Mason with President and Sister Packard

Mason with President and Sister Packard upon arriving at the mission home.

Mailing Packages and Letters 

Mail will reach your missionary quickest if it is sent directly to his/her apartment address.  However, because transfers occur every 6 weeks, you may wish to send packages to the mission office when it is close to a transfer date. 

(Elder/Sister, first name, last name) 
Massachusetts Boston Mission 
182 West Central Street, #203 
Natick, MA 01760 

Please use U.S. Postal Service first class or priority mail. For those not residing in U.S., please use an expedited method that can be forwarded. 

Parcel Post and Registered mail cannot be forwarded, neither can UPS or FedEx packages. If we cannot forward your mail, it may take a while to get it to your missionary. 

[Weston] Week 8

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone back home is doing well and those of my amigos that are on their missions as well are getting ready for a very white Christmas (Baptisms Baby!)! My ward, the Santa Ana 5th ward, is boss. We have just over a hundred active members and they rock! I love them all, they are super supportive and help me speak Spanish, it is very much appreciated, because dang. I do not understand anything that is said at Church, I would not consider the Spanish here to be Spanish. Anyways let me break up the week for everybody!

Monday - Elder Vincent and I cleaned the apartment, studied, Comered (ate Lunch), emailed, went shopping, then played basketball with the zone leaders and others, then went to President Bowens house and then went to teach A... one of our investigators, and set a baptismal date for the 29 of December, Boo yah!

Tuesday - We studied, went to the Microsoft store (that's where we use the computers) and did Mormon.org work, went and taught a few investigators, and then I got sick and retired early for the night. I have been sick for the past seven weeks, and President Bowen thinks I have a parasite from Mexico that has decided to take up residency in my stomach.

Wednesday - We had a zone meeting in which I got to discuss my investigators with the zone and President Bowen. We later finished our studies and then taught our investigators name I... y A... . All of their questions are going to be answered in our next lesson about the Plan of Salvation, which I am super excited about. By the way, almost all the teaching we do is in Spanish, which is great, but I think I am awful at Spanish still. Ugh. I also tried my first Lengua this day. Or tongue for those who no espeakie espanish. I liked it until I found out what it was, during the meal! Ugh man that was interesting!

Thursday - Thanksgiving baby! We had our weekly planning session this day because we were not allowed to play in a turkey bowl or do anything for thanksgiving, because it is just another normal work day here, dang right?   Not that the population even really plays any football here haha. Pretty much only soccer here. We had 2 dinner appointments with ward members. Both of which I became pregnant, but I figured out how to do that Polynesian trick to compact food in my stomach. Boo yah! It totally works. I will attach a Picture of our second dinner with the Lopez family.  N...  is in the middle, he is handicapped and 30 years old, he is so awesome, he knows Spanish and English, and he only works out with the missionaries, and it is always only INSANITY. I haven't gotten to do it with him yet. I was close on Saturday night but it was canceled.

Friday - We let our food babies shrink, and then studied, went to see our investigator L... , but ended up talking to her less-active husband about trucks and cars.... It was cool. Then Went to see I... our other investigator, and ended up teaching is less active mom about reading the scriptures and praying as a family. She was pretty into it!  We then knocked a few doors with no success, and then went and taught out investigator named A... about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and a little about the Plan of Salvation(Happiness) and he was way into it. It was great, I lead the discussion. We had these amazing empanadas for dinner, I created another food baby that night. :) After dinner, we had another appointment with E... y R... and I lead the lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I was so amazed about his responses. He always says "Amen Brother" in a hilarious accent. He does not know English. I love E... . My Spanish isn't great, but he helps me too, which is so awesome.

Saturday - We did exchanges this day, and Elder Arevalo was my companion, he has been out like 7 months, and he does not like greenies, or ever have a good attitude. But I got to try out the biking scene for missionaries, and it is way different than having a car.... But I can roll with either or I guess. Arevalo hates biking, and is really slow, which makes me slow because I didn't know the area hahaha. Oh well! We didn't teach too many lessons that day. I helped the Lopez family install a brand new oven in their house after dinner too. We were supposed to work out with N... , but we were late, we got way lost. My friend a cockroach, crawled on my arm. Gross!!!! Then when Elder Vincent picked me up I found out some other interesting news. There have been some visitors that haven't been paying rent in our apartment, namely bed bugs, that got me pretty good, ouch! So we have bedbugs and cockroaches up the wazoo, I am fairly certain that I have never been this calm about bugs, ask anybody, and we will probably get a new apartment soon. YAY!

