Is this real life?

Dear Family and Friends.

Wow. What a week. Sometimes being a missionary, I look back at my week and wonder if I am in some sort of dream... We had some crazy experiences this week!... Crazy but good! I don't even know where to begin! 

I guess I can start with Transfo! Normally, we receive transfer information two Saturdays before the transfer ends. But with 85 new missionaries, it took a little bit longer. So we didn't get any information until Saturday night. And for me, not much changes! I will be in BROVARY again! I will be serving with Sister Walker. She is from the Donestk mission (we now refer to them as our "new missionaries") and she was in the MTC with me, but in the other zone. I'm pretty excited for our transfer together! It will be so good. As far as my district, only Elder Roggow and I are staying here in Brovary. The other SIX are leaving! Wow. So that is basically a full white-wash. So that will be fun! I'm also pretty lucky because there will only be 1 set of sisters here in Brovary. We are one of 4 areas in our mission with only one set of sisters, some of the other areas have 4 sets! So we will have a lot of work to do, with our work plus the other sisters that are leaving! In other news, remember Elder Martineau? The elder that I served around for 5 transfers in Odessa? He is going to be in my district again. Wow. Our district will be two sets of elders and 1 set of sisters! 

 

District pic

 

 more district picture

Last night we had a going away party for everyone that was leaving. It was sad. One elder, Elder Fisher, heads out tomorrow to America, finishing his mission a transfer early to help with space issues. So that was fun to say goodbye to him! 

This week, we went to the Circus with our English group. It was an interesting experience. Very Russian and cheap. But it was an experience. 

 circus

 

They did have this one man that was probably 60 years old that did a handstand on top of 4 balanced chairs and a table. That was impressive. 

Sometimes, I like to think about what my mission would be like if I was serving in other parts of the world. This last week, I had an experience of what it would be like to serve in Africa. In our branch, we have two recent converts- Austin and Kingsley, who are from Africa. This last week, Kingsley called us up and asked if we wanted to "convert some souls". Well of course that answer is YES! So he told us to come to his house Friday at 4. So we went. It was a birthday party for this little girl who was turning 1. I think that every black person from all of Kyiv was there... haha. It was a fun experience. We walk in and playing in the background is "Happy Birthday". But like 20 different variations of it. And everyone is dancing to the happy birthday songs. And the food! African food! and so much of it. They had this fish green herb soup thing and what you did was take a ball of cream of wheat and some soup and then break off pieces of the cream of wheat and dip it in the soup. It was interesting.... haha. My poor companion was enjoying some unidentifiable meat, and was rather distraught when she learned that it was cow intestine. haha.

 

african party! :) 

 

Me with african food! :)

 

I really enjoy African people, they are so nice! especially after being in Ukraine, where talking to strangers is weird for them. But not for people from Africa. One lady walked in, saw us and immediately went off, "Hi, my name is Comfort, but you can just call me Comfy!!! I can just tell that we are going to be such good friends." It was fun and we got to know so many new people! 

Also, I passed 3 months since I broke my back, and that meant I could try running again! IT WAS THE BEST! We went to the track and I ran a mile. It was the best! 

 

 soccer

And I played Soccer on Saturday with the ward! So fun :) :) :) Also, we helped a member paint his house! It was so awesome service :) 

 

service

 

 painting!

after we painted, Brother Sasha bought us pizza! Yum! :) 

Yesterday, we had stake conference, here in Kyiv!  I really loved it. It was inspiring to hear and see the local leaders of the church talk to us. 

Stake Conference

our bus on the way!

I love the opportunities I have to see how the church has grown in such a short amount of time. Ukraine is a special, holy place. The early members of the church here have a special spirit, that has really motivated them to share the gospel and live their faith. Together with so many missionaries and our desire to share the gospel, I feel a special spirit in the branches and wards. I don't really know how to categorize it into words, maybe a feeling of excitement or a feeling that something big is on the way? But it is a good feeling and I feel it all the time. It just motivates me to work my hardest, because I know miracles are coming and are happening all around us! It is a really special time to be a missionary in the Ukraine Kyiv mission! This past little while, I have just felt so blessed to be serving here and learning so much and seeing so many miracles!

  

 Tank pic

Ukraine is such a special place! Don't worry about me, I am safe, But PLEASE pray for the political situation to improve so that we can keep doing the Lord's work in this beautiful country! I love being a missionary, I know that this church is true! Have a fantastic week! :) 

Love, 

Sister Kati Ford 

Воистину Воскрес! Voesteenoo Voskres!

