Exchanges and Rain on Rain (Week Вісімдесят дев'ять)

Well, this week was pretty interesting, we had some super busy days, and then other days where it was hard to find some lessons. But nevertheless, it was a solid week and I learned a lot. Also, I don't think there was a day this past week that didn't rain, I think I saw more clouds than sun this past week, but it's all good, when the rain was going, that didn't stop us from doing missionary work. Anyhow, let's go in order. Last Monday was pretty good, we went and visited the catacombs here in Lutsk, that was pretty sick, I don't think that I've been to a catacombs before so that was quite the adventure. 

Then, that night, a family, the Yerkos who have three daughters, invited us and the sisters over for an FHE which was actually super lit. They actually just finished building their house this past year, so when we went out and visited, it was super nice, probably the nicest house or apartment that I've been in on my mission. Well, after eating some good food and showing some pictures, we all head into the living room. There they turn on the TV and tell us that we're going to do some Just Dance, so we literally all just start busting out some moves for about an hour to many different songs that I listened to before my mission, that was pretty fun. I just got super stinking sweaty in my church clothes. Finally, to finish off the FHE, I decided to do a spiritual thought, where I pulled out my playing cards and did a magic trick. The only problem is that they apparently knew that trick before I did it, so I completely failed, that was a bit embarrassing. But whatever, it was fun and they enjoyed the trick. I was still able to compare this magic trick to the importance of always gaining knowledge in this life through the scriptures. Not a bad day at all.

Anyhow, other than that, this past, there were two exchanges here in Lutsk. The Zone Leaders wanted to come up here to Lutsk since they've never been here before, and then the Sister Training Leaders came up and had an exchange with the sisters. Both of them turned out pretty good. I had the chance to serve with Elder Blake for a day. He's pretty cool, he was actually the last missionary to get called to the Ukraine L'viv mission before we combined. But we had a good day, we met with a less-active and one of our investigators, and both lessons turned out fine. Then, in the afternoon, we had a finding activity, where we wrote on a board, "What brings you happiness?" and then many people came up and wrote their answer. That turned out super dang good and I actually was able to get five numbers from that activity, which is not bad at all. Also, we had a few members help us out on the activity, so we were able to contact with them for a bit, and that was super cool to see members testifying about the Book of Mormon to someone that they don't even know. They're gonna be some good missionaries one day. When the Sisters had their exchange, we did a bit or a different finding activity, we put some pictures of temples up on the board and asked if people had ever seen these buildings. That was pretty cool too, because people had seen the Kyiv Temple but didn't know what it was. So it was nice to explain that to them and I had some really good convos on that activity too. All in all, some super solid exchanges!!

Well, a little update on our investigators. First of all, Oleksandr, the super cool guy with the baptismal date. He's doing pretty good, we met two times this week and taught him some more of the commandments. He pretty much is accepting all of it, his biggest problem is that he hasn't made it to church yet. There has been so much holidays lately and he's always had an excuse, hopefully he comes next week. But we're probably gonna push his date back because he hasn't made it to church yet, but in short, he's doing super fine. Other than that, we have some other investigators that we're working with and always searching for new ones. All in all, it was a great week, never a bad week really on the missionary. Have a great week everyone and don't forget to read your scriptures!

Старійшина McGrath

3 Nephi 11:3 read and ponder these words. How do you feel the Holy Ghost?

our apartment building 

Selfie at the catacombs 

catacombs againnnn haha 

With comp in the catacombs

Finding Activity on Exchanges

Easter Part Two (Week Вісімдесят вісім)

Well, another solid week in the books. This past week was Easter number four on my mission. This past week was the Orthodox Easter so that meant that everyone here in Ukraine celebrated it. One hard part about that is that everyone goes home to their villages and near the end of the week, it was a bit hard to find people to meet with. But we were able to stay busy and use our time wisely. One thing we did to celebrate the holiday was go out and do a bigger scale finding activity. Here in Lutsk, there is an electric piano that you can take out and do activities with, and we decided to use that. We brought that out, brought out a whiteboard and set up on walking street. We had the sisters switch off playing hymns on the piano, we wrote on the board, "Why do you celebrate Easter?" and then went out and tried to stop and talked to everyone that walked by. The activity turned out pretty successful, everyone was able to get some numbers, people really enjoyed the songs that the sisters were playing, and it was just nice to talk about our Savior and The Book of Mormon during this holiday season. 

