Birthday Week

Hey everyone!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! It was definitely an interesting experience being away from home and in Ukraine, on a mission for my birthday. But it was a good day. My companion was a rock star! She spent the whole day saying happy birthday. 

 Birthday morning! Opening presents! :)

Some of the highlights from my birthday were when Zhenya, a recent convert from our branch called me to say happy birthday! He works some nights from 8pm-8am but called at 8:05 in the morning! Even after work! It was sweet! And when I saw him the next day, he gave me a present, a picture frame. 

 picture frame from zhenya! 

It was really nice. I put the picture of Sister Hunt and Busch and I from our first transfer but when I get a picture of Zhenya, he will go in it! Hhaha, so I never forget! Also, our ward mission leader called and SANG! It was so cool!  I had a good day. We did some contacting and did weekly planning. We also ate some ice cream. All in all, not a bad day!

birthday shakes! :)

This week, besides my birthday was also good. Kinda a weird week. Lots of little miracles but in between every miracle was about a million instances of "only in Ukraine" or "only because we are on a mission". I'll try to do my best to explain the miracles and the funny moments. 

 - This week, on Monday night, we went and visited a old lady named Elena. She is old and can't ever leave her house because she is in wheelchair and the elevator in her apartment building is broken, and she lives on the 6th or 7th floor. So we went to go leave her a spiritual thought. What an experience. So to set the scene, she is pretty deaf, so we had to basically yell everything that we said. Also, she has very strong opions about everything. So for almost everything we said, she had something to counter back with. She even changed the wordings of the scriptures to match her views. And we didn't even talk about anything that was controversial or anything. Just about how God loves everyone one of us. So we are yelling "I know that God loves us all." and then she would go off about how He only loves some of us. Oh, and to top it off, she would speak half Ukrainian. But despite all that, the spirit was still there and strong when we testified, and I felt so strongly that God loved me and cared about me individually. And I know that is true! God loves everyone of us and wants us to be happy! He has a plan for us! We finally were able to bring in the Spirit so that Elena felt it and we closed with a prayer. She asked me to pray. I prayed in a very loud voice and when I finished, Sister Kelly and I said "amen" and looked up. Elena just kept her eyes closed and her arms folded. Sister Kelly and I looked at each other and then I said again, really loud, "amen". Sister Kelly started laughing so hard and Elena, looked up and with a really confused look, said, "Amen." Such a funny moment. 

- This week we had another meeting with President Klebingat. It was really good. He talked about planning and setting goals. He has a really interesting point about beginning and setting goals with the end in mind. I really liked that way of thinking. I became really interested and rededicated to setting goals, not only for my mission, but for my whole life. And planning for my whole life. Thanks to my mission, I'll probably plan out every minute of my life (with back up plans and goals). My friends will think that I am insane. But I will be motivated!! :P

Oh boy. So small miracle- our English group is starting to be really big and successful. "Only in Ukraine" moment- inevitably, some creepy man comes and makes comments like, "Sister Ford, you have beautiful smile" and "Sister Ford is my favorite teacher ever" and "Sister Ford, I like when you talk" and "Sister Ford, I love you", which makes Sister Ford blush and awkwardly change the subject while the other people at English all laugh. But the good news, we have a lot of new people coming to english and they are really enjoying coming and being at english! Hopefully we can make the transition to teaching them the gospel!!! :) 

Saturday we had another Pancake Night. On my. Sister Kelly and I had to make 50 Pancakes and 50 crepes. There were close to 800 pancakes and no leftovers. It was insane! I haven't heard a guess on how many people were there, but probably over 100. It was crazy! It was so cool because there were so many investigators there. We took 2 people from English with us and there was also 2-3 other nonmembers from our area there! It was fun to talk to them. I met this one lady, Anya and talked to her for awhile. She loves missionaries and she thought my jokes (as lame as they are) were hilarious! It was fun! I also talked to this lady from Ecuador! She is here studying and has had a really hard time here, because the culture is so different! She told me how at the pancake night, she felt more love and friendly-ness then she had the whole time in Ukraine. I told her that our beliefs in our church help us to be able to love one another. Then she said that she would be interested in learning more about our church. Sadly, she isn't in our area so another set of sisters will teach her. But she was so sweet :) 

