we love picnics and families

friends and family!

It was another busy, great week here in Nickoliav and Kherson.  We have been doing tons of Area Book work, and it has been successful. Since we are the only missionaries in Nickoliav, we got all of the Elder's area books, and now we have like 8 books between the two cities.  It's craziness! We are still trying to find a good balance between two cities, member work, less active work, investigator work, area book work, contacting, and everything else.  There is so much to do everyday, but we will get it done eventually I hope..haha.  This last weekend was one of my most favorite weekends on my mission!! Friday started out wierd because we got dogged twice with lessons, but we had a lesson that night.  We had a lesson scheduled with a family (mom, son, dad), and they brought their co-worker.  They all spoke english, so that was a surprise!! But it was seriously one of the best lessons and best nights of my life here in Ukraine.  They were so wonderful!!! They fed us this crazy delicious meal.  We had home-made juice, bread, meat/potatoes, cucumber/tomato/mint salad, delicious strawberries/cream for dessert, and pork tongue. Yes, pork tongue!! It's a delicacy here, and I actually loved it!! I might need to pick some up for myself haha.  It was probably the best meal I've had here. And they were just awesome! We got to know them and they got to know us, and we reviewed the Restoration with them.  They were very accepting and had great questions!! They didn't want us to leave, they kept asking us to stay and then we settled on us coming back haha.  It was just a warm, comfortable, awesome environment to be in.  So refreshing to have lessons like that!! Both Sister Johnson and I walked out of there and we were like "whoa, that was awesome." we fell in love with their family, and i'm pretty sure they liked us! I told them this story about how sometimes people will tell us that we speak really good Russian, and then other times when we will ask someone a question in russian, they will say "we don't speak english, speak in russian" hahah. they laughed so hard, and then i told them how sometimes when people don't understand us i will say "i am speaking russian, i just have an accent because i'm from america!" and then they will understand everything i'm saying after that.  They thought that was the most hilarious thing they have ever heard and they about lost it laughing so hard.  haha i just love little things like that as a missionary!!  

On Saturday we were in Kherson for a branch picnic.  Let's just say it wasn't like a ward picnic at home haha.  We did it at this little beach area, and it was a hot day. Some of our branch members just weren't shy at all and just stripped down to their underwear and were just hanging out like that haha!!! This one older woman just stripped down to her lacy black bra and underwear, and just did a little tanning while we were cooking haha.  The elders almost died haha they were like "ugghh tell her to put her clothes on!!" we just laughed.  Then sister johnson and I just played a little bit of soccer and volleyball with all the men in their underwear.  It was pretty hilarious to say the least.  It's totally normal for everyone here, just a tiny bit awkward for us missionaries.  Words can't really describe it, but use your imagination haha.  The beaches here are just interesting haha.  People are just not shy about their bodies, and we see a little more than we would like to haha.  Sister Johnson and I didn't want to wear jeans because we would have died of heat stroke, so we just wore skirts. We got some pretty wierd looks, and i was thinking to myself "yes i know that we are dressed modestly which is like a fashion blunder here, but ya'all are practically naked, which is not cool!" haha ukraine never ceases to surprise me. For the picnic we brought rice krispie treats (we actually found marshmallows here, miracle! and they tasted pretty close to american rice krispies), and everyone was obsessed with them! They were like "girls, how do you make this?? I need this recipe!!" so we tried explaining it but between us 6 missionaries, none of us knew how to say marshmallow.  so we just tried to explain that they were round white sugar balls and no one was understanding it haha. so we brought a bag to church to show them, and everyone was so happy.  We tried writing down the recipe, but they just couldn't understand that it was simply butter, marshmallows, and cosmo stars (ukranian version of kind of rice krispies).  They couldn't understand that it was that easy haha. So we decided to do a relief society activity and we will demonstrate how to make rice krispies haha.  They were delighted, and i'm sure it will be a great activity this weekend.  

Sunday school yesterday was hilarious. This one guy who is an investigator loves to say prayers, so he was like "I will say the opening prayer!!!" so he stood right up and said it and was like "Heavenly Father we are grateful for this church, and for the prophets like President Monson and even Nephi and Lehi. We love them.  Bless this day! In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." hahaha he always says he is grateful for Nephi and Lehi in his prayers, and it always makes me laugh.  In class the investigators/members got into a little argument about unimportant things, and this guy next to me was about to lose it haha. So we just handled it like champs and calmed down the argument and I assured him that it was all good and that his questions were good, then he is like "I need more marshmallows!!" and grabbed the bag and ate a few, then was totally content.  I swear so many funny things happen every single day!! Ukranians are so entertaining sometimes.

