Called To Serve: Mariah, week 37, Zaporozhye

Happy Woman's Day!

To all the women, young women, girls everywhere: "с праздником!" This last Saturday (March 8th) was Woman's Day in Ukraine! (Which is sort of like Mother's Day in the United States.)

People selling flowers, balloons and ribbons lined the sidewalks; people were carefully walking everywhere with flowers clutched their hand. The weather is starting to feel nice, and if I remember right, the sun was out. It was a wonderful day. The brothers/men from the Zaporozhye Branch had a little party planned for all the sisters/women. Brother Yuri, who is quite the little poet, even wrote a special poem for the occasion! President Valenten ("Willy Wonka") brought out chocolate bars and handed them out to all of the sisters who were in attendance. And afterwards, there was торт (cake) and чай (tea), which were both delicious.

All throughout the day though, people wished Sister Nielsen and I "с праздником!" and poured all these blessings of health, happiness and love over us. Even little boys wished us a happy holiday, which most of the time was SO CUTE! One little boy even perfectly rolled his "r's". It's so crazy to think that four year old children have a larger Russian vocabulary than me.

Anyway. In other news... MY COMPANION SISTER NIELSEN IS GOING HOME THIS WEEK!!! :'''| sad face

Because of the crazy political hoo-ha that's going on in Ukraine at the moment, six native-Ukrainian missionaries who are serving missions in Russia, are being transported to our mission. Which means, to make room for these missionaries, six missionaries who were supposed to be leaving in the next two transfers, are going home early. And Sister Nielsen, who only had one transfer left, just so happened to fall into that category. It's sad to have to see her off and leave one transfer early. And in such short notice. But it's been an eye opener.

This week just so happened to be my in-country 6-month mark. I've been in Ukraine for six months, and I have no idea how that even happened. People say that once you've been in-country for six months, you finally start to have a grasp on the language. After six months, you actually start to understand what people are saying. I have no idea if I can say that I have a grasp on the language and I understand what people are saying when they are talking to me. When I first got into country, it felt like everyone was speaking Japanese... but now, I can proudly say that I translated (from Russian to English) for someone, and I'm honestly actually starting to feel comfortable here.

I can speak Russian. I can do this.

But back to what I was saying before. The time I have to spend on a mission is so short and precious. I only have eighteen months to serve the Lord with all my heart, might, mind and strength. After a zone conference that happened this week, I have a new motto for my missionary work. "Become the lioness." I've always considered a lion to be my patronus, my spirit animal. It wasn't until something that one of the APs (assistant to the president of the mission) said during one of the practices that really got my brain thinking. As missionaries, we need to stalk our prey. (Prey as in, the people we contact.) We don't have a lot of time in the day to just talk with everyone that we see on the street. As missionaries, we need to be guided by the Spirit to who to talk to. The Lord knows who is ready and who still needs some preparation. And we need to be in tap with the Spirit to know where to go and who to talk to.

And that's all folks. My internet time has run short. And to close, I just want to leave you all with an awesome quote from the Great and Wonderful Sister Nielsen.