Saying Goodbye To Ukraine

Alec says his final goodbyes to the people and places of Ukraine this week.

The plan is I leave on Thursday afternoon from Lutsk to head to L'viv. And then I have a train from L'viv Friday morning at 6 to Kyiv. I'll get to Kyiv around noon and then chill there for a bit. I will have a chance to go to the temple, so that'll be super cool (especially since the one in NC is down.) And then I'll have an interview with the mission president Friday evening. Saturday morning, I'll leave at 3 am to go to the airport. So it's gonna be quite the journey home--from Thursday  afternoon til Saturday afternoon, including a 7 hour time difference. 

Vika has not gotten baptized, unfortunately. The plan was to do it this Wednesday so I could baptize her before I dipped out, but she promised her mom she would think about it a little more. She still wants to get baptized and she still will, just not before I leave. 

  

Last week you asked me some questions about my thoughts as I come to the end. There are certainly lots of things I'm going to miss. There are lots of people here that it will be hard to say goodbye to, lots of friends that I've made and lots of people that I've really come to care about. That's definitely going to be a hard part for sure. However, you do eventually get to the point where you've said bye to so many different people and different things that you get kinda numb to it, so I don't think too many of the saying goodbyes will be too hard. It will be weird to leave the missionary life, knowing I'll never go back to it. At the beginning you think it'll never end, but then when the end comes it's kind of hard to believe that it's actually happening. Obviously serving a mission is hard and I'm very excited to come home, but I will always be grateful for the things I've learned and the ways I've grown out here. It's hard to list specific things, but I know for sure that I've gained a stronger testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ and his plan for our lives. I'm grateful that I made the choice to come out here and I'll always be glad that I did. 

Catch you on the flippity flip,

Alec

PS: a few pics: ask me about them on Saturday if you want.