December 31, 2018
Well this week went by super fast. It was such a good and
fun week. Christmas was dope. I was so happy to talk to my family and see them.
It's so weird that I only have one more Skype right before I come home... Super
weird. And I just remember last year how the time especially between the
Christmas and Mother's Day call flies by, so it scares me a little bit how little time is left of my mission.
 |
| Christmas dinner |
We had our branch Christmas party like all day on Tuesday after I got done skyping the family. We bought almost all of the food and did a LOT of preparation for it, but it paid off and the branch helped out a ton, too. There are some super good members here in this branch. The party altogether ended up being a total hit and probably my favorite branch activity that I've ever done on my mission so far. I think my (and Elder Matua's) favorite part was the fact that they put us in charge of making the playlist for the 2 hour "Disko Teka" that was at the end. It was so weird to put that together, but super fun. We had about 50 people show up and it was a total blast. They played the movie The Christmas Carol - the one with the Scrooge in it, and it was pretty sick. We also had a big spiritual thought about Christmas, and then did a couple of games, and then had a huge dinner. We ended up with a lot of leftover food that we had to toss, and it was so sad because we bought like all of it, but what they made was so tasty. I love Ukrainian food so much. We had a photo-shoot that a dope member, Bogdan Polishuk, set up for us and that was fun. He took pictures and videos on his professional camera and GoPro like nonstop throughout the whole thing.
 |
| Some of the men in our awesome Rivne branch - Branch President is on far left |
 |
| Brat Ovchawk |
 |
| Getting down at the Disko Teka |
We had exchanges this week and we went to L'viv. Getting there and coming back was an absolute hassle, because even though Rivne is one
of the bigger cities, there are almost no trains that come or go through here
to any other city. Even catching a train from Kyiv is hard. So we haggled (is
that the right word?) onto a bus that we saw was leaving for L'viv and we
basically bartered with the driver for 2 spots on the bus and we got to L'viv
at about 11:30 and then he kicked us out right onto the road, not even where we
were supposed to go.. haha. We walked the rest of the way to the station and taxied to the Elders' place. It was a really good exchange. I got to see Elder
Galmeister, whom I haven't seen in a super long time. I love that kid so
much!!! We had a dope finding activity about the new year, and it went really
well. One of the sisters took pics, so I'll have to get those from her, too. We
did a lotttt of talking there in the center by the park. I got to talk to this
one girl and ended up placing a Book of Mormon, after she promised that she
would read and pray about it. Her name was Yana. It was one of the cooler
conversations that I've had on my mission, and was just such a cool experience
because instead of really having anything to say (after she found out that we
weren't JWs) she just said "yeah I have a couple minutes, what can you
tell me about your religion? What do you believe?" and it was just so
amazing to just testify to a random person on the street about God and Jesus
Christ and prophets and the Book of Mormon and about the Plan of Salvation. I
kinda just took a big breath and started testifying to her until everyone else
was packing up and getting ready to go. Our conversation ended sort of
abruptly, but it was just a testimony builder for me about how fun and
fulfilling it can feel when you're sharing the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ!! So
often I feel like we take for granted a gift that is so sought out by other
people of the world, and we keep to ourselves one of the richest blessings - our knowledge of
the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!! So much of the joy of
the Gospel comes from sharing it, and I know that for sure.
Fun thing this week was a combined language study between the 4 elders in L'viv where we played a game of Monopoly 100% in Ukrainian. Boy was it fun to trash talk in Ukrainian. I don't get the chance to trash talk and be my competitive self around most Ukrainians, so it was fun to use some phrases and learn new words in that kind of setting. By the way, if you ask me, I would say that I won.
I had a cool moment during our last 3rd hour of church this
year before we switch over to the new curriculum (of which I am a HUGE fan). We
watched all these videos and had big discussions and talked so much in detail
about what the new program "Come Follow Me" would entail. Watching
all the videos and talking about all the blessings that are going to come
through this amazing and inspired curriculum just made me so excited. This
Gospel truly blesses families and brings them together so tightly and in such a
way that truly nothing else could ever provide or offer. I'm so excited to take
the studies and things that I learn and learn from others and contribute and
see the unity that comes as a result of it - in our own families and ward/branch families! I know that I can't wait to be back with my family studying
the material that will be waiting for us. I hope that those of you who have the
blessings of being with your family truly take advantage as much as you can of
the opportunity to study and discuss and ponder the scriptures together both
individually and together. I have seen so many blessings of family study all
throughout my own life and in the lives of others, especially on my mission.
God truly views families as the most important social unit on this planet, and
the Gospel is centered around them! I love my family and am so grateful for
them.
I hope everyone has their New Year's Resolutions ready to go
for this upcoming week. It's such an exciting time of year. New beginnings, fresh
starts, and clean slates all across the board. That's truly what the Gospel is
all about, and it's all thanks to our Savior and His Infinite Atonement!! I
hope we can all remember to show our gratitude and love to the Savior for His
allowing us to be able to start over again and again. I hope that this year
will be filled with repentance --so we can become a little bit more like Jesus
Christ with every day.
Have a great week!
--
Elder Dillon
Stott
Vul. Yabluneva
1
S. Sofiivska
Borshahivka
Kyivska oblast
08131
Ukraine
No comments:
Post a Comment