Hey All!
I hope that you all had a Merry Christmas and that you will have a Happy New Year! Well...like I told the fam in the Skype Call I had on Christmas I just got TRANSFERED to  ІВАНО-ФРАНКІВСЬК(Ivano-Frankivs'k) My new Companion is Sister Lewis, and she is great! We are with Sister Barns right now while Sister Olds is coming back from Bulgaria, and we are both so happy that she is with us, because Sister Lewis and I are White-Washing here in Ivano.

It was so crazy with transfers, because most of us were going to our cities by bus. So instead of the 2 hour train ride we took a 3 hour bus ride. Super fun. By the time that we got to our house after it all, we made calls to people to invite them to the Ivano branch's Christmas party the next day.

At the Christmas Party the youth acted out the Ukrainian version of the Christmas Story. It was super funny and well...elaborate. Mostly because in addition to: Mary, Joseph, Jesus, Angles,The Shepards, and the Wise men; it also includes: Evil King Herod, Death, and the Devil. The story starts out like ours, but after the wise men present their gifts to Christ, King Herod comes in (I think to order the death of all the children it was all in Ukrainian and I didn't catch all of what he said), but then the Angel calls for Death who then with the devil kills and then drags the Dead King Herod off the stage and presumably down to ........ well it's a VERY dramatic telling of the story. (I have to say I'm kind of partial to ours although this one is super fun to act out)

Also before transfers When L'viv had its Christmas party they acted out one of their short movies that they watch every year.(Like us watching Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and Santa Clause is Coming to Town.) It was a strange combination of 'The Grinch,' 'Little Red Riding Hood,' and something else, I don't know what. Here's the story:

Once upon a time...
Santa was in his workshop doing Christmas related things. When in comes a crow that lures him out of the workshop while the crows friend, a Wolf, steals all of the Christmas toys and treats and the Wolf gets dressed up like Santa. They then steal Santa's Sleigh/Car? which is driven by a snowman. The snowman has no idea who the are so they dismantle him. Meanwhile there is a family of bunnies living nearby. The Mother and Father Bunny go out for some reason but tell their two little bunnies not to open the door for anyone. Santa Wolf comes along and knocks on the door and says that it's Santa! The little bunny says that Mom and Dad said not to let anyone in, but the slightly older, but still little Bunny says "BUT IT'S SANTA!" and lets him in. The littler bunny then goes through something like you would hear in Little Red Riding Hood, "What big Ears, nose, teeth you have..."(You get the picture) The Wolf then tries to get the littler Bunny, but she is too fast and instead he gets the slightly older, but still little Bunny and he runs away with her. When Mom and Dad Bunny get home they are very sad that their  Slightly older, but still little Bunny had been Bunny napped. Then the Real Santa comes and they all set off to save the  Slightly older, but still little Bunny. On the way they find Santa's Sleigh/Car and the poor dismantled snowman. They put him back together(after the little bunny has a small snack off of his nose. They the find the Wolf and he gives back all of the presents, and the slightly older, but still little Bunny. And they all lived Happily Ever After.
The End.

I'm so excited to be here in Ivano and to simply go forth and share this great message that we have with the people here. I love you all so much and hope that the rest of this year and the next will be great for all of you.

До Побачення
Сесра Граф