jakemcgrathmission: 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!!