Possibly Insightful Ramblings

Twins! Aren't we cute? ;) You can't really tell in the picture, but we also have matching flower headbands. Courtesy of a very sweet Ukrainian babushka. Let's start out with some funny name stories. Seeing as "Nay" is a rather unusual name in Ukraine, I've got a lot of them. I may have mentioned this before, but in Russian saying "with her" and "with Nay" basically the same thing. Confusing. Yes. The other day, my companion and I were arranging a lesson with a contact. He was going to meet us before church and we were going to have a passing lesson with the elders. Sister Bascom had talked to him on the phone the day before, and I'd talked to him that morning. As the three of us were heading up the stairs, he asked who he'd been talking with the previous day. Gesturing to my companion, I told him that he had been talking "with her."  "Oh, so you're Nay?" he asked my companion. "No...

Sister Missionaries, Oct. 2012 In my mission call letter (which I received one year ago this week! Wow, time flies.) it states that greater happiness awaits me than I have ever before experienced as I embark on the service of the Lord. And this week I have realized how true that is. You all know that I'm rather a cheery person by nature, but I honestly have never felt such great joy as I have here. There is something deeply profound about the joy that comes from seeing someone accept Christ more fully in her or her life and making changes to come closer to Him. No other personal accomplishment or worldly endeavor brings such pure happiness. This week was a week of miracles, and I had the opportunity many times to feel that incredible joy that surpasses everything I've known before. Let's talk about some of those moments. First off, last Monday we had our first lesson with Vika. (The eight year old whose sister was baptized a few months ago.) It was incredible! T...

Missionaries in Ukraine, Autumn 2012

Just so you all know, this was possibly the best week of my mission so far. (Although, let's be honest, I basically just love being a missionary, so every week is wonderful. but this one was particularly exciting, as you may have concluded from the subject line.) Let's start with General Conference. Wasn't that incredible!? I don't have words (in either English or Russian) to describe how powerful of an experience that was and how much I didn't want it to end. What a glorious blessing it is that we can sit at the feet of prophets and apostles and listen to their messages, directly from God to us. What a miraculous blessing! The missionaries and members in Dnepropetrovsk gathered in the Center Branch this Saturday and Sunday to watch the broadcasts. The 20ish missionaries, president and Sister VanBruggen (and other Englishly inclined individuals) watched in a small classroom while the members and investigators watched in the chapel. There was a powerful Spirit th...

First off, elders can serve at 18 and sisters at 19?! Wow, that's one of the most exciting things I've ever heard! Saturday night, while General Conference was taking place in my home state halfway across the world, I was contacting in a quaint little Ukrainian park. We needed to make some calls that evening, so I was on the phone with Marina, (a member who I was making sure would be picking up our investigator for church the next day). She told me that she couldn't talk - she was currently watching a live broadcast of General Conference and that President Monson had just announced the change in missionary ages. My companion and I (oh, by the way, I have a new companion - I completely forgot to mention that last week. More on that later.) were completely shocked, and despite the fact that Marina is not a joker, we decided to check our facts with the senior couple (who we were fortunately just about to call to see if Sister Merrill could go on companion exchanges with us)....

Over the past two or three months, my mission has been talking a lot about consecration. President VanBruggen is really emphasizing this and encouraging us to become the consecrated missionaries we promised to become when we accepted our calls to serve. Earlier this week we had to stop by the office to pick something up. President happened to be there, and he invited us to sit down with him and talk. (He's so great! I love that he'll just take a few minutes out of his day to talk with us and see how we're doing and get us even more excited about the work.) We talked a lot with him about consecration. One thing that he emphasized with us is that consecration is not a destination - we will never become completely perfect in this life - but that we are on a lifelong journey of becoming more consecrated to the Lord. I was really impressed by that - consecration is not something that just ends once we take off our nametags, but a lifelong pursuit. We truly owe everything to ...

Last night, the four of us Dnepr sisters and the (former) office elders tried a new contacting activity. We set up a table with lots of copies of Liahonas, the Book of Mormon, pamphlets, etc. in a large park by the river then most of us sang hymns while one or two missionaries talked to the people who passed by. That was such a cool experience, due in part to the lovely view of the river, the Big Dipper framed by the trees right in front of us, and the multitude of floating lanterns that were being launched nearby, but mostly because of the Spirit that was present as we sang the hymns of Zion. A good number of people stopped and talked, and almost everybody who walked by accepted some sort of literature from us. I felt like it was a really good activity that helped the people in the park feel the Spirit and become a little more open to talking to us. There's such power in music. This week we had a first lesson with a girl we met a few weeks ago. Her name is Vloda, and she...