Training 4 Ukraine : it is you who i love!

I am sorry I have not sent out a big email for weeks and weeks now. HOW CRAZY this time has been! I have been on my mission for almost 7 months now and it is surreal.

I am sorry if I do not have time to respond to everyone, just know that I love your emails and they help me so so much. You are all my inspirations.

GOD LOVES US AND HIS LOVE IS SO REAL.

My zone leader gave me some great advice and I practice it everyday. When it gets hard, or just everyday, I wake up in the morning and I look myself in the mirror and I tell that girl "I love being a missionary!!!" I don't scream it, but I back it up with power with my heart and it becomes more sincere everyday. How great it is that I am here. I REALLY DO LOVE IT.

As for training....

I literally have the cutest most amazing companion in the world. She is absolutely pre-trained and killing it! This week started out HARD for me. There was just a lot on my mind and I couldn't shake it. "Wanna know the best solution?" my President always asks. "GET TO WORK." So that is what we did. AND I HAVE SEEN THE MOST AMAZING MIRACLES OF MY ENTIRE MISSION THIS WEEK. That is not to say that it was not still hard. It was. Everyday there was something hard, but something so amazing I was just in utter shock. GOD knows His missionaries and He loves these Ukrainian people with his whole soul.

FOR EXAMPLE:

Miracle 1: Family Home Evening Monday night

We had a lesson with two less active members who have totally reactivated now. A Grandma and her 12 year old granddaughter she is raising. Well this cute little girl has been such an amazing missionary and has brought her 11 year old friend from school to church almost every Sunday for this transfer and a bit of last. The daughter brought her mom and she brought her other son and she loves the church and the Spirit she feels so much that she wants to meet all the time and just know more and more. It was the most amazing lesson I have ever had on my mission. MEMBERS ARE AMAZING. This sweet mom and her kids told us that we have a really special light and that she will remember us for the rest of her life.

...many more miracles but I will just mention 3 more...

Miracle 2: Service

There is a family all members but the parents are inactive. Sister Ivancovich's cousin served in this mission 5 years ago and she was this family's missionary. The 5 kids are STRONG and amazing in the gospel and we were brainstorming the best way to gain their trust and get the parents to want to listen to a short message. Service was the key. We took out several hours two Saturdays and went down and just tilled their huge garden. The first time the mom made us a dinner with what I know was the only food she had but she insisted we eat it. We did and we thanked her and hugged her after we had given a spiritual thought (which she left the room for) but that was the first step into her heart. After that she could not stop telling her daughter how much she loved us. We went back again the second Saturday and finished the job and again they fed us. We then spent a good amount of time getting to know the parents and went back into their family room type thing and the parents JOINED US FOR THE SPIRITUAL THOUGHT. So we just bore our testimonies and honestly the words both of us said was straight from God, the spirit was so thick I could touch it. Then the children bore their testimonies to their parents. The dad called on someone to pray at the end it was a THIS IS WHY WE ARE HERE IN UKRAINE RIGHT NOW moment. We both left so exceedingly joyful.

Miracle 3: The way the Savior went

Jesus Christ walked slowly and he healed and blessed and loved everyone who looked on him. He helped the people who were so low and so sick and so hurt from the world, and they had the biggest faith. We contacted one day for 5 hours straight, and we were talking to everyone. There was an old man a little way off the path sitting in a broken chair. He was dirty and scruffy and I walked past. God told me to turn around so we did. All I could do was walk up and tell this man holding out a cup for coins that I had no money but I had one message from God. God loves him. He was so grateful he cried. And he thanked God right then and there.

Miracle 4: Love

On our way to come emailing today a woman passed us on the street just crying. I didn't know what to do really but Sister Ivancovich made me stop. At first this women did not want me to talk to her and as I was walking away I had the thought "touch her arm and tell her I love her." So I touched this strangers arm and said that. She started crying harder and asked us to please walk her home and she grabbed right onto my arm and just talked and talked through her sobs. After a while the sobbing got a little bit softer, we just listened. she told us about her church about her faith in Jesus Christ and that though she felt sad today and life was so hard she had things to be grateful for. That God sent us to her and then she asked us to please come visit her again. She kissed our cheeks and gave us her address and we left. She was not crying and I know that she knew God loved her.

ALSO one more miracle! One of our little boys named Danya is getting baptized this week and we need some serious prayers to make this happen.HE IS SO READY BUT LIFE IS SOMETIMES CRAZY. Pray pray pray. :D

I am so grateful for my mission and all that it is teaching me. There are little hard moments but oh how sweet the joy of being a missionary for my Savior Jesus Christ. I get to see God's hand everyday, and there is just nothing better. It is hard work, it is trying work. I often cry. It takes all of my soul. And it is so worth it. I love Ukraine. I love these people.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week full of miracles. Please never forget about God. He does not forget about you. Not ever. And I know that is true.

I LOVE YOU!

Love, Сестра Кэррен

ps... UKRAINE IS DEFINTETLY GETTING MIGHTY COLD. #finallyinukraine ;P

FHE last week - amazing and fun too! This less active grandma and her grandaughter she is raising are the best missionaries in the world. How do you bring someone back to the church? Help them bring someone in. They brought this wonderful family Lena, Zhenya and Danya. They will get baptized!