Anyway, to continue on with Easter, I want to talk about Sunday. This week, since so many people were gone, we didn't have 47 people make it to church, but we still had a decent amount. One interesting thing happened before Church though. President Danko, the branch president here, called me up 30 minutes before church and said that he woke up kind of sick and would be late to church and asked if I could lead church and also give a talk at the end. Luckily, I learned early on my mission from President Rizley, that we should always have a talk prepared and ready to give at any time. So, I wasn't completely lost and was able to stand up and give a short 10 minute talk to finish off the sacrament meeting that went pretty good. I focused on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and also I shared my conversion story and how I came to know that The Book of Mormon is true as the ocean is blue. After Church, we actually also had something special and we had a super good lunch as a branch. As missionaries, we were assigned to make the dessert, so we made some good brownies and banana bread. But all the members seemed to really enjoy it and it was just nice to bond with the members for a few minutes and eat a good old Ukrainian feast. Also, you remember how I've talked about Holodets, the Ukrainian dish which consists of salted jello with fat in the jello. Well, a member brought it to the lunch and so Sister Clark got to try it for the first time and she HATED it haha. She almost threw up, that was funny. 

Well, the rest of my week was pretty good too. We had a few lessons with Oleksandr, the super cool guy that has a baptismal date. We taught him the Word of Wisdom this past week and he 100% accepted it, even if he didn't fully understand why we can't drink black or green tea, he said that he was try it out and do an experiment which is the perfect answer. So, he's looking good, super glad that we found him and are teaching him. We also met with another investigator this past week a few times, Heorhiy. He also was able to make it to church this past week, and we're really starting to see changes in him. He told us on Wednesday that he wanted to read the ENTIRE Book of Mormon, so he's starting right from the beginning. All in all, not a bad week at all. The weather is looking up and everything is turning green which is awesome to see! Summer is approaching! Have a great week everyone and talk to you all later!

Старійшина McGrath

Alma 60:23 read and ponder these words, we all need to clean our inner vessels!!

Walk to the church every day!! 

A big egg for Easter that lights up at night

 Accidental pic that turned out aight

Studying harddd

Finding Activityyyy

Warm Week in Lutskkk (Week Вісімдесят сім)

Well, another good week in the books in Lutsk. It was a pretty normal missionary week, but one of the best things is that the weather is really starting to warm up, and on Friday I even went out and street contacted without a coat on which is the best. That means that summer is coming and the best time to do missionary work, in my opinion, is almost here. But this week, we had a few good things happen. First of all, Happy Easter!!! Honestly, we didn't do too much for it, since Easter is technically next week for people here in Ukrainian, so next week we'll for sure do some more things. Anyway, if you remember, this past Christmas season, the Church invited each member to bring a friend to church on the 23rd of December and there would be a special one hour Church service focused on Jesus Christ and his life. Well, that went super well here in Eastern Europe, so the Eastern European territory decided to do that again and yesterday was the special one hour church service focused on the atonement of Jesus Christ. I honestly didn't expect a ton of people to show up, mainly because yesterday was also elections here in Ukraine, and that's all that people talk about nowadays, but we ended up having 47 people show up to church!! FOURTY SEVEN people haha that was a miracle!! Usually we got in the high twenties or low thirties, but yesterday was amazing!!! The talks on the atonement were wonderful and the youth here in Lutsk actually all came together and had a special musical number which was beautiful. We had every active member there, many, many less actives there, and even a few couples that our wonderful members invited. As we talked to the guests after the church service we were able to to get to know them better and they all seemed to enjoy the service. Hopefully we can start to teach some of the families and they have a desire to return to church this next week. Honestly, such a miracle to see the sacrament room that full!! Nothing better than that, the spirit was just so strong!!

