This is why I'm here.

Family!

Isn't life so good!? I'm waiting for my happy high to crash, but I really don't think it is going to happen. Nothing can bring me down! I seriously feel like I am on Cloud 9 all the time. Sometimes I think it drives people crazy, but most of the time it just makes them smile, so I'm just going to continue on loving my life, because honestly what is not to love? I'm living the dream, everyday! Ah I love it! Missionary work is the best thing in this world, and it truly is a wonderful world so missionary work is pretty great. Sister Grandy, Sister Allred, and I are still rocking the trio and we are loving it! We have great missionary adventures everyday and I continue to learn from them, which is such a special treat. To hear and feel their testimonies everyday is such a strength for me and my testimony grows every day just from being with them. I love all of the special things you can learn from companions! Needless to say we had a really great week.

Last P-day we spent the day canning with a sweet lady in our ward, she had invited one of her non member friends and we just had a fun time together canning and talking about the gospel in such a comfortable environment. Everyone can do missionary work! Find a friend, do some activity that you're interested in, then invite the cute sister missionaries over and your blessings will be so abundant you won't know what to do with them all! Seriously, it's safe to say that I wasn't the only one that loved that activity.

Tuesday for English club we had a surprise birthday party for Elder Steinagel, it was such a blast! Everyone that comes to English was so involved and the party turned out great. I'm not going to lie I made some pretty delicious блинчики(Russian crepes) and we all played American birthday games and just enjoyed each others company. I love English club!  I'm a big fan of doing activities that make people aware that we are normal people who love to have a fun time just as the much as the next person- future missionaries- plan fun parties! That night after the party we had the opportunity to talk with a lady who has come to English before but never really been open to talking with us. After the party she started asking us many questions that we were more than happy to ask and I do believe she was more than happy with the answers. The gospel seriously has the answers to so many questions, I love that I never have to worry about some things because of my knowledge of the gospel.

We have started to meet with Ина (Ina 23 years :)), she is amazing. We have only met with her once and then she went on vacation but we plan to meet with her again when she gets home. She is so awesome! Oh I love Ина! I love feeling Heavenly Father's love for the people I teach! It is the best thing of being a missionary. Seeing people with Heavenly Father's eyes, there really is nothing better. Whenever I look at her it's just like Heavenly Father is whispering in my ear "Mariel, this is my daughter and I love her so much. Please help her know how much I love her."  That is my job. Don't I have the best job in the world? I am in Ukraine to remind Heavenly Father's children here how much He truly loves them and how much He wants them to be happy. I am so lucky. I am so lucky to partake of the joy that they feel when they come to this knowledge.

We ended off the week perfectly yesterday as we started our lesson with Natasha last night. (We started teaching her last transfer with Sister Parish :)) As we sat down to begin the lesson she just said "October 5th" Not really understanding, I asked her what she meant. She then said "Sister Lee, I want to get baptized on October 5th." AHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Oh what joy filled my heart!! I cannot think of a time I have ever been happier in my life! We went into the lesson hoping to get her to agree to a date to be baptized and she set the date before we could even ask! I would have been happy no matter what but to see how excited she was, was truly icing on the cake. She is so excited to follow the example of her Savior and be baptized and have the opportunity to receive the Holy Ghost. She knows how important this is and what a big step in her life she is taking and she is ready. I love it. She married her sweet husband last month and as I told her that her next goal after baptism is the temple, to get there so she can be sealed to her lover for time and all eternity, tears filled her eyes as she told me how excited she is to begin her forever family.

This is why I'm here. I get to help people prepare to do the things necessary to ensure that they can live with their families forever. To ensure that they will be ready to meet their Heavenly Father again. To really remind them how much their Father in Heaven loves them. How lucky am I? I love this work! I am sooo lucky to be here doing this! Thank you for your prayers and support, I love you more than words can ever begin to tell!

