December 30, 2013
Whew! Okay this week has been CRAZY. But good. So first,
a story that pretty much captures my relationship with the buses in Petrovsky.
On the way home Monday night, Sister Ahlstrom and I were on the bus talking to
each other. We come to our stop - the stop I have come to many, many times
before - and for some reason I just don't move to get off. I'm looking at it,
thinking "this is our stop," Sis. Ahlstrom is looking at it, probably
thinking the same thing. The doors are open...we wait...and then right at the last
second Sister Ahlstrom jumps up and dashes out. So I jump out, knowing that I'm
not going to make it. Sure enough, right when I hit them, the doors close on
me. But now I have tunnel vision, and I know I should just step back onto the
bus, but my companion is outside, and I am finally going to defeat these bus
doors. So I push them away from me, the bus is starting to drive away, and I
get one leg out, thinking "hey, the bus isn't moving too fast," suddenly
everyone on the bus is yelling for the driver to wait, I jump off, the doors
close, catching my glove in them in the process, but I am out. I turn around,
grab my glove out of the doors, just kind of salute the people in the bus because
I don't know what to do, and then run down the hill in embarrassment. But I
won, with only a pretty large bruise on my knee where the doors slammed me.
Tuesday. Tuesday was Christmas Eve, but I basically spent
it packing. We also had two appointments that evening with ward members, one
who is also a less active, and one who we usually meet with, but Sister
Ahlstrom hadn't really met yet. Both were so kind to make time on such short
notice. And both made us really big Christmas Eve dinners! The one family, the
mom was like "I know on Christmas Eve you probably eat a big meal with
your families, and you're away from home, so this is all we can do for
you." Ukrainian people can really be so kind.
Wednesday was the craziest, most unforgettable Christmas
ever. Sister Ahlstrom and I woke up at 5:00AM to open presents
and finish up packing.
Then it was good-bye Petrovksy. We arrived at
the Lochhead’s at about 10:00AM, luggage in tow, to help Sister Lochhead
prepare for the Christmas feast. We set to work cutting potatoes, cabbage,
setting things out, and she even trusted us to make a banana cream and a
coconut cream pie. I have never made a cream pie from scratch in my life, but
it worked! And Sister Lochhead even approved! I was pretty proud of
myself. Eventually everyone started arriving, and then it was a grand time
with the Donetsk missionaries. At one point Sister Lochhead had me play
Christmas songs at the piano, but eventually some other
missionaries volunteered to take over.
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| Good-bye to Sister Ahlstrom |
Then it was time to street contact
a little (we had a time limit of two hours to party, plus we had just been
at the Lochhead's for a while), and we actually ended up getting the
information of this one lady. A Christmas miracle. Then Skyping with
family. What a trippy experience. It was odd how completely normal it was,
like it hadn't been three months since I heard anyone's voice. Unfortunately
the sound kept fading in and out, but whatever. And then it was done. And then
the nightmare began. I was supposed to head off to Lugansk right then, but
my new companion, Sister Reece, was unable to coordinate a new time with her
family, so she hadn't Skyped yet, and by the time she could Skype in Donetsk,
it would be too late to go to Lugansk. But we needed to get my luggage out
of the Lochhead's, so we ended up taxiing my luggage to the internet club, and
I sat there with my luggage while she Skyped, then we taxied on over to the
center sisters (once we finally got a taxi that was willing to take my
luggage), and spent the night there. It sounds really simple, but any time
you have to take a taxi with luggage, it is a headache.
So Thursday morning we woke up early, and left for the
bus to Lugansk. It was a three hour ride, and it was pretty foggy
outside so I couldn't see anything, so I just slept. After a
taxi ride to the apartment (the guy ripped us off), I was home. Lugansk.
Lugansk is nice. So I did not manage my time well (hour of computer time), and a lot has happened since
I've been here, so here is what I can say.
Lugansk is on FIRE. We have investigators, part member
families we're working with, less active members, and guess what...people are
actually willing to talk to you on the streets. It's astounding! We also live
right by a university, so there are a lot more young people. It's exciting!
Sister Reece and I have been so busy these past couple days. We are also both
very new to the area (Sister Reece has been here two weeks) so the theme of the
week has been getting lost. But really, we get lost all the time. It's kind of
frustrating. You see, Sister Reece will just ask people how to get places, and
they will tell you something whether or not they really know. So you can ask
five different people, and they will tell you five different buses. But I guess
that is the way to get to know the city. The buses here also don't have accordion
doors, so I haven't gotten stuck in any. Busses are just less crowded in
general. We're still trying to get to know everyone, so next week I will have
to write more about people in specific.
But yesterday, we left the apartment at 9:10AM for church,
and did not return until 9:15PM. Longest day ever. And it never would have
happened if a) we did not have the granola bars Dr. Tunstall gave me for
Christmas (thank you shout out!) and b) this one member came with us to two
appointments and then went the extra mile to personally direct us to the next
place we needed to be. The branch here is great, I like the whole Lugansk vibe,
I'm just excited to be here.
Also, my second day here I got to attend the wedding
reception of a former elder who served here, and a woman from the branch. Kind
of awkward, always entertaining. Kind of like when I entered Petrovksy.
I'm sorry about the lack of info on Lugansk. But look
forward to more letters to come!
Love you all, and have a great New Year! Sister Tanner
The following are photos from Donetsk that Diana was able to upload this week.
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Cats and pigeons keeping warm    |
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