Happy Spring!
This week was so much more warm than the last. If I remember right it got up to +11 degrees C!
In our little branch here in Vinnitsya there is a member who's husband is from Nigeria i think and here was taken back to Nigeria for some reason and leaving here with four crazy kids. Every week one of us pairs of missionaries goes over and has a family home evening with here and her family. She has some of the craziest but cutest kids. Unfortunatly the oldest who is about 12 years old is not as mature as I would that she would be but the second oldest is pretty good but the other two are jsut crazy! I feel really bad for her because she has to take care of those little honey badgers. The youngest who's name is Samik is so crazy but so funny. He is always dancing and sticking food in his eyes and he slobbered all over Elder Clifford. But fortunatly Gena, our Branch President's second councilar who is a returned missionary, was on the lesson with us.
Ever since we both got here Elder Clifford and I have been wanting to make Borsch for us to subsist on. We don't haver an pots that are bigger than 3-5 liters. With that size of pot it ins't worth it to make borsch becuase you have to have a big one so you can make a lot and eat it all week. So we set of on a journy to find a big pot. And we found one. Oh did we fin done. We went to the rinok (market) called "Урожай" (harvest) and started on our hunt. We were surprized to find anything right off becuase of the commoness of items like that that are frequent in rinoks like this and becuase of the size of the rinok itself. But we past by one stall on our way out of the rinok after we had already given up. We saw a whole bunch of dishess and cookware and asked the man tending the stall whcih one was his biggest pot. He pointed up to this huge couldren and said that one. We notced that it was not only very expencive but insanly huge as to counteract our designs. We asked him for the second biggest and pointed again in the up direction to another failry large pot. We gave him 500 Hrivna which was the price for the large 20 liter pot that is now filled with delicous borsch. It is kind of rediculous how much we have. We ate it every day this last week and it seems like we haven't made a dent in it but then I remind my self that it was all worth it. Borsch, beet soup, is similar to musical instruments, baklava and juice, the older it gets the better it gets.
It has been pretty tough here trying to meet with investigators for two reasons. One, we don't really have any investigators at the moments and two, becuase the majority of the residents in the city of Vinnitsya are 17-27 year old girls. That causes a bit of a perdiciment for us young elder missionaries who jsut wnat to follow the rules but also not waste any of our time. However thus said we did have a pretty great meeting with Dasha our 21 year old female investigator who is kind of left over fromt he sisters who before served here. And yes we did have anothe rmale person on the lesson so everything worked out the way it should have. She has a lot of great questions and even came to Saturday's English Pracice. I can tell we are going to be seeing more over her.
Our Branch Presidency is comprized of President Koshelev who is a member from Danyesk, his first counciler who is a long time member and the second counciler, Gena who is an amazing returned member and is one of the most put together young men I have met here in Ukraine. He is also not to bad looking and has a pretty attreactive girlfriend who works at the Levi's store in teh mall right next to us and has been coming more often to activities at the church. She is super nice and Gena says that she will get baptized. We asked her if we could meet and talk about the gospel and the Book of Mormon, which she already has because of Gene. She hasn't given us a deffinite answer yet but we can tell that Gena is right.
About a week ago we met this other girl in Silpo (the grocery store we use) and she was really interested in the fact that we speak English and are Americans. Of course that is interesting to all of the women here in Ukraine but she was instesting because she is all about sience and biology and is learning Enlgish and all of the Siecnetific terms in ELgish and want ssomeone to talk with that can help her understand the American cultiure more in preporation of the fulfillment of her dream to study at a science univerity in New York. She has explained that she is not interested in religion but would like to meet with us and " talk about America and what has influenced out lives." So we went down by the Buh river whcih is right by our branch building and talked for a bit about our lives and many other things. It was directly related to religion but it had some good moments were I was able to she some the reasons why I have so much joy in my life. And the end of our conversations I had the chance to talk a little bnit about the Book of Mormon and topld her that it was my favorite book and that it is one of the most influencial things in my life. She seemed to have gotten interested becasue she asked what it was called and wrote it down. I offered to give her a copy but she said that it wasn't needed and that she would jsut look it up. Now at this point most of us would have had our heart drops becuase of all of the different things that she could read about us and the Book of Mormon. So I casually told her the site where she could find it and had her write down "lds.org". Good save. Elder Clifford and I think that she says that she doesn't wnat religion but that she actully inside is starving for it. This is actually true for most people. Most people don't actuaolly really know what they want or are lacking. We learn through prayer and inspiration that every one is thirsting for the good word of the gospel that can spring up into fountains of everlasting life. We believe stongingly that this is the case with our biologist friend Sasha as it is with many others. Also, when we met Sasha that one day to talk we met by the big clock tower and she took us inside and payed for us to see the musium. Inside it is actually a war musium from the Afganistanian war the the USSR was apart of. I wasn't awar that in the seventies and eighties there was a war that the Soviets helped Afganistan. We got to go up to the very top of the tower which was six levels and each level had different pictures and uniforms and letters but I most most interested by the pressure suit that was on the fourth level.
We went out to this little village called "Медвеже Ушко" to meet with this old babuska who is one of the most faithful members we have here. It was a fun trip trying to get out there but in the end it all worked out and we met with her and her daughter who is also a babuska and is blind and their babuska neighbor friend who is also a member. they are the most kind and faithful people I have ever met.
Other than the regular English Practice and Youth night we have here we had a special holiday here in Ukraine. March 8th is Internation Women's day which as far as I know is celebrated everwhere except the U.S.
We had church as usual and Elder Durschi spoke and all the while a babuska names Aleksandra who has been coming for years but refuses to be baptized was taking notes of all of his mistakes because she is a Russian teacher. Elder Durtschi was a little bit offended I think but I think that it is pretty awesome to have some one that will do that for you. I also think that she just doesn't like his Russian.
This week wasn't too crazy despite the size of my letter this week. We manly jsut had things happen that doesn't usuallt go on.
I am very grateful to be here in the service of my God and I know that only good can come from the work I have undertaken.
Старейшина Класон / Elder Clawson
Elder Clifford walked across the Buh River whe it was about +10 C
