Good Morning!!
Hey family! Man it was good to see pictures of Lake Powell and to hear how the week was! It sounds like you are all doing well, even my accident prone dad! I am sorry about your fingers! I hope that everything is okay!
Mom, I hope everything goes well with the doctors this week. What is the radiation treatment suppose to be like? What are the side effects and the process of the whole thing? I know what Chemo does but I am not really sure what Radiation does? I am glad that you are feeling better! Everyone here sends their love. I am excited for you to get to do some projects for yourself for once. I want to see pictures of skirts that you make for yourself. That is cool about the pillow idea, I am sure that they are deeply appreciated! I have made a goal for when I get home to go to the temple every week! I really don't think there is anything better! I feel like it has been so long since I have been there that I have forgotten everything! I am excited that in about a month we will be able to go!!
Dad, How are your fingers doing? I am guessing that you have taped them together and they will heal just fine right? I hope so! How is the swimming going in the mornings? Are you guys still going every day? It has been so hot here it has been painful to workout in the mornings! I have to really remind myself that I only have 5 more months to get back into shape! I think it will be a real challenge!
Brynn, I am so happy to hear that you are back to your funny self! It sounds like you guys all had a lot of fun down in Powell! I am glad you all got to spend some time together! I feel like the summer is pretty much over too! I swear each year fall comes a lot faster then the year before! I have told Sister Podvodova all about Powell, the Tube and everything that comes with it and she made me promise her that when she comes to visit that we will take her!
Chase and Ashley, I loved the pictures of your new city! It looks like a lot of fun and you have a lot of stuff really close by! I might have to come live with you guys next summer ;). That drive sounds really long but I am sure that you can make it fun! I bet you can find that aqua CD somewhere and listen to that the whole way there! I hope that the drive goes well and that get a few last fun things in before you go!
So this last week was a pretty normal week. We worked really hard and we had a lot of lessons! One of our craziest lessons was a woman that really wants to be baptized but she doesn't want to meet with us, read the Book of Mormon or the Bible for that matter, come to church, or make friends with any of the members... I still don't really understand why? She said that she just likes it here but she doesn't really care if it is true or not. The first time we met with her she seemed pretty normal and she wanted to get baptized so we gave her a date, later that week she didn't show up for our meeting and then she came to church on Sunday and said that she didn't want to come. Again she didn't come to our meeting and church so we just figured that was it with her. Well she called us and wondered how her baptism was going to work on Saturday if there was a service project in the morning. We were really surprised because we had only met with her twice. We decided to meet the next day in order to talk about it. She came and then she got mad at me when I told her that we would have to push her baptism back a few weeks! She asked why she couldn't just pay us and get baptized and then everyone would be happy! We tried to explain to her that it doesn't work that way. She didn't want to listen so she said that she would come to church by her self and find people that would baptize her for money! I was so confused by the end of the lesson! She came to church yesterday and was mad as a hornet! She wouldn't even say hi to us! I just smiled and told her to have a great day, I couldn't think of anything else to do!
This week was also full of a lot of really great meetings. We met a woman a few weeks ago named Jonna. She is awesome! Her husband found the church in prison and asked her to find it here in Kiev. The elders went and bought some t-shirts from her on P-day and she started asking them questions. We went back later that week and starting teaching her little parts of the lessons while she is working. She works 7 days a week with out any days off. Her daughter lives with her mother-in-law in another part of Ukraine and she only gets to talk to her on the phone. She has had a hard life but she has really been searching. We teach her and then she teaches her husband everything that we had taught her. He will get out of prison soon and when he gets out they are all planning on coming to church, and to the temple. She asked this last week about baptism but she wants to wait until they can all be baptized together as a family! It is really get meeting wit her because you can tell that she is really searching for truth and she really wants her family and daughter to have those blessings that await them!
Last week the crystals were hung on the chandelier and the furniture is all going in at the temple! They are cleaning the grounds and the inside of the temple this week and then we have our first open house on Saturday. Sister Podvodova and I have been asked to be there and learn how to do everything and then we will train some of the other sisters and they will train the next sisters, until we all know what we are doing. Next week we have an open house for the neighbors of the temple and then the media open house. The first few open houses will be sort of practices for everyone and then the actual open house for the public starts on the 7th. We know that the weeks of the open house all of the sisters will be staying in Kiev and we will be on exchanges most of those 2 weeks so that everyone will get a chance volunteering there and our areas won't suffer too much. It should be a really packed few weeks! I am really nervous for this weekend because we will be at the end of the tour ready to answer any questions that will come. I am nervous that my Russian is not going to hold up! I am really praying that the gift of tongues will really take over and I can rely on the Lord a lot.
Well I should probably get going but I love you all and hope that you have an amazing week! You are all in my prayers every day!
Love,
Sister Larsen
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