The Power of Twins Week 4

Dear Family and Friends and Everyone else, 

I don't even know where to begin this week because I have so much to say!  I will start with discussing my debate over what to title this email...Wow, that sounded intense.  But anyways....

Option 1: I'm sick of being poked by drunk men on Marshootkas (Buses)

This was an option but it seemed a little too negative, and my week was to positive to have such a negative title.  Plus I thought maybe it would freak out my mom.  but seriously, it's annoying.  Everytime I get on the bus, some drunk man pokes me in the arm and tries to talk to me.  And mostly just to me!  I have never seen someone poke Sister Busch.  Ever.  She attributes it to the fact that I am a "Viking Princess". (More about that below).  But anyways...I just smile sweetly and say, "ya ne panemyoo" (on a random side note, it is really hard to write in Russian, but with the Latin alphabet) which means "I don't understand".  and then get as far away from them as I can.  But it is all part of the craziness of Ukraine.  and I love it all :) 

Option 2: With Love from the Viking Princess

So in the MTC (missionary training center, although there is a phone company by the same initials in Ukriane.  My MTC waterbottle makes me a walking advertisement for the cell phone company!),  They give us a book with common phrases and words to know.  It is called the TALL book.  One phrase in the book is "Who are you, by nationality?".  In the MTC, we all thought that was kinda a joke.  We didn't think people actually came up and asked that.   BUT, they do.  All the time! People come up and guess our nationalities all the time.  It is so funny.  Conversations, go like this:

Me -- "Hello, My name is Sister Ford and this is Sister Hunt and Sister Busch"

Random Russian -- "Hello,  Sister Ford you are from Norway, Sister Hunt from Russia, and Sister Busch, you are American" 

Me -- "Umm...ok..."

All the time. And we get different countries all the time.  Sister Hunt has recieved, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, India, Mexico, South American, and America. I've recieved - Norway, Ukraine, Russia, Ireland, England, Finland, Dutch.  I've actually never recieved America.  And Sister Busch gets American.  everytime.  Without fail.  It is so funny! 

But back to the Viking Princess.  Someone said, "you look like a Scandinavian.  Like a Viking Princess."  So that is my nickname now.  Anytime any creepy man creeps, or drunk man pokes my arm, it is because I am a Viking Princess. Obviously.  :) 

Option 3: Registration

So in Ukraine, you have to be registered.  In the country, in the city, in our apartment.  It's kinda a big pain.  We get phone calls and they are like, 'You will be here tomorrow" and we are like, "Ok" So we did that this week!  And by tomorrow I will finally be a legal citizen in Ukraine- well...visting citizen.  But it was joyful this week filling all that stuff out because we had to do it, ourselves, in Russian.  It may not seem that hard but when your address is Longjarovasky or something like that, it takes forever!  But it was an exciting Ukraine experience! :) 

 

 

Option 4: Things that just don't happen, Happen in Ukraine

This is a truth statement.  Several times a day, I look at Sister Hunt and say, "Did that really just happen???" Whether it is someone riding hanging off the back of the tram, the cats everywhere - dead and alive-, the dances in the park on Weekends, The neighbors and what they say to us, the amount of people that can fit on one bus (20 seats - 50 people, no big deal).  They are so crazy, but I really seriously love it!  I just want to bring all my friends back and show them all the reasons that I love Ukraine!  and the People! 

Option 5: Exchanges! 

We did a sister's exchange this week!  It was so fun!!! Sister Leavitt came and I learned so much from her.  In fact, let all of you know that my official guess for next transfer is that Sister Hunt and I serve with her, here in Center.  Just a guess...  But we had a great time!  We taught some good lessons, ate some ice cream (something we don't do very often around Sister Busch, see below) and really felt the Spirit strongly.  :)

Option 6: I prayed on the Marshootka. 

