Dear Friends and Family!

   This past week was a huge week for our mission. We got a new mission president! I will tell more about him and everything later on in the letter!

   Well Tuesday and Wednesday Elder Knight and I both got really sick again. It was so lame. The illness left us Monday but then came back and hit us hard. We were both not feeling the best so those two days were not the most fun.

  Thursday was a good day. We had a great day finally out of the house doing work again. We had to do some stuff in the office to get ready for the new mission president. We then had a lesson at night with a member.

   Friday was pretty crazy. It was the last day before the new president got here. We had to run around and do a bunch of stuff for President Klebingat. We had to go buy some stuff for him and for the new president. It was just a crazy day running around doing stuff for the president! At night we had a big Ward Musical Night! It was way fun. Lots of members came and we had a great time!

   Saturday! President Packer arrived! So in the morning we went to the mission office and got with President Klebingat and drove to the airport. We then picked up the whole Packer family! They have 4 kids. The oldest is 14 and the youngest is 6! They were so tired from their flights over here but they were doing awesome. We got all of their luggage and then went back to the mission office. We then had a lunch/dinner with the Packers and with the Klebingats! It was such a special moment to be with both my mission presidents! I got to sit by them while we ate and it was so amazing to just talk to both of them about the mission. President Packer is so awesome and so excited and ready to do work here in our mission. After lunch President Klebingat took them to the mission home! So we had to say by to the Klebingat family. I didn’t think it was going to be so hard to say bye to them. This past month serving as President Klebingat’s assistant really has been an amazing experience. I have grown so much and have learned so much from him. I am going to miss him so much. It was really hard to say bye!! At night we went and played soccer with some investigators and members in a cool park!

   Church yesterday was really good. I gave a talk in our ward. So a few weeks ago I spoke in the international ward in English and spoke about obedience! So yesterday I spoke in our normal ward about the same exact thing but in Russian this time! Haha. It was really cool. I just talked about keeping the commandments and always remembering to do the little things! Always remember to read from the scriptures daily and praying daily. I think that It turned out well. Always something funny I noticed today at our church. I was the only person in sacrament meeting to speak a word of Russian. Every single member that spoke and prayed only spoke in Ukrainian. It is so hard for us missionaries to understand and follow what they are talking about!

This morning we played basketball and soccer in the church with some missionaries and President Packer's sons! It was so much fun!

   Well that is it for our week. It was definitely an interesting week receiving a new mission president. I am very excited to work with President Packer! He is an amazing man! We have already done a lot of planning and different stuff with him. These next few weeks are gonna be interesting to see how the mission adjusts to him and how he runs the mission. I know the Lord is leading and guiding us as a mission here in Ukraine. I love serving here! I love you all and have a great week!

Love

Elder Grochmal  

 Homemade Tortillas 

 Cruising on an empty bus! This doesnt ever happen!

 Last day with President Klebingat! This is us at the airport!

The Packers have arrived!! They have 4 kids! 2 in the front and the two boys in the back. The girl between me and President Klebingat is the daughter of President Klebingat! It was such a crazy cool experience to be with them!

Dear Family and Friends!

This past week has been a very busy week like always!

So last Tuesday we went to a different district meeting which was about 45 minutes away up in the north east part of Kiev. We just went because our President has asked us to kinda travel around to other district meetings! It was a great district meeting. There are lots of great missionaries up there. We then got on a bus and headed up to a city up in northern Ukraine called Chernigov! It was about a 2 hour bus ride! Once we got there we started an exchange with some missionaries. I was with Elder Harington. He is such an awesome missionary and we had a great day. We went over to a recent converts house and we made Verenky! Well you family know them as Perogies! It was so much fun! They were so delicious! We then went to their church and went to English Class! It was awesome. They had a ton of people show up. After English we just talked with a bunch of the people that came. It was very cool.

Wednesday morning we had district meeting up in Chernigov. It was another awesome district meeting. A lot of good stuff was talked about and lots of new stuff learned. After district meeting we got on a bus and headed back down to Kiev. We then started another exchange. I went with Elder Porter. He is a zone leader in Center Kiev. It was way awesome because I got to go back to Center Kiev and work there with him. I miss Center Kiev a lot! At night we went to their English Class. It was so cool to see so many familiar faces.  When I left that area I wasn’t really given anytime to say goodbye to everyone there so it was nice to get back there and see everyone!

Thursday I got back with Elder Knight in the late afternoon and we just went and stopped by some less actives all night.

Friday we went and did some service out in a little village far away. It was so much fun. We went with a couple other missionaries. We helped lay some concrete and then we helped build some walls on a house! It was pretty sweet. The family that lives out there are so amazing. They are so active and strong in the church. Every time we are there they always bring us inside their house and we sing songs around the piano and have a little spiritual thought. It is so much fun.

