Do You See What I See?

Here I am just getting ready for bed and I am thinking of all of you. I was able to Skype Brent and Henry tonight and it was so wonderful to see Brent playing with his son. Autumn was down stairs working. I have been able to talk with Mom and Jamie, Scott , Maren this week also. Kev and Kate we would love to be able to skype you also. Let us know what would be a good time.
Aaron Ames is coming to Kyiv on Sunday and we are excited to see him and to meet his fiance. It will be fun to show them Kyiv. We won't show them because we still don't know how to navigate the city above ground that well but we know people who do.:)

Hugs every one. I love you so much. Keep Faith and love eachother.

Week14

I guess that you all have had a great time together during this Conference break. It was so fun to be able to participate in the balloon launch for Dad's birthday. Thank you Brent and Autumn for making that happen.

We have had the best week and we know that most of you get our letter so I won't repeat every thing. Just so you know that the people here are amazing and that we love them so much.

I love SKYPE! It is a great tool and I love using it. It has been wonderful to skype Mom and to be able to talk with her. Sam and Matt I would love to add you to my Skype account, Dee Daw too.

Today was sunny and bright in the afternoon. We walked to Billa for groceries and then had a lovely dinner. We studied our Ukrainian and Russian and did all of our data entry for the medical web sight for the mission. We seem to keep very busy and we are so happy doing what we are doing.

Congratulations to Scott, and Brooke Wellborn. They became engaged on April 1, 2011.
A huge shout out to Elder Steven Mayberry, now a district leader in the Oregon Portland Mission. WE received a lovely letter form Pres. Dyches letting us know of the change in Elder Steve's life.

week 10

Dear Family,
So, Here we are in the most exciting place on the planet next to Japan. Our excitement is from the growth and the blessings of the spirit of God.I am so excited to tell you about Zone Conference with President and Sister Lawrence. Pres. Steinagel was a bit subdued but he still got the missionaries to commit to getting 4 or more commitments for baptism form Tues. to Sunday. Pres. and Sister Lawrence helped by getting these great Elders and Sisters to sing,"The Lord needs valiant servant to do his work in the latter days. To follow the teachings of Jesus and serve his people in a loving way.
I will be his servant I'll gather Israel faithfully, I'll pray for 4 or even more, the Lord can depend on me. It was so cool to hear them sing this 5 times. Each time they got stronger and more believing in their commitment. I was singing right along with them and on the way home we were just looking at people and wondering who was ELECT and who would want to know just how much God loves them...

Who are you? You are a child of the covenant. Look up elect in the bible dictionary. That would be you. You are the ones who fought with Jehovah and defended Gods plan of agency.You are the ones who have been defenders of truth and righteousness before you even came to earth. That is why it rings true to you now. That is why you are honest and why you love goodness in others. We are drawn to those who desire good. I just really had such a great time being feed by these great leaders.

I invite all to come unto Christ our Savior and Redeemer. Learn of him and follow in his ways. You will find peace and true happiness. There is order in His kingdom. He expects us to follow his prophet and to obey his commandments. I testify that if we do there is just so much pure joy that we can not contain it all. We will be fainting away just like Alma the younger.

I love you all and I really miss hearing from you weekly. By Friday I am looking at email hoping for a note. Happy b-day to Lucy and Ethan .Peeps and Ben have had their days.
Love,
CtapewNa i Cestra MNbEpi
Elder and Sister Mayberry

Cold,Cold, Cold

Hello Dear Ones,

We are enjoying the frozen veiw from our apartment windows. We went out yesterday to just get out of the apartment and do some shopping. It was Valentine's Day after all. So we braved the cold and I kept asking Elder Mayberry whoes idea was this??? It was his.

WE are loving Ukraine and the rich culture that is all around us. This past week we attended a preformance of different dance troupes from all around Ukraine. They preformed dances from around the world. Many were lively and of countries that neighbor Ukraine. We got a little concerned when they got to Turkey,India and Brazil. We had to keep our eyes down as they wore little clothing and were risque. We enjoyid the evening non the less.

This last week we were able to watch the cultural celebration of the Ukraine Temple. It was a little like what we saw last Saturday but really lovely and you knew that you could keep your eyes on the particapants with no problems. This time in Ukraine is full of miracles. How and why was a Temple built in Ukraine of all places. I really and see the hand of the Lord just opening up this country for the building of this Temple and blessing the people of this country and the surrounding counties.

We are well and Happy. We think of you often and pray that the Lords blessings are upon you. We are studying the Book of Mormon like we have never done before and we find it so amazing how clear it makes Isaiah and other books of the Bible. I am in 2Nephi 29 and I am loving all the "WO" verses. Wo unto those who suppose that I the Lord speak unto only some of my children. I speak unto all for I love them all and do you supose that there is only one record of the things of which I have spoken unto the house of Israel?? I'm paraphrasing but I love that we know that God loves all of his children and he would teach all of his children the principles of his gospel so that they might know where to turn for salvation.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to be on a mission with a super fired up companion. There isn't a day that he is not just on fire rarein' to go and do and serve some how and some way. It's pretty funny watching us trying to communicate with Russian dictionary in one hand and gesturing with the other. We are having fun.

I will now attempt tp down load some pictures. Hugs from Ukraine

Elder and Sister Mayberry

Week 4

I guess I haven't figured how to post pictures and blog at the same time. We have had a great week here I Kiev. We have found a home,a place to rest our heads or as you can see stay warm...
We had delightful meetings in the International Branch today. It was all in English and we learned so much in our combined Priesthood and Relief Society about the Book of Mormon. We have such kind members that are taking care of us they make sure we find the right bus and Metro stops. We are learning to navigate this huge city. Hugs to all. Here are some pictures...

Devotional

Dear ones,
Tuesday night we have devotionals. We have speakers come and share a message of the gospel of Christ. Tonight we had an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ come and speak to us about missionary work. Elder Jeffery R. Holland said things that truly stirred my soul. I had tears in my eyes most of the time. He spoke of Paul and as senior apostle had to learn to lead the church. The story of the apostles fishing all night and catching nothing and Christ fixing them breakfast on the shore. How he asked if the fishing had gone well and the answer being NO. Cast your net on the right side of the boat and the net being so full that they could not pull it in. John saying it is HIM. Peter jumping in and getting to shore as fast as he could. Christ asking if ye love me. Do you love me more than these? Yea, Lord I love thee.Three times Christ asks, Do you love me? Peter says YES. Then feed my sheep. Do we love Christ more than these? I want you to know that I love Him. I have His gospel written on the fleshy tablets my heart. I want to share what I know about Him and our Father in Heaven. I am so blessed to have a great missionary companion. We are really enjoying being together. We are meeting wonderful people and we are happy. Love to you all. It was a suprise to see you Jenn at the Church Office Building. HUGS!

Dear ones, We are at a new MTC. There is no MTC sign to take a picture by. We are in a building that is being renovated to house more couple missionaries. It is awesome and we are so thankful for a lovely bed and closets and a bathroom to ourselves. No dorm room and walking down the hall for us. We have been in PMG classes from 8:00am until 5:00pm.We have had 6 more hours of language training this past week. We were able to bare our testimonies on Friday night along with the other senior missionaries learning languages as proselytizing missionaries. Amazing!!!
Pictures will be coming as we (I) need to get a usb cable. Huh look what I just did! I changed mid blog. Just want to tell you all that we love and appreciate you so much. We could not be here with out your support and taking on so many of our responsibilities. You are our Heroes.
All our love, Strechena and Cectra Mayberry