[Weston] Anaheim Weekly June 15, 2015

To my family and friends,

This week passed very quick here in the Anaheim California Mission. Elder Silvester and I have been working diligently trying to lead our zone. I would even dare to say that this week was one of the greatest so far on the mission. To start off, our investigator Lucy cuts hair, and with permission went to her home on Monday evening, where she cut our hair. I have heard many stories of bad hair cuts from her, because she is just got her "beauty License" and so she is new to it all. She gets upset if we do not allow her to cut our hair, so we went, and it turned out pretty good for the most part. Afterwards we had exchanges. I went to Anaheim (my old area) with Elder Montgomery. It was a good time, we replanted a palm tree which was fun. It was an overall great day. I sat pondering over the time I served in that ward and in that area, and the experiences I went through while there. I thought about the effort I put in, and how much I truly loved the people, even though the results were not what I had expected with the work I put in, I see it now, with the fruits that are coming from it all.

After exchanges, Elder Silvester and I returned back to our area, and we talked about the day. We are truly blessed to be the Zone Leaders here in this zone with these missionaries. Every single missionary here is obedient, and works hard. 

Wednesday morning we held a zone meeting, where my companion and I trained our Zone on using the technology we have wisely with safeguard training we have had for a few months. The second half of the meeting we shared with our zone ideas and principles to finding people to teach. It was all focused on following the Spirit, and allowing inspiration to join us as we find. That evening while we were eating with a member, the member's grandson RIcardo comes to us in need of help with his Eagle Project. He has four merit badges and his whole project to do before he turns 18 early next month. We helped answer some of his questions about the project, and about the merit badges, but we told him that he needs to get to work, if he wants to be the first Eagle Scout in the Fullerton 6 Ward. He is a little nervous.

Thursday was our first day this transfer that we have been able to complete all of our studies. We had a full day to work in our area, not one distraction to attend to within the zone. We had two wonderful lessons. One with Lucy, who set a baptismal date for the 28th. We are not sure about it anymore as of today, but it was a very spiritual lesson. We watched the Bible Video where Peter walks on water. I truly am grateful for the IPads we have, they are wonderful and powerful tools in the work, without them we would not have been able to show her that video. Another lesson we had that night was with young couple, who are both newer investigators, named Maria y Eduardo. We taught the Plan of Salvation, they seemed excited. We hope to see more progress from them shorty.

Friday we held our weekly planning session. After all was finished, we talked about our companionship and had a companionship inventory. We both sat quietly pondering, and as we communicated to each other our strengths, we both remembered a year ago when we were companions giving those exact strengths as weaknesses. I know that I have changed for the better on my mission. I feel that I am finally starting to reach my potential in life. I know who I am and what I want in life.

I read a talk by Elder Marvin J. Ashton from October 1979 this week titled "Progress through Change." He states, ". . . we must be totally committed to  . . . change. A Chinese proverb says, "Great souls have wills; feeble souls have only wishes." Unless we have the will to improve, all the . . . steps to change will be wasted. This . . . separates the winners from the losers." This impacted me a lot. In order to truly develop into the priesthood holder that I am to be, I need to full heartedly commit. 

I also read another powerful conference talk by Elder David A. Bednar titled, "Receive the Holy Ghost." I invite all to study it. I desire to have the Spirit with me at all times, as I am sure every member of the church desires. I learned more about what it truly takes to receive the Holy Ghost into our lives through Elder Bednar's words.

Sunday Morning I attended Sacrament Meeting of the Buena Park 3 Ward, from where I just came. I attended for the purpose of confirming Bertha, who Elder Dougherty and myself taught last transfer and baptized the May 31. It was a true blessing to do so. 

At our own church meetings Sunday, we were joined by the second counselor in the bishopric's father, President Cerda. He is the temple president of the Guadalajara, Mexico Temple. He spoke in church and it was powerful, than he also taught the class in Elder's Quorum. We learned about what it means to truly 'Follow the Living Prophet'. The Spirit was strong in the room during the whole lesson.

In closing of my words about this week, I will mention a truth stated quite frequently. The mission is the best two years. It is that refiner's fire. If you want to find out who you are, the mission is where you need to be. I absolutely love my mission.

Elder Weston Scott

[Mason] Stake Conference!!!

This week certainly was a fun one!

