Some of my favorite L'viv members and investigators

Yura - Investigator

Maxim - Member 

Misha - Member

Oleksy - He will be a member next Saturday when he gets baptized

Brother Stankovich - Member

Pavlo - Investigator

A little city named Rivne (week двадцять сім)

Well, I officially made it through my first transfer to another city. Rivne is quite an interesting city. It is a big industrial city and transportation hub so it doesn't have that unique, old charm that L'viv did. It's still super pretty, don't get me wrong, just not as pretty as L'viv. If you're ever thinking of where to go on your next vacation, I highly recommend L'viv, one of my favorite cities in Europe for sure. Anyway, my comp here is Elder Lukach, he's an amazing Elder that has served for about a year now. He's from Kiev and knows English, Russian, and Ukrainian so that is pretty awesome, he'll help me a lot over this next transfer with the language and everything in general. He enjoys boxing and MMA so I might even learn some moves as well over these next few weeks. In addition to moving to a new city, having this assignment as a zone leader is going to help me so much. I've already learned so much about leadership and how to be a good person in general and I know that as I continue with this position and with other assignments throughout my mission, I know that I will progress and make steps towards coming unto Christ. One cool experience that I had this past week happened the day before I headed out to Rivne. 

On Wednesday, President Rizley invited Elder Hill and I, along with a couple of other missionaries, to meet with him and discuss leadership and how to be a good leader. I learned so much in that meeting and I just wanted to share one really interesting thing that he said. He said that everyone on this Earth has the purpose of coming unto Christ and becoming more like him and leaders just do that more publicly. WOW! That quote just really stood out to me, everyone has the same goal, just because someone is a leader doesn't mean that you're better than anyone else, they just have the opportunity to serve others and help others come closer. Developing Christlike attributes is very important and is one thing that I really want to focus on over this next transfer!

Anyway, some highlights from the week. On Friday, Elder Lukach and I had the opportunity to teach one of the members here in this branch at his work. He works at this old military factory as a guard, so that was probably one of the coolest places that I'll have a lesson on my mission. After our lesson, he showed us around the military factory and we went into some of the old rooms and honestly, I wish I had taken some pictures but it wouldn't have done it justice, it was honestly just a really cool experience that you need to see with your own eyes. Another cool thing that we did this past week was on P-Day actually. We went and did another quest room and this time it was Pirates of the Caribbean themed and we did it. We had five minutes to spare but we did get out of the room, really fun and escape rooms are just super fun. 

Finally, I just want to say that the investigator that I talked about last week that had a baptismal date, passed his interview this week and will be baptized very soon!!! So exciting, keep praying for him!! All in all a very good week, even had a really good english practice this week where we had the most people come to English practice in a very long time! Have a great week all!

Старійшина McGrath

Matthew 21:21 Read and ponder the words! Again about faith but it's super important to always have faith!!

Escape room pic

Had some good chicken burgers with CHIC FIL A SAUCE!

A cool sign is Rivne  

Inside a marshutka 

Our wonderful church building here in Rivne

Another adventure awaits! (Week двадцять шість)

Well as you can tell from the perfectly alliterated title of this email, another adventure awaits. On thursday we received transfer call and I have been transferred out of L'viv. I will be heading to Rivne, a smaller city in North-West Ukraine. Also, when President Rizley called me, he said that I would be a zone leader in Rivne as well. I will have the opportunity to serve as a zone leader over the Volynska zone.To be honest, this might have been one of the last things that I was expecting, considering that I'm only going into my fourth transfer and have never even been a district leader, so my heart was kind of pounding when I received that call. For a while, I was a bit nervous, but as time went on it started to sink in and I became more and more excited for this. Now, I'm extremely grateful for this opportunity that President Rizley has given me and I will strive my hardest to serve the people in my zone to the best of my abilities. I also know that God will help me in this adventure, and as I put my full trust in him, I'll do better and more that I could even imagine. In addition, another perk of receiving this call in L'viv is that I have three former zone leaders here. Both the AP's and my companion, Elder Hill, has served as a zone leader at one point. So last night and this morning, we actually spent some time together and I did a bit of a q and a session with them and lemme tell they're some wise Elders haha. I hope I can apply a lot of what they told me!

