leap year

hellooo everyone, it is starting to feel like spring here in Zap.

I am overjoyed, I actually saw the sun this morning! It has been like 2-5 degrees Celcius, and it has felt wonderful. This last week was great, life as a missionary is never dull.  I think it's rad that it's leap year.  We are celebrating many things on wednesday: leap year, probably the last week for our district to be together, and warm weather.  We are going to eat at Brat Alexae's and the Elders are begging me to make some cake for district meeting, so we will probably have cake too.  Well, here is a few highlights from last week:

Ok so last Monday night we were heading to an appointment with our Babushka investigator. The marshutka (bus) was super crowded, and there is a door in the front, and a door in the back.  Sister Clark was like, ok our stop is next. She started heading to the back door, and I was closer to the front, so I started walking towards the front and I got off the bus at the stop.  I got off the bus, look back for sister clark, look at the back door, she is on the bus, and the doors close and the bus drives away. hahahaha. so i stand there, companionless and wonder what i should do.  Well i knew that the stop for babushka's house was one stop away, so i just start heading there. It must have been quite a sight.  There wasn't a sidewalk, just a bunch of snow, so i just start trudging through knee deep snow (i'm not exaggerating!), Book of Mormon in hand, and trying to go as fast as i can.  It was so hilarious! haha. i wasn't too nervous, and we were only separated for about 15 minutes, but it was WIERD!! It feels very strange without a companion, I am very grateful that we preach the gospel two by two haha.  There was this guy across the street from me while i was running through the snow, and he kept shooting me the strangest looks. I can only imagine his thoughts: "who is that american girl, holding a strange book? what is she doing in ukraine at night in the dark, running through the snow?" haha i'm sure it was something like that.  I told the elders that night what happened and they thought it was the funniest thing they ever heard. haha good times in zap!
We had a lesson with Lydia/Igor last week, that was very frustrating.  I think all that they can focus on right now is their financial problems and their health problems. We have a good lesson planned with Lydia this week, we are going to talk about how to feel the Holy Ghost.  We think that she knows that the church is good and brings her peace, but she doesn't know what it feels like to receive an answer. Who knows! We met with another investigator, Ira. She is open, but I don't know if she is willing to change.  Those two lessons were all in the same day, and it was a LONG day.  Sister Clark and I got home, planned, and went to bed haha we were so exhausted.  

We were in charge of FHE last week, and Ukraine has this holiday called Men's Day.  Men's Day and FHE fell on the same day, so we talked about men! haha jk, but we talked about heroes that are men, and then picked a few heroes from the Book of Mormon and talked about it.  It was a good lesson. We bought treats for after the lesson, and we bought two kinds of cookies. We decided to try the cookies before we gave them to everyone, and lo and behold, we bought alcoholic cookies again! we bit into it and we both were like "mmm! sweetned condenced milk with delicious chocolate wafer! oh no....that is gross, what is that?" haha it was definitely alcohol. leave it up to the sister missionaries to buy alcoholic cookies to eat after the spiritual thought.  

We had a baptism here on Saturday! His name is Yuri, and he is the jolliest little man i have ever met. He is little though, like I am taller than him haha. He was kind of a miracle baptism, the elders had only been teaching him for 3 weeks.  He was so happy though and just cried after he was baptized and after he got confirmed.  He is so funny haha.  We are really happy for Zap right now.  Last year, zap only got 2 baptisms the whole year, and we have already had 2 this year and it's only march.  I love zap!!!

I am getting anxious for transfer announcements next monday. ahh! we usually get teh transfer text around like 1 ish.  we will most likely be going to nepper next week. who knows! it will be interesting, but I have a testimony that the Lord qualifies who He calls, and it will be okay.  I love you all so much! The gospel is true! I am grateful to be a missionary.  Thank you all for the love, support, and prayers!

Cectpa DeMille

the chandelier

a cute little dome that one of our fave babushki live in

the baptismal font haha then pics of the baptism

Changes

Dear Family and Friends,

This last week was interesting to say the least! Actually, not very many "epic" things happened, but some changes took place, mostly with me.  I am not going to lie, I have been in a little bit of a depression mode lately. I love being a missionary, but it has been rough.  I am a wuss, but it's okay.  So anyway, I'm just plugging away at the work last week, and all of the sudden something changed.  I all of the sudden just felt better, more happy.  I started understanding more of the language and speaking better.  I used to loathe contacting because it was scary, then last week I actually enjoyed it, and it wasn't scary.  A lot of appointments bailed on us last week, but I was still happy. I was right about a lot of things about Ukraine.  It is dark, cold, scary, and a lot of the people are "cold", but I am settling in (finally) and starting to embrace this mysterious country.  I know that this is just the beginning of my mission and I still have a long way to go, but I have been blessed so much and the spirit of the Lord has really helped me thus far.
A few funny highlights from last week:
So we were eating at Brat Alexae's last week (the funniest man I know in Ukraine, he used to be a dancer..interesting, he cooks lunch for the elders every week before district meeting, and sometimes us sisters join in), and he was telling us all about how he knows German. Sister Clark and I were like, yeah we both studied German in high school too.  So brat alexae goes and starts naming all of the utensils on the table and he gets to the fork and he was trying to think of the word, and i was like, "oh i know what that's called, a dinglehopper!!!" and he was like "oh! i forgot!" and just went on naming more things in German. hahahahaha it was beyond funny.  Then he was talking about how women in ukraine have mustaches (sad, but true), and he gets like real close to my face, then sister clark's face and was like, "oh, neither of you have mustaches here, that's good!" hahah it was also very funny. 
We went to one of my favorite babushkas last week, babushka krivyets.  She always says interesting prayers, and this time was also an interesting prayer haha.  We went over there to get her tithing so we could take it to church, and so she was like "girls, i will pray." so she starts and she is holding her tithing in her hands and she starts praying and is like "my favorite Lord, i am glad to pay tithing. the banks are scary here, with piles of collected money and people everywhere. i bet you have banks in heaven for spiritual money and i bet it's a lot better than the banks here on earth." hahaha it was so funny, I had a hard time not laughing during the prayer. 
I also witnessed my first "mail order bride" situation.  An older American guy, a young beautiful, blonde Ukrainian girl sitting on the bus together.  Him not knowing any russian or anything, her doing everything.  These things do happen I guess.
The weather has been a lot warmer and I am loving it.  Check this out-I only had to wear 1 pair of tights instead of 2 or 3!! It was bliss. 
Unfortunately, we might be dropping our investigators Lydia and Igor soon.  It's a hard reality to face as a missionary, but when they stop progressing, you can't do anything about it anymore.  We had a good talk with them last week about how it's all up to them, but who knows.  It's still a blessing to be able to share the gospel with whoever will listen.  I am soooooooooo grateful that i'm a missionary now, instead of a pioneer or the first missionaries here.  There are special people everywhere waiting to hear the gospel.  We are so priveledged to live in a day where we can see the gospel roll forth to every nation, kindred, and tongue.  I love being able to share the good news, the best message that you can share with anyone.  I know that everyone has trials in life, and really hard things that we all have to go through.  The fact that we have the gospel, an eternal perspective, and knowledge of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, makes everything bearable, if not enjoyable.  I am so grateful that I was born in America too.  I am grateful for the support, prayers, letters, and friendships.  I officially past my 6 month mark, and I am amazed at how much I have been blessed thus far.  I love you all more than you will ever know! This gospel is changing lives over here and we are trying to serve the Lord the best we can. Remember one of my favorite quotes by Elder Holland "some blessings come soon, some come late, and some won't come until heaven, but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come." I love you all!!

Sister DeMille...Сестра Дэмиль haha i had to throw the russian name in there.

ballet and baptism

Nutcracker

Nutcracker

Nutcracker

picture of our zone, elder and sister merril (office couple, love them) and president and sister Nielsen

friends, family, and everyone!

This week was BUSY! Busy, wonderful, and fun.  Busy because we had zone conference.  Nepper trips are wonderful, but make the week crazy.  We headed to Nepper tuesday afternoon and came back wednesday night.  Our district was combined with the district in the most northern city in our mission called Poltava.  Sister Lacy and Sister Kochel are the sisters up there.  It was great to see them again and meet the elders in their district.  Zone conference was amazing.  Full of wonderful ideas, thoughts, and experiences from Pres/Sister Nielsen.  They are the wisest people I have ever met! Zone conf. is a good way to motivate yourself and give you a boost to work harder. 
On Thursday night we got to go to The Nutcracker by the RUSSIAN BALLET!!! Oh yeah, the russian ballet.  We bought our tickets awhile ago and we took time out of P-Day so we could go. It was awesome! When the two Russian dancers came out, everyone was so stoked. haha they love their Russian heritage here.  It was really beautiful though and so fun.  We even did missionary work there and talked to some adorable theater-goers.  Good times in Zap. 
The baptism on Saturday went smoothly and was great.  We had a good turn out and it was great to see Olga finally make that decision after 2 years.  We had cake, cookies, and chai after and it was a good time all around.  Olga is so funny, she is so little and the baptismal jumper was like 2 feet too long on her and she kept laughing and laughing about it. It was really wonderful.  I forget how important baptism is.  
We had a couple of good lessons last week. One with a less-active named Cveta. We were talking to her about coming back to church and repenting and everything like that.  We shared with her part of Elder Christofferson's talk in general conf. about the Donner pary and the man who can barely remember the horrible winter they went through, but remembers the beautiful morning that he saw.  I agree with Elder Christofferson, we all can and probably have felt like that-that the burden of sin can be lifted, and we can forget everything horrible, but remember the beautiful morning of redemption.  I feel like that about my mission.  There is a lot of sad, hard stuff that we go through, but there is always morning after night, no matter how long or dark that night is.  It is truly a priveledge to see someone pray for the first time, or realize the importance of the Book of Mormon for the first time.  I also had that experience last week.  An investigator named Ira came to the baptism that we haven't seen since October.  She is really busy so it's hard to meet with her. We were talking with her after the baptism about the Book of Mormon, and how it is true and is another witness of Christ.  She was deep in thought, truly contemplating what we had to say.  She said "I have gone to church my whole life, and I have never heard about this book before.  I have never knew this before" we explained to her why we are here and our purpose.  
Sometimes I don't know how much "good" I am doing here, but I bet the missionaries who first came to Russia/Ukraine felt like that too, and now look how much the church has grown here.  I feel like Ammon and the Sons of Mosiah: "we can look forth and see the fruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are many.." We are gathering the elect, helping with the gathering of Israel.  One cool thing that I learned in Zone Conference is that in the scriptures it says that the tribes were spread "due North of Israel". If you look directly North of Israel, it's the Crimea, part of the Dnepropetrovsk mission.  I feel so blessed to be laboring in the land that people never thought would be open to missionary work.   Russia used to be untouchable, now we are invading like crazy trying to help the work move forward.  I testify that ALL missionary work is no effort wasted.  We are all making a difference.  I appreciate the support, prayers, and love. We need it! This work is the LORD'S  work. I love you all so much! I'm so grateful to have been born in a country where we can have the freedom of religion and for the opportunity to take that across the world.  I love you all!

