Week 75 - Conferences, Hit Like a Train

October 29, 2018

This week was completely a blur. I've been in 4 different cities since last Monday..

We went to Kyiv on Tuesday and had a training there on Wednesday, that went really well.

My Zone

It was so good to be there in Kyiv with the whole entire mission, and the train ride there was the funnest that I've had on my entire mission. Our L'viv zone took up a whole wagon and it was just a party for the whole 5 hour trip there. I was with some of the elders from our zone and we legit just played a bunch of card games for the whole time. I had some of the biggest and best laughs of my entire mission. We only played about 5 or so different games, but they were legit just the best, hahaha.

We got to Kyiv, went right to KFC, and then we had the chance to go to the temple! I haven't been in over a year. What an amazing experience it was. I just know for a fact, without a doubt in my mind that the temple really is the House of the Lord here on the earth!! God has a strict set of rules and commandments that we need to live by, and sometimes it can relatively be a big price that we have to pay in this life, to stay worthy to be able to enter in, but I just know that it is always 110% worth whatever the cost is. I hope that those of you who are blessed to live relatively close to a temple take that opportunity and go as often as you possibly can!! I know that as soon as I have the opportunity to go when I'm home, I'll be going as often as I can. The separation that we can experience from the worries of this world and the peace we can feel there is simply unmatched, no matter where else you could possibly be.

We also had the opportunity to hear from Elder Cook and his wife. I got to shake his hand as we all entered the chapel to listen to his instruction to us. Of course, the entire time he talked, we were all scrambling to write down and record as much as we possibly could. But when he began to testify of Christ, the reality of Him, His life, His death, His Atonement, and the fact that He is resurrected and lives today, the Spirit just hit me like a TRAIN. It was so strong and I know that we all felt it, and we can't deny the feelings that we get when we testify of Christ and His life, death, and resurrection. I know that whenever I'm having a hard time feeling the Spirit, I can always testify of Christ, and right away, that Spirit comes pouring back in.

Back home, we've had some good lessons and seen some good progress in the people that we are teaching. Katya and Vlad, our 2 most recent investigators said that they would continue to read the Book of Mormon and ask Heavenly Father if it's true! I can't wait for them to receive their personal witness from the Holy Ghost about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. It's soooo important to have that personal testimony, because we can always come back to it whenever doubts or questions or struggles come creeping into our lives as temptations to draw us away from the goodness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It really is the keystone of our religion.

I got to give a talk yesterday in church that I found out about on Saturday evening, and it ended up turning into a 20 or so minute talk on gratitude. It's definitely one of my new favorite topics to study and talk about!!! We can ALWAYS be grateful for the things that we DO have in our lives. It's super cliche, and I wish it wasn't, but if we take 2 steps back and really "count our blessings", it will always surprise us how much bigger that list gets every time we try to number the countless number (ha ha) of blessings that we have!!

Love you all!!!

Said goodbye to Elder Mangum - he leaves for home in 3 weeks

Planes, trains and taxi buses

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 74 - Meet Ernest

Dear Everyone,

I'm out of my city this week here in L'viv on a couple of conferences, so I won't have any time at all to write anyone except this big group email. We're super busy and have tons of plans today, so this will have to suffice. haha

The conferences (district, and zone) have been great so far. So much inspiration and revelations to everyone that took part!

I'll just share a highlight from this week that might very well take first place for me on my mission. 

We got to L'viv earlier than all the other branches, and so we were waiting there for all the members and saying hi to all who came. Elder Frehner came and and told me that Ernest was here, looking for me so we could meet. We came up to Ernest, and there he was with the biggest old smile on his face. I shook his hand and hugged him. He just kept talking about how happy he was to be there and how good he feels and all the good things that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings to those who take part in it. He was even wearing a tie that I left there in Uzh :,) He looked so good and full of light compared to the last time I talked to him in that taxi. After the conference, our conversation just continued and we talked about so many awesome things. I started talking with him about the temple and how it is an awesome experience. He said he is planning to go next May. Of course, that's the time when my mission is ending, so I will actually be there in Kyiv WITH HIM to go with him if his plans end up working out the way he wants. The message is super clear. It all started with a 5 minute taxi ride and just talking about the happiness that the gospel brings... 

Ernest

You truly just never know what influence your sharing will have on someone else. The people who are ready to hear it will always always absorb it like a sponge, and as joyful as that must be for them, it's just as fulfilling to watch it happen from the other side of it all. Nothing but pure joy.

Out of everything that I know about the gospel, I do know that God wants us to be happy, whatever it takes. That's why He has this perfect plan of happiness. Everything that He does for us is so we can be more happy. I know that!

Have a great week.

On our way to the conference

The #1 restaurant in L'viv

Some of the best

This was so cute - a blind accordion player and a little girl with down syndrome

Me and my homies in front of the L'viv Opera House

Early morning hike

Old friends

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 73 - The Miracle Lunch

October 15, 2018

Hey.

This week was super good. We got the chance to Chernivtsi, the second city where I was serving just under a year ago. It was so weird to be back in that apartment and church building. It feels like all the things and time that passed since I was there almost never existed and I'm just back on the grind in Chernivtsi. We had some good exchanges there. They were back to back exchanges with the DL. Because of some travel issues, we ended up having to take a train that left at 12:50 AM so we got there at 7:30 AM and just got right into the day of work. I spent one day with Elder Swazey and one back with Elder Cluff, one of my favorite missionaries that I've served with. We got some good work done down there and it was good to be back! 

I saw some old friends at the English practice there and it was super cool. They all said that I've grown (height, not maturity) since the last time that I was there, so that was kinda cool!! It's so interesting to go back to the same place where everything feels the same except for myself. I felt like a completely new person doing new things in the same old place, and it was a cool experience for me to have one of those little check-your-progress kinda things, and man I could feel just the biggest difference. Things like missionary work and other things can shape so much of who we are if we put as much effort as we can into things that really truly matter.

During a finding activity in Chernivtsi, we just grabbed our big white board, our stand, a couple of not so expo expo markers and wrote the question: "If you could ask God one question, what would it be?" and we had a fun time with that for a couple hours. Chernivtsi isn't full of the most responsive people that I've ever met, but we had some good conversations. Apparently, we met Jesus Himself when we were there! He was very drunk, missing 8 fingers, believed that Allah was God, told us to give him money, and he swore a lot, too. haha Not at all what I would've imagined Him to be like, but what a great opportunity that was for us!!! 

We got back, and basically everything else that happened was a lot of General Conference. I really truly cannot choose a favorite talk, because they were all so good. We started the first Sunday Morning session with about 5 or 6 of us, and then by the end we had 31! I kinda had to run the show, but had lots of help from a visiting family of 9 from Kyiv. They saved the day. The branch president texted us that morning saying that he couldn't come and asked me to run it all.. It wasn't anything huge or fancy, but it was a little stressful. We had a cool miracle experience with the lunch in between sessions. Elder Howard and I went the night before to buy some sausages and bread and cheese to make a little бутерброди for the lunch, and I can promise that I did NOT buy as much food as we ended up with. I bought food for like 10 people or 15 MAYBE, but the family from Kyiv helped with preparing, setting up and cleaning and the plates of food just kept coming out of the kitchen. I was honestly super confused, because we fed 31 people and didn't even finish all the food.. It made the Bible story of the 5000 being fed by Jesus a lot more understandable for me. I can just picture how confused His apostles and disciples all were hahaha.

Anyways, that's about it for this week. This next week I don't know if I'll be able to write, we'll be gone for 8 days straight in L'viv and Kyiv! We'll have a zone conference in L'viv, then district conference with all the branches from Western Ukraine, and then a Mission Conference (to which Elder Cook from the Quorum of the 12 Apostles is coming) in Kyiv the next Thursday after a mid-transfer training one Wednesday in Kyiv for all the trainers and their companions. Can you say "Busy"?? hahaha

Have a great week!

I'm smiling but this was the saddest...found this little kitten all by itself behind our dumpster :(

Always appreciating the arts

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 72 - General Conference Was SO Good

October 8, 2018

I really don't feel like sending a weekly this week for some reason..

It wasn't the most action packed week of my mission, but it was still a good one with lots of good stuff.

General Conference was SO GOOD. We were able to tune in for the 2 morning sessions on Saturday and Sunday evening here in K-town, and MAN was that some good stuff right there. I got so many answers and felt so inspired and touched from every single talk, song and prayer that happened in the conference!!

My 2 favorite talks that I've seen and listened to so far are Elder Rasband's on fear, and Elder Holland's on forgiveness. Go give them a listen, or second or third listen! Having literal modern scripture in our day with modern revelation through modern prophets, seers, and revelators is such a blessing that we all take for granted in some degree.

Rasband's talk:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2018/10/be-not-troubled?lang=eng

Holland's talk:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2018/10/the-ministry-of-reconciliation?lang=eng

I know I'll be spending a lot of time listening, reading, and then re-reading and re-listening to all the talks that were given. They were all jam-packed with great stuff.

I finished a 3 week study on Jacob 5 this week. Man, for me, one of the best chapters of all time in all scripture, hands down. So many principles are deeply packed in each verse and if we spend the time, we can chisel out some gold nuggets. My favorite verse that hit me like a freight train was Jacob 5:41. We truly are so blessed by a perfectly loving God and Savior. When we sit back and reflect on our lives and the blessings that we have, it gets easier for us to say, too, "what more could He have done for me in my life?".

