Week 14 - Miracles!

This week has absolutely flown by. We worked super hard this week and time really flies by when you lose yourself in the Lord's work.

We had Zone Conference this week and it was just absolutely AWESOME. We learned so much and it was so fun to get to know all the other missionaries in my zone. I finally met Elder Galmeister! He was my roommate's best friend at BYU. We lived in the same dorm building for a semester and never knew it. So crazy. 

I also met Elder Freighner (mom plz check spelling on his tag haha) right...it's in Ukrainian! - and he is a straight up BEAST. Honestly everyone in the zone and mission is just awesome. We had conference at the church building in Lviv. President Rizley and his wife are just spiritual powerhouses. So awesome to hear from them. We took a train that was like 60 years old and it was super long but super fun.

Oleg is a RM here in Ivano who served in London. He was our 2nd councilor and our branch mission leader. He left this week to go to BYUI which was really sad for a couple reasons. 1- It wasn't BYU Provo. 2- He was literally the coolest dude ever. He has an article in the Liahona this month! He left us with a super powerful spiritual thought. He talked about how routines are the enemy of time. When we get caught doing the same thing over and over, you'll blink, then be 85 and not have anything to look back at in your life. He said to do something different every day or every week. Always do something that scares you a little bit because there's no growth in your comfort zone and there should be no comfort in the growth zone! It's super easy to do things that scare me here in a new country and speaking a new language! But time still goes by so fast.

Thursday was Independence Day!! So many people just out and about. Concerts on the streets and everything was just so lively and packed with culture! We got home a little late and I truly found out why we need to be home by 9. The night life here can be a huge distraction from missionary work, and I felt that on our short trip home. But I'm so thankful for the joy and happiness I get from missionary work, because it makes up for everything that I miss!

Inderpendence Day fun

On Friday we went back to яремче (Yaremche) which was super fun. We had a baptism in the river there for андри фуштеи. It was super awesome to watch. He is the brother of our branch president here. His baptism was truly a miracle. He had his first family home evening with his brother 16 years ago.  Recently, he went to an adult conference and felt that he should learn more about the gospel. And now he's baptized! So awesome. We had a Ukrainian barbecue that was super tasty. We performed a native dance too. It was kind of silly, but fun. The music is super quiet, but here's an edited version:

River where the baptism was performed

I love my zone - and my vishuvanka (traditional shirt)

This weekend was super awesome too. Tons of miracles everywhere. We had a lesson with a man named Roman. He's in his 40's and is a friend of Brat Adomovich here in the branch. He'd already had all the lessons from the branch member before, and came to church with him because he was interested. We had a great lesson with him and invited him to be baptized. He prayed about it and received the answer that it was what he was supposed to do. He's getting baptized on September 16th. Such a miracle. On Sunday he was at church with us again and we got to teach him again! Members really have so much more power than they think!

We also had an English activity on the street where we test people's English. We just invite people to have a conversation in English. TONS of people are so good! There are people from around the world here in Ivano Frankivsk. Africa, India, Canada, and other European countries. It's so strange to have people want to come to you and it was such a fun activity. We met a ton of cool people. 

Yesterday I also received a huge testimony about planning. We had planned to go out and contact people in the evening. Things kinda got bumped around and we didn't get to do our companion and language study. Those are really important for me because I really need help learning the language! I wanted to cancel contacting but we decided to do it anyways because it is what we had planned to do. I was honestly not too happy about it and was not in a good mood for the first little bit. I prayed for help and to be guided to someone that needed our help. We decided to go to the park and ended up walking through it ending up on a random street. I was mad because we had walked such a long ways to the park, just to walk right through it. We stood there for a little bit and Elder Lukach was talking on the phone. I didn't see this happen, but Elder Lukach watched a car drive by, saw the man look at us, slow down and park his car. He got out of his car. Elder Lukach said, "he's coming to talk to us". I turned around and saw him for the first time about 100 feet away. He came up and to my surprise spoke in English. He said, "Hey Elders, when's church?" We talked more and it turns out that Dave was a student here from Ghana who hasn't gone to church in a while. He was a member! He didn't speak much Ukrainian at all (relatable) and said he would see us next Sunday. He's been looking for the place that we meet for a long time but never found it! It was such a miracle for me. I know that when we plan something prayerfully, Heavenly Father is so present in that planning and takes part in it as we plan to do his work. He places people in our paths that he needs us to find and teach and help.

This week was awesome. 

Elder Stott

My favorite handmade tie from Chernevsti

Elder Lukach made me eat this chicken liver paste, but told me it was chicken...NASTY.

Week 13 - Countryside

This week was a good one! Flew by like always but I think that this was the fastest one yet! This week was super busy and just awesome. Rain, heat, wind, thunder, everything! We had an English class on Tuesday that went super well! We had about 30 people show up and it lets us meet a lot of people. We do it every week but I don't know if I've mentioned that!

