October Updates

2 October
Exchanges in Rivne, Lessons and Elder McConkie

It was a crazy busy week!

We had exchanges in Rivne, the city I was trained in! And it was even cooler because I was back with my MTC comp and it was cool to see how much we have both grown. We had a really good exchange. A sister in the branch there had just returned home from her mission in Eastern Ukraine and we talked a lot about the missionaries I know serving over there and we had so much fun sharing stories.

We also had exchanges with the AP's. I was with Elder Lindsey who is from AF. It was so fun talking about all the people we both knew from back home. It was a really good exchange and it was really nice getting to know our AP's and getting so much help from them.

We had a lesson with Bogdan who I mentioned last week is preparing to be baptized! He is still comin a long strong just hard finding time to meet and come to church. He still has a very strong desire to be baptized it is just going to take some pray and fasting together to help him find time.
 
It for sure feels like fall around here, we have been getting rain dumped on us everyday for a couple hours a day and it is getting cold.

Stumbled upon this funny but powerful quote the other day from Bruce R. McConkie and I love it. The gospel is so simple yet so incomprehensibly extraordinary. Don't get tied up in life, stick to the basics and all will work out.  "So often questions like this are asked: “I know it is not essential to my salvation, but I would really like to know how many angels can dance on the head of a pin and if it makes any difference whether the pin is made of brass or bronze?” There is such a thing as getting so tied up with little fly specks on the great canvas which depicts the whole plan of salvation that we lose sight of what the life and the light and the glory of eternal reward are all about. There is such a thing as virtually useless knowledge, the acquisition of which won’t make one iota of difference to the destiny of the kingdom or the salvation of its subjects."

Love you all!

21 October
Utah Couple, International Basketball and a New Companion

Super, duper busy week. So much happened and it went by sooooo fast.

We have an amazing new couple that moved here for a couple months from Utah. They had us over for dinner and it was awesome. They are such neat people and so eager to help the branch here and do missionary work.

We had a lesson with Yuri, a guy that walked into the church a couple weeks ago and it went really well. We were worried going into it because the first time we met with him, all he talked about was the bible and how it's all we need. We discussed the Restoration and he listened closely and asked some sincere questions. He messaged us the day after and told us the he will give the Book of Mormon a shot!

We played basketball with some of our friends from the Congo and Nigeria. While we were there a kid from Beijing walked up and started playing with us. I got to whip out the little Chinese I remember and it was really cool.

I will be staying in Lviv this next transfer and I will be serving with Elder Taran, my old companion from Chernivtsi! It'll be really exciting and a good transfer. It will also be a really busy one.

Love you all and have a fantastic week.

28 October
More Basketball, Fall Festival and New Missionaries!

Our basketball team made up of one kid from Ukraine, one from the Congo, one from Beijing and one terrible baskteball player from Utah.

We had a really good week! It was mine and Elder Taran's first week together and it was busy, busy. We found some really cool people and played basketball with them a couple times this week. They are super cool kids and we hope we can get a chance to sit down and talk to them. A few of them even came to our banch activity we had on Saturday.

It was a fall festival kind of activity and we played a lot of games and ate some good food. We had a good amount of people come from English and the members did a great job of becoming friends with them. One of the boys we are teaching, Bogdan, came! It was so good to finally see him because he has been so busy. He told us he is still going to be super busy but we are praying that he will find time to meet with us.

We got 4 new missionaries this last week! There is one sister and 3 elders in our zone. The elders all came through Lviv and spent the night before heading off to their cities. It was really cool to meet them and I am so excited for them to get started.

I have been studying and trying to find ALL the names of Christ in the scriptures and man, there are sooooooo many!! In just one hour I find 53 names that the Savior is called by. One of my favorites has always been the Prince of Peace and while I was studying these the other day, I found another one which was The Founder of Peace. Not only is He the Prince and perfect example of peace but He is the Founder of it! All good, joy, happiness, miracles and so on, all come from the Savior Jesus Christ. I love Him and I love this work.


Have an amazing week yall!
Elder Kenyon Matua