jakemcgrathmission: 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!