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
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