Week 23 - The Janky Washer

This week was a crazy one. Weather is super crazy and random, and we're staying super busy down here in Chernivtsi.

President Rizley came down to visit with us on Tuesday. It was super good to spend time with him and get some pointers from him. He gave me a lot of personal advice which I am so thankful for.

It was a pretty normal week. We still spend lots of time looking for people to teach. On the street, over the phone, through our area book, activities, English practices and so many other things. There are a lot of opportunities but we get dogged quite a bit. We don't have any investigators at the moment, but we are also working a lot with the branch and some less active members of the branch. Truly making the most out of our 13 hour days.

There are so many amazing people down here in Chernivtsi. We meet so many people and they are just awesome. Here is a picture of Vova, Julia, and Bogdan. Some of the coolest people I've met on my mission. We went to get sushi together for Sister Romney's birthday! They are so fun.

This week our washer broke. It's super old and janky and I think from prehistoric times. I didn't understand how it worked, not only because it was in German. So I started a load of laundry without closing the barrel all the way. There's a latch on the inside that closes the cylinder and I had no idea. so i start the washer and leave. It's making weird noises but Elder Likhachiov says that it always does. But he said it sounded weirder than normal. I left to the other room and he yells my name. I come running to the bathroom and sure enough our washing machine is smoking! It burned through the belt that turns the cabin. BUT, we went to a little store and bought a new belt. The guy told me how to do it (in Ukrainian) so I really had no idea...I don't study washing machines too much during language study. But, we cracked it open using our kitchen paring knife as a multi-tool. The belt was too big and it started burning too. So I had to cut it down with a box cutter and the belt looks super sketch. BUT, it works now. I'm learning so many things out here!!

This week was daylight savings, but ours kinda got cancelled. We had a district conference for all church members in Western Ukraine. Our train left at 6 AM so we had to wake up at 4:30. Our train tracks got jacked up so our 4 hour ride turned into 5 and a half. We got to the train station in Lviv and there were absolutely no taxis, because of a marathon going on! So, we walked in the pouring rain 30 minutes to the church building. I was wet until we got home at midnight that night. We made it to the last 30 minutes of the 2 hour conference, but got to say hi to all the other missionaries. It was super fun and a good experience. We rode the buses back, and then our departing train went super slow, so we we got home at 12 AM instead of the expected 10:20. There goes daylight savings!! haha. Then we were up today at 6:30 like always.

Today a huge windstorm caused a power outage across the city, so we chilled in the church building, ordered some pizzas and played 3 hours of monopoly with the other missionaries. It got intense. We have a super tight district. During our game I said "I bet the power's back on", just joking around. Everyone was like "yeah right" and then I got up and turned on the light and there was light. We were so excited. Had to be there - it was the funniest thing ever.

This week was a strange-feeling one. Hard to explain. But, as always, we're working super hard to accomplish the thing that the Lord has commanded us.

Shoutout to my momma for the Halloween package! Easiest and longest distance trick-or-treating in world history?? I think so.

Have a great week. Find an opportunity to serve.

Elder Stott

Our kitchen 

The pantry

A cool Provaslavnic ring I found this week - fits perfectly, so hype

Week 22 - Chernivtsi, the Sister City

MAN, Chernivtsi is so sick!!!

There is so much to talk about!!

My last days in Ivano Flew by. I said all my goodbyes to some of the coolest people I've ever met. Hopped on a 7 AM train Tuesday morning all by myself and went 3 hours straight to Chernivtsi! Can't remember if I slept or not. But I got my very own super fancy room! 

I got off the train and immediately loved it here. Ivano is super flat and compact compared to Chernivtsi. There are so many hills (just ask my cramping calves) and sooo many good views. It's a much older city (609 years old) and a lot of the buildings are old and so beautiful! A lot less modern, but so much beauty here. We toured a really old University today. Legit Hogwarts.