This week I've walked more than I have ever before. We walked from the cities all the way to the highways just trying to talk to people on the streets. Like usual, not many people are interested. I have truly come to appreciate politeness though. Most people just wave their finger in our face or laugh at us or just say no and walk right past us. but even when people stop and listen to us and are polite (even if they don't want to talk) it just makes it so much better. Being denied has never felt this good!

This week I met Elder Gameister who is just a straight up homie. He was best friends with one of my roomates at BYU so it was cool to have a connection with someone. We're gonna be companions someday.. I can feel it!!

Elder Lukach and I have a new addiction. It's a healthy one though. YOGURT! It's so tasty here. it comes in a package and is liquidy so you don't need a spoon. It's like an adult gogurt almost. haha. hard to explain. Before we new it we were eating/drinking almost a kilogram of yogurt each day. We have to chill out a little bit. It's just so cheap and tasty! Our stomachs were not happy with us though hahaha.

Ups and downs as always this week. Thursday was tough. The language barrier is really frustrating and really humbling and it stretches me every day. Sometimes more than I'm comfortable with. But, as my MTC teacher Sister Gray said (really poor quoting) everything you want/need in life is just outside your comfort zone. And I'm definitely feeling that! The language barrier is really tough but it comes with time!

We finished my documents so I am no longer going to be illegal! The visas are confusing but the branch president works with that kind of stuff so I'm here for good!

We also have a sport night every Friday evening which is super fun. A lot of my time is spent trying to teach people, who have only touched a soccer ball in their life, how to throw a football. Elder Abraham played receiver in high school so we have a lot of fun out there with people. They LOVE football here. It's really fun to work with them. Who would've thought I'd mention something about football while on my mission. Surprise? nah.

Saturday was just awesome. We took a super long bus ride out to the country to visit a less active family and teach them. We stopped in Яремче which was the coolest place in Ukraine so far. It reminded me of home so much! Bought some souvenirs and a cool Ukrainian cultural shirt I'll show next week! I'm wearing it for a celebration on independence day here. (24th) It's gonna be awesome. Then we continued to Верховина which was awesome too. Wayyy out in the country side and it was so much better than the city for me. The lesson went great. It took all day but it was so worth it! The bus ride home was the best bus ride of my entire life. The funniest drunk guy got on and was standing up. He listened to headphones that weren't plugged into anything. He kept falling onto the ladies sitting next to him and everyone was yelling at him, including the bus driver who finally pulled the bus over to kick him off. Later we tried to dodge a herd of cattle that was walking across the road, and a cow walked right into the side of the bus! I watched the whole thing happen and was like "yo wait - what is going on right now" and then BANG. Then we had to pull over again. The rancher was not happy.

  

On Sunday I gave a TALK in church. I was so nervous and really not happy that I was asked to speak out of all the people there. But I did it and survived. It was a free topic so I decided to talk about the power of prayer. It was so good and I made 100 mistakes but the spirit was there and people were so nice to me afterwards! 

Tonight we're headed to L'viv to meet as a zone for zone conference! It's gonna be so fun. Can't wait!

Man the mission is just a rollercoaster every single day. Sometimes your plans just crash and burn and sometimes everything works out perfectly. It's so humbling and amazing to be here. The language is absolutely wrecking me every minute of every day, and people who know how much of a talker I am can see my frustrations of not being able to communicate exactly how I want to. Just like I talked about on Sunday to the congregation at church, I know that the Lord answers our prayers. Every single time. He is literally our Father in heaven and He is always waiting for us to open up to Him. He almost never answers how we expect or want but I know it's always exactly how we need. He is with us through our trials. When we fall He always picks us up. He's the coach in the corner of the boxing ring for us, cheering us on, and lifting our spirits. He corrects us when we need it, and always does it with love - because He wants us to win. He wants us to overcome and get through every hard time. He understands exactly what we need to do to be happy and be successful.

I hope everyone has a good week!

Peace out from Ivano Frankivsk!

Elder Stott

Week 12 - A Better Week

This week was much better! 

We started to set smarter and more meaningful goals and we realized that when we more prayerfully do things the way that Christ would do it, we are able to achieve so much more. We finally got settled into our new apartment this week too! This week we had exchanges in our district which just means I had a different companion for one day. We had them 2 days in a row so I had 3 different companions for 3 days! It was kinda stressful to live out of my backpack for a couple days but I survived!! I learned a ton from my zone leaders and they actually helped our companionship a lot. Good times!

Sad news, our investigator who had a baptism date dropped us (it's all good though. We're gonna get him back!)

