July 22nd-29th

Hello Everyone! 

Just another amazing week here in Ukraine! We have been very busy as always. Well I will jump right into this week:

So monday was P-day so we did our normal emails and went to our favorite restaurant, the only one in Bila. Then our Branch Mission Leader met us at the church to play some ping pong! He loves playing with us. He is coming today to play some more! He is so awesome! We then went and had a lesson with our investigator, Игер, at our branch presidents house. It was way awesome! We taught him about the Plan of Salvation and he loved it. He is doing so good and we are continuing to work with him, but at a slow pace cause we dont want to rush him. 

Tuesday was awesome. We had district meeting in the morning. The Zone Leader and his companion came down for it. Elder Kardadjov is our Zone Leader and he is traing Elder Porter who just got here! So after district meeting we started exchanges for the day. I got to go with Elder Porter! It was so much fun cause he is in his first transfer so I was the older one and had to take lead in everything. We went and had a lesson with a recent convert. It actually went very good considering our language isnt the best! haha. We taught her about Faith. She was very impressed that we even came and tried as two super young missionaries. It was such an amazing experience actually. We then went contacting on the streets. We talked to so many people! It was so awesome! We actually gave one man a Book of Mormon and he sounded interested. Almost everyone we talked to we didnt really understand them at all but we just would testify of the church and The Book of Mormon and the people would smile. We think they were liking it! It really made me think about how just from testifying of the truth can really influence someone as long as the Spirit is present and helping you talk to them. Overall it was a great day in which I feel like I gained a whole lot more confidence in the Russian Language! 

So for Wednesday we didnt do much. We were all over the place tracting and contacting and preaching the Gospel! It was way fun! We then had our normal English. We had so many people again and lots of new faces! Teaching English is so much fun! I love it so much. It helps me learn Russian also! 

Thursday we were pretty busy with two lessons. We first taught an investigator, Иван, about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is such a cool kid but still cant get baptized till he is 18. So we just meet with him every once and a while to teach him and see how he is doing! We also taught a recent convert Дима! He is doing so good! I love him! 

So Friday was so fun! Our Branch had a big picnic out in this amazing park with a huge lake! It was so pretty. We went for a little. We actually had one investigator there and the sisters had a couple! It was such a good experience for the investagors to hang out with the branch. We had luch out there and it was so good. Just some straight Ukrainian food on the BBQ! All the youth were swimming in the lake and jumping off cliffs and there was a sweet ropeswing. It was so hard to just sit there and watch them all swim! It looked soooo fun! After that we then went to a members house and taught a little spiritual thought to them! It was so good! 

So for Saturday we had our normal English class in the afternoon. It went good and then I got to give the spiritual thought after in Russian. It was so much fun. I didnt really prepare anything and just winged it. It actually went very good. I only had to ask my companion to say like one word. haha. to find. haha I still dont know how to say it! woops. We then had youth night which was awesome. We had a good turnout with a couple of investigators! We played Capture the Flag! It was a blast. 

Sunday was awesome as always! Church was way good! This branch is so amazing! We had like 80 people at Sacrament! It is so awesome to see so many people here! We then had Branch Council and talked all about how the branch can help the missionaries more! It was such a good meeting! At night we went over and taught a family in the Branch, the Рябокон 's! They are so awesome and have two little boys. The kids are wild and hilarious! 

Well that basically sums up my week! This week we are having Zone Conference up in Kiev so I will be there for a day! I cant wait to hear from our President and get to know more about him! Well I hope you all have a great and wonderful week! I love you all! 

Love 

Elder Grochmal ­

We call this Bila Heights! 

We found the local hockey rink! 

Владик

Гречка

Riding the bus to the Branch picnic. 

July 15th-22nd

Dear Family and Friends!

