Zone Conference

Hey, Hey, Hey!

How is everyone doing?  I'm in a good mood today... Why? Because last week we had zone conference and President brought down our BRAND NEW DEHUMIDIFIER! 

our dehumidifier! My new best friend :)

Woo-hoo! That may not seem like a big deal, but now my sheets on my bed are actually dry and my towel dries! It is a little miracle!

Ok...I'm actually happy for real reasons, not just the dehumidifier, although it is pretty awesome! :)

This week was really good! (I say that every week, but it is true!) This week was also a little crazy! We had an exchange planned but then at the last minute, one of the sisters got sick, so we had to move the exchange to later in the week! That made it crazy!

Some highlights of this week!

- We did Service this week for Vika! It was so fun! We got to help her sort grapes. SO SO SO SO many grapes. They filled up her whole kitchen. It was funny because we were sorting them into firm, soft, and bad. But after awhile I couldn't tell the difference between what was firm and what was soft. But I sure tried. I told her about how grandpa makes grape juice. She thought that was fun! It is fun to talk to her and practice my Russian while we serve her! I am so impressed by her strength to be active in the church even though she has a disability! What an inspiration!

 Grapes! They grow everywhere here!

-We planned some awesome activities for this transfer! We will be doing a Halloween Party for kids, a game night, another pancake night. We also will be holding a fireside, my first one that I will plan! It will be called "Missionary Heritage in Suvorosky" and we will talk about RMs in our branch, the current missionaries, and the future missionaries, and how we can all be member missionaries! Also, I think we will feed dinner! It will be crazy! Also, our ward mission leader wants us to do a Thanksgiving Dinner, but he thinks we should serve Mexican Food. And call it a Mexican Thanksgiving. I'm not sure what I think about that... What do y'all think?

- Wednesday we had a great day planned...but then every lesson but one fell though. The only lesson that we had was with a less active named Valentina. It was my first time inside her apartment. To my utmost surprise, I discovered that she is a hoarder! Oh my! So much stuff! But we still taught a really good lesson. She was touched that we still remembered her after all those years that she hadn't been. She loves that we care enough to come and meet with her. Even more crazy, she still remembers her first Elders names, "Allan and Schmidt". Crazy how much of an influence missionaries have on people! :) 

 Our pipe that we walk along to get home. In the morning, when everyone is walking to school and work, it is like the "fast lane" haha :)

- ZONE CONFERENCE! It was so good! We learned about repentance and how we can more effectively use repentance in our lives and when we do, we can teach it more effectively to our investigators. It was really insightful! I love being able to learn from President and Sister Klebingat! They are awesome! And we get to have another zone meeting again this week when they are here! I can't wait! :) 

 Our empty bus! I forgot to talk about this! We got on a bus with a ton of people then everyone got off. I was worried that it was the wrong bus! Thankfully it wasn't! The driver took us speedily to our stop. It was like personalized. Kinda awkward. But funny :)

- We had a game night! It was so fun! We had people from English come. We did a Ping-Pong tournament and Sister Kelly won! All the men couldn't believe it! After that, they asked me to tell more about my life in America. So I started answering questions and they asked questions for the next hour. They wanted to know about everything. America, my car, my job, my parent's jobs, my family, my school...everything. They were so intrigued about why I was in Ukraine. It was really interesting to talk about. One said to me afterwords, "Normally you missionaries just try to shove your church down my throat, but you just answered my questions and as a result, I am more intrigued about your church" Interesting, right? They like knowing that we are real people and not fake or brainwashed. 

 I think my planner is cute this transfer, don't you :)

-Also, I spoke in church! SO SCARY! But it went really well! I think...I spoke about how physical pain can be healed by doctors, just like spiritual pain or guilt from sin, can be healed through Christ and His Atonement! I was so thankful for the members that helped me translate my talk! They were so helpful! :)

-Fun story from Church! After Sacrament Meeting, I went up to a member, Raisa, and was talking to her. She said, "Sister Ford, when you were speaking, I had a thought. It is that if you were here when I was 20 years old, (She is 60 now), we would've been best friends". ISN'T THAT THE CUTEST! It just makes me want to cry :) I was so touched! :)

- Also, we had American visitors in Church on Sunday. Our old branch president is marrying an American girl and her and her mom were here! They are getting married next Tuesday in Kyiv :) Cute! But, for the first time, I tried translating! OPA! So hard! It is really hard to listen and translate and speak at the same time! But it was really good language practice! I learned a lot and I am excited to try again! :) It was funny! I translated Relief Society and it was crazy! People were arguing and talking in Ukrainian and it was crazy. I tried my best....haha :)

Weirdness:
My birthday is this week! Weird, right! 

