Monday, November 23, 2009

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Sister Morton and I have had a very good week. Although the weather has been a little rainy, it hasn't been too cold. And we found two new investigators! One has a concern with the God head, she believes that they are all one person, but she has agreed to study and pray about it along with us and we are going to share what we learned at the next meeting. The other new investigator has a concern with God- she doesn't believe he exists. Sister Morton shared her beautiful testimony of how she knows that she will see her mother again after this life, and that God is the only one to make that possible. It left the girl with tears, and a definite yes when we asked her if she would like to learn more. Our other investigator that we have been teaching for a while now is almost to the point where if we don't see any improvement, we may have to drop her. I really don't want to, but she is just taking the lessons at face value and not applying them to her heart. I asked her to pray for us the last time we were there, but she refused. I sometimes wonder if I'm not doing enough, or if another missionary would be able to reach her better then I. But I know that we feel the spirit when we teach, so I'll just keep pressing forward.
I had salo (pig fat) for the first time the other day. It has been available for me to try before, but I somehow find a way out of it. Then a grandma placed in front of me to try. Sister Morton just took a little tiny piece, but I wanted the full experience and put two thick slabs on my bread , then put some tomato sauce on the top. It was much harder to chew than I was expecting! It didn't have much flavor to it though. All in all, I am not looking forward to the next time I have to eat it.

Have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Eat some turkey for me!

-Meg
11-23-09

Friday, November 20, 2009

Plan of Happiness

Transfer week is always crazy! I don't know why. I love my new companion, Sister Morton, we are going to work miracles together!
We taught the restoration to two women after English on Saturday. The lesson ended abruptly, but I hope we can meet with them again.
We also taught our main investigator about the Plan of Salvation. I really think she perked up when we told her we were going to answer the age old questions of where do we come from? Why are we hear? And what happens after death? It is still hard for her to believe it though. She says is sounds like a fairy tail. And it really is. We are princes and princesses of the Almighty King. Our elder Brother has made it possible for us to inherit kingdoms if we will obey. Like my mission President said in conference last week, we can not imagine what the Lord has in store for us. So yes, it is unbelievable! But it is true! And I know it is true! If I didn't have that hope, there would be no point in life, we wouldn't exist, there would be no earth, no sun, no stars, no universe. We can not comprehend it all, but it still makes so much sense to me. God loves us, he wants us to be happy. Why doubt such a great and wonderful blessing?!

Sister Howell
11-16-09

Monday, November 9, 2009

Swine Flu

Despite the Swine Flu scare and all the people who are too afraid to meet because of it, we have had some good lessons. As the year is drawing to an end, I think we are getting more bold with bringing up gospel topics in our private English lessons, and we even have a new investigator from it.
We were able to contact a former investigator and she seems to still love us and wants to meet soon. I see very good potential in her. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with another investigator, but she still doesn't know if she can believe. We can not force a belief on her, but we can be consistent with love and hopefully she will find out for herself.
One day last week, while Sister Garff and I were advertising for English we talked to a man that was so happy for our service that he said he wanted to kiss us. We backed away and said “Не Можна” to which he replied, “You right, the flu” So there are benefits to a wide spread sickness! Even if it isn't in Keiv yet.
Transfers are this week, and I am yet again in wonderful Voskresinsky. Sister Garff is getting transferred out west, maybe opening an area. And I think Sister Morton will be my new companion. I've only met her twice before but she seems like a lot of fun.
-Meagen
11-9-09

Monday, November 2, 2009

Crazy Week

Last Monday we went bowling with Lena and Sveta. Sveta won, and it was her first time ever bowling! The bowling alley was the nicest I've ever been to, and it was only two dollars for two hours!
Tuesday we went to see Romeo and Juliet the Ballet. We went with four other sisters and they bought the tickets the day before since they were in the area. The other sisters had really good seats in the front of the balcony, and Sister Garff and I had seats in the very back of the balcony and had a pillar in front of our view. We were not happy. Especially because we told the sisters that we were willing to pay more money for better seats. I liked the Ballet though. I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I could have seen more. We ended up leaving after the second act.
On Thursday for our English group we talked about Halloween, and then had everyone make up a Halloween story. My favorite one went something like this, “One dark night...a boy, a girl, and a dog were sitting by a campfire. After a while the dog disappeared. Then the girl disappeared. The boy noticed that there was something shaking a bush. He went to go see what it was behind it and discovered the dog and the girl...and that their stomachs did not like eating so much fried pumpkin.” We didn't do much to celebrate on Halloween besides eat some candy. On Friday we were at someones house teaching English and the 11 year old girl got a phone call from her school that it was closed for three weeks. We knew it was getting cold, but we didn't think it was cold enough to shut down school for three weeks. We went to our next lesson and while we were there, the girl got a phone call that her university was closed for three weeks to prevent the spread of the Swine Flu. The girl's brother (who is a med student) was home and he came in and told us all about it. Apparently it is really serious in western Ukraine and will hit Keiv in a few days. So all schools and places that can shut down are shutting down. About 50 percent of people I see on the streets are wearing masks over their nose and mouth. I survived the Swine Flu scare in the MTC, so I hope I can survive it in Ukraine as well. I'm just not looking forward to all the people that will cancel on us for fear of the sickness. We're just going to have to find ways that we can take these lemons and make some sweet lemonade out of it!
Sunday evening Elder Mills had a baptism. When we arrived at the church, he told us that the guy who he was supposed to be baptizing was being held by police! We waited for two hours till the guy finally came. It turned out to be a lovely baptism.
Snowflakes are in the air today, which is too bad because I had a goal for there not to be any snow until December. I think I need to work on setting more realistic goals.
Well, that miracle investigator that we had last week has not answered any of our phone calls or responded to our texts. It is so sad. We knew she felt the spirit, but she still has her free agency. We found another investigator though. She was taught by sisters a couple of months ago and was progressing well, then she went to volunteer in Turkey for a while, but now she is back and wants to continue the lessons! Hooray for area book work!
We have another investigator who is does not believe Christ can help her. Sister Garff and I have been discussing that this week. It is truly amazing and incomprehensible how much Christ has already done for us, is currently doing, and will continue to do for us throughout eternity. To get her to see that and really feel it in her heart is going to take some work, but if she is willing to try, that is something.
-Meagen
11-2-09