Other than that, this past week we had a wonderful lesson with Oleksandr this past week. If you remember, last week we were able to set a baptismal date with him and so this week we decided to start teaching him the commandments. This past week, we focused on the ten commandments and the Sabbath Day in order for him to see the importance of coming to church every week. Unfortunately, he couldn't visit church yesterday because he had to go to the hospital, but he said that next week he would make it for sure. Anyway, the lesson was pretty dang good, mostly because it was a member present and for sure the best member present on my mission. The member that actually helped us out was President Didushok. He's actually the President of the Ukraine L'viv District and luckily, he lives right here in Lutsk. He has such a strong testimony and as the lesson was coming to close, he just started to really connect with Oleksandr, and he shared his conversion story with him. They talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how Oleksandr can gain that firm testimony of the truthfulness of the book. All in all, Oleksandr is doing great and still on track for his date, we're planning on meeting with him again soon and talking to him more!!

Anyhow, the rest of the week went fine. We had lessons with our other investigators. Most of the rest of them aren't making too big of progress at the moment, but some of them have some solid potential. We did a good amount of contacting this past week too, nothings better than contacting when the sun's out and the weather is fine. Anyhow, a pretty solid week!! Have a great week everyone and I hope that you enjoyed the Easter Season. Remember the true meaning of Easter!! 

Старійшина McGrath

D&C 20:23-25 read and ponder these words. Easter is all about JESUS CHRISTT

With Elder Holden

Haircut here!! 

Supermarket here in Ukraine 

Church in Center 

selfie with a restaurant named Jake 

Exchanges and Datess!! (Week Вісімдесят шість)

Well, this was a pretty great week if I may say so myself. We had a few good things going on and it's always good to be a missionary. One bigger thing that we had this week was exchanges with the zone leaders. We had the great chance to head to L'viv and serve with the zone leaders for a day. They're pretty great missionaries and I had the chance to serve with Elder Cluff for another day. We had a pretty good and normal day full of teaching, finding, and studies. We had two lessons, one with a member and the other with one of their investigators. We actually stopped by the members work and talked to him there. There we had a really good discussion about church. We planned on reading some from Moroni six, and when we opened up to that chapter, he told us that he literally had read that chapter just a few days ago. So instead of us just teaching him about the chapter, we had a great discussion where we discussed the importance of church and why we need to partake of the sacrament every single week. He's got such a strong testimony and it ended up being such a good lesson with him. Other than that, Elder Cluff hit the pavement a lot that day and street contacted for a while, and I was able to have some good conversations with people. It's always super fun serving with Elder Cluff and a I learned a lot from him.

Anyway, we had a really cool experience as well before we headed off to L'viv. We met with one of our investigators named Oleksandr, and we had a super good Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson with him. In this lesson, we talk about the first principles and ordinances of the gospel, you know like faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. Well, up to this point, we hadn't talked a ton about baptism with him, but this lesson Elder Holden and I decided to bring it up and even try to set a date with him. Guess what?! He accepted it, which is pretty awesome, so right now we have a baptismal date with him for May 25th. Now we just got to help him be ready for that date and help him get that firm testimony of the Book of Mormon. But the lesson was super great and I really felt the Holy Ghost during that lesson. I love being a missionary during these times!!

Anyhow, on Friday transfer calls came and nothing changed in our district. I'll still be with Elder Holden for another transfer and the sisters are still gonna be together as well. I'm pretty excited about that, the district is pretty grand and I see some great potential here in Lutsk, things are looking up! This weekend was General Conference week here in Ukraine. So we gathered together on Saturday and Sunday and watched General Conference together in Ukrainian. It was kind of sad because on Saturday we only had one member show up, but on Sunday thankfully we had a lot more people show up. But it was nice to sit there and listen to our prophets and apostles. It was also nice to see how much my Ukrainian has improved, because if I listened I could understand most of what they were talking about which is pretty great. Even last conference it was still super hard for me to understand at times. But I really liked all the talks and grateful for the fact that today we had Prophets and Apostles that can literally receive revelation from our Heavenly Father. All in all, not a bad week at all. Other than what I've talked about, we had some other lessons with other investigators. We found another new investigator named George. His favorite sport is speed-walking, so it was pretty interesting to hear about that haha. We had some good contacting sessions and the weather is getting better. Have a great week all and talk to you guys later!

Старійшина McGrath

Moroni 6:5-6 Read and ponder these words, why do we go to Church?

