HAPPY
THANKSGIVING! (well...Last week! But still, Yum!) We celebrated today
with many missionaries from our zone and it was really fun!
Our thanksgiving dinner today! All the sisters that came! We have one
more set of
sisters in our zone, but they didn't come! So many sisters
:)
We had some
great food! I made an apple pie and it was the hit of the meal.
My pie :)
Thanksgiving! :)
ALSO,
in other random news, HAPPY DECEMBER! Can you believe that it is
December?!??!?! Wow! I can't believe it! And this month is my HALFWAY
MARK! The time is flying!! This last week was my 8 month mark on my
mission and my 6 month mark in Ukraine! I can hardly believe I have been
here for 6 months!
This
letter might be a little different from my normal letters. I want to
share something that is a little more personal that I experienced this
week. It's a little more "feelings" and less "lessons and such"! Part of
being on a mission is personal growth and when I think about this part
week I am full of gratitude of the learning experience that I have had.
It was a little "painful" but I have grown a lot.
So
starting a little bit more than a month ago, I started feeling a little
lonely, mostly because of my birthday and other holidays that I was
"missing". It was a weird feeling because I am actually NEVER alone on
my mission. But that is what I was feeling and it was weird! But it
started getting worse and worse. This last Monday was really hard for
me. I wrote my parents and talked to them a little bit and they helped. I
also wrote President Klebingat (my mission president- He is my leader
while I am here).
Then on Wednesday, we
were waiting for a ride to a hospital to do service,
Taking Blankets to the hospital!
when we got a phone
call. From a number that I didn't know. I answered it, "алло, это
Сестра Форд" (Hello This is Sister Ford) and then the person on the
other end said, "Hello Sister Ford, This is President Klebingat" !!! I
was pretty surprised that he called and also that I didn't have his
number! But we ended up talking a little bit and talking about how it is
normal to be homesick and lonely at times. But we also talked about how
our missions are a time to learn and grow and if I want to be the
missionary that I am striving to be, I need to get over these feelings
of loneliness and just "forget myself and get to work". I spent a lot of
time this week thinking about that and about how I really
do need to forget about myself if I want to truly be happy here! It's
kinda a hard thing to do though. How do you "forget yourself"? I asked
President and he said, "One thought at a time. It is mental work" Every time you want to think about yourself, you make yourself think
about someone else" and this week I really tried that! And it worked!!!
:)
Now
when I find myself thinking about myself, I force myself to think of
someone else. It has helped so much. I can't say that I'm good at losing
myself yet, but I feel like I have made huge strides. I know that as I
think about myself less and less, I will be lonely less and less. I
think I could even say that I have learned and grown more in the last 4
days than my whole mission so far. I'm much happier than I was this time
last week! And even more, it is a deeper, content happiness.
This
week, I had the opportunity to be with Sister McInnes (a younger
sister) for an evening. While we were walking to an appointment, I asked
her how she was doing and she told me that she was ok, just going
through the normal struggles that a new missionary did. I told her a
little bit about the advice that President shared with me! It was really
fun to have the opportunity to be able to help another missionary
through sharing what I had learned! Hopefully this can help those that
are preparing for a mission, on a mission, or just anyone that feels
somewhat lonely! I promise that you will feel better as you just lose
yourself! Don't think about yourself! Force yourself to think of someone
else and how you can help them!
Anyway...That is probably enough intense stuff. I'll go into the FUN! Because this week was CRAZY and FUN!
So...where
to start from this week! WE MOVED!!!!! We are now living in a VERY
Ukrainian apartment only 10 minutes from the church! It was so sudden
and fast. So Tuesday, we received notice that we needed to move out of
where we were living as soon as possible, because it is cold and dark
earlier and with the holiday season coming they wanted us to be extra
safe! So we confirmed this new apartment and all four of us Sisters are
now living there together. Thursday we moved all of our stuff (most
stressful taxi ride EVER) and moved into the new place!
Moving!!!!
It is pretty
nice, I have been sleeping on a pull out couch with Sister Kelly, but
today we will buy a air mattress! yay! We divided the bed up evenly and
my half is about 2 and a half feet wide! So I am so excited for the air mattress! Yay! The apartment has a nice open living room but a TINY
kitchen! It will be an adventure with 4 sisters!
Our house friends!
Our tiny Ukrainian kitchen :)
This
week we also had Thanksgiving! On Thursday, Sister Kelly and I didn't
do much for Thanksgiving (it was the day that we moved so we were crazy busy) but we did
buy a chicken and make some mashed potatoes and stuffing! YUM :)
Our mini Thanksgiving Dinner!
This
week we were SO BUSY with appointments! I loved it! We also received so
many referrals from the members! Let me tell you, when members ask
missionaries to teach their friends and family, it is basically the best
thing EVER!!! It is a big sign of trust! :)
This
week we taught Sophia again! We talked about prophets this time! It was
so fun! We did the cup analogy, (Where you stack up cups in a tower and
talk about without prophets and the revelation that they receive from
God, there is no way to build the whole church up) She was so into
it! She is just the cutest little girl ever :)!
This
week we also worked more with Julia, one of our less active members!
She came to church on Sunday! It was basically the best thing EVER! It
is so fun to watch people that we work with come back and realize how
loved they are :)
This
week, one of our biggest miracles was the chance we had to meet with
the husband of our relief society president! He hadn't met with
missionaries in years! It was so fun! He is so nice! I hope we can meet
with him again! :)
Us with the elders and sister Goncharova! Fun lesson!
Her friend Lena was there :) Thanksgiving :)
Also,
remember Sister Ivanyk? The old lady in the wheelchair? She asked
Sister Kelly and I to move in with her. She said that we could live with
her for free! Cute, right??? Too bad her house is too small. And it is
against so many rules! But I'm touched that she loves us :)
Our latest nativity! :) haha jk! The lights flash and spin :P
Do ice cream sundaes in America come in cones now? Weird
This
week was fun! I'm doing so good! I'm loving my life right now and
really grateful for the chance to be serving! I'm glad to be happy and
healthy! I'm grateful for my awesome family and friends and missionaries
here and President Klebingat! I love being a missionary, especially
this close to Christmas! I love you all! Think about someone else today!
Love you!
Love,
Sister Ford
Sister Ford
PS- To all that are concerned, the riots in Kyiv haven't reached Odessa...Yet! Right now I am 100 percent safe! :)
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