.... and I’m feeling good

Today I taught my students the expression “to be on a roll”. This is kind of how I feel right now.

The last few days have been good. I’ve met great people, spoken some Russian, written a little bit of dissertation, had some good lessons and have felt like myself.

I’m on a roll.

So back to these great last few days.

Apparently Ukraine does strange things to you.

I taught a cover lesson on Saturday with a younger group and have never felt so maternal in my life. The fifteen year old me would be disgusted to know that, upon being bear hugged (with run up) by a 9 year old boy, I did not recoil in horror but loved seeing the huge grin on this kid’s face and grinned right back at him.... how things change. However, I was also asked by somebody if I thought I was ready to have children. NO. Just no. I can barely make pasta. That is not somebody ready for motherhood.

I sorted out a visa for Belarus. IN RUSSIAN. Score.

Erinn and I went for another walk back in time.....

We saw a man with an incredible backside.....

 Erinn got a date....

A boozy lunch or three.....

 Followed by a tour of the Privoz market with two wonderful tour guides (aka Diana and Nastya, two of my favourite church girlies)

I also got to hang out with these two cuties.

And once again got up close and personal with Blok.

 Sunday is fast becoming my favourite day of the week. Church was awesome, as ever. The part of the message this week that I really found helpful was about the concept of serving where you are, whether that be in your marriage, in your group of friends, in your workplace, in the queue at the local supermarket.... I just love this idea of being a “light” wherever you are planted.

 I’m not a member of the LDS church, but when I was listening to the message, I was reminded of a piece of LDS scripture: “Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations” (D&C 115:5) Whilst I don’t regard this as scripture myself, at that moment these words really spoke to me, and I was reminded of how important it is to be that “light” in a situation.

A while ago, my boss sent us an interesting article about what factors make for a “Successful Person”.  The one that I got the most caught up on was this: a successful person exudes joy.

Whilst I’m not quite sure that being “successful” and being a “light” is quite the same thing, I do feel that being a “light” and exuding joy are two things which go hand in hand.

This is something I want to work on.

I figure that the best place to start is to look at this incredible life/love/mercy we have been given.

Other than the great sermon, Sunday involved eating pizza with Amanda (whose visa issues I am praying get resolved- Odessa needs her!) and hanging out with one of the sweetest families I have had the good fortune to meet. It is always lovely to spend time in a family setting when you have been away from your own for a while, but especially when it involves a mini trampoline and some extremely inventive Bollywood-style dancing from your five year old friend.

Sundays=class.

Odessa=class.