Privet semya moya!
Cray-say week! So right off the bat. Alyona's dad said no to baptism. We were so blasted close. Her mom was all for it, everything was in place...then her dad decides that she can get baptised when she's 18. He doesn't see the need for her to get baptized in this church is all. We haven't lost hope though. Her mother is still supporting her and agreed to speak with him again this weekend (they went out of town together). We encouraged Alyona to go and talk to her father herself and let him know how important this is to her. She agreed. So her baptism won't be this weekend, but we're sure it will be in the near future...we're praying to Alyona's father's heart will be softened.
Anya is getting lazy on her journey towards baptism. She's not showing up to meetings and not coming to church and smoking again. We're not sure how to approach this, because it's already the fourth time this has happened with her. I want to love her and support her no matter what situation she is in...but we can't keep on trailing and running after someone who just doesn't do what it takes to be consistent. I talked to our branch president about it (he knows her well) and he said to not be too concerned...that she will come back in due time. It's frustrating for us.
Olga is on date for baptism! She's an old investigator that I had almost lost hope on. She just did not take the church seriously, however she was actively coming to church, living by the word of wisdom, and she's read the Book of Mormon 3 times. About a month ago, I found her, a member, and another investigator having a "French Lesson" during the second hour of church. They assured me it was a Book-of-Mormon-based language lesson, but there was not one Book of Mormon in the room. I was upset, and asked them to either come to Sunday School, or have their lesson else where. Olga was a bit offended and left and I didn't see her for a while, but I felt like I did the right thing. She came up to me on Sunday and apologized for what holding their language lesson on Sunday. She said she was offended at first, but she realized it was wrong. I apologized for getting upset, and we agreed to meet that night. We came ready to address all of her specific hold-ups about our church that night, but after we went over just a couple things, things that had earlier caused hour long disputes, she said, "Well, it looks like I just didn't know that!" The spirit flooded the room, and we gave her the commitment to be baptised on the 16th of October...and she accepted!! I just about dropped to the floor in shock. She said that she's been thinking about baptism for the past two months (just so happens to be the past two months that we haven't been meeting with her) and she feels ready...after almost a year and a half of investigating the church! I'm so happy for her. It will take some work to get her there...but she can do it :)
ok so I'm lazy and just copied and pasted my letter to president about our investigators..that's why it's all seriuos like with normal-ish punctuation... haha.. but yeah that's the scoop. Cool about Olga huh! She's the 60 year old that I talked about a while back. Her and I have kindred spirits or whatever you call it...she's the one that I always race down the stairs with and we slid home on the icy streets together in winter and grasped arms and ran through all the puddles in spring. She is SO hilarious...and ready,.. finally... to get baptised...goes to show you don't give up on anyone!
We just went paintballing in an old abandoned house in the middle of the forest, in the middle of Khortitsa Island... I know we're hard core...seriuosly though. haha... I'm in pain! I ate it way bad while we were playing a capture the flag type game...but I got the flag! hahaa... super fun. It's Ostler's birthday today and we thought we'd celebrate...and It's like some underground company too...like no signs, no advertising...it's just by word of mouth kind of thing... haha. it was so fun.
So. We were trying to track down a less active member on day and we see this shirtless man one floor up. He's like, "Come up here!" We were like heck no. Then he decided to come down to us and at the beggining he was just wonding if we saw his friend on the street. Sorry, hadn't seen him. Then he was all interested in what we were doing. So we explained to him we're missionaries and we trying to find those that are ready to accept to restored gospel...he just thought the was the greatest thing. haha. So he was like..., "Girls. Listen. There's this woman the lives 2 floors up and she is READY to accept you. Let's go." Well alright...refferal by our drunk friend. So we knocked on her door, and he hid behind the corner, listening intently, perioudically popping his head out. Yeah, she wasn't interested. So, we got ready to go, but he's like, "Wait. Girls. 5th floor...there's another lady." We were already amused, so we just followed our drunk Vova around to all his neighboors that were READY for the gospel, as he hid around the corner, seeing how things went. soo funny. We finally asked him if he would be interested and he was like, "Yeah! come on in!" So we went in to his apartment, but stayed in the front hall and didn't shut the door... we started teaching him and he was so funny...he went to go get his bible, and tripped way bad over a cord...but he got right back up and looked down at the cord all confused...oh man... basically we took down his address and we'll have the elders stop by him...such a funny guy... :)
Mom you got a jeep! I can't believe it.. you've got a dang good husband...i'll have to take it out for a ride when i get home...everythings good... the work is great and there's a lot going on... I'm loving it! Love you all a lot a lot and I don't really miss you, but I'll be very happy to see you and show you Ukraine... haha... don't take that the wrong way... we'll have such a blast.. by the way.. a member offered me her dacha for you to stay in...you'd have your own little house with gas and water a little outside the city...it's really pretty there and we've done a ton of work there too... i dunno, if you're looking to save money. Everyone can't believe that you'll be staying in a hotel...I've got like 5 other people that offerred you a place...i understand that a hotel might be more convienent, but thing about it...might be worth it to save a few hriven....are you planning on having a working cell phone? Highly highly recommend it... i dunno if you can set up a world plan for a couple days, but it'd be really really nice to have....
that's all! love you tak mnogo and give your students a privet from Ukraine!
Love Cectpa KJones
ps. tell the next russian you see... vosmee tvoya popa b rykakh i idi syouda!... :) they'll laugh.