A good park here in Lutskkk

Nice pic of Lutsk

Exchanges with Elder Cluffchik 

With some super good members here in Lutsk

Good Old Helping Hands (Week Вісімдесят п'ять)

Well, this was not a bad week on the mission. Stayed pretty busy and had a good time. I've gotten a few emails asking about General Conference and if I've watched it. And sadly, no I haven't, but I'll be watching it  throughout the week which should be good. I've only heard good things about this past conference, super excited for it. One bigger thing that we had this past week was for sure helping hands. We had all four missionaries, and then like 10 other members that came out to help us. We went to the big park here in Lutsk and started to just pick up all the trash. There's a river in the park, and we spent most of our time over there since there were a crap-ton of trash there. Literally everyone just goes out and drinks and smokes by the river and then just leaves all their stuff there, it was super bad and gross. Just another reason why the Word of Wisdom is the best, right? haha Anyway we were out picking up trash for a few hours and by the end of the day, we had picked up enough trash to fill around 20-25 big black trash bags. That was a pretty fun activity, really good chance to bond with the members and just serve with them.

Other than that, we had the chance to meet with most of our investigators this past week. We've put a focus on Prophets this past week and have been inviting everyone to come to General Conference next week and watch it with the branch. Hopefully some of our investigators make it out next week. Also, this past week, we found a new investigator named Serhiy. He's 22 years old and pretty cool. At first, he just wanted to meet just to talk in English and speak English with us. But after 30 minutes or so of just getting to know him and helping him learn English, we decided to switch it into a gospel conversation. At the start, he basically just told us that he was Atheist and doesn't go to Church, but when we asked him why he was atheist, he told us that he doesn't like the Orthodox church here. Soooo, what I figured is that he's probably not atheist, but just hasn't searched too much for truth. We then started telling him about our church and really about what we believe and it turned out that he was pretty interested it our church. When we told him about how we pray with our own words and that our local church leaders don't make money for their callings, he thought that was super cool. In fact, at the end of the conversation, he told us that next time that we meet, we don't really have to talk about English, we can just tell him more about our church and what we believe in. Super good experience and hopefully he'll start reading the Book of Mormon soon and have a desire to continue meeting with us.

Finally, church this past week was good. We had an investigator show up, which is always awesome. Also, I found out last minute that I had the wonderful opportunity to lead church. Luckily, I had lead church in Rivne before, so it wasn't too stressful, but I can tell you that I was sweating buckets and I stood at the pulpit haha. Other than that, the week went well. We had a member teach us how to make borsch on Saturday, that was super fun and tasty. The longer I've been in Ukraine, the more I've grown to like the food here. All in all, a super good week, until next week week!

Старійшина McGrath

Mosiah 15:11 read and ponder these words. Listen to a prophets voice, it's revelation...

FHE with a family that had chicks 

Helping hands...

Bad pic of the youth activity this past week

Helping hands with everyone

Making Borsch and watching a part of General Conference

Finished product of the Borsch, super gooddd!!

Conference Week in L'viv (Week Вісімдесят чотири)

Well, another great week in the books. This past week we were in L'viv for a good chunk of it, but the times that we were in Lutsk we worked hard and were able to have a good amount of lessons. Zone conference this transfer turned out super good. He put a big focus on how we can study better, what we should be studying, and how studying the gospel every day will help us become the best teachers we can actually be. In the morning, he spent over an hour talking about the great apostasy and how important that might actually be. He went over a big timeline of the apostasy and we were able to read a ton of verses from the bible giving evidences of the Great Apostasy. 

One of my favorite quotes from conference and something I had never thought about before was from a man named Kent Jackson. He said, "The apostasy did not happen because the Apostles were gone; the Apostles were taken because the apostasy had occurred."Wowzers, ponder on that one for a bit, pretty dang deep and super true if you think about it. Anyhow, it was also nice to see all the missionaries again and see all the new missionaries in our zone. Honestly, it was kind of weird to sit at zone conference and think that I'm one of the old farts now, I gotta be the example haha. There is literally only one group of missionaries going home before me now, which is crazy to think. In short, I learned a lot and had a great time in L'viv this past week.

