Week 4! 1 month down...

This picture is especially for Sydney!  She sent me a heart, so I thought 

I would repay the favor!

  

:) Dear Family, Friends, Everyone!

 

How is the outside world?  Can you believe that I have been on my mission for 4 weeks!  In fact, this Sunday (the 27th!) is my one month! I feel like I should have a party or something!  Feel free to send me letters or packages of congratulations!  Haha :). 

 

Here is my letter to the Brach Presidency this week:

"This week, our teachers are all switching up so we as of right now we are only teaching Sasha. Our last few lessons with him have gone really well. We taught him about faith and and a little bit of repentence. We are excited to teach him about the Atonement later this week! We are really excited that we can tell him all about Christ and how he atoned for our sins and how through him, we can be clean and pure. I'm especially excited about how sometime soon, we will be able to explain eternal families. He has a wife and a child and at the moment, is living in a different city from them. I think he will really love that he can be with them forever.

We also started an activity this week where we are teaching other companionships in our class. We pretend to be someone that we know from home and then they teach us. I am so excited to teach and to be taught this way. It is really interesing to imagine and try to act that the person that you picked. I've learned a lot about teaching by being taught. It is really awesome how the Spirit can teach me, even though I'm pretending to be someone else! In this activity, we will be teaching a girl named Tonya, and a lady named Christina. We haven't taught them yet, but we will teach them this week.

Something excited that I have done for personal study this week is to read all of the Preach My Gospel lessons (including all the scripture references). I've been marking the scriptures according to what lesson it is from. An insight I gained from doing this is realizing how related everything is that we teach. A scripture that explains part of the Restoration, also explains part of the Plan of Salvation, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I think that it helped me realize that our message really is quite simple. This isn't complicated, and the base of everything is that through Jesus Christ, we can return to live with our Father in Heaven again.

This week, I have also been thinking a lot about the people I will teach in Ukraine. It is weird for me to think that I will actually be doing missionary work in Ukraine. I am so excited to teach them that sometimes I just want to leave now. Of course, sometimes I feel so nervous about going that I think I would rather stay at the MTC forever. But usually I just want to be in Ukraine! It is crazy to think that we are almost halfway through our MTC time! It has gone so fast!"

Seriously though, this month has flown by!  I can't believe that I only have 17 more months left.  Plus, I imagine it will go even faster once I get to Ukraine!

This week was so good.  There were a couple of things that made it hard, but overall it was so good!  The Spirit at the MTC has been especially strong since Elder Scott was here.  It just makes me smile! 

Ok...first of all.  I hear people want to hear what I do all day.  If you want the short answer, it is class and studying.  That's about it!  But I will share the longer version too!  Our schedule changes a little bit depending on what day it is, but we do the same activities most days.  On Monday, I took pictures of almost everything that we did so I will explain Monday in depth then talk a little bit about our other activities. 

So on Mondays:

6:20 - Wake up.  We wake up and go get in the line for Sack Breakfast. Sack breakfast is just cereal, bagels, doughnuts, fruit...basically just a continental breakfast.  Missionaries are not allowed in the main cafeteria if they are not in church clothes, so we go get Sack Breakfast on days that we are in jeans for awhile.

(in line for sack breakfast)

(eating breakfast)

 Mondays we have service in the morning so we stay in our pants for that!  Then we usually eat our breakfast in the Hallway of our dorms!6:40-8:40 - Get ready and Personal Study.  Every morning we have personal study for an hour.  

(studying before gym.  sister hunt and I)

We read scriptures by ourselves, review lessons, pray...just whatever we need to work on and want to do.  It is usually very relaxing.  Mondays we have 30 minutes to get ready here but usually we get ready after Service and Gym, so we have some personal time.  

(in line for sack lunch)

We can talk, study, take a nap...whatever.  I like to paint my nails during that time. 

