family and friends,

IT SNOWED!!  i was shocked! it snowed for 3 days straight, so i'm thinking it's here to stay.  i was surprised, last year it didn't even begin to snow until christmas eve and then melted and came and went a lot still...so it's cold right now, but it's beautiful! i love the winter wonderland...even though my feet are usually numb within 3 minutes no matter how many layers of socks i wear!  so we have plenty of christmas activities planned. today we are going to Kherson for a christmas eve lunch and watching the christmas broadcast, tonight we are going to a part member family for a lesson/celebration, tomorrow we are having christmas breakfast with the elders and this couple in our branch, tomorrow we all get to skype, then tomorrow night we are going back to Kherson for a christmas mini-zone conference on wednesday morning. it will be busy, but so fun! we are excited. i love the christmas spirit!!

the work is going! haha unfortunately there wasn't much to report. around this time of year it seems like everyone is sick or too busy to meet until after the holidays. we are doing a lot of finding (tracting, street contacting in the snow), and we still are having success with meeting with less actives. so we are trying to find those who are ready and i hope that we will find some people soon who are truly ready and interested in the gospel!  it's hard sometimes because i know what we have to share is more important than anything in the world, but everyone has their free agency and we can't force people to believe it.  we had an interesting experience though. last week the elders met this girl named Ling who is from china but teaches english here. so we gave her a call and she said she is not religious at all, but wanted to meet. so we gave it a shot and met with her in a little cafe and it was actually really cool! we told her exactly what we do here and she never said anything about not being religious to us face to face. she thought it was crazy (but cool) we were here and really liked us, so that was neat!  

we met with a less active last night and we were talking about faith and why we need to have faith. she asked us to share how faith has helped us, and it was cool to bare testimony about faith with someone who hasn't been to church in years.  she told us she doesn't believe in just one true church, and that she thought God loves everyone the same and accepts every church.  we explained lovingly/boldly that God does love everyone and that we believe religion in general is good. it makes good people better, bad people good, and keeps people believing. but, God doesn't want His children to be confused, therefore, there needs to only be one church. God has always revealed His gospel when people were ready, and He revealed it the last time through Joseph Smith.  I'm so thankful to a loving Heavenly Father who gave us the clear, straight, path back to Him.  I'm so thankful that He sent His beloved son Jesus Christ, to earth so He could know how to "succor" us. He truly is our Savior! He lives! I love that our message focuses on His life and His resurrection-not only that He died.  I love this special time of year to reflect on His life.  I hope you are all filled with the Christmas spirit!  Do something nice for someone else, do what Christ would do! Then the true christmas spirit will abound.  it's wonderful to be His representative and share His message with these people. even though it's not easy, I still love it! and I love you all! i hope you all have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!  and remember our Lord, Savior, and Redeemer--Jesus Christ!! i love you all!

Sister DeMille  

family and friends,

it was another good week and it is still cold, and will get colder! there is a bit of snow and a lot of cold wind. it's starting to feel more like the holidays so that's good!  so, transfer news came..or rather didn't come! haha i'm staying in Nickolaiv until the end! this will be my 7th transfer here! obviously there is work for us to do here and we are determined to do it! now i don't have to pack as much :)  i'm glad to still be with sister dickison!  well, we did have a good week, always full of hardships and laughs, but good overall. our greatest "success" this week was with less actives actually.  there are plenty of them here to find, and we have yet to have found all of them.  we stopped by one woman and her daughter, and they let us right in and it was awesome! her daughter was about to have a baby in the next few days and was really nervous about it, so we prayed for her and the mom really was happy and calmed the daughter down haha. they asked me what my first name was so i told them amanda..big mistake! they called me amanda the rest of the night! haha looks like i will have to correct them on that.  but one thing i learned from that visit is how much the SIMPLE truths of the gospel bless our lives! the lady told us she went inactive because she just has "so many questions" that couldn't be answered. but the more we talked and talked about simple truths, the more all of us realized how we can understand a lot through the simpleness of the gospel.  we had another lesson with a less active girl, and she confessed how she has been missing God in her life and how she misses the spirit.  it was great to talk with them and work with them, so i was happy!! 

we met with ludmilla twice last week. she is doing really well and even though she has interesting ideas, it's great to help guide her in the truth.  she wants to get baptized, but wants to do it with her husband. he loves us, but we are not sure yet if he is going to take our message seriously or not..so we will see! her husband had a little fallback with some vodka, but she chewed him out pretty good and it was not only entertaining, but inspiring! she is wonderful but we still have a lot of work to do.  we are still doing a lot of finding, but we are having a hard time just getting people to stop and talk to us and have a conversation. so hopefully soon we will have some success with that and get some new investigators! we got to see our visa man from the office named Vova, and he is awesome! he went to lunch with us and finished up some document work with us. he kept us laughing with some hilarious stories of his kids!  so besides random people calling us by our first names, we had some more awkwardness with a few of the english guys asking us real casually if we can go on dates here. haha looks like we need to review our purpose as missionaries for a spiritual thought.  also, we are becoming more creative with our budget and food here, and we whipped up this awesome vegetable soup. i'm a chef!

