Week 44 - Not Much to Say...

This week was super dope. It just flew by.

I went back to Ivano this week for exchanges!! I was with Elder Aslanyan. Of all the people that I have ever met in my entire life, this man has the most amazing life story. I wish I had time to write it all, but you'll just have to trust me instead. The Gospel can completely 180 ANYONE'S life. As missionaries, we just have to work as hard as we can. We never know when the Lord is going to soften someone's heart!

Our baptisms are still on track for this Saturday the 31'st. I'm so stoked and excited for them!!! I'll make sure to take tons of pictures. We taught them about tithing and fasting this week, and they're going to fast before their baptisms!

I honestly don't have a ton of stuff to say this week.. It was a great one like always, and I'm still continuing to learn, develop, grow, and (kindaaa) mature.

Have a great week everyone!!

Elder Stott

Where we meet for church

Me, my trio comp Elder Wonson and Elder Aslanyan - helping move furniture up 5 flights in Ivano

Week 43 - 3 Baptisms Coming on the 31st!

Hey Everybody!!

This week was YET another super super good one. Lots of work getting done down here in Uzhgorod, and even more work to still get done these coming weeks.

For starters, the weather was absolutely crazy. On Tuesday we were wearing our short sleeve shirts with our slacks and that's it. We were getting a lot of weird looks from people but only because the way that people dress here is 100% based upon the time or the season that it is. Basically what I mean is that if it was the middle of July and for some reason there was a snowstorm, people would still wear their summer clothes. Tuesday was actually WARM and people were still bundled up in gloves, boots, coats, scarves, and beanies. We got a bunch of weird looks, and it even started some conversations. We even got to play some basketball on a outdoor court here in Uzhgorod by the river at the 3rd School. The court was the best one that I've played on in Ukraine so far. The floorboards of the indoor gyms that I have played at are literally like the kitchen floors of a house from the 1800's, that have never been dusted in its entire existence. I've played on gravel, pavement, and even grass. The basketball here is one of the only thing that makes me sad about Ukraine. The courts are just absolutely awful. You can bounce the ball but you can never possibly know which direction it's going to bounce in. Makes it tough to play anything close to regulation.. hahah. But this court was super nice!! Only in comparison though... It's really hard to explain. I felt like I was playing on a 50/50 mixture of track rubber and roofing shingles. I don't know if anyone can picture that, but that's what it was. It was wet on the court, so we were all slipping around. We were going to play with one of our good homies in the Group here in Uzhgorod, Vanya, but he didn't answer his phone allll that day. We decided to go anyways and see if he would show out. We got there and kinda shot around. We had to hop over the fence to get in. It sketched me the heck out, because there were cops everywhere. While we were searching for a place to get in, we saw that a man was already on the court shooting hoops. After we walked all the way  around the fence of the court, we asked him how he got in. He said "just jump". So we did. The cops here are just super lazy and don't care about anything. So after about 20 minutes, we were calling and calling Vanya to see if he would come, but he never answered. I felt like we should just stay and wait for him though. It was hard to convince the comps that I didn't just want to stay and chill out and shoot hoops, but that I truly felt like we should stay. A little bit after that, the man that was shooting hoops came over and asked us if we would want to play a pickup game or something with him. I was like ohhhhhh yup. This is why we're staying. We're going to get some missionary work DONE with this guy. We played and played, and a couple other ballers showed up and wanted to play with some Americans. We stayed and played with this man, named Vasya. He is in his mid 30's and has a wife and 2 daughters. He had already heard about our church, which was surprising because it seems like every time we say we're from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, it's everyone's' first time hearing of such a church in Ukraine. But he had already known about it!! We had a quick gospel discussion with him, and after we had checked our clocks, we realized we were going to be late to our next meeting. We had said that we needed to go, and then exchanged numbers to meet sometime to have a gospel lesson or maybe play some basketball. He then offered to give us a ride home!! This was crazy because I've only met a couple people that I know that have cars. Right now I can only think of 3 people. What a coincidence that he had a car and lived in the direction that we did!! We were on our way home and talked a little more about his family and the gospel. He was interested in meeting again and finding out more about the Book of Mormon!! We may have gotten completely dogged, but God is involved in the finest details of every single minute of our day as missionaries. We ask for his help in prayer, and definitely receive it while we plan the things we want to do throughout the week and on certain days.

