[Weston] Anaheim Weekly June 30, 2014

Hello family and friends,

This week was awesome! I have been sore from bike since I started, I guess that that may be one of the secrets of the missions, you never are not sore when you are on bike. I bike about 5-15 miles every day, it is pretty nice, but then again not so nice.

So President Bowen left for home this week, and it was quite sad, we do not want him gone! But we now have a new mission president, named President Taggart, who is really excited to be here along with his wife Sister Taggart. They are pretty funny because our Mobile Device Specialist missionaries helped them to get set up on their iPads, and Sister Taggart was just ecstatic about it because now she only has to carry one thing for church and for her scriptures. It was quite hilarious. I personally think that President Bowen and Sister Bowen are irreplaceable, but I also think that the new guys will do a good job. I am sad, but happy and excited at the same time now. Time to get to work. It is funny actually because our numbers as a mission dropped unusually far this week, probably because of the huge change we have had.

Some unfortunate news, so as you all know, I am a professional at breaking and hurting myself right? Well what I bet you didn't know is that I have never broken a touch screen such as my iPod or iPhone until this week. Dang. I dropped my iPad from literally about 4 inches off the ground, and the screen cracked. It is. To super bad, but now I have to get a new one. Dang! Really frustrating actually. But I am not the only one to have done this before, so we are all good. About half the mission has done it already, which is really bad now that I think of it, I lasted quite a while!

This week Elder Silvester and I listened to a talk given my Douglas Callister called, "Your refined heavenly home,", basically it talked about how we need to model our lives and homes after that of Heaven, and what we got out of it is the fact that we speak and talk like immature adults. In Callister's discourse, he mentioned the important fact that when Heavenly Father saw the Earth after it was created, he said that "he saw it was good" not "he saw that it was Awesome." So now in our companionship we are going to be speaking more intelligently, because we want to be seen as professionals. It will be interesting, so far, we still have been caught using words similar to 'Dude'. No more.

So the funny story from this week is from Tuesday, Elder Silvester and I met up with out Ward Mission Leader, Val, and we were teaching some people on this street called Olive, and we have a goal to seriously talk to everyone and to contact every single person we see, and so on Tuesday we were doing so, and we talked to this woman named Maira, and she started getting really loud when we were talking with her, and finally, she invited us to her house, which was super strange, she really wanted to show us a picture of her Daughter that is in Guatemala, and so we all follow her and when we walk inside her home there is a friend of hers sitting in the middle of her apartmement, drinking straight Scotch from this huge bottle. He was so incredibly drunk, and we are sitting there, and he asks us a couple of questions, and then starts getting super loud as well, and throwing his hands and just getting super violent, and I was literally sitting about 3 feet from the man. I saw this man just getting really worked up, and I was like, dang, I am going to punched in the face here any time, I can just feel it, and at that moment, the man said something that made absolutely no sense, and my ward mission leader gets up and sits in front of me and my companion, literally as a body guard, it was cool. But we had to stay there for an hour, listening to this guy yelling and complaining, While he was talking he told us about his love for the woman that was his friend, and she was sitting right there as well. It was funny because she rejected him as anything but her friend, and he almost started crying. It was so funny! Drunk people. Ay Carray. Why? There are so many in my area all of the time, most of the people we meet are like this guy.

This week basically my focus has been on Gina and Alfredo (my recent convert). They have been struggling a lot, and receive literally no support from the ward, because nobody seems to care. Nobody will do their home teaching, or their visiting teaching. Anyways, they have been struggling so incredibly much lately, and cannot seem to see the good. They are drowning right now in everything. We gave Gina the talk by Holland titled "Like a broken vessel" because she suffers from severe depression, and we went over with the Bishop and sat and talked. Gina asked us Sunday morning, is there anyone that is like me in the church, that is facing so many trials, anybody? And so we thought about her question, and we decided instead of just saying that everyone has their own trials and such, we went to the scriptures, and specifically to Job. We read some Job with her that night, and talked about the fact that, even though it is hard right now, if we press forward, we will be rewarded even double of that which we had like unto Job. Bishop Santos read a scripture as well, in 1 Nephi chapter 8, verse 8 and 9. Well actually it is several more verses but it does not matter. It is talking about Lehi's dream.

"Y despuéde haber caminado en la obscuridad por el espacio de muchas horas, empecé implorarle al Señque tuviera compasióe míde acuerdo con la multitud de sus tiernas misericordias. Y acontecióe despuéde haber orado al Señ vi un campo grande y espacioso."

Okay so the part I wish to focus on right now, is the part where it says, despues de haber caminado en la obscuridad, or for you English speakers out there, after having been walking in darkness (not the real translation, but it makes more sense in Spanish anyways). Lehi was walking in Darkness dream right, he was lost, but the fact of the matter was that he was still walking, and never had stopped. "Despues de haber caminado en la obscuridad, vi." After I had been walking in darkness, I saw. Again that is not the exact translation for English, but it makes more sense in Spanish.

It is after we walk in Darkness, that we are able to see, when we keep pressing forward with Faith in Christ, we will be able to see again. We all have trials, troubles, and tribulations. What is the point of them? To help us see. To help us see that this life is the time for us to prepare to meet God (Alma 34:32). This is our time, look to the Savior in all you do, persevere, endure, and keep on going. It is all worth it in the end when you can see that you were in darkness, and now are able to see.

Well thank you so much for everything! You guys are awesome! Thanks for the support!

Your favorite missionary in So. Cal!

Elder Weston Scott

[Mason] Hard work eventually pays off

OK so this last week, was really tough, we had so many appointments fall through, and when you are trying to help your new companion know the area and the people in the area and they all cancel appointments, you get pretty frustrated. but its more sad then frustration, because we have a message that will help these people, but nobody wants to listen...

