the curveball

Fam and Friends,

 

welll this week changed a lot of things. some of you might already know, but none of the missionaries going to ukraine got their visas.  all the russian missionaries did. apparently two embassies in ukraine are fighting over who gets to issue the visas and how often people have to leave the country to renew.  so i guess that's what is happening, and all we know is that we are getting re assigned tomorrow. we talked to the travel agent and she said we are scheduled to be in the states for 4 weeks, we are scheduled to leave the states on nov 28. so we will be here for about 4 weeks ish if everything goes as planned. but, as soon as we get our visas they will have us leave, so it could be sooner or later who knows.  there are 17 of us getting re assigned between the 2 russian zones. they told us that they try to put us in bigger hub cities so we have a quick exit when we get our visas, and they will try to put some of us together..so who knows what is going to happen! haha it's wierd, i feel like i'm waiting for a new mission call.  it was a pretty rough weekend i'm not going to lie. we found out on friday and it was pretty depressing.  i cried a lot, and it was something i didn't expect and it came out of nowhere.  i guess i never realized how bad i wanted to go to ukraine, until they told me i couldn't go.  i doesn't sound like a big deal, but it hit me so hard for some reason.  i got a blessing from the zone leaders on friday night and that made me feel tons better.  saturday i was okay, and sunday i was sad again.  sunday we went to relief society and i was kinda sad. the speaker her name was sister rogers, and pretty much it was the best relief society ever.  she got called to serve as a health missionary to brazil (when she was hoping she wouldn't be called as a health missionary because she didn't like her nursing course she recently finished) and when she got to the MTC she was the only sister speaking portugese and she had to be put with tons of other companionships.  she said she felt like she was always treated as a "odd sister" because she created odd situations.  well her and her district didn't get their visas to brazil, so they went to the NY mission for 3 months.  she ended up baptizing one lady there and one thing she said was "the Lord cares enough about His children to send me to a place that wasn't my mission call to help her come closer to Christ". then, she didn't actually go to brazil, she got relocated to the phillipines.  needless to say, her talk was incredible.  it was the first time in my life i felt like a talk was sincerely written for me to hear it.  i went up to after to meet her and i just told her thank you, and it was a great experience.  it was probably the hardest weekend here in the mtc, but it was followed by many experiences that strenghtened my testimony and the desire of missionary work.  i am nervous about where i am going and with who and when, but one thing sister rogers said was "serve the Lord to the best of your ability wherever you are, whenever, and for how long because it is HIS work not ours" so that is what i will do.  i could be leaving as soon as friday, and as late as next wednesday.  we will find out tomorrow! i just hope i go with someone, not by myself.  so pray for all of us please!  this last week and this week up until everyone leaves will be good. class is a lot more chill and we usually talk more about the gospel and study grammar principles.  i really don't like the unexpected, but i'm trying to be calm and just accept it.  i have had some lasting, incredible experiences and the mtc has been a growing experience all around. this place will always be special to me because of how much i have grown and come closer to Christ.  i appreciate again all of the support and i love you all. pray for the missionaries everywhere, we all need it.  thank you for all you all do for me, and i will keep you posted about what goes on with our reassignments.  love you all!

 