My birthday presents :)

Also, this last week, I officially passed my date that I will return home in a year! So I have less then 365 days left! Weird! :)

And this week will mark 2 months till I get to skype home! Weird!

I love you all! Have a great week :) Make good choices! :)

Love,
Sister Kati Ford

ZONE CONFERENCE!!!!

Dear Friends and Family!

This week was Zone Conference! It was SO awesome! And not to be too crazy, but we found out that we will be having a MISSION CONFERENCE in a month! Which is awesome because I LOVED zone conference! I'll tell about it in little bit...

But first, this week was good! I am happy and healthy! It is HOT here, but the leaves are falling off the trees, which leads me to believe that at some point it will cool off! Who knows! 

 

ice cream with sister leavitt! Happy birthday!

This week we were crazy busy with exchanges and with zone conference! but It was good! On Tuesday, I was on an exchange with Sister Busch! Remember her??!?!?!? She goes HOME, like AMERICA HOME, in 9 days! Just over a week! I can't believe it! I'm going to miss her. So it was AWESOME to spend a day with her! We taught a couple lessons and we also just got to talk. I've thought a lot this week about how STRANGE it is that the church throws 2 (or 3) random people together, in a random country, for 6 weeks...and expects them to survive! And not only do we survive, but we become like BEST FRIENDS. strange. But REALLY awesome! What a blessing in my life! 

I also went on an exchange this week with Sister Goncharova. It was so fun! We went out searching for one of our less actives...

 mapping out less actives...sister leavitt thought this was "so darling"

 

we ended up walking like 10 miles. I felt kinda bad because she fell asleep during dinner. Poor girl. But that night, we met with Nina and Vlad for the last time.  :( Sad. 

 nina and vlad before they went home! :(

 

Before they left we gave them the pictures that we took. They gave us their address so I hope I can write them! It will be my language study! :) On their last day here, Sister Goncharova and I showed them the Ukraine Temple Video (watch it!- Liza is in my branch!) and we also talked about the Plan of Salvation! There was a really sweet spirit. We talked about how we can feel the spirit on our own by reading the scriptures and praying! It was aweosme! Sister G (Sorry, getting long to type!) and I also started a conversation on a bench with a lady named Oxcana. She was so nice! She was going to come to church yesterday, but had something come up, so we are going to try and meet with her this week! I REALLY hope that I can meet with her again! She really does love me! I called her on Saturday night and she was SO nice and sweet! So that was exciting to talk to her! Pray for her!

Thursday and Friday I was back with Sister Leavitt. But it didn't last too long, because on Saturday, Sister G. finished her mission and went home. She had to leave before the transfer ended because she had "Bookaviel". It is a big youth conference for everyone in Ukraine. It is basically just like EFY and this is only the 2nd year. It is a huge thing for the youth of the church here! They go all year without seeing many members and they look forward to this conference all year! I hear great things about it! But anyway...sister G left, so now Sister Hunt is back and we are trio for the next 2 weeks! It is going to be so good! 

 Also, because sister hunt and I and sister leavitt are back together, I went to suvorskey, where natasha is! Remember her?? She is doing great! A member moved in with her and... wait for it... they are living the mission schedule!!! They study every morning, separate and together. She is reading Preach my Gospel, she has a missionary planner, she is participating in church and it is her desire to help the missionaries every day. She talks to people about the gospel all the time! I am so proud of her :) Isn't that awesome :)

Saturday... ZONE CONFERENCE! I had no idea how much I would look forward to zone conference! basically it is like Christmas! The night before, we were so excited! We were like dancing around and planning what to wear and yeah....it was fun. Then the next morning, we got to go to the church, have interviews with President, see our mail! 

 MAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE IT !

 

(Thanks everyone that wrote me, You are so nice!!!!) , and we even got ENGLISH LIAHONAS! -- so exciting! then we got to study for a little bit, then we had zone conference! 

