Week 31 - Christmas in Chern! (Без Снігу)

We had the best time Skyping with Dillon this morning for just over an hour.  He looks great and sounds great!  His stories made us laugh, and the way he can speak the language had us all amazed.  He had a great American Christmas and will get to celebrate a second Ukrainian Christmas in a few days. He shared his testimony with us - in Ukrainian, and it was incredible.  

First things first, Merry Christmas everybody!!

Second things second, just like you don't want to spend time reading emails on Christmas, neither do I want to write them!! I'll keep this week short and sweet.

We have a new investigator named Andri. He was actually a referral that we got! After coming across a Mormon Tabernacle Choir video, he clicked his way through the web and ended up at lds.org, reading about the Book of Mormon. After that he referred himself and requested a copy of the
Book of Mormon. After a few dogged lessons and meetings, we were finally able to meet with him during the second hour of church. We have had 2 lessons with him, and he has already said that as soon as he receives an answer about the Book of Mormon and baptism, he is ready! Such a cool and surprisingly new experience. haha.

Christmas is great. We are without snow which is kinda weird. But hey, I'm not complaining at all. It still is very much cold enough for me! We had our tiny little Christmas tree with our American packages all around. It was a good little set up.

On Sunday I was asked to give a 15 minute talk about Christmas. I am still not a fan of giving talks. Especially in Ukrainian. 

We had a great branch activity this week. 2 actually! On Thursday we were able to do an outdoor  soup-kitchen sort of thing at a homeless shelter for #LighttheWorld. The branch pulled it together so well and made SO much food that everyone got to eat some. What a great way to spend an afternoon. It was filled with great conversations and we were even able to sing a song to the people we served. No, we did not sing Hallelujah, thank goodness. 

I hope everyone has a great Christmas Season. We all know that giving is 10 times as good as receiving, but I do hope everyone will take some time to think about all the things that they can give back to our Heavenly Father. Heavenly Father is our God. No he doesn't need presents. No he doesn't need money. He already has EVERYTHING!! And everything that we have is a gift from Him. But, there is one thing that we can truly give to Him; something He doesn't already have. Our hearts. Our desires, our actions, our words, our thoughts - all these are things that we have to offer. It makes sense that these are the only things that we can put at the Lord's feet. We see examples over and over in the scriptures that when Heavenly Father's children are righteous and obedient, it is only then that He receives glory, joy, and happiness.

Merry Christmas to all from Чернівці

#LighttheWorld!!!

Love,

Elder Stott

Making our favorite breakfast for Christmas morning - Breakfast Burritos w/ homemade tortillas

A little Christmas mood lighting on my night stand

Beautiful empty mansions

Gifts from home - tiny scriptures, deoderant, a watch and a CTR ring...

Week 30 - Nothing is "As Bad as Hallelujah"

This week has absolutely flown by. We had one of the busiest, most craziest weeks out here in Chernivtsi. Some good stories too. The best thing about this week was that I have finally had the worst experience of my entire mission! (I hope) It's now a phrase in our district that nothing is "as bad as Hallelujah". Here you go...

So I guess just to start off I'll fill you in on the Hallelujah story. So. For Light the World we wanted to do some caroling. We thought it would be a good idea to go and do it at one of the nearby hospitals. So we go ahead and call one of the hospitals and TRY to explain what we wanted to do, but we didn't know the word for caroling. So, basically we explained that we were volunteers from America, and basically we have a small choir that wants to come sing for them just for fun. So, the head of the hospital set up a meeting with us and told us we could come on Thursday. It was one of those activities that we invited everyone to come with us, but no one showed up. It was just us 4 missionaries. SO, we get to the hospital and we have a straight-up sit-down meeting with this man, and he's telling us how excited he was and that he wanted us to come back the next day so they would have time to set up. We all looked at each other super confused. Then he started talking about how he just finished 2 years at a Musical University. He said he would have EVERYTHING ready to go for us. Stage, lights, speakers, cameras, and gave us a 3 hour schedule for his program. We were SKETCHING out. This man thought we were doing a concert!! He asks us how long we've been performing together and which classes and courses we have taken at which university. I told him taught piano and Sister Smith said she has taken Music 101. hahah. Oh no. We said we wouldn't need the stage, speakers and all of the bells and whistles. So he ends our meeting saying that he's so impressed and grateful that we are willing to come from America to share our band's talents with Ukraine, and that he can't wait to hear us perform the next day in his auditorium. Ohhhh Bleen. He called us the American Quartet. He said wanted to publish it online and send broadcasts out to local TV stations. He wanted pictures with us afterwards to put on the news too. We were all sweating buckets. All of us except for Elder Devey, he loves this stuff. But the rest of us were SO nervous, rightly so.