cectpa demille

Travel Plans Tomorrow

Fam and Friends,
 
Life in the mtc is still rolling along!! i feel like kinda the time is going by slower now that we know that we are leaving soon.  All of us are stoked to find out travel plans tomorrow, as you can tell from my subject.  Well we had some sweet devotionals this week.  Sunday's devotional was...hilarious to be honest! it was a couple that are members of one of the district presidencies here, and the wife gets up and sets up this table with a table cloth and nice china, and her part of the devotional was on table ettiquite!!! haha it was thoughtful of her, but our elders couldn't take it seriously and it ended up being so entertaining.  Here are a few quotes/things i learned "DISCREET is the best word"-in other words, i don't even know what she was talking about.  "if your soup is too hot, you will know because you will feel it" hahahaha.  and, a bite is the size of a wheat thin, for those of you who don't know.  haha it was great.  and then the husband gets up and his devotional was pretty much his family genealogy about some indian tribe here in utah and he was like "you know, all love stories don't end the way you think they will.  my grandpa loved this indian girl and then one day in a playful game, she was shot and killed." say what? haha wow. it ended up being spiritual in a round about way..ok but last night's devotional was amazing!! RICHARD G SCOTT!!!  apostle #4.  he was so sweet and loving, he talked a lot about how to feel the spirit and how to study the scriptures.  but he really talked a lot about eternal marriage and our responsibility after the mission to find an eternal companion and actually go on dates.  he defines "hanging out" as "idleness in flocks" haha it was great.  one thing he said was that the elders should watch the sisters and how they do missionary work because they could learn a lot from us and it would pay off in the long run for them to watch us.  that was intimidating, motivating, and good to hear for sure.  i love our elders though and it is amazing to be surrounded by worthy priesthood holders. he challenged us to pray without ceasing, and more than that, develop a relationship with our Heavenly Father where we can just talk to him.  it was truly amazing. and he got up after the closing hymn and was like "you know, usually i like to shake everyone's hands after but i won't be able to do that tonight and i'm so sorry, but i hope that you can feel my love" and it was so spiritual and so powerful.  he also talked about our mission calls and that there has never been a mission call issued without a prompting from the Lord, that people want us and need us where we are going, and since it is from the Lord, he will help us.  so so so so cool.
 
other than that, we have just been going to class, language stuff, and everything normal.  the temple was amazing today, we went and did initiatories then a session, and all of our names for initiatories were from russia, so that was a treat. we are all anxious to get out of here, but we are all realizing that we have to say goodbye to each other, and that makes me so sad.  we have developed a family relationship with our 2 districts, and we have been through so much together and experienced so many things together.  but, we realize that we are going to do the Lord's work and this will bless our lives.  i love being here in the mtc because it has changed me into a better person, and its preparing me to be a better missionary.  i feel okay about russian so far, but i met a guy from ukraine at the temple walk on sunday and he said that in my mission its a constant mixture of ukranian and russian, so that will be interesting.  gotta love it! well, i love you all and this is the Lord's work.  i can feel the power of prayers, and i know that we are here to save people and to tell them about Christ.  It truly is the best feeling in the world to be able to wear His name along with my name.  We have a huge responsibility, and it is an honorable work.  I love you all so much, I am so happy, I am doing well, and I can't wait to go to Ukraine.  I will keep you all posted!!
 
Cectpa DeMille

Week 9.............

Fam and Friends,
 
This week was definitely one of the hardest thus far in the mtc.  We are starting our 9th week this week, and it is really starting to hit us about how long we have been here.  Don't get me wrong, i really really have loved the mtc and still do.  I never thought i could love it this much and grow this much and learn so much about myself.  But, i really want to go teach real people now haha.  Last night for devotional we had Julie B Beck come which was really awesome, and her and her husband had a lot of wonderful things to say about missionary work and the responsibility we have.  I am still not super confident in my russian, and i had a little bit of a breakdown on saturday.  My amazing teacher Brat. Wilson was talking to sister lewis and i about how we were doing, and i just started crying haha.  It was kinda pathetic, but i just was really stressed on how i am even going to be an effective missionary if i can't say anything. He told me a story of a senior couple that was in russia when he was.  This senior missionary only knew 6 words in russian.  every time he would get on a bus, he would just yell out, "does anyone know english!?" and then he would start sharing the gospel with whoever could understand him.  Brat wilson helped me so much.  It was really funny to watch all of the elders' reactions to how upset i was..they would shoot me awkward looks and ask if i was okay and stuff haha.  elder hopkins seriously is my best elder friend, i think i would die here without him cheering me up so much. it is even more of a plus we are going to the same mission, we are counting down the days til we can get on that plane and head to our real mission.  i am nervous for what's ahead, and i know that i will miss the comfort of the mtc, and especially the people, but i'm ready to dive in and be a greeny.  i am so excited words cannot even express it.  we get our travel plans a week from tomorrow!! boo yeah. 
 
