Training 4 Ukraine : adventure is for real!

March 18, 2015 1:42pm

Dear FAMILY and friends :)

1st I should've taken Spanish in High school. 2nd I love you guys SO MUCH.
Thank you so much for the notes and goodies it makes life. Please thank the whole family for
my surprise letters from everyone. They have made me laugh and cry. Letters really are the best thing ever here.
I have to type so fast this is scary!!!

Ok. First couple days: The first day I was like ILOVE THIS so much and I didnt even cry. 2nd day Wow I know a lot of Russian and bring it on. I love this. 3rd day- ok we tcan take it down a notch. Like this fire hose is blasting me and I am just trying to get a small drink of water. We taught our first investigator on FRIDAY. 2 1/1 days after we got here. We taught a man named Andre in all Russian. CAN you BELIEVE IT? Think about that. Crazy stuff. Like I talked about in my farewell talk- I am really trying to just "get out of the boat" and to trust God and exercise my faith. But woah it was scary and I had a moment of weakness- wondering how on earth WE can teach our investigatoir in Russian when my companion speaks only Spanish and I speak only English. i cried for a moment then realized I am set apart as a representative of Christ. I am a missionary. So, we prayed together and then we taught Andre. We have taught him 4 times now and will again tonight. He told us he wants to be baptized. Pretty cool.

OK!
This is crazy. I will answer your cute questions mama. If i don't get to them all I will write you a letter ok?
I FEEL AMAZING. The MTC is so spiritual and the days are just packed with goodness and business. (yes dad, I am taking care of myself). The classes are in ONLY Russian and we have a girl and guy teacher that are adorable. We secretly want them to get married (not to secretly... we tell the Sister everyday).
Our district has 6 people in it. 4 sisters all going to Ukraine and 2 Elders going to Russia.
My language material is way more than 12 pounds because we have double of everything. Russian and Ukrainian.
Our district is amazing. We spend most of our time in our classroom learning and teaching and sharing testimony. It is so great. It really is a sacred place. We kneel to pray so often we joke that our knees are always sore. I LOVE IT.

My companion is from Ecuador and she is 23. She is powerful and a convert of 10 years. Her family is half mormon and the other half not. Her dad who isn't a member let her come and it will be a huge blessing for her family I know it. She has a powerful spirit and she knows the BOM so well. I have a lot to learn from her. But mostly since sometimes I can do nothing else I just make her laugh because I am weird. ;) I am just glad that I can make her laugh. :) We really have to rely on the spirit so we can communicate. We are becoming the best of friends.

We have 4 girls in our room including me and it is awesome. It is just our district girls. I will send pictures. I find that I can NOT sleep at night even though my body is so tired because it is right after we teach our investigator and I have Russian and LIFE in general as a missionary running through my head. Sometimes I wonder why my brain likes to talk so much. I am like can you please be quite??? (How do you spell that.) My brain is a chatter box. How annoying.
I usually get up around 5:45-6:15 and start the day. AMAZING that I can do that now and I am not even a morning person no???? Haha.

I feel like I have been here for weeks not just 1. CRAZY.

Mom and dad I just want you to know you are the cutest humans and everyones little notes throughout the week have made me so happy. I love you guys. And please tell Mama Irving thanks for her letter also!
MOM good for you for doing family history. Are you still going to the temple every week?

I love how you said that Sunday you realized we can do hard things because it is in our genes. How amazing is that. It really is!
In the pre existence we had exceptional faith and we worked SO hard. Why not do the same here? There is much to be done before we can go back to our Maker. We need to learn to LOVE to work.

Dad it sounds like your Sunday school lesson was amazing as usual. I especially love what mom told me about your lesson: we must take action and come unto Him so He can buoy us up. Think about this. We are actually very close to God. How close are we? Only one prayer away. PRAY PRAY PRAY. If we are praying we are remembering Him, loving Him, building a relationship with Him and He can always talk to us and help us if we ALWAYS pray to Him.

This week I am working on Trusting in the Lord. Part of trusting Him is utilizing Christ's atonement-gaining a relationship so that no matter what I go through I can enjoy the journey. 2 Nephi 4:20-21, 34-35.
Trust in Him, do as He asks and He will help us do all.
I am running out of time and that doesn't even begin to cover my week so I will send a letter to you.

Always remember who you REALLY are. We are children of a loving Heavenly Father and a Savior who has saved ALL of us if we will just use his atonement and come unto Him. Simple. Yet beautiful. We all have a duty to be healers of a sick world. We have power. Let us remember that God loves us-all of us and He wants us to come back home.

I love you guys like none other. Sweet moment to get to pray for each of you this morning in the Celestial room at the temple. I trust in God to take care of you while I am gone.
Austin- I love you and hope school is amazing. I am writing you a letter but have so much fun on your date you little woman killer. ;)
Carson- thanks for being moms buddy and keep dancing it up. Keep trying to be humble, an impossible feat ;)
Bridger- thank you for your powerful prayers for me. I feel them. They are helping me so much. I love you baby

MOM and DAD thank you for being my best friends ALWAYS. It is so good to hear from you guys I could not help my cry as I read your emails.

There is nothing better than this. I am a missionary.

LOVE ALWAYS with a giant purple heart,

Cectpa Karren

HAVE an awesome week!!!!
Keep reading the BOM in the AM ok family? We are still reading it together even though I am gone. I get up and read also. Sending my love to you all. Talk to you soon!