Monday - P-day Nap! We had dinner with Sister Picot, then we went out with our member and Saw some investigators. We then drove to central Falls and did some exchanges

Tuesday - We rode bikes all day in the Central Falls Spanish arear and it was a blast! upon finishing the night, we made it a goal to hand out everything we had, and my last card i gave to this old man on the street, which turned into this long night! the story isnt that interesting! 

Wednesday- we planned for the week, and we taught a group of people down in warwick about why Mormons do Family History! it was so fun! I love Family history work! then we went and taught some other investigators and LA's! it was fun

Thursday -  District Meeting....I made Chilli for it! and it was so Good(Spicy). we also taught our Investigator Sandy, and picked up a new investigator named Wendy Welker, and then we went to Providence to Split with the Elders down there so that we could help them manage their baptismal Candidates. 

Friday - We went on exchanges, And we did some good digital missionary work, we set up some skypes. it was good stuff! we had dinner with Bishop Wharton,and we discussed how we are going to help the ward build unity and how we can improve the Ward council. we then headed to visit some other Investigators in Johnston with a member. President Coates, 2nd counselor of the Stake presidency, called and asked if we could organize a missionary choir...for saturday night....

Saturday - The Gatsby Parade! we helped with the Portable visitors center Tour at the chapel down in Warwick during a street parade for 5 hours and it was sweet! we were able to teach many people about the Church in just a few minutes due to these amazing displays! it was great! we then traveled to Mystic, CT where we attended the Priesthood Leadership meeting! We were given the special opportunity to have Elder Smith, an area authority, come and preside! so as previously mentioned, we organized the choir with the two providence zones and we sang in the adult session of stake conference. it was real fun and really spiritual.

Sunday - parking for stake conference,  we had to be there by 7pm in mystic, CT, so we had to be up by about 4:30am to get ready and gone so that we could get to a members home ontime so he could take us!. it was exhausting....we then went out and taught some members and Investigators as well as attended a baptism in Providence for a sister that I had a chance to give a blessing to. She invited my companion and I, the only problem was the fact that Elder Perkes doenst speak spanish! it was great.

So today i received an email From the mission office, requesting my information so they could set up the travel arrangements. It makes me almost sad to think that this will have to come to an end...But not yet! 

studying the scriptures this past week, the thought was on my mind, "How important is the book of Mormon to me?" I ask myself this, because I want to know if my life is revolving around It, or if it is revolving round me. I hope to think it is the first! i want to be centered on its teachings! i want to have the spirit with me, and i want the spiritual protection that is offered by reading it, rather than me centered on everything else. are we truly feasting upon the words of Christ? Are we living based upon the words of life contained in this holy record? I invite all of us to pick up the Book of Mormon and keep reading! let us all treasure of these words and make them the source of all of our actions! I know that as we do, we will receive the power God promises us to give us. 

Well, have a great week! and go do something fun, like share the Gospel!

--

Elder Mason Scott

Massachusetts Boston Mission

[Weston] Anaheim Weekly June 8, 2015

This week went well. There were many changes and many meeting we had to attend, including a zone leader meeting, two Mission Leadership councils, and a district meeting. It was fun! We learned a lot during our MLCs. The work is going to progress in the mission, and I am looking forward to it!

There is not much time today to write. But I will share a quick story or miracle we had this week. We went looking for a former investigator, and when we got to the complex we realized we didn't have an apartment number, so we decided to knock a random door to see if we could find him. We prayed, and knocked on a door, we found a woman that knows the guy we were looking for very well, and lead us to his door. It was so cool! Miracles exist! 

I know the church is true, I know this Jesus is the Christ. I strive to follow Him. Have a great week!

Elder Weston Scott

[Mason] The Gospel of Jesus Christ!

It seems that over the past few months I have come to learn what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is and how we can and should use it. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is outlined in PMG pretty well, but is it really just those five steps?

1-Faith

2-Repentance

3-Baptism

4-Holy Ghost

5-Endure to the End

Is it merely abiding by what these steps guide us to do? Is it as simple as steps 1-5 and repeat?

I would like to answer saying "no." We have the Gospel of Jesus Christ that teaches us more that what we should do and how we should do it, but rather it teaches us Who should we be? 

Christ asked, "What manner of men ought ye to be?" and in the same breath, answered saying "Even as I am." 3 Nephi 27:27 

This isn't just a simple question he asks! Christ was serious. He lived what he taught! he was the perfect example for us because he lived a gospel centered life and even his very heart was centered on the Gospel! 