Someday I will be famous for this.  haha just kidding...but kinda serious.  Missionaries rarely pray on buses with people.  But you know, we do what the Spirit says :).  And it was great.  I was on this Marshootka, and a man poked me (sound familiar???) and started to talking to me a little.  I said, "sorry I don't understand" and then he started speaking in english.  He told me all about how he wanted to improve his life, stop drinking, stop smoking, have a better relationship with God.  So I gave him a Book of Mormon, invited him to English, and just talked.  It was so cool.  we said a prayer with him, blessing him to find time to read the Book of Mormon.  He told us about how he misses his family and we explaned eternal families.  It was so fun.  When we got off the bus, he looked out the window and waved to us.  It was so cute :) We will see if he can find time to come to english or meet with the Elders!!

Option 7: Sister Hunt and I are crazy...

So...Sister Busch doesn't eat sugar.  Ever.  Weird, I know.  She misses out on all the good deserts here -- and trust me, there are A TON! They have ice cream on every street corner, for less then a dollar American ususally!  It's a great deal!  I get these chocolate ice cream cones that are amazing!   Plus chocolate and cake and pie and yum...so good! :)-- But anyways, Sister Busch doesn't eat it.  So one day, Sister Hunt said that she  wanted to try no sugar. And I was like, "No way, there is too many good desserts here and I'm only going to be here for 16 months" and Sister Hunt was like, "Let's have a competition to see who can go the longest without sugar"  And I like competitions, which is why we are now not eating sugar.  Hopefully it doesn't last too much longer haha :) I miss my ice cream and chocolate :) 

Option 8: The magic of weekly planning

This week we had a GREAT planning session.  We set some awesome goals, made great plans, and are so EXCITIED for this upcoming week! I can't wait to email next week and tell you about how great the week was!  Because seriously, it will be great!! I know it :) Expect miracles next week! Although we've already seen some as the results of this planning! :)

Option 9: The Power of the Twins 

This is the one I picked.  Everyone calls Sister Hunt and I the twins.  So whenever anything exciting happens, it is because of the twins.  This week we even did an member split and Sister Hunt and I were by ourselves.  We saw miracles, because of the power of the twins. :) 

Option 10:  Greenie Grace

This was the second runner up.  This refers to the miracles that the Lord showers upon new missionaries.  I mentioned up above that Sister Hunt and I were by ourselves.  Thanks to the power of the twins and greenie grace, I have a great thing to share....

WE SET A BAPTISIMAL DATE!!!! 

So...her name is Natasha.  And Sister Hunt and I did it without Sister Busch. Crazy, right!  The Lord blessed us.  Here is the story, Sister Busch stayed in Center to go to church and Sister Hunt and I traveled to Suvorvsky.  By ourselves. When we got to church, Masha, a member, leaned over and says, " I brought an investigator, you have a lesson set up with her after church" and we said, "ok!" So we meet with her (Natasha) after church and discover that she has met with the missionaries before but was dropped because she wasn't willing to change all aspects of her life.  But recently, she felt like something was missing.  She realized that she wants to change her life, make correct choices, and be baptized.  And we  were like. "ok" and like asked her if she understood what she wanted to do.  And she was like, 'yes!" and we were like "Ok we can help you!" and she is like, 'Can I be baptized on July 6th?".  and we were like, "oh yeah! We can work towards that".  And then she left and Sister Hunt and I looked at each other and said, "Oh my, did that really just happen?!?!"  And it did!  This is real life! 

We were so excited!  We were like jumping up and down and such... It was an awesome moment when we told Sister Busch, she didn't believe us.  hehe :) 

In our mission, when we set a date, we get to call President. So we got to call him too!  And then a text gets sent out to the whole mission.  So it was a party last night because we kept getting texts saying congrats.  It is way fun :) So I know the Lord is blessing us because we are trying...even though we don't know Russian and are brand new :) We are meeting with her again tonight and I am excitied :) Pray for her and that she can have the Lord's help in overcoming all she needs to for baptism :) 

 

 

 

This week I saw the Lord's hand in my life so often!  I love being a missionary and serving him!  I know that the Lord is hastening his work at this time and I am so blessed to be a part of it! What a blessing to be in Ukraine! People here are accepting the gospel and I am so blessed to be an instrument in his hands! Pray for the missionaries (that they can learn the language especially), pray for the members, pray for the investigators.  I know that your prayers are helping me and I am thankful for them! And lastly, share the gospel with your friends! This is a GREAT message!  It makes me so happy and I just want everyone to know about it!  Help the missionaries! 

