The Kid (Week П'ятдесят сім)

Well, he's officially here and I'm officially a Dad now. My child is sitting right next to me, writing home to his family after a wonderful week in both Kiev and Rivne. His name is Elder Matua and is super cool. He's from Lehi, Utah, but with a last name as cool as that, it makes you wonder, where are his parents from? His Mom is from California and his dad is from Samoa!! Also, Elder Matua and I are pretty dang similar. For the first time on my mission, I have a companion that likes to play GOLF!!! haha His main sport was Rugby, which is super sick, but he also played on the High School Golf team which is super awesome. Plus, Elder Matua really likes the Office, which is the greatest show ever. Life as a trainer has been pretty interesting so far, we've done just about everything these past few days to help him get used to the missionary life. We've contacted, picked some more potatoes for a member, taught some lessons to both members and investigators, had some meetings, and Elder Matua had the chance to share his testimony during Sacrament meeting. All in all, Elder Matua is a super fun person, and already a good missionary and I'm really excited to train him and serve with him over these next few transfers!

Anyways, our week. We went out to Kiev to pick up our trainees and have a little training session with them to help them understand what a missionary is and what they exactly do. After that, we head back home to the wonderful city of Rivne and he got situated there. Throughout the rest of the week, we had a lesson pretty much every day, did some contacting, (had some good success with that) and had a great English Practice and Church service. One of our lessons that we had was with our investigator named Vika, who is amazing. We found her through English Practice and she was really receptive to one of the Spiritual thoughts that we had. So we taught her the restoration lesson a few weeks ago and she was not the biggest fan of it. She couldn't believe that Joseph Smith was really a Prophet of God and he saw God and Jesus Christ. But we challenged her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon every day, and guess what she did. After a week or two of doing that, we had an amazing lesson this past week with her. She shared her thoughts about the Book of Mormon and how she had a really spiritual experience one night while reading it when she just started to cry tears of joy. She has felt the spirit in her life and now she is starting to realize that. She also told us how much happier she has been since we had first met, which just strengthens my testimony. The Book of Mormon really does change lives, if you sincerely read and pray about it. In our last lesson, Elder Matua invited her to be baptized, (what a wonderful Elder) and she said she's a bit afraid. But we'll be working with her and I know that if she continues to read, pray, and come to Church, she'll soon have a big desire to enter the waters of baptism.

Anyway, that was pretty much the week. The only other big thing that happened was that I got called into the Branch Presidency here in Rivne. Lately, missionaries have been called as the 2nd counselor to the Branch President and I was just called to that this past Sunday. It's going to be quite interesting, I've never been in a Branch Presidency before, excited to see what the future holds for me. Anyway, have a great week everyone and I'll talk to you next week! 

Старійшина McGrath

Isaiah 41:10 Read and ponder these words. God is always with us, no matter what!

At service with Elder Matua

Bowling on P-day

On the train with the other trainers!

Pic of the temple, plus badge 

Another one of the temple

With my kid, Elder Matua 

With my cousin, Elder Jensen

 Super cool rainbow!!

Big City and Pregnancy (Week П'ятдесят шість)

Yeah, this was a pretty crazy week. I'll try to cover all the best things and keep you all interested and wanting more info. First of all to explain the title, I have to say that this past week, we went to Kiev for Missionary Leadership Council and for exchanges with the Assistants. There, in Kiev, we received our transfer calls, and I'm gonna be a dad!!! haha For the next two transfers I'll be training a new missionary fresh out of the MTC. That means I'm gonna have to teach him to be a missionary and how to speak Ukrainian, I'm super excited and it should be fun! Also, I didn't expect to stay in Rivne, but since I'm training, and President Kumferman doesn't want to white-wash a new area, I'll be staying in Rivne for a sixth transfer. All in all, I'm excited for the future. The opportunity I had to serve as a Zone Leader these past few transfers have been amazing and I've learned a ton, but I'm excited for some change and now I'll have the chance to 100% focus on helping my greenie develop into the best missionary, and help all of our investigators prepare for baptism.

