Golden week with Elder Golden (Week п'ятьдесят-три)

Honestly, this week was pretty grand. The second half of the week we spent in L'viv because we had interviews with the Mission President and a zone conference on Saturday. The latest trip out to L'viv was awesome. We couldn't get a bus or a train at a normal time, so we ended up having to take a bus at 1:30 in the morning just so that we could make it to L'viv in time for our interviews. That wasn't the most fun, but the next fews day were pretty successful. Friday was Ukraine's Independence day, so center in L'viv was completely packed as they had parades and concerts going on to celebrate that. Didn't see any fireworks like in America or painted cars with dozens of people on top of them like in Saudi, but they still go all out to celebrate this glorious day. We also did a english practice finding activity on that day. We went out to a big park in L'viv and wrote слава Україна (Glory to Ukraine) with chalk on the ground and then talked to people about english practice. That was pretty successful activity, hopefully they get some new people next week from it. Finally, that night, L'viv had their game night and I was able to see Ihor, the recent convert that I had the opportunity to baptize. He's doing super well and has the Aaronic Priesthood now. Plus, he makes cartoons, and he recently made one about missionary work which was super cool. He told me that he's trying to get it on LDS.org, so we'll see if that happens or not.

Also, on Saturday, we had our combined zone conference. This zone conference, we actually had a 70 attend and teach us a little. Elder Golden, from the great country of South Africa, is doing a mission tour and he stopped by L'viv for a few days to vist with some members and train the missionaries. My favorite zone conferences have been when 70's have come and visited us, and Elder Golden did not disappoint. He had some very wonderful ideas about how we can help our investigators come closer to Christ. We talked a lot about member missionary work. As missionaries, we're only in a city for a few months at a time, but members will most likely be there for a very long time, so it's important that the investigators build friendships with the members to help them stay active after the missionaries leave. Anyway, Elder Golden was great and because he came, he took most of it over, and the only thing that we had to do as part of zone conference as zone leaders, was come up with a zone report and talk about that for about five minutes. Super good weekend and learned a ton.

Finally, something big happened just yesterday during and after Church. If you remember, Mikola was baptized on the 11th of August. Then, this past Sunday, he received the Aaronic Priesthood. And now, he's going to the temple TOMORROW to go and do baptisms for the dead. We did some family history work with him and now he's going to the temple with his wife and they're going to do some family names including his father and his grandmother. He seemed so very excited and I'm super happy that he's already taking the trip out to Kyiv to go and visit the temple. He's amazing and a great example to me of the importance of doing temple work for our family, so that one day we can live eternally with them after this life. Have a great week and talk to you all later!

Старійшина McGrath

Isaiah 54:17 Read and ponder these words. Missionary work is moving forward.

Service digging some holes

At a beautiful park in L'viv

Very interesting pic with Ihor (my face looks kind of constipated)

With the original MTC group!!!

Week of Birthdays (Week П'ятьдесят-два)

Well, another good week as a missionary here in the Ukraine Kiev/Moldova Mission. This week was quite interesting as I hit both of my birthdays. I turned 1 as a missionary and 20 as a normal human being. So to celebrate we did a few things. First of all, let's start with Thursday where I hit my year mark on my mission. Some of you know that in the MTC I served with Elders Wonson and Swasey, and now in the mission field, Elder Wonson is in the same district as me. Somehow, Elder Wonson set up exchanges this transfer so that we would have our exchanges on our year mark. haha I don't know how he did it, but I sure wasn't complaining. The exchange went pretty good, we had a few lessons, one over the phone with an investigator who's living out in the villages and the other one was with a member where we stopped by her house and we taught her a short lesson about doing the small and simple things. Both those lessons went fine. 

On our year mark, I was reading in my journal some of the first entries I made and every day I talked about Ukrainian and how we can't learn it and how hard it is. I read about our first lesson and how we didn't understand anything that our investigator said. Now, a year later, we can understand Ukrainian, teach any lesson that we really wanted to, and we enjoy speaking the language. I guess even though I still feel like a greenie and sometimes don't know what to do, there are things that are developing within you, you just have to realize that. Also, to celebrate our year mark, we went to this really really nice restaurant named Manhattan where I ordered this super good and super juicy chicken. All in all, it was a great day and now the second half of my mission has officially started. I'm ready to get to work.

