Week 92 - Ice Bucket Challenge - Lost

February 25, 2019

Hello Everyone -

Transfer calls are coming up this Friday! It's probably my last week with Elder Matua, which is a fat bummer. I've loved serving with him tons!!! I'm pretty sure I'm staying here for the rest of my mission and getting my 3rd greenie, but we'll see. I'll let you guys know!

Really quick. Two words to describe this week: Exchanges, busy. And another bonus word: COLD. We hosted 2 different exchanges, and over the course of 4 days had Elders coming in and out of our apartment. The exchanges were both super good and super busy! We set a baptismal date with our investigator Tina, who will hopefully get baptized on March 16th!! We also were able to find a bunch of people who were interested in finding out more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with whom we are going to need to get in contact! When the ZLs were here, we had a competition to see who could get the most IPs, and whoever lost would do the Ice Bucket Challenge that night in the freezing cold like 0 degrees. Elder Cluff and I got soaking wet and freezing cold that night. We took a video of it too of course. Still worth the success we found that day! (sorry it doesn't load on mobile...)

We had an awesome lesson with our investigator Katya, who is going through some tough family stuff right now, and it's getting between her and being baptized. We talked about the importance of baptism with her at her lesson and also how important it is to be able to have the Holy Ghost with us, especially during hard times, and she just said "guys, don't worry. I've already made my decision. Even if the whole world is going to be against it, I'm still going to get baptized". It's always so cool to see such faith in God's children who are being reminded of His wonderful Gospel. So as of now, we are kinda just waiting for things to get settled in her family before she can have that baptism, so please keep her in your prayers!

Also this week was the closest I've ever been in my life to getting hit by a car!! Don't worry though mom I'm okay!

Plus one more - Happy upcoming birthday to my dad this coming Saturday who is turning the big 5-oh! You're the best, pops. Thank you for everything, and especially your example to me. Thank you for being such a role model of a father and a husband for me! I love you!!

Have a great week guys.

Elder Stott

Note to self - don't throw the football on a windy day in a crowded square

Breakfast of champions

Guess what our main source of protein is?...

Week 91 - Valentines Day and an Audit

February 18, 2019

What's up Everyone!

I'll keep this one short, because you all know the news! Missionaries can now call or skype home on P-days! Like everyone else, upon first hearing it, I had mixed feelings and didn't know if it was the best idea. But, the more I talk and think about it, I realize just how many good things there are about it! I'm so stoked to see all those goobers!! I'm so grateful for modern revelation that exists in Christ's true church through modern day prophets and apostles! 

We spent P-day in L'viv and went bowling as an entire district after visiting an Armenian Historic Church in downtown L'viv that is I think 500ish years old, or maybe older. We celebrated Elder Lukach's birthday and had a cake there at the bowling alley and that was super fun.

We had a branch Valentine's Day activity that was pretty good too. The best thing about it was the fact that for the first time, missionaries didn't have to do all the planning and putting together of the activity! We were just able to show up early and help set up, and that was it! It was especially fun for me, being that it was all stress-free. haha. Honestly I totally forgot about Valentine's Day in the first place until about half way through the day. It was so funny to me to see the difference between the first Valentine's Day and this one, because on the first one I was just so sad and all that, but this year it was just a joke hahaha. First year missionaries, keep your chins up!!!!

We had a couple of referrals come in this week from Salt Lake, and one who lived about a 45 minute bus ride away showed up at church! I was nervous because he was sitting by himself, and I was on the stand, so for the whole meeting I thought he felt kinda lost, but we talked afterwards for a while and he loved everything about it. He took a Book of Mormon, Liahonas, the Come Follow Me study program, and other stuff too. He was asking what he has to do to get baptized into the Church, and so we got to talk about that too! His name is Ihor, he's around 55 years old, and is a general/leader in the army where he is stationed in Dubno. Please keep him in your prayers!

Because I'm in the Branch Presidency, I got to take part in the audit that we did with a member from Kyiv whose calling is related to Church Finances and all that stuff. It was my 2nd one on my mission, because I did it back in Chernivtsi, too. It was a looong tedious process, but man, I learned SO much from doing it and was actually grateful for the experience. I was writing a bunch of stuff down and soaking up as much as I could, and when the man from Kyiv left, he shook my hand and said "good job, I can tell you learned lots today." and that was dope. Fulfilling our callings in The Church is sooo important. It's our way of showing God that He can trust us! As we serve others in our small and simple, and maybe seemingly insignificant means, we our blessed so much! No act of service goes unnoticed by our Heavenly Father.

