Service in the Villages (Week Тридцять чотири)

Well it's only been five days since my last emailing session and big email but a few things have happened over the past few days, so it should be at least somewhat interesting of an email. Anyway, to start off, we had exchanges with the other Elders in Rivne and the exchanges went very good. I had the opportunity to serve with the newest member of the Rivne District, Elder Cook. He's a super cool guy from California that has been serving for almost a year and a half. He also has lost over 100 pounds over the last two years which is super cool and now he's super fit. He also has a super strong desire to follow Christ, so he's a great missionary and he really showed me that during our exchange. Throughout the day, we had many lessons planned, and they all actually fell through except for one, so it was a really good day for us to use all of our back-up plans that we had set the night before which included contacting, calling, and some studies. All in all, the day was good, we ate some great food, and had a very interesting English practice to finish off the day.

Like every week, we have the opportunity to teach English to people that want to learn and converse with natives of the language. This week was super interesting, I taught beginners this week with Elder Lukach and I swear, I heard more Russian that I had heard in the past two months. haha There were multiple people that only spoke Russian and didn't really know Ukrainian so it was very good that I had my native Russian speaker companion with me to help translate for me. To be fair, I do know some Russian and can understand somewhat fine, but not good enough for entire conversations and I can't really speak it, so I was very grateful for comp that night. Helping people understand and calm situations down. All in all, it was a very interesting night with a lot of Russian spoken.

Finally, to finish off the week we went out to the villages and did service for a member of the branch. Since the weather in Rivne is finally starting to warm up, people are going to start planting crops in their gardens and since we're four strong and able men, we have the chance to go out and help and serve the people of Ukrainian as they start their gardens. This was my first taste of the potato and other plant planting and it was super fun. The weather was perfect and we spent a couple of hours just out there flattening out the earth for planting and helping plant some potatoes. All in all it was a super fun experience and I hope that we can do it again soon! Really it was a great and busy week! Nothing better than that. I hope you all have a great week and always remember that Jesus Christ is our loving savior and redeemer! 

Старійшина McGrath

Alma 7: 11-13 Read and ponder these verses. Jesus Christ suffered for ALL, as we use the atonement, we can find true happiness and feel God's love in our life even stronger!

Good old pic of center 

Selfie with my trainer, Elder Baxter

Pic of the garden we were working on

Pic of a train passing by

Actually eating healthy haha

Flowers are blooming in Ukraine!

Is 40 beacoup? (Week тридцять три)

Wow, what a great week and a half! We moved our P-day back to Wednesday because we did our big Easter activity twice this past week, once on Friday and then again on Monday because of how successful it was the first time. Since I'm already on the topic of the big Easter finding activity, I talk about that first in today's big email. Easter is a pretty big holiday here in Ukraine, so just like for Christmas, our mission went big and each city came up with a unique idea for a fun finding activity that would help us find the elect. The ideas ranged from building a giant egg and having people put their painted hands on them, to using white boards and playing some music with the violin and piano.


My city, Rivne, came up with the idea a few weeks ago to create two white boards and put one the whiteboards the questions, "what has Jesus Christ done for You?" and "What will you do for Jesus Christ?" The point of these white boards was to get attention and then we had people come up and write there answer in any language that they want. Also, we set up a TV in between the whiteboards and played the prince of peace video on repeat also to get attention and have people feel the spirit through this wonderful video about Jesus Christ and his Resurrection. Finally, we had copies of the Book of Mormon, pamphlets, cards, and cookies to give to people. We did this activity on Friday and it worked out super well, but we wanted to do it again on Monday, because we found out that there would be a big concert in center. So, we asked President Rizley, and he said yes and we should get beacoup IP's. Honestly, we didn't know what beacoup meant, so we had to look it up, but if you do, props to you haha. Anyhow, we ended up doing this activity again and we ended up getting 40 IP's combined!! Simply amazing, so grateful that I had the chance to participate in this and there were so many people that were interested and we had some great conversations about the gospel. So to finish off the story and day, we sent the text, "is 40 beacoup?" to President Rizley and he got a good kick out of that one. Really good day and activity!

Other greats parts of the week include our monthly trip out to L'viv to participate in MLC. This time it was very successful and we ended having such great unity and created some action items that will help the mission today, and help the mission prepare for the future. Always a super fun meeting to be a part of and I for sure learn a lot! Another great part of the week was the chance we had to watch General Conference, and let me tell you, it was AMAZING. I 100% sustain our prophet and his apostles and know that they receive revelation for us today to help us come closer to Christ and know what we need to do to find more happiness within the gospel. It's super hard to pick a favorite talk at the moment, so all I'll say is that if you haven't watch general conference yet, go do it! You won't regret it! 