So Monday night, we were invited to a Barbecue, where we celebrated a graduation for a member, and some non-members were there, so we were able to share our beliefs with them, but it didn't produce any harvest any fruit that we could pick at that moment. we then went to exchange in Arlington and so we had a 40 min drive to there apartment, and then a 40 minute drive home all because of traffic.....i was exhausted, so i decided to let Elder Meservey drive, for he was wide awake for some reason. 

Tuesday was a nightmare. we had every moment of the day planned out, and we had cita [appointment] after cita after cita after cita after cita cancel on us and it was a nightmare. when we show up they aren't there, and when we called in the morning, they didn't answer....una PESADIA so we drove around contacting members in our branch who are in the less-active/ inactive list,  but still no results for nobody was home.....it was such a drag, literally the worst exchange i have had in terms of what happened. I did Learn though how to be happy when everything is sad and to smile even though there are Frowns everywhere. we at one point decided to stop the car and walk down a street to visit some more members and tract a little, and as we were walking some guy climbed out his window driving by and yelled "Go Back Where You Came From!"....which didn't help us feel any better that day, but it was funny because there was a Cop behind us parked, and when that guy did that, he wasn't wearing a seat belt....hehe...so the Cop got him.

It is nice to know that there is some kind of justice and when stuff happens like that.

Wednesday we had some member appts that were fun, we taught Lehi's Dream and focused on how we as members can take away this darkness from the world., we taught some other lessons as well and it was a better day.

Thursday we weekly planned and got some solid stuff planned and it was really quite great, because we got to enter the house of Theresa Santiago, but really bad as well, because we only actually got to talk tot her Husband who informed us that the week before she started smoking again...NOOOOOO!!!!!, and so that was the reason of why she was hiding from us. so now we are working towards August 9th as the end date for this smoking problem is August 9, 6 weeks, and in this time I challenged her to read the BOM in English, as that is is her first language, and i will be reading it in Spanish in the same time...it is going to be tough, but i think i can do it.

Friday we had DM, a lunch with a member, a Spanish lesson we taught to an English member who is leaning Spanish, we went to the retirement home and played hangman, and then we also went to dinner with the Branch President, and had an Auxiliary interview and we also had a chance to see Theresa Santiago so we talked about how we have to go all out now, and about Cortez, and how they his army kept on trying to overtake this island, but they kept on being defeated and sailed home, and how we need to sail there, and burn these ships, and then fight fight fight with all our might and then we will overcome this island. it was pretty great.

Saturday.....ugh exhausting day mentally. we had no other choice but to reorganize the area book and start form scratch and create a list of everything that needed to be done in the area to get it into its prime. so we did that for a few hours, and cleaned up the online area book as well, and it is almost done. we also taught our new investigator, Beatriz, part of the restoration, and talked about why God lets bad things happen to good people. Also, we stopped by Maria And Sergios's Home and we are trying to help get a divorce now, but we are waiting for him to take time to work on it...it is great.  We will divorce, marry and baptize and all will be splendidly well.

Sunday was the classic here, except we had a meeting with our branch missionaries and went over their calling and how we can help them magnify it.   Often as missionaries we aim to receive the help of the branch/Ward missionaries, but in reality they feel as if we are only there to require them to help us.  This is why they really don't like their calling to much, or they are not to aware of that it is they are to do, or why they feel like there calling is not to important.  We, the Missionaries, need to support them in their calling. they are members too, and they need help from the missionaries just as much the other guy. we cant neglect them, but support them and raise them up. also church was good, though i was dead tired. our 3rd hour was combined and we went over the manual "Teaching, No Greater Call" and it was how we prepare ourselves to teach in the Gospel.  I really enjoyed what was said about how when we really have done what is required to prepare a lesson and searched the topic and desired to teach something that will be carried to the hearts of the those we are teaching, then we will have the spirit with us and will our minds and heart be guided to what we shall say.  After church we went to Teach a 7yr old the restoration, and with her Grandpa present, we had a pretty great lesson, as far as great can go when teaching a 7yr old the gospel. We then headed to pick up Presidente Fuentes and drove to Sonya, our investigator, and we taught about the Book of Mormon, and about how we can find the Truth, and Presidente Fuentes bore a superbly powerful testimony and we felt like we should extend a date, and so i went a ahead and opened my mouth, and it went something like this.....A medida que Dios Contesta sus oraciones y a medida que su fe en JesuCristo crece y desarrolla, se preparara para ser bautizado en el tercer Dia de Agosto....as God answers your prayers, and as your faith in Jesus Christ Grow and Develops, will you prepare yourself to be baptized on the 3rd of august?.....and i know for certain that it could have been me or My companion could have said this, because the spirit was so strong. the only reason i was able to open my mouth is because My companion just finished bearing his testimony and he looked at me and i could see in his eyed that he was thinking and feeling the same thing as me. it was incredible and She accepted it. we walked out of that Lesson with a feeling of Gratitude and also a feeling like weight was just lifted from our shoulders and this weight was the sadness and frustration....we were/are so happy. later that night, we stopped by Amelia and Raisa ferrera to teach them the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but only Amelia was there. so we talked to her about the Book of Mormon, and addressed her fears of praying and getting an answer and she told us this sad story of how she has been praying for 3 years for help for this extremely sad struggle in her life. she has been struggling for 3 years with some guy on facebook and instagram, who has been bullying her....the police cant find him, and this person writes messages to her, or texts her sister from some random number that cant be traced for some reason, but these messages are crude and demeaning and are very sad to hear about, it hurts me to even think about how much she has gone through. she just feels like prayer is so hard to do because she cant ever say a prayer and not think about the negative. so we talked about Joseph smith and read the part about the first vision....about what happened in that moment when he was praying, and how we have to push through and fight for the help we truly desire, and all the while having faith that we will get the answer.. it is so sad that this is happening and were/are devastated. but with the power of prayer and the atonement, she can get through this pain and I know she Can do this. 