Anyhow, let's talk about some of the good things that happened this past week. As I said, this past week, we spent 3 days in Kiev, which was super good and a lot time to be out of our area. MLC was great and we redid the Standards of Excellence since 3 missions just combined a few transfers ago. I'm a big fan of the new ones and I feel like missionaries will now put a big focus on achieving these goals because they're not easy to get, but they're reachable. After MLC, instead of heading back home to Rivne, we took the Metro out to the AP's area for exchanges. Exchanges went super good and I had the chance to serve with Elder Galmeister for a day. Honestly, it was cool to serve in Kiev for a day, it's pretty different than any area in Western Ukraine. Kiev is so stinking big, all the buildings are super tall and there are a ton of people and they have a metro system. With the language, everyone there speaks both, more people speak Russian and usually it's their default language, but if you speak to them in Ukrainian, they'll usually respond in Ukrainian. We met with this man, and he said he'd try to speak Ukrainian to us, but he spoke more Russian than Ukrainian, so that was an interesting lesson. In short, a super good trip out to the big city of Kiev. 

Finally, to finish off the email, I want to talk about our super successful activity we did this past week back in Rivne. With the help of a super good member, Bohdan, we put together a Mexican night. Basically, we made tacos, fajitas, salsa, guacamole, and anything else Mexican you can think of. Also, we (including Bohdan) came up with some music fun games to play such as limbo, cookie face race, (put a cookie on your forehead and try to get it into your mouth without hands) and we did some just dance. All in all, it was a very successful activity, we had over forty people show up and I got to wear a fake mustache. Members from the branch, less-actives, investigators, and a good amount of people from English Practice we able to talk, mingle, and have a great time together. It was super fun and super tasty. Also, at the end, Bohdan made a piñata and people then took turns hitting it, until the pinata broke and all the candy fell out. For sure going to do something like this again and hopefully we'll get an even better turnout next time. Really, this week just flew by and I'm excited for the next, get to meet my greenie soon. Wish me luck! Have a great week everyone, and talk to you later!

Старійшина McGrath

D&C 61:36 Read and ponder these words. God is always there for us

With President Bondar after Family Home Evening

At the Stake Center in Kiev, feel like I'm in America

At the Temple after MLC

In the Metro in Kiev

Kiev, city of big buildings

English Practice squad 

Mexican Night 

Games at Mexican Night 

With Bohdan, after Mexican Night. he's the best!

A Few Exchanges (Week П'ятдесят п'ять)

This past week was pretty grand if i may say so myself. We didn't do any service, at least I didn't, but we ended having two exchanges. Our first exchange was with the the District Leader companionship in Khmelnitskiy, and we had a pretty successful exchange. I had the opportunity to serve with my trainer, Elder Baxter, for one more day, before he heads home at the end of this transfer. On exchanges, we met with a new investigator from English Practice named Vika and she seems really promising. She's kind of a hippy and at the moment thinks that love is the most important thing and that reincarnation is a thing, but we had a good restoration lesson with her and hopefully she starts to read and develops an understanding of our wonderful gospel. Plus, she's super good at volleyball and she said that for her age group, she's going to be playing volleyball in the olympics which is super duper cool. On our exchanges, we also had a successful finding activity where we put the question, "How does God answer your prayers?" and talked to people about what they believe prayer is and really how it is a converstation between people and our loving Heavenly Father. All in all, it was a really successful day, and I'm going to miss my mission Dad when he goes home in just over a week now. 

My other exchange was with the Elders in Lutsk. This exchange wasn't exactly planned, just last week we felt the prompting that we have an exchange and so we called them up and set it up. I had the chance to serve with Elder Volkov for a day and the exchange was actually super sucessful. We also found a new investigator, Oleksander. He was super cool, and was interested in the Book of Mormon, sadly though, he didn't make it to Church on Sunday. Elder Volkov is pretty cool, he's from Eastern Ukraine and really likes to crack jokes and have a good time. In missionary work, sometimes people turn into robots where they just focus 100% on the work and don't have as much fun. Elder Volkov is a good example of balancing the two, you should work hard, especially when you're on the clock, but also find time to crack a joke and lighten the mood when times are tough or you just need a pick me up. I really enjoyed serving with him and I learned a lot from both of these exchanges.

Other than that, the week was pretty normal. We had a successful game night where we went out and played frisbee. There I met this super cool girl, who is interested in the gospel. Also, on Friday, we had English Practice and a bunch of new people showed up which always makes it more fun, and a lot more successful because you can talk to new people about the gospel instead of the same people every single time. All in all, this past week was successful. We found five new investigators and one of them seems very promising. Slavik was a member referral and he already has a testimony of the gospel. The only thing holding him back from entering the waters of baptism are his parents that are against the church; so, over the next few weeks we want to help him build that confidence and realize that the gospel is literally the greatest thing on this earth, and that the gospel builds families, not tears them down. Anyway, have a great week all. Next week should be interesting, going to Kyiv again, talk to you next week!

