Christmas Puddles

Another week has disappeared here in the land of the Ukrainians. I can't remember if anything even happened since the last time I wrote, but I'm sure something must have since we work all day everyday. We actually set a baptismal date with the mother of the family of 6 we've been teaching but they still didn't come to Church. Somebody's always "sick." Three of them are praying about the Book of Mormon. It's a unique challenge to have taught people mostly everything and be waiting for them to receive an answer. It's hard to know what to teach or share with them to keep things going.

I'm not sure about elsewhere, but here, apparently Christmas was on Saturday. Well it was for us anyway. The Orthodox Church celebrates it on January 7th. I was able to talk with my family on Skype which was really neat. It was slightly less that perfect due to the Georgian guy yelling at his computer the whole time in the internet cafe we went to. On Christmas Day it went up to 5 degrees here. There were a lot of puddles.

I've been really enjoying personal study. I try to read at least one talk from General Conference everyday. I just fell in love with Elder Richard G. Scott's talk, "The Transforming Power of Faith and Character." It's pretty cool to look through and see how many times it mentions "consistent" or "countless". It really comes down to just making good choices each time we're faced with a decision.

Things are going well here. I'm happy to be serving the Lord here. One of my favorite scriptures is Moroni 8:16. Check it.

Thanks for all the love and support.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Love,
Elder Mahoney

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Mission Musings

Can you even say "musings?" I don't think we're allowed to go on dictionaries here, so I'll never know, but I think I've heard it before. Yet another week has gone by on the ol' mission. It really flies. I'm trying to make the best of it. I've been thinking that if we followed a regular mission schedule we'd never get anything done. We typically only come home for one meal a day whereas we are allowed to take 2. If we came home for 2 hours a day it would feel like we never worked I think. I can't really imagine it. A lot of time we have lessons on preparation day too and we can make up the time later in the week, but we never get a chance to. It's all good though because this is the Lord's work. It's really exciting stuff. People are being baptized in this mission. Not in our area yet, unfortunately, but it's coming. I know it will.

This week was a good one, yet again. We found 2 new families. One man is from Nigeria. He's lived in Ukraine for 12 years. His name is Emeka. He's married to a Ukrainian woman and has an 11 year old daughter. He's speaks Russian, but we teach him a lot in English so it's weird because we teach the other two in Russian, but it's a great time. They're such a nice family. He's Anglican, so we've run into yet another religion! They live in what I think they call a hostel. They stay in a very small room and there are communal showers and a kitchen for many rooms together. It's interesting. The other one is a woman we met on the street. She and her husband came to an 8 year old baptism on Saturday. It was great and she was so excited to come for some reason. We'll be meeting with them again on Wednesday. They have a 2 year old son. They're very nice and unusually interested. Haha.

The other day, we were talking to a woman on the street and a little girl walked up to us. I'd say she was about 3 and quite cute bundled up in her snow-wear. She stood in our little circle and just stared up at Elder Larson and I. Her mother was a few feet ahead trying to get her to come along but she just stared at us. It went on for probably 20 or 30 seconds before the woman we were talking to pretty much had to push her along. I pondered a little about how close that girl is to the veil. She knew that the message we are teaching is true just a few years ago. I wonder if she felt something. It was unfortunate we couldn't talk to her Mom. Who knows, maybe it'll happen again.

This week we were asked to give a priesthood blessing, so I did the anointing. That was my first priesthood ordinance in Russian in Ukraine, except blessing the Sacrament the last 2 Sundays I guess. The language is coming along slowly, but surely. It's really weird to me sometimes that I am speaking Russian. I learned a lot when I was in Russia but I was never really sure if I was going to put in the time to get to fluency as I had other languages I was more interested in. So, I think the reason it's strange is because it's just happening now. I never envisioned my future self as "Yeah, I speak Russian." But, I will. It's weird I guess because it'll probably become my 2nd best language and I never really planned on using it for anything in the future so we'll see what happens. All I know is that it's happening. Hopefully I can get Ukrainian down pretty well and maybe even Romanian if I get a chance to go to Moldova. I also hope I can teach in French or Portuguese sometime. I guess French would be a lot more likely though. There are a lot of immigrants in Odessa. Right now I think we are teaching the only black man in this city. I've never seen another though I've heard there were some black soccer players, but we don't have a city team anymore.