In other news, the week was really great. On Saturday, our branch had a primary activity and all the missionaries had the opportunity to be a part of that. The topic of this activity was following the prophet and it was super successful. All the missionaries actually were assigned a prophet and were given something to do. Some of these prophets include Moses, Noah, Nephi, and President Nelson. I ended playing the part of Jesus Christ. So I got to dress up as Jesus Christ for a few hours, that was quite the experience. I've got some good pictures that I'll send. My only speaking part of this activity was at the end where I had the opportunity to say, "come unto me. I will make you fishers of men." The only problem was that I really didn't know how to say fishers, so that morning I was saying it over and over because I didn't want to mess up in the actual performance. I probably said it over a hundred times and guess what, I didn't mess up!! haha I said that line pretty well and all the little kids came unto me and I got to shake their hands. Such a great activity and the kids really loved it!

Finally, on thursday, we had the opportunity to do some exchanges. I ended up going on an exchange with Elder Swasey, and if you read my emails from the MTC, you'd know that he was one of my companions there. So it was super fun to do an exchange with him and see how much we have grown over these last six months. And I can tell you that we have, our languages have gotten far better than at the MTC where we couldn't even string two sentences together haha. We ended up contacting a lot, and had a lesson. Learned a lot and am excited to do a bunch of exchanges over the next transfer. Thank you all for everything you do and I hope you enjoyed this letter. Have a great week!

Старійшина McGrath

Proverbs 3:5-6 read and ponder these words. Put your full trust in the Lord and he WILL raise you up!

Snowman for a finding activity

Inside an old church

St. George's cathedral 

Selfie in front of it!

Everyone in costumes for the primary activity!! Best district ever!

Mission life is a great life! (Week двадцять п'ять)

Well, this week was what you call a normal missionary week. We didn't have any conferences or exchanges to plan and do, just were able to focus on bringing other people and ourselves  closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ. Lemme tell you though, there is nothing better than this though, just focusing on your area. It does make for a shorter email though because nobody wants to hear what I ate for lunch on Tuesday, (Chicken boats) so I'll just share some of the more interesting things that happened. And I'll start with a funny story just to keep you all interested. So there is a member here who likes to meet with us and discuss different topics of the gospel and he is for sure one of my favorite members of this branch. On Thursday, we met with him to discuss commandments and I had the opportunity to say the opening prayer. I noticed that he was starting to get a little bit sick, so I made sure to say in my prayer that we could all have good health this week. Literally right after my prayer, he says to me, "you know what, Elder, it's a good thing that the Lord listens to the intents of your heart and not what you say because you just asked the Lord to bless us to be sick throughout the week." That just made me crack up, and to be quite honest, sick and healthy aren't even that similar in Ukrainian. Really was just a dumb mistake haha. Such a good moment. I hope that some of you get a kick out of that one, just showing you that my language is improving every day but not even close to perfect! 

Now, on to the highlight of the week. Elder Hill and I have some amazing people that we work with here in L'viv and I'd like to talk about one that we have been working with for two weeks now. His name is Oleksi, and on Sunday, we set a baptismal date with him! Oleksi is an amazing younger man who is a huge testimony to me that the Lord prepares people for the gospel. In the two weeks that we have taught him, he has already read all of first Nephi, most of second Nephi, all of the teachings of Joseph Smith, and most of the teachings of John Taylor. He loves talking to us and learning more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that the Lord prepares people for the gospel and, as long as we actively seek for people and constantly share our testimony, we will find the elect. God loves his children and wants to give everyone to opportunity to hear the Gospel and accept its teachings. 

All in all, such a good week, so grateful for this opportunity to serve here in Ukraine. On Thursday, we had a good english practice where we taught the beginner class, and on Friday, we had a good "English Club." Many people came and we had the opportunity to talk to people about the gospel. Anyhow, have a great week and I'll get back to you next week on how it goes! 

Старійшина McGrath

Ether 12:6 Read and ponder this verse!! Faith is vital, gotta have it!  

Cool Church in L'viv

Another one, but this time with Elder Hill! 

