Week 73 - The Miracle Lunch

October 15, 2018

Hey.

This week was super good. We got the chance to Chernivtsi, the second city where I was serving just under a year ago. It was so weird to be back in that apartment and church building. It feels like all the things and time that passed since I was there almost never existed and I'm just back on the grind in Chernivtsi. We had some good exchanges there. They were back to back exchanges with the DL. Because of some travel issues, we ended up having to take a train that left at 12:50 AM so we got there at 7:30 AM and just got right into the day of work. I spent one day with Elder Swazey and one back with Elder Cluff, one of my favorite missionaries that I've served with. We got some good work done down there and it was good to be back! 

I saw some old friends at the English practice there and it was super cool. They all said that I've grown (height, not maturity) since the last time that I was there, so that was kinda cool!! It's so interesting to go back to the same place where everything feels the same except for myself. I felt like a completely new person doing new things in the same old place, and it was a cool experience for me to have one of those little check-your-progress kinda things, and man I could feel just the biggest difference. Things like missionary work and other things can shape so much of who we are if we put as much effort as we can into things that really truly matter.

During a finding activity in Chernivtsi, we just grabbed our big white board, our stand, a couple of not so expo expo markers and wrote the question: "If you could ask God one question, what would it be?" and we had a fun time with that for a couple hours. Chernivtsi isn't full of the most responsive people that I've ever met, but we had some good conversations. Apparently, we met Jesus Himself when we were there! He was very drunk, missing 8 fingers, believed that Allah was God, told us to give him money, and he swore a lot, too. haha Not at all what I would've imagined Him to be like, but what a great opportunity that was for us!!! 

We got back, and basically everything else that happened was a lot of General Conference. I really truly cannot choose a favorite talk, because they were all so good. We started the first Sunday Morning session with about 5 or 6 of us, and then by the end we had 31! I kinda had to run the show, but had lots of help from a visiting family of 9 from Kyiv. They saved the day. The branch president texted us that morning saying that he couldn't come and asked me to run it all.. It wasn't anything huge or fancy, but it was a little stressful. We had a cool miracle experience with the lunch in between sessions. Elder Howard and I went the night before to buy some sausages and bread and cheese to make a little бутерброди for the lunch, and I can promise that I did NOT buy as much food as we ended up with. I bought food for like 10 people or 15 MAYBE, but the family from Kyiv helped with preparing, setting up and cleaning and the plates of food just kept coming out of the kitchen. I was honestly super confused, because we fed 31 people and didn't even finish all the food.. It made the Bible story of the 5000 being fed by Jesus a lot more understandable for me. I can just picture how confused His apostles and disciples all were hahaha.

Anyways, that's about it for this week. This next week I don't know if I'll be able to write, we'll be gone for 8 days straight in L'viv and Kyiv! We'll have a zone conference in L'viv, then district conference with all the branches from Western Ukraine, and then a Mission Conference (to which Elder Cook from the Quorum of the 12 Apostles is coming) in Kyiv the next Thursday after a mid-transfer training one Wednesday in Kyiv for all the trainers and their companions. Can you say "Busy"?? hahaha

Have a great week!

I'm smiling but this was the saddest...found this little kitten all by itself behind our dumpster :(

Always appreciating the arts

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 72 - General Conference Was SO Good

October 8, 2018

I really don't feel like sending a weekly this week for some reason..

It wasn't the most action packed week of my mission, but it was still a good one with lots of good stuff.

General Conference was SO GOOD. We were able to tune in for the 2 morning sessions on Saturday and Sunday evening here in K-town, and MAN was that some good stuff right there. I got so many answers and felt so inspired and touched from every single talk, song and prayer that happened in the conference!!

My 2 favorite talks that I've seen and listened to so far are Elder Rasband's on fear, and Elder Holland's on forgiveness. Go give them a listen, or second or third listen! Having literal modern scripture in our day with modern revelation through modern prophets, seers, and revelators is such a blessing that we all take for granted in some degree.

Rasband's talk:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2018/10/be-not-troubled?lang=eng

Holland's talk:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2018/10/the-ministry-of-reconciliation?lang=eng

I know I'll be spending a lot of time listening, reading, and then re-reading and re-listening to all the talks that were given. They were all jam-packed with great stuff.

