Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Dear Family and Friends!

Happy Thanksgiving this week!!! There is so much to be grateful for this year! I just feel so blessed! We have an American in our branch (She married a man in our branch) and she spoke yesterday in Sacrament Meeting (In English). But she spoke about gratitude and I really enjoyed it. She talked about how when we look for the hand of God in all things, we are able to see things with an Eternal Perspective. It was really what I needed to hear. Sometimes, on a mission, it is so easy to get stuck in the day-to-day actions, and we end up wondering if we will ever finish. It is so important to be grateful because then and only then can we the bigger picture, and have the faith and hope to endure and to continue on. I know last week I talked about what I was grateful for, but I think this week I will just continue that list on :)

- I am grateful for my companion. Sister Kelly is the best! I'm grateful for the chance I have to serve with her! She has taught me so much! I'm grateful for the other missionaries I serve around! This last week we have had another set of sisters live with us (Sister Lameraux and McInnes)! 

I am grateful for them and their positive attitudes! 

It has been a party living together :)

- I am grateful for the branch I am serving in! I love Suvorovsky! I love the members! I love their willingness to help and serve me! I love going to church and singing and worshipping together! I love being able to go to their houses and to teach each other. I love that the members trust me to teach their relatives and friends! I love that they are always really to help me out! I love knowing that I am creating eternal friendships!

- I am grateful for Ukrainian food. This week we had a Thanksgiving Dinner after church. 

 Thanksgiving Dinner! 

 Me with Larissa at Thanksgiving! 

 

The elders make a turkey, and then we had Ukrainian food. Pickled Vegtables, Pancakes, Vereniki (Kindof like dumplings...I think) and Tea and Juice. Very different from America, but really good! :) I am grateful that I like the food here! I love Borsch and I really have yet to find a food that I don't like! Last week for FHE we went to a members house and made Vereniki. 

 Making Vereniki!

 

 The raw vereniki

  More vereniki! :) YUM! :)

 

It is like pasta dough that is rolled out, then filled and folded over and cooked in water. We make it cherry filled and it was SO GOOD! The ones that we had for our Thanksgiving dinner were filled with cabbage, also really good!

- I am grateful for our investigators and the opportunties that we have to teach people. This last week we FINALLY met with Sophia. We had a really good lesson about Jesus Christ. She is a cutie! She fell and broke her arm so she wasn't at church yesterday, sadly. Olga returned from Kyiv and we are meeting this Tuesday! I am so excited! :) We also found a new investigator from English! She wants to know more about why we are here and about our church! We are so excited to meet with her :)

-I am grateful for the old grandmas that we meet! They are so cute! We had one, Elena, who tried to set me up with her son this week. He is 26 and "His heart is free". She also said that she would learn english! Just this random lady off the street. 

Me and Sister Evanyk

 

I love the 2 old grandmas that we meet with every week. I love singing with them and sharing my testimony with them! They have special spirits!

- I am grateful for miracles! This week, we stopped by a Less Active member. We got up to her floor, knocked on the door, and she opened the door and said, "I am so glad that you are here, come in" We got to go in and talk. It was so good! It was especially cool because we went back later that week for a lesson and there was a guard there that wouldn't let us up. Fortunately the less active's mom showed up and knew that we were supposed to go and let us up! It was really nice :)

- I am grateful for my family and friends! I feel so loved by you all! Thanks for your prayers and for your love! It's hard to be away from so many great people during the Holidays, but I know that my work here, now, is so important! I love being here!

Hunger Games! In russian! WEIRD! (actually 

Ukrainian...just kidding about the russian :) )

This week, this Thanksgiving, remember all that you have to be grateful for! Most of all, I am grateful for Jesus Christ, my Savior and Redeemer! I am grateful for this gospel, I am grateful for this church! I am grateful for the Book of Mormon and the Bible. I am grateful that I know that I am a daughter of a Loving Heavenly Father and that he has a plan for me! I am grateful for my forever family! I love this gospel and I love and am grateful for my opportunity to be a missionary! Despite the hard times and the mean people, there is no where else I would rather be! I love it!

