I thought I was going to die

 

Hello family, what another crazy wonderful week it has been here in good old Lutsk. We have had the craziest time ever, but enjoyed it all! Last Monday night we had the wonderful opportunity to have family night with a family in our branch. It was the greatest! The Vfamily have 3 kids, Elijah turned 8 on Monday, Leah is 5 and Mark is 2, I think. It was so much fun! They are just the best people ever!

We decided to teach the Plan of Salvation with sugar cookies in the shapes of all the stages in the Plan. They got to decorate the cookies and have fun as we taught. I really enjoyed it! The kids had fun as well and hopefully learned something. Brother V and his wife are just amazing! He is the counselor in the Branch Presidency, has been Branch President before, they are sealed, just really great people! It was so fun to get to be in their home. We also got to celebrate Elijah's birthday with him, that was a blast! He is now 8 and will be getting baptized sometime soon, I am excited for that, he is just the cutest!

After we left the V Sister Rudolphi and I took what you could call the scenic route home, aka, we got totally lost! We had to go down the scariest Legend of Sleepy Hollow type street I have ever been on in my life, but we survived! We found a bus stop and took one home, it took us all the way to the other side of town and around before we got home, but we made it home, and all was well. It was just so funny, I was laughing the entire time. It would be my luck!

On Thursday we had english and it was Elder Robinett's birthday, so of course we have to do something! We made him a card and over 68 cream puffs (because I may or may not have quadroupled the recipe on accident when reading measurement conversions) it was insane! There was SO much food! We hid it from him until English, then had everyone sing him "Happy Birthday" at the end, it was so great! He was so happy, and everyone ate all the cream puffs, thank goodness.

This week we didn't have many appointments unfortunately, everyone was too busy to meet with us. Our little branch has 6 missionaries that try to meet with them, that is quite a few. Our two 16 year old investigators, Sasha and Anya are kind of not very interested and Oksana our other told us the other day that she just has no desire to even know if this is all true. So we hit the streets a lot this week.

Miraculously we met Ala on the street and talked with her. We pretty much gave her the first lesson, by the time we had walked her to the store she was going to, and she already has a Book of Mormon. It was so great, she was the nicest and really loves her grandaughter, but wasn't interested in meeting with us further, sadly.
OH! By the way, the Elders are teaching a hairdresser, his name is Sergy and I love him! Oh my goodness, he noticed that I colored my hair and asked me what I used, I gave him what I had done. He didn't know that I did hair, so when he asked who applied it I told him I had done it myself because I do hair. He was beaming when I told him! We had this good long conversation in half ukrainian, half english about hair. Let me tell you, it was a tender mercy of the Lord! He spoke my native language of hair, it was the best thing ever! Sergy asked if I could meet with him from now on instead of the Elders, that would be great, but I don't think we would talk too much about the gospel.
On Sunday we had another great miracle, when this lady just showed up for church. She wanted a Book of Mormon, she was contacted by some Elders 3 or so months ago and was curious. We talked with her, the Voytooks were SO great at friendshipping her, but she doesn't want to meet until after she comes to church next week.

Patience. We just need to hit the streets and talk to people, which we have been doing a lot of lately. It has been crazy, just walking and talking to people. Hopefully soon we will find some elect and ready to hear the message.

And here is the funny story of the week, I thought that I was going to die. This was Monday night to Tuesday morning. We go to bed Monday night at 10:30, normal. I fall asleep fine, no big deal. At about midnight we hear gunshots going off outside of our window. We can see the light flashing and hear the sound, I thought I was going to die. I rolled over to get the phone to call the elders and I see fireworks. We live in an area surrounded by concrete buildings, and come to find out, when you set off fireworks near there it sounds like gunshots, and you think that you are going to die. Then we hear these very drunk men singing Happy Birthday. It was absolutely crazy! I still laugh about it! That was our miracle for the week at District Meeting, that we didn't die and that the elders didn't have to come and save us! It was wonderful! My life is never normal!

I played the piano at church, again. I am getting just so good at it! Maybe one day I will enjoy it and laugh at myself when I mess up!

Well, it has been another wonderful week here in Ukraine. The people are wonderful and the Lord is truely looking out for his children here! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!