Week 32 - New Year's Lockdown

A short Pre-Pday letter:

heads up. drunkards are covering the streets in like 3 hours so we had to lock down in the safety of our haunted apartment to avoid any crazies we might possibly run into on monday. we're allowed outside of our apartments tuesday morning. don't worry we have enough breakfast burritos to last us till then. talk to you on tuesday. if i don't write on tuesday it's because i'm at the hospital visiting the drunk man i had to knock out. :)

loveya 

elder scott (as everyone here seems to call me)

This week was the craziest most un normal week on the mish.

Last Monday was Christmas. Super good to Skype the fam and see all of them back home.

Tuesday got absolutely wrecked doing unimportant things due to the fact that it was the day before Mission Conference and no one had tickets to get there! We spent a good chunk of time searching for tickets to L'viv and at the train station trying to squeeze 4 american missionaries onto a 6 AM train. Good news was that we were able to make it in time to L'viv. Bad news was that we couldn't find tickets to get BACK!

That's our #Light The World video playing in the train station!

Mission Conference in L'viv was great. Our musical number was super good. I'll have to find a copy from someone on the mission. I ate at McDonalds for the first time in Ukraine! I don't know if it's good or bad that it literally tastes exactly the same, but it was good. I also know that I cannot throw down McDonalds and fast food like I used to. My stomach was NOT happy with that Big Mac meal. It was pretty expensive too! One of the more expensive meals that I've had in Ukraine.

After Mission Conference ended, we went to the big tree in the center of Lviv and caroled. It was super fun. Got to talk to some drunk people who sang along with us, and we actually witnessed a couple of miracles that night. Elder Lukach and I reunited our original companionship and talked with people around the center while others sang. We ran into a inactive member who is about 21 and was baptized 2 years ago by a missionary that served in Elder Lukach's home ward. So cool to talk to him and make that connection.

Right after caroling, we went to the L'viv Operahouse and got FRONT ROW tickets to the Christmas show. Despite the naked women statues and paintings covering the inside, it was actually super enjoyable. I was peeking down on the orchestra almost the whole time. They also sang a bunch of English songs and it was kind of hard to not laugh at some of the pronunciations. 

The next day, We got tickets for the way home... but only halfway. We were stuck in Ivano for the whole day! We did more caroling there also. I sang a little bit by myself on the center street in the city. I'm slowly getting over doing scary things and especially singing in public. I was super nervous at first but it was so fun. After that, we ate at the legendary Desyatkas. Oh how I miss that restaurant. I spent the most money on the biggest amount of food I've ever eaten on my mission. No one thought that I'd be able to finish everything I ordered, but I did :) We had a fun English Christmas Jeopardy activity that night too. It was so weird to be back in my first city for a day. It felt like I was serving there all over again. We finally caught a train home and got back to Chernivtsi at midnight.

Then, it was back into the swing of things. But, due to many past experiences of missionaries on New Years Eve and New Years Day, we had to stay home and not leave from sundown on Sunday, (4:00) to Tuesday morning. Which is why I'm writing today. The drunkards flooded the streets while we deep-cleaned our apartment. That was fortunately my sickest day on the mission, like sick-sick. I totally slept in. I'm just glad I didn't have to miss out on real missionary work. I'm already feeling better.

I'm super excited to start the one-year stretch of pure missionary work. 2018 from January 1 to December 31 will be filled with missionary work. I have so many goals and expectations. I am almost 100% sure that it will be the best, most difficult, most awesome year of my life. The blessings and joys that come from difficult and hard missionary work are out of this world. We receive the most when we forget ourselves and "get lost" in the Lord's work.

It was announced at Mission Conference that I'll be training one of the 2 new, incoming missionaries starting January 10th. It's going to be the most responsibility that I've ever had, but I'm so ready and excited for it.

I hope you all had a safe and fun holiday season. Everyone have fun at the gym for these next 2 weeks!! ;) But in all honesty, the start of a new year is a great time to make new goals for ourselves. It's my hope that we can all rely on the Lord for whatever help we need! He will help us become better people, and is so ready for us to make those changes. He will be right by our side.

Have a great week!

Elder Stott

Week 31 - Christmas in Chern! (Без Снігу)

We had the best time Skyping with Dillon this morning for just over an hour.  He looks great and sounds great!  His stories made us laugh, and the way he can speak the language had us all amazed.  He had a great American Christmas and will get to celebrate a second Ukrainian Christmas in a few days. He shared his testimony with us - in Ukrainian, and it was incredible.  