Have a great week!!

Our favorite pizza - with an egg cracked on top

Week 90 - Double Conference Week

February 10, 2019

This week has actually felt so long in comparison to all the other ones. We've done so much in this past week it feels like a months worth of work in 1 week! haha.

We had 2 conferences this week. One for our Zone and one for the whole L'viv District! All the members from all 7 West Ukraine cities came. Man, it was so good to see all of them . There are some of the most faith-filled members that I have ever met in this country. I could just look around the entire room and feel such a love for all these people. Ukrainian people can be super stubborn a lot of the time, but man there are some of them that are my favorite people.

At conference, we talked a lot about Faith, Hope, and Charity. Those 3 things coincide one with another in such a deep and powerful way, and each one leads to the other. So often they are spoken and taught about in the scriptures which should tell us a little bit about how important that they are. When a prophet of old teaches us that "the greatest of these is charity", I feel like we should take that into such more serious consideration. 

I also got to see my old companion from Mykolayiv, Elder Likhachiov! It was so good to see him and talk with him and catch up. He's one of my favorite companions for sure.

Things are going good in Ukraine and warming up a decent amount. I don't think winter is quite over yet, but, faith and hope!!! haha.

Have a good week!

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 89 - Lessons on Chastity

February 4, 2019

Hey Family

This week was pretty chill and went by super fast. They all have been lately.

Just a couple of highlights from this week and what we did:

We had a game night at English practice on Tuesday. We played a huge version of spoons, but since we couldn't find spoons at the church, we had to use pens. We're so broke!! hahaha. It was pretty fun, and we had a good turnout. We actually have been getting a decent turnout and more and more people have been coming. Our MLC just met and we had a skype call about the effectiveness of all the activities that we do, and I think that what we do with the people here in Rivne is super useful, because we get the chance to develop and build so many relationships with people, and I think it's good for them to see US in a normal and fun environment, and so far it's been paying off, but we're gonna work with it more throughout the rest of the transfer. We had a sports day on Saturday and our friend Bohdan took everyone out to eat afterwards, and that was fun to talk with them about all kinds of things over lunch. 

This week we had a lesson with our investigator Katya who we thought would be getting baptized super soon, but then she gave us some news that she wanted to wait a while longer. She has some difficult things going on in her family, and wants to wait quite a while to get baptized until it's all said and done. I can understand completely where she is coming from, but man. We hope to be able to teach her this coming week, before we leave to Zone Conference in L'viv, about the importance of having the gift of the Holy Ghost.

During our lesson with her, was one of the funnier moments of my mission. We were teaching a lesson about the law Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom, and everything was going good. She had a lot of questions about the Law of Chastity and was flipping through the pamphlet and asked why pornography was written about in it. We talked about pornography and how it can destroy us mentally and spiritually, and throughout the whole lesson I think there was just a tiny little misunderstanding and she felt like maybe we were talking directly about her - instead of her understanding that we teach these principles to everyone. All of these things are things that many people struggle with. Anyways, she kinda scoffed and laughed, then put her face in her hands and said "ugh.. pornography is... boring". Elder Matua and I looked at each other and just busted up laughing. Language barrier? It definitely eased the tension. It was one of the funniest moments I've had on a lesson on my mission.

We have a lot of things planned for this upcoming weeks and I promised myself that I'd take at least one picture every day, so I'll have better stuff next week.

Have a good week guys!!

haha - grandmas and technology....helping Sister Zina with her tablet 

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 88 - Making Friends

January 28, 2019

Nothing much new at all here. haha

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

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

Blind volleyball

Good friends from the gym

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

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

 Have a good week!

Matrix cat - perched on a doorframe

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 87 - Humbling Moments

January 21, 2019

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a good week!

Have I mentioned I hate buses...

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine

Week 86 - Distress on the Double Decker

January 14, 2019

My wondrous family, hello.

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

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

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

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

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

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

haha...right.

Love you guys

--

Elder Dillon Stott

Vul. Yabluneva 1

S. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyivska oblast 08131

Ukraine