Well I survived this week. and we got missionary work done too. There is a miracle for you. I really didn't think we would because my trainer left this area and while i did get a new companion who is my 'senior companion' she doesn't know the area or the members or any of the investigators so pretty much if we were going to get anything set up or done this week, it was on my head to do it. but like i said, we survived and got work done. I get along with my new companion a lot more than i expected and i am really glad to be serving with her. She is open to ideas for how we can better do missionary work in this area. For instance, our big goals for the transfer is to get the members excited to do their own missionary work, and focus on getting our investigators to church and praying. We are starting a wed night 'class' for members to come to where we can talk about their fears about inviting and talking to their friends and really just creating an environment to practice how they would begin talking about the church with family members, friends, etc, and then getting support and advice from other members who are really good at it. this class/group was a suggestion from a couple of our recent converts who asked for help with doing their own missionary work.
but ya, my new companion is sister Zanger from Missouri but has spent enough time in Utah with school and family to know what that's all about too. We realized that she knows Tammy and Sheri Flagg and also that i have had dinner at her aunts house in Boston. Her cousins family was assigned of all families in the Boston stake to be my 'host family' if there ever was a disaster/emergency in Boston. She invited us over for dinner one time and they were awesome. I am sure there are more connections to be found. She has been out a year, so I appreciate having a companion who knows the language pretty well, its a great blessing and something of comfort when i get weighed down by the stress i mentioned above.
Saturday we met our new president and family. I was a little prepared by a few members who already know him so when I was in the meeting with him, i looked around like i was told to count how many jaws had dropped to the floor in amazement of just how impressive he and his family are. super long story short- He grew up in Germany found the church at 19, went on a mission to Colorado, somehow made it to Ricks College, was out of the blue inspired to take study Russian, his wife is from Latvia and they met when her performing group was touring the BYU's and his Russian professor set up a time for them all to mix and mingle with Russian natives. she was pretty set on not joining the church but eventually did after a few months of being married. they have three kids who speak Russian, German, and English, they have lived in Kiev before and he was responsible for purchasing a lot of the property here that the church owns including the temple site. yeah, wow, you can close your mouth now. I think the cool thing is that the professor of Russian back at Ricks College who helped him get into the program forever ago, he is the current temple president here at the Kiev temple. He has made it clear that there will be changes so we're all just kind of waiting to see what happens. we had a meeting on sat to just meet him and his family but no word on when our next training meeting is. When we had the opportunity to all line up and shake his hand, i was one of the first to go when it was still super awkward and no one knew what to say to him and i ended up saying something like, "yay, the missions hard. I have been out three months," "oh, really, three months? so its been hard?" "yeah, but today's a good day because i haven't cried yet" okay. not the best first impression, but the look on his face...oh well. funny now but he probably thinks this SisterLlittle is a nutcase. might be true.
I am seeing that being on a mission is the most restricted and yet most liberating place to be. We have rules we have to follow, but the missionary work and how we get it done and how we find investigators and how we work with members-really the sky is the limit on how we do it. Like I said earlier, me and my companion are trying some new ideas to really jump start the members to do missionary work. and I've realized that the success cannot be measured and that's okay. As long as i have extended the invitation for them to do missionary work and for investigators to change their lives through the atonement. I have done my job. This is maybe not the best description of why i wear this tag, but it gives me permission to be the missionary work cheerleader of the ward and allows me to always talk about missionary work. why else am i here?
i love you all,
i hope you are safe and happy and enjoy all of your vacations. stay close to our Heavenly Father through prayer and I just want to say that the Holy Ghost and the life and sacrifice and Jesus Christ are His greatest gifts to us.
Sister kylie little
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