8:45- SERVICE!  Every missionary in the MTC does 1 hour of service per week.  Each district has an assigned area that the report to clean.  Ours in 1M, which is the big building with the offices, chapels, and main information desk.

(service and studying before gym.  sister hunt and I)

is the best place to have service!  A lot of missionaries have dorm buildings, so they scrub showers and toliets.  We get to wash windows, vaccuum, and other fun assignments.  It seriously is one of my favorite parts of the week!  Plus new senior missionaries come in on Mondays, so we get to talk to some of them!  This last Monday, we had the BEST assignment.  We got to pick 32 flags from whatever countries we wanted

(hanging up flags for service!)

(my artsy picture of the flags!)

- Ukraine first of course -- and then hang them up outside!  It was so much fun! Some of the flagpoles cranked, so it was an arm workout too!  It made me happy!  We finished that a little early so we got to vaccuum too.  There is never very much to vaccuum though because it is done several times a day, but it is fun!

9:45 - We have a little bit more free time.  I studied some more and prepared for a lesson I was teaching that afternoon.

 (we are learning some russian!  We use the dictionary to translate 

words we don't know while we read the BOM in Russian)

10:25 - GYM!  If we are inside, then I run on the track

("running" in gym.  ;))

 (Me posing while playing four square!)

(the whole gym)

 for awhile and then play four-square.  It is actually a very intense game! haha This week, it finally got warm enough, so we had our first outdoor gym!  I loved it!  I played soccer.  Another sister tripped me though, and I fell hard!  My leg is all scraped up and bruised!  It hurts, but it was worth it to be outside! 

11:30 - Lunch!  Today we also got sack lunch because we were in our gym clothes!  They have Sandwiches and salads, chips, etc.  Just normal lunch stuff.

11:45-12:30 - Get ready.  We get all dressed up and ready for the rest of the day. 

12:30-3:30 - Class!  We have a teacher for 6 hours every day. 

(practicing our teaching!  In russian!  That book is our little cheat sheet! )

(studying with sister hunt)

We practice teaching, we learn Russian, we goof off (a little), and we sleep -- haha just kidding about the sleeping part!  

("sleeping" with sister Hunt)

We were just pretending to be asleep!  I'm actually super proud of myself because I haven't fallen asleep in class or studying yet! Class is long, but super productive.

3:30-4:45 - We always have at least an hour of dedicated language study time.  We work on grammer, memorization, verbs...etc.  It is good!

4:45 - Head to the Cafeteria to eat.

  

dinner...swedish meatballs!  Also lots and lots of croutons!  :) 

They have a lot of different options.  Usually I get a salad, and any main dish that looks good.  

(dinner!  With Sister Lee)

They have custom made wraps you can get that are pretty good!  I really like the pasta.  On this day, I tried the Swedish Meatballs, they were ok!  We love dinner becuase it is a nice break!.

5:00-9:00 - More class.  Same as above.

  

(the sword of the spirit and the shield of faith that our elders made!)

Usually we get a little crazy by 8:00.  

(we mess around a little!  I'm not in this picture because i was actually 

teaching!  i came back to about 20 funny pictures on my camera!)

 

If you know what I'm like at 2 in the morning, that is kind of what 8 pm is like for a missionary!

9:00-9:30 - Planning.  We always plan what we will do the next day.  It helps us be more focused the next day!

9:30-10:30 - Get ready for bed.  Open packages, read letters (We can only open them after 9:30!) Write in our journals.  Quiet time is at 10:15, lights off at 10:30.  I'm usally pretty good at that!

So anyways that is our typical, 16 hour day! Fun, right?!?

Other activities we do include, TRC.  That is where we teach real life people, not our teachers.  It is in Russian and one of my favorite activities.  Last week we taught, two people about prayer.  One lady was actually from Russia, and she didn't speak much Russian. She wrote on our feedback form that my Russian was really good! It made me so happy!  :)

TALL - that is on the computer. It is kinda like Rosetta Stone.

(TALL- learning my russian!)

I really don't like it that much, but it is helpful for learing vocab, like numbers!

Choir- We have choir on Sunday and Tuesday.  It is the best thing ever!  Seriously, if you are in the MTC and you don't sing in the choir, you are doing it wrong! I love it!

Devotional- We have a devotional on Sunday and Tuesday!  They are awesome!

On Sundays, we have personal study all day, except for Sunday School (which is a district meeting), Relief Society (With all the sisters in the MTC), Sacrament Meeting, and Temple Walk. We also have a devotional that night, then a movies (always a church movie!)

Anyways...that is it!  

Now onto this week:

(Yay!  I love Laekynn!  I see Sister Davis everyday!  I'm going to be so sad 

when she leaves! Plus- these clouds are awesome!)

It was awesome because I knew 4 people that came into the MTC so I got to see them all over the place! 

 (I also saw Cody.  It was good to talk to him! This was his first week.)

I saw Ben, Laekynn, Cody,and Allyscha all over!  It was so fun!  I've been able to see Laekynn every day, it makes me so happy!  She is awesome!

I feel like my language ability has improved so much over this last week!  I guess that is what happens when an apostle gives you a blessing that your language will improve!  I feel like I am starting to really understand a lot more Russian!  Forming sentences is easier also!

I checked out a violin from the MTC this week! It is a really nice violin!  I think I am going to play in Sacrament Meeting!  Scary right?! But exciting! 

This week was also Sister Clark's birthday!  She turned 21!  

(This Sunday was sister Clark's birthday!)

We decorated a little bit and sang!  It was really fun!

  (We had balloons and hats and I made signs!:)) 

It made a normal day just a little bit more exciting!

For Relief Society, a member from the General Primary Presidency (Sister Esplin) came!  It was so good!  We got to sing some Primary Songs, which was awesome! :) That afternoon, for the devotional, the BYU men's chorus came!  It was so fun!  I saw Kyle Johnson, who was in my ward last semester!  I told him to say hi to everyone from me at Ward Prayer, I hope he did!  That night we got to watch the Testaments. I had never seen it before but it was super good! 

Our devotional yesterday was by Elder Evans.  He is  the head of the Missionary Board.  He gave a really powerful talk about repentence, it was super awesome! 

Highs of this week! -- devotionals, seeing my friends, playing a violin, our lessons, TRC, service! 

Funny Moments - In TRC, our person, in Russian, told us ALL about how he prayed for his zits to go away.  We were like...ok...Then he was explaining what he actually said and we were dying of laughter!  It was so great!

The Asians on our floor had a party the day before they left!  They were going crazy! It was really funny!

On Friday, I got 4 packages!  How crazy it that!  It made me so happy! 

(packages!  4 of them are mine!)

(In the picture with sister clark, one of mine is missing!  I am so loved!  Y'all rock)

Sister Clark got 3 packages, and that was because it was her birthday haha!  It was so funny!  I loved the packages, especially the treats from both of my grandmas!  They were so good!  :) And the dictionary is great, thanks!!! 

One day I was testifying to random girl in Russian!  I was trying to say that I knew that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon.  The Russian word for translate is pairavestee (that is what it sounds like.  So I got a little confused and mixed the russian and english together and was like Joseph Smith "transvestite" Kniga Mormona.  I was about to die!  She thought that I was crazy because all the russians were dying of  laughter and she had no idea what was going on!

So I'm doing good!  I love being a missionary!  I'm praying for y'all!  Keep writing me!  I love mail!

Love Sister Ford!

I'll send pics when I go do laundry!  :)

 

(making my bed!  We have random cleaning checks once a week)

 

our teachers leave us russian notes... This says, "My missionaries. I love you.  

Work hard, ok? Brother Hofman" 

(Russian torture, the case chart!!  opa!) 

Holy Cow--What a Great Week!!

Below is my letter to the Branch Presidency: 

"This week has been so good! I feel like I am finally getting to a point where the schedule is starting to feel normal, which is really nice. This week flew by! I feel like it was just yesterday that I was emailing and now here it is again!

This week I feel like I was able to feel the spirit so strong, almost all the time. It was really nice to feel peace and happiness and know that I am doing the Lord's work and that he is happy with me. The devotionals this week were all so amazing. I feel like it is impossible to feel "down" on Sunday or Tuesday, because we have such good speakers that care about us and teach us such marvelous lessons.

This week we continued teaching our 4 investigators. It's challenging and rewarding. I know that if I can testify and if the Spirit is present, then we are doing a good job, even if it is just in broken Russian. One lesson that was great was when we taught Max last Thursday. Originallly our lesson was about Joseph Smith and we were going to introduce the Book of Mormon. However, I got into the lesson, and the Spirit was so strong and we ended up talking about prayer instead. It was awesome because even though I hadn't prepared any notes in Russian about Prayer, I was able to say what I wanted to say! I know that was the gift of tongues at work. The language really does come when we need it the most. I'm excited for TRC (Teaching Resourse Center) tonight because it is on prayer! I prepared some material but I think I am really going to try to go from my heart and not from what I have written down!

We also had a really good lesson with Sasha. He seems really eager to try to gain a testimony! We are going to introduce him to the Book of Mormon this week! I can't wait! We decided that for part of our lesson, we are going to share our favorite scriptures. I'm going to share 2nd Nephi 32:3 and talk about how the Lord can answer prayers through the scriptures. I love that scripture because I love the imagery of the word "feast". I love that as a missionary, I really have the opportunity to "feast" on the words of Christ everyday!

1 thing that Sister Sink and I have done is to share our testimony in Russian with another set of missionaries every night before we go home! It is the best thing. It is so great because even though they can't understand us, they can still feel the Spirit testifying of the truth. It has really helped me gain a testimony that the language of the Spirit is universal! I love it!"

Seriously though, this week was one of the best ever!  I had a great week and I don't even know where to begin to tell you about it!

First of all, did you get the picture of the dictionary I sent you?  It is by Katzner and apparently is the best thing ever.  I would love one if you can find it!

Also, now missionaries in the MTC get 60 minutes to email! How awesome is that?!?!  I am stoked about that!   So this letter will be AWESOME!!

The only bum part about this week is that I went 3 days without mail :(  How sad is that!!! It was ok though...But Jacob, Mom, and Parker, I want to hear from you!  I really want to know how track and studying for AP tests are!  Also, are you going to Prom??  You should!!  Ask someone cute ;). 

I wanted to share part of a journal entry that really sums up how I have been feeling. 

"Today I have such a joy for the opportunity to serve a misison. I love it! The Lord is blessing my life in so many ways.  I love that I can so clearly see the way that my life has been made better.  The Lord is blessing me for my efforts, and I'm not even in Ukraine yet.  I am so grateful for his help.  I know that without him, I wouldn't be able to do any of this! I would be too scared, or nervous about saying the wrong thing.  But I am trying my very best and he is showering me in blessings.  I can't really describe how I am feeling, but Ammon in the Book of Mormon does a pretty good job.  He says (Alma 26:12 and 16) "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this lang, for which we will praise his name forever...Therefore let us glory, yea we will glory in the Lord; yea we will rejoice for our joy is full; yes we will praise our God forever.  Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? yes who can say too much of his great power and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men?  Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel." The other day the choir directed said something that I loved.  He said, "I went on a mission to repay the Lord.  Now I am even more indebted".  That is how I feel.  I love being a missionary and I LOVE serving the Lord and helping his other children know of his love for them."

Something else, while we were waiting in line for Choir last week, we were talking to an Elder.  Turns out that he was in a Mormon Message.  So we watched that Mormom Message -- we watch a lot of Mormon Messages here -- and it really was him!  The Mormon Message is "Stay within the Lines".  He is the main character.  But seriously, go to LDS.org or the Mormon Channel on Youtube and watch it.  It is so good, especially for boys.  I want all of my younger brothers to watch it.Seriously.  Tonight!

The video above is kinda about mission prep so on that same note!  Jacob, you need to memorize the purpose from Preach my Gospel.  EVERYTHING we do at the MTC revolves around that.  Seriously... We hear about it at least 100 times a day.  No joke.  I have it memorized in russian now, no big deal! But Jacob, you will love the MTC!  Everyone here reminds me of you.  You would love gym, you would love all the different ties, all the elders go around singing songs, hymns, disney songs, or songs from Musicals.  I am so excited for when you get to come to the MTC!!  You will be awesome and you will fit in so well!

Something that is kinda funny.  Last week on our floor, a bunch of girls left.  Then a bunch of new missionaries came in!  They are ASIAN, like from Japan.  None of them really speak English and they are so cute!  It is so fun to say hi!  They are excellent missionaries though.  It makes me so happy!

Speaking of foreign missionaires, awhile back an elder came up to us.  He is from some little island in the Pacific and is at the MTC for two weeks then goes back to his country to serve his misison. He has a bunch of fake gold teeth and he walks with a cane.  When he first got here, he came up and asked to shake all of our hands.  We let him and he was so happy.  Then he said, "On my island, we watch American TV shows, now I know that America really does have the prettiest girls.  I love being here because I can see all the girls".  Kinda weird, right?!?  But somewhat flattering, I guess!

Did you watch the Mighty Band of Youth video on inbetween conference sessions.  It was great!  They let us watch it and there were real life commercials!  haha but it was fun to watch them and the whole program about the MTC! The video was accurate!  They said in the video that the capacity at  the MTC is 2800, just so you know, we have over 3000 now!  Opa!!  -- by the way, opa is my favorite Russian word!  I say it all the time!

This week, two of my roommates left and 3 Russian Districts left.  It was kinda sad but I am excited for them to serve.  I can't believe that in just 6 more weeks, that will be me!  This week though, because they left, we only have 4 girls in our room.  That will be nice!

SO....Russian.  It is coming along so well!  I can't  believe how much I know!  I can testify, pray, teach, and we went all Tuesday without any English!  That is called SYL or in Russian gasayya.  That's kinda how you say it, anyways, I don't have a russian keyboard on this computer!  But it was so fun! We played a game where one person was "Sasha" or legitly a russian and everyone wanted everyone else to think it was them.  I wasn't Sasha but I did get tie for first for people thinking that it was me!  I am a boss!  The picture I sent home with our "angry" faces were from when we were trying to figure out how to talk about our emotions.  We didn't know the word for anger so we all made faces.  It cracked us up for a good 15 minutes.  In that picture, Sister Hunt was in the middle.  She was actually Sasha!

One funny language story is that we had been teaching an investigator named Matfei.  One day I was praying for him with my companion.  I said in my prayer, "Bless us that we can help Mafia come to know the truth".  Then I realized what I said and almost died.  I really didn't mean to pray for the Mafia!  Opa!

Ok so more about this week!

Someone gave me some apple pie this week.  Umm...YUM!  It was so good! I was so happy that night!

I've been a little sick this week.  If someone wanted to know how my district was, I would tell them that we went through 14 boxes of tissue this week!  That is what we get for spending 16 hours a day together. 

We did a pretty intense workout in gym on Friday.  It was one of my ab workouts from my book.  I was sore the next day, which was nice!  :)

Sunday was so good!  What happens is that everyone writes a talk, in Russin, and then the branch president picks two people to give theirs.  I wrote my talk, but they didn't pick me!  Phew! We got to watch Music and the Spoken Word which was super nice! They even sang a song from the Sound of Music!  Music from the outside world!! haha.

This was the first week - because of conference and Easter, that we have had Relief Society.  For Relief Society they bring all the Sisters together and have a big devotional.  The speaker was Mary Edmonds, and she was so funny.  I was laughing so hard that I was crying!! She was a really powerful speaker! I learned so much from her!  She referenced the "Catch the Wave" talk and said that we, as sisters, were the Sister Tsunami!  It was awesome.  We also, even though we have been here a few weeks, had a new sister meeting!  Future Sisters, here's what you need to know! Be modest, and be sure that you follow the rules!  Don't bend the rules or justify them! Just obey!

Sacrament meeting was all in Russian but I could understand most of it!  Woohoo! We had a temple walk and saw Sister Elaina Bills, from Basha!  I love seeing people I know!  I have like 4 friends coming in this week, I can't wait!! We had choir, dinner and then a devotional.  The devotional speaker Sunday night was the dad of one of the Elders in my zone.  His talk was so good.  He is the media director for the church and does the I'm a mormon campaign. It was so interesting. The church is doing great stuff in England, look it up! He said that 44 percent of the missionaries in the MTC are sisters!  What! Crazy! We also got to watch the Joseph Smith movie.  So great! 

Tuesday was awesome!  We only spoke Russian and it was great! We had choir and during choir, the tech people were setting up teleprompters and searching underneath all the chairs with a mirror.  I remember hearing that they only did that when a member of the 12 was coming so I was so stoked!  So we got ready for the devotional, and then during our last prelude song, everyone stood up and Elder Richard G Scott walked in!  He spoke to us!  It was so cool! I had a great seat and I felt like he was looking me in the eye, like the whole time!  It was great! He spoke a lot about  prayer.  He said that we will never regret our missions.  I don't know if you knew that, but his wife served a misison.  He said that he is so proud of all the sisters.  He also talked a lot about those of us learning a language.  It was so awesome!

He ended by giving us an apostalic blessing.  He said that those struggling to learn the language will master it through the Holy Ghost.  Companion struggles will be made right through the Holy Ghost.  This will be a rich and powerful experience.  We made the choice and it will enrich our lives.  We will be better wives and mothers.  We were blessed with peace and that the burden of learning a language will be eased.  It was truly a magnificent blessing.  I felt so loved. 

Then we sang the closing song.  As a sister got up to say the prayer, Elder Scott jumped back up and started talking again!  I have never seen that before and it was so cool.  He was like running to get to the mike.  He said that the Lord has called us to succeed, not fail.  And a bunch of other stuff.  What a wonderful man, I am so glad he is open to revelation from the Lord!  It was so good!

I did sealings at the temple today!  It was so good!  I love my family!

Anyways, I've got to go!  Write me!  Please! 

Love,

Sister Kati Ford

The first picture is the russian english dictionary I want.  It would be fabulous if you could send one to me :) The one we have is 'the worst one that we could've gotten" - that is what my teacher said

the second picture is the sunday temple walk!  look at all those missionaries!

me and sister Hunt!

  

we found an ukraine flag!  

me and Elaina bills, we went to basha together!  She was in my orchestra and we went to disneyland together (junior year!)

me and sister lee in my district, I LOVE HER!!!

sister hall was in my ward last semester, she came in on Wednesday!! 

choir sunday night

monday was district polka dot day!  Almost everyone did it!  elder daw was the only elder though!  

saying goodbye to the other russsian district.  this includes our zone leaders! luckily almost all of them are going to Kyiv!  Its going to be a party!

goodbye to my roommates, they left too!  sister ahlstrom is going to ukraine (Donestk???) and sister Ramage is going to Everett Washington!  Russian speaking! She is the only russian speaker in that mission right now!  holy cow! they are so great though!  I will miss them!

everytime one of us says "guys" we have to do ten pushups!  I only said it once yesterday but sister clark had to do100 pushups! OPA! my name is the one that looks kinda like a butterfly!

yesterday was our first day of SYL (speak your language!) It was so fun!  Notice our little flags under our nametags, we had a lot of fun.  THe other picture is our angry faces.  I'll explain that story in my email! 

