Week 49 - A Normal aka Crazy Week

I literally cannot believe that I wrote you guys a whole week ago.. geez.

This week was AWESOME. We got to meet with a ton of people and we were SO busy and it was just so good. Elder Mangum and I are working super super hard down here in Uzhgorod and seeing the blessings. We're looking hard for them! God has answered so many of our prayers.

We have 3 new investigators from this week!! 2 of them are referrals which is just amazing. 2 of the 3 new investigators are millionaires too hahah. It's so weird. They're some of the dopest people I've met.

The first one is Ivan. The 6 foot 3 bodybuilder millionaire. We met him on the Easter finding activity and we just decided to randomly call him this week to see how he was doing and if he could meet. He was so stoked to talk with us and said "WHEN ARE WE MEETING?" So the next day he met us at the bridge in center and was like "alright let's go"! And we were super confused cause we thought we would just go to the church but the he took us the other way! Then he takes out his keys and beeps at his Range Rover and drives us to this SUPER NICE cafe and just orders everything for us and has us just dying the whole time. He was so awesome. He met with missionaries 10 years ago in a different city and he recognized us on Easter. We talked about the gospel and just about everything over one of the nicest lunches I've had in a longgg time. And then he said he'd buy it all for us! He then proceeded to take the fattest wad of cash, I've ever seen, out of his pocket all rubber banded up and just threw some on the table and we left. He said that he would read and pray about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration!! I'll have to take a picture with him. He had a lot of funny stories and was super just real. 

The NEXT millionaire investigator was the owner of a lake resort down in Khust where the Peretz's live. We had a really good lesson with him too. I have a couple pics of the place that he owned. He invited his son and an employee of his. It was really really good and powerful. He said that he would also read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Everything kinda just made sense to him!!

Our last new investigator is actually an exchange student in SLC right now who is from Uzhgorod and has committed to baptism already!! The exchange program doesn't allow them to be baptized into any church during their time in America, so yesterday we had the opportunity to have a skype lesson with her and the sister missionaries. She comes into Uzh on the 26th of May. We're going to meet with her and her parents right off the bat to hit the ground running and keep the fire burning in her!!! It was an awesome experience. Her name is Katya and she is 16 and SOOO ready for baptism. She fears the traditional transition, and standing out in her family and friends, but she KNOWS that it's what she needs to do! The Holy Ghost works in such amazing ways.

It was a super super good week. I'm just loving life. It's super freaking hot down here in Uzh but we're still putting in that work!!!

Have a great week everybody!!

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Ukraine L'viv Mission

Akademika Sakharova 43 str. #311

L'viv 79026 Ukraine

Week 48 - Suiting Up

Okay, okay let's get this over with...

Yes, this week was good.

Monday was P-day, and I don't think we did anything out of the ordinary.

Tuesday was jam packed with meetings and calls and conferences, and practicing our musical number for the conference. Elder Wonson and I went on splits to teach the grandparents of the 3 recent converts, Yaroslav, Lyosha, and Hloria. The lesson went amazing. It's the most that I've felt the spirit testifying through me during a lesson. It was almost all in Russian, but I understood enough and could speak back to them in Ukrainian which was super nice. They were very accepting to the Gospel and were just so interested in what it was that could possibly make such young teenagers in a scary world so happy. I just testified nonstop about the Book of Mormon. They are some of the coolest 75 year-old people I've met. The Grandpa is a boxing trainer and is just the funniest person ever. The Grandma is low-key in love with me but like it's okay. Dilanchik is what she calls me. The Gift of Tongues was for sure present during our lesson. I don't really know HOW I was understanding straight up Russian, but the Holy Ghost blesses US as missionaries when we have such strong desires to share the gospel with everyone.

Conference was AMAZING. So much good stuff. I know that our President is a man called of God! We performed our musical number.. It was... aight. hahaha. We didn't end up singing our other song though, which I was kinda sad about "butt" it's okay!! We got roasted after our musical number because 3 of us were wearing the exact same suit. President said we looked like a 60s rock band. But it was funny!! There were actually like 6 or 7 of us with the exact same suits. President made us split up for the mission picture hahahah. 