So people in this world are mean, or scary, or cruel or dark or wicked, and it really takes a toll on those around them. it is simple, Misery likes company and it always has and it always will. it is so sad to see people in the world hurt by those around them because these are all our brothers and sisters, and we are all connected in one way or another, and that Connection is that we all have a Heavenly Father, who loves us indefinitely more than we could ever imagine. this love is greater than anything on the earth, above or below, and with this love we are able recognize that there is Good in this world. we can understand that, though this guy thinks im a loser, or this person across the steet just called me a really harsh word and told me to go home, i have a Godly being who loves me so much and he is proud of me for who i am. and there is a story that was shared with me about how there was a family who was having dinner, and so all of the family was invited, including one of the Sons, who moved out. when the son arrived, the mom went over and hugged him and said hello and did the normal Mom thing. she then asked how quiting smoking was going, and the son said, i started again, im sorry mom, and the mom looked at him, without the essence of any anger or frustration, and simply said its ok, I still love you no matter what, I LOVE YOU. God  is the same way with us, he loves us no matter what, and the best part is, he is just a prayer away. when times get tough, we always have a supreme being who we call Father who will always have our back.

Um that's all i got for the week, um I love it out here, my Spanish is slowly getting better, I think, and I truly have found my desire to help those around me.  I Love the Mission, I love learning Spanish, though it is one of the harder things I've done, I love you all, I love the Spanish community, especially the Food, and I love my Savior, whose name I bear upon my chest every day!

Cordially

Elder Mason R. Scott

[Weston] Anaheim Weekly June 22, 2014

Hello Everyone!

I hope that everyone is doing great today, and that this week has been good! I had a pretty good week! We worked hard, and now that I am on bike, I felt it more haha. No Air Conditioning, which stinks, but that just means I have to bike faster to get some air flow. I will tell you though, I am out of shape, and my new companion has been asking to be on bike since he first started his mission, he is one transfer behind me. Elder Silvester is his name, and he is a huge biker, way good at it, unlike me. But I am trying to go as fast as I can. It is funny because on Tuesday, we had to go and get a bunch of biking junk for my companion and I, because we needed things like lights, and what not. It was fun, I needed to take my bike in and get it worked on, and so I went to this place called Orange Cycle, and this mechanic there told me that he knows that I am a missionary and that I would need it right away, and so he told me that he would come in early the next morning (wednesday) and work on it. So I took my bike in that morning, and as I was waiting for it to get fixed, I got a call and I talked with the mechanic for a while, and he told me that he cut down the price that it normally would cost to tune it up, and all he asked for in return was "one of those books you have." He asked for a Book of Mormon! It was so cool! He spoke Spanish, and so I brought him a Spanish copy, and put a Mormon.org card inside with my Facebook name, and my number. It was so cool! It taught me a lesson, that being that our Heavenly Father has prepared people for me personally to talk to, that uniquely I will be the person to get though and truly touch people's hearts. This man has talked with missionaries before, and well, it didn't work out, but now he is ready to accept the message. It was super duper cool! That story of the Arabian Horses that Sister Poulson talked about, it is true, we must be obedient, and strictly obedient, because if we are not, then we will never receive the blessings we have been promised, and we will never know we are missing them.

Elder Silvester and I were talking about President Bowen earlier, and the fact that he has not given us any extra rules for the mission. Some mission presidents add rules where they see fit, but for us, President Bowen stated, "the more disobedient you are, the more rules I have to put into place, therefore, keep to the white handbook, keep to your obedience that way we are all happy, you will be free as you do so." For me it is cool to think about the fact that we are more free as we obey the commandments and keep the rules. It is so true. To mark my page in my White Handbook, I have a quote from Elder Packer, that states the following, "Obedience to God can be the very highest expression of independence. Just think of giving Him the one thing, the one gift that He would never take. Obedience - that which God will never take by force - he will accept when freely given. And he will return to you freedom that you can hardly dream of - the freedom to feel and to know, the freedom to do, and the freedom to be, at least a thousand fold more that we offer him. Strangely enough, the key to freedom is obedience." I absolutely love this quote, it carries me. I want to be obedient, I choose to be obedient, there never will be a "good reason to be disobedient" because there isn't any. They do not exist. I love my Heavenly Father, so I choose to be obedient to His hand and his rules, so that I can have that which is He has promised me. Being obedient is the only way to have the constant companionship of the Spirit as well.

This week was a good week, we worked super hard, and we found seven new investigators, and we taught fourteen lessons. Normally we have a higher amount of lessons, but because we did not have time on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, we got started a little late this week. But I had two very spiritual moments for me personally this week, okay there were a lot, but I will not mention them all. On Wednesday we went to visit Denisse and Maria, two of our investigators, who are progressing very slowly. We had planned to teach about the Plan of Salvation again, but I felt inspired to teach about the Book of Mormon again. Now food for thought, since I have been in this area and have been teaching these two people, we have taught about the Book of Mormon about 8 different times. So now 9 out of 13 times we have taught about the BOM. So that is a lot right? I realized this as we were teaching and I asked Denisse to think about this, and why it is. I told her, that literally almost every time we come over, I have felt like I needed to talk about the BOM. I told her, that I was inspired by the Spirit to continue to teach her about it. This past time, I think she focused more, and actually understood more. I have been trying for a super long time to figure out what I could say or what principle I can teach in a better way to help her understand the truth about Joseph Smith. I realized this week, that the Spirit is guiding me to teach, and one of these times, she will feel the Spirit strong enough to not be able to deny the truth anymore. I am excited for this week, because as Elder Silvester and I were finishing up a companion study, he was praying, and I just had this thought in my head. After the prayer, I elaborated on my thought, and realized that I now know what to tell her. I am super excited.