This city is actually a sister-city with SLC! I have no idea what that means but you might think it's kinda cool. Basically I think it means they're kind of similar or something but Chernivtsi has received grants and financial support from SLC. They have some statues and monuments dedicated to SLC. You can even see the temple in the skyline. Super dope! (Salt Lake City established The Sister City Program 50 years ago, to promote international peace. There are currently 6 Sister Cities. Chernivsti was included in 1989)

My new comp is way different from my last. It's been a learning experience already. He is 26, another native from Mikolai, Ukraine. He's blind in one eye, so I always walk on the left side so he doesn't bump into anything. It's weird how weird walking on the right feels. haha. We both love exercise and eat really well. No more icecream shops for me. We don't talk as much as Elder Lukach and I did, but we're still really good friends. This is his last transfer, so I'm trying my hardest to make this the best transfer I can for him. I have found that when you try to be the best companion that you can be, you can check off the missionary box at the same time. They truly go hand in hand. Serving, loving, working and sacrificing... Including taking the tiny bed. I'm like Buddy the Elf, with his feet hanging off the edge. haha

My new companion - on the right

The work here is in a little slow spot! I forgot the word for it (yeah, that's happening now) oh it's a lull. The work is kind of in a lull right now so we have a plan of attack for this city! We have big plans and we're ready to hit the ground running these first weeks. We're going to try our absolute hardest to find people to teach, and boost the branch here so we can get them involved in the work with us. We truly need their help! And we need your help too - please pray for us. We need to find someone to teach...just ONE.

A small call to repentance to my family and friends in wards in the states. If you haven't been participating in the missionary work in your wards, please do. Set aside one hour. Let the missionaries bring someone to your home, or go somewhere with them to teach with them. Members make ALL the difference for missionaries. Help them find people to teach, and bless the lives of those around you. Having someone who seems a little bit more relateable can change the whole process of an investigator. The most success we have seen with investigators on the mission is when the members are actively engaged in the work with the missionaries. So, turn off the netflix and go help change someone's life. I promise you won't regret it!!

We have tons of work to do here. We're looking for people to teach almost nonstop. We haven't had much success yet, but we're not going to stop. These next five weeks are going to be full of growing pains. Just like when we exercise and feel the pain in our muscles, the pain is actually a good thing, even though it doesn't feel the best. But we know that when we hurt, it just means we're getting stronger. Just like when life is hard, we're simply in the middle of the growing pains. There is no progress when there is no struggle. 

Sorry for no stories this week. P-day got split up so everything is kind of jumbled right now!!

Have a good week!

Elder Stott

Week 21 - Transfers!!

TRANSFER CALLS!!

I got a call on Friday morning! Turns out, I'll be heading down south to Chernivtsi on Wednesday morning to be serving with Elder Likhachov, another Ukrainian native missionary!! It will be the last transfer of his mission. It's gonna be super fun and a ton of hard work. Chernivtsi is a beautiful city with castles and much more interesting stuff to do! I'll have a lot more pictures I hope. It's going to be a huge blessing for me and learning the language especially! I've ONLY had Ukrainian companions thus far on my mission! It's really hard to see short term progress, but just giving a talk in church yesterday felt a billion times more comfortable. Being able to be led by the spirit rather than your sliver of vocabulary and knowledge feels a whole lot better. For everyone. 

This week was super interesting. Everyone dogged us on Monday evening, but we taught our investigator Sasha. He had gotten beaten up by some random guy in the park just because he was reading the Book of Mormon on the bench. It was super sad to see him all scratched up and I'm 99% sure his nose is broken. But man, what a beast he is. Lots of things happen that we can't explain. Everything requires our faith. Faith in Heavenly Fathers plan for us, and trusting in the fact that His plan will always be better for us, whether we know it or not. Whether we're in trials or easy times in life, it's all part of the plan. All we have to do is simply (and sometimes a lot harder than simply) hold on. And not let go. That night in line at the grocery store, this man kept staring at me from another line. It was really starting to bug me because I knew that HE KNEW that I KNEW that I saw him. You know?  Then he said, "Excuse me, are you Mormon?" (with a French accent). Turns out he was from France, who knows why he was here, but he just went on to compliment our religion and who we are as people. He talked about how we looked so nice and he could just tell that we were missionaries because we look exactly like the ones they have in France! It was super nice to talk with him. It was just casual but at the same time an important lesson was learned. You have no idea who is watching you, which is why it's always important to act like, and do the things that you would as if EVERYONE was watching you! Puts a big responsibility on our shoulders as missionaries.

