The Ukrainian Bear: Second week in the Ukraine!

Hello Family and Friends!

Well what an amazing week in the Ukraine. This place is so amazing and I am having so much fun! It was a pretty crazy and busy week. It definelty had its ups and downs of course. It rained almost every day haha. It is sunny in the morning then rains in the afternoon for just a little!

So I dont know if I told you but here in Bila Tserkva, we have two sets of Elders and a set of Sisters serving in our branch. It is so much fun because we are good friends with them and help each other out all the time. So last P-day we went out to lunch with the other Elders. We went to the way good restraunt. I just got so pizza which was pretty normal. That night we went to our Branch Mission Leaders house for dinner. He is so amazing. He used to be the Branch President here. He is so serious about the missionary work and makes sure things get done. He makes us call him every night and give a full report on our day. So we showed up to eat dinner and walked in and asked what can we do to help make dinner. He laughed at us and said here is the stuff, you are making the dinner! We just made tacos so it was pretty easy and we made homemade tortillas which were so amazing!

On Tuesday we had our first District Meeting. It was way fun. My companion is the district leader so he was in charge. We have a set of Elders that are 3 hours away that are in our district. We had them on skype for district meeting which was pretty funny. After district meeting we started a companionship exchange for a day with the other Elders! It was so much fun. I got to be with Elder Quinn for the day until wednesday afternoon. He is so cool. He is in his last transfer and goes home in 4 weeks! It was so cool to hear his stories and all of his advice. We went and taught two lessons together. We first taught a recent convert and then we taught a little 7 year old getting ready for baptism! We also went and did some service for some old babushtka (grandmas). We went and took all of their rugs out of their house and went out side and beat them for like 30 minutes. It was pretty funny.

Not much happened on Wednesday. We ended our exchange and I got back with Elder Fisher. We just went around contacting and then we had English class at night. We had alot of people show up which was so awesome! We set up a few lessons with a couple of them!

Thursday was a good day. We went and taught an (eternal) investigator. I mean this man has been taught over 40 times. He is famous in this area with the missionaries. Everytime a new set of missionaries get here they go and teach him. So we said why not go try and convert him. We got talking to him and my companion and him hit it off right away. They both love biking. They talked about that forever. I could tell things were going good. We then went into the lesson and started to talk about the Book of Mormon. He said that he reads it all the time and knows that it is true!! Also he said that he knows Joseph Smith was a prophet of God! I was like why arent you babtized! We then asked him if he has ever gone to church? He said once! We told him about the importance of church and how he can gain a testimony by going. He told us he will start coming. We are hoping that it will help him commit to babtism. He just kept saying it knows its true but he is not sure about baptism. We got a lesson tomorrow with him and we hope to set a baptismal date!

Friday was such an awesome day. We did some service in the morning for an investigator. She was very nice and we then taught a lesson. She was very hard to talk to because she wouldnt stop talking and telling stories! It was pretty hard. When we were walking home this man approached us and asked who are we? We told him obviously everything and asked him if he would be interested in knowing more. He said he is religious already but maybe. We invited him to come to the baptism we were having that night. He said ok he will try to come. So when we got to the baptism we noticed he showed up! We sat with him and he like it. We then asked to teach him a lesson right after at the church. We brought our branch mission leader with us for the lesson. It went really well and he said he is interested to know more. Also he wants to start coming to English club! I am so excited to start teaching him more!

So Saturday morning we went to this big park here in Bila. We just contacted around and we saw these two ladies sitting on a bench. We went and started talking to them. At first they were very rejective and wanted us to leave. We just kept talking and things got better. We ended up talking for like 20 minutes about the church. We invited them to come to church on Sunday and they came!! They told us they are interested and want to know more. We will probably hand them to the sisters here to teach them but they are so nice and I am hoping things go good. After talking to them we found another man in the park that was interested. He agreed to meet with us again and teach him the first lesson. We are teaching him tomorrow. Saturday night the youth in our Branch had a sports night. We went to it and played with them. We had 2 investigators come so that was good. We played basketball and volleyball. It was so much fun to play with them. After youth night we went with the other elders to grab a bite to eat. We went and got Sharmas! They are like famous in missionary culture here. It was a big deal for me to get my first one! It is like a tortila thingy with some chicken and cabbage. It was so good!!!

Sunday was good. Church went very good. The two ladies from the park were there and loved it. So there is this man in our Branch named Stan Barton. He doesnt speak a lick of Russian or Ukranian. He is straight from Utah. He married an Ukranian and they live out on a farm and he farms all day. He is seriously the nicest and coolest guy ever. He is basically the only person I can talk to in the Branch because he speaks Engligh! I have got to know him very well and he is just so nice! I love him. So for Sunday night we went to our Branch Presidents house for dinner. He whole family was gone on vacation and he was leaving today to meet them. So we got to just spend some time to get to know him. He is such an amazing man! He is responsible for baptizing about 40 of the members in the Branch. He is the greatest ward/branch missionary I have ever seen. He always gives us referalls and helps us with whatever we need. He is like a big deal here in Bila. He runs all the soccer leagues.

Well overalll it was a good fun week. It defienetly had its ups and downs. At times it is very hard here. I just want to be able to communicate with everyone! I want to get to know the members better but the language barrier is so hard. I know the language will come. I know the Lord will help me. I love you all so much! Thank you so much for all your emails and all your love you have for me. It really helps me get through the hard times!

Love,

Elder Grochmal