August 3 2009-Eating radioactive cucumbers

Anyways, life is still great in Alekseevka. Alla is still amazing and she and Vladic will get baptized on the 15th. She's so ready, she could've been baptized yesterday, but it's a lot better for them to do it together. And I guess Vladic's mom lives here too, just not with them, which is weird, but we hope to start teaching her too. Also this 20 year old member here had us start teaching his sister (we think they are twins). She's just a nice, quiet girl, and there's nothing stopping her from joining the church. She just needs to gain a testimony and her brother is a great help and influence in doing that. He wants her to get baptized so badly, ha, he's a great brother.

Urie and his family, still want us to come back but his wife is starting to seem more interested and ready than he is. He's really been studying the Catholic church and is on that probationary time thing where if he is a good member for a certain amount of time, then he can join. They are such a great family. We are just doing everything we can to connect with them. I would do anything to find out what they need or how we can get them to see that this is the path for them. We watched that Together Forever video this week and we feel like it would be good for them to watch as a family. They are just so perfect for the church, I don't know what I'd do if they reject us. It would be hard. But that's not going to happen, they're ready this time around and we're going to stay with them. Last time we gave them a commitment to read the Book of Mormon a little and pray together each night as a family and see how it affects their family. I hope they're doing it.

As for Dad's question and if we eat good food. Yes, we do. I love most all the food that people have fed us here. Our area of Alekseevka gets fed more than any other area in the mission, so it's amazing. Except Monday, I ate the nastiest thing I have yet to eat in Ukraine. And you'll never guess what it was. . . . it was just a big, unpeeled, radioactive cucumber. I don't know, but the skin was just unbelievably disgusting, no matter how much salt I put on it, it couldn't overpower that taste. You're probably thinking, "Oh, it was just a cucumber, it couldn't have been THAT bad." IT WAS. It was awful. I'd probably drink Cameron's "Guaranteed-diarrhea Chilean Mormon Coffee" that we had down there before one of those. It was difficult to eat. They have tons of fruits and vegetables here too that are so good. And right now, there are watermelon and cantaloupe stands on every corner. So life's great. It sounds like you are all still doing great. And I was just informed that we flew into Ukraine 5 months ago. Ha, fastest 5 months of my life, but at the same time it feels like I've been here forever.