pics

June 25, 2012

this is our toilet. it flushes and it's clean. hooray!

this is our oven! big red.

this is me studying

nickolaiv train station.  we rode on a train to the dacha.

pics

June 25, 2012

this cat ran into some bleach i think.  tell nala not to do that.

the dacha house

more of the dacha

tender mercies

June 25, 2012

family and friends,

Last week was as always, busy, but we saw a few small miracles and we are being blessed.  We see "interesting/crazy" things and a lot of small wonders all the time.  It's interesting to have this perspective on the world as a missionary and have one focus.  I look around at people and i just think "alright, who of you are ready??" haha. I truly love this work and everything that we get to see.  We get a front row seat to seeing people change and sharing the most beautiful message the world ever knew.  i love it!!!!

as far as the highlights: so we have this investigator in Kherson, Elena. I have talked about her before, but she is the poor woman, she has faith, but sometimes lazy to act.  so we had a lesson with her this week, and honestly, we didn't know what to talk about.  we knew we wanted to talk about the importance of sacrament meeting and taking the sacrament, but we didn't know what else to say.  i have never done this before, but we went into that lesson undecided and unprepared.  as we walked up to her house, we just decided to stop and have a prayer.  it was quiet and no one was around, so it was perfect.  then we went right in to the lesson.  it was one of the best lessons i have ever had! we did what we were supposed to as missionaries (invite, testify, teach, etc), but we did all that with boldness that i have never experienced before, and did that with love.  she tried to come up with all these excuses for why she hadn't been to sacrament meeting, and we kindly rebuttled all of them in a Christlike way haha. we just basically owned her in her excuses.  she asked again about being baptized and we just said until she comes to sacrament meeting, we can't pick a baptismal date for her.  so she came to church yesterday, but during sunday school haha. well that's a bit of an improvement of walking in during 3rd hour.  little by little, people progress.  but that lesson will always stand out in my mind. i truly learned for myself the meaning of the scripture "it will be given to you in the very moment". i love seeing tender mercies from the Lord everyday!!

we have been trying to do a lot of following up, but nothing major is happening yet. we don't have hardly any investigators, but we are trying to find those who are ready.  a few interesting/crazy things we saw and did last week:  so one day we were getting on the bus to go to Kherson, and there was this woman in all black with a vail, and i could tell she was some kind of priestess or something.  well i just thought "cool, someone else trying to tell people about God!" then she looked back at me, glared with this piercing, evil glare, and crossed herself!! man i don't know what it is, but people think we are evil.  i felt a wierd presence and i sure didn't like that. but she did it a few more times and i just got over it haha.  i thought about it the whole bus ride though.  i can now easily spot those who are true Christians and followers of Christ.  "by their works ye shall know them".  i thought of how i think it's great that there is other people out there trying to do what we do, bring people closer to God.  and even though I know that ours is the only true church and I have been called of God to represent Christ, I would never put any one else down who called themself a servant of God.  it's just interesting how people react around us sometimes, and I am glad that I have legit authority haha.  

we have been continuing doing service and building this lady's house out of mud and straw. i love it!! another funny thing. we set up an appointment with this lady Olga who is a dentist.  I told her my uncle is a dentist at home, and she was like " can i meet him?" hahah i was like "well he lives in america" and she was like "okay, give him my card." hahah she is a little crazy.  so we usually meet her at her office, but this time she wanted us to go to her house.  long story short: we asked a billion people where this address was, went to like the wilderness of ukraine, and thought we were in the right place. then we asked another lady and she told us to go back the way that we came. so we are waiting at the bus stop, and this young guy that's tan, in a muscle shirt, and on a motorcycle just drives on up.  he starts speaking in broken english and is like "i need to help you, you are lost!" haha so he writes the address down on a sticky note, and helps us get on the bus and talks to the bus driver for us.  then i look at the sticky note and it says "these girls are from america and can't understand anything" hahahahaha we almost died laughing.  then we ended up at a bus stop right across the street from olga's office!! haha so we call her and we are like, okay come meet us so we can go to your house. then she is like "but i'm at my office and i'm busy!" and we were like "olga, you told us to meet you at your house!" and she was like "oh!" haha she is crazy. so we went to her office (let's just say i would never get my teeth cleaned there) and we waited, then we just left because she was busy. people are so funny sometimes and i love scatterbrained women!! haha keeps our lives interesting.  

