Week 5 - Singing for the Apostles

This week has probably been among the most spiritual weeks of my entire life.

The big highlight for this week was easily singing in the choir for the Mission President's Seminar, which had all of the new mission presidents, tons of members of the Quorum of the 70, and 14 of the Apostles, except for President Monson. We got to sing 6 songs over the course of 4 days for them. When we walked in for the first time, the Spirit hit us like a wall. It was so unbelievably strong as we bore our testimonies to them through song. We stood about 6 feet in front of the Apostles. I was right in front of Elder Bednar, President Uchtdorf, Elder Oaks, Elder Holland, and President Eyring. Although it wasn't my favorite song that we sang, singing Praise to the Man in the presence of Apostles and other leaders on the 173rd anniversary of Joseph Smith's martyrdom was nothing short of a once in a lifetime experience. My own testimony and love for the Prophet Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ has grown so much this week. I was the first person to walk in the room and the last person to leave when we sang, so I looked around quite a bit. After Praise to the Man, I looked back at Elder Holland sobbing because of the power of the Spirit and watched Elder Nelson hold his hand and comfort him. It was a sight of such a strong love and bond that I will never forget. 

Photo of the seminar - from lds.org

Update on the open house video: I haven't personally seen it yet, but I've heard from people who have seen it that I'm on it a bunch! Check it out at the open house at the end of July! It's going to be a really great event.

We had the opportunity to hear from Elder Bednar and his wife yesterday at our devotional. He talked about the Word of God, and how to plant that seed in our own hearts. It was such an amazing experience. 10 of the Apostles were on the stand with him. When they walked in the room, everyone went absolutely silent! You could've heard a pin drop. Super spiritual and definitely super awesome.

My companion was getting a new Mission President this week so he was part of the Seminar this week. I got the chance to meet and talk with him a little bit, and it was super awesome. 4 missionaries in my district were getting him as their new president so he met with all of them and got to know them. His wife is from Ukraine!! When I found that out I immediately told her I was serving in L'viv. She LOST it. She went on and on about how L'viv is her favorite place in Ukraine, and how she begged her husband to go there one last time before they became Mission Presidents. She claims it is the soul of Ukraine and told me 100 reasons why I should be excited. She started speaking Ukrainian to me and then I lost it too!!! For the past 5 weeks the only Ukrainian that I have ever heard has been inside the walls of my classroom. It was such a huge relief and so exciting to hear that real people actually speak this real language!! Everyone in the room said they have never seen me light up more than when she said Ukrainian was their second language. Kinda ironic that I was probably the most excited to talk to them and they weren't even MY Mission Leaders!  (For you that know Elder Mackay Oakey, this is his new Mission President!)

Me and the new President of the Baltic Mission, President Pokhilko

Part of the Seminar included Mission Presidents practicing teaching us throughout this week. We had the opportunity to be visited by President and Sister Savage, who will be the new Colorado Springs Mission Leaders. I have to admit that I was not excited to devote 2 hours of personal study to random mission presidents. But as they began to teach us and meet with us for a couple days, the love that we felt from them was absolutely amazing. They taught and testified with such a strong spirit and I will honestly never forget it. They taught about Christ a lot. One amazing thing that really puts into perspective who Christ is and was, and who we are is something President Savage said: "Christ lived for about 33 years during his mortal life. That is roughly 12,000 days. For these 12,000 days, he lived an absolutely perfect life, with no need of repentance. There was nothing wrong that He did, nothing else that He could've done more perfectly for 12,000 days straight. Have we even had ONE perfect day?" Wow. That hit me like a truck when he said that. No one needs repentance more than we do. Every day there is something we can fix, something we can do better. Repentance is a part of our everyday life and it is truly one of the greatest blessings from our Heavenly Father.

Last but not least, my little sister Sophie turned 11 today!! Crazy how someone so much shorter and younger than me can be someone I actually look up to. Happy Birthday Soph. Love ya tons!

Next Monday, the oldest missionaries in our zone will be leaving and serving in their respected missions, which means my district and I will be the oldest ones in our zone now. Time flies by here in the MTC. In less than a month I'll finally be in Ukraine doing what I love most.

Have a good week!

я люблу вас!

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Some of the flags surrounding the MTC - That's mine straight ahead

Week 4 - A Visit from Donny Osmond

This week was awesome, just like the previous 3. The MTC seems to get a little bit better each day.