The other experience I had this week that I wish to share, was on Saturday night, we had about 30 minutes left in the day, and we were about 20 minutes from home, so we were wandering around it seemed like, but we were walking around contacting people on this street called Lemon Street. I was walking to my bike, and I saw an area on the street that I personally had not yet knocked on, and so we went over there. We knocked on one door, and this man named Humberto came to the door, and we introduced ourselves, and I said to this man, that we are representatives of Jesus Christ, and this man's countenance changed just a bit, and I explained that we have a message that is special and different than all others in the world. I then expounded on who God truly is, and how He has given us families. I simply asked him if there would be another time for us to come back, and he told us, "yes, when can you?!" (in Spanish FYI) and we set up an appointment with him for this Tuesday, and then we actually just continued teaching about the Restoration. It was just a really good contact we had, and we asked to have a word of prayer with him afterwards, and he agreed. After the prayer this man started to tear up, and thanked us for coming over. It was really cool! very humbling! The Spirit touched this man, and now I truly feel as though we have found the next convert in our area. I am certain that he will be baptized. '  I have been studying this week a lot about the scriptures, but also just about the Spirit and prayer. I read in 3 Nephi chapter 17 verses 14-18, and it talks about when Christ prayed with the Nephites. His prayer was so powerful, and full of Faith that it could not be recorded. I am striving to grow in my Faith now, so that truly I may be able to pray to my Heavenly Father and receive according to my Faith. Well, the mission is going fantastic for me! I have learned so much, and now I truly have a chance to learn Spanish because I am the Senior companion now.

Thanks for all of your support! I love you all!

Your favorite missionary in So. Cal!

Elder Weston Scott

With Silvester

[Mason] New Comp, New transfer, New Goals, And The Best Version of Elder Scott YET

I have now the Best companion in the mission, quien se llama Elder Pennington, or Penn for Short, because without a doubt he always has a pen on his ear.  We work together so well, he is literally the coolest person on earth and he also has the coolest characteristic that anyone who is on the earth wants....he talks like MEGAMIND...and it is legit....he is so darn funny.

In terms of the Package you are sending, . .  . um letters from people in the ward....like Kalani, and Mealii, and Adriana, phoebe, Doug, everyone....mail is what keeps a missionary sane sometimes.

I picked up the old harmonica again, as well as guitar...., and the piano I am starting to teach myself.....but mainly guitar, and the harmonica, you know, the cool instruments.

So this last week, though slightly gruesome and depressingly interesting, the work was slow.  Elder Tuckett wanted to visit his "People" that he loved so much, so we did a lot of visiting.

The past 3 months We have been trying to organize the Area book, that the previous missionaries hadn't ever done, and Tuckett never quite understood, and so we always updated it the way that everyone else did.....which is ok, but, not good enough for me....so this week will be a week of torture for us, because we have 6 area books of nonsense to organize, as well as the online book, we have all of the programs we run here to reorganize, and much more administrative things to do this week, to begin the transfer at the peak of success, where we want to be.

We found a new investigator this week, Whose name is Beatriz, and it was an interesting contact.  We went to visit Theresa , and we were pulling up, and there was a parking spot, but a tight one, and so I decided that I can do this, so I park it there, and as I'm backing in, this lady, Beatriz, walks by Elder Pennington.  He was not in missionary contact mode, because we were running kind of late, and so he simply said Hola, but she stops and says hi back, and then asked what are you guys doing, and who are you....and then we gave the classic answer, and invited her to learn more, and she accepted, and so we went back on Saturday, to teach her, and she told us that she stopped and talked to us because she could feel and see Gods presence with us, and she wants that.

We also taught Sonya, our investigator whom overdosed a month ago, and it was the Plan of Salvation, and gave her a blessing of comfort, and dedicated her home. She has not been able to sleep for some time, and she has been feeling like the there are some bad spirits in her home. it was an interesting lesson.

We taught William this week as well, we taught him the atonement, and used Alma 34,and it was pretty great, he and his wife were having a discussion about it and it was humorous and wonderful to see them doing that.

With Maria, we stopped by to teach a lesson, and both Sergio and Maria were there, and so we talked about divorce with him from his previous wife, and we were hoping to be able to help him with that, because his wife who he doesn't like is taking advantage of the situation, and making rules...and so we need to go the legal route. but we are waiting to see how he wants to do this. which is pretty great to see him step up to the plate.

The Dominican girls, Amelia y Raisa, we taught last night, after an appt fell through, and we talked about the apostasy, and how God loves us so much, that he has given us the fullness of the his Church on the Earth, and how every other church has some truth in it, but not all of it, and that we can pray to find out,and committed them to come to church and pray. we were going to extend baptism to them, but the Spirit told us NO. it was interesting.

I have been getting frustrated this last week and sad, because the members have been making fun of my Spanish, saying that oh Elder Penn has been out less time than you, and he speaks better, and the fact of the matter is, I served 4 and a half months at the very beginning of my mission in an English ward with a Spanish group that all spoke English, and it is annoying.  I'm doing my absolute very best. I don't seem to understand why this has been bothering me so, but it makes me not want to even try the language. The Lord put me out here to learn Spanish and i know that there is a reason, and so i am continuing to try and get better, but it doesn't make it easy.

Its interesting the way challenges can enter into our lives. But one thing that i seem to always be complimented on, especially in the mission by missionaries, is the ability i have to keep a smile on my face.  I seem to always be smiling, even when it is blistering hot out, or when nothing goes right, or when all of our appts are cancelled, or when life simply doesnt work out the way you wanted it too... or when you are tired or simply when all is well. Smiling is the way that we can get through "the hard times." Have you ever walked down the hallway or been having a bad day, and somebody smiled at you, and this smile stayed with you and it carried a small ounce of happiness to your heart and changed your day and made it better? smiling is the essence of happiness, and God intends for us to be happy, and he has given us this church, in the which we can learn to be truly happy.