Now that I've derailed from the topic about the weather, it truly is wild. It's like I'm back home in Oregon.. Sunny and warm on Tuesday, HUGE windstorm on Saturday, and waking up to a literal blizzard on Sunday morning!! It has still lasted into today.. No one understands the weather here. It was definitely a little saddening to whip out the short sleeves just to put back on the 10 pound coats a couple days later.

Things with the group (soon to be branch!!!) and missionary work are going great here. Our investigators Lyosha and Yaroslav are still on track to be baptized on the 31st!! Geeeez I get goosebumps just thinking about it. They are both so ready. I've really really enjoyed teaching Lyosha. It almost feels like I'm just talking to my little brother and teaching him at the same time. He always asks to take selfies with me and puts them on his Instagram. haha. Well the good news is that their little sister Hloria was finally able to meet with them. Elder Mangum was on a lesson with her, Yaroslav, and Sasha (their older member relative) and she accepted a baptismal date as well!! She will be getting baptized with them on the 31st. It's going to be an AMAZING weekend at the end of this month. They're all so excited and so ready!! It's so cool to see siblings joining together and finding out for themselves on an individual level, but also have each other as a support group. After their baptism, we hope to be able to work with their parents so we can get another family in the group here. Lyosha is such a funny guy. I'll tell you a little funny story about him. He's allll about the Instagram game. He loves to take pictures of himself and of his brother and they do little photoshoots with their smartphones. He saw a picture of a guy model on instagram that he's a huge fan of, so he wanted to recreate the same photo. Yesterday before church, he and his brother just kinda dipped out and went downstairs and then we couldn't hear them. Elder Mangum opens the front door and sees Yaroslav the younger brother taking a picture of Lyosha kneeling down in the snow, shirtless, with a flower in his mouth. It was the funniest thing. We were all dying. I told Yaroslav that I wanted to take a picture with him so I could send it home to all my friends. I was just joking, but he was all over it. So, this is my treat to you, my little bro, Lyosha.

Something also super cool for me is that during our lesson yesterday, Lyosha asked me if I would be willing to baptize him. I was cool, calm and collected on the outside and said "I would love to be able to perform your baptism". I was trying my hardest not to jump out of my freaking seat. I'm so stoked!!! It'll be my 2nd time performing a baptismal ordinance in my life, besides my little sister Sophie!! I have thus far on my mission not felt this kind of joy-- teaching someone, developing a relationship with them, and being able to help the towards baptism, and be able to perform the ordinance!! It's honestly and truly NOTHING about who does the ordinance as long as they are worthy, but it's something that really makes this such a powerful experience and memory for me. We're all so stoked to have 3 baptisms on the last day of this month!!

We met with a ton of members this week. We wanted to get to know every single member on an individual level, including active members, less active, and inactive. I have a couple of mission grandmas added to the list. This is getting out of hand. Not a ton of our investigators could really meet this week, but we will have lessons with them this next week. They are all progressing great. Vasya the Chuvak still loves us, but especially Elder Mangum.

Building furniture

This week, I finished my VERY LONG study of the 4 Gospels of the New Testament. (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). I couldn't decide whether to keep going to the end of the New Testament, or to switch my focus to another set of scriptures. Elder Mangum convinced me to keep going, so that's what I'm doing, and I'm already glad that I did. I'm almost at the end of Acts right now, but I'm not reading really that fast at all. I spend just about as much time reading and studying as I do recording notes and marking verses in the margins and recording inspirations and thoughts in my study journal. It's just so awesome. Seeing all the miracles that the Apostles performed with their Priesthood Authority directly from Jesus Christ makes me have so much hope and faith in the fact that that same exact Priesthood Authority is present in our daily lives. Now, no, maybe we don't go around curing diseases, restoring sight to the blind, or casting out evil spirits, BUT-- we see the same exact amount of miracles in our daily lives, if we'll just look for them. The miracles have always BEEN and WILL ALWAYS BE as long as we are worthy of them. I cannot physically choose a favorite chapter in Acts thusfar, but I just love the constant diligence of the apostles. They preach and work nonstop. They feared no man. They had faith, and continued to walk with Christ from city to city, never throwing in the towel, in the face of persecutors, and people who even had the power to take their lives. No prison could withhold them from their apostalic callings, no stone-thrower could take them away from their holy work. God truly protects his servants. My favorite story of Acts, though, is the story of Saul, and how he later became to be known as Paul. Extremely similar to the story of Alma the Younger, Saul was one of the church's biggest persecutors. After Christ visits Saul, he is humbled and given the opportunity to completely change his life. He becomes one of the most influential missionaries of the New Testament times, and wrote the epistles to the Corinthians, Thessolonians, Romans, and Galatians. I could go on and on about his story, but the main point of this story and the story of Alma the Younger that I LOVE is that you just NEVER know when someone's heart is going to be softened. The Lord humbles people and teaches people in so many ways. As long as we (as missionaries (and every member is a missionary!!)) will continue to rely upon our God and show our faith by SHARING that faith, God will always ALWAYS provide. This is especially powerful to me because especially at the beginning of my mission, it was hard to find a desire to talk to a people who I thought were so stubborn. I wanted to give up on teaching certain investigators because they weren't progressing as fast as I had wished they were. The one thing that I have learned is that we simply cannot find a suitable, good enough reason to not share this gospel if we will simply lay all of our pride at the Lord's feet. There is no one out there who doesn't deserve the message that we have to share. They need it just as much as we do. When I think to myself that I don't feel like making mistakes in Ukrainian, or this person looks angry, or they're too old, or whatever the reason may be, I try my hardest to remember that there is simply no justifaction that we can make up that gets rid of our responsibilty to open our mouths and to share this message of happiness, comfort, and hope.

