Working out in the morning! I bench press this bad boy!

 Members house out in the village!

 Picking pears!

 Soccer stadium near our house!

 Baptism!

 The river!

 Random fire

Hello family and friends!

Well here I am not in Kiev for the first time in 9 months on a P-Day!!! I am down here in Cherkassy now and it is going good! My companion is awesome and is doing great. So my week went like this-

Tuesday we had our last district meeting together in Kiev. It was sad to have to leave Center Kiev! I loved serving there so much! I was there for a really long time and it was like home to me! After district meeting we had lunch and then we went to the mission office. My companion and I and President Packer then went to the airport to pick up the new missionaries. It was strange because I knew that I would be training one of the new missionaries but I wasnt aloud to tell him because President was going to tell him in his first interview the next day! So we picked them up (2 elders, 1 sister) and we took them back to the mission office. We dropped some stuff off and then we had dinner with them at a restaurant. It was way fun!

Wednesday we had training in the morning for trainers and for trainees! It was good. It was cool cause we did it all is Russian because one of the new missionaries does not know any english! After the training meeting my new companion Elder Kokoriev and I got on a bus and headed down to Cherkassy! It is about 3 hours from Kiev! We then got to Cherkassy and dropped our bags off at home and then went to english practice at the church. It went very well.

Thursday and Friday we spent alot of time planning and trying to get to know the area and the members. We mad sooooo many calls! We dont know anything really about Cherkassy so we are working hard! We met with the Branch President and with our Missionary Coordination Leader! We got to know alot more about the work here. It was awesome!

Saturday we had English at night! Before English we had a lesson with an investigator. It went very well. He is a 18 year old guy who comes to english. We had a huge turn out for english which was awesome. Lots of cool people were there!

Yesterday was our first day at church here. It was really good. The branch here is awesome. We had about 60 people at sacrament which is way good. My companion and I bore our testimonies which was good! We got to meet lots of members and set up lots of meeting with them! After church we ate some dinner and then we went to an old lady's house in the branch to give her the sacrament and a blessing. She was so nice! It was an awesome night!

Well that is basically all I have. Overall it has been a crazy week! It has been a very very hard adjustment coming here. I love it though. I know the Lord gives us trials so that we can learn. I am just trying to stay positive and continuing to work hard! I love you all and thanks so much for everything!

Love

Elder Grochmal

 Back to normal!

 My final district meeting in Kiev

 My good friend Daniel! Leaves on a mission soon

 My companion bought a fish and cooked it. It was soo weird.

 my 12 planners so far

 New apartment!

 We live on the 8th floor of this building

My church in Cherkassy!

Dear Family and Friends! 

Well this past week was so crazy busy! We did so much. Also Saturday we found out transfer information. So I am officially down serving as an Assistant to my President. I will be leaving this week and going to serve down in a city called Cherkassy! There I will be training a new missionary that is a native from Lviv, Ukraine! I am so excited. I am pretty sad to leave this area of Center Kiev. I have served here 4 transfers (about 6 months) and I absolutely love it. It is going to be strange leaving. Also It has been such a blessing to get to serve so close with my Mission Presidents these last 4 transfers too. It was so amazing to be an Assistant to President Klebingat first and then to President Packer. I learned so much from them. They are my idols and I look up to them sooooo much! I know the Lord let me serve under then so that I could learn and become the missionary I am today! 

This past week we had alot! First Monday night we flew down to Odessa for zone conference! We flew with President and Sister Packer. It was way weird to be on a plane but also way fun! haha

Tuesday we had a zone conference in Odessa which went awesome. Elder Rich and I taught about planning for a while. It was really cool. After the conference we got on another plane and flew back to Kiev! 

On Wednesday we had another zone conference here in Kiev. It was with all 3 zones around Kiev so it was awesome. There were so many missionaries there! We taught the same thing there in Kiev about planning! It went really good! After the conference we went on exchanges with some zone leaders. I went with Elder Hale and we went out to a city called Zhytomyr! It was way awesome.

Thursday, I spent all day in Zhytomyr with Elder Hale. We had a couple of awesome lessons. We had one with a lady. We taught her about the Restoration and she loved it. It was such an amazing lesson. She said that she would read the Book of Mormon and that she wanted to know so much more! It was so cool to see how the Lord prepares people for our message! 

Friday we traveled back to Kiev. I got back with Elder Rich and did some planning and finding. We then had a lesson with a new investigator from English. It was also another amazing lesson. We taught him the first lesson about the Restoration and he really liked it. But here is something funny. For some reason he would not speak to us in Russian. He would only speak Ukrainian. It was sooooo hard! It was so cool though because my companion and I were able to understand most of it and have a greeat lesson. I know the gift of tongues is real! 

On saturday and sunday we watched all of General Conference! It was sooooo amazing! I felt like I learned soooo much! If any of you didnt watch the Saturday Afternoon session when Elder Klebingat speaks, I highly recommend it. I mean not cause he was my mission president but also because it was an amazing talk! I love him so much. It was so strange to see him up there givin a talk at General Conference! 

Well I love you all so much! Thanks for the emails. I hope you all have a great week! 

Love 

Elder Grochmal 

 Watching conference! President Klebingat speaking!!!

 Such a small airplane! 

 President and Sister Packer!

 Odessa! 

 The plane home was alot bigger than the one down!

 Odessa! 

 Teaching at zone conference!

 Elder Hale! Exchanges! 

 AMAZING ENCHILADAS!

 Elder Hale is amazing at soccer! Showing the kids whats up!

 My last day at church in Center Kiev with some amazing members! 

 1st Counselor in the Bishopric 

 Ward Lunch! 

The bishop on the left and then the second counselor on the right! They are so amazing! I will miss them!