Birthday Week

Hey everyone!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! It was definitely an interesting experience being away from home and in Ukraine, on a mission for my birthday. But it was a good day. My companion was a rock star! She spent the whole day saying happy birthday. 

 Birthday morning! Opening presents! :)

Some of the highlights from my birthday were when Zhenya, a recent convert from our branch called me to say happy birthday! He works some nights from 8pm-8am but called at 8:05 in the morning! Even after work! It was sweet! And when I saw him the next day, he gave me a present, a picture frame. 

 picture frame from zhenya! 

It was really nice. I put the picture of Sister Hunt and Busch and I from our first transfer but when I get a picture of Zhenya, he will go in it! Hhaha, so I never forget! Also, our ward mission leader called and SANG! It was so cool!  I had a good day. We did some contacting and did weekly planning. We also ate some ice cream. All in all, not a bad day!

birthday shakes! :)

This week, besides my birthday was also good. Kinda a weird week. Lots of little miracles but in between every miracle was about a million instances of "only in Ukraine" or "only because we are on a mission". I'll try to do my best to explain the miracles and the funny moments. 

 - This week, on Monday night, we went and visited a old lady named Elena. She is old and can't ever leave her house because she is in wheelchair and the elevator in her apartment building is broken, and she lives on the 6th or 7th floor. So we went to go leave her a spiritual thought. What an experience. So to set the scene, she is pretty deaf, so we had to basically yell everything that we said. Also, she has very strong opions about everything. So for almost everything we said, she had something to counter back with. She even changed the wordings of the scriptures to match her views. And we didn't even talk about anything that was controversial or anything. Just about how God loves everyone one of us. So we are yelling "I know that God loves us all." and then she would go off about how He only loves some of us. Oh, and to top it off, she would speak half Ukrainian. But despite all that, the spirit was still there and strong when we testified, and I felt so strongly that God loved me and cared about me individually. And I know that is true! God loves everyone of us and wants us to be happy! He has a plan for us! We finally were able to bring in the Spirit so that Elena felt it and we closed with a prayer. She asked me to pray. I prayed in a very loud voice and when I finished, Sister Kelly and I said "amen" and looked up. Elena just kept her eyes closed and her arms folded. Sister Kelly and I looked at each other and then I said again, really loud, "amen". Sister Kelly started laughing so hard and Elena, looked up and with a really confused look, said, "Amen." Such a funny moment. 

- This week we had another meeting with President Klebingat. It was really good. He talked about planning and setting goals. He has a really interesting point about beginning and setting goals with the end in mind. I really liked that way of thinking. I became really interested and rededicated to setting goals, not only for my mission, but for my whole life. And planning for my whole life. Thanks to my mission, I'll probably plan out every minute of my life (with back up plans and goals). My friends will think that I am insane. But I will be motivated!! :P

Oh boy. So small miracle- our English group is starting to be really big and successful. "Only in Ukraine" moment- inevitably, some creepy man comes and makes comments like, "Sister Ford, you have beautiful smile" and "Sister Ford is my favorite teacher ever" and "Sister Ford, I like when you talk" and "Sister Ford, I love you", which makes Sister Ford blush and awkwardly change the subject while the other people at English all laugh. But the good news, we have a lot of new people coming to english and they are really enjoying coming and being at english! Hopefully we can make the transition to teaching them the gospel!!! :) 

Saturday we had another Pancake Night. On my. Sister Kelly and I had to make 50 Pancakes and 50 crepes. There were close to 800 pancakes and no leftovers. It was insane! I haven't heard a guess on how many people were there, but probably over 100. It was crazy! It was so cool because there were so many investigators there. We took 2 people from English with us and there was also 2-3 other nonmembers from our area there! It was fun to talk to them. I met this one lady, Anya and talked to her for awhile. She loves missionaries and she thought my jokes (as lame as they are) were hilarious! It was fun! I also talked to this lady from Ecuador! She is here studying and has had a really hard time here, because the culture is so different! She told me how at the pancake night, she felt more love and friendly-ness then she had the whole time in Ukraine. I told her that our beliefs in our church help us to be able to love one another. Then she said that she would be interested in learning more about our church. Sadly, she isn't in our area so another set of sisters will teach her. But she was so sweet :) 

