Two people want to be baptized

February 10, 2014

Okay, this week blew by, which means it was good. First off, the weather felt wonderful, hovering around -1 degrees Celsius. (30 degrees Fahrenheit) Last Monday was an adventure. Sister Reece and I decided to check out a restaurant in Center we had seen, called Two Goose. Looked fancy, not so great. I do look forward to a good old American restaurant. Then we did everything else, got home, and turned around to go to two FHEs. Got home at 9:20pm and...locked out. Yep. Sister Reece left our keys inside, on the one night where I didn't ask if she had them (our door locks behind us automatically). I have a set, but they're cut wrong, so they're useless (why do I have them? Don't know). So we called our Elders, tried my keys for about 15 minutes, and ended up spending the night in an elders' apartment. Luckily the Elders were in Donetsk for some registration stuff/transfer meeting. So an elder's apartment smells like elder. That is all I will say.

Tuesday morning we woke up, ate a little bit of oatmeal that was left over in the apartment, and attempted to do studies. In the middle we called our landlord, and he said he would be over in 1 1/2 hours. So when it came time we took our unshowered, slept in make-up, same clothes, unbrushed hair selves over to our apartment. He didn't show, we called, he said it would be another hour. He finally comes and lets us in, and we're just grateful we cleaned the apartment well on Monday. Turns out, the lack of urgency on his part was due to the language barrier, and he just thought he was coming to collect rent. So then our week could actually start. 

The following is just a list of highlights from the week:

 We had a lesson with the mom of Sister Reece's friend, and she said she wants to be baptized, but she wants to wait until summer when her son comes home (understandable, and still very exciting).

We had a lesson with a guy from India who is here studying. We met him on the bus several weeks ago, but then Sister Reece lost the notebook his name was written in, but he called us, we set up an appointment, and I got to help teach a lesson to someone without a Christian background. It turns out he lives in the Elders' area though, so we passed him to them. But he was interested. He said of all the Christian things he's heard, ours was the best (because it's true!)

Because the weather warmed up, people came back to English, and we had about 10 people there. The game I came up with was a hit, and we had a great discussion on the Olympics and sports in general.

We received two new Elders into our district, including an Elder I served with in Petrovsky. With their arrival also came the arrival of a package from home, and some letters. This package was the most perfect package ever, and I cannot properly describe the happiness that came from it.

But even greater than the package was Saturday night when we had a lesson with M and D, and M said he would be baptized! We set a date of March 1 for a goal to work towards. THIS IS SO EXCITING. Sister Reece and I were giddy.

And then on Sunday, three less actives came to church, including one with whom we have been working with for many weeks. She's the one that moved to Moscow, stopped going to church, and then forgot everything. Just a little while ago she was saying she wasn't ready to come back, and then to see her walk in, and the branch members greet her and everything...oh, it was wonderful.

Sister Reece and I have really been working our tails off, and it's really rewarding to actually see stuff come from it. I actually feel like I'm making somewhat of a difference. We both are just so grateful to have so much to do.

Love you all, enjoy the Olympics. I hear the Americans are killing it. Go USA.

Sister Tanner

Here are the questions that I sent with my letter this week and her answers.

How is the Olympics affecting people’s willingness to meet with you? On my mission, during the World Cup, no one wanted to meet with us and they kept asking why we were not watching the World Cup.

The Olympics have not affected our teaching in the slightest. World Cup in South America = bigger deal.

How is your Russian coming? Are you still getting up and doing the extra studying?

Russian is coming. I understand quite a bit, but speaking is still awkward sometimes. There's just so much grammar. And it takes a lot of concentration, so if people go off on something for a really long time, I start to zone out. We stopped getting up in the morning because we were already exhausted enough, and it was making life real rough.

Was your apartment warm when it was so cold outside?

We have a small heater, but when it was real cold, our apartment got pretty cold (we're also on the first floor). Sometimes I studied in my blanket, and we started leaving the heater in the main room and closing the other doors when we left (only for the really cold days). But nothing like water freezing in our apartment as some of my MTC teachers told me.

Do you have a bed at this apartment? 

I do have a bed in this apartment, but my couch was more comfortable. It's just this tiny rectangle that is stiff as a board. 

The moon over the city

This view is out of a building window. We see this view all the time as we tract - every time we go one more level down on the stairwell. It is of a place called Meernie. The tin roofs are the center, which is actually the reenok, or outside market. Then there are four sections of apartment buildings that surround the reenok. 

The statue is one I see every day as I walk out of my apartment on the way to the bus stop.

