[Weston] Another week in PARADISE!

To whom it may concern (So everyone),

Buenas! How is everyone these days? It is super crazy to think that it is almost Christmas! I left before my Birthday, and now it is Christmas. Super cool right?  I am killing it out here haha as well as we can do anyways. We have tons of investigators, 5 baptismal dates, all within the next 30 days, and the teaching is going so well.  We went on exchanges, and that is where I noticed the difference. Elder Urrutia, my exchange companion, forced me to do everything by myself.  It was shocking at first.  Knocking is not easy especially when they don't speak a language you can recognize haha, namely Spanish at 100 miles an hour. But I did it.  We got a new investigator out of it. Ward Coordination meetings are cool now to, because I understand what the topic is haha, I can respond to questions directed at out companionship, and the leaders don't sense my lack of language skills.  I am finally gaining Spanish as a strength in my missionary efforts. Elder Scott, I am going to do the same as you and read El Libro de Mormon completely in Spanish.  We have been doing so much stuff this week and have not had enough time to do all of our studies. It has been a little frustrating. But all is well. Elder Vincent is growing on me a little bit, it is easier to live with him, I just had to set boundaries, which is good now.  He makes these sound effects in the car, I kid you not, he is the funniest person I have ever met when he does his sound effects.  It is absolutely insane.  I don't know how he does it.

The weather here is not too bad now.  It was super cold for a while, okay not like Colorado with snow, but cold for Californians.  Church has been super duper good.  We have been getting a lot of less actives back and new investigators to church. Woot Woot!  We had a serious miracle, a less active who was not married and has 2 kids finally quit his job and flat out told me, "Elder, I want to change. I am coming back to church, and going to get married.  My wife is going to be baptized, and I am going to go to the temple with her." It was sooooo great. This guy and his wife V.... and L.... , and there two kids A.... and E...., are so awesome. They love the church. High five anybody? I think so!

We also started facebook this week and other church sites, and email and blogs and other things. The thing was, was that we had to make a facebook profile, and deactivate our old ones, we all did that, but some of us, something weird happened. We ended up getting locked out of our new profiles, and had to send in a government ID to use the account. We figured out that it was because we all have the same name Elder, all the same phone numbers pretty much, and the fact that we are not registered to the phone numbers made it so that they locked the accounts.  So now we are going to use our old ones. We have to clean them up and take almost everything off them.  Please do not get on it if you do already, I changed the password and everything so no problem I hope. We get an hour a day every day for media time. Facebook is going to be super helpful I think, but it is a one strike game. No mess-ups or else, no computers for anything including emails, for the rest of the mission. Crazy right? We also get Ipads or surfaces or some kind of tablet at the beginning of the new year, to replace the pocket planners.  Everything will be on the tablets. Cool huh? I am excited. We get to take them home after the mission too! Oh yeah!

Well lets see, I have officially decided that Californians cannot drive.  Including my own companion.  He sucks at it, I almost die every day.  We were supposed to get a brand new off the line Ford fusion this week, to replace our Dodge Caravan that has over 62000 miles on it. But that didn't happen.  Apparently the AP's think that we need the slightly newer Dodge Caravan.  Dang. Those Fords are sweet man! Thanks for the dope speaker dad! Everyone loves it! And the Tunes you sent. It rules. I am having a great time here in the CALI!

Monday 9th - Marked 2 months in mission. No biggie. Also it was pday.  It was a super fun day. Got to play Volleyball with the zone.

Tuesday - we drove around for days. (long time) we had to take Elder Urrutia to the doctor for his acne. Something here game him acne, he didn't have any until he arrived here, I saw pictures, crazy! We also had a super good soup for dinner by this family the McC.....'s . They are super cool. We through down some doctrine about prayer and scriptures in SPANISH at one of our eternigators (eternal investigator) because he just wont pray about anything. Nobody can know of spiritual truths without prayer. I actually talk better about that in Spanish haha.

Wednesday - Distinct meeting and lunch.  We went to some Greek place, and I had this awesome Gyro. It was deliciosa. Went to President Bowens house and dropped off Elder Arevalo, and were a trio for the night. It was fun. we found several new people to teach. Exciting stuff!