Cray-say week! So right off the bat. Alyona's dad said no to baptism. We were so blasted close. Her mom was all for it, everything was in place...then her dad decides that she can get baptised when she's 18. He doesn't see the need for her to get baptized in this church is all. We haven't lost hope though. Her mother is still supporting her and agreed to speak with him again this weekend (they went out of town together). We encouraged Alyona to go and talk to her father herself and let him know how important this is to her. She agreed. So her baptism won't be this weekend, but we're sure it will be in the near future...we're praying to Alyona's father's heart will be softened.
Anya is getting lazy on her journey towards baptism. She's not showing up to meetings and not coming to church and smoking again. We're not sure how to approach this, because it's already the fourth time this has happened with her. I want to love her and support her no matter what situation she is in...but we can't keep on trailing and running after someone who just doesn't do what it takes to be consistent. I talked to our branch president about it (he knows her well) and he said to not be too concerned...that she will come back in due time. It's frustrating for us.
Olga is on date for baptism! She's an old investigator that I had almost lost hope on. She just did not take the church seriously, however she was actively coming to church, living by the word of wisdom, and she's read the Book of Mormon 3 times. About a month ago, I found her, a member, and another investigator having a "French Lesson" during the second hour of church. They assured me it was a Book-of-Mormon-based language lesson, but there was not one Book of Mormon in the room. I was upset, and asked them to either come to Sunday School, or have their lesson else where. Olga was a bit offended and left and I didn't see her for a while, but I felt like I did the right thing. She came up to me on Sunday and apologized for what holding their language lesson on Sunday. She said she was offended at first, but she realized it was wrong. I apologized for getting upset, and we agreed to meet that night. We came ready to address all of her specific hold-ups about our church that night, but after we went over just a couple things, things that had earlier caused hour long disputes, she said, "Well, it looks like I just didn't know that!" The spirit flooded the room, and we gave her the commitment to be baptised on the 16th of October...and she accepted!! I just about dropped to the floor in shock. She said that she's been thinking about baptism for the past two months (just so happens to be the past two months that we haven't been meeting with her) and she feels ready...after almost a year and a half of investigating the church! I'm so happy for her. It will take some work to get her there...but she can do it :)
ok so I'm lazy and just copied and pasted my letter to president about our investigators..that's why it's all seriuos like with normal-ish punctuation... haha.. but yeah that's the scoop. Cool about Olga huh! She's the 60 year old that I talked about a while back. Her and I have kindred spirits or whatever you call it...she's the one that I always race down the stairs with and we slid home on the icy streets together in winter and grasped arms and ran through all the puddles in spring. She is SO hilarious...and ready,.. finally... to get baptised...goes to show you don't give up on anyone!
We just went paintballing in an old abandoned house in the middle of the forest, in the middle of Khortitsa Island... I know we're hard core...seriuosly though. haha... I'm in pain! I ate it way bad while we were playing a capture the flag type game...but I got the flag! hahaa... super fun. It's Ostler's birthday today and we thought we'd celebrate...and It's like some underground company too...like no signs, no advertising...it's just by word of mouth kind of thing... haha. it was so fun.
So. We were trying to track down a less active member on day and we see this shirtless man one floor up. He's like, "Come up here!" We were like heck no. Then he decided to come down to us and at the beggining he was just wonding if we saw his friend on the street. Sorry, hadn't seen him. Then he was all interested in what we were doing. So we explained to him we're missionaries and we trying to find those that are ready to accept to restored gospel...he just thought the was the greatest thing. haha. So he was like..., "Girls. Listen. There's this woman the lives 2 floors up and she is READY to accept you. Let's go." Well alright...refferal by our drunk friend. So we knocked on her door, and he hid behind the corner, listening intently, perioudically popping his head out. Yeah, she wasn't interested. So, we got ready to go, but he's like, "Wait. Girls. 5th floor...there's another lady." We were already amused, so we just followed our drunk Vova around to all his neighboors that were READY for the gospel, as he hid around the corner, seeing how things went. soo funny. We finally asked him if he would be interested and he was like, "Yeah! come on in!" So we went in to his apartment, but stayed in the front hall and didn't shut the door... we started teaching him and he was so funny...he went to go get his bible, and tripped way bad over a cord...but he got right back up and looked down at the cord all confused...oh man... basically we took down his address and we'll have the elders stop by him...such a funny guy... :)
Mom you got a jeep! I can't believe it.. you've got a dang good husband...i'll have to take it out for a ride when i get home...everythings good... the work is great and there's a lot going on... I'm loving it! Love you all a lot a lot and I don't really miss you, but I'll be very happy to see you and show you Ukraine... haha... don't take that the wrong way... we'll have such a blast.. by the way.. a member offered me her dacha for you to stay in...you'd have your own little house with gas and water a little outside the city...it's really pretty there and we've done a ton of work there too... i dunno, if you're looking to save money. Everyone can't believe that you'll be staying in a hotel...I've got like 5 other people that offerred you a place...i understand that a hotel might be more convienent, but thing about it...might be worth it to save a few hriven....are you planning on having a working cell phone? Highly highly recommend it... i dunno if you can set up a world plan for a couple days, but it'd be really really nice to have....
that's all! love you tak mnogo and give your students a privet from Ukraine!
Love Cectpa KJones
ps. tell the next russian you see... vosmee tvoya popa b rykakh i idi syouda!... :) they'll laugh.
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