Just another another week has flown by here in Ukraine! I cant believe how fast time is flying here! This week is already going to be my 4 month mark of my mission! I cant believe it! Welll first off there was something that I forgot to tell you from last week! So as I have mentioned every week we write our mission president's wife an email in Russian. So last week I wrote about my family. In my letter I was writing that my sister has a husband named Justin! So I wrote У Меган ест муж. So It litterally translates to At Megan is a husband. But I spelled the word ест incorrectly and it should of been есть with a little b at the end. So the word ест means eating. So I literally wrote to her Megan is eating her husband!!!!!! haha. It was so funny. My mission president's wife wrote me back and was like you make a little mistake and told me and she was making jokes about it. It was pretty funny! Just cause I forgot the little b. 

Well my week went a little like this: Monday was really cool. So remember Elder Quinn that was serving here but it was his last transfer. Well his parents came and picked him up. So on monday they came down here to Bila for the day. We went to a members house with them and had lunch! It was so cool to see him with his parents and also to see some people that speak English! haha. After that we had a way exciting FHE set up with our Branch Mission Leader. He was inviting over a family that they had gone on vacation with. So we went over there and had an awesome lesson with them. It was so cool and they were very interested. We then had dinner with them and they just loved us. They were so interested in why we are here and just everything! It was very cool! 

So on Tuesday we had a lesson with our investigator Иван! He is doing awesome! We commited to ask his parents again if he could be baptized! We havent heard back yet but we should meet with him tomorrow I think! We then taught our recent convert Sergey. He is so awesome! He is doing so well and is so strong in the church already! We then went over to another investigators house, Володимер (Volodemear.) But before we got there we were like 45 mins early and we were walking and it started to drizzle a little bit so we started to walk fast and then it started to absolutely pour! We ran and got cover in a cafe! It was the hardest I have ever seen it rain in my entire life! It was so crazy! It rains here like everyday. Pretty wild. But back to  Володимер so he has been taught a bunch and we just wanted to teach him a simple lesson about the priesthood and baptism. We did so and then we asked him to be baptized. He said that he would pray alot this week and continue to read and then next time we meet he will let us know. He is a great guy and loves us. 

Not much happened wednesday. We helped an older lady in the branch who is in a wheelchair go to the park. THey were having this big convention thingy for people in wheelchairs. It was really cool. It was a bunch of Americans putting it on. We talked to them for a while. They said they saw us and first thing they thought was Mormons but then were like no way there are Mormons here! So when we told them we are they were shocked and they were really nice. They were all from California. So after all of that we had English like normal. We had about 30 people show up. It was so awesome. They people just love coming and it is such a great opportunity for us to find investigators! 

Thursday - MY BIRTHDAY!! Well basically is was just like any other day here in the mission field. We started the morning by going and doing some service for Коля Товмаш and we helped dig his hole again. IT was way fun. We then were sitting in his house after eating some food and I mentioned it was my birethday and he started singing me happy birthday then opened the fridge and gave me a big super snickers! It was so funny and so nice of him! He is so amazing! Well for lunch/dinner we made my favorite, Spaghetti and Meatballs! It was so good and reminded me of being back home growing up my whole life eating that meal on my B-day! All of our lessons fell through that night so we just contacted and tracted around the streets of Bila. At night we made a cake that my mom sent me which was so good! Also I opened my big package that my wonderful mother sent me! It was so much fun to have something to open and get on my birthday. By the best gift goes to Hyrum for sending a baseball bat pen. It is the best. THe members love it so much. I always show them and they are obsessed! I love it! That was basically it for my birthday! Kinda weird to be here on my 19th birthday. Never thought it would be like this! 

So on friday we went out the American man in our Branch's farm to help him. He needed help laying concrete! So we were about to start and he looked at me and said you have done this right? and I said of course! He was like good grap the wood and lets beging to level the concrete. It was really my first time ever doing that! haha. I just followed him and it worked out good. We ended up meeting some of his other workers that might be interested in the church so that was awesome! We then came home and taught another recent convert Deema. He is also doing so good and is very strong in the church! 

