Базовим ядром є життя (Week Два)

Wonderful Wednesday: Ahhh, the first of many P-days. It consisted of laundry, writing emails, eating, and playing some basketball haha. Plus, we went and did a session at the temple as a zone, the temple was beautiful and the spirit is like no other there. Love the temple so so much. But I want to share an experience with you guys. So tonight we had another lesson with Yura, our investigator, and we had this nice lesson on the Priesthood prepared. So we went in there, expecting to teach about that but as we asked our first question which was about the Book of Mormon, he mentioned desire and prayer. So for the whole lesson, we talked about that, we had to adapt to the situation. Seven days into learning the language and we had to change our whole lesson plan, and we actually did. We talked about faith and prayer, it went amazing!! The gift of tongues is real, we were able to teach by the spirit, even with how little we know of the language. What a great experience that I'll remember for a long time. Anyway, the rest of my day was awesome, loving the mission!!!

Thursday: Guess what, our investigator, Yura the guy I talked about for a bit last week, he actually became our teacher haha. He's a great teacher and had a lot of great advice for all of us. Anyway, I got something funny to tell all of you guys. So every week we have a room inspection and today was ours. I'll just type somewhat of what was written, "tidy everything, the room smells gnarly." haha They're not wrong, our room was a disaster. To be fair, everyone participated in this mess but one of my comps doesn't really know how to keep things anyway clean so it turned into a disaster. But we spent half an hour cleaning it up and using half of my febreze so now it's as clean as a whistle that's been coated in febreze. Anyway, the rest of my day was solid, we had class in the morning with Sister Grey and had some nice MTC food!!

Friday: Hey fellas, learned so much Ukrainian today. I wanna talk to you guys about a thing called basic core, not common core, I've called it that a few times haha. But basic core is this packet of tasks that we have to accomplish. For this part of the basic core, we have 10 days to memorize with mastery in Ukrainian, 250-300 words, 40-60 phrases, have some basic sentence structure, and memorize 3 different scriptures not including the missionary purpose. It may seem like a lot, and it truly is, got some pressure to finish it on time so we can keep our schedule, but lemme tell you something. Over the past few days, I've come to know that the gift of tongues is real and with God, anything is possible. I've learned so much Ukrainian the past few days and I can assure you I couldn't have done it myself. Only through our Heavenly Father can I be a successful missionary and I'm learning to put my whole trust in him. I'm just so grateful for everything that he has helped me with this past week and a half. Anyway, my day was great today, we had two lessons, one with each of my teachers, and I ended up passing off a lot of my phrases and the missionary purpose. Today was one of the first days my comps and I studied in the new buildings, they're so nice, so many nice murals. Hopefully I'll be able to send a few pics of them sometime. Anyway, loving the mission and my comps, nothing better than serving the lord.

Saturday: Oh the MTC, nothing better than that. Today was quite busy. We studied a lot of Ukrainian and got a lot done. The MTC can get stressful but even through all that you have to realize why you're out here. A missionary is serving the Lord with everything he has and bringing joy to not only their life, but other people's lives as well. Today, we had lessons from both our teachers and the best part was when we had the opportunity to practice teaching the first lesson in Ukrainian, it was difficult but very helpful. Anyway, the day was great, the food wasn't, but the rest of it was. Love being a missionary.

Sunday: Sunday funday right? haha Sundays truly are the best at the MTC. So we sang in many different languages again today at sacrament meeting. The faster songs are so hard to keep up in Ukrainian, but I'm getting better every week haha. After a wonderful sacrament meeting, we had our district meeting which is pretty much sunday school, and then a preisthood session. My companionship gets to teach priesthood next week, woohoo haha. (in english thankfully haha) After that we had personal study time and then got to go on a mural walk with our districts. I got some good pics that I'll hopefully attach to this email. The murals are so amazing and I'm so glad that they're available for viewing now. Tonight, during film time, we watched the new Meet the Mormons, it's actually quite awesome. You all should watch it, the stories are inspirational. Anyway, just a fully spiritual day. Oh, and also I did choir today, if you know how terrible of a singer I am, that should make you chuckle. Anyway, loving the mission lifeeee.

