Sister Amanda DeMille

family and friends,

it's crazy snowy here in ukraine! it was so warm and nice last week, then we walk outside on friday and it's snowing soo hard! it snowed alllllll day and it probably snowed like 10 inches. i like when it snows though (as long as there is no wind involved) because its warmer and pretty! well i'll just get into the details of the week.

friday night was the craziest friday night of my life. words cannot adequately explain the adventure we had, but i will try. so we had an appointment with a less active and we waited for a bus for like an hour, and finally got one (she lives in a village outside of the city). we called her to tell her we would be late, but her phone was off. so we get to her house and it's a straight up blizzard. even worse out in the village. oh, and the power was all out. and her phone wasn't working, she doesn't have a doorbell, and she has a huge dog guarding her gate, so we couldn't get in her house even if we wanted to haha. so we just decided to bag it, and head back home. but there were barely any buses going back to the main street. we had no choice but to walk back to the main street and get a bus from there. it was nuts haha. we were running through knee deep snow, in a blizzard, in a dark village with no power, on a friday night, in ukraine. we were so full of adrenaline and it was crazy! it was probably between 3-4 miles, and we just booked it haha. it took us about 45 minutes. we weren't cold though and it was pretty hilarious! so there's our adventure for the week.

the rest of the week wasn't as epic as that. it was kind of a slower week, no one could meet with us except vika. we met with her twice and i just love her, she is great :) i just wish her parents would let her get baptized. we did a lot of finding but it was all basically unsuccessful. but it's okay, it was still a good week and it went by really fast. the weather was a hinderance, and no one came to church because of it. but this week should be a lot better, everyone was telling us last week that they wanted to meet this week, so we are hoping for the best haha. there is still a lot to do and i'm anxious to do it!

last night we had a great activity and did a "cookie demonstration" haha. basically we just showed them how to bake them because we made the dough beforehand. we made snicker doodles and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. our lesson was about the ingredients of the restoration with some scriptures explaining all the principles we need for the recipe of the gospel. it was cool! and everyone loved the cookies. one of the young men in our branch Alex, kept trying to just steal the dough haha. he was like "why do we need to bake them, they are already good like this! let's just eat the dough!" and alex's little brother was a little scoundrel and kept stealing dough and cookies right when they came out of the oven. he was a cookie hoarder. and then there was little Eva who was like "those cookies were soooooooooo good!" and i asked her which ones she liked better and she said "all of them!" haha. so the cookies were a hit, and we are going to translate the recipe. it was good to see the members come together and it was fun. we are having another activity this week with our english class, so that should be fun too.

it's crazy this is the last week of my mission! this last little while has gone so fast and i can't believe it. honestly it hasn't really hit me yet and i feel great. i will feel ready to go home next week, but i still have some work to do here. we will head to nepper next monday and stay with the Van Bruggens and do all my final interview stuff, then we fly out wednesday morning. i feel great right now, but i have mixed feelings about my mission ending of course. i love the people and i love serving the Lord. i love the simpleness of life here on the mission, we have one purpose and we try everyday to fulfill it. i feel like i will always have left a part of my heart here in ukraine! but i'm ready for this week to do work and finish my mission of with a bang! i love you all, keep us in your prayers, and remember the Lord loves each of you!

cectpa demille

Sis. Gottscheck & Sis. DeMille

Sis. Kochel & Sis. DeMille

i'm petting the mural kitten for megan

some shots from the activity last night, with 2 of my fave girls in the branch

we tried to get a snap shot of me running through the snow, its pretty blurry but it gives a bit of the effect of what was really happening haha. notice the snow is up to my skirt. enjoy!

Pictures from previous weeks that I was unable to post