Saturday was good. We had English like normal and had another great turnout! We then had youth night. There was this kid Игер (Eager) who came. We invited him to come to church on Sunday and he did! IT was so cool. We want to start teaching him really bad. He is a great young kid who loves coming to english and youth night. So at youth night we had a little ping pong tournament going on and our branch mission leader came and he was so cocky that he would beat us all. He beat everyone and then had to play me. I whooped him and it wasnt even close. HE was so mad. He is going to come to the church today and we are going to play some more since it is P-day! 

So yesterday was really good! So our mission president came out with this booklet about how the branch can do better working with the missionaries! It is way cool! We went over it in Branch Councel and our branch is so stoked! I am way happy and I know that it will help us alot. We also met a family last night that was way way nice and wants us to come back in September and teach them. They are going away for like all of august so they wont be here. But they are some elect potentials! 

Well that was basically my whole week! IT was way good and I had so many good experiences! I love being out here being a missionary! This church is true and has helped me in so many ways in my life! THanks for the birthday emails for those of you who sent them! It meant alot! Love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Love

Elder Grochmal.  

BIRTHDAY CAKE!

Shishkabobs

Our branch mission leader Bogdan!

Riding the bus home from service on the farm

 Youth Night

Lasagna 

Spaghetti and meat balls. (Bob's favorite meal)

Birthday box!

Riding on the marshutka 

July 8th-15th

Hello Family and Friends!!

Just another awesome week here in Ukraine! It was a very busy week as usual. My companion and I have been able to keep our schedules full so that is always the best. Well I will jump right into my week:

So last week I mentioned in my letter about meeting with an investigator, Игер,  at our branch presidents house on monday.  Well we did so and it went very well. Our branch president is so amazing. We taught the first lesson about the Restoration and it went very well. We had our branch president just bear testimony on the importance of the Book of Mormon. It was such a good lesson and we are meeting with him tomorrow. He is elect and such a nice man! 

Tuesday we had our last district meeting as a full district because it was transfer week and people were moving around. It was a great meeting as always and then we had a lesson with another investigator Иван. We met him through English. He is about 17. He keeps telling us that his parents want him to wait till he is 18 to be baptized. We had a great lesson with him though and he is doing awesome! We then met with another investigator Руслан! He is so awesome! He is progressing alot and understanding everything we teach him! After our lessons we got on a bus and headed up to Kiev! We needed to be there wednesday morning early so we just left tuesday night and slept at the zone leaders apartment! 

So Wednesday we woke up and had to go do registration stuff for my companion. It didnt take too long but it was fun. We then went to lunch and TGI Fridays! hahaha. It was so strange. I felt like I was back in America! It was so good and it was so nice to get a big nice American style burger and some french fries!!! It had been too long! We then went to the mall cause my companion needed to buy a sidebag! Missionaries arent supposed to wear backpacks anymore so he needed a bag! We then went the temple and mission office to get mail of course. I was so stoked because I got my package for my birthday this week!! I was nervous I would make it to Kiev to get it but all was good and I got it! 

Well Thursday was a good day. We went and did some service for a member in the branch, Коля Товмаш! Kolya Tovmash. He is so funny and loves the missionaries. He is digging a big hole to build a new house. It is a little crazy because the hole needs to be massive and its not really that far along! After that we had a lesson with a recent convert, Sergey! He is doing awesome and going strong. So Thursday was transfer day and we were getting one new sister and losing one. So the new one was fresh from the MTC. She came down on a bus with Sister Snell, who has been here a while. We met them at the stop and helped take her luggage to their apartment. It was so crazy to think exactly six weeks ago on thursday I was moving into my apartment here in Bila! 