Monday: I'd have to say, mondays are much better at the MTC. Today was the last day to work on the basic core packet that I mentioned earlier, and I got pretty close to finishing it. I finished all the phrases, all I had left to do was a couple of passages. The baptisimal interview and Moroni 10:4. Even though I didn't finish in ten days, I'm still proud of how much I did. To be quite honest, this was one of the most difficult things I've done. Over the last ten days, my Ukrainian and testimony have grown immensely and I've forever grateful for that. Hopefully I can finish it over the next few days. Anyways, the rest of my day was great, we have a lesson tomorrow with a new investigator and we prepared and role played our lesson. Fingers crossed it goes well. Can't wait for it, hope you guys all had a good day!! Mission life is the best life.

Tuesday: In short, today was a great day. In the morning we taught our new investigator, Katya, who actually turned out to be our original teacher, sister Grey. That was kinda funny, but anyway the lesson went pretty good. We mainly talked about our loving Heavenly Father and prayer. Hopefully she prays before our next lesson haha. The rest of our day was pretty great. Tonight we had a devotional where first of all, I sang in the choir. Quite fun. But our speaker tonight was W. Christopher Waddell of the presiding bishopric. He gave a very powerful talk about the importance of the Book of Mormon. I encourage you guys to read the Book of Mormon daily, and if you don't already have a testimony of the book, pray for one. Finally, one thing I forgot to mention in my last email was who my roommates are. Elder Wright is from England and Elder Aston is from Colorado. They're both going to Latvia on their mission. Along with my comps, that's everyone in our room!! гарного тижня

старійшина McGrath

Jacob 4:6 Read it and enjoy the feasting of words that you get from it. Faith can move mountains and this scripture is now one of my favorites!!

Weekly selfie in front of the new building with Elder Swasey

View from the neuvo building

A mural of Paul, I think haha

My roommates and me with Nephi (Left to right: Elders Wonson, Aston, Wright, McGrath, and Swasey)

The bestest district

The L'viv crowd with our 2nd teacher Брат Huth

Hello and хороший день (Week Один)

Hey hey hey guys, first things first, I'm glad to tell you that I'm alive. Loving the mission life. Today,  we got our comps, I've actually got the opportunity to have two, in a triple threat haha. Elder Wonson from the country of Texas and Elder Swasey from who knows where. Both really great guys and they're both serving in L'viv! Can't wait to get to know them during the next 9 weeks. We first had an orientation where there were a few talks given and we sang some songs that filled the room with the spirit. After that, we went to class where our teacher only spoke Ukrainian, I understand nothing. I"m so so confused, but I know I'll learn it. After class I met with our zone and met our zone leaders, we have a massive zone about like 85 people or so. Proud to be a part of the one and only Eastern European zone. Anyways, I had an awesome first day, mission life is the best life. Love you all!!!

Thursday: Day two!! Today, we had our first day of real classes where I still haven't heard a single word of English, only Ukrainian. But lemme tell you, I've learned a few words and can introduce myself. Besides class the highlight of my day was meeting my branch presidency and meeting all the new people. There are 47 new missionaries that came in on Wednesday in our zone, that's insane. That's more people than in my whole mission. We have five of us heading off to L'viv, It's a fun group of people, my comps and two sisters.

Friday: It's my birthday, first of three on my mission, what a lucky guy haha But it was a great day, full of learning the language and teaching our first lesson. You read that right, three days into the mtc and we're teaching lessons in Ukrainian, absolutely insane haha!!!! But I thought we did pretty well considering how much we actually know of Ukrainian. We taught about the love of Christ and prayer. The volunteer investigator, Yura, accepted our challenge to pray!!! haha The spirit was there and I'm glad there's a thing called  the gift of tongues, very necessary tonight. The rest of the day was very nice too, we had a district meeting which at one point they sang happy birthday to me, that was quite an experience. I'm also the senior comp in my trio of missionaries so that's fun, getting to lead the companionship. The church is true fellas and remember to pray!! Always a good thing. Also, thanks for birthday gifts, my roommates sure enjoy the food. haha

Saturday: Another solid day at the good old mtc. Loving every minute of it, but can't wait out to head out to Ukraine and teach real investigators. The highlight of today was being able to teach Yura again. We totally killed it guys, so much better than yesterday, so proud of my comps, really could feel the spirit in the room. Other than that, we had two lessons with sister grey, which in we learned a lot of Ukrainian. Can't believe how far I've come in only four days, it's actually crazy, gift of tongues is sure realski. Mission life is the best life, and since elder Wonson is from texas, I'll say this. Love Y'all.