President Klebingat talked a little bit about the signs of the 2nd coming, then we talked about our goals as missionaries, exact obedience, Russian, memorizing scriptures, our calling, and normal missionary stuff. Then we also got to hear President's conversion/life story. It is crazy! I don't have time to tell you all of it, but seriously it could be made into a movie! It could even be a romance because part of the story involves him selling his car to use ALL his money to fly from Idaho to New York to propose (using a 10 dollar ring) to a girl he had met less then a week ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which, in case you were wondering, is Sister Klebingat today :) How cute! But basically, I learned that my mission president is like the coolest person in the world and this awesome leader! I am so blessed that he is leading and guiding me here! I know he is called of God!! 

Also, after Zone Conference was great because I got to open my letters and packages! Seriously, thank you so much! Y'all are awesome! I am so blessed! Seriously, the elders kept coming up to me during zone conference and saying, "Sister Ford, Congrats!" And I would be "for what?" and they would say, "the most mail!" and I would smile. :) It was a blessing! ;) 

sister hunt and I in a taxi! 

So I love you all and I am happy to be here serving with all my heart, might, mind, and strength! I love you and I am praying for you! Be happy! Enjoy the last bit of Summer! :) The church is true! I know it is! Do missionary work! ;) 

Sister Ford

 

 more birthday!

 

 last lunch pic- ALL THE sisters came

the menu!

Week 4! 1 month down...

This picture is especially for Sydney!  She sent me a heart, so I thought 

I would repay the favor!

  

:) Dear Family, Friends, Everyone!

 

How is the outside world?  Can you believe that I have been on my mission for 4 weeks!  In fact, this Sunday (the 27th!) is my one month! I feel like I should have a party or something!  Feel free to send me letters or packages of congratulations!  Haha :). 

 

Here is my letter to the Brach Presidency this week:

"This week, our teachers are all switching up so we as of right now we are only teaching Sasha. Our last few lessons with him have gone really well. We taught him about faith and and a little bit of repentence. We are excited to teach him about the Atonement later this week! We are really excited that we can tell him all about Christ and how he atoned for our sins and how through him, we can be clean and pure. I'm especially excited about how sometime soon, we will be able to explain eternal families. He has a wife and a child and at the moment, is living in a different city from them. I think he will really love that he can be with them forever.

We also started an activity this week where we are teaching other companionships in our class. We pretend to be someone that we know from home and then they teach us. I am so excited to teach and to be taught this way. It is really interesing to imagine and try to act that the person that you picked. I've learned a lot about teaching by being taught. It is really awesome how the Spirit can teach me, even though I'm pretending to be someone else! In this activity, we will be teaching a girl named Tonya, and a lady named Christina. We haven't taught them yet, but we will teach them this week.

Something excited that I have done for personal study this week is to read all of the Preach My Gospel lessons (including all the scripture references). I've been marking the scriptures according to what lesson it is from. An insight I gained from doing this is realizing how related everything is that we teach. A scripture that explains part of the Restoration, also explains part of the Plan of Salvation, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I think that it helped me realize that our message really is quite simple. This isn't complicated, and the base of everything is that through Jesus Christ, we can return to live with our Father in Heaven again.

This week, I have also been thinking a lot about the people I will teach in Ukraine. It is weird for me to think that I will actually be doing missionary work in Ukraine. I am so excited to teach them that sometimes I just want to leave now. Of course, sometimes I feel so nervous about going that I think I would rather stay at the MTC forever. But usually I just want to be in Ukraine! It is crazy to think that we are almost halfway through our MTC time! It has gone so fast!"

Seriously though, this month has flown by!  I can't believe that I only have 17 more months left.  Plus, I imagine it will go even faster once I get to Ukraine!

This week was so good.  There were a couple of things that made it hard, but overall it was so good!  The Spirit at the MTC has been especially strong since Elder Scott was here.  It just makes me smile! 

Ok...first of all.  I hear people want to hear what I do all day.  If you want the short answer, it is class and studying.  That's about it!  But I will share the longer version too!  Our schedule changes a little bit depending on what day it is, but we do the same activities most days.  On Monday, I took pictures of almost everything that we did so I will explain Monday in depth then talk a little bit about our other activities. 