I finished a 3 week study on Jacob 5 this week. Man, for me, one of the best chapters of all time in all scripture, hands down. So many principles are deeply packed in each verse and if we spend the time, we can chisel out some gold nuggets. My favorite verse that hit me like a freight train was Jacob 5:41. We truly are so blessed by a perfectly loving God and Savior. When we sit back and reflect on our lives and the blessings that we have, it gets easier for us to say, too, "what more could He have done for me in my life?".

He loves us and blessed us so much that He gives us wonderful prophets, seers, and revelators that do all the same things that prophets have done for all of history! How blessed we are to have them in our days, right here, right now, so they can give us things that we need to know TODAY! And things we need to look out for in the near future.

We have seen great progress in a couple of our investigators, and I got an amazing text from one of them. I'd asked her to share her thoughts after reading some of my favorite chapters from the Book of Mormon. She is reading with such depth. It's amazing that a relatively small book can completely change people who are willing to read deeper than what the pages physically represent. It has changed my life, and it can change anyone else's who is willing to accept the things that it invites us to do.

Have a good week!

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 71 - I am Beet

I cannot believe it's October... Blows my mind.

This week was so fast and so good!

We did service out in the middle of nowhere in the outskirts of the city, and it was so fun. We did a lot of manual labor, and a lot of lifting stuff and carrying it back and forth. We harvested a whole field of corn, a whole field of HUGE beets, and then gathered walnuts off the ground until we couldn't see them anymore because it was so dark. I haven't done yardwork or manual labor altogether in so long and I just loved it.

The field is white...

These beets are bigger than Dre's

We are nuts

Our new Pumpkin Gun - a gift for our farm-work

I ate a lot of interesting food this week. We had Krovyanka, blood sausage, and I actually loved it. We ate it cold and warm. Then after that we washed it down with some boiled eggs that were in the water for no more than 60 seconds. It was not as bad as I thought it would be. Then we had basically liver meatloaf, raw meat cooked from salt (???) and then some other stuff too that wasn't half bad, it was actually pretty tasty. I did have the worst food of my mission this week though. I hated tomatoes before my mission, and now I love them. But they offered us pickled tomatoes and I thought to myself that it wouldn't be half bad. Then they showed me how to eat it. You poke a hole in it with your fork and then suck the juice out. I did, and then my mouth was full of this FIZZY tomato juice stuff and I about gagged. I got it down, got scared, and popped the hole thing in my mouth and just chewed it and threw it down. Then the second one, to get it over with and enjoy the rest of my food, and of course, because I cleared those bad boys out so fast, they piled some more on my plate, thinking that it was my favorite food on the plate.. RIP. They were just pure death.

Post-service feast

Blood sausage and Liver loaf - mmmm

Then the next day my comp got food poisoning for some reason that we still can't explain!! We are just super suprised that anything that we ate this week could make either one of us sick. hmm. We're still trying to figure it all out! He would wake up in the middle of the night, sprint to the bathroom and just slowly walk back. Then do it a couple more times before the morning. I felt so bad for the man!!! hahaha. I turned out perfectly okay though. Seasoned veteran.

I prepared to give a 30 minute talk on Sunday, but time got eaten up by the other speakers, so I had to make a last minute plan and talk about something else to save that talk for another time. I ended up thinking of a couple quick stories and wrapping it into the gospel, and then I gave a talk for 10 minutes that I prepared in sacrament meeting while I was playing the hymns on the piano. hahaha. I talked about the idea of looking where you're going, especially in sports. How if your eyes aren't LOCKED in 110%, you'll never get to where you want or need to be. I talked also about how when someone is running a track race of any distance, the second that they look anywhere but forward towards the finish, they become slower. I shared a story about how I was running a 200m race in track, and because I was in 1st place during the last 30 or so meters, I started looking to see if there was anyone around me. I look right, and I'm doing good. I look left to watch this guy go right past me in the neighboring lane. I finished in 2nd. Then I compared it all to 1 Nephi 8, the Tree of Life. How we have to stay LOCKED in on the tree. On that fruit! That joy and happiness!! And how although it's not a race or competition, we can get so distracted by all the things around us that can slow us down. It's interesting to separate the different groups of people in that chapter and to find out what kind of people we can compare them to in our time. Who are the people that got to the fruit and stayed? Who are the other people who got lost, got ashamed, were in the building, etc? If we look ANYWHERE but where we need to be going, our progress is hindered. A big one that I didn't think about until this talk was the effect that looking at other people on the path to the tree can have. It can serve as motivation when you see whose footsteps you can follow, and you can give advice to the people who are behind you and where they should be careful, etc. But if we start comparing ourselves to other people, we get so caught up. We get discouraged and lose hope, or we get prideful and stumble over ourselves and fall. Go study that chapter this week! It's so good. I know I'll be spending some quality time with the Tree of Life this week in my studies. :)

