More pictures

i hope you enjoyed those, i will take more and send more!!!

nativity

our Christmas trees

me

Pictures!!

the cat lady

us laughing at the cats

elder nelson and i :)

eating at brat alexae's

trying to eat more

the cold and the outskirts/ghetto of zap

making goodie bags for the branch

sister clark owning the cold, me being a wuss

Christmas in Ukraine

Family and friends,

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!! Christmas here was very different and gave us a good perspective on the true meaning of Christmas.  We had a little program on Saturday with our branch. We did the nativity scene and that turned out good! Then the rest of the time was..interesting and hilarous haha. It pretty much turned into a talent show, and many people were more than willing and happy to share their talents. They ranged from a monoluge with spanish guitar music in the background, singing in english and russian, singing in french and german, a little boy singing, and many people singing poems or other various hymns. We felt the spirit, definitely had some good laughs, and it was great overall. I love the people here, even if they can't sing like Josh Groban. haha. I got to skype with my family later that night, which of course was amazing! I hope all of you that have missionaries out got to talk and enjoyed it too. After that, sister clark and I opened our christmas presents and then went to bed. Sunday was good, we went to church and then just the usual studies, calling investigators, and then sister clark got to talk to her family too.  Christmas here isn't as big as it is in the states.  New Years for them is like all of our holidays combined haha. we are only having Sacrament meeting next week because of the holiday haha. Which is fine with us i guess because we have to go home straight after anyway. And on new years eve, we have to come in at 2 pm for safety reasons.  So we will keep busy and hopefully make some delicious food or something.  Really though, i hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, it was special for us to have the true meaning of Christmas fresh on our minds and we loved it. 
The rest of last week was good. We are still working with our investigators on baptismal date and they are getting more comfortable with church and with the branch.  We have been blessed with great people to teach and a few of the members have been stepping up and giving us awesome referrals. We found out yesterday that one of the members cousin wants to get baptized and she is pretty much just waiting for us to teach her the lessons. CHUDA!!! (that means miracle in russian..with english spelling) We are also making headway with a few less actives.  Yesterday in relief society they said that because it's a new year, they want to start visiting teaching and they want women who will actually do their calling (haha) and asked for volunteers. Different huh? Anyway, a few women volunteered and a lot shared testimonies on how visiting teaching has changed their lives. it was really special! definitely an improvement from other relief society meetings we have had. 
One of my favorite ward members is Brat Alexae. He feeds the missionaries every wednesday before we have district meeting and he loves it. it is like his calling in life haha. He made us Pedoshki last week-like russian bread dough with mashed potatoes in the middle, kind of like scones ish-and they were delicious! But we got mixed up with our schedule and we told him there was going to be 8 of us (we thought the APs were coming to do splits) and there ended up being sister clark and i, and elder hopkins and elder baxter. haha he made SO MANY pedoshki!!! We only ate like have the pot and we all felt like we were going to die after.  So on sunday, Brat Alexae was giving us the hardest time about how we only ate some of his pedoshki and he doesn't want to get fat so he had to feed them to  the dogs hahahah. He is such a funny character! 
And the news i have been dreading to tell you all--it snowed.  Not a lot, but there is snow and ice on the ground. and it's cold. reallllllly cold. sister clark laughs at how many layers i put on every morning haha! I might survive, but it will be a close call.  Pray for me that i won't slip on the ice everyday.
Well, I love you all!!! Missionary work has a lot of ups and a lot of downs, but I feel so blessed. I think of the great missionaries in the Book of Mormon and what they went through, I think of the pioneers and how the men had to leave their families to go preach the gospel in other countries, and I think of the missionaries of all generations that have gone before us to preach.  We have it so easy compared to them and I am grateful for their service.  I look up to the people here that are so faithful in the church and what they believe in.  They are the pioneers for this country and they overcome obstacles everyday to stay true.  We talked to this recent convert the other day who had a huge smoking problem before getting baptized and how he overcame that, and he said "it took time, little by little. God be thanked for his gift to me of the savior and that I am here today and I don't smoke anymore." Anything is possible through the savior and with faith.  I am learning so much here. even though sometimes I feel like Russian might be the death of me (along with the ice), I am so grateful to be here and to labor among these people.  I thank all of you, your examples to me, and your prayers.  

Cectpa DeMille

The fresh start

Fam and Friends,

I finally feel like i am starting my real mission!! Transfers last week was crazy. We went to Nepper on thursday morning and came back friday night. Turns out Sister Lacy ended up going to another city, training one of the new sisters. So it's just me and sister clark, and we couldn't be more stoked!! We have so much work to do here in Zap and we are ready to get it started.  Nepper was good, it's just always busy and everything. I love that city though, it's so beautiful.
We are busy this week trying to get ready for Christmas and we are putting on a nativity christmas program with the ward.  It's funny, their christmas isn't until january 6th or something, but they have gotten used to celebrating our christmas with us from previous missionaries. It should be fun. We have 2 little Christmas trees in our apartment and we are going to decorate them and put our presents under them. haha we are excited!
The biggest news for last week was that we taught our investigators Lydia and her son Igor twice, and on saturday sis clark and i committed them to a baptismal date. yeah!!! it's for january 28th, and we are hoping everything will go through. They are a little slow grasping everything, but they are so funny and just great. I sat by Lydia at church yesterday and she was so confused on how we sing the hymns and how we skip down to the next line and stuff haha she is great.
We had another lesson with our "golden" investigators Nickolai and Irena.  Turns out, they are not so golden than we thought. haha. They are so awesome and accepting of everything, but we had a couple of hang ups this week with they think that any baptism is accepted by God and they have a problem thinking that there could be just 1 church because there are people everywhere with different cultures and stuff.  Sis clark and i summed it up, and we think that they don't understand priesthood authority at all, so we will work on that. 
One of the biggest things we are working on here is working with our less actives. It is so hard to get anyone of them to come to church.  It's hard because most of them were offended and we try explaining to them that they should come to church anyway because it's what God wants us to do, but they just don't want to.  Then there are the other less actives who just have sad stories like they don't have enough money to live so they have to work on sundays but they wish they could come to church.  Our branch president is amazing. simply incredible. He just cares about the branch and is what they need.  It's interesting, he investigated for like 7 years then decided to get baptized. In his teaching record the missionaries wrote "one man can change a branch. it will be this man some day" and that is totally coming to pass, he is making this branch so much better and it is a priviledge working with him.  Sometimes i get frustrated with the church members or with the work, but then i think of people like our branch president and realize that there are wonderful people here and they just might take some time. 
We are so lucky to be here and to be serving the Lord.  With Christmas coming, it is easy to remember why we celebrate christmas and the true meaning of it and everything, but I am so lucky to have Christ's name next to mine everyday so that I can remember him and my purpose here. I was reading in Mosiah last night about the sons of Mosiah and Alma the younger and how they had such a dramatic change in their lives. They went from destroying the church to building it back up and converting many.  So many people here need that drastic change and they need a testimony of Jesus Christ and of our Heavenly Father.  I am so grateful to have been born in the church and to know of Christ and Heavenly Father and to be able to serve and tell other people about them.  I have been studying the Book of Mormon like crazy and i have gained such a strong testimony of it's witness and divinity.  It truly is another testament of Jesus Christ. It is how we get closer to him and how we gain a testimony of His words and teachings.  A frustrating thing about being a missionary is so many people we talk to say they believe in Jesus Christ and who he is and what he did for us, but they won't follow him. They don't realize that we are here to preach HIS gospel and to tell people about HIM. I wish i could convey to everyone how important this is and how life changing it could be. I love being a missionary, even with the frustrations.  One of the things you learn to do as a missionary is to leave things in Heavenly Father's hands. we can do everything in our power to help people change and everything, but we have to come to a point where we know people have their free agency and leave everything else to Heavenly Father.  It's an amazing feeling to have a burden, and to have it taken away through prayer and through Christ.
Ok, as far as the weather, it's still teasing us. it's pretty cold, we had rain a few days last week, but it hasn't snowed and i just feel it lurking somewhere in the near future.  I can't describe the cold, but sometimes its painful.  I have been wearing thermals haha. Thank goodness for ukranians who know how to make warm coats and toasty boots.
Well, I LOVE YOU ALL!!!! and have a wonderful Christmas!!! I appreciate all of the emails, cards, and prayers. We can't email friends or else i would be emailing all of you back, but i am writing letters, it just takes a lot of time which we don't have a lot of  :) haha so i'm sorry for not responding right away.  My heart and prayers are with all of you and i am grateful for everything.

