Wild Ukrainian Thanksgiving (Week чотирнадцять)

Hello family and friends, hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving this year, mine was quite interesting. I ended up really celebrating it on three different days. On thursday, the Ternopil Elders invited us to come and help them teach English we went and did that. Since thursday was actually thanksgiving, we went a few hours earlier than last time so we could eat a nice meal, look at the city, and hand out some english cards. That was quite fun, we ended up eating at a Georgian restaurant for dinner. That wasn't turkey and mashed potatoes, but it was very tasty. Not exactly sure what I got, Elder Baxter helped me pick out what to get, but I will say that I am a big fan of Georgian food now. Anyway, on friday, it was round two of thanksgiving and this time it was for our weekly game night. We played thanksgiving games, painted hand turkeys, (mine looked funny because of my messed up pinky) and then each companionship cooked a dessert and we all voted on the best one. And I bet none of you could guess which dessert won, OURS haha!! We ended up making a peach cobbler and it turned out super good, could go for another piece right now. Other companionships made pumpkin pie, cookies, and this apple dessert. Really good activity and we had a great turnout. Finally, the highlight of our thanksgiving was on saturday where the Elders in our district went out to eat at the ribs place that is quite delicious. We decided that we wanted to challenge ourselves and eat a loooooot of ribs. We ordered 12 racks of ribs, or 140 ribs. That was a ton of ribs, around 35 each and we at it all!! Felt so so full afterwards and it kind of hurt to walk haha but it was totally worth it for the food and the experience. All in all, it was an amazing thanksgiving that was nothing like any other one that I've had.

Anyhow, the rest of the week was quite great as well. As always, we stayed quite busy and taught some great lessons. On tuesday, we had the opportunity to watch the face to face as a district where Elders Oaks and Ballard answered questions that young adults sent in. That was quite amazing and am so very grateful for all the leaders that we have in the church, all the was from bishops to the prophet, Thomas S. Monson, they are receive revelation for us in these latter days so we can know how to face challenges that are very relevant today. Also, friday was transfer call day!! The fifth friday of every transfer, President Rizley calls up companionships that are changing and this transfer we didn't receive a call so it looks like I'll be staying in L'viv with Elder Baxter for another transfer. Super excited about that.

Finally, I want to share an miracle that occurred in our district this past week. So, last week I mentioned that we're skyping some French Elders because one of our investigators is from the Congo and his native tongue is French. Well, in order to set that up, one of the AP's had to call the mission office in Lyon and since one of the AP's, Elder Christensen, has a friend there, he decided to call. So Elder Christensen was able to talk to his friend about doing skype lessons and got that all figured out. But, throughout the call, Elder Christensen felt like something was off with his friend so he asked how he was doing. Apparently the French Elder's father had passed away the day before. Super super sad. Elder Christensen was able to talk to him friend to friend and give him some words of comfort. How crazy is that?! The very next day he was able to talk to one of his good friends and receive some words of comfort. The Lord works in mysterious ways and will always help us if we're trying our best. I know that this situation wasn't just a coincidence, this was a miracle and God's hand in our lives. So grateful for this experience and will never forget it. I hope you all have a great week!!

Старійшина McGrath

Mosiah 27:28-29 read, ponder and pray about these words and about the Book of Mormon in general. These are truly the words of God.

Loooots of  ribs!

 A nice pic of Ternopil, such a pretty city with a cool lake 

Good old Elder Swasey, always nice to see him

Classic city signs  

Crazy to wake up and there is snow on the ground

Selfie in the snowwww

Full month in the field!! (Week тринадцять)

Oh what a week it has been, full of great experiences that I hope to be able to share with you. So first of all, it keeps getting colder and colder here in L'viv. I think that some of you are getting jealous of the cold because Saudi Arabia and Arizona aren't too cold yet, but let me tell you, I'm kind of jealous of you guys. Even though you can wear many layers when it gets cold, I like the heat so much more haha, I think the only reason is that it's all I've known for the past 19 years of my life. Nevertheless, I wouldn't trade anything for the experiences I'm having here in the amazing country of Ukraine. Ok, the first thing that I want to talk about is when I went out to the села, which means villages in English. We have an investigator who lives out there so we decided that we should visit him to see what his living conditions are like. So on Friday with the AP's and another member we went to go visit this investigator. It was such a great experience for me because my whole time in L'viv I've been in the city and never really got to experience another part of the country. It was also pretty sad because most of the villages here are poor. But hopefully we can come back and do some service for him because I know that service is important and as a missionary it's part of my calling to help the members and investigators of my area. Anyway, another cool part of the trip out was we kind of did a barbecue. We took a massive slab of pork and cooked it up over some coals. It was so good, can never go wrong with a barbecued piece of meat. Really cool experience and I hope I have the opportunity to go out again and serve the people in the villages.