Sorry this letter is so long. haha. 

Have a fantastic week. 

Elder Stott

Week 42 - A Sick Week

Hey Everyone.

This week was a solid one, even though my comp Elder Mangum almost DIED. He's been super super sick since Wednesday, and the first time that we left home was this morning to go to Sacrament Meeting! It's been pretty weird being at home all day for the first time in forever. I can't say that I'm a huge fan of it, but it was okay. Lots of study time, cleaning time, and more study time. 

Although there wasn't a ton of street action, or a bunch of lessons or something like that this week, we still were able to find miracles. We were holding a small game night on the night that Elder Mangum came home not feeling very good. No one at all showed up accept for these 2 girls. They were both 18. In a short amount of time we found out that they were inactive members who hadn't attended any activities or church meetings or anything at all, and one of them said they felt like they should just come that night. I'm actually glad no one else showed up. At first I was super bummed that we had no one but them at the game night, but then a little bit later we saw the Divine Design of our Heavenly Father in providing us with an opportunity for us to turn that game night into an amazing lesson that helped them out a ton. They both showed up at church, and we ended up having 21 in total. It's the highest number this group has seen in a long, long time. Miracles are everywhere!! Mariana and Sasha are their names. They wanted to have a lesson after church as well. We taught them a pretty good lesson and discussion and found that they just had sooo many questions about everything!! It was a huuge discussion/question and answer sessing. It was a Ukrainian vocabulary tester for sure. They will be coming back to the activities and also to church next sunday! cool stuff for sure.

We were able to meet with our investigator "Chuvak" Vasya. The one who calls Heavenly Father the "freakin awesome dude" in his prayers. He took us to an art gallery. We met and talked with him and that was super cool and he is progressing well. He read 5 chapters in the Book of Mormon and really really likes it. We're keepin on praying for him. I don't know if that sentence makes grammatical sense. lol.

Elder Mangum contacted a guy on the street today who actually lives in our exact apartment building, and right above us. He was SUPER cool. His name is Lyosha. He has a wife and a kid, and has been to America for work a bunch of times. The only problem(s) is that he doesn't remember a lick of english, and the bigger problem that he doesn't speak a lick of Ukrainian. He called us later on Sunday and said "hey do you wanna come upstairs?" but we were super busy so we have a meeting for later this week.

Things are going really really well in Uzhgorod. It's definitely some of the hardest missionary work, but it's bringing about a deeper love for a city that I haven't felt in the cities I've served in beforehand. It's truly an amazing experience.

Funny story- It was (international??) woman's day (at least here it was) and we wanted to stop by Sister Sylvia to give her a little gift. We got some chocolates and flowers and wanted to stop by. When she opened the door and saw that it was us, she said "ohhh come in come in!!" and we thought oh no.. So we went in, saw allll her family, daughters and sons and in-laws. There was a huge table that was filled with food that looked like we knocked on the door 10 seconds before they were about to dive in. They had even finally killed their big fat pig for this gathering. But, she told us to sit down and find a spot at the little table. We tried to fight it, but we ended up being forced to eat by her. We felt super bad, but it was a super good experience. Super tasty too. I felt bad, as we all did, because I'm sure her in laws and sons and daughters were just like "of course the missionaries eating our food for the 100th time" but sister Sylvia was just like "aww come on now you know they know how it goes. When the missionaries show up, they get booted to the other room! You are my children just as much as they are."