Other than the trip there, we just hit the grind and did some good old missionary work. We went out and contacted every day, had a few lessons, called a bunch of people to repentance. Can't get better than that, right? This was also my first week as the Second Counselor here in the Lutsk branch. On Wednesday, I met with the Branch President here, President Danko, and we had planned on just meeting for an hour and talking about callings and what not here in Lutsk, but we ended up meeting for two hours haha, we just talked about soooooo much. We weren't able to finish the night off tracting, but we used our time effectively, and President Danko needs all the support he can get. He's been branch president for a total of 11 years now, super crazyyy. He was made branch president here in Lutsk less than three months after he was baptized. He's literally held this branch together through the thick and the thin, amazing guy!!

This past week we were also able to find two new investigators. We actually met with them yesterday and had a first lesson. They basically just asked a tonnnn of questions and we just answered them all. At the beginning they were not really interested, they just wanted to talk to some good looking americans, but by the end, they were a lot more interested and even wanted to read some from the Book of Mormon and a Plan of Salvation pamphlet that we gave them. Anyways, those were some of the highlights from my week, not the biggest or best email, but if you're still reading to this point, that's awesome! You haven't gotten too bored yet haha. Well, the weather is getting warmer and it's officially April!! Have a great day and a solid week, don't forget to feast upon the words of Christ this week!

Старійшина McGrath

Amos 8:11-12 read and ponder these words. The Great Apostasy was necessary and happened!

Our Minute to Win it Game night

Zone Conference Pic

With Mautasss 

All three of my kiddies

All the remaning L'viv Mission missionaries

Averagely Great Week (Week Вісімдесят три)

Well, honestly, this week was pretty average, nothing too big or grand really happened, but nonetheless, it was good, as a missionary, you really can't have a bad week. Sometimes days can be long or difficult, but at the end of the week, you can look back and realize that you gave it your all, but people have their agency. This week, we met with most of our investigators and we ended up tracting a lot, which I haven't done a ton on my mission. We set a district goal to track three buildings every week, just to get a bit more creative with our finding so we're not just street contacting always, and we saw a bit of success. Basically, sometimes if we have time, we'll find and stop by a less-active, and sadly since most of the time they don't answer, we'll tract their apartment building, which consists of around 35 more apartments that we can knock on and hopefully have some good conversations. Anyhow, the first two buildings that we tracted this week were not very successful, we had a few conversations, but everyone wasn't interested at that moment. Then, we go to the third building, and the same thing, we go through every door, most people won't even open the door for us and we weren't seeing really any success. Finally, we get to the bottom floor and we have four more doors, we knock on the first three, nothing, no one answers. Finally, right before we knock on the last door, I told Elder Holden that he's gonna be interested. Lo and behold, (however you really say that) the man opens the door and we're able to talk and have a good conversation for a few minutes. He's actually an Orthodox Priest, but he looked and read a bit from the Book of Mormon, and we were able to exchange numbers to meet later!! Wowzers, really big testimony builder to me. Super good experience and helped me further understand the important principle of enduring to the end and then you'll receive a ton of blessings. All in all, tracting was successful this week!

Anyway, the rest of the week was good. In the Lutsk branch, I'm pretty sure we have one of the best members in Western Ukraine. She literally helps the sisters just about everyday and she's super willing to do just about anything. Right now, she's actually preparing to serve a mission herself, so she wants all the experience that she can get. This past week, the sisters had an exchange with the STL's so that meant that they were out of town. So on Wednesday, Larisa called us up after she finished her classes that day and asked us where we were. She met us and we contacted with her for a bit, she's already a really good contacter. Then she was able to help us out on a lesson that evening. We actually met with a new investigator that evening that I had contacted earlier that week. We taught a full restoration lesson to him and he seemed to take it very well. He told us in the lesson that he feels that our contact outside wasn't a coincidence and he wants to investigate the church more. Super good potential and this week, we should meet and teach him the plan of salvation which should help him a lot, especially since he's got a family himself. 

All in all, the rest of the week was good. Sunday we had a good amout of people at church and after church, we went out and did a finding activity in center. We asked people what Charity meant to them and we were able to have some good conversations from that and got a few numbers. Things are looking good here in Lutsk and excited to keep working here. Especially since the weather is warming up too! Have a great week everyone and talk to you all later!

Старійшина McGrath

Psalm 24:4 read and ponder these words. The Lord hears all of our cries!!

Roller skating on P-day!!

Buildings here in Lutsk

Tracting with Holden

 Personal study haha

Study room selfie

Bowling on Pday