All of my love,

Your sister, Sister Lee

The Book of Mormon is my sugar to life's lemons.

Good day!

 It truly is a beautiful day today! It has been quite cold this past week, almost to the point I was worried I would wake up to snow. Some of the days I was saying "Wouldn't it be so exciting if it just started snowing?!" But then I remembered that it was only the very end of August and it would be quite a nightmare if winter already started. We have had lots of rain and not much sun, waking up in the morning to very thick, dramatic fog I was sure that I would never see the sun again! But today is another beautiful day in Kyiv! Don't you worry, winter is still at least a few weeks away. Don't get me wrong, I loved the weather. I always feel so cool when we are walking out in the fog and rain, like "Yeah, I'm a tough missionary nothing's gonna stop me from doing what I love most!" People see us trudging through puddles with smiles on our faces and they know we must have something good in our lives, of course we do! The gospel!
 
Oh I just loved this week! Missionary work is so fun! We had so many good conversations with people and my testimony is just overflowing! Sister Grandy and I received a new companion on Thursday, Sister Allred has joined our team and she is a great edition, honestly we really do make an awesome team! We are covering both the area of  Харьковский and Нова Дарница so it has been a lot of fun running back and forth from area to area to different appointments. We'll be together until we can find a short term missionary to serve with her, so it might be this whole transfer which is super exciting! We have a lot of fun together and like I said we do make a great team in teaching the gospel.  We had a really cool experience this week where we met the Sister who translated the Book of Mormon from  English to Ukrainian and to be with her and talk to her about the Book of Mormon was so awesome! It was definitely something that strengthened my testimony a lot. 
 
I read in the Book of Mormon this week of when Christ was resurrected and visited the people on the American continent. WOW. I can't think of how many times I've read that or talked about it or learned about it, but wow, it really hit me this time. Christ lives. He lives. Isn't that incredible? Oh how I love The Book of Mormon! My testimony is so strengthened by it every time I read and I know that without a doubt it is the word of God. How grateful I am to have this book! Like, I am so lucky I get to read this book every day. The other day my cute friend Kamila asked me what my favorite book is and I said "Honestly, The Book of Mormon." It is the best book I have ever read and I can't believe it has taken me this long to figure it out! Before whenever people would ask me that question I would always answer with "Hunger Games, or Divergent, or To Kill a Mockingbird" But now, when I am asked that question, I can quickly respond without hesitation "The Book of Mormon" and it is completely 100% honest.
 
If any of you have not read this book I HIGHLY recommend it. It has got everything! War scenes, studdly men, miraculous doings, strong leaders, drama, and the age old story of the battle between good and evil. I could go on and on about how great this book is. How truly it is a good read, something you can learn a lot from, and if you let it, it could completely change your life for the better. I encourage all of you, even if you have read the Book of Mormon, pick it up and read it again, cover to cover. I promise you that it will bless your life. If you want to be happy read this book and use the things you learn from it and apply it to your life! If any of you know me, you know I'm generally a pretty, actually a really, happy person. And it's true, things really don't get me down, I seriously love my life. Sometimes life gives me lemons but the Book of Mormon is my sugar and man it just takes those lemons and it makes some dang good lemon aid. Everything I have learned from the Book of Mormon has helped me with hard times in my life and I know it can do the same for you! Please take advantage of your opportunity to read this book and learn more of Christ and learn more of how you can take your lemons in life and make some yummy lemon aid. Now you know my secret to life, now you know why I'm always so happy. Do with this knowledge what you will, but if you want never ending joy and happiness you should take my challenge seriously. :) You know I think I can go as far as to say, "If you read this book ALL of your wildest dreams will come true."
 
I love you all so much! Thank you for all that you do!
 
All of my love,
 
Your sister, Sister Lee

Chapter 3 of my Wonderful Spiritual Adventure

Happy Monday!

