Week 79 - SIX Months Left

November 27, 2018

We're in L'viv for a conference. Super low on time, so just some highlights from this week:

I had an interview with President Kumferman and it was amaaaazing.

We hopefully have a baptism this Saturday.

For the first time on my mission, we invited someone to baptism on the very first lesson - and he accepted!

Aaand...we had freeze-dried honey ham from America for our Thanksgiving dinner. Elder Baxter's parents sent it to him and he left it here for us when he went home.

Less than a month until I get to Skype home for Christmas.

Also, I hit my 6 month mark this week.

Love you all! Have a great week.

Pizza sent from Elder Mangoober

Early morning Turkey Bowl with Elder Howard

P Day. At the Apple store in the mall

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 78 - Old City, New Self

November 19, 2018

Hey Guys.

This week went by super duper fast. Just a couple of highlights for this week.

Exchanges in Chernivtsi!! It was so weird to be back in my 2nd city another time. Sometimes when I go to old cities and it feels like everything around me and ABOUT me should change and revert back to what it was when I was there. But that feeling of progress and becoming better and being back in an old place with my new self has come to be one of the most rewarding feelings that I've felt on my mission and in my entire life in general. All trunkiness aside, it makes me excited to go back to America and BYU and home and just feel that total shock and also that good version of pride! Like just being proud of yourself. I don't know, maybe that's still bad haha. Let's just say it will be interesting to see the difference and changes that have been made in my life!

Good food in Chern

This coming week I will hit my 18 month mark.. That's just crazy. Time is going by way too fast.

I got the chance to study about charity this week and also give a decently long talk about it in church yesterday. Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School can both be such an enriching experience when the people who come are prepared to teach as well as to learn!! I got so much out of both hours!!

This is Masha - she loves church

There is great progress going down in our area, although sometimes it can be kinda slow. But resistance is what makes us grow!!

Right now my studies are taking place in the later chapters of Mosiah. Some of the greatest teachings that I've learned from the Book of Mormon are in these chapters. Not a verse should go by without us thinking about how we can apply the things that we our reading in our own lives.

Have great week and Happy Thanksgiving. You don't always have to be grateful for each and every thing that happens in our life, but we should always have something that we are grateful for in our hearts. Lucky for us, we have a lot of reasons to be grateful. I'm low on time, but I'll share a story about gratitude that really hit home for me in my next email.

Have a thankful week!!!

Fixing up the church

The Ukrainian Tie Lady

Our internet cafe :)

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Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 77 - Uhh Lady, Listen Up

November 12, 2018

Hey Guys.

Not a ton for this week. We had exchanges here in K-town and the Elders from Chernivtsi came up and stayed with us for a day and a half. Even though they ate all my food, that I had been saving up, it was still a blast to have them here, haha. I got super humbled in the evening when one of the Ukrainian Elders and I were playing a card game called Castle - I lost maybe 15 times in a row. I haven't lost an ounce of my competitiveness since before the mission, and I wouldn't let him leave until I beat him. Being the great sportsman-like player that I am, as soon as I won, it was bedtime :)

We have seen some great progress in a couple of our investigators, and we should have, by the end of this week, 3 baptismal dates that will be coming up before the end of the transfer. I have a feeling that this is my last transfer in the city, so, although it's not of the upmost/utmost importance, it would be pretty cool to see some of the fruits of my own personal labors here. Most important is that they keep progressing towards taking part in that covenant with their Heavenly Father!!! I know that their future is bright in the Gospel.

We went to Ternopil on Saturday, and it got sucked up with a lot of English practice work and this lady who wants us to come present something at a university blah blah...some program or another and she wants us to be there in Ternopil 3 times a week for 2 weeks and I was like - ha uhhh LADY, LISTEN UP. (changes that we can all see in ourselves from the mish) and I was just like, I'm really sorry, but we're not gonna do that unless we can also do what we're really here to do. (insert gospel message here). We will, of course, be happy to help her out there though. I hope that some investigators comes out of it though! I feel like 18 months ago I would have just rolled over and done what I would think of as "being nice", but people need to know about the gospel more than anything else, and one of the best feelings that I've constantly felt in my mission is the "at least I tried" feeling. It's one that's always worth going out of your own way to let anyone and everyone know about the gospel. 

