Updates for 4 March and 11 March

Washed our clothes old skool

Transfers!

We got transfer texts! I will be serving as the new district leader in Chernivtsi! I will be serving in a trio with 2 trainees that are just finishing being trained by my trainer. I am excited to go to a new city and excited to see what serving in a trio is like.

We had a fun family home evening at the restaurant that one of the members sings at. She invited us all there, us and the Polischuk family, to have dinner and talk but unfortunately she wasn't singing. But it was still super fun.

I taught everyone how to play the card game kems on Tuesday. After years and years of playing it I still don't know if it's called kems or kemps but whatever. It was super fun and we all got into it. The last English practice here was fun and I am sad to be leaving such cool people.

Our washing machine was broken all week but luckily we had the other apartment and ran over there a few times to do laundry. The only bad thing is it takes almost 30 min to get there so it was a pain, but worth the clean clothes. We finally got ours fixed but we haven't even tried to see if it works. The repair man came in here and messed around with it for like 20 min and then left....but I'm sure it's fine....

Elder Stott finally won a game of Phase-10

We got some super super super exciting news yesterday. We will finally be getting smart phones!! Everyone is super pumped. Except of course the few that are leaving soon. We are all super excited to have 8 new missionaries in our zone and get  to know all of them.

I am so excited and so ready to go to a new city. I am sad to be leaving but also very happy, bittersweet.

Chernivitsi

Chernivtsi is a cold, bleak place

This week was very busy and very tiring. I got into Lviv last week, Monday night at 11:30 and then had to catch a train here to Chernivtsi at 4 am. Got in around 10:30 am and met my new companions Elder Taran, from Ukraine, and Elder Tuttle, from Highland Utah. It has already been interesting serving in a trio, makes cooking on a little tiny stove fun. Chernivtsi is a super cool city. I wish I was here in the summer because it will be twice as cool but its getting there.

We are working with some very cool people right now. One of them is named Andriy and he has a baptismal date for April 6. We had a lesson about the Word of Wisdom because he has a small problem with smoking but he hasn't smoked since last week and we are trying super hard to keep him going.

We had a good sacrament meeting, I spoke and both sisters spoke as well. The branch is very small. Only 18 people came to church. But that just means we got a lot of work to do. We did some Less-active stop-by's which went really well. One of them was about an hour out of the city and it was a really good stop by. We were able to take them the sacrament and they were so grateful for it. They can't really come to church every week because they can't afford a bus to get down here so it was really cool to see how grateful they were to receive the sacrament.

I am excited for whats ahead in this city. It'll take some getting used to especially because everyone starts every conversation in Russian. But might as well start learning now. Have an amazing week!!


Elder Kenyon Matua

Several Updates in One

25 February

It was a busy week this week full of exchanges. We actually only had two exchanges but we were hosting both here in Rivne and it was back to back days, but they were both awesome!

Visiting the sites and sounds of Rivne

Our first exchange on Wednesday was with the Zone Leaders. I got to spend the day with Elder Eller. We spent both exchanges outside doing A LOT of contacting but on Wednesday we decided to put a little punishment to whichever companionship got less IP's. Elder Eller and I won and we got to dump buckets of water on our companions. We also got to go to one of the members houses on Wednesday and have a short lesson with her and it went very well and got to help her with a couple of things she was struggling with. The Zone Leaders left Thursday and the Lutsk elders got here on Thursday. I got to spend the day with Elder Holden who is in training right now and he did awesome. Spent that day outside a lot as well and they ended up leaving right before we had English practice. 

We met with Katya on Sunday and had a super good lesson on Tithing and Fasting and she loved it. We were trying very hard to stress the point that she needs to get baptized sooner than later and that right now at such a hard time in her life it will help so much but she just can't until her divorce is final because her husband said no to her getting baptized. But she did say, "I don't care if the world disagrees with me getting baptized, I will get baptized." 

Transfer calls will be here on Friday and we can't wait to see what will be going down. Super excited!

18 February

Man, a super super crazy week especially with the new announcement. None of us know what to

Our Branch Valentine's party

think, whether or not we are super happy about it or we are kind of ehh. But doesn't matter what we think because it happened!

This week was a little rough because I got sick traveling home from L'viv but all is well now. We had some really fun activities this week including a branch Valentines party on Saturday. It ended up being pretty fun even though it was planned in such short notice. It was my first time helping make real authentic Ukrainian food too.

We had a good training from a member in Kyiv about finances and stuff as a branch because Elder Stott is in the Presidency. Super cool learning about finances and stuff but I am not excited for having to do it all myself after the mission...it's a little scary.

We received a couple referrals and we were able to contact them. One of them named Ihor ended up coming to church yesterday. He is a super neat guy and he liked church! He even asked us after sacrament how he can become a member of the church. Super cool! We are excited to work with him, the only small obstacle is he lives 45 min away so we will be working that out.

