October 28, 2013
This letter might be rather short, since there's not much
to write about. "But Sister Tanner!" you may say, "Tell us about
your investigators - the people you're teaching!" And that would be a
wonderful idea...if we had any. But alas, we must be patient. I LOVE MEMBERS.
Members is really the only way anything is going to happen in this work. Think
about it - two randoms knock on your door and want to talk with you about
Jesus. Are you going to do it? Most likely not. Now your dear friends who are
wonderful and awesome talk to you about why they are so dang happy and all
that, and then invite you to their home and introduce you to two smiling young
people. Are you more likely to listen? OF COURSE. Oh my goodness people, I
cannot emphasize enough how much I love members, and how important they are,
and how I wish I had done more. Mom and Dad - I am so proud of you and the work
you have been doing with the missionaries!
But really. One day this week we tracted about 18 floors
of an apartment building, four doors per floor, so about 72 doors. About 6
people answered. Of those 6 people, 1 or 2 were at least somewhat pleasant to
us. We need member help.
So we are really focusing on working with members, and we
have seen some improvement. When I first got here, English club was really sad.
This past week we had way more people than we've ever had. I got to work with
the children, which was pretty crazy. We learned "Mary Had a Little
Lamb" and how to play "rock, paper, scissors."
Youth night this past week had more people than I've seen
before. It was also crazy, and borderline disastrous. We had a cook-off
"Master Chef" style, where each team had a random assortment of
ingredients and had to make something. Our team had enough young men and little
children, that our main dish become a horrid soup made of yogurt, ice cream,
crab flavored chips, crab meat, mystery meat, lemon juice, orange pieces,
bananas, corn, cacao powder, and I forget what else. The actual mixture itself
was not actually disgusting (yes I tried some), but it just looked horrible.
But a good portion of it got eaten. We also managed to make some other disaster
of a thing. However, the real disaster occurred when one of the youth pulled
out a bag of flour and began to throw it on people, which resulted in a flour
war (which I largely managed to avoid), which got everywhere and was a pain to
clean up. We helped to clean the church the next day, and there was still flour
in nooks and crannies that we had to clean.
The church building.
In other service news, Sister Pharis and I
helped a man who had fallen to the ground. We may have done a dis-service
though because we soon realized he was on the ground because he was absolutely
wasted, and would probably soon be returning to such a position. Oh well.
Yep! That's about it for this week. Hope all is well with
y'all.
Happy Halloween! Eat some good American candy for me :)Love,
Sister Tanner
P.S. I had my first borscht this week! It is delicious!
Member help is definitely the best way but do not get discouraged tracting. You are planting seeds. I found that no one let us teach them if we were the first contact they had with a Mormon. Every one we taught, and most all were from tracting, knew a Mormon or had talked with missionaries before. So everyone you talk with is one more experience for that person with a Mormon.
Mom
Dad here. Your description of teaching brings back many
memories of Canada. Tracting an entire month in the winter without one person
letting us come in. That is why we started doing tutoring in a grade school so
at least during the morning we didn't have to tract. My prayers are with you
every day. Don't get discouraged and just remember you are on the Lord's errand
and he is mindful of you every day. I sure love you!
Dad
Dad
Yeah. I just have to recalibrate myself every morning
during personal study. I love personal study so much!
I gave Diana a list of items that I am sending in a
package and told her this was the last call if she wanted anything else. She
replied:
Oh goodness. I don't know. That all sounds good. There's
too much that I want. America is so wonderful! Okay. That's good. I'm excited.
Q - What is the story of the photo of a broom?
A - The broom. So that broom is a wonderful example of
all the brooms here in Ukraine. We have one in our apartment as well. They are
used to sweep everything, from dirt, to dust, to leaves, to stray dogs and
cats. 
Q - What is the photo of the roll of something? Dad
thinks it is toilet paper?
A - Ah yes. The roll. That is a roll of fine Ukrainian
toilet paper. Last week we bought the pink version.
Q - Someone gave them a crockpot and Diana was asking for recipes, so I asked about ingredients. Can you get cans of Cream of Mushroom or Cream of
Chicken soup? Spaghetti sauce? Ketchup? Cans of kidney or black
beans? Bags of kidney or black beans? Chicken breasts or other chicken
parts or just a whole chicken?
A - I don't think I can get a can of any soup. No black
beans, but we do buy cans of kidney beans. No spaghetti sauce, but we may have
the means of making some sort. There are all different kinds of ketchups; they
all come in bags. One kind of tastes like the Lunchables pizza sauce. And we
can buy all parts of all kinds of meat. We have bought chicken breast before
and cooked it, and eaten it, and not gotten sick.
Q - Can you get tomato sauce or tomato paste? Can you get
ground beef? If so I can send chili seasoning and with the kidney beans you can
make chili.
A - If you send chili seasoning, we can do something with
it!
Q - Do the missionaries run the English class? Is it just
you and Sister Pharis or are there other missionaries that teach the English
class?
A - The Petrovsky branch is actually one of the biggest
in the mission, but the missionaries are still very involved. We run English
class. Sometimes all the missionaries are there, but some of the elders live
pretty far away so they don't come every time. Sister Pharis and I, and another
set of elders live the closest to the branch (about a 20 min. walk), so we
are at everything.
Q - Are there other missionaries assigned to your branch?
A - There are four sets of missionaries in my district, assigned
to the Petrovsky branch. Sister Pharis and I are the only sisters.
Q - How many youth are in the branch? Do you always
attend youth night? Do they have youth leaders?
A - It is hard to say how many youth are in the branch.
Maybe ten. There are quite a few small children as well. Youth night is
actually put on by two young adults in the ward, both about 18 years old,
and is not an official anything. There are apparently Young Men’s/Young Women’s
leaders, but they do not attend. The age range of youth night is
rather large. I think last week we had a 10 year old, but we also had a 27
year old.
Q - Do you have
families in the branch, priesthood holders, or more women? How many Primary
kids?
A – It’s cool, because the branch is just one big
family. There are quite a few families, many priesthood holders, and some
babushky. The members here, when they are active, they are active.
Q - What is the white stuff you put in the bowl?
Q - Where are all the artworks?
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