Church was interesting. There were more non-members than members, and the Branch President got up and spoke on baptism and covenants and all that good stuff and I think everyone got a good push from the Spirit from his talk.

Other than that, not a whole lot else!! No pictures this week. Sorry!

I love you all!! Read the Book of Mormon!! Moroni's promise is not only true the first time that you read through it. Your testimony truly can get REinforced and REinstituted and REjuvinated through prayer and repeated confirmations from the Holy Ghost that it's true and that it is God's word that testifies of His Son, Jesus Christ! I love that book with all my heart, and love this Gospel and all that I've been blessed with because of it.

Have a powerful week!!! Physically, AND Spiritually.

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 76 - Testifying

November 5, 2018

Hey Everyone.

Not a lot of time today to get this weekly out..

Halloween was good! We threw a little party and a bunch of people came, and we did some fun stuff. It's kinda stressful feeling like I have to be an activity planner and party planner with basically no resources but my own 2 hands (plus comp) without a Costco or Target nearby. But, we make do with what we have!! It actually ended up being pretty fun. 3 of the people who came ended up coming to church after we invited them all!! A mom and her daughter and her daughter's friend.

Speaking of coming to church, we had 29 people at Fast and Testimony Meeting, which I'm pretty sure is the most that I've ever seen in K-town. We're making some good progress. If I'm not mistaken, I believe 11 or 12 of those 29 were our investigators and other non members. 4 people from English Practice ended up coming!! My favorite part about English Practice and our other activities is the spiritual thought, hands down. We get an opportunity (taking turns each activity) to just stand up in front of everyone at the end and TESTIFY about something!! Some of the strongest spiritual moments on my mission are when I've stood in front of 20-30 people, none who are members of The Church, and I just get to testify about Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon, The Plan of Salvation, and all the other good topics that we can talk about. This week we were playing the game 20 questions at the end, so I thought I'd relate the game into a spiritual thought so that it was more relatable and understandable to everyone there. The Spirit hit ME like a truck as soon as I testified that God hears us, and that He wants us to hear Him. I talked about how most of the time, we can get by on our own with the questions that we have. Some other times, we can turn to other people for more difficult ones. And then we all have certain questions that, for some reason whenever we get an answer from somebody, it doesn't quite satisfy the question 100%. We still feel like something is missing. Questions like why war exists, why bad things happen to good people, where we come from, why we're here, where we're going after death, and so on. For such questions, we have no choice but to turn to the One  who knows all. It can be such a comforting feeling just to know that one of Heavenly Father's characters is that He is all-knowing. Just as much as He is all-knowing, He is also all-loving in a perfect way that we as humans can not completely comprehend. Luckily, we can always turn to Him at any time about anything!! He will always hear us and always listen,  and in His own time and way, He always answers. What a beautiful principle prayer is!

This week we've made some great progress. We're having a lot more lessons, and things are going a lot smoother. Elder Howard's training is starting to get in the groove little by little! 2 of our investigators who are mother and son accepted a soft baptismal invitation, and I really think that they will be baptized this transfer. I'm so excited for them. I love teaching them. They're probably some of the funnest people I've ever taught on my mission!! Also, we have another one of our investigators who is the 11 year old daughter of a recently reactivated member who will hopefully be baptized this transfer too. The field is small, but white here in Khmelnytskyi!

We're reading from the Book of Mormon as a mission and finishing it before Christmas!! It's such an amazing experience to all of a sudden drop some of my other study plans and read the Book of Mormon in just as much time as it took for the Prophet Joseph Smith to translate it! We're focusing on looking at references to the Savior and His different names and titles used, His attributes in Himself and things He says, and also His attributes in all other people. And then most importantly, references to the Savior's Atonement. I cannot believe how often I am just constantly stopping and marking so many things and references to the Savior. I can say for myself that I know that the Book of Mormon is everything that it is claimed to be, as found in the introduction: "The Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book." It's so true!!!

Have a great week. Read the Book of Mormon every day!!!

Protesters blocking traffic

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine