Day 93 - Helping Hands in a Kyiv Orphanage

My FHE group got to go to an orphanage this morning to volunteer! We were all divided up into different projects; some of us moved wood and branches off of the property, some cleaned up trash outside or planted flowers, some cleaned floors and held the babies. I was assigned to painting the windowsills and doorways in and going to the laundry room. We all got to wear these nifty "Helping Hands" jerseys to; on the back is written "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" (except in Russian or maybe Ukrainian?). We all looked so shnazy in our little jerseys! I felt SO cool being able to represent the Church in that way!  I'll post some pictures later (most likely stolen off facebook, because I only got one or two pictures of the whole event :P). Anyways, it was really a good experience for me for painting too. I didn't think it would be so hard, but I learned real quickly that painting is not something that comes easily or naturally to me. By the end I had paint on my pants, my shirt, my elbow, my hands, the bottom of my shoes, and some in my hair too! I got most of the easy-to-get-out spots cleaned up (like my shoes and shirt), but I have yet to fully scratch the paint off of my jeans and elbow :P. It was fun getting to know some of the others that I hadn't met before too, there are a LOT more people that speak English in my FHE than I thought! We all had a really great experience there, and I'm so glad I was given that opportunity, definitely a recommended experience if you're ever in Kyiv :)

Day 89 - I love the Rain!

SUCH a beautiful day! Maybe not sunshiny, but it was warm enough to rain! School was normal, home was normal, the Metro rides were normal, but my day slowly progressed somehow to become something great! I had been debating (strongly) about not going to the temple today. Earlier I just didn't feel like it, and I tried to excuse myself by saying I'd be going this Saturday with my Branch. But I am so glad I went! There were all these older Ukrainian people, so they didn't speak more than pretty basic English. It was alright though, because it gave me opportunity to really meditate and think about the things I want to do better in my life. By the time I had to go, I didn't want to! I walked outside to the now-running fountains and brand-new bright yellow flowers. It was just too beautiful, I didn't want it to end! I sat there for a while, but finally decided I should probably be heading to institute soon (I've missed it just about every other week that I've been here :P). I sang out loud the whole entire way to the bus stop. I waited for my bus to come and could help but half-way dancing to the music in my head. I just felt so happy! I saw some Elder missionaries and THEN I ran into Anetta and Julia (the family I go see on the weeks I skip out on institute), they were headed to the church building! I wished them a good day, and they wished me the same. I told them that now it would be, now that I had run into them :) It really did make my day to see them. Anyways, bus ride, metro ride, walking a ways, I ran into Igor too! I finally made it to institute. We talked about Jeremiah, about how God knows him, how He knows each of us. He knows me better than I know me! Those aren't just empty words either, I really believe it! And logically, if He knows me best, who better to receive help from than Him? Anyways, a group of us stayed around to play and sing on the piano until the guy came and said he had to lock up the building (Ana, my new Ukrainian friend from last week was one of us :) ). I walked home in a downpour of rain. I couldn't help but smiling the whole way. This random other girl walking the opposite way was smiling too, and we both laughed as we crossed paths. It was really a fabulous day :)

Day 79 - Conference Time and American Football

Last weekend was the actual general conference broadcast, but my Branch had to wait until this week to watch it because of the time it takes for the other part of our stake (all Russian/ Ukrainian speaking) to translate the words to their language (or something like that). Our entire branch (or at least all those who came to watch conference) gathered in the Relief Society room where we listened to the words of the latter day prophets. It was an awesome experience, and definitely a different one than I've ever had before. In the back was the "kids" table, where President Powell and his family (their three primary children make up half of the primary!) sat. There were about five or six rows of chairs, half of them filled with the missionaries/ temple presidency/ embassy workers, and the other half filled with ILP volunteers. I've just got to say, I'm in an awesome branch! Most everyone in attendance there is volunteering their time and life in some way for the better of the world. To me, that makes up a great group of people :) Anyways, we watched the first two hours of conference (which was amazing!), then had a two hour break. They provided pizza and a whole assortment of other goodies (fruit salad, cookies, cut fruit, soda, juice, etc.) for us to eat. A group of us decided to eat outside because it was such a fabulously sunny day. (I may be able to steal pictures of us eating out in the grass later.) After eating, we proceeded to start a game of good old American football. At first there were maybe eight of us playing, but then some of the other ILP's came and joined, then some missionaries, and then some kids from one of the local branches. We had a full field of people by the end, and it was all just a ton of fun. Near the end of the break, we went back inside and watched the second session of General Conference. Man, I should probably tell you some about Conference! It was so amazing too! I don't know if I can really recap the experience for you, but I hope it suffices for me to say that my understanding of life and my part in it has become so much more clear to me, and my determination to do good and be happy has grown much more too :) I know that's not really enough to show you how much I love Conference, but I really really do! I've only got a couple months left here in Ukraine, but I am determined to make the most of every moment, and to enjoy every bit of it, even when the going gets tough.