Cectpa DeMille

week 1 down

fam and friends,

ukraine is crazy! crazy awesome!! wow we have had a good week.  we have had solid lessons (from what i could understand of them) and met some amazing, prepared people.  here is a little about our investigators/recent experiences:

1-this lady named Irena met the missionaries on the street a few weeks ago. the elders invited her to a baptism that they had the day before i arrived in Zap. she came to the baptism and said she felt the spirit and told the missionaries everyone looked like angels. they gave her a BOM and she said she would come to english class on tuesday. *a bit of background, we a have a rule in this mission that all female investigators/potentials get sent to the sister missionaries, and all male investigators get sent to the elders. so we met her on tuesday at english and she said she has read half of the book of mormon already! she wanted to meet with us on saturday, and she brought her friend Nickolai. we taught them the restoration and showed a film about it. she said after our lesson that everything makes sense to her and she already knows the church is true!!!! Nickolai said he wanted to read the book of mormon and that it all made sense to him, but he wants to find out for himself.  so awesome!! then, they invited us to a shin-dig that they were having that night that was promoting healthy food.  it was like in a yoga studio and there were some cool people there but the food was nasty. all like soy and tofu. not my thing! but they are awesome and totally "golden" in my opinion.  
2-we meet with a lot of inactives. our branch here has about 25 active members and a whole bunch of inactives.  most of our branch is women, not very many priesthood brethern. so we have been meeting with a lot of the women and telling them they need to come to church.  most of them haven't been to church in a long time because either 1 of 2 very outspoken, very opinionated, and very very blunt women offended them. haha. great. the inactive women always ask "is (so and so) still coming to church?" we say yes, and their response is usually "oh...." haha so we are workin on it! offence is a big reason why people go inactive here. also there are some apostate members here that got ahold of some book about our church that is pretty persuasive apparently and stuff. we have a lot of work to do with them as well. 
3-we have a few "eternal investigators" that are pretty much members but not baptized.  one girl just had her 23rd birthday last week and she comes to everything that we have! institute, church, FHE, everything. but she is hesitant on baptism. we also have some work to do there.
4-some investigators we have are really close to baptism! a few just have a couple of things they are working on but they are solid and love the church. 
5-we have a lot of people come to english that love the activities in the church, love us, and don't want religion. haha we will work on that too. 

overall, we are busy and i love it. there are some crazy people, some rude people, and a lot of wonderful people here in Zaporozhia. we just got news of transfers today and i am staying here, sister clark is training me, and sister lacy is heading to Nepper (the city) to finish her mission, she goes home in march. she will be training one of the new sisters arriving this week. me and sister clark are stoked to work it here in Zap. it's a hard city, but a good city with a lot of potential. i have had a lot of questions about the weather--it is COLD! today is actually warm, i only wore a pea coat instead of the legit ukraine winter coat that i bought last week. i also bought winter boots that are super cozy warm. usually i wear my winter coat, boots, thick tights, gloves, a scarf, and a beanie. usually it's just cold, but if the wind is blowing it is cooooldd. very cold. i'm not prepared for the snow. and all of the members/investigators will ask me how i like it here and i say "i love it! but it's cold!" and they all laugh hysterically and say "no, it's not cold." haha so that's comforting. i have a feeling it will get real cold this week.  that's okay though, i will survive i think. i think i finally got over my jetlag. i like mostly everything here though. the food is good, we cook a lot, we have fun a lot, and we work hard. the weather is probably the hardest thing. and the language of course. i still can't understand much. but this transfer will help me a lot, it will force me to learn russian really good, really fast.  the other day we were teaching a lesson and i shared a scripture and i felt like i read so good and my accent was good and stuff! but then she just looked at me with this blank stare..so i handed her the book and she read it and then she was like "oh!" hahaha. it's all good though, i will get it sooner or later. well we get to go up to Nepper this week on wednesday and come back thursday. we get to stay at presidents lavish apartment! yeah! i love being a missionary. it's a big responsibility here because we are like the support of the church. they have just barely started trying to get visiting/home teaching going and it is such a chore! all the members think its pointless so we are trying to help them.  other than that, everything is good. i am trying to stay warm, trying to understand a crazy language, and loving ukraine. i love you all, i'm grateful for this gospel and that i get to share it to people who need it. ukraine is such a dark place, they need some light, and it's amazing to bring it to them. i hope you all are enjoying the holidays and everything. God bless America. i love you all!!!!

cectpa demille

Family and Friends,

Well, i am in UKRAINE!!! We were in phoenix last week at transfer meeting on wednesday, and then we got a call wednesday night saying we were booked on flights for friday morning.  It was crazy fast and busy for a few days and then we left phoenix.  We flew friday morning from phoenix to DC, DC to Vienna Austria, then Austria to Dnepropetrovsk. It was a long flight, but we are soo happy to be here.  We got into Nepper, met our mission President Nielsen and the AP's, then we went contacting around the city, we went out to dinner, and then i went to the mission home and the elders went to the AP's apartment.  The mission home is super super nice, the nicest one in eastern europe.  I took a shower, then hung out with Sister Nielsen until 8:30 pm and then crashed.  We had breakfast yesterday morning with everyone, then we went to church.  The members in Nepper are fantastic and it was cool to be at church in all russian.  I can't understand much but i'm not that discouraged, i know it will come sooner or later.  After church we had orientation, dinner, more orientation, and then we all went to our assigned areas.  We came in a week and a half before transfers so we are all in 3-somes.  Elder hopkins and i are in an area called Zaphorozia aka Zap, the other 2 elders are staying in nepper until transfers.  So last night 2 elders from zap came up and picked us up. It was a crazy night, we left the mission home, got the elders luggage from the AP's, took a tram to the mission office to get mail, took another tram to the bus station, and then took a 2 hour bus ride to Zap.  The night was interesting, here are a few things that happened: i almost got ran over by the tram because i wasn't standing far enough away and then ukrainian guys laughed at me haha, the two elders from Zap had to pick up a drunk guy that was passed out and had no hands (seriously), we got yelled at and overcharged on the tram because of our luggage, and we dragged 6 suitcases and a bag full of packages through all the city of Nepper.  It was full of adventures and it was amazing haha.  We finally got into Zap last night at about 10:40.  I am in a 3-some and my 2 companions are Sister Lacy and Sister Clark.  We are all super similar and having a blast thus far.  I am still so tired and my body is sore from traveling across the world and dragging luggage through broken cobblestone streets, but i feel so good to be here and i am ready to work.  We are lucky we came in right before P-day to have a day to unpack and get settled in.  We have 8 missionaries in Zap now. They say the work is going well and they are pushing hard to get more baptisms by the end of the year.  The weather is cold, but there is no snow.  It is definitely the wind that hits you hard.  They say the work is going well and things are progressing.  I might be here for awhile because i think president likes to keep missionaries in an area for awhile to get things moving and gain trust.  The missionaries i have met so far are all solid, fantastic missionaries.  I am so blessed to be here and have this experience.  It's been a little bit of a culture shock, but i love it.  It looks like europe a lot, but just older.  I am alive, doing well, tired, but ready to get to work.  I appreciate all of the prayers towards our visas and for the missionaries everywhere, we truly need it! It is amazing to be united in bringing people unto Christ. I love you all, and I will have more updates after my first week in Ukraine!

