jakemcgrathmission: An Apostle of the Lord (Week Шістдесят два)

Another crazy, interesting, awesome week in the books. I don't think I'll ever forget this week, especially since I've already written it in my journal, but we did have a wonderful mission conference. So, after P-day in L'viv, we took a nice trip out to Kyiv for a few days. We got to Kyiv on Tuesday and on Wednesday, we had this thing called Mid-Transfer Training. Basically, this was the second day of training, they just pushed it back to the end of the transfer, so all the greenies could know what missionary work is like. That was interesting, it was cool to see and talk to the other trainers. At the end, they split up the trainees and trainers and we had a Q and A session together where we could talk about how it's going. I'm just hoping that Elder Matua didn't say anything bad about how I am as a trainer. haha No, it was good to hear how other trainers work and deal with situations, I learned a lot. After Training, we also had the chance to go to the TEMPLE!!! Only the second time in the field that I had the chance to go to the temple and it was soooo gooooddd!!! Nothing better than sitting in the temple, focusing solely on the Savior and about how you can become better, and just having the greatest feelings ever. This temple session was super cool too, because I decided that I didn't want to do it in English. I did everything in Ukrainian and there were some points where I didn't understand everything, but for the most part, I could understand and it was super interesting to do it in Ukrainian.

Anyhow, to the highlight of the week. We ate Cinnabon!!! We found it in Kyiv and it's amazinngggg!! Haha no I'm kidding, that was good, but the highlight of the week was for sure our Mission Conference. We had Conference the very next day and we had some very special guests show up. Both President Martino (Eastern Europe Area President) and Elder Cook (APOSTLE) were able to make it and we had the best mission conference ever. Also, after we took a bunch of pictures at the beginning, we were all able to shake their hands, and I was able to tell them that I'm from Saudi Arabia and been out on my mission for 14 months now. This is the third time I've been able to shake the hand of an Apostle and every time, it's just another confirmation to me that this Church was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith and we really do have living Prophets and Apostles on the earth today. During his segment on Mission Conference, he talked about how they call missionaries out here to Eastern Europe and about Christlike Attributes. All in all, it was a super good segment and he promised us some amazing blessings for our missions if we consecrate ourselves. Also, his wife led a song on mission conference and I realized why I quit choir in 8th grade. We had to change up a hymn and I could barely match pitch, my whole goal was just to sing loud enough to where I blended in and no one would turn around and ask who was singing like a horse. (couldn't think of a better comparison) All in all, a really good day and a wonderful trip out to Kyiv.

Finally, a few other things that happened back here in Rivne. First of all, the weekly update on Vika. She's still doing awesome, she came to Church and we had a wonderful lesson with her. She's 100% on track to get baptized, so continue to pray for her so that she can get dunked. She also told us that she wants Elder Matua and I to choose who baptizes and confirms her, so I'm happy to say that my greenie will baptize someone in his training!! That's a super cool experience that I wish I had in my training. But I'll confirm her the next day and it will be a great experience for everyone. Finally, transfer calls came, I'm staying with Elder Matua for another transfer here in Rivne. The weird thing about this next transfer is that they pulled the other companionship out of Rivne, so it'll just be me and Elder Matua here in Rivne. That'll be quite interesting, excited too see what the future holds. Have a great week everyone and talk to you later!!

Старійшина McGrath

Preach My Gospel Chapter 6: read and ponder these words. Become like our Savior through developing these attributes