Saying goodbye is never a fun thing- just saying!
But here it goes:
Goodbye to FHE at the church on Mondays! We have had a blast
having FHE with the missionaries. :) It has been so much fun and something to
look forward to each week! This week we said goodbye as we ate ice cream and
brownies and played Mafia! Missionaries are the best! They work so hard and do
it all for the Lord- the missionaries here in Voronezh work soo hard too, all
to tell people about Jesus Christ and his church here on the earth! (Ps-
updated my prolife on Mormon.org- Check it out!)
We will miss Elder and Sister Frost so much- they showed us so much love and kindness! :) Thank you 2 so much and good luck with the rest of your mission!!
Goodbye to teaching! This week was seriously the last week
that I will hand out tokens and have kids repeat English phrases! I will miss
our kiddos- they are buckets of cuteness! The older ones knew we were leaving-
they are used to saying goodbye because they know how the program works,
however, the newer ones I don’t think they really understood, :( But I hope one
day I can miraculously come back to Voronezh and see how they are progressing! :)
Timor and Yaromir being crazy!
Teaching! We are going on a treasure hunt!
This is Christina's mom and Christina! Her mom helped us a lot in class!! We will miss both of them!!
We had a lot of fun this week at school! We played old maid,
played with mr. potato head, grabbed items, and took lots of pictures. Just
trying to document the whole experience!
Christmas tree at the school! (Find the Furby)
*Answer below*
On our last day (Thursday) of teaching we did shorter
classes and had a party for 30 minutes! Russian kids all bring candy and we
just give it out! They had a lot of fun and they were all hyper from the candy!
It was a good way to say goodbye! We let them speak in Russian and they just
about went crazy! One of the girl’s had a birthday and so we ate cake and some
of the kids dressed up, which was something we weren’t expecting, but just made
it so much cuter and harder to say goodbye!
Fedya in his jester costume!
Artium looking classy in his suit!
It was Varya's birthday and her mom brought cake! We love Varya and her mom very much!
If words could describe how much I am going to miss this girl!
Bogdon in his blazer! He is such a cutie!
SVETA! She is so shy but so much fun!
Vova dressed up like a rabbit and carried around a sword!
This is our trouble maker- and yes he did dress up like a clown. I just love this picture of him, because it is so him!
Can you say CANDY EXPLOSION!
Paulina, Liza, and Dasha all in fancy dresses! They are so so cute! :) They each bought me, Luke, and Sami a picture of Voronezh! :) They are so well behaved! I will miss them so much!
Vanya and Gleb! Vanya is so cute in his little bowtie! He is one of my favorites. He is so smart! He came into class not knowing anything, and his language has just exploded! He talks and talks! He is so silly too! Also he wins most luscious hair award!
Yaroslav is such a big talker! His language is awesome! He says the funniest things! His most famous
"Miss Kelsee, Mr. Luke, and Miss Samantha, you have big legs."
"What do you mean?"
"Look at them, THEY'RE BIG!!"
He is the coolest kid in the kindergarten- all the kids think so too!
Goodbye to Mullets---- enough said! Russian boys (and adult
men) have sweet mullets. No, I am not a supporter of Mullets, but man if you
ever wanted to see legit mullets- come to Russia. They are very popular here!!
Really!!
Yaroslav's (It even has the "steps" on the side)
Nikita's mullet!
Goodbye to exploring in Voronezh! On Wednesday we went to
the walking bridge to explore some more! It was really really cold though!
However when we were taking a picture of Mikaela, a bird thought she had food in
her hands and so it landed on her and she freaked out because she didn‘t know
what was happening! Then we sat for like 15 minutes trying to take pictures of
birds landing on our hands! We managed to get them! I felt like Giselle off of
Enchanted!
There is a bird in my hand!
COLD! But fun!
Sami is also a bird whisperer!
Goodbye to school lunch! Haha this week made me not miss
school lunch! We had soggy poato meat mixture with noodles in milk one day, and
then the next day we had buckwheat! GOOD BYE! :)
Buckwheat!
Noodles in milk... Gag!
Nope, not going to miss that!
Goodbye to Daniel, Natasha, Nastia, and Timosha! Daniel and
Natasha are our coordinators. They are the ones who took care of our visas and
helped us get around and picked host families for us. We APPRECIATE THEM SO
MUCH! We could have never done it without them! They left on Friday for
America! Daniel is from Utah and Natasha lived in Utah for awhile. They are
visiting Daniel’s parents who now live in Wisconson. I taught Nastia and
Timosha in kindergarten. The whole last week Timosha kept saying “We’s a going
to America!” So I am so excited for the kids to go there. I think their
language will just explode!
Their family and me! :)
Goodbye to Friday night Volleyball! Although I admit I didn’t
play really, I enjoyed the socialization with the sister missionaries, with
English-speaking Russians, and with the other English speaking friends (2 were
from Texas and 1 was from Belgium!). It was so fun to just get to know more
different people are totally from a different lifestyle then you are!
Me and Natalie! She is so great! Her English is so good too! She is a professional diver!
Everyone loves Yulia! :)
Me and Vadim! He is a legit Volleyball player! I was always so intimidated by him, but he is super friendly and has no accent at all when he speaks English!
Agia (from Belgium) and Josh (from Texas)
Goodbye to Russian busses! I am officially done riding crazy
Russian busses! I have gained a lot of arm strength from holding on to the rail
while going over crazy bumps! I rode the bus 4 days a week. (Monday, Friday,
and Sunday were all to the church and then Saturday was to the city center).
