Elder Dillon Stott - Ukraine, Kiev Mission: Week 83

December 24, 2018

Almost Merry Christmas!!

Man this week just absolutely flew by. I don't have a lot of time to write today, but that's okay! We had a lot of stuff to do this week and was one of the busiest weeks of my mission for sure. There were lots and lots of preparations for the upcoming Christmas and New Years party, getting me registered into the city, branch presidency stuff, service, exchanges, Christmas Program, and a bunch of other "busy work" kinda things. It's super weird to do a bunch of things that don't really technically count as proselyting, because after such a long time of being away from doing things like street contacting and calling people and setting up lessons and teaching, you start to miss it a lot. I was standing in line at the place where we register to our apartments each time we move, and just standing there forever waiting for them to call my ticket and I just wanted to be doing something else; something like normal missionary work. P-days are great and little breaks are super fun here and there but when you keep doing it for what feels like forever, it's always exciting to finish that last thing on the to-do list and get back to the grind of teaching repentance and baptizing converts!

In the middle of doing some of the busywork stuff, I was jokingly complaining to Elder Matua about how I just wanted my Christmas package from my family and everything would be better, and not 30 minutes later, we got a text from Nova Poshta that my package was waiting for me at one of the stations near the church! Shoutout to my fam and extended fam who are the best people in the world! That was my tender mercy for the day.

We had a dope lesson this week with one of our investigators, Katya. We had planned to give a lesson about the commandments. She came to the lesson at the church and when we asked her if she had any questions, she said that she did before, but that when she read the end of 2nd Nephi, she got her answers! And then, she asked us about baptism. She said: "What do I need to know in order to be baptized?". Our stomachs dropped and me and Elder Matua just looked at each other and were immediately on the same exact page. Boom. Baptismal questions. We taught about baptism and invited her to be baptized, and she said that she is going to be, but just needs to be sure about everything that she's doing. We also taught her how to do Family History work in that lesson and she was talking about how cool it would be to do baptisms for them at the temple!! We're so stoked. The only bummer is that she is going through a lot of complicated things right now, and is going East to be with her mom for the next three weeks, and said that she's going to take a break from everything. EVERYTHING everything. Including reading the Book of Mormon. We were kinda bummed about that, but at the same time understood. She committed to pray each morning and night while she would be gone on her own and with her daughter.

The Gospel, and even more importantly, the person it is centered around, Jesus Christ, is always there for us at exactly the time that we need. The times when it seems like the easiest option is to just give up and stop trying and say "what's the point", are some of the times that we can truly feel the pure love of Christ the most in our lives. I am so grateful, especially at this wonderful time of the year, that we get to remember Him. To truly sit back and ask ourselves where our relationship with Christ is, what our priorities are, and if our will is in harmony with His, thus being in harmony with God's will. I know that the best way to tap into that Christlike love, and also the fastest way to do so is to serve. And to do it with love. When we focus a little bit less on the WHAT it is that we're doing and put the main focus on WHO it is that we our striving to be like, all of the other little details always seem to fall in place. I love my Savior so much and I know that He lives! I have felt the power of His love and His atonement in my life to the point where I simply cannot deny it. I KNOW that His is the only name under heaven by the means of which we can be saved from sin, enabling us to live again with our loving Heavenly Father after this life.

Merry Christmas! I love you all!!