The End of the Best Year of My Life...So Far (Week сімдесят один)

Wow, I can't believe that today is the 31st of December, I was a missionary this entire year, striving to serve The Lord with all my Heart, Might, Mind, and Strength. I vividly remember thinking this time last year, "Can I do this for an entire year?" But this past year came and went and I now know that I can and that this work is the best work in the world. Last year, I was a greenie, more green than Boston in the Summer, but now I've grown into one of the older missionaries in the L'viv zone, and I owe everything that I've done and seen to God. I know for a fact that this is the Lord's work and I'm just his servant trying to go out and listen to his directions on how I can keep the work moving forward. Anyway, before I reflect too much on this past year, I want to talk about this past week and how wonderful it was. 

First of all, we had Christmas this past week, which was absolutely a blast. Our Mission President actually gave us the day "off" meaning that it was basically another P-day, we just couldn't write home. So, since I'm the district leader and I gotta have exchanges with all the elders in my district, I decided to kind of pull a few strings. I decided to put our exchange with the Elders in Khmelnitskiy on Wednesday, the day after Christmas, so what they actually did, was travel down to Chern on Monday night and were here with us for Christmas and then exchanges. So we had the entire district together for Christmas which was super sick. We ended up opening presents in the morning and that was great. My parents sent me a couple packages, love them lots, and then a member in Rivne actually sent me a Christmas package, so that was supppperrr nice of her, Sister Timochko is the best! 

Another fun thing that we did on Christmas was do an escape room. We ended up doing this super scary escape room where we basically had to escape this prison under a monastery. As some of you know, I don't like scary things very much, so I may have screamed a few times and almost peed my pants a few times. Sadly though, we didn't escape the room though, it was super hard and we had to read in Russian, and none of the elders that did it could really do that, so it made it pretty hard haha. They did say that 70% of people that try that escape room fail the first time, I don't know if they just said that to make us feel better or if that's actually true, but yeah. Finally, to finish off the day, we watched The Polar Express again, which was suppper good! All in all, it was an amazing Christmas on the mission!

The rest of the week was super grand as well. I had an exchange with Elder Howard, another newer missionary, this past week which went pretty great. We had a finding activity where we went out in front of the opera theater here in Chernivtsi and put a question up on a white board. We asked "If you could ask God one question, what would it be?" Then we had people come up and write their answers and then we could have a good conversation with them. It turned out to be super successful, most people that were around there were college students, so it was nice to stop and talk to them and most of them had questions pertaining to the Plan of Salvation. In the end, we ended up getting a few numbers and hopefully we'll meet with some of them over these next few weeks. Other than that, this past week was full of contacting and trying to find new investigators. We ended up finding two new ones this past week, so hopefully they start to progress and read the Book of Mormon, that's how they'll get that answer that this Church is true. 

Also, we experienced another joy to missionary work: doggings. haha when people don't show up to scheduled meetings, and that happens a decent amount here. This past week, we scheduled nine meetings with members, less-actives, and investigators, and we ended up only having four lessons. We got dogged five times...but it's all good, that's why you always have a back up plan so that you're always working hard and trying to find new people. Well, the weather is better, the snow is melting, and I'm still loving Chernivtsi. We had FHE with President and Sister Seraphim this past week and it was super good, we talked all about them and the branch, and we came up the idea to do a Mexican Night here in Chernivtsi in a few weeks, should be great! Another solid week on the mission.

Anyhow, to finish off I wanted to talk about this last year that I had on the mission. I've learned so much and I'm for sure a changed person. The mission has been the hardest thing that I've done, but also the greatest and the most rewarding. This past year, I had the opportunity to help four people enter the waters of baptism, I've seen people change their lives all the way around. To helping people find answers to life's questions, to helping someone find more joy in their life, and even helping some overcome a smoking addiction of over 25 years. You really do see everything in a mission and it gives you the best and most spiritual experiences. The gospel really does change lives, if we do our part and show God our desire, he will take us and help us BECOME the best person that we can become. I loved this past year, and it for sure has been a roller-coaster and now I'm ready for another year. Have a great new year everyone and talk to you next year! 