2nd Nephi 9:39 reads "O, my beloved brethren, remember the awfulness in transgressing against that Holy God, and also the awfulness of yielding to the enticings of that cunning one. Remember, to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life eternal"

S-piritually

M-inded

I-s

L-ife

E-ternal

Remember to smile, because no matter what we can be happy as long as we focus our efforts into becoming better versions of ourselves that God can use to help his other Children be Happy

I Love this Church, I love God, I love Jesus Christ, I love the Holy Ghost, Love My testimony, My Mission, My companion, and myself!

Cordially

Elder Mason R. Scott

a baby Parrot

this is Hermana Maria Melo, or, My Mommy

[Weston] Anaheim Weekly June 16, 2014

Hey everyone!

So transfers! Elder Tanner is now gone, and I am now senior companion with Elder Silvester. Even better, they took my car, which is hard to believe because I am in the third largest area in the entire mission.

I am on the good old fashion bike not. Boom. Super fun stuff! I did not have a chance to make a daily log this week, but some cool things that happened I guess is that we found six new investigators this week, and we taught a ton of lessons! We had a good last week, and there was this one woman that we found that we entered her house, because she told us that she has Jesus inside, and we were like, cool she has a picture of Jesus, but no. She had a life size statue of Jesus sitting in her living room, and not like a living Jesus, but a statue of him laying down on a bed with a blanket over him, it was a
life size of a dead Jesus. Way awesome experience for us. She was way catholic. But we had this killer Father's Day party this past Friday, and so yeah. Shout out to the old Pop's out here. Dad, Happy Father's Day! I apologize for the extremely short letter this week. Have a good week okay! I have pictures to attach though!

Your favorite missionary in So Cal!

Elder Weston Scott

[Mason] The Week of the Hobbling Dead...

OK so to start of this weeks report, I want to Give a very large Shout out to my Dad because it was Fathers Day Yesterday and I didn't get the chance to do that.

Thanks Dad For Everything, But most of All, Your Love and Support in All I DO!!!

OK, so the reason my email is so called the Week of the hobbling Dead, is because I slowly got sicker and sicker this week, until Saturday Morning, when I woke up and couldn't swallow or talk....or anything really, and we went to play soccer, and so I was just sitting in goal, and then I slowly started to feel better enough to play and kick around.....but I tell you I felt like I had somebody sitting on my chest, and water in my lungs after wards.....but Elder Tuckett had the ball, and I was playing some defense and I went to stop his shot (AS I NORMALLY DO EACH DAY) and the ball and foot cause my ankle to twist as I was stepping into the block and by stepping I mean sprinting.....and so It was like a snap crackle and a pop, and I was on the Ground....king of like when I hurt my knee....so I laid there for 40 minutes while they kept playing.....and then we went home....so now I'm hobbling and I feel like I'm dying.....and then we have a packed Saturday schedule......ugh.....but the great news is that I'm healed, mostly. I knew I had to get the work done, and so I kept going and its seriously like night and Day, I couldn't put weight on it at first, but now I am playing sports again with now problems...its amazing.....so Miracle of the week...

Exchanges this week included myself being in Cambridge with my Elder Fischbeck and Elder Meservey, while Catalan came to Lynn with Tuckett.  I had the greatest darn time I've had in a while, and I even got to sleep on the top bunk of  a bunk bed....which was sketchy.  So in our zone, we are trying to get everyone animated about contacting, and so we are playing the Contacting World Cup, and so we get points for how many people we talk too, and our goal is 5000pts...so we decided that we will take this challenge and destroy it...and usually each area totals at like 20 or 30 points a day but not us.  We went Hard and got a solid 112pts, bu there is a catch to this.  There were three of us, but one doesn't like to street contact at all and refused, and the other does it as long as somebody else will do it first....so it was all me for the beginning...but I was so fun.  We found so many people who want to learn more and who have been prepared to hear us.  It was the best, and then at about 5pm that night, we got hit by a small rain shower, that progressed into a typhoon....We got hammered by rain for like 20 minutes and it was flooding everywhere....and the rain was blowing sideways....but it was so fun.

Let me see, while I was gone, Elder Tuckett and Elder Catalan attained a baptismal date from William Rodriguez, for the 13th of July, so big news....it was great...

Um some other changes in the Area include transfers....Elder Tuckett is Now leaving to Boston, and I am getting a new companion whose name is Elder Pennington...so I'm excited but sad. 

Um let me see here, what else do I have here to tell you all...um fathers day fiesta was saturday night, and it was funny. I was asked to participate at the end to fill in for a branch presidency member who didn't show up and we had to dance to this movie that some stake in Idaho made up...it was a nightmare.

ok...so I had this thought this week while reading Doctrine and Covenants....now this is just a thought and nothing more.  So because God is bound by the Eternal Law, a law that we cant help but break, we are unworthy to live with Him. So we have a Savior, who God Sent, to overcome the Law so that we can return to his presence......now the thought is that because we need as savior to make an intercession between us and our Father in Heaven, our Father in Heaven Needs the same thing for us, because of this Law. He loves us so much that he, through the Savior, helps us, supports us, and raises us up and puts us on our feet again.  The Savior knows us perfectly,and so does God, our Father in Heaven, but The Savior is the one who heals us and forgives us.  He does the will of the Father, but it is still Christ who does it all. Our Father in heaven is Bound by The Law, but because Jesus Christ and all of us trust him so much, he speaks and things happen, such as the creation of the the world, and even us.  But It is Christ that fulfills his word!   So when we pray and ask sincerely and in the right way, we can receive help through Gods Word being fulfilled by Jesus Christ

My Thoughts are so strange, so sorry, but this is what D&C made me think of.

Have a great week!

Elder Mason Scott

[Weston] Anaheim Weekly June 9, 2014

Hey people!