Also, my real Birthday occurred this past week. To celebrate that, we went to another nice, newer restaurant named Gusto. One of the members here in Rivne, Sister Timochko, can sing really really, really good and she won the "golden voice of Rivne" one year. Now, she goes and sings at different places and one reason that we decided to go to Gusto was that she was going to be there and performing. So we go to see her sing some awesome songs in English and she has a super dang good voice. Plus, the food there was super tasty, for sure would go there again. Also, that morning, we went out to a members house in the village and did some service. Pretty much we just picked weeds for a few hours and even though that may not seem to appetizing to many people, I quite enjoyed it as I haven't done that kind of thing in many moons. The house in the village was very nice and the garden there was well kept up and had some pretty tasty fruit there. All in all, it was just a good way to spend my Birthday and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Finally, a little update on our area and some other things that happened this past week. First of all, Mikola, the recent convert that was baptized last Saturday, received the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday which was a wonderful sight to see. He was ready for it and now he has it and I'm excited to see him next week helping with the sacrament. When I talked to him after church he told me that he didn't have any words to describe how he felt receiving the Priesthood. He only thought big cheese's (his words) got the Priesthood, but now that he has it, he feels closer to God and is very, very grateful. We also talked about baptisms for the dead, and he told me that he has a strong desire to go and do that for his Father and Grandmother who have passed away recently. Mikola is amazing and I love him so very much. 

Right now, we're working with another investigator, Masha, who has a desire to know if God exists or not. It has been so amazing working with her, describing who God is, testifying about how he's our loving Heavenly Father who loves us and knows each of us personally. She can get that testimony too, if she reads and does her part. Anyhow, it was a great week, our activities were good, and I'm excited for next week. Have a great week and talk to you later!

Старійшина McGrath

D&C 122:7-9 Read and ponder these verses. We are never alone!!

Year mark breakfast, not too healthy.. 

At lunch on our year mark

Made pancakes for Breakfast on the B-day

On the way to service 

Out doing service picking weeds

A birthday cake that Sister Timochko made for me

Baptism Week!! (Week П'ятьдесят-один)

Wowzers, this week was pretty grand. Let's jump into it. For sure the biggest thing that happened this past week was our baptism that we had on Saturday. Mikola, who i've been working with for the past six months, has finally stopped smoking and was ready to enter into the waters of baptism this past Saturday. He is amazing and has had a big desire to get baptized for a while now. Elder Shuley had the opportunity to dunk him and I actually had the opportunity the next day to give him the gift of the Holy Ghost. I was very grateful for that experience and I can 100% tell you that there is power in the Priesthood and the gift of tongues in real. I love Mikola so very much and I am very grateful for the opportunity that I had to meet him and help him take this step to be baptized. Now that he's baptized, he can take massive leaps forward. We're hoping that he can receive the Aaronic Priesthood this next week and then go to the temple really soon. Plus, if he receives the Aaronic Priesthood soon, he can baptize his two kids that are 11 years old that we can have another family the wonderful branch of Rivne. Mikola is amazing and is a great example of the fact that with God, anything is possible. He told us that he had smoked for more than 25 years and couldn't stop. Only God could have helped him.

Anyhow, the rest of the week was good. It was full of lessons with other people, preparing for the baptism, finding activies, and our English Practice. Plus, transfers officially happened this past week and I'm in a trio until Elder Shuley goes home this week. Elder Cook is a great Elder that is from California and has been serving for around 20 months now. He's a super solid Elder and has the language down super well. He's even studying some Russian now so my Ukrainian and Russian should improve over this next transfer haha. Anyhow, some other things that happened this past week. Our investigator, Gregory, came to Church again, and we had some good lessons with him. He's progressing and I'm really enjoying teaching him and we're becoming pretty good friends. Plus, we get to go out and play Basketball with him which is always fun.

