Dancing with Daffodils

Kiev, Ukraine I got to spend a day recently with a dear friend whom I met while serving as a missionary for my church and we were reminiscing about our worst day on the mission.  It was the beginning of summer so it was hot and we had absolutely nothing on our schedule that day.  Usually the goal of  a missionary is to be teaching lessons all day long but that day we didn’t have a single teaching appointment, which meant we needed to find someone to teach.  We set the goal to have four discussions (or lessons where we share about our church) that day so we picked a building in our area and set off to find people willing to listen to our message. I’m not sure what was up with this building but that day we met some of the strangest people that I encountered during my entire 16 months in Kiev.  It was an exhausting day just knocking on doors and being turned away.  We somehow managed to have lessons with three individuals but none of them went very we...

I love reading good books.  Whenever I’m asked what my hobbies are I always list reading first.  I love that it is quiet and relaxing.  I love that I can see another point of view or experience something through a character that I never could in my own life.  I love learning about history and people and other cultures.  My favorite night of the month is attending book club and discussing books that I liked or disliked with friends.  I appreciate good writing and love when a story grabs me and I just can’t put my book down.  While I have a great memory, I don’t usually remember details of stories that I read but I always remember how they made me feel. My favorite book as a child was a book entitled “Mandy” by Julie Andrews.  It is about a little girl who is an orphan and finds a secret cottage back behind the wall of the orphanage.  She makes it her own little home and it becomes her escape from the sadness of not having a family.  E...