everyone,

this week, we saw miracles! it was a very rewarding week.  we always have ups and downs, but the ups usually outweigh the downs haha. we found a few new investigators this week (adding to our investigator pool of like 0 haha). one is a younger girl, (veronica) about 32 and married. she is baptist, but SHE set up a meeting with us when we contacted her, and it was great! she totally accepted the book of mormon and was great. another one was an older lady that we met with a few times, but then dropped because she wasn't really super interested, but at least we are giving people the chance!  we had good success with less actives again, and talked to what seems like 500 people on the streets haha. 

 the biggest miracle was church yesterday. Pres. and Sis. Van Bruggen were in town and they were speaking in church, and we thought that 3 of our investigators/contacts would come and the elders thought 4 of theirs would come. well we had 9 non-members at church!!! it was awesome!!! we had 3 former investigators just pop in out of no where, and a few contacts.  it was so great!! we also got blessed with a surprise lesson with Vika!!! sister dickison and i did a musical number in church yesterday so we were practicing with the branch pianist, Dasha, who is friends with vika. we walked into the branch and vika was just standing there!!! it was so good to see her, i love that girl! she said her parents let her come. it was a tender mercy from the Lord! so she also came to church.  All in all, it was a great sunday!!!

our musical number went well i think! i was so nervous and shaking really bad haha! but we sang a medley of "come thou fount of every blessing" in UKRANIAN! (it's only in the ukranian hymn book, not russian) and we put with it, "abide with me, 'tis eventide".  dasha is brilliant and just came up with a good medley on the piano. we had a few people in tears, so i think it turned out all right!  Pres. and Sis. Van Bruggen talked a lot about ancestry work and how we are all children of God.  they both gave great talks of course and it's always amazing and a priviledge to get to know them more.  i really just love them and respect them a lot, they are making a huge difference in our mission and i love it!  

we are doing a ton of work with the branch here to just get the work going. i have been encouraging the relief society to do more activities and to gather as sisters more. so we had a few meetings with the relief society pres. and such. she mentioned that she doesn't know how to make cookies or anything like that, so i suggested i teach them how, and that could be an activity! she was shocked that that could be considered as an activity haha. needless to say, we had many conversations about it and i hope it will help. the relief society pres. had a lot of questions for Sis. Van Bruggen and that involved a lot of translating from me! haha my brain was fried after, but it was fun.  

last week we also got to go to Kherson for a zone training meeting, and it was great. Sis. Maxwell made orange rolls that were out of this world, and we set some great goals as a zone. it was wierd that that would be my last zone gathering ever!! the sisters from kherson are coming over this week to do splits with us as well.  it should be a good week hopefully!!  i have been LOVING reading the conference ensign!! i am amazed and inspired by all of the talks and how different they are, but how each talk can touch our lives. i am touched by the many personal and spiritual experiences they share and how trials and experiences shaped and changed their lives!  we are so blessed with wonderful leaders of our church.  i'm so very thankful for new revelation and how we are so blessed by the prophet and apostles.  the gospel is so perfect and i'm thankful for the scriptures.  i hope the gospel continues to amaze you as much as it amazes me and also gives me peace at the same time!  i thank you all for your support and prayers, i am a lucky missionary!!  keep the faith and stay warm! but when you are cold think of us in ukraine haha! just kidding, i feel bad it's cold in STG i hope it warms up before i get home :) much love!!

Cectpa DeMille