Hooray! SHe was able to be baptized at 5:00 on Saturday evening! We are so happy for her. Besides that this week has been pretty uneventful, Elder Jeffery and VanBuskirk came up for Exchanges which was good. It is always nice to see other missionaries when the closest ones are more than 3-4 hours away. We are just gonna keep working hard here in Sumy, we need to find new people to teach, right Now Alex is progressing well, we are meeting with him tomorrow, he said hed be reading the Book of Mormon while on vacation.
Now the big thing with Lena is retention, we have to teach all the lessons again and make sure she doesnt relapse into her smoking addiction.
Her Baptism: WE searched all week for a good spot to baptize her whre there wouldnt be too many people, and it could be spiritual. After searching I call her, and she says "Lets just do it on Cheha, behind Lavina" I thought Okay whatever we couldnt find a spot anyway, we will just do it there, some part of the lake has to be not crowded right? WEll Saturday came, I got out my baptismal clothes and put them in a bag, we headed off to Silpo(a grocery store) to by cake and soda, bought cake and soda, dropped it off at branch and then went to Lavina to meet everyone. We walk around the lake for nearly an hour and then we finally find a spot to do it. She goes and changes and everything was good, I go and change my pants to my white ones, and put on my white tie, we wait for a few branch members and Her mom to get there(she cant walk well so she had someone drive her as close as they could, she walked the rest of the way) and then we baptized her and went back to branch, where we enjoyed some cake with them.
That is it for this week I will send some pictures!Hey Buddy...
Wow, seriously 1 year and 2 days down. I can't believe we have all survived without you;). Plus I feel like it flew by which is amazing and I hope the next year goes even faster. I am so proud of you and feel so good about how great your mission has been for you, us and all the people in Ukraine you are helping! What a great accomplishment. I know we aren't supposed to be prideful, but you really should be proud of yourself.
I am honestly DYING to find out what happened this week...I want every detail!!! I prayed all day long everyday that Satan would be blocked from Lena and that she would make it to her baptism date. Like honestly prayed constantly for her and you. I want every detail you have. I love the timing of it all too...if it did happen on Saturday. Literally a year after being gone. It is such a blessing. Oh...I seriously can't wait for your email...I will be up all night!!!!!!!
Your email last week was soooooo good. I loved it! I just cried when I read it.
Ok for our week. It was back to school this week.
Josh started Monday. He is loving a- cappella and madrigals. He is excited about his classes this year. He has psychology, AP US History, Honors Physics, Math 3Honors, Honors Language arts, and seminary. It will be a tough schedule, but he is loving all the teachers. He is also trying to get a date for Homecoming. At the end of Sept. he will be able to actually drive dates/friends.
Jordy started Tuesday. He is off to a good start. They are still considering the Autism unit but are giving him a chance in the resource classes. He is riding his bike or long board to school with his friends. He had a good week and his teachers seem really nice and seem to like him. We are hoping/praying for a good year.
Jacob started 6th grade on Tuesday. He has Mrs. Derbidge and really likes her. He seems to handle to work load well and is off to a great start. He has a ton of friends in his class so he is super excited about that. He had his last basketball game yesterday and will start again in October. He is really loving this super league team and its not too demanding so I am loving it too.
Cam started Tuesday as well. He has 2 teachers, but sadly will be in the resource room most of the day. He will have lunch with his class and about 45 mins. at the beginning of the day and 30 mins at the end of the day. The rest of the time is in the resource room. It breaks my heart a little bit, but he loves it and they love him.
Kaestli had her kindergarten testing and did fantastic. She starts on Wednesday. It will be strange to be alone everyday for a few hours. I will be volunteering at the school quite a bit though as well. She is loving dance, gymnastics and learning dynamics though.
Grandma and Grandpa have had off and on weeks. They are struggling more than I thought, and more than they thought they would for sure. Please say extra prayers for them to adjust to Fiji, and what the President is asking them to do.
Dad had a much better week at work and this new promotion should be a really good thing. I have spent a ton of time revamping the house. Every room really and moved a ton of furniture. Me and Josh moved all the furniture by ourselves one day. It looks great though, I love it.
Question:
1-Every detail of Lena's baptism...every detail! The week, where, when, how, who was there, and I want lots of pictures.
2-Your feelings on the baptism?
3-Your feelings on being 1 year out?
4-Package- besides socks any other needs or requests. Do you really not want pop tarts??? I'm having trouble believing that one..
5-Details on all these mission changes and adding all these Russian missionaries! Are you informed on all this? It's sad a little, but super exciting too.
6-Was the AP changed last transfer or is it still McCleary?
7-Any traveling plans coming up?
8-Do you think they will add a couple more missionaries to Sumy?
9-Are you still happy and positive?
10-How fluent is your russian?
11-message for me.
12-How can I help you?
13-Feelings on being a missionary.
14-pics/recordings..I love them
I love you tons...I miss you like crazy! I am so happy you are serving a mission and think you are the best. Send me more letters in the mail...they are always the best surprise. Thanks for being my best friend and for always being my support. I will forever be grateful for our relationship. I love you so much.
Pray hard, keep up the good work, stay strong and faithful, pray like it all depends on the Lord and work like it all depends on you.
Love you,
Mom
Lena got baptized! It was all really good, and we were very happy for her. We got pictures of it. I was happy for her, but it was almost too easy, I wasnt 100% sure, but we felt like we should go through with it. It has been a very long time, but it feels a lot shorter than one year. More pepto bismol, no dont send poptarts, then I will eat them. Yeah, we are really happy to get them, we really needed some new missionaries, weve been spread so thin, I feel like we are being choked out. NO its still elder McCleary, he is miserable, APs have so much work to do. Kharkov next week for zone training, they ship us our mail now, so you dont have to worry about that. Maybe in a transfer or two, but not now. I am happy and positive. My russian is pretty good, if it is a conversation, I am nearly fluent, because I react to speech well, but if it is just me talking, sometimes I get rushed, and then I make minor mistakes. So I am going to tell you this, but not anyone else, you can tell Dad too, but dont tell everyone. So we had just baptized Lena, and we were planning at meeting back at branch to have Some Cake and Soda with her. WE had to take a marshrutka, and they were in a car, so they got there first. We get there, and just as soon as we get there, she walks around a corner, she didnt see us come. I followed her around the corner, and I couldnt see her, so I kept walking and in a corner behind the building she was smoking a cigarette. I was devastated, she thought I didnt see so she threw it down real quick and we went and had cake and stuff. I told Elder Biesinger and he just put his head against the wall and was also devastated. I called President after, and told him and he was devastated, and he gave us instructions to call her, and if we feel like she isnt serious about this that we shouldnt confirm her, but if we feel she is, then we should confirm her. SO she was confirmed yesterday and she said on the phone that she wont smoke anymore, now we need to teach all of teh lessons to her again. I guess this is why I was feeling unsure about the baptism. We hope the Holy Ghost will help her to quit for real. My Voice Recorder is out of batteries, and I love being a missionary. I will send more letters, and I am almost finished putting that birthday package together to send home.
I love you mom and thankyou so much for supporting me! I am really happy we can trust each other.
So how did you all do on the Book of Mormon challenge I sent out nearly a year a go?
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