The Lord's Work (Week Сорок три)

Another great week in the mission field out doing the Lord's work. Nothing better than that. Let's get started with some of the highlights of the week. Probably the biggest thing that happened this past week was our exchanges with the Elders in Lutsk. They're super good missionaries and we had a great exchange. I had the opportunity to serve with Elder Martschenko for a day and he's awesome. He's been serving for just over 21 months now and he taught me a lot about how to be a solid missionary. After our finding activity on the exchange, we were basically running from lesson to lesson just contacting on the way and that was super nice. Instead of blocking out hours for contacting because we don't have anybody to meet with, our whole day was filled with meeting investigators, less-actives, and other members of the church that we are working with. 

Also, this past Saturday, The Rivne and Lutsk branches gathered together and took a bus out to temple in Kiev and we ended up having 11 people from Rivne go That was amazing to see! Three people got their endowment out and a recent convert here was able to go to the temple for the first time and do baptisms for the dead! They all showed up to church the next day smiling, (some with celestial smiles as well) and bore their testimony at church about how great the temple is and how big of a blessing that it is to have one in Ukraine. Sacrament meeting this past week was amazing, the spirit was so strong and I'm so very grateful for all the faithful members here in Ukraine.

As many of you know, the Ukraine L'viv mission is quickly coming to an end, (this is pretty much the final week) and we're going to join with the Kiev mission. This past week, the Kiev assistants actually gave us a call and we found out some things that are going to be happening right after the merge. So, first of all, super sad to say, but President Rizley goes back home on the 27th of June. The day after that happens, all the Leaders from the Ukraine L'viv mission is going to head to Kiev for a big MLC with all the leaders in the Ukraine Kiev mission. That is going to be such a cool experience, we're going to be talking about the merge and creating a unified mission culture with all the missionaries from all the different missions. That'll be a really awesome experience and going to Kiev will be really cool as well, I've only heard good things about that city. Also, one of the coolest parts about this trip out to Kiev is that we might be going to the temple as well!!!! That'd be off the charts, I miss the temple so much!!!! The Ukraine Kiev temple looks super pretty and I can't wait for the day when I can enter the house of the Lord again.

Anyway, that was pretty much the week. Our investigator with a baptismal date was able to make it to church on Sunday which was really good to see. He's progressing nicely towards baptism. I hope you all have a great week and talk to you soon!

Старійшина McGrath

Mosiah 5:15 read and ponder these words. Always be coming unto Christ!!

At the lake for a good FHE

 Sasha, the best kid ever!!!

Selfie on Soborna street during contacting 

 Picture of Center 

Doing a book stand 

Starting up Exchanges Again (Week сорок два)

Well, just like every week in the mission field, life is good and the week went well. Let's jump into it. This past week was full of exchanges and learning. Let's start with the first exchange that I had. On Thursday, I had the opportunity to go on another exchange with Elder Corey as the Elders in Khmelnitsky (pretty dang hard to pronounce the city, right?) traveled down here to Rivne for a few days. All in all, the exchange went really well. Elder Shuley and I have been working pretty hard over these past few weeks to prepare for these exchanges that we'll be having to make sure that our area is strong and it will be an example for everyone that comes in and has exchanges with us. One great thing that came from this exchange is that a baptismal date was set!!!! One of our investigators, Vadim, has accepted a baptismal date in July and I super duper happy for his decision to enter into the waters of baptism and come closer to our Heavenly Father. Hopefully all keeps going well with him and he can start coming to church!! Other than that, the exchange went super duper and I learned a lot from Elder Corey!

The other exchange that I had this week was with Elder Wonson. If you remember, I served with him in the MTC, so it was pretty great to serve with him for a day and see all the growth that has occurred, both within the Language and just in general as missionaries. We were able to eat some super good Ukrainian food, teach some good lessons, and do some good old contacting. It honestly just felt nice to just serve with him and to think that seven months ago, we came into Ukraine, bright-eyed, greener than a spinach smoothie, and now we can teach lessons and easily have conversations with people on the street and have a super good exchange. 

Lastly, I want to share an experience that I had this past week with Elder Wonson. On Wednesday, we had to go on splits because Elder Shuley and Cook had some branch stuff to help with and Elder Wonson and I had the chance to go out to a village and visit one of their investigators. The lesson went good, and we actually ate some pretty good food (minus the mushrooms.) On the way back though, we were waiting for a bus to take us back to the city and at one point I stuck out my hand to a work van and it just passed by. The a minute later, I looked to right and saw that the van was backing up to us and picked us up and took us back to Rivne for free and twice as fast than a normal bus! That was super nice and the guy that did that was pretty dang cool, had a good convo with him and even at the end, got his number. That was a cool experience, pretty funny, never really hitch-hiked on my mission, also don't really know if it's allowed, but we did it and it was so much faster. Anyway, that was pretty much the week. Have a great week and keep up the solid workkk

Старійшина McGrath

Deutoronomy 7:9 Read and ponder these words. God is there!!

