14th email: September 14th

a huge hello from cevastopol! I don't really know where to start...here it goes...

So we had a baptism on Saturday. Slavik. Haha...He commited on Monday night to be baptised on Saturday. He's the basically adopted son of a lady in our branch, Aleksandra. She served a mission in Kiev and he was in an orphanage were she served. She's helped him a lot throughout his life and has now brought him to the gospel. It was a very fast conversion, but his testimony is real. He's a humble guy and has never had a lot in his life, but the gift of the holy ghost is more precious than anything else we could ever receive. So we took a little boat over to a little beach and had our program right on the rocks. There were a few people around, but they were respectful. It was amazing...just a few members of the church standing in a circle on the beach as the sun was setting and singing "Dywa Moa" (be still my soul)...you can imagine. It was so so so touching to watch two twenty year old kids walk into the black sea dressed in white, and humbly and sincerely participate in this sacred ordinance...WOWWEE...I am the luckiest person in the universe to be able to take part in this!
And then we have Epa...oh epa epa epa...we have to push back her baptism one more week because she ddin't come to church yesterday. She is so busy. We a little worried about her, but we call her every day and share scriptures with her. We'll help her there...she knows she needs to be baptised.
And the elders are teaching a family right now that are close to baptism! I can't believe this...did you know that only one month ago, sevastopol was considered a dead area? All of Crimea was really slow in the the work...I know the Lord is guiding his children that are ready to accept the gospel to us...to the truth. Our ward is doing a month long fast so we can find people to teach...the Lord sees our faith and desire and is trusting us with these souls! This is so greatt!!
We are struggling with Enna. She just has no time for us. We trekked out there a couple days ago (2 marshrutkas...8 hriven in all...two hours) for our meeting with my burnt nasty cream-of-tarter-lacking snickerdoodles (she always feeds us and she has nothing...) and we sat on the corner for about 20 minutes and we saw her rushing in to the building. She had to cancel because she got some sort of call or something,.,she was so grateful for the cookies and that we came, but she is so busy. ughh...i know she's so close...but we've got to be meeting with her more often.
I had yet another humbling experience this week...I was reading Elder Scotts talk about how to teach and learn more effectively and he shared some precious things that he's learned from the spirit. One was that sometimes Satan doesn't bother tempting us with things he knows we won't pay attention too...like the big things...so he ever so slyly distracts us from our purpose of returning to our Father in Heaven and helping others get there. He'll use ANYTHING, even good things. It's our job to remember our purpose every day and focus and live it. As smart and stinky as he is, satan can't make us do anything. I love John 15 how it says that we need to purge some of our branches (prune) even if they are bearing fruit! It's all for our good, and if we need to chop off a branch, it's only because the Lord has something more amazing prepared for us...like maybe we chop off a plum branch for a sweet delicious vkoosna peach branch...we don't know, but the Lord knows. HE is the gardener, and if we simple have faith, he will mold us into the most beautiful and happy people we can be. I love in the book of mormon when it says that if we work hard on our testimony so it takes root, then our tree will grow into something beautiful that bears delicious fruit that we can pick throughout our lives. This is something we're trying to help memebers and investigators to understand...the immportance of your testimony. oh the scriptures are cool.
I AM SO EXCITED FOR WES! Tell Lori...I'll write them soon...Russian is the most beautiful language. It sounds scary and sharp and I promise I made fun of it so much before the mission, but it's actually quite soft and smooth...not everyone here is a mean huge shopka grumpy russian....i actually wish i met more. :) Speaking of Russian, it's coming coming coming... I'm listening like crazy right now, and it's tiring, but one thing my mission president told me was that every time I tune out and think out something else, I'm just moving my goal post farther and farther away. Every day is better, every day I make a fool of myself when I try to talk to people without cectpa kondratyeva as my crutch... it's a good way to find people though,.. make a fool out of yourself by slaughtering a word, and make them laugh, and usually THEY will ask who you are. Fun game.
Have I mentioned that cectpa K is engaged? Yup. To an elder that I was in the MTC with. He's like number 7 pianist in the WORLD... no joke. I guess theres some song that only 10 people can play without mistakes on earth and he's one of them...i heard it...his hands are straight from god. But so they'll both be on misisons for about 3 years, and then they'll get married...oh man...she has a ring and everything. What commitment! But she is the hardest working missionary...and she loves these people. She truly truly wants to help these people in their lives and could care less about how many lessons we teach. I'm so grateful for her. We struggle with communication and understanding eachother sometimes, we laugh every day...thats important.
Every day we either don't have gas, water, or lights. Or the sink blows up and the lights explode at the same time (yesterday) haha...i love ukraine.
I made cabin salsa and can i just say it was so vkoosna...with all fresh ingredients from the street...mmm...little taste from home...speaking of which, cec. kon. wants me to make mashed potatoes (she is so funny...she doesn't sugar coat ANYTHING...straight up tells me she wants something..."make me some mashed potatoes, okay?" haha...why not just get to the point?) like the good kinda in america...i was like alright i'll ask my pops...he's a master...so i need some sort of recipe...how hard could mashed potatoes be? you just mash them and add cheese and stuff?
We have zone conference tomorrow and I'm so excited! I get to see elder ku!
Of course it's still hot here...theres not as many naked people, but thats jsut because holiday is over and school has started...now theres just more poofy bows.
I spoke in church yesterday after Slavik's confirmation. I probably slaughtered it, but I just decided to not think and just talk...that always works out better for me.
Welp...happy as ever as always.. I'm SO happy to hear that things are going well at home and that Sadie is a little demon...i'm so proud of her. :) It's weird to hear that everyone is home and back together again...but to be honest, I'm glad I'm here! Whenever I forget that, I just have to glance and the passed out drunk in the middle of the road...or the disco ball outfits...or party marshrutkas...or the fact that I'm working with the Lord here...and then I remember that I'm right were I belong. thankyou for everything...you all mean everything to me out here. I don't know what I'd do without the support I receive from each one of you. Keep working hard...stay strong... be happy...God put so many hilarious things in this world to laugh at!

much love as always...cectpa jones

oh ps...remember when I was talking about things that we need to prune from our lives? haha, well i pruned my hairs...all gone!

NOTE FROM LIZZIE: We're unsure as to what she means when she says she "pruned [her] hairs" but I have a feeling she chopped off her long locks. I guess next week we'll find out. I'll bug her to email some pictures home!