the answer. the key.

fam bam.

where do you sum up a week such as this? welp.

sister andrade went to kharkov this week for registration. she went with sister helsten and another girl that also needed to do registration in kharkov. at first they called and said we were all going. then they called later that day and said just sister helsten would go with them instead. it was a weird day.

it is needful to tell you about last monday evening. a lesson in tender mercies. to preface it. there's this investigator. an eternal one that we aren't going to meet with anymore. but. we first went to her home out in a village that's an hour bus ride away back in june when we first got to the area. the fields were visible, but all still green. still blooming. future wheat and sunflowers. too soon. but we figured we'd probably back. sunflower fields. sister hassard and i both adore sunflowers. well, we went back a couple saturdays ago. all the sunflowers were dead. too late. the lesson with her matched them. it's a little thing, really. but i was still slightly disappointed about missing the sunflower fields in my only summer in ukraine. but i got over it, and decided it was fine. and everything else is so much more important.

then comes monday evening.

we were off to find a former investigator. we were riding a bus. i looked through the spaces between a few buildings and saw gold and green against the summer sunset. i kept watching, and i realized they were sunflowers. an enormous sunflower field. so we jumped off the bus, and there was my sunflower field. so we took photos there, and our hearts smiled. a little thing. a tender mercy.

we also talked a lot about love this week. about the center of everything. about peace. about the hand of god. about true compassion.

i don't have much time. and i don't have many words. too much happened to begin to try. but god is good. and this life is full of joy, love, and peace.  if only we're willing to take it in.

much love,
cectpa em.