Старійшина McGrath

3 Nephi 5:13 read and ponder these words. I'm proud to be a servant of the Lord and wear his name on my chest every single day

Christmas Packages 

My favorite present haha

A cool Catholic Church here 

My favorite graffiti here  

Street in Chern

At the Chern Opera Theater 

Primary Christmas Party, super cool!

 Center todayyy

Merry Merry Christmas (Week Сімдесят)

Well, first of all, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas tomorrow, I'm super excited. This past week was pretty grand as well. It started off super duper cold, where it was super hard to contact for more than an hour because your fingers and hands would get too cold, but the last few days have actually been pretty nice and it's getting warm enough that all the snow is starting to melt. I know a lot of people love snow and think of Christmas when they see snow, but I'm not the biggest fan of it, so I'm kind of happy to see it go. 

Anywho, some of the bigger things that happened this past week. We actually ended up having two exchanges this week. The first one was with the other Elders here in Chernivtsi. I had the opportunity to serve with Elder Taran for a day, a newer missionary from Eastern Ukraine. He's super cool and knows English super well. This past week we set a goal on our district council to go and stop by less-actives here and then tract their building afterwards, so we had a few hours to the evening, so we decided to go out and do just that. Honestly, I haven't tracted much on my mission, most of our finding comes through referrals or contacting, so it's kind of a scary situation for me. We literally knock on the door, say that we're missionaries and try to have a conversation. By the end of the tracting session, I learned that I really like tracting, it's super nice!! For one thing, you're inside, so it's warmer, and it's always interesting what could happen, who's on the other side of the door. Of course, we had a lot of people turn us down, but we did have some good conversations. We talked to a few people about the Book of Mormon and the Plan of Salvation and people were interested. There was one guy who opened the door just in his underwear, so that was kind of interesting, he was a nice guy though haha. All in all, it was a great day full of finding. 

Our other exchange was actually in the good old city of L'viv!! Since I'm the district leader here in Chern, every transfer, I get the opportunity to have an exchange with the Zone Leaders in L'viv and we had a wonderful day. I spent the day with Elder Cluff and we had a few lessons, did some finding, and ate some super good Georgian food. Finally, to finish off the day, we had game night there in L'viv and it was a super good one. We watched The Polar Express and drank some hot chocolate.  Pretty much everyone there, except for the missionaries, have never seen that movie, so they all enjoyed it and it was a great way to celebrate Christmas. All in all, the exchanges were awesome this week and I learned a lot from them.

As most of you know, to celebrate Christmas on the 23rd, each branch or ward was asked to hold a special 1 hour Church service focused on our Savior and here in Chernivtsi, it went great! The best part was that so many less-active and investigators were able to show up. Usually we have in the low 20's at church and this past week we had in the mid 30's, so that was awesome to see. There, we had some stronger members in the branch share their testimony of Jesus Christ and we sang some extra Christmas hymns and it was a great service. One cool thing that we did here was a lunch afterwards. The whole branch worked together and cooked food and we had a wonderful lunch together that was delicious. Potatoes, meat, vegetables, pretty much typical Ukrainian food, but it was really tasty. After Church on Sunday, we were also able to stop by a less-active that wasn't able to make it to church. Brother Kucher is super nice and he told us so really interesting things. He likes to watch movies so he has some interesting ideas. But we had a lesson about doing the big three: Read, Pray, and come to Church. He actually is a really strong member, has a testimony, but just won't come to church, but we'll keep working with him and getting to know him better. In short, Sunday was a very successful day even though we burned our dinner and it turned out super poor.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. Since we were whitewashed into this area, we're still trying to get used to the area and all the wonderful members that are here. Also, when we first came here, we didn't have any investigators, so Elder Tuttle and I have been doing a lot of finding in search for a few new investigators. This past week, we found one and have a good amount of potential investigators, so hopefully this next week we'll find new ones and help them learn more about the gospel. Chernivtsi is an awesome city that is so pretty. Right now, in center they have a super tall Christmas tree that lights up at night and is super pretty. Also, if you ever look up Chernivtsi, there is the national university that kind of looks like Hogwarts and is a big attraction here. This morning, Elder Tuttle and I were able to go look at it and take a few pictures. Plus, one more thing, Chern is known for its croissants, so Elder Tuttle have eaten way too many croissants because they're sooo good!! Anyway, can't wait to continue my service here and I hope you all just have the best Christmas ever, talk to you next week!