Старійшина McGrath

Moroni 6:5-6 Read and ponder these words. Why do you go to Church?

A super cool and patriotic Church in Rivne

With our investigator Gregory, before he left to Poland for a year, sad to say goodbye

A member who leaves on her mission next week to Nigeria, Elfie

With Elder Baxter in Exchanges

English Practice 

With Brother Ovcharuk before Church

Elder Wonson and me at the zoo.

At the zoo for P-day

Wild Week in Western Ukraine (Week П'ятьдесят-чотири)

Well, another great week in the books. A bunch of things happened this past week, so hopefully I can cover all of it and hopefully you can be interested to read through the entire email, no matter how long it is. Let's jump into it though. When I think of this past week, I think of potatoes. We had the opportunity twice to go out a village and help different members pick their potato fields. It was not easy nor fun sometimes but it was a great experience. We picked around 70 or 80 bags of potatoes all together and at the end, my back was hurting pretty bad from bending over so much and I got a blister on my finger from picking up so many. To be honest though, I did feel like a true Ukrainian when we were out doing that though, which made the experience a whole lot better. Five months ago, I planted some of those potatoes, and luckily I stayed long enough in Rivne to pick those potatoes this past week. Also, this past week we had the chance to help someone else move some furniture. We fit some couches through places that I never would've imagined possible. I guess I learned there that when there is a will, there is a way. 

Other than that, this past week we had exchanges. I had the opportunity to go and serve with Elder Cluff for a day. He's been on his mission for around 9 months now and is a super good missionary. We ended up having a few lessons, went out and did some contacting, and had a really successful exchange. One interesting story happened though that will make this exchange one of my favorites. He killed Misha the mouse. About a week ago, Elder Cook was doing some exercises and all the sudden he sees a mouse run across the floor. So we start freaking out because neither of us like mice and we don't really know what to do. We tried setting up a homemade mouse trap and it didn't do anything. Finally, when I was on exchanges with Elder Cluff, the night he came and stayed at my apartment, we saw the mouse again. It took off from under the fridge and under the counter. Once Elder Cluff saw that, he was determined to kill it. He literally too a knife and threw it under the counter and somehow killed the mouse with that. The biggest blind shot ever worked out and I can't tell you how happy I was to see that gross mouse die haha. Our apartment is 100% better mice free. 

Anyway, that was some of the bigger things that happened this past week. Other than that, we did some finding, had some lessons, and did other missionary work. Finally, Sunday rolled around and a few interesting things happened. First of all, Mikola went to the temple this past week and had a grand time. He did baptisms for the dead for his father and loved it so much!! He's just the best recent convert ever. Plus, he had the opportunity to pass the sacrament for the first time yesterday and did an awesome job. He's such a stud. Since it was fast and testimony meeting, he also got up and shared his conversion story and how that has blessed his life, I love him so much. 

Anyway, to finish off the week, we had one more crazy thing happen. Elder Wonson and I were out doing a finding activity in center when we got a call from the other Elders saying that we need to run back to the Church. We ran back and found out that some guy threw a rock through our window. A drunk guy chucked a rock and broke a few of our windows. Luckily though we had double panned windows so it only broke one window and not both. But it was still super sad and a bit annoying. The police and a few members came and took the guy away; he didn't run away, he just sat there because he wanted to go to jail. Anyhow, we came to find out as well that he had beef with the Vidvaga church. Another church on the other side of our building, just he mixed them up and we took the short end of the stick. Well, that's a story I won't forget soon, have a great day everyone and serve someone this week. 

Старійшина McGrath

Read the infinite Power of Hope. Read and ponder that talk by Elder Uchtdorf. Super good talk about hope.

Picking potatoes

I didn't know the pats went back in Time and won Super Bowl 46

Destroyed the mouse

At the field for service 

After picking the potatoes 

With Elder Wonson picking potatoes 

Broken window... 