Today is 8 Months!!! Boo Yah! Can you believe it! Gonna be a good week this next one!

Lunes - P-day Baby!! It was a good one this time, it has been a while since we have played some real basketball, almost 5 weeks, so not too fun. But the stake center's gym finally finished being refinished, it is so nice now! Boo yah! Anywho, we all decided as a district of nine missionaries to meet together and eat lunch at Denny's, and so we did, and while we were there, there was lady who we talked to on the way out that was a member, and she gave us as a group, a gift card to pay for all of our food. It was so nice of her to do that! It was awesome!  I also cut Elder Yazzie, Diaz, and Pace's hair in the morning. It went well, for the most part, Elder Diaz asked me to give him a Mexican haircut which was not easy. But all is good, we taught a less-active named Ismael, and he is doing well not drinking anymore, since I gave him a blessing. Which is awesome.

Martes - So we had a couple lessons lined up, but most of them bailed on us unfortunately. We did teach Denisse and Maria, who have been investigators for so long! Pretty much dry-mormons if you know what I mean. We found out that Denisse is dating one of the previous missionaries that taught her. It is really weird. Anyways, we tried to see a lot of people, but nobody was home.

Miercoles - So we had a fantastic zone meeting about how we can improve our studies, and our overall habits as missionaries. It was a fantastic meeting, especially since I have been feeling a little stressed lately, now I feel a little better, and a little more relieved because I know what I can do better. Starting with my studies. We had some good studies afterwards, and we went knocking for an hour or so, and found a new investigator. Boss status! We were given a pizza for dinner from a member, it was pretty good, pizza two nights in a row, but however for lunch I made some chicken that was pretty darn awesome, I will attach a picture. It was delicious. We also taught a less-active named Luis at the end of the night. Overall a good day.

Jueves - It was an overall okay day. Had some success on facebook, so that was pretty cool, I went ham just trying to get someone to respond to me on Facebook. Boss status, trying super hard with that right now!

Viernes - So national donut day ya'll. Boom, but I had a couple doctor's appointments. Boring day for the most part. Super fun stuff.  We tried to do some weekly planning, Super boring day actually.

Sabado - Exchanges, Elder Pace came with me in my area, and we went hard core. We taught eight lessons, and found such a hard core new investigator, she is so ready! Her name is Maria, of course, and she is so perfect! Facebook was pretty awesome, still seeing success!

Domingo - We had church, and Elder Tanner and I taught the Young Women about the duties of the Priesthood, it was fun, kind of. Kind of awkward, but all is good. We went to the Solano's after church, and I got to stand in the circle that ordained their son Tony to the office of an Elder, and give him the Melchizedek Priesthood. That was awesome!

This week was hard, but I learned a lot about my own dedication to this work. The fact of the matter is that I need to do better. I am out here because I love my Heavenly Father, I owe Him so much for everything that I have been given, I know my purpose.

Have a great week everyone!

Your Favorite Missionary in CALI!

Elder Weston Scott

[Mason] HOLO......OR.......HELLO?

Holo mis manitos,

   This last week was pretty exciting for many reasons. the main reason is that we had a baptism.

Her Name is the good old famous, Theresa Anne Marie Gairachty Soriano Santiago, Or Theresa Santiago, and she has been an investigator for about 3+ years now, and she is best friends with the Stake President over here. um, let me see here, The baptism took place in a Swimming pool that sits in the same neighborhood as the ..........Boston Temple..........Go Stake President Power.

We did it there because Theresa is a slightly larger set woman with really bad health and also President Low has Mal salud with heart problems and what not, and so we naturally thought of a pool....so the Angel Moroni was one of our witnesses with my companion and I as President Low and Luis Santiago together baptized Theresa.

It was amazing, and then Luis Wednesday ahead and Confirmed her on Sunday, or yesterday  and it was so cool and funny, because before, He was so nervous and scared to do it, and confused about the words, and so im going over them with him,, and then we go and do it and after, we go take our seats at the sacrament table to bless it, and he leans over to me and says....Mision cumplida.....mission accomplished.....and i almost busted out laughing...it was some good stuff.

so other things that happened this week, is we dropped all of our Fechas de Bautismo....so we are back to the drawing board....but we have plans set to make some magic happen here....there is big stuff happening here on the eastern side of the country, and especially in LYNN,

so something amazing from this week, or the other super miracle worked here was in my own life and this came from Zone Conference....Taught mainly by President Packard. He taught about Prayer and the power with and from prayer, and shared some experiences.

i really learned this week how to communicate with Our Father in Heaven in a way that i can show more faith, recognize what i am and who he is, and truly ask for help in a way that i can receive it. Prayer is so sacred, and i never ever realized how sacred it was and the true power that can come from praying correctly. I truly am strengthening the relationship i have with My Father in Heaven as well as with my Savior Jesus Christ. I encourage you all to Study how to pray, and focus on how we pray. We don't just sit there and say thanks for this and bless me with this....it is so much more. it is a conversation.

2nd Nephi 32....
 8 "And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray."
 9 "But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul."

We must pray always before everything if we truly want to have the Lords hand and help in our lives. The Spirit teacheth men to pray, now let me repeat that, the SPIRIT TEACHES MAN TO PRAY........now if the spirit teaches man to pray, then he teaches us how to pray as well and what to pray for.....so we must hearken to the words and the promptings of the Spirit when we pray, to know who and what to pray for, for the Lord knows everything, and we cant simply expect him after we pray to give us what ever we wanted.....because it is his WILL. so if we listen to the Spirit, we will know what the Lord wants us to pray for, and if we do this, our own desires and hearts are put into the same resonating path that Gods Will Sits on, and we will know that what we ask is what God wants us to ask.