Love, Cectpa DeMille

ARRIVAL!

Dear Brother and Sister DeMille,
We are delighted to let you know that your daughter is here safely (sitting
right here beside me!!) She looks great and we are looking forward to
getting to know her and enjoying doing the work here.
She says to tell you P-day is Monday.
Thank you for your support of her and this mission.
Sister Nielsen

pictures!!

Hermana Watson and Hermana Kigueta,

Sister Belnap and myself hiking South Mountain 

Last picture with Elder Snook

My biking attire

Hermana Kigueta and I in the apartment

The latest

Family and Friends,
 
The days are flying by here in Phoenix.  This last week has been really good.  everyday is an interesting day in the mission field.  our thanksgiving was amazing!! full of so many wonderful people, great conversation, and i was able to witness Christlike charity.  I love being a missionary and witnessing things i would have never witnessed otherwise.  Thanksgiving was also great because it was an all day p-day! so we basically spent the day at the Hobbs' house (family we ate with) and hung out with them and helped clean up after the delicious meal.  i was really grateful for them and their hospitality! we ate with Bro/Sis Hobbs, their 3 kids, a recent convert, another recent convert and his kids.  It was really awesome to hear bro/sis hobbs mission stories (he served in chile, she served in madagascar), and conversion stories.  I really loved it.  Also transfers are kinda today and kinda tomorrow..we have a big transfer meeting tomorrow, and Pres. wants all of the visa waiting missionaries to attend.  So that should be fun.  we had a "trainer/trainee" meeting last friday.  All of the trainers went into one room and all of the trainees into another, and we just talked about good ideas, concerns, etc. so that was actually really amazing and a lot of wonderful insights and advice. Plus, i got to see my elders!! all of them!! it was so fun and good to speak russian.  Speaking of russian--i found a guy in my ward who served in St. Petersburg like 9 years ago and i went up to him and i started speaking to him in russian and he asked me how i knew all of what i said and i told him "the mtc. 11 weeks haha" and he said my russian was really good, so that made me happy.  President told us that maybe we would get our visas this weekend? He said he talked to the travel office and they said that there is a "good chance" of them coming in on Dec. 2...so cross your fingers and say a prayer! Don't get me wrong--i have loved my stay here in phoenix.  I have met some people who have changed my life and I have learned lessons that i don't think i would have learned otherwise, but i still think about ukraine and i can't wait to go there and learn more and serve.  I am starting to feel like it's time to go to ukraine.  So i hope it's soon and they give us a few days heads up so that i can pack. hahah you all know how much i love packing.  Also with transfers, hermana kigueta is getting transferred and when we go to the transfer meeting tomorrow she will find out where she is going.  so she will no longer be in the apartment which is sad. I am just grateful to be a missionary.  Grateful to be able to serve the Lord for this amount of time. Grateful to be learning, relying on Heavenly Father, and learning to teach better.  That is one thing that I have learned here is how to teach people, real people with real problems.  In the MTC they drilled us with "teach people not lessons" and i was able to put that into practice here.  We are trying to find more investigators.  Something happened with bernadina last week where she was using drugs--so we are holding off for awhile.  Our investigator debra really wants to get baptized but is having trouble quitting smoking.  i have witnessed with her how much satan works on people and how hard it is to change.  but we are continuing to help her and encourage her.  I really love our ward here and there is so many new members that have touched my life.  A question i ask to new members that i meet is "what was the turning point in changing your life?..what converted you?" and i have gotten some fantastic answers. One lady said "I knew that Christ had to appear to other people after his resurrection...there is no way he only admistered to people in Jersualem..when I found out that the Book of Mormon was a record full of history and Christ appearing to the people in Americas, I instantly knew it was true, and when I read it I felt it's power."  another guy said "The importance of families. I have always knew in my heart and always believed that families could be together forever.  When the Elders taught me about eternal families, I knew it was true. The gospel completed my search and answered my questions."  WOW!!! this is the kind of work we are engaging in, and it is amazing to have the priviledge to witness it first-hand.  Missionary work is not easy--at all--but, i have experienced that the Lord prepares people in interesting ways, and people are everywhere that are searching for the truth.  I love this work.  I am grateful for all of the prayers out there for the missionaries and the support.  I love all of you, and as always, you are all in my prayers.  Don't ever doubt that the church isn't true! It IS true! Heavenly Father answers prayers. We have a prophet.  We know the plan of salvation.  And we are all so so blessed.  I am grateful for the blessings the gospel has brought in my life.  I will keep you all posted with visas. and i love you all!!
 
Sister DeMille

Missionary life

Family and Friends,
 
Another eventful week has passed by in South Phoenix. Last week was busy: we did exchanges on tuesday (i had a blast!), and a sister's meeting on wednesday.  That was so much fun! we had great speakers, musical numbers, and a lot of people throughout our areas donated clothing that we could pick out to "spruce up our wardrobes" as sister taylor said! haha it really was fun and we found a lot of hilarious clothes, and some cute clothes as well.  Pretty much i found 2 sweet plaid skirts that i might take to ukraine with me..after i get them hemmed haha.  It was a good opportunity to get to know all of the sisters from the mission and hear about everyone's areas and stuff.  We are excited for this week, us and the hermanas are going to the temple at the blessed hour of 4:45 tomorrow morning so we can hit the 5:30 session and also do initiatories.  I'm so excited!! The mesa temple looks really pretty.  That is one of the things that i miss the most about the MTC, going to the temple every week.  And of course, we are so excited for Thanksgiving on thursday! Us and the elders in our ward got invited to this adorable family's house for Thanksgiving dinner.  And it's an all day P-day other than going to dinner, district meeting, and if we have any appointments.  Thank you president taylor! haha P days are very necessary for our well being as missionaries.  Today we are having a district activity which includes eating a lot of treats and watching church movies at the church haha. we are way stoked!  Saturday was a busy day, we went to 2 baptisms! One was the elders baptism in our ward, and we went to one in sister belnap's old area.  I got to see elder kennedy again on saturday at the baptism, and once again it was so nice to speak russian.  My language studies are going well, actually more effective than i thought they would be, so i feel good about that.  I still think about Ukraine everyday, but Phoenix has been good to me and i really like it here.  It might even be a little hard to leave when the time comes.  On wednesday this week, we are doing what they call a "zebra" exchange.  I am going with hermana watson to the spanish area, and hermana kigueta is going with sister belnap to our area.  haha should be interesting to sit in on spanish lessons all day.  i'm hoping for some good mexican food, hermana watson said she would hook us up with some. yay!  Also, i finally got an english nametag, so i officially fit in here-as much as a missionary can haha. 
 