a recap of the week:  sunday in sacrament meeting guess who got called on to speak? yep that's right, me.  i spoke about the apostasy and the restoration so it was a good topic and everyone said i did good and i even got them to laugh a few times, so mission accomplished.  and, our district plus sis. hart and sis. huber, we performed the musical number.  we sang "if you could hie to kolob" all 5 verses.  our dear elders are kind of musically challenged so it was entertaining to say the least.  i'm pretty sure all of us were laughing, and elder brinton told me that he saw president harrison laughing, so that was just great hahaha. it seriously was really awesome/funny though.  it has still been really fun to get to know all of the new people.  my new best friend elder potter (the british one) he seriously is so funny.  he likes to quote movies! and all the movies that i like.  he even is a lord of the rings fan, and all of us are planning a middle earth night, post mission.  but this week we were playing volleyball and me and him were in the back and he missed a ball and he looks at me and says "oh my days" in his accent, and we laughed for the rest of the game.  i will record him saying that and send it to you, it's simply amazing. 
 
Really i wish i had more cool, exciting, juicy stuff to tell but...the mtc is getting a little repetetive.  i just would encourage you all to read the book of mormon everyday.  we have been promised that it will enrich our lives and we will have more spirit with us.  i love you all!
 
cectpa demille

New missionaries! and other stuff

Friends and family,

 

This week was way interesting, fun, and different.  It started with getting all of the new missionaries on wednesday, and they are all so fun.  We got 3 new districts in our zone.  Three sisters came in that are going to Nepper!! Holla!! All of them are so jazzed about learning russian and they are all very diligent thus far.  Sister lewis and i got to show them how to do a "companionship inventory" on thursday night because she is cordinating sis....that was so fun, but it was honestly hard to take serious because we don't really ever have problems so our companionship inventorys usually consist of reviewing our goals and laughing haha.  But it was fun to hang out with our zone leaders and all see the newbies introduce themselves.  We got 2 new roommates, sister johnson is going to nepper, and sister fitzgerald is going to dontesk.  so now i'm not the only ukranian in our room!! it has been really exciting to start to get to know all of them.  and then there was conference!!!! it was so amazing in the mtc.  we all just sat in the big auditorioum and just watched and watched and watched.  the russians dominated and we all pretty much stole the front rows with the soft seats, so it was awesome.  there were so many amazing talks and a lot said about missionary work, so that gave us an extra boost.  how about all those new temples????!!! i wish you all could have been in the room when they said there was going to be another temple in PROVO......holy cow, it was intense.  sister hart and i looked at each other and seriously started almost crying.  we are also making plans to go to the paris temple haha.  Some of my favorite talks were: pres. uchtdorf's in the relief society broadcast, pres. holland's from priesthood, pres eyring, matthew o richardson, and definitely brother yamasheita's talk (i couldn't spell that, don't judge me!).  there was also a lot of talk about russia, which made us so pumped.  I had a couple of really hard days last week, just panicking that we leave in less than a month and the language is still rough.  One of the elders was so nice though and pulled me aside and just said "sister demille-your job in the mtc is to get spiritually filled, you need to learn the gospel, and the language will come." so that calmed me down and conference helped a lot.  the last few days i have been getting so excited to go to ukraine! it is going to be amazing to teach real people, with real lives.  i think that's why i love TRC so much because we teach people according to their needs and by the spirit, not someone playing a role.  it has been such a learning experience to be here.  it is full of ups and downs and i really love it, but it hasn't been easy at times.  we feel like we have been here for so long! sunday night we had a fireside by this guy named Chad Lewis.  apparently he played in the nfl for the eagles, and he served a mission in taiwan, and he is the chinese rep for the nfl now.  i was surprised, he didn't talk about football that much so that was nice because i don't know football.  but him and his wife's talks were amazing.  the best sunday fireside we have had so far.  he was so inspiring with his passion for missionary work and he has had so many opportunities to share the gospel, which really hit me hard. i know that i will share the gospel on my mission, but i often forget that we will have opportunities and we should make it a priority our whole lives to share the gospel.  there were a few things he said "focus on the joys in sharing the gospel, and you will get through the disappointments." and then he said "you, all of us sharing the gospel, are taking light and life into the world.  you are bringing people to safety who are now lost."  it was so incredible.  he got to climb mt. kilimanjaro and he talked a lot about tanzania and related it to missionary work, and that of course touched me.  elder hopkins, elder brinton, and i are definitely going to climb kili one day.  last night's fireside was really cool, it was by a guy named Lionel L Kendrick.  he used to be a general authority and shared a lot of experiences about him being a mission president and an area authority over asia and the phillipines.  he had some basic advice (wake up on time etc) and a lot of cool stories to share.  every day i learn something new about the gospel.  i am reading in alma right now, and i forget how amazing of a missionary he was, along with the sons of mosiah.  i feel so lucky to be a missionary in this dispensation.  the prophets long ago prophesied that this would be the last dispensation to gather the tribes of israel and feed the flocks.  i am so happy, so lucky, and so so blessed.  i challenge you all to be a missionary in some way this week. remember-"every member a missionary" go out of your way to serve someone, and you will be happier and more blessed.  i love you all, and this work is amazing and life changing.