Tender Mercy- Daylight Savings Time. I didn't know that they had it here, but it was so nice to have an extra hour of sleep! :) 

Yesterday, Sunday was quite a day. I translated during church for 2 hours. It went better then last week but was still really hard. It makes my head hurt but I really like the challenge. And it helps me with the language. After church we had cake for the old branch president and his new wife. They get sealed in the Kyiv temple tomorrow! So exciting! Then we had branch council which was SUPER long and then MCM! By the time we finished all those meetings, it was 7:00! At night! Ridiculous! We had just a little bit of time so we decided to stop by a less active, Valentina (the one that we visited for her birthday at the beginning of the transfer). We felt really strongly that we needed to stop by. So we went and knocked on the door. And she opened it, told us to come in and quickly shut it. Then she started talking really fast. I couldn't understand all of it, but I did hear several times, Я не хочу! which means I don't want it. So we both kinda thought that she didn't want to talk to us, which was unexpected. But then she told us to go into her bedroom/living room. We sat down and asked if we could share a spiritual thought. she said yes, but i am tired right now, so we started anyways and asked her to pray. During her prayer, she started crying. After the prayer, she told us how she felt and knew that she needed to return to church. She told us, how she had a son, that was often drunk and abusive and how over the last week, that situation had solved itself. Then she said that she felt that she needed to return to church and would absolutely be there next week! And that she would find her Book of Mormon and read from it! It was really cool to see this new light in this lady's eyes! I can't wait to see her on Sunday! :) 

Today we had a fun P-day! We went into Center and did some shopping at a outdoor flea market thing by a big church. I bought a Martroshtka Doll that is Odessa themed! 

my dolls, they have the opera house, 
the saint katherines statue, 

the odessa staries, the canyon, and the 
lighthouse on one side, 

with a sailor, and then on the 
back are painting of ships! 

 

also I got a hair clip :) 

 and pday fries! :)

It is so cute! :) I think that pretty soon I will be leaving Odessa so it was nice to get something to remind me of all the time that I spent here! It has paintings of all the major landmarks, which is cool because I have been to almost all of them! It is so cool! :) We almost got cursed by a gypsy though! This man totally saved us. He told her that we didn't know any Russian and she said "yes they do" and he started arguing and then she left. It was really nice of him! 

I love you all! I am enjoying being here on my mission! It is so fun to see miracles every day! Thanks for your prayers and love! Know that I am praying for you to have missionary opportunities everyday! :)

Love,
Sister Ford

Zone Conference

Hey, Hey, Hey!

How is everyone doing?  I'm in a good mood today... Why? Because last week we had zone conference and President brought down our BRAND NEW DEHUMIDIFIER! 

our dehumidifier! My new best friend :)

Woo-hoo! That may not seem like a big deal, but now my sheets on my bed are actually dry and my towel dries! It is a little miracle!

Ok...I'm actually happy for real reasons, not just the dehumidifier, although it is pretty awesome! :)

This week was really good! (I say that every week, but it is true!) This week was also a little crazy! We had an exchange planned but then at the last minute, one of the sisters got sick, so we had to move the exchange to later in the week! That made it crazy!

Some highlights of this week!

- We did Service this week for Vika! It was so fun! We got to help her sort grapes. SO SO SO SO many grapes. They filled up her whole kitchen. It was funny because we were sorting them into firm, soft, and bad. But after awhile I couldn't tell the difference between what was firm and what was soft. But I sure tried. I told her about how grandpa makes grape juice. She thought that was fun! It is fun to talk to her and practice my Russian while we serve her! I am so impressed by her strength to be active in the church even though she has a disability! What an inspiration!

 Grapes! They grow everywhere here!

-We planned some awesome activities for this transfer! We will be doing a Halloween Party for kids, a game night, another pancake night. We also will be holding a fireside, my first one that I will plan! It will be called "Missionary Heritage in Suvorosky" and we will talk about RMs in our branch, the current missionaries, and the future missionaries, and how we can all be member missionaries! Also, I think we will feed dinner! It will be crazy! Also, our ward mission leader wants us to do a Thanksgiving Dinner, but he thinks we should serve Mexican Food. And call it a Mexican Thanksgiving. I'm not sure what I think about that... What do y'all think?