Saturday was a big day. First off I woke up feeling so sick and had a temperature of about 101. I had to just push through it because Saturday was our big Mission Conference. It was our last one with President Klebingat. It was such a good conference. It is still so crazy that he is leaving next weekend. It was pretty sad for everyone to have to say bye to him for the last time here on the mission. I will still be seeing him a lot this week so I didn’t have to say goodbye yet! Haha. After the conference we went to sports night over in Center Kiev. We played soccer with a bunch of people for a while. I was still feeling so sick!

Yesterday I still was so sick. Very high fever and a very upset stomach!

Today I am doing better!

Well That is all for my week! This upcoming week is big because our new president gets here on Saturday and President Klebingat leaves on Sunday! It is going to be a very interesting weekend. Well I love you all so much. I hope you all have a great week! 

Love

Elder Grochmal 

 Up in Chernigov!

 Our whole mission together one last time with President Klebingat!

 Elder Knight and Elder Manning 

 Taco Salad that we made! 

 Going up to Chernigov

 Making perogies!

 These were so delicious! 

Elder Boyce!

Sports Night! 

Week of June 9th-15th

Dear Family and Friends!

This past week has been another awesome one here in Ukraine! Things are going great here and I am just loving life right now! I forgot to tell you but last week was transfer week. I am still staying with Elder Knight as one the Assistants! I am so happy because I love serving with him. This transfer is when we get our new mission president which is so exciting! I cant believe that today is the official beginning of my 10^th transfer! It is so weird because I am becoming one of the older missionaries in the mission. It does not feel that way at all. I still feel so young! It is very strange! Well we had a pretty crazy week!

On Tuesday we had district meeting in the morning. It was very good. Usually we have always had district meetings all in English but we starting doing them in Russian now! It was very interesting but so cool to have a district meeting in Russian. It was a descision from our President because he has realized that we have no young missionaries! Because of the situation here in Ukraine we haven’t received any new missionaries for 4 transfers and aren’t getting any till probably the new year!!!! Before we had a very young mission and with Russian being so difficult district meetings were always in English. It is so cool to see how much our mission has grown! After district meeting we had to go to the train station to buy some tickets for transfer week because there was a mistake with the tickets we ordered!

Wednesday we went to a city called Vinnitsya! It is west of Kiev! It was about a 3 hour train ride! We had to go because we had to deliver some tickets for some missionaries because they had the wrong ones and weren’t going to make it to transfers! While we were there we met with some missionaries and had a little meeting. It was a really good little meeting! So this city Vinnitsya is soooooo beautiful. I want to serve there so bad! It is by the far the prettiest city in our mission! That night we then got on a train to come back home!

So Thursday was transfer day so we had to help a few missionaries at the office with the stuff. At night we had such an amazing experience. So the last few weeks I have been telling you about a member who we have been going to visit who has a non member husband! So we went over there on Thursday and the wife wasn’t home but the non member husband was here alone. He let us in and we got talking with him for a while. It was so amazing cause usually he doesn’t talk to us at all. We talked to him for a solid 45 mins about life and of course we brought up the church and invited him. As we were leaving we got out of the elevator and boom the wife was there. She was shocked to see us and asked us what we were doing and we told her we just met with her husband for the last 45 minutes. She started to cry. It was so amazing. She was so happy and just thanked us so much. It was a moment I will never forget. She has been trying her whole life just for him to talk to the missonaries and he always refused. It was so cool for us to get to have a solid 45 minute discussion with him. We are really praying and hoping that he will start to open up more with us and learn more about the church.

Friday we went to a little city called Brovary right outside of Kiev to do a baptismal interview. Elder knight did the interview. After that we got on a bus and went out to Zhytomyr! It is another city west of Kiev. We went to go on exchanges with the zone leaders out there.

So on Saturday I got to go on an exchange with Elder Boyce! He was my MTC companion. It was my first time on my mission getting to go on an exchange with him. It was so much fun. It was so strange cause last time we were on a lesson together was in the MTC when we didn’t know any Russian! So we had two lessons during the day. It was so awesome to be with him and to get to have some time to talk about our missions so far and everything that we have done. I love Elder Boyce so much and hope that I get to serve around him or with him sometime soon. At night time we got back on a bus and traveled back to Kiev. About 2 hours on bus. It was a good little exchange!

Yesterday Elder Knight woke up way sick so we stayed home most of the day. He has something wrong with his throat and he is all dizzy and stuff! Haha. He is doing better today!

Well that is all for this week! It was another crazy busy week! Only two more weeks with President Klebingat then President Packer is coming! It is going to be a very exciting time! This Saturday we are having our last mission conference with President Klebingat! I am so excited. It is going to be so weird and sad once President Klebingat leaves but It ok because I will see him on TV in a few months at General Conference time…. Hint hint… Well I love you and all hope you all have wonderful weeks!

Love

Elder Grochmal 

 Family Home Evening!

 BBQ

 SO GOOOOD!!!

 Hitch hiking home! Seriously! That is how we got home.... 

 Vinnitsya!

 Famous Hammer Things!

 Zhytomyr

 Elder Boyce