Love you all! Enjoy your turkey!

Sister Ford

Hello :)

Dear Family and Friends!

How is everyone doing? Hopefully all is well! I hear the the weather is being difficult, basically all over the world! Luckily, Odessa Ukraine is doing really well! And I am doing really well! I am feeling especially grateful today, perfect timing because Thanksgiving is coming up so soon! Our Zone has been debating for the past day or so what day Thanksgiving is, the 28th or 21st. I said the 28th, which was correct :) But either way, I am filled with a lot of gratitude for how blessed I am!

As far as Thanksgiving goes, our branch is so excited to do a Thanksgiving Dinner after church next Sunday. It will feature a turkey and then Ukrainian food. I was hoping for the opportunity to make an Apple Pie, but apparently they don't want one. I guess I will just make one for myself. :) I tried to tell them that the pies made it more like Thanksgiving than the Turkey, but they didn't listen!

I'm grateful to be serving a mission, and especially for the opportunity to be here in Suvorovsky Ukraine! The Lord blesses me everyday! I'm grateful for the good times, and also for the Hard times. I'm grateful for the chance to learn Russian, even if sometimes I think it is basically impossible. I'm grateful for the People here in Ukraine!

Sorry I don't have very many pictures this week. I just didn't think about it! I'll take more next week! These are some of our district pictures from this transfer! Fun fun! :) I can't see which ones I picked so hopefully I got the good ones :)

I'm grateful for the opportunity to talk with everyone! I'm grateful for the chance to be so outside my comfort zone everyday. I can't believe that I hated talking to people and like talking to workers at stores. I'm grateful for being pushed now, so that I will forever be a friendly, talkative person. (Like my father) :).

I'm grateful for the members here! They are strong and have powerful testimonies! I'm grateful for the branch I work in and the eternal friendships that I am making! I love being able to walk in the branch and be able to hug and greet everyone. I love and am grateful for the simple expressions of love, like a grasp of a hand, or a smile. Yesterday, one of the grandma's in the branch leaned over to me and rested her head on my shoulder, and told me that she was glad I was there. I'm grateful for that!

I'm grateful for our investigators! This last week we met with Olga! It was AMAZING! We met with her and she had questions about the Book of Mormon, because she had read the first half of First Nephi! and She loved it! :) It was so awesome! We also talked about Faith, and asked for her permission to use her computer to show a Mormon Message. She said yes and we showed her one, Called Mountains to Climb (one of my favorites! Please watch it :) http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2176618422001 After we watch that, she was so in love with the LDS site. We showed her several times how to find all the Mormon Messages and how to watch them. We watched several more with her and she loved them! She said, "Why didn't you show this to me earlier???" It was cute. When we invited her to church she said, "Of course, I will be in Kyiv this weekend but I will for sure next weekend! I am your man." I'm so excited for her progression in the gospel! I'm also grateful for Sophia! She came to church yesterday and we had a small little miracle in which the Primary President asked for help because she has a small baby! We walked into Primay, where Sophia and her brother were coloring! It was perfect because it gave us a chance to draw with them and to get to know them in a really nonthreatening way. We are so excited to meet this week! Sophia is special! :)

I'm grateful for my companion and her happiness! She is a great example to me! I'm grateful for the new sisters that moved in Saturday! Sister Lameraux and McInnes are so much fun and happy! I seriously love them! It is so fun to have other sisters that we spend time with and love! I am so excited to work with them this transfer! I'm also grateful for the other missionaries here and for President Klebingat and His family!

I'm thankful for all of you at home! I love you all and am thankful for your prayers! :) I love being here, even though I do miss all of you at times! I am praying for you and hope all is well :) I'm grateful for my safety and for my testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ! I know He lives and loves everyone of us! He has a plan for us, to help us feel more happiness in our lives! I love him and know that He loves me!

