family and friends, as always missionary work is filled with ups and downs, but it moves forward! here are the highlights from last week.

It was a slow week for Nickolaiv, but a good week for Kherson.  We met with Mamma Luba a couple of times, and she is doing great.  We talked about faith with her and she loved it! She has so much faith and prays so fervently, i love it!  We have talked with her about baptism, but she is just hesitant because it is a serious decision.  We are moving forward with her though and love it!  We met with our hippy investigator Irina, and she kind of dropped us.  We have talked to her about baptism the last few times because she told us she knows our church is true and the Book of Mormon is true...but she told us she will never get baptized into any church because she thinks there should just be peace and harmony and that churches shouldn't argue.  We tried to explain how the church would bring peace and harmony and that baptism is our gateway to heaven, but she wasn't having it..we don't know what else to do with her, but we will see!  So the woman that we met in the graveyard a few weeks ago (Larissa) she has been coming to church every week, but was way confused that we wanted to meet other than church haha. So we sat her down and explained it to her and asked her if we could help her prepare for baptism in our church and she said yes! We will start the lessons with her this week and it will be great, she loves all the missionaries and the church.  

There is this woman in Nickolaiv named Sveta and she sells shoes on the side of the street near our house.  We were walking by and she asked about our books, so we gave her one.  Well, Sveta has a lot of friends who wanted this book haha so we have given like 4 books of mormon away because of her haha! It's awesome.  Every time we walk by, she is like "My girls! You are so beautiful! I love this book that you gave me!" haha she is great. We will start meeting with her in October when she is done with work.  We have decided just to be more bold and ask everyone if they will meet with us, then ask them if they will get baptized or prepare for baptism.  No results yet really, but soon we hope! 

We got to do service last week for a member in Kherson, and I realized how much joy comes from serving other people.  She just kept telling us the whole time how much we were helping her, how grateful she was because she can't do it by herself, and how much she cared that we cared to help her.  I love getting to serve the people in Ukraine not only with physical work around their house, but as well as the gospel. I see how people lighten up when the missionaries help them, and service brings such a close bond and helps people feel the love of Christ.  I truly love it and I'm so thankful to serve them!  It's such a priviledge to be in the service of God and I'm so thankful for this experience.  Sister Johnson and I really have grown so much in this area, and have felt the love of Christ through the wonderful members and investigators here.  I'm so thankful for it!! Sorry this is a short email this week, sometimes the week goes by in a blur and I can't remember everything that happened.  But everything is moving forward and I love this work! Thank you for all of your support and prayers.  I love you all!

Sister DeMille

Scarf time at Mama Luba's

Sis. D & Sis. J with beautiful scarves

Amanda with Riabwee

The girls, mama Luba, and her dog

Sis. D, Sis. J, Olga and Anna

Relief Society Activity in Kherson

R.S. painting activity

family and friends,

first off, holy floods in st. george..so sad, but how wonderful it is that we have such a great community to help out.  it is a good thing to be a mormon whenever something awesome happens or danger comes along.  well this week was another weeks of up and downs, but we are loving the work.  

the funnies of the week:  we have befriended this smiley lady named Luda who sells flowers.  every time we go to visit her, she asks us if we like the ukranian boys (because they are so beautiful! she says) and if we would please just marry them haha.  she is funny and she wants to hear about the gospel in the winter when she is free.  one night last week we were out contacting late and we walked past this group of guys (most definitely drunk) and a few of them were dancing, and i was like "good dancing!" haha and they jumped because they didn't see us, then just laughed really hard..it gave us a good laugh!  we met this armenian guy last week and we talked to him for awhile, then he pulled a Tyra Banks and told me that i do a good job of laughing with my eyes haha. then he looked at sis. johnson and he was like "your eyes look sad..people won't want to talk to you." hahah we laughed pretty hard and ironically we got a couple of more comments like that throughout the week about laughing and sad eyes.  another night of contacting we met this guy, told him we were missionaries and we are from america etc., and he is just saying how cool we are and how beautiful american girls are. so i just randomly asked him if he wanted this free book of mormon and he said "i have never taken anything for free in my whole entire life! i am a rich business man you know? and i can buy you gifts!" i was about to mention that i like chocolate and that would be a nice gift, but sis johnson elbowed me haha and gave him the book of mormon and we walked away.  so yesterday we had a lesson with Dr. Yuri and the elders. it was interesting to say the least haha. he started talking about our other halfs, our personality types according to freudian theory, and how he knows everything and could tell us something interesting. haha it was a funny lesson and he only let us talk for a little bit about the book of mormon.  