Anyway, it was such a great week and there is nothing better than being a missionary. I hope you all have a great rest of the week and enjoy the warmer weather because I know I am!! 

Старійшина McGrath

Isaiah 40:31 Read and ponder these words. Always have hope in the Lord and he will lift you up!

The three of us waiting for Elder Baxter's new comp, elder Cook, at the train station 

Again in front of a cool Rivne sign 

Selfie at the train station

The Train Station

The Easter activity set up

Another pic of center during our activity!

Found the Jordan Speith of Ukraine (Week Тридцять два)

Well honestly it was a great week. It was a pretty normal week but a few cool things happened so I hope you enjoy this great letter. First of all, if you don't know who Jordan Speith is, I'll tell you right now. Jordan Speith is a professional golfer who is one of the best in the world and is probably my favorite one. But that's not too important, the reason I mentioned him in my title is because of what we did for our game night this week. This past week, I reached deep into my roots and we played some mini-golf in the church, super fun and super successful. We basically bought some 2 liter pepsi bottles and cut them in half for the holes, used hockey sticks as clubs, and bought some foam balls to use. After that, I set up a wonderful 6-hole mini-golf course. It was a little bit ghetto, but it worked out really well and people quite enjoyed it. We had the biggest game night yet and many people stayed for the spiritual thought afterwards. All in all, it was a very fun night and many people had a great time, which is the most important part. 

Another great part of the week was the opportunity that I had to serve with Elder Baxter on exchanges. If you remember, and read my emails when I was still serving in L'viv, Elder Baxter was actually my trainer. It was super fun to go back and serve with him for another day, remember the good old days of being a greenie. But all in all, we had a very successful day, hitting the streets for most of it and talking to hundreds of people. I learned so much from him, as we talked about things from transfers to Peter, one of the Apostles of Jesus Christ, and I hope he learned a thing or two from me. Elder Baxter is an amazing missionary, and I'm grateful for the chance I had to serve with him again.

All in all, it was a very great week and I learned a lot. We had some wonderful lessons, contacting sessions, and studies. Also, a member ended up inviting us over to their house for some borscht and it was suppperrr good. If you haven't had borscht yet, please try some , it's super good! haha Anyhow, I hope you all had the opportunity to watch general conference this past weekend. Unfortunately, just like in Saudi, they watch it the week later in Ukraine, so I'll get to listen to our prophets real sooon, super excited and can't wait to learn a lot. I know that we have modern prophets today and they truly do receive revelation for us today. Anyway, have a great week and talk to you soon!

Старійшина McGrath

Jacob 4:13 Read and ponder these words. The Holy Ghost is there and WILL answer us and our prayers!

Statue in Shevchenko Park 

Always gotta be posing with a statue

One of our investigators enjoying some golf! 

Another pic of the course

Slava Ukrainyina

Pic with Elder Baxter!

Miracle week here in Rivne (Week тридцять один)

Honestly, this was such a great week with a lot of great things that happened and I hope that I can cover a good amount of them with you in this semi-long email home. First of all, we had exchanges with the Elders from Khmelnitski (pretty hard city to pronounce), that went very successful. We did a finding activity outside, thankfully it's starting to warm up again, that went very well and I met some people that I think could be really interested in the gospel and could be amazing kingdom builders. I had the opportunity to serve with Elder Corey for a day and he is a great missionary, I learned a lot from him and I sure hope that he learned a thing or two from me. 

Other than that, this week was just full of miracles. One of them includes one of our investigators who is only 12 years old, but has a strong desire to be baptized. The only problem is that her mother has never given us permission to baptize her and has always been somewhat against this idea of baptizing her. Although this past week, on Monday we did some service for her, and then had a great discussion with both of them about baptism and the benefits and blessings of that. Instead of being completely against it and saying no right away, she said that she wanted to think about it more and we encouraged her to pray about it and see if she gets an answer from God. Anyway, the coolest part of this story is that both our investigator AND her mom came to Church on Sunday, the first time she has done that in such a long time and she told us that she is a lot more open to allowing baptism. Sooooo close, I'm so excited and I think that this week we could get this baptismal date and help this young lady take this first step and be baptized. 

Another super cool miracle was how many people we had at church this week. This transfer, as a district, we set a goal to have at least 40 forty people at sacrament meeting once during this transfer, something that we knew could happen. But the first three weeks didn't look super good, on average we were having around 25 people but guess how many people showed up yesterday!? Exactly forty!! I was super excited and we had a good amount of investigators and less actives that were able to make it this week which made is super awesome. I had the opportunity to teach the gospel principles class this week as well which went pretty good. We had over ten people in the class, which was a lot more than usual, so we had a really good discussion. All in all, these are some of the miracles that happened here in RIvne, super grateful for all of these and can only thank God for them

Anyway, to finish off this letter, our activies here in Rivne are going a lot better than when I first got here. At english practice, we are having more than thirty people show up and game night is starting to get big as well. We have found a few new investigators from these activites and that makes it all worth it. Also, tomorrow for game night, I am going to teach everyone how to play golf and we're going to play a little mini-golf here in Rivne, hopefully that goes well! Haha anyways, have great week and stay warm (it's finally starting to warm up here!)

Старійшина McGrath

Mosiah 18: 8-9 Read and ponder these words! Lift one another up!!

Dinner on Exchanges: Celentano

Pic with Elder Corey 

View from our apartment

Pic of the river here 

Selfie with Elder Lukach

Really cool part of the city

Nothing better than Rivne!! (Week тридцять)

Well, this was quite the week, nothing better than a pretty normal week where you can just focus on the work in your city and help people come unto Christ. The biggest highlight of the week was exchanges this week. The Elders in Lutsk, another city in the Volynska zone, came to Rivne to go on some exchanges this week. That was quite the party and I had the opportunity to serve with Elder Galmeister for a day. Elder Galmeister has been serving for a little over a year now and is quite the amazing missionary. He knows the language really well and has a great desire to work. Anyway, during my last exchange with Elder Cluff, all but one of our lessons fell through, so again I tried to fill the day as best as possible hoping that people would actually meet with us and they did, we had quite the successful day, full of teaching, finding, and eating some good food. Probably the best part of the day was our finding activity in center. We went out, brought a bunch of copies of The Book of Mormon and did something called a book stand. Where you have these copies, some in different languages to spark some interest, and then you have some great conversations about the Book and where it came from, and how this Book can help them. We had some really great conversations from this activity and there were some really interested people who wanted to learn more. One of them, actually met with us an hour before Church started and then stayed for Church, so I'm super happy about that and I hope he reads the Book of Mormon and receives that witness that it is truly the word of God. All in all, the exchange with Elder Galmeister was a big success and I learned a lot from him.

Anyhow, the rest of the week went really well too. Had some great lessons, found some new investigators to teach and just focused on the work. Another fun part of the week was on Sunday. I had the opportunity to give a talk and I had no assigned topic but I had to speak for twenty minutes. Which thinking back on it now, it isn't the longest time, but I don't think I've ever given a talk for that long, even in English, so I was a little bit nervous for that. So I prepped for it, translated it all, and got up there and gave the talk for 20 minutes! I didn't really even need to translate all of it because most of the time I didn't even look at it, I knew where I wanted to go and I just talked. My grammar wasn't that good, but everyone understood, which is the most important part. One thing I found out after that was kind of funny, is that when I'm speaking, and a little bit nervous, I'll start to swing my shoulders and it looked kind of funny. So, gotta work on that one before my next talk haha, gotta avoid the shoulder swing. Well, I hope you all have a great week and I know that as we remember Christ throughout the week, we'll see miracles. Talk to you sooon!!

Старійшина McGrath

Helaman 3: 35 Read and ponder these words!! Humility is key and we all need to develop this along with the rest of the Christlike attributes

Selfie with Elder Galmeister

Street here in Rivne

Selfie with my comp, Elder Lukach

Another street here in Rivne

Helping in Primary!! haha always fun

Busy week full of MIRACLES (Week Двадцять дев'ять)

Wow, this was such a great week that was full of interesting things that you might want to hear about, so let's jump into it. First of all, this week, we had MLC. This is basically where all the leaders come together in L'viv to discuss the mission and create action items, or smart goals in order to help the mission improve in our weaker areas. MLC was quite the experience for me, we all came prepared with a topic to discuss, such as contacting or planning, and shared our thoughts and through revelation and discussion, we created an action list that hopefully all missionaries apply because I know that this list is inspired and will help the mission improve and become even better. Honestly, this was such a great experience and I learned so much from it from all the other members, including President Rizley, and the Holy Ghost. After this MLC, I pondered what went well and what I could have done better, and then created a plan of what I wanted to focus on and how I could actually do it and accomplish it. So hopefully, I can do an even better job next time!

Another awesome thing that happened this week was exchanges with the other elders here in Rivne. I had the opportunity to serve with Elder Cluff for a day. The interesting thing is that he came out two transfers after me so this companionship that we had did not know the Ukrainian language very well, but we pushed forward and actually had quite a successful day. We had planned on five lessons for the day, which is quite a lot, but only one person showed up, so that made things quite interesting. Good thing that we have always been told to have backup plans, so that was helpful. All in all, it was a great day and Elder Cluff is going to be a great missionary, grateful for the opportunity to serve with him for a day!

