sometimes I speak russian...

June 29, 2015

"So as mortals, we stumble, we lash out, we fail. And God does not always coddle us, despite genuine frustration and tears. But He is mindful of our progression. His watchful eye is always upon us, and through each difficult endeavor, HE IS THERE."

God is with me here in Cherkassy. 

We work for and because of our Savior. We do it all for our Savior, who has done all for us. How could we not want to give it all to serve Him with full purpose for this small time after all that he has done for us? This week I have been trying to work on learning to love the hard things. To turnoutward and to follow Christ. I read some pretty neat scriptures that have really given me strength.

3Nephi 12:10-12

Acts 5:41

Alma 31: 30-31, 38 If we want to be happy we forget ourselves and we go to work! :) 

Well with new companions and with renewed drive I began my second transfer ready to just absolutely kill it. Maybe I needed some humbling though. So maybe God has a little bit of a different plan, and I can still work so hard but maybe a little differently. I have two companions now. One has been serving for 9 months and is native and a mini missionary from Ukraine a convert of 8 months. Crazy! The mini missionary is great but sometimes it is a bit difficult because missionary work is hard work and sometimes she does not want to work. I realized maybe I am not fun anymore and God is giving me her to help me liven up and not be so serious. Though with Sister Fedas I laughed so much everyday (it was just while we are working) but now I don't laugh much. So God once again knows better than I do and my comps are seriously a blessing.

this week it rained seriously BUCKETS. We sang "its raining men" as we walked down the streets because it really was. Every street was flooded. Ha one funny story is that we were heading to a lesson with our investigator at the church and she called and said she had already been waiting 30 minutes even though we thought our meeting time was later. So of course we started RUNNING in the rain (I know dad is cringing right now) and I totally biffed it in a huge puddle of mud. OOOOOOPS! Don't worry I was not hurt just soaking wet and muddy for our lesson with our investigator.... kinda ploha! (bad) I know it but it was funny to me later. Ha I am sure that sometimes God is looking down like my missionaries are kind of little babies and he is just trying to lead us around and get us to listen to him. And sometimes we are not the best at it. 

Anyway I want to tell you so miracles of this week! 

Miracles of the week:

We have 3 investigators, Tatyana, Bazhena, and Alesa (girl from picnic friends with Danil). 3!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED TO ME BEFORE i LOVE IT SO MUCH ANDi LOVE THEM! 

We went and visited the Treeputen's (a cute member family) because it was Ivanna's birthday and we brought her a treat and note (and I said love Sister Fedas too) and her dad was there. It was the first time I have met them. We talked for a little and left a spiritual thought and guess what?!?!?!?!? He came to church on Sunday with his family. MIRACLE.

We gave out 4 books of mormon tracting our dom and have one potential from that as well.

We went to visit Tamara and her phone was off and the door to the dom was locked and I did not know the code. We tried several times and could not get in. The other sisters were about to leave when I had a thought "3, 4" AND IT WAS IT. Miracle from God. And she really needed us to come yesterday. her grandson had just been yelling at her asking why she has not died already and all sorts of mean things. We sang and gave her a thought and she told us we gave her energy. IT was awesome.

We also got to help President clean out or library in our branch and for the first time here members invited us over to their home so we can teach them! I am so excited. :) We are going to do a fun teaching activity with the Restoration.

By the way. I speak Russian. Like what?! Not very good but that is serisouly a miracle in and of itself! I SPEAK RUSSIAN and I can even understand some Ukrainian. Who even knew?!?!?!?!?

I am so happy and so grateful for all that you do for me and for the messages you send me. It means the world and you are all the very best people. I am praying for the Carter's and hoping they are doing ok. God loves them so much I feel it and I am so sad they are going through this hard time.

CONGRATS to cody getting married!! can't wait to see them as a married couple. I am glad everyone is doing well. Make sure you all take care of yourself.

Oh and NANA! I heard you turned 25 yesterday. You are so young and spry and just the best.

Have a great week and have fun. I miss you all so much but I love Ukraine. your prayers help me so much. I am so grateful to have you all in my life. 

my mini misisonary sister belovodskya

sister pugachova and me

Love Cectpa Karren 

all done with transfer 1

This week was a good one.