Woah, woah, woah, hold up. Do you realize what today is?!? It is the day of birth of two of the very most important people in my life!! This calls for a celebration! Happpiest Birthday to my bestest friend forever and ever Ashley! And a happy birthday to the best Dad in the whole wide world!!! Aren't I so spoiled?! On the same exact day Heavenly Father blessed me with my sweet dad and my wonderful best friend! Wow! Oh I love you both so dearly! It is quite funny because I think you two are the people I talk most about on my mission, everyone always hears about Ashley and Papa Lee and all they have done for me. Thank you for blessing my life for all of these years and giving me the motivation and support that I need while being on my mission. You both are the best and you both deserve to have the greatest birthday celebration anyone has ever heard of!!! С ДНЁМ РОЖДЕНИЯ!!!!!!!

goodbye Sister Parish! I Love YOU!!!

Well this week I had to say goodbye to sweet Sister Parish, it was hard. Training her for six weeks teaching her everything I know and then just releasing her into the wild land of Odessa, yeah it was hard for me. But I know that she is ready, it was so fun serving with her, not it will be fun to watch her grow and see what wonderful things she will do! So we said goodbye and Sister Grandy and I said hello.

hello Sister Grandy :)

Sister Grandy is AMAZING. I am so excited to work with her! She really is on fire. She is a Russian beast and just talks to everyone, I love it. Her testimony is so sweet and inspiring! I love just being around her, and you can tell other people do too! We're always talking to people on the streets and just bearing our testimonies like no other. These past few days we have been together more and more people are wanting to talk to us.

Do you remember how I was telling you about the wave? I think it's happening. All of the missionaries I have been talking to have been so amazed at the change in the attitude of the people here towards us, a lot more people are showing interest and a lot more people are willing to listen to what we have to say. Please continue to pray for these wonderful people here, your prayers are being answered and I am so grateful for them!

Sorry this email isn't very long today! Just please know that I love you all! I know that this church is true and I love having the opportunity to serve here in beautiful Ukraine!

Thank you for your love and support!!!

All of my love,
Your sister, Sister Lee

first time trying sushi and of course it's home made with my friend Tonya, so yummy!

I will rejoice in my God

End of Transfer 2.... booo

"from Kiev with love." Aint that the truth? Sure do love you!!!

Привет!

So this week was pretty funny, Sister Parish hurt her ankle so she received crutches, and I think that we were just a funny sight. She had never used crutches before so she was struggling pretty bad, haha okay, I'm not gonna lie it was hilarious! I'm sorry Sister Parish! I'm not laughing at you, I am laughing with you! :) I wish you could have seen us, we were real missionaries going about our work no matter how hard it was. We had a lot of good conversations with other people on crutches and a lot of people felt sorry for us. One day, as we were walking down the street an old lady stopped us and literally started massaging Sister Parish's leg right there on the sidewalk. As strange as it was, when it was over Sister Parish just said "Wow, my ankle really does feel a lot better." Haha I love Ukraine! Our бабушки,(the old ladies who sit outside of our apartment buildings and watch our house, they LOVE us) said they were praying for Sister Parish all of the time, it was really quite sweet. And yesterday when we came out with no crutches they all cheered and said "Oh it's a miracle!" And it was a miracle. As much as we loved her crutches we are happy to get rid of them and continue on with our work.

So as you can tell by the subject of my email I am ending my second transfer this week and I'm not too fond about it. It really freaks me out how fast everything goes, like, how am I coming up on my third transfer already?! I don't know, it's crazy. And I am still the same old Mariel, you know the one who gets super attached and has a hard time saying goodbye, so transfers I think, will always be a scary time for me. Luckily I'm staying here in Харкьовский, I would be so sad if I was leaving! But unfortunately my cute companion is. Sister Parish is going down to Одеса and I will be receiving a brand new missionary. Yep, I'm training again! Yay!! Really I am so excited! I am so sad to see Sister Parish go, we were really just starting to have fun and now it's over, oh man. But I know that next transfer will be a total adventure too!

