Sister Amanda DeMille

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