Elder Dillon Stott - Ukraine, Kiev Mission: Week 27

This week has flown by. SO many things to do and stayed busy almost every second of every day.

On P-Day we play tons of Foosball. It's one of the skills I've picked up on the mish! Elder Likhachiov and I always play. He was super good and taught me the ropes and we got pretty evenly matched this transfer, so it's always a fun 10 minutes of straight competition. He beat me 10-0 on Monday and I can honestly say it was probably the MOST angry I have ever been on my mission. I heard about that game every day for the rest of this week, until he left yesterday! We both were SUPER competitive. The Lord humbles us through ways we wouldn't even think of on missions! hahaha. I also owed Elder Likhachiov 7 candy bars because I started making gun noises all the time, because it's what my last comp always did. It felt like a 10 year old habit and I was just sick of randomly doing it all the time so I said every time I do it I'd owe him a candy bar. That same day I did it 7 times. My mission funds were begging me to end the deal so we stopped after that day. He ended up only making me buy 4 and then he gave 2 of them to me! What a nice guy.

On Tuesday, we did a ZUMBA night! Little did we know this was totally against mission rules because we aren't supposed to do "suggestive" dance moves and things of that sort, so we missionaryified the dance moves. We had to call President about it. It wasn't a SUPER big deal, but we got everything figured out and it's all a good joke we can laugh about now. It was just funny because we first called President Rizley and asked for permission to be able to do it and use normal music, and he was all over it! So we prepped and practiced and we were super excited. Then the next day, literally hours before the activity, SISTER Rizley calls, saying that it's definitely not allowed, and that President Rizley has no idea what ZUMBA actually is. hahaha. It was all just a big mess, but at the end of the day it was still super fun and a great experience.

It SNOWED this week!!! It's getting super super cold here. I don't miss the sun though - It was WAY too hot. You can always get warm in the winter, but how are you supposed to (modestly) stay cool in the middle of summer in missionary clothes???

On Wednesday we had exchanges. I was with the Legendary Elder Galmeister and we planned a trip out to the village to visit a friend of this guy we met on the street. He was super, super nice and so excited to meet us. He gave us his address, which google maps couldn't find (because we typed it in wrong but that's besides the point). This is a really funny story and everything will make sense at the end...stick with me. He said that he had a ton of interested friends as well and would have them come listen to our message with him. We asked him what time would be best to come visit him, and he said ANY time. We were like uhhh okay! So we wait at the bus stop at 8 AM to go to the celo. It would be 2 and a half hours to get there, and 3 different buses. After waiting at the right stop at the right time, the bus never came. So we kinda just guessed the direction of the buses and how to get there. 8 BUSES LATER (and lots of grieven (money)) we somehow ended up literally right back where we started. Outside of the city we found the exact bus we actually needed, and we were so hyped because we were just basically guessing and checking as we went. We found the right bus in this huge bus station, and got right on. After 20 minutes, things started looking familiar.. too familiar. It was actually coming BACK from where we were supposed to be going. So, once we got back to the same exact spot we were standing at 90 minutes ago, we decided to call a taxi. The guy shows up and drives us out to who knows where. We give him the address which we didn't know was wrong, but we have the right village. So he takes us to the village and drops us off in the center. We start asking around to random people on the side of the road how to get where we're going. We end up at this government building, but obviously can't read the sign and what it said. I started putting context words together to try to find out what it was. It was a super sketchy building with a security fence and a gate and security guards. We told them we were supposed to meet someone there, and after a short conversation, they let us inside the gate. I had NO IDEA what was going on. I put the words together from the sign and figured out that it was an orphanage. (at least I thought it was. haha..) SO. We're waiting for this guy Andri. We call him and he says he'll come outside to meet us! We're kinda just standing outside this yellow concrete sketchy building and all of a sudden this lady in a white lab coat walks out. She asks who we are and what we're doing here. We say that we want to meet with Andri, someone we met on the street a while back. She says that 1. There are a lot of Andris there, and 2. It would've been impossible to see Andri on the street. we were SO lost because nothing made sense. She said that we couldn't go inside the building because we didn't have permission to and she knew nothing about us or who we were.. WE JUST WANTED TO TALK TO ANDRI!!! She starts asking more about him and us and our relationship and is weirded out at the fact 2 Americans want to meet with "her Andri". All of a sudden, he walks out the front door towards us. The second we saw him, everything made sense. Elder Galmeister and I looked at each other and said at the same time: "It's a freaking ASYLUM." We immediately went to plan B, sat on the bench and talked to this insane man for 5 minutes, gave him a Book of Mormon and boogied. During our short conversation the lady comes up to the 3 of us and says "Don't listen to Andri. He doesn't even know what he is saying or thinking. He isn't going to remember this experience tomorrow. He's crazy." And she said this all in front of him too!! And he said "I'm not crazy!!" She responded angrily: "Andri. If you're not crazy then why are you here?!" He said "I didn't do well in school, that's all" Then she says, "and which school was that?" He responded sheepishly, sighing: "The crazy school.." We talked to her once more and apologized for the fact that we knew nothing going on with this situation and that we wouldn't be coming back anytime in the near future. hahaha. She laughed about it and said goodbye. After that experience which felt like hours, Elder Galmeister and I had to stop and just talk about what the heck happened. So funny. We found our way back home after walking into the village market to ask for directions from a big group of teenagers. It was their hangout and they were so hyped to talk Ukrainian with Americans and were blown away by why we were even there. Hopefully we see some of them at our English practice. One of them actually followed us almost all the way home on the bus. ANYWAYS: of COURSE it makes sense that Andri could meet at ANY time, and that he had a BUNCH of FRIENDS that were interested in finding "spiritual healing". We definitely had the wrong idea of "spiritual healing" in mind before we got there. If that's not a "crazy" story, I don't know what is.

Okay. To top it all off, this week is transfers!! I will be staying in Chernivtsi, and I said goodbye to Elder Likhachiov yesterday. It was a tough couple of weeks at first with him, but through just loving and serving him the best that I could, I found out I was serving with one of the most amazing people I had ever met. It was sad to see him go home, but his life is waiting ahead of him!

Elder Galmeister is unfortunately leaving Chernivtsi. It was so fun to serve with him, and awesome to serve with someone I know is going to be a lifelong best friend. Such a cool guy, and such a big blessing in my life! They are actually getting rid of one of the Elder companionship here in Chernivtsi. So now, our district will just be me, my new companion ELDER DEVY, and the 2 sisters. Elder Devy and I will be in charge of BOTH Elders' areas now. I will also now be serving as a district leader!! So excited to be able to serve in even more ways. I talked to Elder Devy on the phone when we found out we'd be serving together. I love him already!! It's going to be such a fun transfer. He will be my first American companion on my mission!! It's going to be super weird to be with someone who has absolutely NO language barrier, and living with someone who has the same cultural background as you too. I'll be taking a lot of pictures this next week. I will have SO MUCH on my plate coming up this next 6 weeks. Can't wait to eat it all up and get involved in the Lord's work here in Chernivtsi.

That's all for this week. I can't promise a more interesting story for next week. haha

Hope everyone has a great week.

And Happy Thanksgiving. We have more to be thankful for than we could possibly imagine. I'm thankful for my family, my friends, and this gospel. And a lot of other stuff too. I know that everything that we have in this life on earth is indeed a blessing from our Heavenly Father. Even the tough things in life - it's all a learning experience that shapes who we are and what we can become.

Godspeed!

Elder Stott