Sunday - Ward missionary meeting or whatever it is called, it was good, and then we had testimony meeting, because it was fast sunday, and then we studied the rest of the day. We had dinner at a members home, who fed me my favorite meal so far. MMMMMM so good. Then we studied again after dinner. We had one investigator show up to church and it was Efrain! He is so great! But he cancelled on us for our lesson!

Now we are here! I have been loving everything! I really would like some mail though! Send goodies if you can! Elder Vincent is teaching me a lot, but is getting impatient for some reason, its frustrating, I am new still, and I have a lot of questions. The only address for mail is the mission office address 2500 north Bristol street, santa ana CA, 92706. That is the only one everyone uses. Tell everyone I say hi and to keep on doing what you are doing! Our investigators with baptismal dates are E... and  R... , A... and I... . I am so excited for them because they are all scheduled for this month! Boo yah! I know That I have been chosen to this work and it is right for me! I love you all! Stay strong!

Thanks for everything, your favorite Missionary and stripling warrior!

Elder Weston Scott

[Mason] Week 8

This last week was a solid week ending on one superb and ultimate ending, Baptism....yes I said it, we had a baptism, which means we have one more joining the ranks of our itty bitty ward here in Springfield. we have maybe 100 people in our ward, which covers about 15 cities...my zone is the biggest zone in the mission, with the fewest members.  but it don't matter because there is still work to be done.

Anyway so this last week was turkey week, which rocked for so many reasons except one...I will start with that. Now on Thursday, you know turkey day, there is the tradition all over of playing in a so called turkey bowl, or in simpler terms, football. now my companion, Elder Romero, weeks ago had torn his ACL playing football, decided to play.  Now I warned him and told him its not a good idea, but who on earth listens to a greenie, or the one person in the mission that knows most about the freakin knee....anyway, we start playing and we are about 20 or 30 minutes in and the ball is thrown to my companion...and all of a sudden I look over (I was playing line at the time on the opposite team) because I heard almost like a hysterical laugh cry thing.  Its my companion...ahhh crap not again.  Elder Romero now has a possible torn MCL and LCL aka he is in deep doodoo, and it doesn't help the situation when we need to be on our feet all day long. anyway we don't know whats going to happen yet so I will keep y'all updated. 

Good stuff this week, besides El Bautismo,...we had three dinners on Thursday, which were all super great, but super painful. Boricuas son muy dificil a gustar durante la Dia de Thanksgiving. um I have a lovely bruise on my face from football, because of line and being able to dominate out there.  Lets just say I miss rugby and being able to hit someone.  Nobody stopped me on the line, I had the quarter back running from me every play. hehe...anyway more on the baptism, his name is T.... he is 11 and the rest of his family had been baptized a while ago.  They are all recent converts.   His date was already set before I got there but it don't matter I am counting it. it was really funny though because nobody remembered to fill the font, so I go ahead and do it and when the baptism rolls around, the font was barely above the knees...so we had to show them how to do it and so I practiced with the bishops son who is Tyler's age.   And freak man a straight legged baptism is so hard, and it doesn't help when the kid weighs as much as you, but is still successfully showed them and the baptism was a success, and so awesome.

Anyway, like Elder W Scott, my companion is also district leader, but now it seems like I am as well because Elder Romero is broken right now.  I will be getting my package on Wednesday and the mission office can't send them on to us for some reason, and don't worry about the other package right now, do it when you get home, and add my red sperrys if you can. 

Anyway helping with the duties of a DL is so awesome and it is such a  great learning experience. We had exchanges on Fri/sat this week and I went with Elder Becarri.  He and I taught like 4 lessons total together and we had one person drop us because her mom went to jail the night before and had to watch her sibling, but she still wants to meet with us. 

Spiritual Thought of the week

We all have so many trials in our lives, ones that we have gone through already, ones that we are currently going through, and ones that we will go through sooner or later. these trials are to make us who our Father In Heaven wants us to become. think of it like this...there once was this garden where there was not much growing except for a huge current bush. the gardener, who had just purchased this plot of land, saw this giant bush. he took out his hedge trimmers and trimmed tit back until the bush was tin y and bare, just enough to survive. as he was finishing, he thought he heard a voice say why did you do that, why did you cut me down, i was growing so well, doing so well, why did you cut me down. and the gardener looked at the bush, seeing tears on every part he clipped, and he responded saying, look i am the gardener here, i know what i want you to become, and that is a current bush, one with fruit and beauty.  I cut you down so that you can become what I want you to become....our Father in Heaven is our gardener. No matter what trust in him and know that whatever happens in our lives, our Father in Heaven loves us and he knows what we can handle and He knows what we need to become. Remember, that as we progress in life the hand of the Lord is in all things we do, just embrace whatever obstacle enters your life with gratefulness.