I was able to spend my last week of my first transfer with my wonderful companion and trainer Sister Fedas. She goes home tomorrow and my heart is aching. I am continually learning how to trust in God more. Like how in the world am I supposed to do this all without my trainer?! I am so grateful for everything she taught me. It is weird because it feels like it has been years since I have seen you all but also that my first transfer has flown by. How can I already be done with my first transfer? 

Some of the things I learned from my companion:

-I learned how to love the people here. At first I was unsure how to get along with a native and we found that we were SO different. But service and love and lots of prayers later we have come to absolutely LOVE each other. The people here sometimes have a tough outer shell but they are all hurting a little bit inside and they need love more than anything. And I love these people. I learned how through the example of my companion. She is selfless and she loves to work. Every person is important.

-I learned that we are always missionaries. We can always be doing something more, always be striving to find more people and if we truly love God we want to find his children and to help them in anyway we can even if it is just helping someone with their garden. 

-I learned that Ukraine has amazing candy and icecream and that I am without a doubt going to be 1000 pounds when I come home. 

-I have learned how to be brave and to overcome fear

-I learned how I want to be when I finish my mission: STRONG in the gospel with a knowledge and relationship with my Savior and Heavenly Father than ever before

-I learned how to laugh so hard IN RUSSIAN

-I learned consistancy and how that is SO key in this work. God needs consistent missionaries.

-I learned to enjoy this mission and all the moments because it really wiill end someday and I will miss it so much

-Take advantage of every minute and to use every minute wisely

I learned many more things but I can not even list it

-Oh I learned a lot of Russian as well and also learned of one of my "gifts". Sister Fedas like Sister Rubio could not really speak English. She had a test for English this last week. While she was with me we worked really hard, spending every other day in English then the next day in Russian and always correcting each other no matter what- and she took her test and got a score of ADVANCED low!!!!!!! Sister Rubio and Sister Fedas both told me that with me they struggled with English then one day woke up and their minds were open and they just knew it. To me it sounds like their gift, and it is but they both said that it has only been with me and that I have a real gift for helping people to learn English. Why, I do not know. But that is cool!

So this week I was pretty sick and so we spent a lot of time at home calling people and preparing our area and many people in our city got sick too. But at the end of the week we were invited to the branch picnic. It is not quite like American picinics with watermelon and blankets in a park with maybe sandwiches or BBQ or something. We (grandma's and all) hiked in this forest and then got to this flat part in between the trees right on the huge river and we cleaned up the forest and then people started to play frisbee and football and Ukrainian games too and they cooked this millet porridge called Kasha and it to

ok like almost 3 hours and we had so many potential investigators there and it was the best day ever. I finally feel like this is my place. We needed to go and to interact with the members and I am starting to think we need to work more closely with them to find people because of all the bad and scary things that have been happening the past couple weeks. I felt safe and at home. Even if they can only speak Russian they were comfortable enough with me to joke and to laugh and it was amazing. I am so happy to stay here.

OH YA! Transfers.... I will be staying in Cherkassy with another Native girl and another native "mini missionary" I am so excited. Especially for the mini missionary. She will only be here for 4 weeks and does not really know English but that is ok, I can get better at Russian. CAN YOU BELEIVE my first transfer is over? I have almost been here for 2 months in Ukraine now. How does that even happen. I love it more and more everyday!!! And I am so thankful to be here. There have been some really tough and trying moments but it is ok. Problems that we face should not stop us from working. We can always work through them. 

Also I love being able to pray. Prayer is the most amazing gift. We get to converse whenever we want to with a father in heaven who created it all and he actually wants to hear from us about our small seemingly meaningless things, and he cares so much. When we pray he blesses us. I love what PMG says about the pattern for prayer and I want everyone to read it. Pages 93-95 we should read and use as a pattern to make our prayers more meaningful. 

I love you guys and I am so ready to just work so hard and to learn so much and to more fully be my Father's servant in this work! Jesus in John 15 talks about how in reality we are not his servants in this work though, he calls us his friends. How blessed are we.

I love you all so much! Be good and be happy and be safe. I will talk to you soon!