anyway, things are picking up and we are trying to work closer with the branch to have more success! i really feel good about staying here for my last transfer and i hope that we can see a lot of blessings in the time coming up.  i have a great love for the people here and i love serving them!  missionary work is harder than anything i have ever done, but we try to keep it positive and fun.  sister dickison and i are working hard and loving it! even though sometimes it rains for 3 days straight like it did last week, and the cold wind blows and my ears feel frostbitten, it's great!  i really love this gospel and everything about it.  it brings so much peace in a turbulent world. even though there are horrible tragedies in the world that sometimes leave us thinking "how could that happen?", we can be assured that God loves His children and He is continually watching over us. He knows us, He loves us, and He will never leave us.  everyone has their agency and a lot of times others' agency affects our own, we can still use our agency to choose how to react to a situation. i know the book of mormon can change lives, i have seen it change mine!  i hope the true spirit of the love of Christ is with you all, and i'm so thankful for all of you and your love and support! i am so blessed! i love you all!

cectpa demille

sister dickison and i in all of our matching stuff--hats, scarves, and cool rings hahaha. i look sick, because i am sick.



family and friends,

I hope you all are enjoying the holiday season! It hasn't quite hit ukraine yet, their holidays are all a little bit later in december and in january, but hopefully soon! This week was another week of missionary work (what else would it be?)  and even though the work is still a little slow, we always see little miracles.  We were able to meet with Ludmilla AND her husband again! They are great.  Her husband loves to call us randomly and make sure we are healthy.  Ironically, my comp and I both kind of got sick last week and we had to call and cancel a lesson with them, and they were both super concerned, but we assured them we would be okay.  When we called to re-schedule a lesson, he told us "It's snowing in Kiev!!" I said "cool, I didn't know!" he was like "didn't know!? how!?" i told him we don't have tv, and he asked "don't you miss the tv!!?" haha it was a funny conversation. maybe it was kind of one of those "you had to be there" kind of things haha.  but we had a great lesson with them about baptism and talked about how it's our way back to God.  Her husband listened and liked it, and also excitedly told us that whenever Luda reads the book of mormon, she reads it out loud and he listens haha!  They both came to church yesterday and stayed the whole time! It was awesome!  Basically they are our main investigators right now and we are doing a lot of finding (as always haha).  

We got to go to Kherson last week overnight for a district meeting, then we went on exchanges with the sisters there.  It was so fun! I got to be with Sis. Kochel and we had a blast and we got to go to Family Home Evening at the Maxwell's house. I got to see some members I haven't seen in awhile and meet a lot of new people. It was really great!  I talked to a great member over there and she was telling me how life is hard a lot and I agreed but told her that it's all okay because we have the gospel.  She thought about that and then agreed and told me everything would be okay too.  I realize all the time how much peace the gospel gives us and how so many people are wandering in darkness.  I'm so thankful we know the Plan of Salvation and how we know if we are righteous, God promises us eternal life.  If we do our part, we know God will do His part. I love it! We are so blessed.  We met a lady the other night that looked a little rough around the edges, but we approached her and told her we have a message about Jesus Christ.  She was smoking and looked at her cigarette and looked sad and said "do you people help others quit smoking?" i told her yes, and she said "i have smoked for 14 years and can't quit. can you please help me?" i again assured her we could, and she gave us her address to come over some time.  Living in a place like Ukraine, I often see the clear effects/consequences of sin, and I am so thankful for the commandments.  God truly gives us the commandments for our benefit, and they free us, not make us more burdened.  I love it and I love seeing people light up with the hope of a message of Jesus Christ.  

On a final note, it's FREEZING. Like literally below zero usually. or at least close to zero.  And it's not that bad when the wind isn't blowing, but the wind almost always blows, and just rips right through my marshmallow jacket and 2 layers of clothes.  But January shouldn't be too bad and then I leave before the ice comes and the winds blow harder haha. so i'm thankful for that!  Our apartment is cold though! we have to double layer up even in our apartment. but it's all good!  We love missionary work and we do it whether it's cold or not haha.  I hope the gospel is warming all of your hearts and houses especially at this time of year.  It's a blessing to be serving and to be in a place that helps me reflect on how wonderful the gospel is and the plan of happiness.  I know this work is the work of the Lord and He loves us!  I love you all! Keep us in your prayers and we are always doing the same! Love you all!

sister demille

so this is a man named vincent. he isn't a member but loves the church and comes to family night and enlish every week in Kherson.  he loved sis johnson and i haha so i saw him and i said "vincent do you remember me?" and he said "of course you are my favorite" haha he is an english teacher so he speaks fluently and is so funny. so i asked "how are you" and he said "i am not down!" haha he gets sick of saying "fine or good" so he thinks of new phrases to respond to that. then i asked him if we could take a pic together and it took some persuasion, but he did it and so the first one he is looking at me because he said "i am not handsome in pictures and i would rather look at you" so then the second one we made him look at the camera, then i showed him the picture and he said "you are pretty and my eyes are blue!" hahahah i love vincent

Sister Kochel and I with their investigator, Bella at FHE

family and friends,

i'm glad it's december! not only because i love Christmas, but because it  has been soo warm here! like unusually warm-feels like spring. but soon it will get cold and we will be in the negatives haha. such as life!  this last week was good and time is rolling right on by.  we were able to meet with Ludmilla (the golden one) twice! it was awesome! we taught about faith and about the sabbath day. her husband listened to both lessons, and they invited a friend as well. it was cool! hopefully we can get back on track with her soon.  we had a few good lessons with members as well. one is this cute grandma named Claudia and we brought her flowers and she was so happy! it felt good to brighten her day. she also showed us some awesome pictures of back in the day in ukraine. so old school and so cool!  one of the highlights of the week was we were able to do service!! we don't get very many opportunities, so it was awesome.  we just cleared out all of the weeds/dead plants out of the garden for a member lady.  it was so good! felt awesome to do manual labor and help someone out.  we also had our religious discussion in english that we do, and this time we talked about repentance. it was way cool to lay out the process of how it goes for them, and see how they felt about it and see how they learned. it was a good experience!  we still get "dogged" a lot-like a lot-haha, but we try to keep busy and find and teach.  

