Life in good ol' Rivne (Week шістдесят чотири)

Another great week in the books, didn't have a baptism like last week, but we stayed busy and had a very effective week. To get started, here's a little update on Vika and how she's doing. This past week, we had two lessons with her, on Tuesday and Saturday. On Tuesday, we were planning on talking to her about authority and the priesthood and as we went about this lesson she didn't seem to fully understand the importance of priesthood and its role in our Church. Then to even top it off, we get a call saying that we have to go to a government building because our landlady is waiting there and we have to do some document stuff with her so that we can be fully registered here in Rivne. That wasn't too good because we had to cut the lesson a bit short and we couldn't fully explain or teach our lesson. So in the end, the lesson on Tuesday was kind of a bummer because she left confused and we kind of left frustrated because we didn't have the time to explain our thoughts and share our testimony. But, here's the cool part, we had an AMAZING lesson Saturday. She walks in, we talk for a little bit and then she tells us that she's been studying, praying, and pondering about the priesthood and what that truly is and what it means. She then asks us to pull out a blackboard so she can share what she has learned and correct her on anything that may not be correct. Honestly, she taught us that day!! She explained the difference between Priesthood power, keys, and authority and even used verses and quotes to back up anything that she really said. When we asked her to define priesthood, she said this (I wrote it down in my journal haha,) "Priesthood is your natural and divine calling, by which this humanity can be saved." She knows so much about the gospel already and her testimony is just growing immensely. The Priesthood is vital and now she really does know and understand that. Also, she got her temple recommend on Sunday and will be going to the temple this upcoming week, should be amazing! All in all, it's been a pleasure teaching and getting to know Vika and I've learned so much from her. 

Other than that, this week was pretty grand. We helped out on a primary activity on Saturday and that was pretty fun. We all went out together and took pictures at a park since the it's fall and the park is super pretty right now. I got to take the go pro that one of the members had and take some good videos. Plus, I did a little interview with all of them, that was pretty funny, they all had such good answers. Honestly though, some of the hardest people to understand in Ukrainian are kids because they speak so quick, and sometimes they don't pronounce words correctly and for non-natives, that's super difficult to understand. haha The four primary kids that showed up are super cool though and it was a super good activity. We all went back and ate pizza after taking pictures and watched some Mormon Messages in Russian since there are almost no Mormon Messages in Ukrainian, but that helped my Russian improve a bit. I can understand what people are saying if they speak Russian now, so that's progress haha. In short, on my mission I've learned to really appreciate the primary kids because they really add to the branch, make everything more interesting, and you can really see the light of Christ in them.

Other than those few things, we had some other lessons, contacted people outside, had our weekly activities and planned a ton like always. Sunday, we had over thirty people show up to Church, which is always great. Also, I had to lead church this past week and again, it was super scary, but I got through it, only with a few mistakes. Both weeks when I've lead a big cheese leader has been in our branch too, so that only makes it a bit more nerve-racking. This past week, the first councilor in the Ukraine Kyiv/Moldova Mission came to our branch and he got to watch me lead. He bore a powerful testimony at the end though and it really added to sacrament meeting. All in all, this week was awesome. A normal missionary week, it makes for a not as interesting weekly email home, but sometimes it's really nice for missionaries to have a normal week where they can just focus on their area. Anyway, have a great week everyone and talk to you later!!

Старійшина McGrath

Moroni 10:32 Read and ponder these words. Come unto Christ, how can you more fully do that?