The graffiti says "I (heart) Parkour" which is an...activity is the best way to describe it. It's the thing where you run and jump of walls and stuff. I took a picture because when I did pole vault we used to jump around the mats when we were putting them away, and say "hard core, parkour." 

Cold week

February 3, 2014

Good week. Cold week. Oh my goodness it was cold. But more on that later.

Monday night we visited the mother of one of Sister Reece's friends from college. She's not a member, but she agreed to let us come and teach her. Sister Reece is pretty excited. The mother, V, was very nice, and fed us lots of tea and chocolate, and then wouldn't let us leave her house until a taxi had come. But then the night ended a little crazy because, well, information gets a little convoluted and exaggerated by the time it gets to us way out here in Lugansk, and we were running through the grocery store at 9:00pm trying to put together a 72 hour kit. Turns out it was a little unnecessary. And looking back at what we had, it was kind of pathetic. Tuna and granola bars for three days.

Wednesday President and Sister Lochhead came down to do something called specialized training. Basically a mini-zone conference. It was great, I was inspired, and they fed us. And then all our plans fell through. But that was okay, because it opened the way for miracles. So by Wednesday night the cold had hit. We tromped out to a less active woman in chastnie dom territory for a lesson and...she wasn't home. So what do you do? Walk to the closest building and tract! Because we were literally freezing. Where my breathe hit my scarf, that would immediately freeze, and frost was developing on our eyelashes. We looked like the people in movies who have frozen to death. And tracting, well, people are much kinder when it's cold. We actually had some success. And then we finished the building, and we had 10 minutes left. 10 minutes isn't going to make a big difference. Plus we both really had to use the bathroom (doesn't help when you have multiple layers of tights). But we decided to go to one last dom. So we picked one, went to the top floor, and rang on a doorbell. This guy answered, and was like "hey! I know Mormons. My neighbor is one." What? So then he takes us across the hallway, and rings on the doorbell, and knocks on the door until someone answers. Guess what? We found R. Our less active we've been working on. Actually, we found his girlfriend's house, and he was there. It was a miracle! But really, we've been trying to meet her, but haven't been able to. They were so happy to see us, invited us in, we had a lesson with them, they recognized us finding them as a miracle, and she gave us hats she made. She wants to meet with us, and we are excited to work with her. It's just going to take a lot of work. But we are so excited, because helping her not only benefits her, it will greatly help R as well. And then we ran home (at least from the bus stop).

And then came Thursday, the coldest day of the year. I heard in New York it was so cold the missionaries had to stay inside for a couple days. We got a text that said to not stay outside for long periods of time, so try mixing it up with tracting or something. We go hard core. But really, it was so cold that day. We walked out to a less active woman, and when we went the sun was out, so it wasn't too bad. On the way back the sun was starting to go down, the wind was picking up, and I thought I was going to lose my nose, fingers, and feet. It was only a ten minute walk.

My eyelashes also had frost on them again. (Make-up was basically pointless because it froze, melted, and all came off). I just happened to have checked the weather in Lugansk at 4:30pm. The temperature was -8 with a windchill of -31. Sunset was at 4:17pm and I made a note of it to tell Diana in my letter to her. It turns out that was probably right around the time that Diana is talking about.

We weren't really planning on going out again that day, but making calls, etc. Nope. The opportunity presented itself to have a lesson with M and D, who we hadn't seen in a week. So we called the Branch mission leader, he agreed to come with us (bless his soul), and off we went. Four layers of tights, three pairs of socks, snow boots, thermal shirt, two sweaters, coat, hat, scarf, gloves. The trick is to never take your hands out of your pockets, or else your fingers will want to fall off, but keep your Book of Mormon wedged under your arm. The walk from the bus stop to their place felt like walking across the frozen tundra. Turns out, with wind chill and all, it was between -30 and -40 degrees Fahrenheit. Definitely the coldest weather I have ever been in (and hopefully ever will be). But the lesson was great. And then we had to run home again (yes. I ran in -40). Two days later I thought it felt much warmer, and then I saw a temperature reader that said it was about -2 degrees Fahrenheit. Oh.

Thursday night was also transfer call night. And...we're both staying! Everyone thought for sure either Sister Reece or I would leave. My theory is that that was the original plan, but we've had so much success President decided to keep us together. I'm cool with that. Lugansk has so much going for it. It's crazy to think I've been here for a transfer already.

Friday was pretty low key. The only thing of note was we went to English, and the only people who showed up were us missionaries, the Branch Mission Leader, and this man who comes every week, and is basically our best friend (he also speaks better English than me probably).