we had a few funny experiences as always.  so we went and saw this lady named Valentina who the elders tracted into a little while ago. (i think i mentioned her last week?) anyway, so we had a little lesson with her this weekend, and she insisted on feeding us.  she fed us what is called "vareneki" which is like dumplings with mashed potatoes. they were way good, but she made us eat like 15 haha, i was very full after. then she had a bowl of candy on the table and i was like "can i have a piece of candy please?" and she says "why are you even asking me demilechka, what do you think, i just put them there to look at!? just eat them!" hahahah i laughed pretty hard and it was great.  she even wants to skype with me when i go home haha. love it!  that same night we got lost and had to take a detour home, and a drunk guy named Igor talked to us the whole time haha. he said, "pass a hi to america and to Obama!" haha like i'm on regular speaking terms with him or something. it was pretty funny.  

another success we had this week was, we made Borsh!! it's like russian/ukranian beet root soup. we just invented a recipe and threw it all together, and it was DELICIOUS!! i loved it. we will make it often now :)   but other than that we are working hard, trying to find more people and teach more. it's hard becuase we feel like we can't even get past an intro like "hey we are missionaries...." before they walk away, but we will of course keep trying.  i hope soon we will find more investigators!  i love serving the people here and i know i was definitely called to the right place. it's still hard and we are very different people here, but i have realized one simple truth-we are all children of our Heavenly Father! we need to be good examples of our Savior and treat people as He would.  i love the gospel and the peace and happiness it brings to our lives. i'm so very thankful for the gospel and the opportunity i have to share it.  i love you all and i am always thankful for your support!!! with love,

cectpa demille

                                          just gettin a trim from my comp haha in our tiny bathroom

                                             Amanda with Ludmilla, her husband and a friend

                                                                             the borsh!



family and friends,

i gotta apologize a bit for acting like a childish missionary and complaining last week...i repented, and the Lord blessed us this week.  we had a few more lessons and a few more miracles, but i think what changed the most was my attitude. the Lord blessed me just to wake up and have a better attitude and have the faith to endure to the end.  as Thanksgiving was this week, i thought about the things i was most grateful for: the Gospel, family, friends, the Savior/the Atonement, the Book of Mormon, and all of the blessings.  i can't be grateful enough to have the gospel, and i am more grateful everyday and i love trying to share it with people.  i hope you all had a great thanksgiving too!!  

we had a few awesome lessons. one was with Janna (we were thinking about dropping her and decided to give it a bit more time) and this time we took a different approach, and focused the lesson on Jesus Christ.  we talked about Him, His life, His role in our life, and why no one else could have done what He did. i felt the spirit, and i was so thankful for the blessing of Him in our lives.  she told us she learned more about Him and was thankful to us. it was awesome!  we also met with a new lady named Jenya (i mentioned that we met her last week) and she is awesome! she had so many good questions about the gospel and what we believe, etc.  she really liked us and she enjoyed what we had to say.  it was a tender mercy from the Lord to share a little bit with someone new who would listen.  i love it!

a few funny things, of course:  we were in a marshootka accident (public transportation!)...it was crazy, limbs were flying everywhere! just kidding, but not really. it was a fender bender, but the whole marshootka got rocked. we survived!  so last tuesday night we are just washing dishes in the kitchen, and all of the sudden, all the lights turn off. we test the lights in the back of our apartment, and all of them work, so we had half the house that worked, and half that didn't.  so we gave our land lady a call the next day, and long story short-we had to wait until saturday to get the lights back on! that adventure included cold showers, buying an extension cord to plug our fridge in, buying a lamp that doubles as a strobe light for dance parties (just kidding!), and good use of our flashlights.  but it's all working now and we are happy.  also, all of the sudden we have had a small infestation of cockroaches. whenever we turn on the lights in our kitchen, they just run back into their holes and hiding places. we set some sticky traps and have a poison stick thingy, so we should be good to go but my poor companion is a tad afraid of the critters. i love all of God's creations, but cockroaches are hindering us a bit.  last thing: so we met this man the other night, and he was so nice! he offered to find us husbands and everything. he was like, what kind do you like? tall, short, dark hair, etc. and we just laughed and i told him we were still young, and that it wasn't time to get married. he asked how old we were so we told him i was 22 and she was 21, and he was like "girls!! it's time!!" haha it made us laugh and i guess we know where to go if we get desperate.  

i know the gospel is true and i know faith is our anchor! we can't return to God without the gospel, and i love it! missionary work is hard and i'm tired all the time, but everyone needs the gospel and our brothers and sisters are wandering in darkness over here. i love you all and i'm thankful for your support! keep the faith!

sister demille

                                               our advanced english class-all boys haha

                                                              Valentina and Sis. DeMille

                        just some sweet campaign pictures for the elections that just happened here

Amanda and Eve,the Branch Pres. daughter

family and friends,

i gotta apologize a bit for acting like a childish missionary and complaining last week...i repented, and the Lord blessed us this week.  we had a few more lessons and a few more miracles, but i think what changed the most was my attitude. the Lord blessed me just to wake up and have a better attitude and have the faith to endure to the end.  as Thanksgiving was this week, i thought about the things i was most grateful for: the Gospel, family, friends, the Savior/the Atonement, the Book of Mormon, and all of the blessings.  i can't be grateful enough to have the gospel, and i am more grateful everyday and i love trying to share it with people.  i hope you all had a great thanksgiving too!!  