Pic with Elder Matua during the Primary activity

Eating some super good Georgian food 

Night pic in Rivneee

 Vika after she taught us on Saturday

 When we were out taking pictures at the activity 

At the Primary Party

The Warm Waters of Baptism (Week шістдесят три)

Well, when there is a baptism, you know it's been a good week. Our investigator, Vika, who was a golden investigator ended up getting baptized this past week and it was an amazing experience. Let's cover her story a bit. Vika was found through English Practice. She had been coming for a few weeks and after a great spiritual thought, we decided to talk to her. She was open to meeting and we ended up meeting the very next day. There we had a wonderful Restoration lesson where she talked about her feelings about God and how she believed in reincarnation and how she didn't believe in organized religion. After that lesson though, she started reading the Book of Mormon and something changed. The very first verse that she read was Alma 37:6 and now that's her favorite verse in the Book of Mormon. She loves how simple and clear some of the principles can be in the Book of Mormon. We began to meet with her more often and she became more and more interested in the gospel. She started to read the Book of Mormon every day and really started to develop a testimony of it. After some time, we decided to read Doctrine and Covenants 6 with her, wanting to help her understand what the Holy Ghost is and how to recognize it. After a wonderful lesson where she really felt the spirit, we invited her to be baptized. Now, this wasn't the first time that we had invited her, but we sincerely felt like she was ready. At first, she said no, she was too scared, she didn't feel ready. But, we invited her to share her testimony of how her life has changed since she has met us. She bore a strong testimony and realized that she knew the Book of Mormon and the Church was true. She then accepted the invitation to be baptized. Eventually, she was baptized and she is so happy. Elder Matua, my greenie son, was able to baptize her and it was so great, plus it only took one try which is also super good!

The next day, I had the opportunity to give the gift of the Holy Ghost which was an amazing experience. The power of the priesthood is real and I really felt the Holy Ghost during that experience. Anyway, she loves the Gospel and wants to go to the temple soon! One thing I do want to add to this little tidbit is what she told me right before the baptismal service on Saturday. I came up to her and she started talking, she said, "You know, I just want to say thank you. You saved my life, you brought me to God and you pushed me towards baptism. You told me (Vika) that one of the hardest decisions of your life was to stay on your mission, but I'm glad you decided to and I hope you will always stay on your mission. You're changing and saving lives and you saved mine." Mannnn, that hit me hard. I was so happy when she said that, and whenever the mission gets hard, I'll think of that. I'm super grateful for Vika and her desire, she's amazing and just the best!!

The rest of this week was pretty grand as well. Another big thing that happened was that I got to lead sacrament meeting yesterday. Honestly, that was super scary because I had never done that before and November is my month to lead. But I got through it, with little mistakes. Apparently, whenever I speak in public, I like to move my shoulders, and the first counselor here told me to avoid doing that haha, and I was able to do that. Also, most weeks we don't have any branch business but for some reason this week, we had a ton, which meant I had to announce a lot more and that was kind of nerve racking. I finally understand how all bishops and counselors feel when it's their month to lead Church, it's kind of scary, especially when you're not doing it in English, really gotta work on my leading church vocabulary. Another cool thing that happened on Sunday was our recent convert, if you remember Mikola, was called to be the branch clerk. He's still doing super good and has a big desire to serve and help, and we'll be able to bond a lot more as we do finances every single week for the next few weeks before I leave Rivne sometime soon. 

That was pretty much it from here in Rivne, we spent a lot of time preparing for the baptism and doing everything necessary for that. We also moved apartments from our apartment to the other Elder's apartment since they have a better apartment than us, so that was nice to switch apartments. We also found a new investigator, he's from Africa and pretty cool. Hopefully he starts to progress and everything is good with him. He's already started reading the Book of Mormon, so that's a good sign from him. Finally, we had a branch activity for Halloween and it was super fun. We watched a good Halloween movie and good amount of members showed up! Anyhow, this was a great week, I love baptism weeks. Have a great week everyone and talk to you soon!!

Старійшина McGrath

Alma 37:6 read and ponder these words. I love this verse and we should always be striving to do the simple things.

