get close to those around you.

3/28/16

At the beginning of my mission I used to really wonder how I could ever become the missionary I dreamed of being and why it couldn't be faster? I now have seen that I have indeed changed. It was not all visible at the beginning and I would get so frustrated wondering why isn't my Russian ALREADY perfect? Why can I not convert 1000 people?! Why am I stressed and scared when I should just love it all and understand what to do and when to do it? I wondered what on earth the whole waiting process was good for and why I needed to wait for all of those things and not just BE THAT all at once. Didn't God want me to be all of those things perfectly so I could be the best I could be to teach these people? No. I was good enough for the people, I taught then in my weaknesses, and I am good enough now because we take this process of becoming perfect one day at a time, one step at a time. Everyday if I did all that I could possibly do in the state of understanding that I was in, that was good enough for the Lord to work with. We learn line upon line. We cannot immediately change from black to white, it is a process.

Through the Atonement we grow and we change. We learn throught those "growing pains". Without those growing pains the change would not stick and we would end up returning back to who we were before. That is not the point of change, is it?

I now see that the Lord's way was good. I know that I have changed and want to continue to change. I am grateful for the gradual progression. God will continue to work with me as I allow Him to and I will allow Him to, because His way is SO much better than my way.



This week we had a Zone Conference in Kyiv. We wanted to get our missionaries moving forward and feeling lifted and energetic. We definitely did that and they all left the meeting ready to GO GO GO and it was so spiritual and such a success. Just next time we need to make sure and ask President before we give them a commitment that we later found out was forbidden. no big deal he just called us into his office before we headed out and let us know that they were going to have to send out a mass text telling them not to do what we told them to do. That was funny and embarrassing. But we just changed the wording so that it would not be misunderstood and still sent out a commitment and we called all our missionaries on Sunday and they are really trying to reach out to more people and gather in Israel and it was really incredible to be a part in that. We are trying to hasten the work of the Lord. WHY? The Lord himself is coming. It is near. We need to be ready.



Something I have been thinking about a lot this week I think all need to hear:

I have a testimony of the temple. We SHOULD be going as often as we can. No excuses. Excuses do not help us to make it into the Celestial Kingdom. Excuses are for weak men and not people with the potential to become like Gods.



I have a testimony of the need of LOVE for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Even if it is hard our WARD is our responsibility and our extended family as much as God is all our Father in Heaven.

GET CLOSE.

Love them and lift them. We all need it a lot. There is a wonderful example of this kind of love for one another here in Bila. Families are celebrating each others successes and banding together to mourn with those that are mourning and praying with and for those who need. Please just LOVE each other. Forget about all the dumb things in the world that pull us apart. We are brothers and sisters and christ and we all are on the same path and we WANT to make it to the same place. Give more to them. And God will reward you. I promise it is worth it. Forgive each other. Love each other. no matter what. I feel that EVERYONE needs to hear this and work harder at this. We are our brothers keepers. Let us go forward with love.



We had such an amazing lesson this week with Larissa. She is living proof that God sends His angels ahead to PREPARE his people. She is ready and prepared by the Lord for the message we have to give. How amazing is it that I get to meet the elect! We talked about tithing and read some amazing stories in theBible and Book of Mormon and I used a story I heard from Nana a while ago. Larissa has READY faith. I do not know how else to describe it. She is already in Alma 14 last time we talked to her and she is just receiving light from God! She knows the Book of Mormon is true! She knows the church is true! She is progressing and growing closer and closer to God! She WANTS to pay tithing and to fast and she is just inspiring.



I love Bila. I have a lot to say and not a lot of time! I am grateful for this experience and everything involved in it! It is amazing.



I know that the Savior loves every single one of us. He loves YOU. He did everything He did, for you. I know that our Savior Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master and best friend LIVES. Everything is possible because of Him. That I know.



I love you. Be safe. Be happy. Let the sun shine through you so that everyone can see it. I will talk to you all soon! Have a wonderful week.



PS: I get  a mini missionary for this week and guess who?! My favorite mini missionary in the world Sister Kokoreva!!!!



Love you all!

HAPPY LATE EASTER. We will have our ukrainian easter May 1.



💜Cectpa Karren

Ukrainian scarves over our noses because of so much smoke.  When the driver that is supposed to take a bus full of people on a 1 1/2 hour drive that starts the ride off by smoking and entire pack of cigarettes = two Muslim Ukrainian moron sister missionaries :)

Baby goats I snuggled with. 

Fun

Love my goats!

More baby goats

We rebuilt this little shed for this sweet old neighbor of Stan's. It was amazing.  Dad Stan said you would be SO PROUD OF ME if you could see me.