The hardest thing right now is contacting is just talking people in the street.  Lessons are not that bad because they’re more structured but when you’re contacting on the street and just talking to people, 1.  Nobody wants to listen, nobody wants to hear you have to say.   There’s a lot of older people in Ukraine – lots of old grandma and grandpa's and they're pretty grumpy. They think that age equals knowledge, which it sometimes does, but still they have a saying that we hear a lot – “the milk is dry on your lips” – meaning you’re just a baby – and that you really shouldn’t be teaching them at all.  A lot of the times people won’t even give you response they'll just laugh at you and then look back down on their phone or just say “something Ukraine” and keep walking which means no thank you.

Today for p-day we went up on a mountain here in Ivano Frankivsk and the picture doesn't do it justice! It was a super hard ride and pretty far but it was super fun. I wish we had bikes in this mission!  They're SO FAST. 

Elder Lukach and I went to a euro shop too. It's kinda like an outlet store where everything is discounted for some reason. It's really hard to save my personal money but I'm doing good at that! We got matching ties for about 4 bucks. Way good deal. Then we went to our branch president's house for a barbecue! It was super good. We're planning an independence day activity for the 24th (Ukrainian independence day) and it's gonna be SUPER huge. Independence day here is one of their biggest holidays. I'll have pics of me in a vyshyvanka next week. Gonna be good stuff right there!

We also made some super tasty breakfast burritos with homemade tortillas and stuff. I only cook so I can wear my apron to be honest (thanks Gma J). The food does take some getting used to in some ways. I bought everything for spaghetti and pasta and all that and it turns out that the spaghetti sauce is just like ketchup so that was an interesting meal. haha. I went on my first shopping spree.  I spent 268 grieven for a week’s worth of food.  I got a bunch of fruits and vegetables, sausages, eggs, bread, oatmeal… and all of it cost around $10!

We had sports day on Friday – sports day is the coolest and teaching English too.  Everybody here, they have never seen a football in their life, so it actually gets a lot of conversations going.  I teach a lot of people how to throw a football and it’s just terrible – they could throw it better with their feet but it’s still really fun.  So with me and Elder Abraham, (from St. George and he played football in high school too)  he’ll just run really far and I’ll chuck the ball like 50 yards and everybody just goes “yak” which means “how??”… like it's crazy. 

I talked to 2 people on the street and I UNDERSTOOD THEM!!  We taught a lesson to a lady about tithing – she lives across the street from where we do activities.  Another guy came up to me and asked me how I "got my body".  I was super confused but then he asked how much we exercise…We exercise for an hour everyday.  We usually run at the park.  Anyways, it was cool because I understood him and had a regular conversation.

We have a busy week coming up and I'll try and take tons of interesting and non boring pictures! Things are starting to smooth out little by little and I'm adjusting pretty quickly to missionary life in Europe. It's super hard work but it's so rewarding and amazing to help other people and also grow so much in such a short amount of time. Thank you all so much for your prayers! We can really feel their power as missionaries.

Hope everyone has a good week!!

Elder Stott

Week 11 - Reality Bites

First full week in…was hard.

Mosquitos WRECKED me. You have to sleep with the windows open because it’s hot and there’s no A/C.  These pictures do not do it justice…this was from when I had less than 80 bites. Now I have about 130 and a throbbing spider bite on my knee. But they’re healing. 

We’ve had 4 lessons all week. It seems like every day our plans completely crashed. No one wants to talk to us on the street. Our apartment is a little sketch and our fridge broke last night. We haven’t had any time to unpack so our stuff and luggage is just sitting around in these empty bedrooms. It’s been so hot and humid. This week was just really hard for me. Probably one of the most discouraging weeks of my life to be honest. The hardest thing is that I just don’t know how to talk to and understand the people yet. It’s really frustrating. BUT IT’S OKAY. 

I love reading the Book of Mormon. I’ve never really READ it for myself and applied it to my life. My advice to all of you – READ it. It’s really important. I wish I would have read it more in highschool...it would have helped me so much.

I like Ivano. It’s probably one of the safest cities in Ukraine. I have some funny and semi-scary stories that I’m going to save until after my mission. We walk everywhere. The missionaries don’t use bikes here. We eat personal pizzas from the market bakery every day. They’re good, but eating them every day is getting kind of old. The juice is good, but it’s never cold. Nothing is refrigerated here. Water is always lukewarm. The members don’t feed the missionaries here like they do in the states. We’ve had one meal at a member’s home. It was really good. No meat jello yet. Thank goodness. The Bontsov family (the one that tricked me last week) is so great. He was the former branch president. He’s really a homie.

We have an investigator who’s looking to be baptized maybe in September. Baptisms are going to be minimal here, which is unfortunate, but I already look forward to helping missionaries post mission. I’ve also never realized how important church members are until now. You should help the missionaries with everything you can. They need you. We had 60 plus at church!

I’m not doing a lot of the teaching yet. I teach with other elders sometimes and they do the lesson part and I just take time to try to talk to the person during the lesson, letting them know that I want to help them and be their friend. I bare my testimony a lot.

I love my Savior and this gospel.  Next week will be better!

-Elder Stott