Dear Family and Friends, 

Happy Easter! Easter is the best time to be a missionary, especially here in Ukraine! Everyone is so nice and happy. Despite all the political hardships going on right now, for everyone, yesterday was just a day of peace and family. Ukraine has a lot of really cute traditions for Easter. The main one involves the Paska, which is a sweet bread. It kinda looks like a giant cupcake. But more of a bread and not a cake. On Easter, everyone takes their Paska and goes to the church to get it blessed. So yesterday as we walked to church, everyone else was walking with their families to church, and everyone had Easter Baskets with their Paskas in them. It was so cute. Throughout the park, you could hear the Russian Orthodox choir singing. 

 Me and A Paska from a member. 

We didn't get it blessed though...

Another fun tradition and really lovely for us missionaries was that on Easter, everyone is celebrating the resurrection of the Savior. So when we were walking about, we could say "Христос Воскрес!" which means "Christ is Risen" and almost everyone would respond back with "Воистину Воскрес!" which means "In truth He is risen!". So while Sister Winsor and I were walking around and talking with people, we would say that and almost always get that response back! It was a special way for us to bear our testimonies! Plus as a nice perk, whenever anyone would say it back to us, we would basically get giddy and so happy and excited! We are starting that tradition in America. And if no one else wants too... I'll just spend all of Easter on the phone with old companions :) 

Easter could also be entitled, "The Sister Ford Church Show: Brovary". I played the piano, spoke in Church, played the piano for a musical number, Sister Winsor and I taught the youth in Sunday School, I played the Piano in Relief Society (we sang a Christmas song...) and then played the piano for a baptism of a little 8 year old. His name is Dennis. Poor little kid felt incredible uncomfortable in his white jumpsuit, to the point where after 20 minutes of singing prelude music, they consented to do the baptismal program with him sitting in the hallway where no one would see him. Combine that 20 minutes with the 20 minutes of outift-changing music and I had thoroughly exhausted all my piano playing skills. Awkward. But thankfully, the actual baptism went off without a hitch and Dennis was the happiest little newly baptized member in our branch! It's really cool to see the church growing in the way of children of converts being baptized! He will grow up into such a cute missionary and priesthood holder. :) 

Our musical number and my talk were both good. When I get home, I'm not sure that speaking in church will ever be scary again. Everything is much more scary in Russian. Unless I had to speak in General Conference...that might be more scary. But I think that my message was clear. I talked about Easter and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I love the Atonement :) 

Teaching the Youth was also good, but it is always a little frustrating (maybe not the right word...disappointing?) for me. So many of them have a testimony of the church, but then refuse to do the things they need to do to chose the right. They come to church, but then they smoke and drink. I just, whenever I am with them, want to impress to them the importance of doing the right things, for the right reasons, even if no one else is doing them. I worked especially with one of the girls, Dasha. We had started a lesson with the "Because of Him" video (In Russian- SCORE!) and it had brought her to tears. We split up into partners and asked the youth to practice bearing their testimony of the Savior. So when we got together, I asked her to share and she said, "I don't know how". So we talked about how to share a testimony and I asked her if she had any friends that might be interested and she mentioned a girl named Zhenya. So I pretended to be Zhenya and we practice. I asked her, "Who is Jesus Christ to you?" and Dasha went off about all that Christ did for her and all that is possible thanks to him. It was a super strong testimony! So I tried to express to her the importance of letting that testimony shine and how she, If she chooses, could change the life of her friend Zhenya, the branch members, and everyone she comes in contact with! She just needs to have the courage and faith to live what she believes! 

And not just her, but all people need to learn about the blessings, peace and happiness that come when we combine what we believe with how we live! We don't just have our church side and our normal side. They should be all together. We shouldn't just be members of the church on Sunday, but all throughout the week! We need to follow the counsel of the Savior, "Let your light so shine before men, so they can see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven" (Matt 5:16). As we do that, we will find more happiness and sharing the gospel will become easy and more natural. We will feel a great desire to share with our friends what we know, and they will have a desire to know what makes us different and why we behave and act the way we do. As we live the gospel, we will love and serve our friends more, and Preach My Gospel teaches that "offering the restored gospel will flow more naturally out of relationships where [we] are seeking to love and serve" (Chapter 9). So live what you believe! Let it shine and shape ALL of your daily actions :) 