Our investigators are so awesome.  We are teaching 2 ladies the New Member lessons (just the lessons all over again after they get baptized). One of them is Grace.  She was baptized a long time ago, when she was like 11.  She bounced back and forth between our church and the catholic church, but after a long crazy series of events in her life, she wants to come back to church, so we are just teaching her the lessons to get familiar with the doctrine again.  She is so sweet and she has such a strong desire to be strong in the church again.  She lives with her boyfriend, but they want to get married, but didn't want to get married in the catholic church.  She asked if our bishop could marry them and we happily told her yes.  Her boyfriend only speaks spanish and he wants to learn about the church and take the lessons, so we referred him to the spanish elders.  I bet they will get married and he will get baptized.  Anyway, she is so sweet and she loves us coming over.  We have another lesson with Bernadina, Joseph, and Danny tonight.  They bailed on church yesterday so we went over and just talked to them to set up an appointment, and Joseph started asking all these questions about baptism.  So we went in and answered his questions and talked to them about everything.  Bernadina and Joseph both told us that they want to get baptized and are ready to, they just were both like "tell us what we need to do!" haha it was awesome.  so tonight we want to throw down a date and get them prepared.  They are awesome and we love them.  Another one of our investigators: Debra.  She has also had a crazy, crazy life.  a lot of her family are members of the church, and she wants to get baptized.  we have a date for her on Dec 10th, but i have a feeling we will have to push it back because she needs to quit smoking.  She is solid though as soon as she quits smoking.  We are getting to know our ward more and they are really stepping up and helping us, so that is awesome. 
 
I am loving reading the Book of Mormon again, and it amazes me that you can read something over and over, but you always learn something new from it.  Nephi rocks, that's all i have to say.  I really love being a missionary! It is hard, frustrating, crazy, wierd, and long, but it feels good at the end of the day to just feel so tired.  I love being able to help real people with their questions/problems.  It is amazing to see people come to an understanding of the gospel and it's principles.  It's incredible to see people emulate Christ and want to follow him.  I am so grateful that i have had the gospel my whole life, there are so many people who need it!  Sometimes our investigators tell us their life stories, and it makes me so sad for them that they have been so lost and confused.  I love the simpleness of the gospel, i love the peace that it brings to my life.  I feel so honored to be a missionary and watch how the gospel can change other's lives. 
 
We haven't heard anything about visas yet, but we are still praying for them.  I love you all!! I love representing Christ.  I think about the missionaries everywhere and realize we are all going through the same things.  I especially think about the certain missionaries that I love in Singapore, Texas, and North Carolina.  It's amazing to see how much good we can all do!  I love you all and happy thanksgiving!!
 
Sister DeMille

the recent happenings

Family and Friends,
 
Well, things here in S phoenix are picking up.  being a real missionary is awesome! you get to meet real people, help them with their problems, and spread the gospel as much as possible.  The highlight from last week was we taught this family.  The mom is Bernadina, her live in boyfriend that should be her husband Danny, and their son Joseph.  They had been meeting with the elders, but they are in our area so we are teaching them now.  We walked in and started to get to know them and asking what they knew about the church and stuff.  Then bernadina introduced us to her cousin, Antonio who is like 14 or 15.  He asked us if he could ask us a question and tell us a story so we said "of course!" and so he tell us this story about how the other day his brother and sister saw a demon in their house and the demon was an "all black figure with red eyes" and then his brother got possessed and started crawling around and making evil noises.  Needless to say, the family was creeped out and he wondered if we could do anything about it.  We explained about the priesthood and how our elders could come over and bless the house and give his brother a blessing.  So on that strange note, we went into our lesson.  We talked a lot about the book of mormon and how we could pray about it.  The spirit was soo strong and they were asking good questions and we got them thinking about the importance of the BOM and how important prayer is as well.  At the end, we asked Joseph to pray and he prayed and his prayer was awesome.  he asked if the book of mormon was true and thanked Heavenly Father for "the beautiful women who brought this message" haha it was great.  The family told us that they learned so much and we answered their questions and they weren't confused on a lot anymore.  We helped them recognize the spirit and related it back to antonio's demon story and said that we need to be living the gospel to have the spirit with us.  it really was amazing.  we have another appointment with them tonight and we are so stoked.  after the lesson we called the elders to tell them to go bless the house. haha they were like "wow creepy, thanks sisters." haha but they went over there and they said there was definitely something in the house and as they were blessing the house, all these pots and pans were shaking! haha crazy.  after the blessing they said it immediately felt better and the family recognized it.  the elders said how important it is to live life with the gospel principles so things like that can't come into our lives.  and then check this out--the elders committed them to baptism after a converstaion about the gospel and the 2 of the daughters said yes! the mom insisted she had already been baptized so the elders will continue to work with her.  but the daughters and antonio came to church yesterday so we are all way stoked.  out of really creepy, strange situations, miracles come to pass.
 
another highlight this week was the mission tour with Elder Duncan from the 70.  mission tour pretty much means he comes and for 3 days he met all of the missionaries and it was pretty much a zone conference.  but it was really incredible, he has lived a wonderful, sad, crazy life and we learned so much from him.  we talked a lot about using our time effictively and teaching according to the spirit.  we had the morning meeting, lunch, and then the afternoon meeting.  the afternoon meeting started out very somber.  he told us he received an email about the 3 missionaries who got hit by a car (drunk driving suspected) on their bikes in TX.  2 of them died, and one lived.  he gave us all the details about it and then told us a personal story.  when he and his first wife were married for almost a year, with a baby girl 5 months old, they got hit by a drunk driver and his wife died, leaving him in college, taking care of a baby.  he said the Lord had prepared him for this in strange ways, and even though it was so hard for so many months, he learned so much and grew a lot.  he re-married a few years later. but we started talking about those experiences and how agency plays such a big role in our lives, and we can try to preach the gospel to everyone, but they always have their agency to accept it or not.  it was really an amazing meeting and a cool opportunity to meet a 70, who is partly in charge of the missionary department.  he told me and elder kennedy (who was there at the meeting too!) that the re-assignments for missionaries go through them, and that it is a process of revelation.  he said he also works a lot with choosing mission presidents which is also a great experience.  needless to say, it was a spiritual day full of greatness.  plus, i got to see elder kennedy and speak russian, which was soooooo good.  it felt so nice to carry on a conversation. 
 
