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.
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| The Trio |
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| 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
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| Another cool building |
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| For my mama |
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