Our Halloween Party

Repping the Red Sox shirt to celebrate their win

Baptism pic with Vika

Fall in Rivneee

Eating some good croissants  

With Valeri, a guy from English Practice

Selfie with Vika at the baptismmm

An Apostle of the Lord (Week Шістдесят два)

Another crazy, interesting, awesome week in the books. I don't think I'll ever forget this week, especially since I've already written it in my journal, but we did have a wonderful mission conference. So, after P-day in L'viv, we took a nice trip out to Kyiv for a few days. We got to Kyiv on Tuesday and on Wednesday, we had this thing called Mid-Transfer Training. Basically, this was the second day of training, they just pushed it back to the end of the transfer, so all the greenies could know what missionary work is like. That was interesting, it was cool to see and talk to the other trainers. At the end, they split up the trainees and trainers and we had a Q and A session together where we could talk about how it's going. I'm just hoping that Elder Matua didn't say anything bad about how I am as a trainer. haha No, it was good to hear how other trainers work and deal with situations, I learned a lot. After Training, we also had the chance to go to the TEMPLE!!! Only the second time in the field that I had the chance to go to the temple and it was soooo gooooddd!!! Nothing better than sitting in the temple, focusing solely on the Savior and about how you can become better, and just having the greatest feelings ever. This temple session was super cool too, because I decided that I didn't want to do it in English. I did everything in Ukrainian and there were some points where I didn't understand everything, but for the most part, I could understand and it was super interesting to do it in Ukrainian.

Anyhow, to the highlight of the week. We ate Cinnabon!!! We found it in Kyiv and it's amazinngggg!! Haha no I'm kidding, that was good, but the highlight of the week was for sure our Mission Conference. We had Conference the very next day and we had some very special guests show up. Both President Martino (Eastern Europe Area President) and Elder Cook (APOSTLE) were able to make it and we had the best mission conference ever. Also, after we took a bunch of pictures at the beginning, we were all able to shake their hands, and I was able to tell them that I'm from Saudi Arabia and been out on my mission for 14 months now. This is the third time I've been able to shake the hand of an Apostle and every time, it's just another confirmation to me that this Church was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith and we really do have living Prophets and Apostles on the earth today. During his segment on Mission Conference, he talked about how they call missionaries out here to Eastern Europe and about Christlike Attributes. All in all, it was a super good segment and he promised us some amazing blessings for our missions if we consecrate ourselves. Also, his wife led a song on mission conference and I realized why I quit choir in 8th grade. We had to change up a hymn and I could barely match pitch, my whole goal was just to sing loud enough to where I blended in and no one would turn around and ask who was singing like a horse. (couldn't think of a better comparison) All in all, a really good day and a wonderful trip out to Kyiv.

Finally, a few other things that happened back here in Rivne. First of all, the weekly update on Vika. She's still doing awesome, she came to Church and we had a wonderful lesson with her. She's 100% on track to get baptized, so continue to pray for her so that she can get dunked. She also told us that she wants Elder Matua and I to choose who baptizes and confirms her, so I'm happy to say that my greenie will baptize someone in his training!! That's a super cool experience that I wish I had in my training. But I'll confirm her the next day and it will be a great experience for everyone. Finally, transfer calls came, I'm staying with Elder Matua for another transfer here in Rivne. The weird thing about this next transfer is that they pulled the other companionship out of Rivne, so it'll just be me and Elder Matua here in Rivne. That'll be quite interesting, excited too see what the future holds. Have a great week everyone and talk to you later!!

Старійшина McGrath

Preach My Gospel Chapter 6: read and ponder these words. Become like our Savior through developing these attributes

Mission Conference with Everyone!!

KFC!! 

