the new year

Dear family and friends,

We are having a blast here in Zap for the new year.  Christmas came and gone and so did New Years.  We thought no one would want to meet with us last week because new years here is like the biggest holiday ever, but we were busy and happy as always.  Saturday we actually got permission from our mission president to go to a little get together that a few people were having at our branch president's apartment.  So we got there at 2 and stayed for about 3 hours and had ukranian food and fun and it was awesome.  Yesterday we only had one hour of church and then came home and hung out.  Overall it was a really good holiday season here in ukraine and we are having fun and working hard.
We met with a lot of less actives and people who just needed some encouragement. One of my favorite lessons we had last week was with a lady named Anja. She is totally active in the church, but she is just sick a lot and doesn't make it to church every week.  She has a friend that she wants us to teach, so we went over there to meet with her and her friend, but her friend couldn't make it. So we decided to share something from the Liahona with her and we shared "It is better to look up" by Elder Cook ( i think).  We read it with her and she started crying and she was like "Girls, i have read this whole liahona but i didn't listen to this article. Thank you for coming over and sharing this with me so i could listen to it again. I needed this" It was so great and she is absolutely adorable. It is amazing to listen to what people need and follow the spirit and help them. 
We had a couple of discouraging moments last week, one with a Babushka who is just really kinda stubborn.  Her daughter and granddaughter are so amazing and incredible examples to us. They are really solid in the church and are really incredible people.  Babushka just won't come to church and isn't interested or something, so it's hard to try and help people like that who won't help themselves.  After our message her daughter Luda was walking us outside and told us that her and her daughter Lea, are figuring out ways that they can be more worthy to receive blessings from Heavenly Father to help our branch and Babushka.  I wish we could all have attitudes like Lea and Luda.
We are still working with our investigators and helping them progress as much as we can help them. Free agency is the greatest blessing from Heavenly Father, but can be a little frustrating at times as a missionary haha. We are doing great though and we have high aspirations for this branch here and we are trying to make it more unified.  I love being a missionary, even with all of the hardships.  The Lord is really blessing us as we are trying to do as much as we can here.  I promise you all that Heavenly Father is aware of our needs and He knows how we feel, we just need to ask for His help.  It is a great time to be alive and to help the work of the gospel move forth.  I love you all and thank you for your support!

Cectpa DeMille