Week 59

Dear family,

well, we had a pretty good Easter week, with a few complications thrown in there, but everything worked out. when we went to Bulgaria we were talking about all the possible things that could go wrong (we didn't feel all that informed on what we were supposed to do when we get there) and one elder responded, "im not worried at all. things always work out for missionaries. we are like so taken care of by angels and under the lords care, that some kind of random solution will come up if we get stuck" so true. last Wednesday we got a call from someone who works for the mission to get missionaries 'registered' in Ukraine so that we are all legal. Ukraine has been changing their laws a lot lately and its made things a whole lot more complicated. so last Wednesday we get a call from this man that said we had to get ourselves to an office an hour and a half away to pick up a paper and get it back to our area to get it signed by our local government office before 6 pm or else i would have to leave the country TOMORROW. okay, except that he called to tell us that at 4:30pm. No possible way. but, way. we called up some crazy taxi drivers and got it all done with ten minutes to spare. i have NO IDEA how but..some angels were working overtime for us. again, things just 'work out' for missionaries. i guess some time this week was the '30 day' mark after i got my new visa from when i went to Bulgaria last month, and if i didn't get registered within thirty days, i would have to leave the country and wait for an invitation back in. crazy, but things just worked.

 

Sunday was Easter and it was way cool to meet all the members at church. this passed week was the Odessa district's scheduled week at the Kiev temple so a lot of members went up last Sunday/Monday night to serve there all week and came back to Odessa Saturday night and came straight to church. can you imagine having a 'temple experience' like that. its absurd to us Americans where temples are a half hour drive away and no 'temple housing' but here...that's normal. you wait for your assigned week, you go up with everyone from your area/mission/country and stay in temple housing for a week and do 4-5 sessions a day with baptisms and other ordinances thrown in there. again, can you even imagine the spiritual high these members come back on? one woman came up to us and said, "Does anyone want to touch temple oil? its still on my head from yesterday!" it must be so awesome-they work hard all year long to get that one week off and what do they do? spend it at the temple with their ward. i think such an experience would be way cool.

 

Easter Sunday we knew we wouldn't get a whole lot of good responses just contacting the people on the street-since Everyone was about their orthodox traditions, so we grabbed some elders, a table, some book of Mormons and liahona and hymn books and went to a park and sang hymns and passed out materials. we had some good conversations with people, but mostly about how THEY celebrate Easter and how THEY are different from us. but, that's okay. i think we did a good job of representing ourselves. some ladies asked if i had a husband/or looking (an extremely common question) and told me that have some cute "svyasheniky" (priests) at their orthodox church and that i should go check them out. haha. maybe some other time...

 

things are warming up here, i got my first tan lines (okay sunburn lines) this last week -my poor neck and chest hasn't seen the sun in six months-ive been wearing scarves and jackets that long, its depressing, but...im so happy its over. today i also got some more good sun-for pday we went out to some castle ruins by the sea and climbed around on them for a couple hours. our whole zone went, it was a lot of fun.

 

this week is transfers, i'll go up to Kiev wed night and come back Thurs night with a new companion. it should be way good, im excited.

well, i send my love, thoughts and prayers from here in Odessa, Ukraine. i miss you all, but know that this is a privilege to be here-as hard as it is and as much as i complain, it was a choice to be here and it absolutely is a privilege.

love you!

sister kylie little