we had a few awesome lessons. one was with Janna (we were thinking about dropping her and decided to give it a bit more time) and this time we took a different approach, and focused the lesson on Jesus Christ.  we talked about Him, His life, His role in our life, and why no one else could have done what He did. i felt the spirit, and i was so thankful for the blessing of Him in our lives.  she told us she learned more about Him and was thankful to us. it was awesome!  we also met with a new lady named Jenya (i mentioned that we met her last week) and she is awesome! she had so many good questions about the gospel and what we believe, etc.  she really liked us and she enjoyed what we had to say.  it was a tender mercy from the Lord to share a little bit with someone new who would listen.  i love it!

a few funny things, of course:  we were in a marshootka accident (public transportation!)...it was crazy, limbs were flying everywhere! just kidding, but not really. it was a fender bender, but the whole marshootka got rocked. we survived!  so last tuesday night we are just washing dishes in the kitchen, and all of the sudden, all the lights turn off. we test the lights in the back of our apartment, and all of them work, so we had half the house that worked, and half that didn't.  so we gave our land lady a call the next day, and long story short-we had to wait until saturday to get the lights back on! that adventure included cold showers, buying an extension cord to plug our fridge in, buying a lamp that doubles as a strobe light for dance parties (just kidding!), and good use of our flashlights.  but it's all working now and we are happy.  also, all of the sudden we have had a small infestation of cockroaches. whenever we turn on the lights in our kitchen, they just run back into their holes and hiding places. we set some sticky traps and have a poison stick thingy, so we should be good to go but my poor companion is a tad afraid of the critters. i love all of God's creations, but cockroaches are hindering us a bit.  last thing: so we met this man the other night, and he was so nice! he offered to find us husbands and everything. he was like, what kind do you like? tall, short, dark hair, etc. and we just laughed and i told him we were still young, and that it wasn't time to get married. he asked how old we were so we told him i was 22 and she was 21, and he was like "girls!! it's time!!" haha it made us laugh and i guess we know where to go if we get desperate.  

i know the gospel is true and i know faith is our anchor! we can't return to God without the gospel, and i love it! missionary work is hard and i'm tired all the time, but everyone needs the gospel and our brothers and sisters are wandering in darkness over here. i love you all and i'm thankful for your support! keep the faith!

sister demille

dear family and friends,

the work is going..slowly haha. i'm not going to lie to you all, it was a rough week but the work goes on and i'm still here trying to serve!  we only had a few lessons and did a lot of finding.  the one investigator we met with we are probably going to have to drop. she is so sweet and has progressed a lot, but basically told us she would never get baptized..so that doesn't leave us a whole lot to work with.  the one bright moment of the week happened yesterday, we were in a lesson with a former investigator, and her friend came over with her 2 sons.  her friend knew a bit of english and was so happy to meet 2 american girls and really liked us, and knew that we were mormons. i was about to ask for her phone number, but she took the initiative and invited us over as guests and wrote down her address/phone number. it was definitely a tender mercy from the Lord!  

it has been COLD! like i pulled out all of my winter gear and we wear it every night. not only does it keep us warm, but people are so proud of us girls that we are dressing warm haha.  it's very funny how much people can approve or not approve of the way we dress!  last week we had to do the final round of registration for my companion and it was great times with Olga our registration lady.  One funny moment happened the other night, we contacted this man and invited him to church and he couldn't understand anything either of us were saying haha. i thought, is my russian this bad? then he is like "you know, i have been drinking a little vodka so maybe that's why i don't understand. i will try to understand later!" haha it made us laugh.  we are working on having Charity and making that the whole basis of our work.  

other than that, its life as usual! i love the Book of Mormon, words of the Prophets, and I love studying and learning everyday.  I'm thankful to be serving the Lord and I know the gospel is true! I love you all! sorry this is short, hopefully in the future i will have more to write about.  thanks for your support!

sister demille



Shopping for shopkas




Modeling the Shopkas:)





family and friends,

not too much to report about last week, except zone conference.  we left here wednesday, stayed with the sisters in Kherson on wednesday night, and then we all got up bright and early to get on our train at 6 am.  unfortunately there was not a magical lady with a cart or kids in robes like on harry potter, but my comp and i and sister johnson and her comp sister kochel, were all in a "coupe" together. just a little room where we can chill basically.  we had a good time and we got in Simferopol around noon that day. we helped set up the branch for zone conference, studied, and went on splits that night with the sisters there. it was fun, but COLD! i thought down in the south in crimea it would be warm, but i was wrong.  zone conference the next day started at 8 am and went until 6 pm! it was amazing! it was such a pleasure to have Elder and Sister Bennett from the area 70 presidency with us.  we focused on having Charity and implementing that into our contacting and teaching.  we actually went out and contacted and our goal was to just have charity, and it was awesome! we are trying to just be more charitable and see everyone as children of God.  it was a great experience!  we all learned so much that day and the spirit was so strong! at the end of the meeting we had the opportunity to all share a short testimony, and the missionaries here are all so amazing and so strong! it was truly a special day and we are all trying to do better in our work because of it.  the cool thing was is that Elder Bennett and Pres. Van Bruggen have been friends since junior high! and Elder Bennett was a big influence on Sister Van Bruggen and her conversion at age 19.  She made a joke how the two pushiest people (her husband and Elder Bennett) that helped here into the church were in the same room as us! haha. it really was amazing and they are so humble and serve so well.  

