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