I went to Ivano Frankivsk this week to be on exchanges with Elder Galmeister. It was so so good and fun. We worked super hard and talked to 100s of people on the street when we did a Book of Mormon Bookstand. So many cool people in that city. We also ate at Desyatkas. I always eat and spend too much when I go there.. I bought a couple of handmade Ukrainian ties there too. Because I melted my last one. oops.

Saturday was filled with trains from Ivano to L'viv and L'viv to Uzhgorod. I slept for like 9 hours on all the trains hahahaha. 

Church was kind of a let down.. we only had 18 there, and one of the members just went super hard roasting another one of the members and it caused a huge argument in the other room after church. I dipped out real quick to the keyboard and played "Love at Home" and sang with some of the kids until it all died down. It was at max volume too. It was pretty funny to be honest. Pride is such a dumb little bugger.

Have a good week everyone!!

-- 

Elder Dillon Stott

Ukraine L'viv Mission

Akademika Sakharova 43 str. #311

L'viv 79026 Ukraine

Week 47 - Bathroom Break (Out)

Hey Mom and the 4 others that probably just look at pictures!!

This week flew by super fast but it feels like last p-day was a month ago. Tak bahato sprav.

Mukachivo: To start out, on Wednesday, on our way to Khust, we decided to go to the city of Mukachivo to do some missionary work there. It was SO good. We met with a lady that we had actually met here - she was super interested in the Gospel and she is doing great. We ate with her, talked more with her, and shared our testimonies of the Book of Mormon with her. She's in America now until June though. Go find her in New Hampshire!!! haha. After her lesson got cut short, we spontaneously journeyed our way to the castle. It was pretty awesome. We actually met a potential investigator in the museum part of the castle. She loved us and tried to get us to both consider marrying her granddaughter. That happens a lot with the older women here. They start naming all the things that their daughters or granddaughters can do so well. Apparently it's super attractive if a girl knows how to work on a computer. Gotta get my priorities straight I guess!!! I have a TON of pictures from there. I hope my mom chooses ones where I don't look stupid. :) I've come to trust her most of the time. Molodetz, mama. Castle pics...

Church: President Rizley came down this week to church, to give Brat Peretz the Melchizedek Priesthood! We had 32 PEOPLE at church. Record number!!! There were a couple of visitors from Kiev that came with President, but even without people that wouldn't come usually, or visitors, we still had more people from Uzhgorod there than ever!! Vasya, our investigator, along with Serhi came to church! It was so awesome, and perfect timing. One person actually had to stand during Sacrament Meeting because it was so packed - even after completely rearranging chairs. I was tucked in my corner playing the Keyboard (on the organ setting) the whole time.

Weather: Sweater Weather or Sweatier Weather?? It was super hot this week. 80s already!! uhhh yeah that's the weather haha. We're sweating now... I don't like it at all. haha

Fun: We played basketball this week with some of our friends we met when we played some ball a while ago. We met up with them, and actually got to have a lesson with one of the kids who had heard some stuff and read some super fake stuff on the internet about Mormons, so we were able to answer a ton of his questions. His name is Vladik. He's super dope. He's 16 years old, loves pizza, and dreams of basketball. They all seem to. They all came to our English practice that had 18 people (record number) and then we all went to Chili Pizza later this week. It was super fun and they are probably some of the best friends I've made in Ukraine so far. There's 5 of them that are super tight - almost like brotherhood. They're so funny and fun to be with!! I hope that everything goes well with Vladik. We had a huge Restoration lesson with him, and he accepted a Book of Mormon! He said he's going to read it. His only problem is that he LOVES the internet and thinks that Joseph Smith is part of the Illuminati! We're working on it though :) I'll snag a picture with them today, we're playing ball with them again later!! People are so much more accepting of gospel discussions, our message and even just talking about religion when they see that we are normal, real, fun, and HAPPY people. It's been really cool to use basketball a little bit to get some potential investigators!! 