Selfie with an investigator and Elder Wonson 

Lunch at a pizza place! (Elder Shuley, me, Wonson)

Super good bubble waffles

In a mirror room

Pic at the castle in Dubno

Russian squat picccc

 District pic at a fortress in Dubno for P-Day, super cool!

Lots of Lasts (Week Сорок один)

Wowzers, what a crazy week. This week was full of travels and saying some goodbyes. Let's get started with the biggest thing. This past week, we had the LAST Ukraine L'viv mission conference. Super sad, but also very insightful. The conference was actually split up into two different parts, one in the morning and one in the afternoon with some good old lunch in the middle to split it up. The morning session was actually very interesting because it also included TWO general authorities. Pretty crazy, right? Elders Martino (Europe East Area President) and Callister (Sunday School General President) both showed up to help and train us as missionaries. They taught us a great deal about how we can be better teachers and help more people come unto Christ. Probably the biggest thing that I took from this part of the conference was that inspired questions are very, very important and we should be using them in all aspects of our lessons and missionary work. They aren't easy to come up with, inspired questions, but whenever we have them, they invite the spirit and will help everyone that is on the lesson feel our savior's love through the Holy Ghost. Also, after they did some training, we had a short Q and A session where all the big cheeses answered some questions and then Elder Callister, since he knows a lot about the Atonement and wrote the book "The Infinite Atonement," gave a short presentation about the atonement and how it's for every single person that lived, will live, and lives today. After some good pizza and a short break, we had our second part of mission conference, this time without all the general authorities. This meeting was filled with emotions with final testimonies of everyone leaving, having some segments that we could learn from, and a fun role-play that we all took part in. It was very sad to hear President and Sister Rizley's final testimony and they have faithfully served here in Ukraine over these last three years, but I'm excited to see what the future holds now moving forward. One cool thing that happened at this conference is that we basically had a second graduation haha. Ever since this mission began, once missionaries have finished their full-time service here, they receive a super cool coin that I'll attach pictures of. So, since the mission is closing and we're not finishing with it, we all received this coin at the conference. So one by one, President Rizley called us up, gave us our coin and took a picture with us while shaking our hand and holding the coin. Felt some serious Deja vu going back to my high school graduation, but it was a super cool experience. Only 114 people have this coin in the world and I'm happy to say that I served in the Ukraine L'viv Mission.

Really quick funny story that happened after mission conference. Since everyone was in L'viv and had some time, we went out to do a finding activity out in a park for English Practice. There, we drew some chalk, brought a white board out and just had a good time talking to different people both in English and Ukrainian. Near the end of the activity, a couple of people walk up (slightly drunk to add) and started talking to us. Once they find out that we're Americans they go absolutely berserk haha. One of the guys goes and climbs on top of a statue and starts yelling. The other one does the same thing but on the ground. They just kept yelling and saying their national phrases and telling us Americans to go home. At one point, the guy on top of the statue catches a dove and literally holds it. How did he do that? I don't know, but he literally caught a dove. So, as missionaries, trying to avoid making too big of a scene, just start walking away. People are watching, but we didn't want to say anything, just walk away. So that was an interesting end to a finding activity, and to top it off, they hugged each other and even kissed after we left. Super funny and for the sure the first time that has happened to me. Don't take this the wrong way with this story though, Ukrainians are the best people and I love them to death. This was just a interesting experience with a man who apparently doesn't really like Americans haha.

The next day after mission conference, we had the LAST MLC in the Ukraine L'viv mission. The MLC was very successful and we came up with some action items that will help the mission now and as they prepare for the merge coming up in the next month. President Rizley had some very good knowledge that he shared with us about leadership on MLC, super awesome to learn from him. Anyhow, that was pretty much the week, hope the email wasn't too long. We also had a branch camp out where we went and had a good time at a lake and made some good BBQ. Sadly, since we're missionaries, we couldn't sleep over, but the first night it was a party! Have a great week all and talk to you soon!

Старійшина McGrath

Alma 39:17 read and ponder these words. God loves all of us!

Everyone at mission conference

Original MTC Group pic!

