Sister Carly Jessica Graff: October 2014

Monday, October 27, 2014

Luts'k- Week 13 (Well, Week 1 again) October 20, 2014

So I'm back in Luts'k with Sister Fitts like I said last week! And I must say it is strange to be back, and I don't know if I am able to explain how crazy this is. And I must say first off that Sister Fitts is amazing. So far we did some service, My second day here we went over to a recent convert Alla. She had moved to Luts'k from Khmel'nits'ky back when I was here last time. They've been remonting since then, so we went over and helped her scrape off all the layers of old wallpaper. so that they can put a new layer down. It was actually super fun. And then on Saturday night we went over to an investigator's house, Raisa, and while we were there she invited over some of her church friends, and we were able to meet with them all and answer their questions. It was so amazing, to see their countanances change over the course of the lesson, as their hearts softened and they then started to listen to the message that we had to share. such an amazing experience.

I love you all and hope that you have a fantastic week!

З Любовю

Сестра Граф

Pictures:

1. Me and Sister Fitts

2. It was dusty scraping

3. So...We got baba scarfs
4. yay
5. So...there was frost on the grass...winter is coming!
6. And...this is us trying to show you all our breath...behold our epic fail.

More Pictures- Rivne Week 17!

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6. This goes down to the crypts. =D (Don't worry we didn't go all the way down.)

7. More

8. This is where once stood a statue of Paul.

9. As you can tell, He's not there anymore =D

10. The church.
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12. ...

13. Me

14. Cool Fountain in the park next to where we live

15. This is me and one of our investigators, Antonina

Rivne- Week 17!-- October 13, 2014

Rivne- Week 17!

October 13, 2014

What an amazing week!

First off there was conference! Which I know that all of you back in America saw last week, but we were doing Mormon helping hands and got to see it in Ukrainian Saturday and Sunday, SO YAY! I still haven't seen in in English, but the Ukrainian was wonderful! Also it was even more good (Sorry for my grammar I blame it on the fact that I am in a foreign country right now. =) is the fact that Sergiy and Tatyana came to all of Saturday and then invited us over afterward! Which I must say is a miracle! 4 hours of spiritualness and then asking the missionaries to come over after! They are going to help to bless the Branch in Rivne and be strengthened in return! SO SO happy for them!

On a sadder note, Both Sister Barnes and I will be leaving Rivne, So we will have to let sister Bancer and Crane. But it's not all tears, because I will be going back to Luts'k! and I'll be serving with the fantastic Sister Fitts, who is from Los Vegas, Nevada So excited to go back, And the Super great thing is that the Sister Training Leaders and now going to be in Rivne, so I'll probably come back for exchanges! YAY!!!!

Have some things that we still need to do, so till next week!

З Любовю

Сестра Граф

Pictures:

1. Helping hands...sort of

2. We also went to this old abandoned Polish Church.
3. ...

Rivne- Week 16!-- October 6, 2014

Hey Everybody! Hope that you all had a great time watching General Conference! I still have not had the opportunity to see it yet, but this Saturday and Sunday we will get to see the broadcast in Ukrainian!