- Wednesday we had a great day planned...but then every lesson but one fell though. The only lesson that we had was with a less active named Valentina. It was my first time inside her apartment. To my utmost surprise, I discovered that she is a hoarder! Oh my! So much stuff! But we still taught a really good lesson. She was touched that we still remembered her after all those years that she hadn't been. She loves that we care enough to come and meet with her. Even more crazy, she still remembers her first Elders names, "Allan and Schmidt". Crazy how much of an influence missionaries have on people! :) 

 Our pipe that we walk along to get home. In the morning, when everyone is walking to school and work, it is like the "fast lane" haha :)

- ZONE CONFERENCE! It was so good! We learned about repentance and how we can more effectively use repentance in our lives and when we do, we can teach it more effectively to our investigators. It was really insightful! I love being able to learn from President and Sister Klebingat! They are awesome! And we get to have another zone meeting again this week when they are here! I can't wait! :) 

 Our empty bus! I forgot to talk about this! We got on a bus with a ton of people then everyone got off. I was worried that it was the wrong bus! Thankfully it wasn't! The driver took us speedily to our stop. It was like personalized. Kinda awkward. But funny :)

- We had a game night! It was so fun! We had people from English come. We did a Ping-Pong tournament and Sister Kelly won! All the men couldn't believe it! After that, they asked me to tell more about my life in America. So I started answering questions and they asked questions for the next hour. They wanted to know about everything. America, my car, my job, my parent's jobs, my family, my school...everything. They were so intrigued about why I was in Ukraine. It was really interesting to talk about. One said to me afterwords, "Normally you missionaries just try to shove your church down my throat, but you just answered my questions and as a result, I am more intrigued about your church" Interesting, right? They like knowing that we are real people and not fake or brainwashed. 

 I think my planner is cute this transfer, don't you :)

-Also, I spoke in church! SO SCARY! But it went really well! I think...I spoke about how physical pain can be healed by doctors, just like spiritual pain or guilt from sin, can be healed through Christ and His Atonement! I was so thankful for the members that helped me translate my talk! They were so helpful! :)

-Fun story from Church! After Sacrament Meeting, I went up to a member, Raisa, and was talking to her. She said, "Sister Ford, when you were speaking, I had a thought. It is that if you were here when I was 20 years old, (She is 60 now), we would've been best friends". ISN'T THAT THE CUTEST! It just makes me want to cry :) I was so touched! :)

- Also, we had American visitors in Church on Sunday. Our old branch president is marrying an American girl and her and her mom were here! They are getting married next Tuesday in Kyiv :) Cute! But, for the first time, I tried translating! OPA! So hard! It is really hard to listen and translate and speak at the same time! But it was really good language practice! I learned a lot and I am excited to try again! :) It was funny! I translated Relief Society and it was crazy! People were arguing and talking in Ukrainian and it was crazy. I tried my best....haha :)

Weirdness:
My birthday is this week! Weird, right! 

My birthday presents :)

Also, this last week, I officially passed my date that I will return home in a year! So I have less then 365 days left! Weird! :)

And this week will mark 2 months till I get to skype home! Weird!

I love you all! Have a great week :) Make good choices! :)

Love,
Sister Kati Ford

Happy, happy, happy, week!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

I am doing wonderful! Seriously! This week was awesome, this upcoming week is going to be awesome...It is just so much awesomeness!

First off, this week, on Wednesday, is my Dad's birthday! Happy Birthday Dad! He deserves such a shout out because he is the best dad in the world! I hope he has a great day! :)

Also, a big shout out to Grandma and Grandpa Lindsey, who got their call this last week to serve a misison in Martin's Cove! I am so very excited for them!  They will leave right at about the same time that I left last year! I am so excited for them, because seriously, serving a mission is the best thing EVER!!!!!

So this week... Let me start off by saying that I am a pretty boss trainer! I introduced Sister Kelly to all good things Ukrainian, including Borsch, Shwarma, Street Contacting, Truffles, Super Kontik Slamming, The Black Sea, Crowded Martys, and more. And to top it off, We found Kolob together this morning. I had found it before, but I was able to guide her there :) hehehe I know, I'm pretty great...

 

 We ran to Kolob today. This has to be like the most legit picture of all time. And black and white for dramatic effect.