Mission conference was SO awesome (pics below). It was my first mission-wide conference, where I finally got to meet all of the missionaries in Western Ukraine. There, we talked about a lot of important and really interesting things. I learned sooo much and received answers to questions I didn't even realize I had! We had to say goodbye to 8 of the missionaries here, because they will be gone by the time we will have our next conference. We talked a lot about Jacob chapter 5. It is a super deep and kind of confusing allegory about a vineyard of olive trees. There are a ton of things that you can get right on the surface, but we went super deep and found out so many more things from those verses, that really teach about the Character of Christ and who He is for us. I invite you all to take some time to read, study, and then, most importantly, apply what you learn there!! Such an awesome chapter from the Book of Mormon.

Another journalist bombarded one of our activities this week saying that she's going to try to shut us down with an article in the newspaper! It's okay though. We've already had our fair share of journalists out to get us--and we're still here! I just felt bad that she was so offended by our free art class. Who even hates art! Oh well. Maybe she'll come! Yeah, I don't think so either.

We also had another funny experience this week. Yesterday we did an activity out on the streets to promote our English practice. I met an Italian man. We talked about our English practice and he was interested. Then he asked who we are and why we're here. As we pointed at our badges, he immediately exclaimed, mixing his Italian and Ukrainian, Mama Mia! Mormoni? And then quickly ran away dragging his confused wife with him. It was just one of those things you had to be there for. We're used to those kinds of things though hahaha.

I gave my leaving-Ivano-talk in church yesterday. It's going to be weird to leave the only city I've ever served in, but i'm so excited to be able to go somewhere new. Honestly, time has seemed to go by super slow so far here in Ivano, which typically happens during your first 12 weeks in the field while you're getting trained. But all the missionaries say that time starts to really fly after your first city. As of now, I'm just packing my bags, getting ready to further the Lord's work in Chernivtsi! Also i'm super excited because I have friends in Chernivtsi! Elder Galmeister, Sister Romney who was in my district during the first transfer, and also Sister Stromberg who I'm super excited to serve with. There are also brand new missionaries coming in this Wednesday, so I will no longer be the mission baby. One of the Elder's coming in will also be with us in Chernivtsi. SO EXCITED!!

Godspeed.

Elder Stott

Petro Kovtun - One of my favorites in Ivano.

Andrii - A recent convert here.  Love him.

Shake my head...They closed down the whole main road for a 50 km SPEEDWALKING RACE!

Elder Aslanyan - from Armenia

My Boy - Elder Abraham

Elder Protzman - just finished!

Train ride home from the mission conference.

Me and Elder Frehner - FrehTrain

Week 20 - A Basketball Miracle and The Slam

This week was SUPER good.

Last Monday we had a super big service project. We went out to a village and painted a house from 9-5. This whole experience was a HUGE mess of miracles all around. I'll start from the beginning. We were on splits at the bus stop, waiting to go to the Celo to paint this house. While Elder Sanders and I were waiting, we were just talking and this dude walks up and is about to get on one of the buses. He heard us talking, looked all confused and said, "Yo, y'all from America?" I was SO HYPED. We talked just a little bit.  His name was Ike. Later that night, we were planning to go play basketball with our friend Juda we met like 6 weeks ago (I wrote about meeting him). I felt a prompting to invite Ike to meet us to go play basketball. I ran up to his bus and said "Yo Ike! If you're want to play some ball tonight, meet us at the fountain in the center at 7! It's gonna be sick!". He just said, "Oh y'all are hoopin? Aight!"  I reached out for a handshake but his bus door closed on me. I was super sad we didn't get his contact info or anything else. I just hoped that he would come!

