HAPPY YEAR MARK!

Dear everyone,

"And it came to pass that the first year of the reign of the missionaries in the land of Ukraine had passed away" 

That's the text message that I woke up to on Thursday.

 

Can you believe that I have been on my mission for a whole year???? Woah. That's right. This last Thursday was my year mark! Ever since last Thursday, I start my day by reading the journal entry from this time last year. It is crazy to see how far I have come and how much I have learned and grown. Coming on a mission has been such a great blessing for me. I have gained a stronger testimony of this church and the restored gospel, and although days are sometimes hard, there is NO WHERE else I would rather be! I love sharing the gospel, I love teaching and preaching here in Ukraine! I love it all! Sister Winsor and I had a blast on my year mark. We ate some yummy treats, went to English, and at night did some fun "year mark" partying. It's all on video, so we can enjoy it together when I get home :) It was a BLAST! :) 

 Me on my year mark

I still can't believe how "old" I am on my mission. I'm like approaching grandma age now. Oh boy. But despite my old age, I'm carrying on! This week was so good! I LOVE BROVARY! It is still so cute and good and I love it :P Something that is very different from Suvorovsky is that the majority of Brovary is families. Like big families, especially by Ukraine Standards. But even from American Standards because one family that we visited has 9 kids!! Also a large number of the families here are moving to America, so someday you can all meet them. 

But this week we spent a lot of time with the recent converts in our branch. We are really working on helping them review so that they know everything that they need to about the gospel! they are 3 great guys and it is fun to teach them! They all have such a strong desire to live the gospel! :) 

We also met some of the families in our branch! On Monday, we had a really fun FHE with the Branch President and his family. Our branch president does translating for general conference so right now he is working on translating all the talks for conference. Pretty cool job. He's not allowed to tell us about the talks but he gave us some sneak peak topics haha :) He has 3 darling kids and it was fun! :) 

This week we also cooked with our landlady. We made Galapsie, which is like stuffed cabbage rolls. She kept going off about how healthy it was and then added about 3 cups of oil...so I don't think they were that healthy but they were super yummy! :) 

Me in the selo!

Wednesday we did SERVICE in a selo, which is like a village. There is a family there with 9 kids. The husband slipped on the ice ( sound familiar??) and got hurt so they need a lot of help. So we helped in the garden there and it was way fun! We also have a lot of service this week! I am so excited :) 

 

doing service with the Clark family on Wednesday

We had a game night on Saturday! I learned a new game, "California Speed". I lost every time but it was really fun. Someday I will win. Ping-pong here is very intense...I  wasn't very competitive with everyone else. haha 

There is a man here that comes to english all the time, and he knows a lot of english! We met with him and he helped us with our Russian. It was probably the best russian help I have ever gotten. So good! I love russian! It's just like a big puzzle to figure out! :) 

I love being a missionary! I love this gospel! I love all of you! Watch General Conference this week! :) All of it! We have been teaching lately about general conference and how if we spiritually prepare for conference, the Lord will answer our questions! :) I KNOW that is true! I am on my mission today because the Lord answered my questions at a general conference! :) 

I love you! Pray for Ukraine! :) 

Love, 

Sister Kati Ford