First things first, Merry Christmas everybody!!

Second things second, just like you don't want to spend time reading emails on Christmas, neither do I want to write them!! I'll keep this week short and sweet.

We have a new investigator named Andri. He was actually a referral that we got! After coming across a Mormon Tabernacle Choir video, he clicked his way through the web and ended up at lds.org, reading about the Book of Mormon. After that he referred himself and requested a copy of the
Book of Mormon. After a few dogged lessons and meetings, we were finally able to meet with him during the second hour of church. We have had 2 lessons with him, and he has already said that as soon as he receives an answer about the Book of Mormon and baptism, he is ready! Such a cool and surprisingly new experience. haha.

Christmas is great. We are without snow which is kinda weird. But hey, I'm not complaining at all. It still is very much cold enough for me! We had our tiny little Christmas tree with our American packages all around. It was a good little set up.

On Sunday I was asked to give a 15 minute talk about Christmas. I am still not a fan of giving talks. Especially in Ukrainian. 

We had a great branch activity this week. 2 actually! On Thursday we were able to do an outdoor  soup-kitchen sort of thing at a homeless shelter for #LighttheWorld. The branch pulled it together so well and made SO much food that everyone got to eat some. What a great way to spend an afternoon. It was filled with great conversations and we were even able to sing a song to the people we served. No, we did not sing Hallelujah, thank goodness. 

I hope everyone has a great Christmas Season. We all know that giving is 10 times as good as receiving, but I do hope everyone will take some time to think about all the things that they can give back to our Heavenly Father. Heavenly Father is our God. No he doesn't need presents. No he doesn't need money. He already has EVERYTHING!! And everything that we have is a gift from Him. But, there is one thing that we can truly give to Him; something He doesn't already have. Our hearts. Our desires, our actions, our words, our thoughts - all these are things that we have to offer. It makes sense that these are the only things that we can put at the Lord's feet. We see examples over and over in the scriptures that when Heavenly Father's children are righteous and obedient, it is only then that He receives glory, joy, and happiness.

Merry Christmas to all from Чернівці

#LighttheWorld!!!

Love,

Elder Stott

Making our favorite breakfast for Christmas morning - Breakfast Burritos w/ homemade tortillas

A little Christmas mood lighting on my night stand

Beautiful empty mansions

Gifts from home - tiny scriptures, deoderant, a watch and a CTR ring...

Week 30 - Nothing is "As Bad as Hallelujah"

This week has absolutely flown by. We had one of the busiest, most craziest weeks out here in Chernivtsi. Some good stories too. The best thing about this week was that I have finally had the worst experience of my entire mission! (I hope) It's now a phrase in our district that nothing is "as bad as Hallelujah". Here you go...

So I guess just to start off I'll fill you in on the Hallelujah story. So. For Light the World we wanted to do some caroling. We thought it would be a good idea to go and do it at one of the nearby hospitals. So we go ahead and call one of the hospitals and TRY to explain what we wanted to do, but we didn't know the word for caroling. So, basically we explained that we were volunteers from America, and basically we have a small choir that wants to come sing for them just for fun. So, the head of the hospital set up a meeting with us and told us we could come on Thursday. It was one of those activities that we invited everyone to come with us, but no one showed up. It was just us 4 missionaries. SO, we get to the hospital and we have a straight-up sit-down meeting with this man, and he's telling us how excited he was and that he wanted us to come back the next day so they would have time to set up. We all looked at each other super confused. Then he started talking about how he just finished 2 years at a Musical University. He said he would have EVERYTHING ready to go for us. Stage, lights, speakers, cameras, and gave us a 3 hour schedule for his program. We were SKETCHING out. This man thought we were doing a concert!! He asks us how long we've been performing together and which classes and courses we have taken at which university. I told him taught piano and Sister Smith said she has taken Music 101. hahah. Oh no. We said we wouldn't need the stage, speakers and all of the bells and whistles. So he ends our meeting saying that he's so impressed and grateful that we are willing to come from America to share our band's talents with Ukraine, and that he can't wait to hear us perform the next day in his auditorium. Ohhhh Bleen. He called us the American Quartet. He said wanted to publish it online and send broadcasts out to local TV stations. He wanted pictures with us afterwards to put on the news too. We were all sweating buckets. All of us except for Elder Devey, he loves this stuff. But the rest of us were SO nervous, rightly so.