Pic of center and the opera house

Posing like a statue in center

Conferences out the Wazoo (Week двадцять чотири)

Wow, what an amazing week, probably one of the craziest and most busy, but also one of the most rewarding. I learned so much, and I'm so grateful for all that happened so let's get to sharing some of it. Let's hit the highlights in chronological order, so first of all, Thursday we had exchanges! The AP's this transfer are doing something called a "road show" where basically they go to every city and have an exchange with all the Elders in the city. I'd say that this is one of the perks of having a small mission, and on Thursday, it was our opportunity to learn from the APs. The exchange went very well, we had some very good lessons, contacted some, ate some good food, and had an hour long training session prepared by Elder Christensen. The training session was probably my favorite part of the exchange because he focused on exactly what I needed in order to become the best missionary that I can be. One thing that really stood out to me were the importance of goals and setting incremental goals in order to achieve the bigger, better goals that helps us come closer to our Heavenly Father. All in all, a really good day!!

Now let's jump towards Saturday and Sunday. This weekend, we had two conferences, a district conference on Sunday, and a zone conference on a Monday. One reason that both the conferences were so close to one another was that we had a General Authority come. President Martino came this week and joined us for both the conferences. And on Saturday, something amazing happened. President Martino, President and Sister Rizley all wanted to join us for lessons with our investigators. So we all had thirty minutes to teach one of our progressing investigators with probably some of the best members present that you could probably get haha. The lesson with our investigator went super duper well, we taught about baptism and he accepted a soft baptismal date. The best part was that he came to conference the next day! He hadn't been to church before this, but with the help of President Martino and his testimony, he came and stayed for the entire conference, it was quite amazing!! 

On Sunday, we had our district conference, which was split up into two different parts. One where it was like any other conference with a bunch of amazing talks, and the second where we split up into groups, men, women, and YSAs. And guess what, Elder Hill and I along with a few more missionaries had the opportunity to lead the discussion with the YSAs. It went pretty good, the most crazy part though was that we expected maybe 20-30 people in the class but there ended up being over 50!! That was quite an awesome surprise, we did some good scripture reading and had a real fun object lesson about the atonement and coming to Christ. All in all, on Sunday with language informant at night, we were at the church from seven (shoveling snow for the first time in my life) to seven thirty at night. A full 12 hours there, doing amazing things. Learned so much and stayed super busy!

Finally, on Monday we had our Carpathian Zone conference. President Martino pretty much led the whole thing though. He went and answered some of our questions and helped us to become better missionaries. President Martino just has such a strong spirit and you can feel it when he just walks in the room, makes me want to become a better person and a better missionary. Honestly one of the best weeks of my life, wouldn't trade it for anything in the world, the mission life is for sure the best life. I love you all and hope you all have a wicked week.

Старійшина McGrath

Moroni 10: 32  Read and Ponder it, Moroni's last words to us, this is what he things is most important!!

Had to opportunity to go out to dinner with my comps trainer!

Cool pic of the chapel!

Picture of the program from District Conference

Pic of the original 3 from the MTC

The greatest district in L'viv!!

Went to a cool museum today!!

Speak Your Language ALL DAY (Week двадцять три)

Well, it's been such a good week this week. Stayed busy, taught some good lessons, had a great english practice, and a very successful game night. Let's get started. Today, I think I'm going to start with our finding activity this week. A finding activity is when we go out as a district to a busy area and do an activity to talk to people about what we believe and see if they are interested. This week, we did something very different, something that was super fun and interesting. We played contacting bingo. Basically, each companionship got a bingo board which had a bunch of different things written on it about contacting. Some of them included things like give a five minute lesson, give out a Book of Mormon, receive a harsh reject, talk to a dog-owner, and contact a JW. Haha. Some were more serious and others were more just for fun, but all in all, the activity was very successful and everyone enjoyed it. We had to get five in a row, and then text each other the time that we go it, and the companionship that finished last had to buy something for everyone else. We ended up finishing in second place, so I'm just grateful that we don't have to buy everyone else something haha. 

Anyway, the rest of the week was great as well. On Thursday, we ended up going back to that same member that we chopped wood for two weeks in a row and we chopped some more wood. This time, we had to cut the wood into smaller pieces because last time, we cut a few of the pieces a little too big. That was a fun activity. I always forget to take pictures as well, maybe we'll do it one more time. But yeah, service is always a great, and I always look to forward to the opportunity to do some. Afterwards, we shared a short spiritual thought about the sacrament. Hopefully she comes to Church on Sunday! 