Love Cectpa Karren 

Goodbye to my trainer Sister Fedas <3 :)

letter to president

June 15, 2015

Instead of sending a big group message I will send you the letter I sent to president. I do not want you to be worried but I wanted to tell you about my week. Here it goes. I am ok just know that ok???

Dear President,

This week I finally just felt on fire. Me and Sister Fedas worked so hard and I felt like things were looking up. We had a goal of 2 new investigators this week and we were having revelation together as a companionship and working so hard. One day we did 5 and a half hours of contacting without breaks and we gave away 6 books of Mormon and promised one other to bring another one. It was an amazing day.

Though the past couple days I have to be honest, I have felt pretty sad, and a little bit frightened. I am not quite sure to write all that has happened so I am sorry if this letter is messy. We have been teaching an investigator who is 36 and his name is Andre. Things have been okay, and he has been up and down which I have felt like it normal. Friday morning we were in Kyiv to do my documents and sister Fedas had a dentist appointment so i was with Sister Rubio who also needed to do her documents. I had the phone from cherkassy and Andre called. I told him that we would be meeting later that evening and we would call if there were any problems getting back from Kyiv. He knew I was not with Sister Fedas, and so he called again, then again, then over and over and over. I stopped answering and was kind of mad and nervous because this is not normal for an investigator and I don't speak well on the phone! We had a lesson with him Friday evening, and after the lesson he started walking with us. We did not want him to know where we lived so after a while we told him we would be going this way to go to the store and he turned left and went down another street. We continued to walk and both Sister Fedas had the the feeling to just quickly pop into the store but neither of us said anything to each other because we both knew we did not need to buy anything. Saturday around 4 pm we got a call from Andre and he was upset. He asked us why we lied to him. I was confused and said, "what?" He then told us that he knew we did not go to the store and we asked him how he knew, because he had gone down another street far away from the store and could not have seen us. He told us he had good eyesight. sister Fedas asked him how he could have seen when he was in another street and he then said he did not see us he just felt it. It was weird but we still weren't terribly scared. Then he told us that he enjoys watching us and has watched us around the city and that it is normal for him to watch us and look at us and follow us. He acted completely serious and told us it was not strange and not to be surprised because "it happens." President we now know that our investigator has been following us around and watching us and it is creepy! We gave the teaching record to the elders and he came to church Sunday and told us that Sister Fedas and I are strange people. I am not quite sure what else to do but I did start to feel scared! All in all it is not normal and yesterday I felt so discouraged.

We had the Elders come over and give us blessings because Sister Fedas and I have also been feeling pretty discouraged and a lack of the Spirit the last couple days. Sister Fedas says that when she is out walking on the streets she feels a fear here. We seem to meet a lot of unusual people and have experiences where Satan is clearly there. Saturday night after we had called and called from our Area book and potential people one woman wanted to meet that evening and we were so excited! She seemed to remember exactly who we are and we asked if she would like to meet at the church or her home? she gave us her address and after English she called us and told us "they" were all waiting. We assumed it was maybe her family or some friends? And we hurridely got to her house. She opened the gate told us her name and we went inside and there were like 7 ish people there sitting on the ground and we introduced ourselves and they told us their names and asked us what we do. We told them we are missionaries and we preach the gospel. Before anything else was said a man started to play a film. Sister Fedas asked him what it was and how long because we thought they were gathered to hear our message. He told us it was 3 hours long and that they would take breaks for tea and to chat. We did not want to stay but it was started. Not knowing exactly what to do BUT WE SHOULD HAVE LEFT we sat for 5 minutes and I awkwardly opened my scriptures and started reading/writing Sister Fedas notes in my planner not quite understanding what was happening. I did not watch the film becuase I know we should not. But there was alcohol and killing and pornography and as soon as that happened both Sister Fedas and I stood up and gathered our stuff as quickly as we could and ran in front of the projector trying to open the door and get out but i could not get it open. Finally after all these people stood there and watched us struggling to get out and obviously distrot and in front of the projector with awful things happening on it they opened the door and we RAN away. We obviously made a very poor choice and immediately felt the spirit gone. It was so sad.  It was a very sad and dumb situation to have put ourselves in. I just felt that I needed to tell you about it.

