Once upon a time, I colored my hair back in April because my hair was getting really light, and I wanted it to be my natural brown. Then it turned red, and people everywhere would comment about how much they love gingers, and I was really not super happy, because I'm not a ginger. Don't get me wrong, I think redheads are beautiful, and I think they can rock it, but I'm not a redhead. So it wasn't me.

Fast forward 6 months. I decided I was getting sick of all the redhead comments, and so I went to the store with my companion and we got "dark chocolate" hair coloring by L'oreal (so you know what brand, so you can attack them). 

Turns out, dark chocolate in Ukrainian is apparently equivalent to Jet Black. Black Beauty. Snow White's hair... which oddly enough is polar opposite of white. And then I got comments about how I look like Pocahontas, or Mulan, or an Italian woman. 

So you may not see my face again until I go home, and you won't even recognize me. Just a heads up, I'm the one with the black hair. 

And in the short few days that I've had this alter ego, I've been creepily hit on by basically every man in town. Super.

Anyway. L'viv was great, and all my little discussions that I had to lead were awesome. We had Mission Leadership Council, and the council came up with the mission rule that we must SYL (speak your language) every day from 10-5. Regardless of trainee status. So that'll be awkward for the next few days. Haha. But I get a new trainee next week, and that'll be both overwhelming for her, and fun for me. Maybe I could pull off being Ukrainian with my black hair and just pretend I don't know English. I'll just pack up all my English scriptures and act like I only speak Ukrainian. Poor thing. 

Well, thanks for the millions of pictures. It seems to me like you were trying to test my trunky waters.. Besides the fact that you instilled an inner desire for me to steal Quincy's new USC shirt, I'm holding strong. The beach looked nice, and the USC game looked like a blast. I'm glad you got to have some warm summer days. I'm just sitting here with my thermals and my frozen fingers, trying not to think about how it's still technically summer, but I pulled out my winter coat already. The wind chill is killer right now. :) When in Chernivtsi....

We met with a few of our new investigators this week, and they're progressing nicely. I'm getting a little tired of the fact that no one's parents will let them get baptized even if they're 29 years old. This is why you move out at 18...so you can make your own decisions and get baptized into the true church of God. That's what it's all about. But two of our investigators are so excited to turn 18 so they can get baptized! It's so great. :) 

Life is good. Time is flying, and I'm sad to leave my cute comp next week. Pray for me that I don't mess up another trainee. ;) But really.

Thanks for all your support, and for emailing me even when I only sent you a quick note last week. You all are lovely, and I miss you so much! :) 

Love, 

Sister Ukrainian Webber

Loves from Ukraine

First: Harrison. The Emperor. CONGRATULATIONS! You are a rock star. I hope I get to watch that someday. There better be a video. 

Second: Happy birthday to Janae, and to Mom! I hope you go through my million pictures and videos this week and get to shed a tear or two about how much you love me. ;)

Third: I love you all so dang much. I can't even describe how much I love you all. Thank you so much for everything you're doing for me. I am so grateful to be on a mission, and I literally could NOT do it without your support. You mean so much to me. 

Dad, I really enjoyed your email this week. I could just feel your heart exploding with gratitude, and it made mine do the same. I couldn't sleep last night, because I had the best chat with my Father in Heaven about how blessed I am to have a family like you. I was swept with giddiness about just how lucky I am. I know we're in this together for a reason. Thanks for being my inspiration.

I got a nice email from Grandma Patti about how she's doing, and that her and grandpa are going to church  as well as reading the book of mormon...I'll definitely be taking a little weekend trip to Oregon in April. That's fer dern shur. 

As for your questions about STL stuff. I'm training, have to lead training meetings, train the trainers, travel to leadership conferences, present basically all of Zone Conferences, be on a million conference calls per week, help President with transfers, go on exchanges. There are 2 other sisters in the mission who are sister training leaders, but I'm the only one who's been a STL for longer than 3 weeks, so I get lots of phone calls. It's fun, but I just want to get through studies once without having to have to talk to the assistants, zl, stl's or president.

It's great, but a little more work than I was expecting. I love the skype calls with President though. Those are always so fun...mostly because his wife is the cutest thing ever. 

