January 15, 2018
First things right off the bat…My new trainee, Elder Eller
is a beast. I went to L'viv on Wednesday night to do a couple days of training
there. Elder Eller stayed awake the whole time despite some of the worst jetlag
of all time, us being 10 hours ahead of home. He's from Sacramento California,
but a small town right outside of Sac called Live Oak. He's exactly my height,
so we're the tallest companionship on the mission. He is a 4 sport athlete.
All-Conference Point Guard, All-Conference Wide Receiver, and a beast in Tennis
and Track & Field. And wouldn't you guess it we did 3 of the same events.
Long jump, triple jump, and high jump. So sick. He was ward organist back home
so we're gonna be spending a lot of time at the piano on P-days. He self-taught
guitar too. We are so similar that it's almost tough to find things that we
don't have in common.
But above all of that, the coolest thing about him is his
work ethic and humility. He has SUCH a strong desire to just get right to work
in the morning, and is nonstop talking to everyone on the streets despite the
fact that it's his first week with one of the hardest languages in the world.
Such a big inspiration and a role model from day one. And despite all of these
amazing traits he has, at the end of the day he is so humble and willing to
learn. The only thing that is holding him back right now is that he's so
stressed out about the language. I'm doing my best to teach him everything that
I know, and that over-stress is the first thing on my "get-rid-of list".
It's gonna be a great transfer. Despite the fact that I’m a "young"
trainer and he's the youngest on the mission, every morning we wake up ready to
get to work and hit the streets to find and baptize people.
Speaking of which, things with our investigator Andri are
going well. On a phone call he explained how much he loves our church and how
pleasing everything is to him. He said he will come to church every single week
because he loves how delightful it all is. The only problem is that he's never
been to church yet.. haha. He struggles at waking up in the morning. He always
calls back after church and apologizes forever but we're really gonna try and
get him to come. I'm thinking next week we'll go look for his apartment
(somehow) and pick him up!! Pray for us!!!
We couldn't find train tickets back to Chernivtsi because of
the holiday season. We woke up at 3:30 AM to catch our 4:50 AM train that
lasted 6 hours to Chernivtsi. We had a ton of complications and ended up almost
missing our train. We SPRINTED from the wrong end of the train to the right
end. For some reason cart number 00 doesn't come before 01. It comes AFTER 15..
so that was fun. Then we got to the cart and the tickets were blank tickets so I
had to SPRINT to the front desk and cut people in line to print these tickets
on what seemed slower than an 1800 typewriter. BUT, after getting screamed at
and accused for not being able to read letters on a piece of paper by the train
lady, we made it!! What a great first day of being in field experience for
Elder Eller. I don't even know if that story makes a lot of sense, but all that
you need to know is that I’ve never bought and printed train tickets before so
it was a great first timer in the biggest train station in our mission, in a
city that I’ve never been in!! Woohoo! But now, we're safe and sound home in
Chernivtsi.
It is FREEZING cold all of a sudden. I left Chernivtsi at
about 5 degrees Celsius without snow or ice, and came back to -6 degrees
Celsius with streets covered in black ice! Neither of us have fallen yet, but
sometimes we slip like crazy, arms flailing and try to smoothly transition into
some sort of new dance move we just barely invented. No one is buying it
though. :/
As you can tell, things are going just great. I'm happier
than ever and working harder than I ever have in my life. The blessings and
miracles are literally all around us at every angle if we will just look a
little deeper, think a little more, and pray a little harder. It really does
not take that much effort to find the biggest blessings in life, no matter how
what your life situation is at the moment. I know that the smartest way to go
about life is definitely not the easiest way, but it's the best way. That way
of life is choosing and being willing to give up your own desires and
"life plans" and putting everything, EVERYTHING in the Lord's hands.
Do the right things, and be worthy of the trust that Heavenly Father has given
us. Agency is such a big blessing. Every morning when you wake up, you either lay,
or take bricks from the "foundation" of your testimony of the Savior
and His Plan of Salvation.
We all know that there is really no such thing as
"staying the same" or "maintenance". We either are going
down or we are going up. Positively, but also negatively, that growth goes
spirally in both directions. There are skyrockets, plummets, and will always be
the ups and downs of life. I know 100% that it truly becomes smarter, safer,
and eventually even easier to do things the Lord's way. It all starts with
small changes, each and every day. None of us have a reason to start tomorrow,
and it's never ever too late.
Have a great week. Love you all!
Старійшина Стотт
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