hot weather and blessings

family and friends,

The work continues and the Lord NEVER ceases to bless us and surprise us!! I love it!! It is HOT and it is rough, but it's all good. I'm sure once it hits negative again, I will be wanting summer, haha but I want winter right now! Anyway, we had a couple of amazing things happen last week.  So we had a couple of long days of contacting and we have been searching through the area book again.  We found this section in our book with "only addresses", so we decided to check a few out.  It had already been a long day, but we stopped by a few before heading home.  We stopped by one, and it didn't work.  Then we went to the next one, and we called them on their domaphone. (domaphone-these little code pads that you have to call in order to get access into the apartment buildings).  Well, their domaphone didn't work.  So we thought what the heck, we will just try a random domaphone and see if someone will let us in.  Well luck was on our side, and we got in, so we went up to the apartment.  This lady answered the door, and was like "oh, missionaries! come in!".  So we went right in and her husband and their son were there.  They had golden questions and we had golden answers! haha it was a great little lesson and we ended with a kneeling prayer.  They are 7th day adventist, but had a lot of questions that we have the answers to.  Whether or not they will get baptized or not, it is an amazing thing to see the spirit of the Lord working on people and working through us to answer questions.  We met with them again and they are great. We will continue teaching them, and they seem prepared! I love it!  

We are continuing teaching our other investigators and potential investigators, and the work is moving forward quite a bit here in Nickolaiv.  Kherson's work has been slow lately, but we have been getting a lot of contacts from the elders and have a lot of potential.  Sometimes I feel like our lives here are back and forth on buses, but we love both cities and it's worth it!! The Kherson branch is struggling a bit though.  Unfortunately there are some members that are a little..well, you could say self-righteous and unaccepting of some of our investigators.  We need to do some righteous rebuking, and hopefully the work will continue and the branch will grow.  

A few funny things-we were heading to Kherson and on the bus was this drunk guy who kept trying to talk to us and tell us he knows english.  Haha so he looked over at me and is like "girl, did you know you have german eyes?" i was like "huh? like what's that supposed to mean?" then he just gives this creepy grin and is like "beautiful." hahaha oh gosh sister johnson and i laughed pretty hard.  We meet some of the most interesting people on buses and ukraine is full of funny people.  We did service in Kherson for this member and she is great, we do service for her about every week.  Lately we have been digging a trench, and i digged a lot on saturday haha.  At first she didn't know if we could handle it ("you're sister missionaries!", she said), but we proved her wrong and did some manual labor.  Gotta love it!! It really is great doing service here and service builds a bond with people that might not happen otherwise.

Here is my spiritual thought for the week.  One thing I have noticed lately is that our church truly has the FULNESS of the gospel.  We associate with a lot of people from a lot of different churches, and as they share our beliefs with us, I realize that other churches really have parts of the truth, but not the whole truth.  The restoration of the gospel is so logical!  God WANTS us to return to Him, so He restored His gospel again on the earth.  The earth had to be prepared for this restoration, and as we look at history, it is logical that everything was leading up to the restoration of the gospel.  The scriptures prophecy of it.  I respect other churches.  They are doing the best they can with the knowledge they have, and usually religion in general makes people better.  As a missionary, I just tell people we have more to offer and our church is the only true church on earth haha.  As missionaries we are probably some of the biggest offenders out there. The bolness of our message offends people and what we proclaim shakes their beliefs.  But as we know, Christ was the biggest offender of all time and it was because He was a perfect teacher and a perfect person!  The scriptures say that the truth cutteth the guilty to the very core.  As missionaries we make people truly think, we have answers, and a lot of time those answers and thought-provoking questions we ask, cut them to the very core.  But  we are authorized to do that because of our divine call as a missionary, and i love it!! The work is moving forth and people are feeling the power of our message.  

I love you all! I pray for you daily. I appreciate your love and support for me! I love this gospel and I feel so happy.  True happiness comes from righteous living, remember that.  Until next week!

Cectpa DeMille

they call pigeons here "the noble bird" and they build houses for them. no joke. I  thought Nick would enjoy that haha.  sunshine still beats all birds out there.

this is us doing service, digging the trench.  elder maxwell took these and he thought it was "so cute" taking them from behind the ladder hahaha,  sorry they are far away.

more service

more service

more service!

this painting is hanging about my bed.  I'm not sure what it's all about, sis J and I are still dumbfounded as to what it could mean.  like what's with the strange arabian man and the half naked white girl in the desert?  just thought you would enjoy the art-work in our apartment.  haha

Blessings and humor

family and friends,   It was another eventful week in Nickolaiv!!  The work moves forward and we are blessed a lot spiritually, and a lot with humor everyday haha.  Here are a few stories:  So last week we had one long day of contacting on the streets.  People for the most part were not very nice.  Also we were fasting for one of our investigators and all the walking and heat almost took it out of us.  So we decided to break our fast in the late afternoon and grab a sprite and sit on a bench.  We found these benches by these apartment buildings.  We go to sit down and walk past these Babushki, and then sit down and both of us are praying.  The babushki just start calling for us to come over.  Long story short, it was one of the best hour-long conversations of my life haha.  One of them started telling us how she believes in the trinity, and sister johnson just started pulling out scriptures and talking to her about that.  So i just struck up a conversation with the other 2, and they were HILARIOUS! One of them had the funniest voice i have ever heard and the other one told me she has short term memory loss (it happens every 5 minutes, you know? she told me haha), and they loved us! They kept telling us to tell everyone that we know at home that we are such good girls and missionaries haha. They kept asking us about our parents and why we are in ukraine and all that, and when we left they wished us like 100 blessings (health being the most important, of course-as one of them said haha). The one babushka that was telling us about the trinity, changed her mind basically! Sister J pulled out all these scriptures and talked to her about it.  Basically it rocked the poor woman's universe.  She was like "you changed this bible, the words-you changed it!" haha we explained to her "no, this is a ukranian orthodox bible", and she was just distraught.  She was like "50 years I have thought God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost were all one person..50 years...I can't believe I never knew that they weren't." haha and she loved us and wants to come to church "when it's not so hot because I have high blood pressure you know" haha.  Anyway, those babushki lifted my spirits and gave me a lot of good laughs.  Heavenly Father provides us with what we need, sometimes in strange, but wonderful ways.   A few more awesome things: So our investigator Vika (her parents are way against the church), is now on baptismal date for august 4th! We had a great lesson with her and brought Dasha (a member that is way good friends with vika), and dasha just basically told Vika if she had more faith and was more bold with her parents, she would get baptized.  So Vika agreed to tell her parents she was getting baptized on August 4th and that she was 18, this was her decision, and she would like their support.  She talked to them and they yelled at her and told her they would keep her home that day, but all of us still have a feeling/faith that it will all be okay and will work out.  We are so proud of Vika for talking to her parents, that was a huge step for her!  Also, there has been this girl coming to church who we thought was a member..turns out she's not! We talked to her and asked her if she wanted to take the lessons, and she said yes.  She is super down to earth and is really nice.  The Lord really is blessing us right now as we put forth our effort to preach the gospel and be more diligent.  I see the Lord's hand in this work everyday!  Last night we got invited by one of our investigator's to dinner at her river house.  It was awesome! We ate grilled veal, baked potatoes and onions, ice cream, and tea.  We also brought snickerdoodles and she loved them! She was like "can i have this recipe?" we told her of course, we would bring it to her next time. she was like "no i need it sooner. perhaps i will make these for breakfast in the morning." haha gotta love it.  Anyway, it was a beautiful night and it was sweet being close to nature.  We saw a swimming otter with cheese (i think) in it's mouth, a water snake, and the fishermen in speedos.  I love ukraine! I really love getting to know these people and working side by side with the members here to build/establish the kingdom in Ukraine.  It really is a priviledge to know these people, to see them grow in faith, and to be apart of building the kingdom.  I learn so much everyday and I am in awe of how blessed I am.  It's such a hard task, representing the Lord sometimes.  He was perfect, and I am far from it.  But I am so thankful for the opportunity I have to represent Him and try more to be like Him.  Yesterday we were walking down the street, and I saw this woman staggering towards us.  We have been advised not to help anyone that seems in major trouble or drunk or on drugs or anythings, because of liability reasons for the church.  But this woman looked pretty messed up. It was very depressing, honestly.  Her face was so swollen, blood was gushing from her mouth, she had no shoes, her eyes were purple, and she could barely walk. We can only guess what happened-whether it was her being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or she was a victim of something, I don't know. I wanted so bad to reach out to her and to help her and do as the Savior would do.  But I realize sometimes how these situations could turn bad.  But I thought to myself: How unfortunate it is that we live in a world, where you could be punished or get into really big trouble, for doing something good for someone else.  I was really sad and thought a lot about it, but I realized we can only do so much, and rely on the Lord for the rest.  There are many situations in life that are confusing, we don't know what to do or how to act, and many situations where we are faced with making a hard choice.  I am grateful for a Father in Heaven who hears and answers my prayers.  I can't serve everyone and do everything, but I can serve someone and do something.  Whether that is just smiling at someone, listening, sharing your testimony, or whatnot, we can all do something to make a difference in someone's life.  I have realized lately how much our actions affect others, good or bad.  I don't think we realize how much others watch us and pay attention, because we are different.  If anything, our Heavenly Father watches us and knows our doings.  I challenge you all to change.  Be kinder, act as the Savior would, and realize that as you do this you will be happier and more blessed.  I love this gospel and the power and purpose it brings into our lives.  I know life is hard and we are all faced with questions, like I was seeing that woman.  But God is fair. He sees us, He is aware of us, and His Son is pleading for us.  I love you all and am so grateful for you! Keep up the good fight, my prayers are always with you.  With love,   Cectpa DeMille

pics

my cute neighborhood kittens

this is the most dangerous thing ever.  we live on the 8th floor and they leave these windows open that a child could just jump out and die.  the picture doesn't do it justice.  just know that it's dangerous.

they repainted our branch blue. interesting.

a little sneak peek of our 4th of July celebration.

nickolaiv in graffiti.  its in ukrainian

sacrifice brings forth blessings

dear family and friends,

I love this work! I can't express how grateful I am to be in the service of the Lord.  I really have learned a lot lately about diligence and obedience, and how the Lord answers back if we put in the effort.  Seeing the faithful saints here makes me so happy, and knowing that truly God is aware of ALL of His children throughout the world.  God is mindful of who needs the gospel and He truly does answer prayers! This week was a good week and we had a few special experiences.  I remember a few weeks ago, I told you all about a less-active woman named Luba and how she brought a man to our lesson named Yuri.  Well we went over there last week and Yuri was sleeping, but his wife Katia and their adorable son Vladim listened to our lesson about the Plan of Salvation.  Katia had great questions and loved us!  She invited us back and told us she wants to learn more.  I truly saw her open up and she asked questions like "why exactly are we here on earth?" and we had a great conversation about it.  It was a great lesson and it was awesome to see Luba open up again and talk about how passionate she was about the Plan of Salvation.  It was a tender mercy from the Lord and I was/am very grateful!  We also had a great lesson with our investigator, Vika.  Her parents still won't let her get baptized, but we are trying to do all we can.  We decided to talk about faith, and we watched "17 Miracles" with her.  It gave her some great insight to just how much the first saints sacrificed for the Gospel, and faith can truly bring forth miracles.  I also am so grateful for the pioneers who sacrificed so much and did so much to establish the church.  I don't know if you can quite compare with dragging families and handcarts across a country, but I have witnessed that same spirit of sacrifice here with members in Ukraine.  We had a really great experience with a member in Kherson named Marina.  She is probably the most worthy, innocent, and faithful person I have ever met.  She saved up for a long time so she could go to the temple in Kiev.  We helped teach her the temple lessons and we called and made all the arrangements and helped get her ready to go.  Marina thought that garments went to the middle of your arms, she thought she might get resurrected in the temple, and she thought she might see Joseph Smith, but we cleared all that right up (hahahaha), and she had a wonderful experience. We talked to her after and she said she loved it, and she said "Now I know all the secrets, but I can't tell you them!" haha, we love her.  She and others here have sacrificed a lot to go to the temple, and I am so humbled to see their experiences.  