With President and Sister Rizley 

Camp out place 

One side of the coin

Other side of the coin

The Hands that Helped (Week сорок)

Well to be honest, this was a very nice week. Unlike most of my weeks over these past two+ transfers, we had no travel, exchanges, or conferences. So that mean't that we could fully focus on our own working area and really building that up to be the best that it truly can be. Overall, this week was really successful, we found new investigators, had some of our investigators come to church, and even had an opportunity to go out and do some service. Let's talk about that first. This week, along with many other branches in this part of the country, had something called helping hands (hence the title of the email.) We went out and helped paint some playgrounds at an orphanage and it was quite fun. We had all the missionaries, plus a few of the members that had time to come out and help us, go out and basically paint for a few hours, see some really cute orphans, and sing some american songs that different members of our branch requested haha. That day I found out that one of our members really likes Bon Jovi and no members, or even missionaries for that matter, like country music, so it was only me when it came time to singing and good old song. Anyway, after going out and painting the orphanage, we head out to the train station because one of the members in our branch invited us to go out to his house in the villages and help in his big garden that he has. So as we're going to to bus station, we're calling the member trying to figure out exactly how to get there, but he's not picking up! I had been there one, so I vaguely remember how to get there, but I didn't remember which bus we needed to take to get out there. Once we got to the train station, and after calling a good amount of times, we had to choose, do we take a bus or do we just not go and reschedule for another day? We chose the first one. After carefully examining each bus based on the times it left, and where it was headed, I chose one that I thought for sure could have been the one that we needed. We get on and start driving. And we keep driving. Finally, we're reaching the end of the bus ride and I realize...yeah this isn't the right bus. In short, our plans got wrecked and we took the same bus all the way back to the bus station and got to the church a short after that. Good lesson to learn haha, maybe think a bit more before making an impulsive decision. All in all, it was quite the experience both on the learning and having fun side. 

The rest of the week went very well. We had a good amount of people at each of our activities, and had a really good church service. One member, who was giving a talk and teaching third hour, read the President Nelson talk about ministry during sacrament meeting and then we ended up watching the same talk during priesthood. I know that talk pretty well now haha pretty interesting. He does make a very good point though that serving others is very important as we can help not only others but ourselves as well. As we serve others, I know that we can receive so many blessings and we can for sure come closer to Christ. We also had a good zone skype call where Elder Shuley and I announced our zone goals for this upcoming transfer. We talked about how we can better improve as a zone and what we did well this past transfer. It went really well, now I just hope that everyone puts a focus on these goals over these next weeks. Finally, P-day this past week was very good. We ended up going to the Rivne zoo which was very fun, there are lots of interesting animals and just got to explore and cool park. All in all it was a great week and excited for the next one. Have a great week everyone and talk to you soon!

Старійшина McGrath

Mosiah 2:17 Read and ponder these words. Basically, the topic of this email is service, always be serving others!

Selfie with Elder Wonson

Zoomed in Selfie

With my Camels, reminded me of Saudi! 

At the zoo

Some comphy antlers

Just me and a lion

Track that we run at

Selfie after a good run

1 in a million

Helping hands

Selfie at zoopark

Oh how the transfers have turned...(Week Тридцять дев'ять)

First of all, if you don't really understand the title of this email, it's a quote from the Office, I encourage all of you to watch and enjoy that show. But what you can also tell from this average title is that transfers have come and gone. It was pretty sad to say goodbye to Elder Lukach, I know that he'll do great things down in Chernivtsi, but now I'm officially with Elder Shuley. Elder Shuley is an awesome elder from all the way out in Kentucky. He's been out on his mission for 20 months now, so he's pretty experienced, and I'm pumped to work with him over these next few months. Another interesting fact about Elder Shuley is that he likes to run and is planning on joining the BYU cross country team after his mission, so that means that he needs to train. The worst part about this is that we don't really have a track next to our apartment, so I get the wonderful opportunity of following him around running until I feel like dying four to five times a week. Hopefully I get in pretty good shape by the time that I finish serving with him and I don't feel like dying every time I try to run with him. It should be some good transfers though, super pumped!

