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
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