Love you all, 

Sister Ford

Oh yeah--- If anyone is writing me, from now on, send letters just to Kati Ford.  No sister in front.  That makes them take longer...Also, letters sent this week will make it by tranfers :) Love y'all! :) 

Dear Family,

It's official.  I am living in the prettiest part of Odessa, the prettiest part of Ukraine, the prettiest part of Europe, maybe even the prettiest part of the world!  I love it here and being in the heart of Odessa in the summer is so much fun! School (if you can call it that, I'm not sure how it works because they never seemed to go but...) finally ended and people and tourists are everywhere!  The part of Odessa that we cover is actually mainly tourists, which makes missionary work hard. But at the same time, I have talked to people from all over the world, so little seeds of the gospel are spreading throughout the world because of the work I am doing here!  

 

 Last night in the MTC, with my Russian hat

 

 In austria airport!

first view of Ukraine

For example, 

Last Tuesday, A set of elders and our companionship decided to do a finding activity where we sang hymns. We headed down by "The Odessa stairs" and started singing.  It was a cruise ship day (maybe next time we will try to pick a day where there are more Ukrainians then tourists) and within minutes, we had a big group of people around us.  Sister Hunt and Elder Knight were talking to people and the other 3 of us were singing!  It was so cool! People were asking questions, taking pictures and videos and accepting Mormon.org cards.  

At one point, just Sister Busch and I were singing.  A man and his wife came up and asked us if we were professional singers.  We were like "No, where are you from, you speak English?" And it turns out that they were from Switzerland!  They told us that they were the choir directors of serveral National Swiss choirs and that we had beautiful voices.  Haha no one has ever told me that I have a beautiful voice before!  They were so cool to talk to!

Then we met another older man.  He was from Norway (Hi Grandpa!) and he knew the medley to one of the songs that we were singing. (we were singing Israel Israel God is Calling, but the song is different in Norway I guess.We were singing in Russian so he didn't understand the words.) But he came up and said, God loves us all.  And we were like, "yes, he does".  So that was cute! 

 

 

Ukraine sight seeing at Opera house and stairs

This week I had a couple awesome opportunities.  First of all, President Klebingat came down and Sister Hunt and I were able to have dinner with him.  Everytime we go to our church building, we have to walk through this Italian resturaunt and it was so exciting because we finally got to eat there! It was so good!  One miracle that I saw was that President ordered dessert for everyone (I guess that is a rare occasion!).  I had a YUMMY strawberry pie!  So good :) 

Yesterday, we did our first extended split.  I went to the Center Branch ward meetings, and my other two companions went to our other branch.  I was on exchanges with a returned missionary names Yulia.  She is a sweetheart and so excitied for the gospel.  Plus she speaks english! :) But we got to church and she is like, "Hey we have some extra time, let's go contacting!" and we did and It was really good for me to get some more practice!  In addtion to having me talk to every person we passed, if we passed a member of the church, I would practice on them too.  The members thought that it was the funniest thing ever!  But hey, they all accepted the invitiation to come to sacrament meeting with me :) It made me think of the Best Two Years.  :) 

This week, we taught more lessons then our past week.  My favorite lesson that we taught was to a girl named Dasha.  She has been investigating the church for awhile now, and Sister Busch warned us about that sometimes she was a little "flakey", especially about reading the scriptures.  So we decided to teach about personal scripture study.  That morning before we taught her, I was studying what I wanted to share with her.  I felt prompted to read 2 Nephi 32.  I did and planned a message about feasting on the words of Christ- which I felt strongly prompted to share.  We got to the lesson and I started talking about what I wanted to share and Dasha said, "I felt like I should read 2 Nephi 29-32 last night and I did it.  I love these chapters".  And because I followed the prompting that morning, I was able to share a message from what she had read the night before.  It was a real testimony builder that the Lord is aware of all of His children and he will bless them and help them.  As we left the lesson, Sister Busch commented on how Dasha had never been that eager to talk about the scriptures and commit to read and study them.  It really was a small miracle.  Hopefully we can help her desire baptism soon! 

 Pictures of me!  From today!  I love the one of sister hunt and I by the anchor!

 LIGHTNING!!

Something that I am learning to love more and more everyday is the opportunities I have to personal study everyday.  I decided to make time to read and study the Book of Mormon for at least 15 minutes during every personal study.  And I love that time.  I feel like I recieve so much guidence from the Lord as I read the scriptures and ponder them and really feast on the Book of Mormon.  I have really realized how blessed I am to have the Book of Mormon in my life.  Something else that I have been studying is prayer.  There was an article in the June Liahona about prayer, that I really took to heart and applied in my life.  I decided to do all that I could to make my personal prayers better.  Something that I decided was to do my nightly personal prayers a little earlier then 10:15-10:20ish, so that I could be more awake.  Even that little bit of a change has helped my communication with the Lord grow so much. 

This week I realized how blessed I am and how blessed I have been my whole life!  We were talking to an investigator and (as they often do) she was going on about all the problems in her life when she told us that her income is 70 greven a day.  Which is like 9 dollars a day!  I was blown away!  Before I left on my mission, I made more then that in an hour!  I just couldn't stop reflecting on how blessed I have been in my life.  I have had so many wonderful opportunities in my life!  I am so grateful for the blessings I have in my life!  When times get tough, it is easy to get swept away in your problems. Being on my mission has helped me realize how blessed I have been my whole life!  Not only with the gospel, but with a stable income, healthy food, clean water!  I am so blessed! 

Anyways....I love being a missionary!  The Lord is blessing me so much!  :) I am so happy to be serving here in Ukraine!  I hope all is well in America! :) Love you all so much!  Email me!  Write me!  

Love, Sister Ford

 Funny story...Today my curling iron freaked out and got really hot and burnt off some of my hair....Awkward...I know :)

 Market

 View from our balcony

 funny light switch

Opera house

Week 2 in Ukraine! :) I love this country! :)

Dear Everyone, 

This week I have grown to love so much about Ukraine!  I want nothing more then to have all my family and friends come so I can show them everything that I love!  I love the beauty,

 I love the people,

 I love the stray animals,

 I even love the weirdness, 

the occasional ghetto-ness,

 and the scary moments! As I'm sitting here at the computer, I'm trying to think of something that I don't like... I think there is only one thing, the large amount that people smoke.  It is a little gross but hey, I can teach them all about the Word of Wisdom! 

This week I have so many miracles and little great things that happened that I don't even know where to start!  

I guess just with last Monday.  We had choir.  I think I might have mentioned how choir was scary because we didn't know what she was saying (The choir director is a recent convert named Cveta, we call her Cveta Music) and I guess Sister Hunt and I weren't singing super well... so she made us sing like a one-on-one lesson with her.  Super scary!  She has a love for long extended metaphors and when Sister Busch would try to translate them, we would die because they were so crazy sounding.  But anyways, after choir, we were supposed to have a lesson but the girl never showed up.  We had a member there, Masha.  Masha is AWESOME!  She served a mini mission in Kyiv and wants to serve a full time mission!  She speaks quite a bit of English.  Since our lesson was a no show, we went out and did some contacting for our English class! Masha and I did member splits together.  It was crazy!  She told me what to say and then I did it.  We got to the point (because my accent is pretty awful) where people would just come up to me and ask for a card because they could tell that I spoke English, not Russian.  It was so cool and we handed out every single English card we had.  I even had some teenage boys tell me that I was cool, which is a big deal.  They don't like to compliment other people here so a "Tea klasna" was AWESOME! :) So our awesome day of contacting made Monday awesome! 

The next morning was my first meeting with my new district. I feel like cards have been flipped because instead of there only being 3 elders, there are now only 3 sisters!  But we have an awesome district!  It is a great testimony builder to me to see and hear the testimonies of the Elders around me.  I think that our mission has the best Elders!  Seriously! 

The other thing that Odessa has that are awesome is a great YSA program!  Seriously! The youth here are so strong and I am so blessed that I get to see there examples!  They are super active and so sweet and nice!  They all want to serve missions and they all want to come out and contact and teach with us!  It makes missionary work so fun for us!  They invite their friends to all the activities so we always get to go and get to know them!  They are so eager to share this gospel! 