Also, on friday, we had our game night. For game night this week, we ended doing a paper airplane night. Not many people here in Ukraine have built paper airplanes, so it was fun to show them how and tune into my inner childhood of building some and throwing them all over the place. We ended doing a few competitions such as a longest throw and most accurate one as well. In short, a very successful activity with both investigators and members there.

Finally, as you can tell by the title, Elder Hill and I have been trying to SYL as much as we can. It's been somewhat hard, but it has already paid off so much. I'm starting to speak a little bit better, dropping words into cases a lot more often, and I learning new words left and right. Elder Hill is already basically fluent so now he's just helping me learn the language and that's amazing. I have learned so much this transfer already! Anyhow, got a really fun week coming up. We have district conference and then a zone conference. Plus, President Martino of the 70 is coming this weekend! So excited, I know the Church is true and am so grateful to serve a mission in this awesome city and country!

Старійшина McGrath

Helaman 5:12 Read it and ponder it! The Lord is our rock, put all of our trust in him!!

Picture from our game night! 

All the paper airplanes

Selfie in front of a cool Cathedral

Seflie of us at the bowling alley

Our district activity!!

Our cool staircase to our apartment. Heard that it's over 100 years old! 

A Wonderful Week of Weeks (Week двадцять два)

Wow, this was an amazing, but also very crazy. So lets start with the big news of the week, on Friday, we received a text from the AP's saying that we all had a mandatory Skype call at 2:00 and we had to adjust our schedules. So we all do that and show up for this super important Skype call. So after we said the opening prayer, President Rizley jumped right into it. He received a letter from the area authority that he pretty much read to us. Basically, the L'viv mission is a goner. The area authorities and more higher up people, decided to combine the Ukraine L'viv mission, and the Ukraine Kiev mission. That was some massive news that President wanted to tell us himself. So this change will take place sometime this spring, no exact date is set, but President Rizley finishes his calling in mid-june so I'd think that we'd officially combine then. That was some MASSIVEEE news that has some amazing pros and cons. One pro is that we might be able to go visit the TEMPLE in Kiev sometime since it'll be in our mission. That'd be wonderful, for sure have missed the temple and everything inside of it. The spirit is so strong there and I can't wait to go again. One more a con thing is that our mission will be A LOT bigger, so many more missionaries. I enjoy having a small mission and having the opportunity to get to know everyone, but this will be an experience. Nevertheless, I'm super excited and sure that the Kiev mission will be amazing, and the mission for me. Can't wait!!

Anyway, about the rest of my week, Elder Hill and I had the opportunity to go to Ivano-Frankisk this week to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. That was quite an experience, first time on a train here in Ukraine and lemme tell you, Ivano is such a beautiful city, will for sure attach some photos. I ended up going on an exchange with Elder Fuller and he is an amazing, dedicated missionary. I learned so very much from him and I hope I have the opportunity to serve with him again sometime. One cool thing that happened was that we set a goal of getting five IPs (basically contact info) throughout the day, and we did it!! Literally at the last moment too, we had worked hard all day, and right at the end of our activity we got the last IP! Just shows you that when you make a goal with the spirit in mind, and work hard at something, the Lord will help you!! Really good exchange all in all, met some cool people, ate some great Georgian food, and had some amazing experiences. 

Well, the rest of the week was good, taught some good lessons, had more finding activities, and stayed busy. I'm very grateful for this opportunity I have to serve a mission and I wouldn't trade it for the world! Have a great week all!

Старійшина McGrath

1 Nephi 19:23, liken the scriptures unto ourselves like Nephi did and you'll learn so much more! Scriptures are amazing!

t's getting pretty dang cold here haha

On my first train ride in Ukraine with Elder Hill!!

Cool pic of Ivano, super nice city

Another cool pic

With Elder Fuller on exchanges

On the way home on the train

Massive Jenga set at game night!!

We went skiing as a district for P-day, super fun!!

I saw an Arizona license plate at this cool diner we went to!!