Anyways...that's all for this week, folks! I love you! Hope all is well! Know that Sister Ford is happy and healthy and grateful! Have a FANTASTIC week :)
Love, Sister Kati Ford

Hey Hey Hey

Hey Friends and Family!

How is everything going in America? I hear it is COLD there! Funny story, It isn't cold here yet! I'm sure it will be soon, but for right now, I think it is way colder in America! Who would've thought that America would be colder than Ukraine?

This week was really good! We received TRANSFO! And....I'm staying with Sister Kelly, in Suvorovsky again! Woo-Hoo! I can't believe that I will be in the same area for over 6 months! But I love it here! I don't want to leave...EVER!!! And neither do the members apparently. Last night, we hosted a fireside (I'll talk more about that later). After the fireside ended, I was sitting with some ladies in our branch. They were talking about our musical number that the missionaries did and they said, "Sister Ford, we have been talking about you and decided that you need to finish your mission, get married, and then we all want you to come back and live here in our branch. We all will invite you over every week and teach you how to cook Ukrainian Foods. Sister Ford, we feel like you are a part of our group, and we don't want you to leave. We want you to be with us forever." I almost started crying, I felt so loved. Here I am, in the middle of Ukraine, talking with a bunch of ladies all at least 35 years older then me, in a language that I can't really speak well,  with them asking me to move back after my mission and forever be friends with them. I couldn't believe how much love I felt from them and for them! I really do love this branch and am so blessed to continue to serve here!

This week was AWESOME, maybe the best of my mission!!! We saw a lot of miracles!

 Sister Goncharova dog had puppies! Aww :)

 

Tuesday was for sure the day of miracles for me! Here is the story of that day:

A couple weeks ago, I was praying that I could know who is Suvorovsky was ready to hear and accept the Gospel and come unto to Christ through Baptism. As I finished my prayer, I saw in my mind, a little girl dressed in white, singing a song (obviously at her baptismal service). I had the strongest feeling that she was ready to be baptized. The girl was one of the ladies in our ward's granddaughter. So that same day, we called the lady in our ward, her name is Raisa, and set up an appointment. Through the next week, she cancelled our appointment two times, which has never happened before. Finally on this Tuesday, we set up an appointment that finally worked out. As we headed into our appointment, I was so nervous. But we got in, prayed and listened to Elder Ballard's talk from conference together. Afterwords, we discussed it a little bit. Then I felt prompted to share that my experience from the previous week. As I shared that experience, the Spirit grew and grew, confirming my words, both to myself and to Sister Raisa. She told us that she also felt like her granddaughter was ready, explaining how she was already reading the Book of Mormon everyday and Praying, which I didn't know. We set up an appointment to meet with her granddaughter this week. As we said a prayer to end our lesson (on our knees), I listened to Raisa give thanks for the Spirit that leads us to know what to do and how to share the gospel! How true that is! The Spirit will guide and direct us as we are worthy of it and obedient.
As we walked out of this lesson, Sister Kelly and I were both filled with the Spirit, almost to the point of not being able to speak. As we walked away, we passed this man in a wheelchair. We both felt strongly to talk to him. As we talked to him, we learned that he was a member of our ward (but very inactive, almost anti). We spoke for awhile and at the end of our conversation, he said that the next time we meet with his wife, he will come on our lesson! It was a second small miracle. I have a testimony that the Lord puts us where we need to be so that His work can hasten!
From that conversation, we headed to our next appointment with Sister Goncharova. As we walked, Sister Kelly and I joked about with how perfect our day had already been, maybe we would walk in and Sister Goncharova would have a lady there for us to teach. We were totally joking though, because Sister G is super old, and everytime we ask her, she says, "Everyone I've asked always says no". Finally we got to her house, walked in and THERE WAS A LADY THERE THAT WANTED TO HEAR THE GOSPEL MESSAGE!!! Oh my goodness! She couldn't stay very long but she is coming back again next week! I was so shocked, but felt so blessed! What a day of miracles!

Later that night, we had a game night. It was a really good turnout! I even learned how to play a Russian card game!

Also, a cool experience from English. Every week when we end English, we invite everyone to stay for a spiritual thought. This last week, it was my turn, and the topic was the First Vision. We showed a clip of a video that had the first vision, and then I bore my testimony about it. It was so cool because the Spirit was so strong. I could tell that people felt the Spirit, which is awesome! And as I testified, I felt my testimony grow as well! I know that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His son, Jesus Christ. He saw them because he had faith and because he prayed. When we pray, we receive answers to our prayers through thoughts and feelings from the Holy Ghost. And it is all because our Heavenly Father loves each one of us! What a great message to share! :)

Also, another really good day was Sunday, yesterday! Yesterday we had our Stake Conference (Except District Conference, because we aren't a Stake). It was broadcast to all of Europe East from Salt Lake. It was so AWESOME! Elder Nelson spoke, and a couple Elders from the Seventy and A sister from the Primary Presidency. It was cool because we got to watch it in English (because that was the language that everyone spoke, except for Elder Porter because he knows RUSSIAN! I didn't know that! It was cool! :) But they talked a lot about family and missionary work and I felt really strongly that the Lord is hastening his work and loves  the people here in Ukraine, Russia, and the Rest of Eastern Europe!

Then after that, we went and I said goodbye to Elder and Sister Colvin. They left Odessa today to go home. So sad! I am going to miss them so much! I'm so grateful for all they did to help me while I was here!

Saying goodbye to the Colvins :( 

 

As we left from the Colvins, I felt that we needed to take the backway to the Bus stop. As we were walking, this man stopped us. He told us that he had met with missionaries before in another part of Ukraine, and that he wanted to meet again and learn more about our church again! What a miracle that was that we crossed paths with him!

Last night we also had our fireside that us missionaries planned! I was SO nervous for it! But we had over 30 people there and they loved it! We served dinner (which the members brought food and cake for!!) 

 

 pictures from our fireside. after talking! 

and then talked for awhile. Then we had the spiritual part! We showed a video of our lives a little before we came on the mission, then talked about how everything we gave up was worth it to have the opportunity to be here and to help people come unto Christ. Then we showed a video of all the missionaries from Suvorovsky who have served missions and had one of them talk about how his mission has blessed his life! Then we sang a musical number. We sang the EFY Medley (As Sisters in Zion and We'll Bring His World His Truth). They had never heard it before (in fact, they thought I wrote it, haha funny!) and they loved it! I think everyone was crying! We translated it into Russian too! It was really powerful. Then we had our Ward Mission Leader share how everyone can share the gospel! It was awesome! :)

 The elders accidentally sent us 150 blank texts. Don't know how...

 

 We helped a lady carry her cart. 

After the Fireside, I was talking to one of the ladies in the ward about how she is teaching her son English. I squatted down next to her son and started singing "Eensy Weensy Spider" He was so amazed and started doing the hand motions with me. It was the cutest thing EVER! His dad (jokingly) said, "The Sisters need to babysit for us!" It was one of the most precious moments I have had with a child here! I loved it! :)

Oh yeah! I almost forgot, next transfer (this week) we will have another set of Sisters here in Suvorovsky! They will be living in the house right next door to us! It will be so fun! :) I can't wait! :)

I love being on my mission and I love sharing the gospel with people here! I love all of you! I hope that you are happy and healthy and grateful :) Have a great week!

Also, just so everyone knows, I have the Best mom ever and Her birthday is this week! I love her so much and Hopes that she has a GREAT DAY! :)

Love you all! :)

Love,

Sister Kati Ford

Little Miracles!!!

Dear Family and Friends, 

Привет! That means Hey! :) I'm so glad that today is Monday and that I got to hear from you! I can't believe that it is already November! Our computer club played a Christmas song a little while ago, but I think that is because they thought it was just Taylor Swift song...I don't think they knew it was Christmas! There is no snow or anything yet...in fact today it is actually HOT! But I'm starting to feel like Christmas is soon! The stores started decorating, which is REALLY weird because here, Christmas is on January 7th. Yeah, they don't celebrate Christmas on the 25th! How weird is that?!??! Kinda strange, right? But cool! I will basically get a double holiday :) 

Happy Halloween! 

