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