This week, we had a tri-zone conference with all of Kyiv, including the new missionaries! SO MANY MISSIONARIES! wow. But it was so good! President told us all about his new calling in the 70 and what he did the last week. He talked about meeting the Apostles and getting set apart and sitting up in the stand at conference. It was SO COOL! He's awesome. We also had some great instruction on sanctification and the Holy One of Israel, or why we are on missions today (To gather Israel...) :) It was so motivating! I left and was so inspired! In fact, one of our potentials and I talked that night after English for about 20 minutes and at the end, he mentioned how I just seemed motivated and inspired and that my energy made him want to know more about what I believed. As I shared my beliefs, he was intrigued by how I knew. We ended up meeting with him the next day to read the Book of Mormon together. I loved bringing up the promise that his family could grow closer and live together forever as a part of the gospel! I hope he keeps progressing! :) He needs the peace that this gospel brings! :) 

We ran into the tank this morning. 

Tank photo shoot = success :)

On Saturday, we went into some of the far out Villages with our branch president. it was so fun! We visited some less actives. I'm always amazed by how many people don't know anything about missionaries! People in these villages always want to know who we are and why we are here and they are so willing to talk to us! We are going to do more work in the Villages now that it is spring :) 

I love being a missionary! The Church is SO TRUE! I know it :) I hope everyone has a great spring week :) Enjoy the flowers and the warm weather :) I love you all! 

Love, 

Sister Kati Ford 

There's a tank in the Park!!!

Dear family and friends,

First off... don't be overly concerned about the subject line. Yes, there is a tank, but it's not attacking anything....yet! haha just kidding, it's only a statue. But when I first saw it, I was like, "Hey Sister, there's a tank in our park." And Sister Winsor responded, "Not funny, Sister Ford". But then it was the truth :) 

 the TANK!

As far as the status report on Ukraine and missionary work goes, the Mormon Newsroom was only slightly misleading when it said that the 85 missionaries were going to other parts of Ukraine. In actuality, they ALL came to Kyiv. That's a lot of missionaries! We doubled our mission OVERNIGHT! The wards in Kyiv now have more then 20 missionaries in them! In Brovary, we only got two new elders, so we aren't sharing an apartment or anything, but our branch of 40 (on a good day) active members will now have 8 Missionaries! Wow! The work is going to progress so much faster here in Kyiv! :) We don't know how long everyone will be here, at least 3 weeks, maybe longer. Everything is kind of depending on Russia and the election for Ukraine in May. So we will see... 

Can I just say, I LOVE CONFERENCE! seriously. I"m obsessed. and it was SO GOOD THIS TIME! I learned so much and felt like the speakers were speaking straight to me! :) The major theme that I noticed was "dedicating your life to be a disciple of Christ, through obedience and covenant keeping, making your eternal progression by the means of the Atonement the highest priority of our life, even if it means living your faith by yourself." So yeah. I really loved that! I love our Prophet and the Apostles and the Seventies and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! I love it all! If you haven't watched it, watch it! If you did watch it, remember that President Monson recommended that you read it as soon as you could. It's all right on LDS.org :) 

Let me share a promise that I love from Preach My Gospel, "As you treasure up the words of the scriptures and the latter-day prophets by study and faith, your desire to share the gospel will increase. You are promised that the Spirit will help you know what to say (page 19). I know that is true! And may I add that you need to act on what you hear! I love this story from the bible, which most of us know, about the wise man and the foolish man. Have you realized what made the difference between the wise man and the foolish man? Look at these verses,   

"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his  house upon the sand; And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell; and great was the fall of it" (Matthew 7:24-27) 

The difference isn't that one heard and one didn't. In fact, applied to modern day life, they probably BOTH went to conference, they probably BOTH listened to the talks, took some nice notes, even made some goals to improve. The DIFFERENCE between the wise man and the foolish man of this story and the wise man and foolish man of today, is that the wise man DID the things he heard. So now that conference is over, PLEASE be wise and act upon what you heard, the commitments and challenges offered by the servants of God, and most importantly, what you felt prompted and instructed by the Spirit to do. "O be wise, what can I say more? (Jacob 6:12). I know that blessings will come into your lives as you listen and then APPLY what you learn from General Conference! 