I love my comp. I love these sisters. I love my district, my mission, everything. 

We're building our teaching pool, and things are going really well. We found a girl last week who wants to be baptized, but she can't until July when she's 18.... boo davis. But things will work out. I'm just so privileged to know her. She is a GOLDEN CHILD. I love her soooo much. 

I hope all is going well. I love you all and miss you so much. :) 

Love, Sister kate

Making up for lost time

So, I have a bunch of pictures to send you all. So I'll be quicker on the writing part so I can get to the photos...since it takes some time to upload.

But I'm glad that you had a great time with Skyler this week. I wanted to give Mom a memorable birthday present that would last longer than a few minutes. I hope you have fun going through all the videos that I've been taking up to this point! There's plenty more where that came from...but you'll just have to wait 6 months.

Speaking of 6 months...not to get anyone trunked out for my triumphant return, but I officially got my release date, and it's in March. Try not to put on your party hats yet, I've got an important work to do in Ukraine. So keep it professional. :) 

This week we spent a lot of time calling the people on the "potential investigators" sheet, which basically just means people that the missionaries met on the street in the past, got their number, and then never ended up meeting with the missionaries. We invited many people to meet with us, and then I changed my approach. With the last 5 people we called, I felt like I should just invite them to church, without the (somewhat intimidating) commitment of meeting with the missionaries. Three of those 5 people picked up their phones, and out of those three people that we invited to church....two of them came. I was shocked. That literally hasn't happened on my mission so far. Random people just coming to church because we tell them to. One even traveled 45 km (about an hour) just to come to church, and she loved it! It was an 18 year old girl, and she adored Young Women's class. I was so happy! 

Opening an area for new sisters is pretty intense, but we have little miracles happening all the time. For instance, at English, one man asked if I'd grown up believing in the church. I told him that I had, and another man asked how many mothers I had. And then a woman said, "Just tell us what you believe! We're all interested!" I told her I would after class, and we ended up having this big group lesson thing with 4 missionaries and 4 investigators.  It was cool.

One of the investigators is very well versed on his Mormon history. He's actually writing his Master's paper on the Restored Gospel through Mormonism. The new missionaries would start talking about something, and then he'd explain it in depth. Then they would testify, then he would back it up with scriptural facts. The contrast between when the sisters were speaking, and when he was speaking was like night and day. The Spirit witnessed to me that he was not set apart to teach, he has no power or authority to be able to lead a lesson, and so I jumped in and would answer her questions and talk about the restoration. At one point, one of the trainees jumped in and started talking. She wasn't following what was going on, and actually ended up repeating basically everything that had just been said. Holding back the urge to stop her, I just listened carefully. I watched this woman stare intently at this new sister, trying to pick up what she was saying, and the Spirit was so tangible. It was practically slapping people in the face with power. We ended with a prayer, so as not to ruin what was just felt, and then the woman turned to me. She said, "This is a sacred room. I don't know what just happened, but I have never felt this close to heaven. I want to feel this way all the time, and I want to get rid of the sins that are burdening me. I know you know the way I can do this. Will you explain it to me?" 

Um, yes.

So I talked to her about Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and she was so excited. She told me that she wanted to meet with us so she can find out more about how she can get rid of these burdens. 

So. great. 

I seriously love being a missionary. This is the greatest work on earth. It's so rewarding, and I can feel my Father in Heaven blessing me so much. It's a wonderful thing, to be a missionary. 

Dad, I loved what you said about the companionship of the Savior after baptism. He really is the one we pair up with to get back to Heavenly Father. I loved that connection. 

I love you all so dang much. You are such an inspiration to me, and a motivation. I'm so glad families are forever! I love it. :) 

All my love and missionary prayers (they count as double),

Sister Kate Webber

Ps. Something funny that happened. One of the elders called and said, "After sports day, we have a surprise. So don't plan anything right after." I said, "Who told you it was my birthday tomorrow?" 

Silence.

He said, "You're lying. I know it." And I just laughed.

So the next day, at sports day, they had pizza delivered (the "surprise"), and then they pulled out a cake with candles on it, and they made everyone sing to me. They recorded it, and the elders said, "Happy birthday to sister LIAR" and then later that day, the other companionship of elders found me in the church and had a plate of brownies and made the members who were there sing to me. Oh my word. Jokes on them, I got cake and brownies. So, it was worth it. 

my dearest olena.

Grandpa sent me a birthday card, and with the money I bought this watch. and everyone who serves in lutsk buys this watch. it's so cool. 

lviv!

THIS IS HARRISON'S NAME IN UKRAINIAN. so cool. I died. 

My Week with Lots of pictures

So this week, I got my cute little trainee! Her name is Sister Crane (serving in Ukraine. Quaint), and she's the greatest thing ever. I'm so happy to have her. She is 19, from Herriman Utah, and her mother is Australian. Which means that when she gets excited, angry, sad, tired, or any other extreme emotion, her accent flies out and it makes me so happy. I keep giving her little phrases to say in an aussie accent, and I just giggle and enjoy every second.

She reminds me a lot of myself when I was her age (I'm making myself sound like I'm 42, but I sometimes feel that way around all these youngish sisters), and I can really see how much I've changed over the years. I can see how her personality is going to really connect with these people, and she's all fired up and ready to be a missionary. It's awesome. 

So opening an area for a new companionship is harder than it actually sounds, but it makes for a lot of time to be on the streets and talk to people. Yesterday we were hopping on and off of buses, going through parks, random roads, little cute allies, and getting lost...but finding the sheep. We talked to so many incredible people that were placed in our path. It was really cool. My companion isn't allowed to proselyte in the area yet, so I get to do all the talking, which is actually pretty fun for me to see how far I've come--even just in the last month. I love it.

When I first got into the area, there was a healthy dose of stress for what I was being asked to do. One of the elders was inspired to say to me, "This is the Lord's work. It's His church. You don't have to be stressed about it, because He knows what He's doing. All you have to do is get out there and do what you do best, and everything will be perfect." I could tangibly feel a difference in myself after he said that. It hit me so hard, and ever since then...it's been a wonderful journey. I had no idea that training would be such a blast. I'm seriously loving every second, and having a great time with my companion. It's so fun to be able to see how fast she's learning and picking things up.

President spent the weekend in the city with us, and I got to sit down with him and talk to him. We went over transfers together, and talked about how all the sisters were doing. He told me that in 5 weeks I'll be getting another trainee, and in 6 weeks after that I'll have another one. Get ready....they're on their way! I'm going to be switching companions practically every transfer for the rest of my mission. I only have a short time to leave a lasting impression on these new sisters, so I'm doing my very best to be the missionary the Lord knows I can be. 

Also...we found a new investigator, and she came to church yesterday! Her name is Vita. (Veetuh...just in case you didn't know Ukrainian names in your last life), she's 17, just started University, and is a spitting image of Gianna Viola, my cute little Italian cousin. I immediately felt connected to her, and we already love each other like sisters. She's so excited about meeting with us. I can't wait! 

Life is good. The work is moving forward. And I absolutely love being a missionary. I can't say it enough. This is where I'm supposed to be, at the time I'm supposed to be here. What a wonderful life. :) 

All my love and prayers, 

Sister Webber

Ps. Quincy. I got your card this week and cried I laughed so hard. "It's your time to shine." The 3 other sisters I'm living with all had a good cry over it. Soooo dang funny. I laugh every time I think about it. 

pps. I heard Harrison is trying out for a play where he'll have to kiss girls. Sick. Don't do it! You're just a baby! ;) 

Love you both, and miss you like crazy pants. 

pp.ss..Madi. the voice recording. You can't do things like that to me. 

"if there's ever a tomorrow we're not together, just remember, i'll always be with you"

Backyard view from cottage

half of the bedroom. did I tell you I live in a princess palace?

our family room.

Sister crane! My companion.

sister lewis, the fellow trainer in chernivtsi--been in Ukraine for 12 weeks. I love that sister.

elder bailey and elder hadfield dressed up like lehi and nephi with the liahona and plates for institute.

they were a huge hit.