2 Angels Shovel Snow for Aged Ukrainian Painter

I don't think I even mentioned that a couple weeks ago we shoveled the drive by a recent converts home and her neighbor came out to help us. It was really his drive too and she knew that he would appreciate it so she asked us to do the whole thing. He told us that he was thinking about the snow and how he was going to remove it and he prayed to God. Then, in his words, two angels came to do it for him (us). We were in a bit of a hurry to get to Church so we didn't want to stay and talk too long. He asked us to come in for 5 minutes and see what he does. I told him we were in a hurry and that we'd love to come back and talk with him another time, but he insisted. He took us around to the back of his house and opened a door with 2 locks on it. We walked into a studio with over a hundred paintings, I'm sure. One was even about 8 feet from corner to corner. He said, "I have been doing this my whole life." The man's name is Шкурко Анатолий Никифорович, Shkurko Anatoliy Nikiforovich. I believe he's 84 years old now. He is a well known Ukrainian painter. He even told us he has paintings in Canada and the US. It was amazing to see a lifetime of work and achievement before my eyes. Wow. It was a special privilege to meet this man. We went back to visit him this past week and he gave each of us 2 paintings each. His lovely wife, Galya, fed us a nice snack and we gave them a Book of Mormon. They gratefully received it and said they would read it. It is such a privilege to be here serving in this country of such rich history.

The past week was certainly not a bad one. We found 3 new investigators in their teens. As we sat there and taught one of them, named Dmitry, I thought of my brother, Dan. They are almost the exact same age, but the only difference is, Dan knows of the reality of Jesus Christ's Restored Gospel and Dmitry doesn't. I pondered this and was filled with gratitude that my parents were so blessed to receive this great message and that they were faithful in raising us according to it's teachings. I feel so blessed that I know that The Church of Jesus Christ is alive and well on the earth and that we have a living prophet today. My thanks go out to all the missionaries that went before me to bring the Gospel into my life and into the lives of the great pioneer saints here in Ukraine.

Another of the investigators we found is a 15 year old girl. I was talking to a guy at a bus stop problem after 20:00 a little over a week ago, so it was dark and cold. Side note for imagery: The lighting is horrible here so it's quite dark in a lot of places at nice and for some reason they haven't figured out how to clear snow here so the sidewalks are often sheets of ice. Anyway, I was talking to a guy and preaching the Restored Gospel to him and he was honest enough to tell me he's really not interested. Hmm, I thought to myself and then noticed a girl off to the side who was listening. I knew she could here the conversation clearly, so I turned to her and asked, "Are you interested?" She responded in the affirmative. I began to teach her of Jesus Christ and His message for her and gave her a Book of Mormon. She said she would read it. After some phone tag we finally met and she showed up with another girl! The other girl, I learned is an inactive member who is in her class. It was a great lesson and I felt the Spirit testify powerfully through me as I told her that God is our loving Heavenly Father and that he knows and loves her. This Sunday that less active member came to Church.

We have many such experiences along with plenty of rejection. I don't have time to write about them all, but I know that this is when I am supposed to be at this time. Often when I tell people I like being in Ukraine they ask me why here. Many people think that life is so much back back where I came from and don't understand why I would want to be here. A couple days ago, I had the opportunity to explain to somebody the reason. I told her, "As we have explained, we believe that today there is a prophet and 12 apostles on the Earth. I believe that I have been called by a Prophet of God to serve in Ukraine and to bring this message to the Ukrainian people. Jesus Christ is not on the Earth right now, but if He were here in Ukraine he would like it and he would love the people. We are representatives of Jesus Christ. For this reason, I am happy to be here and I love you." As our Nigerian investigator, Emeka, always says, "Glory be to God."

I'm learning and growing each day here. Some things are certainly challenging. Sometimes is patience, sometimes is endurance, sometimes it's hunger, sometimes rejection, but the Lord God is with me. I feel Angels round about us according to our worthiness. Everybody should serve a mission if at all possible. This is God's Kingdom in these latter-days.

