A Good Old Thanksgiving Chicken (Week Шістдесят шість)

Well, this past week wasn't half bad. I didn't really expect to do anything too big for Thanksgiving, but we ended up having a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. This past week, we had exchanges with the other Elders in our district in Lutsk on Thursday and it was a good day. To start, Lutsk is known as the city in Western Ukraine that has all the active youth, they've got almost ten youth!! Super crazy, wish Rivne had a few more youth. But when we were in Lutsk, we had an activity with the youth group, where we went out to center and handed out English and Gospel cards, and then when it got super duper cold, we decided to head back to the Church and eat some Thanksgiving dinner. Honestly, the food that some of the members prepared was supppperrr good, tasted pretty dang close to a real Thanksgiving, at least what I remember Thanksgiving tasting like. Since they don't really have full on turkeys here like they do in America, we ended up having some super good chicken with mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, and bread. Not a half-bad meal, all of the youth seemed to really like it a lot. After that, we all went around talking about what we were grateful for, so I guess you could say that it was about as close as you can get to a Thanksgiving here in Ukraine. All in all, we had a good exchange here in Lutsk. I ended up serving with Elder Kovaliov, a Native and it was super fun. We had one lesson, with a less-active, and she made us some super good homemade vareniki, that really filled me up, especially since we had a thanksgiving dinner. haha No but Elder Kovaliov is a great Elder and I learned a lot from him, we were able to speak Ukrainian pretty much the entire day, which is always good language practice.

The rest of the week went well, we stayed busy, meeting with different investigators, members, and less actives. When we were not in a meeting, we were either doing studies, eating food, or out contacting. One of our investigators, Katya, who we found through English Practice, said this past week that she doesn't want her religion anymore, which was interesting to hear, I think she's ready to accept the gospel reallllly sooon! She said that she feels the Holy Ghost when she reads the Book of Mormon too, which is a great sign, now she's just gotta come to Church. Oh cool story, this past week, we were out contacting for a bit, and I stop this really cool guy. He's just minding his own business and I stop him to talk to him for a bit and I find out that he's a magician!! Literally the first magician that I've seen in Ukraine, so he ends up pulling out a pack of playing cards and he showed me a super cool trick, he's actually a super good magician too. In short, after talking to him for a bit, we exchanged numbers and hopefully we can meet sometime and talk about magic AND the Gospel haha should be super cool. 

Church this past week was decent. We didn't have the most people show up, I'm sure that the cold weather didn't help. But it was my last week leading church and honestly, it's really not that stressful for me anymore. I didn't really make too many mistakes, I just always forget to announce the prayers when I'm leading, I'll improve on that for sure. I also had the opportunity to speak during sacrament meeting as well. I decided to switch up the topics a bit and I talked about how the Gospel is like a pizza. A pizza has three main parts, the dough, cheese, and sauce, without them, it really wouldn't be a pizza. If we say that the pizza is our testimony, we need three things as well to make it a testimony. Reading daily, praying daily, and coming to church weekly. Members here really enjoyed that talk and I love speaking now, it was super fun! All in all, a good week, nothing too big happened, but was still wonderful! Have a great week everyone and talk to you later!

Старійшина McGrath

1 Nephi 20:10 Read and ponder these words, the Lord refines us and makes us more like HIM!

Super good restaurant in Lutsk

Thanksgiving dinner in Lutsk

 BBQ Pizza

Selfie at home

Doing some magic with my man outside

The One Day Kyiv Trip (Week Шістдесят п'ять)

Well, it was a pretty crazy week, a few bigger things happened and I'll try to cover them over this semi-long email that'll be interesting. The first big thing that happened was that we did another mini-golf night for game night this past week and it was very successful. Like last time, we had a good amount of people show up, and after we taught them how to play golf, and told them that they can't hit the ball again until it stops, we set them off on the six hole mini-golf course that we created. On the course, we had ramps made with chalkboards, many different turns, and we even created a kind of tunnel effect with a bunch of chairs, people really liked it. Funny story, when we were creating the course, we realized that we didn't have one of the main parts of a golf course, the putters. So we had to get creative, like missionaries do, and we took the handles of broom sticks and then took old Liahona magazines and taped them together to make some super interesting putters haha. They worked out good, and we could have used them, but luckily a member showed up and we were able to get the door unlocked to the hockey sticks and people just used hockey sticks instead. Honestly, just a good game night and it was fun creating a mini-golf course!