Kyiv Street 

Matching ties with the cuz, Elder Jensen

Selfie with my compp

Pic at the temple with the district 

L'viv zone conference

Week Full of Conferences (Week шістдесят один)

Wowzers, honestly this week was pretty crazy. I went from writing my weekly email last week in the wonderful city of Lutsk to writing this weekly email in the amazing city of L'viv. This past week was full of traveling, conferences, and talking to people. How could that not be great? haha Anyway, let's start with this past week. Last week, we went off to Lutsk, a city about an hour and a half away from Rivne, and spent P-day with them. There we went to a super cool castle that was really old and got some good pictures. And then, just like in every other city, we went and bowled for an hour. One of my goals on my mission is to bowl in every city I step foot in, it might be hard, but that's what a goal is for. All in all, Lutsk was a super fun city, and the next day we were able to spend some time together as a complete district, and do some contacting, and hold a great district meeting. 

This past Thursday, we headed off to L'viv for a few things. The first of which was a zone conference, which was super good and I learned a lot. A lot of the conference was based on faith and setting goals based on faith and how that can play a factor in creating goals that the Lord can help us accomplish. President Kumferman focused a lot on how faith is not just a hope in things that we cannot see, but how it's a power. He told us that faith is power and how it helps us become better, perform miracles, and truely become sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. Such a great conference and that was perfect heading into our conference on Sunday. On Sunday, we had a District conference for all the members in Western Ukraine. Around 200-250 members, took buses from their city and gathered in L'viv to have a conference and listen to the Leaders of the District and President Kumferman as well. Honestly, when I see and talk to all the members, I just feel so much love. All the members here in Ukraine are real pioneers, the Church has only been in Ukraine for 25 years, and people here have so much faith. They were all just so happy to see one another and talk to them, it just reminded me of the pure Love of Christ. They're all examples to me of this Christlike attribute, and when I'm around them, I'm 100% sure that I was meant to get called to serve my mission in Ukraine. 

Anyway, the rest of my week was great too. Vika, our investigator with a baptisimal date is still on track for the 3rd of November and even talked to her parents about it. They support her, and now she has a strong desire to get dunked. L'viv is great and I love coming back here, really good week. Anyway, hope you all had a wonderful week and talk to you all later!!

Старійшина McGrath

D&C 82:10 read and ponder these words. The Lord always keeps his promises!!

With the zone on top of high castle for the sunrise, super cool!!

With the zone on a nice fall street haha

At the Lutsk Castle! 

good candid photo one day

With the original five on our YEAR IN COUNTRY MARKKK

With one of my recent converts, Oleksiy!! Love him! 

At the Opera theater in L'viv with a 20 Griven bill

Sunrise at high castle 

Pic at high castle again haha

General Conference Week? (Week Шістдесят)

Everyone talked about how great General Conference was last week, and I was just sitting there telling everyone that I haven't watched it yet, but it sounds great! haha Well, I'm pleased to announce, that I've seen all the sessions now, a few in English and a few in Ukrainian. General Conference week is a week late in Eastern Europe. Even though I understand it in Ukrainian, I get much more out of General Conference in English because I can just focus on the spirit and not the language, so I'll for sure watch the Sunday sessions again in English. Before my mission, I did not appreciate General Conference at all, but after serving for a over a year now, I've come to realize the importance of General Conference and how we can listen to modern revelation given to us through Prophets and Apostles. I know for certain that everything said during conference was true and that President Russell M. Nelson is a living prophet today, called to direct this Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (for sure not Mormons haha) and he receives revelation for us. All in all, if you haven't watched conference, I highly recommend it, you'll learn something new. 

This past week was pretty grand. We didn't have anything special go on, which can make for a boring email, but it makes for a good week to focus on missionary work. The biggest thing that happened this past week was with our amazing investigator, Vika. We had a great lesson this past week, where we read D&C 6 with her. We focused on the Holy Ghost, trying to help her understand that the wonderful feelings that she has when she reads the Book of Mormon, are from the Spirit and they are confirming to her that the Book of Mormon is true. In short, the lesson was super powerful and we all felt the Holy Ghost. Near the end of the lesson, we had her bear her testimony and she shared how her life has changed ever since she's starting investigating and she's so much more happy. Finally, to finish off the lesson, we invited her to be baptized again on the 3rd of November, and she said YESSS!!!! She just wants to talk to her family and hopefully they'll support her in this choice, but if all goes well with that, she should get dunked on the 3rd!! I've learned so much from working with her, and I'm glad to have this experience in my life.

