Family and Friends,
I hope you all got over the holidays and are back to real life. Ukraine has not only 1 but 2 Christmases, and 2 New Years as well. haha they just looove to celebrate as much as they can. We had to ask around and clarify all the holidays, but here is what we got out of it. The first Christmas for them is Dec 31, so it's combined with New Years as well. I think one of their traditions is kids will dress up in costumes...kind of like our halloween, so really its like 3 holidays combined in 1. The second christmas is the Provoslovnic Christmas (provoslovnic is like the biggest religion here, it's Russian Orthodox). and then they celebrate one more new years and they call it the "old new years" and it has something to do with the soviet union haha. Anyway, that's the rundown on the holidays here. What's wierd though is that it feels like spring here! It was FREEZING right before christmas, snowed right after christmas, was still cold, the snow melted, it snowed again like a week and a half ago, that snow melted, and now it feels like spring. It has been raining on and off a little bit, but it's not super cold. I mean it's definitely not warm, but not freezing like it was. Strange. I have a feeling it will just dump snow on us one day and we will freeze, but who knows.
So this past week was good, life as a missionary is always interesting. A few highlights: so our investigators Lydia and Igor are doing so good, so we are just teaching them all of the commandments to prepare them for baptism. Last week we taught the law of chastity, prayer, and scripture study haha. So we taught the law of chastity and they were pretty silent and accepting the whole time, then at the end we asked them if they would live the law of chastity, and they both just started laughing sooo hard! haha and Igor was like "she's like 70 years old!!!" and we all just kinda started laughing and we were like "well...will you live the law of chastity?" haha more laughter, then they both said yes. haha it was sooo funny. So wednesday was interesting, Pres. Nielsen and Sis. Nielsen came to Zap to do interviews, and i'm just hanging out with sister nielsen while sister clark is in the interview with president, and i get a phone call from the mission office. It was our visa coordinator guy named Vova, and vova was like "oh sister demille! i'm calling to tell you to come to Nepper tomorrow, the police would like to see you. bring your passport and passport pictures." haha i was like "um..ok, see you in Nepper tomorrow." so we do interviews, go buy bus tickets to go to Nepper, go get passport pictures, and it was a crazy day. So we went to Nepper thursday bright and early, meet up with some other missionaries, then go meet Vova to go to the registration office. Turns out that we didn't even need to be there, Vova just took our passports and took care of it. so we went back to the mission office and waited to make sure we didn't need to make an appearance at the registration office. we made spaghetti and hung out with the office elders and the best senior couple Elder/Sister Merril. Then Vova calls and says that we can go, so we go to the bus station and go back to Zap. haha it was so random and so funny. Apparently they are having tons of problems with getting us registered and there are lots of problems with our visas. President told us it is "harder than it has ever been" to get our visas straightened out. Who knows!! we just do our work and when we get a phone call we do whatever we need to haha.
The rest of the week was busy as always and full of good lessons and good people. We are working hard and having a blast. Today we went to the circus! yes..the circus haha. It was like a new years/christmas special thing, and it was hilarious. It included an Anteater pushing a Cat in a toy truck, bears doing handstands, monkeys riding on llamas, and lots of strange dances. Let's just say ukraine is interesting with their performances haha. This week should be busy and good as always, we are working as much and as hard with we can with our investigators, and working on ways to find more investigators. I have been crusing my way through the Book of Mormon again, and I am amazed that I learn something new everytime I read it and how it applies to our life in this generation. I also have been studying Jesus the Christ a lot and learning so much about Christ's life. James E Talmage is brilliant. We are soo blessed to have the gospel!! I feel lucky to be able to share it, even though it is hard. Our branch is improving and we have seen some love and light come back into the branch. I am grateful for the support I receive from all of you, and we are trying our hardest to shed some love and change lives here in the dark part of the world. I am grateful for the scriptures and how much they can help us. I love all of you, and don't worry, i'm not freezing to death! I love you all!!
Cectpa DeMille
No comments:
Post a Comment