I am learning life skills and I can now use a chainsaw and a handsaw and build a shelter. Wahoo! WORD TO YOUR MOTHER!

Stan and service projects in the snow.

Service Project

Dima made these paper ships and they were for each of us.

This is Dima's Wonderful reactivating Mom I am so proud of! She is ready to go to the temple!  

Little Brother Dima and his sweet Mama

Me in a burrito!  In English class we were supposed to think of a childhood memory. Sometimes on our mission we start to lose our minds and it is hard to remember life before. All I could remember is how Dad would come into my room to tuck me into bed at night and he would tuck me in like a Mexican burrito with all the blankets around me.  So I told the English class about that and it was funny.  Everyone laughs at me all the time.  I don't know if that is a good thing...?  Sister young then made me into a burrito that night and behold, here I am, a mexican burrito!

Easter Egg tradition

Ukrainian Easter is May 1st but we still celebrated

Ukrainian colored eggs

Sister young and cadbury eggs

i am helping them REMEMBER WHO THEY ARE

3/21/16

I do not care if any one here remembers my name. What would that bring me? I want people to remember the feelings and the impressions they had on their journey to conversion. I do not care if they remember who it was that brought them there, I just want them to remember only one powerful missionary who always testified, always cried repentance, always corrected and challenged and lifted with love as a representative of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All I want them to remember is that piercing effect that the Holy Ghost brings to the heart when truth is spoken. I want to help others to come unto Christ, not only for baptism. I want them to come unto Him through accepting the restored gospel through faith in jesus christ and his atonement, repentance, and baptism by immersion and receiving the Holy Ghost so that they CAN endure to the end. We cannot endure to the end without these things.



I want all of us to make it back to our Father is is patiently waiting for our return. He is a just God and we NEED to act in order to return to Him. He is a merciful God also and He gives us strength where we fail and even a million chances to try to be a little bit better because He wants us all to come home.



ALMA 28:9-10 "that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance... when I see many of my brethren coming to the Lord their God, then my soul is filled with joy."



The first day of Spring came and went and it snowed. BUT DIMA SHEKA GOT BAPTIZED. We gave a talk about baptism and related it to a yellow flower linking his rebirth at baptism with spring time and the rebirth that happens on the earth!

We sang a special musical number about the Savior and after the people that were there just couldn't stop talking about it. I think they had never heard accompaniment (is that a word) other than the normal format of hymns and I played and sang with Sister Young in Russian. It was beautiful. Dima is so clean and it was just a huge miracle! Everything went smoothly and he is now a confirmed member of the church with the gift of the Holy Ghost. I cried during his confirmation. It was so beautiful.



We also had a pretty amazing meeting with Sasha and his family this week. We felt we kind of needed to shake his fence a little (like my Uncle Jason taught me). We read Mosiah 18:8-10 about baptism and he finally opened his mouth and was more honest with us. He told us how he really felt. My heart pounded during this lesson as we testified and invited and cried repentance. We were missionaries from the Book of Mormon. We did it with love. We followed God and we followed all promptings. Sasha understands our purpose and our love for the Savior and He understands it is time for him to get serious and to ACT. He is going to pray about baptism. FINALLY. We promised before God and His angels that God will answer. I know hat God is waiting for Sahsa to commit, because he has already shown so much faith and humility to come as far as he has at this point! He is a valiant son of God and he is ready to act and his life if he chooses right will change for good. We do the work of God.



I love God's children. I am called to help them REMEMBER WHO THEY ARE. So I will continue to do just that. God is my everything and he is my best friend and I know that he answers prayers.



I love you all. Hope you all have some special personal moments with God this week.



Have a wonderful week.



Love


Cectpa Karren

Alyona and Nazar our investigators

Alyona pretending to be Cectpa Karren.  She is saving up to buy a doll and she is going to name her Karren. 

My cute companion

My cutest companion and this wonderful hero and member of mine named valentina!

The baptism interview in the village. HE PASSED!!!

also exchanges. sister pugosava did not want to sleep on the bed so we made her one on the floor and i thought it was so weird but we threw all of our clothes and blankets and stuff down there to try and make it some what comfortable

Exchanges

 An investigator sewed us matching aprons. She is cute and really old. and moving away.

The pool where Dima got baptized

Our Branch President Ganadi baptized sweet Dima. 

Dima got baptized!!!

My sweet Dima

Dima getting his hair blow dried in the sauna so that his hair wouldnt freeze outside after his baptism

Dima and his cute mama :) best ever

i want to be a missionary from the scriptures.