Saturday night we decided to drop by a less active, C, who lives out of our area but we teach because she is a single girl. We haven't seen her in a month, and she hasn't been answering our calls (not the only person to do so, sadly). We made some no bakes, and surprised her. But really, she looked rather shocked. But she invited us in, and we had a good lesson, and got to talk about some concerns. It was a good thing we just showed up.

And then Sunday. There was so much potential for people at church which meant, unfortunately, much disappointment. A lot of people didn't show. But M and D showed up right in time for second hour, which made me feel a little better. It was the Africa attack Sunday. In English Gospel Doctrine we had five people from Africa, two members and three investigators, and if C had come (yes, sadly, after a lesson, and calling her that morning she still didn't come) that would have made six. They are from Nigeria and Sierra Leon by the way. I think all the investigators are referrals from C.

Sunday after church we had studies, and then it was time to hit the streets. That is the worst. Sunday afternoon you are so tired, and the thought of going out in the cold is especially unwelcoming. But you do it anyway, and your character is built. We made some stop-bys, but nothing really came of them. At least lesson wise. We did stop by a contact from tracting who said we could stop by again, and while they pulled the Pravoslavian (Eastern Orthodox Church) card, they gave us a big box of assorted chocolates. Exciting. And then on the way to stop by a less active I slipped, and while I managed to stay on my feet, I threw my Book of Mormon halfway across the street and the pass-along cards inside went flying everywhere. It was pretty funny. Oh, and the moon! The moon was so beautiful! It looked like a lunar eclipse or something. It was so pretty. We just kind of stared at it for a while. But then we had to keep moving. But seriously, the night sky here is so beautiful. And then we went home and ate our chocolates.

Wow, I feel like that is just a part of what happened. It was a pretty busy week I guess.

I hear this coming week is supposed to be warmer, so that is good. Highs in the 20’s and nothing below zero.
Love you all. Stay safe and warm :)
Sister Tanner

Real fur coats

January 27, 2014

This week was just a good solid week, where the work got done. Yeah it had its ups and downs, but no complaints. But man, am I exhausted.

Exciting news this week? M and D did not drop us, they were just sick. And R, after seemingly not wanting to see us either, was suddenly all cool with meeting again and came to church yesterday. This week was really centered around meeting with Less Actives. Not on purpose, just other lessons fell through. We did take a trip out to chastnie sector to visit a less active family who branch members have said had a "weird situation." We met a wonderful grandma and her two awesome grandsons. We hope to work with the family more in the future. Sometimes, as a missionary, you just have to ignore the talk and go for it, giving people the benefit of the doubt. Actually, that probably applies to life in general as well.

I wish I had some more funny stories to share, but really, this week was pretty low-key, which can be nice, but hard as well. Especially when it is flippin' cold. Yes, winter finally arrived. Some observations:

 

sidewalks/other things are almost never shoveled, instead the snow just becomes packed down as people walk, and paths are made through the snow. Women can maneuver anything in high heels (boots). I have never seen so many fur coats. Real fur. Wolf, beaver, mink, etc. It's awesome.

Sleds here are your classic, wood slatted kind, and are used to sled, pull your kid around, your groceries around, or both.

People do not drive any slower than usual in the snow. People really get a kick out of how cold we are, and they always ask if it gets this cold in America.

I got the photos from the blog of a Peace Corps worker who lives in Lugansk and has had some contact with LDS missionaries. I thought they illustrated well what Diana was talking about.

And what do we do when it's cold? Freeze. But really. My nose has this funny feeling whenever I go outside, and I think it is the feeling of snot freezing in my nose. We spend mornings in studies, then we usually make some calls, and confirm things before heading outside. We've been pretty lucky with the number of appointments we have (ie. inside activities), but even then things fall through and we end up outside. Like Saturday. Saturday was going so well, and then we went to an area called Meernie for a lesson. Just when we got there, the lady (investigator) called and said she was going home. We tried to be like "wait, we're here!" but she just hung up and went home. But we had another appointment in that area in 1 1/2 hours, and we didn't want to take the 30 minute bus ride home in order to finish weekly planning. So we were stuck in the cold. We decided to check out a potential in the area, but she wasn't home, so we broke down and went to the mini-mall there (but really, it was like a pint-sized American mall), and worked on weekly planning in the food court (sushi or pizza?). And then we got stood up by our other lesson that night (but got to re-schedule). But all was not lost, because we discovered a stand that sold real, delicious donuts for dirt cheap (four for less than an American dollar), and ate them on the bus ride home where we then finished weekly planning. It used to be that less active hunting was a no problem activity. Now it is literally a pain in all the parts of your body as you wander in the cold.

