Elder Dillon Stott - Ukraine, Kiev Mission: Week 81

December 10, 2018

Hey Everyone!

Transfers came this week, and I'll be leaving Khmelnytskyy this Wednesday. I'm sad to be leaving this city that I have come to love so much, but changes are good for everyone, and I'm excited to work in a new city. I've been here for 7.5 months now, and the time here has flown by all together even though some days and weeks have been really long. Makes it weird to think about how fast the rest of the mission is going to fly by, being that I have less than 6 months left, now.

I'm going to be serving in Rivne, which I'm super excited about. I'm also super stoked to be serving with Elder Matua!! We are already really good friends on the mission, and I'm nothing but excited to work with him and be his first companion outside of his training. I'm so thankful for everything that I've learned from Khmelnystkyy and this branch, and all my companions that I've had here. I feel like the biggest changes I've seen in myself have happened here in this city. I'm getting binked on saying goodbye to most of the people here, so I don't have a lot of pics. Hoping to get them sometime.

Not a TON happened this week, but a couple of super awesome things. On Sunday, I gave my farewell talk here that ended up being 30 minutes, because there weren't any other speakers except for the visiting Senior Couple missionaries. It was pretty sad for me, to be honest. In what I think is the smallest branch in the mission, it's impossible to not grow so close to every person that is there in attendance. It has been such a neat experience to see the scripture come true from Matthew: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20). It's so true!

In Ternopil we had quite the let down when we went there for the other church meeting that we were going to be a part of, and then no one showed up, so we left, basically having been there for no reason. But on the way to and from a couple of different places there, we had 2 cool experiences. 1) We ran into a group of 5 American girls, and I went over and talked to them! They ended up being 5 missionaries as well, all of different faiths (one being "half protestant half catholic"???) and with time it kinda ended up feeling like some Dan Jones missionary work in England or something, me just standing there and testifying to them and teaching them and answering their questions and stuff like that. It was the first time in a long time on my mission that I was WAY out of my comfort zone and I knew it because it was the 3rd time on my mission that I felt my legs starting to shake a little bit haha. It was intimidating and hard even!! But those are always the BEST experiences because they help us grow so much. There's truly no growth in the comfort zone, and no comfort in the growth zone. One of the truest statements I've ever heard. 2) On the way home, we passed a man on the street who heard us speaking English, and after we passed him he said "where are you guys from?" and I thought he was Ukrainian, because he had an accent. We walked towards each other and as soon as he saw our tags he freaked out and was so excited! He said "NO WAYYY!!! I LOVE YOUR GUYS' CHURCH". Dorian is a recent convert from England who had just moved to Ternopil, and we got his number and the next Elders are going to be able to work with him. The Lord works in such mysterious ways to find all of His lost sheep. He allows us to be the ones who leave the 99 and go and find the one, whether we're aware of it or not.