this week i had a realization of how important your mission language is.  for me, it's russian haha. i used to think that "oh, people will be able to understand me and the spirit will just testify what i'm saying anyway" but i've realized now more than ever, that connecting with these people in every way possible has been such a blessing and so hard, but i learned and i love it.  russian used to be like an enemy, like a big wall that i would just try to climb around or under, instead of climbing over it and conquering it.  i am not a pro at russian nor will i ever will be, but i have been blessed to be able to communicate with them in their language in a way that they can understand me.  it has been a hard experience, but amazing nonetheless.  

we had an interesting experience last week. we decided to go see some churches of the main faiths here in Nickolaiv. so we went with the elders and our branch pres. was our "tour guide" and we saw 3 churches that are more like cathedrals.  they were beautiful and interesting, but you can tell the distinct differences between our faith and our churches and their faith and their churches. but i am glad that the people here worship and are devoted to faith, regardless of what it is.  the day was topped off with seeing a brand new car get blessed with holy water (it's a tradition to bless new cars). it was interesting!  

i am so thankful for the gospel and the peace it brings into our lives. i realize how many people are without the knowledge of the gospel and truth, and are wandering in darkness.  it's hard work to try to find the elect, but we are doing it to assist in the true gathering of israel.  i have seen so many blessings and miracles from being a missionary and i love it!  i know that God is watching over us and He is leading us and guiding us. He is more involved in our lives than we think!  sometimes the future is scary and unknown, but God will never forsake us as long as we are obedient.  I love you all and I'm so thankful for your support!  

cectpa demille



Pretty churches



                                                        Cute little Nastya! we love her



Sis Kochel and I having a sleep over



 

                                                     Party on the train! Sis Johnson and Kochel

family and friends,

this week was another week of missionary work, but it was a bit better than last week! update on the weather over here: we had a few really cold days-one night of contacting in the freezing rain haha-but now it's warm again! i don't get it! but it's okay and i'm fine with a few more warm days i guess.  it sounds like america is doing alright besides the hurricane in NY. crazy!  we have this religious discussion in english every thursday night and this nice boy that comes wanted us all to pray for the people in NY and we did and the spirit was great! i love little things like that.

well we didn't have too many lessons this week. we have been keeping in touch with ludmilla and now her husband calls us all the time and just loves us! way cool! but we haven't been able to meet with them yet.  the other night we called to see if they were home and we called ludmilla and no answer, so we called her husband Yuri, and he said "come on over!" i asked if ludmilla was home with him and he said "yes, she's here!" so we go over there and i asked again, ludmilla is in the house, right? and he said "yes!" so we walk in and he is like "luda! luda!" and she doesn't come out, so i'm like "is she here or not?" and he is like "no! she's not home! haha" and just starts laughing haha i couldn't even be mad that he was trying to be funny, but we made a quick exit seeing as that is against the white handbook.  

we had a few small miracles, but miracles nonetheless. we went to drop by an investigator randomly, and we happened to run into a girl that has been to church a few times and is friends with everyone there, but is not a member. we told her she should come to english and she said she couldn't, but when we went to english she was there, and we had a lesson with a member and her afterwards. it was so cool! i love tender mercies like that!  and then another day we again, decided to randomly drop by an investigator we hadn't been able to get ahold of. we rang the doorbell, no answer. but we looked down the street and she was walking down the street and was way happy to see us and we were able to meet with her the next day! it was great.  

we also had a great experience with a less active family last week. we went over there and the little girl named Nastya was sitting on the couch crying, so i just hugged her and we started the lesson. she just perked right up and started smiling and laughing and told us that even though their family life was hard, she knew everything would be okay. her mom bore her testimony in relief society about it yesterday and thanked us for coming over and recognized that the whole spirit changes when the missionaries come over. it was touching and made me really happy!

in english last week we taught everyone "trick or treat, trick or treat, give me something good to eat!" they laughed pretty hard and loved it. and i don't know how but one of them found out my first name and called me "amandeshka!" (refer to "cutsie form" from last weeks email". i had to tell him not to say that, but it did make me laugh pretty hard.  

so this week we are going to Simferopol and Elder Bennett from the 70 is coming, he is over the Eastern European area. it should be cool! i'm nervous though because i had to send my passport away to get my registration renewed and we are supposed to take our passports with us if we travel to another city. i hope i don't get pulled over by the cops and get thrown in jail! haha. but we are all taking a "wagon" in a train down with the Kherson missionaries too, so it should be a party on a train. also, the other night our neighbors decided to throw a party and i fell asleep to loud singing and dancing! haha it was pretty hilarious and annoying and funny.  

well, i just wanna say that i know the scriptures are true! i am reading the book of mormon for the 6th time on the mission and i still learn new things everyday and i love it! a little girl named Eve (5 yrs old) bore her testimony yesterday and said "i know the book of mormon is true. and so is the bible. and they are both very interesting!"-i second that! they are interesting, and true! and that's the beauty of it all.  i know the gospel is true, that's why i'm here! i love you all and i know the Lord is watching over us and He is spreading His gospel through the whole world! keep up the good lives you are living over there, i love you!!