Although not a ton has really happened this week, it was still spiritual, frustrating, yet amazing just like every week. The highlight of this week was that on Sunday, Donny Osmond came and spoke to us at the devotional. For those of you who don't know who this is, he's a famous singer, TV show host, and he was the voice of Captain Shang in Mulan. His talk was such a relief to hear. Although I don't think President Martino appreciated the casualness of it as much as we all did, everyone had a good time. He talked a lot about experiencing our missions--to get out of our apartments on our P days and become a part of our culture. He told a ton of his life stories about his fans, career, and basically all about his life. He talked a lot about the ups and downs of his career, and how he was able to push through the things that seemed impossible at the time, all of course through the grace of our Heavenly Father. He told us how important it was to be a real person on our missions--to not become robots who only know how to talk to people about the Gospel. Although that is our purpose, "to invite others to come unto Christ", it is also our duty as missionaries to love and serve everyone we meet. He told us to make friends and develop relationships and to just dive into everything about the way of life, wherever it is we go.

One story that really touched me was a story about him and his son. This story stuck out to me especially because this devotional took place on Father's Day, and I was thinking about my own dad already. In his story he said how one day he was in an important meeting, with important people, talking about important things. He was speaking to them while his phone suddenly started buzzing in his suit pocket. As he was reaching into his pocket to silence it, he said how he literally heard the soft spoken words of the spirit in his heart: "you're not going to want to miss this one". After being prompted again, he asked to be excused, and started talking to his son via text. His son didn't say a lot, but all Donny knew was that he was in trouble, his son needed him. They continued to talk about where to meet and what his son needed, and after about 5 minutes of going back and forth, his son texted: "never mind dad. everything is good to go". Donny asked him what he even needed and what had happened. His son simply said that he just needed to know he could count on his dad at any time. I can only imagine how they both felt. Donny left the meeting and went straight to the studio, and wrote a song about this experience that he played live for us on the piano! It's called "Whenever You're in Trouble". I recommend you take 3 or 4 minutes and give it a listen!

This story applies to all of us. No matter what our family circumstance is, we all have a Father in Heaven who is just waiting for us to call on Him. He is ready at any moment of any day, waiting for us to call upon Him for the help that we need. This is such an awesome concept, the fact that we have someone we can rely upon, who will never turn away. I'm so grateful for my Heavenly Father, and all that he does for me. He loves us and knows us individually and I know that with all my heart!

I'm also lucky enough to have the best dad in the world. Shout out to my big man for being the best role model of a father that a son could have. You're the best dad! Love ya.

Here are some pictures from this week!

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At the temple with my district

A ton of friends here from BYU

Volleyball with my Zone

Week 3 - The Best By Far

Hey Everybody!

This week has been by far the best at the MTC. Today we got 20 new missionaries, but unfortunately for me, they are all Russian speaking. Our zone has now doubled in Elders, and almost doubled in Sisters! We have 5 languages in our zone now. 1 Ukrainian, 1 Latvian, 2 Lithuanian, 3 Armenian and like 30 Russian speakers. Super diverse and really confusing sometimes!

This week was super spiritual for me. Sister Gray is honestly the best teacher of all time. She always has the strongest spirit, yet is so funny and smart and knows how to teach so well! She always teaches exactly what I need to hear. What's awesome is that sometimes she will speak in English even though she's not really supposed to, just because she wants me to understand a concept to the best of my abilities. I'm always excited to learn something new from her. This week we have talked a lot about the importance of building relationships with the people that we serve on our missions, and with everyone in general. It feels so good to want to teach someone just because of the relationship that you have with them. The fact that you would want to share your gift of the knowledge of the Gospel because you love them so much - is a really amazing thing. We have all had teachers or mentors or people we look up to in our life. We've had the ones who just show up to get the job done, and not really put in much effort. We've also had those teachers and mentors who feel more like friends than they do just a teacher. It's crazy how big of a difference a good relationship with someone can make. I've definitely been thinking a TON about the most influential teachers and role models in my life thus far. 

Something I've been really trying to focus on this week is reading the scriptures and "feasting upon the words of Christ". There is soooo much that we can get out of an individual verse of scripture. I have truly found that it is better to spend 30 minutes on a chapter or even several verses instead of just reading straight for 30 minutes. So many different verses can be applied in our lives in so many ways. It's crazy how much you can get out of just a couple verses. I know that our prayers are answered and we can receive those answers through our diligent studies.

