This is a Special Time

So, it's even still hard to believe for me, but for the 3rd week in a row we had an Apostle come speak to us. Last Tuesday Elder M. Russell Ballard was here. He gave a great talk about how we need to become master communicators. It is such a special privilege to hear from an Apostle of the Lord. They bear such powerful testimony. He talked about some missionary work he was doing just earlier that day in a 30 minute meeting with a CEO of a very large company. He commited the man to read Our Search For Happiness and gave him a Book of Mormon. He told him to come back when he has 4 hours and bring his wife and he'd answer all his questions. The man said he looks forward to it. I know from a good source that Elder Bednar is definitely scheduled to speak here in November. I hope it is before I leave.

 

Fun fact: one of my teachers is Sister Chenina. You can see a video of her testimony on YouTube if you search "Russian Mormon Missionary."

 

Things are just rolling along here. Time is flying as usually. I think I have like 14 days left now and I'll be in Ukraine. It's pretty exciting stuff. We started speaking 100% Russian yesterday, so almost everything is Russian now. I have mixed feelings about it from an academic foreign language acquistion standpoint, but it's happening and I'll be gone before I know it. I'm going to start packing a little bit today so I can decide what I want to leave here.

 

On Sunday night, Sister Sherri Dew spoke to us. It was a fine talk but it was 85% the exact same as when I heard her speak in Toronto in August.

 

I don't even know what else to say right now really. I just found out that last month Angola and Burundi were dedicated for the preaching of the Gospel. That is so exciting to me. This is an amazing work. I really liked a quote I heard yesterday. A substitute teacher said, "First see God's hand, then be God's hand." First we need to see the hand of the Lord in our lives and what it means, then we can become tools in his hands.

 

I love being a missionary and have the chance to share this message with the Ukrainian people.

 

Thanks to everybody for all the support,

Elder Jonathan Mahoney

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