Where in the world is Sister Ford??

Dear Family and friends and everyone! 

Happy Memorial Day! Yay! Although I didn't even think about that until just now. I hope everyone is BBQ-ing and doing all that fun summer stuff! :) 

 darth vador is running for president

 TGIF! Yum

It rained and stormed everyday this week 

 

I'm still in Ukraine, but in about an hour, I'm meeting up with the workers at the service center to catch a flight to Latvia! Yay! Last night, Sister Hunt, Robertson and I all met up and then stayed in Center Kyiv with SIster Larcabal and Roe. It was a party! It was probably one of the funnest nights of my mission thus far...We ate some left-over pizza and chocolate and shared a bed and it was great fun. Missionary sleepovers are the best :) hehe 

sleepover :)

This week was REALLY GOOD! Do you remember Natasha from last week? We ended up meeting with her several times this week! She is so cute and she came to church! 

We just had a man come in and sell us ties, I got some sweet ties :) :) :) 

  the new ties that I just bought

But unfortunately, I ate away my email time and now we are going to have to run to the service center :) But now that I love you all! I'm so grateful for all that you do! ;) Thanks for being so great! 

I love you all, the church is true! I'll tell you so much about Latvia next week! 

Pray for Ukraine! :) 

Love, 

Sister Ford 

We just met the BEST babuska!

Dear family and friends, 

Happy Monday! Happy Spring! Happy rainstorms every night! Happy soaking wet sister missionaries because we forget umbrellas everyday! Happy missionary life! 

I love you all! I love missionary work and today I am just especially grateful for my opportunity to serve in this mission and to be on a mission! The church is so true! 

Russian Headdresses that we found in the church :) 

This week was great! It was so good! It was a little crazy but good. Life is good! I am happy! And we are seeing a lot of miracles and happy things here in Brovary! I don't even know where to start! 

First off, we just went outside to buy a snack and oh my, it is so pretty! the sun is shining and there are so many white fluffies floating around (I don't actually know what they are) that it looks like it is snowing! I love Ukraine! 

ukraine beauty :)

This week we got transfer and learned that Sister Larcabal and I will be together this transfer! We are really excited and we know that it will be great! :) So a part of this week was packing and unpacking but that was a pretty small part!

This week, we headed up north for an exchange! we were in the cute Chernigov! It was an amazing exchange! Us four sisters together had 6 lessons, found a new investigator and met with a girl that then agreed to be baptized! It was a really fun day! I served with Sister Powell and we had a blast! We even went to this cute Vereniki (dumpling) restaurant and it was really fun! :) 

exchange pics :)

This week, we met with a lot of members to get better acquainted. We had a fun lesson with a family with a few little kids. We taught about how doing the little things strengthens our testimony. We had balloons and we blew them up while we talked about all the little things that we could do. Then we talked about how if you tied the balloon off and didn't add anymore air, it would shrink and not be as big so we need to always be adding more air. :) It was cute and the kids loved it! :) 

We also met with our new branch president and his family! They are the best. Our new branch president is about to get married so we talked about that a little bit. Eventually we got on the topic of their conversion story. It was so cool! Then they feed us Borsch. It was a great meeting! I love members here! They are always so nice and good :) 

 Sister Powell on Exchanges :)

rainbow in the park

Funny story, Sunday morning, we were studying and we got a call. It was President Anton, our branch president. He then asked me to speak in church (Which started in two hours), with the theme of MODESTY. ???? Before he told me that topic, I didn't even know how to say that in Russian!! So originally it was a five minute talk but two minutes before the meeting started, they asked me to speak for 10 minutes. Oh my oh! It actually went really well. Everyone said that it was really good. Haha :) 

Last Monday night, our lesson fell through so we went to look for someone. We had their address but nothing else. So we went and when we got there, they were not home. We had brought some Banana bread to give to our friend, but she wasn't home. As we walked out, we saw these two grandmas. We decided to give our treat to them. As we approached, one said, "Sister Ford, I love the book you gave me". Turns out that I had given the babushka (grandma) a book of Mormon before and she loves it! So we got to talking and before we knew it, we had 4 new babushki friends. They even invited us to live in their house with them. It was so fun! :) I love the babushki here :) 

don't think we are too weird, but some district pictures... 

Yesterday and Today, We have been able to witness an amazing miracle. Yesterday, Brother Roman (Family, you met him, he was the first one you saw), came up and told us that he met this lady and that we could meet with her and him tomorrow. so we agreed for that and today we came and he came and she came and we met Natasha. She is the super cute hip babushka that loves ping-pong, is a professional at the accordion and knows 4 different languages. We taught her about the restoration of our church and a little more about what we believe. It was really awesome. There was a strong Spirit there. At the end of the meeting, she asked to meet again and have more lessons. So we set one up for Thursday. But then, as we played some ping-pong (she plays so well), she asked if we could meet tomorrow too! So we are really excited to meet with her and help her learn more about the church. She told us about how she felt really strongly that she needed to come into our building and that she loves what we are teaching already! she is super fun :) 

