The new start

dear friends/family,

Last week was a good, long, busy, crazy week! We spent a few days getting our apartment clean and getting Sister Clark packed.  We left for Nepper thursday morning along with the elders, then we headed straight to the mission office.  It was like a party there! There were tons of missionaries there and it was great to meet new people and see familiar faces.  Then we went and got lunch at McDonalds (of course haha), and then we went to the training meeting.The training meeting was really good with some good advice and good conversation.  President Nielsen is so wise! I swear him and Sister Nielsen are the wisest, smartest couple ever.  Love them.  Then we met our new missionaries and hung out for a little bit.  So we were about to head back to Zap on the bus, but in my mind i couldn't figure out how we were going to get from the bus station to our apartment. All the taxis here are super small and they charge like crazy for luggage.  I knew we couldn't fit 3 sisters and 6 suitcases into one taxi, so the only thing we could do was split up.  I wanted to get permission from president for us to split up, but he was not okay with that (understandable). Long story short, President Nielsen drove us to Zap in the mission van haha.  It was great, we talked a lot.  Something cool we found out, Him and Sister Nielsen just went to Istanbul, Turkey a few weeks ago for some mission conference.  Epic news, they are sending in missionaries to Turkey! It's going to be part of the Bulgaria, Sofia mission and it includes Turkey now.  They just got permission to proselyte there, so it's awesome.  The work is moving forward!!!

So I love my two new companions! We are already having tons of fun and working hard. Sister Swenson (my new missionary) is totally rockin' the language, and Sister Cardon and I already have way to much fun together.  Zap needs some fresh blood in here to get the work moving forward.  I feel so much better about my Russian already.  I can totally understand about 75-80% of what people are saying, and I'm speaking a lot better.  The Lord is blessing me!! We are going to have a solid district and it will be awesome.  It's interesting leading them around the city, because I'm not too good at directions, but so far so good.  I'm starting to enjoy change on the mission, it really is a blessing and you learn so much with new views and goals.  I don't know much else to say because last week was pretty much an "adjustment" week, but the work is going well and I am loving it.  It's such a blessing to be a missionary! Pray for missionaries everywhere to find the "elect".  I'm grateful for all of you and your support!  I love you all!

Sister DeMille