Tender mercy - still able to dunk

Exciting: We're going to L'viv and Ivano Frankivsk next week. Mission Conference will be on Thursday, and yours truly is part of 2 musical numbers. We just found out about one of them 2 days ago... so we're prepping super quick. haha. Then right after conference, Elder Mangum and I are going down to Ivano to do exchanges with Elder Galmeister (formerly known as G-Daddy) and Elder Aslanyan (from Armenia). 3 of my favorite people in the world. It's gonna be so fun and a HUGE learning experience!! Exchanges are so awesome because you get to work with someone new and see the ups and downs of doing things differently, and in a different city. Sometimes you get caught in too much of a routine serving with one person 24/7, so exchanges serve as a missionary work eye-opener.

Funny: I got locked in the bathroom for an hour. I don't really wanna talk about it hahahaha. But, basically the lock literally broke AND SO DID the inside of the doorhandle. Just my luck. The washer was also running on max temperature, so it was so freaking hot.. My GENIUS district members (because our whole district is still in one apartment) tried a couple of things. They 1: successfully hammered off the door handle, 2: Hammered a Knife through the WALL trying to break the lock. 3. Took a video of the whole thing 4.Handed me a screwdriver through a hole in the door (that was already there - it's a decorative hole like the size of a quarter) and then I took the door off the hinges like a non-caveman civil person. #domestic!!!

Elder Mangum trying to jailbreak the bathroom door - w/ a hammer and butter knife

Yeah. Don't get locked in your bathroom, kids.

-- 

Elder Dillon Stott

Ukraine L'viv Mission

Akademika Sakharova 43 str. #311

L'viv 79026 Ukraine

Week 46 - The Upgrade From Trio to a Quad

Hello Family and Friends.

This week wasn't super duper crazy, but Elder Devey got here!! It's been preeeetty crazy in the apartment with all 4 of us. Closet space is a nightmare and you're always stepping over something of someone's, but other than that, things are going great. It's been especially weird because they didn't give a phone to Elder Devey to bring into his companionship to Uzhgorod, so they have no phone, meaning.. that they have to stay with us. He's been here since Thursday. It's so weird walking around in a big group hahaha but I guess it's the same "getting used to" that I got used to when I went into a trio. They were supposed to get the phone on Saturday, but they didn't. It was supposed to get here today, butttt didn't. That's okay though. The more, the merrier (sometimes) 

Elder Wonson, me, Elder Devey and Elder Mangum

We had our Easter Finding Activity this week!! The board has written on it "What did Christ do for you?" It was pretty awesome. It was the day before Easter, and there was just tons of people. That means a lot of conversations, and especially a lot of interesting people haha. The picture of the man that looks like a mini Dr. House is perhaps the most interesting person I've met on my mission. He's from Germany. We spoke 4 different languages together throughout our conversation. He knew German, English, Ukrainian, and Russian. That was hard to keep up with. He's a fugitive artist who sculpts and does paintings of politicians - using dog waste as his medium. When he told me this story, I busted out laughing. I had to get a picture with the man. 

Finding Activities on the street are always the best. For activity we bought (really expensive and almost impossible to find) plastic eggs and painted them and set them out on the table in a basket. We invited people up to open them and see what was inside. They were always confused when they found nothing inside. We compared it to the empty tomb of Christ. It was a stretch for some people, but it was a pretty fun conversation starter. We found a lot of success with a lot of new people and new investigators!! Some other things we saw that were awesome: 1) kid faking to be deaf and talking to us until I caught him. He wanted to fight one of us. It was funny. 2) we met a Jewish lady from the US and her kids literally started punching her like crazy and she just didn't do anything about it. They like tackled her literally to the ground and she just got up and started talking. We had no idea what the heck to do.. American kids are crazy.

It's also finally Spring here now. Out of nowhere. It's blossoming everywhere. 3 weeks ago was an ice storm. Oh well. We're always ready for anything anyways. 

General Conference was SO GOOD. I think it was the best one yet. So many good talks of good people sustaining a great man who is truly called as a prophet of God! My favorite part of the whole conference, beside Elder Bednar's talk about meekness, was the Solemn Assembly.. Such a uniting and indescribable experience. We are all supporting our prophet from all the corners of the earth!!

