Mariah, Week 12, Nikolaev

Question:  How many people can fit into a Marshooka bus?

Answer: 41

But to be honest, I think that a few more people could have squeezed inside...

Anyway... This week sure has been fun. It's been filled with babushka blessings, dogs and drunk men. Yup. I've offically had blessings from a babushka bestowed upon me. I seriously don't know how I was surviving in the world without it. And all it took was offering to help a little, old babushka ("grandma") with some of her heavy-looking bags and offering up my seat in a marshootka. Who knew it was that easy?!

This week has also been a great week for our progressing investigator who I'll call "Света Чудо" or "Sveta Chooda" (Чудо means miracle). And she really is our little miracle. I haven't really mentioned her before in any of my other e-mails home, and after three weeks now, I feel slightly sheepish for waiting this long to mention her. Well, anyway. Sister Dickison and her previous companion found her... I can't really remember the specifics... but, we've been teaching her for a few weeks now -- since I first got here to Nikolayiv. And this week... guess who's getting baptized?! 

That's right! Sveta! Sister Dickison and I are so proud of her! Sveta is so loving and humble and desirious to learn. Before we start our lessons with her, she always pulls out her Book of Mormon and tells us her thoughts and any questions that she had with what she read. I have no idea what her comments and thoughts are most of the time, but it's so cool to watch her eyes light up and the eagerness in her facial expressions when she reads the verses. Ugh. Sveta is just awesome. Seriously. She is a golden investigator. And I am so lucky to be able to have the opportunity to help teach an investigator like her, in my first transfer on a mission, no less! I love her. She is so patient and loving with me. When I try to spew out a few words or my testimony in horrible Russian and she just sits there with a small smile on her face, patiently waiting for me to finish stumbling over my words and nods. The Spirit really does speak a whole other language, and I know that Sveta is in-tune with it. Oh. and Sveta even has a nickname for me. She calls me "Макрей-чик" (Makrey-che'k) which is like, a cute-sey, loving way to say my last name. Or something. I dunno. But I love it.

Nikolayiv is growing. We are going to have 3 baptisims in the next two or three weeks. It's insane. The Dnepropetrovsk Ukraine mission is really starting to grow. Apparently, the baptisim stats for last year, 2012, were a total of 48 baptisms. Now, at this moment, there's been, if I remember right, 66 baptisims in 2013. By the end of the month, there should be 74 or so. And that means we will only have 3 months to reach our mission goal of 100 baptisims this year. And I know that we can hit it! I know without a doubt.

Yesterday was also our zone conference (hence why I'm sending this e-mail on a Tuesday). I learned an incredible amount of information that I still can't totally comprehend right now. Like seriously. I was just sitting on the bus on the way home to Nikolayiv from Xherson (where the zone conference was) and I was just reviewing what all happened and the things that I learned during the roleplays that we did. I can't wait to apply some of those things that I learned to my teaching.

Ahh I hope this e-mail makes sense.

Not much time left. Dagnabbit.

Anyway. I know that Ukraine is the best place for me to be right now. I know that my purpose of a missionary is true and I am so glad that I could be out here right, preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ to the great people of Ukraine. Even though there may be people that don't like or agree that we, Americans, are here in their country right now, I know that we are doing helping the Lord with sharing the gospel with His children.

Love, 

Sister Mariah McCrea

Mariah, Week 11, Nikolaev

Lesson learned this week:

• Never let two one-week old greenie missionaries go out on splits with each other and expect them NOT to get lost.

Hello from Ukraine, everyone!

I am currently sitting next to a man at a computer who is sipping a beer and reeks of sweat. Yup, they really do not use deodorant in Ukraine... so it's been a really fun internet time.

Anyway.

This week has been crazy. And this is gonna be a short e-mail, only because I really don't know how to effectively spend my e-mail time yet.

Okay, so. A lot of things have happened during my second week here. It rained for two days and I found out that I am so unprepared and out of my element here... Seriously, I go from living in a place where it's 100+ degrees 8 out of the 12 months for more than half of my life... to here. What. am. I. doing. Bleh. But meh it's cool.

Earlier this week, on Wednesday, the missionaries in Nikolayiv traveled down to Xherson, a smaller city an hour south-east of Nikolayiv, to attend a zone training. It was cool to see and talk with Sister Meyers again... even though I saw them just a week prior. But anyway, the zone training was awesome. Someone mentioned it being like a MTC devotional. And they were right. Afterwards, we all felt super energized and ready to hit the goals that we set during the training. Wednesday was also the day that Sister Dickison, who is the Sister Training Leader for the southern cities in our mission, decided to do exchanges with the sisters in Xherson. So... that meant that Sister Meyers and I were on exchanges with each other for the whole day... which was really fun! If you count out the times where we got lost in Xherson. Which wasn't fun. But I ended up learning a lot.

Snap. Time's running out.

But other random things worth mentioning:

• Ukraine has probably beat Canada on the things that are bagged. There is bagged milk, bagged yogurt, bagged sauce, bagged ketchup, bagged laundry detergent, bagged everything.
• There are SO many stray cats and dogs here. It's insane. The dogs basically rule the streets. They are everywhere!
• Squatting toilets. Yup. I won't abbreviate on that one.

All in all -- Ukraine is awesome. It's still awesome, and I love it's crappy bumpy streets with it's crappy sewer-drainage system and all the stray cats and dogs. And most importantly, I freaking love the people here. Even though I don't really know what they're saying most of the time, I know that it's the place where I'm supposed to be right now. I love it here, and I feel so honored that I get to be part of the Lord's special forces and teach the people of Ukraine the gospel. Even though I don't speak Russian very well, I know that I don't need to speak Russian to be able to help people feel the Spirit.

TTFN!

Сестра Макрей 

(Sister McCea)

Mariah, Week 10, Nikolaev

Ukraine 

(And so just a little FYI~ it''ll be sort of hard to concentrate on this e-mail because there's this fellow beside me in the internet cafe is listening to this Britt Spears trance-dance mix... that sounds really good...)

Okies... Let's start from the top. Tuesday and Wednesday of last week was full of plane rides. (But the plane ride from DC to Vienna was claaasssaayyyyyy mmhm~ Austrian Air is super fab. I recommend that airline to anyone thinking about flying to Germany or Austria or whatever. :)

Anyway. Got to Ukraine Wednesday afternoon -- and let me just say THAT WE DIDN'T LOSE ANYONE! There were 13 people in my travel group and not one sheep from our little flock was lost. We made it to the Dnepropetrovsk airport, which was about the same size of the airport in Laredo, haha. And as soon as we made it through customs, our mission president, his wife and the two Area Leader missionaries were waiting for us. It was nice to finally be able to meet them. And one long van ride later, we arrived at the meeting house in Dnepropetrovsk... and one-by-one, we were taken upstairs to meet our trainers. faekjjewakjrwakjawthawrwa 

So a week earlier, I had received an e-mail from my dad and without tagging his message as spoiler alert or something, told me that my companion was going to be Sister Dickinson... so as soon as the elevator opened, after they called me upstairs... and lo and behold THERE WAS MY TRAINER! :D It was so weird. I think it was in that moment when I realized like... dang. I'm actually a missionary. This isn't the MTC. I'm in Ukraine. Sister Garff and Sister Patterson aren't going to be my companions anymore. Nothing will ever be the same ever again... okay, so maybe not that deep of thoughts. But it was weird, having a different companion. And pretty much right after I met and talked with Sister Dickinson for a little bit, we had a short, brief introduction meeting with President van Bruggen and they kicked us out into the streets of Dnepropetrovks -- the "New York City" of the mission -- and with a few Book of Mormons (in Russian) in our hands, told us to go contact people. I wasn't surprised when this happened. I heard of a rumor of this happening to missionaries as soon as they got to their missions... so I felt ready. Moderately speaking. The only problem was that I didn't know a lick of what anyone was saying to me. I'm just gonna say this once -- but Russian was NOT the language that I learned in the MTC. It was craazzyyyy... 

So after working the street (not in that way) for a few hours, we ended up placing not one, not two... but FOUR Books of Mormon! Which is a SCORE in my book. 

(Ahhhh I'm getting into too much detail, so I might skip over some parts just for the sake of time!)

We ended up staying in Dnepropetrovsk for another day and a half, until we could be taken down to our area -- Mykolayiv. (Which is like in the southern-ish part of Ukraine, for those of you who are curious.)

So -- it's Friday afternoon and after a looonnnngggggggg BUMPY(!!!) car ride later, we FINALLY get to our area. FINALLY. The apartment where we stay is pretty nice... it looks totally retro 80s or something -- there's wood decor everywhere and everything's a 80s-shade of brown. But it's totally legit and cool. I ain't complainin'~

Ukraine is crazy though. Seriously. It reminds me of Mexico... so I almost feel right at home. The only difference is that instead of Spanish, everyone talks in Japanese or something... or maybe Russian? I literally have no idea what anyone is saying. I maybe catch one or two words or a phrase here and there... but for the most part, I'm totally clueless. But I try and pay attention when people are talking, so I can understand them. Sister Dickinson is a SAINT for being so patient towards me. I feel so bad for not really being able to contribute very much to the lessons and street conversations that we have. Sure, I can walk up to someone and just start asking questions and talking to them... but when they start talking full sentences, I have no idea what to do. But the language will take time. I know... I just have to learn to be patient... bleh.

And now... to my food adventures. (I think that I might have a weekly section about the food adventures I get into...) There are these cookies here called... Супир something -- I can't remember what it said on the wrapper. BUT THOSE THINGS ARE SUPER LEGIT! OH MY GOSH. Apparently they're this super awesome Ukrainian cookie and Sister Dickinson made sure to introduce them to me on my first night in Mykolayiv. They're this cookie that's like, dipped in chocolate and there's this little hole on one of the sides. And what you do is on the other side of the cookie, you bite a hole and put the cookie in milk... and DRINK MILK FROM THE HOLES LIKE A STRAW which makes the insides all nice and wet and moist and then you eat it. Ugh it's so freaking good. I'm def gonna have to send some home to share with peeps.

Okay. Five minutes of internet time left. Short run-down of shout-outs:

• We met three drunk ladies on the street, which Sister Dickinson said is a record. Apparently there aren't very many drunk women. There are just drunk men.
• Crazy street parties, with creepy-looking clowns. Our branch meets in this building, and above them is a daycare. When we were walking up to the meetinghouse, it turns out that the daycare was throwing a party. Right in front of the church's doors. We literally had to make our way through the crowd of parents and kids to get to the doors to get to church. That's Ukraine for you.

And okay. That's it for right now, friends. Ukraine is crazy. But I know that it's the place for me. I'm going to do some good here and change some people's lives by sharing the gospel with them.

Mucho amor,

Sister Mariah McCrea