Finally, as a zone we decided to do a fast, to focus on finding new investigators and setting baptismal dates with them and lemme tell you, I saw miracles from the fast!!! My testimony on fasting has grown immensely this week and I know that through diligent fasting and praying, you will see miracles. Some of the miracles include having investigators that struggle with making it to church make it, receiving a toooon of IP's, and Elder Lukach and I actually set a soft baptismal date with a former investigator, so that was super awesome. Honestly, I could go on and on about this fast and the miracles, but I'll leave it to that. The weather is finally warming up, the food is great, and I'm grateful to be a Ukraine L'viv missionary. Have a great week all!

Старійшина McGrath

1 Nephi 1:20 Read and ponder it!! Tender mercies are all around us, just look for them!!

Street here in Rivne

The soccer team in Rivne showed up to our finding activity!!  

Center here in Rivne

Our district at the bowling alley (Me, Elder Lukach, Baxter, and Cluff)

With the I love Rivne sign, classic tourist

Meet Oleksiy: The Newest Member in Western Ukraine (Week двадцять вісім)

Well, as you can tell by the title of my email, we had a baptism here in the Ukraine, L'viv mission. The baptism took place on Saturday and was actually in the L'viv area, and guess what, I WAS THERE. Let's start from the beginning of this great story, from how we met Oleksiy, to his baptism this past week. Six weeks ago, yesterday, we met Oleksiy. I was just starting my service with Elder Hill in L'viv and we had set up a lesson with an investigator. This investigator didn't end up showing up, kind of bummed about that, but that is why you have backup plans. Our backup plan for that lesson was to call older potential investigators or former ones. So Elder Hill and I sat down in the Church and started to all people before our next activity. We ended up getting to a contact with the name, "IP 06.07 Oleksiy," so we decided to call him, and guess what, he wanted to meet!! A potential investigator that was found in June finally wanted to meet since he had more time!! 

So we set up a meeting and finally met!! Our first lesson was awesome, he had done some research beforehand, luckily no anti-Mormon stuff, and after answering some of his questions, we had a great discussion about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We invited him to church and to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. And guess what, he followed through on all of those commitments, he came to church on Sunday and said that he had read almost ten chapters in the Book of Mormon in the span of a few days. He is SOOO golden haha!! Then after a good Pan of Salvation lesson, we decided to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and give him a baptismal date on the 3rd of March, and guess what, he accepted it!! Honestly, Oleksiy is an amazing man that I love so very much and has helped me understand many concepts. First of all, he has helped me understand that the Lord truly does prepare people for the gospel. This is the Lords work and we are lucky to be a part of it, all we did was give Oleksiy the chance to hear the gospel and he took it and ran with it. 

After that lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we started teaching him the commandments. I remember one lesson, before we starting teaching him about tithing, we talked about his scripture reading and he shared his experience on how he found out that the Book of Mormon is truly the word of God. God answers prayers, I 100% know that now. Anyway, transfer calls came along in mid-February and I found out that I was being transferred here to Rivne. Was very excited to come here to Rivne for this new adventure, but was also super sad to leave Oleksiy and all of L'viv. It was at that point that I realized that I would probably miss his baptism because I would not be in L'viv. But time went on, Oleksiy kept progressing and Elder Bradford came in and took my place in L'viv. When I got to Rivne, I did find out that I would have exchanges with the AP's on March 2, the day before his baptism!! What!!! After getting permission, we were able to stay for Oleksiy's baptism this past weekend. 

Exchanges were great this past week, and I learned so very much from the AP's, but the highlight of the week and my mission so far was the baptism of Oleksiy. Elder Hill ended up performing the ordinance of baptism and a member from the branch in L'viv, gave him the gift of the Holy Ghost, both of them deserved to do that for all they did to serve Oleksiy and help prep him for baptism. All in all, really great week and really great new member of the L'viv branch. I'm soooooo soooo grateful for this opportunity that I had to serve and teach Oleksiy, he will be an amazing member of this branch. In fact, he has already made plans to go to do baptisms for the dead, next month! AWESOME!! 

Anyway, hope that you all have a great week and enjoying this little miracle story about one of my favorite people here in Ukraine. And remember, always rely on our loving Savior, Jesus Christ

Старійшина McGrath

Alma 26: 7-8 Read and ponder these amazing words!!

Pic of the Ukrainian countryside on our way to L'viv

Pic of the Ukrainian countryside on our way to L'viv

Selfie on exchanges with Elder Abraham

Baptism pic (Elders Bradford, Hill, Oleksiy, Me)

Street in Rivne

Selfie with another Elder Here, Elder Cluff