So we immediately start talking and panicking about what the heck we are going to do for this man who is expecting a concert from "The American Quartet" tomorrow. We know that we can't go back now and try to explain to him that we're not actually a band, and not even that good in the first place! We decide to meet at the church and practice 15 or so songs really, really well and try to throw together some kind of charity concert for one of the biggest hospitals in Chernivtsi.

So, we get there the next day, he leads us into this big conference center in the middle of the Hospital, and we're looking out at about 150 chairs. I didn't know about everyone else but I knew I was about to cry. People start filing in. We had like 10 songs prepared DECENTLY good, and we knew that we were just going to have to try and survive this next hour or so. The director said he was too busy to actually come, and that a lot of people weren't going to be able to meet us. SO, it ended up being about an audience of 30 or so. YES. So it was just the 4 of us standing there on the floor in front of them. 

We explained who we were, and told them we had prepared a few songs about Christmas. I was so nervous it's not even funny. AND, all of our songs were acapella. I was in charge of starting notes which was stressful. We sang a couple of songs and realized that everyone was let down. I've never seen so many people faking to get a phone call so they could leave. We sang our 10 songs then decided to wrap it up. Everyone was filming and I honestly couldn't tell if they liked it or not, but we knew that one of them LOVED it. She would talk for about 2 minutes about how amazing we were in between each song. We decided to sing a rendition of Hallelujah that we threw together last minute. The sister missionaries decided that they would sing it alone. They started off okay, but a few minutes later it just crashed and burned. Don't worry, I'm not just roasting them, we all talk about how bad it was. haha  And so halfway through the song, Elder Devey and I join in to try and save this song that was crash landing. Believe me when I tell you that this was some of the worst 3 minutes of my entire life. None of us knew the song very well, and we all sang it differently. I think we each changed keys 4 times in 3 minutes, never seeming to be on the same key at the same time. When we finished the song, we just testified and said we had cards for everyone. I think we only gave 4 cards. Everyone just filed out and nobody talked to us afterwards except for the one lady who loved us.

We left as quickly as we could and just DIED once we got back on the streets. We decided that was hands down the worst experience of all of our missions, and possibly even our entire lives. The phrase "nothing will be as bad as hallelujah" became our newest inside joke.

Now that's what I call a success. And no pictures. Not sad about that.

We had another great activity that turned out so much better. President and Sister Rizley were able to be with us this weekend when we visited a shelter for mothers and children. We just went there to be with them, do some arts and crafts, sing, and show some cute little Christmas videos. It turned out much, much better than the last activity. 

Our week was fun-packed and definitely one to remember. We have no plans to return to the hospital at this point, but we are going to keep working with the shelter that we visited. It was such an awesome experience!

Christmas is this next Monday!! I can't believe it. Time is truly starting to fly out here in Ukraine. I'm thankful to celebrate Christmas and I'm so thankful for the baby boy that was born in a stable that starry night. May we all keep Him at the center of our thoughts and lives.

Have a fantastic week!

Merry Christmas,

Elder Stott

Week 29 - Перший Єдність - "First Unity" (also - 200 days!)

This week absolutely FLEW by. We were bouncing around all over the city throughout the whole week. It was one of the busiest and most stressful weeks on the mission for me. But I kind of like it like that because it keeps me on my toes and helps me learn and grow the most.

About the subject line. So all along my mission, there is one thing I've been able to completely avoid. And that is calling a taxi. Yes, I'm fully capable of calling them and telling them all the needed information (with plenty of mistakes) but I would survive. I was always just terrified of it for some reason. BUT a couple of weeks ago, the time had finally come after 6 months that I had to call a taxi. When I did, I was (trying to) explain where we were. I told them our address and them proceeded to tell them to drive to the Перший Єдність. The First Unity. They paused for a second, and said "...what?" and I said it again. I meant to say entrance which is Підїсть. But they sound kind of similar. I said the address again and she hung up the phone very quickly. I had no idea why. No one said anything about it until this week. So my comp told me that we have "First Unity" and I was super confused. He explained what I had said on the phone. We laughed for 10 minutes straight. Turns out the driver had no clue what I was talking about - she didn't exactly know what or where First Unity was!! Now every time that we think or say the same thing we always say FIRST UNITY in Ukrainian and it's so funny. Strive to find this Pershee Yednist with the people you're surrounded with.  If you can follow that story, you're ahead of us here at the Stott house :)

