Glorious Christmas Week

What an amazing week! I'll start right from the beginning. Last week, on Thursday, we had an amazing final TRC. I was hoping for Gary and the boys that we had been teaching usually, but we got an even better surprise, we were able to teach some native Kazakhs! We taught this wonderful lady who was converted by missionaries in Kazakhstan and now lived in Utah with her husband. It was super hard to understand her Russian, but luckily she understood us hahaha. She bore an amazing testimony that was so strong. The spirit was so powerful during that lesson. An amazing experience.

Gary, who we taught in our TRCs. He was so fun to teach and share our testimonies with.

Christmas Eve was an awesome experience, but the best part didn't actually have anything to do with Christmas. It came from a substitute we had in class on change.  A few weeks ago, I was thinking about how I need to change and become better, and I thought that I had a lot to change (which I still do) but I was thinking of change in the wrong mindset. Here's an analogy: the gospel is like food - there's soups, there's salads, there's steaks, and there's drinks. Investigators (or friends of the church now) desire that food. They might now know it, but they are spiritually craving sustenance. I, as a missionary, am a utensil. Now, the gospel comes in many forms, with the salads and the steaks etc. Therefore, there are many kind of utensils - there are spoons, there are forks, there are salad forks, there are knives, there are straws, etc, etc. God has made me, for example, a fork. And he did that on purpose. And he wants me to change and become better. And I want that too. Now when he says he wants me to change, he doesn't want me to become a spoon - I'm not a spoon. I'm a fork. He made me a fork on purpose. Instead, he wants to change me into the best fork that I can possibly be. And that's what I want to be too. I want to be the best possible fork that I can be for the Lord. I shouldn't think that I need to be a different utensil. I have my strengths and my weaknesses for a reason and I need to be so very grateful for them and remember that God doesn't want me to be something that I'm not, he wants Elder Day to be the best possible Elder Day there is. And that goes for everyone. All of our gifts, all of our weaknesses, all of our trials, everything is given to us for our betterment, so that we can progress forward and continually improve. I know that God wants all of us to be the best version of us that we can be, and if we turn to him during our trials and our hard times, he will bless us and help us change.

The Kyiv Missionaries with the Ukrainian flag

Christmas day was also amazing. We got to hear from Elder Bednar, who is always fantastic, as well as watch a few movies such as "It's a Wonderful Life." Also I got to shake David Archuleta's hand. He did a little performance at the MTC. Pretty great stuff. The best part was unquestionably calling my family. It was so good to see them. I hope everyone took advantage of this wonderful holiday to express their great love and appreciation for your families and for the great gift that is the atonement that our savior so graciously gave to us. I love Jesus Christ and owe so much to him. I know that if we press forward with faith in him we will be blessed.

Us Kyiv Missionaries again with our glorious flag

Love y'all so very much.

 - старейшина Ashton Day