transfers!

family/friends!

Well, we are lucky because the transfer text came early this morning instead of the afternoon.  There are definitely a lot of changes going on.  I will be training, but I am in a three-some.  I will be with Sister Cardon, she will be senior companion, I will be training a new sister named Sister Swenson.  It will definitely be interesting!  Sister Cardon is a transfer older than me and she was companions with a native sister for 3 transfers, so she is probably really good at Russian and I am so grateful! Our apartment is not exactly accomodating for a threesome, but it's do-able.  I can't believe I am already training, but I kind of figured it would happen.  I am excited, but it's going to be rough to lead two other sisters around the city and give them the run-down on all of our investigators/members here.  I love sister Cardon and I'm sure sister Swenson will be great too. Who knows! The mission is always pushing and stretching you.  We will head to Nepper on Thursday to get our new companions.  I have to go to a training meeting and then after that we will head back to Zap.  It will be an interesting experience, but I'm excited.

As for last week, we had a good week.  We were finally able to meet with one of our investigators, Alyona. She is having a hard time because she just got fired from her job.  We challenged her to read the Book of Mormon and come to our church, instead of read the New Testament and go to the Orthadox church haha.  It's so hard to see situations like that as a missionary.  Before we went over there, she called us and asked us if we could bring her some bread.  We figured that if she is desperate enough to ask us to bring her bread, she is probably out of food.  So we bought a little bag of groceries and took it to her and she just started crying.  It is so sad to see things like that and not be able to help the situation more.  What she thinks she needs is food, like substance (which is of course, essentail to life), but people here don't realize that we have so much more to offer than that.  They take our message for granted.  We try to tell them that our message will "feed" them for a lifetime and eternity, and they just want bread, real bread.  Ukraine makes me sad a lot, there are a lot of helpless people in dire circumstances. But, we can't do anything if they won't accecpt our message, so we just move on and pray.

We also had a good lesson with Lydia last week.  We were pretty bold and asked her straight up why she won't get baptized.  She told us she is scared, but didn't really have a good reason why she is scared.  We told her we have two more things to teach her and then we can't meet with her anymore if she won't progress and get baptized.  We told her she doesn't know when she is going to die (she is always telling us she might die soon and how scared she is) and she needs to get baptized haha. She knows our church is good, but she doesn't know it's true yet. We will see what happens there!

We also finally met with a girl that told us like a month ago that she wants to get baptized. We met with her after church and had a great lesson with her and she has a baptismal date for March 31st now.  We are still teaching our little girl who is deaf, and it's fun and interesting.  We had an interesting lesson with our babushka investigator.  We asked her about word of wisdom (she likes vodka a lot) and talked about free agency.  She was telling us that she knows how important the word of wisdom is and she knows alcohol is bad for us.  So we were like, "babushka, will you follow the word of wisdom and not drink vodka anymore?" and she was like, "of course not!" haha. wow. The conversation got out of hand after that, so we just ended it and we figured we would talk about it another time.  You never know what kind of responses you will get here haha.

Other than that, it's life and business as usual here.  We really need to find more investigators, so we will work on that this next transfer.  I love Zap, and I'm so happy to be staying.  Life as a missionary is a constant roller coaster, never ever a dull moment. It's full of joy and full of sadness. haha. I love it, but it's rough at times.  I'm gonna need a lot of luck and a lot of spirit to make this next transfer awesome.  I love you all! I'm so grateful for your love, prayers, and support! I am so grateful for America and the freedoms we have there.  The work truly is going forth to every nation, kindred, and tongue.  They send the weak and simple to proclaim the gospel, I am living proof of that haha. The Lord strengthens me and I somehow make it through everyday here.  I feel like I have already learned a lifetime of lessons.  The mission feels like a hyped up version of life, directed more spiritually.  You experience all these kind of emotions everyday, experience trials and joy, create lasting bonds, and learn every single day.  I have learned so much from our district and my companions.  I am so grateful for the Elders here and that we have the priesthood around us constantly.  Don't take anything for granted! Life is hard and crazy, but it is bearable and enjoyable with the gospel.  I love you all!! 

Cectpa DeMille