LAST TRANSFER : TRANSFERRED TO RUSSIA?!!!?

APRIL FOOLS! 

lol. who did I get? Be honest. ;)

hahaha just jokes. It's all good news over here cause transfers happened but literally none of our district got moved! I'm staying and  dying in Poltava with my baby, who's going to kill me!! :) (sorry mission lingo again if you didn't catch that) We're super excited and happy about it;))

This week was pretty chill. Not much happened but we had to go to Kharkov AGAIN lol... after the next two weeks we'll have been in Kharkov every weekend for a month! man but oh well. they really need our help to practice for the Easter concert which we will do next week. ahah but it was funny cause I said a "last good bye" to Sister Savran about 3 times.. but her and sis Spicer are heading off tomorrow for reals.. which is pretty weird. It's weird that this is my final transfer starting now but I'm looking forward to it and we're going to make it the best:)

How was conference and Easter everyone?? We're a little behind here and we are doing those two things next weekend but we kinda do both anyway;) Sister Woolley's fam sent some Easter chocolate:) (they don't do chocolate Easter egg/ hunts here) But I heard some big changes and announcements happened at Conference!! That's so crazy! I'm like seriously everyone:

There will be a temple built in RUSSIA! 

Woohoo!! I know that the members here in Ukraine are so happy and blessed by having a temple being in Kiev  so I can't imagine how happy the Russian ( and surrounding countries) people are about this news! This is super big. Especially considering the whole situation there and with the change now about two years ago only being allowed to have"volunteers" there .. so awesome. And India too!! The Lord's work is going forth everyone! Like a HUGE boulder rolling forth and filling the earth! Also just saying that there will also be one in Layton, Utah -  I basically served there going  every other night when in the Ogden Mission to teach Tony ( Tony's from Russia, and now lives in Layton.. there will be temples now in both of those places.. ) pretty cool :)

And two new Apostles! Elder Soares from Brazil and Elder Gong from China. Everyone is super excited , I know there's tons more too, I'd love to hear your thoughts on everything and what parts/talks you loved the most! I can't wait to watch Conference next weekend!!!  I hope you all got to see it but if you're like me and still haven't;  no worries,  go run and jump on lds.org! please and thank you

ok gonna go celebrate my bday now (yay perks of having pday the day before my bday this year, I kinda get two!)

thank you for the birthday wishes so far! It's ok I won't hold it against you if y'all are late ( or don't say anything at all really...I know I'm already dead and gone and almost home in your eyes ahahah)

loves

Cectpa Horne

oh yea and I forgot! we had a big activity this week we did a "bleenchiki"party! (basically pancakes/crepes) and it was a good turn out! (now we have tons of pancakes in our fridge ahah) and Taya(15 year old awesome basically member but her dad won't let her get baptized)'s dad came ! And he liked it so we're hopeful :))

Baby's first snowman

HELLO
Phew. so I think finally spring is coming! That's basically just from yesterday and today though but apparently this next week too! Woohoo just in time for Easter and my birthday:)

Even though spring showed up one thing we finally did this week was make a snowman! It was Sister Woolley's first snowman so that was exciting. Unfortunately only a few people stopped to help us but they were super cool. One the little boy helped us but he had an attention span of 2 minutes and then ran away so then we saw the dad chasing after him for the next while. Hahaha but hopefully he'll come to English practice.
We met with our investigator Natasha again (she's canceled on us like 5 times in the past few weeks ) which was good because we got to start teaching her the Plan of Salvation which really amazed her and she kept asking questions at the beginning and we were like "this plan answers all your questions, we will cover that in just a little bit", haha. She really liked it and she planned to meet with us twice this week so we are hopeful she will start to progress more.

We also met Tonya's dad and Olga's husband!! His name is Jenya and he's super cool and nice (he even gave us a ride home from English practice in their car! Although we didn't get to teach him yet,Tonya (15 year old ) is the absolute best and she came to church yesterday!! She's also read almost half 1 Nephi already and all the other chapters we gave her:))

In a couple weeks they're having a big Easter concert in Kharkov and the District President asked me to sing a couple of songs so we had to go up there for a practice Saturday. It was really good to see the Sisters there again though and we got to go out for dinner with them before we left and it's super sad because then I officially said bye to sister Savran for a long time but I'm sure I'll see her again in the future.
Seriously I can't believe that it's the last week before my last transfer! :O Sister Woolley and I are praying we stay together.