We hope you have a great day!

We love you! 

Love, 

Sister Ford and Sister Kelly

 

If I had to title this week, it would revolve around little miracles. There is a scripture in Mormon that says, "And who shall say that Jesus Christ did not do many mighty miracles? And there were many mighty miracles wrought by the hands of the apostles. And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles... Behold, I say unto to you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ is shall be granted unto him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the Earth" (Mormon 9: 18, 19, 21) 

How true is that? Miracles, big and small have always been a part of Christ's Church and still continue to be a part of his Church, the biggest miracle being that against all odds, Christ was resurrected and completed the Atonement, making it possible for us to be cleansed from sin and return to live with our Heavenly Father and families again, after this life! If that miracles really happened (which it did) and if God is the same (which He is), then I can see miracles everyday in my life (which I do!)! I love the last part of that verse also, that what we ask for we can receive. Isn't that a great promise?!? I LOVE IT! :) 

This week was SO good, because I was blessed with so many little miracles and tender mercies! 

This week, we had an appointment with the Relief Society President in our branch. Her name is Ludmila. We got there and we shared Elder Ballard's talk from Conference with her. When the talk first started, we could tell from her body language that she didn't really want to talk about missionary work. When the talk ended, she told us that she didn't know anyone that could benefit from the gospel and that everyone that she had already asked had said no. We asked her if we could say a prayer together, and we knelt and asked her to pray. The miracle was that during the prayer, while she prayed, her heart was softened. As we sat for a moment after the prayer, the spirit grew. Then we asked her, if anyone had come to her mind while she had prayed. And she told us that she had thought of a lady, named Ira. So we challenged her to invite her to church next time she saw her, and she said that she would! That was a miracle because Ludmila was willing to share the gospel and because the Spirit prompted her that Ira was ready! How exciting is that?!?

 We did some sightseeing today!

 the Opera House!

 odessa stairs

 Some famous cannon

 some famous government building

 Primorsky blvd!

The odessa stairs

This week we did some English Advertising with the elders! Then they headed back to the church and we stayed out for a little bit longer. After a few minutes, they called us and said that they had left their keys in the church and needed us to open it for them. We were a little bummed that we had to head back but we started on our way. As we walked, we stopped and talked to this girl named, Luda! She said that she had lived in England and knows English! We invited her to our English practice and she was so interested!! It was so cool! :) Also, not really a miracle, but something cool, is that night, everyone gave us free food! We got free apples from some man on the street that was selling them, and also this lady gave us shrimp

 Our free shrimp! from the black sea! :) We got a whole bag!

 (which we didn't eat...they smelled funky...But it was a nice thought :)) 

This week in English, we gave out a survey about our English program! On the survey, we asked "Are you interested in learning more about our church?" and we had several people say yes! It was really cool! People that we thought probably wouldn't be interested said that they were! What a tender mercy! 

This week, we had a lesson with Olga! Do you remember her?? We went with a member and it was so good! The member was able to answer a lot of questions and the spirit was really strong! Olga told us how after our last lesson, she had gone to work. While she was at work, she had several coworkers comment on how happy she seemed that day. She told us that she thought it was because of our lesson. We were able to testify that what she had felt, and why she had been happy was because of the Holy Ghost! What a great opportunity! Then she told us how she had been thinking about the moment when her and I first meet! She talked about how it was just on the street and how she had never been on the street before and was just standing there, when I came up. And then we only talked for a few minutes, and then I had to leave. She said that if I hadn't talked to her that day, she never would've heard about our church or our message! How crazy is that?!? She said that she meet a lady on the internet who said that she was a "Mormon" but until she met with us, never knew what that was!!! How crazy is it that We are teaching a lady who has never heard of our church before now! It is a miracle that we have this opportunity to teach her now! :) Also, it was a lesson to me on the importance of talking with everyone, because you never know who you are passing by! Maybe someone who is praying and searching for the peace that this gospel brings! :) 

