Why I do this

April 7, 2014

First off, so yesterday apparently some craziness went down in Lugansk, so President Lochhead called us (our District/Zone Leader) this morning and said that we were to stay away from the city center. Well, well, well, internet is in city center. Solution? Don't wear your tag, and don't wear your proselyting clothes. So I am currently typing in jeans, and it feels real weird. Moving on.

What a week! We spent most of Monday running around buying food for game night, plus we were given 2000 grevin and told to spend it all on food storage for the apartment. We tried so hard to spend all that money, and still fell 500 grevin short. Our grocery cart was completely stuffed, and we were getting a lot of weird looks. We live like, a five minute walk from the store, but had so many bags we had to call a taxi. Usually we talk to our taxi drivers, but this ride was so short, we didn't really say anything until we were almost to our door. Then Sister Reece asked how he was doing, and two sentences later he asked what book she was holding, she told him it was The Book of Mormon, and he said he had been wanting to read that book. What!? So we set up an appointment with him for the next day. That night the Sister Training Leaders also came down from Donetsk for our split on

Tuesday. What fun! Even though it was raining, as our friends from English club like to say, "cats and dogs" (the phrases they pick up are the funniest). I was with Sister R, and she came completely unprepared for the rain. We took them out for lunch to get our favorite shwarmas (apparently Mariupol's are still better), and then we had to go back to the apartment to gear her up better because she was soaked through. After a borrowed coat (Sister Reece), gloves (me), and some lovely heeled rain boots with giant flowers on them (the apartment), she was ready. She's a trooper just for wearing those boots. That night we all came together to run the grandest game night Lugansk has ever seen. We had tons of minute to win it games, and definitely ramped it up from ping pong and Uno. We left exhausted but triumphant. One lady from the branch even included how fun and well organized it was in her testimony on Sunday. We definitely could not have pulled it off without the Sister Training Leaders though.

Wednesday we sent the Sister Training Leaders off, and had a good day of solid teaching. The taxi driver had to cancel Tuesday, but we got to teach him Wednesday, and he seems really interested. Beginning to teach people is always exciting, but way nerve racking. You’re excited to share with them what you know, to share what has brought you so much joy, peace, and happiness in your life, but trying to do it in a way that isn't overbearing, because it can be a lot of new information. The whole time you're just hoping and praying (literally!) they don't reject it.

The end of the week is never as smooth as the beginning. Plans keep falling through, and you're always having to replace them with something else. Well, Saturday’s new plan was something Sister Reece and I could never have dreamed up. We spent the morning helping clean the church, and then went home to discover that all our plans fell through. Okay, just have to tract, right? Except on Thursday we learned that President and Sister Lochhead were coming down Saturday and Sunday, and Sister Lochhead was going to be with us Saturday afternoon. We didn't want to waste an opportunity to have Sister Lochhead with us! We had several back-up plans, but one by one they all didn't turn out. We began just calling people, seeing if we could get something. Nothing. The stress was mounting, and the time for her to come was approaching. We got down on our knees and prayed to know what we should do. I had the thought to ask Sister Lochhead what she wanted to do. Okay, I thought, we'll see if she wants to go contacting or tracting, because that was all we had. We went contacting around Center as we waited for her to come (to go to our own area would be too far), and actually ended up talking to the sister of a member in Makeevka (another small city around Donetsk). Cool! Sister Reece even knew this member, because she had served there. So we're hoping to meet with the sister in the future. Then as we sat down to an early dinner, we got the call that Sister Lochhead was here. She walked in...and immediately asked for a knife to scrape off some hard water scum around our sink. Huh? She then proceeded to inventory our apartment, and determined that it was vastly under equipped. Embarrassing, but awesome. Because you know why? She decided that we were hard workers, so she didn't feel bad about taking us out to get some shopping for the apartment done. So first we had Vladimir, their translator/driver, come in and start fixing some broken things in our apartment, while we went about cleaning our apartment. Then we went shopping. We got to ride in President's car, and go shopping. New pots, mop, broom, dish rack, etc. It was awesome! Then we came back loaded with a missionary’s dream supply of equipment, and Sister Lochhead got down on her hands and knees and started scrubbing our floors until she had to go home for the night. What the what-what awesomeness.

Sunday we got to help Sister Lochhead in Primary, and then I got to draw pictures on the board of the Plan of Salvation in Relief Society as Sister Lochhead taught. What a good Sunday.

This next week is looking to be a dream, with Zone Conference followed by General Conference! (Because of the time difference they record General Conference and will watch it next weekend.) You already got to watch it, so you already know I'm in for a treat. How lucky are we to have living apostles and prophets on the earth today? It's like listening to Moses teach, but with satellite and cinnamon rolls. This is why I do this - why I postpone school, family, friends, move to Ukraine, learn Russian, wake up by 6:30am and go to bed by 10:30pm, and go outside rain, wind, or snow (but not tanks). Not for the cinnamon rolls, but because I know Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father literally appeared to a young boy named Joseph Smith, and through him restored their church - the same church that Christ set up while he lived on the earth - in it’s entirety on the earth again. As part of this, we were given once again – by God - living prophets and apostles who testify of Christ, and give us guidance and direction. And for a short period of time I get to be a representative of Jesus Christ, and invite people to learn for themselves that this is true. Because it is. Now that is cool.

Love you all! Please don't worry about me, but prayers are always appreciated :) 

С Любовью,

Сестра Таннер

I sent Diana the dedicatory prayer for the preaching of the gospel in Ukraine. This is what the person who posted it had written before the text of the prayer.

As Ukraine's future has become increasingly uncertain over the past several months, I've been reminded over and over again of Mormon apostle Boyd K. Packer's 1991 dedicatory prayer for the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in that beautiful country. This prayer provides hope that, in spite of despots and oligarchs incessantly grasping for wealth and power, Ukraine has a bright spiritual future.

President Packer saw the day when (notice the plural) "stakes of Zion" will be "set firmly and permanently upon the fertile soil of the Ukraine." He also saw the time when (again, notice the plural) "the spires of temples will be seen across this great land."
Here is Diana’s response. Currently there are no stakes in the Donetsk mission. There is a temple in Kiev and it was the first time since Nauvoo that a temple was dedicated in less than 20 years after the church began operating in a country.

Of course we received and read the dedicatory prayer of Ukraine our first day in country :) I look forward to the day of multiple stakes, and especially multiple temples.

I had told Diana to listen for Elder Holland’s talk next week and sent her a summary of the talk from the Deseret News but said it left out the part about the sister missionary having food thrown at her.

A man in our branch yesterday during testimony meeting talked about the sister missionary who had food spit on her. I was like "where is he getting this story?" Now it all makes much more sense. :)