yesterday i had to give a talk in church, and it went pretty well. i only had to be corrected on like 2 words instead of 100! improvement is good.  and then us missionaries sang "armies of heleman" because they have never heard primary songs.  and everyone was like crying and loved it.  the elders have this hilarious investigator named Gussein, and he told me he loved my talk.  He is a really awesome guy, and so so so hilarious. He is getting baptized in a few weeks, and it has been so awesome to see him change.  even though he isn't our investigator, we truly have seen him change and it's so great.  i love it!!! We also got to go to a "dacha" this weekend. it's like a garden house in the country.  we got to weed the garden, then have lunch with all the women. it was good to see a relief society activity go on, and it was great. well, the work is moving forward little by little. pray that we can find more people to teach, because we really are trying!! i love you all and i'm so grateful for your support. i love this work, and i know that our Savior lives and loves us!!! 

Cectpa DeMille

pics

June 18, 2012

us in our awesome kitchen

me just building something out of straw and mud

us and the baby bunnies that she had at her house

time flies! or flys? I can't spell anymore!

June 18, 2012

dear family and friends,

it was another busy week and I'm glad it's p day haha.  Here are just a few of the highlights.  So we made rice krispies for the picnic last weekend and everyone loved them, so we decided to do a demonstration of them on how to make them this week for a relief society activity.  So we made coffee cake, demonstrated how to make rice krispies, and made rach dip with veggies.  Oh man, they loved the ranch dip.  They saw the veggies and then the dip. they were like "for what reason do we need this sauce with the vegetables?" and we just told them to try it! haha so they did and they immediately wanted the recipe.  I explained that i just had a packet of ranch that my mom sent then i just mixed it with buttermilk and mayo and such.  They were like, "okay we get that you made it with buttermilk and mayo. but what are these green things in it? and how do i make it?" haha we just settled on finding them a recipe online and translating it haha. it took a long time to get them to settle on that.  but they liked everything and it was a good activity, even though only 3 women came.  We also got to do service last week for this woman in Kherson that is re-modeling her house.  She had us scrub walls to prep for wall paper, and i made a door frame out of mud and straw.  yes, mud and straw.  that's what her house is made out of! it's pretty awesome. i can check that off my mission bucket list now!! 

things in nickoliav are also good. we have been finding new investigators from the Area Book and it has been really good.  we had a few good lessons last week with new people.  we are trying to follow up on other people that we have found.  we have an investigator Vika here, and she is so great. i seriously love her, she has great faith and is such a good girl.  She is 18, but she lives with her parents and her parents won't let her get baptized.  she has been investigating for 3 years and she prays everyday that she can be baptized.  We asked her what would happen if she just got baptized, and she said her parents would kick her out.  Please keep her in your prayers! We don't really know what else to do besides pray for her.  we asked her if we could meet her parents and if that would help, but she said no.  so we just keep praying for her.  she is so adorable.  She has taken it upon herself to help us with our accents, so she has us read out loud and correct us on pronunciation and such.  It is hard work and i feel like a five year old. haha, but i really do want to speak russian well and to sound well.  sometimes i wonder if i will ever learn russian, but I tell Heavenly Father every day that He called me russian speaking, so I need help haha.  It has been helping studying with our district and having Vika help us.  learning russian is humbling all around.  i hear people tell their cats and dogs something and the cats and dogs obey and do what the person says.  Then i'm like "wait what did they say?" haha, so cats and dogs understand more russian than i do sometimes.  russian will take a while, but hopefully before i leave this mission i will speak russian haha.