Just like the Story of that Sergeant Stevens who received the Strength of Ten Men after is truly humble and divine prayer, we too can receive strength an power through this divine gift that Our Loving Father in Heaven has given to each and every one of us. Remember that prayer is how we talk to God, and because he loves us so much, he wants to hear from us as well.

Prayer. Just Do It

Love You all guys, and have a good week!
Elder M. Scott

[Weston] Anaheim Weekly June 2, 2014

Good afternoon friends!

This week was fantastic and great! I started reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning over again about 2-3 weeks ago, and now I am about half way. I am bound to finish it again by the end of this transfer. I love the Book of Mormon!

This morning I cut my district leader and his two companions' hair because they asked me to. That was super fun to do! I did a pretty good job, I will send some pictures later for you all!

Lunes - We had a lovely P-Day, we had a stake wide activity called La Elotada, all of the wards basically meet at this park in Irvine California, and they play sports and barbecue all day long. Us Spanish Missionaries are allowed permission to go each year, because it is the only time that we are allowed to play sports with the members. It was super fun, and very hot. Guess what, all of us white people got sunburned, and I mean super sunburned, I was out in the sun from 9 in the morning to about 3:30 in the afternoon, my skin hurts.

Martes - I went on exchanges into my district leader's area, and went with Elder Yazzie and Elder Diaz for the day. Super fun, we were all just dead from Monday, and all super sunburned, we could not button our top button of our white shirts. We taught a very powerful lesson to one of their golden investigators named Angelina, it was amazing. I shared a video with her titled The Power of Hope, it is a mormon message by Uchtdor. It hit her hard, the Spirit was so strong in that lesson, it reminded me why I am here. It ended up being an overall good day.

Miéoles - Still super sun-burned. Fun stuff, now at the peeling stage! Yum! We had a district meeting and talked about the importance of following up on a commitment that we leave. It was pretty good. We taught Denisse and Maria and had dinner with them again, it was a good lesson, we talked about the Law of Chastity with Maria, and a lot about the importance of living and keeping all of God's commandments.  We also stopped by Luis Ramirez's house to say hello, he recently got his green card, and is super excited, because he can go back to church now, because he lost all of his jobs. He is excited though, he has a cool story. Elder and Sister Moyes, a senior couple, are going to be taking Elder Tanner and I to dinner next week. Woot woot!

Jueves - I got to go to the Doctor and get blood work done. Super duper fun. There was this old guy in there that was just blabbing on about a lot of random stuff, and talked to us about these missionaries he knew a long time ago. Interesting chat to say the least, we taught a couple lessons, but also gave a blessing to this woman named Rosalíwho is one of our investigators. We stopped by Alfredo and Gina's at the end of the night, and were there for a long time again. Wow! Gina likes to talk!

Viernes - Okay so Friday, we had a normal day for the most part, we had an apartment check, and because of our P-Day activity this past Monday, we did not have a chance to clean our apartment, so we spent almost an hour and a half deep cleaning our apartment. We passed with flying colors. Mom, thank you so much for teaching me how to clean properly, some people just really do not know how to do it! Thank you!  I am kind of the neat freak/ clean freak here in the mission, everyone knows I like my apartment to be clean all of the time. I am tying hard to keep it that way. We had some weekly planning that we did not even get close to finishing again. Eso es todo.

Sádo - Saturday was pretty fun, I had to fast all morning because I needed to get more blood work done. Super fun, I have decided that fasting on the mission is the hardest thing in the world. Anyways, we didn't teach a ton of people on Saturday, because not very many people were home, but we taught a kid named Luis, our investigator with a baptismal date. He is doing awesome, the only problem is that he lives outside of our area boundaries, he lives in another ward, which is fine if the Bishop and other leaders are fine with it, but we are trying to figure out what we should do with him. Basically that was the day.

Domingo - Sunday was pretty much a normal day, we had some meetings in the morning with the Obispo, and with the ward missionaries. It is unreal how much behind the scenes work the missionaries do for the members and the ward itself. We do so much! Wow! After church we did some studying, in the which I just read in The Book of Mormon it was awesome, I read about Aaron and his brethren, and their experiences with King Limhi. We had dinner with Gina and Alfredo our recent convert, we ate what is called Tinga. It is basically shredded chicken over tostadas, it was good. We spent about 4 hours at their home, answering questions, and talking about everything. Fun stuff, I searched and searched forever in the scriptures to help Gina's brother find a passage about Peter talking about the Restoration, with which I do not think exists, but I tried to help him. No luck. I do not recall reading about it when I read the New Testament. But oh well.

Well thank you for all of your support, I love you all so much! Keep up the good work!

Your favorite missionary in SoCal!

Elder Weston Scott

[Mason] Solo uno mas dia en paradiso

I'm really trying to get this language down....I am sick and tired of speaking English...and its showing because anyone with whom I speak has to ask me what I said because I say it in Spanish first on accident....and then I hear across the room or where ever my companion is..."DO YOU REALIZE THAT I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO UNDERSTANDS YOU?"  

its on accident I promise...

Um lets see.....Theresa Santiago was supposed to be baptized on Sunday at 330....it didn't happen. but boy is there a story to tell...

==> so we have been making daily contact with her because she is so close to the date.so she has been sick for quite some time...and in Tuesday, we had the usual dinner appointment with her and Luis, her husband.  It was a rare occasion, because she was in her room not feeling well. so we made plans to come by the next day and share a message with her and pump her up for her big dippin that was up and coming....Wednesday we get a call from Luis saying she is in the Hospital due to chest pain...ugh. DARN SATAN....she had a goal of stopping smoking on Wednesday morning...12am...one last celebratory cigarette...Well she kind of smoked a few more....and so Heavenly Father basically decided that it was enough...I'm going to hospitalize you so you stop smoking...HAHA. So she had tests Thursday morning to check her blood and see what is going on...and it turns out that she has to have a scope of her arteries,( mainly the RCA), and so there was a few options of what the doctor would find...just a little bit of blockage, so just need some blood thinning medicine and some to clear up the blockage....put a stint in...or a bypass for the RCA...Right Coronary artery, and so she was freaking out and scared....she was a nurse in the OR for 30+ years and she said that 1 in 4 people die...so we gave her a priesthood blessing....and instantly the Lord's Hand was there to hold her tight and comfort her and she was relaxed...so Friday....she has the surgery....its just a check...not enough blockage and so she was good. Saturday...baptismal interview...supposed to be home....still at hospital....Sunday....still in hospital...released at 2:20...and President Lowe(Stake President and BFF) is sick and he is the one to Baptize her...so he called it off...to give them both time to rest and recuperate for This Saturday the 7th and so it will be great.