HEY. Conference is this weekend!!!!! You do not know how freaking SO EXCITED I am for conference everyone! So weird it will be my last one as a missionary and I know it will be so good because every time I go and listen/watch conference and when I really try to open my heart and mind to the messages, I am always inspired and encouraged and refreshed. It truly is a special time where the Lord speaks directly to us through His chosen servants. Like Elder Anderson promised last conference if we listen to what the spirit says to us during conference then we will receive answers to our prayers. And this conference will definitely be a pretty special one with the sustaining of our new Prophet and apostles. Anyone who is unsure about or wondering if President Russel M. Nelson is really called of God can watch conference with that question and if asked in faith you can receive a personal witness from the Spirit for yourself. :) I have already received a witness that He is the Prophet on the earth today but I know will be able to feel that again when I watch conference. And so that's my challenge for you all:)) God loves us so He speaks to us all today, just as in times of old, through a living prophet:) I have to wait another week but y'all can see it this weekend at lds.org

ok that's all:)

love y'all
Sister Horne

UNO and flu

Apparently  there is a flu going around. We had a lot of cancellations this week because of sicknesses and other, but we did have a really good lesson with Olga on the plan of salvation and we planned to get them on date Saturday but she was sick. We hope to be meeting her husband this week. On Tuesday we gave out 3 books of Mormon in the same hour. As we were explaining the book to this one girl we gave it to,  and we asked her if she would be interested in meeting and learning more she said;" how about tomorrow? So we were like ok! But unfortunately she didn't show up, even when she said she was on her way.. We also met a nice girl who we played UNO with us on the Freshline (Ukrainian subway basically ) and we taught her the restoration. Unfortunately she feels like God didn't answer her  prayer one time when she asked if her grandma could live and now she believes only in "love ". So she said she wouldn't pray about the Book of Mormon or learn more but she still wanted to be our friends. Hopefully sometime in the future she will be able to realize that Heavenly Father truly does love her and wants to speak to us, his children, and that he also knows us better then we know our selves and he knows when and how to answer us and we need to grow and progress, even when it's hard. It's kinda like I get the tiniest glimpse of what it's like to be a parent right now as I'm training and I want so much to make things easier for Sister Woolley when it comes to things she needs to learn how to do. It may seem like it's better for them when it's easier but it's actually only taking away the opportunity for them to grow. So that's something I already have a hard time doing even when I have that knowledge so I can't imagine how hard it must be for our Heavenly Father when he sees his children suffering but it just shows how deep and infinite his love is for us because he cares so much more that we grow from these experiences and even though they're hard, he sees our potential and is rooting for us to push a little farther so that we can grow into the people he knows we can be.
To update about Tanya our past investigator who was on date, she has not answered us in a few weeks:( but keep praying she'll come around one day and realize the happiness the gospel brings and remember what she felt. Rejection is a part of missionary work and it makes sense because we are representatives of Jesus Christ and when Christ was on the earth he was rejected everyday, til the end. It hurts for a bit then feels good cause that means we're doing His work.

Love you all,

Have a good week!

PS: I feel for y'all in Calgary wanting spring to come, still winter over here too! hahah hopefully we'll have some sun for Easter:)

Women's Day and Kharkov chillin

What's up everyone

Time is flying by over here, I mean we actually were fully expecting this week to fly by because of the time we would be in kharkov but definitely did! Felt like it just started and now it's already done. But it was a good one. 

The week started off skating all over the streets! haha it seriously was just an ice rink outside sooo slippery. Poor Sister Woolley took a couple of spills but it's all good now, actually now it's super wet, with puddles everywhere ahah but c'est la vie en hiver 

Thursday was Women's day and that's a huge thing here, it's like their mother's day but bigger so we decided to wrap Books of Mormon again! This time we went and handed them out as a district and everyone loves to be congratulated and given gifts so it went pretty well considering that like 20 more people have a Book of Mormon now! woot woot, flooding the world:) 

Zone conference was awesome as always. We had tacos and we helped the STL's hand make tortillas the night before, which was kinda crazy but they ended up delicious so worth it aha. Also I sang 3 times.. and all of the songs were named "Peace in Christ" hahaha. ok 2 times I sang the same song, one time just for this seperate lunch we had as just sisters and then President asked me if I could sing it to the whole zone also. The other time was the youth theme for this year and it's a different song just named the same. Obviously I really like this principle ;)

 https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2018-peace-in-christ?lang=eng

We also stayed the next day for exchanges with the STL's which was good. I was with Sis. Day who is Sister Spicer's "baby" and she's exactly like her haha it's awesome. It was sad because it will probably be the last time I see Sister Savran for a long time since she's going home to Moldova at the end of this transfer! I cried so much when she gave her last testimony in Zone conference. I love her so much. So amazing to see how much she's grown. Also super weird that next zone conference... that will be me. :0

Anyway, have a chill week. Remember who you are : children of a KING :)

Love,

Sister Horne

Dumped with snow!

Heeeeey

So not much new over here except we got a pretty big dump of SNOW!! woohoo reminds me of home actually:) Sister Woolley is not the biggest fan of it haha but we took pics in the big snowstorm. (my sd card's being weird though) Unfortunately it did effect the amount of people coming to English class and church etc. 

