The Beginning Of The End (Week Дев'яносто два)

Another transfer come and gone. Now, on to the final transfer of my mission, crazy how fast the mission has gone by. Luckily though, this is going to be a longer transfer, nine weeks actually instead of just six. We're having a longer transfer because the entire Eastern Europe wants to be on the same schedule, and instead of having a mini-three week transfer, President Kumferman just decided to have a longer nine week transfer. But yeah, since the transfer just finished this past week, it also means that transfer calls have come as well and it was an interesting. Since we're having such a long transfer, President Kumferman decided to have every single companionship in our zone change. So sad to say, Elder Holden is leaving Lutsk and heading to L'viv. My final companion will actually be a Ukrainian. His name is Elder Troxymenko. He's from Kyiv and has been on his mission for a year and a half now, so it should be a pretty good transfer, I'm pretty excited for it. One other interesting thing about transfers, Elder Matua, my first kid (trainee) just made it to be a zone leader, so that's pretty great, I'm a pretty proud dad haha.

Other than that, the week was pretty grand. This week was actually zone conference week too, so that meant that we traveled to L'viv, had interviews with President Kumferman and then zone conference on Friday. Both went pretty good, always learn a ton from both of those. This past conference, President Kumferman decided to focus a lot of the Plan of Salvation and how we can better teach that to our investigators and it was pretty awesome. We went to some deep doctrine at times and that confused the heck out of me, but I did learn some new things. We talked at one point about the difference between Translation, Transfiguration, and Resurrection, that was super interesting, I encourage you guys to think about that and find some examples of each of them. Anyhow, then on Sunday, we had an interesting day as well. It was actually Branch conference, so that was pretty stressful, luckily I didn't have to lead church that week. This was actually the one time of the year that President Kumferman travels us to Lutsk and he had a good time. He really enjoyed the branch and the conference was a big success. President gave a wonderful talk and even though he can only speak Russian, I understood pretty much all of it. I did confirm one thing though, Ukrainian is for sure better than Russian, without a doubt haha. It was weird to hear all the members speak Russian to President instead of Ukrainian, but all in all, the week was a success. 

Finally, one little story to finish off the week. We had a super good lesson with one of our investigators named Bohdan. He's doing super good and he's reading the Book of Mormon and has a good desire to find out if the Book is true or not. This past week, we decided to teach him the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was awesome. We invited him to be baptized and he really thought about it for a minute, then just game the best/funniest response ever. He asked, "tonight?" haha we all kind of had a good laugh there, but that kind of shows his desire, and in the end we set a baptismal date for him for July 13, hopefully all goes well with that and he continues to accept the gospel. All in all, we did everything this week, contact, teach, learn, and crack some good jokes. Always wonderful to be a missionary, can't wait for another good week.

Старійшина McGrath

Ether 12:27 read and ponder these words, we all have weaknesses

                     With some great members!!

Arm wrestling with the Branch President during FHE

Branch Partyyy

Best district in the mishhh

Lunch with the Branchhh

Warmer and Warmest (Week Дев'яносто один)

Well, this was a pretty good week, not too much happened this past week, we worked hard and had what you can call an average missionary week of finding, teaching, and hopefully we'll be doing some baptizing soon. This past week we had some good success finding some new investigators and we were able to find three new, good investigators. One of our new investigators we met on Sunday at a Library. He only had like thirty to minutes to meet and talk, but we were able to have a good conversation about why we're here on a mission, how the Gospel of Jesus Christ has blessed my life, and we even talked some about the restoration of the Gospel. Near the end of the conversation, we started to talk about the church in Lutsk, and he expressed a desire to come to Church this next Sunday and he wanted to invite his wife to come as well, and then they'd come as a family. That'd be super cool if he did that!! Anyhow, also we had a lesson with one of our newer investigators named Ivan. This past week, we had a good plan of salvation lesson with him where we used a diagram to show him the plan of salvation and he really accepted it. He's also started to read the Book of Mormon and he said that the Book is interesting, and we talked about Baptism at the end of the lesson and he said that if he found out that the Book of Mormon is true, he'd for sure get baptized. All in all, we're seeing some good potential here in Lutsk, and hopefully it'll keep growing and our area will continue to grow and do well.

