Elder Dillon Stott - Ukraine, Kiev Mission: Week 39

Hey everyone.

I'm dipping out of good old Chernivtsi and heading to a TRIO in Uzshgorod. It's going to be an especially interesting experience, being that 1) it's a trio. 2) it's the smallest city in the mission. 3) it's the most Russian speaking area on the mission. 4) There is no branch there! There is a group of 8 church members that meet there. Lots of work to do.

This week was super, super good. I'm so sad that I'm leaving Chernivtsi, because the work is really starting to pick up here. Training Elder Eller was so fun and such a huge growing experience for me. We hit some of the highest goals we've ever set - this week, and we were able to meet with more people than any other week I've had in Chernivtsi. We have SO many potential investigators from this week, and I am super confident in leaving our area in the hands of my trainee along with his new native Ukrainian companion!! They're going to kill it.

I gave my last talk in Chernivtsi this week. The speaker before me, not giving anybody's name (but maybe Sister Romney), didn't talk for very long at all, so I got done super dirty because I was giving the last talk haha. I ended up having to talk for a good 15-20 minutes about how our own faith can bless the lives of those who surround us, and about how big of a responsibility we have to share our beliefs and radiate that faith with other people. I talked about how faith can be easy to have when life is just peachy, but the minute things get hard is the time that we really need to step up the most. When I give a talk, I get super sweaty and my face gets red each time I have to read something in Ukrainian. I can read decently, but for some reason whenever I give a talk I feel like I just came straight out of the MTC. It was probably the best talk that I have ever given. It is super weird to me though that I still kind of hate to give talks even though I'm a missionary. I never shut up in general, but the second that I have 100% attention at the pulpit it just gets to me. A couple of members came up and said nothing but how red I was. They thought I was going to cry or something. hahaha.

We went (walked) to a castle today. It was FREEZING. I took a lot of pics but they just don't do it justice. It doesn't look as cool in the winter, but it was still super awesome. My Converse shoes did not serve as the best winter boots.

Hope everyone has a great week.

Elder Stott