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
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