My companion, Elder Drasso, will be flying to Bulgaria tomorrow to renew his visa, so I'm in Kiev and will be serving here until Friday. Thanks so much for all the love, support, and prayers. Please smile once for me, then keep smiling for you. We are all children of God. I pray that you may feel His love in your life. Hallelujah.

- Elder Jonathan Mahoney

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2 in 300,000

Not a bad week. Well, one thing is bad. I don't like how I'm not allowed to hold babies. That's probably the most annoying rule to me. It hit me hard yesterday when we met a member on the bus on the way to Church yesterday. From the bus stop it's about a kilometre to the Church so we walked next to her while she carried her baby the whole way and couldn't help at all. Well, rules are rules I guess. I will be looking forward to holding me some babies when I get home. Haha.

What else... It was a fairly quiet week. Oh yeah, junk! Transfers were last week. And I... didn't get transferred! Yay! I'm pumped to be here in Chernigov. The members rock. Something crazy and unexpected happened in our city. The other companionship of Elders both got transferred! And they closed their area for now. We just don't have enough misssionaries in our mission right now. I know that's the case in probably most places in the world, we need more missionaries! We went over and cleaned out their apartment. We're going to be holding onto the apartment, so hopefully it won't be too long until the other area opens up again, but for now it's just Elder Drasso and I. There is no other area like this in our mission. We are the only 2 missionaries in this city with over 300,000 people, the only 2 in our district and we're about 2 hours from the closest missionaries. Interesting stuff.

I gotta mention a guy who just came back from his fourth mini-mission. His name is Vova Yarmak and he is one of the coolest guys I have ever met. He has his mission papers in not so he'll be getting his call sometime soon for a 2 year mission and he's already served 6 months! Somehow we hit it off pretty much instantly. We have so much in common. We're just totally on the same wavelength. He's an amazing member/missionary and a powerful teacher. He has already helped us on a couple lessons and wants to know when all of our lessons are so he can help. I love the guy and I know this will be a long lasting friendship. He's trying to sort out a medical issue now so any prayers for him would be greatly appreciated. I think Mom actually may have uploaded a picture of him and I by a Christmas tree a while ago. Check it.

I don't think I have much else to say. The work is moving on. We had 2 investigators at Church and one of them was our Nigerian brother, Emeka. His full first name is Chukwuemeka which is from the Ibu language and apparently means "what God has done for us." I love him. It was the first time he came to church as he just recovered from a surgery and he said he'll be back next week! We had another investigator come too. She is very poor so the branch helps her pay for the bus to come to church. She literally doesn't have the 20 cents to take the bus and I have only ever seen her wear 2 different outfits. It's sad to see people in situations like that. She can't go to university because she doesn't have any money. I know the Church could bless her life so much. That's what the Gospel does for everybody who will let it.

I know Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. I'm already getting super excited for General Conference. I'm honored to be serving the Lord full-time. I want to be a better missionary. Please pray for us out here. There are miracles waiting on our faith to happen.

Much love from Ukraine,

Elder Jonathan Mahoney

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Hitchhiking to the Belarussian Border

This week we spent more than a day in Kiev. We were down on Wednesday for a combined District Meeting which went really well. It was conducted by President Steinagel. Then we had interviews and Elder Drasso and I had the chance to go to the temple for a session! I love the Kiev Temple and the temple in general. I feel like 6 weeks is not often enough for me to go, but I know that it's just for these next 2 years. After this I definitely need to strategically locate myself close to temples. We were then asked to help with sealings. It was really awesome. The sealer spoke English though which was kinda too bad. We helped him pronounce some of the names sometimes. I sat there and imagined someday when all the temple workers and sealers are going to be native Ukrainians. That day is not that far off and it's going to be amazing. I imagined a Ukrainian man with the same spiritual and ecclesiastical experience as that man and I know that isn't that far off. I'm so excited to be a part of this work here.