We were able to go around the whole city and visit a ton of people in the branch who are less active or inactive. We visited some of the most sketchy-soviet apartment buildings that I swear were haunted. We had some cool experiences and great conversations and lessons. It was a miracle that we found any of the buildings because we didn't have a map and we only knew general areas. We asked 1000 people on the street where these buildings were. BUT we found everyone we needed to and got home safely without getting robbed or jumped. That's a successful day if you ask me.

We passed by a lake and I asked if we could go skip some rocks really quick. We went down and the whole lake was frozen. The ducks we thought were floating were actually walking. I had my rocks picked out and I was super bummed. So I threw one. It was literally the coolest thing I've ever seen. The rocks make these little bird chirp sounds each time they hit the ice. We stayed there for about 10 minutes and I was just grinning from ear to ear. I encourage everyone to try it out.

That's about it for this week! We have TONS of work to be doing. Lots of fun activities coming up too.

I hope everyone is #Lighting the World in their own small ways. Christmas thought: Think about how a strand of lights on your christmas tree isn't made up of big bright light bulbs, but lots of tiny lights. They're small. One by one,  they join together to make a brighter light that can light up the entire room. Keep that in mind. Small things make the bigger differences, and we can ALL make a difference.

Have a great week.

Elder Stott

The view from our apartment

These cool cathedrals are everywhere

Preach My Gospel

Got us some Christmas lights!!  Yes, that is a pole in our apartment...and no, don't ask anymore questions.

Week 28 - J-E-L-L--Oh NO.

Okay this week was CRAZY long. Things that were literally 6 days ago feel like 6 weeks ago. 

Spent the first couple days in a Trio, and that was super fun. On Monday, I made a big mistake and wore my white converse in the rain. I made it almost the whole day without getting them super dirty, but at night time we were walking back from a store and I stepped in the biggest pile of mud in my entire life. It happens! No big deal haha.

On Monday I ate holodetz (meat jello) for the first time. I can finally say I've eaten something super nasty on my mission. I took the first bite and it was not even that bad, so I started feeling cocky. I took another bite 3 times the size. This time I got all the jelly. Big mistake. I gagged it down though!! It was just like all your Thanksgiving leftovers together in clear, solidified broth-jello. It gave me goosebumps.

Speaking of other nasty food, on Tuesday we did a Fear Factor Night "Blender Edition". Basically ever food has a random number, and you draw a certain amount of numbers for each "level" and blend the things together and drink it. I had a sour cream, pickle and chocolate milk drink and it was the nastiest thing in my life. I almost threw up. Elder Galmeister actually did. Tuesday was not the best day of Elder Galmeister's mission.

On Tuesday we woke up super early to take Elder Wonson to the train station. Elder Galmeister and I were companions for 8 hours!!!! Legendary. We reimbursed our sleep when we got home, just for an hour and a half. I woke up to him breathing super fast. I was kinda sketched out. He was like grunting in his sleep a little bit too. The first thing I thought to myself is "woah, he's having a super intense dream. I'll have to ask him about it when we're both up!" I almost thought about going and waking him up. But no, I did the exact opposite. I rolled over in my bed and put the pillow over my head. 30 minutes later, we were both awake. I said "man, you must have had a crazy dream". Turns out he had SLEEP PARALYSIS and couldn't move or say anything. He said he was trying as hard as he could to get my attention by breathing and barely getting a grunt out! He said it was the scariest thing in his entire life, and I did the exact opposite thing that he wanted me to do hahaha. I laughed about it for the rest of the day. He didn't think it was as funny as I did though.

Our apartment

Sushi with Elder Galmeister

We picked up my new companion, Elder Devey. He's so funny and awesome. He taught me how to do a Rubik's Cube too. He's from Orem, Utah. We're almost complete opposites, but we still blend together so well! He loves music and theater, and is super smart. He tells the funniest and coolest stories, too. His Ukrainian is super super good. We practice almost all day together.

Elder Devey

It was COLD this week. It snowed throughout the entire week. Elder Devey likes it a lot more than I do. It looks super pretty all the time though.