We had a a few great lessons with other investigators last week and one lady named Anna, is so great! She had a lot of great questions about why we have the Book of Mormon.  The more I teach and testify about the Book of Mormon, the more I realize how logical it is that we have it.  It is proof, it is full of testimonies of Christ, and it will truly save us.  I am reading right now in Alma, about him and Amulek and how they just live their lives to preach the word.  I love it!  I also just started the Acts in the New Testament, and I read where the apostles testify how wonderful it is to suffer for Christ.  My "sufferings" in Ukraine don't compare anywhere to those stalwart examples in the scriptures, but I can say as well that it is a priviledge to suffer and sacrifice for the Lord.  I was thinking a lot about this week why members throughout history have gone through so much, all for Christ.  Everyone from Joseph Smith/Hyrum, the pioneers, the early missionaries, the immigrants, and everyone in our generation, have gone through a lot.  The answer is simple: IF IT'S TRUE, THEN WHAT ELSE MATTERS?  I know for myself that this gospel is true, and that is all I need to know.  People will always persecute the true church of God, but it's true, so nothing else matters.  I love the fulness of the gospel and that it changes lives, brings peace, and answers questions to every problem in life.  I had kind of a sad experience last week.  I got a phone call from the sisters in Zap, saying that one of the investigators there said she got an answer that the church is true, but she doesn't want to get baptized.  I was pretty sad to be honest. This investigator was like my main focus when I was in Zap, and I truly love her.  She was like my best friend, and I had some very spiritual lessons with her.  So I called Pres. Van Bruggen, and got permission to call her.  We had a good conversation, but she basically told me that life would be too hard if she was a member of the church in Ukraine.  I didn't have anything to say, but I just bore my testimony that I know that the gospel brings peace.  I told her that when we sacrifice and strive to follow the will of the Lord, He provides a way.  It was a good conversation and although it was sad, I still love her and pray that she will change her mind.  I have a tiny taste of how Heavenly Father feels when His children don't follow Him.  

All in all, it's a great time to be a missionary.  I'm grateful for all of you and your support.  There will always be challenges in all of our lives, but how wonderful it is to know that the church is true.  It's hard preaching the gospel sometimes and russian kicks my butt, but it's true, so what else matters? I love our Father in Heaven and He is blessing us with great, funny, challenging, and interesting experiences everyday.  I love all of you, and I pray for ya'all!!!  LOVE,

cectpa demille

The 4th, new mission president, and craziness!

family and friends,   last week was just as busy as ever! on Tuesday we went to Kherson and had our district had a meeting with our new mission president and his wife.  They are 2 of the coolest, best, funniest people I have ever met! President Van Bruggen is going to light this mission on fire with his enthusiasm and energy!! They are both from Canada, I think the Alberta/Edmonton area.  They met in high school and started dating, but she wasn't a member and he was preparing to go on a mission, so they broke up.  One thing after another happened, and she took the missionary lessons and got baptized when she was 19 (Pres. Van Bruggen baptized her!), and they continued to date until his mission.  Apparently he went and traveled the world and spent all his mission money, so he came home and started all over and went on a mission when he was 21 haha.  She decided to go on a mission too.  So he went to The Netherlands, and she went to England, Birmingham.  They came home within a week of each other, and were engaged 5 weeks later.  They bought some homestead land in the middle of nowhere, and developed the land and they got assigned to build up the church there. So they started a branch by themselves and invited people to come to church! They were having so much success there that they had to call the mission pres. of that mission and ask for missionaries to come and help them out! haha.  They are such good examples of missionary work and have been involved with it their whole lives.  The meeting we had was full of the spirit, tears, laughter, good stories, and great conversation.  We talked a lot about being a good companion.  He talked about how Hyrum/Joseph Smith were two of the best companions that ever lived.  Hyrum stood with Joseph through everything.  He supported him, helped him, and even died for him.  Hyrum got shot first because he was protecting his brother, Joseph.  I thought about how I could be a better companion and how that could help me for the rest of my life. Your most important companion is obviously your spouse, but it could be your friend or sibling.  I loved getting that perspective and thinking of how I can be better!  We also talked about how success in our church is measured differently.  We got a little discouraged the other day because there was another church in Kherson that had 3,000 members at church on sunday, and had 30 baptisms.  We thought "why can't our church be like that?" Pres. Van Bruggen told us how our church does things differently.  We could get baptisms easily, doing things how other churches do them.  But we don't just want baptisms, we want people who are the elect and people who will be faithful to this decision.  Success can be measured in a worldly way, or it can be measured in the hearts of the people who are involved.  I thought of the prophecies in the scriptures how numbers might be few in Christ's true church, but that we will be all over the world, and be armed with righteousness.  I am so grateful to know that we are the true church, and nothing can stop that!!  Needless to say, we already love Pres/Sis. Van Bruggen and we love their examples and courage for being here!! We had 2 baptisms on Saturday from the Kherson branch! One was this wonderful man who has been searching for truth for a long time.  You could say he is the perfect example of a "golden" investigator, now a member.  The other was this older woman, and she is so adorable!  She is the mom of one of the member's in Kherson, and she is so sweet.  It was a really great service and it's so wonderful to see people join our church.  We had the baptisms in Nickoliav because we have a font here, so everyone just came over from Kherson.  Sister Johnson and I were in charge of filling up the font, and it took about 8 hours, so we had some good times at the branch while the font filled haha.  Sunday we went to church in Kherson and the missionaries did a musical number.  We have been doing musical numbers every other week, and they are usually primary songs because the branch has never heard them before.  We sang "Love is Spoken Here", and it was good.  After the song, this member named Vera turned around and was crying and blew kisses at me haha.  We don't have great voices, but people love us to sing here, it's funny!! So good news, we got transfer texts and sister johnson and i are still together and staying in our area! yay!! we are getting a new zone leader, and elders are coming back to nickolaiv, so that will be interesting to have another set of missionaries in nickolaiv again, but we are excited!  I have a favor to ask of all of you...will you pray for the government in ukraine to let us preach the gospel?! haha it sounds silly, but we are having SO many problems with registration.  Ukraine keeps changing the laws all the time, and creating a big mess for us missionaries.  sister johnson and i still aren't registered and it's crazy haha.  we could probably get arrested or deported at any time, but i don't think that will happen.  So please just keep that in your prayers, thank you!!  We had to spend a whole day last week with our office visa clerk (vova) and try to start our registration.  He is the best, this mission could not survive without him! It happened to be on the 4th of July when we did all of this, so he went to lunch with us to celebrate our independence day.  it was hilarious!   Well, that's about it for this week.  we are trying to do a lot of finding and strengthening the members in both areas.  the church has a long way to go here, but it has already come a long way, so it's just all part of the process.  I am so grateful to serve here and it's challenging everyday, but I love it!! Thank you for all of your prayers and support!! God Bless America, and Ukraine and everywhere else.  I love you all!!   Cectpa DeMille

