Spring time in Ukraine!~

Good morning fam!

Thanks for the emails again! It sounds like you have an exciting week ahead! I am glad that everything is going well and that spring is finally on its way there. It is so nice here. Everyday it is getting greener and greener! It finally feels like spring and I am already dreading the winter again. I think that soon I will forget how cold it was and I will be wishing for some snow. I hear it gets unbearably hot here... I guess I will find out soon enough. So today we went to a huge, I mean huge market. It reminded me slightly of my trip to NY with mom but I think we would do a lot more damage here! The elders bought a million really pretty ties. We had a lot of fun. We ended the day playing football on the beach again. It was a beautiful day!

Dad, Thanks for the pictures! I am glad you got a quick Powell trip in this week. I am sorry to tell you but even if I was graduating this year Chase and I are in different departments so you would have had to gone to 2 anyway... might as well spread them out a little right? Good luck in Vegas, I hope everything goes well over there.

Mom, Congrats on your diet! I am proud of you! Maybe I need to start something like that. I eat so much candy because it is so dang good here. I am glad you got to be on the other side of the marathon this week. It sounds like fun. I am thinking of MAYBE, MAYBE running when I get home. We have been bad because my comp has been a little sick but it looks like it is warm enough again to go. Good luck this weekend!

Brynn, Hey how was your week? Did you have fun at the marathon? Good luck to you too! I hope everything goes well. ..... I thought of you all day today because we went to this huge market, it is 7 km long!!! It was amazing and packed with stuff! You will love it!

Chase and Ashley, The big college grads this week! Good luck with everything. I am sure that you are dominating finals! I hope that everything is going well. I am so excited for you both but sad that I can't be there. You will have to send me pictures!

So this week has been a little slow but it has been really good. We had a lot of really great meetings and the weather has been so beautiful! Sister Ethington and I got proposed to at the same time. He had heard about our church a little but he asked us to give him our hands and here that is normal to shake someone's hand when leaving and he lend down to kiss my hand and I just yelled "forbidden!!!!! forbidden!!!! forbidden!!!!!" in Russian and we ran away. It was really funny.

In my last interview with President I told him that I felt that every transfer I have been where I needed to be and that I always felt like Heavenly Father has placed my there for a reason, while last night I felt like that again. We were in a lesson with Nina and Vlad. Nina is an older woman and Vlad is renting a room from her. We were teaching Nina and she said that Vlad was really interested in talking to us as well. For the last few week we have been teaching him and we have known from the first visit that they are both so ready. I have felt over the last few weeks that we probably wouldn't have gotten through to Nina if Vlad hadn't moved in. Nina still doesn't feel ready but she knows that she needs to get baptized and she wants to have her daughter start talking with us too. But last night as we were talking with them, both Sister Ethington and I started to feel really urgent in the work. We have been talking a lot about baptism and we have been trying to set a date. He asked why we needed to set a date and I felt like it was my responsibility to see that they got baptized. I got one of those feelings like I told these people that I would come here and I would give them the Gospel. I felt as if I had promised them before, especially him. I felt as if he was my real brother and she was my aunt. I have never felt such and urgency to do the work. I think I realized last night how many people we promised before we came here that we would bring them the Gospel. I realized how short my time is and how much work we have to do. I loved having that realization because it makes me want to work so much harder. I love this work so much!

I also had another realization as we were on our way home. We were on a bus and we had had an interesting conversation about how the devil tries to influence us and pull us away from the truth. I looked up and there were 2 empty seats in front of us and in my mind I filled those seats with some of my grandparents. I had a feeling that my ancestors were all around us. I have been studying a lot about love and how strong it is and how the love of God can overcome all. It is the power behind every action of our Heavenly Father and of Christ, and it should be behind our actions. Love is such a strong power and I love that we have that on our side! I am so blessed to have so many people around me that are so easy to love!

Speaking about love we got some info on phone calls. I can do it again at 4 like we did last time (7:00 am your time) or later in the evening at around 8 or 9 here which is 10 or 11 your time. I don't know when your church is. I can do it anytime after 4 my time. But just to warn you it might changed because I really think that I will be leaving next week. We find out transfers this Saturday and I will let you know on Monday if I am leaving or staying. If I am leaving I will have to talk to my new comp next week and we will let you know what times work. Let me know what works for you and your church schedule. Dad you might have to miss out on a few early morning meetings or come home a little early.... I home that doesn't make you too upset ;). Well let me know what you think.
011-38-Area code- Phone#

Well I should get going but I hope all is well and that everything goes well this week! I love you all!

Love,
Sister Larsen