Quiet Week

I'm sorry to say, but I don't feel like I have too much new to report
this week. It was a good week. We had a great meeting with Sergei and
Larissa where we went over all of the baptismal interview questions.
They say they will 100% be baptized. We changed their date to December
10th and I'm very confident it's all going to go through. It's been
such a privilege to work with them. Despite searching we didn't really
find any new people this past week, but we were able to meet with
several members. It was also great to see our bishop back from the
states. We had 99 at sacrament meeting on Sunday which is the most
we've seen in quite a while. I love our members so much. I wish I
could describe it better. These people are incredible. I feel so
blessed to serve in this area. I don't know what I did to deserve it,
but God is being good to me. I love serving here and I feel myself
growing a little bit at a time. I am so grateful for all the support.
Thank you all.

Love,
Elder J. Mahoney

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The Work Goes On!

Another pretty satisfactory week. I think we had more meeting than I've had in a long time. We are working with several different investigators. Yesterday we went to the Church at about 9 and didn't get back home until a little after 9. Luckily a member fed us around 7. Haha. Long, but good day. Sergei and Larissa came to Church with their daughter, Anya! It was pretty sweet. Anya is baptist and we pretty hesitant at first, but I could see the spirit working on her and see her warming up. Sergei still hasn't smoked or drank for over 2 weeks now. She said she's been praying for 7 years for this to happen and she wanted to see what it is that's made him change.

We also went to the medical centre that the Church apparently helped build. It's really weird, right behind the reception is the 2nd coming of Christ and Him appearing to the Americas. Haha. There are Church paintings all over and there was even a Liahona on the table. Nice place. I guess the guy that runs the centre helped the Church in getting the land for the temple here.

I have too much in my brain right now. I don't know what to write. I just know that this is the Lord's work. I'm truly called by a living prophet to represent Jesus Christ. I know it's all true. My testimony gets stronger every day as I marvel at what's happening in people's lives here and all around the world. Awesome. Thanks for everything.

Love,
Elder Mahoney

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We Searching for Them

Time's going pretty quickly, but it kinda seems like forever since I wrote the last email. It was a good week. We found 6 new investigators. I've only done that one other week on my mission many months ago. One of the coolest stories was from contacting people near the metro station by our apartment. A man came out who we initially thought might have been drunk. Elder Cross started to talk to him, he accepted a Book of Mormon and we met with him 2 days later. His name is Sergei. He brought his wife Larissa to the first sit down meeting. They are awesome! Said the morning of the day we met him he was thinking that he needs to change his life. He walked out of the metro and was going to turn and go buy some beer, but he felt like he should go straight and then we talked to him. Elder Cross met with them again on exchanges the next day and they set baptismal dates for the end of the month. They came to Church yesterday and both of the members they already met on the lessons gave them hugs. In Elders Quorum when Sergei introduced himself he said that right after our first sit-down meeting he threw out his cigarettes and he hasn't smoked of drank since then. They're glowing. I feel so blessed to know that. They're about 50 years old I'd say and truly good people. It's clear that Larissa is an angel and they both love each other so much. This makes everything worth it.

I've been able to meet many more of our ward members here and went to Church for the first time in our ward and it's awesome! They're all great! My emotions were close to the surface yesterday at Church. The Gospel is Jesus Christ is so powerful. It's amazing to see strong families in the Church and so many great children too. We had 6 investigators at Church. There was a baptism on Saturday of one of the sisters' investigators from another ward. We took one of our investigators too it. There was also a baptism last week of Tuesday in another ward. There should be another on Saturday and then on Sunday an 8 year old will be baptized from our ward. It's so great to see this work bounding forward. It's beautiful. The gospel changes lives. I love it.

My companion is a good guy and we've been having a good times just pressing forward. There are definitely tons of people who aren't ready here, but my testimony is being strengthened that there are people here search for true, that's why we're searching for them.

I know that it's all true. God lives. He loves us and He still speaks to us directly and through living prophets. It's a privilege to serve here. I love this work. Thanks to all for everything. Please lift where you stand.

Love,
Elder J. Mahoney

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Bedroom Districts

Another week has flown by over here. My first full week living in
Kiev. It's weird, like it still hasn't completely set in. I live in
Kiev, Ukraine. I guess it's especially weird because Kiev has always
been the place that I go for meeting and then go back to some small
city. But now I most certainly live here. We have 2 wards in our
district. We are the only companionship in the Svytoshinskiy Ward. We
also have the Assistants, another set of Elders and a set of sisters
in our District. The first time I've served in a district with
sisters. We goto the chapel by the temple where the mission office is
every Tuesday for District Meeting. We're really in the center of the
action. We can even have President Klebingat help us on lessons if we
ask him.

The first thing I note is that there are tons of people here! Kiev is
a maze of high-rise apartment buildings and a lot of place you go look
almost exactly the same. In other cities I've been in it's been a
little bit of a challenge to find people to talk to, but here we can
just stand in front of the metro and see hundreds of people walk by.
In all my other areas I've mostly only ever interacted with poorer
people, but here I meet all kinds. One of our members even has a pool
and sauna apparently. In the other 2 branches I've served in only the
Branch President had a car, here the parking is filled. Life is
definitely different here. There's a big grocery store you can see
from our 10th floor apartment window, but there's another bigger store
that has multiple buses that just take people from the metro to the
store! We have 2 bathrooms in our apartment which costs almost
$1000/month. It's pretty cool. I sleep in a queen-sized bed and it's
weird how much more bed space there is to me. It's sort of a funny
situation to any missionary who expected to come to Ukraine and live
in 3rd world conditions. If you have money in these big cities you can
live very well. You see iPads and iPhones and the like all over the
place.

Great news back home, my old district has been dissolved so now my
branch is part of the Darthmouth Nova Scotia Stake and may soon become
a ward. Pretty awesome stuff. This weekend we had Stake Conference
here too. It was broadcast from Salt Lake City for the Europe East
Area. L. Whitney Clayton, Barbara Thompson, Dallin H. Oaks, and Dieter
F. Uchtdorf all spoke. It was pretty cool to hear them address this
area specifically and the problems that are faced here. It was the
most members I've ever seen in one place here. People met in all
different building since it was just a broadcast, but I'd say there
were about 200 where I went. Awesome. There are so many awesome
members here.

The work is going on here. We don't have too many active investigators
right now, but it seems like some good potential ones are on the way.
One of the saddest things I've seen here is 3 families so far who have
one spouse in the Church and the other one not. It is so hard for the
member spouse. They have all tried so hard to help bring their spouse
into the gospel, but for whatever reason they haven't yet. I won't be
married outside the temple.

I don't have tons of time, but I know this the Christ's Church. I'm so
happy to serve the Lord here. God lives and knows me. He knows you too
and He loves you. Be strong.

Much love,
Elder J. Mahoney

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