So we immediately start talking and panicking about what the heck we are going to do for this man who is expecting a concert from "The American Quartet" tomorrow. We know that we can't go back now and try to explain to him that we're not actually a band, and not even that good in the first place! We decide to meet at the church and practice 15 or so songs really, really well and try to throw together some kind of charity concert for one of the biggest hospitals in Chernivtsi.

So, we get there the next day, he leads us into this big conference center in the middle of the Hospital, and we're looking out at about 150 chairs. I didn't know about everyone else but I knew I was about to cry. People start filing in. We had like 10 songs prepared DECENTLY good, and we knew that we were just going to have to try and survive this next hour or so. The director said he was too busy to actually come, and that a lot of people weren't going to be able to meet us. SO, it ended up being about an audience of 30 or so. YES. So it was just the 4 of us standing there on the floor in front of them. 

We explained who we were, and told them we had prepared a few songs about Christmas. I was so nervous it's not even funny. AND, all of our songs were acapella. I was in charge of starting notes which was stressful. We sang a couple of songs and realized that everyone was let down. I've never seen so many people faking to get a phone call so they could leave. We sang our 10 songs then decided to wrap it up. Everyone was filming and I honestly couldn't tell if they liked it or not, but we knew that one of them LOVED it. She would talk for about 2 minutes about how amazing we were in between each song. We decided to sing a rendition of Hallelujah that we threw together last minute. The sister missionaries decided that they would sing it alone. They started off okay, but a few minutes later it just crashed and burned. Don't worry, I'm not just roasting them, we all talk about how bad it was. haha  And so halfway through the song, Elder Devey and I join in to try and save this song that was crash landing. Believe me when I tell you that this was some of the worst 3 minutes of my entire life. None of us knew the song very well, and we all sang it differently. I think we each changed keys 4 times in 3 minutes, never seeming to be on the same key at the same time. When we finished the song, we just testified and said we had cards for everyone. I think we only gave 4 cards. Everyone just filed out and nobody talked to us afterwards except for the one lady who loved us.

We left as quickly as we could and just DIED once we got back on the streets. We decided that was hands down the worst experience of all of our missions, and possibly even our entire lives. The phrase "nothing will be as bad as hallelujah" became our newest inside joke.

Now that's what I call a success. And no pictures. Not sad about that.

We had another great activity that turned out so much better. President and Sister Rizley were able to be with us this weekend when we visited a shelter for mothers and children. We just went there to be with them, do some arts and crafts, sing, and show some cute little Christmas videos. It turned out much, much better than the last activity. 

Our week was fun-packed and definitely one to remember. We have no plans to return to the hospital at this point, but we are going to keep working with the shelter that we visited. It was such an awesome experience!

Christmas is this next Monday!! I can't believe it. Time is truly starting to fly out here in Ukraine. I'm thankful to celebrate Christmas and I'm so thankful for the baby boy that was born in a stable that starry night. May we all keep Him at the center of our thoughts and lives.

Have a fantastic week!

Merry Christmas,

Elder Stott

Week 29 - Перший Єдність - "First Unity" (also - 200 days!)

This week absolutely FLEW by. We were bouncing around all over the city throughout the whole week. It was one of the busiest and most stressful weeks on the mission for me. But I kind of like it like that because it keeps me on my toes and helps me learn and grow the most.

About the subject line. So all along my mission, there is one thing I've been able to completely avoid. And that is calling a taxi. Yes, I'm fully capable of calling them and telling them all the needed information (with plenty of mistakes) but I would survive. I was always just terrified of it for some reason. BUT a couple of weeks ago, the time had finally come after 6 months that I had to call a taxi. When I did, I was (trying to) explain where we were. I told them our address and them proceeded to tell them to drive to the Перший Єдність. The First Unity. They paused for a second, and said "...what?" and I said it again. I meant to say entrance which is Підїсть. But they sound kind of similar. I said the address again and she hung up the phone very quickly. I had no idea why. No one said anything about it until this week. So my comp told me that we have "First Unity" and I was super confused. He explained what I had said on the phone. We laughed for 10 minutes straight. Turns out the driver had no clue what I was talking about - she didn't exactly know what or where First Unity was!! Now every time that we think or say the same thing we always say FIRST UNITY in Ukrainian and it's so funny. Strive to find this Pershee Yednist with the people you're surrounded with.  If you can follow that story, you're ahead of us here at the Stott house :)

We were able to go around the whole city and visit a ton of people in the branch who are less active or inactive. We visited some of the most sketchy-soviet apartment buildings that I swear were haunted. We had some cool experiences and great conversations and lessons. It was a miracle that we found any of the buildings because we didn't have a map and we only knew general areas. We asked 1000 people on the street where these buildings were. BUT we found everyone we needed to and got home safely without getting robbed or jumped. That's a successful day if you ask me.