 

cectpa demille

Planet MTC

Priveyet family and friends,

 

Good news, i have survived another week in the MTC! I hope everything is well with all of you.  A recap of this week: we go to class, sleep, eat, speak russian, and play lots of sand volleyball haha.  Russian is coming along.  I feel like i am grasping some of the conjugation concepts and what we call "cases"...those are just blessed things that come along with learning russian.  All of our new russians come in today, and we are so stoked.  Although it has been so cool just to have our zone here for the last few weeks.  We have grown so close together and i seriously love everyone.  we had testimony meeting on sunday and it was seriously so amazing.  and saturday nights make the mtc so much better because we all go outside and sing 2 or 3 hymns, it sounds lame but something so little like that can make your whole week so much better.  Our devotional last night was by Elder Ron A Clarke of the 70 and he had a lot of good insights to make us better missionaries and help us along our path of finding people that we need to.  he was a mission pres. in bolivia and he said one day one of the elders knocked on his door and the elder had been there for 2 days. he said "president, i don't like the food. i don't like my companion. i don't like my bed. i don't like the climate" and elder clarke said to him "give me one month to change your mind" and the elder said "i will give you 2 weeks" so 2 weeks later the elder came in and said "president, i don't like the food. i don't like my companion. i don't like my bed, and i don't like the climate. but i met a bolivian family that i love, and the holy ghost has changed my heart. i will stay for them"  man that story just hit me so hard because even if we just bring 1 soul unto Christ, it can change our hearts.  I have been reading the Book of Mormon and I am into Alma, and my goal is to have it finished by saturday so that should be a fun challenge.  sister lewis is the coordinating sister (kinda like a sister zone leader) and so we have the wonderful priveledge of performing what a "companionship inventory" should consist of tomorrow night for the 2 new districts coming in.  we really are so stoked, it's gonna be so fun. 

 

one of the biggest highlights of my life happened last night--all of the foreign missionaries come in a day or 2 early to get more orientation/training stuff--and we had an elder come in yesterday that will be in our zone.  he is from ENGLAND and his name is ELDER POTTER!!!!!!!!!!! i thought about saying all of these cheesy harry potter lines like "why did you break the elder wand!" or "happy christmas harry!" but instead i just talked to him like a normal person and he is awesome, i'm so stoked to have him in our zone.  we also got an elder from germany that is adorable. 

