Recently I've been thinking a lot more about repentance and how I can apply it more in my life. Once more obvious sins are out of the way, a whole bunch other "lesser" ones appear. I've been more introspective about who I am and trying to pay attention to the little things I do and tendencies I have in actions or speech. I'm trying to take these things and change them. I know that it is possible through Christ and His Atonement. I want to change know because I know that no future event will magically change me. It has to be now. I want to be more consecrated and sanctified. I want to become more like Christ. I was just thinking about that the other day about how Christ was just a man while He was on earth, a special man, or course, but he stood just as your or I do. Then I thought about how much good one man standing on the earth can do, what His presence must have been like, what it would have been like to see Him standing in my doorway. We have that potential.
We had one of the best lessons I've had on my mission. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a woman at a member's home and I could truly feel that the power and authority of our calling as we simply explained eternal truths. She prayed for the first time in her life out loud in a group and the Spirit was felt in abundance. In the end I extended a soft baptismal commitment and she said, "yes" without hesitation. This reminds of one time before my mission. I was teaching a girl a little bit about the Church and prayer and she told me, "You taught me more about God in 10 minutes than I've learn my whole life so far." There are people in dark only because the know not where to find the light. Our job is to show them the tunnel with the Light at the end of it.
This week we went to teach a lesson and they'd forgotten we were coming, so they had a friend there from Moscow. We sat down and immediately she started asking about the Church. She was very interested. She wanted a Book of Mormon, so I wrote my testimony in it right away. We gave here the book and didn't have too much time to explain much, but she came to the ward movie night the next day. She said that she was up until 3 AM reading and that she thinks that the reason she came to Kiev for 3 days was to meet us. She extended her stay another day so she could come to Church. She loved it. She said that she wants to get baptized. There's a lot that she needs to learn, but she's not a stupid woman. She's a doctor actually. It was a pretty amazing experience. The Lord really reaches out to people. I look forward to being in touch with her and seeing this unfold. She's back in Moscow now.
This week I also conduct my first baptismal interview and we went to Yegor's, 13, baptism on Saturday. It was pretty sweet. I love baptisms.
We had a bit of a problem on Sunday where Kirill wasn't confirmed after his baptism last week. The bishopric forgot apparently. We're working on that... Haha.
There is a new website for our mission that all are invited to go visit: http://www.ukrainekievmission.com
The Church is true. I love this work. I know that God lives and He's speaking through living apostles and prophets today.
Much love,
Elder J. Mahoney
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