Mariah, week 27, Zaporozhye

This week in photos:

Because I don't have a lot of internet time left... this week's e-mail will be presented to you in picture form! In living color! Hooray!

Monday.

P-day... and I MADE BORSH!

And it was so delicious! I can't wait to make it for my family when I get home. I will convert them to borsh-ism, and they will never want to eat any kind of other soup ever again!

"Delicious goodness! I would eat it over and over again!" -- quoted from Sister Nielsen, my super awesome companion.

Tuesday and Wednesday. HAPPY NEW YEARS! In the past, missionaries in my mission would stay inside during this time. But my mission president thought that it would be okay if we worked these two days -- just as long as we were safe and avoided any drunks and troublesome situations. I was a little doubtful, but I'm glad that we worked these two days. We were blessed with a few miracles!

And for our "New Years dinner" ... we treated ourselves to DONERS!

Doners -- the street food of Zaporozhye, with soul... It is chickeny-cabbagey-pickled oniony-tomatoey-and all kinds of different saucey- GOODNESS! Piled high in a sesame-seed pita bread bun that has been toasted to perfection. DELICIOUS!

Running low on time, so I'll be brief. 

Friday. Another day of miracles. I basically called one of our investigators to repentance and committed her to coming to church on Sunday (which she ended up dogging out of... grr!!) And I also ate холадец. "Xaladyetz" is, for those of you who know a little bit about Ukrainian cuisine, is... meat jello! 

And it was... interesting... Not my favorite dish. I wouldn't eat it by choice, but I'd eat it again if it was put in front of me. But I probably won't touch anything jello-like for a while.

Saturday and Sunday. Same ol', same o'. Street contacting, a lesson with our recent convert and her family (who we're working on getting baptized), and a lot of calls to contacts to try and set up lessons.

I also saw Chimichanga! MY STREET DOG THAT LIVES IN MY AREA! I love her. She and I had a wonderful reuniting moment last night. I am 100% sure that she actually recognized me because you know, street dogs are smart like that.

Well, that's it for now folks. Time's run short. Sister Nielsen and I will be celebrating Christmas for the second time this week. (Mark your calendars! Ukrainian Christmas is on January 8th!)

And to close -- here is a picture of our Christmas tree. That we will probably leave up all year-round!

xoxo,

Sister Mariah McCrea