Time, where are you?

Another week, come and gone! It was pretty packed. I'll try to cover a couple points really quickly.

On Tuesday we had our Zone Conference with President Schwitzer of the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy and his wife. He's president of the Europe East Area. It was pretty amazing to sit at the feet of such great people, Presidents Schwitzer and Klebingat and their wives. We were just taught for about 5 hours with a little lunch in the middle. It's amazing how clearly and simply they can explain the principles of the gospel. I attached a picture from the conference. One thing that I really loved from the teaching was that baptism is the natural fruit of repentance. Repentance comes before baptism and once a person has repented the baptism just follows, there won't be any problems. I feel that we need to help people repent, or make changes in their lives, more right from the beginning. Then, they will immediately start receiving blessings.

I don't know if I really mentioned that we started English practice up again here. It's a little slow getting started, but a few people have come. We just talk about gospel topics in English and it's been pretty nice so far. We had a really cool talk about health last time. They even brought up a few things that I hadn't even thought of. We always open with a prayer and sing a hymn or Children's Songbook song.

One member family has recently given us 3 referrals. One of them was one of the children's classmates and her mother. The father died about a year and a half ago at 33 years old and it's been really hard on them. The mother wants to know why bad things happen to good people. So many people have that question. I'm going to share Elder Cook's talk from the October 2011 General Conference next time.

The other referral is an older lady, about 60. We asked her why she wants to meet with us, what her expectations are and she said she just wants "to feel." She's been to different churches and heard lots of things, but hasn't "felt it." I don't know about her, but on that lesson I felt it. I hope that we can help her. I love teaching people truth.

We had an African guy come to Church yesterday. His name's Gali. He's from Congo, so his first language is French. He's studying here and learning English and Russian. It's interesting because I know all 3 of those languages. My Russian is kinda taking over other languages in my mind, but I can see manage alright. At the end of Church he said, "I'm glad I came to the church of knowledge." He liked it. We hope to be able to meet with him soon and teach him more about the Book of Mormon. We gave him one in French and one in English.

We taught a lesson to the members yesterday about how to do missionary work better. We spent a lot of time preparing for it and then people did a pretty good job of distracting the lesson and making many very long, not-so-necessary comments. It was kinda disappointing, but at the end we were able to stop at about the middle of what we'd prepared and tell them we'll do another one to cover the rest in a couple weeks. We want them to understand better what their role is, especially on lessons. It was great that they came, at least. We have some awesome members. They just love to talk.

The new translation of the Book of Mormon in Russian along with the triple are finally available so I was really happy to order it today.

The works moving along. I feel like I never have time to do everything. I'm constantly struggling to keep up with my journal. I love my mission though. I love my companion, my area, and my ward. I know that what we're doing is right. This is Christ's Church restored. The Book of Mormon truly is the word of God. It's an amazing testament of Jesus Christ.

One last note, Sergei and Larissa, who were baptized in December, are having trouble with their testimonies. Please pray for them.

Thanks for everything.

Love,

Elder Mahoney

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When Time Flies

We had a really busy week. It seems like I just continually have more things to do than I have time. It's a good thing in some ways though, it makes the time go pretty quickly. For some reason, out of all the things that we did last week, I don't know what to write.

The biggest thing that I didn't get a chance to talk about last week is a new baptismal date. Kirill, 11, is going to be baptized on February 19th. The rest of his family are all members, he just didn't want to get baptized before. We've been teaching him though and he finally decided this is the time. He seems happier these days and he says he really wants to be baptized. He's been reading the Book of Mormon on his own and he remembers so much, like every little detail when we ask him about it. We're really excited for him and his family.

Things are going well here. We're just pressing on forward. We're excited for a zone conference tomorrow with President Schwitzer, a general authority. I'm sure we're going to learn lots.

I know that the Church of Jesus Christ is truly Christ's restored Church on the earth. I know that it is lead by living prophets and apostles. It's a privilege and a blessing to serve the Lord full-time here in Ukraine. I love my mission. I'm learning and growing each day. Thanks to everybody for the prayers and support.

Love,

Elder Mahoney

P.S. If anybody has any Jelly Bellies that they don't want there's a distinct lack of them at my address.