She also has another granddaughter who is 5 years old. Her name is Tanya. Her and Annichka are the 2 cutest Ukrainian little girls that I've ever seen. I sat in between them in church today and they traded off my planner and pens that became their coloring book and markers. It's a good life.

This week was super good. Super different, but still super good. I blame it on the wimpiest immune system of a 20 year old man that I've ever seen in my life, but hey, we all have our trials. I'm joking I'm joking. But seriously my man Elder Mangum was absolutely just wrecked. He threw up off our balcony. Actually I just checked with him. It's even worse brothers and sisters. He somehow managed to throw up onTO the balcony, but not off OF. What a great week.

Have a solid week everyone.

Elder Stott

 

 

Week 41 - Loving the Trio

Hello Family and Friends!!

This week was absolutely awesome. We were SO busy the whole entire week, It feels like a month has gone by of "things to do" in just 7 days.

Last Monday, we met with a member at her house for family home evening. She is just the greatest member of the Church I think I have ever met in my entire life. She fed us the most food I have ever eaten on my mission. Soups, pastas, LITERS of compote, this and that, cookies and... I made the rookie mistake of eating it all super fast because it was so freaking tasty, and Elder Wonson just said "haha... big mistake." Then Sister Sylvia proceeded to give me what she called a "little bit" more. Very soon I found myself literally praying to not throw up, or explode, whichever came first. She has sooo many people just gathered at her house. Kids, grandkids, and all their friends. She is the old lady whose doors are always open to anyone. She LOVES the missionaries. We came with a lesson prepared for her but she was the one who ended up completely just edifying us. We felt sooo bad when we left because we had just prepared this lesson that she completely reversed on US and lifting and edifying us. I'll have to get a picture with her. She's like the #1 Ukrainian Grandma on my mission so far. I've had a couple, but man does she just absolutely destroy any competition.

This week ended up being the new best week of my mission. Our trio is just tearing up Uzhgorod. We are always contacting people and updating our records and calling people left and right and just going super super hard. And it's paying off. Our group, soon to be branch, is awesome. Church is always such a spiritual and powerful experience. They go so hard on member missionary work. That's why they are seeing the most rapid growth in their city.

The Trio

The Trio minus me...Elder Mangum and Elder Wonson

We have 9 investigators so far, all of whom are progressing decently well. I won't talk about them ALL right now because I don't have a ton of time, BUT, we've had tons and tons of lessons this week. 3 of the 9 investigators are siblings. Lyosha, Yaroslav, and Hloria are their names. Their uncle is a member and he brought Lyosha and Yaroslav, the 16 and 14 year old boys to the church to have a lesson. Elder Wonson and I split up and taught Lyosha while Elder Mangum and Sasha (the uncle) taught Yaroslav. I have never bonded with an investigator like I did with Lyosha. I see SO much of myself in him, and feel almost like an older brother to him. We all joined together afterwards, and asked how all the lessons went. We were both super happy and surprised to find that both of them had accepted a BAPTISMAL DATE for March 31st!! They will both be getting baptized together by their uncle. Their little sister is sick, but she is progressing super super well, and will probably be baptized with them. The joy that comes from missionary work is absolutely incomparable. We are constantly praying for them to keep going and keep working and progressing until that day!! We might even bump it up a week, depending on how often we can meet with them in the upcoming weeks!! WE'RE SO STOKED!!

