Dear Family, 

This week was a good week! It is funny because I think if I wrote any earlier then today, I wouldn't have said that, but it is true. I think I learned a lot this week, but I also had fun and felt the Spirit so strongly as I went about my work!

This week began with me thinking a lot about the work that we are doing. All last week, we didn't have ANY investigators. We had dropped a couple that weren't keeping commitments and we hadn't found any! We would talk to SO many people and get rejected almost every time. Dad- The letter you sent where you talked about keeping track of how many people rejected you because then you could know that you were at least working, remember that?? We kept track one day, 38 people rejected us- and we stopped counting after that! Opa! So things were a little frustrating, so one morning, I studied about faith. I studied how the Lord will grant unto us "all things that are expedient unto Him", if we have faith. Sister Leavitt and I thought a lot about that. We felt that asking and REALLY praying for a new investigator was expedient to Him, because we are here sharing His gospel and inviting people to come unto him. We also felt that we had enough faith that if we asked for a new investigator, we would find one! So we prayed, and prayed, and prayed, and prayed...and worked and worked and worked and worked...and NOTHING. We talked to everyone...no one was interested. But we had faith, and we had faith in His timing and His way. So even though we were disappointed, we didn't give up. Finally, last night, we had a lesson with a member. After the lesson, we had planned to go drop by a Less Active Member's House.  But we felt instead that we needed to go talk to people on the street. As we started walking, I felt a strong impression to turn around and walk the other way, away from where we lived. We listened to that prompting and we were just walking. We didn't see anyone and we were wondering how we were EVER going to find anyone, when we spotted a older couple, sitting on a bench across the street. We crossed the street and asked if we could talk to them and they said that we could. We talked about the gospel, our families, what we believed, and why we were here. At the end of our conversation, they asked for a Book of Mormon and gave us their number and agreed to meet again! We are so excited to meet with them tonight! They are so cute! They also are married and have been married for a LONG time, which is really rare in Ukraine! This will be the first couple that I will teach so I am excited! So it was a great lesson that we learned.  God will give us what we ask for, if we ask in faith; yet he still does it in His own time and in His own way. We show our love for Him by enduring until our answers come, realizing that sometimes they come late, sometimes they come in a different way, and sometimes, however hard it may be to accept, His plan is different then ours. But they come and His ways are higher then ours, so even if it is hard to accept, someday it will turn out better then we know at this moment! 

This week, because we are in a new area and a new companionship and because we didn't have any investigators, we spent a lot of time meeting members. We have been forming some very valuable relationships, which became very evident on Sunday.  We were asked by the Relief Society President to give the Spiritual Thought. We prepared a spiritual thought about helping the Less-Active Members of the branch. At the end of the Spiritual Thought , we passed out a sign up sheet asking for help, and the times that they were available.  We had 12 ladies (about 70 percent) sign up to help. They gave concrete times specifically for this week! We have at least one sister to help us everyday this week, which will be awesome! I love that our branch is so willing to help us with missionary work! 

This week we also met with a lot of Less Active Members. It is sad because here, so many people leave the church or stop coming because they are offended or upset by another member. If I could just teach one lesson to all the members, it would be that this gospel is perfect, but the people are not. I wish people could accept that are be more loving and caring towards others. Everyone is having a hard time and everyone needs a friend. Be that friend to all that you see!

One of the less active ladies that we wanted to meet with was named Alexandra. Funny thing about Ukraine, all the ladies here seriously have one of like 20 names, which makes it hard to know which one you are talking to.  Our phone lists people by name and then some characteristic trait they have, such as Sveta Music, Lena Cute, Julia MTC.  It is rather funny! But anyways...back to the story...We wanted to meet with this less Active and we called and called and called, with no answer. So we decided that we would go track her down at some point and try her home address. That Sunday at church, we had met another Alexandra.  We set up an appointment with her, then when the day came, we realized that we didn't have her address.  So we called her, got her address and realized that our two Alexandra's were the SAME PERSON! She had gotten a new phone! That Sunday at church was the first time that we had been there in months! And (because we are supposed to talk to everyone on Sunday), we had immediately talked to her and asked to meet with her. She told us that she felt so loved because we had offered to meet with her, when she thought that no one would care if she was there or not. It was great to be able to help her feel welcome! 

This week we are on a break from our English course so we spent a lot of time inviting people to learn English! It is always so much fun to English advertise! We talk to a lot of awesome people. We had a great conversation with a man named John (that's his English name). He is a seaman and he wanted to improve his English so he can talk normally. Also, we had a great experience about asked a lady about English. She wasn't interested, but as so as we walked away, we heard her tell her son that He had to go to this English thing, because she wanted him to be successful in life. That was pretty awesome :) One last English experience. We were walking along when all of a sudden a huge bug flew into my eye. It was so painful. But awkward because I was like trying to get it out and my eyes were watering. And a man approached and is so confused about what is going on when all of a sudden Sister Leavitt invited him to learn English.  He was so confused about what was going on but he said he would try and come to the English.  It was so funny!

This week we made cinnamon rolls, that was awesome.  



 We also found salted butter for the first time! Today we went to METRO. It is a store like Costco. It made me feel like I was in America, instead of the tiny grocery store we normally go to. I was so happy :)

  right now in Odessa is the International Film Festival. We got lost one day and ended up in one of the outdoor theaters!
 us with sister hunt and Goncharova!
 us on our beds(??)

I have a testimony that people notice us! This week we had a man come up to us on the street and tell us that he had a friend (Adele- but not the singer) who had told him about these cute Americans who were learning Russian to teach the gospel. It was really sweet. I was especially grateful that Adele, a member that we met with, had such high standards and was happy to talk about us. 

I love this church and I love you all! :) Stay strong! Send me letters and emails! :) 
Love, 
Sister Ford

PS- If you are interested, here is a sample of my Russian. It's not great, but it's coming along! We write a letter to Sister Klebingat every week in Russian and this is part from this week! You can try to Google Translate if you want, I don't know how good Russian to English translation is! :) 

Это неделя, мы встречались с моногамии членами Церкви.  Это было хорошо потому что нам надо знать и создавать дружба с членами Церкви. Вчера, Мы спросили дать духовный мысль в Обществе Милосердии. Мы спросили наши сестры помогать нам на уроке с менее активный членами Церкви. Когда мы передавали список и спросили за помощь, у нас была 12 сестры что говорить что они будет помогать нам! У нас есть сестры, кто будет помогать нам каждый день. я очень рада работать с членами Церкви это неделя! 

I (Jenni-Kati's mom) translated it google translate...
This week, we met with members of the Church of monogamy. It was good because we need to know and build friendships with members of the Church. Yesterday, we were asked to give a spiritual thought in the Relief Society. We asked our sisters to help us in the classroom with less active members of the Church. When we passed the list and asked for help, we had 12 sisters say that they will help us! We have a sister who will help us every day. I am very pleased to be working with members of the Church this week!