No Time - In Kiev

Wow, it was definitely an interesting week. I'm really running out of time on the computer right now, but I'm not serving in Kiev with Elder Westin Cross! It's pretty wild to be here. It was a surprise that it happened so fast, but it's awesome. The Church is true.

- Elder Mahoney

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Sofia via Vienna

Most of my week was spent in or travelling to and from Sofia, Bulgaria to renew my visa. I travelled to Kiev on Monday and flew through Vienna to Sofia on Thursday. I went with 5 other Ukrainian-speaking missionaries who came to the country with me. It was a pretty cool trip overall. The Church rents an apartment in Sofia just for the Ukrainian missionaries who travel to renew their visas. While we're in Bulgaria we don't really have anything to do, so we just walk around and look at the city. There are also many American restaurants which we don't have here, so we eat a lot too. While I was there we went to Dunkin' Donuts, KFC, Burger King, a Chinese restaurant, and some other Bulgarian one. It was pretty cool. We don't have any of those restaurants in Ukraine.

Sofia is a really nice city. Really make Ukraine look like a 3rd world country. It's very clean there and almost everybody I talked to knew either English or Russian. Our visas are a little weird and say that we can only stay in the country for 90 days and apparently we were lucky to get back into the country because all the other missionaries in the MTC are not getting visas to Ukraine right now and they don't know when they'll be able to. Our Mission President isn't even leaving the country in case they don't let him back in. I guess they just changed some laws in September. I just heard that the new missionaries should come on December 5th. It'll be interesting to see what happens. I flew back in on Thursday and slept in Kiev, then took a train back to Khmelnitskiy on Friday. It is nice to be back "home." We're just settling back in and looking forward to another good week. I don't know too much more what to say.

I know that God lives. I feel His love in my life everyday and it's awesome to be a part of this work. Somehow it seems like I have less than half my mission left. I wanna make the best of it. Please pray that we can find some new people to teach. We need miracles.

Love,

Elder J. Mahoney

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"I don't understand Russian."

So, a few switch ups recently. There was an early transfer and Elder Alex Larsen went and switched places in Vinnitsya with Elder Jeremy Carnes who came here. It's kinda neat to have a new member in our district. I also found out last week that I'm going to Bulgaria tomorrow to renew my visa, so that'll be a neat trip. Times flying. It's pretty weird really.

This week was interesting. We talked to a lot of people. President Klebingat encouraged us, at the beginning of the week, to pray with people on the street. Then when we'd make a return appointment they'd already become new investigators. We were able to do that with 2 men on Tuesday which was great. The unfortunate thing is that neither of them came to the appointments and we can't get ahold of them. We've been able to teach quite a few people on the street though, amid dozens of rejections. We get some pretty funny rejections sometimes. I'll share a couple.

Yesterday morning I said "good morning" to a man in Russian and asked how he was doing. He responded in Russian, saying, "I don't understand Russian." I asked, "What do you mean?" He said something else back in Russian and I said, "You're speaking Russian right now," as he walked away. Haha. The other one that I got a kick out of a few days ago was a guy I approached, started to talk to and he just started shaking his head. I asked him, "What does that mean?" He started pretending to sign language. I laughed in his face and he smirked a little. What a goof. He could clearly hear me. Haha.

Yesterday evening we talked to a man for about 3 hours who said he was interested, but would not take anything. He said in the end that he was sure that his Church is the true church. I testified so boldly to him repeatedly about multiples points of doctrine and I could feel the Spirit bear witness of it. It's incredible sometimes how even when people understand our message they refuse to read and ask God. It didn't matter what I said at all, when it comes down to it we just invite others to find out for themselves. I hope that something I said to him will ring in his head and he'll come around sometime. He was a pleasant, big man, who used a lot of words I wasn't familiar with. Haha.

Things are going alright though there are still few people that will even listen to us. As I read the scriptures and wicked peoples are described I'm often amazed at how, unfortunately, it is describing exactly what I see around me. I know that there are people here who are ready for the message, I just pray that I can find some. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know it's the Truth. I was able to testify yesterday that I would die for it. I really would because it is true. It's a lot harder to live for it though, so that's what I'm working on. God lives. He knows and loves each one of us. I know these things to be true because the Holy Ghost has born witness to me.

Thanks for the prayers and the love,

Elder Jonathan Mahoney

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Living Apostles and Prophets

I just have to say that General Conference was amazing! We were able to watch it this past weekend and I loved the whole thing. I feel so blessed to know that Christ's Church is on the earth today and to have the opportunity to hear the inspired words of prophets and apostles today. God truly speaks in our day.

We also had President Klebingat over for Sunday. We had a brief meeting with him in the morning as missionaries and he continues to amaze me. Elder Hair and I were talking about it and concluded that we have a pretty hard time thinking of anything that's not awesome about him. I feel very blessed to have him as my mission president. I'm sure my relationship with him will bless me for the rest of my life.

Elder Hair and I are still having our struggles, but we're pressing forward. We're trying new things and though we're not seeing anybody progress or even be interested at the moment and I know that we are doing what we're supposed to and we're learning.

I love the Lord. It's a privilege to be involved in this work. I loved how Elder Holland called for more missionaries, young and old. I'm looking forward to seeing the response to that call. I know that the numbers are going to go up. I can feel that the Church is really moving forward. The stone that's rolling is growing and it won't stop. I love this. God is good.

Thanks for the love and support,

Elder Jonathan Mahoney

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The Beginning of Something Big

Another week just disappeared. I'm pretty sure I say something like that every week, but I always have that feeling at about this time. We've been really working harder to talk to more people and give more people a chance to hear our message. There are lots of people who are not ready yet. I can tell you that for sure. I'm pretty used to being rejected. I can do that all day. The trick is to have the faith that some people will eventually be interested. I have faith that they're out there. I'm really trying now to learn to follow the Spirit better, so we can just be lead to those who are ready. I know that the Church is going to grow here more that we can imagine today. I don't know how it's going to get going, but we're doing what we can to build more of a foundation.

One cool thing that happened this week was a service project. On Saturday morning we got to ride a boat to a little island and pick up garbage. There's a lot of garbage here. Most of it is alcohol bottles or cigarette packages really. If people would just keep the word of wisdom, I bet almost all the litter would be eliminated. It was neat though, the newspaper and TV were there and came out to the island too, so they didn't have anything to do, but take pictures of us. Haha. There were a few others on the island too, but mostly just our branch.

That afternoon we had a missionary day. We talked with the branch for a little bit beforehand, then we split up in groups and went out to share the gospel. It was great to be out with the members and preach. Again, nobody was really interested, but it was good. I love the members here and they are true pioneer. We had 11 at Sacrament Meeting again, including the 4 missionaries. This is just the beginning of a big thing. I know that this is Christ Church and it's awesome! I love being a missionary. God is good. Thanks for the support. I love you all.

- Elder Mahoney

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