ALSO, we have 3 new investigators from this week. One of them is Sister Sylvia's granddaughter. She is the cutest little 9 year old girl I have ever seen in my entire life. Her name is Anna, but we call her Annichka. It's just like the little cutesie form of the name. She loves it. She's doing awesome. She came to church and sat by me this week! We also met with a couple other 25ish year old guys: Vasya, and Kolya. They aren't related or together or anything that's just their names haha. But we contacted Kolya and got a meeting set up with him. When we met with him, he started talking about our English Practice. We were like oh rigghhht he just wants to talk about English. But we decided to be bold and share the fact that we have a much bigger reason of why we're here other than to just help teach English. He said he had about 15 minutes and was down to learn some of the gospel goods. Our lesson turned into him running late to meet with friends that were waiting on him. Our lesson was a 45 minute super super spiritual lesson. He accepted a Book of Mormon and said he would read and pray about it. He had ALL the right ideas...questions, thoughts, and answers. We're just helping him put it all together. He's awesome. Pray for him!! Vasya is also a super cool guy that Elder Mangum contacted on the streets. I have a picture of the contact actually! I hope my mom takes that hint and puts the picture right under this paragraph. thanks mom. But Vasya was SUPER cool. We met and just taught him the restoration. He accepted EVERYTHING. Elder Mangum just talked to him on the street about the fact that God has MORE WORDS to reveal to each of us!! The Book of Mormon, ANOTHER TESTAMENT of JESUS CHRIST!!! We taught him the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and everything just made sense to him. He loved it and wants to meet super often. When we invited him to pray at the end of the lesson, he did. It is my favorite prayer I have ever heard ever. The translation just won't do it justice, but he kept thanking Heavenly Father for "being an awesome dude" and thanking Him for us "awesome dudes who shared this awesome message". We told him after that that we had a Book of Mormon to give him. He flipped out. He was just like, "you guys are SO DOPE! You are just awesome dudes, man. When are we meeting again?" and we were all like "whenever you want!" He said, "well I'm in the city 5 days a week is that okay if we meet that often?" We just lost it. OF COURSE VASYA. Man. I can really see him getting baptized. I'll admit, Elder Mangum is his favorite, but I'm fine with second. hahah. All of the other investigators are doing great, but those are just some of the highlights from this weeks lessons.

On a less important but just as awesome note, I found and bought peanut butter. We found a kinda sketch site online that said they shipped it to your nearest Nova Poshta and you could go and get it there. So, I ordered 800 grieven worth. I had never been as happy to see 6 pounds of Jif Peanut Butter in a cardboard box. Best buy I've made here. It is the first time I've had peanut butter in over 9 months. It's so tasty.. You are all so lucky. The second best buy of this week was the huge PROTEIN container we all split and bought!! It's the American real deal stuff too. Now we're all making protein shakes just about every day. I'm fully aware that missions are for SPIRITUAL growth, but hey, why not knock out a couple physical goals too?

Dang it, I don't have a ton of time to share a ton of stuff from my studies, BUT I do wanna just share my testimony of the JOY that this gospel brings into our lives. Through doing the little things, we can find the BIGGEST happiness in our lives thanks to this gospel. This message that we have SO many blessings just waiting for us, and that it all depends on us, our actions, and our desires of our hearts. We have a Heavenly Father who knows us PERFECTLY and loves us just as perfectly as he knows us. He ONLY wants us to be happy. Through trials, he helps us find out for ourselves that the best way to go is to lay it all at His feet, completely relying upon His grace and love. The Plan of Salvation is a PERFECT plan that was prepared for us as a humanity, but even more on a personal level. Thanks to this plan, we don't have to worry about what will come after this life. We can know that where we came from is right where we will be after this life, if we will "endure to the end" of this crazy time we call mortality. All that we came from and all that is waiting for us is pure and eternal happiness in the presence of our Heavenly Father, our Savior Jesus Christ, our families, and our friends. The fact that I am able to find such happiness in such a hectic, and even scary time that we live in brings me so much peace and comfort. I know for myself that this gospel is true! All we have to do as missionaries is to INVITE other people to do the same things that we did to find answers for ourselves. We don't need to PROVE anything. We don't need to CONVINCE anyone. All we do as missionaries is extend invitations, promise blessings, and let the Holy Ghost do the rest. I have received my own unshakable knowledge of the truthfulness of this church from confirmations of the Holy Ghost, and I have complete faith that any true seeker of happiness, and righteousness can feel the exact same impressions. These impressions and confirmations are ones that I simply cannot deny. We have so much to rejoice over, all thanks to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Through Him, we can truly overcome ANY obstacle that the Adversary throws at us. I know that Satan works. Very very very hard. This is the exact truth and the happiness that he wants to keep us from. In times of temptation and doubt and tribulation, that is when we need to rely the most on the help of Him that overcame and saved the world: Jesus Christ.

He is our savior, brother, and best friend.

Have an awesome week.

Elder Stott

Another cool building

For my mama