Старійшина McGrath

Luke 2:7 Read and ponder these words. Remember the birth of Christ during this Christmas season

Me with the Christmas tree here  

The super nice walking street here

A nice tank here in Chern

Someone doesn't like Capitalism  

Nice road here in Chern! 

Branch Lunch!!

The University

A selfie at the University here

A Change of Scenery (Week Шістдесят)

Well, last week I was serving in Rivne, now I'm here serving in Chernivtsi. This past week was pretty crazy, a ton of things happened, but I'll try and cover the bigger parts and talk about what happened. This past week, I said goodbye to Elder Matua on Tuesday and headed up to Kyiv to meet my next greenie. One Wednesday, I had the chance to finally meet Elder Tuttle and he's pretty cool. He's from Highland, Utah, likes drama, mountain biking, and is actually 1/4 Tongan. His grandpa is Tongan, so it might seem a bit crazy, but both of my kids are Polynesian, which is super cool!! On Wednesday, we met and had a little training session before we headed off to our cities. Since then, we took a 12 hour train ride down to Chernivtsi and we've been there ever since. It was kind of weird going to another city, especially after being in Rivne for so very long, but it was nice to go and visit another city and honestly, Chernivtsi is such a nice city, I love serving here!!! It was kind of difficult at first, getting white-washed into the city, not knowing anything, but luckily, the other elders were able to meet us and show us around a bit.  Chernivtsi is a smaller city but it is super pretty. The architecture is super nice, it's super European and I kind of feel like I'm in L'viv again when I'm serving here. Anyway, it should be a good few transfers and I'm excited to get to know Chern a bit better and get to know all the awesome people here.

Anyhow, there were a few good things that happened over the past few days. First of all, we had a branch activity on Saturday for light the world. We went to a shelter where there were a good amount of Moms with their kids that couldn't afford to live by themselves or had some problems. So in short, their lives were difficult. We had the chance to come in, show a few videos, give a spiritual thought, give them some food, and play some games with the kids. All in all, it was a successful activity, we had a few members show up and we were able to make everyone happy for a few hours which is what it's all about. To see smiling faces on so many people that have trials in their life is just so amazing. Plus, at that activity, we invited everyone to our special sacrament meeting next week, hopefully we can see some of those people again and through that we could help give them eternal happiness. All in all, it was nice to serve some people during this Christmas season and also nice to be with the members during this service project.

The rest of the week was super good as well. We had English Practice here, game night, and Church on Sunday. We had around 22 people show up here for church which isn't too bad, one of our focuses this transfer will be on church attendance and helping our less-actives return to activity and come back to church. It was super great to meet the members here and there are some super cool ones. The branch president here is around 28 and has a man bun, which is super sick!! There are also some super strong members here. Hopefully over the next few transfers I can get to know them better. It's been quite the week, we spent a lot of time getting to know the area and calling different people to try and set up lessons and get to know them. We've also done a good amount of contacting, which has been good, even though we've gotten sooooo much snow over the past week, it's been crazy! We've only gotten lost once too, so it's been good. Anyways, have a great week everyone and I'll talk to you later! 

Старійшина McGrath

2 Nephi 31:20 read and ponder these words, we need to endure to the end!!!

We're sister cities with Salt Lake City!! 

City Hall here in Chern

Picture of buildings in Chern! Super Pretty 

Street in Chern

Picture with Elder Tuttle 

Training in Kyiv

A good old Transfer Week (Week Шістдесят вісім

Well, another good week has come and gone. This week, not too much happened, but the biggest thing was transfers! If you've never served a mission before, transfers are a BIG thing. It determines where you go and who you'll serve with. And at least in our mission, everyone talks about it the week before and my people create transfer boards for our zone out here in the west. Soooo, the big news is that I'm leaving Rivne. I'm going to a new city in South-West Ukraine named Chernivtsi!! There, I'll white-wash train (again) and I'll actually have the opportunity to be the district leader there!! Should be quite the party. Apparently, my new greenie's name is Elder Tuttle and I'm picking him up from Kyiv on Wednesday, super excited!! After nearly ten months in Rivne, I'm excited to have a change of scenery and visit another city and get to know other, new members. Plus, I've only heard good things about Chernivtsi, everyone says it's a beautiful city and the most clean in Western Ukraine. It has the nickname, "little Vienna." I'll make sure to send some good pictures next week, but it should be quite the exciting few transfers!!

