The craziest week. Ever.

dear family and friends, I am pleased to tell you that I am alive and that I have been repenting a lot and that I will never take anything for granted in America ever again! ever. So last week started off a little rough with our dirty apartment and no food and whatnot, and we thought, monday it will all be better. We will go buy lots of food and things for the apartment and all will be well.  We were wrong! We had no money so we just bought a few things and made due with what we had.  We just decided to wait until our next month's money came in and then go from there.  All would be good after that.  Tuesday morning comes around and I'm just enjoying my studies in the Book of Mormon, and all of the sudden--power goes out.  That's normal in Ukraine, like randomly you won't have water or power or such, but it stayed off for a long time.  Luckily i took a shower that morning.  So we made a few calls and our office dude that is the visa person and person you can ask anything, was going to be in Nickolaiv the next day.  His name is Vova, he is great.  So we survive tuesday and vova comes on wednesday and we go buy mattresses at the ukranian version of costco (love that store), and we head back to our apartment to fix the electricity.  He messes with it and gets it going, all is well.  Wrong again!! It turns off like 2 minutes after he leaves and so he says he will send an electrician over the next day.  Let me take a step back--tuesday when the power went out, my laundry was in the middle of a cycle--so my laundry was basically molding in the washer.  So anyway, the electrician Paul comes over, and he stays for 2 and a half hours and asks us all sorts of inappropriate questions and tells us we should wear shoes in our apartment because we are young girls and going barefoot will make us sick. hahahaha (huge ukranian superstition). So after paul gets the electricity going, it goes off again after he leaves. When it was on, we tried running the washer and then all of the sudden there is a flood in our kitchen.  So at the same time we have no power and a flood. It was awesome. So the elders kindly let us do a load of laundry at their apartment, that was good.   Then on friday, we had district meeting in a nearby city, Hersone, and there is a senior couple there. I took a shower at their apartment after district meeting so that was good. But it was quite an unfortunate week. We bought some groceries and they all went bad because the fridge doesn't work without electricity. We can't take showers (unless we want hypothermia because the water is sooooooo cold). I have taken like 3 showers in the past 2 weeks haha.  A plus was that we had a few packages and a lot of candy, so i survived on carmels and tootsie rolls.  We had a few meals and such, so we aren't like starving, but we had like a small meal once a day creating random things with what we had haha.  Long story short, we still don't have power.  Paul the electrician is coming back tonight because he all too convinently left a tool at our apartment, but I don't think even paul can fix our problem.  The best part though was yesterday President and Sister Nielsen came to church, we had interviews with president after church, and then they wanted to come see our apartment.  We took them there and they both just walked around shaking their heads saying "this just isn't going to work. what is this!" hahaha we almost died laughing.  They apologized up and down and thanked us for our patience haha. The best part was, President Nielsen called us "rugged" haha.  They offered to buy us a tent because they think that would be better than our apartment hahah. Sister Johnson and I just laughed a lot, complained, repented, read the area books by flashlight, and ate a lot of candy.  It's just hard because we can't really use our sink because it floods the kitchen, we have no power to keep food cold, so we are resorting to a lot of interesting things.  President is working on getting us a new apartment, so I see an apartment move in the near future.  At least it's summer and not winter, I would have already died haha.  And it's a good thing I really love being a missionary and representing Christ, or I would have hopped on a plane home (just kidding kind of). We learned a lot! I learned how to be grateful and I learned that laughter can cure anything.  A few interesting/funny things: there is this american guy that has been coming to church and he is here looking for a bride.  Sister Nielsen gave him the run down and told him "You should just go home.  We want our church women to stay here to build up the kingdom. A marriage of this kind won't work, and a 25 young attractive ukranian girl won't make you happy and you won't make her happy.  She won't be completely comfortable in america, and you are the kind of people that we don't need here." hahaha i love her so much. she said it a lot nicer in like a grandma chastizing her grandchild kind of way, but it was awesome.  Also the branch president called us the other day (he speaks english) and he was like "sisters! i have the funniest joke i want to tell you. so barack obama calls mitt romney on the phone and says, i have good news and bad news. romney says i want the good news first. barack obama says,  it's about time for america to have a mormon president.  mitt romney says, oh yeah? well thats great! but what's the bad news? barack obama says, my baptismal date is set for saturday." hahahaha he laughed so hard and sister johnson and i were dying. little things like that make a day better haha. It is getting HOT here and let's just say, ukraine gets crazier in the summer. people wear interesting things haha. let's just say, we look at the ground or have "bouncing eyes" as sister nielsen calls it.  it's like people here hibernate in the winter and go crazy in the summer. i love it haha. So, we are slowly surviving and we will continue in the work.  We went on a great run this morning in a beautiful park, and we have tons of goals to rock this city.  I felt like laman and lemuel all combined into one sister missionary, but i feel better and we are doing great.  i love you all and i hope that everything at home is great!! sister demille

friends and family, this has been one crazy weekend thus far!

Transfers happened on thursday, so we headed to Nepper and got our new companions and such.  Sister Johnson and I headed with 2 other elders down to a city called Hersone.  It was a 6 hour bus ride (my favorite thing..not!), and then we had an hour taxi ride to Nickolaiv.  The elders in Nickoliav met us at our new apartment and we loaded all of our bags into our apartment.  The apartment is in an excellent location and it is big.  It was really dirty..i mean, we spent like 3 hours cleaning the next day and used almost a whole bottle of bleach and like 4 sponges. haha.  but, now it is clean and we are kind of getting more settled in.  We don't really have beds, just a little fouton couch thing with thin coushins..and we have to sleep together haha, but it's all good. soon we will get real beds we hope.  The last week in Zap was awesome, and I was sad to leave, but it felt good as well.  It was time.  Nickolaiv is really pretty! It looks more like the rest of europe with unique buildings and lots of colors.  We really like it so far! The branch was so awesome and welcoming, they are happy to have sisters again.  The branch is really nice too, it even has a real baptismal font.  There are a few cute couples and families, and there are a lot of youth our age! It is so fun! The branch even has 2 girls that can play the piano, that is crazy cool.  It has been an interesting weekend.  We are kind of out of money because we spent all of ours on taxis and we had to get a few things for the apartment, so we have been living off of cereal haha.  It is really cool, don't worry.  Sister Johnson is the perfect companion for this crazy adventure, we are already having way too much fun together.  I swear half the branch speaks fluent english, when am I ever going to learn Russian?? haha. 

On a more serious note though, I love this...most everything.  It's really hard and overwhelming, we have no idea what to do, but we are doing the best we can and pushing through.  I'm so grateful for a companion, I couldn't do this alone! I'm grateful for laughter and that humor makes things better.  I'm so grateful for change.  Change makes us stretch and grow and push ourselves to the point where we have nothing left to do but rely on Christ.  I can testify that Christ will carry us if we rely on Him.  He has faith in us because He is our brother and our savior.  I couldn't do this without the support of the spirit.  It is really interesting being in a place where the church is new and where people are just doing the best they can with the information they have and they sacrifice so much for the gospel.  It is inspiring, I am grateful for their example.  The scriptures help me so much, and I have learned more than I ever thought I could.  This whole experience is just enriching and crazy wonderful.  Hard, like really hard sometimes, but wonderful.  I am just grateful for all that we have been blessed with.  I love you all!! EVERYTHING is possible through the savior.  I love being a missionary and this will be crazy and hard and I am overwhelmed but it's so fun and so great.  I love you all!!!

cectpa demille

even more pictures

youth activity

dinner the other night

part of our chalked out plan of salvation

our apartment building! the grey door is ours:) don't freak out, it's cool

more pictures

some of the sisters in nepper, we just got done eating at mcdonalds

all the sisters in the mission except sister clark/kochel

pictures

me and Katia

our district activity of making hamburgers and watching 17 miracles
sister cardon is the blonde one

family and friends,

The weather here is finally warm, grass is on the ground, flowers are in bloom, and i'm getting transferred! usually this would be sad news (which i am sad to leave zap), but i get to be with an awesome sister that i roomed with in the mtc (sister johnson!), and we get to open a new city called Nickolaiv!!! I am SOO stoked!!! I feel like it's perfect, which must mean it's right.  Things here in zap are going very well, we have been busy organizing our ward list, finding missing people from the ward, and trying to survive everyday! We somehow survive, which is a miracle in and of itself, all of us being so unfluent in the language and so young on the mission haha.  But i love every second!! Today we went to an island for p-day activity called Hortitza. It used to be home to some ancient ukranian warriors, so it was sweet.  I love ukraine haha.  
I have been trying to practice my russian like crazy and trying to learn as much as i can.  Opening a new city might be interesting! Sisters used to be there a little over a year ago, but they closed it and reopened it.  I can't wait. Nickolaiv is 3 hours south from here i think, a sub city to a bigger city called Hersone.  I can't think of much else that happened, my mind is just excited for something new. I feel like i accomplished and learned what i needed to learn here in zap.  I love all of you, I can feel your prayers and the Lord's work is moving forward!! 