this morning we went hiking on this mountain called South Mountain, and it was beautiful.  it reminded me of home a little bit, it smelled like the desert and it was awesome.  Me and hermana kigueta were in heaven.  she loves hiking like i do.  tonight, we are doing exchanges.  i am going to an area called Goodyear. (named after the tires i think?) and i will be with a sister named Sister Zollinger.  we are exhanging tonight, i will be there tomorrow, and i will be back tomorrow night.  should be fun!  also, this week on wednesday, we have a Sister's Meeting.  knowing sister taylor (mission pres. wife) it should be full of good food and fun.  we also get to go shopping through all these clothes that have been donated so we can "spruce up our wardrobes" haha i love it.  that should be a blast as well.  and next week, we are going with the Hermanas to the Mesa Temple! WAHOO!!! i am stoked. also, next P Day our district leader made an "executive decision" and for a district activity we are baking and watching church movies at the church haha, i'm so excited.  good times in the Arizona Phoenix mission.  I haven't seen any of my other elders besides elder kennedy, and its strange but i miss them! 
 
we are still getting to know our area and trying to contact all of our investigators and referrals.  we have more lessons scheduled this week, and it should be fun.  the best part is definitely teaching and meeting people.  there are plenty of wierdies in this area, but the work should pick up a lot soon.  i love you all and i'm grateful to be a missionary.  i'm grateful for all of your support and love that i receive.  being a missionary isn't without trials or hard times or discouraging times (like when you bike around all day and no one will answer the door), but it is rewarding to have this opportunity to see people come to Christ and to change.  i still think about Ukraine everyday, but i'm trying to focus on the work here and get all that i can out of it.  I love you all!!! 
 
Sister DeMille

http://azphxmission.blogspot.com/

Log on to see some fun pictures of Amanda!

South Phoenix

Friends/Family,
 
Week 1 in phoenix has been pretty awesome.  It is wierd being in public around people who aren't missionaries...very wierd.  I never realized how much we stood out until we saw the elders riding bikes one day.  We are also on bikes! I am getting more graceful at dismounting my sweet man bike without a kickstand.  I might add that my flashtec helmet completes the outfit haha. The first couple of days were pretty chill and we were just getting settled in and getting to know the area.  Sister Belnap and I are opening a new area, and the ward that we are in is called the South Mountain ward in south phoenix.  There is us, then a set of elders in one ward, so it's crazy splitting the area and stuff.  We have some investigators lined up from the previous elders that were here, so we have appointments lined up for this week.  Friday we organized all of our area book and mapped out our area and went exploring and contacted a bit.  Saturday we went to a baptism of this lady that is like 80 years old and it was awesome.  She started crying when she got into the font because she said the water was too cold haha.  The elders felt soooo bad but we were prepared with hair dryers to dry her hair when she got out and that made her happy.  She was a cute lady.  Church on sunday was awesome because it was good to see the ward and get to know a few people.  The bishop had all 4 of us introduce ourselves and share our testimonys, so that was a good opportunity.  Our ward mission leader is amazing, his name is brother torres and he is a hoot.  he loves missionary work, and actually served in phoenix a long time ago.  He didn't know that the ward was getting sisters, and when he saw us he almost started crying and told us how happy he was and that he was going to put us to work.  It is strange because both sister belnap and i are new to the area, so it's really nice to have brother torres and the other elders to help us know whats going on and stuff.  we have some solid investigators that all want to get baptized so that's pretty sweet.  i really like the ward so far, and they are all eager to help us in missionary work.  the lady who taught relief society was amazing, she also served in phoenix a long time ago, and wants to do splits with us anytime.  it's so nice to have people offer to help us. 
 
we live with 2 other sisters who are covering the spanish area.  they are seriously amazing and hilarious.  sister kigeuta, and sister watson.  sister kigeuta is hilarious, her real last name is borrows, but all the hispanics would make fun of her because borrows means donkey in spanish.  she is from canada, and her grandma is native american, so kigueta is a name she received from one of the chiefs or something.  you would never guess she is native american because she is like blonde with a huge smile and stuff haha i love her.  she likes lord of the rings and went hiking in new zeland where they filmed the movies.  sister watson is from sandy, and she is so sweet.  she is such a good cook and is always cooking something up for us.  she makes me laugh all the time and is such a sweetheart.  our apartment is hilarious because we all sleep in one room, and it actually isn't that crowded. the other room in our place is our study room, then we have 2 bathrooms and a little kitchen.  it is a blast even though there are cockroaches sometimes. our neighbors like to smoke and there are usually cop cars somewhere on the premisis, but it is sweet. the worst part though is we live on the 3rd floor and so we have to haul our bikes up and down the stairs all the time haha. 
 
this week we have a "mission tour" with Elder Duncan from the 70 coming.  i think it's kind of like a zone conference and some meetings and stuff, so it should be sweet.  we also have a "sisters" meeting next week which should be fun.  sister taylor (our mission president's wife) is awesome, and she will make it fun. 
 
the last week of the mtc was crazy with everyone leaving and having to say goodbye to my elders and sisters.  i was pretty much a solo sister for 3 days because everyone left by tuesday.  it was so wierd in class, becaue it was me, elder hopkins, elder holbrook, and elder kennedy. haha and me and elder hopkins taught a lesson together, and that was so so wierd.  it was fun traveling down here and being in real society for a change.  i loved all of my experiences in the mtc and sometimes i get nastalgic about it, but its fun being in the real world and i love being a missionary.  this week will be great with teaching lessons and the mission tour.  i love president and sister taylor, they were so welcoming and they told us some stories about how pres. taylor had to wait for his visa for his mission to venezuela, so he knows how we feel.  also their son went to ukraine on his mission and they have been their a few times.  they got to go for the temple dedication because pres taylor is a writer for the deseret news so he got to go cover it.  so it's great to be in their mission.  i love it so far, and it will get better once we start teaching a lot and getting to know the area a lot better.  i love you all and i am grateful for your prayers and support.  i love being a missionary and i love the gospel.  thank you all for everything!
 
sister demille
 
here is my address in phoenix:
 
sister amanda demille
915 W Alta Vista #3014
Phoenix, Arizona
85041

the last week.

Fam and Friends

 