The first highlight of the week that I want to talk about is both of the holidays that Ukraine had this week. Ukraine has holidays pretty much every week so it was no surprise that they had a couple this week. The first one was wishiwanka day. Basically, it was a day to celebrate wishiwankas and everyone was wearing one which was super cool to see. A wishiwanka is basically a shirt that has been hand-stitched, and usually had a pattern down the middle and consists of a few colors. They look super cool and I really want to buy one, or maybe even more on my mission. Today, not a ton of people wear wishiwankas, but some time ago, it was a super common thing to wear. I bet if you look them up, you can find some good pictures of them. Anyway, the second holiday was for sure the bigger one of the two. On Saturday, our district went out to center to do a finding activity where we wrote questions on a chalk board and then talked to people about the Book of Mormon and about our basic beliefs in hopes of finding people that are interested in finding out more about what we believe. When we went out we noticed that all the streets were closed and there were a ton of people in Center. It turns out that today was European day in Ukraine where they celebrate the fact that they want to be part of the European Union and that Ukraine is a European country. So what ended up happening was that there was a concert in Ukraine where they sang many different songs, including the national anthem, and other common Ukrainian songs. There was also a huge parade, with a marching band, and they all brought different European flags including the European Union one, and at one point, they let off a bunch of balloons, which held a Ukraine and European Union flag as well. It was a super cool thing to watch, the only problem is that people wanted to watch the concert and all the festivities, instead of talking to us about religion. So our finding activity really got wrecked, we ended up changing it to a English finding activity where we wrote happy European day on the chalkboard and gave out a bunch of English cards. That was pretty successful. All in all, it was just cool to be there, there were some dirt bikes doing some doughnuts as well, so that was quite the experience. 

So that was pretty much the week. We had some lessons, with different investigators and members. We actually have a traveling patriarch in town and he'll be giving patriarchal blessings to different members over the next few days. So we've been working with the members, helping them prepare for the day. With all this happening, it just makes me glad for modern day revelation and the priesthood power that we had to receive that revelation for the church, and even each of us individually. All in all, a great week! We went and played some billiards for P-day, that was pretty fun. Have a great week everyone and talk to you later! 

Старійшина McGrath

2 Nephi 32: 3 Read and ponder these words. We need to feast upon the words of Christ. They're literally the word of God!

At the Train station 

Selfie with Elder Cook (left) and Elder Shuley (right) 

Dirt-bike riders at the parade

Another picture of the parade 

Playing some pool on P-day

A Wild Week of Weekly Weeks (Week Тридцять вісім)

Oh man oh man, where to start, another really good week on the mission, stayed busy and had a good time. Let's start with some of the highlights. This past week was Mother's day so I had the chance to Skype home which was pretty grand. My family isn't half bad and it was good to talk to them for an hour, they're for sure my favorite family that I've got. Jumping into the rest of the week, we had game night on Tuesday and it went super duper well, we had a good amount of people show up and we played a very fun game of fear factor. Basically, we bought a bunch of different foods from the grocery store such as candy, ketchup, fish, mayonnaise, fruit, juice, milk, yogurt, olives, and other interesting things that would not sound that good together. Then we had people pick out of a bowl, three of those ingredients, and then we would blend them up and you would have to drink it. It honestly was super stinking gross, I couldn't even get past the first round of Twix, tomato paste, coke, and marshmallows. Some people on the other hand, really enjoyed it, they ate some of the grossest combinations that you could even imagine and didn't even make a sour face. I guess that my body wasn't built for these kind of things haha. But all in all, many people showed up and we had a great time and had some good conversations with people after the activity. 

Fear factor though did continue, on Thursday, we had exchanges with some Elders in Lutsk, in the city of Lutsk, so Elder Lukach and I had to take a bus up there. When Elder Baxter and I were waiting for Elder Lukach and Elder Cook to come, (because we had exchanges with the other elders in Rivne the day before) Elder Baxter and I noticed a girl who was standing a few yards away from us. She was repping the Ukrainian Olympic gear and had a cool Olympic bag. Elder Baxter and I wanted to go up and talk to her and see if she was an Olympic athlete or not, because she was super built and looked like she could have been, but we were a bit afraid haha. After much time deciding whether or not we would, Elder Lukach and Cook showed up and we didn't have time to talk to her now, but, she was on the same bus as us to Lutsk. Soooo, once we got on the bus, Elder Lukach was sitting close to her and ended up asking if she was an Olympic athlete. It turns out that she is an Olympic boxer named Tetyana Kob, CRAZY, we just sat on the same bus as an Olympic athlete. The worst part about this story is that three minutes after we found this info out, Elder Baxter called us and said that we had both sets of keys and they couldn't get into their apartment, soooo, we had to quickly jump off the bus and run back to the bus station. I was a little bit sad, I just missed the chance to talk to an Olympic athlete for a while and maybe even get a pic with here. Anyhow, on to the exchange in Lutsk. Lutsk is a very nice city, it's like Rivne, except a bit more beautiful and it has a super nice center and walking street which are perfect to do some finding activities. I ended up serving with Elder Frehner for a day and it was super grand. Elder Frehner has been out for about a year and a half now and is a super good and super funny missionary. He's always positive and is cracking jokes and what not, super nice to serve with for a day and they exchange was very successful as well. We learned a lot from one another and set some goals on how we can improve as missionaries. 

