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.)

....to be a pioneer!

Howdy,

happy Monday from Kyiv! :)

All of my sweet supporters whom I love and adore so much! Thank you for your prayers and kind thoughts for me, I know that they are such a strength to me in this work and I don't think I could ever begin to explain truly how much they mean to me.

 I wanted to use this letter to talk about some people I am so beyond grateful for. Our sweet pioneers!

What a wonderful opportunity we have this week to have a day where we can just stop, take our time, and really think about what the pioneers did. I must admit I never have really taken advantage of this day in the past, just another holiday with an excuse to have a barbeque and pool party was really all it was to me. Of course I was grateful for the pioneers but I didn't realize how grateful I was until this past week. In this months Liahona there are plenty of stories of pioneers and I have so enjoyed reading them! After each story I would just sit at my study desk and ponder about them. All of them; the mothers carrying babies in their arms, the fathers driving the ox, the little girls with their hair in long braids walking alongside the wagon, the boys trudging along with the other children waiting for their turn to ride in the wagon. I would think of them and the comfort of the beautiful houses that so many of them had to leave. I would think of them and all of the many hardships they had to over come. From being mocked and rejected and driven away from so many things that they worked so hard for. Their beautiful temple that they slaved over for so long! I cannot even imagine. And then their trek, their long hard trek across the United States. A journey, that most of us would complain if we were driving. And they walked! Wow the pioneers are truly inspiring. As I was thinking about these wonderful people and all they went through I found myself thinking "Why did they do it?" I mean it would have been so easy for them to forget about the church and just stay in their nice homes. Their lives wouldn't have been risked, they wouldn't have lost all of their possessions and they could have continued on in every day life, with maybe not really a care in the world. Why did the pioneers do it? As I was mulling this over in my head. The thought came to my mind "Why are you in Ukraine? Why did you leave your family? Why did you leave the comfort of your home, to go to a land so far away?" Please do not get me wrong, in no way am I trying to compare myself to the pioneers. And I love my mission it is and will be the best decision I have ever made in my life. But the answer is still the same. It is because I know that this church is true. 

Just as they did.

Just as they knew that they had a living Prophet on the earth that led and guided the church. I know that to be true today. I know that our Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson is called of God. I know that he receives revelation for this, Christ's church. They had such a sure knowledge of that, that when the prophet asked them to go, they did, just as I hope I would. Just as they knew that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, just as the Bible. I know that too. Nothing that anyone will do or say, could ever shake my testimony of that. They knew that God is our loving Heavenly Father, who truly wants the best for us. Oh boy do I know that. He loves us so much, He continually is preparing a way for us to return back to Him, how grateful I am for that. And how excited I am for the day that I will be reunited with my Father in Heaven once again! Just as they knew that they had a Savior, Jesus Christ who performed the atonement for them, and then has humbly asked that they follow Him. I know that to be true! Jesus Christ is our Redeemer and oh how He wants us to be happy. He gave his life in order for us to do so. Just as they knew that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His son Jesus Christ. They knew that through Joseph Smith they, our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, restored their church on the earth. I know that to be true. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's true church on the earth. Never could I deny that. And the pioneers couldn't deny it either. Their testimony was their drive. Just as my testimony is my drive here. And I hope that you all use your testimony in every day lives.

Life is not easy, use your testimony to help you through. Through every trial, hard time, or just stinky day, use your testimony. Keep the eternal perceptive and think of all you have to live for!

How grateful I am for the pioneers and all that they did, so I could be here today and preach the gospel to my brothers and sisters here in Ukraine. I am so grateful for their example of hard work and diligence, their example of truly sticking to what you believe in, and their example of faith and trust in the Lord. They knew that as they would trust in the Lord everything else would fall into place. I encourage all of you to have this faith in the Lord. Just like one of my favorite primary song says "You don't have to push a handcart, Leave your family dear. Or walk a thousand miles or more, to be a pioneer!" But again just as the song says "You do need to have great courage, faith to conquer fear. And work with a might for a cause that's right to be a pioneer!" I'm not asking you to test your faith by picking up and leaving everything you own to go across the country, just to see how the pioneers felt, or to strengthen your testimony. But think of a trial of a hardship that you have in your life. Use the knowledge that you have to help in this trial and I promise you that your testimony will grow.