It's getting so cold here.. but I kinda like it. Sweater weather is my favorite and it reminds me a little bit of home. Things are going good with members and investigators here in K-town, and we should have a baptism in 2 weeks from Saturday!! We're so stoked!! We're gonna extend a lot of baptismal dates this week, hopefully.

It's FALL!

Have a good week!!!

Street contacting in the country

Prayers before morning studies

Appreciating the local art

Chocolate Chuck - funniest activity for game-night

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 70 - My Trainee, Elder Howard

This week was SO GOOD!!!

Not a ton of time, so here are more highlights.

I got to go to Kyiv to pick up my new companion Elder Howard from West Bountiful, Utah! He's fresh out of highschool, having graduated in June of this year. Blows my mind that he was born in 2000. He goes 100% in all that he does here, and has so much potential. For the 2nd time on my mission, I'm the shorter companion, and I look like HIS trainee wherever we go. But I'm still trying to teach him everything that I know!!! I've already learned so much from him though.

Seeing the temple in Kyiv was amazing. When all the trainers from L'viv were on their way there near the mission office, the second I saw the temple from a ways away, I subconsciously started walking SUPER fast and almost jogging to get there as soon as I could. I had to keep stopping and wait up for the other missionaries to get there. The second I stepped on the grounds, I just was so filled with the Spirit and KNEW without a doubt that this temple was truly a house of the Lord. I just kinda stood there and "beheld" it and tried to soak it all in. It's been over a year since I've even SEEN a temple in person!! I can't wait to have the opportunity to go back and do a session or two at the end of this transfer for our follow-up training in Kyiv. Kyiv was awesome, too, of course.

I had a couple of interesting conversations with people in Kyiv the second we got to train station, including getting hit on by a middle aged woman on drugs who kept looking at and commenting on my butt. I was 10% flattered and 90% creeped out, but a funny experience none the less. Especially translating the whole conversation to Elder Howard, who had no clue what was going on.

We had to of course hit up the traditions with the trainee. He LOVES slamming, loved my Borscht (score!!) and EVERYTHING that we've tried so far. Except the classic Holodetz (meat jello).

What's not to like?

Elder Howard, ready to Slam It!

Made pancakes and homemade applesauce

We're SO BUSY and that's SO GOOD. I'll have a ton of stuff for next week's letter I think. We're gonna get grinding right off the bat!!!

We had 10 of 19 people at church that were non-members!!! SO MUCH potential. Elder Howard got here just in time to see all the miracles that are happening everywhere around us. We are already neck deep busy this week with meetings and service and finding activities and stuff like that, so it's gonna be a great week of learning for both of us, but especially for Elder Howard.

Also, I threw in the towel on trying to avoid studying Russian on my mission. I broke and started from the very beginning yesterday. It's only to understand people here better and speak a little bit for fun for all my friends and missionaries in Eastern Europe after the mission. We'll see if and where it goes. I can only understand the main sense in what people say, but I hope understanding them won't be such a barrier by the end of my mission.

Speaking of time on the mission, today is my 16 month mark!! 2/3 of my mission has absolutely FLOWN by. Gotta make the most out of what little time I have left. It blows my mind to sit back and think of the fact that all that I've done so far on my mission, I have HALF of that left to do on my mission and then I'm back in the states.... So scary.

I started a deep study of Jacob 5 this week, and it's going GREAT. There are things in every single verse that we can squeeze out if we just take the time and let the Spirit teach us things that we need to know and hear, and most importantly, REMEMBER!! That's why I try to write down almost just as much as I read. A lot of my study time is spent writing and thinking, almost just as much time as I spend reading and studying the actual scriptures. Reading it is half of the battle! The other half that is just as important is DOING something with it. I recommend truly starting and putting EFFORT into a study journal. That's where so much of the actual learning comes from.

Have a good week!! Love you all!