So on Mondays:

6:20 - Wake up.  We wake up and go get in the line for Sack Breakfast. Sack breakfast is just cereal, bagels, doughnuts, fruit...basically just a continental breakfast.  Missionaries are not allowed in the main cafeteria if they are not in church clothes, so we go get Sack Breakfast on days that we are in jeans for awhile.

(in line for sack breakfast)

(eating breakfast)

 Mondays we have service in the morning so we stay in our pants for that!  Then we usually eat our breakfast in the Hallway of our dorms!6:40-8:40 - Get ready and Personal Study.  Every morning we have personal study for an hour.  

(studying before gym.  sister hunt and I)

We read scriptures by ourselves, review lessons, pray...just whatever we need to work on and want to do.  It is usually very relaxing.  Mondays we have 30 minutes to get ready here but usually we get ready after Service and Gym, so we have some personal time.  

(in line for sack lunch)

We can talk, study, take a nap...whatever.  I like to paint my nails during that time. 

8:45- SERVICE!  Every missionary in the MTC does 1 hour of service per week.  Each district has an assigned area that the report to clean.  Ours in 1M, which is the big building with the offices, chapels, and main information desk.

(service and studying before gym.  sister hunt and I)

is the best place to have service!  A lot of missionaries have dorm buildings, so they scrub showers and toliets.  We get to wash windows, vaccuum, and other fun assignments.  It seriously is one of my favorite parts of the week!  Plus new senior missionaries come in on Mondays, so we get to talk to some of them!  This last Monday, we had the BEST assignment.  We got to pick 32 flags from whatever countries we wanted

(hanging up flags for service!)

(my artsy picture of the flags!)

- Ukraine first of course -- and then hang them up outside!  It was so much fun! Some of the flagpoles cranked, so it was an arm workout too!  It made me happy!  We finished that a little early so we got to vaccuum too.  There is never very much to vaccuum though because it is done several times a day, but it is fun!

9:45 - We have a little bit more free time.  I studied some more and prepared for a lesson I was teaching that afternoon.

 (we are learning some russian!  We use the dictionary to translate 

words we don't know while we read the BOM in Russian)

10:25 - GYM!  If we are inside, then I run on the track

("running" in gym.  ;))

 (Me posing while playing four square!)

(the whole gym)

 for awhile and then play four-square.  It is actually a very intense game! haha This week, it finally got warm enough, so we had our first outdoor gym!  I loved it!  I played soccer.  Another sister tripped me though, and I fell hard!  My leg is all scraped up and bruised!  It hurts, but it was worth it to be outside! 

11:30 - Lunch!  Today we also got sack lunch because we were in our gym clothes!  They have Sandwiches and salads, chips, etc.  Just normal lunch stuff.

11:45-12:30 - Get ready.  We get all dressed up and ready for the rest of the day. 

12:30-3:30 - Class!  We have a teacher for 6 hours every day. 

(practicing our teaching!  In russian!  That book is our little cheat sheet! )

(studying with sister hunt)

We practice teaching, we learn Russian, we goof off (a little), and we sleep -- haha just kidding about the sleeping part!  

("sleeping" with sister Hunt)

We were just pretending to be asleep!  I'm actually super proud of myself because I haven't fallen asleep in class or studying yet! Class is long, but super productive.

3:30-4:45 - We always have at least an hour of dedicated language study time.  We work on grammer, memorization, verbs...etc.  It is good!

4:45 - Head to the Cafeteria to eat.

  

dinner...swedish meatballs!  Also lots and lots of croutons!  :) 

They have a lot of different options.  Usually I get a salad, and any main dish that looks good.  

(dinner!  With Sister Lee)

They have custom made wraps you can get that are pretty good!  I really like the pasta.  On this day, I tried the Swedish Meatballs, they were ok!  We love dinner becuase it is a nice break!.

5:00-9:00 - More class.  Same as above.

  

(the sword of the spirit and the shield of faith that our elders made!)

Usually we get a little crazy by 8:00.  

(we mess around a little!  I'm not in this picture because i was actually 

teaching!  i came back to about 20 funny pictures on my camera!)

 

If you know what I'm like at 2 in the morning, that is kind of what 8 pm is like for a missionary!

9:00-9:30 - Planning.  We always plan what we will do the next day.  It helps us be more focused the next day!

9:30-10:30 - Get ready for bed.  Open packages, read letters (We can only open them after 9:30!) Write in our journals.  Quiet time is at 10:15, lights off at 10:30.  I'm usally pretty good at that!

