Elder Dillon Stott - Ukraine, Kiev Mission: Week 45

Hello Family and Friends!

Well there goes another absolutely crazy week in Uzhgorod. This could be my longest weekly letter ever, but I'm gonna try to keep it as short as possible.

First things first, our baptisms happened!! So many miracles in that whole situation. We held the baptismal interviews with them and the Zone Leaders over skype, and found out that they had to receive written permission from their mom to be baptized. When they found out that the permission was required, they were devastated. They were all 100% convinced that there would be no baptism. Their mom had always been against the church and against them getting baptized. There was just no way that she would let them. We went on splits because we had to do our English Practice, so Elder Mangum went with Sasha (their uncle/father figure) to ask permission. I won't go a whole ton into all the details but after a 2 hour discussion about everything, the mom finally gave permission thanks to the testimonies of the kids, Sasha, and Elder Mangum. I feel like it is truly impossible to describe how crazy this truly is. She has been completely 100% against the church for the past 2 years. Their mom Katya not only said yes, but came to the baptism, and then came to church the next day!! She shed a lot of tears during the baptism and the confirmations. It was a truly sweet experience.

Sasha had planned on getting permission from the grandparents, who are the ones legally responsible for the kids. Elder Mangum and he stopped by the grandparents of Lyosha, Yaroslav and Gloria after their meeting with the mom. They absolutely LOST it when they found out that their daughter gave her kids permission to be baptized. They were going on and on and ON about how they would have never guessed in a million years that she would allow it. You truly never know when the Lord is going to soften homebody's heart. When we found out that we had to ask the mom, I can honestly say that I thought that the baptisms would 110% fall through and not happen for a very very long time. But we all said a prayer, together and as individuals that the mom would allow them to take this step in their lives. They said a prayer right before they knocked on her door too. God truly heard and answered our prayers. Their mom Katya is one of our newest investigators now. After so many powerful experiences with her kids and feeling the Spirit, she said she was very interested in taking the Gospel lessons. The 2 next newest investigators are the grandparents!! They were so amazed by the fact that all of this worked out and the fact that the mom said yes. They thought it was all so amazing that this message truly must be something special. We'll be working with them VERY closely these upcoming weeks. MIRACLES ARE EVERYWHERE! The baptism went very smoothly. No redos or anything! The only hard part about it all was getting their freaking whole names. I don't know why parents decide to give 7 syllable names to their kids here, but oh well. The place where we held the baptism was..rather interesting. Not a whole lot of options here though. It was still an amazing and spiritual experience.

We were able to take a bus out the Khust to visit the Peretz family, the newest family in the group. It was an AWESOME experience. I haven't really talked about them that much, but they are a family of recent converts who all got baptized after their dad was contacted by missionaries while on a business trip in Czech Republic. They are AWESOME. They drive 2 hours to church every single Sunday. They are our most active members and are just awesome. The bus ride was awful both ways there, but being able to spend time with them was awesome. We held an interview with Brother Peretz, and soon he will be getting the Melchizedek Priesthood, which is AWESOME. As soon as that happens, we will be able to form a BRANCH in Uzhgorod!!! So many miracles this week I wish I had the time to write a book. Geez.

Doing the Slam together

One last miracle and then I'll wrap it up. During church yesterday, near the end of Sacrament meeting, I thought I heard something downstairs or just outside the chapel. So after one of the testimonies, I got up and went out there. There was a man who was just looking around at all the pictures and Books of Mormon and teaching pamphlets and just all the church materials. I invited him into the chapel to come hear the last part of sacrament meeting. As soon as sacrament meeting ended, Elder Mangum came up to me and said GO GO GO GO!! We weren't about to let him get away. After talking to him for a little bit, I had to go teach primary with Elder Wonson. Quick shoutout to all the Primary Teachers out there. That is some freaking hard work right there, Go you. But the man (Serhi) had just chosen a different route to walk somewhere, and was walking past the front of our building and saw our sign, was interested by it, and then came inside to see what it was all about. Elder Mangum had an AWESOME discussion with him about the Restoration and Serhi was just ALL over it. He accepted EVERYTHING. It all just made sense to him, and he loved it. He stayed to listen to second hour and just soaked it all up. He then gave US HIS number and HE set up a second lesson with US. That just doesn't happen.. it's crazy. I honestly don't know a TON about him, but Elder Mangum swears he's going to get baptized. We're going to try to establish a baptismal date with him this week! When i first heard something outside, I was 100% convinced that someone was downstairs stealing stuff out of the church building. It's amazing what the Holy Ghost has to tell us sometimes just to get us to get up and do something. haha.

We taught more lessons than any other week I have on my mission (except 1, but) and we are LOVING it. We're talking with so many people all the time, every day. We're praying for miracles and working our tails off for them!! Just SO many miracles all around us, all week.

We got transfer calls this week too. We found out that we're getting ANOTHER MISSIONARY IN UZHGOROD!! There hasn't been more than 2 missionaries here for a longgg time. One of my old comps Elder Devey is coming down to be with Elder Wonson! I'll be comps with just Elder Mangum. I'm super excited. The only thing that's going to be hard is the fact that all 4 of us will be in this apartment until we find a new apartment for Elder Devey and Wonson. We're searching really really really hard hahaha.

I just can't describe this week in an email. The Church is just so true. The Gospel is so good. Missions are the BEST. They're super tough, but worth every single second. The Book of Mormon changes lives. God truly loves His children so much. He has prepared a perfect plan of eternal happiness for each of His children, altogether, AND individually!!

Have a great week and happy almost Easter!

Elder Stott