Cectpa DeMille

my first sharma! kindof like a kabob

definitely the coldest ive ever been. i think the picture is a little blurry because my lens was frozen.

the draft

Dear fam and friends,

Time is flying by and we are working hard here in Zap.  The work never ceases to be interesting, full of ups and downs, good and bad surprises, and full of blessings.  A couple of highlights of last week: we got a ward mission leader! His name is Alexae. This is epic.  He was less active but he has been bringing his daughter to church every week and he is solid with being our leader.  He loves missionary work and is excited to work with us.  His daughter's name is Deonna, and she is ADORABLE.  She is almost 9, so Brat Alexae and his wife want us to teach her the lessons and we set a baptismal date for the 8th of March. Teaching her is interesting because she is deaf.  Her parents are wonderful and so patient and loving.  One of them has to translate by signing or writing everything down on a piece of paper.  Teaching her is slow and very simple, but one of the most rewarding things I have done so far.  We also should be having a baptism this weekend.  Her name is Olga, she is the one who came out of nowhere who used to be an investigator.  We did a massive review of all of the lessons and asked her the baptismal interview questions. She was solid, and then we had our District Leader interview her.  He said something came up and she needs to be interviewed by Pres. Nielsen.  We don't have a Stake Pres. in our mission, so Pres. Nielsen acts as that authority.  Long story short, she is getting interviewed today by him and we hope everything goes well and she can be baptized this weekend.  
Our investigator Igor is definitely trying our patience a bit.  We went over to have a lesson with them and he wasn't there, so we just talked to Lydia. She had a lot of questions about the scriptures and commandments-of course word of wisdom. Igor told her that they can drink green/black chai because it's not in the bible-we cleared that right up, and had a good talk.  We went over there on Saturday and Igor wasn't there again, and Lydia was so worried. She told us he has been drinking a lot and she is concerned for his safety.  We just went through with our lesson and taught her tithing.  She understands the "why" and the principle of tithing, so we asked if she would pay it, and she flat out said no.  We expected that response, they have a huge financial problem right now.  At that moment Igor walked in (definitely drunk) and we cut our lesson short and left.  We feel bad for Lydia, she shouldn't be worrying about things like this at her age and it's sad to see her like that.  We might stop teaching Igor and just teach Lydia.  Who knows! Life as a missionary is always interesting.  We had a few other good lessons last week, and overall it was a good week.  
This week will be busy, we have zone conf. in Nepper, so we are heading up tomorrow and coming back wed. night.  It should be fun, and it's always good to see other missionaries and Pres./Sis. Nielsen.  It has still been cold, and it doesn't matter how many layers you wear if the wind is blowing.  I mean it's COLD, but honestly people here are kindof wimps! haha we always laugh about it.  All of the schools have been closed for a month! (including the universities, no joke.) All of the teachers say it's too cold so they don't want to leave their house to come teach haha.  And a lot of people are like, wait you want to meet with us? No girls, call me in 2 months when it's warmer. hahaha. Gotta love it.  Another thing that's funny, is what they call here, "The Draft". AKA, the breeze, or the wind, etc.  We called Lydia last sunday because she wasn't at church, and she told us she was sick.  When we were over there last week, she was like "girls, i was out on the balcony and then the wind blew and it was cold. then i came inside and i had chills, then a temperature, then a bigger temperature! i know it was from that wind." haha i mean i agree, the wind isn't pleasant or anything, but it's winter, you are naturally going to get sick but the wind isn't going to be the cause of a terrible sickness. hahah it's so funny. I am cold, but at least i'm entertained here.  My other favorite thing about winter is people drag their kids around in sleds! It's awesome! they just throw a pillow onto a sled, tie a rope onto it, put their kid on it, and drag them around.  I think it's very inventive and economical.  Well, that's about it for life here in Ukraine.  I am grateful for the Savior and His perfect example. Thank you for your prayers and support.  I love you all!!  

Sister DeMille