pics

zoopark

front gates!

just me sitting on a hippo

us in the bird cage! it was weird haha

changes, zoo, and rain!

family and friends!

As always, it was another busy week here in Ukraine.  I will start out with a few funny stories.  So we are on a marshutka (like a bus van thing, public transportation) and i'm sitting on the end, and this lady keeps trying to like scoot next to me and stand by me, and it's getting annoying.  So all the sudden she like taps my leg and motions for me to scoot over, then tried to sit on my lap!! haha then she did the same thing to the guy in front of me. we laughed so hard!! I love drunk people at 9 in the morning.  On a different way on our way home from Kherson, we ended up on this marshutka with a bunch of drunk people.  They were all talking about/singing Barbara Streissand and doing all these crazy dance moves.  I laughed so hard, and they were very entertaining! Then a Backstreet Boys song came on, and we definitely enjoyed that! After we get off the marshutka, we see this couple.  The guy is dressed in all mustard yellow (seriously, he was colonel mustard with perfectly waxed eyebrows), and he is just hilarious to watch.  Him and his girlfriend just start making out, then she accidentally stepped on his foot so they stop, and he like rolls his eyes, pulls out a wet-wipe, and cleans off his perfectly white shoes.  Apparently that's not cool to step on his white shoes!  I love moments that just make you laugh and smile, it makes everything better!! You will all be pleased to know that this morning we went to the Zoopark!! I saluted the bald eagle in honor of the best holiday this week, was in awe of the 3 tigers i saw, and tried not to be worried that the door was open to the giant alligator cage...  It wasn't like an american zoo, but it was pretty great and we had a blast!!