Day 78 - Breaking the Language Barrier

Friday night I went to FHE, where we played "Psychiatrist" (and had SUCH a blast at it too!), then I went and played the piano for a while. When I was heading out, I somehow got into this conversation with this lady, her name is Ana. She speaks such little English, and I speak such little Russian that the whole conversation took a super long time to figure out. Basically what I got after about ten minutes of talking is that her name is Ana, she’s Maxim’s mom, she teaches piano (and loves it!), and had some music for me if I want to have it. There was a lot more between, like how I absolutely love music - Ya (I) OCHEN (VERY) lyoublyou (love) musik! (music!), or how Maxim learned piano for three years, but then didn’t like it so quit. I really loved talking to Ana, I could tell she enjoyed the conversation too. Eventually someone came and asked if we needed a translator. I asked Ana, and I think she said that she didn’t; It was too fun trying to talk to her and recall the oh-so-few words that I even know in Russian. He translated a little anyways, saying that Ana didn’t know when she could get the music to me because she hardly ever sees me. We figured next Friday at FHE would work perfectly. We all headed out together and Ana and Maxim ended up walking me almost all the way home. Maxim didn't talk much, but Ana talked enough for the both of them :) We talked and laughed and learned words the whole way. My perception of the “gift of tongues” has definitely changed after my conversation with her. I in no way was able to fluently talk to her, but the “language barrier” between us seemed to be quite broken as I forged this new friendship even without understanding hardly a thing being said. That night, I had some great conversations with Lena and Sasha and George-o. We talked about how sometimes you can say something and people don’t understand it, but when you let them see what you mean, it sticks so much better. Recalling back to my experience talking with Ana, I didn’t understand a majority of the words she was saying, but after she explained in many ways, I would figure it out. I’m not sure she ever actually said, “I am so glad to have talked with you this night, thank you for letting us walk with you.” But I really felt it in the way she talked and smiled and laughed with me. Oh, and Friday night? That was her Birthday :) What an awesome thing that I was able to be a little part of it! I feel truly blessed for that absolutely amazing experience!

Day 61 - FULL Day

I love days like this, I was seriously walking and working and walking and going and being and thinking and walking and riding and talking and pondering and standing and always doing SOMEthing all day yesterday! Maddy was still sick, so I decided to sub for her myself by combining both of the classes and working the full three hour shift that way. I talked with Nelya, my coordinator for a while, then Marie, my head teacher, then food came, then we had Russian lessons, then I had to leave for the temple. I forgot all about food and eating something for dinner until I passed hot-dog stands and babushka's selling fruits and bread and other tasty things like that. I bought a 9 grivna little pizza at a stand near my bus stop, and enjoyed that. I eventually made it to the temple, and there, I met some super awesome people. There were people that had come all the way from Moscow, Russia or further to come to the temple here in Kyiv. They all had amazing stories, and it was fun getting to know those people. I loved being there, but all too soon I realized I had to head out to get to Julia and Anetta's house. The ride there ended up being WAY longer than I had expected (I think there was a car-crash on the road which backed things up quite a bit), but eventually I made it there too and enjoyed every minute of talking with them and their babushka and the sisters and some random others that came by :) I was suuper exhausted at that point though and had to work to keep myself upright and not slouching or yawning as we talked. We had some awesome discussions, funny, serious, confusing (mostly when everyone started talking and laughing in Russian :) ) and thought provoking, but again, I was cut off on time to spend there. We headed out at about 9:30, then I made my way home on the marshutka (little buses) and Metro systems.

Sorry for not a whole lot of detail, but I've only got SO much time in my day to write about it all! Maybe one of these days I'll come back and edit and write more specifically about all the events in my day :)

Day 44 - FHE!

Friday night, FHE ("Family" Home Evening) was AWESOME! I met some extremely sweet people, and we had a lot of fun playing fooz-ball, Mafia, and Phase 10. The foozball table somehow got broken a little bit; one of the bars that hold two players for the blue team got pulled out of socket, but we adapted, and it turned out to be twice as fun to play that way. Then I decided to go play some card games with this group of people. They were going to play Skip-O, but we couldn't figure out the rules. Actually, they didn't even HAVE any rules for the game written in Russian, so someone had to look them up online. We ended up switching over to phase 10, which most everyone seemed to know how to play already (I think it has simpler rules too!). We had about 10 people playing, and they ALL spoke Russian, but I actually got most of their joking's around. .It's not too hard with a game of numbers :) And half of them speak English too, so I was able to talk and laugh with them too. I remember Julia and Sasha and Alla and Igor and about four others (I can't remember there names). We just had a blast playing that game. Actually, the highest "phase" we got to in the game was 5, but it was 9:30 and most everyone had at least an hour commute or so home. So we all put the cards away, reset up all the tables and chairs in the room, headed out and said our goodbye's.