From Sofia to Sophia

Well, Ukrainian Christmas. 

This week was a crazy week, and there is way too much to say, so I'll just write the highlights.

(Also, because I had 54 emails this week and just spent all my time reading those. Ooops....)

Thursday morning, I woke up and felt so anxious. I was nervous, and upset, and was trying to not get discouraged. I went to personal study very prayerfully, and ready to get some real revelation from my Father in Heaven about the whole situation. There was a reason I was in Bulgaria, and I needed to figure it out. 

On Thursday afternoon we got word that we would be in Bulgaria until January 10th because the embassy was going to be closed the next day for the holidays. So we only had 24 hours to get a call from the embassy, or we'd be stuck for another 2 ish weeks. 

What did we do next? 

Sister Olds and I decided to start a fast. We were praying harder than I've prayed for anything in my life, that I can recall. To be set apart as the Lord's anointed with a sacred trust for missionary work in a certain part of the world, and not be able to be there, is seriously one of the hardest things in the world to handle. I had no idea I would feel that way, and in the beginning I was actually quite excited for the whole thing. But by this time, I was ready to go back and be a missionary again. 

So we prayed. And we fasted. And I was getting really antsy, but kept feeling like I needed to have faith, and not get discouraged....even though by this point it was so easy. 

President Wilstead told us that the man in charge was really upset, and told him that there was nothing he could do, and he needed to stop going over his head and trying to talk to other people to get it fixed. There was nothing we could do to change the process. But we held strong, and kept the faith.

Thursday night something very special and sacred happened. I have learned throughout the course of my life how the Spirit speaks to me, and the Lord normally answers prayers in this specific way because He knows I can recognize them better. I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do....nevertheless I went forth (In Nephi's words), and my answer was found. I felt deep in my heart the words, "There you go. This is why you're in Bulgaria." 

I'm not going to share with you what happened, but just know that I acted in faith, and was shown the way. The next morning we woke up, and I felt a calm assurance come over me. I didn't know what was going to happen, but I knew we would somehow get back to Ukraine faster than they told us we would. 

The first scriptures I read for personal study were these:

D&C 98:

 1 Verily I say unto you my friends, ^afear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything give ^bthanks;

 2 ^aWaiting patiently on the Lord, for your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and are recorded with this seal and testament—the Lord hath sworn and decreed that they shall be granted.

 3 Therefore, he giveth this promise unto you, with an immutable covenant that they shall be fulfilled; and all things wherewith you have been ^aafflicted shall work together for your ^bgood, and to my name’s glory, saith the Lord.

Within an hour of reading this, President Wilstead peaked his head in and said,

"2:30 today you're going to pick up your visa from the embassy."

And there was our miracle. 

The next day we hopped on the plane to Kiev, and stayed the night in the Sophia hotel. The next morning, we were picked up from the hotel from none other than President Jorg Klebingat and his entire beautiful family, and went to church with them in the International Branch. Literally couldn't have dreamed up a better Christmas present than to get to spend the entire day with my favorite people in Ukraine. I LOVE THE KLEBINGATS! It was such a blessing to get to see my mission president before the end of my mission. I cannot describe the feelings in my heart.

We ate dinner, went on a long walk, and were dropped off at the airport, and picked up by the Lattins. It was so great to finally get to be with them again. 

We're home for the Ukrainian Holidays. It truly is a Christmas miracle from God. 

Prayer is real. It works miracles that are out of our hands. Remember that.

Love,

 Sister UKRAINIAN Webber

Katie and the Klebingats at Christmas

It's a Holiday in Bulgaria

Wow. It's been a wild week. That's a definite understatement.

Where to begin?

Well, for one, we got word this morning that we'll be here for another 14 days. It can't be real, but it is. Sister Olds has hope that we'll be out in a week, and deep down I do too, but I'll try not to get my hopes up. Yesterday I had a really intense personal study on consecration, and I wanted to jump out the window and run to Ukraine to preach the gospel.

I came down with a bad cold, and thought my life was really hard, until the next day when I woke up and BAM. I had the bulgarian stomach flu. I felt 10x better after I had a head-on collision last summer than I did on this day. I honestly spent 5 hours trying to get out of my bed and just crying the whole time. Then I threw up. My eight year record of not throwing up went down the drain within 48 hours of being in Bulgaria. What a joke. 

So I lost about 10 pounds in 3 days, and then today Sister Olds and I were feeling a lot better, and we went to Dunkin Donuts and gained it all back. It was a good choice. 

