2 Angels Shovel Snow for Aged Ukrainian Painter

I don't think I even mentioned that a couple weeks ago we shoveled the drive by a recent converts home and her neighbor came out to help us. It was really his drive too and she knew that he would appreciate it so she asked us to do the whole thing. He told us that he was thinking about the snow and how he was going to remove it and he prayed to God. Then, in his words, two angels came to do it for him (us). We were in a bit of a hurry to get to Church so we didn't want to stay and talk too long. He asked us to come in for 5 minutes and see what he does. I told him we were in a hurry and that we'd love to come back and talk with him another time, but he insisted. He took us around to the back of his house and opened a door with 2 locks on it. We walked into a studio with over a hundred paintings, I'm sure. One was even about 8 feet from corner to corner. He said, "I have been doing this my whole life." The man's name is Шкурко Анатолий Никифорович, Shkurko Anatoliy Nikiforovich. I believe he's 84 years old now. He is a well known Ukrainian painter. He even told us he has paintings in Canada and the US. It was amazing to see a lifetime of work and achievement before my eyes. Wow. It was a special privilege to meet this man. We went back to visit him this past week and he gave each of us 2 paintings each. His lovely wife, Galya, fed us a nice snack and we gave them a Book of Mormon. They gratefully received it and said they would read it. It is such a privilege to be here serving in this country of such rich history.

The past week was certainly not a bad one. We found 3 new investigators in their teens. As we sat there and taught one of them, named Dmitry, I thought of my brother, Dan. They are almost the exact same age, but the only difference is, Dan knows of the reality of Jesus Christ's Restored Gospel and Dmitry doesn't. I pondered this and was filled with gratitude that my parents were so blessed to receive this great message and that they were faithful in raising us according to it's teachings. I feel so blessed that I know that The Church of Jesus Christ is alive and well on the earth and that we have a living prophet today. My thanks go out to all the missionaries that went before me to bring the Gospel into my life and into the lives of the great pioneer saints here in Ukraine.

Another of the investigators we found is a 15 year old girl. I was talking to a guy at a bus stop problem after 20:00 a little over a week ago, so it was dark and cold. Side note for imagery: The lighting is horrible here so it's quite dark in a lot of places at nice and for some reason they haven't figured out how to clear snow here so the sidewalks are often sheets of ice. Anyway, I was talking to a guy and preaching the Restored Gospel to him and he was honest enough to tell me he's really not interested. Hmm, I thought to myself and then noticed a girl off to the side who was listening. I knew she could here the conversation clearly, so I turned to her and asked, "Are you interested?" She responded in the affirmative. I began to teach her of Jesus Christ and His message for her and gave her a Book of Mormon. She said she would read it. After some phone tag we finally met and she showed up with another girl! The other girl, I learned is an inactive member who is in her class. It was a great lesson and I felt the Spirit testify powerfully through me as I told her that God is our loving Heavenly Father and that he knows and loves her. This Sunday that less active member came to Church.

We have many such experiences along with plenty of rejection. I don't have time to write about them all, but I know that this is when I am supposed to be at this time. Often when I tell people I like being in Ukraine they ask me why here. Many people think that life is so much back back where I came from and don't understand why I would want to be here. A couple days ago, I had the opportunity to explain to somebody the reason. I told her, "As we have explained, we believe that today there is a prophet and 12 apostles on the Earth. I believe that I have been called by a Prophet of God to serve in Ukraine and to bring this message to the Ukrainian people. Jesus Christ is not on the Earth right now, but if He were here in Ukraine he would like it and he would love the people. We are representatives of Jesus Christ. For this reason, I am happy to be here and I love you." As our Nigerian investigator, Emeka, always says, "Glory be to God."

I'm learning and growing each day here. Some things are certainly challenging. Sometimes is patience, sometimes is endurance, sometimes it's hunger, sometimes rejection, but the Lord God is with me. I feel Angels round about us according to our worthiness. Everybody should serve a mission if at all possible. This is God's Kingdom in these latter-days.

My companion, Elder Drasso, will be flying to Bulgaria tomorrow to renew his visa, so I'm in Kiev and will be serving here until Friday. Thanks so much for all the love, support, and prayers. Please smile once for me, then keep smiling for you. We are all children of God. I pray that you may feel His love in your life. Hallelujah.