Training, training, training. I can't believe it is happening again. But boy, am I excited. I have grown more in the last 6 weeks than I ever have in my whole entire life combined (now don't be fooled, I am not 10 foot 4, we all know I stopped physically growing when I was a freshman in high school) but I mean mentally and spiritually.

Who would have thought that a girl, studying Russian (not a very easy language) for only the matter of a few weeks could go out and speak with Ukrainians all day every day. I am completely blown away after every conversation I have thinking, "Man, how did I understand that? How did I know what to say?" Time and time again we have walked away after talking to someone and Sister Parish will ask me what a word means and I'll say "I don't know", she will then reply with "You just used it like 5 times in that conversation." I know that it only sounds like I'm bragging and I'm sorry, but I have to tell about it just like Ammon in Alma Chapter 26

"11 But Ammon said unto him: I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God.

 12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

 36 Now if this is boasting, even so will I boast; for this is my life and my light, my joy and my salvation, and my redemption from everlasting wo. Yea, blessed is the name of my God, who has been mindful of this people, who are a branch of the tree of Israel, and has been lost from its body in a strange land; yea, I say, blessed be the name of my God, who has been mindful of us, wanderers in a strange land."

If you think I'm bragging, I'm going to keep on bragging, because this is my testimony. I know that through the Lord's help I really am doing miraculous things. I am doing things I would have never thought to be possible before. I have been so beyond grateful for my experience to train because I know it has helped me and my testimony so much. There has never been a time in my life when I have felt closer to the Lord, never been a time when I have relied on him more. I love that I continually, every day strengthen my relationship with him. He has been pushing me in the work and in really has been an honor to know that he trusts me enough to let me do this. I love it. And he is letting me do it again!? Yes!!

The transfer ends on Thursday so I'll say goodbye to Sister Parish and then pick up Sister Grandy, fresh from the MTC. :)

Thank you for your prayers, I know that they helped me so much in this last transfer and I so appreciated them! You all are the best and I am so blessed to have you in my life! I love you all!!

All of my love,
Your sister, Sister Lee

Miracles Happen!

 I'm on top of the world! 

Friends, family, random people reading this (now don't you worry, there are only small actors, no small parts I love the random people just as much as anyone else), any-who, it has been decided, there is nothing better in the world to be doing than the work of the Lord. Everyday I cannot imagine me being happier, and I know it is because of the work that I'm doing.

This week I had the opportunity to experience many great things that have strengthened my testimony in so many ways. First of my experiences was the leading of a blind woman around town.

How special this was for me. The whole time we were doing it I could not, not think of the Savior and all He does for us in our life. Tonya, the lady we were leading, has recently gone blind over the past month. She needed us to help her run some errands, excited for a service opportunity Sister Parish and I jumped at it.

So we helped her from place to place the other day, and it was so interesting. She knew where she started and she knew her destination, she basically knew her way all the way there but she needed help just in case there were obstacles of any sort. And we were there for her through every obstacle, we warned her with every bump on the side walk, made sure that she got on every right marshootka, helped her up the stairs and down the stairs, everything. There were times that she thought she could do it  on her own, and sometimes she did, but often it ended in a plea for help. Sometimes, she was hesitant as we were crossing the street, hearing cars and every sort of distraction, not sure if she could really trust me, but as she did we safely crossed. After hours of walking and riding and climbing and stumbling we finally made it to our destination. Isn't this just like us in our life?

