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
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