the spiritual:  we had a great lesson with Luba in kherson.  we talked about the plan of salvation and she agreed it was a "beautiful" plan, and she agreed with everything we said.  then she mentioned baptism and we talked to her about how baptism is like our gate to live with Heavenly Father.  she told us how she had already been baptized, but how she also has been searching for the true church. it was a great conversation, and prayed and said how thankful she was for us being her spiritual daughters haha.  we love her so much!  we had a cool first lesson yesterday with a woman named Cveta.  she told us about herself and her relationship with God, and we talked about the restoration. sometimes it's hard teaching the restoration because i see the look on people's faces like "whoa, this sounds crazy." but then i also get to see the spirit touch them and there is power in the message of the restoration.  she was very open to what we had to say and is a really cool lady.  we also had more people ask us for book of mormon's last week. one day we were walking by the center market and this lady has a shoe stand selling shoes, and she was like "girls, what's with those books that you carry?" so we told her a little about it and she was very interested, and took one. a few days later we were walking by her again and said hi to her and even though she had a few customers, she told them to hold on and said "girls i know someone else who is interested in this book. you two are so beautiful!" haha she took us over to another lady selling stuff, and we were able to give her a book of mormon and get her phone number and stuff. it's amazing how the little things like that can happen! I truly believe that the book of mormon has power, just by even looking at it.  we had a great lesson with our investigator Valentina (the one who has a smoking problem), we talked with her about faith. we watched "Finding Faith in Christ" and she loved it.  she cried at the part when the guy asks Christ if He will heal his son, and he says "Help thou mine unbelief".  she truly has great faith and keeps committments better than anyone else i have ever seen! we also had a great experience at english. more people started coming and we are able to teach a beginning english class now, as well as advanced.  we were teaching beginner english, and after the spiritual thought we told them they could ask us questions. so everyone kind of just sat there, and then they started asking us about our missionary work and why we came here to ukraine.  usually people just ask about culture or something, but we got the opportunity to bare testimony of our work here and it was awesome.  we told them about our rules (no watching movies, etc.) and one kid was like "i feel bad for you!" and then another guy was like "i think it's cool that they can give up all that. to each, their own" we liked that a lot! and another guy told us how he believes there should only be one church and everything, so we told him a little bit about our organization in the church and showed him the wall of pictures that we have of the prophet and apostles. he loved it! it's cool seeing young people here be interested in spiritual matters.  

the work is moving forward and we love the people here. i really feel like i have a special love for the people here in these cities! i'm finally seeing how God really prepares people before we meet them.  sometimes we get called satan, people yell at us, we get rejected countless times, but also there is a lot of joy and the work is rewarding.  i read a quote by Joseph Smith last week that said something like "After all that is said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the gospel." and i agree with that.  i love this gospel, i owe my life to it! every good thing in life comes from righteous living, and we are so blessed through our service to others.  i love it. i miss you all, but there is a great work to be done over here. in the dedication prayer on ukraine, Elder Packer said, "one day, temples will dot this land." and i can't wait for that day! i love you all, keep living life righteously! 



Mama Luba's kitten



7th transfer :)



Dasha, Sis. DeMille, Sis. Johnson

family and friends, it was another great week! we really are seeing a lot of blessings and always having a good time!

a few updates: we met with Luba a couple of times, and she is great!  she told us her dog is pregnant and i asked luba when she will have her puppies, and she said "ask her!" haha then she says "well you know she can't talk, but i just love to joke!" haha she keeps us laughing.  We gave her the conference ensign and showed her the picture of the prophet and counselors, the apostles, etc and she was overjoyed, she kissed the magazine! haha.  We also got to meet her secret love, Father George haha and he told me if he had a daughter, i would look like her. and he told sister johnson she looks like him when he was younger..hahah we laughed about that one.  We met with our hippy investigator, Irina and we taught her a little of the plan of salvation.  So i asked her "irina, do you believe we lived with God before this life?" and she asks "do you think that there was really a city of gold and the great city Atlantis?" haha i couldn't quite figure out how my question connected with her question, but we just roll with the punches.  Our investigator here in Nickolaiv, Ludmilla (the one who read the book of mormon like crazy) is doing great! She is almost done with the book of mormon.  She understands the gospel so well, and it's all from just studying the bible.  She is proof that the bible contains the gospel, you just have to search it out and really pick out the truths.  We just need to help her connect the dots that there really is only one true church on earth.  We asked her to be baptized and she said she wasn't against it and would pray about it, but she is confused that you can be baptized again (she was already baptized, just about like every other person here).  We are working with all of our investigators and trying to help them understand the truth of the gospel..sometimes it seems an impossible task, but we are trying!  

