Z Rizdvom Khrystovym!

Merry Christmas! Or, as the Ukrainians would say, With the birth of Christ! (I'm not sure exactly how that works, or what it's referring to being "with" the birth of Christ, but that's what they say). That's what the subject line above says, by the way.

So, here's how my only Ukrainian Christmas Eve went (the first was in the MTC):

Well, allright, the story actually starts in August, when I was still in my first transfer in this area (this being my fourth). Elder Lewis and I had received a referral from our first counselor in the bishopric. Apparently, he owned his own roofing company and had made quite a bit of money for himself, so instead of living in an apartment, he built a very large house in the woods surrounding Kyiv. (How big is his house? Let's just say he has a sauna and a small swimming pool in his basement). He also has a guest house behind his real house, and at the time he was renting it out for a week to the son of his wife's best childhood friend (who's also a member in the ward) before he left for university in Italy. The son, Pavel, wasn't a member, but was really interested in meeting with missionaries, so Elder Lewis and I taught him almost every day that week, then committed him to talk to the missionaries in Italy when he got there; and then he left, and we never expected to see him again. Flash forward to last Sunday, where halfway through priesthood meeting who should come in but Pavel. After a lot of catching up, it turns out he really did meet with the missionaries, heard all the lessons, and has been attending church every week for the past three months. However, he doesn't feel his testimony of the Book of Mormon is strong enough for him to be baptised, so he hasn't quite made that final step. While he's in town for the holidays, he's living in the same guest house, so our first counselor, Yuri Lysenko, invited us over for family home evening/Christmas Eve. We went over, and after a great discussion with Pavel and Yuri about baptism and the church, we had the largest meal I have eaten in my entire mission; there was literally too much food to be on their large dining room table at the same time, so they were constantly switching out plates. They had chicken, turkey, pork, mashed potatoes, potato wedges, two kinds of really good Ukrainian salad (one made with crab meat, carrots, mayonaise, and pineapple chunks--really good--and the other with peas, potatoes, chicken, and pickles), buderbrod (open faced sandwiches with cheese and sausage), Ukrainian bread, Ukrainian juice, and Russian soda ("Baikal;" I'm pretty sure Dad and I had some before my mission), and then afterward, cake and apple slices. As missionaries, we were required to spend the entire 2 1/2 hours we were there eating continuously. I've never been so full in my life. I stood up and I felt like sitting back down. They then gave us new socks, a little Christmas tree, and two ornaments (snowmen dressed up like metro workers). We got to listen to their little children sing Christmas songs in Russian and their littlest son, Andrushka, recited a whole bunch of little poems. Earlier that evening I had felt a little homesick; not anymore.

Merry Christmas everyone! I can't wait to get certain phone calls tonight! (We'll be in the new apartment, by the way...)

Merry Christmas!
--Elder Hurst