Crazy Week

 

What a crazy week this has been! Let me just tell you all, I feel like I have lived a lifetime since last P-day with everything that has happened, and I don't even really know what has actually transpired since last P-day!

On Tuesday we did our last District Meeting with Elder Robinett, so sad that he has left us! Afterward we did our District Picture... Let me tell you about District pictures. So, obviously with every District you have you want to do a picture just to remember that time you had together, well we were trying to come up with a goofey something to do for it and the Elders asked what defined our District, Elder Peterson says, "Baked good from Sister Shaughnessy." So! They decide to do a District photo of them with plates infront of them and Sister Rudolphi and I pretending to serve them food, no joke. It was ridiculous, I felt so dumb, but it is a great picture!

Wednesday we went into L'viv. Poor Elder Peterson and Elder Robinett get car sick, our two big football playing Elders looked SO sick, the poor things. I felt so bad for them both. It is a four hour bus ride from Lutsk to L'viv, so great, it is on the worst road known to man! It truely is just aweful! Elder Peterson and Sister Rudolphi slept, I sat and talked to Elder Robinett, he is a funny kid! I don't know how they slept on that road, it is horrid.

L'viv was so great! Just the usual stuff, we had fun with the Sisters in L'viv. I was so happy to see them all. I had to help Sister Wallace pack, she got transferred out to Kmelnitsky. So this is her first time leaving an area, so that was crazy to help her with all of that fun stuff!

AND.... I got my new little trainey! Her name is Sister Edwards. She is 19 and from America, kind of. She has lived in Thailand and Equador for a lot of years, which is so cool! So the foreign thing is not that odd to her at all, thankfully! She is so cute and fun, it is definately different to have a threesome though, we will see how it all works out!

When we went to leave after the training meeting I decided to be brave and get us to the bus station, buy the tickets and all without Elders. That was a crazy decision on my part! We got on the bus, the driver was not too happy about all the luggage, then they kept asking where we were going, but I was on the phone with Elder Jolstead, our district leader, he is speaking Ukrainian to me, asking when we will be home, my two little trainees are like "Sister Shaughnessy, I don't know what the driver is saying" and the driver is yelling at us in Ukrainian. I finally got it figured out, but poor Elder Jolstead, he is probably thinking that I am just crazy or that I am loosing my mind! It is normal!
We made it home though!

On Saturday we had a BAPTISM! Illya Voytook, a young boy in our little branch got baptized! It was SO great! He was SO happy and his dad got to baptize him. It was awesome! The baptism was just great! We had members and one of the Elders investigator's there and he was so interested in it all. It was awesome! Illya was SO EXCITED! He bore his testimony at the end and I cried, it was just the sweetest thing ever! He is such a good little boy! I love that kid so much!

Sunday he was confirmed in church. The Branch President confirmed him and it was great! All the Elders got to participate, it was so special and just really amazing! It was something that this branch really just needed. Some big things are about to happen here in Lutsk, I can feel it!
Sunday was also so great, I now have all the children in the branch come and try to sit next to me. I bring coloring books and it has won all there little hearts. There were 6 of us crammed on 3 seats, it was so great! I got up after the meeting was over and got complimented on being the best mom, good think I am a missionary, that was awkward. These kids are the cutest things you have ever seen though, so I will claim them.

We only stayed for Sacrement, because we had a request to go out and see Sister Matsoha in the celo a couple of ours away. It was her birthday and she was SO excited that we came out to her, she cried. She fed us SO much food again and sang for us, this time we came prepared as well and brought hymns to sing for her. Luckily, Sister Edwards can sing, because I can't and Sister Rudolphi is not much of a singer as well. She cried, she loved it and was just so happy! She wants us to come out as much as we can, and I just want to be out there with her all the time, she is so wonderful! Her grandson, his wife and their daughter were there as well, eating and talking with us, that was really fun! They were not members, but stayed for the spiritual thought and loved our singing as well. It was really a great experience to be with them.
And today, earlier, because all who know me are going to die when I tell them..... BUT I got my hair cut today. By a Ukrainian, yeah, I know, big deal. Just thought I would throw that out there!