there is another girl in our branch here named Dasha. we have been helping her study Preach My Gospel, because she wants to serve a mission, she is also so adorable and asks amazing questions.  she plays the piano really well and yesterday she played a musical number and it was "armies of heleman".  i have heard that song a billion times, but i was really touched when i heard it yesterday.  i think about the armies of heleman in the scriptures, and how heleman calls them his sons "because they are worthy to be called sons". and how even though they were young, they were exactly obedient, cared more about their father's lives than their own lives, and remembered what their mothers taught them.  they pursued the lamanites with boldness and without fear.  because of their diligence and obedience, not one of them died.  some of them received wounds, but they all survived. the other armies with them all suffered losses. they were good armies and pretty obedient, but not like the armies of heleman.  i compare it to life and to missionary work.  through life we might receive wounds, be faced with danger, hardship, see losses, and have to make hard choices, but if we are obedient and diligent, we won't suffer in the end.  there is a big difference between doing all that you can and being obedient, than just being a good person and following some of the commandments or something.  i love the armies of heleman for their example to us.  their parents were good, just like Nephi's parents.  think of how many generations were saved because of the goodness of the parents, and the goodness of their sons.  i love their example!! 

i have realized something, that everyone in life faces hard things.  i knew this, but on my mission it has become more apparent of how we can act when faced with something hard.  i think of interruptions in life: some just happen, and some interruptions are "Godly".  I read a talk recently about Christ's mother Mary, and John's mother Elizabeth.  Both of these women experienced "Godly" interruptions.  Elizabeth wanted a child for her whole life, and at the time when it was not the best time for her to be pregnant, she was pregnant.  then there is Mary.  she had ordinary dreams of having a family with Joseph, but wanted that time to be after they were married.  she received a "Godly" interruption, and was informed that she was pregnant before marriage.  I think of how these women handled their interruptions, and also their husbands.  Godly interruptions can affect not only the person directly, but also their family and friends.  But people like Mary and Joseph accepted this interruption, and handled it the best they could.  I appreciate them for their examples of nobleness and relying on God.  i know that sometimes interruptions are hard, whether it's a Godly interruption, or just a life interruption.  But i know that we can take a look at these interruptions and amidst all the confusion and heartache, we can decide for ourselves how we will act and if we will rely on God.  I really really know that if we rely on God, everything will be easier.  He can see the big picture for us, and He wants what is truly best for us.  I am grateful for the knowledge that we have of the Gospel and the comfort it brings.  We all know our purpose, and that can bring us peace in hard times.  I love you all and I'm grateful for your prayers and support! The work is moving forth, and remember that we are all Sons and Daughters of God! I love you all!!!

Cectpa DeMille

we love picnics and families

friends and family!

It was another busy, great week here in Nickoliav and Kherson.  We have been doing tons of Area Book work, and it has been successful. Since we are the only missionaries in Nickoliav, we got all of the Elder's area books, and now we have like 8 books between the two cities.  It's craziness! We are still trying to find a good balance between two cities, member work, less active work, investigator work, area book work, contacting, and everything else.  There is so much to do everyday, but we will get it done eventually I hope..haha.  This last weekend was one of my most favorite weekends on my mission!! Friday started out wierd because we got dogged twice with lessons, but we had a lesson that night.  We had a lesson scheduled with a family (mom, son, dad), and they brought their co-worker.  They all spoke english, so that was a surprise!! But it was seriously one of the best lessons and best nights of my life here in Ukraine.  They were so wonderful!!! They fed us this crazy delicious meal.  We had home-made juice, bread, meat/potatoes, cucumber/tomato/mint salad, delicious strawberries/cream for dessert, and pork tongue. Yes, pork tongue!! It's a delicacy here, and I actually loved it!! I might need to pick some up for myself haha.  It was probably the best meal I've had here. And they were just awesome! We got to know them and they got to know us, and we reviewed the Restoration with them.  They were very accepting and had great questions!! They didn't want us to leave, they kept asking us to stay and then we settled on us coming back haha.  It was just a warm, comfortable, awesome environment to be in.  So refreshing to have lessons like that!! Both Sister Johnson and I walked out of there and we were like "whoa, that was awesome." we fell in love with their family, and i'm pretty sure they liked us! I told them this story about how sometimes people will tell us that we speak really good Russian, and then other times when we will ask someone a question in russian, they will say "we don't speak english, speak in russian" hahah. they laughed so hard, and then i told them how sometimes when people don't understand us i will say "i am speaking russian, i just have an accent because i'm from america!" and then they will understand everything i'm saying after that.  They thought that was the most hilarious thing they have ever heard and they about lost it laughing so hard.  haha i just love little things like that as a missionary!!  