It is officially my last day in the MTC.  I look back on my experience here, and i realize how much i have learned and grown from my elders, my sisters, the speakers, the language, and the study time.  I am so grateful to have been here in the MTC for so long.  Some days i curse russian and some days i don't like the MTC, but overall i have been so blessed and i am so grateful.  Most of you already know, but we got our reassignments to Phoenix, AZ!! We are stoked.  It is me, the 3 elders in my district, and one elder from the other zone.  Everyone else got reassignments in Mesa, West Virginia, Little Rock, and the other sisters got temple square.  I am glad that i am not going alone somewhere and that my elders will be with me.  This week was really sad saying goodbye to everyone and watching all of our friends go to their various missions in russia.  A bunch of elders left sunday night, sister huber and 3 elders left monday afternoon, and everyone else (including everyone else who got reassigned) left yesterday morning.  It has been a strange couple of days.  Since sister lewis and sister hart left yesterday morning, i have been kind of like a solo sister.  I still have sister johnson and fitzgerald in my room so they are kind of like my companions, but i go to class and everything else with my 3 elders so it's wierd walking around and being the only sister left in the 2 zones from the older districts.  Yesterday was so strange because we had class and there was only 4 of us, and then our teachers wanted us to practice teaching one more time, so me and elder hopkins were companions and it was the wierdest thing on the planet.  He is kinda like my brother, but it was still wierd.  That will probably never happen again haha it was so strange.  Sunday was a good last day with everyone.  Relief Society was amazing as always, but Sister Elaine S Dalton came!!! that was definitely a treat and she gave an amazing talk and was really motherly in her talk to us so it was way great.  i was grateful to her and her words.  Last night Brother Zwick from the 70 came and spoke about prayer and that was really good as well.  I am really glad for all of the speakers i have heard in the mtc and the spiritual experiences i have had.  It feels wierd that we are leaving tomorrow and we will still be in the states, and then go to ukraine right when it gets freezing.  haha just our luck! I know that this is the Lord's work and everyone deserves to hear the gospel.  We have gotten a lot of advice here to see people as God sees them and to develop enough Christlike qualities to bring people unto Christ.  I really love being a missionary here, and I am stoked to get started on the real work.  Phoenix will be a good experience.  We will have time to study our language (i think/hope) and so i'm not too worried yet about russian.  It will be good to see how missionary work goes in the states, then over in ukraine.  Its really funny though, the mtc refuses to give us english name tags, so we are going to look like freaks in phoenix with our russian nametags.  Last night everyone thought Pres. Monson was going to come to the devotional because he spoke at BYU earlier that day and it was really funny, everyone was all jazzed.  I miss sister lewis huber and hart a lot, but i am so excited for them to get to russia.  It was really really hard to say goodbye to everyone though, i feel like we were kind of a family here and we knew what was going on with everyone and we helped each other out and we had so many great, amazing times in the mtc. All the elders and sisters in our 2 districts will be amazing missionarys and great instruments in the Lord's hands in bringing the people of russia/ukraine (when we get there) unto Christ.  I can't wait for the experiences we will have.  Today we are just packing and getting everything good to go to phoenix.  I still hate packing, that definitely hasn't changed.  It is wierd that i have had like 4 companions in a few days because sister hart was comps with sis lewis and i when sis huber left, then sis hart and lewis left so then i am technically part companions with sister fitzgerald/johnson, and part solo sister/companions with my elders. haha such strange things here in the mtc.  We are going into "babylon" tomorrow and it's going to be wierd to see real people in the airport and such.  I just want to let you all know that this church is so true, the Lord is in charge of this work-which is a good thing, we couldn't do it without His help, and by doing the little things like reading the scriptures, praying, going to church, representing Christ, and being kind to those around you, we can help in this work of bringing people unto Christ.  I love this work and I am so excited to serve the Lord.  I know that trials don't stop, but Christ is there to help us.  Pray for all of us, we need it haha! I am grateful for all of you and your support.  I love you all!! I'll let you know what's up in Phoenix.

 

Love, Cectpa/Sister DeMille

the curveball

Fam and Friends,

 

welll this week changed a lot of things. some of you might already know, but none of the missionaries going to ukraine got their visas.  all the russian missionaries did. apparently two embassies in ukraine are fighting over who gets to issue the visas and how often people have to leave the country to renew.  so i guess that's what is happening, and all we know is that we are getting re assigned tomorrow. we talked to the travel agent and she said we are scheduled to be in the states for 4 weeks, we are scheduled to leave the states on nov 28. so we will be here for about 4 weeks ish if everything goes as planned. but, as soon as we get our visas they will have us leave, so it could be sooner or later who knows.  there are 17 of us getting re assigned between the 2 russian zones. they told us that they try to put us in bigger hub cities so we have a quick exit when we get our visas, and they will try to put some of us together..so who knows what is going to happen! haha it's wierd, i feel like i'm waiting for a new mission call.  it was a pretty rough weekend i'm not going to lie. we found out on friday and it was pretty depressing.  i cried a lot, and it was something i didn't expect and it came out of nowhere.  i guess i never realized how bad i wanted to go to ukraine, until they told me i couldn't go.  i doesn't sound like a big deal, but it hit me so hard for some reason.  i got a blessing from the zone leaders on friday night and that made me feel tons better.  saturday i was okay, and sunday i was sad again.  sunday we went to relief society and i was kinda sad. the speaker her name was sister rogers, and pretty much it was the best relief society ever.  she got called to serve as a health missionary to brazil (when she was hoping she wouldn't be called as a health missionary because she didn't like her nursing course she recently finished) and when she got to the MTC she was the only sister speaking portugese and she had to be put with tons of other companionships.  she said she felt like she was always treated as a "odd sister" because she created odd situations.  well her and her district didn't get their visas to brazil, so they went to the NY mission for 3 months.  she ended up baptizing one lady there and one thing she said was "the Lord cares enough about His children to send me to a place that wasn't my mission call to help her come closer to Christ". then, she didn't actually go to brazil, she got relocated to the phillipines.  needless to say, her talk was incredible.  it was the first time in my life i felt like a talk was sincerely written for me to hear it.  i went up to after to meet her and i just told her thank you, and it was a great experience.  it was probably the hardest weekend here in the mtc, but it was followed by many experiences that strenghtened my testimony and the desire of missionary work.  i am nervous about where i am going and with who and when, but one thing sister rogers said was "serve the Lord to the best of your ability wherever you are, whenever, and for how long because it is HIS work not ours" so that is what i will do.  i could be leaving as soon as friday, and as late as next wednesday.  we will find out tomorrow! i just hope i go with someone, not by myself.  so pray for all of us please!  this last week and this week up until everyone leaves will be good. class is a lot more chill and we usually talk more about the gospel and study grammar principles.  i really don't like the unexpected, but i'm trying to be calm and just accept it.  i have had some lasting, incredible experiences and the mtc has been a growing experience all around. this place will always be special to me because of how much i have grown and come closer to Christ.  i appreciate again all of the support and i love you all. pray for the missionaries everywhere, we all need it.  thank you for all you all do for me, and i will keep you posted about what goes on with our reassignments.  love you all!

 

cectpa demille

Travel Plans Tomorrow

Fam and Friends,
 
Life in the mtc is still rolling along!! i feel like kinda the time is going by slower now that we know that we are leaving soon.  All of us are stoked to find out travel plans tomorrow, as you can tell from my subject.  Well we had some sweet devotionals this week.  Sunday's devotional was...hilarious to be honest! it was a couple that are members of one of the district presidencies here, and the wife gets up and sets up this table with a table cloth and nice china, and her part of the devotional was on table ettiquite!!! haha it was thoughtful of her, but our elders couldn't take it seriously and it ended up being so entertaining.  Here are a few quotes/things i learned "DISCREET is the best word"-in other words, i don't even know what she was talking about.  "if your soup is too hot, you will know because you will feel it" hahahaha.  and, a bite is the size of a wheat thin, for those of you who don't know.  haha it was great.  and then the husband gets up and his devotional was pretty much his family genealogy about some indian tribe here in utah and he was like "you know, all love stories don't end the way you think they will.  my grandpa loved this indian girl and then one day in a playful game, she was shot and killed." say what? haha wow. it ended up being spiritual in a round about way..ok but last night's devotional was amazing!! RICHARD G SCOTT!!!  apostle #4.  he was so sweet and loving, he talked a lot about how to feel the spirit and how to study the scriptures.  but he really talked a lot about eternal marriage and our responsibility after the mission to find an eternal companion and actually go on dates.  he defines "hanging out" as "idleness in flocks" haha it was great.  one thing he said was that the elders should watch the sisters and how they do missionary work because they could learn a lot from us and it would pay off in the long run for them to watch us.  that was intimidating, motivating, and good to hear for sure.  i love our elders though and it is amazing to be surrounded by worthy priesthood holders. he challenged us to pray without ceasing, and more than that, develop a relationship with our Heavenly Father where we can just talk to him.  it was truly amazing. and he got up after the closing hymn and was like "you know, usually i like to shake everyone's hands after but i won't be able to do that tonight and i'm so sorry, but i hope that you can feel my love" and it was so spiritual and so powerful.  he also talked about our mission calls and that there has never been a mission call issued without a prompting from the Lord, that people want us and need us where we are going, and since it is from the Lord, he will help us.  so so so so cool.
 
