family and friends,

it was another good week here! always full of surprises, ups and downs, and craziness, but good!  last week we had to do a LOT of registration.  to live here we have to have our visa, be registered in the country, in the city where we serve, and at our apartment.  it is such a long process and they just make it so difficult for us to be here. but i think it all was successful and we look forward to more registration soon haha.  

so this week we found 2 new investigators-one of them is a girl named Lena we contacted a while ago. We had a great lesson with her and she has 2 really cute daughters! She is interested and really liked us.  We also had a woman "passed" to us from the elders. her name is  Tonya and she is so funny and great! She just has a lot of interesting questions regarding why there are so many churches and all that.  I am just so grateful for the truth that we have and how clear it is.  Ludmilla is still doing awesome and we are continuing to prepare her for baptism!  

Yesterday Pres. and Sis. Van Bruggen were at church here.  It was so fun to see them and they both gave amazing talks.  Sis Van Bruggen talked about forgiveness and how we all need to forgive others.  She shared the example of Nephi and his brothers going back to Jerusalem to get Ishmael and his family.  On the way home, half of them wanted to go back to Jerusalem, and Nephi had to give his usual discourse of following the commandments.  We all know after that, that his brothers tried to kill him, but the cries of the women softened thier hearts.  They repented and asked for forgiveness, and Nephi FRANKLY forgave them.  There was no hesitation, no grudges.  After that it says that they went back to "the tent of their Father."  It really got me thinking that one day, we will all go back to the "tent of our father", in heaven of course.  Are we ready to do that? We never know when we will be called back to live with our Father.  I thought a lot about how so many people spend so much time holding on to things of the past that only result in anger, grudges, and a life of hurt.  I encourage you all to think to yourselves: "am I ready to go back to the tent of my Father?" if not, think of how you can get ready! Read Alma 5 and ask yourselves the same things Alma asks his people.  We just never know when our time on Earth will be over and with that in mind, we all need to prepare.  

of course, we always have funny experiences and meet interesting people.  We end up contacting a lot on the streets at night, and for some reason about every single person we talked to last week asked, "aren't you scared to be out here at night?" or said "girls, go home! it's not safe out here after dark." one guy said "i have talked to your spiritual brothers before and it's okay for them to be out at night. but talk to them and tell them that you can't be out at night. i very very much worry about you girls out here" and a lot of people give us the usual "it's not allowed for you to be out here at night girls!" haha we thought it was kind of ironically funny that everyone keeps telling us that.  we try to stay on well lit streets, but there aren't too many of those here in Nickolaiv haha.  i haven't really felt unsafe, but don't worry we will watch our backs.  one guy we met asked us if we had boyfriends waiting for us at home and was almost appalled when we told him we didn't. he was so worried about us and was like "hurry and go home and find husbands!" haha it was hilarious.  also i swear, we can never get the dress code right here. either we are not wearing enough clothes or we are wearing too much! Everyone always gets mad that we aren't wearing coats (even if it's not cold) but when we wear coats, they are like "girls, aren't you hot? it's not time for coats" hahaha. we just try to do our best and please the Babushki here!  We had a couple of close calls with marshutka accidents haha. no accidents occurred, but it's pretty intense when they are racing down roads and almost run into eachother.  the adventures of a missionary!  

well that's all i got for the week! time is flying by and my russian is improving which i am very grateful for.  i know the scriptures are true and they give us guidance in our lives. i am just simply grateful to serve the Lord and be an instrument in his hands.  i love you all and my prayers are with you!!

cectpa demille

Outside our apartment