We always meet interesting people on the streets, and the other night we met this man who introduced himself as "Doctor Yuri" haha.  He started telling us about all these psychology things and how he is a professor, and he started telling us who our "other half"s are.  Sister johnson's betrothed other half is Shakespeare, and my other half is Jack London. haha.  I love people! We met this other man named Feuder, and he asked for a book of mormon to give to his son, and we got to talking and he asked where i was from because of my accent, and i told him america.  Then he is like "well probably your parents or grandparents are from ukraine or russia, because listen to how good your russian is!" haha it made me feel good, but russian is always a challenge.  Yesterday i had to give a talk in sacrament meeting, and afterwards my branch president told me i did very well, then he was like "would you like to know your mistakes now?" haha i told him yes, and he was glad that there was only a few mistakes that i made!  He is an english teacher, so he helps us a lot with correcting us.  

The weather here is sooo much better now that it is cooling off!  We are trying to find more, work with the less actives, and continue helping the members in both branches.  There are some truly wonderful people here, and there are also some really hard hearted people here.  I really want every person to know the truth of the gospel, and it's hard when they reject us without even knowing what or who we are.  I love doing missionary work even though it's really hard sometimes.  I really am thankful for the Spirit and that He helps us teach.  We are so lucky and blessed to have the gospel. To me the gospel is so logical and makes so much sense! But God gave us the second witness, the Holy Ghost so that we can know "the truth of all things".  I'm just thankful for the people who will listen to our message and we are continually searching for those.  It's wonderful to serve the Lord and to labor among His children.  I love you all, and the work moves forward!  

Love Cectpa DeMille



Mama Luba's yard





Sis. J, Luba and Sis. D




grapes for the girls




After a long, hard day!



Cute Julka!




Amanda and Luba





Dear friends and family,

This last week was great, busy, and I am glad its a new week.  We found a couple of new investigators, keep moving forward with the ones we have, and it's all good here!  The Elders here in Nickolaiv passed us this one investigator named Tamara, and her husband Alexander. I will describe Alexander's outfit:  blue sweats all the way up to his bellybutton and they are tight at the ankles, a small wife beater tucked in (he put on a sweet button up later, also tucked in), 2 pairs of socks tucked into the sweats, and classy dress shoes. I wish I had a picture, but I'm gonna count on that he will wear it again sometime.  It was awesome, to say the least!  One of the elders had a little bit of a stuffy nose and Tamara insisted on putting his nose under this hot lamp for 8 minutes on each side.  It was pretty hilarious, and didn't work all that well, which made it more hilarious!! They had like 1,000 kittens and we suggested maybe he was a little alergic to the kittens, so she threw them right out! Like literally, threw them. hahah it was so funny!  We love her already.  Alexander speaks in like all Ukranian, and he was impressed that I knew 5 words in Ukrainian haha.  

We had a lesson with Luba this week in Kherson, and we introduced her to the Maxwell's.  We went to get her, and we were telling her that we are going to take her with us to see them.  She asked how old they were so I told her, and she just put her hand over her heart and said "I want to cry because they are old and are doing what you do". haha a few tears did stream down her face, and we took her along with us.  We watched the Restoration and she loved it.  It was actually pretty amazing, she told us that she has been searching for the true religion forever, and she felt like when the elders knocked on her door, that she had found it. We gave her this picture of Jesus, and she kissed it and I tried not to laugh.  Everything she says is just hilarious and I love her so much!  I promised her I would say hi to all my people in America for her, so Luba says hi! haha. She also told us how her daughter used to smoke and she was like "she was trash! but then she stopped, and wasn't trash anymore".  She also told us that her daughter has a friend that is a millionare and she was glad that he helped her.  She told the Maxwells that they couldn't tell anyone that though haha.  She almost came to church yesterday, then I called her and asked if she was on her way and she told me her secret love Father George is sick, and he is laying on his back, she is sad because that is her future husband, and she needed to feed him goats milk.  Maybe she will be able to make it next week haha.  