Another really cool part of the week was our game night this week. I've talked a little bit about our English practice that we have here once a week but another big thing that we do as a mission is game night once a week. These events are not just for fun though, even though they really are, but we do try to serve the people and we find a fair amount of investigators through these events. Also, it's just a great time to bond with the people of Ukraine and work on my Ukrainian. Anyway, the leaders of the mission just came up with a new idea on how we could approach game night to try to get more people involved and coming to it. They decided that we would have more of a "fill in the blank night" meaning that every week we need to come up with a theme for the night. Such as like, chili night or Saudi night haha, anything really works that could be done and would be fun. But this week we did a minute to win it night, where we played a bunch of different games and had one minute to complete it. It was such a fun activity and I'm pretty sure I got some good pictures to share of the night. But yeah, it was a success and more people showed up this week, we're hoping that the word spreads on how good it was and we'll get even more people. The more the better, right?

Finally, the last thing I want to share with you is with one of our investigators. He's actually not Ukrainian and is from the Congo and speaks some English. We taught him and few lessons and gave him a Book of Mormon in French for him to read, but the language barrier that we had was not the best. So we actually came up with the idea to try and skype some Elders from france who were fluent in the language so they could teach him in our investigators native tongue. We ended up finding some Elders who are serving in Lyon to skype with us and teach our investigator. And let me tell you, even though I didn't understand pretty much the whole conversation and lesson because it was in French, I still could feel the spirit. I know that my comp and the investigator could feel it as well. It was so present and the lesson went super well. This experience helped further teach me that you don't need to understand to feel the spirit. The spirit will be present if what you're teaching is correct principles and you're living worthy of the gospel. The spirit has been the biggest help on my mission and I know that this church is true and everything I'm doing now is going to help so many people over here in Ukraine. Not everyone listens, but we're giving them the opportunity to hear about the gospel, and that's what's most important. I love serving a mission and I know it's exactly where I need to be right now. Have a great week and Thanksgiving. Love ya all!!

Старійшина McGrath

Proverbs 3: 5-6 I've been thinking a lot about this scripture and we all NEED to trust in the Lord and well will be guided. God wants to help us and when we trust in him, we will be led to salvation!

We found this awesome ribs place this week haha, sooo good!!

Out in the Villages having a barbecue

Me holding a nice piece of pork, who needs a plate when you got a fork? 

People playing a minute to win it game

Me playing one of the games where you have to put tights on your head with a
ball in the tights and have to try and knock down the water bottles. Super fun!

Another picture of beautiful L'viv

Snow has fallen (Week дванадцять)

Oh what a great week this was, full of great experiences that I'm so very grateful for. So let's jump into it. First of all, I want to talk about a different investigator that we met through english class. We taught him a few lessons and we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the third lesson from Preach My Gospel. We had thought about it before hand and we decided that if the spirit was there and prompted us to, we would ask him to be baptized in December. So we're in the lesson, teaching him about baptism and the spirit is so very strong, he's listening so intently and me and my comp look at each other and we know that this is the right thing to do, so we ask if if we will follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. He was a little bit unsure at first but he eventually accepted it!! So exciting, was able to set my first baptismal date. Sure hope that he continues to progress and prepare for that date. Such a good experience and so grateful for the spirit to lead and guide us.

Another great part of this week was that I got to leave L'viv for a day. On Thursday, we were asked to help teach english in Ternopil, a city a few hours away. So we hopped on a bus and got there and met up with Elders Hill and Swasey. Nice to see one of my former comps from the MTC. He's doing super well and we were able to catch up over dinner at the this really good Ukrainian restaurant. Teaching english there in Ternopil was so much fun, I taught the intermediate class by myself and there were so many people there. I can see why they need help every week. We played some fun games and learned about the parts of speech. The people of Ternopil are great and was grateful for the experience was to go there for a day. Plus, the city is so beautiful, that always helps haha.

As you can tell from my email title, it did snow. I woke up on Sunday morning, took a shower and then looked out the window. Holy smokes, snow was actually falling, I can't even remember the last time I actually saw snow falling from the sky. Saudi Arabia and Arizona did not prepare me for this cold weather. But I have bought a nice big jacket and that's keep me warm. I just hope that this is a mild winter and we don't get any big snow storms haha, don't know if that'll happen. Snow is inevitable here. 