At the fort in Dubo

At the fort still 

Golden week with Elder Golden (Week п'ятьдесят-три)

Honestly, this week was pretty grand. The second half of the week we spent in L'viv because we had interviews with the Mission President and a zone conference on Saturday. The latest trip out to L'viv was awesome. We couldn't get a bus or a train at a normal time, so we ended up having to take a bus at 1:30 in the morning just so that we could make it to L'viv in time for our interviews. That wasn't the most fun, but the next fews day were pretty successful. Friday was Ukraine's Independence day, so center in L'viv was completely packed as they had parades and concerts going on to celebrate that. Didn't see any fireworks like in America or painted cars with dozens of people on top of them like in Saudi, but they still go all out to celebrate this glorious day. We also did a english practice finding activity on that day. We went out to a big park in L'viv and wrote слава Україна (Glory to Ukraine) with chalk on the ground and then talked to people about english practice. That was pretty successful activity, hopefully they get some new people next week from it. Finally, that night, L'viv had their game night and I was able to see Ihor, the recent convert that I had the opportunity to baptize. He's doing super well and has the Aaronic Priesthood now. Plus, he makes cartoons, and he recently made one about missionary work which was super cool. He told me that he's trying to get it on LDS.org, so we'll see if that happens or not.

Also, on Saturday, we had our combined zone conference. This zone conference, we actually had a 70 attend and teach us a little. Elder Golden, from the great country of South Africa, is doing a mission tour and he stopped by L'viv for a few days to vist with some members and train the missionaries. My favorite zone conferences have been when 70's have come and visited us, and Elder Golden did not disappoint. He had some very wonderful ideas about how we can help our investigators come closer to Christ. We talked a lot about member missionary work. As missionaries, we're only in a city for a few months at a time, but members will most likely be there for a very long time, so it's important that the investigators build friendships with the members to help them stay active after the missionaries leave. Anyway, Elder Golden was great and because he came, he took most of it over, and the only thing that we had to do as part of zone conference as zone leaders, was come up with a zone report and talk about that for about five minutes. Super good weekend and learned a ton.

Finally, something big happened just yesterday during and after Church. If you remember, Mikola was baptized on the 11th of August. Then, this past Sunday, he received the Aaronic Priesthood. And now, he's going to the temple TOMORROW to go and do baptisms for the dead. We did some family history work with him and now he's going to the temple with his wife and they're going to do some family names including his father and his grandmother. He seemed so very excited and I'm super happy that he's already taking the trip out to Kyiv to go and visit the temple. He's amazing and a great example to me of the importance of doing temple work for our family, so that one day we can live eternally with them after this life. Have a great week and talk to you all later!

Старійшина McGrath

Isaiah 54:17 Read and ponder these words. Missionary work is moving forward.

Service digging some holes

At a beautiful park in L'viv

Very interesting pic with Ihor (my face looks kind of constipated)

With the original MTC group!!!

Week of Birthdays (Week П'ятьдесят-два)

Well, another good week as a missionary here in the Ukraine Kiev/Moldova Mission. This week was quite interesting as I hit both of my birthdays. I turned 1 as a missionary and 20 as a normal human being. So to celebrate we did a few things. First of all, let's start with Thursday where I hit my year mark on my mission. Some of you know that in the MTC I served with Elders Wonson and Swasey, and now in the mission field, Elder Wonson is in the same district as me. Somehow, Elder Wonson set up exchanges this transfer so that we would have our exchanges on our year mark. haha I don't know how he did it, but I sure wasn't complaining. The exchange went pretty good, we had a few lessons, one over the phone with an investigator who's living out in the villages and the other one was with a member where we stopped by her house and we taught her a short lesson about doing the small and simple things. Both those lessons went fine. 

On our year mark, I was reading in my journal some of the first entries I made and every day I talked about Ukrainian and how we can't learn it and how hard it is. I read about our first lesson and how we didn't understand anything that our investigator said. Now, a year later, we can understand Ukrainian, teach any lesson that we really wanted to, and we enjoy speaking the language. I guess even though I still feel like a greenie and sometimes don't know what to do, there are things that are developing within you, you just have to realize that. Also, to celebrate our year mark, we went to this really really nice restaurant named Manhattan where I ordered this super good and super juicy chicken. All in all, it was a great day and now the second half of my mission has officially started. I'm ready to get to work.