But I do have one funny story. So our district has talked about maybe singing in Sacrament Meeting. Our abilities are limited, so the song changed multiple times. Well, yesterday our district leader gets to church and tells the Branch President we may be ready to sing next week. The Branch President tells him "nah, go ahead and sing today - you'll sound great." So we change our song once again to an easy version of "Come, Thou Fount" (in English), we run through it once 10 minutes before church starts, and then we sang. Oh yeah, and we only had one copy of the music, so one Elder played on the keyboard, and the other five of us crowded around it and sang. I may have mis-sung some words (it was really hard to see), and I refused to look up because I was so uncomfortable. But hey, before the mission you would have never seen me even singing a musical number in church. The mission changes you.

That was pretty much this week. I hear the temperatures are going to drop even more. There are occasionally electronic boards that have the temperature, and our phone has a converter (from C to F), so it's been fun to see what temperature I am walking around in.

Love you all! Stay warm, stay safe.

Sister Tanner

By the way, we hear occasional things about the stuff in Kiev, but Lugansk itself is pretty quiet. All missionaries have been advised to remove our nametags if we come across large groups or demonstrations. Branch members will occasionally mention things, and they seem to have differing opinions on how big of a deal this is. No one has said mean things to us about it yet, but we definitely try not to talk politics. I think our biggest problem will be nipping any conversations that pop up in English club in the bud (they do happen). Ironically, even though I'm living in the midst of it, I don't think I could be further removed from it.

Some of you have inquired if Diana has been affected by the protests in Ukraine. Until a week ago the protests were confined to Kiev which is in a different mission and is in the western part of Ukraine where the people tend to be pro Europe in their politics. Diana is in the eastern part of Ukraine where the people speak Russian and tend to be pro Russian, and therefore pro the current government in their politics. I was in Argentina on my mission during the Falklands War and when the US came out in support of Britain the people of Argentina were not happy and told us what they thought of the US. We had to lay low for a couple of weeks while the furor died down. This was my concern for Diana as the US has made escalating comments in support of the protestors. Hence her comment about no one has said mean things to us. This last weekend protestors did take over a regional government building in Sumy which is in Diana's mission but about 7 hours away from Lugansk. We have received a letter from the mission president assuring us that they are watching out for the missionaries. The missionaries have been instructed to avoid large gatherings of people, only speak Russian when outside of their apartments, and to have a 3 day supply of food and water in their apartments in case of emergency. The president and the mission department have also prepared contingency plans in the unlikely event that missionaries would have to be relocated. Because the missionaries do not read the newspaper or watch TV, as Diana says, she is far removed from it.

 

 

First fall

January 20, 2014

Well, the greater you rise, the greater you fall I guess. Last week was truly a miracle in that all our appointments happened. This week I would say about 80-90% fell through. The worst was being stood up by M and D at church, and then with a lesson we had set up with them Sunday night. But hey - blessing - in that time we stopped by some former investigators in the area, and got let in by one woman N, and set up a return appointment. Hoping something comes of it? Always. Sunday was also exciting because the snows that came Saturday turned to ice for Sunday, and now Lugansk is one big sheet of ice. At least the sidewalks are. And Uncle Scott, we do still have to navigate by the light of my beloved Princess Flashlight. I had my first fall of the season Sunday night as I was trying to help my companion up from her second fall (her first was on the way to church, with Book of Mormon flying one direction, Bible in the other). I just kind of lay on my back for a little while and looked at the beautiful stars. I was exhausted by this point, so it was actually rather nice. I had many other close encounters with the ground that night, but managed to keep my feet on the ground.

But I guess I'm getting ahead of myself. Other things happened this week. For example, the Sister Training Leaders came down from Donetsk to do a split with us. They brought us some new water filters, so we get to stop drinking poison water! I was re-united with Sister Ahlstrom for a day. Guess what? Sister Reece is apparently a magician when it comes to contacting, because Sister Ahlstrom and I went contacting together, and it was like Petrovsky all over again (but not quite as bad). We had an appointment with R, but we got there and his mom answered, and she was all alone. Turns out he was still in Kiev, and had fallen back into some bad habits. But it was good that we were there for his mother, because she is having a rough time with it all too (being his mother, of course), and she just got to talk with us.

