Week 67: С наступающим Рождеством!!

Привіт! Як справи твої?

There's a little Ukrainian for you all to start your day Haha))

This week was a super busy one! We had a bunch of different meetings/conferences and then we also had one exchange this week! In despite of the fact that we were super busy we had a really great week! 

Our first meeting was MLC on Tuesday which was really great! We somehow got all of our discussion items finished and plans of action for each of them which like never happens. We were all super tired afterwards because our brains had been working so hard for so many hours straight Haha. Right after we finished our MLC we hopped on the tramvai and went to go meet Elders Arnold and Stosich on the big square for an exchange. Me and Elder Stosich had a lesson in about 10 minutes from that moment so when the tramvai rolled in my comp jumped out and Elder Stosich jumped in and we kept on rolling to the branch haha. It was some real fancy maneuvering. 

We got to the branch and had a lesson with Scott! Haha Scott I know a very usual name haha that's because Scott is from America. We had a lesson with him and it was super interesting to teach in English. It was funny because we forgot a lot of the English gospel words and so we were translating and helping each other in order to teach him! The spirit was really strong. He even asked a bunch of really good questions and wants to come to church sometime soon before he moves out of Ukraine. He's an interesting man but it was really great to teach him. It helped me to understand what lessons are probably usually like in America haha. At the end he asked us if we knew where any good ice cream was, because all of the people he knows who are members of the church are ice cream experts or something...? Haha we weren't able to help him out. We usually just go to АТБ we aren't too picky at all.

We had 2 Zone Conferences this week and they were really great!! These were our Christmas Zone Conferences and they are a little bit different than the usual ones that we have. For Christmas President Wirthlin has always felt impressed that we should focus on the Savior and the Why of missionary work. So that is what we did. As leaders we also organized a service project that we could do with our Zone Conference and that went very well! We had an hour we spent making these little gifts of cookies or winter clothing with little notes with scriptures or words about the Savior and then we took another hour out on the street handing these gifts to people who are sad and lonely and needed a little pick me up, or to those who are homeless and cold and have not gloves or food. It was a blessing and wonderful opportunity to offer these things to these people to see the smile on their faces and just have that opportunity to serve them. 

At the end of the conference each missionary stood and shared their testimony of Jesus Christ and one of His titles that they most like from the Book of Mormon. This was a very powerful experience for me! The spirit was very strong and my testimony of the Savior as well as the importance of that testimony grew deeply.

People!

This week was a little slower on the teaching side of things. A lot of our lessons fell through because those who we are teaching got sick or different things like that. David got bronchitis so he wasn't able to go to church in order to have one of our Skype lessons. Dima also got sick and was too busy the day before to meet so we had to push back his date but we're still working with him. Taras came to church on Sunday! We have kind of taken a step back and just given him time, but we called on Saturday night and he came to church and afterwards we had a lesson! He still wants to be baptized. We are helping him right now to get ready for that! Trying to help him strengthen his testimony and start to act on his faith.

We had a lesson this week with Vitali which went really well! About 3 months ago I gave Vitali a Book of Mormon at English practice and he read it some and then this Tuesday he finally came back to English practice after a long while and we set up a lesson with him for Friday! It was a super powerful lesson that we had! The spirit was super strong and he really felt it! During the lesson we asked him what blessings he'd seen in his life. And he answered that he had only really heard of blessings and never seen any. But by the end of the lesson he really felt the spirit and we promised him that this message will bless his life! He really felt the power of the spirit confirm that! He didn't make it to church because he thought it was at 10 p.m. but he'll be there this coming week haha.

Spiritual thought 

The title I chose was Rock and Foundation

"12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

As we center ourselves on Christ we will not and cannot fall! 

Merry Christmas 

Elder Halls 

Snagged this at the white elephant

Pday Hachipuri

New missionaries