Mother's Day

Skypeing with our missionaries

Zone Conference

This week was great! We had zone conference in L'viv with President Klebingat and his wife, as well as President Bennett and his wife. President Bennett is the area 70 for all of East Europe, and he's definitely a spiritual GIANT. I was loving every second in conference and soaking up all the spiritual food I could. It was an incredible experience. It was our last zone conference before the split, and I teared up multiple times. President kept saying, "This isn't the last time we'll see each other. Lets keep it happy, alright?" I'm pretty sure he was just talking to me because I was front and center, and crying like an emotional baby.

After the conference I talked to him for a bit, and he said he's going to have us meet altogether as a mission in June, and I'm already excited for that. 

There's so much to be grateful for. I'm so privileged to be a missionary right now. There were some incredible Spirit-packed statements made during conference, and I came to a better understanding of how truly great my calling is. Each week that I reflect on my call as a missionary, I really do stand all amazed. Nothing is more important than being 100% focused for the next year of my life, and not letting anything come in the way of me being an effective missionary. 

I was reading in Doctrine and Covenants this week, and it was talking about early missionaries of the church. It said how the world wasn't quite ready for the harvest, and there was a scripture that said, "Angels are crying unto the Lord day and night, who are ready and waiting to be sent forth to reap down the fields". I immediately knew in my heart that I was one of those angels. I can imagine getting to witness the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and just being way too excited to come down and preach the good word of God to those people on Earth. I've never been a very patient person when there's something that I want to do, and I'm sure I had to be reminded that I'd have to wait my turn. Now that it's my turn, I'm ready. You can believe that I'm working day and night to bring these people to Christ. It's the greatest thing in the world. 

I love you all. I'm so excited to get to talk to you tonight! Can't wait! :) 

Love Sister Kate

Ps. I love you Tiana Emily Garner! I'm so happy and proud of you. I hope everything goes well this week! You're going to be a MARRIED WOMAN next time I talk to you! 

Pps. I'm assuming my bestie Lacey had her baby this week. Happy 1st Mother's day to you! I love you so much! :) 

Ukrainian Easter

Ukrainians have this thing they do....where there's no personal responsibility to anyone, for anything, when there's a holiday within a week...

Yesterday was the Orthodox Easter, and it was a beast getting ahold of anyone to meet, and the celebration continues until Wednesday. Meaning all businesses are closed for about 5 days straight, and no one wants to do anything. No one is even on the streets. 

Soooo....this blog mail is about to get real boring in a minute.

I did a personal study on Sister Missionaries the other day, and actually found a scripture about it in Romans 16. They existed in the old days too! It was cool. There was a phrase in Matthew that totally applied, and it said that we are "sent forth as sheep in the midst of wolves" to preach the gospel. How true that seems at times in Ukraine. :)

On May 1, I hit my 14 year mark as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On May 3 I hit my one year mark of deciding to serve a mission. I still have days where I wake up and can't believe I'm on the other side of the world preaching the good word to west Ukraine. It's a dream come true.

I had so many little mini-miracles happen this week with the language. Every time I got through an entire conversation with someone in Ukrainian without any problem, I walk away all calm, but on the inside I'm dancing around and fist-bumping the air. It's so fun. I had someone ask me if I was from Poland, which I'm told is an indicator of if you've "Made it" with the accent. Where it's really similar, but just barely different enough that they think you're from a nearby country. Mmhmm.

This week we have zone conference in L'viv which I'm way stoked about! And I'm going to get to see all my MTC district! Can't wait. Speaking of which, I heard that Elder Johansen's dad found my blog. Shout out to him. :) Your son is adjusting well to the craziness of Lutsk. 

I LOVE UKRAINE! I love being a missionary. Things are going so well, and I'm having such a blast. I really am having such a wonderful time, and having little successes all around. We're working hard, and getting along, and things are happy. I love it.

I'm looking forward to talking to you all next monday! :) Don't get too excited Mom! :)

All my love and prayers,

Sesstra Veber.