So we always have lunch at district meeting and eat a lot of food. So we had district meeting, then we had a lesson with a member in Kherson.  We go over to her house and she is just busy cooking in the kitchen.  You basically just can't say no to food here, so we sit down and had feast number 2 for the day.  It was really good food, but oh man i thought i was going to throw up if i took one more bite.  Then she talked for like almost 2 hours straight and it was painful to listen because i was so full! I just have to sit and pray silently in those kind of situations haha.  We also have been helping this woman named Mamma Anna teach another member, Marina, the lessons to go to the temple.  Mamma Anna is very passionate about the temple, and is taking it upon herself to make sure Marina is ready haha.  But i really am so grateful for temples that dot the world, and for members who are worthy and willing to go do work in the temple.  I love the temple and miss it!!  We had a great experience with a less active woman (Luba) here in Nickolaiv.  We have been meeting with her and she has become more and more active, and we just love her.  So she has this man (Yuri) and his wife renting a room from her, and she invited him to listen to our lesson with her.  It was such a great lesson!! Luba taught so well and her testimony was so strong about the restoration! She quoted scriptures, bore strong testimony of how the church is true, and how the restoration makes sense.  We wrote down every principle from the restoration and listed blessings that she has recognized in her life under each principle.  It was a great visual way to show her the blessings that she has, and it was interactive.  Yuri was very interested and responsive, and told us he would pray about our message.  We hope to go back soon and meet with him and his wife! We have been trying to call this woman from the area book named Anna, and we have talked a lot, just never met her yet.  So i see this woman at church yesterday and ask her her name and stuff, and she was like "I'm anna!! we have talked a lot on the phone!" so we just laughed and after church we met with her and got to know her.  She LOVED church and commented on how good she felt.  She wants to meet with us on wednesday, and it was refreshing to talk to someone so nice and so eager to learn.  The Lord is blessing us and it's so special to see His hand in this work.  

Pres./Sis. Nielsen left last week, and now we have a new president, Pres./Sis. Van Bruggen.  We are having a little meeting as a district with him tomorrow, so that will be good to meet him! We are nervous, but excited.  This week will be busy.  We have to go to Kherson tomorrow for our conference with the new mission pres., go to kherson again on wednesday for interviews with the new president, go to kherson thursday for district meeting, and back to kherson on sunday for church.  Traveling back and forth is a lot of time and tiring, but we love both cities.  Last week it rained a lot here in Nickolaiv (unlike utah unfortunately!), and it was SOO nice!! It cooled it down quite a bit, and the weather was great. Now it is hot again, but it's all good.  I have been reading the New Testament, and I am currently in Luke.  I am so grateful for the Bible! I know a lot of "plan and precious truths" are taken from it, but without the Bible we would not have the stories and miracles from Christ's life here on Earth.  He truly was the perfect teacher, example, and the most perfect person that ever lived.  I love reading about the parables and the miracles.  How truly blessed we are to know of our Savior and have a personal relationship with him.  There are so many people who don't know of Christ, or if they do, might not have a personal relationship with Him.  I am so thankful for the knowledge we have and that through Christ, we can become better every day!  I was also reading in Mosiah this morning about Abinadi, and how truly brave he was.  He, along with many others, sacrificed his life for the work of the gospel.  I love the scriptures and I encourage you to read them everyday!! I love you all and i thank you for your prayers and support.  Light some fireworks for me this week, God bless America!!!

Cectpa DeMille

pics

June 25, 2012

this is our toilet. it flushes and it's clean. hooray!

this is our oven! big red.

this is me studying

nickolaiv train station.  we rode on a train to the dacha.

pics

June 25, 2012

this cat ran into some bleach i think.  tell nala not to do that.

the dacha house

more of the dacha

tender mercies

June 25, 2012

family and friends,

Last week was as always, busy, but we saw a few small miracles and we are being blessed.  We see "interesting/crazy" things and a lot of small wonders all the time.  It's interesting to have this perspective on the world as a missionary and have one focus.  I look around at people and i just think "alright, who of you are ready??" haha. I truly love this work and everything that we get to see.  We get a front row seat to seeing people change and sharing the most beautiful message the world ever knew.  i love it!!!!

as far as the highlights: so we have this investigator in Kherson, Elena. I have talked about her before, but she is the poor woman, she has faith, but sometimes lazy to act.  so we had a lesson with her this week, and honestly, we didn't know what to talk about.  we knew we wanted to talk about the importance of sacrament meeting and taking the sacrament, but we didn't know what else to say.  i have never done this before, but we went into that lesson undecided and unprepared.  as we walked up to her house, we just decided to stop and have a prayer.  it was quiet and no one was around, so it was perfect.  then we went right in to the lesson.  it was one of the best lessons i have ever had! we did what we were supposed to as missionaries (invite, testify, teach, etc), but we did all that with boldness that i have never experienced before, and did that with love.  she tried to come up with all these excuses for why she hadn't been to sacrament meeting, and we kindly rebuttled all of them in a Christlike way haha. we just basically owned her in her excuses.  she asked again about being baptized and we just said until she comes to sacrament meeting, we can't pick a baptismal date for her.  so she came to church yesterday, but during sunday school haha. well that's a bit of an improvement of walking in during 3rd hour.  little by little, people progress.  but that lesson will always stand out in my mind. i truly learned for myself the meaning of the scripture "it will be given to you in the very moment". i love seeing tender mercies from the Lord everyday!!

