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
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
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
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
Thursday, November 24, 2011
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
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
Monday, November 14, 2011
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
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
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
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
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
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
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
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