Cectpa DeMille

Another week

family and friends,

I never ceased to be surprised at the life of a missionary.  One of my favorite things is as a missionary, you LOOK and you FIND the little miracles everyday.  A quick rundown of the week--we didn't have a baptism because of some problems that came up.  We can't have it this coming weekend because we are watching conference, so hopefully it will take place in a few weeks.  This last week we did a lot of finding and had a few good lessons.  It's interesting as a missionary to teach or meet those people who you just grow to love and it becomes another testament of the truthfulness of this work and sheds light on why i am here.  A girl named Katia here who is like my best friend, we have been meeting with her a lot lately.  She has been investigating for a few years, and is honestly just scared to make the choice to get baptized.  We had a lesson with her and we watched Elder Holland's talk Safety for the Soul (the one about the Book of Mormon).  I was bearing testimony to her about how the Book of Mormon really is safety for the soul, and I just felt the spirit so strong that it really is true and it really is written for us.  Little moments like that just give me the boost when missionary work gets hard.
One cool thing we did last week is we went "district finding". We chalked out a huge plan of salvation, we sang hymns, and we tried to talk to people about our church.  It was interesting and funny to watch all the strange looks we got.  We did it at a big art square, so there was tons of people.  It kind of started raining, so that was a bummer, but we plan to do it again. 
Yesterday in sacrament meeting us missionaries did a musical number, and it was cool.  Tons of the members came up after and they were like: "If i was given the choice to listen to you missionaries or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, I would choose you. You sounded like angels!!!" haha it was great. 
A little miracle moment that happened was one day we were contacting around and all of the sudden I approached this older guy and just started talking to him.  While this was going on, this lady stopped and approached my companions.  I was thinking about it after and I bet the lady wouldn't have stopped and talked to us unless we were already talking to someone else.  I look back at moments like that and realize the spirit is working through us and we are following it, even if we don't realize it.  I am way excited to watch conference this weekend! The missionaries go in a separate room from the members and watch it in English, so I am so excited haha.  And great news: we finally got some of the new translations of the Book of Mormon!!! The book is 100 pages longer than the old translation, but wayy better! We are way stoked.  Well, that's all I have for this week, but the work is moving forth and I love it.  I love you all!!

Cectpa DeMille

Already April

family and friends,

Time is flying by!! I hope you all are enjoying the weather wherever you are, because it is still pretty chilly here in Zap.  I'm looking forward to the near future when I can put away my tights and pea-coats for another 7 months...it will be a good day.  Last week was still really cold and snowed a few times.  I am praying for warmer weather soon.  It was another good week here and as always, full of ups and downs.  We have been having a lot of new contacts and investigators pop up from English and other things.  It has been really rewarding.  Even if none of our contacts turn out to be members of the church, hopefully they have a good impression of the church.  The "down" of the week was we dropped our Babushka investigator. Her heart just isn't into being changed. I took it pretty hard just because I have seen her progress so much and come so far, but you have to put those feelings aside sometimes.  Life goes on! 
We had a busy week with going to Nepper twice, but both trips were good.  Let's just say last sunday night on the way home from our first trip there, i had to sit in between 2 men on the way home, and it was wierd.  The week went well and we picked Sister Cardon up on thursday again in Nepper.  Our baptism that was supposed to happen on Saturday didn't happen. But the good news, is that it's happening this weekend and she is so excited! 
I heard conference was great, and I'm excited to watch it soon.  We have to wait here for the russian translation, so we are watching it on the 14th.  They have it in english too for us missionaries :) Speaking of russian, it has been going a lot better.  I am amazed at the difference that finishing the Book of Mormon made.  I feel like I can usually speak okay, but my understanding is still behind.  I try really hard to focus on everything, but sometimes it just hurts my brain! I'm sure it will continue to get better.  I bore my testimony yesterday in sacrament meeting, and the congregation only corrected me on two words! haha good times.  Well, there is nothing too much else going on here.  I hope you all have a good Easter weekend coming up! I miss all of you, but this work is so rewarding! I love you all and keep living life!!

Cectpa DeMille