We got to the house and painted all day. My patience has never been tested so much. All the time we were there, the 5 year old son thought I was a bad guy. Non-stop, this little dude was punching, spitting, spanking me (how humiliating), yelling, throwing sawdust...you name it and this little guy was doing it. I survived despite my quarter-life-crisis with a 5-year old. After we finished up, Elder Sanders and I left a little early to head to the fountain! The father drove us down the huge hill to the bus stop. While we were in the car, I realized that I didn't have the keys to our apartment, and we didn't have time to go back up and get them from the other Elders. I was SO mad. And we were running late. We got on the bus, figuring that Elder Sanders could loan me some shorts. Halfway home, he checked his pockets. No keys, to either apartment. I was devastated. I brought my basketball shoes on my mission for this exact moment and I BLEW it. We got to the center with 10 minutes to spare. We sprinted to 4 different sports shops, and second hand stores. Closed, closed, didn't have shorts, didn't have shorts. YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!! We waited, sadly, ohhhh so sadly by the fountain in my painting clothes. I had to face it. I was about to play basketball in paint pants and tennis shoes.

We see Juda walking up with someone else! Another guy. I ran up to greet him. I made eye contact with him, his friend, back to him, and then did a double take. "Ike?! What's up man! Wait. How do you know Ike, Juda?". Juda says, "I told you I had a brother didn't I?" THEY WERE BROTHERS! 6 weeks ago we met one. That morning we met the other. Literally the coolest guys out there. I explained to them, ever so shamefully, that I had no clothes. They just started talking. Ike had shoes, Juda had shorts. We went to their apartment and they hooked it up! We went and played some INDOOR basketball for the first time. I was rusty at first. The best moment is when I told them to dunk, they did (they're like 6'3 and SUPER athletic) and then I did right after them. They LOST it. We were even closer from that moment. And just like we learned from General Conference, there are no such thing as simple "coincidences". Heavenly Father is very much involved--even in the smallest details of our lives. What an awesome experience. I'll have to get a picture with them. After we played ball, the University was locked up, so we had to go under a gate, throwing our backpacks over top. Felt kinda sketch. But here I am. 

On Tuesday we went and talked to the big lady (status-wise, not size) of the University and we're waiting on some paperwork to be able to start up the club there! Super excited. At our own English class later that evening, we had 63 show up!! Blowing any old numbers out of the water. Was so fun!! On Wednesday we held a little get-to-know-Americans at a different university. It was a smaller one, an all-girls one. It was super fun too.

Thursday, we went to the tower building in the center of Ivano. One pic is from the bottom and the others are from the top. Super fun!! We ate at a burger place.. let's just say I miss Red Robin. It's just not the same!! haha.

Friday through Sunday consisted of watching General Conference in English, then Ukrainian. It was so good. Next week I'll have to attach all my thoughts. I still have some to watch, and lots of things to think and ponder about. What a great experience it was though.

One of my Conference sketches

This next week will be our mission conference in L'viv. I'll get lots of pictures. 

Have a great week! Serve someone!

Elder Stott

Some Ukrainian food pics: The first 3 are the SLAM experience with Elder Lukach. The smaller packages are these chocolate-covered wafer cookies. They have holes in one side, so you bite a tiny bit off the opposite side and then use them like a straw to suck milk up into the cookie from your bowl.  (that's milk in the bigger bag). Then you microwave it and kind of mush it up. It is so good. Respect the Slam. The last picture is a take on soup and salad. Enjoy :)

Week 19 - Another Week, Another Mushroom

I've gotta scramble this week! It's been a crazy one for sure. 

Monday, we had a good P-day. Elder Sanders and I had a practice for our song for Hawaiian night, maybe you saw it on Facebook! It was funny, because the reason we posted was to promote the activity for the people in nearby cities.. but it turns out that almost 50% of the views came from Oregon and Idaho, our home states!

