Sister Tanner in Ukraine: Triple Brother Baptism

March 17, 2014

So, what happened this week? Oh, nothing much. Just a TRIPLE BROTHER BAPTISM. Oh yeah.

So much of this week was focused on the baptism. I think I mentioned earlier that D said he would tell us on Wednesday whether or not he would be baptized. Well, Tuesday night we called, and he said he wanted to do it! Wednesday we had our final lesson, Thursday they were interviewed, Friday we had district meeting and then spent much longer than planned trying to put together the programs for the baptismal service, Saturday they were baptized, and Sunday they were confirmed. Whew!

But really, that was pretty much my week. I will say though, their baptismal day was probably the most unconventional, expectation shattering day ever. Sister Reece and I literally came home and just went, "what happened?" We start with waking up, a little nervous hoping everything works out. We stayed normal through personal study, and then as soon as 9:00am hit, it was off to work. So Sister Reece had planned on making fudge for the post-baptism party. Well, the fudge didn't work out Thursday night (which also happened to be transfer call night), and so we were going to make it fondue. Well, we needed to buy things to put in the fudge, so we did that Saturday morning. Got it done, still on time. Then we needed to print programs, because we ran out of time Friday. We went to this photo printing place, and they bring the document up, and the format changed. Disaster. 30 minutes later, and they tell us they can't do it. Put in traveling time, that's 40 minutes lost. Not on time anymore. Luckily, we managed to get them printed at the internet club, with only mildly annoying the guy working there. So then we ran home, and Sister Reece still had to turn our fudge into fondue. One quick run to the store in our apartment building, and we had enough fondue. By this time we had very little time. Call a taxi, drop the food off at the church, and off to the sauna where the baptisms were being held. Yes, they were in a sauna. We got there 10 minutes before it was supposed to start, and besides our branch mission leader, we were the first ones. Womp. 5 minutes later a small party shows up including the three baptizees. Another 5 minutes, and the other elders show up, and that was it. Very little branch support. We were a little disappointed, but I guess it just means we need to work with the branch more. The service went...not as planned. But they got baptized and that is what was important. Even if it does take 5 tries to get J (the other Elders' investigator) properly baptized.

Then we all piled into taxis and went to the church for the post-baptism party/Relief Society birthday party. Well, only a few more branch members showed up for the Relief Society birthday party than the baptism. But we ate good food, the fondue was a huge hit, and I played piano while Elder Haddad played violin (a repeat from Petrovsky). And then Sister Reece and I went home and tried to absorb everything that happened. I'm sorry if that was a convoluted story, but that is kind of how it felt. And then Sister Reece and I attempted to finish weekly planning. The end.

In other news, Sister Reece and I did not receive a transfer call on Thursday night, meaning we are sticking it out together in Lugansk for another 6 weeks.