A street of beautiful mansions that are all empty - people are too poor to actually live in them.

Elder Devey and I are already neck-deep in the missionary work! We got called to be in the Branch Presidency here in church. He is Second Counselor and I am the Secretary!! Another big scoop of responsibility on our plate, but we're hungry for the blessings!!!

American Christmas Music is playing in the markets here.. Super weird to hear. But it's great!

With December already here, and the Christmas Season here too, it is a great time to turn outward to other people through service. The best gift that we could give to anyone is being a more Christlike person ourselves. #LightTheWorld is such an awesome opportunity for us to serve people and to GIVE this Christmas Season. Go watch the daily videos on mormon.org. We're finding ways to serve each day here in Ukraine! I expect big things back in the states!!

Have a fantastic, service-filled week.

Elder Stott

Week 27 - Goodbye Elder Likhachiov

This week has flown by. SO many things to do and stayed busy almost every second of every day.

On P-Day we play tons of Foosball. It's one of the skills I've picked up on the mish! Elder Likhachiov and I always play. He was super good and taught me the ropes and we got pretty evenly matched this transfer, so it's always a fun 10 minutes of straight competition. He beat me 10-0 on Monday and I can honestly say it was probably the MOST angry I have ever been on my mission. I heard about that game every day for the rest of this week, until he left yesterday! We both were SUPER competitive. The Lord humbles us through ways we wouldn't even think of on missions! hahaha. I also owed Elder Likhachiov 7 candy bars because I started making gun noises all the time, because it's what my last comp always did. It felt like a 10 year old habit and I was just sick of randomly doing it all the time  so I said every time I do it I'd owe him a candy bar. That same day I did it 7 times. My mission funds were begging me to end the deal so we stopped after that day. He ended up only making me buy 4 and then he gave 2 of them to me! What a nice guy.

On Tuesday, we did a ZUMBA night! Little did we know this was totally against mission rules because we aren't supposed to do "suggestive" dance moves and things of that sort, so we missionaryified the dance moves. We had to call President about it. It wasn't a SUPER big deal, but we got everything figured out and it's all a good joke we can laugh about now. It was just funny because we first called President Rizley and asked for permission to be able to do it and use normal music, and he was all over it! So we prepped and practiced and we were super excited. Then the next day, literally hours before the activity, SISTER Rizley calls, saying that it's definitely not allowed, and that President Rizley has no idea what ZUMBA actually is. hahaha. It was all just a big mess, but at the end of the day it was still super fun and a great experience. 

It SNOWED this week!!! It's getting super super cold here. I don't miss the sun though - It was WAY too hot. You can always get warm in the winter, but how are you supposed to (modestly) stay cool in the middle of summer in missionary clothes???