We know where we began our journey, we know where are destination is, but right now, on our path there, it is hard, or really, actually impossible to do on our own. Just as Tonya sometimes wanted to do her journey on her own I thought of times in my life that I thought I could do mine alone, but before long desperately reaching for the hand of the Savior to pull me out of a rut or lead me back into safety. How many times in my life feeling so insecure and unaware and alone, not trusting the help, I now know, I always had. The distractions of the loud busy world that sometimes used to scare me from following my leader and trusting in Him to get me safely home. What an eye opening experience this was for me to have. And I thought I couldn't love my Savior more! How grateful I am for the knowledge that I have that never through this crazy world am I alone! I am just like Tonya, I know my path but sometimes I am blinded, whether it be by the world, or by pride, or just because I'm human and I do stupid things, but I always have the perfect Savior who sees and knows everything and walks with me every step of the way, all I have to do is reach out to him and be willing to put all of my trust in him and I will reach my destination in safety.

Pretty cool huh? Heavenly Father's plan for us is so well thought out and so perfect. Never do we have to be worried about anything. Just put your trust in the Lord and everything will work out! Speaking of that... :)

So lately everything here has been pretty slow here, EVERYONE is on vacation and it is so hard to meet with anyone, so we spend a lot of our time walking around parks trying to talk to people or knocking on doors hoping someone's heart will be softened, but not seeing much success. This morning I poured out my whole heart to Heavenly Father, I just told Him how I know that He can do anything, and I feel like we are doing everything, like why isn't anything happening!? Before closing my prayer I thanked Him for all that I had but selfishly I asked Him for some sort of miracle to happen today.

We got out the door early today so Sister Parish could do some registration stuff in a different part of Kyiv. We hurried to the metro I had to make some phone calls so we set on a bench as we were waiting for the next metro and as I got out the phone to start calling a man came up to us, and politely said "Excuse me, are you mormons?" We quickly replied with "Yes!" He then continued to ask if we could by any chance tell him more about what we believed. Sister Parish and I astonished,  just looked at each other and said "We would love too!" He went on to tell us that he has heard a lot about our church and was ready to find out the truth. He quickly gave us his number and HE set up an appointment with US. Are you kidding me?! Like, when we put ALL of our trust in the Lord miracles happen! We meet with him and his family tomorrow night and I have never wished for my P-day to go faster! Please pray for us as we prepare to meet with him and his family and pray for them that they may be able to come closer to Christ through this experience.

I love you all so much! I know that Heavenly Father is so aware of us and He loves us sooooo much! Don't be scared to put all of your trust in the Savior, good things happen when you do, and honestly, life is a lot easier. :)

Choose the Right this week and be an example in all that you do! Help others see the light of Christ through you. :)

All of my love,
Your sister, Sister Lee

yay! my friends!!

shashleek p-day!!!

So for other service, we helped one of the elders' investigators do some recording stuff, so fun!

Missionary Pep Rally!

Hello my dears,

First and most importantly HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LOVELY SISTERS!!!!!! Tavi and Brooke! Wow, I love you two so much! Thank you for your support and love! You are the best and I hope you have the very greatest birthday celebration ever! Eat lots of cake! :)

Once again it feels like it was just yesterday that I was here emailing you! This week was pretty exciting so it flew by!

This week we got to do exchanges, and who did I have the opportunity to be companions with? The lovely Sister Roe who is from... yep you guessed it ST. GEORGE! Small world right?! It was so fun to be her companion for a day, though we didn't know each other before our missions we have a lot of mutual friends so it was funny as I would tell stories she would be like "I was that girl! That was me!" Or as she would talk about her friends I would be like "Wait, wait, wait, you know them?!" I don't know if I wrote about this story already or not but when I was in the MTC I was walking down the hall one night to dinner and I here a girl yelling "Sister Lee! Wow I've been looking all over for you! I followed your blog and I want to meet you!" Haha, this was Sister Roe. The pressure was on because she was Sister Parish's companion in the MTC and Sister Parish said that she always talked about my blog and how amazing it is (Thanks Bekah, you're the best!) so when she met me in real life I did not want to disappoint! We did have a fun time together, and it was cool to tell one of my blog followers in person how much I truly do love my mission. I realize I am not the best writer in the world and I try for you to feel my emotion for the love of my mission but I think by reading my emails you can't even begin to understand. So I will apologize months and months in advance for when I return home and talk your cute ears off about the best time of my life, my mission.. But anyways it was really a neat experience to serve with Sister Roe, sometimes I forget about St. George and it was nice to know that it still exists. ;) Right after our exchange Sister Parish and I headed up to Zone Conference, holy cow!
Remember how I was most school spirit in high school? Wow, I'm a loser.. anyways I feel as though I am most, Kyiv Ukraine Mission spirit, and our Zone Conference was literally like a Pep Rally! Like you thought I was pumped and excited about missionary work before.. you ain't seen nothing.

