Sweaty Bus Rides and Baptismal Dates

Well the week started off with a sweaty 4 hour bus ride to a city called Zhytomer on Monday night were we stayed until Thursday morning. I went over there for exchanges with one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Hofeling. It was pretty good. I ended up serving both days with Elder Reynolds from Florida. He's Ukrainian-speaking. We didn't really have anything set up for Tuesday or Wednesday so we were on the street a lot. On Tuesday I'm sure we talk to more that 50 people and we got 16 phone numbers. I hope that something good comes out of that. I met some really neat people. I met a surgeon, an undercover cop, a trolleybus driver, a guy from Beruit, and plenty more. Wednesday was a tougher day. It seemed like nobody wanted to talk to us. We actually did have a meeting set up, but he didn't show up. It's interesting to see the ups and downs of the mission. So much of it is endurance. You just have to keep going, everyday, the same thing. We had another sweaty bus ride home and, even though I'd only be there for 8 days prior to the trip, it felt like coming home when we got to Khmelnitskiy.

By then the week seemed like it was practically gone. We're trying to do a lot more activities here to get everybody involved and have things that members can invite people too. We had 21 people at Church on Sunday! It was 10 three weeks ago, then 15, then 16, now 21. I don't know what the next number should be, but it's uptrending. =P We're here to build the kingdom and the numbers seem to indicate we're doing something good. One of the Zone Leaders and I met 2 girls at a book table last Saturday and they committed to come to Church. They did come to Church and several activities since then. Yesterday the Zone Leaders set baptismal dates with both of them for June 18th. I think they're both 22 years old. It's going to be really good to have some more young people in the branch. Awesome.

Things are up and down in missionary life. But overall I'm very happy to be here. Missions are awesome. They change lives. I know that this is the Lord's work. It's a privilege to be a part of it. Next week I'll be writing this email from Kiev where I'll be for a mission conference. I love you all. Thanks for everything.

- Elder J. Mahoney

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