This week we have also talked about "being on the right path". It really doesn't matter who you think is spiritually ahead of you or behind you. We are all on the same path after all! We have the same goal, same destination as our peers. If you're not on the path, it's not all of a sudden game over. Just get back to the right path and you will always be heading in the right direction. It's impossible to be going the wrong way when you're on God's path. If you're not on the right path, do everything in your power to get back on! I know our lives can be blessed by this principle.

The highlight of this week is kind of a big one! (This one's for you, Brother May!) There is a choir of 32 people that my companion, Elder Malmrose, and I got chosen to be in! We will have the opportunity to sing 6 songs for the Mission President's Seminar this weekend. The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the First Presidency of the Church will all be in attendance! We are also going to be singing in a sacrament meeting for them as well. It's going to be such a cool experience. Hopefully by this time next week I'll be writing about shaking Elder Holland's hand or something! haha.

I feel more and more blessed every day in the MTC. We truly have so much to be thankful for. I cannot WAIT to go and serve the people in Ukraine. I'm 1/3 of the way done with my time in the MTC! It's coming up real quick.

Thank you to everyone for the emails, letters, and packages! It's like a mini Christmas every time.

Much Love,

Elder Stott

My first TRC, Aiden, is one of Josh's good friends from BYU

Elder Lewis, Sister Lewis and me

Awesome friends from BYU

Week 2 - MTC Movie Stars?

Hey Everybody!

Man, two weeks has totally flown by. This week was even better than last week! Getting pretty used to things around here and I'm still loving every second of it! This week has definitely been a lot tougher, and my teachers aren't going too easy on me! Each day stretches me out of my comfort zone a little bit more. My first investigator, Christina, ended up being my second teacher in disguise! It's a really nice balance to have her (her real name is Sister Gray) and Brother Huth. Brother Huth is really smart with the language and is preparing me really well to speak Ukrainian, and Sister Gray is really good at the whole spiritual side of it all. She's teaching me how to be more in tune with the Spirit when I teach. Together they make for a really amazing learning experience.

This week I have learned so much, and my testimony of the power of the Spirit has grown a ton. I was practicing teaching a lesson about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with my teacher, and I had to teach it in 3 minutes. I didn't even have the words to teach it...I couldn't even teach it in English yet. I tried it the first time, having written everything down in English, and I got about a minute in and just gave up. I was so busy worrying about what to say and how to translate things in my head that I couldn't even say anything. We tried it another 2 times, and I was not very happy about it. The last time, she asked me to put away my notes, and use nothing but what I knew. She told me to put trust in the Lord and have faith that the Spirit would help me understand what I need to say. What happened was absolutely amazing. I felt like a 9 year old bearing their testimony, but I just said what I knew, just whatever came to mind through promptings of the Spirit. There is such a great power behind simplicity. The only thing that I was able to testify and teach of was three simple things: 1. God loves us.  2. Jesus Christ died for us because He loves us.  3. The Book of Mormon is true. Through the Spirit I was able to teach and testify exactly what I knew/wanted to say. The Spirit was so strong and my own faith grew so much from that small experience. I can't wait to do it for real in Ukraine!!

Speaking of the learning experience, I think the language is coming along really well! Yesterday I passed off what is called the Basic Core, and not many missionaries pass it off as soon as Elder Malmrose (my companion) and I did! So at this point we have about 60 phrases, 300 words, and 4 Gospel passages in our language! Super fun to practice with each other and see the blessings that come with hard work!!

I think the coolest thing about this week was that Elder Malmrose and I got selected to be in the open house video for the new MTC building that just got built! We just got interviewed in front of the cameras just about an hour ago!! I attached some pics of the whole ordeal. Awesome experience! The producer told us that they were expecting about 250,000 viewers! They're going to give us copies of the video so I'll be sure to attach it when I get it! They'll also be showing it multiple times at the open house itself, so if you're in the Provo area, drop in and visit!! The buildings are absolutely beautiful.

Prepping for the Open House interview

My comp, Elder Malmrose, getting in the zone

 Love you all!!

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Here are a couple more pictures from this week!

District 9A in our Sunday floral best

Me and Elder BROdowski