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

AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!! Crazy things are happening!!

Dear Family and Friends,

At first I couldn't really think of much to say but then I started thinking back on this week, and seriously SO MUCH HAPPENED! My life is crazy. Seriously! And I am so very, very blessed!
This week was really good. It has been a little stressful for us traveling everyday into our area for an hour in the morning and an hour at night so we are beyond excited that we will receive our keys tonight and will be able to move in soon! Despite the long commute and the difficulty of living outside our area, this week was really good. 

 Soccer jersey! :) hehe can't wait to see the boys in those short shorts :)

I've personally tried to do some things differently then I have in the past and for the most part, I have found a lot of happiness and success in doing them.
The first thing that I have really worked on this week is not being afraid to talk to everyone. I reached a realization that there is no reason not to talk to someone. After all, this could be the one chance I have to ever talk to them. I don't want to miss anyone so I have taken my talking to everyone to a whole new level. Not weird, just increased. I feel like I have talked to more people this week then I have in past weeks and it makes me really happy. I think as a newer missionary, I am often afraid of not knowing what to say, not understanding, or of the actual person. But I find (especially now as the older companion) that the Lord really does bless me more and more as I try to talk with everyone. It's really rough sometimes, but I am making the effort and so happy about that! I still have more to go, but I really do try every day to talk to more and more people.
Another thing that I have been working on is getting better at having conversations, meaningful conversations, with members. This one is really hard for me, especially since I am uncomfortable with my level of Russian still. Talking in Russian is hard, but talking about things other then the gospel (small talk) is especially hard, because I don't know any vocabulary. But as I have tried it more and more this week, I have been blessed with better relationships with the members.

Teacum, our pregnant church cat. She protects the church...kinda. 

but seriously was bought to kill mice. She does a good job
So last Monday night, Sister Nielsen and I were in bed a little early. It was 10:29 when the phone rang. I jumped out of bed and answered the phone. It is Elder Hughes, the AP, calling to tell me that tomorrow President Klebingat wanted me to be on a conference call. I was confused and I thought about it, but couldn't figure it out. Fast forward to the next morning, I call into the conference call. The most random missionaries seem to be on it. I can't sense a pattern to who is on this call. Then President gets on the call and says, "Missionaries, I am calling to tell you that next transfer, you will be training a new missionary. Prepare now. Have a good day" Or basically just like that! So news out that next transfer I will be training! I'm kinda nervous! I will have been in the country for 4 months and will be training! Crazy! There are so many missionaries right now!
Finding out that I was training this week was surprising. I am really excited but also slightly nervous. I know that trainers have a huge impact on the rest of a missionaries' mission. I look back and am grateful for Sister Busch everyday. And I want to be that kind of trainer for my companion. I really want to inspire her. I'm working on being as exactly obedient and hard working now so that when we are together, they will be habits for me!

Today is Odessa's birthday! Happy Birthday Odessa! :) That's the city flag! 

This week, we started our new transfer so we had our first new district meeting! I am seriously one of the only missionaries from my first transfer that is still in the district! And the only sister that it is the same! Crazy how quickly things change! Our new district is good! Lots of new missionaries!

 

 us with giant cotton candy

my quote wall. Being dissassembled tonight

and the one in the bedroom. It's missing the picture of the nauvoo temple because I showed it to someone.  

Tuesday we were in the church when a couple from American walked in and asked the Elders for a blessing. What a blessing to know that missionaries all over the world are always available and worthy to help when needed! We have great elders in Odessa Ukraine, so if you are ever here and need anything, they will be willing to help!

Wednesday we had a little miracle. We were walking down the street and there was this lady standing on the sidewalk, just standing. I went up to her and asked, "Are you interested in growing closer to Christ". She said yes. I gave her a Living Christ and she asked if she could come to Church. We said yes and offered to meet with her, to which she accepted. She said yes, and although it hasn't worked out yet, I'm sure it will. Her name is Olga and because she wasn't stopped on the sidewalk, we call her Olga Stopped in our phone. Makes me smile everytime :)

This week we also got the opportunity to teach Natasha, our recent convert. She is doing Fantastic! We met with her and taught her about temples. We showed her the Kyiv Temple Celebration Video (Makes me cry everytime!) and then talked about how she can go to the temple and do baptisms. I can't wait for that day!! Talking about the temples made me want to go to the temple! I really hope I can soon! I'm so blessed to have a temple in my mission! If I ever make it back up to Kyiv I am going to go for sure! :)

Natasha also gave us her new boyfriend as a referral. We met with him once and he seems interested and really nice! We are going to show him the Restoration video next time (At Natasha's request). Also Natasha is speaking at church next sunday so she wants help preparing! It is cute! Love her!


 Something interesting that happened this week was in Branch Council. I became really aware of how much the Suvorosky branch wants to do missionary work. They have a mission plan and they talked about it. They committed (among themselves) to try and talk to their friends about things that made our church different. They set up a branch open house. Through all this, the missionaries were in the background, there to help, but not at all running the show. It was incredible.

I love you all! I had a great week and hope that you did too! You are all in my prayers!
Love,
Sister Ford