The Ukrainian Bear

August 5th-11th

Привет!

Hello Family and Friends!

Another week gone by in Ukraine. Everything is going good here. We had another great week. It was soooooo (Жаркий) hot this past week. Lets just say I was full sweat like all day every day this past week. It was so crazy. The work is a little slow to be honest right now. The whole mission is a little slow but we are continuing to work our hardest to bring people unto Christ. The language is getting a little better. Russian is still very difficult of course and it is especially hard here in Billa because of all the Ukrainian! It is very fun to continue to learn and speak to people though. I love Russian!!

Well our week was good. We had a lesson on Monday night with an investigator. He is doing good but still doesnt see the importance in coming to church. We have really tried to work hard with him and get him to come. He reads the Book of Mormon just about everyday and knows it is true. He just has a hard time comitting to the church and coming every Sunday. We are continuing to work with him!

Tuesday we had district meeting in the morning then a couple lessons at night. We first met with two recent converts, Миша и Галя, Meesha and Galia. They are so awesome. We watched the Restoration film with them. We then went and taught our other recent convert Сергей. Sergey! He is so cool and is doing awesome. We then went and taught a member Брат Офечук, Brother Ofaechook. He is soooo awesome but is struggling with smoking. We are helping him stop smoking. We made a plan with him and we are way excited! He is so funny though. He speaks soooo fast and speaks soooo much!

Not much happened Wedesday. We just helped a member Коля, Kolya finish digging his hole. It is finally all done. We then had English at night which was good. We had a good turnout as always!

Thursday was also a slow day. We spent a lot of time out on the streets talking to people. It went pretty good. We talked to some really good people. We found one man in particular with lots of potential. His name is Юрий, Yuri. He was way nice. So we told him like who we are and why we are here and he was interested. We have him a Book of Mormon and explained more to him about it. He seemed very interested and happy. We set up to meet with him the next day...

So Friday we met with our new investigator Юрий, Yuri. We met him at his work. So we got there and we asked him like what does he do for work. He was like do you know where Provo, Utah is? We kinda laughed and we were like of course. So he went on to tell us that he works for this like vitamin/natural stuff company from Provo. It was so funny. So random. So we started talking more about the Book of Mormon. He started to read it already and he really liked it. We also taught him about the Restoration. He said that he understood it. After the lesson we invited him to pray. He had never prayed in his life. It was so a cool experience. The Spirit was so strong. We are very excited for this man and hope that everything continues to go well with him.

Saturday was a slower day too. We spent lots of time on the streets. We then had English as always. I gave the spiritual thought after English. It was way cool. I feel my Russian is finally improving a little. We then had our normal youth night which was good. We had lots of non members come and play with us.

Sunday was another awesome day. Church was really good. We were sad cause Юрий, Yuri didnt show up but another investagor came. After church we had lunch then hit the streets for a while and then met with a member Паша, Pasha. He is so awesome and his family is so nice. We talked about being member missionaries and they said they would try to share the Gospel as much as possible.

Well that is basically all. We have really been trying to get the members even more involded here. They are already pretty amazing. We have really been trying to visit them and get them going. I love the work here. I love Ukraine! I am so happy to be here serving a mission and doing the Lord's work. I hope that you all have a great week and continue to help the missionaries!! I love all of you!

Love,

Старейшина Грашмал

Elder Grochmal