 

 The black sea, just in time for the sunrise!!! So pretty!!

beach pics and the jellyfish we saw!

But seriously, Sister Kelly and I are having a blast! She is awesome! I love being her companion! She is so happy all the time and a cute little bundle of joy! We have been rocking Suvorosky and have had our own share of small miracles this week!

Us inviting people to conference : )

Our first little miracle was Olga! Do you remember her? I contacted into her the first week of last transfer, offered her the opportunity to learn how to grow closer to Christ. She accepted back then but then repeated would set up appointments with us and then not come. We decided last transfer that maybe she wasn't ready yet. This week, we decided to call her and she agreed to meet! And the miracle, she asked us to come to her house! She gave me her address and we agreed to meet!! I was so excited! :) Then the day of our lesson came, we went to find her address! We got there and I was so confused. It wasn't a house, it was a auto garage. Definitely one of the most sketch places I had been on my mission. I thought to myself, "Maybe it is around back"...nope. I was so confused and worried that maybe she had just set us up. So we called her and she corrected the address and we headed on our way. Finally we got there and had our first lesson! It was really good! We taught her about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. She prayed at the end of the lesson and she committed to read the Book of Mormon everyday! Awkward moment of the lesson. I learned a new word in Russian, "толстый". It means fat. I didn't know it before. This is awkward because Olga introduced her husband to us as "Fat Alexander" and me, not knowing the word for fat, almost replied "It's good to meet you, fat" Thankfully, I didn't, but just the fact that it almost happened is so embarassing! :) When we went back a few days later, Olga had kept her commitment to read the Book of Mormon! It was SO exciting! We shared our favorite scriptures with her and encouraged her to keep reading! She had a lot of questions, but she is excited to keep reading!

Another little miracle is Valentina! She is a less active in our branch that I had never heard of! We saw on a list that her birthday was last Monday, so we bought her a chocolate bar and made a card and set off to find her! We got to her apartment, and were standing outside when all of a sudden we heard this man (from inside) yelling super loud. Sister Kelly and I looked at each other, the look that says, "Are we really about to do this?", said a prayer, and rang the doorbell! This old little lady comes out and says, "What do you want?" We said, "Valentina, we heard that it was your birthday and we wanted to give you this and tell you that we love you and were thinking about you and hope you had a good day." Valentina started crying and talking about how us coming was the only good part of her day. We set up another appointment with her to meet some more! She told us then of how she remembered, fondly, several members of our branch. I'm not sure what  is holding her back from coming but I'm excited to continue working with her! I think it is great that we can share our love with people, no matter if they are members, nonmembers, inactives, or anyone! Everyone needs a little love (maybe not creepy men...but everyone else!) At the end of our visit, I said, "Valentina, We love you!" and she said, "You don't even know me." And I said, "but we still love you". It meant the world to her to have someone express their love for her!

One last small miracle. So maybe 3 weeks ago, Sister Nielsen and I went and visited Sister Goncharova. She is a sister in our ward and she had tripped over her dog and was stuck in her house while she healed. We went and had a lesson with her and gave her flowers. This last week, Sister Kelly and I went to visit her agin. Sister Goncharova excitedly told us of our "miracle flowers". The flowers that we had bought 3 weeks ago, were still fresh and alive, without the slightest sign of wilting. What a tender mercy for an older, elderly lady. She said that it brought her so much happiness and joy to continual see her flowers!

Our miracle flowers!

Some funny things from this week:

 * After our district meeting on Tuesday, we were eating lunch when a missionary, from another church walked into our church and started preaching to us. We were respectful at first, but eventually tried to have an opportunity to share our testimony with him, but he wouldn't let us interrupt or say anything at all. So we didn't really know what to do. He just kept talking and talking. We had places to go and things to do, so after 30 minutes we tried to tell him that. No luck. So eventually, we stood up and started cleaning up our lunch, and getting ready to leave, as he is still talking and talking. He went on and on for like 45 minutes, despite the fact that none of us were listening to him. Poor guy. He finally left, unfortuately without ever hearing our message of happiness.