On Saturday we were in Kherson for a branch picnic.  Let's just say it wasn't like a ward picnic at home haha.  We did it at this little beach area, and it was a hot day. Some of our branch members just weren't shy at all and just stripped down to their underwear and were just hanging out like that haha!!! This one older woman just stripped down to her lacy black bra and underwear, and just did a little tanning while we were cooking haha.  The elders almost died haha they were like "ugghh tell her to put her clothes on!!" we just laughed.  Then sister johnson and I just played a little bit of soccer and volleyball with all the men in their underwear.  It was pretty hilarious to say the least.  It's totally normal for everyone here, just a tiny bit awkward for us missionaries.  Words can't really describe it, but use your imagination haha.  The beaches here are just interesting haha.  People are just not shy about their bodies, and we see a little more than we would like to haha.  Sister Johnson and I didn't want to wear jeans because we would have died of heat stroke, so we just wore skirts. We got some pretty wierd looks, and i was thinking to myself "yes i know that we are dressed modestly which is like a fashion blunder here, but ya'all are practically naked, which is not cool!" haha ukraine never ceases to surprise me. For the picnic we brought rice krispie treats (we actually found marshmallows here, miracle! and they tasted pretty close to american rice krispies), and everyone was obsessed with them! They were like "girls, how do you make this?? I need this recipe!!" so we tried explaining it but between us 6 missionaries, none of us knew how to say marshmallow.  so we just tried to explain that they were round white sugar balls and no one was understanding it haha. so we brought a bag to church to show them, and everyone was so happy.  We tried writing down the recipe, but they just couldn't understand that it was simply butter, marshmallows, and cosmo stars (ukranian version of kind of rice krispies).  They couldn't understand that it was that easy haha. So we decided to do a relief society activity and we will demonstrate how to make rice krispies haha.  They were delighted, and i'm sure it will be a great activity this weekend.  

Sunday school yesterday was hilarious. This one guy who is an investigator loves to say prayers, so he was like "I will say the opening prayer!!!" so he stood right up and said it and was like "Heavenly Father we are grateful for this church, and for the prophets like President Monson and even Nephi and Lehi. We love them.  Bless this day! In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." hahaha he always says he is grateful for Nephi and Lehi in his prayers, and it always makes me laugh.  In class the investigators/members got into a little argument about unimportant things, and this guy next to me was about to lose it haha. So we just handled it like champs and calmed down the argument and I assured him that it was all good and that his questions were good, then he is like "I need more marshmallows!!" and grabbed the bag and ate a few, then was totally content.  I swear so many funny things happen every single day!! Ukranians are so entertaining sometimes.

Well, everything else is going great.  The work here in two cities is overwhelming and I swear our lives are just back and forth and sometimes I feel like we are so busy but didn't get anything done.  BUT, the work is great and the work of saving souls is not a small task.  I love being a missionary and I learn so much every day! The language is still a challenge and I have moments everyday when I feel like I know nothing, but it continues to improve slowly but surely.  I love serving the people here and creating bonds with wonderful members and nonmembers here.  The work is moving forth, and I love it!! I love you all!! Thanks for your support and prayers! 