 

I got some mail this past week and found out something really cool. A latino friends wrote me from Montreal and said she was talking to a friend of hers from Peru. She said I met her in Montreal, but might not remember her. They were talking and the Peruvian, Andrea, mentioned that her brother would be serving in Ukraine. My friend said, cool, maybe they'll meet. Then they next day she saw a picture of me with Elder Saenz at the mission office on his first day! So, apparently I know Elder Saenz' sister Andrea. It must be God's will that we serve in Ukraine together. I love when things like that happen.

 

On Friday we went out to visit a family in a small village with the Branch President Solomein. We left before 07:00 and didn't get home until about 17:30. It was quite the trip. We took a bus to some other village and ended up walking about 6 km on the snowy, icy road and then hitched another 12 km. The three of us squeezed in the front seat of a van with the driver for an exciting ride. It's a pretty isolated spot so it's pretty understandable that they can't make it to Church. The village is called Dobryanka if somebody wanted to look it up on a map. We could see the Belarus border from where we were, just a tree line, but pretty neat. I don't completely understand why people choose to live out there. There are a lot of villages like that all over the country.

 

The coolest thing this week was Sunday! We had 35 people in sacrament meeting! 4 of them where our investigators and 3 more were less actives we've been working with. We made a huge amount of apple pie on Saturday night for the little lunch we had after the meetings on Sunday. That was a good time. I love this branch. I'm attaching a picture of the branch on that day (after a few people had already left) and a me in front of the temple. I love this Branch.

 

I love serving here. I'm grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord full-time. I know this Church is God's Kingdom on the earth today. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ and am so grateful for His example to me. He's the awesome big brother I don't have on earth. Thanks all for your love and support. I feel your prayers for me.

 

Love,

Elder Mahoney

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True Pioneers

I have 15 minutes to write this email, so I'm going to touch on something very significant that happened this week. A woman from our branch in Chernigov died on Wednesday night. Her name is Baba Zina, short for Babushka Zinaida. Babushka means grandmother. She was 94 years old and died of natural causes. She was baptized 12 years ago and she has been so faithful and done so much for the Church in this part of the world. Around the time I arrive here she stopped walking and I visited her twice while she was living to give her the sacrament. She would always bear testimony to us continuously. She would say, "I know that this Church is true and that I am a daughter of God." "I love my Lord." "I know that I have lived a righteous life and I will soon see my relatives on the other side." Elder Stokes told me that the Sunday before she died one of the last things she said to him was "Fsegda, molyus ya za svyatikh misioneri." That means, "I always pray for the holy missionaries." I know that she did. She was such a good example of faith and devotion. She was known and loved by all. I am so grateful to have had the chance to meet her and I know I will see her again.

On Thursday night we went to her apartment. They have many interesting customs that I don't understand fully, but I believe they don't touch the body for 24 hours. When we went, she had been dressed in her temple robes and she was laying peacefully under a nice white blanket. As a small group of members alongside her body we sang and prayed and shared our memories of this great woman. It touched my heart to hear these members testimonies. All of them are literal pioneers in this country. They all serve and sacrifice so diligently. I am so grateful to be serving here at this time. We sang "God Be With You, Til We Meet Again" as a closing hymn. The literally translation from Russian would be more like "God by with you during the period of time we are not seeing each other." I love that because it really is just a brief period of time and I know I will have a chance to see Baba Zina again. Although she never really knew me, I know she loves me and I cannot help but love her too.

On Friday morning we went for the funeral service. Myself, my companion, Brother Shkroba, and President Solomein carried her small body down 6 flights of stairs in a blanket and layed her gently in a red coffin. They tied a bandanna on our arms and I rode in the van-hearse. We sang I Need Thee Every Hour as they lowered her into the grave and then I helped fill it. On Sunday President commented on how small her body was and how little she left on earth, but how great her spirit is and how much she took with her. Wow. I love this Church. Thanks for the love and support everybody.

Godspeed,

Elder Mahoney

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