The Smallest Branch in the Mission

I don't even know where to start this time. So, last week... On Tuesday, for my 2nd last day in Chernigov Elder Brinck and I went to the zoo in a town about an hour away with the Branch President and his wife and daughter. That was super fun. They had lions and leopards and pumas and kangaroos and crocodiles and bears... Lots of animals. It was cool. The leopards and the monkeys were really fun. A monkey grabbed my finger. One of the zoo workers also showed us that it doesn't hurt when the pelicans bite you, so that was neat. The same worker also went into the porcupine pen and snuck up behind them to grab a quill for us. He got 2 and asked if one each was enough and Elder Brinck said, "no, we need one more." Haha. I thought it would have been pretty funny if Elder Brinck was the cause of him getting attacked. He was okay though. There's also a bear there who bit off both of a kids arms a few years ago. I think they changed the caging since then. I like zoos. The seemed to treat the animals a bit better here than at a zoo I was in in Russia.

Most of Wednesday ended up being me packing to head out that night. We made our way down to Kiev and checked my bags at the train station then slept at a missionary apartment. Transfer meeting was in the morning on Thursday and I was actually in the first area he listed. I should say that all missionaries being transfered meet in a chapel with President Steinagel here and then he reads off where every missionary is serving. I have been assigned to serving a city called Khmelnitsky. It is the furthest west Russian-speaking area. The language is more and more Ukrainian the further west you go and we also have Ukrainian-speaking missionaries here. I'm serving with Elder Alex Hafen from St. George, Utah. He's on his last transfer, so I will be his last companion. He's district leader and we also have our zone leaders in this city. One of them is going on at the end of this transfer too, so I'm pretty young here and I'm the only one not a leader. Kmelnitsky has almost 300,000 people and has only been open to missionary work since 2006. It is currently the smallest branch in Western Ukraine. President Steinagel told me that we really got the work going up in Chernigov since they were worried about it before so that's why he sent me here. He said that it's a project and it's going to be a challenge.

Elder Hafen had leadership training on Friday, so we had to stay another night, then take the train on Friday night. Not too much happened for me on Thursday or Friday 'cause we were kinda on weird exchanges and nobody knew any of the Kiev areas, but we made it to the train station on time and rolled out of Kiev at about 20:30 on Friday night for the ~7 hour train ride. We went home and slept for a couple more hours and then got right to work.

On Saturday morning we had institute at the chapel so I got to meet most of the active members. It was a great class. I'd say it was one of the most spiritual classes I've had in a long time. It was so nice to see everybody so united and learning the doctrines of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After institute there was a branch activity where we went out to the woods and made a fire to cook shasklik. It's kinda like shishkabobs. It was some beautiful meat in some kind of marinade. I thoroughly enjoyed it and got to get to know some of the members a little bit. I definitely love them already. The members are so awesome everywhere. I don't remember what else we did yesterday. Oh yeah, we got some groceries and guess what... We have a working fridge! To celebrate I bought yogurt and ate it the next day! I quite like our apartment really. It's pretty nice.

On Sunday President Steinagel actually came up to Khmelnitsky for Branch Conference with his driver/executive secretary Aleksei. That was cool. I got to chat with both of them a little bit. We have a great Branch President named President Megega here. Elder Dobry, one of the Zone Leaders, is 1st councilor in the Branch Presidency and my companion, Elder Hafen, is 2nd. Elder Hofeling, the 2nd Zone Leader, is the Elder's Quorum President. Yesterday I was called and sustained to be the Branch Mission Leader. There were 15 people at Church yesterday with 4 missionaries plus president and his driver and 2 non-members, so 7 members. It's really a privilege to be given this assignment. The active members we do have are very strong and it's going to be great to work with them. President Steinagel talk about keeping me here for at least 2 or 3 transfers too, so it looks like I'll be here for the long haul too. It's a beautiful city and I saw a lot of families on Saturday. Our Branch rents from a building on the city soccer stadium. It's above a sports bar and a night club. It's actually in the same door as the sports bar. Haha. I know we can do great things in this city and if there ever was a group of missionaries to do it, I know the other 3 missionaries here are part of it. I feel blessed to be counted among them.

My companion Elder Hafen is great. We're are getting along really well and he's definitely one of my favorite companions too. He's also clearly a good missionary too. Oh yeah, President Steinagel and Aleksei came over to the Zone Leaders apartment and we all had dinner together last night. It was really nice. Then we went on exchanges and I was on a lesson with 4 potential investigators and President helping. It was really cool. I heard the cleanest Ukrainian I've heard on my mission so far. It's a pretty language. I understand quite a bit, but I have learned more Ukrainian in 2 days here than the previous 6 months of my mission, I'd say. It'll be interesting to learn it more and more. I'll probably end up speaking decently. Today Wasn't entirely p-day because we actually had a combined district meeting today. President Steinagle was still here and missionaries from another city came too. It was a really nice meeting. We have some awesome missionaries here. I don't think I have too much more to say today.

I hadn't been in Kiev for like a month so I got a few nice letters. I'm very grateful for all the love and support. I'm so blessed in my life. I know that the Gospel is true. Jesus is the Christ. He lived and died for us and he lives again. I am happy to be alive and look forward to what lies ahead. The Church is true. I look forward to reporting further on the happenings of this city. I'm also still super excited for the first stake in Russia and I pray for the saints there. Hopefully a new translation of the Russian Book of Mormon comes out soon. I heard maybe December. That would be awesome.

Life is beautiful,
Elder Jonathan Mahoney

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