Another big thing that happened this past week, was that I got sick. Really the first time on my mission that it's happened to me. Let me tell you, being sick, especially on your mission is super boring. I just layed on my bed at one point and just looked out the window because I just wanted to go outside and do some missionary work, but I just felt super bad. One funny thing that happened, was that our recent convert, Vika, found out that I was sick and she actually brought us some fruit and sweets. We met her outside and she gave us a full bag of food to help cheer us up and just to  serve us, she's just the best. On Sunday, at Church, she even thanked me for the opportunity she had to serve because she was able to light the world! She told me that she was able to help a sick person from another country haha. Eventually though, I got over the sickness and the week moved on. 

A few other things that happened. Our investigator Katya is still doing super well! We had a wonderful lesson with her about the sabbath day and the importance of that and she also made it to church again on Sunday. She's really turning into a golden investigator, she's reading, praying, and coming to church consistently now. Other than that, Church this past week was pretty sad. I had to say goodbye to some of my favorite members and some of my favorite people in Ukraine. I had the opportunity to speak in my final week and I gave a good talk about enduring to the end and how we can do that. It was super sad to say goodbye to everyone, they all seemed sad and bummed to see me go, it was cool to see that I was able to influence a lot of people here in Rivne. Having people thank you for your service and telling you how you special you are as a missionary is a wonderful and humbling experience. I guess after you serve in a city for seven transfers, people start to notice you haha. I'm for sure going to come back to my favorite city of Rivne. Anyway. the rest of the week was full of contacting, lessons with other people, and all the other missionary things that we should be doing. Hope this letter was interesting and have a good week everyone!!

Старійшина McGrath

Alma 17:11 Read and ponder these words. We can be an instrument in the hands of the Lord, how?

Snow has fallen in Rivne 

A street here in Rivne! 

 Last English Practice here 

With other great members here!

With one of my favorite families here, the Polischuk family

Saying goodbye to our investigator, Tina. The granddaughter of Bika, the other member in the picture 

Winter is offically here (Week шістдесят сім)

Man, this was a good week, a bunch of different things happened, and I only fell once this past week. Snow has officially fallen in both RIvne and L'viv. This past week, first of all, we had zone conference in L'viv, and that took up a big chunk of our week. On Tuesday, we headed out to L'viv for zone conference and interviews and like every transfer, both of those went very well. Preisdent Kumferman told me that I'm going to leave Rivne at the end of this transfer which I'm both happy and sad about that. I love Rivne and I think that it will always be my favorite city, but seven transfers in any city in a ton, we'll see what happens with transfer call this week! Anyway, zone conference was amazing, for many reasons. The theme of zone conference this past week was Christlike Attributes and Preisdent gave a really good segment about Jesus Chirst and who is talking in the scriptures. Also, I had the opportunity to go up and share a 4 minute talk on one of my favorite Christlike attributes, diligence. That went pretty good and I put a twist on it a bit and talked about how diligence is related to urgency, and how we need urgency as a missionary. Finally, at the end of zone conference, we had another Thanksgiving dinner!!! The senior couples in L'viv put together a little dinner together full of stuffing, rolls, mashed potatoes, and chicken. Everything you need for the typical Thanksgiving dinner, right? All in all, zone conference this past week was amazing!