we have been trying to do a lot of following up, but nothing major is happening yet. we don't have hardly any investigators, but we are trying to find those who are ready.  a few interesting/crazy things we saw and did last week:  so one day we were getting on the bus to go to Kherson, and there was this woman in all black with a vail, and i could tell she was some kind of priestess or something.  well i just thought "cool, someone else trying to tell people about God!" then she looked back at me, glared with this piercing, evil glare, and crossed herself!! man i don't know what it is, but people think we are evil.  i felt a wierd presence and i sure didn't like that. but she did it a few more times and i just got over it haha.  i thought about it the whole bus ride though.  i can now easily spot those who are true Christians and followers of Christ.  "by their works ye shall know them".  i thought of how i think it's great that there is other people out there trying to do what we do, bring people closer to God.  and even though I know that ours is the only true church and I have been called of God to represent Christ, I would never put any one else down who called themself a servant of God.  it's just interesting how people react around us sometimes, and I am glad that I have legit authority haha.  

we have been continuing doing service and building this lady's house out of mud and straw. i love it!! another funny thing. we set up an appointment with this lady Olga who is a dentist.  I told her my uncle is a dentist at home, and she was like " can i meet him?" hahah i was like "well he lives in america" and she was like "okay, give him my card." hahah she is a little crazy.  so we usually meet her at her office, but this time she wanted us to go to her house.  long story short: we asked a billion people where this address was, went to like the wilderness of ukraine, and thought we were in the right place. then we asked another lady and she told us to go back the way that we came. so we are waiting at the bus stop, and this young guy that's tan, in a muscle shirt, and on a motorcycle just drives on up.  he starts speaking in broken english and is like "i need to help you, you are lost!" haha so he writes the address down on a sticky note, and helps us get on the bus and talks to the bus driver for us.  then i look at the sticky note and it says "these girls are from america and can't understand anything" hahahahaha we almost died laughing.  then we ended up at a bus stop right across the street from olga's office!! haha so we call her and we are like, okay come meet us so we can go to your house. then she is like "but i'm at my office and i'm busy!" and we were like "olga, you told us to meet you at your house!" and she was like "oh!" haha she is crazy. so we went to her office (let's just say i would never get my teeth cleaned there) and we waited, then we just left because she was busy. people are so funny sometimes and i love scatterbrained women!! haha keeps our lives interesting.  

yesterday i had to give a talk in church, and it went pretty well. i only had to be corrected on like 2 words instead of 100! improvement is good.  and then us missionaries sang "armies of heleman" because they have never heard primary songs.  and everyone was like crying and loved it.  the elders have this hilarious investigator named Gussein, and he told me he loved my talk.  He is a really awesome guy, and so so so hilarious. He is getting baptized in a few weeks, and it has been so awesome to see him change.  even though he isn't our investigator, we truly have seen him change and it's so great.  i love it!!! We also got to go to a "dacha" this weekend. it's like a garden house in the country.  we got to weed the garden, then have lunch with all the women. it was good to see a relief society activity go on, and it was great. well, the work is moving forward little by little. pray that we can find more people to teach, because we really are trying!! i love you all and i'm so grateful for your support. i love this work, and i know that our Savior lives and loves us!!! 

Cectpa DeMille

pics

June 18, 2012

us in our awesome kitchen

me just building something out of straw and mud

us and the baby bunnies that she had at her house

time flies! or flys? I can't spell anymore!

June 18, 2012

dear family and friends,

it was another busy week and I'm glad it's p day haha.  Here are just a few of the highlights.  So we made rice krispies for the picnic last weekend and everyone loved them, so we decided to do a demonstration of them on how to make them this week for a relief society activity.  So we made coffee cake, demonstrated how to make rice krispies, and made rach dip with veggies.  Oh man, they loved the ranch dip.  They saw the veggies and then the dip. they were like "for what reason do we need this sauce with the vegetables?" and we just told them to try it! haha so they did and they immediately wanted the recipe.  I explained that i just had a packet of ranch that my mom sent then i just mixed it with buttermilk and mayo and such.  They were like, "okay we get that you made it with buttermilk and mayo. but what are these green things in it? and how do i make it?" haha we just settled on finding them a recipe online and translating it haha. it took a long time to get them to settle on that.  but they liked everything and it was a good activity, even though only 3 women came.  We also got to do service last week for this woman in Kherson that is re-modeling her house.  She had us scrub walls to prep for wall paper, and i made a door frame out of mud and straw.  yes, mud and straw.  that's what her house is made out of! it's pretty awesome. i can check that off my mission bucket list now!! 