On Wednesday we had exchanges. I was with the Legendary Elder Galmeister and we planned a trip out to the village to visit a friend of this guy we met on the street. He was super, super nice and so excited to meet us. He gave us his address, which google maps couldn't find (because we typed it in wrong but that's besides the point). This is a really funny story and everything will make sense at the end...stick with me. He said that he had a ton of interested friends as well and would have them come listen to our message with him. We asked him what time would be best to come visit him, and he said ANY time. We were like uhhh okay! So we wait at the bus stop at 8 AM to go to the celo. It would be 2 and a half hours to get there, and 3 different buses. After waiting at the right stop at the right time, the bus never came. So we kinda just guessed the direction of the buses and how to get there. 8 BUSES LATER (and lots of grieven (money)) we somehow ended up literally right back where we started. Outside of the city we found the exact bus we actually needed, and we were so hyped because we were just basically guessing and checking as we went. We found the right bus in this huge bus station, and got right on. After 20 minutes, things started looking familiar.. too familiar. It was actually coming BACK from where we were supposed to be going. So, once we got back to the same exact spot we were standing at 90 minutes ago, we decided to call a taxi. The guy shows up and drives us out to who knows where. We give him the address which we didn't know was wrong, but we have the right village. So he takes us to the village and drops us off in the center. We start asking around to random people on the side of the road how to get where we're going. We end up at this government building, but obviously can't read the sign and what it said. I started putting context words together to try to find out what it was. It was a super sketchy building with a security fence and a gate and security guards. We told them we were supposed to meet someone there, and after a short conversation, they let us inside the gate. I had NO IDEA what was going on. I put the words together from the sign and figured out that it was an orphanage. (at least I thought it was. haha..) SO. We're waiting for this guy Andri. We call him and he says he'll come outside to meet us! We're kinda just standing outside this yellow concrete sketchy building and all of a sudden this lady in a white lab coat walks out. She asks who we are and what we're doing here. We say that we want to meet with Andri, someone we met on the street a while back. She says that 1. There are a lot of Andris there, and 2. It would've been impossible to see Andri on the street. we were SO lost because nothing made sense. She said that we couldn't go inside the building because we didn't have permission to and she knew nothing about us or who we were.. WE JUST WANTED TO TALK TO ANDRI!!! She starts asking more about him and us and our relationship and is weirded out at the fact 2 Americans want to meet with "her Andri". All of a sudden, he walks out the front door towards us. The second we saw him, everything made sense. Elder Galmeister and I looked at each other and said at the same time: "It's a freaking ASYLUM." We immediately went to plan B, sat on the bench and talked to this insane man for 5 minutes, gave him a Book of Mormon and boogied. During our short conversation the lady comes up to the 3 of us and says "Don't listen to Andri. He doesn't even know what he is saying or thinking. He isn't going to remember this experience tomorrow. He's crazy." And she said this all in front of him too!! And he said "I'm not crazy!!" She responded angrily: "Andri. If you're not crazy then why are you here?!" He said "I didn't do well in school, that's all" Then she says, "and which school was that?" He responded sheepishly, sighing: "The crazy school.." We talked to her once more and apologized for the fact that we knew nothing going on with this situation and that we wouldn't be coming back anytime in the near future. hahaha. She laughed about it and said goodbye. After that experience which felt like hours, Elder Galmeister and I had to stop and just talk about what the heck happened. So funny. We found our way back home after walking into the village market to ask for directions from a big group of teenagers. It was their hangout and they were so hyped to talk Ukrainian with Americans and were blown away by why we were even there. Hopefully we see some of them at our English practice. One of them actually followed us almost all the way home on the bus. ANYWAYS: of COURSE it makes sense that Andri could meet at ANY time, and that he had a BUNCH of FRIENDS that were interested in finding "spiritual healing". We definitely had the wrong idea of "spiritual healing" in mind before we got there. If that's not a "crazy" story, I don't know what is.

Okay. To top it all off, this week is transfers!! I will be staying in Chernivtsi, and I said goodbye to Elder Likhachiov yesterday. It was a tough couple of weeks at first with him, but through just loving and serving him the best that I could, I found out I was serving with one of the most amazing people I had ever met. It was sad to see him go home, but his life is waiting ahead of him! 

Elder Galmeister is unfortunately leaving Chernivtsi. It was so fun to serve with him, and awesome to serve with someone I know is going to be a lifelong best friend. Such a cool guy, and such a big blessing in my life! They are actually getting rid of one of the Elder companionship here in Chernivtsi. So now, our district will just be me, my new companion ELDER DEVY, and the 2 sisters. Elder Devy and I will be in charge of BOTH Elders' areas now. I will also now be serving as a district leader!! So excited to be able to serve in even more ways. I talked to Elder Devy on the phone when we found out we'd be serving together. I love him already!! It's going to be such a fun transfer. He will be my first American companion on my mission!! It's going to be super weird to be with someone who has absolutely NO language barrier, and living with someone who has the same cultural background as you too. I'll be taking a lot of pictures this next week. I will have SO MUCH on my plate coming up this next 6 weeks. Can't wait to eat it all up and get involved in the Lord's work here in Chernivtsi.

That's all for this week. I can't promise a more interesting story for next week.  haha

Hope everyone has a great week.

And Happy Thanksgiving. We have more to be thankful for than we could possibly imagine. I'm thankful for my family, my friends, and this gospel. And a lot of other stuff too. I know that everything that we have in this life on earth is indeed a blessing from our Heavenly Father. Even the tough things in life - it's all a learning experience that shapes who we are and what we can become.

Godspeed!

Elder Stott

I cooked the last supper for Elder Likhachiov

Also made Borscht - it is so delicious!

My tie collection. Only 6 are ones I brought with me. Lots of tie trading here.

Chilling in our apartment - Elder Galmeister, Elder Likhachiov, Elder Wonson and me

Cobbled streets

Week 26 - 3 Week Recap

Okay the first week I missed: hardest week of my mission so far. We spent the whole week getting dogged, contacting, on the streets and finding absolutely zero success. It was super tough but a huge testimony builder for sure.