Once we got back to Rivne, we stayed pretty busy. On Saturday, we had an Elder's Quorum activity, where we had a hour and a half spiritual thought about self-reliance, then watched the Joseph Smith movie, and finally ate some tacos to finish off the day. Elder Matua and I were called to make all the tortillas for the tacos and we spent two two hours that morning grinding those out. I guess that was our service for the world-wide day of service thing in the Light the World Program. We ended up making around fourty tortillas and they turned out pretty good. I know I got called to Ukraine and they don't know what Mexican food is, but I'm turning into a Mexican based on how many tortillas I've made on my mission and making tortillas is kind of turning into second nature for me. When we got to the taco part of our Elder Quorum activity, Elder Matua and I had to show them how to make a taco and they all seemed to really like it. One person couldn't figure out to fold in, so he just decided that he didn't care and took another tortilla to cover the other side haha. Anyhow, the Elders Quorum was a big sucess and we ended up having around 13 people show up and we really built that quorum unity.

Anyway, the rest of the week was filled with meetings, contacting, and everything else that a missionary should do. Last week, I mentioned Katya, a new investigator, and this past week, she took some massive steps forward. We had a meeting with her on Friday and we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She loved it and before we finished she went off for a few minutes about changes she's seen in her life. Good changes that have come from the gospel. She's more happy and she feels God's presence more in her life. She also told us that she has already read all of First Nephi and said that the Book of Mormon is one of her favorite books and she feels the Holy Ghost when she reads it. The biggest thing is that she hasn't come to Church yet, and we got pretty persistent about it on our last lesson and guess what, SHE CAME!! On Sunday, she came right before the meetings start and she ended up staying for all three hours. She told me at the end, that she only came to be polite, but now she understands why we were so persistent with her, and she loved church this past week!!! So many members came up and talked to her and she just was so happy. Plus, Vika, our recent convert that was baptized a month ago, built such a strong relationship with her, and was with her throughout all of Church on Sunday. Katya is amazing and she's really progressing. Can't wait to meet with her this next week. Have a great week everyone and remember to Light the World!!

Старійшина McGrath

Quote from zone conference this week: "Mercy is not getting what you do deserve and Grace is getting something you don't deserve." Read and ponder these words. How is this true?

Selfie with the Church in L'viv 

Zone conference pic 

Thanksgiving dinner at zone conference

MTC District picture 

With Elder Cook before he goes home!

Movie part of our Elders Quorum acitivity 

Food part of the activity

snow in Rivneeee 

A Good Old Thanksgiving Chicken (Week Шістдесят шість)

Well, this past week wasn't half bad. I didn't really expect to do anything too big for Thanksgiving, but we ended up having a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. This past week, we had exchanges with the other Elders in our district in Lutsk on Thursday and it was a good day. To start, Lutsk is known as the city in Western Ukraine that has all the active youth, they've got almost ten youth!! Super crazy, wish Rivne had a few more youth. But when we were in Lutsk, we had an activity with the youth group, where we went out to center and handed out English and Gospel cards, and then when it got super duper cold, we decided to head back to the Church and eat some Thanksgiving dinner. Honestly, the food that some of the members prepared was supppperrr good, tasted pretty dang close to a real Thanksgiving, at least what I remember Thanksgiving tasting like. Since they don't really have full on turkeys here like they do in America, we ended up having some super good chicken with mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, and bread. Not a half-bad meal, all of the youth seemed to really like it a lot. After that, we all went around talking about what we were grateful for, so I guess you could say that it was about as close as you can get to a Thanksgiving here in Ukraine. All in all, we had a good exchange here in Lutsk. I ended up serving with Elder Kovaliov, a Native and it was super fun. We had one lesson, with a less-active, and she made us some super good homemade vareniki, that really filled me up, especially since we had a thanksgiving dinner. haha No but Elder Kovaliov is a great Elder and I learned a lot from him, we were able to speak Ukrainian pretty much the entire day, which is always good language practice.

The rest of the week went well, we stayed busy, meeting with different investigators, members, and less actives. When we were not in a meeting, we were either doing studies, eating food, or out contacting. One of our investigators, Katya, who we found through English Practice, said this past week that she doesn't want her religion anymore, which was interesting to hear, I think she's ready to accept the gospel reallllly sooon! She said that she feels the Holy Ghost when she reads the Book of Mormon too, which is a great sign, now she's just gotta come to Church. Oh cool story, this past week, we were out contacting for a bit, and I stop this really cool guy. He's just minding his own business and I stop him to talk to him for a bit and I find out that he's a magician!! Literally the first magician that I've seen in Ukraine, so he ends up pulling out a pack of playing cards and he showed me a super cool trick, he's actually a super good magician too. In short, after talking to him for a bit, we exchanged numbers and hopefully we can meet sometime and talk about magic AND the Gospel haha should be super cool. 

