By Clara Moffitt
Picture this: You walk through the swirling snow in many layers of clothes, trying to stay warm and not to fall on your face in the slippery ice. All around you, kids are sledding to school as usual, and you feel lucky to have someone next to you the whole time to keep each other from slipping.
That is what it is like for my sister and Tempe Prep alum, Jessica Moffitt (TPA 2010) who is taking a gap in her studies at Stanford University to serve as a missionary for a year and a half in Ukraine. Sharing a border with Russia, Ukraine is very cold now in the winter, varying from 10 to 30 degrees F.
As a missionary in Ukraine for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jessica speaks Ukrainian and Russian (and some Polish and Hungarian) daily and has served in a variety of cities in Western Ukraine, such as Ivano-Frankivsk, Uzhgorod, Chernivitsi, and Khmelnitsky. One of her interesting projects is that she has recorded a CD of 40 children’s hymns in Ukrainian which has been distributed throughout the Mormon Church in Ukraine. Jessica is a Vocal Performance major at Stanford and also speaks French, Italian, and German. Knowing those languages and having traveled to 13 countries during her three years at Stanford, including study abroad programs in Austria, Germany, and Italy, helped prepare her to live in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian language is very similar to Russian and is very complex. This is what it looks like:
“У нас була велика тиждень! Дозвольте мені розповісти вам , я люблю свою українську супутницю , сестра Кондрацька , і люблячий кажучи Українська весь час. Це здорово бути виправлена правильно весь час. Тиждень почався з Pday і несучи важкі Продовольчі магазини все aroung місто , дивлячись, як спалили зефір.”
I took that directly from one of her weekly letters home. The English translation is:
“We had a great week! Let me tell you, I am loving my Ukrainian companion, Sister Kondratska, and love speaking Ukrainian all the time. The 
week started out with P-day and carrying heavy groceries all around town in the freezing snow while looking like burnt marshmallows in our padded coats.”
A P-day is when missionaries do their “preparing” for the week: grocery shopping, laundry, go to the internet café to write home, etc. This happens every Monday.
Now some of you are probably thinking, ”This is a country at war! Is it safe? What is happening?” Jessica is in western Ukraine, a safe distance from the fighting, but she feels the impact of the war every day since Russia has stopped the import of natural gas so her only heat is a small electric heater in her apartment and then the electricity is also shut off at random times of the day. She also lives next to a Ukrainian military training center, and she has also seen American soldiers that are stationed in Germany and are there to help with training.
Jessica says, “It is a sad reality here that people are being oppressed by Russia and everything costs about four times more than it used to, and there are people fighting to help their country and losing lives and limbs.” People in Ukraine are showing their pride by wearing flags and ribbons with the colors of Ukraine, which are horizontal stripes of blue and gold, representing the fields of grain and the sky.
On a brighter note, Jessica has been able to experience a lot of the Ukrainian culture. One of which is the Ukrainian Christmas. People don’t even start decorating until Dec. 31. This is because Ukrainian Christmas isn’t celebrated until Jan. 7, or Three Kings Day. Throughout her time in Ukraine, she has met many wonderful people of all ages.
She completes her missionary service on Feb. 18 and will then resume her studies at Stanford. Jessica served for 18 months (a year and a half) in a country at war. She will sure have many interesting stories to tell!