This week, I had a huge blessing in my life! I GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE AGAIN!!!!!!!!!! Yay :) we got to go do baptisms for the dead with our branch and with our recent converts! It was so good! Our entire district got to go and it was great! One recent convert got to do the proxy baptism for his father, so that was really special. :) I love the temple! I know it is the house of the Lord :) 

 temple with Kingsley! :)

 more temple pics.

awk district picture...I don't know why it turned out so weird haha 

This week we also had a Movie Night, where we watched 17 Miracles. I don't know that I've even seen the whole movie before, I love it! In russian, it was a little hard to follow sometimes, especially since one man translates all the parts, but it was so good and everyone loved it. I LOVE THE PIONEERS, so after the movie, I got up and bore my testimony and of course, started crying... Something about crying makes the Ukrainian people love you... so now the entire branch just loves me... haha :) That's the secret to the hearts of all ukrainian people :) We also made Russian Pancakes, so everyone loves us even more :) 

Cooking with some members, loving the mexican :)

I don't really know what else to say! I love being a missionary! It is very clear to me that the Lord is hastening His work here in Kyiv! Why else would we add 85 new missionaries here?? I know that the Lord has a perfect plan, and even if it doesn't make sense to us now, someday it will! I know that the Lord protects his missionaries and that miracles happen everyday! I wish I had time to write home all of the miracles I see everyday! When I get home, I will tell them all! :) 

Also, HAPPY EASTER THIS WEEK! Everyone, please take some time to remember Easter and what it means and why we celebrate! I was asked to speak next week in Church, (EASTER...wow) and I am so excited to immerse myself in study of the Atonement and Resurrection of Christ! I saw this message today on mormon.org (http://easter.mormon.org/) and I strongly invite all of you to watch it. It is a powerful message about Christ how his Resurrection and Atonement blesses each one of us! Think of all that is made possible BECAUSE OF HIM! He knows how we feel and he will help us and carry us through all of our hard times! "As we rely on the Atonement of Jesus Christ, he can help us endure our trials, sicknesses, and pain. We can be filled with joy, peace, and consolation. All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ (Preach My Gospel, 52)". I love my Savior and my Redeemer! I know that He lives and that he loves each of us! I know that His Atonement has the power to heal us, and help us, and enable us to progress and grow so that we can return and live with our Heavenly Father again! I love sharing this message! The message of the Atonement is what people need, and that is why I am here on my mission! I promise you that the Atonement can help you, whether you feel lonely, unloved, sad, guilty, angry, or unnoticed! He knows YOU and He loves YOU! I can testify of that, that I know that is true. I was touched by the words of a hymn we sang this morning during companion study, 

 How firm a foundation, ye Saints of the Lord,

1. Is laid for your faith in his excellent word!
   What more can he say than to you he hath said,
   Who unto the Savior for refuge have fled?
2.  In ev'ry condition--in sickness, in health,
   In poverty's vale or abounding in wealth,
   At home or abroad, on the land or the sea--
   As thy days may demand, so thy succor shall be.
3.  Fear not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed,
   For I am thy God and will still give thee aid.
   I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
   Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.
4.  When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
   The rivers of sorrow shall not thee o'erflow,
   For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
   And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
5. When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
   My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply.
   The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
   Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.
6.  The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
   I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes;
   That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
   I'll never, no never, no never forsake!

I know that God and Jesus Christ love us! They are with us every step of the way! Please use the Atonement in your life to bring peace, relief, and happiness! The Lord will help us, and even though we will go through deep water and hard trials, the Lord will never let us drown. His grace is sufficient and His love is everlasting! I know this is true! I love being a missionary! 

Have a great week! Happy Easter :) 

Love, 

Sister Kati Ford 

I CALLED IT! ;)

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Happy General Conference! 

I have only seen the Saturday morning session, and the part where they call the new general authorities, which we watched yesterday morning with our district. 

 GENERAL CONFERENCE LIVE :) (7 oclock at 

night here is 10 in the morning in Salt Lake) 

We watched the part where they call the new general authorities about 20 times. And then we would get really excited and pause it and watch it again and again and get so happy every time! Why?? 

...because they called our mission president into the 1st quorum of the Seventy!!! 

Wow. You may be wondering.... hmm...shouldn't he be in Ukraine right now??? Well...sneaky president. :) He emailed us all and told us that he was going on vacation with his family this week, but so that he could really relax, he wouldn't answer any phone calls or emails or anything. So ok... But then we started thinking, about how no one knew where he was on vacation, or about how he only had 2 months left, or about how in 3 weeks, his other kids come back to Ukraine so they could do a family vacation with all of them then. Then we thought about how general conference was this weekend and all the sudden everything made sense. I definitely wrote in my journal Saturday night (Saturday morning in America) how I thought he was going to get called into the Seventy that day. AND HE TOTALLY DID! 

