Happy 2014!!!

Dear Family and Friends and Everyone,

HAPPY 2014! Can you believe it??? I know that I can't! How crazy is it that it is a new year! I'm so excited for this year!

This week was CRAZY full of miracles! Sister Kelly and I were so blessed! I am so grateful to be a part of this week and all the miracles that I get to see every day! I don't even know where to begin! Even besides the many miracles, this week was an ADVENTURE! New Years is CRAZY here! It was so fun!

Ok, So I will start with Monday. After I emailed, we had some time that we really didn't know what to do. So we decided to call someone from the potential investigators list. People that say they are interested but we haven't met with yet. So we called him, his name (in English) is Arthur. When we called him, he said, Can you meet right now? and we were like, yeah, we can. We were able to call and get a member to come with us at last notice and we had a lesson with him! It was so good! He has such strong faith and so we just talked! He is a taxi driver and super busy so it was so great that we got to meet with him! I really hope that we can meet again soon! :)

Then came New Year's Eve! And the NUTCRACKER! It was SO fun! :) The opera house is so pretty!

 
We got all dressed up and went! I now know why it is the second prettiest in the world! It is so pretty and old fashioned. It is a lot smaller on the inside then I thought it would be so it makes it really intimate.

It felt so family-ish, if that makes sense. We checked our coats and got the cute Opera House binoculars and programs.

In the middle of the Opera House is a giant chandelier and beautiful paintings on the ceilings!

We had laughably the worst seats in the house, and I was worried about being able to see. But that wasn't even a concern, we could see everything! The dancers were so talented

 (They were Russian, of course) and I was mesmerized the whole time! I am just the luckiest sister ever! It was the best new years present to me! :)

New Years Eve night was fun! We ate some candy and then went to bed. But not for long, we all woke up at midnight to the craziest firework show I have ever seen in my life! There aren't rules here for fireworks. So people everywhere were setting off giant fireworks!

They were so close and pretty! We ended up standing on out balcony for 30 minutes just watching! It really was a once in a lifetime opportunity! :) I can't even describe how cool it was! They kept going all night, but we went back to sleep :)

The next day was New Year's day! Probably one of the biggest holidays for all of Ukraine! It was so fun! It was a day of cultural experiences! For sure... We got invited to a family in our branch for lunch. We went over and experienced a Ukrainian Holiday! What does that mean?? Let me explain! We walk in and talk, then eat, then talk, then eat again, then talk, then eat again, then talk, then desert, then talk....It was a lot of food! And very Ukrainian food. The pictures are on Sister Kelly's camera, so I will have to send them next week. But we ate beet pie, caviar on bread, potato salad, chicken, meat, meat patties, and cake, and bread, and juice, and something called haladietz. Mom, Google it! It's like this meat jello. It was gross. And we got offered it like 3 or 4 times this week. Icky. It was the first food here, that I really didn't like! haha! But everything else was really good! The beet pie was my favorite! We are actually going back today to learn how to make it :) I'm so excited :)

This week we met Maya! She is cute! :) She is a old lady and she asked us for help to cross the street. We did (thankfully - I think she would've gotten hit by a car otherwise!) and started talking with her! She expressed interest in why we were here and we ended up meeting with her the next day! She is so cool! We taught her the first lesson and she loved it. She loves the Book of Mormon too! Her son also is interested, so hopefully we get a chance to meet with them together this week! It was a huge blessing to meet her! :)

Ukraine food tasting

This little girl and her mom came to English this week. The little girl's name is Nastia and she is darling! Also she plays the violin! We are meeting on Wednesday so that we can play our violins together! I am so excited :) :)!

We also got to meet with Denise this week! We talked about faith! it was so good! Speaking of Denise, we took another Denise (from our ward) to a less active. It was the cutest thing ever! It made our cute less active lady cry because she was so excited to see someone that we knew!! It helped her so much! :) 

 sisters with pizza

 Christmas celebrations

 Violin man

 Christmas party

We got a chance to meet with a lady in our ward! Her name is Hactia! I haven't been able to meet with her before, but it was so good! Her son was in the hospital so she asked us to come over and keep her company and share a spiritual thought! So we did and it was fun! She is going to have a cute little girl in a month so she shared all about how to have a baby in Ukraine. So interesting! There is a lot of superstitions and things here that are really interesting! Then we shared a spiritual thought and she fed us the best stuffed peppers I have ever had in my life! I really want the recipe! :)

Then we met with Natasha! She is doing really well! She came to church yesterday! We set a goal to help her make it to the temple! I really hope that she can! I would love to go with her! :)

After Church yesterday, we sang as a branch on the street... It was interesting.. I"m pretty sure that dad would be one of the best singers if he moved to this branch... ;) but it turned out good! The people on the street didn't seem to mind the creative melodies... :) A couple times, I had no idea what song everyone was singing so I just belted the "right" melody. oh...it was quite an adventure! :)

I feel like this letter is really random! I hope it makes sense! I feel like I just have so much to say and my fingers can't type fast enough! I will have to explain all of these stories when I get home :)

I LOVE YOU ALL! I'm so grateful and glad to be on a mission right now! This church is true! I know it! Have a great week and
Happy Ukrainian Christmas!
с роджеством :)

Love,
Sister Kati Ford