We passed by a lake and I asked if we could go skip some rocks really quick. We went down and the whole lake was frozen. The ducks we thought were floating were actually walking. I had my rocks picked out and I was super bummed. So I threw one. It was literally the coolest thing I've ever seen. The rocks make these little bird chirp sounds each time they hit the ice. We stayed there for about 10 minutes and I was just grinning from ear to ear. I encourage everyone to try it out.

That's about it for this week! We have TONS of work to be doing. Lots of fun activities coming up too.

I hope everyone is #Lighting the World in their own small ways. Christmas thought: Think about how a strand of lights on your christmas tree isn't made up of big bright light bulbs, but lots of tiny lights. They're small. One by one,  they join together to make a brighter light that can light up the entire room. Keep that in mind. Small things make the bigger differences, and we can ALL make a difference.

Have a great week.

Elder Stott

The view from our apartment

These cool cathedrals are everywhere

Preach My Gospel

Got us some Christmas lights!!  Yes, that is a pole in our apartment...and no, don't ask anymore questions.

Week 28 - J-E-L-L--Oh NO.

Okay this week was CRAZY long. Things that were literally 6 days ago feel like 6 weeks ago. 

Spent the first couple days in a Trio, and that was super fun. On Monday, I made a big mistake and wore my white converse in the rain. I made it almost the whole day without getting them super dirty, but at night time we were walking back from a store and I stepped in the biggest pile of mud in my entire life. It happens! No big deal haha.

On Monday I ate holodetz (meat jello) for the first time. I can finally say I've eaten something super nasty on my mission. I took the first bite and it was not even that bad, so I started feeling cocky. I took another bite 3 times the size. This time I got all the jelly. Big mistake. I gagged it down though!! It was just like all your Thanksgiving leftovers together in clear, solidified broth-jello. It gave me goosebumps.

Speaking of other nasty food, on Tuesday we did a Fear Factor Night "Blender Edition". Basically ever food has a random number, and you draw a certain amount of numbers for each "level" and blend the things together and drink it. I had a sour cream, pickle and chocolate milk drink and it was the nastiest thing in my life. I almost threw up. Elder Galmeister actually did. Tuesday was not the best day of Elder Galmeister's mission.

On Tuesday we woke up super early to take Elder Wonson to the train station. Elder Galmeister and I were companions for 8 hours!!!! Legendary. We reimbursed our sleep when we got home, just for an hour and a half. I woke up to him breathing super fast. I was kinda sketched out. He was like grunting in his sleep a little bit too. The first thing I thought to myself is "woah, he's having a super intense dream. I'll have to ask him about it when we're both up!" I almost thought about going and waking him up. But no, I did the exact opposite. I rolled over in my bed and put the pillow over my head. 30 minutes later, we were both awake. I said "man, you must have had a crazy dream". Turns out he had SLEEP PARALYSIS and couldn't move or say anything. He said he was trying as hard as he could to get my attention by breathing and barely getting a grunt out! He said it was the scariest thing in his entire life, and I did the exact opposite thing that he wanted me to do hahaha. I laughed about it for the rest of the day. He didn't think it was as funny as I did though.

Our apartment

Sushi with Elder Galmeister

We picked up my new companion, Elder Devey. He's so funny and awesome. He taught me how to do a Rubik's Cube too. He's from Orem, Utah. We're almost complete opposites, but we still blend together so well! He loves music and theater, and is super smart. He tells the funniest and coolest stories, too. His Ukrainian is super super good. We practice almost all day together.

Elder Devey

It was COLD this week. It snowed throughout the entire week. Elder Devey likes it a lot more than I do. It looks super pretty all the time though.

A street of beautiful mansions that are all empty - people are too poor to actually live in them.

Elder Devey and I are already neck-deep in the missionary work! We got called to be in the Branch Presidency here in church. He is Second Counselor and I am the Secretary!! Another big scoop of responsibility on our plate, but we're hungry for the blessings!!!

American Christmas Music is playing in the markets here.. Super weird to hear. But it's great!

With December already here, and the Christmas Season here too, it is a great time to turn outward to other people through service. The best gift that we could give to anyone is being a more Christlike person ourselves. #LightTheWorld is such an awesome opportunity for us to serve people and to GIVE this Christmas Season. Go watch the daily videos on mormon.org. We're finding ways to serve each day here in Ukraine! I expect big things back in the states!!

Have a fantastic, service-filled week.

Elder Stott