Let me see....exchanges were great this week..I was with my district leader and we killed it here in Lynn

Also, Maria Martinez cant be dunked now because Sergio (The Member), moved back in... we are focusing on getting them married...

Um let me see...my elbow is fine...just annoying, doesn't impede the work or exercise....it just yells at me when I lean on it occasionally and no I'm not going to the Doctor...no hay razon y no quiero

About the Granola....does 10 pounds of flower make a really big Biscuit, because if so, then elder Scott will be ecstatic

Yes I bought myself a Norelco razor,...it is amazing and worth the price

I am sitting comfortably out here thanks for asking...anything y'all need from me?

I just started an exercise routine that is so hard I'm going to die....today was day one of 60...I'm going to be dead... I cant tell you what it is...until its over.

Tip of the Week-- if you are planning on working out really hard then here is a trick. DO NOT DRINK WATER AND EAT A FEW CRACKERS BEFORE HAND EVEN IF YOU ARE HUNGRY BECAUSE YOU WILL UNDOUBTEDLY PUKE....never in my life have i puked after a workout, but this was awful...and its insane how hard it was...it will be good though.

Um so I was asked to give a training this week in our Lovely District Meeting, and i was given it on Wednesday Night and our DM is on Friday, I usually have been given more time to prepare such things, and so I was in a bit of a frantic rage trying to get something prepared.  I was asked to train the District on TEACHING TOWARDS BAPTISM....and in my district, there is only about have of us that can actually say that they have taught some one from beginning to end and we know this because 2 weeks ago, another elder in my district was asked to give this same training, and he wouldn't do it and asked the Question..."have any of you ever taught anyone who was baptized, because i haven't.?"   and so I decided to present this in a way where it will above anything else, motivate and cheer up each missionary in the District of Zion, while teaching them the tricks in teaching towards Baptism. i started with personal conversion and how we cant expect somebody to move towards baptism and learn more and develop a testimony if we do not know why we were baptized, where we are going, who we are, and if we are not converted with a testimony and a relationship with Christ and our Father in Heaven. i then decided that we are not teaching these people so they can get Baptized...why would we do that, its not what we should be teaching towards....w need to be teaching towards conversion, because only through our one personal conversion can we truly make our lives be in harmony with our Father's Will. and so we must teach these people through Listening....not just with our ears, but with our hearts, and showing them that we care. We must come to understand them and who they are and where they come from and what they struggled with, and what they are struggling with. and then we most go down to there level. We can just make people climb this latter, of which they know nothing about and have no reason to climb. so we must be willing to go to where they are. address their concerns and bring them up, if they need help with something and we just make the Gospel the answer and not show them how it is the answer and how it fits into everything, they will "harden their hearts against us". We must help them. I have developed a testimony on how miracles are brought to pass... and one major factor is trust. In order for us to be able to work Miracles in lives, we have to trust that the Lord will help us, and also make sure the Lord can trust us. but there is one more trust bridge, and that is of the investigator and us and the investigator with the Lord. but more often than not, the first relationship that needs to be built for the investigator, is between us (Missionaries/Members), and we do this my addressing their temporal needs. you cant simply see a baby crying and smile and it will all of a sudden smile right back and act as if nothing happened...well this can happen , but its rare like a nonmember just getting converted on the spot when they see us walking down the street. we have to hear this baby crying to understand it is sad, we then have to understand whats wrong, so he has a really poooopy diaper and he is suuuper hungry....ok and now we go to where the baby is at by cleaning and disposing of the nuclear waste and by feeding it and look, now we have a happier baby. 

Missionaries around the world get this idea nailed in to their minds that a missionary is only successful as  long as he is baptizing the world....but that is not true anywhere...because that is an unfair manner in judging and determining success, because the whole world has their agency, and one person could deny the message today, but accept it tomorrow, or a a missionary could be denied and rejected for almost 730 days while another could have every other person accept them....but its not success when you have baptisms...its success when you change your life and the peoples around you.

One man who walked on the Earth a long time ago taught this perfect gospel, shared the message we are sharing, and was rejected as we are and can be rejected. thee are records of him changing peoples lives and working miracles among them. no where does he define that he was or want successful because that's up to us to choose. this Man has no record of baptizing anyone yet we get discouraged when we don't have any either. we can go maybe a whole mission,with out ever having success because we don't see any convert baptisms or maybe any conversions, but where the success comes isn't in that, but only as we come to the realization that only one convert was needed to make it all worth it, and that is ourselves. this man who appears to not have any success has a name, by which we all hold sacred, the which is Jesus Christ. Why do we pray in his Name, why do we love and adore him and why is it that everything he did on the earth was so important, yet as missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we choose success to be called convert baptisms. in the day we figure this out, that our works here in the fields are just as important as others, we then know who Christ was, is and always will be. Let us all be willing to focus on the true success of missionary work and life and follow our savior down these difficult roads, carrying these people and trials and everything else, and then let us ask ourselves....Was I not Successful?

Ok I hope that had some kind of sense...um I love it out here....um ya

Love Elder Mason Scott

always choose to see success in everything you do, even when you think you have failed