This past week here was pretty eventful. Tuesday afternoon
we headed out for L'viv for what would be the last ever Mission Conference of
the Ukraine L'viv Mission. There was an event Tuesday night, so we made sure to
get to L'viv with enough time to get some dinner at the famous ribs place before
7 o clock. Brother Tad R. Calister, the General Sunday School President was
here in Ukraine and he was doing an instruction segment about how to teach and
ask good questions and stuff like that. They invited all of the members, but
there were about 4 times as many missionaries as members that showed up. And
there are only like 30 missionaries in the mission. So it wasn't a huge
turnout, but it was still good.
And then Wednesday was the Missionary Conference. Bro. Calister and Elder Martino, the Area President, spoke in the morning time, but
then they left after lunch to go catch a plane. Bro Calister is apparently a
pretty big deal, he's written lots of books and was in the presidency of the
seventy, so it was cool being able to hear from him and Elder Martino. So
between them and the patriarch last week, there was a lot going on here
recently.
And then in the afternoon, President Rizley and his wife
took some time to talk to us, since it'll be their last conference before they
go home at the end of the month. They talked about some good lifelong advice
stuff and then gave everyone some cool Ukraine Lviv Mission commemorative coins
that are pretty neat.
Since we don't really know what exactly is going to happen
after the missions merge, I wasn't sure if I was going to see most of the
people again before I go home, so I had to say bye to lots of people. It's
pretty weird, mostly cause the mission really has barely changed at all since
we got here, in terms of people going home and stuff. So there haven't been a
lot of goodbyes and we've all pretty much known the same people and spent the
last two years with all the same people. So it was pretty weird to think that
this might be the last time I'll see a lot of them. Crazy stuff, two years is a
long time.
So yeah, fun time in L'viv. We also tried to do a big
activity in a park in L'viv promoting our English practice. about an hour and a
half in a guy gets super mad at us and starts standing up on a little statue
thing and yelling (super super loud) about how Americans are the worst and
about glory to Ukraine and about how we need to go back to America. It was
quite the scene. We were getting ready to leave anyway, so all 20+ missionaries
that were there just grabbed all of our stuff and dipped out. Crazy stuff.
And then we got back to Lutsk and just did normal stuff. We
tried doing a sports day activity on Saturday. It took us forever to figure out
how to get a volleyball net set up here at the church but we finally got it and
then only two people showed up, lol.
though.
On saturday we were also invited to a little block party
that our apartment building was throwing. It was pretty neat, I've enver really
seen anything like that in Ukraine. Everyone that lives there knows who we are
of course, so we were just there to try to show them that we're normal people.
I joined a little chess tournament, but then I found out I had to play 5
different games and so I had to dip out early to make it to our sports day. It
was still fun though.
I also found out this week that my companion is getting
transferred, even though it's right in the middle of the transfer. Something to
do with getting ready for when people start going home after the merge and
stuff like that. My new companion will be Elder Abraham from St. George who
was in the MTC with me, so that'll be fun.
I attached a few pics
from L'viv and then a ton with people from conference that I had to say bye to
cause I don't know if I'll see them again (but I'm thinking I most likely will
at some zone conference or something before I go home.)
Have a good week!
Alec
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