Because all of the Donetsk missionaries left, I got to choose if I wanted to come home in September or October. And I chose October, so see you October 15th :) Also, I'm not sure when you will get an email from me next week, because next Monday at 11:45 is when I fly to Latvia to renew my visa! It will be interesting! :) I've had to do a lot of paperwork for that this week, but it has been good :) Hopefully everything will go as planned! :) 

Natasha, our new babushka friend

 

This coming Sunday, is a big day for Ukraine! election day! On Tuesday, as we were walking home, we walked right into a political rally. One of the candidates was speaking in our park. So that was interesting! There was so many people there! Everyone right now has so much Ukrainian Pride. Pray for them this Sunday, that everything will resolve in a peaceful way! 

I love you all! Have a great week! :) 

Love, 

Sister Kati Ford

All is Well! All is Well!

Dear Family and Friends! 

Happy One Day After Mother's Day! I love my Mother and I'm so grateful for her example and love. She is the best! Also, a BIG SHOUT-OUT to all the other women that have had a great impact in my life, my grandmothers, teachers, friends, aunts, cousins. Y'all are so great and I love you! I hope that everyone enjoyed a happy Mother's Day yesterday! 

I got the best present on Mother's Day this year, I got to talk to my family! Yay! :) I have the best family! Just so you know, my companion was VERY impressed by my brothers. She thinks that you are the best brothers that any sister could have, and I agree. :) I love you all so much and miss you and am excited to see you in the fall! :) 

Site seeing in Kyiv

WHEW! What a week! I'm sure many of you have MANY questions about what has happened this last week. I'm sure most of you saw this update on some sort of news site: 

"Due to ongoing uncertainty in Ukraine, 67 missionaries formerly serving in the Ukraine Donetsk Mission who had previously been transferred to other areas within Ukraine will be reassigned to missions within their home countries to complete the remainder of their service. Forty-one missionaries who anticipated serving in Ukraine have been reassigned to other missions."

and I'm sure that many of you maybe even thought I was being reassigned or coming home. But I'm still here (and actually part of the Kyiv mission). But my companion, Sister Walker, was part of the Donetsk mission and that actually should've said ex-companion because she is already back in America, serving in California. I'm am confident that she is doing an excellent job there, but I miss her here! 

We found out in the middle of zone conference on Tuesday that all those missionaries would be leaving and it completely changed our week. We found out Tuesday and spent all day Tuesday in conference with President (of the Mission) Klebingat and President (of the Area Presidency) Bennett. The next day, Wednesday was when we found out that they needed to be packed by Thursday and so she packed. Thursday I dropped her off at the mission home, where all of the departing missionaries got one more chance to meet with President. Then they all flew out on Friday morning. If any of them are now serving in your ward, you are so lucky! They are amazing missionaries and you are lucky to have them there! We miss their presence here and really feel as though we lost half of our mission!. 

Since Sister Walker left, I have been serving temporarily with Sister Larcabal; whose companion also left. Sister Larcabal is awesome and we have been having some good times together! She got to meet my family and I got to meet hers so that was really fun! We probably won't be with each other past tomorrow but I have enjoyed serving with her! 

Sister Walker and I 

One fun memory from Sister Walker. We ended up meeting with a less active family on Wednesday night. We had a very spiritual lesson and at the end, her sons brought out their pet bird. We got to play with it and it was really cute, or at least that is what I thought! But Sister Walker is terrified of birds, so she was just so freaked out the whole time and scared to death. But hey, she let it land on her head and overcame her fears :) It was a good moment :) 

I've learned a lot of lessons in this last week, with the biggest one being that the Lord has a plan for us! He loves us and wants us to be happy! He has a specific plan for each one of us! He knows that this plan will give us all the knowledge and experience that we need in order to become the person that he wants us to be. When we were at our conference, President Bennett spoke a little bit about how when new trials or experiences come, many people say, "Here we go again" and how, to better face those trials and experiences, we can change it to "Here we GROW again" and take the time to find the lessons that God wants us to learn in every experience! I have a testimony that God works in mysterious ways but that they are only mysterious to us because we can't see the whole picture. When we see it all, we will realize that it makes perfect sense! 

At our conference, we ended with the song "Come, Come Ye Saints" which was the same song that Sister Larcabal and I sang yesterday as a musical number. The following words were very comforting to me during this strange and eventful week. Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear;
But with joy wend your way.
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
'Tis better far for us to strive
Our useless cares from us to drive;
Do this, and joy your hearts will swell--
All is well! All is well!

Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard?
'Tis not so; all is right.
Why should we think to earn a great reward
If we now shun the fight?
Gird up your loins; fresh courage take.
Our God will never us forsake;
And soon we'll have this tale to tell--
All is well! All is well! 

 

especially the second verse! I'm excited to take up more courage, to trust in God more and to really have the faith that the Lord is watching over and has a perfect plan! His work is moving here and hastening along! I love you all and am grateful for your prayers and love! Keep up the good work! 