Church this past week was decent. We didn't have the most people show up, I'm sure that the cold weather didn't help. But it was my last week leading church and honestly, it's really not that stressful for me anymore. I didn't really make too many mistakes, I just always forget to announce the prayers when I'm leading, I'll improve on that for sure. I also had the opportunity to speak during sacrament meeting as well. I decided to switch up the topics a bit and I talked about how the Gospel is like a pizza. A pizza has three main parts, the dough, cheese, and sauce, without them, it really wouldn't be a pizza. If we say that the pizza is our testimony, we need three things as well to make it a testimony. Reading daily, praying daily, and coming to church weekly. Members here really enjoyed that talk and I love speaking now, it was super fun! All in all, a good week, nothing too big happened, but was still wonderful! Have a great week everyone and talk to you later!

Старійшина McGrath

1 Nephi 20:10 Read and ponder these words, the Lord refines us and makes us more like HIM!

Super good restaurant in Lutsk

Thanksgiving dinner in Lutsk

 BBQ Pizza

Selfie at home

Doing some magic with my man outside

The One Day Kyiv Trip (Week Шістдесят п'ять)

Well, it was a pretty crazy week, a few bigger things happened and I'll try to cover them over this semi-long email that'll be interesting. The first big thing that happened was that we did another mini-golf night for game night this past week and it was very successful. Like last time, we had a good amount of people show up, and after we taught them how to play golf, and told them that they can't hit the ball again until it stops, we set them off on the six hole mini-golf course that we created. On the course, we had ramps made with chalkboards, many different turns, and we even created a kind of tunnel effect with a bunch of chairs, people really liked it. Funny story, when we were creating the course, we realized that we didn't have one of the main parts of a golf course, the putters. So we had to get creative, like missionaries do, and we took the handles of broom sticks and then took old Liahona magazines and taped them together to make some super interesting putters haha. They worked out good, and we could have used them, but luckily a member showed up and we were able to get the door unlocked to the hockey sticks and people just used hockey sticks instead. Honestly, just a good game night and it was fun creating a mini-golf course!

The other big part of this past week, as you can see by my short title, was our one day trip out to Kyiv. Our branch had the great opportunity to go to the Kyiv for one day and visit the temple, and since we have a few recent converts, we were able to go to the temple with them and do baptisms for the dead with them. It was such a good experience, both Vika and Mikola, were able to make it and we all did a baptisms session in the morning. Sometimes as a missionary, you don't see the fruits of your work on a mission, but sitting in the temple with my recent converts was just the best feeling. They both had a wonderful experience and want to go to the temple again. After we finished our session in the evening, we walked out and Vika was just sitting on a bench in the freezing cold weather, near the temple, and she told us that she didn't want to leave, she loves the temple and feels such a great spirit there. All in all, even though we had to wake up at four and didn't get home until one in the morning, it was 100% worth it. We were able to go to the temple with 15 of my favorite people in Ukraine and spend some time with them doing the Lord's work in the Lord's home. 

Anyhow, the rest of the week was good. We had exchanges here in Rivne this past week with the Lutsk Elders and we had a very successful day. We went out and did a finding activity where we asked people what they were grateful for and we were able to have some good conversations about family, the Book of Mormon, and the plan of salvation. Hopefully we'll get some good new investigators as we call people over the next few days. We also went to a lot of members homes this past week and had good lessons with them, helping them, asking for referrals, and sharing good spiritual thoughts. All in all, a busy, tiring, but super good week. Have a great week everyone and talk to you later! 

Старійшина McGrath

Ether 12:4 Read and Ponder these words. Hope is super important and this is such a good verse!

Golf night, what a party

Had some good borscht, always enjoy that

              Branch Lunch in between the sessions

Cool temple pic

With Vika at the temple!! Super good!

Pic of the branch at the temple!!

Pancakes for dinner, nothing better!!