There are so many crazy stories that happen on busses. Drunk guys acting like
idiots, people falling down when the brakes are hit hard, babushkas yelling at
people to give their seat up, passing money up and down the busses, and being
crammed are just a few stories!
Goodbye to delicious Russian cooking! I will miss Zhanna’s food!
She cooked for us teachers on Friday because on Friday our coordinators had
already left. She cooked delicious carbonara and good soup! Yum Yum Yum!
Here it is!!
Homemade Pizza with:
1) Sauce
2) Salami
3) hot dogs
4) Sausage
5) tomatoes
6) Cucumbers
7) Red bell pepper
8) Mushrooms
9) Cheese
WOW
Goodbye to elevators! I used the elevator every single day
of my life. It just becomes a part of daily life. It is always awkward when
people get on the elevator with you because it is DEAD silent. Someone in the
ILP group usually gets stuck in the elevator once a semester, so unless we get
stuck in the elevator tomorrow, we are free from problems!
Going up to floor 11!
Goodbye to my wonderful host family! Sure it has been awkward
because you really don’t speak the same language, but they have been so kind
and loving to me and have treated me like a Princess. I can never repay them! I
have a comfortable room all to myself with a desk and closet. I have great
meals provided all the time and yummy treats! Plus they talk to me all the time
and try and make me feel welcome and happy! I have been- trust me! I am not
saying it is still not awkward, because I believe it always will be, I mean we
come from completely different lives and we don’t speak the same language! But
it is not a bad awkward, just different! But I love them and hope they can come
to America and meet all of you wonderful people!
Daniel bought his mom a juicer for Christmas! It was so tasty!
Alina and Daniel!
Me and Zhanna! :)
Daniel wanted to take a picture of me "flying"
Here is his picture! Hahaha!
(I was supposed to be packing!)
Goodbye to the Voronezh Branch! That place has taught me a lot about a lot of different things, and I am grateful for it! The people here have made me want to be such a better person! They are all seriously wonderful! So loving and giving and sweet! :)
Goodbye to my fellow ILP teachers…. FRIENDS!! It is so weird
to say goodbye to people you have seen EVERYDAY for 4 months. I really mean
EVERYDAY!
Jallyn- Thanks for being the person you are and making
everyone laugh so much! You are such a wonderful example of love, diligence,
and acceptance! You glow! Thanks for
always giving me hugs! I will miss you, but I will see you are BYUI in the
SPRING!!
Ryan- Thank you so much for being so thoughtful all the
time! I love your weird random comments and questions, I will miss them! But we
get to watch Transformers 6 times in a row together on the airplane! SWEET haha
i’ve never even seen it! But really you are an awesome person and thank you so
much for your testimony! PS- next time I see you, you will be a fluent Russian
speaker- you are excelling so much!
Luke- Man kindergarten was wild right? It has been such a
joy to work with you! You always made me laugh and were so kind and accepting!
I will miss seeing you every week day! I will miss having crazy adventures in
the kindergarten! You are so so kind and so talented- you will go far in your
art, I love my paintings!!! Thank you!!
Alix- You are so so sweet! You never think of yourself, only
others. You want to make everyone happy and never cause contention! You are
someone who never gets mad and always does the right thing- thanks for your
love and thanks for being you! You are such an EXAMPLE! Everyone wants to be
around you!
Meee-ki-a-e-la (You know how to pronounce it)- You are so
funny and wonderful to be around! You are always laughing and sharing your
awesome stories. I don’t know how I will live without those stories, you will
have to call me and tell me or something because I might die! I always looked
forward to seeing you and hearing your laugh- you are such a wonderful person!
Sami- I have been so blessed to work with you in the kindergarten!
You are so organized and so hard working and diligent! I would not have
survived this experience without you! Thank you for accepting everyone and
always laughing! You just love so much and that will make you the best
missionary ever! Thanks for your love and support and kind spirit!
Tessa- You taught me everything I know- thank you! I have
learned everything from you! You are such an inspiration! Thanks for helping me
get through this! You are so sweet and thoughtful and everything you taught me,
I am taking with me to use in my future! I love you perspective on life- it is
so exciting!!! You have made such an impact! Thanks Ninja!
:) I WILL MISS EVERYONE!
Me and Head Teacher Tessa!
Goodbye Voronezh! Thank you for teaching me so many things
in such a short time! I will miss you very very much and hope that in the
future the opportunity will arise that I might come back and visit you. I have
no idea why you only snowed like 5 total times, but that is okay, you kept me
pretty dry and that was nice of you! Thank you for showing me how great Russia
is and for letting me meet wonderful people! This experience will stay with me
forever!
BYE-BYE!!!!!!!!!!!
Lots of Love, Kelsee
ps- some extra photos that didn't fit in the blog article itself!
Christmas Tree in the mall! Christmas here isn't until January 7th so Christmas decorations are barely going up!
This is what packing looks like!
Packing was depressing... but then I got an awesome letter from my friend that made me so so so so happy!
Abish- this was what my face looked like the whole time I was reading your letter! I took a picture just for you! :) I will reply back to you (Probably not until I get to America though!)
We did a Secret Santa- This is me with my awesome drawings (and candy) that Luke gave to me!!! They are so cool!
Friday was a cleaning day- this is what our cupboards looked like!
American Sandwich bread! Not popular at all!
Did you find the furby?? hahaha
I guess one of the past groups made it!
Love it!!
:) !See you soon! :)