cectpa demille



Sis. Dickison, Olga, Sis. DeMille




Us looking nasty after contacting in the freezing rain



The Sisters and the Elders



                                                    jack our jack-o-lantern-orange haha



                                                                  just a bit of scenery

dear family and friends,

unfortunately, this email will be short because there is hardly anything new to report! no one would meet with us last week! everyone was busy or cancelled or said "lets do it another time!" it was one of those weeks. we still were effictive and had a good week.  we had a few lessons with members that need attention and one lesson with our investigator Janna-we started teaching the Plan of Salvation.  It's cool to see people's reactions as we answer questions, especially about what will happen after this life.  Sometimes it's hard to give answers to everything because we don't know everything, but we try our best and follow the spirit!

the highlights: we were tracting in a village last week, and this nice man that we had talked to the week before, let us in and showed us his garden.  it was a great garden and he was sooo proud of me that i knew the word for eggplant in russian! haha. unfortunately, his wife came out and was not very happy that we were there. she softened up a bit when we were talking to her cute grand-daughter, but an akward situation!  oh well.  so after that we were talking with this nice lady who was walking her small cow, and then a drunk guy came up and started talking to us in half ukranain and was very upset that we didn't know who "Phil" was.  we walked away from that, but he followed us all the way through this village! good thing we can walk faster than drunk people.  overall it was an interesting village day.  

last week we taught "advanced" english and we talked about fashion, and they loved it. it was wierd because it was all boys, so it was us 2 and 8 boys haha. but they are good sports and respectful.  here is a russian fact:  so in russian, you can do what i like to call "cutsie form" which means on the end of words, you can put "echka".  for example: thank you is "spaceeba" but in cutsie form, or endearing form its "spaceebechka".  so i like doing that because russians laugh and it is just funny. but apparently, if you "cutsie form" the word "lie"-not telling the truth, it actually just means "teaspoon". so one of the guys at english said something that i didn't believe, so i said "thats a lie!" (in russian using cutsie form), and the whole class busted up into laughter for about 10 minutes. they thought it was the most hilarious thing anyone could have ever said! i just felt kinda stupid but laughed with them and i learned my mistake real quick! haha i love blunders in another language.  also, a few people in our english class love watching the "I'm a Mormon" videos, and they ask me for suggestions every week, and they just love them.  If only they would just love to be a Mormon, instead of just watching about them haha.  

our week ended very strange. we had a lesson with an older woman in our branch that we just love, and she fed us at the end unexpectedly.  it was just potatoes and mystery meat, but it was really good, just a little greasy.  well my companion Sister Dickison had to get her gallbladder taken out in the mtc, and greasy foods upset her stomach now.  so saturday she started mentioning that her stomach was hurting really bad and she looked in a lot of pain, so we canceled our plans and went home.  poor thing, she threw up like all night! i felt so bad for her! it lasted the night and sunday we didn't even go to church, we just stayed home and she slept all day.  i'm glad it didn't last longer and everything is all good now.  but sometimes wierd things like that just happen and you just have to deal with it!  

well i want you all to know that the gospel is true and the plan of salvation is God's wonderful plan for us. it is such a blessing to have the knowledge we have and i love sharing it with people.  i'm thankful for all of you and your support, and my prayers are always with you!  i love you all dearly!!  

love, sister demille

                                      us out at night waiting for a lesson! like my new scarf?



                                                  just out in the wilderness in a village

family and friends,

it was another good week here! always full of surprises, ups and downs, and craziness, but good!  last week we had to do a LOT of registration.  to live here we have to have our visa, be registered in the country, in the city where we serve, and at our apartment.  it is such a long process and they just make it so difficult for us to be here. but i think it all was successful and we look forward to more registration soon haha.  

so this week we found 2 new investigators-one of them is a girl named Lena we contacted a while ago. We had a great lesson with her and she has 2 really cute daughters! She is interested and really liked us.  We also had a woman "passed" to us from the elders. her name is  Tonya and she is so funny and great! She just has a lot of interesting questions regarding why there are so many churches and all that.  I am just so grateful for the truth that we have and how clear it is.  Ludmilla is still doing awesome and we are continuing to prepare her for baptism!  

Yesterday Pres. and Sis. Van Bruggen were at church here.  It was so fun to see them and they both gave amazing talks.  Sis Van Bruggen talked about forgiveness and how we all need to forgive others.  She shared the example of Nephi and his brothers going back to Jerusalem to get Ishmael and his family.  On the way home, half of them wanted to go back to Jerusalem, and Nephi had to give his usual discourse of following the commandments.  We all know after that, that his brothers tried to kill him, but the cries of the women softened thier hearts.  They repented and asked for forgiveness, and Nephi FRANKLY forgave them.  There was no hesitation, no grudges.  After that it says that they went back to "the tent of their Father."  It really got me thinking that one day, we will all go back to the "tent of our father", in heaven of course.  Are we ready to do that? We never know when we will be called back to live with our Father.  I thought a lot about how so many people spend so much time holding on to things of the past that only result in anger, grudges, and a life of hurt.  I encourage you all to think to yourselves: "am I ready to go back to the tent of my Father?" if not, think of how you can get ready! Read Alma 5 and ask yourselves the same things Alma asks his people.  We just never know when our time on Earth will be over and with that in mind, we all need to prepare.  