Friday started off with another lesson with Руслан! Rooslan... It went well but he told us that he is moving back to Kiev for the rest of the summer. We were a little sad because we love him but we asked him if it would be ok to give the Elders up there his number and they could meet with him and he said yes. So all is well. But we taught alot about baptism and we showed him the fount here in the church. We asked him to be baptised but he said that his parents dont want him to be. We asked him to ask his parents again and to invite his parents to church. We hope that everything goes well with him because he is officially passed over to the other missionaries! Friday night we met with a member, Sister Людмила! Loodmeela. She is so nice. We talked about being a member missionary and challenged her to give out one book of mormon this week! 

Saturday morning we went and helped Коля again to dig his hole. We got a lot done. We then had English and I got to give the spiritual thought at the end in Russian. It was so crazy. I felt way more confident this time that a couple weeks ago when I did it! We had our normal youth night again. We had a really good turnout with about 4 nonmembers! We played Mafia again! It was so fun. It reminded me again of all the fun times with the family especially playing at Havasu in the box! So classic. After that we had another recent convert lesson with Дима! Deema. He is doing so well. We always teach him at his work and he is like a security guard for this crazy church. It was pretty epic to teach him there. Always a weird feeling when we go in there. 

Sunday was amazing as always. We had a great turnout at church with almost 80 people! This branch is just so amazing and so strong. Everyone just loves and supports eachother like crazy. After church we went the another recent converts house, Миша и Галя. Meesha and Galia! They are so amazing. You would think that they have been members there whole lives. We taught a quick lesson then they fed us. On their teaching record where it says work for Sister Galia it said, Works wonders in the kitchen! It was so true! She made us some amazing food. We had stuffed peppers with all this other stuff that I didnt now what it was called but it was so good. So we got down and still had a couple hours left in the day so we went out tracting. There is this place across the river that has the biggest houses! Like they are massive. So we were like lets go over there. The people were nice over there and we talked to lots of people. We set up a return appointment with one family. We are really excited for them! 

Welll that was basically my whole week. It was a really crazy week to say the least. Today is officially the first day of my second transfer! I cant believe it. Time is flying here and its crazy. We have a lot to do this week also. My birthday is on thursday so that will be fun. First time away from home on my birthday! I never thought that I would spend my 19th birthday away from home. I am so grateful for the age change and allowing me to have already served almost 4 months before I am even 19! Well have a good week everyone! I miss you all and hope all is well! 

Love, 

Elder Grochmal. 

July 1st-8th

Hello Everyone! 

Just another amazing week here in the beautiful Біла церква, украіїна! That is Bila Tserkva, Ukraine in Ukrainian of course! Well this week is transfer week. Dont worry my companion and I are staying here in Bila! The other Elders though got moved out. Well Elder Quinn is going home and Elder Droubay got transferred. So now there is just one set of Elders and one set of Sisters here. We are going to have a lot more work to do. We took on 4 recent converts and 2 investigators from the other Elders plus all of ours also. We are going to be very busy!! I cant believe my first transfer in the field is coming to an end. It feels like yesterday I was stepping of the plane so confused and lost. I love Ukraine so much! Well our week went a little like so: 

Monday was P-day of course and we just did all the normal stuff. We went to our normal eating place for lunch with the other Elders, Буфет! It is way good. I usually get pizza. So for dinner we went to a family in the branch, the Офечукс. They are so nice and so awesome. They kinda have been less active but they are coming back to church alot more and the dad should be getting the Melchezideck Priesthood next week and then they will go and get sealed in the Temple! Very exciting for them. But the coolest thing ever happened while we were there. So my name that I have right now has my name spelt as Грокмал (Grokmal) It is very hard for Ukrainian to say because of the G sound at the beggining. So I talked to some natives and they said my name should be spelt Крахмал. It souinds the same but way easier to say. So I ordered some new name tags! Well Obviously we all know our family is from Ukraine. Well when I told this family that my name should be spelt the new way they were like we know people that live here with that exact last name!!! They said they would try to find where they live and we will go knock on the door and be like well we have the same last name, so now be baptized! haha. But really though it is so exciting to see all the members get so excited when I tell them my ancestors are from here and my last name is Ukrainian!! 