Tender Mercy- Daylight Savings Time. I didn't know that they had it here, but it was so nice to have an extra hour of sleep! :) 

Yesterday, Sunday was quite a day. I translated during church for 2 hours. It went better then last week but was still really hard. It makes my head hurt but I really like the challenge. And it helps me with the language. After church we had cake for the old branch president and his new wife. They get sealed in the Kyiv temple tomorrow! So exciting! Then we had branch council which was SUPER long and then MCM! By the time we finished all those meetings, it was 7:00! At night! Ridiculous! We had just a little bit of time so we decided to stop by a less active, Valentina (the one that we visited for her birthday at the beginning of the transfer). We felt really strongly that we needed to stop by. So we went and knocked on the door. And she opened it, told us to come in and quickly shut it. Then she started talking really fast. I couldn't understand all of it, but I did hear several times, Я не хочу! which means I don't want it. So we both kinda thought that she didn't want to talk to us, which was unexpected. But then she told us to go into her bedroom/living room. We sat down and asked if we could share a spiritual thought. she said yes, but i am tired right now, so we started anyways and asked her to pray. During her prayer, she started crying. After the prayer, she told us how she felt and knew that she needed to return to church. She told us, how she had a son, that was often drunk and abusive and how over the last week, that situation had solved itself. Then she said that she felt that she needed to return to church and would absolutely be there next week! And that she would find her Book of Mormon and read from it! It was really cool to see this new light in this lady's eyes! I can't wait to see her on Sunday! :) 

Today we had a fun P-day! We went into Center and did some shopping at a outdoor flea market thing by a big church. I bought a Martroshtka Doll that is Odessa themed! 

my dolls, they have the opera house, 
the saint katherines statue, 

the odessa staries, the canyon, and the 
lighthouse on one side, 

with a sailor, and then on the 
back are painting of ships! 

 

also I got a hair clip :) 

 and pday fries! :)

It is so cute! :) I think that pretty soon I will be leaving Odessa so it was nice to get something to remind me of all the time that I spent here! It has paintings of all the major landmarks, which is cool because I have been to almost all of them! It is so cool! :) We almost got cursed by a gypsy though! This man totally saved us. He told her that we didn't know any Russian and she said "yes they do" and he started arguing and then she left. It was really nice of him! 

I love you all! I am enjoying being here on my mission! It is so fun to see miracles every day! Thanks for your prayers and love! Know that I am praying for you to have missionary opportunities everyday! :)

Love,
Sister Ford

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

Happy, happy, happy, week!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

I am doing wonderful! Seriously! This week was awesome, this upcoming week is going to be awesome...It is just so much awesomeness!

First off, this week, on Wednesday, is my Dad's birthday! Happy Birthday Dad! He deserves such a shout out because he is the best dad in the world! I hope he has a great day! :)

Also, a big shout out to Grandma and Grandpa Lindsey, who got their call this last week to serve a misison in Martin's Cove! I am so very excited for them!  They will leave right at about the same time that I left last year! I am so excited for them, because seriously, serving a mission is the best thing EVER!!!!!

So this week... Let me start off by saying that I am a pretty boss trainer! I introduced Sister Kelly to all good things Ukrainian, including Borsch, Shwarma, Street Contacting, Truffles, Super Kontik Slamming, The Black Sea, Crowded Martys, and more. And to top it off, We found Kolob together this morning. I had found it before, but I was able to guide her there :) hehehe I know, I'm pretty great...

 

 We ran to Kolob today. This has to be like the most legit picture of all time. And black and white for dramatic effect.

 

 The black sea, just in time for the sunrise!!! So pretty!!

beach pics and the jellyfish we saw!

But seriously, Sister Kelly and I are having a blast! She is awesome! I love being her companion! She is so happy all the time and a cute little bundle of joy! We have been rocking Suvorosky and have had our own share of small miracles this week!

Us inviting people to conference : )

Our first little miracle was Olga! Do you remember her? I contacted into her the first week of last transfer, offered her the opportunity to learn how to grow closer to Christ. She accepted back then but then repeated would set up appointments with us and then not come. We decided last transfer that maybe she wasn't ready yet. This week, we decided to call her and she agreed to meet! And the miracle, she asked us to come to her house! She gave me her address and we agreed to meet!! I was so excited! :) Then the day of our lesson came, we went to find her address! We got there and I was so confused. It wasn't a house, it was a auto garage. Definitely one of the most sketch places I had been on my mission. I thought to myself, "Maybe it is around back"...nope. I was so confused and worried that maybe she had just set us up. So we called her and she corrected the address and we headed on our way. Finally we got there and had our first lesson! It was really good! We taught her about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. She prayed at the end of the lesson and she committed to read the Book of Mormon everyday! Awkward moment of the lesson. I learned a new word in Russian, "толстый". It means fat. I didn't know it before. This is awkward because Olga introduced her husband to us as "Fat Alexander" and me, not knowing the word for fat, almost replied "It's good to meet you, fat" Thankfully, I didn't, but just the fact that it almost happened is so embarassing! :) When we went back a few days later, Olga had kept her commitment to read the Book of Mormon! It was SO exciting! We shared our favorite scriptures with her and encouraged her to keep reading! She had a lot of questions, but she is excited to keep reading!

Another little miracle is Valentina! She is a less active in our branch that I had never heard of! We saw on a list that her birthday was last Monday, so we bought her a chocolate bar and made a card and set off to find her! We got to her apartment, and were standing outside when all of a sudden we heard this man (from inside) yelling super loud. Sister Kelly and I looked at each other, the look that says, "Are we really about to do this?", said a prayer, and rang the doorbell! This old little lady comes out and says, "What do you want?" We said, "Valentina, we heard that it was your birthday and we wanted to give you this and tell you that we love you and were thinking about you and hope you had a good day." Valentina started crying and talking about how us coming was the only good part of her day. We set up another appointment with her to meet some more! She told us then of how she remembered, fondly, several members of our branch. I'm not sure what  is holding her back from coming but I'm excited to continue working with her! I think it is great that we can share our love with people, no matter if they are members, nonmembers, inactives, or anyone! Everyone needs a little love (maybe not creepy men...but everyone else!) At the end of our visit, I said, "Valentina, We love you!" and she said, "You don't even know me." And I said, "but we still love you". It meant the world to her to have someone express their love for her!

One last small miracle. So maybe 3 weeks ago, Sister Nielsen and I went and visited Sister Goncharova. She is a sister in our ward and she had tripped over her dog and was stuck in her house while she healed. We went and had a lesson with her and gave her flowers. This last week, Sister Kelly and I went to visit her agin. Sister Goncharova excitedly told us of our "miracle flowers". The flowers that we had bought 3 weeks ago, were still fresh and alive, without the slightest sign of wilting. What a tender mercy for an older, elderly lady. She said that it brought her so much happiness and joy to continual see her flowers!

Our miracle flowers!

Some funny things from this week:

 * After our district meeting on Tuesday, we were eating lunch when a missionary, from another church walked into our church and started preaching to us. We were respectful at first, but eventually tried to have an opportunity to share our testimony with him, but he wouldn't let us interrupt or say anything at all. So we didn't really know what to do. He just kept talking and talking. We had places to go and things to do, so after 30 minutes we tried to tell him that. No luck. So eventually, we stood up and started cleaning up our lunch, and getting ready to leave, as he is still talking and talking. He went on and on for like 45 minutes, despite the fact that none of us were listening to him. Poor guy. He finally left, unfortuately without ever hearing our message of happiness.