On Saturday we also went out to the boonie of the boonies of our area to look for a less active woman. Turns out she doesn't live there anymore. So we went tracting, and had our first experience with being kicked out of a building. We only had one door left, so it was okay. I think it helps soften the blow when you really don't understand everything they are saying, and really only catch the gist of it (leave and don't come back). That night on the way home we also got snowballs thrown at our backs by some very loud, drunk young men. But don't worry, their aim was terrible.

But, so this letter doesn't seem horribly depressing, I shall now conclude with a story of a miracle, Heavenly Father's tender mercies, and the incredible kindness of Ukrainians. So Sister Reece holds lots of things in her hands as she walks. She also drops a lot of things, especially her planner. Well, Thursday night she apparently dropped her planner somewhere and did not notice, and neither did any passing young men. So her planner was lost. FYI, a missionary's planner is their life. Her planner also had many contacts in it that had not been transferred to the Area Book yet because we ran out of "contacts" sheets (more were delivered by the Sister Training Leaders that night). This was actually terribly sad. HOWEVER, the next morning we got a text from a less active girl, A, saying that some bus driver had called her and said he had Sister Reece's notebook, and she gave us his number. It was found! And we eventually arranged to meet up with this bus driver, and he went out of his way to give Sister Reece her tiny little notebook that probably looked like nothing but meant so much to us. And you know what makes this story even greater? We don't know how he got A's number, because it is not written anywhere (or at least not anywhere terribly visible) in the planner. Sister Reece, at my request, now keeps her planner in her pocket.

I hope everyone is staying warm, wherever you are. I don't hear much, but I hear it's pretty cold. Drink some fruit чай (tea)!

Love you!

Sister Tanner

PS. A random tidbit I remembered about Ukraine: People here have somehow picked up that "50/50" is a phrase in English or something. "How are you doing?" "50/50" Funny
 

Entrance to the Lugansk Branch meetinghouse on the bottom floor of this building.

Best week of the mission so far

January 13, 2014

Probably the best week of the mission so far. But first, in answer to some questions posed by mother: what do I eat for lunch and dinner? Some combination of vegetables. Some fruit. Maybe some meat. It kind of changes with companionship, and how well you shopped at the beginning of the week. A lot of vegetables. And sometimes, when you schedule a lot of appointments, you end up having a dinner of cake and tea at someone's home. And what is a typical Ukrainian’s food schedule? I have no idea. We never have scheduled lunch or dinner appointments.

And now for a little on the branch in Lugansk. The branch is awesome. We meet on the bottom floor of some building. There is no heat, and apparently only several years ago they bought little portable heaters for the rooms that move around with the different meetings. By third hour a lot of people are just wearing their coats. The branch is smaller than Petrovsky but still pretty big. I would say maybe forty people. Most are about 30 and up. Some 18-29 year olds, one or two teenagers, and probably no more than 5 Primary kids. I don't know when the branch was organized, but apparently recently there was a push to ordain men to the priesthood, and now there are quite a few priesthood holders, and has created this unusual situation that I think I wrote about last week, where it seems the men are more stalwart than the women in some cases.

And now for miracle week. Tuesday we had a lesson with the wife of a member, and she appears more interested than she has in the past. Afterwards, since it was Christmas (January 7), they fed us a "Christmas lunch" of homemade pizza and this other tasty thing. In the classic Ukrainian way, they continued to pile on the food, until you have eaten beyond what is comfortable. We also went less active hunting, and in the process had a wonderful conversation with two old babyshkie sitting on a bench doing their babyshkie thing. They were in their nineties, the one told us all about her family, told us to not rush to get married, and were generally wonderful. They even told us to ignore this man who came up and tried to tell Sister Reece and me off. That night we had youth night, which is really just game night, because it's mostly adults there. We have a Ping-Pong table in the church, and Ukrainians love Ping-Pong, and we also have Uno and such. We need to get more people to come to game night though, otherwise it's not effective and we may have to consider dropping it. But I really don't want to do that, so we just need another miracle like we had with English (which I will get to later).