Well, everything else is going great.  The work here in two cities is overwhelming and I swear our lives are just back and forth and sometimes I feel like we are so busy but didn't get anything done.  BUT, the work is great and the work of saving souls is not a small task.  I love being a missionary and I learn so much every day! The language is still a challenge and I have moments everyday when I feel like I know nothing, but it continues to improve slowly but surely.  I love serving the people here and creating bonds with wonderful members and nonmembers here.  The work is moving forth, and I love it!! I love you all!! Thanks for your support and prayers! 

Cectpa DeMille

Sis J cutting up meat for picnic

Birthday

Birthday

june already?

dear family and friends,

this last week was so great! we are seeing so many small miracles and blessings from the Lord.  everything is going a lot more smoothly, and it is officially a new transfer today.  A couple of highlights:  So there is this girl named Julia in Kherson that comes to English.  She told us a few weeks ago that she plays the piano and she would like to play in our sacrament meeting. We were like, yes of course!  So she has been practicing and getting better and getting more comfortable with us.  We hadn't really talked a lot about the gospel with her up until last week.  She got done practicing and we just asked her how she felt about our church meetings and such.  She just basically said that there are so many religions, and everyone thinks their own religion is true.  She said that she wished that there was just one true church on the Earth, but that it would take time to establish and let everyone know about it, etc.  We just dove right in to the restoration! We talked about the apostasy and talked about the reformers in europe, the simple truths taken out of the bible, and basically the history of America (God bless America!) and that America was founded for freedom of religion and such.  We cleared up a couple of false truths that she had heard.  She thought our church was just an American church and that our missions were like a forced thing.  She loved that our church is throughout the world and that we made the choice to serve missions.  So anyway, we just gave her the whole run-down of the restoration, and she loved it.  It made sense to her and she agreed with it.  I remember in our last Zone Conf. we talked a lot about focusing on the simple truths, especially with the restoration, so that's what we did with Julia.  The spirit manifested to me again how simple truths are the best way to teach, and it was a great lesson.  I don't think I have ever had a better first lesson on my mission! Her boyfriend came to church too, and he loved testimony meeting.  The elders also had an investigator there, and Julia, her boyfriend, and the elders investigator all knew each other! So it was fun to see them sitting on the front row together and feeling the spirit.  I love it!! We also have an investigator in Kherson named Elena.  She is very poor and kind of has been in and out of meeting with us and not.  We hadn't seen her for a few weeks, and we got a phone call from her apologizing for not coming to church, and then we met with her.  Her small apartment is kind of like a prison haha.  She has no electricity so it's just really dark and damp, and kind of hard to feel the spirit.  But, we taught her and she wants to be baptized but we still have a ways to go with her.  She came to church and we told her we would pick a baptismal date for her this week.  So the work is moving forward and God is blessing us!! As for things in Nickolaiv, it's great!! There are a lot of youth in the branch and it's great.  We are going to start a little mission prep. class and have the youth come who are preparing to go on missions.  We are stoked, I love helping out the youth!

A funny experience last week: we went tracting in what we call the "private home sector".  Everyone usually lives in huge apartment buildings, and then on the outskirts of the city there is the private homes.  So we went out there and were tracting, and we knock on this house. This guy answers the door in just boxers, and is holding his finger which is like wrapped in tons of gauze and iodine and it just looks scary haha.  He starts telling us he doesn't believe in God and all this stuff, then is like "well girls, come talk to my babushka." So we go next door and talk to his adorable babushka.  There were a few moments of contention, but we ended it off just laughing and he basically wanted us to go and talk to all of his neighbors haha. I told them that I live next door to my grandma too, and they loved it and laughed up a storm about these funny girls that are from America.  We went our separate ways, and it was just a funny cool thing that happened.  Other than that, it has just been busy.  We went back and forth between Nickolaiv and Kherson three times last week, and it will be the same this week.  It's hard balancing between two branches and doing everything that we need to do, but we love it.  We even had a birthday party for me at District Meeting, complete with chinese food.  It was delicious, and a great district meeting.  We lost one of our elders, but gained another one and our district is still awesome.  I learned yesterday that I don't know Russian! I was thinking I was doing alright, then our District Leader was telling us how we are going to have a language study as a district every week, and it's going to be a mission wide thing. So we go over a few grammar principles, and turns out I have been speaking Russian wrong for 9 months!! Ugggghhhh. haha the Lord humbled me, and I'm determined to speak this impossible language correctly one way or another.  You live and you learn! With a new transfer comes new goals and new responsibilities.  I'm grateful to be involved in this work and to have the opportunity to labor among these people.  It is hard and sometimes it feels impossible, but I'm trying to be more like the sons of Mosiah when they say "they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble".  I love this work, and I love you all!! 

Cectpa DeMille

cool train

my cute b day breakfast sis j made for me

our awesome coat entryway

me on my birthday

us on one of our many bus rides