Anyway, the rest of my week was fun too. We had a finding activity in Center and we drew the plan of salvation in chalk so that everyone could read and see it. It was super fun and we had some good conversations from that. My chalk art has really improved over the course of my mission haha. We also went out and did service for a member here in Rivne. We dug some more holes, picked some carrots and ate some interesting food. Here in Ukraine, they have this dish called Holadets, and I've mentioned it before, but it's basically salty jello with pieces of meat in it. Most missionaries, including myself, do not like it, so when the food was out and we were eating, I pulled the classic Utah missionary move when they're on their third dinner appointment. When the member wasn't looking, I threw the holadets in my pocket and magically my food was gone. Sadly though, I didn't have plastic baggies, so my pocket got all gross and I'm gonna have to wash it. But all in all, this week was awesome. I love serving with Elder Matua and, even though I'm his trainer, I'm learning so much from him. Have a great week everyone and talk to you later!

Старійшина McGrath

D&C 6:14-24 read and ponder these words. If you've ever wondered if you've felt the spirit, read these verses

Contacting a tank

Train station picture!!

With Elder Matua at service 

Cleaning some carrots 

Fall in Rivne 

 Plan of Salvation Chalk drawing

Interesting pic of me contacting haha

The Typical Missionary Week (Week П'ятдесят дев'ять)

Well, this was a pretty grand week on the mission field. Not a ton of crazy things happened so I'll try to keep this at least somewhat interesting. One of the biggest things that happened this past week was exchanges. I had the opportunity to serve with Elder Volkov for a day, and he's a super good missionary. He's from Donetsk, Eastern Ukraine, so his first language is actually Russian, but he also grew up sometimes hearing Ukrainian, so he understands both fluently. He just prefers and was called to speak Russian, so that made us a Zebra companionship for a day. haha I think I had my first full lesson in Russian, I didn't speak Russian, I spoke Ukrainian, but everyone else on the lesson spoke straight Russian, which made it hard to understand at times, but I was still in the conversation and got the gist of most things. All in all, the day went really well, we had a few lessons, both with investigators and members, and went out to get some pretty good pizza. Nothing better than an exchange when you do all three parts of missionary work, studies, finding and teaching. Glad I got to know Elder Volkov better this past week.

The rest of the week was pretty grand. On our way to the church one day, a drunk person stopped us. Right next to the church, there is a small park, and occasionally, people will just chill there and drink alcohol, which is super sad to see. But this man stopped us and told us in English, "Hey! Give me five Boxen!" haha Funny thing is that he's asked me this at least five times, he just sees us missionaries walking by and knowing that we're Americans will ask for five dollars. Just he doesn't know English and mixed up the words boxen and bucks. Anyways, after talking to him for a minute or so and telling him that we can't give him money, he first asks for 10 boxens and in the end he starts to walk away and finishes by saying this in English, "maybe, maybe, you'll live." To me, that was funny, not scary, and I"m sure he won't remember that the next day. Small experiences like that make a mission interesting and I don't want you to get the wrong impression of Ukrainians. Most Ukrainians are amazing and I love them so much, just sometimes there are some interesting people that are sometimes inebriated and make for some pretty good stories. 