We celebrated Easter with the soon-to-be-branch on Sunday. We made them breakfast burritos. It was a huge hit. They loved them!! It was so awesome to celebrate the Resurrection of the Son of God!! So many amazing words were spoken during conference, and I know that through Christ our Savior, we can truly be saved from our sins that bear us down in this world. He is our best friend, our brother, and our light in our lives. He knows us perfectly and loves us perfectly. He simply wants us to turn to Him so we can feel his love and influence in our lives. He is my Savior and I know that I can always turn to him, set aside my pride, and put everything at His feet. He suffered in the garden and on the cross on behalf of our imperfectness. He loves us so much more than we could ever imagine. I know that this is the same church that He established when He was on the earth, and that God loves us so much that He has called living PROPHETS and APOSTLES in our time to guide us back to him. I love Him with all my heart.

Have a great week!!!

Elder Stott

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Ukraine L'viv Mission

Akademika Sakharova 43 str. #311

L'viv 79026 Ukraine

 

My new Ukrainian-made suit

Week 45 - Miracle Week

Hello Family and Friends! 

Well there goes another absolutely crazy week in Uzhgorod. This could be my longest weekly letter ever, but I'm gonna try to keep it as short as possible.

First things first, our baptisms happened!! So many miracles in that whole situation. We held the baptismal interviews with them and the Zone Leaders over skype, and found out that they had to receive written permission from their mom to be baptized. When they found out that the permission was required, they were devastated. They were all 100% convinced that there would be no baptism. Their mom had always been against the church and against them getting baptized. There was just no way that she would let them. We went on splits because we had to do our English Practice, so Elder Mangum went with Sasha (their uncle/father figure) to ask permission. I won't go a whole ton into all the details but after a 2 hour discussion about everything, the mom finally gave permission thanks to the testimonies of the kids, Sasha, and Elder Mangum. I feel like it is truly impossible to describe how crazy this truly is. She has been completely 100% against the church for the past 2 years. Their mom Katya not only said yes, but came to the baptism, and then came to church the next day!! She shed a lot of tears during the baptism and the confirmations. It was a truly sweet experience. 

Sasha had planned on getting permission from the grandparents, who are the ones legally responsible for the kids. Elder Mangum and he stopped by the grandparents of Lyosha, Yaroslav and Gloria after their meeting with the mom. They absolutely LOST it when they found out that their daughter gave her kids permission to be baptized. They were going on and on and ON about how they would have never guessed in a million years that she would allow it. You truly never know when the Lord is going to soften homebody's heart. When we found out that we had to ask the mom, I can honestly say that I thought that the baptisms would 110% fall through and not happen for a very very long time. But we all said a prayer, together and as individuals that the mom would allow them to take this step in their lives. They said a prayer right before they knocked on her door too. God truly heard and answered our prayers. Their mom Katya is one of our newest investigators now. After so many powerful experiences with her kids and feeling the Spirit, she said she was very interested in taking the Gospel lessons. The 2 next newest investigators are the grandparents!! They were so amazed by the fact that all of this worked out and the fact that the mom said yes. They thought it was all so amazing that this message truly must be something special. We'll be working with them VERY closely these upcoming weeks. MIRACLES ARE EVERYWHERE! The baptism went very smoothly. No redos or anything! The only hard part about it all was getting their freaking whole names. I don't know why parents decide to give 7 syllable names to their kids here, but oh well. The place where we held the baptism was..rather interesting. Not a whole lot of options here though. It was still an amazing and spiritual experience.

We were able to take a bus out the Khust to visit the Peretz family, the newest family in the group. It was an AWESOME experience. I haven't really talked about them that much, but they are a family of recent converts who all got baptized after their dad was contacted by missionaries while on a business trip in Czech Republic. They are AWESOME. They drive 2 hours to church every single Sunday. They are our most active members and are just awesome. The bus ride was awful both ways there, but being able to spend time with them was awesome. We held an interview with Brother Peretz, and soon he will be getting the Melchizedek Priesthood, which is AWESOME. As soon as that happens, we will be able to form a BRANCH in Uzhgorod!!! So many miracles this week I wish I had the time to write a book. Geez.

