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
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