of course, we always have funny experiences and meet interesting people.  We end up contacting a lot on the streets at night, and for some reason about every single person we talked to last week asked, "aren't you scared to be out here at night?" or said "girls, go home! it's not safe out here after dark." one guy said "i have talked to your spiritual brothers before and it's okay for them to be out at night. but talk to them and tell them that you can't be out at night. i very very much worry about you girls out here" and a lot of people give us the usual "it's not allowed for you to be out here at night girls!" haha we thought it was kind of ironically funny that everyone keeps telling us that.  we try to stay on well lit streets, but there aren't too many of those here in Nickolaiv haha.  i haven't really felt unsafe, but don't worry we will watch our backs.  one guy we met asked us if we had boyfriends waiting for us at home and was almost appalled when we told him we didn't. he was so worried about us and was like "hurry and go home and find husbands!" haha it was hilarious.  also i swear, we can never get the dress code right here. either we are not wearing enough clothes or we are wearing too much! Everyone always gets mad that we aren't wearing coats (even if it's not cold) but when we wear coats, they are like "girls, aren't you hot? it's not time for coats" hahaha. we just try to do our best and please the Babushki here!  We had a couple of close calls with marshutka accidents haha. no accidents occurred, but it's pretty intense when they are racing down roads and almost run into eachother.  the adventures of a missionary!  

well that's all i got for the week! time is flying by and my russian is improving which i am very grateful for.  i know the scriptures are true and they give us guidance in our lives. i am just simply grateful to serve the Lord and be an instrument in his hands.  i love you all and my prayers are with you!!

cectpa demille

Outside our apartment



family and friends,

I know you all already got to watch conference, but we got to this weekend and it was so good! I was amazed at how many very personal experiences were shared, but how they can have an impact on a wide variety of people.  I of course loved Elder Holland's talk about the apostles in Christ's time.  As I read the New Testament this last time, I thought the exact same thing--that the apostles were kind of like "children"--so young in the gospel. I found a new respect and love for the apostles back then because of the great faith and work that they had and did.  I also loved Elder Eyring's talk and Elder Bowen's talk.  Well, they were all good of course!  Anyway, it was a great experience.  We listened to it in English in one room, and the church members listened to it in Russian in another room.  I am grateful for the age change of missionaries and we anticipate that there will be a lot more missionaries!!  It's exciting.

Well, we had a really good week.  We found Ludmilla!! She finally answered her phone and explained that her and her husband had been fighting, so she moved out of there and in with her daughter and grand-daughter.  We had a great lesson with her and talked about baptism, and she will get baptized in a few weeks! (if all goes as planned of course!).  She is amazing! We met with her again later that week and she had finished the book of mormon (like we asked her to), but then started it over again because in her words "once is not enough!".  We taught her the law of chastity/word of wisdom, and she willingly agreed to follow both of the laws.  I remember about 3 weeks ago, sister johnson and I gave her a strength of youth pamphlet.  So when we started asking her if she had any problems with the word of wisdom, she was like "I read that brochure and I found out you don't drink coffee or tea, so I stopped and I haven't drank for a few weeks now."  I was so happy and so impressed!! She came to conference on sunday with her grand-daughter, and stayed both sessions and had a great time with the members! She is so prepared and so awesome! I feel like such a lucky missionary to teach someone this prepared. But we still have the responsibility of making sure she is prepared, and we are trying our hardest.  We also met with another woman for the second time, named Janna.  She is the one who used to kind of be athiest, and now believes in God. We taught her the Restoration and watched the movie with her. She thought it was very interesting and really liked it.  It was cool to see her reaction and she is such a nice lady.  Other than that, we are working a lot with the branch, and doing a LOT of finding.  Sometimes its rough, but we get through it.  We meet some good people like this girl named Lena that we met last week.  She told us she goes to church and she likes church and everything, but that the Bible isn't clear sometimes.  She wants to meet with us soon and I hope it works out!  The other night we were contacting on the street on our way home and we talked to this one guy and then his friend came up and was talking to us.  They were asking me why God doesn't protect them in their time of need, etc. and I was just testifying that God is always there for us, no matter what.  Then they just changed from being slightly argumentative, to calm and friendly. They even gave us the advice that "at this time of night you should not be on the streets, it is not permitted for you, it is dangerous out here!" haha it made us laugh and we went on our way home. 

The weather here has been crazy crazy.  Last week it was still warm, then we had a few rainy days and it was really cold! I even pulled out my pea coats and sweaters and boots and tights. Now all of the sudden today it feels like humid and warm.  It will get cold soon, and I will be prepared with all of my winter gear gathered.  I'm looking forward to the winter even though missionary work in the Winter is quite different. 

Well I love this work and this gospel! It's hard, but the thing that keeps me going is that I know the gospel is true, and it's as simple as that.  I know there is a special work to be done here in Ukraine and it's pretty great to be apart of it.  I thank you all for your support and prayers, I really feel the strength from them.  I love you all! Keep the Faith!!