Wednesday. Wednesday was a miracle of a day. We had four lessons set up for that day, which meant we needed to be really good about being on time. First was with our favorite less active who forgot everything about the church while living in Russia, accompanied by our favorite physically active babyshka (who doesn't really deserve the title she is so active), who demonstrated her kicks and stretches she does for track. I want to be her when I'm 60. Then we ran (okay, sped walked like crazy) to our next appointment, which was with a man R, who is the son of a stalwart couple in the ward, but has struggled with activity. I hope I wrote about this earlier, but we delivered a secret Santa gift to his home at the end of another crazy busy day. He has been to church since then, and has a desire to become fully active now. Because guess what, the scripture, John 3:16-17, which we quickly put in the card for him, happened to be his favorite scripture, and just what he needed at the moment. He recognized everything as a gift from God, and really wants to become fully active now. People, Heavenly Father is a God of miracles! And the miracles continue. You know how we were on a tight schedule? So that lesson was going late, but the niece of the investigator couple we had an appointment with was on the lesson with us, so she called her aunt and uncle and we re-scheduled for Thursday, but then the dad of R, who was also there, heard and offered to come with us as well to the appointment. And then we got to use our dinner hour to continue our visit and have a dinner of cake and tea. And then we were on time to our last appointment, with the wife of another man in the branch, and she actually sat down and listened the whole time, which apparently is not usual for her (aka progress). It was such a miracle day!

I do not think she will be able to darn these

And then Thursday, we had the appointment with the investigator couple O and S, and we were so grateful to not only have their niece there, but Brother K there too. We were talking about the Word of Wisdom, and man, it would have gone much differently without Brother K. I really think he needed to be there. I think if they can see that they really can change and live the Word of Wisdom, they will realize they can live worthy of baptism. That night we also had an appointment with a less active, N, and her non-member husband came home in time to hear it too. He's really awesome, but just can't "intellectually" accept the church yet. But N really wants him to be baptized, and he said maybe one day he will change. And that night we returned home to make some calls to people who said they would be interested in English club, setting the stage for the best English night ever.

So Friday we had district meeting and had to plan, so we didn't get out much, and then we had missionary correlation meeting, but then we had miracle English night. You ready? So my first week in Lugansk, we had two people at English. The next week, three. Then Sister Reece and I did some hard-core calling, and we got maybe 5 or six. After another week of hard-core calling...fifteen. Fifteen people at English club. It was awesome! When else am I going to get to sit in a circle and help lead a group of Ukrainian adults in a discussion of what super powers they would want after making them draw a picture of it in crayon?

Saturday, well Saturday we completely set up the Elders' night. You see, we have basically been told not to contact men. Why? Because men are very forward, and often (too often) get the wrong idea. Case in point, one night Sister Reece, in typical Sister Reece fashion, dropped her planner, but this time didn't notice. A ribiata (young man) picked it up and returned it, and in gratitude Sister Reece gave him a pass-along card. What she didn't know is that I had written our number on these cards. Well, that night we got some emoticon filled texts asking who we were, where we were from, etc. When he asked if we could meet (we said we were missionaries), we just passed his number right along to the elders. We also passed them a contact of another ribiata who happened to start talking to me when he saw my nametag. He seemed more legit, but we just thought it would be better. That night though, we had an awesome lesson with our two investigators, M and D, from Africa. By the way, I never thought I would come to Ukraine, and get to teach people from Sierra Leon, Nigeria, and (hopefully) Zimbabwe. D said he would come to church the next day. Which brings me too...

Sunday! He came! D came! We missed most of Sacrament meeting trying to help him get there, but he was there for second and third hour. I was so happy! And guess who else came? President and Sister Lochhead. It was not only great to see them, but it meant we didn't have to translate Sunday School for D. I did, however, get to attempt to translate for Sister Lochhead in Relief Society. That was funny. She now knows how little I actually catch. But she's a good sport, and totally understanding. That night we went to drop off a Liahona (church magazine) at this less active woman's house we have been trying to contact, and she ended up inviting us in. She is really nice, and we got to meet all of her cats. She is like the most luxurious cat lady ever. She has three sphynx cats, and this huge "Toyger" (I think that is what it is called) named Ali (like in Muhammand Ali). It was so cool. Afterwards we had to run home though (literally run part of the way).

Sphynx cat and Toyger cat    Google them

 

It was such a good week! The work is moving forward, and it's moving fast!
Love you all!
Sister Tanner
P.S Today there is a little snow! We've been waiting for the cold.

At the ballet theater on New Year's Eve

 

The sisters from Center Donetsk, Mariupol and Lugansk on New Year's Eve

Happy New Year

January 6, 2013

So New Year’s here is a little bigger deal than Christmas. By the way, Happy Ukrainian Christmas Eve. When we talk to people here, usually the older people, they're always like "you celebrate your Christmas on the 25th of December, don't you?" like it is morally wrong or something. Just a fun fact. (see explanation at the end of the letter)

Monday this week was a whirlwind, with shopping, writing, and then all us missionaries made our way to a member’s home for a Christmas party/FHE. We had a spiritual thought, I played the most out of tune piano there ever was (I really could have been playing any notes and it wouldn't matter) as we sang Christmas carols, and then Sister Reece and I were pulled into the kitchen to help set up dinner as everyone else enjoyed the husband playing the accordion. It was fun to hear the music as he played and sang, even if I couldn't see it. Then that night we had to pack up, because it was an early morning Tuesday.