Also, my real Birthday occurred this past week. To celebrate that, we went to another nice, newer restaurant named Gusto. One of the members here in Rivne, Sister Timochko, can sing really really, really good and she won the "golden voice of Rivne" one year. Now, she goes and sings at different places and one reason that we decided to go to Gusto was that she was going to be there and performing. So we go to see her sing some awesome songs in English and she has a super dang good voice. Plus, the food there was super tasty, for sure would go there again. Also, that morning, we went out to a members house in the village and did some service. Pretty much we just picked weeds for a few hours and even though that may not seem to appetizing to many people, I quite enjoyed it as I haven't done that kind of thing in many moons. The house in the village was very nice and the garden there was well kept up and had some pretty tasty fruit there. All in all, it was just a good way to spend my Birthday and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Finally, a little update on our area and some other things that happened this past week. First of all, Mikola, the recent convert that was baptized last Saturday, received the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday which was a wonderful sight to see. He was ready for it and now he has it and I'm excited to see him next week helping with the sacrament. When I talked to him after church he told me that he didn't have any words to describe how he felt receiving the Priesthood. He only thought big cheese's (his words) got the Priesthood, but now that he has it, he feels closer to God and is very, very grateful. We also talked about baptisms for the dead, and he told me that he has a strong desire to go and do that for his Father and Grandmother who have passed away recently. Mikola is amazing and I love him so very much. 

Right now, we're working with another investigator, Masha, who has a desire to know if God exists or not. It has been so amazing working with her, describing who God is, testifying about how he's our loving Heavenly Father who loves us and knows each of us personally. She can get that testimony too, if she reads and does her part. Anyhow, it was a great week, our activities were good, and I'm excited for next week. Have a great week and talk to you later!

Старійшина McGrath

D&C 122:7-9 Read and ponder these verses. We are never alone!!

Year mark breakfast, not too healthy.. 

At lunch on our year mark

Made pancakes for Breakfast on the B-day

On the way to service 

Out doing service picking weeds

A birthday cake that Sister Timochko made for me

Baptism Week!! (Week П'ятьдесят-один)

Wowzers, this week was pretty grand. Let's jump into it. For sure the biggest thing that happened this past week was our baptism that we had on Saturday. Mikola, who i've been working with for the past six months, has finally stopped smoking and was ready to enter into the waters of baptism this past Saturday. He is amazing and has had a big desire to get baptized for a while now. Elder Shuley had the opportunity to dunk him and I actually had the opportunity the next day to give him the gift of the Holy Ghost. I was very grateful for that experience and I can 100% tell you that there is power in the Priesthood and the gift of tongues in real. I love Mikola so very much and I am very grateful for the opportunity that I had to meet him and help him take this step to be baptized. Now that he's baptized, he can take massive leaps forward. We're hoping that he can receive the Aaronic Priesthood this next week and then go to the temple really soon. Plus, if he receives the Aaronic Priesthood soon, he can baptize his two kids that are 11 years old that we can have another family the wonderful branch of Rivne. Mikola is amazing and is a great example of the fact that with God, anything is possible. He told us that he had smoked for more than 25 years and couldn't stop. Only God could have helped him.

Anyhow, the rest of the week was good. It was full of lessons with other people, preparing for the baptism, finding activies, and our English Practice. Plus, transfers officially happened this past week and I'm in a trio until Elder Shuley goes home this week. Elder Cook is a great Elder that is from California and has been serving for around 20 months now. He's a super solid Elder and has the language down super well. He's even studying some Russian now so my Ukrainian and Russian should improve over this next transfer haha. Anyhow, some other things that happened this past week. Our investigator, Gregory, came to Church again, and we had some good lessons with him. He's progressing and I'm really enjoying teaching him and we're becoming pretty good friends. Plus, we get to go out and play Basketball with him which is always fun.

Well, this week I'll hit my year mark. I can't believe that I've already been on my mission for a year now, I feel like just yesterday I walked into the MTC where my teacher spoke straight Ukrainian and I couldn't understand anything. Now I'm not a greenie, serving in my second city, and I can easily hold converstations outside with people. My first year of my mission was not always easy, there were for sure ups and downs, like every mission. But it was the best year of my life. I've grown so much, I've learned so much about the gospel and life in general. I now know for 100% certain, that this Church is true. This mission is the hardest thing that I've done, but also the best thing that I've done. Seeing my investigators enter the waters of baptism is the best feeling that you could have. There are some many blessings from serving a mission and it is for sure the best life there is. Anyhow, have a great week all and talk to you later!

Старійшина McGrath

2 Nephi 25:26 Read and ponder these words, Christ is CENTER!!!

At the apartment 

Near a cool river here (Me, Shuley, Cook) 

With Elder Wonson before the baptism

With Mikola and his wonderful Wife 

With the Branch at the Baptism 

Eating some super good Borsch