Monday, April 28, 2014

Hello Family and Friends! 

Well life is so good here in Ukraine! It has been another crazy busy week! It was my companions last week which was very weird. I dont have much time today so this will be a quick one! Sorry! Also for next transfer I will be staying in Center Kiev! MY new companion will be Elder Hales! He is from the Donestk mission! He was the assistant over there! I am way excited! We will still be the zone leaders! 

So Tuesday was our last District Meeting as the district we have right now! It was very weird. We then went to the Temple site cause my companion Elder Hinkson had his final interview with President! 

Wednesday we went on exchanges!  I was up in Northern Kiev with Elder Sitze! It was way good! We met with some members and had a great day! 

So Thursday, Friday and Saturday were amazing! So Remember my trainer Elder Fisher! Well he is also going home tomorrow! So he got special permission from President to go with me back down to Billa where he trained me for 3 transfers! It was SO AMAZING!!!! We had such a good time! We met with soooooo many members and some old investigators of ours! We also went out to the American's (Stan) house! It was so much fun! Also none of the members knew that we were coming so they were all so shocked! They were all freaking out when they saw both of us back together down there! It was one of the best days of my mission! I am going to miss Elder Fisher so much! He is so amazing and taught me soooo much! I will always remember getting trained by him down in Bila Tserkva! Some of the best times of my mission! 

So yesterday here in Kiev was Stake Conference! It was way cool! It was at this big theater the church rented out because none of the buildings are big enough to fit us! The talks were really good even though some were in Ukrainian so those we couldnt understand really! haha. 

Well I am sorry this letter is so short! I have no time! I love you all so much! I promise next week I will write a better letter! I hope you all have a great week! Also shout out to Caroline and Travis for there wedding this weekend! I am sad I cant be there but SO HAPPY for you two! 

Love
Elder Grochmal 






 Laying in the metro
 Our Ward mission leader Brother Pykoolevych. 

 Doing some service here in kiev for some members!

 Elder Knighton 







 STAN!




 My favorite family in Bila! The first family i ever met in Ukraine! 



 Elder Fisher!
 Stake Conference


 Our huge district!

 My new suit!




The Koniks!


 Elders Witt and Claypool




Monday, April 21, 2014

Week of April 14th-20th

Dear Family and Friends! 

Another week gone here in Kiev! This past week was a good one! It was a very busy as usual! Also on Wednesday we received some big news! All the missionaries who have one transfer left are going home early next week because our mission has way too many missionaries! So yes that means my companion Elder Hinkson is going home and also my trainer Elder Fisher is going home! It is so crazy! We have sooooo many missionaries right now because of the closing of the Donetsk mission. Our president said that our mission would be just fine with about 80 or 90 missionaries! We now have 200 missionaries!!! 

Well my week went a little like this!

So Tuesday we had a big mission/zone conference with all 3 zones in Kiev. So basically it was every missionary except all the missionaries in Odessa! It was such an amazing conference! It was my first time seeing President Klebingat since he was sustained as a member of the first quorum of the seventy! It was pretty amazing! He told us all about his trip to Salt Lake! It sounded so amazing! He told us about when President Uchtdorf set him about as a member of the seventy! It was so cool to hear everything about his trip and his experiences he had while at Conference! I am so grateful to be serving here with President Klebingat! He truly is an amazing man! I noticed something different about him! He just seemed different! So after the conference we got on a bus and headed down to a city called Cherkassy to do exchanges! 

Wednesday morning I went on exchanges with Elder Gill! He is so awesome! He is still pretty young! This is when my companion got the call from President Klebingat to tell him his mission would be ending 6 weeks early! He was pretty bummed but he knew it was for the right reason! So the day went very good! I had a great exchange with Elder Gill! He is such a good missionary! We then had English at night which was very good! 

On Thursday we came back to Kiev in the morning on a bus! It is about 3 hours away! It was a good bus ride! Not too crowded! haha. We then had a lesson and then had english! It was way good! English is always good. In our mission English has really become the biggest way of finding investigators! It is so awesome! 

Friday was a good day! So my companion obviously has a lot to do because he goes home in less than a week so we had to run a bunch of errands and stop by people! It has been very crazy lately! At night we had a lesson with an investigator! It was awesome! This investigator is doing great! He is still scheduled to get baptized in a few weeks!

On saturday we had english in the afternoon which was good! Saturday night I went on a little exchange with a missionary from Donestk who is living with us! We went to the skatepark and contacted all of our friends! It was so awesome! We got a bunch of new numbers and also invited so many kids to English! It was so awesome! 

Sunday! Easter! It was a great day! It was my companions last sunday at our ward because next sunday is Stake Conference here! He gave a great talk and also sang! It was way cool! Because it was Easter we had so many people at church! It was way cool! 

That is basically all for the week! Also news we just got today! So last December we were informed that President McGhie would be our next misison president when President Klebigat leaves in July! So today we found out because of work President McGhie will not take over but Kenneth Packer will take over! He is President Packer of the twelves grandson! He has four kids! Youngest is 6 and oldest is 15 so they are still very young! He also speaks Russian! I am excited about getting him as a new president! Well I love you all so much! I hope you all have a great week! Love you! 

Love
Elder Grochmal 

 Cool soccer stadium


 Cherkassy






 The mission without Odessa
 My MTC district