We went site seeing in Sofia (emphasis on the "O". We got some flack from a very particular missionary who said he wanted to "gag" when he heard our "American accents". Too good).

Anyway. Enough of that. Long, really boring story short: I'll be spending Christmas in Bulgaria. And New Years. And possibly Ukrainian Christmas (January 7), and maybe even Ukrainian Old New Years here too (January 14).

But they said at least 14 days. At the least. So guess what? We've got some time on our hands. And we saw everything there was to see in the last 5 hours, so I'm not really sure what we're going to do, but in the meantime, Sister Olds and I haven't run out of things to talk about amazingly enough. She's like a combination of all my favorite friends, and we're practically sisters now. I'm planning on her being an extension of the family when we get back....heads up.

Also, there's an H&M here, and we definitely went in there. The style was wacky, and kinda scary. And I'm hoping that's just the European H&M, and hasn't reached America...

How scatter-brained and trunky do I sound right now? Visa trips+Flu. Gotta love it.

Meanwhile, pray for my investigators that they don't disappear while my companion is stuck in L'viv for the next 2 weeks. Kill me! Ah!

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. Drink some homemade eggnog for me.

Love all of you! 

Sister Bulgarian Webber

Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Having fun with Sister Olds in Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Sister Webber loves donuts

Dunkin Donuts in Bulgaria

Deep thoughts in Bulgaria

Derpin' in Bulgaria

I have too many details to include into my story, so I won't even try to weave it into a funny tale...because I just don't have that kind of time. Forgive my grammar mistakes. I know you'll forgive me anyway.

• Packed my bags for one week. they said could be 3 days, could be a week. I just needed to leave the country for my visa trip. technicalities.
• All they say is that we're going straight to Bulgaria
• My MTC district got sent to Armenia, but Sister Olds got to come with me. Good thing.
• We get to the airport, and President says, "Have fun in Germany!" as he drops us off.
• We realize we're stopping for 5 hours in Germany. Good to know.
• Get a call from the assistants while in the airport, "You don't have your approval to re-enter the country as a missionary....could take 22 days. We'll put extra money on your card. Buy yourselves a nice little Christmas gift. We love you!" 
• Realize I packed for one week. 
• Really confused...and also amused.
• Almost missed our flight to Germany.
• I eat Asian food in Germany while on my Ukrainian mission, en route to Bulgaria. Trippy.
• They charge through the nose on money exchange (mom, I got you a german magnet)
• Got to Bulgaria and ran into 4 other missionaries from our MTC stay. Happy Reunion.
• They keep telling me I'll be in the country for 22 days.
• Stay in the Mission Home with Ally Modersitski from Alpine. She's incredible, and already fluent in Bulgarian (as far as I know) 4 months in country.
• Realize that I'm supposed to be speaking at Zone Conference with Sister Olds on Friday.
• Not happening.
• Get word that I may be leaving Bulgaria tomorrow, and going back to Ukraine as "American Citizens" unable to proselyte for the next month, return to Bulgaria, and then do this all over and see what happens.
• Still not sure what's going on.
• To top it off, Nodding your head means "No" and shaking your head means "Yes" in Bulgaria. I keep thinking these are the weirdest missionaries on the planet. 

But I'm here in Bulgaria, and things are great. And Sister Olds and I are having a really nice time together, despite the potential anxiety that could be caused by this shindig. But really, I'm just easy like Sunday mornin'. 

I'll know tomorrow if I'll be in Ukraine tomorrow...or if I'll still be in Bulgaria by the time ya'll go back to school and stuff. Crazy. 

Well....we're not allowed to proselyte here so I don't know what to do with my hands. I'll just  automatically point to my collar bone every time someone asks for my name #nonametagwoes.

Anyway.

I'm excited to see you all on Christmas! I'm praying that things work out and that I'll be able to talk to you! We'll see what crazy things are in store for us. :) Keep sending emails, because you all are way too funny for me to not hear from you. I love it.

Love

Sister Webber

Real Quick

Hey mom and dad!

 I don't have any time, but I hope that you are all doing great. I'm leaving to Bulgaria this morning, and I will hopefully have time to email later this week. I have no idea. But I love you all, and I'm sooo excited to see you at christmas! ahhh! I seriously can't wait!
You are all so awesome. I miss you so much. I hope things are good. stay warm! 

I'm safe. don't be worried. I love you all. 

kate

Honey, Aussies, and Orphan Annie

Thanks for all the pictures everyone! Photos are my love language. Keep them coming.