So yes, Tuesday we woke up early, and met the elders at 6:00AM to catch our train to Donetsk. Normally one takes a bus between Donetsk and Lugansk, but train tickets were cheaper and we wanted to say we rode a train in Ukraine. Let's just say there's a reason the tickets were cheaper. I'm just glad I wasn't the elder across from me, smashed between two older women. By the way, everyone wears their coat on the train, even if it is hot and three hours long. But then began, for all intents and purposes, my vacation in Donetsk. It felt kind of nice to be "home." Sister Reece and I hadn't eaten yet, so once we got to the Sisters’ apartment we devoured their food. Then returned to the office to take care of some things, and then back to the Center sisters’. Dinner, and then...the ballet! The ballet was a present from the Lochheads to us missionaries, and was absolutely wonderful. It was The Nutcracker, the orchestra was great, the dancers were incredible, and I was on the second row. So cool. Afterwards, well afterwards we just had to go right home. We were to be in by 6:00PM because, well, it was New Year's Eve in Ukraine. The thing is you can't get any missionary work done, so...we had a party. Okay, a party sister missionary style, but a party none the less. It was so fun. It was the Center Sisters, the Lugansk Sisters (us), and the Mariupol Sisters. And, because we're missionaries, we were in bed by 10:30PM. I expected to not be able to sleep, but actually there were only a couple fireworks at what must have been midnight, and that was it.

The next day was Zone Conference! And on the bus over, us sisters were reminded why we were in by 6:00PM. I mean, I guess you can't blame a bunch of hung over young men for getting a little excited when six young women get on their same bus. We were just grateful one of the senior couples happened to be with us. Zone Conference was really great and uplifting as always. And really the most productive thing we could have been doing New Year's Day. The streets were practically abandoned. That day we had another curfew of 6:00PM, so we had a couple hours between Conference and when we needed to be in. So we went contacting. We went on splits, and I went with Sister K, a greenie in her second transfer. She's awesome! I've never actually contacted so much, probably because I felt a little responsible. But we got an official contact for the Center Sisters, and Sister K whipped out her Book of Mormon, testified of it, and gave it to the lady. And then it was party #2.

Wednesday we had interviews with President, and then we got on the bus for Lugansk. I tried to study Russian, but I just fell asleep. At one point on the way home I woke up, looked out, and there was snow on the ground. I was both surprised and happy, since it's been pretty warm lately. But when we actually got to Lugansk there was no snow. So far it has been unusually warm here, and way warmer than back home. (We are in the polar vortex.)Ha. That laugh may bite me in the butt in a couple weeks here.

Because we had been away from Lugansk for so long, we tried to set up as many meetings as possible for the end of the week. Thursday night we also made a bajillion calls inviting people to English practice Friday, and managed to get a couple of new people to show up (exciting!) We had a lesson this week with a less active Candy, who is from Sierra Leone. It's always fun going over to her apartment. The front desk makes you give ID, and the past sisters have had to give their documents. Neither Sister Reece nor I like that, so this time we tried getting away with just giving our IDs from the MTC. The lady kind of gave us a look, but she took them. Score. It's really fun to hear Candy speak to her friends in their pidgin language, and she has been teaching me a couple phrases. Funny story: the other day Candy asked if we are allowed out at night. Both of us are like "yeah! of course! We just have to be in by 9:00PM....oh. snap. I guess that's when the night is actually starting." So you could say we've been missionaries for a little while.

There are shwarma stands EVERYWHERE. 

Sunday was just a miracle day. We went to church with a list of people we wanted to talk to, and they all ended up coming up to us to talk about the same thing. This coming week we have set up to go to two separate families where the husband is a member, but the wife is not. I find that so interesting, and definitely not the norm. Also, one of our investigators came to church, and two less active members! I was so happy to see everyone. And that night, our original plans all fell through, so instead we had a lesson with two investigators M and D, who we were hesitant to teach because we were thinking of dropping them. Instead we had a great lesson, and I think, as soon as they make up their mind to do it, they will be baptized. I feel like there are so many people who are so close! By the way, M and D are both from Africa, so the lesson was in English, which was kind of fun.