He loves us and blessed us so much that He gives us wonderful prophets, seers, and revelators that do all the same things that prophets have done for all of history! How blessed we are to have them in our days, right here, right now, so they can give us things that we need to know TODAY! And things we need to look out for in the near future.

We have seen great progress in a couple of our investigators, and I got an amazing text from one of them. I'd asked her to share her thoughts after reading some of my favorite chapters from the Book of Mormon. She is reading with such depth. It's amazing that a relatively small book can completely change people who are willing to read deeper than what the pages physically represent. It has changed my life, and it can change anyone else's who is willing to accept the things that it invites us to do.

Have a good week!

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 71 - I am Beet

I cannot believe it's October... Blows my mind.

This week was so fast and so good!

We did service out in the middle of nowhere in the outskirts of the city, and it was so fun. We did a lot of manual labor, and a lot of lifting stuff and carrying it back and forth. We harvested a whole field of corn, a whole field of HUGE beets, and then gathered walnuts off the ground until we couldn't see them anymore because it was so dark. I haven't done yardwork or manual labor altogether in so long and I just loved it.

The field is white...

These beets are bigger than Dre's

We are nuts

Our new Pumpkin Gun - a gift for our farm-work

I ate a lot of interesting food this week. We had Krovyanka, blood sausage, and I actually loved it. We ate it cold and warm. Then after that we washed it down with some boiled eggs that were in the water for no more than 60 seconds. It was not as bad as I thought it would be. Then we had basically liver meatloaf, raw meat cooked from salt (???) and then some other stuff too that wasn't half bad, it was actually pretty tasty. I did have the worst food of my mission this week though. I hated tomatoes before my mission, and now I love them. But they offered us pickled tomatoes and I thought to myself that it wouldn't be half bad. Then they showed me how to eat it. You poke a hole in it with your fork and then suck the juice out. I did, and then my mouth was full of this FIZZY tomato juice stuff and I about gagged. I got it down, got scared, and popped the hole thing in my mouth and just chewed it and threw it down. Then the second one, to get it over with and enjoy the rest of my food, and of course, because I cleared those bad boys out so fast, they piled some more on my plate, thinking that it was my favorite food on the plate.. RIP. They were just pure death.

Post-service feast

Blood sausage and Liver loaf - mmmm

Then the next day my comp got food poisoning for some reason that we still can't explain!! We are just super suprised that anything that we ate this week could make either one of us sick. hmm. We're still trying to figure it all out! He would wake up in the middle of the night, sprint to the bathroom and just slowly walk back. Then do it a couple more times before the morning. I felt so bad for the man!!! hahaha. I turned out perfectly okay though. Seasoned veteran.

I prepared to give a 30 minute talk on Sunday, but time got eaten up by the other speakers, so I had to make a last minute plan and talk about something else to save that talk for another time. I ended up thinking of a couple quick stories and wrapping it into the gospel, and then I gave a talk for 10 minutes that I prepared in sacrament meeting while I was playing the hymns on the piano. hahaha. I talked about the idea of looking where you're going, especially in sports. How if your eyes aren't LOCKED in 110%, you'll never get to where you want or need to be. I talked also about how when someone is running a track race of any distance, the second that they look anywhere but forward towards the finish, they become slower. I shared a story about how I was running a 200m race in track, and because I was in 1st place during the last 30 or so meters, I started looking to see if there was anyone around me. I look right, and I'm doing good. I look left to watch this guy go right past me in the neighboring lane. I finished in 2nd. Then I compared it all to 1 Nephi 8, the Tree of Life. How we have to stay LOCKED in on the tree. On that fruit! That joy and happiness!! And how although it's not a race or competition, we can get so distracted by all the things around us that can slow us down. It's interesting to separate the different groups of people in that chapter and to find out what kind of people we can compare them to in our time. Who are the people that got to the fruit and stayed? Who are the other people who got lost, got ashamed, were in the building, etc? If we look ANYWHERE but where we need to be going, our progress is hindered. A big one that I didn't think about until this talk was the effect that looking at other people on the path to the tree can have. It can serve as motivation when you see whose footsteps you can follow, and you can give advice to the people who are behind you and where they should be careful, etc. But if we start comparing ourselves to other people, we get so caught up. We get discouraged and lose hope, or we get prideful and stumble over ourselves and fall. Go study that chapter this week! It's so good. I know I'll be spending some quality time with the Tree of Life this week in my studies. :)

It's getting so cold here.. but I kinda like it. Sweater weather is my favorite and it reminds me a little bit of home. Things are going good with members and investigators here in K-town, and we should have a baptism in 2 weeks from Saturday!! We're so stoked!! We're gonna extend a lot of baptismal dates this week, hopefully.

It's FALL!

Have a good week!!!

Street contacting in the country

Prayers before morning studies

Appreciating the local art

Chocolate Chuck - funniest activity for game-night

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine