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!