Sunday was hard for us and we felt like we were not able to work well. We needed the spirit and we both felt fear about meeting more people like this and we continued to meet people on the street who talk about how their husbands killed their sons and such. These are just examples and I am not quite sure what to do. We seem to attract strange people and we often feel Satan's presence here in Cherkassy. I have been praying really hard and reading and studying the topics of fear and the Book of Mormon and the missionaries in cities where it seems harder than most. It has been difficult because we do not see the fruits of our labors but I also know that sometimes that is just how it needs to be. But I do not want to feel this fear and sadness. Today has been a bit better and I feel that I can stay here because I will do anything the Lord needs me to do. maybe this is just like the city Abinadi went to teach in- and the people had hard hearts, but there was Alma. And he needed to hear the message. I know that we can not always see how and why we are somewhere and see the fruits of the labor but that we are working for God. It is just hard sometimes when you see God's hand working and then you see so much of Satan's work too. i know this is just the beginning and God is trying to strength me I think, but I just needed some advice on what you think I need to do. I am sorry this is so long. And I am sorry I have made so many mistakes this week. taking the sacrament yesterday was a beautiful gift and I do feel clean. I am still not sure what to do about our former investigator Andre. And I want to teach people but I am just not quite sure how.

Thanks in advance for the help. Please let your wife know we are thinking about her and I hope she is feeling better. Thank you for taking good care of us and for always following the spirit. Have a great week!

-Sister Karren

They have this eternal flame in each city. In Cherkassy this woman holds it and she keeps everyone safe. 

Mission Newsletter

“Patience can Accomplish Marvelous Things”
President and Sister Packer

Ukraine Kyiv Mission
15 June 2015

Elders and Sisters,
This week’s letter will be shorter because of many appendices. I am including notes from the last two Leadership Councils so that you will all be kept in the loop. Today, nearly 20 years later, a portion of my setting apart blessing as a missionary was fulfilled. There were times after my mission when I wondered why it hadn’t been fulfilled while serving. Sometimes I even thought I had failed in some way or another. As time went by after my mission, it ceased to bother me and I decided for myself that it had been fulfilled in a way that was unknown to me. Today this part of the blessing was fulfilled exactly as it was pronounced upon my head 20 years ago. “Patience is the capacity to endure delay, trouble, opposition, or suffering without becoming angry, frustrated or anxious. It is the ability to do God’s will and accept His timing” (Preach My Gospel). When we have patience we can accomplish marvelous things. Patience requires diligence and consistency. Remember Alma the older who said, “But remember the iniquity of king Noah and his priests; and I myself was caught in a snare, and did many things which were abominable in the sight of the Lord, which caused me sore repentance; Nevertheless, after much tribulation, the Lord did hear my cries, and did answer my prayers, and has made me an instrument in his hands in bringing so many of you to a knowledge of his truth.” (Mosiah 23: 9-10). Alma worked with and watched over the saints. They had all had a change of heart and were righteous. “Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith.”(Mosiah 23:21) These people were captured by the Lamanites and put into bondage and forced to do hard labor and were not even allowed to pray. They prayed in their hearts for help from the Father and continued to be faithful. In return, the Lord promised to eventually free them from bondage; He also promised to make them stronger while they were still under bondage. The scriptures describe these people at this time, “And it came to pass that so great was their faith and their patience that the voice of the Lord came unto them again, saying: Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage.” (Mosiah 24:16) The same promise applies to all who come unto the Savior with a struggle they are trying to overcome. It may be an addiction, it may be persecution by family or friends for investigating the church, it may be a lost job, or sorrow for a loved one lost. Whatever our struggle, let us have patience and faith that the Lord will deliver us. Let us plead for and believe that He will help us while we struggle and while we patiently and hopefully wait for deliverance. We love you! Press forward!
Love,
President and Sister Packer
Quote:

“Life is full of difficulties, some minor and others of a more serious nature. There seems to be an unending supply of challenges for one and all. Our problem is that we often expect instantaneous solutions to such challenges, forgetting that frequently the heavenly virtue of patience is required..”