The other big part of this past week, as you can see by my short title, was our one day trip out to Kyiv. Our branch had the great opportunity to go to the Kyiv for one day and visit the temple, and since we have a few recent converts, we were able to go to the temple with them and do baptisms for the dead with them. It was such a good experience, both Vika and Mikola, were able to make it and we all did a baptisms session in the morning. Sometimes as a missionary, you don't see the fruits of your work on a mission, but sitting in the temple with my recent converts was just the best feeling. They both had a wonderful experience and want to go to the temple again. After we finished our session in the evening, we walked out and Vika was just sitting on a bench in the freezing cold weather, near the temple, and she told us that she didn't want to leave, she loves the temple and feels such a great spirit there. All in all, even though we had to wake up at four and didn't get home until one in the morning, it was 100% worth it. We were able to go to the temple with 15 of my favorite people in Ukraine and spend some time with them doing the Lord's work in the Lord's home. 

Anyhow, the rest of the week was good. We had exchanges here in Rivne this past week with the Lutsk Elders and we had a very successful day. We went out and did a finding activity where we asked people what they were grateful for and we were able to have some good conversations about family, the Book of Mormon, and the plan of salvation. Hopefully we'll get some good new investigators as we call people over the next few days. We also went to a lot of members homes this past week and had good lessons with them, helping them, asking for referrals, and sharing good spiritual thoughts. All in all, a busy, tiring, but super good week. Have a great week everyone and talk to you later! 

Старійшина McGrath

Ether 12:4 Read and Ponder these words. Hope is super important and this is such a good verse!

Golf night, what a party

Had some good borscht, always enjoy that

              Branch Lunch in between the sessions

Cool temple pic

With Vika at the temple!! Super good!

Pic of the branch at the temple!!

Pancakes for dinner, nothing better!!

Life in good ol' Rivne (Week шістдесят чотири)

Another great week in the books, didn't have a baptism like last week, but we stayed busy and had a very effective week. To get started, here's a little update on Vika and how she's doing. This past week, we had two lessons with her, on Tuesday and Saturday. On Tuesday, we were planning on talking to her about authority and the priesthood and as we went about this lesson she didn't seem to fully understand the importance of priesthood and its role in our Church. Then to even top it off, we get a call saying that we have to go to a government building because our landlady is waiting there and we have to do some document stuff with her so that we can be fully registered here in Rivne. That wasn't too good because we had to cut the lesson a bit short and we couldn't fully explain or teach our lesson. So in the end, the lesson on Tuesday was kind of a bummer because she left confused and we kind of left frustrated because we didn't have the time to explain our thoughts and share our testimony. But, here's the cool part, we had an AMAZING lesson Saturday. She walks in, we talk for a little bit and then she tells us that she's been studying, praying, and pondering about the priesthood and what that truly is and what it means. She then asks us to pull out a blackboard so she can share what she has learned and correct her on anything that may not be correct. Honestly, she taught us that day!! She explained the difference between Priesthood power, keys, and authority and even used verses and quotes to back up anything that she really said. When we asked her to define priesthood, she said this (I wrote it down in my journal haha,) "Priesthood is your natural and divine calling, by which this humanity can be saved." She knows so much about the gospel already and her testimony is just growing immensely. The Priesthood is vital and now she really does know and understand that. Also, she got her temple recommend on Sunday and will be going to the temple this upcoming week, should be amazing! All in all, it's been a pleasure teaching and getting to know Vika and I've learned so much from her. 

Other than that, this week was pretty grand. We helped out on a primary activity on Saturday and that was pretty fun. We all went out together and took pictures at a park since the it's fall and the park is super pretty right now. I got to take the go pro that one of the members had and take some good videos. Plus, I did a little interview with all of them, that was pretty funny, they all had such good answers. Honestly though, some of the hardest people to understand in Ukrainian are kids because they speak so quick, and sometimes they don't pronounce words correctly and for non-natives, that's super difficult to understand. haha The four primary kids that showed up are super cool though and it was a super good activity. We all went back and ate pizza after taking pictures and watched some Mormon Messages in Russian since there are almost no Mormon Messages in Ukrainian, but that helped my Russian improve a bit. I can understand what people are saying if they speak Russian now, so that's progress haha. In short, on my mission I've learned to really appreciate the primary kids because they really add to the branch, make everything more interesting, and you can really see the light of Christ in them.

Other than those few things, we had some other lessons, contacted people outside, had our weekly activities and planned a ton like always. Sunday, we had over thirty people show up to Church, which is always great. Also, I had to lead church this past week and again, it was super scary, but I got through it, only with a few mistakes. Both weeks when I've lead a big cheese leader has been in our branch too, so that only makes it a bit more nerve-racking. This past week, the first councilor in the Ukraine Kyiv/Moldova Mission came to our branch and he got to watch me lead. He bore a powerful testimony at the end though and it really added to sacrament meeting. All in all, this week was awesome. A normal missionary week, it makes for a not as interesting weekly email home, but sometimes it's really nice for missionaries to have a normal week where they can just focus on their area. Anyway, have a great week everyone and talk to you later!!

