Thanksgiving

December 2, 2013

This week. This week started off great with finally getting to pick up my package! I am just very grateful I had a seat on the way home. It weighed 20 pounds. I also bought a new hat, which I now wear every day. There is now no reason for anyone to yell at me.

Tuesday. Tuesday was just one of those ridiculous days that stink but happen every so often. We spent a good portion walking around in the cold trying to find less active members and former investigators. Some didn't answer the door, and those that did were not interested. And then we got home, and I went to go flip on the kitchen light and the last remaining bulb exploded in a burst of flaming embers, which also caused a power surge which flipped all our lights off. Seeing as we had no clue where our circuit breaker box was, we were without main power. Luckily our outlets still worked, including the fridge. However, Ukraine gets very dark, very quickly, so we had dinner and such by the light of my little princess flashlight's lamp feature. That thing is a dream. Finally, much later that night, we discovered our circuit breaker box, and it's pretty sad we didn't find it before.

The Disney princess flashlight/lantern that has become an essential tool for Diana

 

Wednesday we had planned some time to cook before Thanksgiving Day. Nope. We had an appointment with a member that morning, which lasted forever, and I eventually lost track of what was being talked about. However, her apartment is absolutely beautiful, and this little oasis in the middle of a gray world. A lot of apartments are like this, actually. You enter this gray, crumbling building, walk around scary, graffiti filled halls, to knock on a sometimes fancy looking door, but other times scary looking doors, to then enter this beautiful, light, clean apartment. It gets me every time. Anyway, during this lesson we received two phone calls from this number, and when we called them back it turned out to be the office, wondering if we could be there in 1 1/2 hours. So we ran home to shove some food in our faces (we hadn't had lunch yet), and jumped on a bus to just make it there on time. Then we sat in the office for a while. Then we walked to some government building, and Sis. Pharis signed a piece of paper as some part of her de-registration process. Then we went home. Yes; three hours for Sis. Pharis to sign a piece of paper.

Thursday was Thanksgiving! So because no cooking had been done earlier, we had lots of cooking that morning before our dinner at 12:00 (okay, so lunch). I was in charge of potatoes, and boy, did I make a lot of mashed potatoes. It was ridiculous trying to stir those things around. I had grand plans for those potatoes, but what I got was mashed potatoes. And by mashed potatoes, I mean potatoes that were mashed. Sis. Pharis made lots of biscuits (we wanted rolls, but we had no roll recipe), and we also made an apple cake. Then we took the bus to the church with all of our food. Our Thanksgiving feast was actually a mild feast. We had the potatoes, biscuits, and apple cake, plus salad, fruit salad, brownies, apple pie, chocolate cake, and the grand center piece: the turkey. Two elders in our district were in charge of the turkey, and they found the last turkey in the district. Apparently they went wandering around all the meat places (there are many), asking "is this a turkey?" "NO. It's a goose!" "Is this a turkey?" NO. GOOSE." But they finally found a little turkey on the reenok (the outdoor market). It was rather small, and so the meat portions were tiny, but it was delicious, and made it a true Thanksgiving. We had our district (eight missionaries), the new senior couple in the area, a sister from the ward who is serving a local mission in the office and her friend, and a less active girl from the ward we invited. And that was our Thanksgiving feast. We were given two hours, and then we had district meeting. And then we had English club that night. Not my usual Thanksgiving, but a great one nonetheless, and a good time to reflect on all that I'm grateful for.

Friday we woke up to snow! The first snow of the season, besides that random day in October when I came into country. The snow didn't last long, but the temperature has stayed right on the fence line of snow since then. I don't have a whole lot to report on Friday, other than we planned for the coming week, attended youth night, and got pizza at the actually decent pizza place in Petrovsky. It was kind of funny as we were walking up, and I was like, "wow, there are a lot of people at New York Pizza tonight," and then I realized it was probably because it was a Friday night, and Friday nights, or weekends in general, actually mean something to the outside world other than weekly planning and church.

Saturday was operation sneaky photo. You see, each missionary is supposed to have a book with records on the members of the ward, or congregation they attend. These records are supposed to contain a picture. The books we had were incomplete, so our district set out to make a complete copy of this member book. However, apparently the ward members have been asked to have their picture taken by many past missionaries, but these pictures have since disappeared, probably with the missionary, and the ward members are not happy to have their picture taken again. So we needed to get these pictures in a sneaky manner. Most pictures we sneakily got at church, but there were some that we were responsible for, that we weren't quite sure who they were. So operation sneaky photo came in. We decided to bake them cake, deliver the cake, and in the process figure out who they were, and then either get a picture then, or know who they were so we could get one at church. It helps that Sis. Pharis is leaving really soon, so she could be like "I'm leaving soon - can I get a picture with you?" And then we just cut Sis. Pharis out. Long story short, operation sneaky photo was a success. In other news, I went to go buy contact solution, and I asked for "Re-nu" (the brand), and the lady could not understand me. Harder than speaking Russian, is speaking English in a Russian accent so Ukrainians can understand you. Ordering at McDonald's is a nightmare.

Sunday was my second time of hitting a grand slam. I played the organ in Sacrament, Sunday School opening hymn, played for Primary, and then for Relief Society. The great thing about it is I get to be in Primary, where I can understand what it is they are saying. Plus it was testimony meeting, which is a lot easier to understand than talks. So it was a pretty great church meeting. That night we were determined to visit this less active girl in the ward and deliver her cake, because we had tried several times before but we could never get with her. Little did I know, she lives deep in chasney dom territory (the houses), right next to the scary Ukrainian woods. And we went there when it was quite dark. So as we walked along by the light of my princess flashlight, I reflected once again on how I am doing things I never, ever, thought I would find myself doing. I must say though, as creepy as the world looked that night, the stars were absolutely beautiful. I tried to take pictures, but my eyes captured a lot more light than my camera could. I got some good pictures of me looking scared in the dark though. I also got a picture that looks straight out of a horror movie. Thankfully, we delivered the cake, and returned home, safe and sound that night.

So that was my week. It's December! I absolutely love the Christmas season, and I hope you all live it up this year. And by live it up, I mean get into the true spirit of Christmas, which is being happy, and giving of yourself, and serving others, and making others (and yourself) smile.

I love you all :)

Sister Tanner

I had lots of photos to upload, but for some reason I can't get them to work like I used to. Everything is in Russian too, which doesn't help. Maybe next week? I'm really sad...