I suppose I'm kind of rambling. Oh yeah, one more thing. For the first time, on the street I contacted a man, then Elder Larson spoke a bit and later said that he's American and I'm Canadian. The man looked at me and was so confused. He said "What? Canadian? You're not Ukrainian?" This was the first time somebody on the street actually thought I was a native. I look forward to holding full conversations and having people still not believe I'm not a native Russian speaker. Someday... haha.

I'm happy to be here serving my Lord. Thanks for all the prayers and support. Merry Christmas to everybody, especially back in the Truro Branch. 

Much love from Ukraine,

Elder Mahoney

Старейшина Махони

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A Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jehovah's Witness

This week was really cool. We a lot of cool people everyday. We taught a couple lessons to a Muslim guy who actually converted to Islam. I think it was mostly for his wife, but either way he said that he's not ready for this, that he's chosen his path in life already. I can tell that he's really thinking about what we teach and he clearly doesn't completely follow what Islam teaches, but unfortunately he isn't ready to really give our message a chance. We also met an awesome Buddhist this week. He doesn't live in our city, but he was really cool and also didn't seem 100% sure about what he believes. We forwarded his information to Elders in Kiev. There was one more minority religion we ran into this week. We met a really nice Jehovah's Witness woman. She was really happy to meet us and we have an appointment set up to meet her today. We're also planning on going to a non-denominational Christian meeting this evening. Oh yeah, the family with 6 kids we're teaching is pentecostal. Elder Larson sang in their choir one time. We're also looking into meeting with a Hare Krishna and a Seventh Day Adventist who I guess are in the area book here.

On Tuesday we went to a private sauna with a man and his son. That was a pretty sweet experience. We have now taught a lesson naked. Haha. We checked the handbook and it didn't say anything against it. It was funny because Elder Larson like quadruple checked about what we should bring and he just said a change of underwear and a towel. When we got there they had speedos on and we, of course, didn't bring one. They said, "it's okay, there are no women here." And we just kinda used our towels. I think it was almost 50 degrees in there. We went in and out like 5 times I think and when we were out we sat at a table and drank carbonated water. It was a good time. The son said he might come to church. He speaks pretty good English.

On Wednesday, President Steinagel had all the missionaries read from the Book of Mormon until 17:00 and then we were all supposed to go out and look for a miracle. We then went out to an appointment quite fair away. When we got there the woman said she's not interested anymore. We headed downtown to get the marshrutka to Kiev for Zone Conference the next day. Since we went all the way out to that appointment it made us a little later that we would have liked. When we got to Kiev we kind of reflected on how we hadn't seen much of a miracle. Then as we were talking to each other on the metro a man in his mid-20s approached us and asked us what we are preaching. He said he is repenting and planning to be baptized soon. He was very interested in us. We got his number and gave it to Elders in his area. He has texted us a couple times since thanking us for being in Ukraine and sharing the Gospel here and asking where our Church is. I could really feel the Spirit when we met him. I look forward to hearing about what happens with him. I think it's fair to say that was our miracle for the day.

It was extremely slippery yesterday, any snow removal attempts here are pretty feeble and primitive. We haven't really gotten much snow here since the initial 6 inches a couple weeks ago, but it's melted a little and frozen again. It's interesting to see some people's ice-walking techniques. I'm pretty good at it, but my companion is originally from Florida, so he has special anti-slip things he wears on his shoes.

It's been a bummer to see that nobody is really progressing. We have a couple investigators who read for the Book of Mormon a lot, but they won't come to Church, for example. It will be awesome to see people really grab on and fully embrace the Gospel. That's why we got outside everyday and try to find them. We are representatives of Jesus Christ and we have been sent here by God through a living prophet. It's an incredible responsibility and privilege. I know that this is Christ's Church and that we have a living prophet on the earth today. The Book of Mormon is the word of God.

