Miracles Everywhere

What a wonderful and miracle filled week we have had this week here in K-town. I literally sat through sacrament meeting in tears of pure happiness, it was all just too perfect! I will just start at the begining and work my way through them, and I am sure that there were so many more that we are not even aware of!

Last week we were supposed to have had a shashlik but that didn't happen because of the rain and I have now come to realize that that was such a HUGE blessing and it needed to happen this way!
To start out, Tuesday was a rough day, we had district meeting and I was just not in the mood. I was just not wanting to do anything and kind of frustrated with my life and all this stuff. Whatever, so I had like this 5 minute cry, Sister Shaughnessy hates the world moment and then just picked up, took what I have learned from life and moved on type thing. I have developed this habit on my mission, let myself feel it, learn from it, pick up and move on, so I did that. And afterward, Sister Snyder and I wanted ice cream to take a break and start the day over, so to speak.
On our way to ice cream we were talking in english and we get stopped by this guy who is a translator. We talked to him for a bit, and he had once met with the missionaries and was interested again in doing so. WHAT?! Are you for real?! Yes, we have Elders that can meet with you, it was perfect! That was really just the beginning for a great week!
On Thursday Sister Snyder and I were sitting in personal study that morning and we got a phone call from the other sisters telling us that a inactive family had just called our branch president asking to meet with some of the Sister missionaries if we had time.... Um... yes we have time! We called the family and set up an appointment for that night!

The family has been inactive for 3 years and have two young girls, one is 7 and the other 2. We had such a blast with them! It was the best time EVER! There girls were so cute and we just went over and talked with them and got to know them. We shared a very little spiritual thought at the end. The "Because of Him" video in Ukrainian. It was wonderful and the husband offered a prayer at the end. It truely was so amazing!

The next day we had english practice! It was really quite fun! We really had quite a few people that came and it was great! We played the "what if" game, and I pretty sure that they think we are just crazy, or at least I am, but it was fun, everyone was laughing. The man we had met on the street that was a translator he came as well. And Nastya, the 7 year old in the inactive family we visited came with her dad as well! It was such a great class! AH! Things are coming together here!
Then we had Saturday and Sunday! Saturday was just a blast! We had a shashlik with so many members, but I think that members may have even been outnumbered by the investigators that were there. It was such a miracle to see the inactive family came as well! Nadiya, Alecksi and Nastya all came! I couldn't believe it! Our branch president's kids came as well and they are not members, it was just truely a blessing to have everyone there and it was so fun!

The sun was shining, there were so many kids running around, everyone was laughing, we had volleyball going, Elder Asay had his american football he was teaching people how to throw, there was food and we had a little spiritual thought. It truely was wonderful! Shashlik had to happen this weekend so that Alecksi and his family could be there with the members. It was just too perfect!

Saturday as well we got transfer information, I am will still be here in K-town, however, my two FAVORITE people in the entire world are going to leaving and I am devastated! I will still be with Sister Snyder, which is great, she is so awesome! Elder Asay, my newly adopted little brother, well, BIG little brother, and my long lost best friend forever, Sister Petersen are leaving! I am so sad! Literally, the three of us are like siblings, kind of ridiculous how much we love each other and how well we get along. It will be hard to see them go, but I am so excited for both of them. They both started here, so this is their first time leaving a city and they are having a rough go, I am having a rough go of it for them! I don't want to see them leave! It will be great though, Elder Terry is coming here, which will be fun, I started my mission with him in Uzh, so it will be great to serve with him again. Elder Asay is going into Ivanofransivsk, which will be weird. He is in another zone, probably won't see him again on my mission. Literal tears have been shed over this fact! Sister Petersen is going into L'viv, that will be an adventure for her. Good thing we will be friends forever so I can whip her back into shape after her stunt in L'viv.

Sunday was THE biggest miracle EVER!!!!!!!!!! There were 22 people at Sacrament meeting, including three children! K-Town had children here. At church. On Sunday. Can you believe it! I was so happy I was crying. There were children in this branch, we are growing. All of this hard work we have been putting in, we got a miracle. A HUGE miracle. it was truely was so amazing to have them there. It was perfect, Elder Asay was so happy, he has been here for 7 months and he got to see that miracle. It was such a great day, I was crying out of pure joy! It truely was so great to see how many people that were there, Alecksi came with Masha, his 2 year old (the family that we met with) and the sisters investigator came as well with her two children. It was just too perfect!

When things like this happen it makes me realize again and again how little I really do for this work. This is God's work and I am just blessed enough to be part of it!

I love you all and I hope that you have a great week!