Doing the Slam together

One last miracle and then I'll wrap it up. During church yesterday, near the end of Sacrament meeting, I thought I heard something downstairs or just outside the chapel. So after one of the testimonies, I got up and went out there. There was a man who was just looking around at all the pictures and Books of Mormon and teaching pamphlets and just all the church materials. I invited him into the chapel to come hear the last part of sacrament meeting. As soon as sacrament meeting ended, Elder Mangum came up to me and said GO GO GO GO!! We weren't about to let him get away. After talking to him for a little bit, I had to go teach primary with Elder Wonson. Quick shoutout to all the Primary Teachers out there. That is some freaking hard work right there, Go you. But the man (Serhi) had just chosen a different route to walk somewhere, and was walking past the front of our building and saw our sign, was interested by it, and then came inside to see what it was all about. Elder Mangum had an AWESOME discussion with him about the Restoration and Serhi was just ALL over it. He accepted EVERYTHING. It all just made sense to him, and he loved it. He stayed to listen to second hour and just soaked it all up. He then gave US HIS number and HE set up a second lesson with US. That just doesn't happen.. it's crazy. I honestly don't know a TON about him, but Elder Mangum swears he's going to get baptized. We're going to try to establish a baptismal date with him this week! When i first heard something outside, I was 100% convinced that someone was downstairs stealing stuff out of the church building. It's amazing what the Holy Ghost has to tell us sometimes just to get us to get up and do something. haha.

We taught more lessons than any other week I have on my mission (except 1, but) and we are LOVING it. We're talking with so many people all the time, every day. We're praying for miracles and working our tails off for them!! Just SO many miracles all around us, all week.

We got transfer calls this week too. We found out that we're getting ANOTHER MISSIONARY IN UZHGOROD!! There hasn't been more than 2 missionaries here for a longgg time. One of my old comps Elder Devey is coming down to be with Elder Wonson! I'll be comps with just Elder Mangum. I'm super excited. The only thing that's going to be hard is the fact that all 4 of us will be in this apartment until we find a new apartment for Elder Devey and Wonson. We're searching really really really hard hahaha.

I just can't describe this week in an email. The Church is just so true. The Gospel is so good. Missions are the BEST. They're super tough, but worth every single second. The Book of Mormon changes lives. God truly loves His children so much. He has prepared a perfect plan of eternal happiness for each of His children, altogether, AND individually!! 

Have a great week and happy almost Easter!

Elder Stott

Climbed on this as a dare

One of my Ukrainian Grandmas 

A cool art museum

I miss playing the piano so much - got in trouble for pressing a key on this one...

Week 44 - Not Much to Say...

This week was super dope. It just flew by.

I went back to Ivano this week for exchanges!! I was with Elder Aslanyan. Of all the people that I have ever met in my entire life, this man has the most amazing life story. I wish I had time to write it all, but you'll just have to trust me instead. The Gospel can completely 180 ANYONE'S life. As missionaries, we just have to work as hard as we can. We never know when the Lord is going to soften someone's heart!

Our baptisms are still on track for this Saturday the 31'st. I'm so stoked and excited for them!!! I'll make sure to take tons of pictures. We taught them about tithing and fasting this week, and they're going to fast before their baptisms!

I honestly don't have a ton of stuff to say this week.. It was a great one like always, and I'm still continuing to learn, develop, grow, and (kindaaa) mature.

Have a great week everyone!!

Elder Stott

Where we meet for church

Me, my trio comp Elder Wonson and Elder Aslanyan - helping move furniture up 5 flights in Ivano

Week 43 - 3 Baptisms Coming on the 31st!

Hey Everybody!!

This week was YET another super super good one. Lots of work getting done down here in Uzhgorod, and even more work to still get done these coming weeks.