Oh yeah, somebody asked about the metro here. Well, there is none. Just in Kiev. Maybe one in Odessa. We just ride "busses" here. A lot of people seem to have nothing to do here. We talked to quite a few people who are just wandering about doing nothing. I would also estimate that approximated 1 in 5 men we talk to are drunk, regardless of the time of day. It's really sad to hear some older men talk about war. We had a man crying to us about war a couple days ago. I love this country though, it's full of surprises.

Thanks for everything peoples. Love,

Elder Mahoney

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First Full Week in Chernigov

Things we slow getting started here because my companion just stopped
meeting with several investigators we had because they weren't
progressing, but we've been contacting a lot. We got 4 new
investigators with week. We're teaching more lessons that the mission
standard of exellence and we're set to do a lot better this coming
week. We have things planned for everyday this week.

We taught Anatoliy and his family, with 4 kids present, last night. We
taught the plan of salvation. It was awesome. I didn't say too much. I
taught a couple of principles, but when I testified I could really
feel the Spirit. I'm so excited now that I've met the whole family.
Well, almost the whole family. They are great people. I meet sweet,
kind people everyday here. I know that there are people ready to
accept the Gospel in this city.

A couple days ago we were debating whether or not to go home and get
started on some area book work or to contact some more. I suggested
that we get 2 more solid contacts and then head back. We contacted a
man first who we got a number from. Then we met a German man. I think
he may be the most searching person I have ever met, who just wants to
know that truth. I believe it was a miracle. He had a visa to travel
to Moscow, but at the last minute he decided to switch it up and go to
Kiev. Somehow he ended up in Chernigov and he didn't even know the
name of the city. He was walking outside just waiting for his
girlfriend to come home. He was in the German army for 10 years and
left because he didn't want to cause so much damage anymore. He went
into business and for several years was an atheist. He said this past
year he's been asking himself if maybe there is a God. He's gone to a
few different churches. He invited us up to an apartment he was
renting and we taught a great lesson. I feel like we answered some of
his questions. He wants to meet with missionaries in Germany when he
gets back. We told him he'd get a Book of Mormon in German and that
there are many of our churches in his city (because my companion knew
that). God really does some amazing things. All the circumstances that
combined to have us meet in this place at this time are incredible. I
am so grateful to see the Lord's hand at work everyday.

The members here are great too. We have some strong people and it's so
awesome to see them going to the temple. They have new fire in their
eyes after going to the temple. It's especially great to have new
converts go to the temple. The is one woman who was baptised about a
month before I got here. She's great. She first met the church when
she went to the temple open house and she was just able to go and do
baptisms for her immediate ancestors! I guess she was the first
convert baptism here in about a year and a half, but we are going to
change that trend. I can really feel that there are people we need to
find here.

My Mom a couple questions about the apartment and the area I live in.
It's just Elder Larson and I in our apartment. The other set of Elders
here live a couple blocks away. We're in a prime location, right next
to a open air market, a couple grocery stores and good bus stops.
Outside of our study window is a huge Orthodox Church. We have a good
size apartment. There is a bedroom, kitchen, living room and another
room that we actually have a piano in and my companion usually studies
in. The piano's not in perfect tune, but it's pretty cool to be able
to play at home. We screw around with it sometimes. I'll probably be
here longer than Elder Larson so it would be cool if my next companion
could play more. The shower, as far as water pressure and temperature
are concerned, is better than the MTC, so it's nice.

My prediction before I came here was that Ukraine would be like Russia
Light. It really is. It's a lot like Russia, but it's really shifting
more and more toward western European ways. A lot of woman wear jeans
and there are less and less high heels. It's actually illegal to drink
outside now and I guess smoke too which is very different from Russia
and people actually usually obey these rules now. I don't anymore time
right now, but if I think of more observations I'll add them next
week. There are less street dogs here.

I love this work. I know it's true. Thanks for the support.

Elder Mahoney

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