dearest people in my life,

this week was another great week. i love this work. the Lord continues to bless us. i always mention this, but even with the ups and downs, i always feel good at the end of the day. i don't think i've ever been so stressed out in my life as i have on my mission, but it's been such a priviledge to serve the Lord and be on His team.  our district here is working hard with our investigators, hitting the streets a lot, and working with the members more.  we are trying to utilitize our talents and just be who we are in order to serve the best that we can.  the people here with their faith amaze me and i will be eternally grateful for their examples!  

we had success with meeting with Vika more this week! She is doing great and is so willing to meet and come whenever her parents allow it. she is such a great example of continuing on even though things can be hard around you.  we had a great lesson with a less-active (she comes to church but is struggling behind the scenes) that we usually meet with every week. it was a great lesson on how we can see the blessings around us, following the spirit, and striving to be obedient in order to bless others' lives.  i love her a lot, i have worked with her a lot my whole time here!  and another miracle was, we got to meet with ludmilla and her husband. we kind of just laid it all out, told her that she had a desire to get baptized and asked her what's going on with that now, told her baptism in our church with proper authority is the only way to live with God again, and that she needs to seriously think about that. she has so much faith and is an example of believing in Christ and His words! but she just needs to ACT!  we all know that "faith without works is dead" and i'm so glad that our church believes in believing, and also acting on our faith.  we hope to see some progress with her soon. she has come to the realization that her husband isn't really into changing (although he is hilarious and really likes us) and that she might just have to get baptized by herself. but ironically the next day, her husband called us and asked if he could come to church haha. ludmilla was gone helping their daughter with something, so he just came by himself and it was pretty funny and good.  the elders found us a new investigator named Daria. she is sooo cool! in her 30's and is just down to earth. she came to church last week, also to english, then we met with her this weekend. she understands the bible very well and doesn't affiliate herself with any church. she was very curious/excited about the book of mormon. we love cool people!  

the sisters from kherson came over this week and we did a 24 hour exchange. it was a blast! we love them. we got some good lessons with members in, and a lot of street contacting. the only contacts we got though were slightly creepy men. one guy kissed my hand, then sister gochek's hand (new sister from france), and then decided that wasn't enough so he kissed both of our hands again. we got his number and then he started to lean in to kiss me or something and i dodged that and walked quickly away! good times.  we learned a lot from each other and had fun on splits! we made borshe for them and they loved it! they have to come over to nickolaiv again tomorrow to do some registration stuff, so i'm excited to see them one last time.  

it has been so warm!!! it feels like spring!! i know it's not gonna last long, everyone is saying it will be in the negatives again this weekend, but it has been so nice and i've been lovin' it. we have even seen the sun a few times, we are so lucky. last week it rained a lot though a few days in a row. but we will just wait for the snow again....  so last night i had to say goodbye to one of the girls in the branch (dasha) because we had a sister in our mission go home for health stuff, so they called dasha on a "mini-mission".  i was so sad to say goodbye to her! but i'm so happy she gets to experience mission life for a few weeks, in preperation for when she will serve full-time.  

we have a few awesome activities coming up! i am going to demonstrate how to make cookies next week, and then we are doing a youth activity next week as well. it's going to be a blast! i have so much left to do here that i haven't really thought about going home, but i have come to the realization that it's getting closer. mixed feelings!  but i love this work and it has forever changed me. i love the people i have served here, and i feel like i have been the one who has learned more from them than they have from me haha. but that's how life is! i'm eternally grateful to our Lord and Savior, and He truly knows how to "succor" His people. i'm thankful for so many wonderful people in my life who support me! i love you all very much!  keep the faith!

Cectpa DeMille