P.P.S. This video is amazing. https://www.lds.org/pages/power-of-god?lang=eng

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Icy Days in Kiev

Last preparation day we went out to the Ryabov family's place again and it was pretty sweet. They're the ones with 6 kids. They also invited over one of the daughters friends and her mom and we were able to have a great little lesson about Family Home Evening, what it is and why it's important. I could really feel the Spirit witness to us all that that's how it's supposed to be. I know that families will be blessed for regularly having Family Home Evening and family scripture study. Apparently afterward the Mom and her daughter said they'd come again if the missionaries were there. I look forward to working with them.

On Tuesday we met with an older woman. She has 4 sons who are grown and 2 of them are baptized. The greatest desire of her heart is to see them make good choices. I could see the pain in her eyes and feel it as she expressed her thoughts about it. It was hard not to cry as she talked about it. She is so faithful. She reads her scriptures everyday and she invites her sons to church and activities, even though they ridicule her for it. She is truly laying up treasures in heaven right now. I am so blessed to serve amongst these people. I love my mission.

Things are going just fine here. I love my area, my ward, and my companion. I'm out of time again. It's a bit chilly here, but the work rolls on. I love the Lord and I know I'm where He wants me.

Love,

Elder Mahoney

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=D

This week has gone by pretty fast. It came with two bits of great news. Yesterday they announced the triple combination and new translation of the Book of Mormon in Russian! I'm so excited for that. I'm going to order as soon as it comes up online. I feel that the new translation will real help the work here. Most members here read in Ukrainian because it's a better translation, but they prefer Russian overall. It'll be great to see boxes of the new ones ship in here too.

The second bit of fabulous news is that I am staying in my area, Svyatoshinskiy, with Elder Peterson! We're really excited about that. It's going to be awesome. I think I'd be okay with this situation for the rest of my mission. Haha. We know that won't happen though. Haha. It's awesome though. Things are good here. One thing that's not so good is that all the missionaries that are supposed to come this week are having visa problems, so last I heard there will be 26 new missionaries all coming in together in March! That's nuts. Curve balls.

There were a couple more things I wanted to mention, but I'm already out of time unfortunately. The Church is true. Thanks for everything.

Love,

Elder J. Mahoney

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A Baptist, a Muslim, and a Seventh Day

This week was a week that I liked. Good times. We had probably more lessons than we've had in quite a few lessons, including some pretty good ones.

We had a lesson with a 24 year old member to help him consider going on a mission. It turns out he just thought that he was too old. He said that in his patriarchal blessing it says that if he wants to achieve anything in life he needs to prepare to serve a mission. I assured him he's not necessarily too old. He committed to pray and talk to the bishop about it. It looks to me like we could really get him to go. That's awesome! I'm pretty excited about that.

I was on exchanges on Tuesday and Wednesday with one of the assistants, Elder Johnson. We met with a cool African in my area named Victor. He's from Nigeria, 6th year medical student, here with his wife and small baby. He's such a believer. Every bit of doctrine he talked about was dead-on. We really respects us for coming here and a he gratefully accepted a Book of Mormon after we explained it to him. Looking forward to meeting with him again.

We also met with Anya, Sergei and Larissa's daughter at our bishop's home. It was a really cool meeting. She came with a lot of questions and we were able to answer them all. I think she was pretty satisfied with the answers in the end and we definitely left her with some things to think about. She's reading the Book of Mormon now and she told me a couple days ago that most of it's in the Bible. I explained why, of course, that's the case, because it came from the same source. Good stuff.

We met with that Iranian guy who came to the Christmas concert 2 weeks ago. His Dad lives in Canada, so I helped him with filling out a form to get a tourist visa because his English isn't that great, and we also talked about the gospel. We gave him selections of the Book of Mormon in Farsi (Persian) and had a pretty good talk. He came to Church yesterday. The language was a bit of an issue because he doesn't know much Russian yet, but it was cool. A member translated for him into English during Sacrament because my companion and I were speaking. We received that assignment the night before. Haha. We also taught Gospel Principles. Things are going just fine here.

Elder Peterson is a great companion and we're having fun together. The work is moving on.

