Yesterday

I thought that you might be curious as to how an average day goes for me so I will write to you about yesterday.
It started off like all Sunday mornings with Missionary Coordination Meeting. This is where each set of missionaries tell the Ward Mission Leader who they have been meeting with throughout the week. Yesterday was good, we got encouraged to have more member present lessons, but it was not as judgmental as last week when we were the only missionaries without a baptismal date.
Then we had Sacrament meeting. Constantine was confirmed a member of the Church since he was baptized on Saturday. During the testimony part, I think only three people bore their testimonies because each one was so long. For Gospel Principles we had a lesson on life after death, the teacher spoke in clean Ukrainian, so that was nice to hear. In Relief Society we talked about bearing testimony, and how that helps us and the people who hear it as well. After church we had Ward Council where they discussed the upcoming “Open Doors” it lasted about two hours and was mostly in Russian so I had to fight to keep my eyes open to stay awake. I didn't feel that we really needed to be there because the only thing that they told us was to bring our investigators and walk them through the tour of the church. They could have told us that without having to go to the meeting, but I appreciate that they want us to be involved with everything.
After that I went home and planned on making myself a grilled cheese sandwich with chicken and tomatoes, but then I opened the bread and there were a couple of moldy pieces that made the whole loaf smell rancid. So I just put the chicken, cheese and tomatoes on the frying pan and ate it that way. I think it tasted better than if it had been on bread. It was probably the best home-cook meal that I've had in Ukraine.
We had some time till our next appointment, so we decided to stop by some in-active youth in our area. When we got there only the active parents were home, and they invited us in, so we taught a small spiritual thought. It was the most awkward lesson that I have had on my mission. When we would ask them questions they would respond as shortly as possible and when we were talking they wouldn't even make eye contact with us. So we made it a short lesson and when we ended and started to leave, they asked us why we were leaving so soon. It was strange. Fortunately we committed the mother to talk to her mother about having a family home evening together, unfortunately I left my umbrella there, so we're going to have to go back one of these days.
On our way to our next appointment we heard a huge explosion that shook the ground and scared us. Then we turned to see huge fireworks in the air. It was slightly misty last night, so the mist reflected the light and made it appear even bigger then it was. So as we were waiting at the bus stop for ten minutes we were watching these fireworks that were bigger than I have ever seen them. I'm not sure why they were being set off, they were behind a movie theater, so it was probably a promotion of some kind. I love how fireworks are legal in Ukraine!
For our private English lesson last night we played Bonanza with three people from our large English group. They really liked it and it taught them new words like “stinky bean” and “shuffle” it also taught them how to barter in English. After the game, we asked them how they liked the movie, “The Testaments,” which is what we showed after our last English lesson. They said they liked it, but didn't really understand it. So we told them a little about the Book of Mormon which brought up other questions that lead to a long question answer discussion. It was good, and we learned a lot about them and vice-versa. But next time we meet we want there to be more structure to the gospel part, but I see good potential in them.

-Meagen
12-7-09