Anyhow, I want to talk about our contacting activity for a quick second. On saturday's we usually will go out to the city center or park and pick a specific topic to talk to people about. This week we choose to focus on the Plan of Salvation. I also made a personal goal to get one IP (a number from a potential investigator) all by myself without the help of my great companion. So we head to center and start talking to people. Usually I'm standing right next to my comp because I don't know the language well enough to do this by myself. But today, I decided to contact on my own!! Crazy right? So I talk to a bunch of people and I don't know what they're saying, but I just keep bearing my testimony. That's whats key, bring in the spirit and that will do the converting. And guess what, I ended up getting THREE IP's!! And all three of them, I don't know most of what they said, but I bore testimony and asked for their number. The spirit works miracles if you do your part. I challenge all of you to share your testimony with one person this week, you will see miracles!!

Finally, today was such a great day. We were able to go to this super cool Ukrainian restaurant museum. I'll attach some pictures but I tried some kvas (this ukrainian drink) for the first time and went up to the roof after and got a great view of the city. Such a great week this week!! Thank you for all your support and prayers! Love all of you!!

Старійшина McGrath

Alma 16: 16-17 Read and feast upon the words, the Lord truly does prepare people to hear the gospel!

A cool building in Ternopil

With Elder Hill and Elder Swasey in Ternopil!!

Selfie in the Center after the finding activity!!

                      Picture with the Elders in the district 

(Me, Elders Abraham, Christensen, and then Baxter on the right)

Snowwwwww, holy smokesss!! 

Holding a gun inside the Ukrainian museum

Drinking the Ukrainian drink called Kvas 

On the rooftop of the museum on a machine gun!! So crazy

Beautiful rooftop view!! L'viv is so nice!!

Trick or treat (Week одинадцять)

Well another week has come and gone in L'viv. Loving the mission life, wouldn't be anywhere else right now. Let's start off this week with Halloween. So Halloween was on a Tuesday this year, not our P-day so we just had a normal day planned out with studies and lessons and we were going to do some service. We were walking to the train station where we were going to do some service and we passed by a Roshen, which is basically a candy store in Ukraine, and we decided to go in because it was halloween and we wanted to celebrate somehow haha. So we got our baskets and walked around picking out some candy, basically trick or treating. The only difference was that we got to pick our candy, but we also had to pay for it. So that's what a fun Halloween day in Ukraine looks like. haha one thing that I kinda regret about that was that our backpacks were pretty heavy after the candy and we had to carry our backpacks when we were doing service so that really wasn't the smartest idea to get the candy then. But hey, totally worth it, how many people get to do that in their life?

Anyhow, this week was pretty busy, we taught a lot of lessons and got a few new investigators. I'd like to talk about one of them right now. We met this investigator one day while we were out contacting and he's a college student from the Congo, so he speaks english. Which is very nice for me because the language is still pretty difficult,so when I can talk in english and express myself how I really want to, than I feel so much more comfortable. Anyway, we ended up getting his number and called him a few days later. We set up a lesson and met him outside the metro station so we could walk to the chapel together. There, we sat down and had one of the best lessons of my life. We taught him the restoration and you could feel the spirit in the room. This lesson taught me so many things and I'd like to share one of them with you right now. The lord prepares people, in many different ways and at many different times. This investigator that we have was prepared to hear the gospel at this time and he told us that he would read the Book of Mormon every day. I hope that he will gain a testimony of the gospel and know that it's true and have a sincere desire to be baptized. Our Heavenly Father loves us so very much and gives us the opportunity to hear the gospel in many different ways. I'm so grateful for this experience and for my mission. I know that this church is true and I'm trying to share with everyone that I can, the language is somewhat of a barrier, but I'm trying hard!! 

Anyhow, the rest of the week was great! English class on Thursday went real well, I taught the intermediate class and I taught them about capital letters and time. I never realized how difficult it was to teach my native language English until now. English has so many rules that I don't know much about so sometimes it's difficult to explain concepts. But hey, it's super fun to teach them and many people ask us why we're here in Ukraine so it helps us find investigators as well. Sunday was great, fast and testimony meeting was quite amazing. We have so many great members hear in L'viv and hearing their testimony was quite a treat. Didn't pick up on all that they were saying but I could feel the spirit which is much more important. Such a great week, and today on P-day we actually hiked up to this lookout point over L'viv and the city is beautiful, I'll attach some pictures but they won't do it justice. L'viv really is the hidden gem of Europe haha. Have a great week everyone!! Work hard and Pray every day!!Старійшина McGrath

Mosiah 4:11-12 read it and feast upon the words, we are really nothing without the Lord so when we humble ourselves and put our full trust in the Lord, he will bless us more than we could even imagine. 

Selfie with the opera house in the background

Bowling scores, Jimothy rolled a 170 in the last string haha

Beautiful Ukraine

Another pic from the lookout

And another of good old Ukraine

Gotta get a pic of a Ukrainian flag

Picture with Elder Baxter, my amazing comp

 So many trees in Ukraine!!!!