Summer!

The other day Sister Walker and I were handing out English advertisements in the along the street market and I saw a lady walking by with a chocolate ice-cream cone! Summer is finally here! I was so happy, I had to celebrate by purchasing one for myself! Delicious!
All of the snow is off the streets and it is almost too hot to wear my coat. When there were still a few patches of snow here and there, I would inwardly point and laugh because I knew I would never have to walk on it again on my mission! Unless there is a freak storm or something.
We had a good lesson with one of our investigators the other day. We talked about prayer and she said that she feels like she has done too much wrong for Heavenly Father to want to listen to her. We talked about her granddaughter and if she ever did anything wrong, would she still love her? I think this helped her to see just a little bit of Gods love for her. The spirit was very strong and she was willing to pray at the end of our lesson. This morning I was reading in 2 Nephi 19:21"...For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." I love that image. Even though we know that God is not happy when we choose to do wrong. He still has his hand outreached to us, wanting and waiting for us to repent and return to Him. He loves us that much. This week I will try especially hard to show my love for Him by extending a hand to those in need and helping them to feel the love that God has for them.
-Meagen
3-29-10

Tracting

Yeah! Sister Walker is my new companion! I knew we would get along just fine when I was looking through her pictures and saw a photo of her sister with Dole Whip! She loves that I love Dole Whip too! It's only the best ice-cream ever!
So back when Sister Morton was on exchanges with me, I apologized that the water wasn't warm on Sundays because no one was taking showers in the mornings. I told her it was not my fault that the people in our building were not going to church! And she asked if I had invited them. Well, I hadn't, so when we had a lesson that got canceled the other night we decided to go to our neighbors and get acquainted. We even introduced ourselves as there neighbors and people were still rude to us, until....we went to the apartment right above us and the lady came to the door and invited us in. She fed us a little food and asked if we were Mormon. We said yes, and she said that one of her favorite authors is Orson Scott Card. We had a very good conversation and ended up sharing with her the Book of Mormon and invited her to come to church. She said she was busy this week, but maybe next week! Knocking on doors really does work!
-Meagen
3-22-10

Rest in Peace

Well, Sister Movchanyuk ended her mission on Thursday, but she didn't get her visa to go back to Italy, so she is staying with her friend here for a week and then going to go visit her grandma in Harkiv. It was really strange to see her at our activity on Saturday and again at church on Sunday and to call her by her first name. Our activity on Saturday was to celebrate Woman's Day and for one part of it, some of the men in the ward put on wigs and did a skit for us about how they think we hold Relief Society meetings. It was very entertaining. We had three of our investigators come, and I think they had fun.
This week I am with Sister Morton until transfers. It has been fun being with her again, and it is interesting to see how we fall back into the same roles that we had with each other before. I still don't feel like I know this area very well. But I've only had to ask for directions twice! We've had a lot of people cancel lessons on us recently. I hope it is not just because Sister Movchanyuk is not here anymore, but if that really is the reason, then they are not ready anyway.
Something I've been studying in the scriptures lately is the need to be constantly nourished by the word of God. It is important for us as missionaries to be enlightened and inspired by the scriptures, so that we may know what it is that we need to share with our investigators and help them progress. We also need to make sure that the members and our investigators are studying everyday so that their testimony's may be strengthened and they will be able to feel the spirit to help them know what is truth and what is not. I know that I have always known this, but I love how true it is and want to focus more with helping those we work with understand the importance of scriptures as well.
Have a magical day!
-Meg
3-15-10

Happy Woman's Day!

Woman's day is a national holiday in Ukraine. I like this holiday. I guess it is comparable to Mother's day, but this holiday does not exclude those who are not a mothers. Everywhere on the streets I see people walking around with flowers, they are all so beautiful. Almost like spring were here, but it's coming soon, I hope! I will probably buy myself a flower and chocolate today to celebrate. We kind of hinted to the elders yesterday to get us some, but they probably won't. That's ok, they are great anyway. They do things for us all the time, so we don't feel deprived. It is so much more fun to go tracting with the elders. They take one floor and we take the next, then share stories at the end before we moving on. The other day we were going with the elders to do a stop-by and the man that we were going to go see was not at home, but his son was, so we started talking to him. We found out that he is a priest of a popular Christian church here. We shared a short lesson on the Restoration and asked him from whom he received his authority to preach. He said one of the other priests. We asked where did he receive the authority. He said the leader of their church. And we asked where did the leader of their church receive it, and he said......."I don't know" That didn't make much sense to us. We testified that "we believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof"(Articles of Faith 1:5) I am so grateful for this knowledge, that we have a living Prophet on the Earth today who leads and guides this church under the divine direction of God. The man wasn't very interested in hearing more, but maybe he will in the future we hope.
-Meagen
3-8-10

Pictures!!!

Sister's conference, all of my lovely companions! I am happy to say that I love each and every one!

My cool hair a member did before the conference.

A giant fish at the supermarket. This is why we don't eat the fish in Ukraine.

Ice covered steps! Oh boy!

See how close our chapel is to the temple?!

It looks like it says Ceres!

I don't remember what the temple looked like the last time I sent a picture of it, but it is coming right along.

Exchange

This has been quite an interesting week. It started off with a pizza party at the office elders' apartment on Monday. Then Monday night I went back to my old area on an exchange. I thought it would be a sweet reunion, because I love that place so much. But it was actually bitter and depressing. A twilight zone experience almost. Not many things had changed, but it wasn't the same. It wasn't my area anymore. I did get to see Halina, and Lena and Sveta though, so that made me happy. Halina is having a difficult time as I'm sure many recent converts do- they really are tested in their faith. But Halina is a champion, I know she'll be great.
-Meagen
3-1-10