BUT it didn't stop these two AMAZING women ( a mom and her 15 year old daughter ) from coming. The mom's name is Olga and the daughter Tanya. We invited them to this little "girls night" Sister Woolley and I planned for Saturday night and they came and met some of our awesome members. Then they invited us over yesterday and she fed us the most delicious dinner and then we taught them about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they said they would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it so we're super excited:))) 

We also had a sweet opportunity to give a couple of Books of Mormon to the ladies at the library we want to start helping at and testify of it's power to them. So just pray that these people (really everyone ) will read and pray about the Book of Mormon because I know that is truly the "tool of the harvest" , it's what will help them know of the truth of the restored gospel.

This next week should be fun, Women's day is coming up and we're going to be in Kharkov for like half of it:)

Have an awesome week and eat some vereniki (perogies):)

-Sister Horne

Impromptu concert!!

Hello again peeps,

This was a weird and quick week. Had a some good lessons, some canceled lessons, some good activities and some listening to a lot of Russian ranting at one point, some miracles and some last minute rehearsals, some singing and eating.... haha ok sorry for that, anyway you get the picture actually a lot of things happened. But the highlight was probably Saturday night.

So the Kharkov district had planned to come with these musicians and have a concert here in the branch Saturday night. It was for the members and for them to invite their friends for a good night of musical performances from a professional guitar player or band. They planned this a few weeks in advance and even had nice little handouts and we invited all of our friends and people at our English practices etc.  Then the night before, right as we were on our way to a " book of Mormon " club that we've been doing (where we just read and study some chapters together ),  our district leader Elder Hubbard calls and asks me if I want the good news or the bad news first. I choose good and he says that tomorrow that I would have the opportunity to use and show off my talents. ahaha So I'm like ohhh nooo, what happened? So long story short the people called and canceled the concert, the performer was sick, couldn't come and so Elder Hubbard was like, if you don't sing, there will be no concert, haha , pretty dramatic right?;)

But basically what we did was all of us missionaries came up with a few different songs to perform and after practicing a bit that morning we put on a show for the crowd! haha.  Not too many people turned up  but they were still expecting a concert so we did what we could and it worked out pretty well! haha, was pretty fun too. If y'all want to see some clips.. apparently I'm on FB .. aha

Also a cool thing that happened was that one day we went to a basically Ukrainian subway and we saw this girl on break crying and so we asked what was wrong and she said it was ok and then left before we could give her a Book of Mormon. So we wrote in a BOM and were planning on giving it to her but we couldn't find her! We went back the next day and still didn't see her but we were praying we could get this Book that we wrote in to her and the next day it was perfect because she was passing out flyers outside and we got to talk to her and give it to her and she was so happy. Answers to prayers:))

Also just want to say, it's really sad when we hear of the horrible, devastating things around the world and how it seems there is less and less good and peace but I know that through Christ we can always find hope, peace and light in the darker times.

Peace to you all,

Sister horne

Wrapped and gifted BOM's with LOVE

Happy Valentine's Day!! Hope you all had a great week!

We had another awesome week! Lots happened. Let's see...

The night before Valentine's Day we wrapped 8 Books of Mormon really pretty then on Valentine's Day we went in the Park and gave them to people as gifts. We asked them if they would rather have rubies or diamonds and then we told them that this gift we're giving them is worth more then both of those. We met two young sisters who are really awesome and interested in meeting with us sometime and in reading the book.

 We also needed to go to Epicenter to buy wrapping paper for the Books of Mormon so we did "shopping contacting" again.We met two nice women who we gave Books of Mormon to and got their numbers. It feels so awesome cause we're really trying to FLOOD THE WORLD (POLTAVA) with the Book of Mormon!

Saturday was transfer calls, and even though we expected to stay together there the last minute fears came but .. all is well! Sister Woolley and I are staying Poltava. Saturday night though we had a little farewell party, where we announced whom out of us were leaving to our friends. Another miracle happened just after our "farewell party" (which went really well by the way. - We showed the 20 minute Joseph Smith video and we had a lot of potential investigators there feel the spirit strongly and a few even were crying). We were just waiting for the bus when the lady there asked us where we were going, noticing we weren't from here but when we told her where we were from she was so excited and on the trolley bus she even told the lady giving tickets and we talked with both of them a bit and got both of their numbers to meet sometime. haha it's hilarious cause we keep having awesome little moments on the trolley bus. After we get off at our stop, Sister Woolley and I just looked at each other and are like .. what just happened?? :)

We had a fun branch Valentine's day activity on Friday and some members danced the tango.

Our investigator Tanya from last week is on date to be baptized so pray for her!

MUCH LOVE,

Sister Horne

Picking up the Book of Mormons

Wrapping up the books to give out as gifts.

Time to hand out some book of Mormons on Valentines Day

Branch Valentine's party

Branch Farewell party