I know that this is the Lord work. I know that it's all true. The Book of Mormon is a real record of prophets who lived on the American continent. God lives and He restored His Church on the earth in these last days. Thomas S. Monson is a living prophet. It's true and it's awesome. Thanks for everything.

Love,

Elder Mahoney

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Christmas #2

Last week was kicked off with a sweet ward activity on Monday. It started with a talent show that was pretty well put together. I played piano and sang a French hymn, Souviens-Toi that I had translated into Russian. It was cool. I didn't have anytime to practice, so the piano dropped out on a couple lines, but I kept singing. The youth did a hilarious skit of the Cinderella story. I was laughing almost the whole time. After the talent show, there was some food and a dance started up. It was cool, there were really a lot of people dancing. Our bishop is a very good dance and has taught dance before. At the end he taught the waltz, so I practiced with my companion, then we did a little jive. It was really fun. I want to get more into dance when I get home. It was a really fun, unifying activity. We had an investigator there too.

On Wednesday we did service at the hospital again. We got to see one of the operation rooms and transfer a patient right after surgery. It's a pretty nice place. I'd trust them. The only funny thing is that they use iodine here, so everybody is always stained orange in the hospital. Haha. The anaesthesiologist is really cool, his name's Pavel. We invited him to the Stake Christmas concert on Saturday and he stopped by with his wife, but said he couldn't stay. That was great progress though. He said they'll come again. He's a big man, probably 6'3", 300 lbs. He doesn't have a probably moving patients around. Haha. We look forward to working more with us. Whenever we walk in the halls with him he's always telling people about how good guys we are. Haha.

We met an Iranian guy in the post office the other day. He was having some trouble communicating and spoke English, so I translated for him. He also came to the Christmas Concert and said he's interested in learning more about our religion. We're looking forward to talking to him again.

A member asked me where I was from on Saturday and told me she thought I was from Russia or something. That's the first time I've had a member think I was a native I think. I still have a lot to learn, but the Russian's coming along a bit at a time. The more I learn it, the more I feel like it may be one of the most ridiculous languages out there.

We had the chance to go caroling 3 separate times this week. It's really fun to sing and see the people stop as the walk by. I love singing and I love our hymns.

I don't have much time left, but the work moves on here. I'm happy to be a missionary here in Ukraine and I love this gospel. The Church is true.

Thanks for all the support.

Love,

Elder Mahoney

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Happy New Year

Another week gone. I'm not really sure what to say as is often the case. On Saturday evening we had to be home at 16:00, then on Sunday we just went to Church which was just one hour and spent the rest of the day in the apartment due to the New Year. Last Sunday I found out that there would be an 8 year old girl being baptized this past week. She's so cute and funny. She took my hand and sat me down and told me there's something I need to know. 1st, when you goto somebody's baptism, you bring them candy; 2nd, you bring candy for others; and 3rd, you don't forget the first 2 points. It was pretty funny for an 8 year old to say that and that she'd come up with it all on her own. Both of her parents are return missionaries, but her dad hasn't been active recently. With the new Church Handbook from 2010 a Priesthood holder who is not fully temple worthy can still baptize his child at the discretion of the bishop. I heard that he didn't want to baptize her, so I talked with our bishop and it was discussed in ward council and I was really hoping that he'd come around. Even on the night of the baptism it seemed like it wasn't decided, but I was so happy to hear that he decided to do it. I'm sure it would have been a regret if he hadn't done it. It was powerful for me to see a father baptize his daughter and see her little body start to float up a little before her lifted her back up. She is so innocent, trusting, and vulnerable. I know that the Lord smiled down on that event. I could feel it. The Church is true.

On Saturday, Elder Peterson and I watched the movie 17 Miracles. What a cool, powerful movie! I started tearing up in the first 5 or 10 minutes and was wiping tears the rest of the movie. I'm so grateful for those early pioneers. The did so much to contribute to what's gotten me here. I'm grateful for missionaries, that they found my Mom and taught her this message and that I am one now. I know that Jesus Christ restored His Church on the earth in these latter-days. This is it. Happy New Year everybody. I love you. Be strong.

- Elder J. Mahoney

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