Week 88 - Making Friends

January 28, 2019

Nothing much new at all here. haha

So far our baptism is on track. She brought her son to church which was dope!!

Elder Matua is good. We get along really well and we attract a lot of people cause we're always happy. Making friends and being happy is one of the best ways to share the gospel hands down. Some people here are just mean. When we're street contacting, most people will just ignore us or wag their fingers at us. Street contacting is hard. It's why we work so hard at making our activities fun. The people who gravitate towards happy people like us, want to come and they're way more willing to listen to our message.

Blind volleyball

Good friends from the gym

All is really good! I'm A+. Just getting a little excited for summer. I can't wait to wear cleats on a field, or have a nice basketball on an indoor court. I've tossed the football with some of my comps, but I really miss basketball. The hoops here are about the size of a middle school's, and the indoor floors are like a library floor from the 1920's. I can't wait. But it's okay. I'm still focused and motivated.

I finished the Book of Mormon for the 3rd time on my mission! I can't even begin to explain or testify over email how much I love it. It's just so true and so good.

 Have a good week!

Matrix cat - perched on a doorframe

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 87 - Humbling Moments

January 21, 2019

This week has flown by. It was a really good one!

Transfers came on Friday. Elder Matua and I found out that we'll be staying together here in Rivne for another 6 weeks! I'm super stoked to be able to still be working with him. He's a super good companion!

We had a couple of really cool experiences this week that were very humbling for me. We were able to go and give blessings to a fatherless family, and teach the children about the Plan of Salvation! Such a beautifully simple doctrine that we are blessed to know.

We were also able to, for another fatherless family, go and buy them groceries for the month. What an especially humbling experience that was as well, to be in their home and to be reminded of what an amazing life I have and live.

We did a Sports Day activity, and man was that fun! We played ping pong and chair soccer (invented by yours truly in K-town) and it was a big hit! There is so much more to missionary work than knocking on someone's door or approaching them on the streets. So much about who we are, what we do, say, and how we act can truly help other people feel the Spirit! Just talking to one of the men that came, I was able to invite him to church and he came! It was at literally the last minute, but it was so good to see him and talk to him later that night!

One of our investigators, Katya, approached us on Sunday and gave us the big news that she had been thinking about her whole time gone on vacation. It was her first sacrament meeting in 3 weeks, and she told us that she feels like she needs to be a member of Christ's Church and wants to be baptized! We're going to be working extremely close with her these next coming weeks, hopefully leading to a baptism!

Things are super cold here, but the work is going well. There are so many little and big miracles to see if we will just open our eyes to see them. God is so good and His Gospel is so true!

Have a good week!

Have I mentioned I hate buses...

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 86 - Distress on the Double Decker

January 14, 2019

My wondrous family, hello.

This week was great. Conference was so awesome. We talked a lot about the gathering of Israel and it's for sure one of my favorite topics. My interview with President Kumferman went really well. I have so much love and respect for that man and know for a fact that he is called of God to be serving here as our Mission President!

We rode a bus back from the conference and it was a double-decker. We got the front seats on the upper level, so it felt like I was sitting in the driver's seat of a super tall car. It was cool for about 5 minutes and then my legs fell asleep crammed up against the window and I got kinda claustrophobic. It got super hot on the bus and windows got all built up with fog and started dripping on me. It was pretty miserable in all honesty. But still kinda fun.

We had a magic night for our game night and Elder Matua and I showed a couple of magic tricks. One of the girls there came and asked me why I was so bad at them and why Elder Matua was so much better. That was my dose of humility for the week!!!

Transfers are coming this next week, and we'll find out on Friday who is going where! Crossing my fingers Elder Matua and I will get another transfer to serve together here in Rivne.

All of our investigators are finally getting back from vacations and having been gone over the holidays, so hopefully things are going to pick up a little this week. We're going to try to set baptismal dates with all of them!! I haven't seen any of them in almost 3 weeks, so we've been pretty empty for the past while. I'm ready to work!

It's FREEZZING cold here. -17 degrees. I can't wait for spring time. Missionary work here reallllyy slows down in the wintertime and it's starting to get a little annoying, but we're grinding through it all!!

haha...right.

Love you guys

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 85 - Take the Stony Heart Out

January 7, 2019

Happy New Years and a Merry Ukrainian Christmas!

My new sub-zero parka

This week was pretty uneventful, but a solid one. We had to stay indoors from Monday evening at 6 pm until the morning of Wednesday, so nothing too exciting happened within the walls of our apartment.

Just a cool little experience that I had that humbled me (as do most experiences on my mission) was when we went out to eat to a place called Matsuri that does a whole pizza/sushi deal. Super good, first off. But in comes this group of 3 teenage looking boys, and they were looking around the restaurant for a place to sit and I just said pleeeeasseee sit anywhere other than right by us. And of course that's what they did. It'd be too long of a story to try to explain why it is that teenage boys have become my least favorite people to talk to on my mission, but long story short is that the vast majority of experiences and encounters with teenage boys especially in groups have not been my favorite, so I've become a little bit more hardened towards them, as I felt like I've had to throughout my mission. Anyways, they could hear us speaking to each other in English and I could tell it caught their attention, and they started talking about English and America and a bunch of other American things, not knowing that we could understand them. Once they said the word America pretty loud, I made a face, trying to catch their attention and show them that I understood they were talking about us. One of the boys raises his voice towards us and was like "hey, don't worry guys, it's not about you!" and so we had a good laugh and then we started talking to them and they were blown away that we new Ukrainian. They asked if we were students, because of our badges. When I gave them the whole spiel (???) about who we were and what we do, they were super respectful and thought it was the coolest thing ever. We had about a 15 minute conversation and left on a super good note, inviting them to our English Practice, and I hope they'll come sometime soon. They were missionaries too, and a group of 3 solid kids! They were from a Pentecostal church and showed interest and common ground with some of the main things that we believed. God always helps me out and humbles me with little experiences like this every time I start to get a little hard-hearted. He's so good at softening our hearts, and I know that first hand.

In conclusion, along with that little story, there's a verse that I love so much that talks about what it is exactly that God can do with our hearts, as long as we allow him to. Ezekiel 11:19 - "And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh,and will give them an heart of flesh". As long as we are willing to give it to the Lord, I know without a doubt from my own experience that He will immediately take our hearts of stone and replace them with one of flesh. It is at that very point that we are able to take upon ourselves the name of Christ, and declare His glad tidings of great joy which are "written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of STONE, but in FLESHY tables of the HEART" (2 Cor. 3:3). When we give our hearts to God, we are giving Him the one thing that He doesn't actually have the power to take from us, because of the eternal gift of agency that we have. Once we GIVE Him our hearts, it is THEN that He has us completely. Once we totally give ourselves to Him, Christ's Atonement can then take action and place in our lives, as we enable it to do so.

I know that God can truly change us in ways that we can't comprehend. It can be hard to give our heart to him 110%, but the second we choose to do so, we will always see that it's worth it, and not only is it worth it, but the blessings that we receive in return are worth so much more than the price we are asked to pay.

Have a great week.

My man, Sasha

Our pretty, pink bathroom - very manly

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine