Good morning from Kiev!

Hey Family,

First things first before I forget. I told the office that you would be calling at 4:30 my time and 7:30 your time. We are not moving.. I don't know what I said in my last letter but transfers are on the 24th and we don't find out until a week from this Saturday if we will be transfered. We then won't find out until the 24th where we will be going and who our new companion will be. There is a very good possibility that either I or Sister Movchanyuk will be transfered. I am guessing that I will be transfered but I don't know, it is just a guess!

Mom and Dad, It sounds like you will be having a lot of fun this week! I hope that you are both safe and having a blast! The ship sounds amazing and I can't wait to see pictures! And Happy Anniversary!!

Brynn, your title to your letter was amazing! I laughed out loud and I could see kota's little scratching face in my head. I am sure that you are loving staying with her! Congrats again to you and Ben on the big 1 year! Sounds like you had a lot of fun making the gingerbread house! Tell him hi for me!

Chase and Ash, Congrats on getting into Boston and Temple! I think you should go to Boston, but I know that my opinion counts very little against budget and Ashley. Although it would be really really nice to have you close so that we can see you a lot more often. That is awesome though. Thanks for the updates on everything! I hope that I get to talk to you both on Christmas morning. I know you will be with Ash's family but maybe we could do a conference call again or something. I think it is awesome that you are helping out the missionaries. We are always looking for people to come with us on lessons or to let us have lessons at their houses so that our investigators will realize that mormons are normal people. And that to be Mormon you don't have to live like a missionary. I decided a few weeks ago that I will have the missionaries over to my house (when I have a house/apartment) several times a month, because they really really need the help. Thank you for being willing to help!

This week was full of dogs. We had an amazing week planned with 25 lessons and several member referral lessons with the members. We only had 13 lessons this week and none of them were with members. Our members are awesome and they are always looking for opportunities to share the gospel. They are always handing out pamplets and fliers for us and this week we had two families invite us over to teach their friends! It is always great when you get a phone call from a member that says, "hey come over tomorrow night and teach my neighbor at my house. I have been talking to them about you and they want to hear more!" After that call I couldn't wait to get to work. It ended up that one family went to the Orthodox church this week and the other neighbor was "sick." Also a lot of the lessons that we had planned didn't show up and wouldn't answer their phones. We call that "being dogged." That, I think is the most frustrating thing ever! We actually are dropping several of our current investigators because they just aren't keeping commitments and moving forward.

Anyway, on a happier note, we are still working with Lena. She is doing well, still not progressing like we want her to but she is trying. We decided not to drop her because she told us that she is really scared to come to church on Sunday. We told her that it is a big change but if she would just come and see what church was like she wouldn't be as scared. She did come to a baptism that we had at our church this week though and she liked what she saw. We will meet with her tonight and see how things go.

We had exchanges this last week and again this week. The sisters from a city about an hour away came here and we all worked in our area. I was with sister Anakashan. She is from Armania and barely speaks any English. We spoke all day in Russian. I was actually surprised at how much I both understood and could say. She was speaking very easy Russian but sometimes we would both be sitting their with our Dictionaries, mine English to Russian and hers, Armanian to English. It was nice to work with someone new and see the way that
she teaches. She is really nice and has an awesome story. This next week I will be going for a day with Sister Movchanyuk's first trainee. It should be fun to see and work in a new part of the city.

The temple is looking amazing!!! They have almost all of the trees in and they are starting to take the scaffolding down!!! you can see the full back side of the temple and it is beautiful! Most of the windows are in and they just have the stone on the upper part of the outside. While we were walking out of the church one day we ran into the Architect and he showed us pictures of the inside. They are putting in the wood work and it looks so beautiful. He said that they were already starting to do finishing work on both the inside and the outside! We have had such great weather that they have been able to do a lot more then they planned on doing. It is 3 Degrees today and we saw some of our first snow flakes today but it still isn't sticking!!! Heavenly Father is still helping align my will with his by degrees :D.

I love you all and hope that all is well with you! Have a good week and I will talk to you all in a few weeks! By the way, I am expecting some letter letters soon:D. I know you sent packages already but letters are really really nice:D just a hint. I love you all dearly! Thanks for the emails and the support! Tell everyone hi for me!

Sister Larsen