Elder Dillon Stott - Ukraine, Kiev Mission: Week 4

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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