This week, we had a Patriarch visit Odessa.  The Church has traveling Patriachs that give blessings in areas that usually don't have a Patriarch.  So Brother Rogers, from Utah,

 came out and is traveling throughout our mission, giving blessings to the Saints here.  The rules for the church ask that a single woman isn't alone with the Patriarch so they asked us to sit in on blessings.  what a cool experience.  The spirit was SO strong, even though I don't understand the words.  It was so great to see Recent Converts and such receive blessings and come out with a visibly brighter light in their eyes!  There has been a big focus on patriarchal blessings recently and how they can bless your life when you receive them!  So it was awesome to be a part of that! It was also a great opportunity to meet strong members from the whole district! Also, on an incredible cool side note, Brother Rogers said that all of the 12 tribes of Israel have been found in Ukraine.  It is such a cool and clear gathering of Israel here! I am so blessed to be here! Also, I was able to help Brother Rogers (because he is quite old) do some of the electronic part of the blessings.  While I worked on that he observed that Odessa, more then anywhere in Ukraine, has super strong, motivated, missionary work focused members.  It helped me realized how it is a blessing to be here!  for sure!

This week we met with the ward mission leader!  I'm not sure it is possibly to be more focused on missionary work then we are, but if anyone can do it, it is him!  He is AWESOME!  We set up a program to encourage families to give away copies of the Book of Mormon, so we are excited to see how that works out!  But he is so excited to share the gospel!

Thursday the weather was crazy! 

 It rained so much!  thank goodness for my rain jacket,

 although I didn't wear my rain boots that day.  Bummer!  But we headed out to our other area for the first time.  I hadn't realized how nice Center is, but it is super nice.  Suborskey is nice too, but not quite as nice.  We went to meet a less active member and because of the rain and the crazy musutka-bus ride, we were a little late. The lady FREAKED OUT.  Scariest moment of my life.  So freaky, but then she fed us and let us share a spiritual thought.  But that was freaky!

We also did service for a member of that branch.  She can't walk but her testimony is so strong.  We helped her clean her kitchen and talked to her.  On a side note, in the bedroom, where we put our coats, there was a TV.  When we were leaving, it played the Old Spice commercial- the I'm on a horse one- in Russian!  That was pretty awesome!

We also taught English for the first time!  It was SO fun!  I really enjoyed it! :) We just talk! We have about 15-20 people everytime which is an awesome turnout.  They are really hardworking dedicated people.  We always invite them to church and activities which is fun!  The younger ones always have questions about our missions, which are fun to awesome.  One day I had a group of like 8 people listening attently to about when I opened my mission call!  They listened to my story and then they asked me a lot of questions.  It was SO fun! There was two ladies there, Luba and Yula.  We invited them to a church activity, and they came-- I'll explain that story later!

On Saturday, we had the great activity to go to a district activity.  It was celebrating 20 years of the church being in Odessa!  It was so fun to hear from the first members, to see pictures and to hear musical numbers.  We sang in it,

 and despite our singing talents, it went really well!  It was really interesting for me because I had thought that it would have been fun to serve in Nauvoo because I love the Pioneers.  But now I realized that I am surrounded by Latter-day Pioneers.  I often look around me and am shocked by the grossness of society here.  It is worse then anywhere I have been before.  But these latter-day Pioneers have figured out how to wade through all the grossness and still have super strong testimonies!  I love them! 

 This was the activity that Luba and Yula came to.  I admire them, the activity was 3 HOURS long, but they stayed the whole time.  And afterwords, we were talking to them and one of us was holding a Book of Mormon.  Luba looked at the book and said, "Is that your book?" and we were like, "yes"  and she said, "I've read that book.  I believe that it is true, I want to be baptized."  and we were speechless. I've heard of things like that happening but I still can't believe that it happened to us!  She didn't even remember where she had gotten the Book of Mormon from!  We taught her yesterday and we teach her again tomorrow and are hoping to help her get a baptism date tomorrow!  They are both wonderful women! Yesterday we taught some of the first lesson.  Sister Hunt shared a super powerful testimony of Joseph Smith and then we talked about how we can know that the Book of Mormon is true through the Holy Ghost and Luba was like, "That makes sense".  She loved the promise in Moroni 10:3-5.  We asked them to read and pray together and they both said that they would!  it was awesome, we passed them later that night in the park and they were reading the Book of Mormon together! We are excited to teach them tomorrow! 