other than that, we have just been going to class, language stuff, and everything normal.  the temple was amazing today, we went and did initiatories then a session, and all of our names for initiatories were from russia, so that was a treat. we are all anxious to get out of here, but we are all realizing that we have to say goodbye to each other, and that makes me so sad.  we have developed a family relationship with our 2 districts, and we have been through so much together and experienced so many things together.  but, we realize that we are going to do the Lord's work and this will bless our lives.  i love being here in the mtc because it has changed me into a better person, and its preparing me to be a better missionary.  i feel okay about russian so far, but i met a guy from ukraine at the temple walk on sunday and he said that in my mission its a constant mixture of ukranian and russian, so that will be interesting.  gotta love it! well, i love you all and this is the Lord's work.  i can feel the power of prayers, and i know that we are here to save people and to tell them about Christ.  It truly is the best feeling in the world to be able to wear His name along with my name.  We have a huge responsibility, and it is an honorable work.  I love you all so much, I am so happy, I am doing well, and I can't wait to go to Ukraine.  I will keep you all posted!!
 
Cectpa DeMille

Week 9.............

Fam and Friends,
 
This week was definitely one of the hardest thus far in the mtc.  We are starting our 9th week this week, and it is really starting to hit us about how long we have been here.  Don't get me wrong, i really really have loved the mtc and still do.  I never thought i could love it this much and grow this much and learn so much about myself.  But, i really want to go teach real people now haha.  Last night for devotional we had Julie B Beck come which was really awesome, and her and her husband had a lot of wonderful things to say about missionary work and the responsibility we have.  I am still not super confident in my russian, and i had a little bit of a breakdown on saturday.  My amazing teacher Brat. Wilson was talking to sister lewis and i about how we were doing, and i just started crying haha.  It was kinda pathetic, but i just was really stressed on how i am even going to be an effective missionary if i can't say anything. He told me a story of a senior couple that was in russia when he was.  This senior missionary only knew 6 words in russian.  every time he would get on a bus, he would just yell out, "does anyone know english!?" and then he would start sharing the gospel with whoever could understand him.  Brat wilson helped me so much.  It was really funny to watch all of the elders' reactions to how upset i was..they would shoot me awkward looks and ask if i was okay and stuff haha.  elder hopkins seriously is my best elder friend, i think i would die here without him cheering me up so much. it is even more of a plus we are going to the same mission, we are counting down the days til we can get on that plane and head to our real mission.  i am nervous for what's ahead, and i know that i will miss the comfort of the mtc, and especially the people, but i'm ready to dive in and be a greeny.  i am so excited words cannot even express it.  we get our travel plans a week from tomorrow!! boo yeah. 
 
a recap of the week:  sunday in sacrament meeting guess who got called on to speak? yep that's right, me.  i spoke about the apostasy and the restoration so it was a good topic and everyone said i did good and i even got them to laugh a few times, so mission accomplished.  and, our district plus sis. hart and sis. huber, we performed the musical number.  we sang "if you could hie to kolob" all 5 verses.  our dear elders are kind of musically challenged so it was entertaining to say the least.  i'm pretty sure all of us were laughing, and elder brinton told me that he saw president harrison laughing, so that was just great hahaha. it seriously was really awesome/funny though.  it has still been really fun to get to know all of the new people.  my new best friend elder potter (the british one) he seriously is so funny.  he likes to quote movies! and all the movies that i like.  he even is a lord of the rings fan, and all of us are planning a middle earth night, post mission.  but this week we were playing volleyball and me and him were in the back and he missed a ball and he looks at me and says "oh my days" in his accent, and we laughed for the rest of the game.  i will record him saying that and send it to you, it's simply amazing. 
 
Really i wish i had more cool, exciting, juicy stuff to tell but...the mtc is getting a little repetetive.  i just would encourage you all to read the book of mormon everyday.  we have been promised that it will enrich our lives and we will have more spirit with us.  i love you all!
 
cectpa demille

New missionaries! and other stuff

Friends and family,

 

This week was way interesting, fun, and different.  It started with getting all of the new missionaries on wednesday, and they are all so fun.  We got 3 new districts in our zone.  Three sisters came in that are going to Nepper!! Holla!! All of them are so jazzed about learning russian and they are all very diligent thus far.  Sister lewis and i got to show them how to do a "companionship inventory" on thursday night because she is cordinating sis....that was so fun, but it was honestly hard to take serious because we don't really ever have problems so our companionship inventorys usually consist of reviewing our goals and laughing haha.  But it was fun to hang out with our zone leaders and all see the newbies introduce themselves.  We got 2 new roommates, sister johnson is going to nepper, and sister fitzgerald is going to dontesk.  so now i'm not the only ukranian in our room!! it has been really exciting to start to get to know all of them.  and then there was conference!!!! it was so amazing in the mtc.  we all just sat in the big auditorioum and just watched and watched and watched.  the russians dominated and we all pretty much stole the front rows with the soft seats, so it was awesome.  there were so many amazing talks and a lot said about missionary work, so that gave us an extra boost.  how about all those new temples????!!! i wish you all could have been in the room when they said there was going to be another temple in PROVO......holy cow, it was intense.  sister hart and i looked at each other and seriously started almost crying.  we are also making plans to go to the paris temple haha.  Some of my favorite talks were: pres. uchtdorf's in the relief society broadcast, pres. holland's from priesthood, pres eyring, matthew o richardson, and definitely brother yamasheita's talk (i couldn't spell that, don't judge me!).  there was also a lot of talk about russia, which made us so pumped.  I had a couple of really hard days last week, just panicking that we leave in less than a month and the language is still rough.  One of the elders was so nice though and pulled me aside and just said "sister demille-your job in the mtc is to get spiritually filled, you need to learn the gospel, and the language will come." so that calmed me down and conference helped a lot.  the last few days i have been getting so excited to go to ukraine! it is going to be amazing to teach real people, with real lives.  i think that's why i love TRC so much because we teach people according to their needs and by the spirit, not someone playing a role.  it has been such a learning experience to be here.  it is full of ups and downs and i really love it, but it hasn't been easy at times.  we feel like we have been here for so long! sunday night we had a fireside by this guy named Chad Lewis.  apparently he played in the nfl for the eagles, and he served a mission in taiwan, and he is the chinese rep for the nfl now.  i was surprised, he didn't talk about football that much so that was nice because i don't know football.  but him and his wife's talks were amazing.  the best sunday fireside we have had so far.  he was so inspiring with his passion for missionary work and he has had so many opportunities to share the gospel, which really hit me hard. i know that i will share the gospel on my mission, but i often forget that we will have opportunities and we should make it a priority our whole lives to share the gospel.  there were a few things he said "focus on the joys in sharing the gospel, and you will get through the disappointments." and then he said "you, all of us sharing the gospel, are taking light and life into the world.  you are bringing people to safety who are now lost."  it was so incredible.  he got to climb mt. kilimanjaro and he talked a lot about tanzania and related it to missionary work, and that of course touched me.  elder hopkins, elder brinton, and i are definitely going to climb kili one day.  last night's fireside was really cool, it was by a guy named Lionel L Kendrick.  he used to be a general authority and shared a lot of experiences about him being a mission president and an area authority over asia and the phillipines.  he had some basic advice (wake up on time etc) and a lot of cool stories to share.  every day i learn something new about the gospel.  i am reading in alma right now, and i forget how amazing of a missionary he was, along with the sons of mosiah.  i feel so lucky to be a missionary in this dispensation.  the prophets long ago prophesied that this would be the last dispensation to gather the tribes of israel and feed the flocks.  i am so happy, so lucky, and so so blessed.  i challenge you all to be a missionary in some way this week. remember-"every member a missionary" go out of your way to serve someone, and you will be happier and more blessed.  i love you all, and this work is amazing and life changing.

