Monday, September 16, 2013

Mission Conference and Temple!!!


Dear Family and Friends,

What a fun, crazy, tiring, exciting week it has been! I had so much FUN this last week, but it was crazy!
I don't even know where to begin right now! Maybe I will talk about the weather first! IT GOT COLD! and rainy! I was actually cold! I thought maybe it would snow...but then I converted the temperature from Cel. to Far. and then I realized that I was just a whimp. I'm not even going to say the temperature... It was that bad! haha :) But today is warmer. Thankfully.
So our branch has a recent convert. His name is Isaac. He is African and doesn't speak very much Russian, or English. But we communicate in English, because he knows enough. He is AWESOME! He spoke yesterday in church about "The Power of God" (And yes, he has an awesome African accent). He speaks in English but then the branch president translates it into Russian. Anyways...This week I helped him find scriptures for his talk. It was fun.
I also did an exchange this week. Back with Sister Leavitt! It was fun! Weird to be back in my old apartment with none of my stuff...I realized how much I love my new house too! It's still nice! :)
Our pool


me in the pool! WHICH IS EMPTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:) Just to make that clear :)


Wednesday when we were walking to the church, we said "Good Evening" to a man walking by. He turned around and said, "Americans!' Which for us, is actually a pretty normal greeting. He told us how he had met with missionaries before and had a Book of Mormon and believed that it was God's book. Then he gave us his number and said we could meet! The best part of this story! He wants us to meet with him AND HIS FAMILY! That's so exciting! He has a wife and they have ben married for 35 YEARS! He has 5 Children and 5 Grandchildren! Families like this just don't exist in Ukraine so this is HUGE! I really hope that this works out! Pray for him (Vlarry)! And pray that we get the opportunity to meet with him! and his family!
Thursday we had a lesson with Natasha and she called before and asked if she could bring a friend. Of course we said yes, so we met Giorgi, her friend from Georgia! He knows some Russian and some English so we can communicate. He is interested in the Book of Mormon so we gave him a Russian one, they don't have one available in Georgian yet. But he was really nice. With Natasha we helped her translate a letter to Stephanie Nielsen. We are going to send that this week. Hopefully it makes it safely!
Then on Friday morning, we got on a train! How fun! 
on the train

at the Kyiv train station (which is so pretty)

We had a 11 hour ride up to Kyiv, so it took all day! Finally we got to Kyiv and it was rainy. So we found our way to the Metro and figured out how to get to the Sister's apartment in Center Kyiv. That night 10 sisters stayed there! It was a little crazy! But good! I slept on the floor but I slept fine!
Then the next morning we had our mission conference. It was really good! Elder Evens from the Missionary Department and the 70 came and President Bennett from the Area Presidency was there. They talked a lot about doing missionary work with the members. It was interesting. I was glad to have been there, even if it was only for 3 hours!
Then we went to Dominoes (it tastes just as good here in Ukraine!)
Then we got the opportunity to go to the temple! It was so great! We walked in and immediately I just felt like home. It was so peaceful. The temple in Ukraine is beautiful! It is very similar to other temples but has some details that make it seem so Ukrainian! I loved it! Because all the sisters from Odessa went and also Elder and Sister Evens, and also President Bennett, the session was in English. But some parts were still in Russian. Someday I want to do a session in Russian. It is such a beautiful language! But then we walked (in a mini flash flood :) ) to the train station and headed home! It was a crazy two days! Our train went all night and we got to Odessa Sunday morning and headed to church! Crazy!!! But so fun! I loved seeing all the other sisters from my district! It was crazy though because when I first came into the mission, I was one of 16 sisters. Now there are more then double that and I don't really know any of them! Hopefully I met them all someday! :)
Anyways, that was this week! I love you all! Make good choices! Be happy! Share the gospel!
Love,
Sister Kati Ford

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...