Sunday: Everyone says wait until Sundays, they're the best day. They were right, it did not disappoint. First of all, funny story. So we were on our way to sacrament meeting and me and elders Swasey and Wonson decided to walk ahead because everyone else in our zone was doing the mall crawl. So we headed to the classroom that it said on the paper but when we got there, we realized it wasn't the right classroom. So me and my comps went searching for like 20 minutes until we see some of our ZL's running towards us and they eventually took us to sacrament meeting. Sacrament meetings at the MTC are crazy. If you've ever wondered what the tower of Babel sounded like, come visit my branch. We had ten different languages singing at the same time, it was pretty wild haha. Anyway the rest of the day was pretty great too. We had this time where we could watch films, and we watched a talk by Elder Bednar named Characters of Christ. If you haven't seen it, I'd recommend it, so amazing. Best talk I've ever heard. Instead of just having a testimony, we need to also be fully converted to the Lord. We need to be able to turn outward instead of inward, developing Christlike attributes and helping everyone in need. The MTC is getting more and more amazing, can't wait for tomorrow.

Monday: Oh, the MTC, now that a new week has started, we're more on our normal schedule that we'll be on for the next 8 weeks. It usually consists of two three hour classes with Sister Grey, our teacher that from Utah that went to L'viv, and a four hour block where we do personal, comp, and language study. Other than that, we have food times and exercise time where I go and play some basketball with some tall elders haha. Today we also had our third lesson with Yura, it went quite well. We talked about the apostasy and the restoration. At the end of our lesson, I asked Yura to say a prayer during our discussion about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and he did it! I was so happy, our "volunteer" investigator prayed for the first time in front of us. Anyway, I can't believe how much Ukrainian I know after five days, I can say a prayer and bear my testimony, crazy!! Love the gift of tongues.

Tuesday: Another day another dollar at the MTC, today in class we learned how to do the baptismal invitation, it was quite difficult, haha not even close to memorizing it. Anyway, every Tuesday night we have a devotional instead of another class and today we Elder Weatherford Clayton of the 70 come and teach us about el libro de mormon. It was great, and during the devotional we sang armies of Helaman and instead of saying we will be missionaries we said ARE NOW missionaries, so cool. Anyways, first week in the books, one for the ages, first of many great weeks. Поговорю з тобою пізніше

Love, 

Старійшина McGrath

Deuteronomy 31: 6. Read it and feast upon the words. I testify that the Lord will always be with us and if we're obedient and heed his teachings, we will be blessed forever and ever. Heavenly Father loves us very much and will do anything to help and bless us, we just need to do our part!! Love you guys.

Me and my comps!!!!

Everyone going to L'viv + Sister Grey our teacher

My crazy name tag

Our usual workspace

My weekly selfie 

Ukraine L'viv Mission

Created: 1 July 2013
L’viv District Created: 28 February 2016
Number of missionaries currently serving: 36 junior missionaries, 2 senior missionary couples Number of missionary zones: 2 (Carpathian and Volynska) 
Number of cities where missionaries are serving: 7
Number of mission branches: 6 (L’viv, Lutsk, Rivne, Khmelnitsky, Chernivtsy, Ivano-Frankvisk)
Number of mission groups: 2 (Ternopil, Uzhhorod)
Missionary language: Ukrainian
Mission President: President John Stephen Rizley 

