Twig Tea

It's been yet another fine week in Chernigov, Ukraine. I learned that it wasn't such a fine week for people in Moscow though where 35 people died in that bombing at the airport. One of the girls was Ukrainian. My heart and prayers go out to those people and their families.

One of the members just told me that my Russian is the best out of the 4 missionaries here. I don't think it's entirely true, but it's a big complement considering that one goes home in August, and my companion is in his 7th transfer. I'm working away at it, one day at a time.

On Thursday we visited a member's dacha and helped him cut firewood. A dacha is sort of like a cottage. Many people have them, it's like a little place outside the city where they grow vegetables etc. They often go there every weekend in the warmer months. It's was pretty neat to be out in the woods and snow. We stopped for a break to drink some "tea." First, I should say that he made a fire in a little stove in the ~6x8 room and the exhaust was one of those foil pipes going to a hole in the window. Let's just say, not all the smoke was going outside. The "tea" was freshly-cut twigs boiled in water with a little lemon and sugar in it. The main course was pumpkin seeds. Haha. Good times. When we got home even my underwear smelled like smoke. He is a funny guy.

Yesterday was probably the next highlight day this week. President Steinagel came to our Branch with his wife and one of his sons. It's was really cool to have them here. The meetings were awesome. I had a member translate a song from the French hymn book called Souviens-Toi into Russian and I played the piano sang it for the intermediate hymn. We actually had an investigator named Natasha come to Church. Plus, on the way to Church we met a guy and invited him and he came too! Then last night we had a lesson with a guy we found from the area book. His name is Viktor and his wife, Alla, and daughter Anastasia were there too. They were super open and committed to read, pray and come to Church. Yay! Viktor is a massage therapist. He worked in India for 2 years helping prepare Olympic athletes. Good stuff. 3 new investigators, plus another Georgian guy from earlier in the week. Oh yeah, I said the sacrament prayer in Ukrainian yesterday which was a first for me. It's a neat language, but I think I prefer Russian, for sure. Hopefully I'll master 'em both though. ;-)

Thanks for everything my peoples. I love it here. Missions are amazing. If you have any chance to serve, do it! It'll change your life. P.S. Sisters rock. We need more sister missionaries too.

Much love from Ukraine,

Elder Mahoney

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