LAST week was actually super fun, but my email time got cut super short.

I'll just give some highlights over the last three weeks and let everyone know that I am indeed very living and well and alive.

We had exchanges, and I got to go to my man Ivan's Basketball Game!! It was super weird but super cool. I've had a couple pictures with him. He loves us though. Loves English and America and basketball. I had to play some ball with him at the school! So I took off my suit and untucked my shirt and played with him wearing my dress shoes. I was slipping and sliding but it was so fun. All his teammates were watching and they loved it. They left to the locker room, and Ivan came back out and said "hey, so my coach was watching us play and he says you're really good. He wants you to come train our team every Tuesday and Thursday for an hour". I was with Elder Galmeister that day, and we looked at each other and I just said I'LL BE THERE. haha. So starting in a couple of weeks I'm going to be training a highschool basketball team here in Chernivtsi. Ivan is actually one of our investigators now, and is one of my favorite people I've ever met here in Ukraine by far.

We had a fall party and it was super dope. We had to buy a bunch of stuff for it and this lady yelled at me and stormed out of the party because I forgot to buy garlic, and also I bought a cucumber instead of a zucchini. I ruined the whole party. But it's all good! We are chilling now. The party was super fun. we had homemade pinatas and it was super fun.

We have finally started to find success. We have 2 investigators now and we hope they can progress well.

I collect lucky bus tickets now. They're 6 numbers and if the first 3 add up to the sum of the last 3 it's a lucky ticket. I have a ton of lucky tickets. I guess I'm just a lucky guy.

I went to the biggest outdoor market I have ever seen in my life. I bought a new beanie and gloves and I think I look like a thug but it's okay.

I have forced my self to like mushrooms and I put them in almost everything now. Flashback to me dry-heaving at a sweet old lady's house when she fed us mushroom slip goo. #RIP

This week i'm hitting my 6 month mark! On the 24th. Time hasn't honestly flown by for me and it definitely feels like 6 months or maybe 60 but I'm still loving my time here. The time WILL eventually come when it's time for me to go home, so I'm squeezing as much out as I can from every day.

Elder Galmeister and I wrote a song. It's called g-mail. It's super good. Not really though because we're missionaries and not rappers and super white - especially because it's winter, but it's still funny. We did it for the memories! I just hope my mom isn't going around showing it to everybody. 

We had a family feud game night for English practice and I got to be the Steve Harvey. It was really fun and super funny. 

I tried making Ukrainian blinchiki (pancakes) and I ended up burning all of them and then dropping the bowl of batter on the ground and it splattered literally nowhere else but up my entire suit - so that was really fun. Not.

We had so much fun go-karting last week.

It's my last week here with Elder Likhachiov. He leaves on Sunday at 3 PM, and then it's a new comp after that! We'll get calls on Saturday or Friday and I'll let you know what's going to happen next transfer! This has been a TOUGH transfer so far. Ups and downs with the work, the comp and just the life of a missionary in general. But, HARD is GOOD!! That's how you get tough. It's how you learn. How you grow. I talked about the growing pains of life and it rings even more true on the mission. The hurt is what we start to look for because it indicates progress and growth. 

I've been reading in the Book of Mormon in the Alma chapters. In the book of Mormon there are so many examples of EXAMPLES! The power of the example that Abinidai set for Alma is what influenced Alma to start preaching, and eventually baptize hundreds and hundreds of people. And also the examples of Ammon and Amulek that they set for King Lamoni and his father. Abinidai may have not even known that Alma was present at his prophesy to King Noah, until maybe the very end right before he died, and he didn't live to see the effect that his example had for the people that received his words. Brothers and Sisters, the way that we live and example that we give for other people is one of the most powerful things that we can do. When the way we live and act becomes a testimony and a natural way of life, it influences other people whether WE know it or not. People are always watching. There is always someone who sees your good works, and your not-the-best works. It is so important to let His love "consume our flesh" (2 Nephi) in a way that which we BECOME someone new from the love of our Savior. 

I hope we can all live in a way that we will positively influence the lives of those who surround us.

Have a great week.

Elder Stott

Woah - it's thanksgiving haha. I'll write something next week. too many blessings!! ahh!!!