Elder Baxton's last shashlyk :(

A typical study session

1st American Pizza in 16 months....DOMINOS - pretty much the Celestial Kingdom

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 69 - Super Good. Super Busy.

September 17, 2018

Hey fam. This week was super good. Super busy and probably the fastest one on the mission. Until next week at least when I'll say that that one was the fastest. Just some highlights from this week in K-town:

We taught English at a boarding school that ended up being like 80% girls. They were kinda obsessed with us, but it led to our English Practice and Game Night being huge hits! And 3 of them came to church on Sunday!!!

We got super bashed by some random Evangelist dude that came up to us. He went on for 40 minutes straight about how we were idiots that believed in Joseph Smith the antichrist, and how there was a special place in hell reserved just for us! Basically that was just a rough moment that we ended up being able to laugh off. Some other unfortunate things happened right after that moment too, and we got hated on by a lot of people during our chalk drawing activity. Turned out being a super good day though!!

Transfers came and I found out that I'll be staying in K-town and getting another son!! I'll be training here one of 2 incoming missionaries! I will find out who it is after I go to Kyiv to pick him up and be there for the synthesis/orientation! I'm stoked to go to Kiev.

We had a dope miracle on Sunday where 50% of the people at sacrament meeting were nonmembers and investigators!! We have a new investigator that we met this week too, and they're the first family that I will have ever started to teach on my mission. It's going to be so awesome!

This week has just flown by, and it's gonna be super sad to see Elder Baxter go home. This has been one of the best transfers of my entire mission, and I've learned a ton from him. One of the best things about the mission is the people that you meet and serve and especially serve with. There are so many things that you learn and pick up from other people.

Have a good week!!

Cool barber shop

New haircut!

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 68 - Flying Mice and The Death Train

September 10, 2018

Hey fam.

This week was pretty normal, super busy.

We did exchanges in Rivne and for 3 hours we helped this Sister from Ghana shop for her mission! After 3 productive hours, we left the mall with a pair of jeans. I just hope this isn't a foreshadowing for my future.. We had to be there though because Elder Cook (who I was with) is in the Branch Presidency and they used the branch card, so we got dragged around a mall there in Rivne.

When we were gonna take showers in Rivne before we went home, there was a mouse in the tub. So we caught it but then ended up not knowing what to do other than throwing it out the 3rd story window of that apartment... I'm 65% sure that it landed in dirt and grass and flowers. But that also means that there's a 35% chance that the mouse sky-dived its way straight to the Spirit World. 

We spent some more time in Ternopil this week which was really good (except that always means riding the death train). Next Sunday we're doing a Ghanaian food night with the 3 members there, and we're super stoked.

At sports night, a lady made a special trip just to give us homemade honey, so we make a lot of super tasty tea these days.

The work here is going really well and we're constantly super busy with all kinds of things pertaining to missionary work.

Love you all!!!

When she thinks she can up-sell her noodles but you know Ukrainian better than she thinks you do

Elder Baxter's parents freeze-dried these sandwiches and sent them to us across the world

"Medicine Sausage"

Flower pics for our moms

A Thanksgiving celebration...go figure

My first (and last) experience with a Bible basher

KVAS - Not beer ;)

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 67 - What a Sick Week!

September 4, 2018

This week, Elder Baxter and I were sick. It started out as just him, then both of us, then just me. Not just sick, but destroyed sick. It spanned for about 5 days. Because of that, I have essentially nothing about this week. Tried to sleep it off, but sometimes I just couldn't because my body hurt too bad. But it's all good - I'm alive and well.

It was a good week nonetheless, and we were able to go to Ternopil on Sunday. Church was super great there and we had 2 investigators show up! It was a good place for them to be. The Spirit was really strong.

P-day got moved to today for us because of a day-long trip to a castle in Kamyanets-Podilsky. I took a bunch of pics. I've been there before - it's a lot better in the summer than winter, I think.

I actually, in a way, TRULY enjoy getting sick. I think I've been sick for maybe 5 days of the year so far, and that's a small price to pay to help me remember how much of a blessing having a physical body is. We all can always take for granted what it's like to be able to have moving and working limbs and to be able to enjoy so many aspects of this life simply because we received a body. It's one of the biggest gifts that our Heavenly Father has given to us!

Have a good week!

Some old and new friends from Chernivtsi

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine