MINI ZONE CONFERENCE AT THE ZOO PARK

This was a really fun day. The Zone leaders, Elders Permenter and Crawford arranged a mini zone conference. We all boarded a bus and headed for a "zoo park" as Elder Permenter called it. We got off the bus after about a 40 minute ride and walked for about 10 minutes. We were quite a sight carrying blankets, plastic bags with our lunches, and all the necessary materials that were needed by the people who had been assigned talks. Even though we had a few sunny days it was really cold. But that didn't stop us. We found a nice spot to put some benches in a little cluster and all bundled up in blankets as we had some wonderful talks. The theme was "Improving Ukraine". We had lessons on Humanitarian work, Service, How to find young men, and Involving the Branch members in service projects. I was so impressed with all of the talks. Elders Permenter and Crawford also provided us with nice sack lunches. This activity was so well prepared. We were given a program with the opening and closing songs, we started with a song and a prayer, had very well prepared talks with handouts, or visual aids, and ended with a song and a prayer. We took a short break for lunch and relocated to a spot behind a building where we were hoping to find a little warmth. We had a little "skills practice" exercises and a few more missionaries shared some wonderful stories about awesome young people they have met in Ukraine. The best part of this whole experience was we had such a great day and we didn't have to plan any of it. We just had to show up and give a talk. I found myself thinking, "I can't believe these young men are only 19 and 20 years old. It is so amazing how they grow into such awesome young men on their missions and great leaders.

Oh by the way, it was called a "zoo park" because we were at a zoo. Our little meeting was held right next to the Llamas and small horses and we passed a cage with 2 beautiful bald eagles on our way in. I'm sure there were many more animals to be seen but we spent our lunch break trying to find a way to stay warm. Some of the missionaries were more adventurous than we were and wandered through the zoo during the break. We decided to come back on a P-day and see the animals.

VISITING THE HOMES OF MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH

This was our first visit to a members home. It was humble, but we felt so comfortable there.
This is Masha in the back, her mom, Larissa, little sister Olya, Sister Chidister, Sister Clark and Sister Jackson.
As soon as we got to their house I was admiring a few family photos on the wall of the girls and Larissa was just like any other proud mom, she ran and got a small, obviously treasured box, of pictures of the two daughters when they were little. There were just a few tattered photos but obviously held a lot of special memories for Larissa. They were all so sweet and we were treated like honored guest. When Larissa asked us to introduce ourselves it was so wonderful Sister Clark had learned how to introduce herself in Russian she even said her husband’s name and how many children they had. I think the family was really touched by this. It was so sweet at one point their whole family left and went into the kitchen and came out carrying the kitchen table into the living room all set with glasses and juice and desserts. Sister Chidister had made pineapple cake, and Masha served ice cream with a delicious berry topping. She told us she tried to bake a cake but she couldn't’t read the directions, I can’t remember what Language the mix was written in but it wasn’t Russian or English. This was a very special night .