 

other than that, the mtc is still just amazing.  some of the worst parts of it are waking up when you wish you had 3 more hours of sleep, but some of the best parts are just putting on my nametag every morning.  my teachers make class so much easier to go to and so much better to be in.  i am slowly understanding/speaking more russian.  last week in the TRC we didn't even use any of our notes, we just had conversations with them from memory and it felt so good.  i love all of our elders in our zone, they make life so great.  my teacher bro doroshkin even takes time sometimes to quote Nacho Libre with us-funny story about that-apparently him and his district when he was in the mtc used to quote N.L all the time because its so funny/applicable to missionary life in the mtc, and one day him and his comp. were quoting it in the lunch line, and this sister missionary in front of them turns around and just says "BABYLON" and walks away hahahaha. so, so many gems in this place. 

 

well this week should be amazing with conference coming up, it's going to be like a vacation in the mtc.  all saturday classes are cancelled and we will watch the sisters broadcast thingy while the elders are in priesthood.  i encourage you all to pray about something you need/want an answer to and look for it during conference.  i love you all and i'm so grateful to be a missionary in this dispensation.  it is truly an amazing, life changing work for all involved.  i can really feel the prayers and the love, and i'm so grateful for you all.  keep living life in the outside world. LOVE YOU ALL!!!

 

cectpa demille

Pictures!!

Sis. Huber, Sis. Hart and Sis. DeMille

MTC Companions - Sis. Lewis and Sis. DeMille

St George friends - Sis. DeMille and Sis. Pead

The Book of Mormon

Prievyet family and friends!!!

 

Life here in the MTC is just going grand...how is the outside world? I hope I haven't missed out on anything too dramatic.  This week was great, and full of ups and downs.  Let me get into last night's devotional...all the missionaries in the MTC got copies of Oct. ensign early, and they told us to have them read and bring them to the devo last night.  We are just singing and guess who walks in with his cute wife...RUSSELL M NELSON!! i swear, we are the luckiest group of missionaries.  his talk was all about the ensign and the book of mormon.  i was so touched by the spirit that was brought into the room.  not only were we in the presence of an apostle, but we were talking about the book of mormon.  he gave us a lot of facts and history about it. here are a few i remember

 

the book of mormon mentions the resurrection more than the bible

 

it is now translated into 107 languages

 

the translators who are continuing to translate into different languages work on it and finish about 1 page a day..joseph smith translated 8-10 pages per day.  wow!!

 

he was so funny and so spiritual.  he had 4 missionaries come up (2 sisters 2 elders) and had them answer questions/bear testimony of the BOM.  elder brinton got called up, it was so funny and great.  one of the sisters is actually a girl that is going to italy, we are on the same floor as her so we are friends.  turns out he is her grandpa!! so it was way cute because he just hugged her and kissed her. 

 

i encourage you all to read the ensign, it is so full of power and testimony and love.  my testimony of the book of mormon has grown so much.  i'm reading it right now, and my goal is to have it finished by october 1.  one cool thing that elder nelson mentioned was that without missionaries, the gathering of israel couldn't be completed, and without the book of mormon, it couldn't be completed either.  the combination of missionaries and book of mormon will bring great success throughout the world.  he mentioned our responsibilites as a church: 1-strenghthen faith in jesus christ. 2-helping in the gathering of israel 3-helping others and ourselves prepare for the second coming.  so amazing!! and we get conference in a few weeks. man i'm so excited.

 

a couple of fun things this week: sister lewis and i sometimes like to do crazy/rebellious things, so this week we decided to do a "sand burial".  i was buried, in the sand, on the volleyball court. it was epic! we have to entertain ourselves in here. the language is still coming slowly...we are told not to compare ourselves with others, but i realized that i'm a little behind some of my district. i feel like it just hasn't clicked yet and it's so frustrating.  i had a couple of rough days last week, but i'm just trying to turn discouragement/frustration into motivation.  i love what i'm learning and how i'm growing.  it has been such a blessing and amazing experience to be here.  thank you all for your prayers and support, i am humbled.  i love you all and thank you for the prayers for the missionaries everywhere.  with love,

 

cectpa demille