Happy Halloween!

Ending such an awesome vacation was pretty sad. But at least we got to come back to our cute kids on Halloween! I promise some European adventure posts are coming soon. But for now enjoy our Halloween attire! Don't judge my last minute hippie costume please.

The kids watching Donald Duck in "Trick or Treat." Made me a little homesick!

Don't eat Pete! Can't miss out on that Halloween tradition.

Look at all the cute costumes! The little ones missed the memo....but the rest looked awesome!

Illia definitely took the best costume award. Spider, skeleton, and dracula all in one!

Marina was a witch

What a stud!

Genia was supposed to be a pumpkin....oops I thought she was a ballerina!

I am glad we got to create our own little Halloween in the classroom since they don't have it here. Happy Halloween! Enjoy it for me please!

U is for Ukulele

In the basic reading class, we work on one letter a day. We sing songs, do writing, and coloring. Then I have a "surprise" activity that starts with the letter. Today was U day which meant....my ukulele! It is the first time I brought it to school because I've been worried about it dying in the metro on our morning route here. The kids weren't happy with just me playing so they insisted they learned. They took turns sitting on my lap and strumming while I did the chords and sang along. It was adorable, I must say.

Illia

Marina was upset because she wanted chocolate

Genia

We made family pictures in frames with our kids last week and with the afternoon kids when we subbed. We finally hung them up today. Aren't they cute?!

Here is my own family!

Katya's is my favorite. Her dad is a really big guy and he always comes in wreaking like smoke with a little bit of alcohol. To be honest, he kind of scares me, and I don't understand how she came from him. But anyways....this is her family. Look how she drew her dad! Haha so classic.

Also...Ecuador is all over the place here.

Did I mention I'm leaving tomorrow for an 8 day vacation?! Budapest, Hungary. Vienna, Austria. Dresden, Germany. Prague, Czech Republic. I am ecstatic!! Now off to packing.

A Ukrainian Life for Me

Here is my life the past week, not in any particular order.

Me and the basic reading kiddos

These are the contents of our singing time bag. Can you figure out what pictures are for what children's songs? Kalley and I made them and we are pretty proud.

For the letter P day I surprised the kids with popcorn. They were a lot more excited about it in real life, like the tackling me and kissing me on the cheeks screaming kind of excited.

We've basically had the best luck finding awesome people here. We met a lady named Victoria on the metro once. She teaches English and was really excited about meeting Americans. She invited us to lunch last Saturday. We went to an Italian/Japanese Restaurant called Mafia. Very interesting....but really good! And she was so great. We loved our lunch date and were especially excited about the balloons she insisted we took home. A heart shaped balloon with "Mafia" written on it. Lovely!

So there is this awesome statue here in Ukraine called "Big Mama." At least, that's what we tourists call it, I'm not sure what the Ukrainian name is. We've been wanting to go see her this whole time and we finally went on Saturday! Our coordinator said that once an American said "There are two pretty things about Big Mama. She's pretty big and she's pretty ugly." Sad, but kind of true. It was awesome though! There is a WWII museum underneath the statue. It was the first museum I've been to with absolutely no English translations. Luckily, our coordinator explained things and I learned a lot. It was a good day!

Our branch is pretty much the best thing ever. On Sunday night we met in a Sister's home to watch the General Relief Society Meeting we missed a few weeks earlier. It was good food, good company, and GOOD inspiration. Seriously, I don't care who you are, if you haven't heard President Uchtdorf's talk, you need to read it now. It was so incredible. The whole night was needed.

Awkard family photo(but look at that beautiful apartment we are in. That is how you know it is embassy housing, not Ukrainian).

Here is a crappy picture, but it's the only one I have with my ukulele. I was playing it while we were waiting for someone at the metro station and a guy came up and stuck his hat out. He was trying to tell us to put a hat out for money. Too bad we can't take it here, because I think we could actually make some, just because we are foreigners. And making money again would be sweet. Oh well. But I still love my ukulele. And I think I've named her, but now is not the time to announce it.

to grow a foot or two

I like to write letters. I like to write letters through Dear Elder. And Dear Elder likes to write letters to me, or just emails with advertisements. This is one I just received....

Oh thanks for the genius idea! Good thing I'm one step ahead and already here! Haha it just made me laugh. And it also made me laugh because they said "to grow a foot or two." But then I was thinking about it just now. And I thought about if I was little Sarah again back in Primary. We sang that line and at that point, all I could comprehend was the literal meaning of growing a foot or two. No one in that little room could go on a mission until we were taller, duh. But let's pretend it was possible for me to understand it from a spiritual perspective at that time. And let's say someone told me at that time that I would have the chance to go to Ukraine to grow a foot or two. Would I be singing "I hope they call me to Ukraine!" I sure hope so.....because Ukraine is helping me grow a foot or two, as cheesy as it may seem.

Time has slowed down here. The first month flew by. This past week has been the longest yet. I'm positive Friday should have been here 3 days ago. I've spent ALL day at my school this week because of a sick teacher I've subbed for in the afternoons. The directors from Provo came for their visit and evaluations. Luckily it went well. Each day has been filled with scissors, pom poms, screaming children, broken crayons, "English Only! No Russian!", kisses on the cheeks, glue on your hands, and kids hiding under tables crying. I always get home at night finding tokens in my pockets and marker on my shirt. It has been busy and slow. The two usually don't go together, but they are now.

