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
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