Week 52

dear family and friends...

 

this week was pretty good in a 'sister little' way...not necessarily in a perfect missionary way...but....im pretty happy (how many prayers are answered by that one?)

 

so when i found out that i was going down to Odessa this transfer, i was working in the office with the Humphries and Presidentkinda casually pulled me into his office to give me few words of advice.. about my companion, the area, etc. he kinda said in so many words that i needed to 'keep everyone in line' down here, that i am a strong sister that he trusts, and now its time to call people out if they aren't doing things the way they should be done....for a few minutes i sat and thought to myself, "wow, i have to be a leader. dang it. no one likes leaders." well, you know, the annoying ones that ruin the party. anyway...i answered back to president that this weight of having to be the "mean" missionary set on me for a awhile, then after some prayer and consultation with my heavenly father, i kinda got the answer that i need to go down there and just be myself-call people out if things are really bad, but mostly lead by my awesome example. so i felt better about that.

 

when i got down here and as ive been serving here the past month, nothing huge has really stuck out as 'apostate' or anything, but there were a couple things me and my companion saw we could improve on as we and the 4 other elders who work in our areas work here. we decided this last week we needed to bring these things up to the elders....but how? who wants the sisters to tell them how to do their job? especially when we're not the most successful sister in the mission. but. we thought this kind of intervention was necessary. so...we decided to "sugar coat" it. last Monday i made cinnamon rolls for the first time- and they turned out (big miracle)- and asked the elders to come early to district meeting on Tuesday so we could have a 'pow wow' about our area. we promised them cinnamon rolls and they were there without any questions :) we talked about three things that we as sister observed and wanted to set as district goals with the elders...so side note, im not a very good missionary...but i will admit my strengths lie in working with the members-loving them, serving them, etc, so thats kinda what we talked about...so our three things were 1. talking to each other in Russian when we were around ANYONE in the ward/on the street. of course, you would think we would do that naturally, but it is really hard when we have awesome stories to tell or we think no one is listening. 2. show a little more enthusiasm!!!! as we sit in our English class or our culinary nights, you can imagine how thrilling all that can be for 20 year old boys, but i told them it would be nice to see a little more excitement! even if its not 'cool' or 'natural'...we've got to kinda put on a 'show' so that people around us-members and investigators get excited too. im reminded of when i had to teach parent/ tot classes when i was life guarding-yeah, you feel like an idiot and a total dork, but the louder you sing those ridiculous songs, the more the kids like you. same principle. Ukrainians don't really like quiet, boring missionaries. its always good to have a magic trick up your sleeve or a fun hand game to show and play. 3. we've had only our 'investigators' coming to these activities, and i don't know why the elders don't step up and start conversations with them, but we asked them to start doing that. our work is not about being possessive about our investigators-its about making everyone feel welcome. my companion, who was baptized four years ago here in Ukraine was able to testify about this a lot-yes, she had her missionaries who taught her, but it was also how friendly and open the 'other' missionaries were to her that made her feel welcome. the elders jumped back with the response that its awkward having 'small talk' with strangers, especially in Russian, then i kinda shared that a mission is the best time to develop those social skills! i think back to some moments before the mission and how i really couldn't handle a lot of social situations, but the kind a person ive become because ive been willing to put myself out there and talk to people on the mission has really helped a lot....so yeah. all that discussion over some delicious cinnamon rolls. and the assistants to the president happened to be there...oops. threw down on our district and zone leader in front of the aps. oops. ohwelll.....can you see how sisters run the mission? hahaha.

but it was really good, and they humbly took our advice .....and.....they changed!!!! English on Thursday and our activity on Friday were so fun and awesome!! they were all actually talking to everyone, even if they were making fools of themselves. and our zone leader even came up to us after our activity and said, 'you know, sisters, thank you so much for your talk with us on Tuesday. we're really lucky to have awesome sisters like you who *keep us in line*...wow. cool. and i happened to be fasting that day for just some comfort that i was actually doing any good for the work here. so i'll take that as an answer. it was really good. and....our elders our awesome and ive seen them in the past week come out of their shells even more and they're actually smiling, laughing, and enjoying the work. thinking about it, the elders probably thought we, as sisters, were calling them together to talk about how we need to be 'more serious' about the work, when actually, we invited them to 'be more serious about having more fun'...i guess that's just the kind of sister i am. i just see a lot of 'dead beat' members and the least we can do as missionaries for them is bring a little life back and help them smile.

 

here are two funny instances of the week...

 

i was walking in church yesterday and walked passed one of the long mirror and realized my skirt's slit in the back had ripped...pretty far up. like...yeah. really far up. i realized it was from having to climb into all the trams here...its like a three foot step up onto the trolleys here....so it was kinda funny. luckily my companion had a safety pin and  i sewed it up last night. but it was kinda funny. i was wearing thermals so it wasn't too big a deal.....so here a lot of skirts women wear have really high slits in the back or front, like all the way up the thigh. so i realized that they aren't trying to be skanky, they just need that kind of slit in their skirts to be able to get into all the public transportation here. duh. its nice to understand the culture a little better. :P

 

so, one of our branches doesn't have a piano player. so instead of volunteering myself, i am teaching one of the young girls in the ward to play the piano. so we meet once a week, she watches how i play the hymns and memorizes my fingers, then SHE plays in sac meeting...yeah im scared to death to play in church, but this way too, its like im teaching her how to fish instead of fishing for her, right? so yesterday i was leading the music while she as playing and we were singing 'we thank the o god for a prophet" and i was holding the hymn book with one hand and leading with the other. then realized....this is the only song in the Russian hymn book where you have to turn the page to sing the last line of the song. (i have no idea whose idea that was, but its a bad idea)....so i realize this was we're in the fourth line of the song....one hand is holding the book, the other is leading andi just have this thought, "how am i going to turn the page??!!" it was an awkward 5 seconds turning the page, leading, not leading, almost dropping the hymn book because i had to turn the page back for the next verse...it was just funny.

 

well, as you can see, my cheeks are defrosting, i can smile a little easier, and my heavenly father is showing me that i am doing some kind of good here.

 

thank you for all your support and prayers :)

sister little