Hey all.
Week was good. President Rizley came to K-town for his last
visit to our city before he goes home. I'll see him this coming Saturday for our
BAPTISM in L'viv!!! And, 2 days ago there was another
baptism in our city!
I'm writing a little later than usual. Today I played a
guitar for the first time in over a year. I was rusty, but not as bad as I thought I would've become. Artiom is going to let me borrow it this week!! SO
STOKED.
Speaking of Artiom, he is awesome. I've never had more love
for an investigator than I have had for Artiom. He's just the best. After the
strongest I've felt the spirit on a lesson, (which President Rizley was able to
be in on since he was in K-town) we invited him to be baptized. I think this was the 5th invitation, and testimony after testimony that we bore, he has accepted to be baptized on
the 4th of August!!! It's honestly unheard of to have so many baptisms so close
together, let alone in general. We're so blessed for all that we do. Hard
things really do pay off.
We also just had miracles all day today. We helped Artiom
with some recycling that he's been saving up for since before winter. We made 5
trips back and forth from his house, delivering over 400 kilograms of cardboard
to a person who was buying cardboard... yeah that's all I knew. BUT during this
today, we met his ENTIRE family through 4 different ways. This is amazing
because although Artiom has loved everything about church and meeting with
missionaries, his parents have been super against it all, and he is 17, which
means he'll need their permission to be baptized. We testified YESTERDAY that
miracles would happen if he had the faith to be baptized and that SOMETHING
would happen as part of God's plan to allow him to take this step in his life,
even though his parents are at the moment against it all.
1. His little brother
and best friend both came along with us the whole time and really enjoyed
spending time all together. 2. His dad skyped him and we got to talk to him and
show him we were normal good people over skype, and his dad was way nicer than
we thought. He works in England, and is on his way home as I write this. As
part of the recycling, some of it was from his mom's store - and she is the most
against him being baptized. But, because we were helping, we had to stop by the store to get the
last bits. Of course she was there and we talked to her and she saw us helping
and laughing and having a good time and influence on her 2 boys and their
friend. We didn't do much more than introducing ourselves, but it's a step - given the fact that not 24 hours ago she wanted NOTHING to do with us. While we
met his mom at the store, she was skyping their dad, so we said hi again and he
was like "you're still working??? GOOD JOB! You guys are great." And
THEN after the whole thing, we came back to his house and his grandma invited
us in and fed us GREAT fresh summer Ukrainian food. We all bonded and laughed
and had a great time. This is only the start of the miracles Heavenly Father
has in plan for Artiom as long as we will all have faith and keep holding on.
I'm sorry I rushed the whole story. But it's amazing. AND HE SHOWED ME HIS
GUITAR TODAY AND IS LENDING IT TO ME ON WEDNESDAY. #tendermercy. That's my
little cherry on top. Literally we were blown away at how awesome today was,
and how blessed WE ALL were because we sacrificed our P-day to do 5 hours of
service. So worth it.
The baptism went great on Saturday. Olha is one of the most
solid converts I've seen. She was the member present on another one of their
lessons that Sunday at church, RIGHT after sacrament meeting, in which she was
confirmed and received the Holy Ghost. She's what I would call a beast.
Speaking of church, out of NOWHERE came 26 people... we had
13 last week. This time we had 3 investigators come, and there were 2 less actives, and 2
more investigators of the other elders. AND President and Sister Rizley both
CRUSHED it at the pulpit and the Spirit was so strong.
YET somehow, this week still seemed super tough for me. One
of the tougher weeks. But I have such a testimony of FAITH and
holding on to the iron rod, even if it is sometimes for dear life. Heavenly
Father guides us RIGHT to where we need to be, every single day
without fail as long as WE do OUR part.
Have a solid week.
--
--
Elder Dillon
Stott
Vul. Yabluneva
1
S. Sofiivska
Borshahivka
Kyivska oblast
08131
Ukraine
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