- Elder Jonathan Mahoney

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2 in 300,000

Not a bad week. Well, one thing is bad. I don't like how I'm not allowed to hold babies. That's probably the most annoying rule to me. It hit me hard yesterday when we met a member on the bus on the way to Church yesterday. From the bus stop it's about a kilometre to the Church so we walked next to her while she carried her baby the whole way and couldn't help at all. Well, rules are rules I guess. I will be looking forward to holding me some babies when I get home. Haha.

What else... It was a fairly quiet week. Oh yeah, junk! Transfers were last week. And I... didn't get transferred! Yay! I'm pumped to be here in Chernigov. The members rock. Something crazy and unexpected happened in our city. The other companionship of Elders both got transferred! And they closed their area for now. We just don't have enough misssionaries in our mission right now. I know that's the case in probably most places in the world, we need more missionaries! We went over and cleaned out their apartment. We're going to be holding onto the apartment, so hopefully it won't be too long until the other area opens up again, but for now it's just Elder Drasso and I. There is no other area like this in our mission. We are the only 2 missionaries in this city with over 300,000 people, the only 2 in our district and we're about 2 hours from the closest missionaries. Interesting stuff.

I gotta mention a guy who just came back from his fourth mini-mission. His name is Vova Yarmak and he is one of the coolest guys I have ever met. He has his mission papers in not so he'll be getting his call sometime soon for a 2 year mission and he's already served 6 months! Somehow we hit it off pretty much instantly. We have so much in common. We're just totally on the same wavelength. He's an amazing member/missionary and a powerful teacher. He has already helped us on a couple lessons and wants to know when all of our lessons are so he can help. I love the guy and I know this will be a long lasting friendship. He's trying to sort out a medical issue now so any prayers for him would be greatly appreciated. I think Mom actually may have uploaded a picture of him and I by a Christmas tree a while ago. Check it.

I don't think I have much else to say. The work is moving on. We had 2 investigators at Church and one of them was our Nigerian brother, Emeka. His full first name is Chukwuemeka which is from the Ibu language and apparently means "what God has done for us." I love him. It was the first time he came to church as he just recovered from a surgery and he said he'll be back next week! We had another investigator come too. She is very poor so the branch helps her pay for the bus to come to church. She literally doesn't have the 20 cents to take the bus and I have only ever seen her wear 2 different outfits. It's sad to see people in situations like that. She can't go to university because she doesn't have any money. I know the Church could bless her life so much. That's what the Gospel does for everybody who will let it.

I know Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. I'm already getting super excited for General Conference. I'm honored to be serving the Lord full-time. I want to be a better missionary. Please pray for us out here. There are miracles waiting on our faith to happen.

Much love from Ukraine,

Elder Jonathan Mahoney

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Hitchhiking to the Belarussian Border

This week we spent more than a day in Kiev. We were down on Wednesday for a combined District Meeting which went really well. It was conducted by President Steinagel. Then we had interviews and Elder Drasso and I had the chance to go to the temple for a session! I love the Kiev Temple and the temple in general. I feel like 6 weeks is not often enough for me to go, but I know that it's just for these next 2 years. After this I definitely need to strategically locate myself close to temples. We were then asked to help with sealings. It was really awesome. The sealer spoke English though which was kinda too bad. We helped him pronounce some of the names sometimes. I sat there and imagined someday when all the temple workers and sealers are going to be native Ukrainians. That day is not that far off and it's going to be amazing. I imagined a Ukrainian man with the same spiritual and ecclesiastical experience as that man and I know that isn't that far off. I'm so excited to be a part of this work here.

 

I got some mail this past week and found out something really cool. A latino friends wrote me from Montreal and said she was talking to a friend of hers from Peru. She said I met her in Montreal, but might not remember her. They were talking and the Peruvian, Andrea, mentioned that her brother would be serving in Ukraine. My friend said, cool, maybe they'll meet. Then they next day she saw a picture of me with Elder Saenz at the mission office on his first day! So, apparently I know Elder Saenz' sister Andrea. It must be God's will that we serve in Ukraine together. I love when things like that happen.