Tuesday was a very good day also. We had District Meeting in the morning. It was Elder Quinns last district meeting ever as a missionary! It was pretty crazy! He shared some very good insights with us! It was so cool to serve around him for my first transfer. He taught me so much about how to be a good missionary. 

Well on Wednesday I was on an exchange with Elder Droubay! He is so awesome. We had a lesson with our investigator Иван (Evan)! He is about 16 and way cool. He has been taught quite a bit so we jsut talked to him about the For Strength of Youth panflet and challenged him to read it. At night we had English club. We had game night again which was so much fun. Everyone loved it. We played this fun animal game and everyone was being so funny. After that we went to a sister in our Branches house to teach her. She was telling us about how she has been working in her Celo. It like a little village. We asked if we could help and we went on thursday to help! 

Well that brings me to Thursday July 4!  We went out there and helped Сестра Ольга! (Sister Olga). She is so awesome. We took a bus out there and started to work. I felt like I was back up in Canada on the farm. It looked just like it! We went to her little house that was soooooo old and we got in the attick and cleaned it all out. It took a while then we had a bunch of trash and I was like so where does this go? She was like well we just make a fire and burn it! haha. She then she made us some good Ukrainian Borsch! It was way good. 

Friday was a busy day with lessons! We first taught one of our investigators Руслан (Rooslan)! He is from English and pretty interested. We talked about the Plan of Salvation. He acctepted everything and we hope to set a baptisimal date this week with him! We then had a lesson with a recent convert Sergey. We watched the Restoration movie and talked about it. After that we went to a ladys house and gave her a blessing and then shared a spiritual thought. The church has only been here about 21 years and she has been a member for 20! She is so awesome and so strong! We then finished the night with another member lesson with another member who has been a member for 20 years. She was so nice and so awesome! We challenged he to share the gospel more and invite a friend to church! 

Not much happened saturday. We had a lesson with a recent convert Deema! He is way cool and we just went over the commandments. He is so solid and is going so strong in the church! So for youth game night we had it at the church. You never gonna guess what we played! Our family favorite MAFIA!! I was so happy to play except when I realized we would play in Russian! It seriously brought me back to all the times we have played as family and friends. One round I was mafia and I ended up winning! Everyone was so mad at me cause I totally fooled them all! 

So on Sunday we had the whole branch watch the missionary broadcast finally. It was so awesome. While they watched it in Ukrainian we watched it in English in the Family History room. haha. We then had a testimony meeting after and it was so awesome. So many of the members just talked about missionary work and then the branch president got up there and threw down saying we need to help the missionaries way more! It was so awesome. The members here are so amazing! We had to say goodbye to the other Elders also. That was a bummer! We then went to a members house for a lesson. They were so awesome! The Рабаконс (Rabokon)! We just talked about being better member missionaries and played a fun game with the kids! They were so crazy. 

Well that was basically my week. Sorry it was pretty long! We have been very very busy lately. We have been trying to fill our planners as much as possible with lessons so that we can keep getting referalls from members. It is pretty easy when the members are so awesome and there is about 90 in the branch. Well We have a lesson tonight with a new referall from our branch president. It is at his house so we are hoping all goes well! Well have a good week everyone. I love you all! 

Love,

Elder Grochmal! 

Cleaning!

Borscht!

June 24th-July 1st

Hello Family and Friends!!

Well, another great week has gone by here in Ukraine. First off today being July 1, Happy Canada Day!! haha Everything is going great. This past week was awesome and very busy and usual. Today are mission officially split creating the new Lviv mission. We got a lot smaller and only have Russian speakers in our mission. Our mission president wrote us today and let us now that for now on he and his wife will only be speaking Russian to us for the most part. That means all interviews and everything will be in Russian. Also we have to write a 100 word paragraph to our mission presidents wife each week in Russian to improve our typing skills in Russian. This is going to make me have to learn the language way faster! haha. I am way excited! 