Cectpa DeMille

Sis J cutting up meat for picnic

Birthday

Birthday

june already?

dear family and friends,

this last week was so great! we are seeing so many small miracles and blessings from the Lord.  everything is going a lot more smoothly, and it is officially a new transfer today.  A couple of highlights:  So there is this girl named Julia in Kherson that comes to English.  She told us a few weeks ago that she plays the piano and she would like to play in our sacrament meeting. We were like, yes of course!  So she has been practicing and getting better and getting more comfortable with us.  We hadn't really talked a lot about the gospel with her up until last week.  She got done practicing and we just asked her how she felt about our church meetings and such.  She just basically said that there are so many religions, and everyone thinks their own religion is true.  She said that she wished that there was just one true church on the Earth, but that it would take time to establish and let everyone know about it, etc.  We just dove right in to the restoration! We talked about the apostasy and talked about the reformers in europe, the simple truths taken out of the bible, and basically the history of America (God bless America!) and that America was founded for freedom of religion and such.  We cleared up a couple of false truths that she had heard.  She thought our church was just an American church and that our missions were like a forced thing.  She loved that our church is throughout the world and that we made the choice to serve missions.  So anyway, we just gave her the whole run-down of the restoration, and she loved it.  It made sense to her and she agreed with it.  I remember in our last Zone Conf. we talked a lot about focusing on the simple truths, especially with the restoration, so that's what we did with Julia.  The spirit manifested to me again how simple truths are the best way to teach, and it was a great lesson.  I don't think I have ever had a better first lesson on my mission! Her boyfriend came to church too, and he loved testimony meeting.  The elders also had an investigator there, and Julia, her boyfriend, and the elders investigator all knew each other! So it was fun to see them sitting on the front row together and feeling the spirit.  I love it!! We also have an investigator in Kherson named Elena.  She is very poor and kind of has been in and out of meeting with us and not.  We hadn't seen her for a few weeks, and we got a phone call from her apologizing for not coming to church, and then we met with her.  Her small apartment is kind of like a prison haha.  She has no electricity so it's just really dark and damp, and kind of hard to feel the spirit.  But, we taught her and she wants to be baptized but we still have a ways to go with her.  She came to church and we told her we would pick a baptismal date for her this week.  So the work is moving forward and God is blessing us!! As for things in Nickolaiv, it's great!! There are a lot of youth in the branch and it's great.  We are going to start a little mission prep. class and have the youth come who are preparing to go on missions.  We are stoked, I love helping out the youth!

A funny experience last week: we went tracting in what we call the "private home sector".  Everyone usually lives in huge apartment buildings, and then on the outskirts of the city there is the private homes.  So we went out there and were tracting, and we knock on this house. This guy answers the door in just boxers, and is holding his finger which is like wrapped in tons of gauze and iodine and it just looks scary haha.  He starts telling us he doesn't believe in God and all this stuff, then is like "well girls, come talk to my babushka." So we go next door and talk to his adorable babushka.  There were a few moments of contention, but we ended it off just laughing and he basically wanted us to go and talk to all of his neighbors haha. I told them that I live next door to my grandma too, and they loved it and laughed up a storm about these funny girls that are from America.  We went our separate ways, and it was just a funny cool thing that happened.  Other than that, it has just been busy.  We went back and forth between Nickolaiv and Kherson three times last week, and it will be the same this week.  It's hard balancing between two branches and doing everything that we need to do, but we love it.  We even had a birthday party for me at District Meeting, complete with chinese food.  It was delicious, and a great district meeting.  We lost one of our elders, but gained another one and our district is still awesome.  I learned yesterday that I don't know Russian! I was thinking I was doing alright, then our District Leader was telling us how we are going to have a language study as a district every week, and it's going to be a mission wide thing. So we go over a few grammar principles, and turns out I have been speaking Russian wrong for 9 months!! Ugggghhhh. haha the Lord humbled me, and I'm determined to speak this impossible language correctly one way or another.  You live and you learn! With a new transfer comes new goals and new responsibilities.  I'm grateful to be involved in this work and to have the opportunity to labor among these people.  It is hard and sometimes it feels impossible, but I'm trying to be more like the sons of Mosiah when they say "they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble".  I love this work, and I love you all!! 

Cectpa DeMille

cool train

my cute b day breakfast sis j made for me

our awesome coat entryway

me on my birthday

us on one of our many bus rides