things in nickoliav are also good. we have been finding new investigators from the Area Book and it has been really good.  we had a few good lessons last week with new people.  we are trying to follow up on other people that we have found.  we have an investigator Vika here, and she is so great. i seriously love her, she has great faith and is such a good girl.  She is 18, but she lives with her parents and her parents won't let her get baptized.  she has been investigating for 3 years and she prays everyday that she can be baptized.  We asked her what would happen if she just got baptized, and she said her parents would kick her out.  Please keep her in your prayers! We don't really know what else to do besides pray for her.  we asked her if we could meet her parents and if that would help, but she said no.  so we just keep praying for her.  she is so adorable.  She has taken it upon herself to help us with our accents, so she has us read out loud and correct us on pronunciation and such.  It is hard work and i feel like a five year old. haha, but i really do want to speak russian well and to sound well.  sometimes i wonder if i will ever learn russian, but I tell Heavenly Father every day that He called me russian speaking, so I need help haha.  It has been helping studying with our district and having Vika help us.  learning russian is humbling all around.  i hear people tell their cats and dogs something and the cats and dogs obey and do what the person says.  Then i'm like "wait what did they say?" haha, so cats and dogs understand more russian than i do sometimes.  russian will take a while, but hopefully before i leave this mission i will speak russian haha.

there is another girl in our branch here named Dasha. we have been helping her study Preach My Gospel, because she wants to serve a mission, she is also so adorable and asks amazing questions.  she plays the piano really well and yesterday she played a musical number and it was "armies of heleman".  i have heard that song a billion times, but i was really touched when i heard it yesterday.  i think about the armies of heleman in the scriptures, and how heleman calls them his sons "because they are worthy to be called sons". and how even though they were young, they were exactly obedient, cared more about their father's lives than their own lives, and remembered what their mothers taught them.  they pursued the lamanites with boldness and without fear.  because of their diligence and obedience, not one of them died.  some of them received wounds, but they all survived. the other armies with them all suffered losses. they were good armies and pretty obedient, but not like the armies of heleman.  i compare it to life and to missionary work.  through life we might receive wounds, be faced with danger, hardship, see losses, and have to make hard choices, but if we are obedient and diligent, we won't suffer in the end.  there is a big difference between doing all that you can and being obedient, than just being a good person and following some of the commandments or something.  i love the armies of heleman for their example to us.  their parents were good, just like Nephi's parents.  think of how many generations were saved because of the goodness of the parents, and the goodness of their sons.  i love their example!! 

i have realized something, that everyone in life faces hard things.  i knew this, but on my mission it has become more apparent of how we can act when faced with something hard.  i think of interruptions in life: some just happen, and some interruptions are "Godly".  I read a talk recently about Christ's mother Mary, and John's mother Elizabeth.  Both of these women experienced "Godly" interruptions.  Elizabeth wanted a child for her whole life, and at the time when it was not the best time for her to be pregnant, she was pregnant.  then there is Mary.  she had ordinary dreams of having a family with Joseph, but wanted that time to be after they were married.  she received a "Godly" interruption, and was informed that she was pregnant before marriage.  I think of how these women handled their interruptions, and also their husbands.  Godly interruptions can affect not only the person directly, but also their family and friends.  But people like Mary and Joseph accepted this interruption, and handled it the best they could.  I appreciate them for their examples of nobleness and relying on God.  i know that sometimes interruptions are hard, whether it's a Godly interruption, or just a life interruption.  But i know that we can take a look at these interruptions and amidst all the confusion and heartache, we can decide for ourselves how we will act and if we will rely on God.  I really really know that if we rely on God, everything will be easier.  He can see the big picture for us, and He wants what is truly best for us.  I am grateful for the knowledge that we have of the Gospel and the comfort it brings.  We all know our purpose, and that can bring us peace in hard times.  I love you all and I'm grateful for your prayers and support! The work is moving forth, and remember that we are all Sons and Daughters of God! I love you all!!!

Cectpa DeMille