* One night, the elders got a call from a lady that had read our "advertisment" and was interested in meeting with us. We were so excited and set up an appointment for the next day. To our surpirse, this lady was not interested in the gospel, but in hiring us to work as clients in her aroma company. According to her, our daily interaction with inviting people to hear about the gospel would be better if it included an option to buy perfume. We told her that was not allowed, and she was disappointed. She insisted, however, to allow us to sample her perfume and decide if we wanted to buy any. She sprayed so much perfume on us, we smelled for days! Still smell... oh missionary life. We did show her a Mormon Message about how we are all Daughters of God. She loved it! Maybe someday we will be able to convince her to take a break from work and learn more about the gospel! :) 

Us after being sprayed by the perfume lady! We couldn't stop laughing

* We tried to make Borsch this week! I learned an important lesson, you will always make more Borsch then you think. We started with a normal sized pot but somehow ended up with a stock pot full of Borsch. We have been eating borsch for days and will be eating it for days to come. Every meal. Good thing it is tasty :)

Also, this week was conference! I loved the messages from our living prophets and apostles! I got the opportunity on Sunday to stand outside the church and invite people to conference and welcome the members. We sang hymns and handed out family proclimations. It was really fun! :)

 

 Sister Hunt and I (I feel like we always have pics together haha)

Us watching conference

 I loved the talks about missionary work and I echo the challenge of Elder Ballard to invite at least one person to come unto Christ by Christmas! I strongly believe that it is possible for EVERY member of the Church AND I know that it is a challenge from our living prophets and apostles. NOW is the time when we chose if we want to be "doers of the word" rather then hearers only. Are we going to follow our prophets and apostles? I am! And I know miracles will come if we do! I can't wait to hear about your miracles as member missionaries! :) Remember that an inviation out of love will never be offensive! Our Church is awesome! Let everyone know, and NEVER be afraid to invite someone, to an activity, to church, to meet with missionaries! You can never fail when doing the work of the Lord! 

my sickle is sharp...

I hope you all know that I am having a great time here in Ukraine! I love it here! This last week was great! And there is plenty to look forward to:

* Zone Conference this weekend!

* I'm speaking in Church on Sunday, yes in Russian! Pray for me! It will be 10-15 minutes long! Opa! :) Maybe next week I will send it to you (in english :))

* My birthday in a week and a half. This is my last few days to be a teenager!!! Crazy! I'll enjoy it :)

* Game Night this weekend! I think those are my favorite activities :)

I love you all! You are all great examples to me! Have a great week! Share the gospel!

Love,

Sister Kati Ford

New Transfer!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

This last week was crazy! I am now officially training and boy, it is strange! I didn't realize how much the trainees look up to older missionaries! I'm bad because sometimes I just assume that she already knows things that she doesn't know. Hence why she almost didn't get off the bus today... Scariest moment of my life. I'm having so much fun teaching her all the fun, weird, cute, happy, sad, and cultural things about Ukraine! The last few days have been WAY insane! Sister Kelly has had quite an interesting welcome to the country! But she is a rockstar and loving every minute. 

Sister Kelly and I at the temple! 

She is cute and nice and sweet! Also, older then me... weird. We are having a lot of fun with Suvorosky so far! We set some awesome goals and I am excited to achieve them!

So from before Sister Kelly came:

Sister Nielsen and I had our last few days together. We spent a lot of time doing registration stuff, including a 7 hour roundtrip to her old area. It was a little crazy! Finally we made it on the train headed up to Kyiv and said our goodbyes! I'm going to miss her but I know that she will rock it in Vinnitsya! 

 Last picture together with Sister Nielsen!

One awesome tender mercy that we had during our last few days together was an email that I got from a lady last week. During our first week of the transfer, we met at the church with a couple that was thinking about adoption. We talked about their situation and the Elders gave them a blessing and then they left. We were so lucky to get a email that described their decision and thanked us. We sent back some pictures telling them good luck! 

 Wishing good luck and love to our American Adopting Friends! 

It is such a blessing that here in Ukraine, we can help people that only are here for a short time and then return to America!

District Picture! Next transfer there will only be 4 missionaries in my district...weird!

Also, we had another game night Tuesday Night. It started and after 20 minutes, the only people that were there were the branch president and one member and the missionaries. So we said a prayer. and started eating our refreshments. Within minutes, two teenagers came in. They asked if they could bring some friends. They agreed. Within 5 minutes, they had brought back 15 other teenagers! It was so fun and a small miracle with us! We taught them Spoons, Speed, Uno! It is fun to open the church up and have a good place where these kids can play. Most teenagers (especially boys) already drink and smoke by the time they are 13-14, so they need somewhere where they can have clean fun and we provide that! Next time, we have a Mormon Message about how in Life, "All of God's Children wear the Same Jersey". It goes along well with the games!