 

On Friday we went out to visit a family in a small village with the Branch President Solomein. We left before 07:00 and didn't get home until about 17:30. It was quite the trip. We took a bus to some other village and ended up walking about 6 km on the snowy, icy road and then hitched another 12 km. The three of us squeezed in the front seat of a van with the driver for an exciting ride. It's a pretty isolated spot so it's pretty understandable that they can't make it to Church. The village is called Dobryanka if somebody wanted to look it up on a map. We could see the Belarus border from where we were, just a tree line, but pretty neat. I don't completely understand why people choose to live out there. There are a lot of villages like that all over the country.

 

The coolest thing this week was Sunday! We had 35 people in sacrament meeting! 4 of them where our investigators and 3 more were less actives we've been working with. We made a huge amount of apple pie on Saturday night for the little lunch we had after the meetings on Sunday. That was a good time. I love this branch. I'm attaching a picture of the branch on that day (after a few people had already left) and a me in front of the temple. I love this Branch.

 

I love serving here. I'm grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord full-time. I know this Church is God's Kingdom on the earth today. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ and am so grateful for His example to me. He's the awesome big brother I don't have on earth. Thanks all for your love and support. I feel your prayers for me.

 

Love,

Elder Mahoney

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True Pioneers

I have 15 minutes to write this email, so I'm going to touch on something very significant that happened this week. A woman from our branch in Chernigov died on Wednesday night. Her name is Baba Zina, short for Babushka Zinaida. Babushka means grandmother. She was 94 years old and died of natural causes. She was baptized 12 years ago and she has been so faithful and done so much for the Church in this part of the world. Around the time I arrive here she stopped walking and I visited her twice while she was living to give her the sacrament. She would always bear testimony to us continuously. She would say, "I know that this Church is true and that I am a daughter of God." "I love my Lord." "I know that I have lived a righteous life and I will soon see my relatives on the other side." Elder Stokes told me that the Sunday before she died one of the last things she said to him was "Fsegda, molyus ya za svyatikh misioneri." That means, "I always pray for the holy missionaries." I know that she did. She was such a good example of faith and devotion. She was known and loved by all. I am so grateful to have had the chance to meet her and I know I will see her again.

On Thursday night we went to her apartment. They have many interesting customs that I don't understand fully, but I believe they don't touch the body for 24 hours. When we went, she had been dressed in her temple robes and she was laying peacefully under a nice white blanket. As a small group of members alongside her body we sang and prayed and shared our memories of this great woman. It touched my heart to hear these members testimonies. All of them are literal pioneers in this country. They all serve and sacrifice so diligently. I am so grateful to be serving here at this time. We sang "God Be With You, Til We Meet Again" as a closing hymn. The literally translation from Russian would be more like "God by with you during the period of time we are not seeing each other." I love that because it really is just a brief period of time and I know I will have a chance to see Baba Zina again. Although she never really knew me, I know she loves me and I cannot help but love her too.

On Friday morning we went for the funeral service. Myself, my companion, Brother Shkroba, and President Solomein carried her small body down 6 flights of stairs in a blanket and layed her gently in a red coffin. They tied a bandanna on our arms and I rode in the van-hearse. We sang I Need Thee Every Hour as they lowered her into the grave and then I helped fill it. On Sunday President commented on how small her body was and how little she left on earth, but how great her spirit is and how much she took with her. Wow. I love this Church. Thanks for the love and support everybody.

Godspeed,

Elder Mahoney

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Twig Tea

It's been yet another fine week in Chernigov, Ukraine. I learned that it wasn't such a fine week for people in Moscow though where 35 people died in that bombing at the airport. One of the girls was Ukrainian. My heart and prayers go out to those people and their families.

One of the members just told me that my Russian is the best out of the 4 missionaries here. I don't think it's entirely true, but it's a big complement considering that one goes home in August, and my companion is in his 7th transfer. I'm working away at it, one day at a time.

On Thursday we visited a member's dacha and helped him cut firewood. A dacha is sort of like a cottage. Many people have them, it's like a little place outside the city where they grow vegetables etc. They often go there every weekend in the warmer months. It's was pretty neat to be out in the woods and snow. We stopped for a break to drink some "tea." First, I should say that he made a fire in a little stove in the ~6x8 room and the exhaust was one of those foil pipes going to a hole in the window. Let's just say, not all the smoke was going outside. The "tea" was freshly-cut twigs boiled in water with a little lemon and sugar in it. The main course was pumpkin seeds. Haha. Good times. When we got home even my underwear smelled like smoke. He is a funny guy.