But in these slow moments I have a lot of time to think and contemplate. I've been here 6 weeks, maybe that is not a lot. But it seems like forever. I look back and see how many things I've already learned. And how much more there is to learn. I want to soak in every experience. I want it to become a part of me. A part that will never leave. That will strengthen my testimony, help me become who I want to be, and guide me through an uncertain future with faith.

We had conference this last weekend, a week late. It was definitely a highlight of this adventure. We watched it at church with our branch and the missionaries. It was such a wonderful experience. In between we shared lunch at the building next door where the temple missionaries live. Where they had drinking fountains! Yes, real live drinking fountains! With drinkable water! Cold water! That is something I've missed, drinking fountains. The weekend only got better. I got to do baptisms after conference on Saturday. I slept over at Laria's Saturday night. We had crazy little miracles Sunday morning getting to church that perhaps someday I will blog about. Perhaps. And I got a calling on Sunday in my branch. I am second counselor in the Primary Presidency and I'm so excited about it. I got to skype my family. All of this, AND hearing wonderful messages from the prophet and apostles. There is so much to say, but none of it can really be said. It was just wonderful. A weekend full of truth, light, and happiness.

Life is good. It is always good if we look for it. Good is always there. Great is always there. God is always there. We just have to be willing to seek Him, to seek His goodness. We will find it. I am finding it. It is love, joy, and peace. It is real.

Laundry

Guess who finally did their laundry for the first time here? ME! And just one load. I was finally out of underwear and I've been recylcing 3 pairs of socks for the past week. I figured it was time. But one whole month without laundry, I would say that is skill! Others may call it disgusting. But hey, I'm just fitting it with Ukrainians right? Plus I'm pretty positive my clothes got dirtier from washing them. The cats like to take naps inside the washing machine. That means the cat hairs already chilling on my clothes get to be reunited with their old neighbors. Family reunion for cat hairs via Sarah's "clean" clothes....perfect! But I'll admit the clothes at least smell like clean laundry, even if they don't look the part. So I'm grateful for that. And I'm even more grateful for dryers back home in the states. They are non-existent over here. I never knew how stiff clothes get from hang drying. So next time you are annoyed because you are doing laundry just be grateful you have a dryer and you aren't hanging your undies up for everyone to see! And if you don't have a dryer....I don't know what to tell you. Email me and we can complain together.

p.s. Dear Mom: I think this would be a great time for me to THANK YOU for all the years you have spent doing countless loads of laundry for our family. Especially when I would be demanding and say "I need this clean by tonight!" Also thank you for being allergic to cats so we don't have to own any. But seriously, thanks for all the laundry you've done. I love you!

Poland: The world's best kept secret!

(Important note to reader: My trip is in 4 separate blog posts. If you would like to read from the beginning start with the post titled "It begins! Lviv". Blogger seems to be having problems hiding that post so click HERE to make it easier to find. Then hit newer posts each time after that to see them in order).

I don't know about you, but no one ever told me Poland was so awesome! I am now convinced it is the world's best kept secret. Not many tourists, beautiful architecture, amazing sight seeing, and lots of history! Who knew?! Krakow is the most charming city in the world, at least that I've seen so far. If you ever have the chance, GO!

Thanks to my awesome aunt Jenny, we got a tour guide to show us around the city and teach us a little about the history! Her name is Marta and she was amazing!

Our lovely girls

Let me just show you how beautiful this place is....

Ray Ban! For my family's "pet" sting ray!

Wonderful right? I thought you might agree. And just to finish off the trip....

We were exhausted after our long day. Laria and I ended up sharing a tiny top bunk with no bar on the side. Surprised I didn't fall off and die.

Can you tell I love Laria yet?

Just trying to sneak a picture with Sergay....do you think he noticed?

Someone caught this picture of us asleep. You can tell I'm trying to get as far away from Sergay as possible. Real comfortable I'll tell ya.

A little piece of Ecuador in a Polish gas station!

We left Poland at 9 am Saturday morning and drove literally all day. We got in Lviv at 8 with only 3 stops of 15 minutes each. The border crossing took hours! So 11 hours later we had to just get right on the night train. This time we didn't share compartments and Laria and I were with strangers. We both slept on top bunks. The girl across from us was 11 and looked terrified because she wasn't by her family. We asked if she spoke English and she did! She was really good. Her parents were really excited and they kept asking questions and had her translate. Talk about talent! She also said she was a world champion kick boxer....I hope that is true! In the morning she woke us up at 6 a.m. to get off and her parents begged for a photo! She also got our email. I love making new friends here! Here is our sweet little Darina...

After almost 24 hours straight of traveling we got back just in time to change and go to church. This week our church building was changed to a meeting house next to the temple. Even though I was absolutely exhausted I'm so grateful I went to church! I got there and every hymn we sang was on my favorite list. Coincidence? I think not. The chapel was beautiful and I'm so excited to go to church in this new building. The best part is, you walk out the doors and the temple is literally right in front of you. I go to church on temple grounds! The perfect ending to a wonderful vacation!