(Preach My Gospel pg.120) 

Mission Leadership Council notes 5-15-15

Excerpt of a talk from President Hinckley

•   Be grateful for the ride, even though along the way we will get bumps and scratches and bruises
  
•   Missionary work can be good, and challenging
  Using the Book of Mormon better
  

• 1st lesson (about 20 min)
o Teach them the pamphlet, don’t give them a Book of Mormon yet
o Invite them to see mormon.org  2nd lesson
o Read last two paragraphs of the Introduction of the Book of Mormon
o Start reading with the investigator from the Introduction of the First Book of Nephi and into 1Nephi 1, stop
and show how it applies to them
o Model how they’ll receive revelation through the Book of Mormon when they read alone
 Later lessons
o Don’t simply ask if they read, ask what they learned and how it will effect them (see chart below) o Ex: What did you learn about being a better mom?
Asking better questions

Type of Question Recall
Compare Contrast
Cause and Effect Example to Idea Idea to Example Evaluate

Example
What happened when Nephi and his brothers went back the city?
How was Nephi’s experience similar to the brother of Jared’s experience with the stones? How is Nephi’s and the brother of Jared’s experience different?
What motivated Nephi to go back for the plates?
What can we learn from the brother of Jared’s experience with the stones?
Give an example when faith preceded a miracle
How can Nephi’s experience help us?
What can we learn about your situation from Nephi’s experience in getting the plates?

2 Nephi 9 is a good chapter to use to help people resolve their questions
We need to figure out how to use the Book of Mormon as the primary source for teaching during lessons, rather than using verses as ‘decoration’ during the lesson
 Activity for language or companionship study
o Goal: to understand the core meaning of a verse
o Can be done with 2 to 4 people
o 1st person: Asks a question about the verse
o 2nd person: Answers the question
o 3rd person: Clarifies something that could be difficult to understand in the verse (ex. The meaning of
certain words, or context)
o 4th person: Predicts what will be discussed, based on the verse (ex. The verse says , I bet we we’ll talk
about )
o 1st person: Summarizes verse

Mission Leadership Counsel notes 6-5-15

Qualities of leaders

• Examples from scriptures: King Benjamin, Moroni, D&C 4
  
• What kind of leaders are we? Need to ask ourselves often, and seek scriptures for examples to follow
  
• People don’t care how much we know, until they know how much we care
  
• The problems that we have with others are often the same thing we don’t like about ourselves
  
• We need to be careful with what we say, because it is easy to be misunderstood
  

o Leaders live in a glass house, have to try and always be at your best

• In our mission, we are going through growing pains because we are appropriately correcting each other, and
  Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders have more power to help their zones, i.e. they can set up exchanges
  for two different companionships to switch based on skills they see in the zone
  
• Leaders should be perceived as servants, washing other’s feet
  
• The most important calling in this mission is missionary
  Story from Sister Packer’s Dad
  

• One of his jobs was a Sheppard and he had thousands of sheep. For every winter, they had to move the sheep
  several miles to a different place. A part of this path they used was along a road by a river, and one year there was a huge hole in the road. They were driving the sheep from the back of the flock, so the first sheep in the front fell into the hole and many others following them fell in as well, and in the end many sheep died. If they were in front of the sheep, they could have lead them and saved them, rather than just pushing from the back
  Gossip
  
• Gossip was the biggest currency in the mission when the Packers arrived
  
• The problem has gotten better, but still exists
  
• Gossip is a problem that is hurting the Church at large
  
• Scriptures about gossip and rumors:
  

o Helaman 16:22-23
o 3 Nephi 1:22
• Example from Les Miserables
o Jean Valjean, main character, was imprisoned for many years for stealing a loaf of bread. After serving his term, he struggled with his identity and didn’t know if he was a convict or a good man. Society and gossip told him he was a convict, which is not what the Gospel teaches
• There are huge blessings when we learn confidentiality
District meetings

• Zone leaders may start attending district meetings more often
  
• District meeting is a time to allocate resources within the district to best help investigators
  

o Ex. If someone teaches the Plan of Salvation really well and your investigator has questions about it, then Zone Leaders may approve an exchange to have that missionary come and teach that lesson

• 70% of the time should be spent discussing investigators and their needs and roleplaying help.
  
