June 22

Well, 

Good Morning...or afternoon!  Mornings are always better; you still have the whole day ahead with numberless things to do.  It's the afternoon that begins to get rushed and hurried and well...I love mornings.  Especially today.  There was a nice humid dense air and a fog over the city.  It's cooled down again, and I'm grateful.  I am not ready for summer.  It was extremely hot here these past two weeks.  However, the Lord has blessed us!  Well, This week was crazy busy.  Are all weeks crazy busy?  This week we planned a reach out night with the members of the church on Friday and Saturday.  So, we had to plan a bunch of lessons and get some enthusiasm!  We did it Friday with one branch and Saturday with the other.  We also had Sister Howell and her companion (Sister Vesottska) with us.  They came up Friday night.  We had a fun busy exchange.  I gave a talk on Sunday and then translated for Sister Steinegel....but...I made a pretty laughable mistake.  Well, I'll tell you the story that I poorly translated.

The temple workers laid down the sod this past week!  It was all beautiful and green.  Well, sod is special.  It isn't rooted down and gets dry.  It doesn't have the support from the root systems to live.  So, without rain and hot temperatures, it is necessary to keep the grass moist,  saturated - even soaked.  However, in Kiev for a few days with scorching hot temperatures and no rain, they were beginning to worry about the sod.  On Sunday, members of the church saw people working on the temple and called Sister Steinegel to inquire.  (The Sabbath day is a holy day).  Well, she called her husband who texted the temple architect. (He is an amazing man.) However, he was in Boston. (His son was graduating from Harvard.).  He texted back that it was probably something to do with the temple sod and probably an emergency.  So, the members decided to pray and even fast.  Well, it wasn't but a few hours that Kiev was soaked in a down pour.  The men were no longer required.  The Lord will take care of His house, and, of course, He always answers prayers!

Well, It was a beautiful story, and even in English I cannot tell it like Sister Steinagel.  However, I did not know the word for sod...So I just used the word for grass....however...the word for grass is trava...and the month of May is called grass in a special form....traven....and I'm pretty sure I said that they were laying May and planting May.  Pretty miraculous indeed.

Oh, well...as you can see I still have a whole mountain to climb in learning a language.
and miles to climb in learning how to be an effective missionary.

Other interesting stories.  We bought cherries!  and strawberries!  Yummy.  We bought the cherries for dinner at church one night this last week and went to church to rinse them off and chow down.  One of the members came in, and we offered to share!  He happily excepted our invitation.  However, during our conversation and our satisfying snack of cherries, he offered to tell us something that he was sure we never knew.  We were curious.  He cut a cherry in half and popped out the seed uncovering a small tiny little worm.  He then informed us that in Ukraine they don't use pesticides, and in every little cherry, we would find a nice little friend.  We began the inspection...and sure enough...well...needless to say our dinner had a tragic turn of events.

Love it!

Well, October...I still have one more chance...I'm not giving up.  I'm going to make sure in my next interview with President...so...then we'll no for sure!

So, L'viv!  It's beautiful and lot of work to do.  This last week we met some elect people!  I'm excited for this week!  We are planning on teaching boldly and I hope I am ready!

Well, I love you both!

I think you are wonderful!

I love you tons!

How far is Kansas City?

The temple will be dedicated in August! It is soon and the Lord has told us that there are 50 people who He wants us to find (as a mission) to baptize before then!  Wouldn't that be an amazing time to be baptized!  President Monson is officially coming too!  I'm excited!  How miraculous!

There is a temple past the Iron Curtain.  It only fell 20 years ago.  The Lord has many blessings for these people.  You know another miracle -  to build a temple there needs to be a lot of members....well....Ukraine doesn't even have half of the required quota...but they are getting a temple!  Blessed!


Well, I don't have much time...but I wanted to tell you what I studied today.

It was Mosiah 23 vs. 17.  It about Alma and they are afraid, and then Alma tells them to remember the Lord.  Isn't that amazing.  We covenant to remember the Lord always when are baptized and every Sunday when we partake of the Sacrament again!  What a blessing.  When we remember the Lord we receive more power - more faith - and He can deliver us from our enemies and problems - spiritual and physical!
Well, I love you!

Love Sister Murphy