Pray for Ukraine! They need it now more than ever :) 

Love, 

Sister Kati Ford 

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Hola Amigos! 

Haha just kidding... I'm in Ukraine, not Mexico!

HAPPY TRANSFO WEEK! That is the real celebration of this week! This week was pretty crazy, but really good! I love being a missionary! 

I'll start with last P-day.... It was probably one of the best P-days that I have ever had! After we finished our studies and email, we headed into downtown Kyiv! We went to what is called the Spoosk. It is a huge long street with souvineer shops all the way down it! It was so fun! They had EVERYTHING! :) I ended up buying some soccer scarfs, a real fur hat, a Vishevanka (Traditional Ukraine Shirt) and some magnets. We met one man, he would give us really good prices on everything. It was so nice! I got almost all the souvineers that I wanted... the only problem is that now I want more because I saw it there!  :P  I hope I can send pictures today, because we have some fun ones. We brought one of our recent converts with us, which was really great because he carried all our bags AND protected us from the sometimes intense salespeople....  We also had a really yummy dinner of traditional Ukrainian foods. It was so good! :) 

The rest of the week until Wednesday was spent with Sister Winsor saying goodbye to all of her favorite members. It was really weird that EVERYONE except Elder Roggow and I left, I was all the sudden the one that had to know how to get everywhere...Thank goodness Brovary is SMALL! :) 

On Wednesday, I got to go over to a lady names Nadedja and her family. They come to our english! They invited us to make Shashlik with them, which is Ukrainian Shiskabobs. They were SO good! It was such a fun day! We got to share a little bit more about what we believed with them which was really special. Nadedja is a Mary-Kay saleslady and as we were walking out the door, she comes up and says,

 "girls, when was the last time you had a face mask done?" 

"umm... long long long long time ago..."

To which she replies 

"I can tell" 

Then proceeded to give us face masks and makeovers. It was nice of her. She gave us a bunch of free makeup and a book about Mary Kay. In russian... That will be my language study when I get home... haha :) 

Thursday was transfer day and I headed into the mission office and picked up my new companion! Sister Walker is from Utah, and is a funny, cute 20 year old sister from the former Donetsk mission! She is my age on the mission and we are having a blast together so far. She loves hashtags #whodoesnt and to share clothes, so I think we will get along great. She also has connections with everyone... it's crazy! We are now the ONLY sisters in our area and it is really fun. I haven't been without another set of sisters since November and it's different! But it will be so great! We will have a lot of work to do with the branch and will all of the investigators and people from English! :) 

This rest of this week has been a blur of getting settled into a new companionship, planning and setting goals, and normal missionary life!  We had an awesome Saturday, complete with soccer (I'm getting so much better!!!!) and game night (also getting better there!) haha. With all of the old missionaries gone, everyone looked to me a lot more. It was different to take the lead in everything but really good. I'm really excited for this transfer, I think it will be so good! :) 

Sunday, we got a new branch president! About time, the old one had been in for 12 years. Wow. But out new branch president is 24 ( i think) and way cool. He is getting married in a month, nothing like becoming branch president and getting engaged in the same 2 weeks. What a champ. I'm excited to work with him more to help the branch! 

Funny Ukraine Story Time: So yesterday we went to stop by a less active. We had heard some weird things about her, but the Relief Society President asked us to take her something. So we took the elders with us. We got there and rang the doorbell and no one answered. So we were getting ready to leave when a man came up the stairs too. He rang the doorbells too, for the same apartment. We explained that no one answered, but he still kept ringing the door bell. When we were going to leave (because no one was answering the door), he just told us to wait. So we waited. After about 10 minutes, the door opened and someone answered. Moral of the Story??? Just keep ringing! :) Our tracting approach will be much different now.... haha not really :) 

I'm sure everyone has heard at least somewhat about everything that has been happening in Ukraine and especially this last week in Odessa. It breaks my heart to think of all that suffering and fighting in the city that I love so much. Please pray for them. Also, know that we are being cared for and watched out for. President Klebingat talks often (even everyday) with security and they are watching out for us. We are very cautious about where we go and what we do. The Lord will protect His Missionaries. 

 

Sometimes it is a little hard to be a missionary in the midst of so much sadness and hardship. In the midst of this war, it could be easy to convince ourselves that people aren't interested in our message right now. But that is not true! I can testify that despite all the fighting and chaos right now, people need this gospel! In fact, people need it more with all that is going on! And the work here is progressing -- all over our mission! We are having a lot of success. Just last night, Sister Walker and I talked to a couple who expressed to us their concerns about not knowing where to find peace and answers in these hard times. It was such a blessing being able to answer and express my testimony that we can receive comfort and answers through prayer and conversation with our Heavenly Father. He has a perfect plan for us. He has a perfect plan for Ukraine. 

And so we continue in our work here, knowing that we are blessed to see the Lord's hand everyday working to bless and protect us! 

I love you all! I hope you have a great day! and week :) 

Love, 

Sister Kati Ford