Also, all three of us spoke in church yesterday and we did a musical number.  Afterwords, a member of the District (Stake) Presidency stood up and said, "I hope you realize that this is historic.  We just heard from the first 19 year old sister missionaries in Ukraine, in Odessa, and in this branch.  This is a great time to share the gospel because we have these missionaries here.  Help them, help them with the language, give them your referrals, invite them over to teach others." So I'm basically famous...tell all your friends that you know the first 19 year old sisters in Odessa, I'm sure they will be impressed :) 

So anyways...I am loving Ukraine!  I can testify of the power of the gift of tongues and the power of the Spirit!  I love being a missionary and serving the Lord!  I know he is aware of me and is blessing me!  Everything that I am doing is only possible through the Lord!   Pray for me and pray for those that I am teaching!  Share the gospel with your friends!  It will bless their lives! I'm grateful for this opportunity!  I know this church is true and I love it! 

Love

Sister Ford

(random pictures she sent without any captions)

PS- my mission president letter:

Dear President,

This week was really good.  I finally felt like a "real" missionary which was nice, mostly because we had some lessons and spent some time contacting and looking for new investigators.  This week had some unusual things happen like the Patriarch coming but I feel like the Lord blessed us for the service that we did helping Brother Rogers. 

This week we were still adjusting to the missionary lifestyle. I think Sister Hunt and I finally got to the point where we remember to take food with us when we leave the house so that we can eat even if we aren't home.  

This week I had a huge testimony builder in doing missionary work despite the other activities that we are doing.  Several times this week when we would be walking home at night, or today on P-day, gospel conversations start and we have the opportunity to share a message.  I'm grateful for Sister Busch because she is always ready to share the gospel.  One night especially it was a little bit past nine and we were trying to get home after a lesson.  When Sister Busch started talking to this lady, I was slightly disappointed because I didn't want to be late.  But then the lady committed to come to English, and even gave us her phone number to meet with her and talk about our beliefs.  So it testified to me that the Lord will place people in our paths no matter what we are doing and we need to be ready to share our message at all times! 

I think the thing that is stressing me out the most is the language.  I really struggle because I don't understand or know how to say very much and it is hard because a conversation will be going on and I don't want to interrupt it with questions about something that I didn't understand.  But the Lord showered me with tender mercies of people that needed help with the gospel, in English this week.  I had the opportunity to help a man named Isaac search the scriptures for scriptures about love (in English).  I felt helpful which was nice because usually I feel like I can't help much.  Something I did learn was that when I testify in Russian, the Spirit can testify to the people.  It always touches me when I bear my simple testimony and someone is really touched.  I realize that the Spirit is teaching them, I feel blessed that the Spirit can work through me. 

This week we meet a lady at English named Luba.  We invited her to a ward activity and after she told us that she has read the entire Book of Mormon and believes it and wants to be baptized.  So we are excited to help her!  We taught her yesterday with her daughter and we teach them again tomorrow! 

Anyway...It was a good week! I love serving the Lord in this beautiful city of Odessa! I feel so blessed! 

Sister Ford

First Week in Ukraine!!

(I did not edit for her so forgive the misspelled words)

Sorry no pictures this week :( I can't figure out how to send them and niether can my companions!  We will try again next week! I have like 50 to send though :( 

So I made it!! Thankfully!!! Let me explain some of my adventures that I had...