• 30% of the time should be spent doctrine, improving language, etc...
  Mission Rule
  

• It is a rule that we are supposed to speak on ВЫ with members of the opposite sex. That is the only additional
rule to the white handbook. 

sister fedas's baptism

June 8, 2015

Dearest Family in the whole wide world,

This week was crazy. I was only in Cherkassy 4 days of the week. So what was I doing the other 3 you ask?! Well, we went up to Kyiv on Wednesday morning and did a split. I was with the STL sisters and Sister Fedas went with some other Sisters. I got to teach English there and talk to a lot of people it was the best. Thursday me and Sister Fedas met back up at another Zone Conference. It was seriously such an incredible zone conference and it already made me want to change. 

I had the thought that I have not completely given myself to God to let Him work as He will with me. I need to change. Already! I prayed and promised God to give myself completely to Him. I only have so many more months to be able to do this. So I prayed and promised God to stop thinking of myself so much. I am on a mission for a total of a year and a half. Do I want to waste His time? Do I want to have regrets? The work we have been doing is good. But I also feel I am holding part of myself back and that makes it so the miracles can not happen. I figure what is the harm in just speaking- in just letting myself be completely His, because even if I make a million mistakes in the language or whatever it is God will make up for it if I just try completely. sometimes I think, maybe I shouldn't talk to this person because they may not want the message, so what is the harm in just trying, if they don't want it it is just one more step. It is not about me. I didn't come on a mission for me so I am not quite sure why I have had so many thoughts about just me. I know that if I just completely dedicate myself to God, He will bless and trust us with His children that He HAS prepared even here in Cherkassy. I have faith. Because I know that He is working here and I have not worked hard enough. Those are kind of my thoughts this week of how I want to change and hope the "stereo type" of this city can change also. It is an amazing place and we have to just give ourselves to God so that He can continue His work here. 

President Packer is absolutely amazing and we so needed this conference as a mission. We set the most amazing goal also. We have usually had about 28 new investigators in a week between all the missionaries here but after hours of studying and working on our mission Thursday we decided to take a real leap of faith. Me and Sister Fedas are going to find 2 new investigators here in Cherkassy by Sunday and as a total for the mission instead of 28 we went up to 78. I know that if we plan and work as hard as we can with faith that GOD with help us with this great task. There are people here who are ready and the culture of this mission needs to change because we are not doing enough. I am pumped to work SO HARD. At this point I am ready to give it my all. Everything I have got. I don't mind sore feet and sore legs. I do not mind some tears with the language. But we will find the people the Lord is preparing in the country of Ukraine. I just know it. So I am feeling a whole lot of excitement about changing and about being SO DILIGENT no matter how long or what it takes because I want to do this for God.

Friday President gave Sister Fedas and I permission to go to Zhytomyr (a city north of Kyiv) for a baptism of a mom and a daughter. That was an incredible thing to be a part of. It was so inspirational to see this mom and daughter who have completely changed their lives comes to God all because they want to. And the turn out of people from this branch was amazing. Right now there are no Sister's serving there. But I really hope one day I can go back. I talked to everyone for hours and hours all by myself in Russian (without sister Fedas's help). When we went to leave the people were so sad. It was the sweetest thing. One girl made me play the piano for her and she recorded it. 

(mom I can't remember my DYW piece can you send me it through email? like a copy so I can print it?)

Anyway seing this baptism was incredible and it really got me so pumped to just do this work. When they both went down under the water I just felt God smiling from heaven. 2 more souls found God!!!! I am so happy.

It was a really incredible week. The hardest part was when our investigator called and told us he got an answer about truth and that the Book of Mormon is not true or the word of God. I prayed about it and I really felt like everything will be ok. Patience and love are so key to this work and I feel that we need to have patience and need to love Andre and that everything will be ok. We met with him again and he felt better and came to church but called upset again yesterday. I was able to ask just one question. I said, "Andre, do you have the desire to know God and Jesus Christ better?" He said of course! I told him "Then you need to have patience. We are here to help you come closer to Christ and to God and you can only do that if you pray if you are patient." It was awesome and I just bore my testimony to him and he calmed down. Please pray for him. I feel it will just take time with him and some clarifaction but I know this is where he is supposed to be.

I have 2 favors to ask. Will you as a family pray everyday for me to have the gift of tongues? I know real power comes from prayer and you are my family and God will help me as we kneel together and pray everyday for this gift. Maybe you already do, but I just wanted to ask because I need this gift. I am working hard. 