Anyway, to finish off, a weekly update on Vika. She's doing very, very well. This past week, we talked about the Word of Wisdom with her and she accepted it all. She also told us that she wants to fast with everyone on Sunday, and from that point on, she will try to stop drinking coffee. She's just amazing. Also, we had a lesson planned on Saturday, but she called us up a few hours before the lesson and told us that her Dad had just been taken to the emergency room, and she needed to go with him, which makes perfect sense. So Sunday rolled around and I honestly didn't expect her to show up since her Dad was in the hospital, but she did!! We talked to her for a bit, and her dad is doing fine, he's out of the hospital now, and she seemed to be super excited to be at church and be fasting with everyone. Church this past Sunday was wonderful and the members and really getting to know Vika and friend shipping her which is amazing to see. Honestly, member friend shipping can be a big part of conversion. All in all, she is amazing and I'm super glad that I could meet her. Anyway. the rest of the week was full of contacting, teaching, studies, and doing other ways of finding. We found a few new investigators this past week and I'm excited to keep working with them and help them progress in the gospel. Sadly, I haven't watched much of conference yet, should watch more this week. Have a great week, and talk to you all later!

Старійшина McGrath

Alma 32:16 read and ponder this verse. Develop that Christlike attribute of Humility!!

Watching the start of General Conference 

Listing to a member, Sister Timochko, sing. She's a super, duper good singer 

With Elder Matua at Gusto a super good restuarant

With Elder Matua again at another restaurant 

Out doing some service!!

Apples for Dayss (Week П'ятдесят вісім)

Well, another great week in the books. This week was pretty normal if I may say. Elder Matua's first full week in the mission field and we did everything. Probably the biggest thing that we did this week happened on Saturday. We went out to one of the members houses in the villages and helped a little bit in his garden and it was super fun! Basically, we spent most of the time picking apples and digging holes. If you remember, a few months ago, we went out to a members house and we dug some holes and put a bunch of apples in the ground to help fertilize it for the next summer; well, we did that again. Also, this time, we took super long sticks with claws at the end and grabbed apples from the tree. That was super fun, and unlike most claw machine games that you plan on, pretty much every time I used it, I got a prize, a nice green and red apple. That was quite interesting, we made a competition out of it and we all tried to grab the highest apple on the tree, luckily, I had the height advantage there. Anyway, we spent the whole morning there and picked tons and tons of apples and went home with a few bags of them as well. After service though, we also went out to another village and visited Mikola, the recent convert that I worked with, and taught his kids!! Right now, the parents are both baptized and we're working with both the kids, who are both eleven, to make that choice to be baptized and then we'll fully have another family here in Rivne. I love Mikola and he is still doing super well!! Pray for the kids so that they'll have desire to enter the waters of baptism!

Anyway, other than that, it was a pretty normal week full of lessons, contacting, and studies. For game night this week, we did fear factor again, which went pretty good. Luckily, the worst drink that I had to try was only cheese sauce and a few candy bars, still pretty bad, but for sure could be worse. Sunday was a pretty grand day. Vika, one of our progressing investigators, was able to make it to church again and she loved it. She stayed for all three hours and got to know even more members!! This past week, we had a really powerful lesson with a member here, and taught her The Gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked about baptism and she still is scared, which is understandable. But Sister Timochko, the member who helped us, shared a super powerful testimony of her conversion and how even though she was scared, she took that step of faith and then God took over, life was even better after baptism. Now, as we go into this next week, we're gonna put our focus on helping her develop that faith and have the bigger desire to get dunked. 

The rest of Sunday was pretty grand as well. Since I'm in the branch presidency, I had a meeting with President Bondar before Church, had three hours of church, then helped do finances for the branch, and then talked to President a little longer about all the members here in Rivne and what we want to do to help them. In total, I think I was with President Bondar for around six hours. That was a really good experience. Now I have the opportunity to see more fully how the Church is run and how the leaders in our Church really do and can receive revelation for everyone that they have keys for. President Bondar is an amazing Branch President and a great example for me. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this dryer letter home, have a great week all and talk to you later!

Старійшина McGrath

Proverbs 18:12 Read and ponder these words. Be humble and blessings will come out the wazoo

Service selfie with the member!

Selfie after a finding activity with Matua

Super good pizza!

Average selfiee :)

Tunnel of Love sign piccc 

At the Tunnel of Love!!

                  Nametag at the Tunnel of Love

Picking apples!!