Ok so last Tuesday (can you believe that it was a week ago, already??) We went to the Salt Lake Airport, then onto the Washington DC Airport.  Flying was fun...I slept... Once we got to DC, I got to talk to my family, which was wonderful!  In DC, a worker from our airline came up and informed me that my carry-on was too big to carry on to the plane.  I was so nervous that they would make me check my bag but guess what?? They did it for FREE!  That made me so happy! :).  I was so grateful! So then we got on our airplane to fly from DC to Austria.  It was a little stormy in DC so we waited for an hour before we could take off.  NOT GOOD because our layover in Austria was only 70 minutes.  However the flight attendents told us that all would be good, so we relaxed. I'm telling you, flying across the ocean is actually pretty nice.  There are a lot of movies to watch and such...However, as a missionary, I tried to sleep the whole way.  I actually slept pretty well too! (about as well as you can sleep on an airplane)! They fed us some pretty darling meals, Austrian food.  The bread was super good.  They also have awesome muffins! :) So anyways... we got closer to landing and we realized that our layover was going to be close, so we told everyone that we needed to hurry...but the big problem was that some of our group was in the back of the plane.  So we got off the plane as fast as we could and ran into Customs. which had a huge long line. By the time we got through Customs, we checked in at our gate and were about to head down to the boarding area (downstairs, outside) when the plane called and said that they were leaving.  And we were stranded in Austria.  6 people in our travel group made it, 12 did not.  So we were stuck in Austria for 8 HOURS!  Luckily the airport was like a little mall so we bought some chocolate and explored a little bit.  Just imagine if IKEA built an airport, that is what this airport was like :) We originally were going to have a flight on our original airlines the next morning, but then we called President and he wanted a flight that same night, so we were rebooked on a different airline.  There was so much time to kill in the airport in Austria.  Sister Lee and I took like 2 and a half hours and gave each other make overs in the bathroom.  People thought that we were crazy!!  Kinda true...but... anyways... Finally we got on a plane (on a slightly scarier airlines) and fly into Kyiv.  We landed at like 8:30 and quickly realized that a few of us (Sister Lee, Sink and I) were missing bags.  We learned that they were in a seperate part of the airport (like a 5 minute drive away). So we went with the AP's to find our suitcases...Super sketchy luggage exchange. The AP's couldn't come back with us, but they let our driver come back as a translater.  Thank goodness because the luggage man was like yelling at us in Russian and we had no idea what he was saying! But we figured it all out and got our bags and finally (after eating dinner) made it to the hotel at like 1 in the morning.  It was crazy.  Sister Lee and I were rooming together so we dropped off Sister Sink then headed up to our room, which we couldn't actually get into.  So we ended up sleeping with Sister Hunt and Sister Clark.  They had both arrived on the earlier plane so they already knew where they were serving, but they wouldn't tell us ANYTHING! (Which is funny because that whole night, Sister Hunt ALREADY knew that we were serving together! and DIDN'T TELL ME!!) 

But anyways, the next morning we got up and ready, and went and met our trainers. That is when I met Sister Busch, our AWESOME trainer and found out that I was serving in Odessa! Funny story about Sister Busch, in Russian there is no difference between SIster Bush and Busch so EVERYTIME she is introduced, they ask if she is related to President Bush.  Pretty funny! :)  We spent that day doing a lot of training.  The next day was the same, a lot of training.  Just explaining some about the culture of the mission, and our goals, and such.  It was super good!  I was jet-lagged so bad though!  Still am a little bit haha :) We also had the chance to take pictures by the temple and do a little bit of street contacting.  With the help of Sister Busch, Sister Hunt and I placed our very first Book of Mormon!! YAY!  It was fun!  I quickly realized that I don't know very much Russian!  I went up to a lady and said, "Hello, do you want to hear a message about Jesus Christ" and she said, "I don't understand you".  And Sister Busch started talking and asked her if she understood Russian or only Ukrainian.  and the lady was like, Duh, I understand both, I just don't understand her.  Awkward.  But I am learning!  I can talk more now, which is nice! :) 

At the end of the second day, we found out that instead of taking a train, we were going to take a Taxi down to Odessa with the 1 other sister companionship that was going down there.  So instead of a 12 hour train ride, it was a 6 hour taxi ride.  Super sketch but awesome!  No seat belts, possibly no speed limit, and a very bumpy road!  At one point, he ZOOMED over a huge bump and Sister Hunt and I (we were asleep) went flying and woke up.  It was so freaky!  We finally got to the apartment though.  Our first night, we spent with the other sisters, Their apartment in named, "THE JUNGLE" and has SO many plants everywhere! But we squeezed in there and went to bed.  There was a super bad thunderstorm that night.  It like knocked over trees and such.  Scary!  We also saw 2 cochroaches!  AND road in a super sketch elevator.  IT WAS SO COOL!! :) 

