Last week with Sis Dish

Hellooooo

This week was a good week! Sad that I had to say goodbye to Sister Dish yesterday but it was a blessing that I had the time I had with her! We met with a lot of members who wanted to say goodbye to her (she served in Kharkov for basically her entire mission! ) and that's always a good time.

We had a sweet miracle on Monday night, right after we finished writing emails to the people we planned to meet with who weren't answering their phones so we called the referral we got from the church of a lady who wanted to meet with us and she actually answered! (hahah first miraculous thing cause that hasn't happened to me before ) and then we asked if maybe she could meet that night and she said yes! We met and had an awesome little half of a lesson then she had a coughing fit so we had to postpone the rest but she seems like she's really searching for the truth. The coolest part was when she said she feels that God is more her friend then anything else and I had the opportunity to testify that not only is He our friend but he is our loving Heavenly Father, and that he loves us so much! And she was just so captured by that, she got silent and just stared and me and listened and smiled. Sometimes I don't realize how many people don't have that knowledge that can bring so much hope and joy into our lives.

I also sang" How great thou art" at this concert the district had, and everyone loved it, even though I only practiced once. ahah getting better at these last minute numbers.

Yesterday in church was the primary presentation! So cute!! Primary presentations are one of my favorite Sundays of the year!

We found out transfer and seriously there's always something I'm surprised about but these were crazy. But I will be staying and serving with Sister Stepaiko who was STL is Zap ( I went on exchanges once if you remember ) and she'll be STL here with Sis Savran. so should be interesting..

talk you later!

Cectpa Horne

Yulia

Saying goodbye to Sis Dish

Me and Sister Savran today waiting to go to Dnpr for a bit to pick up our new companions
.

Vereniki! Elder Martino! Happy Thanksgving!

Hey everyone!

So starting from last Monday night;  we went to this wonderful member family from Aleksevka branch's home for dinner...guess what I finally got to do?! We made homemade Vereniki (Perogies ) together!! It was so cool. Such a classic Ukrainian experience that I've always wanted and it was perfect! I only messed up a couple of times ahaha- it's hard to stuff a bunch of filling in there and then have the dough not stretch too much ). We had half with Tvarog (cottage cheese ) and half with cherry filling and they were SO good.They also fed us lots of other super delicious food and they are super nice.   ( I should actually say they just fed me cause Sister Dish can't actually eat at members homes cause of her special diet for her health ). They even gave us a pretty fancy apron to use while making the vereniki .. ( lol it was one of those ones with a body builder's body on it )

We had our zone conference this week and we have been very blessed to have a few general authorities come visit us in a short time and Elder Martino from the Europe east area presidency came. It was really good! It was probably one of my most favorite zone conferences yet because of how much I was learning the whole time and the spirit was super strong. One unfortunate thing though was I had to give a talk!! Ugh. ahah. All the missionaries were supposed to prepare a 4 minute talk on diligence and so I prepared one but I was hoping and praying that I wouldn't have to give it haha, well Heavenly Father does have a sense of humor and I was first to give it, and only one other Elder did as well. But I was thankful it was at the beginning so I didn't have to worry afterwards. I spoke about Mosiah 4:27 and related it to the story of the tortoise and the hare, cause that's what first came to mind when writing it. I was a part of a musical number which wasn't bad with the amount of practice we had all together. Sister Dish gave her final testimony which was really good and made me cry.
We also had a big Thanksgiving activity with all of Kharkov which was fun and cool. Sister Dish was assigned to make a wreath for it which ended up really good and I sang again.

Some classic Celine moments for ya:

It's raining pretty hard today. We wanted to go on our usual route right beside the street and I was like oh no we'll be splashed by the cars! But we decided to rough it anyway and I put my umbrella to the side to block the water from the cars and started running but then.. I biffed it in the mud. Hahaha it was pretty funny actually nothing too bad but don't run in the rain kids!

 Saw an old man on the street selling baby bunnies and almost DIED. Made my day they were so adorable and soft! I forgot what it was like to hold one!

Hope you have an amazing week everyone!

This is Sis Dish's last week! Time has gone by SO fast! it's crazy. Next week I'll know who I'll be with next! (maybe I'll even train :0 :) )

-Cectpa Horne

Back with Savran for a day in Center!

Hello everyone!

Hope you are all doing well, and aren't too cold! I'm cold.. apparently I'm not much of a Canadian ahah cause I'm already wearing my winter jacket all the time and I'm pretty sure winter hasn't even begun yet! lol. Oh well. It does get hot in the metro though..