These are just some of the trays of eggs since serving together

I started reading Jesus the Christ and man is it a lot of info but I am already learning so much about our Savior on a whole new level. Super excited to continue reading that and actually understanding the New Testament.


Have a good week
Elder Kenyon Matua

Squad

Loooong Week

Statue in L'viv

Had a very, very long week this week. We have been in L'viv for a few days for zone conference and district conference and it has been amazing! We are still here at an internet club so I don't have tons of time before we gotta go.

Zone conference was really neat. Talked a lot about our goals as a zone and we are very excited. President mentioned we will be receiving some exciting news these next couple of months so we are all on the edge of our seats waiting for an announcement. He also mentioned that Easter Sunday will be another big opportunity to have a special sacrament meeting and invite our investigators and less actives and referrals and everybody! Also had super super good counsel from our mission president.

District conference was great. Had a great turn out. I think over 200 members which doesn't sound like a lot for most members of the Church around the world but here that is a lot. Not a ton from Rivne but still had a good turn out. The talks were amazing and there was a baptismal service that literally everybody stayed for. Biggest baptismal service I have ever been a part of for one person. Super cool.

I learned so much this past week. One of the biggest things was the difference and the relationship between Faith, Hope and Charity, which President Kumferman talked to us about. I always love President's segments at conference. A big question I have always had is, does hope come before faith or after faith? and the answer is yes. Hahaha yes the answer was yes, hope comes before and after faith. President Kumferman mentioned how he had been looking for that answer for years and couldn't believe that was the answer but that it made so much sense. My eyes were opened to so many things about faith and hope and after hope then faith then hope comes charity. Man sorry it's so confusing but it makes so much sense to me now. And if you already knew that your a молодець.

Love you all have a good week!
Elder Matua

Big, entertaining Branch activity

Doing service for a member

Zone Conference - Pres K is the best!

Saying goodbye to Elder Lukach

Saying goodbye to Elder Galmeister

THE best District at Zone Conference

District bangah's!

4 February 2019, Update

Our favorite past-time with friends - games!

Another week in the books!

Not a very busy week unfortunately. We did finally get a chance to meet with Katya though! It went really well. We talked about the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom. She agreed with everything. She also shared some cool experiences she had while being on vacation about not drinking alcohol because on holidays, if you don't drink, it's kinda weird. But nobody said anything when she didn't drink and she really liked that. While we were talking about the Law of Chastity and we started talking about things that go along with it, like pornography. While we were talking, she stopped us and said, "I don't have a problem with this, pornography is boring". Elder Stott and I could not stop laughing, we thought that was so funny. She also excepted a date to be baptized on March 2nd! However, we told her that she would after to get spouse approval and her and her husband are not doing to well right now so she thinks that will be an obstacle, but we are praying it won't be.

We had a couple fun activities this week. On Tuesday we played the card game spoons in a couple different versions and it ended up being super fun. On Saturday we had sports day, but because it's too cold outside to play sports we played another card game called Munchkin. It took a second to teach everyone but it was really fun. After a few of the people from English club invited us to go get lunch. It was a funny experience and we are making some really good relationships through these activities.

I heard an awesome quote that I wanted to share really quick. "It is better to prepare and prevent than to repair and repent". I love this quote and I kinda of took at a missionary stand point because it obviously applies to me more that way. Right now we are trying to help those that aren't prepared get prepared so they don't have to worry about trying to repair, repair, repair. Obviously we will always and should always be repenting because none of use are perfect but when we are prepared we can prevent so much more.


Have an amazing week!
Elder Matua

28 January, 2019 Update

Another successful game night

Awesome, awesome week! Had some interesting experiences and also got tons of snow again which is not good; We were just starting to think that winter was over.

Started out with an awesome game night. There are pictures attached that probably look super weird but we played human battle ship for game night. We didn't have too many resources but we made do with what we got. It ended up being super fun and we also taught them how to play signs after and they loved it. There was also a drunk guy that walked in demanding hot tea and money and shoes. He sat on the couches all night and at the end of the night we had to kick him out because he wouldn't leave.

English practice on Friday was also good. We had a couple debates and played some games. Our friends I talked about last week ended up coming again. Then they wanted to come to the gym with us Saturday morning, so they did. It was different having other people there at the gym with us but it was really fun. And I think the people at the gym finally realized that we understand everything we are saying so that is good too. Our two friends wanted to take us to eat after so we went and got pizza and we talked. They are two really cool and really neat people. Elder and Sister Andrus, a senior couple in L'viv also came to do apartment check ups on Saturday so they took us to lunch as well.

Vika spoke in sacrament yesterday for her very last Sunday here in Ukraine. She leaves to Germany on February first. Everyone was really sad to see her leave but we are all super excited for her. Her talk was focused on testimonies and thanking the branch for their testimonies and helping her become converted, it was amazing.

Have some more stuff planned for this week that we are excited for and we are all excited for the week after because we are heading to L'viv for zone and district conference.


Lovin the work and lovin Ukraine.
-Elder Matua