привет family and friends!!!!!
Hello from Kyiv, Ukraine :)
I’ve said it before, and I will say it again...God needs me to be here in Ukraine right now. I am still seeing more reasons every day why. My first day here when we talked to members, randomly they stopped whatever they were doing and just said to me, "Heavenly Father needs you here." Then they would continue with whatever they were doing. I know God was speaking through them to reassure me there is a reason I am here. God knows I need that reassurance sometimes...because there were many times this week when I really missed Estonia and Sister Tullis.
But in those moments, God would send someone my way that would tell me something along the lines of, "I need you here, Sister Smith-Driggs." I do not take those moments for granted. I have been writing moments like that in my journal (times when God revealed to me, in one way or another, a reason I am here in Ukraine)...and...wow...let’s just say I lost track of how many moments I highlighted. :) I am so grateful Heavenly Father is showing me why I am here. So grateful, and so humbled.
The work:
So, before I talk about this week in Ukraine, I just wanted to mention my favorite miracle from last week in Estonia. But Sister Tullis described it in her email better than I could, so here is a direct quote from her group email from last week about the best miracle ever!!!!
"There was one day this week where we were really tight on money. Had about three euro to get us lunch and dinner. We had some extra expenses come up with some traveling things, and were short because we were waiting for our reimbursements to come in. The reimbursements were not supposed to come in for two more days. Well, we knew that one of our investigators was also really short on money that week and had been emptying their kids' piggy banks for change to get groceries. Well, during my personal study, I was reading about Nephi and how he was quick to observe and never questioned 'why' but only 'how' and then he went and did, doubting nothing. Well, I was admiring this and realizing that I wanted to be more like this, when I had the feeling and idea come to my head that we needed to drop off dinner to this specific investigator who was short on money. Well, because I wrote this thought in my study journal and the phrase 'the lord will provide a way with the food!' well, I shared this with Sister Smith-Driggs, who is very similar to Nephi and was 100% on board. So we decided to do this and just were trusting in the Lord that it would all work out. So we went to our meeting with [a member], and she walks up to us and hands us a carton of juice and two pizza pastries and two sweet pastries. We were in shock. We asked her what it was for, and she said she just had the feeling to bring us lunch. She told us to go and eat in peace and we would start our lesson late. Sister Smith-Driggs started crying and my jaw just hung open. Literally it was like the Estonian version of manna from heaven. And the pastries were even WARM. That never happens here. Man, it was incredible. God is so good. We went to go withdraw the last few euro off my card to actually get the dinner for this person later, and our reimbursements came in two days early! So we bought chocolate too for all the people we would visit that day. it was one of those undeniable moments where you know God is aware of your exact needs and that he is the grand schemer and conductor. I am so grateful I get to see how the orchestra plays out. :)"
And here are some pictures from Estonia last week :)
OK!! So last Monday, my dear fellow missionaries waved me goodbye at the Pärnu bus station, and I was off to the airport in Riga!
The biggest surprise was who picked me up at the Riga bus station...Sister Bruner and Sister Goodell, my dear friends from the MTC, and Sister Lewis, who I was friends with at BYU!!
I could not stop smiling during my few hours in Riga.
I went to a Latvian festival with the Riga missionaries,
and it was SO FUN!!!
Then, I was off to Ukraine.
Here in Ukraine, I am serving with Sister Vehar and Sister Moore!!! Sister Vehar and I were actually in the same district in the MTC, so it has been SO FUN to spend time with her again. Sister Moore just came out to the mission field two weeks ago!! So Sister Vehar is training her, and I am being a helping hand. :)
I love them both!! They are teaching me Russian. Now I can pray and hold a small conversation in Russian!
The biggest miracle of being here is my opportunity to spend time in the TEMPLE!!!!!
I will find out tomorrow if I will be set apart as a temple worker, but for now I get to spend 4-5 hours a day in the temple as a patron!! I am in absolute HEAVEN! I don’t wear my missionary name tag in the temple, but I started talking with a woman in the temple and when I said I was a missionary, she said, "I know...I could tell by looking at your face that you are a missionary."
The temple here is right next door to the church building. (That’s right...they have an actual CHURCH BUILDING here...and I am serving in the biggest ward in the eastern Europe area! A WARD! They have an organ AND a microphone in the chapel!! A whole new wooooorld ;) )
The funnies:
- Since being in Estonia, I have picked up a sound they make all the time..."oi." I say it in lots of instances, but the best translation for it is "oops" or "ohhhh" when something happens. I probably say it 100 times per day haha. Well, turns out it sounds almost like a swear word in Russian...soooo awkward hahahaha.
- I went over to a babushka to give her a free English card, and I started talking to her in Russian. She started talking to me, but I didn’t understand anything. So I nodded and smiled (like I typically do when I don’t understand something). Long story short, when we walked away, Sister Vehar said the woman was saying that she is too old and can’t read the card so she had no idea what I was trying to give her...HAHAHA, and I was just nodding and smiling the whole time instead of being able to explain why I was talking to her hahahah.
The culture:
- It costs money to call here, but it’s less expensive if you’re on the same network, so people change their phone number all the time to get on the same networks as their friends.
- When getting on a bus, if someone gets on in the back, they pass up their money to the front to pay the driver. They just pass up cash, and people keep passing it forward until it gets to the driver..amazing that no one just takes the money for themselves!! It’s been amazing to watch!
- Babushkas don’t like ladybugs here...they eat their crops haha.
- Plov is a traditional Ukrainian dish, and we made it yesterday!! So so tasty.
- We went to a burger place to celebrate the 4th of July (HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY AMERICA!!!), and the burgers were so messy, they provided black gloves so we could eat them hahah.
Spiritual thought:
I am studying Jacob 5 right now (SO GOOD!!!), and there is a part when the lord of the vineyard and the servant went to check on the tree that the wild branches (the Gentiles) were grafted into. The tree was bearing fruit, and it was healthy!! The Lord makes an interesting distinction in verse 18. "Behold, the branches of the wild tree have taken hold of the moisture of the root thereof, that the root thereof hath brought forth much strength; and because of the much strength of the root thereof the wild branches have brought forth tame fruit..."
Often times, we witness someone change and sometimes we like to think it isbecause of us. While our role is very important (like the wild branch had to have been grafted into another branch to benefit and experience the strong root - one can’t graft a branch into a root under the ground of course...), we are simply the instrument God uses to ultimately graft one of His children into their true life-changer...our root, Jesus Christ. The grafted branch will only grow if it then chooses to "take hold" of the root (in other words, if they choose to let Christ into their life).
I know that if we choose to hold onto Christ - our true, strong root - we will become strong ourselves. He will make us strong.
I love you all. I love Jesus Christ. I love Ukraine. I love Estonia. I love Sister Vehar. I love Sister Moore. I love Sister Tullis. I love the temple. And most of all, I love Heavenly Father and His infinite goodness.
Trust in the Lord. Choose joy. Find peace.
сестра смит-дригс
Psalms 25:15 "Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord.”
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