First of all I got to have an interview with President Klebingat this week. Incredible. How was I so blessed to get him as a President? I truly lucked out! He is amazing. In my interview he asked me how I was doing with training on my second transfer and everything. I told him how much I loved it and how grateful I have been to receive this blessing in my life. He replied with "Well Sister Lee, I'm glad you're loving it, because you're going to be doing a lot of it." I feel as though a huge majority of my mission I will spend training which I am so excited for because I know how big of a blessing it has been to me. Helping me with the language, with being bold, with befriending members really, training is incredible. It was so awesome to just be one on one with President and hear his words of wisdom. And to hear him say he was proud of me, was pretty neat too. I love President and at Zone Conference we were blessed to finally here his conversion story along with his sweet wife's as well. I could not get enough of it. They are awesome! I want you all to meet them and just be able to feel their spirit! Their passion for this work is inspiring and I know that through their guidance we will be able to see many people become members of Heavenly Father's Kingdom here. I so know that to be true. There are so many signs of something big happening here!

For part of Zone Conference President gave us a little visual aid. He held up a piece of paper with about 10 names on one side and about 50 names on the other. The side of the paper with 10 names on it were the names of missionaries going home from now until December the other side was missionaries coming here from now until December. By the end of this year there will be over 100 missionaries here in the Kyiv Ukraine Mission. As most of you know our mission was just split in July, there will now be more missionaries in just our mission then there was when the L'viv and Kyiv mission were together. The work is hastening. We had the pleasure of having the sweet senior missionaries at our Zone Conference with us, as President Klebingat was sharing these numbers with us one of the senior sisters told us of an experience she had the other day. She was talking to the third member that was baptized here in Kyiv about 20 years ago. He was the among the first of hundreds to get baptized in the matter of just  a year. As he was talking to this sweet sister he said "Twenty years ago there was a 'big wave' of baptisms, I remember how it felt twenty years ago, and it is starting to feel that way once again." Wowza! Isn't that exciting! President can't explain why or how we are getting so many missionaries to this mission, but I know that it is because something big is going to happen and goodness am I excited to be here to help it happen!

It is so exciting to think about all of the missionaries all around the world! One of my favorite times of the day is when I say my prayers at night and I pray for all of my friends out in the field and those preparing to serve. The list is long, but I try my best! I love it! It gives me so much strength when I receive emails from my friends all over the world, knowing that they are right there with me doing the Lord's work! So cool!

Well we are going to go have a щащлык party today so I gotta  go get ready for that!

Love you my favorite people!!!

All of My Love,
Your sister, Sister Lee

(don't forget the video at the bottom, just in case you forgot how stinking cute Sister Lee is, I doubt it though)

Four Month Mark!

Привет!

It is another completely beautiful day here in Kyiv! Wow I am so blessed to be here! The weather literally is perfect right now, I'm kinda dying being inside right now, haha, I want to get out there!