* One night, the elders got a call from a lady that had read our "advertisment" and was interested in meeting with us. We were so excited and set up an appointment for the next day. To our surpirse, this lady was not interested in the gospel, but in hiring us to work as clients in her aroma company. According to her, our daily interaction with inviting people to hear about the gospel would be better if it included an option to buy perfume. We told her that was not allowed, and she was disappointed. She insisted, however, to allow us to sample her perfume and decide if we wanted to buy any. She sprayed so much perfume on us, we smelled for days! Still smell... oh missionary life. We did show her a Mormon Message about how we are all Daughters of God. She loved it! Maybe someday we will be able to convince her to take a break from work and learn more about the gospel! :) 

Us after being sprayed by the perfume lady! We couldn't stop laughing

* We tried to make Borsch this week! I learned an important lesson, you will always make more Borsch then you think. We started with a normal sized pot but somehow ended up with a stock pot full of Borsch. We have been eating borsch for days and will be eating it for days to come. Every meal. Good thing it is tasty :)

Also, this week was conference! I loved the messages from our living prophets and apostles! I got the opportunity on Sunday to stand outside the church and invite people to conference and welcome the members. We sang hymns and handed out family proclimations. It was really fun! :)

 

 Sister Hunt and I (I feel like we always have pics together haha)

Us watching conference

 I loved the talks about missionary work and I echo the challenge of Elder Ballard to invite at least one person to come unto Christ by Christmas! I strongly believe that it is possible for EVERY member of the Church AND I know that it is a challenge from our living prophets and apostles. NOW is the time when we chose if we want to be "doers of the word" rather then hearers only. Are we going to follow our prophets and apostles? I am! And I know miracles will come if we do! I can't wait to hear about your miracles as member missionaries! :) Remember that an inviation out of love will never be offensive! Our Church is awesome! Let everyone know, and NEVER be afraid to invite someone, to an activity, to church, to meet with missionaries! You can never fail when doing the work of the Lord! 

my sickle is sharp...

I hope you all know that I am having a great time here in Ukraine! I love it here! This last week was great! And there is plenty to look forward to:

* Zone Conference this weekend!

* I'm speaking in Church on Sunday, yes in Russian! Pray for me! It will be 10-15 minutes long! Opa! :) Maybe next week I will send it to you (in english :))

* My birthday in a week and a half. This is my last few days to be a teenager!!! Crazy! I'll enjoy it :)

* Game Night this weekend! I think those are my favorite activities :)

I love you all! You are all great examples to me! Have a great week! Share the gospel!

Love,

Sister Kati Ford

6 MONTHS!!

Dear Family and Friends,

Can you believe it? I hit my 6 month mark on Friday! Oh my goodness! I feel like I have only been out for a few weeks. I love being a missionary and have so blessed by my service so far! When I think about how much I have grown, I am so glad for my opportunity to be here! I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now!

the view through the church keyhole... cool!

It's COLD here now! Like gloves and jacket and tights and fall boots cold. I don't know what I will do when winter comes but at the same time, I love it :) I feel so cute in the fall :) Our house is cold... the government runs the heat and it doesn't turn on until November... Brrr! :) Good thing we have blankets! The really sad news is that our water heater isn't working right now... don't know why... so our showers have been like ICE! It is kinda funny becuase both Sister Nielsen and I squeal when we shower. We have to jump up and down before we get in so that we can stay somewhat warm. Then we bundle up when we get out... It's an adventure. :)

happy birthday tyson! 

 Elders... Ukrainian style

 elders happy!

Elder bolt wishing a happy birthday! 

This week, during a personal study, I was thinking a lot about the phrase "eye single to the glory of God." I thought about how when we devote our whole attention to the "glory of God", or the manifestations of His power, we can more accurately see the good all around us. And seeing the good all around us, helps qualify us for the work, and being able to do the work better. I've really been looking for the good around me everyday, little manifestations of God's love and power in my life and the lives of people around me. A huge way that I have seen this good is through the happiness people experience relating to progression in the gospel.  For example, a recent convert talking about his first time in the temple, A convert's smile as He blesses the sacrament for the first time, seeing members from my old area and having them remember me and my testimony, a member's willingness to help us, the Relief Society President's trust in me and in the Lord. These little things strength my testimony and desire to do His work, and to do His work, in His way!

