jakemcgrathmission: 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!