We had a little miracle on Monday too. For FHE at the Bontsov family's house, we were in charge of buying drinks. We were early and had about 30 minutes before we were supposed to be there. Elder Lukach wanted to just walk there slowly and take our time. But I have found out on my mission that walking slow is almost worse than driving slow. For anyone who's seen me on the road, that's a big statement. haha. I said we should just walk to the church and  wait for a few, then walk the rest of the way to the Bontsov's. So we did. Turns out that when we got to the church, there was an elderly lady who was crying a ton. We tried to talk to her, but she didn't want to talk to us. All that we got was that her son was in some trouble with the bank, and we spotted him at the other corner of the church. We went and talked to him, and he is in some pretty deep loan trouble. He has had a lot of recent problems. We got to teach him and comfort him and try to make things just a little better. Turned out he was super interested in meeting with us, and set up a future meeting with us, and asked if he could come to church, even though he didn't have a lot of nice clothes. This is surprising because almost no one ever wants to talk to us, let alone ask us if they can meet and come to church! What a humbling experience this was. So happy we had those few extra minutes. He was a super cool guy and we're looking forward to helping him in any way we can.

English practice this week hit some high numbers! We had 52 show up. We are going to have the opportunity these coming weeks to hold an English speaking club at 2 universities here! We went around to a couple of classes to talk to them and hype them up about it. It was SUPER fun. We're expecting about 200 people. We're growing!!!

We had the opportunity to do some service for a single mother in our branch. We went to the market and helped her buy all her groceries for this month. We took huge sacks of potatoes, onions, carrots, and other things from the store to her apartment. I wasn't too happy to be there, because all she seemed to be doing was roasting me and Americans in general. About everything! How they don't know the language, their culture and everything. Inside, I was feeling angry and also super prideful, thinking things like, "Why are you saying all this while I'm here spending MY time helping you?" Can you just see Heavenly Father winding up the humble stick here?? We got to her apartment and dropped everything off. This apartment was one room. The size of just the bedroom Elder Lukach and I share. In this room was a washer, sink, fridge, shower, pantry..a whole apartment in one tiny room for 2 people. As I looked around I noticed that everything she had was for her daughter. Toys, books, stuffed animals. Then I realized that she didn't even have a bed for herself. Her daughter had a very small one, but that was it. There was no room in there for a bed for the mom. Probably the most humbling experience on my mission, maybe among the most humbling of my life. I tried not to tear up but it was almost impossible. I prayed so hard, asking for forgiveness for my hard heartedness towards this lady who needed more help than I could comprehend. While we had been waiting in the market, I was talking to Elder Lukach about how hard it is to serve here. He said "Man, I really can't understand how hard it must be to serve here as an American." But then I almost heard a voice in my head saying, "It would be harder to BE the people that you serve than to simply serve the people that you do". I don't know if I wrote that right or if it makes sense..but hopefully you get it. I will be trying my hardest to be as loving and Christlike as possible. Judging is the last thing we should do, no matter what the situation is.

Elder Abraham came to visit this week! He was in my district the first transfer. It's always so good to be with him and work together! Here's a random picture of us holding (very expensive) cans of pineapple for our Hawaiian night. It was super fun. But really stressful as we had poorly planned for this activity. But it all good. Elder Sanders and I sang our song. I was SO nervous and my face was SO red. There was about 55 people there and it was my first time singing for that many people. I think it turned out okay. Hopefully we will have the chance to do more music things. They are super fun.

This is a clip of the last minute of our song:

On Saturday we went SHROOM HUNTING. We went to the middle of freaking NO WHERE out in Ctari Lisetz, the same village where we farmed potatoes. This is Brat Lance. He is from Canada. He's a super interesting fellow. It's always so fun to talk with him. He has some crazy stories and loves to share. Anyways, almost every mushroom I saw was poisonous but we still got a couple. He really loves mushrooms. We almost got lost in the forest but then he whipped out this super huge map and was just like, "Lets go this way. I think there's probably a road or something that we can follow." I was kinda scared on the inside. But he does these adventures all the time and somehow ends up at church on Sundays, alive, so I wasn't really that worried. Mushrooms are still nasty. Cool looking, but nasty. It was a really fun trip.

President Rizley came to visit on Sunday! He gave an awesome talk at church. It's always good to receive guidance from him. He gave us and me specifically a lot of things to work on. I hope to be able to truly apply what he taught me and become a better missionary and better person!!

Have a good week everyone!!

Elder Stott - The Cockroach-Exterminating, Mushroom-Hunting, Hawaiian-Singer Missionary