony becomes and the more grateful I am for the knowledge of truth that I have. I know without a doubt that Jesus is the Christ! I know that we need a Savior - on our own, we cannot progress or repent, let alone return to the Father of our spirits. I am so grateful for the infinite, atoning sacrifice of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. I know He lives, and I love Him with all my heart. 

-Sharisa