 

cectpa demille

Planet MTC

Priveyet family and friends,

 

Good news, i have survived another week in the MTC! I hope everything is well with all of you.  A recap of this week: we go to class, sleep, eat, speak russian, and play lots of sand volleyball haha.  Russian is coming along.  I feel like i am grasping some of the conjugation concepts and what we call "cases"...those are just blessed things that come along with learning russian.  All of our new russians come in today, and we are so stoked.  Although it has been so cool just to have our zone here for the last few weeks.  We have grown so close together and i seriously love everyone.  we had testimony meeting on sunday and it was seriously so amazing.  and saturday nights make the mtc so much better because we all go outside and sing 2 or 3 hymns, it sounds lame but something so little like that can make your whole week so much better.  Our devotional last night was by Elder Ron A Clarke of the 70 and he had a lot of good insights to make us better missionaries and help us along our path of finding people that we need to.  he was a mission pres. in bolivia and he said one day one of the elders knocked on his door and the elder had been there for 2 days. he said "president, i don't like the food. i don't like my companion. i don't like my bed. i don't like the climate" and elder clarke said to him "give me one month to change your mind" and the elder said "i will give you 2 weeks" so 2 weeks later the elder came in and said "president, i don't like the food. i don't like my companion. i don't like my bed, and i don't like the climate. but i met a bolivian family that i love, and the holy ghost has changed my heart. i will stay for them"  man that story just hit me so hard because even if we just bring 1 soul unto Christ, it can change our hearts.  I have been reading the Book of Mormon and I am into Alma, and my goal is to have it finished by saturday so that should be a fun challenge.  sister lewis is the coordinating sister (kinda like a sister zone leader) and so we have the wonderful priveledge of performing what a "companionship inventory" should consist of tomorrow night for the 2 new districts coming in.  we really are so stoked, it's gonna be so fun. 

 

one of the biggest highlights of my life happened last night--all of the foreign missionaries come in a day or 2 early to get more orientation/training stuff--and we had an elder come in yesterday that will be in our zone.  he is from ENGLAND and his name is ELDER POTTER!!!!!!!!!!! i thought about saying all of these cheesy harry potter lines like "why did you break the elder wand!" or "happy christmas harry!" but instead i just talked to him like a normal person and he is awesome, i'm so stoked to have him in our zone.  we also got an elder from germany that is adorable. 

 

other than that, the mtc is still just amazing.  some of the worst parts of it are waking up when you wish you had 3 more hours of sleep, but some of the best parts are just putting on my nametag every morning.  my teachers make class so much easier to go to and so much better to be in.  i am slowly understanding/speaking more russian.  last week in the TRC we didn't even use any of our notes, we just had conversations with them from memory and it felt so good.  i love all of our elders in our zone, they make life so great.  my teacher bro doroshkin even takes time sometimes to quote Nacho Libre with us-funny story about that-apparently him and his district when he was in the mtc used to quote N.L all the time because its so funny/applicable to missionary life in the mtc, and one day him and his comp. were quoting it in the lunch line, and this sister missionary in front of them turns around and just says "BABYLON" and walks away hahahaha. so, so many gems in this place. 

 

well this week should be amazing with conference coming up, it's going to be like a vacation in the mtc.  all saturday classes are cancelled and we will watch the sisters broadcast thingy while the elders are in priesthood.  i encourage you all to pray about something you need/want an answer to and look for it during conference.  i love you all and i'm so grateful to be a missionary in this dispensation.  it is truly an amazing, life changing work for all involved.  i can really feel the prayers and the love, and i'm so grateful for you all.  keep living life in the outside world. LOVE YOU ALL!!!

 

cectpa demille

Pictures!!

Sis. Huber, Sis. Hart and Sis. DeMille

MTC Companions - Sis. Lewis and Sis. DeMille

St George friends - Sis. DeMille and Sis. Pead

The Book of Mormon

Prievyet family and friends!!!

 

Life here in the MTC is just going grand...how is the outside world? I hope I haven't missed out on anything too dramatic.  This week was great, and full of ups and downs.  Let me get into last night's devotional...all the missionaries in the MTC got copies of Oct. ensign early, and they told us to have them read and bring them to the devo last night.  We are just singing and guess who walks in with his cute wife...RUSSELL M NELSON!! i swear, we are the luckiest group of missionaries.  his talk was all about the ensign and the book of mormon.  i was so touched by the spirit that was brought into the room.  not only were we in the presence of an apostle, but we were talking about the book of mormon.  he gave us a lot of facts and history about it. here are a few i remember

 

the book of mormon mentions the resurrection more than the bible

 

it is now translated into 107 languages

 

the translators who are continuing to translate into different languages work on it and finish about 1 page a day..joseph smith translated 8-10 pages per day.  wow!!

 

he was so funny and so spiritual.  he had 4 missionaries come up (2 sisters 2 elders) and had them answer questions/bear testimony of the BOM.  elder brinton got called up, it was so funny and great.  one of the sisters is actually a girl that is going to italy, we are on the same floor as her so we are friends.  turns out he is her grandpa!! so it was way cute because he just hugged her and kissed her. 

 

i encourage you all to read the ensign, it is so full of power and testimony and love.  my testimony of the book of mormon has grown so much.  i'm reading it right now, and my goal is to have it finished by october 1.  one cool thing that elder nelson mentioned was that without missionaries, the gathering of israel couldn't be completed, and without the book of mormon, it couldn't be completed either.  the combination of missionaries and book of mormon will bring great success throughout the world.  he mentioned our responsibilites as a church: 1-strenghthen faith in jesus christ. 2-helping in the gathering of israel 3-helping others and ourselves prepare for the second coming.  so amazing!! and we get conference in a few weeks. man i'm so excited.

 

a couple of fun things this week: sister lewis and i sometimes like to do crazy/rebellious things, so this week we decided to do a "sand burial".  i was buried, in the sand, on the volleyball court. it was epic! we have to entertain ourselves in here. the language is still coming slowly...we are told not to compare ourselves with others, but i realized that i'm a little behind some of my district. i feel like it just hasn't clicked yet and it's so frustrating.  i had a couple of rough days last week, but i'm just trying to turn discouragement/frustration into motivation.  i love what i'm learning and how i'm growing.  it has been such a blessing and amazing experience to be here.  thank you all for your prayers and support, i am humbled.  i love you all and thank you for the prayers for the missionaries everywhere.  with love,

 

cectpa demille