General Conference Week

" This week has been really good. I loved conference and getting to hear messages from our general authorities. It is crazy to think that between 6 months ago and now, I have left on a mission! Now I am serving the Lord and learning Russian. That's still crazy for me to think about!

This week we finished teaching Matfei (he committed to baptism, then we found out that he is our teacher! Sneaky!), and started teaching Sasha, Irena, and Max (Also our teachers!) . I think the most important thing that we have been working on in helping them prepare to receive ordinances of baptism and confirmation is strenghtening their belief in God. Commonly, they think that a God exists, but they don't know for sure. It has been interesting to try and help them realize and come to know that God does live and that he loves them. We make sure to promise them the blessings of keeping their commitments and I think that increases their desire to follow through. Also, we bear testimony a lot. I think that is crucial because our teaching isn't going to convert them. What will convert them is the Holy Ghost and we invite the Holy Ghost to be present as we testify. I love that even though this isn't the most "real" teaching we will do, the Spirit can still be felt and testimonies increase. The best part of teaching this week was when we asked Matfei to be baptized and he accepted! I can't wait to have that experience in Ukraine!

This week, my gospel study has been so good. In one of the Sunday "movies/firesides" that they show, Elder Bednar talks about how if we have a question that we want the Lord to answer, we should buy a cheap Book of Mormon, write the question in the front and keep that questions in mind as you prayerfully read the Book of Mormon. I started doing that this week and even though I am only 100 pages into the Book of Mormon, I feel like the Lord has answered my question already. The Book of Mormon is marked up and written in! I love that the Lord is willing to help me find answers to my questions. I can't wait until I finish and can go back and write up a summary of what I have learned. My gospel study has made me more confident in my ability to serve a mission.

This week has been so much better then last week. Thank you so much for talking to me and for the blessing you gave me. I know that the Lord has blessed me and strengthen me so much as I have been here. I know that I can do nothing without him and the fact that he is willing to strengthen me and bless me makes me feel so loved. I love the Lord and know that he lives and loves us too! "

 

Above is the letter that I wrote to my Branch President today.  I love him!  I met with him last week and it was so great.  He gave me a blessing and we just talked and it was fantastic!  The Lord calls amazing men to be in the Branch Presidencies at the MTC -- but I already knew that because I know Grandpa C.  and he is wonderful :) 

 

 Just for y'all to know, I'm so glad that you waited to get a golf membership until I was gone, although I'm still not sure that "We got a golf membership because YOLO" is a good enough reason.  On another note, two of the elders in my district were big golfers.  Elder St. Clair is from Arizona, and worked at Trilogy golf course!  Small world!  He is really good though.  (He once won a gold tourney in Flordia, winning a Mercedes car and 250,000 dollars...He had to turn it down to stay an amauteur!  Stud, right?) They talk about golf a lot!!

 GENERAL CONFERENCE was so great!  We watched in the gym with all the other missionaries.  -- Or most of them, not all of them fit in one room anymore.  I loved it though.  I was happily surprised by how direct some of the general authorities were  My favorite talks were the ones about missionary work!  And yes, I HAVE CAUGHT THE WAVE!! It is your turn now!  Paint that misisonary badge on your heart and get to work!!  Missionary work is fun and ANYONE can do it!!  It is so wonderful to be a missionary now!  Can you believe that it has only been 6 months since they changed the mission age!  And now I am here and SERVING THE LORD!  It rocks!! I also loved that President Monson got the missionary statistics from last week!  65,000+ missionaries-- I think -- and I am one of them!  The world is going to change!  Did y'all hear how often they referenced the scripture about the rock rolling down the mountain???  Missionaries are going to be EVERYWHERE!!  During Priesthood, we watchted the Young Women Meeting. I was sad that Sister Dalton got released but the new presidency is great!  All 3 of them served as a wife to a mission president!  They will be so great to the Young Women striving to serve missions!  They showed a pretty cheesy movie during that broadcast that I LOVED!  It showed this girl and her progression through her life!  I thought about how far I have come since I have been baptized!  And now I am on a mission!!  What?!??!?!?!?  I am so blessed to be here!! Also, the beehive that gave the prayer at that meeting is basically famous now at the MTC.  If anyone knows her, let her know that all the Sister Missionaries love her and her awesome attitude and enthusiasm! 