That same night, we had a lesson with a less active, Sister Evanook. I think I might have mentioned her in the past, really old, can't leave her apartment? Anyways, we went to meet with her. Earlier that morning, we decided to maybe sing an opening song. When we got there, we pulled our my hymnbook and Sister Evanook almost started crying. She told us how she used to sing every morning and how singing was her favorite part from church. She sang us songs and we sang songs for her. The spirit was so strong and for the first time, I really felt like she could also feel the spirit. She was so touched and her hard exterior was gone. For the first time, she insisted that we return. In fact, yesterday she called the church looking for us so that we could meet again and sing again. It was a miracle for me to see her feel at peace, and to feel love and the spirit! What a blessing for her too! 

Saturday, we had planned a Halloween Party for kids. On Friday night, we had heard that there were going to be at least 5 kids there. 

  Our failed Halloween party! But it looks cute :) 

But Saturday morning, we got there and got everything set up, and no one came :( It was a bummer. But we had like 60 sugar cookies so we took them outside and offered free American Cookie! 

 Our free Cookie table

 our poster from our halloween party!

Within 30 minutes, all of our cookies were gone. Not only did we give out cookies, but we talked with so many people that were interested in the gospel! One lady, her name is Luda. I asked her if she was interested in learning about Family Home Evening, and invited her to do one with us Monday. She was interested and called us yesterday to confirm! So we are doing that tonight! I really really really hope it goes well! :) I think it is a miracle that our Halloween party didn't work out so that we could have the opportunity to meet Luda and other people on the street! :) 

Also, when we were giving out the cookies, we saw our friends that walked in on the game night! They took some cookies but were also interested in the gospel and several of them took pamphlets and started reading them and were really into them! It was AWESOME! :) I'm excited to see them at our game night and invite them to learn more! :) 

Saturday night, we met with Valentina again! We walked in, prayed with her, and asked if she had found her Book of Mormon. She stood up and got a pile of books, including her Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Gospel Principles Book. She said she had looked so hard for them and finally found them! It was awesome! :) She committed to study everyday! She couldn't come to church yesterday because of her health, but hopefully makes it this week! :) 

Yesterday, a less active named Elma came to church. We asked her if we could meet with her after church really quickly to get accquainted and she agreed. We found out that she used to be a super strong member of the church, but had stopped coming because of work. A few weeks ago, she looked at her life and realized that it wasn't what she wanted, prayed, and realized that she needed to return to church. But she had work. She prayed for what to do and the next day, her boss called and told her that he moved her off from working Sundays! What a miracle! She also told us about her boyfriend, Yuri! She is going to invite him to our game night this Tuesday, and she said he is interested in learning about the gospel! :) 

Also, church was really good! Everyone bore their testimonies about missionary work! People here are so excited to share the gospel! What a blessing for our work! 

To everyone that reads this blog, know that I KNOW that there are miracles in your life! Everyday, if you look for them! I would love to hear about the little miracles that you see in your life!! I know that this gospel is one of miracles and I'm so glad to have this opportunity to share it with the people here in Ukraine! 

I love you all! 

Have a great week, Look for the miracles!

Love,
Sister Kati Ford <3 

 Me and prince! "Our" cat. He likes to run in the house when we open the door! Isn't he cute?

 

 My back has hurt pretty bad lately so I tried to stretch it out. It didn't really work...

PS- Something to brighten your day! We were on a bus the other day, when all the sudden the bus stopped. I couldn't figure out what was wrong at first but then I looked out and realized that a parked car had blocked the bus's path. The bus driver called for all the young men. They all got out of the bus, and surrounded the car! The bus driver said "One, Two, Three" and then they all lifted together, moved the car over 6 inches and climbed back onto the bus. And then we drove away! So funny and only in Ukraine :)