12-14 - Happy to be a normal missionary again

Life is good in Ukraine. I got Elder Clarkstone back from Germany, which is awesome, I finally feel like a normal missionary again. It's just awesome being back in our area again and working it; we have a full week set up already. But I never realized how crappy Ukraine is until Elder Clarkstone told me about Germany and the mission there. It sounds like a magical place of happiness and joy. We don't have any Christmas stuff up yet hardly, except for some trees they set up by big stores and in center. But it doesn't really feel like Christmas at all, so I guess it's our job to change that and start spreading some of that good old Christmas cheer. We are still trying to meet with those contacts, it's just hard for them to find free time. But we have a 'new' investigator, Zhenya, who actually has been the other elder's investigator but the new one from Russia kind of offended her, and she likes us a lot so we're taking her to Sister Veeta, who's in our area. But all is great here. Elder Clarkstone is a genius and brought back everything that I would want him to bring back from Germany. He brought back tons of AMAZING German chocolate, some German cereal (including their version of cinnamon toast crunch) and some German McKormick stuff. And he got their famous Adventskalendar things, where it's a calendar with a piece of chocolate for each day of December leading up to Christmas, so it's starting to feel a little more Christmassy here. This week we are having the Christmas celebration for Harkov and the north half of the mission. Pres and Sis Fry are coming up on Wednesday with all of our packages, and that night there is a dinner and a Christmas fireside. That's our 'Christmas Eve' then the next day is our 'Christmas Day.' We are all playing games in the morning then all going to an orphanage for the whole day to do service and games with the kids, so that will be fun. My year mark is also on Thursday when we're having our Christmas day celebration, so that works out nicely. I can't believe my year mark is already here, fastest year of my life. But at the same time, it feels like I have been in Ukraine for . . . well, forever.