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