Ukraine L’viv Mission Area Descriptions

Chernivtsi
Chernivtsi is a beautiful city in southwestern Ukraine situated on the upper course of the Prut River. It was part of the European historic region of Bukovina. Together with the city of L’viv, Chernivtsi is viewed at present to be a cultural center of western Ukraine. The city is also considered one of modern Ukraine’s greatest cultural, educational, and architectural centers. Historically in that role, Chernivtsi was dubbed “Little Vienna.” The city is also a major point of railway and highway crossings in the region and houses an international airport.
Ivano-Frankivsk
Ivano-Frankivsk is a beautiful city located in western Ukraine near the Carpathian mountain range. The city is the third in population to other cities in the Carpathian Euro region, yielding only to L’viv and Kosice.
You may find elements of various cultures intertwined within Ivano-Frankivsk, the Polish Rathaus, the Austrian city's business center, the Soviet panel multi-storied residential apartment buildings at the city's urban-rural fringe, and others.
Khmelnitsky
Khmelnitsky is located on the Southern Buh River about 211 miles west of Kyiv. Because of its geographical location and natural resources, Khmelnitsky has always attracted foreigners.
The city foundation date is uncertain. Since 1431 it was known as Ploskyriv, and later came to be called Proskuriv, but in 1954 the city was finally renamed Khmelnytskyi in the honor of the 300th anniversary of a treaty negotiated by Bohdan Khmelnytsky.
L’viv
Although L’viv is an old city, it is one of the most beautiful cities in Ukraine. It is located in the far western part of the country. It is now regarded as one of the main cultural centers of today’s Ukraine. The historical heart of L’viv with its old buildings and cobblestone roads has survived and is largely unscathed. The city has many industries and institutions of higher education. L’viv celebrated its 750th Anniversary in September 2006. Its more Western European flavor lends it the nickname the “Little Paris of Ukraine.” L’viv was one of eight Polish and Ukrainian cities that co-hosted the group stages of the UEFA Euro 2012.
Lutsk
Lutsk is a city which is located in the northwest corner of Ukraine and is on the Styr River. It is one of the oldest cities of the country. Present day Lutsk is an industrial center specializing in scientific instruments, food and other light industries. Trucks are manufactured and an automobile plant was constructed in the late 1970’s.
Rivne
Rivne is a historic city in western Ukraine. The name “Rivne” maybe derived from its location on the flatlands (rivne means flat in Ukrainian) or from the massive ravines that guarded the city in ancient times. It is an important transportation hub with an international airport, rail links, as well as highways. In spite of its difficult past, Rivne managed to preserve its unique charm. Its title as one of the greenest cities in Ukraine is supported by the Shevchenko Park, which is 30 hectares large. It is a true masterpiece of garden art, and it became a favorite place to relax for both locals and visitors.
Uzhhorod
Uzhhorod is located in western Ukraine at the border with Slovakia and near the border of Hungary. The city gets its name from the Uzh River, which divides the city into two parts, the old and new sections. Ancient Uzhhorod is often called the “window to Europe.” It is little wonder, as it is situated in the heart of Zakarpattia – at the bottom of the majestic Carpathian Mountains. 

Setting Apart of Jacob Conner McGrath as a missionary

Elder Jacob Conner McGrath, in the name of Jesus Christ and by the authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood, I set you- and under the direction of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, I set you apart as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with the specific assignment to service in the Ukrainian Lviv Mission and I bless you with all of the rights, powers, and blessings that are associated with this special calling as a missionary.

I bless you with the Gift of Tongues; that you’ll be able to learn the language in a way that- where you can teach the people of Ukraine. I bless you with charity in your heart; a love for the people that you minister to. I bless you that you will be able to understand their- not only their language, but their customs and their heart, and be able to help them come towards the Savior Jesus Christ. I bless you with health and strength. I bless you with safety; that angels will protect you as you follow the promptings of the Spirit. I bless your family through this setting apart that all will be well with them; that they will be blessed spiritually, emotionally, and economically as you serve the Lord in righteousness. I bless you that as you journey upon life’s mission – God’s mission for you in this life – that the lessons that you learn and who you become as a missionary will form the basis – the core – of that service for the rest of your life. I bless you that you’ll be able to have the power to discern those who are interested in the Gospel.

All these blessings – and those other blessings the Savior would have you receive – are yours as you seek them in righteousness and in accordance with the Lord’s will. I bless you with these things in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ, amen.