For starters, the weather was absolutely crazy. On Tuesday we were wearing our short sleeve shirts with our slacks and that's it. We were getting a lot of weird looks from people but only because the way that people dress here is 100% based upon the time or the season that it is. Basically what I mean is that if it was the middle of July and for some reason there was a snowstorm, people would still wear their summer clothes. Tuesday was actually WARM and people were still bundled up in gloves, boots, coats, scarves, and beanies. We got a bunch of weird looks, and it even started some conversations. We even got to play some basketball on a outdoor court here in Uzhgorod by the river at the 3rd School. The court was the best one that I've played on in Ukraine so far. The floorboards of the indoor gyms that I have played at are literally like the kitchen floors of a house from the 1800's, that have never been dusted in its entire existence. I've played on gravel, pavement, and even grass. The basketball here is one of the only thing that makes me sad about Ukraine. The courts are just absolutely awful. You can bounce the ball but you can never possibly know which direction it's going to bounce in. Makes it tough to play anything close to regulation.. hahah. But this court was super nice!! Only in comparison though... It's really hard to explain. I felt like I was playing on a 50/50 mixture of track rubber and roofing shingles. I don't know if anyone can picture that, but that's what it was. It was wet on the court, so we were all slipping around. We were going to play with one of our good homies in the Group here in Uzhgorod, Vanya, but he didn't answer his phone allll that day. We decided to go anyways and see if he would show out. We got there and kinda shot around. We had to hop over the fence to get in. It sketched me the heck out, because there were cops everywhere. While we were searching for a place to get in, we saw that a man was already on the court shooting hoops. After we walked all the way  around the fence of the court, we asked him how he got in. He said "just jump". So we did. The cops here are just super lazy and don't care about anything. So after about 20 minutes, we were calling and calling Vanya to see if he would come, but he never answered. I felt like we should just stay and wait for him though. It was hard to convince the comps that I didn't just want to stay and chill out and shoot hoops, but that I truly felt like we should stay. A little bit after that, the man that was shooting hoops came over and asked us if we would want to play a pickup game or something with him. I was like ohhhhhh yup. This is why we're staying. We're going to get some missionary work DONE with this guy. We played and played, and a couple other ballers showed up and wanted to play with some Americans. We stayed and played with this man, named Vasya. He is in his mid 30's and has a wife and 2 daughters. He had already heard about our church, which was surprising because it seems like every time we say we're from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, it's everyone's' first time hearing of such a church in Ukraine. But he had already known about it!! We had a quick gospel discussion with him, and after we had checked our clocks, we realized we were going to be late to our next meeting. We had said that we needed to go, and then exchanged numbers to meet sometime to have a gospel lesson or maybe play some basketball. He then offered to give us a ride home!! This was crazy because I've only met a couple people that I know that have cars. Right now I can only think of 3 people. What a coincidence that he had a car and lived in the direction that we did!! We were on our way home and talked a little more about his family and the gospel. He was interested in meeting again and finding out more about the Book of Mormon!! We may have gotten completely dogged, but God is involved in the finest details of every single minute of our day as missionaries. We ask for his help in prayer, and definitely receive it while we plan the things we want to do throughout the week and on certain days.

Now that I've derailed from the topic about the weather, it truly is wild. It's like I'm back home in Oregon.. Sunny and warm on Tuesday, HUGE windstorm on Saturday, and waking up to a literal blizzard on Sunday morning!! It has still lasted into today.. No one understands the weather here. It was definitely a little saddening to whip out the short sleeves just to put back on the 10 pound coats a couple days later.

Things with the group (soon to be branch!!!) and missionary work are going great here. Our investigators Lyosha and Yaroslav are still on track to be baptized on the 31st!! Geeeez I get goosebumps just thinking about it. They are both so ready. I've really really enjoyed teaching Lyosha. It almost feels like I'm just talking to my little brother and teaching him at the same time. He always asks to take selfies with me and puts them on his Instagram. haha. Well the good news is that their little sister Hloria was finally able to meet with them. Elder Mangum was on a lesson with her, Yaroslav, and Sasha (their older member relative) and she accepted a baptismal date as well!! She will be getting baptized with them on the 31st. It's going to be an AMAZING weekend at the end of this month. They're all so excited and so ready!! It's so cool to see siblings joining together and finding out for themselves on an individual level, but also have each other as a support group. After their baptism, we hope to be able to work with their parents so we can get another family in the group here. Lyosha is such a funny guy. I'll tell you a little funny story about him. He's allll about the Instagram game. He loves to take pictures of himself and of his brother and they do little photoshoots with their smartphones. He saw a picture of a guy model on instagram that he's a huge fan of, so he wanted to recreate the same photo. Yesterday before church, he and his brother just kinda dipped out and went downstairs and then we couldn't hear them. Elder Mangum opens the front door and sees Yaroslav the younger brother taking a picture of Lyosha kneeling down in the snow, shirtless, with a flower in his mouth. It was the funniest thing. We were all dying. I told Yaroslav that I wanted to take a picture with him so I could send it home to all my friends. I was just joking, but he was all over it. So, this is my treat to you, my little bro, Lyosha.

