ice and laughs

Dear everyone,

Last week was a good week.  Not as hard as the week before, and full of surprises.  Last week was transfers and lo and behold, our whole district is staying together in Zap.  The surprise is that the elders switched companions. haha it was really funny when we got transfer texts, all of us just looked at each other and thought, can that be right? It was strange, but they are getting along fine.  We are excited for this transfer and we are getting a lot of blessings.  Next transfer is going to be crazy.  I don't think Sister Clark and I will be together..:( but we will see, we always try to guess transfers and we are always wrong.  And it's not for another 6 weeks, so it's great!! 
So yesterday I had to give a talk in Sacrament meeting...yikes! It was like 15 minutes long, full of bad Russian, but overall it went okay.  People are so funny here! In my talk i was talking about how sometimes its difficult to stand up for what we believe in. I was expressing that, and everyone was just like nodding their heads and a few were like "of course!" "i agree!" haha it's so funny.  and I said a word wrong, and like 5 people out loud just corrected me haha i love it, it's great.  When I was finished, I was walking back to my seat and everyone was like "thank you!" and a few ladies were like "we didn't understand everything, but God helps us understand" haha i love it. they are hilarious here.  
It has been FREEZING! More so than last week. It was at least -13 C everyday, probably with a windchill of like -47 haha. It's probably not that cold in Farenheit, but the wind and the ice...oh it's so cold.  But, I am surviving and it's bearable for the most part. I haven't fallen yet, but I slip a whole lot on the ice.  They don't use salt here or anything, they just throw dirt on the sidewalks over the ice.  Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't haha.  Gotta love ukraine. We called a couple of people last week to see if they could meet, and both of them were like "it's too cold! i'm not coming outside!" haha one less active sweet babushka that we love, we called her, and she was like "girls, i can't come to you it's too cold!" and we were like "no, babushka we will come to your apartment!" and she was like "no, girls! stay inside and rest. you need to do that so you won't get sick." haha i love it.  they shoud be used to this weather, but no. haha it's just so funny.
Our investigators are all doing better.  We focused our lessons last week on the importance of the Book of Mormom, testimony and how put it all together and stuff.  Lydia and Igor look a lot better and we moved their baptismal date to the end of Feb.  We got a surprise new investigator, that was an investigator like 2 years ago with the sisters here.  She was like "i want to get baptized but i can't pay tithing!" we had 2 lessons with her and went over the baptismal interview questions, talked about tithing, and set a baptismal date for Feb. 11. haha, a miracle. We hope it works out and she is just the cutest lady. We are getting more contacts, referrals, and getting ahold of more less actives that need to come back.  It is great.  
Russian is coming along..I am getting faster at reading, and cruising through the Book of Mormon.  We are promised as missionaries that if we read the Book of Mormon in our assigned language that our language skills will dramatically increase..i'm definitely putting that to the test haha.  I just finished the Book of Mormon again last week (in english of course) and I am starting over.  It's amazing how much we can learn from it.  I have about 200 pages left in Jesus the Christ, and wow I love that book.  James E Talmage is one of my new heroes.  It is inspiring to learn so much about Christ and His life.  
Missionary work is good and we are learning so much everyday.  It is like we are stretched as far as we can go sometimes, and stretched more.  Sometimes I think "this is a hard thing that the Lord has asked" then I rebuke myself and repent haha.  It's an interesting process and cycle. I am really trying to focus/learn all that I can this transfer so that if I need to train next tranfer, then I will be able to haha.  Well, I am grateful for this gospel and the opportunity to share it. I'm grateful for warm clothes, good food (because a lot of food here is wierd), and great friends and family.  I love you all!! The gospel is true!

Cectpa DeMille