This week was good! Not too eventful. But on Tuesday we had exchanges with our STL's and guess who I was with? Sister Savran again! (we were comps for a few months in the spring if you don't remember ) and it was fun! The whole time we were thinking, who would have thought, we'd be back together, in the metro, in Kharkov! Center is really beautiful, it looks way more European then anywhere else I've been in Ukraine.

In the morning we planned to meet with three different people and like five with back up plans but.. they all fell through.  As we were leaving Sister Savran thought about this idea Pres. Sullivan told us about some sisters in Europe who creatively just gave people one page of the Book of Mormon, to get people to read it without having the hesitation people already have when they know that it's the Book of Mormon and have a note saying:" if you want to read the rest.. etc . So that's what we did basically! We cut one page out (ah felt wrong but was for a good cause ) highlighted our favorite verse or part on it. Then rolled it up and tied it with ribbon.

We actually gave quite a few away, And talked to a couple people.I felt I should talk to this one girl, turned out she didn't know Russian, she was from Israel but I asked if she would be interested in reading the book of Mormon in English and she said yes! so we got her number and hopefully the sisters in center gave her one already. That was really cool.

We went to a funeral on Saturday, sadly a member in our branch passed away from cancer. He was the father of this brother in our branch (awesome family) but it was really cool to hear the testimonies and thoughts of all those there and how they know they'll see him again so there's no reason to mourn. They're such huge examples to me. I never met him but I also have a testimony that death is not the end in God's eternal plan of happiness. What a blessing the knowledge of the gospel is!

Have a good week!

Cectpa Horne



P.S.  sorry no pics this week.

Happy Halloween!!

Hey!

It's been a pretty chill week. .. Literally too. Man, it's pretty cold already.

We met with some awesome members this week! We helped out this one young mom with cleaning and cooking one day and she has a cute little four month old boy. We talked about tender mercies from the Lord with her and I realized that the Lord sends me so many! We just have to have our eyes open to see them. For example the fact that I got to see this cute little baby who is about the same age as my new niece who I haven't met yet was such a blessing for me:))

It also seemed like the whole week was a build up and preparing for our Halloween branch Party that we put on. We spent the day Saturday pretty much getting ready for it, and really Sis Dish did most of it but it even made me stressed watching and also honestly the party for me was kinda stressful. (Now I know what it feels like to be the ones in charge who probably don't get to have much fun lol ) but it's ok because it was a success. Lots of people came and they seemed to have a great time! Also it was awesome cause we have a few really awesome members in this branch and even though at first there was like a separation between the members and our friends from English, eventually the members got to talk to them and on Sunday we heard how they were asking them questions and some good convos with them! Yay:)

Life's good. Pray hard, and often. Heavenly Father loves to hear from his children.

Until next week, xoxo

Cectpa Horne

*UPDATE* Xарковь!! Again?? and ONE YEAR

Well hey!!

So..... This week has brought some crazy changes... Cause, I'm in KHARKOV now!!

Yup.

We thought that I'd be on Left Bank with Sis. Busath for another transfer right? And I was happy with that too! We had already started our second week of the transfer when, tuesday morning President called and told us that one of our sisters was going home for medical reasons and that I would be taking her place, serving in Kharkov ( btw no need to pronounce the first K in that aha it's just how ppl spell it ) with Sister Dishlanyan (we call her Sister Dish for short)!!!



So yea, that happened. What the? I'm in Kharkov now! It feels weird serving in an entire different city,  that I don't know at all. Different district zone and comp. Lots of change and it was pretty quick notice, not much time to say my goodbyes or pack but it was ok! And we still got to contact with our pumpkins which went alright!

I'm really liking it here so far! People here have been really nice. My companion is from Kiev and so my Russian will hopefully be way better - actually I think I can already notice a difference.:) She's super sweet and loving but she leaves in four weeks, so I'm killing her.. I heard lots about her cause sisters bolingbroke and Spicer served with her so I'm excited to be with her for the end of her mish.

Oh ya, in other big news, I hit my 1 YEAR mark this week!! Can y'all believe it?? I can't , and can.. it's weird. My year mark was also my first day in Kharkov and it snowed so much! Happy mission birthday to me! haha. Also I got to go in the metro for the first time on my mission, so that was cool! ( I wanted to take a pic but unfortunately it's illegal)

Kharkov has a huge and nice metro system and we use it sometimes cause we're actually kind of in two areas Saltovka and Aleksavka. It's kind of interesting we have English practice almost everyday. But it's cool. Also really awesome we have a new investigator; this really awesome lady Narinae came to church Sunday (We watched the East Europe broadcast which was really good (although I didn't understand a lot cause it was in Russian ) and we're going to teach her some time this week:))

Remember that God loves us -tak silna - ( so much ) and we can feel that love even more when we serve our friends and family. Do something to show your love for them this week!

Love you all

Cectpa Horne