This week has some great potential, and it will be interesting to see how much we can get done with our first full week in Lugansk. Also, Sister Reece and I decided to get up at 5:30AM each morning to get another hour of Russian study. We've done two days of it so far, so we'll see how long this resolution lasts. We both want to do it though, because we feel it will really help our Russian.

Love you all, and Happy New Year!

Sister Tanner

http://www.uazone.net/holidays/christmas.html

Christmas in Ukraine is celebrated January 7 according to the Gregorian calendar as in most of other Orthodox Christian countries.
During the Soviet time it was not officially celebrated in Ukraine. Instead communist government tried to substitute Christmas with the holiday of New Year. But people did not forget their traditions. After gaining its independence in 1991 Ukraine started to celebrate Christmas officially as well.

http://www.infoukes.com/culture/traditions/christmas/

CHRISTMAS, WHICH TAKES ITS NAME from Christ's Mass, was first celebrated on various dates from about 200 A.D. but was finally set on December 25 by Bishop Liberus of Rome in 354 A.D. The December date, which almost coincides with the winter solstice, became a popular festival of West Europe during the Middle Ages.

WHY DO UKRAINIANS CELEBRATE Christmas on January 7th rather than December 25th? Many people wonder why the Ukrainian date is thirteen days later and only a few people are aware that it is related to a change from the calendar which was in use two thousand years ago.

Tradition plays a great part in the lives of people of Ukrainian origin and it is for this reason that they have continued to celebrate Christmas on the old date that would have been observed by all Christians.

The Roman calendar that had been in use since the eighth century B.C. originally started the year on March 1 and had 10 months as the names of the months themselves indicate, September (7), October (8), November (9) and December (10). Eventually two months were added, Januarius and Februarius, and the year was started on January. However, it was only 355 days long so it had over ten days error and the seasons and the calendar over the years continued to lose their correct relationship.

JULIAN CALENDAR

JULIUS CAESAR FINALLY in 46 B.C. had the Greek astronomer Sosigenes establish the length of the solar calendar at 365 and one quarter days (365.25). Every fourth year was to add one day to keep the quarter days accurate and this has now become our leap year with February 29. The Julian Calendar was introduced on January 1, 45 B.C. and the next year Caesar was honored by having the seventh month renamed in his honor as July. A later Roman Emperor, Augustus Caesar, corrected the leap year system in A.D. 8 and in his honor a month was renamed August.

But the Julian year of 365 days and 6 hours exceeds the true solar year of 365.2422 days or 365 days 5 hours 49 minutes and 46 seconds by the amount of 11 minutes 14 seconds. The difference is about 0.0078 of a day per year or about one day in 128 years. Over a period of 1,500 years the calendar was again getting out of step with the natural seasons by about ten days. Christmas, which had been celebrated on many different dates was finally fixed on December 25th by Bishop Liberius of Rome. In 354 A.D. he chose the date to replace a Roman pagan festival of sun-god worship with Christ's Mass, a Christian event.

GREGORIAN CALENDAR

FINALLY POPE GREGORY XIII in 1528 introduced changes to correct the error in the Julian Calendar. To restore the vernal or spring equinox to March 21st he eliminated the 10 days from March 11 to 21 in 1582 so the dates March 12 to 20 never existed in 1582, at least not in Roman Catholic countries. Some Protestant countries like England and Sweden adopted the new calendar only in 1752 so there was 11 days difference by then.

The Orthodox and Eastern rite churches such as the Ukrainian have maintained the Julian Calendar for ecclesiastical purposes into this century. The Ukrainians, numbering some 50 million in the world are the second largest nation following the Julian Calendar in their churches. The difference between the two Calendars placed Christmas on January 7th and, because of the size of the Ukrainian church the date has become widely known as "Ukrainian Christmas." However, there are other smaller Eastern-rite Orthodox national churches such as the Greek, Syrian, Serbian, Bulgarian and Byelorussian that follow the same calendar.

Historically the Julian Calendar is sometimes called Old Style (O.S.) and the Gregorian is called New Style (N.S.). All the Orthodox countries which preserved the Julian Calendar into this century had a 13 day lag. Thus a date would be written January 4/17, 1918, meaning the 4th in new style and 17th in the old style calendar.

Many Ukrainian families and many Ukrainian churches continue to observe the old traditional date of Ukrainian Christmas on January 7 despite the pressures of modern society to change.

Transfer to Lugansk

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.

 

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.




Cats and pigeons keeping warm

chastney dom area