cectpa demille

Looking out our apartment window

Sis. DeMille and Dickison ready to watch Conference 

dear fam and friends,

last week was so fun and went by so fast!! we got transfer news, and then we geared up to go to nepper last week. monday night we made a quick trip to Kherson and stayed there that night, then got up early on tuesday and went to nepper.  tuesday we met up with Sister Van Bruggen, then contacted around, got some food, and then went back to the Van Bruggens.  It was SO fun to be in nepper again! We hadn't been there for 6 months and it was so fun to see the city in the fall time..i had only seen it in winter!  We got to see a lot of the sisters and some elders we hadn't seen in awhile, and it was so fun.  We stayed in nepper from tuesday until friday morning, so we got to spend a lot of time there and spend time with the Van Bruggens.  They are amazing and my love for them grew a lot last week as i got to know them more.  It was such a good opportunity! President is so funny, he gave us coconut ice cream every night and did companionship study with us every day haha.  One morning he even gave us ice cream for breakfast, it was awesome!  So wednesday i was in a training meeting for awhile and it was just 6 elders and i haha.  We went and got some lunch together, and it reminded me of when i traveled over here with only elders.  Then later that day we got to meet our new companions and get to know them a little bit.  My new companion is Sister Dickison from West Jordan, UT.  She is awesome!! We have already settled in with each other and it will be a great companionship.  She is catching on quick and is such a trooper! I'm lucky to have a great companion!  We got to do a little tracting in Nepper and it was fun to be out in the country in nepper.  We also got to go to the "Welcome Party" for the new missionaries. One of the branches put it on, and it was so fun! They did a little skit, sang a few ukranian songs, and then fed us delicious Borsh.  Also, one day sis johnson and i were wandering around and we were hungry for dinner, so we got a Sharma...which is like a burrito kind of, but ukranian style and delicous.  Then we wanted a drink, so we went into this grocery store and we not only found drinks, but DONUTS!! I haven't had a donut since the MTC and it was sooooo good. The little precious things in life :)  then we sat down and ate that while we watched this guy play the violin in the main square..it was pretty perfect!!  Needless to say, the nepper trip was awesome and I learned so much.  We got back to Nickolaiv on Friday afternoon and got to work.  We did a lot of contacting this weekend and it was good, but tiring.  We found a new investigators that the elders gave to us, her name is Janna.  We had an awesome lesson with her! She told us before that she was kind of athiest, but after the lesson with us she told us that she really feels that God is her Father.  She came to church yesterday and liked it, and we made plans to meet again this weekend.  We haven't gotten ahold of our golden investigator Ludmilla which makes me kind of nervous (we can't lose her!!), but i hope and pray (a lot!) for her that we will get in contact with her soon.  We are going to be doing a lot of finding and hopefully we can find those who are searching for the truth.  We all heard about the conference news about changing the ages for missionaries, and we were all SO stoked!!! It's such an amazing time to be apart of the Lord's work and I hope there will be a lot more missionaries heading out.  I bet more missions will open up and we will see the prophecies come to pass that the word will spread forth to "every nation, kindred, and tongue".  The Lord's work is not easy, but I have learned more doing this work than I ever imagined.  We are so blessed and I owe my whole life to the gospel!  I hope you all enjoyed conference, we will get to watch it this weekend I think.  It's fun training again and it will be a good experience!  I love you all, the work moves forward, and the gospel is true!  LOVE

cectpa demille

friends and family, 

it was a good week, and transfers were surprising.  I'm staying in Nickolaiv..and training a new missionary!!  Sister Johnson is permanently moving to Kherson and will be there with an awesome sister.  Crazy!! I'm really surprised, i thought i was leaving for sure.  I very well could be here for the rest of my mission!  I'm excited and a little overwhelmed, but it will be good!! 

the updates:  so we met with our investigator Larissa in kherson and put her on baptismal date for the end of october.  who knew that meeting a nice old lady in a graveyard would end up wanting to get baptized!  she accepts everything and loves us, but we are a little questioning on if she really understands the seriousness of it. 

time will tell!! we had a miracle happen this week. so our "golden" investigator here in nickolaiv Ludmilla, has been MIA for the past few weeks.  but we stopped by and she was home, and told us how she had been sick-haha she says "i probably was sick because i must have done something disobedient to the gospel"-and she told us how she had been reading the conference ensign and such.  then she tells us how she went to her other church (it's called the new commadment or something) and she told us that she was sitting there and listening to the pastor, and realized that they weren't doing anything in accordance with the gospel. so then she thought to herself "i'm going to leave" haha and she left! and as she was leaving she told us "then i got a thought that said, you need to go to the church with the girls!" so then she asks, "can i come to church with you on sunday?" we of course said yes, and set a time to meet.  we stopped by another time later in the week but she wasn't home, so we were a little nervous for sunday morning. but we walked to her house, and she was waiting outside all ready to go!! and she brought her cute 5 year old grand-daughter with her! we almost cried, it was so amazing. and she loved church-took notes the whole time, commented, asked questions, and wasn't shy to get to know the members. and the members were great with her!! i have never had a church meeting with an investigator go so well.  we will probably set a date for baptism this week.  she is amazing!! i have never met someone more prepared than her.  it was such a tender mercy from the Lord and we were so happy.  sister johnson and I and 2 other girls from the branch sang a musical number "I am a child of God" and everyone loved it hahah.  

the work is moving forward and we are seeing blessings.  it will be a long road ahead of us with finding a lot more and searching for the elect, but I will try to do my best because the Lord has entrusted this part of His vineyard to us.  sometimes i don't know if i can do it or if this will be worth it or something, but the Lord qualifies who He calls and it's the last time that we will get to work in the "vineyard".  i love doing missionary work and preaching the gospel.  we get a lot of rejections every day, see sad things, but it's also wonderful and i know that it's an important work. i love you all and i'm thankful for your support!! i know the church is true and there is no other way in this life that we can obtain true happiness.  i love you all and the work moves forward!!

sister demille



Mama Luba and Amanda




Sis. J, Amanda, and Olga




Sis. J, Amanda, Olga, and Olga!!




The Shnirova Family



Vika and Amanda



The Branch Pres. and his Family



A cool Monument