Week 36

Another week in the big city. time moves fast here. we have exchanges this upcoming week and i told my companion that they cant do exchanges the first week of the transfer....and she said sister little, we are going into week three. oh. wow.

So I'm not ashamed to say that humor has helped me survive a lot of difficult times so far on the mission and there's a lot to laugh at here in center Kiev to, so i though i'd share with you one of my experiences this week that helped put a smile on my face.

on Thursday evening....we had a list of less actives we were going to stop by that kinda live in the same area. it was a new area to me around a metro stop. my companion hasn't been to very often so we were having a hard time finding the right 'dome' (this is like a super tall apt building that this area is full of). we could find all its neighboring domes but not the right address - dome 8A. as we are wondering around the neighborhood we come across an old babushka who asks us to help her find dome 12A. we kinda look around and point her in the right direction and continue our journey to find our own dome. After wondering around in a few more circles we run into this babushka again, still looking for this dome 12a. this babushka was pretty well dressed, pretty classy and she was wearing a name tag, so after the first time we briefly met her we thought that maybe she was a 'missionary' too trying to find an inactive from her congregation too or something. the second time we see her she is asking a different woman to help her find this dome 12a. the women calls to us and says, 'hey, if you are missionaries you should be serving god. we all know when you serve other people you serve god' and she left us to help this babushka as she ran on her merry way. So we decided to give up our hunt for a little bit to help this babushka.

She tells us that she doesn't need dome 12a but 10. okay. why? we ask her. after a little more thorough investigation and after reading her name badge more clearly, her name tag is actually has her name and her address written on it-dome 10, apt 15. OOOHHHhhhh. it clicked. this woman has Alzheimer or something and she can't find her own dome. alright. got it. so we helped her find her dome and we took her up to her apt to make sure she got there okay. She was kinda giggly and embarrassed but didn't really understand that we were helping her, but it was fine. As she opened the door (her key worked that she was surprised to find in her jacket pocket) she invited us in for tea. We wanted to get back to our own hunt, but as you could probably guess, she wouldn't let us turn her down, so we went into her little apartment. nothing scary, pretty normal with lots of old pictures, small, it was fine. She offered her toilet to us, which to anyone who has served a mission knows is a blessing. i didn't have to go, but my companion went. So this babushka, Vera Nickolivena, is in the kitchen making a whole lot of noise, I'm in the other room looking at all the pictures when my companion comes out of the bathroom saying "i think there is something wrong with your toilet" i go to look....its is flooding this little bathroom like crazy and within 30 seconds there is 4 inches of water in the bathroom.

now, remember i told you about the old sewers her in Kiev, this is just another experience with it. So Vera Nickoliven comes to see what is going on, laughs a little and says, 'don't worry about it, ill take care of it.' i don't think she realizes how much water is the bathroom and just trots right into the bathroom with a towel and bends down and starts wiping the floor. my companion and i just watch her for a minute to see how she handles the situation. Fully dressed, high heels and all, she is soaking the towel with the water that is on the floor then wringing it out over the bathtub then bends down to do it again. She is standing in 5 inches of water and has no idea that water just keeps coming out of the toilet.
Well, we couldn't convince her that what she was doing was ineffective and really....i couldn't stop laughing at this situation we were in. in a strange bobyshky's apt with a flooded bathroom, she's sloshing around in there with all this water there and none of have any idea how to make it stop.

i finally find the water valve behind the toilet by laying on the ground outside the bathroom (so i don't get wet), i miraculously reach it to turn off the water. we end up spending half an hour using a bowl and a dust pan to get all the still water off the bathroom floor. this whole time our bobyshky thinks she is helping by wiping the towel on the floor and ringing it out over the bathtub. We just about clean up all the water when we hear a key in the door turn. Oh my gosh. someone's here. this bobyshky talked about a son, so i knew it was probably him. but...what on earth do i say when he opens the door and sees his mother with these two young girls in the bathroom (\we had cleaned up all the water by this time, so no evidence that we had helped her in this mini disaster....) So he swings the door open and i am the only one visible. 'hi'. "we found this lovely woman on the street and helped her find her way home." "and then something happened. and we helped her" His face of blank shock and 'who the heck are you"...just priceless. He half believed our story but was overall really nice. He said he had just made that name tag for his mom the day before in case she gets the idea to go out again. He said if we hadn't helped her he would have spent the night running around the streets looking for her. which had happened before. we left him a Liahona and our contact information and said we'd stop by sometimes to make sure she's okay. He was pretty nice given the situation.

this is just one of the moments on my mission that i can't wait to re watch with you all in heaven...so funny. My companion said that that morning she prayed that something fun would happen.....i am keeping a close eye on her and what she prays for now.

fun times. look....well you can't see it, but i'm smiling. i am finding joy in the work. i'm excited for general conference next week. still don't know if ill watch it in english or Russian.

i love you all,
sister little