This week we found out transfer information. Next transfer, I will be in Suvorosky, again! I will be with my trainee, Her name is Sister Kelly. I know nothing about her, but I am so excited to meet her! We are going to baptize Suvorosky! haha :) I can't believe that I am training! I still feel so young! This week will be crazy! We head up to Kyiv on Wednesday night at 11:00 and get there the next morning. Then we have a day full of meetings. Then our trainees will sleep at the hotel again and Sister Hunt and I will find some sisters to stay with (I think...) and the next day we have meetings again! Then we come back on Friday night! It is going to be crazy for sure! I'm excitedfor the train and to be up in Kyiv. You may be wondering, what is up with Sister Nielsen? She will be opening a new area, Vinnitsya! It is up in Kyiv! She will be great :)

This last week was really good! We met with many members, which was really fun! One member of our branch tripped over her dog and broke her shoulder, which we didn't know. 

 prego dog. Is huge. Almost killed her owner...

who btw looks like a human version of this dog :) 

We felt the impression to call her, set up an appointment, and then to bring her flowers. We got there to see her broken arm, and learned that she can't leave the house for the next three weeks. She has been waiting for months to go to the temple, but can't go now because of her arm. We had the awesome opportunity to strengthen her. She told us at the end that she felt like her light was fading, but we brightened her light again, strenthened her and inspired her to share the gospel again! It was so sweet :)

We met with another member and she helped us make our first borsch! It was so good! I'm excited to get home and be able to cook delicious borsch for you :) It isn't even that hard :)

finished borsch

This week we also had a combined activity with the Center branch. It was a PANCAKE NIGHT! It was sooooo fun! The members and nonmembers love pancakes! All the missionaries made like 300 or more pancakes, both American and Ukrainian (crepes) There was about 40 people there, which is huge! It was so fun! It was also really fun to see my friends from my old area. I had so many of the people that I had worked with give me HUGE hugs. Galina, a lady that I met with once, came up saying, "Hello, my favorite, beautiful missionary". It was cute. :)

 pancake night

 

Lena and Vika. Vika, the blond, I don't know...

but she might add me on facebook

Lena is a girl from center is filling out mission 

papers in 3 months!!! 

 me and Zoya and Katya from center

me and Galina...awkward hug picture thing

Who watched the Relief Society broadcast?? I did :) Sister Nielsen and I had the opportunity to watch it during our companion study! It was awesome! And a sister missionary choir! So awesome! We looked for my new companion, but the nametags are hard to read! We saw some russian ones, so maybe I saw her... I don't know! I loved the moment when the showed the Lady from Russia, opening her door! Just so you know, that is exactly what tracting looks like... minus the bright lights, and smiling lady welcoming you in :) Hahaha but the doors are like that, and the 4 doorbells on the side. We ring all of them :) It made my heart smile because it reminded me of Ukraine and the wonderful members here :)

Conference is this weekend! We don't watch it until next week, but I can't wait! I will find out the new temples before then though :) and any special announcements :P haha! I hope they announce a temple in Odessa! How cool would that be... we need a stake first though :) Everyone watch it and tell me their favorite parts!

by our house is this little bread shop. It is only 1 dollar 

(8 grn) for 2 bigstuffed rolls with fruit in it! 

So good! We get them often-ish :) 

Scary part from this week- the Relief Society President in my branch put me in charge of the Relief Society activity for this week. What is it? A discussion on how to be a good mom! I have no idea why I am in charge, because first of all I'm not a mom, and second of all, I don't really speak that much russian to lead a conversation that isn't gospel related at all. I thought about it a lot, and finally decided to cut up questions and pass them out and then have answers from the prophets and my life, and the Klebingat's...when then I got a call from my zone leader telling me that I won't be in Odessa on Friday, but will be in Kyiv. So now...today... soonish, I have to call her and tell her that I won't be here. Sad :( I was kinda excited for the challenge! Next time!

Sister Hunt and I at Olios today! 

I love you all! I hope that you have a GREAT week! Enjoy conference! Enjoy fall!

Sister 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!