Wednesday, May 7, 2014

First ever Mission Conference

Hello all, sorry that this email is coming a little bit late. This week has been a little crazy and I forgot to warn you all that our P-Day was changed because we would be in L'viv and all this other stuff that has happened.This has been the craziest week ever and the funny thing is that I really can't even tell you what I did!
We spent most of this week trying to get ready to go into L'viv. L'viv was such an amazing experience and the hardest thing I think that I have ever done! It was incredible though, oh my goodness!
So we went into L'viv on Saturday, it was us and the Elders. The train ride into L'viv was about 5 hours for us, that was fun. Pretty much spent most of it talking and laughing. Elder Asay was super sad to be leaving his first area. I felt so bad for him, it is so hard! The trainride went really fast though and we had a lot of funning laughing. I was trying to get caught up in my journal as well, I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOO behind it is kind of ridiculous.
Saturday in L'viv I got to go to TexMex, best place in Ukraine. It is a guy from American who opened a mexican food restaurant that is pretty good for Ukraine. You have to give it to him. I loved it! I had been there once before, but that was a while ago. The best part of the entire place is that they have some great mexican food (my favorite) and they have country music going on in the backround. Sister Petersen and I were almost in tears the entire time out of pure happiness. Her and I got to be on exchanges for a little bit that day, which was a blessing. I literally miss that girl so freaking much already! She and I got to meet Olya in L'viv, which was so great! I just love Olya, she is still just the best and I am so excited to see her in L'viv as always. I got to introduce her to Sister Petersen, since Sister Petersen will be in L'viv now working with her. That was so good for the both of them.
Saturday just kind of flew by, we had to get food and all other things because we would be in L'viv for so long (until Monday night).
Sunday... let me just talk about Sunday, pretty much was the best day ever. L'viv had a mission conference. Like a full on stake conference, except we are not a stake, so it is a mission conference. But still, it was amazing! Members from EVERY city, every city! Do you know what that ment?! I got to see ALL my friends from the other cities that I have served. It was the best thing ever, I was SO happy! I got to see everyone from Uzh and from Lutsk that I love so much! It was the best thing ever, it was so crazy, there were so many people in that church, it was incredible! We had President Lawrence from the 2nd qurom of the 70 come and speak with us. It was incredible! They had a little boy that I love from Lutsk speak as well, and Olya got to speak at the conference too. It was all just so amazing! The spirit was just so strong as all these people gathered and listened to the talks.
The people here in Ukraine are just so special. There is a spirit among the saints here that is just unmatched. I love it. I sat in the back with Yeva and before the conference was over I had all the kids from Lutsk sitting around me and coloring on my journals and on pretty much every other notebook that I could find in my bag. It was a little cramped, but I loved it so much! It truely is just such a blessing to be among these people. As we sang the hymns in Ukrainian I was just overwhelmed by the love that I have for these people. I really wish that all of you could just come and feel of the spirit that is with them. I love them so much, it truely is the biggest blessing in my life to have the opportunity to be part of the work here in Ukraine.
On Monday we had the amazing opportunity to have a great joint Zone Conference with President and Sister Lawrence. It was absolutely amazing! Just so you know, we are kind of the coolest people in the entire world! Sister Lawrence talked about the 12 tribes of Israel and what it all means and all this other stuff that totally blew my mind and has completely revelutionized my scripture study. President Lawrence said that he wanted all of us to know where we come from, he believes that by understanding that we can better explain our message and it would increase our urgency. All I can say is, I think that it worked. The things that were said were just incredible. I literally had my mind blown and I still just can't wrap my head around how cool it is to know what are lineage is from the tribes of Israel. It was incredible!!! I have only had 2 days of study since, but it really changed my view on everything! As I read through Preach My Gospel on "God is our Loving Heavenly Father" my view point on it all was altered and I was just in awe about how much our Father in Heaven loves us! It is truely an amazing and perfect love that He has for us. WOW! How lucky are we to know who we are and what potential we have?!
After the conference on Monday we had personal interviews with President Lawrence, just quick couple minutes, asking us like 2 questions and so on, but it was still really special experience. Our train left quickly after the interviews started, we were some of the first interviewed so that we could get out of there. I had to say good bye to Elder Asay and Sister Petersen; hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I literally cried as I hugged Sister Petersen, she cried too (that is saying something, she never cries) it was so hard, I love that girl so much, my long lost twin, for real! We will all see each other again, but it is really amazing to see the comradery that you have on missions.
We got back into K-town late on Monday night, got bags to the right apartments, we hope and then crashed! We were SO tired, L'viv wears you out! Yesterday we had cleaning and some weekly planning, setting goals and everything, wanting to implement EVERTHING that we learned from the conference. K-town is just starting to grow and it is looking so bright! I love this little place!
I hope that you all had a wonderful week! Happy Birthday to Dason and Mark as well!

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