Elder Dillon Stott - Ukraine, Kiev Mission: Week 14

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