 

 

 The text revealing the big news :) 

Basically, We are the luckiest, because instead of him going home and then moving the Germany and living in some little village there where no one can ever visit him, he will be in the 70! He will write things in the Liahonas and Ensigns and those will be like our weekly letters. He will speak in general conference (!!!) and it will be like when he spoke in zone conferences! And since members of the 70 serve until the are 70, we have like 24 years of him in the 70. Yay! Also, everyone else will get a chance to know how awesome he is. Because he really is the best. :) So that was FOR SURE a big highlight of my week :) And he is coming back to finish his time as mission president... yay :) 

In other news, this week was really good! I really enjoyed it! I am loving cute little Brovary and we are seeing a lot of miracles here! We are having a lot of really great opportunities to serve and help others, especially the members! It is planting and gardening season, so we have done a lot of work with that! We did some planting and transplanting of strawberries this week. That was really fun. We also burned some yard waste. so that brought out the fire-lover in me. Everyone in Brovary is constantly burning something so it always smells like fire. My hair seems to smell like fire very easily so for the past week, I have just constantly smelt like I came from a week-long camping trip! 

 Our whiteboard, now completely decked out! 

wow. so much planning :)

 The other major theme of this week was general conference. In almost every lesson we taught, we talked about conference and how great it is! We taught about how if you have questions, they can be answered at general conference. It was always a really powerful moment when we could share how our questions had been answered at general conference. I LOVE CONFERENCE! I can't wait to watch the rest of it this weekend! If you haven't seen it, watch it! If you have seen it, watch it again! General Conference is the time when the prophet speaks to us! And when we listen, we hear what the Lord wants us to do! :) We even got the chance to watch GENERAL CONFERENCE LIVE, which our recent converts that speak english! It was super fun :) I made cinnamon rolls, so they all enjoyed that :) 

 Cinnamon rolls, rising all nicely. :)

 

A couple fun miracles from this week:

One occurred when we had the opportunity to talk with a lady. We invited her to church and she said she would come. When we told her the address, she said, " Oh, the Mormons used to meet there, they are horrible people. I'm so glad they left" and she went on about them and how awful they were. We then took that moment to introduce the Book of Mormon and explain how Mormon is sometimes used as a nickname for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. As we talked and testified of the Book of Mormon, she asked for a copy and agreed to meet again. She apologized for her rudeness towards 'The Mormons', explaining that she just didn't know who they were. I found it so interesting that she was so against the church without even knowing anything about it, and it only took 5 minutes on the street to completely change her perspective and for her to not only be friendly towards the church, but to actually want to know more about the gospel. It is a great blessing to be a missionary and to help people come to know more about the gospel! 

 

 Sister Farnsworth and I had an 

awesome exchange this week :)

On Monday, we were walking to a Family Home Evening, when I noticed this man walking really close. So I started talking to him, only to find out that he had lived in America and knew English very well. We ended up walking through the whole park together, just talking with him. He started asking us about why we were here and if we were scared at all of being in Ukraine. And we told him how we were here as missionaries and we have trust in God and his hand in keeping as safe! We asked about his belief and he said that he wants to know more about God. I was able to testify and explain a little bit more how God is our loving Heavenly Father and how he loves us and has a plan for us. The man then asked, "Do you really believe that?" and I was able to answer and say, "Yes, I believe that. I know it is true". And I could see the powerful effect of that testimony on him as he teared up and told us about how he feels like something is missing in his life, and he thinks that we have it. And of course, we loved hearing that, because we do have something that is missing from his life, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ! So we are so excited to teach him and his family! I know our message will bless their lives and help them find the peace and happiness they are searching for! :)  

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! It is the best thing ever! I love preaching and helping and lifting and smiling and I never want to stop helping the Lord with his work! :) I'm grateful for our living prophet and apostles and the leadership they have for us! This week I'm especially grateful for my mission president, and his amazing example! I have been so blessed to serve in this mission and to get to know President Klebingat! He's so awesome! I love this gospel, this church, and the message I share, and I KNOW that it is true! 

Have a great week :) Watch conference :) 

Love, 

Sister Kati Ford