Well, this week I'll hit my year mark. I can't believe that I've already been on my mission for a year now, I feel like just yesterday I walked into the MTC where my teacher spoke straight Ukrainian and I couldn't understand anything. Now I'm not a greenie, serving in my second city, and I can easily hold converstations outside with people. My first year of my mission was not always easy, there were for sure ups and downs, like every mission. But it was the best year of my life. I've grown so much, I've learned so much about the gospel and life in general. I now know for 100% certain, that this Church is true. This mission is the hardest thing that I've done, but also the best thing that I've done. Seeing my investigators enter the waters of baptism is the best feeling that you could have. There are some many blessings from serving a mission and it is for sure the best life there is. Anyhow, have a great week all and talk to you later!

Старійшина McGrath

2 Nephi 25:26 Read and ponder these words, Christ is CENTER!!!

At the apartment 

Near a cool river here (Me, Shuley, Cook) 

With Elder Wonson before the baptism

With Mikola and his wonderful Wife 

With the Branch at the Baptism 

Eating some super good Borsch

Trains out the Wazoo (Week П'ятдесят)

Well, this week was full of crazy adventures and a whole lot of traveling. I left Rivne on Tuesday morning and didn't get back home until Saturday afternoon, super fun, but also super tiring. Anyway, lets jump into it. First of all, this week, we went off to Kiev for yet another MLC. MLC, like always, ended up being pretty successful. We had originally around 20 things to discuss on MLC, but we only got through about half of them in the end. Most of the topics were actually bigger than we thought, with many different ideas and thoughts about the issue, but in the end, listening to the spirit, we came to a conclusion that will best help our mission be the best mission that it could possibly be. One great thing about Kiev, is that we got to see the temple again. Sadly, we weren't able to go inside and do a session, but our meeting was in the Church that is on the temple grounds, so it was just nice to walk on the temple grounds and just feel the power of the temple. All in all, I can say it was a successful trip to Kiev. Having KFC and Domino's didn't hurt too. 

Anyway, after our wonderful trip to Kiev, we headed off to L'viv, spent the night there. There we did some studies, ate at a super good breakfast buffet, and then took another train off to Khmelnitskiy (try pronouncing this haha) where we had exchanges with the district leader and his companion there. I had the opportunity to serve with Elder Stott for a day and he's a super good Elder. He has been serving for just over a year now and is killing it. We ended up having a slow day, we contacted outside for around five hours since we couldn't get any lessons. K-town is an interesting city, my first time there and it's super soviet. Practically every building is concrete and there are concrete jungles everywhere there. But we did contact next to a really cool lake and took a picture or two. Near the end of the day though, we did get transfersss!!! That was crazy. I found out that I'm staying for a fifth transfer in Rivne and this next transfer, I'll be serving with Elder Cook. Elder Shuley will also be with us, but he finishes his mission one week into the transfer, so there was no point in transferring him to another city. Anyways, I'm excited to serve with Elder Cook and we'll have a great transfer or two!

Finally, though, after a ton of trains and buses, we made it back home to Rivne and have had a good past few days. On Sunday, we had a wonderful Church service where we had a good amount of people show up, including a few of our investigators. And then after church, we had another lesson with Mikola, annndddd he still hasn't smoked!!!! He's amazing and 100% on track to get baptized this coming Saturday. I'm praying every day and if all stays to plan, Rivne will have a new member that will help the branch grow!! Anyhow, that was pretty much the week, we ate out so very much this week and I'm ready to have a normal week since we don't have any travels planned. Have a great week all, talk to you later.

Старійшина McGrath

Jacob 4:7 Read and ponder these words, we sent this to Mikola this week and I love this verse!

Basketball with an Investigator, Gregory 

Khmelnitskiy 

The Kiev Temple

Sunset on a train

The Breakfast buffet in L'viv

Khmelnitskiy

With Elder Stott on Exchanges