Yesterday was probably the next highlight day this week. President Steinagel came to our Branch with his wife and one of his sons. It's was really cool to have them here. The meetings were awesome. I had a member translate a song from the French hymn book called Souviens-Toi into Russian and I played the piano sang it for the intermediate hymn. We actually had an investigator named Natasha come to Church. Plus, on the way to Church we met a guy and invited him and he came too! Then last night we had a lesson with a guy we found from the area book. His name is Viktor and his wife, Alla, and daughter Anastasia were there too. They were super open and committed to read, pray and come to Church. Yay! Viktor is a massage therapist. He worked in India for 2 years helping prepare Olympic athletes. Good stuff. 3 new investigators, plus another Georgian guy from earlier in the week. Oh yeah, I said the sacrament prayer in Ukrainian yesterday which was a first for me. It's a neat language, but I think I prefer Russian, for sure. Hopefully I'll master 'em both though. ;-)

Thanks for everything my peoples. I love it here. Missions are amazing. If you have any chance to serve, do it! It'll change your life. P.S. Sisters rock. We need more sister missionaries too.

Much love from Ukraine,

Elder Mahoney

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Congo? Morocco?

There wasn't too much super exciting happening this week. I got a call from the assistants though. They met a guy who "only spoke French" so they wanted me to set up an appointment for them so they could give him a Book of Mormon. I called him up and helped them out. They said he was from Congo. I noticed he had a  few strange things in his French and next time I called him back I talked to him a little more and found out he's actually from Morocco, which makes more sense because I know a couple other Congolese people who have pretty clean French. They told me when I'm in Kiev I can meet and teach him because they can't. Sort of a pointless story, but neat stuff. I hope I can serve in Odessa because I know there are a lot more immigrants there and French speakers especially. In Kiev there are lots too of course.

Our Nigerian investigator is in the hospital now. He had surgery on Tuesday I think it was. We've been trying to visit him everyday. We were thinking it would be really good to have his wife bring him his Book of Mormon so we were going to ask him when we saw him next but when we walked in we saw him reading it already. That was such a happy sight. He's a great man. I just found out he's 48. I guessed he was like 35. He looks great and he's lived a very clean life. This is the first time he's ever stayed in a hospital. Even when he was born his Mom just went in, had him in like 15 minutes and walked home. Hospitals are a little different here. It's kinda funny 'cause you can smell smoke, they you go to the bathroom and see patients smoking in there. Everybody that works at or visits the hospital seem to wear masks except us. Ukrainians have different views on what sickness is too. They stay home if they have a little cough, sniffles, or headache. It is also very common for them to have a quarantine where a whole school closes down for a period of time, mostly because most of the kids aren't there anyway.

It was a pretty slow week, so it was nice when we finally got a new investigator on Saturday. Wait, did I say "a", I meant 4 new investigators! We met with a really nice family with 2 older kids who were very welcoming, kind and open to hear our message. The  father even sent us home in a taxi afterward even though we insisted he didn't. That was pretty cool until I had my thumb closed in the door when we arrived. It's a little tender, but I think I'll live.

I don't know too much more of what to say. Last week we did exchanges in our district and this week my companion is in Kiev doing exchanges with the Zone Leaders until Wednesday, so I'm here with Elder Phillips. Side note, mail takes forever to get here! Haha.

Regardless of slow weeks, I know this Church is true. I know this is God's work. I'm so happy to have the opportunity to live and serve amongst the Ukrainian people. I love them. The members here are amazing. Through Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ's Church has been restored in our day. I'm so grateful for this. Life is beautiful.

Thanks again for everything guys. Just so everybody knows, my family is awesome. Be nice to them while I'm gone.