Anyway, this week I have an investigator who doesn't speak much English, and she pretty much only speaks chinese, her name is S.. or R..., and she is a rockstar. also yesterday at church, and all day,  I was getting asked by people left and right to come and give a blessing and by far, yesterday was my favorite day to be here. I love this work and I know that I am here in Springfield for a reason, y este razon yo no se ahorita, pero verdaderamente, hay un razon y Dios sabe las cosas que necesito hacer porque  Dios me concoce y me ama. [and this reason I do not know right now, but truly there is a reason and God  knows the things I need to do because God knows and loves me ]

Mi espanol esta progresando, pero is dificil ahorita porque estoy en un area que no tiene muchas personas que haban espanol, y enseno lecciones en ingles much del tiempo. [My spanish is progressing, but it is difficult right now because I am in an area that does not have many people that speak spanish, and we teach lessons in English much of the time]   Elder Romero and I are getting along, but it seems that he doesn't trust me that much and so its making it a little harder.  It's all good though, because I know what I need to do, and everything will work out. I know it will.

We have this guy named R... and his Mom, V..., that are coming to the church and are showing desires to learn more.  We also have a lot of less actives and inactives that have started to realize the church is what they need...its so great. but anyway love you all and I will try to send pics now

have fun and take luck

Elder Scott

and my camera got pranked by my ZLs and so they decided to leave pics and go though all of my pics tambien

[Mason] Week 7

Hey dudes, que pasa...

I know its been a while and sorry I couldn't email until today, my first pday in the field...anyway. my first area is in Springfield Massachusetts, with Elder Romero, he is from New York but is a native speaker because he is Mexican...life is great here and cold. President Packard game me this assignment of being his companion because he said that this elder is easy to get along with but struggles with obedience and other things...he said that he wants me to turn this Elder around and make him finish his last 5 months strong.  It's so different than the MTC and I love it...there is a bunch of Puerto Ricanos y Dominicanos aqui en springfield pero hay mucha comida muchas oportunidades a compartir el evangelio. este area tiene problemas, however, con encontrando nuevas personas a hablar con, y ahorita, estamos actualizando la lista del barro. tuvimos dos personas con citas a ensenar pero a los dos nos dijeron que ellas no quisieron venir sus casas y ensenar, entonces no he ensenado un leccion.  [ here in Springfield but there is alot of food and many opportunities to share the gospel.  The area has problems, however, with finding new people to talk with, and right now, we are reviewing the word list.  We had 2 people with teaching appointments and both of them said they didn't want to come to their house and teach -- so we have not taught any lessons ] 

It's all good though because at church there were so many new people that showed up...R... y su madre y ellos estan interesado con escuchando mas sobre la iglesia. [R.. and his mother and they are interested to hear more about the church ] I have 2 thanksgiving dinners to attend, shoot me now haha, and football Thursday morning. R.... said he would attend, which is great. also at church, a man, J... showed up, he fell away from the church a long time ago, he is Tyler's age.  He has a kid and a fiancee but doesn't want to get married because his fiancee will lose this child welfare check or something...so we are trying to work with him. he is going to come to church in two weeks and meet with the bishop.   our ward mission leader freakin rocks, and he has such a cool plan for the ward and it is going to work...our Christmas party is next Friday, and we have a goal for each auxiliary leader to bring 1 nonmember,so 6, and this is the beginning. at the start of this next year, we have a goal to get 84 new people to the church because we calculated there are 84 different events or activities, like the Christmas party, this is if you add all 6 auxiliary leaders in and what not, its hard to explain. we have 7 ward missionaries right now, about to be 10 and its so great. anyway we are trying to get the word of the lord spread around, but its very hard...this area, according to President Packard, is the second hardest area in the mission to work in and especially to train in...but its all good. patience is all that is needed.

Anyway thanks for the stuff, the awesome blanket, and the awesome shoulder bag...and we will be getting ipads at the start of the new year supposedly, so I'm excited. life is so great here and when you get a chance, send me my really light running shoes, they are grey with a little red, and they are the champion brand. also send me my rugby sweatshirt because it is freakin freezing when I go the gym in the mornings and what not, and send me some t shirts from my close that i usually wore back home too..I now weigh 231 and its strange because every meal here is so huge, but its great. 