Other than that, the weather here is getting a lot better. We've had a ton of rain recently, but it's gotten better over the past few days. I'm starting to pull out the short sleeve white shirts and we even had some fresh strawberries on Friday. I guess that you could say that Summer is pretty much in full swing now, which is amazing!! One way that we went and celebrated that was with a summer finding activity. We decided on Saturday to go out to the big park here in Lutsk and we did a chalk drawing. We drew the Plan of Salvation super big on the ground in the park and then invited people to talk about it and we were able to have some good conversations. We basically had like some 10 minute lessons with people on the street about the Plan of Salvation and how that can bless our lives. That was a pretty fun activity and it's pretty fun to draw with some chalk.

Well, nothing too much more than that this past week. For Game night this past week we watch meet the mormons with everyone, and some people really enjoyed that. We also went out today with the sisters and visited the Tunnel of Love since none of them had ever been out there before. All in all, a great week, can't wait for the next one, conference week!

Старійшина McGrath

Heleman 3:35 read and ponder these words. Humility is key!!!

 Last week's P-dayyy 

Finding Activity selfie

With comp at Tunnel of Love

Lunch with everyone 

Selfie after Finding activity 

Tunnel of Love with sisters 

Pano of the finding activity

Solid Week on the Mission (Week дев'яносто)

Wowzers, if you didn't translate the title of this email or you can't read the Celestial Language of Ukrainian, it says that I just finished week 90 on my mission. You know, time really does fly by on the mission, you don't realize how true that it until you serve one. But anyhow, this past week was pretty good. The weather was kind of all over the place, on Tuesday, it was cold and rainy, and then the very next day was super sunny and hot. That continued for a few days until Saturday when we were doing a finding activity in Center on the Plan of Salvation, when it started raining on and off for most of the day. There were even times when it started raining when there wasn't clouds in the sky, I don't understand that at all. Apparently, they call that "Blind Rain" here in Ukraine, so that's pretty interesting. 

Anyway, some good things are going on here in Lutsk. Sadly, first of all, we were unable to meet with Oleksandr this past week due to the fact that he's working a lot right now and he doesn't have a ton of time. But he tells us that he still wants to meet and find out more about our church and the Book of Mormon, so we'll keep trying with him. This past week, we were actually able to find a few new investigators this past week, so that's good. The first one is a college student here in Lutsk. We started out talking a little more about English and he seemed more interested in that, but we were able to transition well into the Gospel and it sparked a good interest in him and he really liked the idea of the Book of Mormon. He said that he's super interested and that he'll "definitely" read the Book of Mormon, so far so good with my man. Also, this past week we were able to have a first lesson with someone from English Practice. He's been coming for a few weeks and he's a nice grandpa. He really likes radios and talked to us for about 20 minutes about that and how they work, but after that we turned it into the gospel and he too had a desire to find out more about the restoration of the Gospel. So things are looking good here in Lutsk, we just gotta get some investigators to sacrament meeting now.

Ok, now onto a funny story, at least I thought that this was funny. So sometimes, as missionaries, we'll do something called area book finding. That means that we'll sit down with our area book, and call a bunch of former investigators that stopped investigating for various reasons. Sometimes people need more time or weren't ready at that specific time, so it's good to go back sometimes and call formers. So, me and my companion were doing that and for Elder Holden, it can sometimes be hard to talk on the phone, mostly because he's only in his 4th transfer and the phone conversations can sometimes be hard to understand. But he grabbed a former and started to call a man named Oleksandr. But, when he called, a women answered and he started to freak out and didn't know what exactly to say. So he introduces himself and asks if Oleksandr is there. The women says yes. Now this next question is important because he could ask many different things, but he's still kind of freaking out and he decided to ask this question to the women, "Are you him?" ahhaa I started laughing pretty hard, that was pretty funny, really made my night. Needless to say, she didn't seem that interested afterwards haha. 

Other than that, the week was pretty normal. We actually also went out and did some service for a less active member on Wednesday. We basically fertilized the ground for her, dug a ton for her. That was pretty fun, I always like doing some service for people and now that the weather is warming up too, we should be doing some more service soon, that's awesome. Anyway, the rest of the week was good, had some other lessons, did some contacting, and I got to lead church again, always good and stressful haha. All in all, not a bad week at all. Have a great one, talk to you all later. 

Старійшина McGrath

Alma 36: 20-21 Read and ponder these verses, look at the power of repentance!!

Serviceeee

Our Branch President doing pushups after he lost a table tennis tournament

Greeneesss 

Selfie in the park

Mall here in Lutsk

Train station here

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