The other favor is to just love each other so much and have a great summer. I hope the boys realize how important it is to love each other and to cheer each other on. When you leave home and you don't have your family around you realize how much every moment meant and means. Don't waste any moments with useless contention because you are the only people you have and you are the best people in the whole world. I love you so much. I also know that the more peace and love there is at home the better I can work here in Ukraine too. They way you act and treat each other really does effect the way I work here so it is important you are always living in a way and treating others in a way that the Savior would. 

I love you guys so much!!! have a wonderful week. I am sorry I left stuff out I do not know how I can possibly write everything I need to! It is craziness!

I love you!!! LET'S DO THIS!!! :) 

Love Сестра Кэррен

Я люблю тебя

Also another silly thing here is they were wedding rings on their right hand so everyone kept asking if I was married so I had to move my CTR ring to my left hand and now I feel like I am married ahahah. 

Reunited in Kyiv with Sister Rubio

Zhytomyr (Sister Fedas's first area)

I got to go to a baptism in Zhytomyr. A lady and her daugher that Sister Fedas taught for a long long time are finally members!

missionary work

June 1, 2015

Dear Family, 

I am realizing here in Cherkassy just how much missionary work is not numbers and is not baptismal dates. Of course that is so important, but something amazing I have been able to realize here what missionary work really means to me. Missionary work is service, it is smiling and trying to talk to everyone, to make someones day better by telling them there is someone who loves them and is there- always. Something I love about how Christ taught was how slow he went. He was never in a rush. He had basically 3 years to save the world yet, he took his time. He loved every person, he went to the ones most would have passed by. He is our ultimate example. Here in Cherkassy it has been different than I first expected missionary work to be. But I am learning to love it, and we are searching for investigators always. One really cool thing that happened was last week a man we met on the street and gave a Family Proclamation pamphlet came to church! We started to teach him and he is so receptive. He has so many questions about baptism that he has just brought up on his own. It has been such a blessing and privilege to meet him and teach him with the members we are involving. The hard part is agency! People all have it and they can all decide wether or not they want to learn more about God, but today he called saying he does not want to meet anymore, will still come to church but doesn't want lessons because he is not feeling peace. The hard part about this is it makes me sad! I of course respect his agency but I also know what an amazing thing the gospel is and how much peace and happiness it brings. I do not want to give up on him yet so I called him after personal study to give him Alma 36 to read. It is an amazing chapter that helps me immesensly. I hope he will want to continue to meet and progress, because I know that he really does want to he is just a little bit nervous and that is normal. He is religios and just loves our church so I am praying for him! His name is Andre just by the way :) 

Today two chapters in the Bible have really hit me. John 15 and 16. I have felt a lot of the feelings described in this chapter. Is it weird that since my mission I have felt greater sorrow (already) than I have before, but also greater happiness? Maybe that is part of the setting apart from the world but it is crazy to me! On a mission I think we learn a lot about what the Father must feel when men hate him, reject him, and his son and his blessings and his words, yet somehow he still is joyful. Immensely so! right now that is what I am trying to work on. Being joyful in all things, even when we are hated of men for the name of christ. Because it makes me sad. I know this is all for good, and we are planting many seeds, making an impact for the name of Christ. But imagining the pain he must feel after suffering for each individual when they just don't want Him, or even hate Him. He is such an amazing example! Many days I get on my knees and have to ask God how to find the peace and the joy when it seems no one wants to hear the message we have. It is not about me, but it hurts me to see people not wanting something that could change their entire life. I am praying for the Spirit and for the comfort, and for the Spirit for these people that we may be guided to the ones who need the message and are waiting. We will keep trying to find! I truly do feel like Alma 36:24 says. After realizing how much the Savior had done for him, Alma wanted nothing more than to work and to bring people to God. And he found immense joy through the atonement. It is pretty amazing!

OK. So I had a very NEW and interesting experience this week. Here they have big cities and then villages on the outskirts. SO. We went to visit a former investigator in an village this week. The experience was something I NEVER imagined. Kind of like a farm, but with a crazy Russian woman and CRAZY things happening. I know. I am so silly. But it was out of this world for me. I never thought I would maybe pass out, and I almost did!!!!!!!! 

