Week 61: Miracles!!

Hello everyone!! This is the week of Halloween which means that it's practically already November. That's scary stuff. This week a year ago was my first week in Ukraine!! 

That's super crazy but it's all such a super big blessing in my life! I'm so grateful for my mission and for the great opportunity to represent the Lord and His church! Count your blessings))

Alright so this week was the first week of the transfer which means we were busy busy busy!! Haha super busy actually! We had lots going on pretty much each day of the week. There were moments of peace when we finished with a hard task but then we just kept pushing through to whatever was next. All in all it was a really great week!

Finding order in the chaos (Хоас sounds like "house")

This week we had something going on basically everyday and we had lots of good moments in between and before and after and even during so I'll try to explain all the things going on and then those good moments too.

So on monday I said goodbye to my companion Elder Rasmussen! We've had some great times together and then I said hello to my new companion Elder Bagley. A little bit about him: he is from American Fork. (For you Ukrainians that speak Russian out there or any other Russian speakers wherever you might be that's "американская вилка" to you.) But that's not all he also has a family of 11. That's 9 kids and 2 parents. 9 kids 2 parents if you didn't catch that the first time. He's the 2nd to last but also the 2nd son to serve here in this mission. His older brother served here about 10 years ago! That's 240 months if that's a little easier to understand for you. He has two hands and the same amount of legs. That's 2 legs to help you on the math there a little bit. He sleeps in a bed that's to the left of mine and eats on the other side of the the table with the opposite hand that I feed myself with. For those that don't know I'm left handed- now you know. Now that you know a little bit more about Elder Bagley we can continue. 

On Tuesday we had the longest on record weekly meeting with President since my time as an assistant. It was 4 hours. Lots of important things we are working on and getting ready for Elder Boom "like Home" who comes to our mission really soon and we've got to be ready for him. We also had a bunch more things to plan in preparation for the things happening that week as well. We were buying tickets doing agendas getting thoughts ready and all the like. 

It Begins

Wednesday was the first day of meetings. We had New Leaders meeting and MLC and things went really well! We were happy with some really great discussions that we had!

In between the two meetings we had a great lesson with a new person we are teaching. Sergei is his name. He's awesome! I'll talk more about him in the spiritual thought. He's already read about 50 pages of the Book of Mormon! He's doing awesome!

We ended the day with the new assistant orientation/dinner in the mission home which is always yummy and powerful!

Thursday we had all the trainers come in because the new missionaries would be coming in later that day! It's always a super exciting day! We had an excellent training for all the new trainers as well as orientation on friday! The new missionaries were able to get out on the street and do some contacting. It was super great!! We have some pretty awesome missionaries! Part of Thursday was taking all the luggage of the 10 new missionaries and shipping it through the mail to them in their areas. That was the most stressful event of the whole week and oh how smoothly it went. I can't tell you how happy I was to get rid of those bags. And they were many let me tell you. 

After friday all the meetings were finished and we were back free on the work. We got lots done this week and it was really great!

We began teaching a new man Misha. He's wonderful!! A really cool guy he wants to bring his whole family and all his friends to church and what not. It'll be awesome.

On Sunday Taras came to church and now he's on baptismal date for the 23rd. He's excited but he still has a way to go to get there! But we'll help him right along the way! He could definitely use all your prayers as well!!

Also had a miracle. Benjamin came 2 hours late but also another man did as well and so they were able to sit together on Pobeda's sacrament meeting when we were having a lesson with Taras and it all just worked out perfect in the end! 

All in all the Lord's hand was very apparent this week! We feel his love and comfort as well as your prayers!! We are very much not alone in the work!

Spiritual Thought 

I want to share a story that Sergei shared with us that was very powerful for me. Sergei is an older man and he has a friend who is really sick. He has been for a while and things are tough for him and Sergei wanted to help his friend Sasha out. So he invited him out into the forest where he has a nice peaceful cabin. And they were relaxing there. Ukrainians really love mushrooms so as Ukrainians they made the decision to go strolling in the forest looking for some mushrooms. After an hour or so they hadn't found anything. Sergei, loving his friend Sasha really wanted to find some mushrooms to brighten his day. So Sergei said a prayer, "Lord, can we please just find a few mushrooms for Sasha" As he finished his prayer, he turned and saw on the ground some mushrooms! As he told this story he began to cry and testify that God hears our prayers! I also know that is true!! I love Alma 37:37

"Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day."

Have a happy Halloween and a great start of November!!

Love 

Elder Halls

My new companion Elder Bagley and Sister Rawlinson who decided to jump in.

Ukulele

An egg I bought last week