Week 35: Христос Воскрес!!

Well to start off Happy Orthodox Easter everyone!! Haha like I mentioned last week (maybe, I forgot) Here in Ukraine they celebrate Easter a week later! It was super cool they have many cool traditions. 

Everyone takes their easter food (eggs, cakes, fruits, etc.) In baskets to the outside of the church and then the Orthodox priest comes out with like a wand/broom thing and a bucket full of water and he goes and "blesses" everyone and their food. So this priest is just dipping this broom in the bucket and then flinging water over everyone and their food. That was pretty exciting to be apart of haha. We got permission to go and participate from President Wirthlin so we went to go and see how they celebrate Easter here. 

Another cool thing that they do is everyone when walking on the street just says "Христос Воскрес!" (Christ is Risen!) and then you answer back "воистину воскрес!" (Truly, He is risen!)
That was super cool maybe my favorite part. I was so impressed by the faith and the number of people that come to the church and worship our Savior on this day. Throughout this country in every city and village! I was extra proud to be a missionary serving in a place where so many people love their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

This week we had Zone Conference and the big part of zone conference was that we as a mission are getting Smartphones. So now we've got smartphones and it's crazy I can see many ways how it will help us to progress the work and work more effectively. It is also crazy to have a smartphone after 8 months using a brick phone/nothing. BTW on a side, note today is officially the day marking my 8-month mark on the mission which is so crazy! 

This week we had a bunch of lessons and many of them were super great!! A lot of the people we've been teaching for a month or two have finally started to make bigger steps and commitments and that is super super exciting!! 

Specifically, we finally go Galina to take a commitment after so many lessons and lots of time! We were so excited for here and actually this time we didn't even extend the commitment we just gave the lesson talking a lot about prayer and how we can ask our Heavenly Father to know what his plan and will for us is. After Elder Trounce and I testified she finally just said, "спрашу" (I will ask.) So we are excited about that! She's gonna pray about Baptism and God's plan/path for her.

We also met with Darina and that was an incredibly powerful lesson as well. We felt we couldn't move on teaching here more until we really talked about all that we've talked about so far and the importance of daily prayer and study in the Book of Mormon. It was an amazing lesson. She told us she had been thinking a lot about what we've already taught her and about baptism she's even prayed about it! She's still unsure but she definitely sees something special and important and committed to continuing to read and pray!

Our last big lesson was with Dimitry. We've been having a hard time meeting with him the past month or so. But we called him Saturday night and he said he would have time to meet the next day! So we went over there on Sunday and talked to him. We reminded him of the things he felt our last meeting and we found that he had been reading the Book of Mormon not quite every day but he's been doing some reading!! We really set expectations and told him that we want to help him prepare for baptism. He committed to continue reading praying every day, meeting and that he will come to church!! Super excited for him too. One incredible thing was to see how much the gospel has already changed and made a big impact on his life! 

On Sunday I had the opportunity to speak in church! I was happy with how it went but I just wanted to add and talk about some of the things I spoke about in church. 

The Book of Mormon is so important! It is the keystone of our religion. If it is true then Joseph Smith is a prophet and the church has been restored onto the earth. On top of that, the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are promised blessings as we live the gospel and follow Christ's teachings. 
President Thomas S. Monson in his very last talk in General Conference said,
"This morning I speak about the power of the Book of Mormon and the critical need we have as members of this Church to study, ponder, and apply its teachings in our lives. The importance of having a firm and sure testimony of the Book of Mormon cannot be overstated...  If you do not have a firm testimony of these things, do that which is necessary to obtain one. It is essential for you to have your own testimony in these difficult times, for the testimonies of others will carry you only so far."
There is great power in the Book of Mormon we can find great strength as we study it! Through our study of the Book of Mormon, we can receive strength, guidance, revelation, and peace!   

Love you all!! All the Best!

Elder Halls 





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