Старійшина McGrath

Moroni 10:32 Read and ponder these words. Come unto Christ, how can you more fully do that?

Pic with Elder Matua during the Primary activity

Eating some super good Georgian food 

Night pic in Rivneee

 Vika after she taught us on Saturday

 When we were out taking pictures at the activity 

At the Primary Party

The Warm Waters of Baptism (Week шістдесят три)

Well, when there is a baptism, you know it's been a good week. Our investigator, Vika, who was a golden investigator ended up getting baptized this past week and it was an amazing experience. Let's cover her story a bit. Vika was found through English Practice. She had been coming for a few weeks and after a great spiritual thought, we decided to talk to her. She was open to meeting and we ended up meeting the very next day. There we had a wonderful Restoration lesson where she talked about her feelings about God and how she believed in reincarnation and how she didn't believe in organized religion. After that lesson though, she started reading the Book of Mormon and something changed. The very first verse that she read was Alma 37:6 and now that's her favorite verse in the Book of Mormon. She loves how simple and clear some of the principles can be in the Book of Mormon. We began to meet with her more often and she became more and more interested in the gospel. She started to read the Book of Mormon every day and really started to develop a testimony of it. After some time, we decided to read Doctrine and Covenants 6 with her, wanting to help her understand what the Holy Ghost is and how to recognize it. After a wonderful lesson where she really felt the spirit, we invited her to be baptized. Now, this wasn't the first time that we had invited her, but we sincerely felt like she was ready. At first, she said no, she was too scared, she didn't feel ready. But, we invited her to share her testimony of how her life has changed since she has met us. She bore a strong testimony and realized that she knew the Book of Mormon and the Church was true. She then accepted the invitation to be baptized. Eventually, she was baptized and she is so happy. Elder Matua, my greenie son, was able to baptize her and it was so great, plus it only took one try which is also super good!

The next day, I had the opportunity to give the gift of the Holy Ghost which was an amazing experience. The power of the priesthood is real and I really felt the Holy Ghost during that experience. Anyway, she loves the Gospel and wants to go to the temple soon! One thing I do want to add to this little tidbit is what she told me right before the baptismal service on Saturday. I came up to her and she started talking, she said, "You know, I just want to say thank you. You saved my life, you brought me to God and you pushed me towards baptism. You told me (Vika) that one of the hardest decisions of your life was to stay on your mission, but I'm glad you decided to and I hope you will always stay on your mission. You're changing and saving lives and you saved mine." Mannnn, that hit me hard. I was so happy when she said that, and whenever the mission gets hard, I'll think of that. I'm super grateful for Vika and her desire, she's amazing and just the best!!

The rest of this week was pretty grand as well. Another big thing that happened was that I got to lead sacrament meeting yesterday. Honestly, that was super scary because I had never done that before and November is my month to lead. But I got through it, with little mistakes. Apparently, whenever I speak in public, I like to move my shoulders, and the first counselor here told me to avoid doing that haha, and I was able to do that. Also, most weeks we don't have any branch business but for some reason this week, we had a ton, which meant I had to announce a lot more and that was kind of nerve racking. I finally understand how all bishops and counselors feel when it's their month to lead Church, it's kind of scary, especially when you're not doing it in English, really gotta work on my leading church vocabulary. Another cool thing that happened on Sunday was our recent convert, if you remember Mikola, was called to be the branch clerk. He's still doing super good and has a big desire to serve and help, and we'll be able to bond a lot more as we do finances every single week for the next few weeks before I leave Rivne sometime soon. 

That was pretty much it from here in Rivne, we spent a lot of time preparing for the baptism and doing everything necessary for that. We also moved apartments from our apartment to the other Elder's apartment since they have a better apartment than us, so that was nice to switch apartments. We also found a new investigator, he's from Africa and pretty cool. Hopefully he starts to progress and everything is good with him. He's already started reading the Book of Mormon, so that's a good sign from him. Finally, we had a branch activity for Halloween and it was super fun. We watched a good Halloween movie and good amount of members showed up! Anyhow, this was a great week, I love baptism weeks. Have a great week everyone and talk to you soon!!

Старійшина McGrath

Alma 37:6 read and ponder these words. I love this verse and we should always be striving to do the simple things.

Our Halloween Party

Repping the Red Sox shirt to celebrate their win

Baptism pic with Vika

Fall in Rivneee

Eating some good croissants  

With Valeri, a guy from English Practice

Selfie with Vika at the baptismmm