The next morning, we moved into our new apartment.  We are in a different area then the other sisters so we traveled to our part of Odessa.  We cover Center Odessa and Sueborskey, 2 branches out of the 5 in the Odessa District.  Center is the biggest one and yesterday at church there was about 80-100 people.  Our apartment is one the fifth floor and is up the Sketchiest flight of stairs EVER!  but the actually apartment is super nice.  It is really small, but clean!  No bugs! :) It only had 1 queen sized bed (but the mattress is divided in two pieces).  So sister Hunt and I each have half of the bed and Sister Busch is on an air mattress.  It is fun! Our kitchen in bright blue and yellow and has a nice quote above the stove that says, (In english), "When we are in love, we love the grass and the lightpoles"...Maybe someone wants to explain it to me because I don't understand...at all! :) We have a washer and a clothesline out on our balcony, (that was weird today, hanging our clothes to dry 5 stories up in the air, which clothespins!  Haha!  Other new experience include using a water flilter or not drinking any water, using a European toliet, lighting the stove with a match (that is a little scary but I haven't burnt myself yet!).  Anyways...home sweet home!

Ok so our first real day at work was Sunday.  We woke up, studied and such.  Our branch meeting house is this super cute place in downtown Odessa.  It is by this huge cathedrial and right down the street from the Opera House and Black Sea, (Both of which I have seen in passing).  It is super sweet and bright and yellow.  We went and met a lot of people.  People are always so happy that there is a trio and AMAZED as Sister Hunt and I.  We are the first 19 year old Sisters in Odessa so they get so excited and start hugging us and talking really fast and we just nod and smile.  All three of us bore our testimonies, which was scary but fun!  Odessa has great members, it was like a race to get up and bear testimony.  They are so awesome!  There are so many great youth especially! The center branch has like 3 or 4 sisters that want to serve missions pretty soon, so they love helping the missionaries! :) We helped in Primary which was exciting.  A recent convert taught the Primary (they all meet together), and she did an amazing job!  It was good.  Then we went to Relief Society.  One of my favorite parts of church was all the members would come up and say hi and give us a hug and talk to us, even though we didn't really understand.  One lady told me that I was super sweet and spiritual.  And she was crying, which was so nice! She was sweet! 

This Saturday is a 20 year celebration of the church being in Odessa so there is a big celebration and the missionaries are in choir.  So we went to a practice for that.  SO INTENSE!  The choir director was intense and in Russian so we didn't know what she was saying.  But still trying to sing.  Opa!  But we are super excited for this celebration this weekend!

Oh and last night was institute and seminary graduation for the district.  We went to that, and it was AWESOME! The future of the church in Ukraine is with the youth.  They are AWESOME! :)

Tonight we have a first lesson with a new investigator that we found.  Her name is Ledia and she seems sweet.  We don't know for sure if she is interested in the gospel or something else so hopefully we can find that out today! We are going to teach her some about the Book of Mormon.  We also have a couple other investigators that we are working on.  But then a lot of this week will be finding new investigators because we are in a new area so we have to find the people still!

Letter to President:

 
Everything is going good for me so far! I love Odessa! It has beautiful scenery, but I think the most beautiful thing is the members! They are so strong and willing to help. When we figure out the best way to use members to be more effective missionaries, the work will be so crazy! They are willing and excited to help! Right now we are focusing on a few people and also focusing on finding new people in our area to work with. 
Training is good great! Sister Busch is so helpful and pushing us so much (but not over any cliffs!) We have even done our first Russian phone calls which we were super nervous for!
Sister Hunt and I are working hard and excited to see Miracles!

Anyways, I love this work!  And I love Ukraine and expecially Odessa!  I am so blessed!  I have great companions, and I love being here!  It is beautiful here and reminds me of Europe (like Italy!) We are in the absolutely prettiest part of Odessa which is so fun! Pray for me to learn the language and to be safe! 

I love you! 

SIster Kati Ford