The Gospel we hear defined in many different ways, but we all talk about the five steps in it. in reality the Gospel of Jesus Christ includes so much more, stretching beyond the first principles and ordinances to the character and virtue we need to develop. Its range is limitless, because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not something that we do, rather something we live and put into our hearts and let it guide us day by day. 

Time and time again we read in the scriptures "repent ye" or "Keep the commandments" and so much more. these basic things pertain to the lower law that we at least need to abide by if we are to let Christ into our lives. but We, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ, need to live the higher law and not just go through motions and let those 5 steps be our limit! let us develop within ourselves the Godliness that exists only upon fully embracing what the Gospel is and what it can do! I invite you to search out what is that you need to do to let the Gospel be planted in your hearts. this will be between you and the Lord and may take time, but God will answer your prayers.

So this past week in Scituate was great. We reset a baptismal date with Patricia S.  and she is pumped for July 25th. Frank Williams has been unable to meet with us so we had to drop his date. Sandy C. came to church again and she loved it again, and she wants to come again. We are so excited. Adam J.  has been progressing more and more and the Gospel is truly changing his life. 

We had MLC this week, which started with an endowment session which was really great. We then had a really great meeting with the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders there in Belmont. We Held Zone Meeting this week as well and it went well we suppose, but we are still just trying to pump up our Zone! Our Zone here in the Providence North Zone is Nick-Named "LOB CITY" and so we are trying to live up to the name.

(L)ove + (O)bedience = (B)aptisms

It's been a really busy week with regards to meetings. there was so much we had to do, but I am glad its over, because now I can focus on just the work in Scituate and the Zone, no meetings or anything this week...whew!

After going to Zone meeting, we had correlation with our Ward Mission Leader and He snapped some photos haha, so I will send them!

Elder Scott

[Weston] Anaheim Weekly June 1, 2015

This week was awesome!

We had a baptism! Marianna the one who sent photos, her aunt was baptized! I am feeling a lot better. Sometimes it's natural to have the blues I guess, but I am good now. Bertha is her name! Her husband was baptized six weeks earlier, and he baptized her yesterday. It was awesome!

So transfers. My area closed down because we have lost so many missionaries in the past few transfers. 230 to now 180ish. Crazy. So I am being transferred to be with Elder Silvester again! Woot woot! We are zls together in Fullerton now. And! Elder Dougherty my companion has been called to be the new Assistant to the President. Crazy! He
was awesome! The mission is changing, a lot, I am so grateful for everything that is going on here in the Anaheim Mission, Elder Etchart my best friend out here is going home tomorrow. He has finished his two years. I am sad, but all will be well. Time is counting down for me here. I am working though, we had a great week
this past week.

I have nothing else to add! Have a great one!

Actually John 3:30 says, "He must increase, but I must decrease." Think about it! I have been all week!

Elder Weston Scott

[Mason] Elder Holland!!

So this last week was super fun! we Started it off by picking up this sweet Italian girl as an  investigator! she wants to learn English, and her mother is a member back in Rome, and she barely speaks English, but she likes the gospel!  we also had to drop one of our Baptismal Date, Patricia S., because she wants more time to read the Book of Mormon, and Feel the Spirit, etc, and so she said she will plan for mid-July!

We had exchanges this week which were great! The highlight of those was that we went and helped the Providence 2nd branch run a chapel tour and we used the Portable Visitors Center that we have here and so we were able to teach all five lessons in about 20 minutes with so many people, seeing as it is a store front chapel on a busy street! so we would go out and contact, and then bring these people in and give them a personal tour! it was sick! Elder Warren and I went out first right at 6pm and found this guy named Vincent, asked him a few questions, brought him in, went through every panel throughout the tour, and he loved it, set a time to go teach him, got his address and number and it was so sick! Vincent! woot woot! I'm going there tonight on exchanges, so it is going to be sick!

this week we had the unique opportunity to be with the MLC in Lowell, MA in a private Q&A session with Elder Jefferey R Holland, and we just chatted and asked him some questions and it was a really informal mission get together! I took away so much from the spirit that was present in the room at the time. I will never forget that day.

The Scituate ward id doing great, we will have a baptism here on the 14th of June, and we will have 3 or 4 dates this month going into the following month,

This week we have MLC and we have been told that it will be a temple session before hand! im excited.

Life is treating me well, including the Health! 

No worries here!

Elder Mason Scott!