Well the week went a little like this:

Last monday I got my first haircut here in Ukraine. I was a little nervous cause I have heard  some horror stories because of the language barrier. So I sat down and the lady said something to me and I didnt understand her at all so I just pointed to my companion and he said something. It was pretty funny. He totally could of messed with me and told he to buzz it but he didnt. It turned out looking goood. haha. 

Tuesday we had our district meeting like normal. But for this district meeting the Zone Leaders came down from Kiev and the other elders from our district that live like 3 hours away came down also! It was such a good meeting. The zone leaders called me last week and asked me to give a spiritual thought. It was way cool and luckily it was in English of course. haha. After district meeting we started an exchange and I was with Elder Walker. He is from Las Vegas. We went to two lessons. It was so much fun to see his ways of teaching and he helped me learn alot. So Tuesday night we had the Zone Leaders and the other two elders all sleep at our apartment. It was so much fun to just talk to all of them and here all their stories since they have been here for so long! 

So we started Wednesday with another exchange. This time I was with one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Pace. He is so legit. Its kinda crazy, he is way young and just turned 19 but has been on his mission for over a year. He got to go early on his mission cause his parents were called as Mission Presidents. So we went and did lots of walking around in Bila. We talked to lots of people and got some numbers. He taught me so much about the language. He speaks Russian very good and helped me so much. 

Well nothing to exciting really happened on thursday except for the biggest craziest thunder storm of my life. We were sleeping and got woken up but literally the biggest storm ever. The lightning was nuts. The sky was basically just constantly lit up because of the constant lightning. The thunder was literally shaking our apartment! It was so nuts. I couldnt sleep for like an hour because it was way too loud. 

So on Friday we had our weekly splits with the branch members. I got to go our with our Branch Mission Leader. He is so amazing and doesnt know a word of English! haha. Se went out in his car to go visit a member. It was so cool. We actually talked like the whole time. It was such a cool experience to be in Ukraine with nobody that could translate for me and I was able to talk to him the whole time. I mean obviously it wasnt the best Russian coming from me but he understood me most of the time. haha. Our lesson actually fell through so we just came back to the church and waited for Elder Fisher to get back. 

Saturday was such an amazing day! We had a baptism!!! We had 2 little 8 year year old boys and then one investigator that the other set of elders here taught! It was seriously the coolest baptism ever! We actually had the opportunity to teach the little kids for the past couple of weeks all the lessons. Their dads asked us to and wanted them to hear it so we got to be good friends with them. They are such little studs! Their names were Kareel and Bogdan! The other man, Sergey,  is so awesome. He was so ready for the Gospel in his life. I am so happy for him! At the baptism us missionaries here and two youth sang Come Though Fount for everyone! We obviously sang it in Ukrainian because that is the preffered language here in Bila! My companion has a video he will post on his blog so watch it!! http://elderfishermission.blogspot.com/  Saturday night we had youth night like normal. It was way fun and we had a good turnout. We played capture the flag. 

Yesterday was a very good Sunday. At church the 3 newest members got confirmed. My companion and I got to stand in the circle for the little boys. It was such a powerful experience and I was so happy for these two boys to be baptized! They are gonna be such awesome members of the church here and help the church grow here in Ukraine. We went to two different families house to share with them a lesson. We went to the Tovmash's first. They are so amazing and they are the first family thah I ever went to my first day here in Ukraine. We then went to Bogdan's house. The branch mission leader. He is so amazing and has such a good strong family. 

Well that is basically all for the week. I love being here. I love to see the work continue to grow here in Ukraine. The branch here in Bila just continues to grow and grow. I know the work will continue to grow especially with the help of the members. That is so key to our success as missionaries. Well I hope you all have a good week. I love you all! 

Love 

Elder Grochmal 

                                                         

   Cherry trees everywhere

A huge apartment complex we were tracting in

Knocking on a door haha