MERRY CHRISTMAS (week 3)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

IT'S CHRISTMAS!

IN UKRAINE!

NO ONE CELEBRATES CHRISTMAS HERE UNTIL JANUARY 7th BECAUSE OF RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY!

YAY!

So, yeah, totally Christmas here, and it hasn't snowed yet. In fact, the weather is going to hover around 50 all week. Basically, I don't even get to see a white Christmas when I go to Ukraine. It's like I bring Texas weather patterns with me wherever I go...

I'm not entirely sure what happened this week. I feel like a lot happened, but then I realized that nothing happened. We went down to Николаев again (that's Nikolaev for those who aren't familiar with the Cyrillic Script) for a zone conference. A 2 day zone conference. It was super good, I learned a ton from it!

We have an investigator who we're currently working with to help him to baptism. He's super cool, he has a good testimony and comes to church almost every Sunday. His only problem is that he can't quit smoking. It's really sad, he's been meeting with the missionaries for years, he just can't quit smoking. He's a really great guy, and he has a really sweet family, and we just really have to help him get past this so his wife will have more reason to get baptized and then they'll be able to be sealed together as a family for all eternity! It will be so здорово, we just have to help him with his smoking!

He's basically our only investigator right now. We can go ahead and call him Саша, because literally every other person is called Саша, so there's no way of identifying who he is.

I'm not even joking about the whole Саша thing. EVERYONE is named Саша (The short form of Александр), Сергей, Владимир, Богдан, or Виктор. And all of the women are named Наташа (Short form of Наталья), Ирина, Оксана, Лена (Short form of Елена), or Алина. It's also possible to run into Тамила, Мария, and Людмила, but they're a little rarer.

Something that I'm realizing that I've forgotten to share with you all is Супер Контик (Super Kontik). Imagine an Oreo, but with vanilla cookies. Now imagine it was bigger, say 3-4 times as large. Now, cover the entire thing in chocolate so that is has a nice chocolate shell. Now you have a Супер Контик!

They're amazing, I don't even know how to describe them! Basically, the eating procedure is as follows:

1. Take the Контик and find a small hole in the chocolate shell. If there is no hole, take a small bite into the Контик, not too deep. There may be multiple holes, which will prove to be difficult for the rest of the eating process.

2. On the exact opposite side of the Контик from where you found or made the hole, bite a small hole into the Контик, again, not too deep.

3. Get a shallow bowl or saucer and fill it with milk.

4. Use the Контик as a straw to drink the milk.

If you do everything correctly, you should be able to drink quite a bit of milk before the Контик collapses in the center, leaving you with a delicious, milk soaked, chocolately cookie to enjoy.

But odds are, you'll never find Контик back in the states, so you'll never know their joy. For this I am sorry.

Anyway, Merry Christmas again! I'm going to be spending this weekly mostly with Elder Montgomery because Elder Ditty is going to Днепропетровск for a training meeting and leaving me here in Херсон. I'll be sure to eat plenty of Контик because you guys can't!

Peace out!

Elder Robison