Something also super cool for me is that during our lesson yesterday, Lyosha asked me if I would be willing to baptize him. I was cool, calm and collected on the outside and said "I would love to be able to perform your baptism". I was trying my hardest not to jump out of my freaking seat. I'm so stoked!!! It'll be my 2nd time performing a baptismal ordinance in my life, besides my little sister Sophie!! I have thus far on my mission not felt this kind of joy-- teaching someone, developing a relationship with them, and being able to help the towards baptism, and be able to perform the ordinance!! It's honestly and truly NOTHING about who does the ordinance as long as they are worthy, but it's something that really makes this such a powerful experience and memory for me. We're all so stoked to have 3 baptisms on the last day of this month!!

We met with a ton of members this week. We wanted to get to know every single member on an individual level, including active members, less active, and inactive. I have a couple of mission grandmas added to the list. This is getting out of hand. Not a ton of our investigators could really meet this week, but we will have lessons with them this next week. They are all progressing great. Vasya the Chuvak still loves us, but especially Elder Mangum.

Building furniture

This week, I finished my VERY LONG study of the 4 Gospels of the New Testament. (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). I couldn't decide whether to keep going to the end of the New Testament, or to switch my focus to another set of scriptures. Elder Mangum convinced me to keep going, so that's what I'm doing, and I'm already glad that I did. I'm almost at the end of Acts right now, but I'm not reading really that fast at all. I spend just about as much time reading and studying as I do recording notes and marking verses in the margins and recording inspirations and thoughts in my study journal. It's just so awesome. Seeing all the miracles that the Apostles performed with their Priesthood Authority directly from Jesus Christ makes me have so much hope and faith in the fact that that same exact Priesthood Authority is present in our daily lives. Now, no, maybe we don't go around curing diseases, restoring sight to the blind, or casting out evil spirits, BUT-- we see the same exact amount of miracles in our daily lives, if we'll just look for them. The miracles have always BEEN and WILL ALWAYS BE as long as we are worthy of them. I cannot physically choose a favorite chapter in Acts thusfar, but I just love the constant diligence of the apostles. They preach and work nonstop. They feared no man. They had faith, and continued to walk with Christ from city to city, never throwing in the towel, in the face of persecutors, and people who even had the power to take their lives. No prison could withhold them from their apostalic callings, no stone-thrower could take them away from their holy work. God truly protects his servants. My favorite story of Acts, though, is the story of Saul, and how he later became to be known as Paul. Extremely similar to the story of Alma the Younger, Saul was one of the church's biggest persecutors. After Christ visits Saul, he is humbled and given the opportunity to completely change his life. He becomes one of the most influential missionaries of the New Testament times, and wrote the epistles to the Corinthians, Thessolonians, Romans, and Galatians. I could go on and on about his story, but the main point of this story and the story of Alma the Younger that I LOVE is that you just NEVER know when someone's heart is going to be softened. The Lord humbles people and teaches people in so many ways. As long as we (as missionaries (and every member is a missionary!!)) will continue to rely upon our God and show our faith by SHARING that faith, God will always ALWAYS provide. This is especially powerful to me because especially at the beginning of my mission, it was hard to find a desire to talk to a people who I thought were so stubborn. I wanted to give up on teaching certain investigators because they weren't progressing as fast as I had wished they were. The one thing that I have learned is that we simply cannot find a suitable, good enough reason to not share this gospel if we will simply lay all of our pride at the Lord's feet. There is no one out there who doesn't deserve the message that we have to share. They need it just as much as we do. When I think to myself that I don't feel like making mistakes in Ukrainian, or this person looks angry, or they're too old, or whatever the reason may be, I try my hardest to remember that there is simply no justifaction that we can make up that gets rid of our responsibilty to open our mouths and to share this message of happiness, comfort, and hope.

Sorry this letter is so long. haha. 

Have a fantastic week. 

Elder Stott