To start off, I was reading a bunch of scriptures this week (obviously), and I felt like a lot of them really applied to sister missionaries. For example:

• Eat thou honey, because it is good: Prov. 24:13 

Mmmhmm. Honey. This applies to Ukrainian missionaries more than anyone else. The honey here is seriously to die for. You will never know....unless I send you some. Get excited. I go through a jar every other week...and it's pretty obnoxious how much honey I consume.

• He that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat: Prov 28:25

Also applies to sister missionaries. (As Trevor always warned....)

• Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves: Matt 10:16

On a more serious note, this was totally written for sister missionaries. I can't count the amount of men I've encountered where they start with a big ego and have in their mind that they're going to end up with a date or something, and then we confound them. And they're struck dumb. This scripture rings in my mind whenever that happens, and it's pretty fulfilling, if I say so myself.
This week was a little all over the place. We had exchanges, and the sisters came to our neck of the woods. We had some really neat experiences with them, and we always seem to come out of exchanges with so many miracles. I love it.
We went to English club again--I love that place. The guy leading it last time was an Australian in the Peace Corps. He's too legit. I love him so much. We've had some really cool experiences with him over the last few weeks, and his humor is right up my alley. He's a future leader of the church, and I would put money on it (but I don't gamble....soo....). I left the last club saying to my companion, "If Kerry isn't one of the 6 people I meet in heaven, I will be SHOCKED." I was supposed to meet him. I'm sure of it.
Yesterday we were getting off the bus to go to the church, and a little girl got off. She was a baby-face version of Sister Garrett, my MTC teacher. I tried to be nonchalant about it as she walked in the church behind us, and started up the stairs. She hesitated at the second floor, and I said, "Come with us." She followed us up to the third floor, took off her coat, and came back to the sacrament hall with us. The elders' faces were priceless as I said, "We found a stray". She sat next to me while the prelude was going, and I asked her a few questions, let her look at my photo book, and tried to figure out where she came from. Her name is Julia, she's 9 years old, has no family here, and has been to church one other time. She sat next to me all during Sacrament Meeting. During the hymns, she kept looking up at me, and I'd smile back at her. The words of her loving Savior came to my mind as clear as a bell as I looked at her, "For of such is the Kingdom of God".
If the feelings I'll have when I'm a mother are anything like the feelings I had yesterday for this little angel, I will be perfectly happy for the rest of my life. I was getting so choked up feeling the overwhelming love our Father has for each and every one of His children. She slipped out before the meeting ended, and just like that, she was gone. One of the missionaries said, "A young, innocent child sees two representatives of Jesus Christ on a bus. Of course she's going to follow them."
That statement changed my life. I feel like my perspective of my mission was altered with a single experience. We really are representing the Savior. We should do as He does. We should act as He would. I know most missionaries have figured this out, but it really just sank in a little deeper yesterday. What a blessed experience that Heavenly Father allowed me to have.
During personal study, the lyrics to a hymn were going through my mind. It was getting louder and louder, and I couldn't get it out of my mind. As I flipped open to this hymn, I was reading the lyrics to the verse that was in my mind, and then read the other less-known verses. It was the Spirit trying to teach me something. Incredible. No one will ever fully understand what I've gone through on my mission except for my Savior. And He's the only one who can help me through this.
"Fear not, I am with thee, oh be not dismayed, for I am thy God and will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand--upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand."
"When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, my grace, all sufficient, shall by thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine."
If you ever wonder if God is aware of you, know that He is. He's very aware. You can bet that the tears were flowing freely. I know I'm being prepared for something much greater. This mission thing is pretty great.
I love you!
Love,
Sister Kate Webber

Too much going on

I don't know where to start, so I'm just going to do a play-by-play of my week, okay?

This was probably one of the best weeks of my mission. This one was for the record books, but I'm soon going to have one that is even better than this one. :)

First: Happy 21st birthday to Madi! I am so grateful you're almost a year into your mission, instead of just starting it. I'd die if I had to wait another year and a half to see you. 7 months! Woo! I hope you loved your Bday/Christmas package. I love you sugar plum :)
Also, I got two baby announcements this week. Carls and Aaron! and Bryce and Kasumi! Congrats to all. I am so excited for you! And I can't wait to have a fat asian baby in the family. Look out! 

Monday:
Train to L'viv. President and his wife had borscht waiting with steamed bread from Uzhgorod--which tasted like Noni's Thanksgiving rolls. Tender mercy, am I right? I said goodbye to my comp (She went home this week, for those who didn't know...).
I got in the elevator with President, took a big sigh, and he looked at me and smiled.

"You did it."

Yes, I did it. 

He dropped me off at Sister Old's apartment. My mission best friend, sister, soulmate, and we had the greatest reunion the L'viv Ukraine mission has ever seen. 

Tuesday:

I was with Sis Olds and her companion. We dropped her comp off at the other sister's apartment, and I had a lovely time with her around L'viv. It was magical. 

Wednesday:

Spent day with Sister Olds and Sister Lattin. We went on a walk/run through the Central Park of L'viv. 

I got Madi's package at the Lattin's, and cried happy tears. Poor President and his wife have had to deal with a lot of my tears lately. They keep a little jar of them. The package literally came at the exact moment that I needed it. Dad's email was attached and I cried a little more. Did I mention I have the best family on the planet? No one's even compares. 

Then President revealed a little Christmas surprise for me and Sister Olds. I'll get to that later.

Also, I went to TexMex. Best restaurant in L'viv, in my opinion. Wooo!

Thursday:

Thanksgiving in L'viv! We had language study with a member, and I realized I don't know Ukrainian. So that's a bummer. 

I read through Madi's notebook that she sent me--she told me to get a priesthood blessing if I hadn't for a while. I immediately called President, and went to the mission office.

I had a really cool and sacred experience with that. I'll tell you about it one day.

Then he pulled us aside to give us more details about our "Christmas Surprise".

MTC District. Bulgaria. 14 days from today.

After a year and a half of not doing this, they're bringing back visa trips. And my group is the first to go.

I don't even have to explain how much I'm obsessed with my MTC district--everyone knows it. Sis Olds and I were high-fiving all day long, and I feel like my insides exploded from all the happiness that was going on. AH! :) SO EXCITED. (I avoid caps lock and smilies in my emails home in order to avoid looking like a sister missionary, but hey, when in Rome. Or BULGARIA.)

My new comp got in, and we went to McDonalds to celebrate Thanksgiving. Yes, I may or may not have wanted to do that just so I could say I did that. It was so packed that we had to eat outside, and they were all out of fried apples pies. The nerve. 

So we ate Big Macs. On a park bench in freezing L'viv, on Thanksgiving. It was a moment to remember forever.
Also, they have curry sauce for french fries. Can America jump on that real quick? To die for. 

We boarded our train, and got back to Chernivtsi safe and sound.

Friday:
We had English, celebrating Thanksgiving. I was in charge of it, and we had a combined group. We had a huge turnout! There were about 40 people there, and there were a bunch of people that I had found who came! We made hand Turkeys and wrote what we were grateful for, then shared it (3 people said "Sister Webber." What's up), then we split into groups of girls vs boys and made up Thanksgiving Day skits. I wrote criteria on the chalk board:

Pilgrims

Indians-How!

Turkey
Feast

Sasquach
Thanksgiving Prayer (had it written up there, the prayer was in our passports. Cool.)

The Sasquatch was a funny story. I was thinking squanto when I wrote it, and then when someone asked the elders what it was, and they said, "Big Foot" I almost died laughing. I was cracking up so hard, and I finally managed to say, "I meant Squanto, but Sasquatch is way funnier. Leave it."

That ended up being the funniest part of the skits.
We then ate pumpkin bread and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (Made from scratch! Martha Stewart here. Seriously. Although I can't take credit because I got the recipe from the real Martha Stewart in Elder form). They were delicious.

It was a fun, hilarious night, and it was a great welcome back into the city of dreams. One of the boys I found wants to learn more about the church from the elders!

Saturday:
Dasha's baptism! Everything went as planned, and she looked so happy! It was a really cool experience, and we had just as many nonmembers as we did members.

Sunday:

It was a fast of gratitude. Gratitude to the Lord for my family and friends, that he has a plan for me, that he's aware of my needs. I am full.

Natasha came to church for the first time, and I almost cried. Above all, it was the highlight of my week. Honestly. She's the best. And we're praying hard for her to decide on a baptismal date soon.

We had a lesson with another investigator, and she wants to meet with us daily.

I think we're back in business.

One of my favorite quotes that Madi sent to me in her cute little notebook said,

"God doesn't waste our time. He does refine us, which on occasion, takes time."

When all you need is a miracle, you're almost there. I'm so grateful to the Lord and all His mercy. He truly knows what's best for us, and he will never abandon His flock. Of this I know.

Love,

Sister Webber