 

Sunday night for our devotional we had Vocal Point come!  SO GREAT!  And then last night Gerald Lund came -- Author of Work and the Glory. It was so great! We have had the BEST devotionals since I have been here!  They are so great!!!  After our devotionals we do district meetings where we just talk about what we learned.  They are my favorite part of the week!  The spirit is so strong and we talk in English!

 

Speaking of English, Russian is going so much better.  We learned how to conjugate verbs and are now learning cases.  In a really, really simple way, in Spanish, you conjugate verbs.  In Russian, you conjugate verbs too and then "conjugate" nouns, pronouns, and everything.  THere are 6 ways to do that, and they are called the 6 cases! Next week I will send home a picture of the case chart I have been memorizing! It is intense.  But we can understand way more and I can read it a lot easier.  We pray 85% in Russian and we sing all our hymns in Russian.  That part is pretty cool!  Speaking of which, random fact, the Russian Hymnbook has 3 hymns that aren't in the English book, Greensleves and 2 other ones that I don't know yet!  How awesome, right!!!

 

We just got back from the temple and we ate lunch there!  It was SO good!  If you ever get a chance, eat at the temple! A bonus is that you get to eat with all the cute old ladies too! 

 

HIGHLIGHTS:  Devtionals, Priesthood Blessings, Temple, General Conference, Cinnamon Rolls, Vocal Point

 

MISS: Spring! it was here for like a week, then in snowed again!  Not cool! :)

FUNNY MOMENTS: The elders like to scare us a lot.  Kinda funny when we all scream.  If you take the orange juice that comes in a bottle and shake it, it will explode the lid off.  We scared ourselves and our teachers like 3 different times with that!  Our classroom smelled super bad at one point and we all blamed the elders but it turned out that it was just the way it smelled outside!  Awkward! 

 

TENDER MERCIES: the messages of conference, the cinnamon rolls, sunshine, new clothes!  So many more

 

Also, real quick, I heard about the Mengelts.  My heart breaks for the sorrow and pain they must feel.  My only comfort to them and anyone else that is struggling with that is the Jesus Christ lives.  God lives.  They know us individually and love us.  They know how we feel and can heal pain.  As we turn to them for comfort, they can help us find peace, even in the hardest of times.  I am praying for them and anyone one else who this impacted.  Mom, you mentioned that you had been listening to Be Still My Soul to comfort you.  That is is the song we sang for choir this week.  We talked about how if we put our faith and trust in God, he will guide us and "Lift our cross of grief or pain".  I testify that is true. He loves and cares about us and will guide and comfort him if we trust him!  

 

Dad, I got 20 letters and 2 packages this week!  Grandma C wins for best package because she sent me Cinnamon Rolls!  They were so good and my districted loved them also!  Love you grandma!  Thank you so much!

 

Send more letters!  They make me SOOOOOOO happy!  Love you all!  The Church is true!

 

Love you so much,

Sister Kati Ford

 

 

picture 1  is my running buddy, Sister Clark.  We are in the same district'

picture 2 is my planner...I love planning every second of my day...seriously!

this is my district one day after  class

my district while we were eating the General Conference Cinnamon Rolls that grandma sent! 

YUMM!!!!

 the girls in my district did dress like elders day... It was pretty fun.  I'm glad I'm not an elder everyday, being a sister is way more comfortable :) :) 

 and I decorated my planner with the pictures you sent!  Isn't it cute :)