Anywho this week was great! I didn't get a chance to send a big email last week because we were running to go and catch a bus to Khmel'nits'ky for Exchanges with the sister's there. It was very fun and a few more exchanges that expected. The first day I was with Sister Tsimbal again and it was great to fall back into our companionship again. (For those of you who may have forgotten, she was my little Ukrainian from back in Luts'k.) And I must say that it was simply wonderful! Just being able to be there with her again! We had a lesson planned but then it fell through. However in Khmelnitsky they have Young Women's! So since the sisters there are the YW President and counselor we planned Mutual. Super fun time and the girls brought there friends too! Honestly an awesome time! Then the next day the Sister Training Leaders had to go to L'viv with the District Leader Trio, and since President Didn't want the other sisters to be alone in Khmelnitsky alone we stayed and did exchanges with them as well. It was great, First i was with Sister Wind, who was also my companion for 3 days in Luts'k before sister Tsimbal came. That was great! There was this one member that we went and visited and it was a wonderful thought from the Liahona and she loved it! in the middle of the lesson though we got a call from President Magayga The Khmelnistky branch president Telling us that we had to be at the church in 30 minuets! So we quick called the sisters and all met up at the church and got there in time for some people to come and do some sort of Remont stuff. Then we got a call from The visa clerk Lubamere because sister Henrichsen had to go and get registered. She had been with sister Barnes And had a meeting set up with one of the people that Sister Barnes had taught a year ago when she served in Khmelnitsky, so...in order for them to still be able to have that meeting we pulled a quick switcharoo and I ended up wit sister Henrichsen (another former companion from Luts'k) and sister Barnes and Wind set off. We were at this point still waiting on the Remont people and when they finally finished we got another call from Lubamere telling us that it was too late and that she would have to do her registration the next day. So...this left us with something of a dilemma because our former plans had fallen through, so we were messing around with the piano truing to figure out what to do, when what do you know Some guy wanders in and asked where the free English practice was. We told him that it was the next day. As he was leaving He picked up a Book of Mormon and said, "Can I have this" Our answer, "Um...yeah if you want, we have lots," Him "For free?" us "Yeah" then he left. Probably should have given more of an introduction, but we were more amazed at the fact that he had found his way to the Church! For those of you who don't know The church is renting in a football stadium on the second floor, and in order to get to the entrance you have to go through these doors, see picture below, and then you are given the option of going up or down the stairs. Go up because if you go down you will find yourself, well...not in the church, to be blunt it would be the Tarrentino Bar, Lets just say they are looking for a new location. Anywho needless to say I was surprised that he found the church in the first place. and we were able to get his number to pass along to the elders, so that's good.

Then we finally got back to Rivne on Friday in the afternoon, and things are going great! Last week we met this family that helped us when we were trying to find this one address. They were very nice and invited us over when we got back. So Yesterday night we went over to find their place but got lost, so we called them to ask for help in finding them. They were so glad that we called, they were even afraid that we weren't coming because we had gotten lost and were running late. They were able to help us get unlost and we had a wonderful meeting! and they Want to meet again and learn more about the church! This is such an amazing miracle that we were able to see. I am grateful that the Lord has trusted us enough to let us help them!

I love you all to Ukraine and Back again!

З Любовю

Сестра Граф

Pictures:

1. Me and sister Tsimbal in front of the door in Khmelnistky

2. ME Sister Henrichsen and Wind

3. More sweeping for Mormon helping hands

Rivne- Week 14!

So this was a great week We had a great mission conference with Elder Klebingat of the first quorum of the Seventy! Super amazing! In actuality he called us all to Repentance, or to change and become more like our savior Jesus Christ. Honestly it was amazing I feel that sometimes when we hear the word 'repent' we feel like we did some horrible mistake, and need to go through this long process of bad feelings. But that is not the case at all! in fact Repentance can, if we allow it to, take place immediately! I wish we would always remember how happy of a thing repentance is. Preach My Gospel says:"Bringing our lives in line with God’s will through repentance is a central purpose of our lives. We can return to live with God the Father only through Christ’s mercy, and we receive Christ’s mercy only on condition of repentance." So amazing! And I am honestly just still thinking about all that he said. So this may be shorter. Also after the conference he was only able to have a few interviews and I was able to be one of them! Such an amazing experience! And what's also super great and amazing is that Saturday Afternoon He will be speaking in General Conference! So...Watch it!

I love you all!

З Любовю

Сестра Граф

Rivne Week 13!-- September 15, 2014

Rivne-- Week 13!

September 15, 2014

So another week has come and now gone.

Sometime I just wonder where all of the time goes. But that's life. We had a busy week We are working with this one adorable Babusya and she is accepting things well. We invited her to be baptised and she's not pro-ty but she wants to make sure that She understands everything, because she realizes how big of a step Baptism is. I know that the Lord is helping both her and us. It has been somewhat hard to understand her, since she speaks Russian, but honestly not as hard as I once thought Also it helps when the members are there to help. There is another girl that we are working with who also praying to know if baptism is the step that she needs to take at this point in her life. These are people that understand the role that baptism can play in affecting the rest of their life. The Lord knows each of us as individuals and he knows when we are ready to accept his teachings. And Only he knows when we have properly prepared the soil for planting this seed of our faith.