So anyways that is our typical, 16 hour day! Fun, right?!?

Other activities we do include, TRC.  That is where we teach real life people, not our teachers.  It is in Russian and one of my favorite activities.  Last week we taught, two people about prayer.  One lady was actually from Russia, and she didn't speak much Russian. She wrote on our feedback form that my Russian was really good! It made me so happy!  :)

TALL - that is on the computer. It is kinda like Rosetta Stone.

(TALL- learning my russian!)

I really don't like it that much, but it is helpful for learing vocab, like numbers!

Choir- We have choir on Sunday and Tuesday.  It is the best thing ever!  Seriously, if you are in the MTC and you don't sing in the choir, you are doing it wrong! I love it!

Devotional- We have a devotional on Sunday and Tuesday!  They are awesome!

On Sundays, we have personal study all day, except for Sunday School (which is a district meeting), Relief Society (With all the sisters in the MTC), Sacrament Meeting, and Temple Walk. We also have a devotional that night, then a movies (always a church movie!)

Anyways...that is it!  

Now onto this week:

(Yay!  I love Laekynn!  I see Sister Davis everyday!  I'm going to be so sad 

when she leaves! Plus- these clouds are awesome!)

It was awesome because I knew 4 people that came into the MTC so I got to see them all over the place! 

 (I also saw Cody.  It was good to talk to him! This was his first week.)

I saw Ben, Laekynn, Cody,and Allyscha all over!  It was so fun!  I've been able to see Laekynn every day, it makes me so happy!  She is awesome!

I feel like my language ability has improved so much over this last week!  I guess that is what happens when an apostle gives you a blessing that your language will improve!  I feel like I am starting to really understand a lot more Russian!  Forming sentences is easier also!

I checked out a violin from the MTC this week! It is a really nice violin!  I think I am going to play in Sacrament Meeting!  Scary right?! But exciting! 

This week was also Sister Clark's birthday!  She turned 21!  

(This Sunday was sister Clark's birthday!)

We decorated a little bit and sang!  It was really fun!

  (We had balloons and hats and I made signs!:)) 

It made a normal day just a little bit more exciting!

For Relief Society, a member from the General Primary Presidency (Sister Esplin) came!  It was so good!  We got to sing some Primary Songs, which was awesome! :) That afternoon, for the devotional, the BYU men's chorus came!  It was so fun!  I saw Kyle Johnson, who was in my ward last semester!  I told him to say hi to everyone from me at Ward Prayer, I hope he did!  That night we got to watch the Testaments. I had never seen it before but it was super good! 

Our devotional yesterday was by Elder Evans.  He is  the head of the Missionary Board.  He gave a really powerful talk about repentence, it was super awesome! 

Highs of this week! -- devotionals, seeing my friends, playing a violin, our lessons, TRC, service! 

Funny Moments - In TRC, our person, in Russian, told us ALL about how he prayed for his zits to go away.  We were like...ok...Then he was explaining what he actually said and we were dying of laughter!  It was so great!

The Asians on our floor had a party the day before they left!  They were going crazy! It was really funny!

On Friday, I got 4 packages!  How crazy it that!  It made me so happy! 

(packages!  4 of them are mine!)

(In the picture with sister clark, one of mine is missing!  I am so loved!  Y'all rock)

Sister Clark got 3 packages, and that was because it was her birthday haha!  It was so funny!  I loved the packages, especially the treats from both of my grandmas!  They were so good!  :) And the dictionary is great, thanks!!! 

One day I was testifying to random girl in Russian!  I was trying to say that I knew that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon.  The Russian word for translate is pairavestee (that is what it sounds like.  So I got a little confused and mixed the russian and english together and was like Joseph Smith "transvestite" Kniga Mormona.  I was about to die!  She thought that I was crazy because all the russians were dying of  laughter and she had no idea what was going on!

So I'm doing good!  I love being a missionary!  I'm praying for y'all!  Keep writing me!  I love mail!

Love Sister Ford!

I'll send pics when I go do laundry!  :)

 

(making my bed!  We have random cleaning checks once a week)

 

our teachers leave us russian notes... This says, "My missionaries. I love you.  

Work hard, ok? Brother Hofman" 

(Russian torture, the case chart!!  opa!)