This is what Ukrainian looks like. But I still only speak Russian! Dima is getting batptized Saturday March 19!!!! we are holding it in a suana it is going to be fun. :) I love you all!

x

to celebrate that we will still be in bila!

This was last weeks family home evening with Dima Sheka and his mom who is reactivating and their neighbors Maria and Ivan they are active members and we love them to death! 

​

I want to be a missionary in the scriptures.

Our miracle Dima

Love this kid

This is happiness in one picture!

There was woman's day this week and the men in the branch put on a celebration for us. they even gave us a flower.

This was one warm day when my comp was sick so I sat with the windows open to catch some sunshine

Some goals I have I wanted to share with you:

-Read the Book of Mormon every single day without fail.
-Wake up at 6:30 every day without fail.
-Keep a daily journal- record miracles
-Increase relationship with God through prayer
    -keep a revelation book
-Pray for each of our sisters by name everyday
  -know them
  -know their needs
  -talk to them often
  -correct them
  -love them
-Represent my Lord Jesus Christ how ne needs me to be. LOVE SERVE BE HUMBLE PATIENT
-Follow every prompting of the Spirit exactly. Always be worth and ready to hear His voice.
-Finish the Russian Book of Mormon and start again.
-Use every moment to be amissionary-reach as many people as I can and testify.
-Increase my personal study with the Lord- learn from His hand through the scriptures every single day.
-Remember my Savior everyday. Use His atonement. Get really good at repenting immediately and everyday.
-Pray for each investigator by name, daily and know their needs. Seek guidance from God!
-Find those with real desire to baptize.
-CRY REPENTANCE AND BAPTIZE CONVERTS
- 20 lessons a week!
-Speak only Russin. Diligently use my time to correct and improve my language. Pray for the gift of tongues! The gift of tongues is long enough to try your faith but fast enough to be a miracle.
-Always seek inspiration then teach by the Spirit
-Have FUN!
-Pray for the people of Eurpose to open their hearts to the gospel. Gather Israel!
-Memorize scritpures and references.
-Adopt culture onto myself

OK I have to go but I love you!
Love KY. PS: We are STL's of 6 sisters again hooray!!

GO WATCH the HALLELUJAH video for easter! IT is amazing!

My Sister Cectpa Young

Me and my sister. In the village outside dimas house waiting for a bus 

Yana and her daughter. Dina and his daughter Alyona.

On Mon, Mar 14, 2016 at 4:42 PM, Kylie Karren <kylie.karren@myldsmail.net> wrote:
Привет! Я Думаю я буду просто писать на Русском сегодня. :)
Hi!

My thoughts from my studies this week:

I wanted to know how we could reach more people faster because it seems kind of impossbile to reach everyone with just 4 missionaries here. So I was praying and studying and I found some cool things I wanted to share with you today. EXAMPLE:
Alma 26:4 "Behold thousands of them do rejoice and have been brought into the fold of God."

By faith men may bring thousands of souls to repentance. So the key ingredient is FAITH.

How many men does it take to bring thousands of souls to repentance?
-Only a few! The Sons of Mosiah.

How could they do it?
-They had great faith and they "reaped with all their might, all the day long did they labor." -Alma 26:5

I know what kind of missionary I want to be.
I have felt lazy sometimes thinking that I am working really hard but still feel that something is missing.

I want to be like Ammon and his brethren. It is not impossible. All they did to be so special was to humble themselves TO THE DUST and forget their own selves and they gave God full control to work through them.

They were powerful, worthy, happy servants of the Lord.

I believe God can make anything out of me if I let Him, EVEN IN RUSSIAN.

Yes, I have gradually make progression. But now I have only 5 months left on this mission. So, I want to see what God and I can do together.

Am I ready to really and fully and truly give myself up all my little selfish things and do ALL the will of the Lord?
It is time. It has already been time! I have been giving more and more but I wanna just give it all!

I need to help God help His children make it back to Him. He knows this work is more than possible. I want to be His good servant.

I believe in Him when he says if we have faith men  may bring thousands to repentance. LET'S GO!

No turning back.

I am so grateful for the trust and revelation through the scriptures of God!

I love my mission. This week was good. Sister Young has been getting pretty frequent and bad headaches though. Any suggestions? This week we will have a baptism of an 11 year old boy named Dima! IT will be amazing. And we are going to have an exchange in Vinnitsya.
Happy to be here! Have a great week!

-Cectpa Karren

Dima and his family.

Our miracle Dima! He is getting baptized March 19th in a Sauna.  I am so happy!!!!

Another recent convert yana and her daughter and dima with the wooden leg and his daughter our investigator alyona :)