Well friends and family I hope this letter finds you all well. I hope that you have had the opportunity to notice your blessings in your life and really dwell on the happy things. Remember life is to be enjoyed not endured and let me tell you, that is the truth! I love life! I feel so bad for people that have to dwell on every bad thing that happens to them. Life is life, bad things will happen, but take the bad things that happen and let them help you realize how amazing the good things really are! Like, wow, we are so blessed to be living at such an amazing time with so much exciting stuff. Take advantage of all the opportunities you have and be happy while you do so! That was a random rant, I hope someone needed that. Haha. Anyways, I feel that I have failed to keep you truly updated on my mission experience here in my lovely Харьковский so I will do a little catching up now.

First and foremost I love my mission more and more everyday. The other day was my 4 month mark and I started freaking out because time is going by way too fast! There are so many times here where I just want to pause and live in the moment for a little while, like I love my life, it's the best! The weather like I said earlier has been perfect lately, so gorgeous. We were walking down the street the other day and I told Sister Parish that I just wanted to put this weather in a jar and send it home to you so you could all feel it. But seeing as that isn't very possible I'll just talk about it in my email and make you all terribly jealous. Sorry! And guess what I LOVE Russian! Okay I've always loved Russian but you know when I first got here and didn't understand anything it was hard for me to truly appreciate it. But now that I'm speaking and understanding, like wow I love Russian! I remember when I opened my call how excited I was and the second I read "in the Russian language" my heart dropped. I never thought I would learn it, but I am learning it and I'm not enduring the learning but enjoying it! Yes! :) Heavenly Father has blessed me time and time again while I've been here and I never fail to recognize His hand in the blessings that I have. One of these new blessings being Зоя (Her name is pronounced Zoy-ya)

Зоя is a new investigator that we have. We met her last week on the street and she was SO nice! After just a few minutes of talking to her she gave us her number and said "Please come over, let me feed you and we'll talk more." Like, what the? That doesn't happen here! I remember walking away thinking she seemed so familiar but didn't really think anything of it. During our meeting the other night I put two and two together. She is Lexi. Like literally I am teaching my sister Lexi right now! Everything about her is Lexi, from the clothes that she wears to the way she speaks, the music she listens to, the food she cooked us, her hospitality, her house, and how artistic she is. Like it's kind of freaky how похожий, exactly alike they are. Lexi you are here in Ukraine with me! I love it! It is such a blessing! And Зоя has been such a blessing since we haven't had many investigators for a while, she is exactly what we needed to keep our spirits high. :)

We are also teaching another lovely young lady who is INCREDIBLE! She has taking lessons before and was ready to be baptized but her mom was insistent that she get married before she is baptized so now 2 years later she is planning the wedding for the end of August with a baptism celebration not long after. :) For our first lesson with her I wanted to talk about the Book of Mormon and commit her to read it everyday as I introduced the lesson and what we were going to talk about she said "Can I just say something?" She then went on to bear one of the sweetest testimonies of the Book of Mormon I have ever heard. Needless to say Наташа gave the lesson that day, and I was beyond strengthened from it. She is amazing and I'm so grateful for the opportunity we have to meet with and learn from her! Because I guarentee I am learning more from her than she is learning from me.

Our sweet investigators are the light of my life. I LOVE THEM! Please keep them in your prayers. Please continue to pray for cute Sister Parish and I as well, we know it's your prayers that keep us going and we are SO grateful for them!

I love you all more than words can say! I wish I could just show you a day in the life of Sister Lee, so you could understand the truly wonderful, spiritual adventure I am having, but for now these weekly letters will just have to do. I hope you can sense my love for this work in the words that I say because I really do love it. Being a missionary is the best, I mean my job is to bear my testimony everyday, and invite people to come unto Christ. Does it get any better than that? NO WAY! Being in beautiful Kyiv having the opportunity to speak Russian is quite the plus too. Wow, I have the best life.

Well, we'll end on that note. I hope I didn't make you all too jealous ;)

All of my love,
Your sister, Sister Lee

(Sister Lee is sending me her pictures in a different way, so they don't have her awesome descriptions right now. I'm hoping that will change, until then just enjoy the pretty pictures and imagine her what her captions would say.)