I love you all!

Сестра Граф

Pictures:

1. This is from Running the other day.

2. This is Inessa and her Russian speaking Parakeet Ke$ha
3. ...

Rivne- Week 12! -- September 8, 2014

So I hope that you all had a fun filled week!

I know that we did and it was filled with service! From which my body is still acing, but if that's the only price to be payed I'd do it any day! We were able to help out at this one Museum and Rake up all the leaves that have been falling, and by rake I mean sweep as in with a broom, but not just any kind of broom, the ones that can only be found in Ukraine or in witches houses. Super fun and not something that one does everyday. Afterwards they even gave us a small tour. And it was very fun to actually know what they were telling us about, even though it was all in 'Museam Ukrainian' Then the next day we went out into the selo to the Didushok's Datcha and harvested Potato's. I can now almost do a Bab squat! After doing it for many hours Yay!Such a surreal experience They do everything the old fashioned way Using a team of horses to help turn up the potato's. So amazing, and also funny because some of the tools that they were using we saw the day before in the Museum. Crazy! Well I love you all and hope you have a service filled week.

З Любовю

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Pictures:

1. This is a rake?
2. ...
3. ...

4. Potatoing
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6. ...

10. Potatos!
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13. ...

14. Going to take in the haul
15. This is the second time that it came back like that

16. Examples of what we saw in the museum

17. More

Rivne-- Week 11- September 1, 2014

Guess What!!! I get to stay in Rivne another transfer with Sister Barnes!!!!!

So I an to say the least super excited! Also this last week was amazing! We had exchanges with our sister training Leaders Sister Jardine and Tsymbal, and it was a great at first I was worried what we would do because we don't have many investigators right now, but somehow Tuesday we were able to get many appointments and things that we needed to do and it was a miracle that we had the other sisters there to help, because if they weren't there we would not have been able to do everything. We even were able to meet with one woman from the area book and she became a new investigator! Then the next day we switched and Sister Jardine and I ended up working on our Area book re organising it and through our efforts therein we were able to reach out to multiple people and have set up appointments for every day this next week. I know that we would not have been able to do this without the divine help of the Lord's hand. I know that he is there and that he listens to us. We are his sons and daughters. And he knows each of us individually. He wants us to develop a personal one on one relationship with him. He knows how to help us best. And he knows what trials to give us so that we will come out for the better. He wants to help us and he will if we will but turn to him.

I hope you all have a fantastic week!

З Любовю

Сестра Граф

Rivne- Week 9 -- August 18

August 18, 2014

Hey Everyone!

So we're finlay back in Rivne after a week in Armenia and then L'viv while Sister Barns' went to Armenia to get her Visa. We both kept Asking ourselves how that all worked out, sending us on our visa trips a week apart. Still can't figure it all out. Anywho we are here until Wednesday when we get to take another Train back to L'viv to have Mission Conference! on the 21st which is also my Year mark in country! Crazy! Then we'll come back to Rivne again on the 22nd and have time to get ready for the 24th of August! (For those of you that don't know that is Ukrainian Independence day)

З День Незалежності! (Z Den' Ne-za-lezh-nos-ty!)

СЛАВА УКРАЇНА (SLA-VA U-KRAY-INA)

You should all get out your traditional Ukrainian Getup and wear it, or if you don't have that just wear a combination of blue and yellow.(Preferably with the yellow on bottom and the blue on top) I'll show you all the traditional Ukrainian clothing next week in pictures.

Last week was super fun and crazy. I was back in L'viv again and it was super cool. Hard to be away from your own area for so long, but things turned out great. I was temporary companions with Sister Radjavaba and Sister Banja and Sister Garrett, Super fun. Since we weren't in our own areas we did alot of English contacting and and trying to talk with people. Along the way it always amazes me how every time I'm back in L'viv I see something new.

I love you all so much!

З Любовю

Сестра Гарф

Pictures:

1. Ukraine

2. Ballerinas

3. Never would have thought I'd see that!