We also visited the sweet grandma that had the spider in her hair last time we went. She is the sweetest and honestly breaks my heart. She is inactive only because she does not come to church. She has a desire to. But she is old and can not move around very well, and taxis are too expensive for her so she can not get herself to the church. Sunday we visited her and we gave her a message from Elder Nelson (because he came to the Russian missions and spoke-but no I did not get to see him). this sweet woman named Valentina cried and kissed my cheek. These people are amazing. There is a lot of opposition here but there is also so much good. I will keep working and keep praying for this beautiful place. I know that God is here. 

I wish you could all come here and experience this with me because the things I am able to see and the things I am feeling and learning are just out of this world. I never expected this and I know that it just continues to get better and better.

I love you guys so much. It makes me so happy to hear about what goes on at home. Know I miss you a lot, but I am also trying not to be so homesick. I can keep pushing through. I mean I AM a KARREN aren't I?! (with the ball blood too) ;P I love you guys so much.The shave ice shake looks amazing. I LOVE the poster and Carso's face is just the cutest! Have fun in Powell. I hope nobody dies, but since I am not there I know that everything will be fine. Ha! 

Have a wonderful week. I feel your prayers. Thank you! I need it. I hope you are doing well!!!! REMEMBER THAT I LOVE YOU!!!

LOVE! Cectpa Karren 

PS: This week we will have two days in Kyiv (on a split) and then Thursday will be another Zone conference! Craziness. It will be fun to work there though. I am excited. Keep working hard ok?! You guys are my examples! I LOVE YOU!

First time with borscht made by Sister Fedas herself!

Crazy Village "Village of Dengee" (The Village of Money). 

my initial culture shock...

May 27, 2016

The Village of Dengee (Money): My Initial Culture Shock

"Today was one giant adventure. We left the house at 9 am, got on a bus and drove out of Cherkassy to this place in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, I was so confused when the bus stopped in the middle of miles and miles of trees and nothing else in any direction. We started to walk and walk and walk and Sister Fedas randomly just turned down some tiny dirt path and suddenly I could see in the distance- little houses and large gardens.

We met with a woman named Tamara who seemed normal at first… We went to her home talking away and she showed us her “garden”/FARM and her small house. Her neighbors were all out in nothing or skimpy clothing gardening as well. She has 3 HUGE and I mean, ginormous gardens and chickens also.

We started helping her weed her green onion garden. Pretty soon she offered us lace shirts and “shorts” to wear and tan in to work. I wanted to die. NO! Then she kept putting all different kinds of hats on my head and I did not want them… Anyway we worked and I still felt a bit sick from the day before, so I when I would stand up I would see black dots in my eyes. It was so hot, but I loved helping and bonding with my companion.

Then came the weirdest part of the day… She feeds us strawberries in the shade during a small break. This woman is 60 something and she is wearing almost nothing. Suddenly there is another old woman talking with her and us. I am hot and not feeling so well, still sick from the day before and Tamara offers me dirty water (I would gladly drink it, except it is not allowed because it would make me so sick). I am trying to soak it all in and not be in this culture shock thing and I look to my left and right next to the table is a chicken-DEAD that just minutes ago Tamara was petting and letting us touch and talk to.  It is headless and there is so much blood pooling in this bucket and she is pouring boiling water on it and plucking feathers and gutting it and it has so many eggs coming out of it and she is offering me food and such with the same hands and knife that she is using to gut the bloody chicken and I started to see stars. I have never been squeamish, but they are all talking so fast in Russian. I almost passed out. My companion finally looks at me, seeing I am completely white and asks, “Are you ok?” I was completely overwhelmed but needed to be ok. We went back to weeding and before we left she made us stay and eat. She obviously loves green onions a lot because she made us eggs with lots of oil on top of a large bed of green onions all cooked together. Then we snacked on fresh green onions and other herbs and spices straight from her garden.

Turns out she did not want to hear more about the gospel and that is ok. We served and helped in some way, and I kind of freaked out but I made it through it. We left with a giant bag of potatoes, jam, pickles, something else in a jar, cucumbers, green onions, spices, etc. She was a very kind and generous woman but it was a crazy day."

Turtle Cake for Doodle

My place