Love you all tons 

Elder Mason Scott

w/Romero

Romero & Zone Leaders

[Weston] Week 7 ( Week 1 in the field baby! )

Hey everybody!

Wow! That is all I can say! What a long week but an awesome week! I have been born(began my mission) into the area known as Santa Ana 5 North, which is in Santa Ana California. So it turns out that my mission is 3 times the original size, because my call packet only showed the English mission, I actually have Newport, Irvine, Anaheim, and Santa Ana in the Spanish mission. My ward and area are apparently the best in the entire mission, because we are about 75% active, which is great!

The wards are tiny here, there are about 150 people over all in my ward, and it is considered a big ward. There are 3 different sets of missionaries in my ward, all of us in the same district, but guess who the district leader is.......My companion Elder Vincent, which means that we do a lot of stuff. I love every minute of my mission so far, it is so fun! My apartment is great minus the cockroaches, but I mean what can I say, If I was one of them I would crash my party all day long too! Everything is fine though.

Dad, thanks for all the stuff, Everyone is jealous of my cool new bag. This week the Spanish has not held me back, except of a lot. It is hard here, because the population is all Spanish, but its like thick Mexican/ Spanglish it is so weird. Elder Vincent helps a lot but I understand a ton. The members already love me because I can speak better than all the other greenies that have begun in this same area, yay for me! I started proselyting an hour and a half after I had arrived on Tuesday which was hard for me to do, I ended up staying up for 26 hours that day. Woot Woot, new record for me I think? We have 9 new investigators this week and only in like 4 days. I have extended baptismal dates to 4 different people, all of which have accepted, this area is booming, and it is so exciting to see how open people are to listen to the Gospel, No doors have been slammed on my face yet! One interesting fact for you all is that most of the children here don't read and write Spanish, only English, but there parents are only Spanish, so we teach in both English and Spanish, which is interesting most of the time. We receive a lot of help from members during the week to help teach which absolutely rocks!!

Elder Vincent and I saw superman the other day on a bike, this guy was high while riding on a bike, and we thought he was going to die! It was entertaining. Being district leader and assistant, we get a car, but actually the next coolest thing, we get the soccer mom car! We are mini-van missionaries! HAHAHAHA! It is super funny! We have dinner every night, super authentic Mexican food, and its super good. On thanksgiving we have one invitation, but that is because it is just another normal work day, we don't get to do anything different for the holiday.

Tonight we are going over to president Bowens house to hang out because Elder Arevalo has to make a movie for the president, and we are like an hour away from our area, so ping pong is on the schedule for tonight. I have learned how to shop super cheap and get by with ten bucks for the week. We get 165 dollars about each month, so about 40 bucks a week to spend on food and laundry. Awesome right? We get a new car next week, brand new 2013 Toyota corolla and also Ipads and Iphones in December.

We begin being a facebook mission next week I believe to, interesting right? Everything is so different than what I had imagined in the MTC, and I really Enjoy everything! My companion and I get into deep study which is super awesome because we teach each other new stuff! I love it so much! I don't really know what else to add because I am so busy! I wrote in my journal for the first time last night since I have been here. I am pretty used to everything now so nothing surprises me these days. Please send letters, packages, I really love cookies! nutella works, peanut butter, cereal, any breakfast or lunch items.... Send letters! The address is 2500 North Bristol street Santa Ana California 92706. I love you all so much!

With all my love and sweat!

Elder Weston Scott

[Mason] Twas the night before leaving the MTC.....

Hey so I will call you guys in the airport tomorrow for a short time...everyone else is doing it and its a tradition anyway. Umm [Mormon expletive] stuff wont be in Boston till Thursday...its going to be a cold night sleep those first few nights...jk its all good (está bien).  Bueno  I leave here tomorrow morning at 0300...after not getting any sleep last night because of pranks...yay...todo está bien.  I'm pumped to get there and get out of this heat...and today for class we were given time to prayerfully and thoughtfully reread our Patriarchal blessings...I really learned alot form what I read again. its so cool how much you learn each time you read it. anyways...I will try to email you again soon but I don't quite know when my Pday is so we will just go from there.

Pictures from Weston

My teachers. Hermano Salazar is the small one in the bottom picture. He is the best

My district Minus 2