The Ukrainian Bear

March 3rd-9th

Dear Family and Friends!

Finally a full normal week has past by! First time in a while that we didnt have to be stuck inside at all! It was a really good week! The weather here has been so awesome as of late! It is warming up and starting to feel like spring! Well saturday we received transfer information and I found out that I will be staying here in Center Kiev with Elder Hinkson again as the Zone Leaders! I am really excited about serving another transfer with him here since so much of this transfer was spent locked up because of the political stuff! Well last week was very awesome!

So tuesday we had district meeting like normal! It was very good! I really love my district here is Center Kiev! Oh by the way, our whole district is actually staying the same this next upcoming transfer so that is exciting! After district meeting we met with a recent convert who is awesome! He wants to serve a mission so we are helping him alot get ready! At night we went over to some members house and had a lesson! They fed us some awesome Urkainian food! It was so good! We had a great lesson with them!

Wednesday morning we woke up and went to the misison office then got on a bus and headed down to a city called Cherkassy! We went to go to exchanges with the missionaries down there! It was about a 3 hour bus ride! It was way fun! It is such an awesome city! Once we got there I went on an exchange with the District Leader down there Elder Peterson! He was the one in the hospital up here! He is doing better kinda..... haha. He was born in Russia but got adopted to America when her was about 9 or 10! So he speaks English and Russian perfectly! So awesome! It was lots of fun! We had English at night at it went so good! I helped them alot with their English program and just shared some cool ideas!

On Thursday we started another exchange with the other Elders down there! I went with Elder Shultz! He is in his 4th transfer! He is such a stud! We had a great day with a few lessons and learned a whole lot from each other! At night we got back on a bus and headed back to Kiev! This time though we brought Elder Peterson with us cause he was having some medical problems so he had to come to the doctors up here in Kiev!

Friday morning we woke up and took Elder Peterson to the hospital! We were there for quite a while helping him and making sure all was well! They finally decided to just keep him in there for a while so we left! We went over to a members house that ended up living right by the hospital to have a lesson with her! She was the nicest sweetest lady ever! She fed us the most food I have eaten even on my mission! She fed us Borsch (soup) first which was so good! Then she brought out a salad that was all vegetables! Amazing! Then she brought out Rabbit! It was SOOO AMAZING!!! Like it was seriously delicious! haha. Then we had a bunch of desserts! It was so crazy! We then had a great lesson with her! Overall it was such an amazing stop by!

So Saturday we woke up and went to the mission office in the morning to drop off some stuff and pick stuff up! It was cool cause we got to see 3 new misssionaries that just got here! So in Russia all the missionaries serving there from Ukraine had to come back to Ukraine because of Visa issues so we met 3 new missionaries that are from Ukraine that were serving in Russia! They were so awesome! They didnt know any English at all! haha. We then had English and went to visit Elder Peterson in the hospital and give him some stuff to keep him busy! haha

Yesterday was an awesome day at church! It was nice to finally have normal church at our building after 2 weeks of it being cancelled! After church we went with a member, actually the former Stake President here, to go to a hospital where his son in law is to give him a blessing and the sacrament! It was so crazy! The hospital was not the nicest! It was a good experience though that I will never forget! We then went and gave the sacrament to Elder Peterson up in his hospital which is very very nice! haha. It is called the American Medical Center!

Well that is basically my week! It was a very good one! This week we are having a mission/zone conference here in Kiev so I am very excited about that! I am excited to learn alot from our mission president and his wife! Well I love you all so much and hope that you have a great week!

Love

Elder Grochmal