Love,

Elder Mahoney

Старейшина Махони

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Time Flies When You're Having Fun

It's been a pretty decent week. We only got one new investigator, but we had to member present lessons with her already. We have a few investigators who are actually reading the Book of Mormon which sometimes seems to be the exception rather than the rule. One guy actually read the entire Gospel Principles book. We currently have 20 investigators and too many contacts to keep track of, so we really want to work on moving from working with something of them this week and focusing on people who are ready to progress. When I arrived in Chernigov we had 4 investigators from one family who we were working with, 8 weeks ago. Things have been going pretty well in the area. It's really hard to get people to come to Church for some reason though. The other Elders had one woman at Church with her son yesterday though.

You may remember the guy I met in Kiev on Miracle Day. I think it was like December 20th. Well, I was in Kiev last week for Zone Meeting and while I was at the chapel a guy called me and asked how to get to our temple. I had no idea who he was or how he knew that's where I was, but I found out and told him. He said, "Okay, I'm coming." I replied, "Okay... who is this?" He answered like I should have known him, but I had no clue. Later I saw a man talking to one of the assistants who looked strangely familiar. I realized it was the same guy I met weeks ago on the Metro. They've been teaching him and a few days ago he stayed up until 3 AM reading the Book of Mormon. He's on vacation in Chernigov region now so I may get to meet with him up here. He's looking forward to going to Church when he gets back to Kiev! Awesome miracle!

I also saw another miracle when I was in Kiev last week. A family w/ 2 daughters (I think) went to the temple. They said they had come by many times to see what it was, but it was always closed. Finally, that day the mother decided she had to find out what that building is. They went to the temple and when they went in they told them, "If you want to come in here, you have to go over there first (pointing to the chapel). Talk to the missionaries." I thought that was a hilarious way to say it, but awesome. They came over and the assistants taught them right away. She said, "I can't get baptized tomorrow, but if I do that I can go over there?" I'm so excited to hear what happens with them. I love to witness miracles. How great is our God.

The funniest thing that happened this week was a man who walked up to me and started questioning me about what the Jews believe and where they worshiped. As I tried to explain to him that I don't know because I'm not Jewish he just keep asking and then became very confused when he learned that I'm not Ukrainian. When I told him we were in a hurry, but we'd love to talking to him more about what we believe he just left.

The language is starting to come along. I'm a lot more comfortable on the phone and talking to people all the time. I am starting to see in me the missionary I want to become. I have so far to go, but it's a marvelous process.

I don't think I mentioned. Last week I spoke French for the first time in Ukraine! I met a man from Congo. I believe there are 3 black men in Chernigov and I know them all. It was funny because as we spoke like 6 people just stopped and stared. One told Elder Drasso he'd never heard anybody speak French before in his life. He's a really cool guy. He said he's going to do everything he can this week to come to Church with his 10 year old daughter. It's funny because his name is Pierre and he sells precious stones. Stone is "pierre" in French. =P I picked up a couple French Books of Mormon in Kiev last week. Now I've gotta meet a Brazilian. I doubt it's going to happen in this city though. I've heard of one Brazilian businessman in Odessa and some professional Brazilian soccer players in Kiev. I think I'll baptize one of the soccer players.

I'm pretty sure I've also forgotten to mention one of our newest missionaries. His name is Elder Saenz. He is from Peru. He studied and graduated in Russia, so now he's a doctor. He only speaks Spanish and Russian. He couldn't get a visa to go to the Provo MTC, so he went to the MTC in Peru and then served a transfer there before coming here. On his first day in the country he had a lesson and set a baptismal date. I talked to him for a while and I so hope I get to serve with him at some point. He's awesome and clearly here to work. =D Did I ever mention I love this mission?

Oh yeah, I found something that made me about 6 times happier! Snickers Ice Cream bars! I don't know if they have 'em anywhere else, but it's the best thing I've had in a long time. Too bad there just over a dollar. That's a lot of money here.

I thought of a cool quote this week. "If you are not happy now, you will never be happy." Basically because we are always alive now. I don't know if it makes sense. Think about it.

Thanks for all the support everybody. I don't know who all reads these things, but a lot of you have a piece of my heart. I look forward to reuniting with many of you and I love you guys. Thanks for everything.

Keep your heads up,

Elder Mahoney

P.S. Miracles have been happening in my home branch too! My brother is baptizing a new young convert this week and my Dad is confirming him! Yeehaw! I think there have been more convert baptisms in Truro since I left on my mission like from when I graduated high school 'til then. Crazy stuff. =D

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