The rest of the week was busy as well. On Wednesday, Elder Baxter and I on exchanges, went out to a members house and helped in their garden. There were a couple of firsts in this experience. We ended up planting some grapes and that was the first time that I've ever done that and we also used a well to get some water for the plants and that was the first time I had ever used a well in my life. Wells are super fun and we're going out to the member to help some more this week and I hope that I can use a well again. Also, on the same day, we had a branch picnic, where we basically grilled a bunch of meat, talked, and played some sports. In Ukrainian you would call this a Shashlik party, it was super fun and we even had some less-active members show up, so that was good to hear. Finally, the last thing that I want to mention, is that we had transfer calls this past week and I found out that I'm getting a new companion. I'm staying in Rivne as ZL, but my new companion is Elder Shuley. Elder Shuley is a super awesome missionary who has been out for 20 months now. I can't wait to work with him and learn a lot as well. Anyway, that basically wraps up the week, talk to you soon! Also, HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all those wonderful mothers that do so much work for us haha. 

Старійшина McGrath

Lamentations 3:22-23 Read and ponder these words. God is always there and we need to love him as he loves us!

Shashik party

Fear Factor 

Selfie with Elder Baxter and the member we helped

Selfie on a bridge 

Super candid picture

Our finding activity board (Why do you pray?) 

Center in Lutsk

Really cool military museum 

Another pic of center in Lutsk

The Great McDonald's Analogy (Week тридцять сім)

Well, as expected, another great week on the mission. Let's jump into it. For the third week in a row, Elder Lukach and I traveled to the great city of L'viv. This time, we were in L'viv to do another one of our monthly MLC's where we discuss our mission needs and create action items that are meant to help each and every missionary. This MLC went very well and we created three actions items that each missionary can apply and help them going forward. During this MLC, like every one, President Rizley will lead a segment, usually on how we can better magnify our assignments as leaders. Near the end of his segment, he gave an analogy that is somewhat funny, but is also very very true. He compared missionary life and missionary work, to a McDonald's fry scooper. He said that they were complete opposites and they work against one another. To quote him directly, "The McDonald's fry scooper is the enemy to an LDS mission. Here's why. When a worker at McDonald's uses this wonderfully crafted scooper, he/she has no decision on how much they can put in a container. The device is crafted where no decision making is necessary, just based on the size they put around the same exact amount of fries. This works really well for business, but not as well for missionary life and life in general. In life we have free-agency, we can choose what we want to do, when we want to, and how we can go through life. Just one thing I'd advise, turn to the Lord for help! Anyway, that was a great part of MLC and just a great analogy, hope you enjoyed it!

The rest of the week went really well too. On Friday, before English practice, we did a finding activity to help us get more people at our practice. Some things that we have done to do that is make massive chalk drawings saying free English and what not, just to get people's attention and interest in learning some of the English language. Another activity that we have done is "interviews with Americans" where people can just sit down and talk to us about English and who we are, then we give them a card and invite them to English practice. Really, we're just trying to get creative and find people in many different ways, if you have any ideas, feel free to shoot them over to us!! 

Anyway, to finish off I want to talk about some habit that I've developed on my mission, at least to my own knowledge. This past Sunday, I had the opportunity to bear my testimony and it went really well. I went up and shared how I know this Church is true and we are lead by people who really can receive revelation to help us in these days. But afterwards, one member came up to me and said that I need to stop being so shy. Apparently, whenever I'm speaking or sharing my testimony, I like to shake my shoulders. haha I've never noticed it or anything but everyone else does. So every time I do that, the members and other missionaries make fun of me for it, super duper funny! Anyway, that was my week. Today we went out to the tunnel of love, super pretty and super greeen!!! Have a great week and talk to you later

Старійшина McGrath

1 Nephi 1:1 read and ponder these verses. Look at the footnotes and you can further understand that our trials are only here to help us!

Group pic in the Tunnel of Love 

MLC squaddd

At one of our English activities outside in center  

Selfie in the Tunnel.

On a hammock 

Opera house in L'viv

 Sunflowers on the way to tunnel of love

At the tunnel of love