I encourage you all to truly think about the pioneers this Wednesday. Be grateful for all they did! I know I am! Think of modern day pioneers too, boy are they incredible! Let's all try to be pioneers one way or another, this week, and the rest of our lives!

I love you all so much. You all are the best! Truly! Thank you for the examples all of you have been to me.

Remember to see the good in life, be happy, smile, laugh, do all that great stuff, because we truly are blessed!

Пока пока!!

All of my love,
Your sister, Sister Lee

does anyone remember this show??

My life be like ooooh ahhhh ooooh :)

Transfer #2 Woooohoooo!

To whom it may concern,

It was so hard to say goodbye to my sweet Sister Wease this week. 

When I first met her I never thought that we would have became as good of friends as we did. But now I do consider her as one of my very best friends. I know that she was an answer to many of my prayers, and how grateful I am that she chose to extend her mission. And I had the opportunity to spend her last transfer with her. I do believe that I had the best trainer in the world and I know for the rest of my mission I will be saying "One time Sister Wease and I.." or "Sister Wease used to do this..." or "Sister Wease said that..." I already find myself doing it plenty of times a day. I was very lucky to learn from sweet Sister Wease all that I did. I remember one of the very first things she said to me was "By the end of this transfer you are going to be ready to train." At the time it was such a funny joke! But now..

I miss my best friend!

Well, it's happening, this sister is training and let me just say man, am I grateful that I love humbling experiences! Because I do believe that I am having probably the most humbling experience I will ever have in my life. Training is the hardest thing that I have ever had to do. I have this new missionary, fresh out of the MTC ready to start her mission off perfectly and it's up to me, to make sure that she is not let down! It is up to me to make all the phone calls, set up all the appointments, lead the area, all in RUSSIAN and boy is it scary! But training is such an exciting adventure, I know that it is
preparing me for things that will help me not only throughout the rest of my mission but also through out the rest of my life. So I really am trying to take complete advantage of this opportunity and learn all that I can from it!

Sister Parish and I ready to start our new adventure!

I love that I have this opportunity to be so completely vulnerable.
Where I truly have to rely on the Lord completely 100%. I have seen
that as I do this I am blessed. I am blessed with a sense of peace and understanding. I can understand people that I never have before, and I am speaking much better than I was even just last week. I know that the Lord is giving me strength and power to do these things because this is His work and it must go on. He will not let the fact that I have only been in the country for a few weeks slow His work. I know that His work is hastening. Oh how I have such a powerful testimony of that! There is no way that I would be able to do the things that I am doing but through Him. I know that to be true.
I was blessed with a wonderful companion again! Sister Parish is such a sweet girl who has been so patient and understanding of my faults and shortcomings. I have made many mistakes already in just the few days that we have been together but she has been so sweet about everything. She has a great attitude of "Wow this is such an adventure!" Everyday she says that! Haha I love it! She wants to work hard and really be the best missionary she can be, you know I love that! I was so scared I would get a lazy companion, but she's great!

Friends and family at the end of this letter I would like to bear a short testimony of the atonement. I know that Jesus Christ is our
Savior and I know that he atoned for us. I have such a real sweet testimony of that. How grateful I am for the experiences I have had on my mission to help me gain that. I feel as though I am always apologizing to him and Heavenly Father for messing up. I mess up a lot out here, whether it be I say something completely wrong, or maybe I chicken out and don't say anything at all, I mess up a lot. But how grateful I am for the atonement and the knowledge that I have of it. I don't have to keep my mistakes! They have already been paid for, all I have to do is give them up to the Lord! How wonderful is this knowledge! I know that I would not be able to do this work without this knowledge. Every time I mess up as quickly as I can I repent and continue on with my day and it makes missionary work so much easier!

Heavenly Father loves us so much that He sent His son Jesus Christ to atone for our sins and our mistakes! USE THE ATONEMENT! Your testimony of our Savior and the love of our Heavenly Father will magnify beyond compare. Use this beautiful gift that we are so blessed to have!

I love you all so very much. Thank you again for the support and
prayers and letters and everything!

The church is true I know it! If you don't know that yet, please ask! Heavenly Father will let you know! I promise!

All of my love,
Your sister, Sister Lee

Okay so we had this portrait done like my second week here.. haha so
funny! It looks nothing like us! does it??

My beautiful Kyiv temple! It was so good to be around it for a few days!