We met with our "hippy" investigator named Irina.  She really does look like she stepped out of the 60's haha.  She has a lot of interesting ideas and has already investigated for 2 years, but we connect with her really well and she is starting to understand a lot more about the gospel.  She had some major questions about polygamy, women can't hold the priesthood, etc, but she loved our answers to those and it was a great lesson.  Plus it was in a beautiful park haha!  

Also that woman we met in the graveyard last week, came to church!! She stayed all 3 hours and loved it.  We had a little lesson with her after and she wants to meet more.  She told us that she has sinnned a lot and that she needs forgiveness and asks for it everyday.  It is interesting seeing how people want forgiveness and hang on to that hope that maybe they can be forgiven one day.  It is a tool of satan to tell us we can't be forgiven.  I am grateful that we know that we can be forgiven through a process God gave us, instead of just paying money or feeling lost.  I love it!  We had a lesson with a less active this week in Nickolaiv.  She told us how she got baptized in 1995 by Elder Packer's grandson.  It was in St. Petersburg, then she moved here to Nickolaiv and she was the first member of the church here.  It was crazy to hear her story!  Basically she told us she still follows all of the commandments, but is too lazy to do anything or to act on her knowledge.  Many people might think this is fine, but not acting is a sin of omittence.  I heard a analogy one time that I liked:  There was an older couple who had been married in the temple, lived the gospel their whole lives, served God, raised their family in the gospel, etc.  They decided they needed a break, so they just bought an RV and traveled around the country for the rest of their lives.  They went to church when they had time, but weren't in a ward permanently. Time went on, and they both died and went to heaven.  An angel showed them thier mansion in heaven, and it looked like a great mansion, but they walked inside and it was empty.  It was beautiful from the outside, empty on the inside.  They asked where all the furniture was, and they were told "when you stopped serving God, we stopped working as well".  We talked to this less active about how acting is such an important part of the Gospel, and when we covenant with God at baptism, it is a life-long covenant.  We will continue working with her, and I have high hopes she will come back.  

We had a fun weekend! Another sister serving in Zap was traveling with the Van Bruggens to a baptism in Simferopol, then she came and spent the night with us in Nickolaiv.  It was fun to have a guest haha! Then on Sunday, we went on splits.  I went with that sister, and a member from our branch to Kherson, and Sis. Johnson stayed here with another member.  It was a busy day, a great experience, awesome russian practice, but I missed Sis. Johsnon! haha we will probably do it more though, it's awesome for the members and it's nice to be in 2 places at once.  A few more cool experiences:  We were walking down this random street in Kherson, trying to take a short cut to the maxwells, and there is this guy working construction, and he just asked us for a Book of Mormon.  He was so nice, was so excited to get a book, and gave us his number and everything.  We would have never talked to him because we aren't allowed to approach people when they are working, but it was so cool he just wanted the Book of Mormon! He asked us how much it was and was ready to pay for it, and we told him it was free, he was happy!  Also we bought some ice cream from this little stand, and the lady working there said the same thing, that she wanted the book and she was interested because it was about Christ.  So we just handed it over and gave her our number and it was a great experience!  Little things like that are so great as a missionary!  Last thing-we finally got our new russian translation triple combos! They are so nice and it is such a blessing to have the new translation of the Book of Mormon, D&C, and Pearl of Great Price all together.  Well this is long but I want you all to know that I love serving the Lord and we see miracles and blessings everyday!  I love you!

Cectpa DeMille

this is what we call our pyramid. an easy way to keep track of investigators, topped with our egyptian pictures. sorry its far away, but it gives a good idea haha.

                                                                        Me and Irina

Valentina's chickens



Valentina's bunnies eating watermelon



                                                                



i threw away my 1st pair of shoes, they were destroyed. i could feel the ground poke through the holes when i walked.



a little bit of scenery. they paint all of the bottoms of the trees white to keep the bugs away



sis maxwell, sis hodgson (the girl who stayed with us on saturday), sis van bruggen, my companion for the day Olga, and myself