The Suvorosky Group!

Kyiv:

Being up in Kyiv was so fun but also so tiring! We got on our train in Odessa at almost 11 at night on Wednesday night, then rode all night and got there in the morning. 

 Sleeping on the train

Once we were there, we went straight to our training meeting. There we meet with the trainers and President for a while. Then when it was time to meet our trainees, they took us into the chapel, where they were all sitting. Then I got to meet Sister Kelly and get aquainted a little bit! It is crazy that the Lord trusts us so much! Think about it, We get paired with someone that we have never met before, travel to a random city in a country that we have hardly been in before, and then fend for ourselves and do missionary work. Weird... But it works! Everytime!

So anyway, we had meeting until 5, then dinner. Then we got to go out contacting for the first time. Sister Kelly and I headed out, The first man that would actually talk to us was SUPER creepy, Poor Sister Kelly was so excited because she thought he was actually interested in the gospel and then was so disgusted once I translated what he was saying. Eventually we started a conversation with a lady. We asked her what brought her happiness in her life. Then when she responded family, we talked a little bit about the importance of families in our life. She was really nice. Then Sister Kelly went back to the hotel and I went with Sister Hunt to stay with Sister Lee! What a special tender mercy! 

 Sister Lee, Hunt and I :) 

We got to talk and catch up! It was so fun to see her! We may have stayed up a little later then we meant to...but it was fun! I love her and Sister Hunt! I have been blessed to meet so many awesome people on my mission! Not just those two, but others as well!

The next morning, Sister Hunt and I headed back to the hotel. We tried to get a taxi for like an hour, and then the moment we got the taxi, we found out that President decided not to invite the trainers. So we got out of the taxi, found Sister Lee again and got to do all of our studies with them! Then later, we took the Metro to the temple! 

 

Sister Kelly and I at the temple! 

 Odessa trainers and trainees! 

We got our trainees and headed to the train station. Sister Hunt and I were the oldest sisters so we were in charge of it all! So weird! We didn't know anything about Kyiv or anything! We had never even taken suitcases on a train before! But everything worked out really well! I was able to find a phone left in a taxi, help check 15 suitcases, help everyone find money and buy winter clothes. Basically everything...I think maybe I know more then I think I do... I get so surprized when I realize how much I can acutally do and communicate with people.

Then we headed home to Odessa! It was good to be home!

Sister Kelly and I:

So Sister Kelly and I did weekly planning, set goals, made some plans on Saturday. On Sunday, we went to church. 

 

Marina and I, a girl that came to visit! She stole my camera and took a TON of pictures !

 one of her pictures...I can't tell if it looks good. But it is the missionaries in Suvorosky now. 

Now, in order to help the church be open more so people can come see, we study at the church. So we were studying at the church when this man came in. He was drunk. I called the elders and they told me that he was harmless so I gave him a Liahona and told him to read it. He did and then eventually showed us part that he "thought was interesting". Only later did we realize that he STOLE OUR PHONE! I was so upset!  We found out that he had stolen our phone when he called the elders. The elders tried to chase him down, but they didn't find him. And our phone is gone. We have one right now that belongs to the zone leaders. It is nice, but we lost our landlord's number, which was sad because we couldn't call him and ask him to turn on the heat... Sad because it is freezing! We finally got it though so it should be warm tonight :) 

 Teaching Sister Kelly to super kontik! :)

I forgot to mention this but IT SNOWED WHILE WE WERE IN KYIV! What is this?? I'm wearing many layers of tights and sweaters and such so I am staying warm...for now! 

Getting cold! And sometimes rainy! 

Also, I'm sending home a branch photograph that they took this week! This is my branch, isn't it cute?? :)

our branch! :) 

 

So that was basically my week! Snow, phone stolen, training! I am having so much fun! This work is awesome! I can't wait to watch general conference this week! Did you hear how many missionaries there are??? SO MANY! I love it :)

I LOVE YOU ALL! have a great week :)

Sister Kati Ford