jakemcgrathmission: The End of the Best Year of My Life...So Far (Week сімдесят один)

Wow, I can't believe that today is the 31st of December, I was a missionary this entire year, striving to serve The Lord with all my Heart, Might, Mind, and Strength. I vividly remember thinking this time last year, "Can I do this for an entire year?" But this past year came and went and I now know that I can and that this work is the best work in the world. Last year, I was a greenie, more green than Boston in the Summer, but now I've grown into one of the older missionaries in the L'viv zone, and I owe everything that I've done and seen to God. I know for a fact that this is the Lord's work and I'm just his servant trying to go out and listen to his directions on how I can keep the work moving forward. Anyway, before I reflect too much on this past year, I want to talk about this past week and how wonderful it was.

First of all, we had Christmas this past week, which was absolutely a blast. Our Mission President actually gave us the day "off" meaning that it was basically another P-day, we just couldn't write home. So, since I'm the district leader and I gotta have exchanges with all the elders in my district, I decided to kind of pull a few strings. I decided to put our exchange with the Elders in Khmelnitskiy on Wednesday, the day after Christmas, so what they actually did, was travel down to Chern on Monday night and were here with us for Christmas and then exchanges. So we had the entire district together for Christmas which was super sick. We ended up opening presents in the morning and that was great. My parents sent me a couple packages, love them lots, and then a member in Rivne actually sent me a Christmas package, so that was supppperrr nice of her, Sister Timochko is the best!

Another fun thing that we did on Christmas was do an escape room. We ended up doing this super scary escape room where we basically had to escape this prison under a monastery. As some of you know, I don't like scary things very much, so I may have screamed a few times and almost peed my pants a few times. Sadly though, we didn't escape the room though, it was super hard and we had to read in Russian, and none of the elders that did it could really do that, so it made it pretty hard haha. They did say that 70% of people that try that escape room fail the first time, I don't know if they just said that to make us feel better or if that's actually true, but yeah. Finally, to finish off the day, we watched The Polar Express again, which was suppper good! All in all, it was an amazing Christmas on the mission!

The rest of the week was super grand as well. I had an exchange with Elder Howard, another newer missionary, this past week which went pretty great. We had a finding activity where we went out in front of the opera theater here in Chernivtsi and put a question up on a white board. We asked "If you could ask God one question, what would it be?" Then we had people come up and write their answers and then we could have a good conversation with them. It turned out to be super successful, most people that were around there were college students, so it was nice to stop and talk to them and most of them had questions pertaining to the Plan of Salvation. In the end, we ended up getting a few numbers and hopefully we'll meet with some of them over these next few weeks. Other than that, this past week was full of contacting and trying to find new investigators. We ended up finding two new ones this past week, so hopefully they start to progress and read the Book of Mormon, that's how they'll get that answer that this Church is true.

Also, we experienced another joy to missionary work: doggings. haha when people don't show up to scheduled meetings, and that happens a decent amount here. This past week, we scheduled nine meetings with members, less-actives, and investigators, and we ended up only having four lessons. We got dogged five times...but it's all good, that's why you always have a back up plan so that you're always working hard and trying to find new people. Well, the weather is better, the snow is melting, and I'm still loving Chernivtsi. We had FHE with President and Sister Seraphim this past week and it was super good, we talked all about them and the branch, and we came up the idea to do a Mexican Night here in Chernivtsi in a few weeks, should be great! Another solid week on the mission.

Anyhow, to finish off I wanted to talk about this last year that I had on the mission. I've learned so much and I'm for sure a changed person. The mission has been the hardest thing that I've done, but also the greatest and the most rewarding. This past year, I had the opportunity to help four people enter the waters of baptism, I've seen people change their lives all the way around. To helping people find answers to life's questions, to helping someone find more joy in their life, and even helping some overcome a smoking addiction of over 25 years. You really do see everything in a mission and it gives you the best and most spiritual experiences. The gospel really does change lives, if we do our part and show God our desire, he will take us and help us BECOME the best person that we can become. I loved this past year, and it for sure has been a roller-coaster and now I'm ready for another year. Have a great new year everyone and talk to you next year!

Старійшина McGrath

3 Nephi 5:13 read and ponder these words. I'm proud to be a servant of the Lord and wear his name on my chest every single day