Thursday - Training meeting on Facebook and the new media we can use. But also I had a doctors appointment. Remember, never drink the water in mexico. It is dangerous haha.

Friday - I took a test online for Spanish training stuff, it was dumb. And we visited a lot of people. Taught some intense lessons. We taught one of our investigators named Al... , about the plan of salvation, and the atonement specifically. It was sad because we didn't finish the whole plan with him. He had to go. Ten minutes after our lesson, his grandpa in mexico died. AHH it was so sad, but I know that the rest of the plan of salvation will help him so much.

Saturday - Taught some lessons but I was on exchanges with Elder urrutia. he is so cool. He really helped me a lot with my Spanish, and gave me new ideas of how to study. Boo yah! We also went to the buffet place for dinner. Yumm.

Sunday - We had church which was awesome. We switch to 9 at the new year, and have our first missionary meeting at 7 in the morning every other Sunday morning. Fun. We also had this sick Sunday nativity program. It was live! the people that live here are so incredibly talented!

Monday - Tried to set up facebook, didn't work, and also went to a bike store to buy Elder Arevalo a bike. He got a sick bike. and visited President Bowen again for an assignment Arevalo has. Didn't get p-day. kind of sucked.

Tuesday - District meeting, and Interviews with the President. Went great! He is so amazing. Had tamales for dinner with one of the ward missionaries. She is so cool! Mar....! So cool!

That was the week and a half. I am truly working really hard out here. And learning so much. I have a testimony of this work, that nothing in this world can break down. I love this church and this gospel. Thanks for all the support and love! Note to all of you, I write letters, so write me and then I can have your address. Thanks!

Your favorite missionary in CALI,

Elder Weston Scott

Read Doctrine and Covenants 6:33-37 when you can :) It rules and section 7 as well!

[Mason]: what a wonderful snowy cold and super fun week?!?!

 Dear all who it may concern: I have offically discovered that the East freakin coast really sucks from about November to um probably March. Cold weather really sucks especially when I end up having to wear gloves inside...and what not. some exciting news...it snowed, and by snowed I mean it dumped and it was awful because we couldnt really do anything, except be safe and drive slow. Church was cancelled, and so Elder Romero and I were outside shoveling most of the day.  Our driveway took 1 and a half hours to clear...it sucked...then we drove over to a Hawaiian/Samoan family to help them. It was so great, yet weird because it wasnt as cold out, so I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans and what not...it was weird.

I do not have a skype ID, but I guess you can make me one...just make sure you write it down. also, I dont know what my plans are for Christmas yet, because there are about 7 or 8 families that want us to come over...so I will let you know. and I will call you to set a time, that morning, or the night before, or in the email next week.  The latest package I received form you contained my sperrys and the rugby tshirts/sweatshirt.  I'm feeling good, no illnesses here on this side of the world.  Romero's knee is ok, havent seen the doctor, because it wont help, he is waithing 5 months for surgery anyway. we are working on getting him a DonJoy Playmaker of sorts...the knee brace...so he can move around a little better. they have newer models now and they are like $1200 bucks...guys, the Church is true, haha. the hard part over here is not the leadership, its the finding/teaching. People are either JW's or catholics or I'm going to run form you/shut the door in your face...hehe its great.  The bigger picture really is that the Sisters are really as bad as Tyler said they are...man, they judge us elders so harsh and they talk in the "Spirit Voice" 24/7. its all good though...because the sisters in this district are, according to the other missionaries I have met, the chillest and most lax sisters. and they dont speak in that annoying voice either...but its all so great out here.  And Dad, you suck for wearing my coat...who do you think you are, honestly, you can't be a Scott twin, there is only room for the two of us, and you are too slow to pull that outfit off anyway. hehehehehe

I just found out about that shooting last night, and its so sad, because I had/have friends that went/go there and its so scary.  Please tell K.... to write me, seeing as I don't have his email or anything of the sort.  Please tell him the everything is ok, and that I'm praying for him, as well as his friend who is injured.  People in this world, man, are messed up. please tell K... that in times of need and in times when we are down and feeling like everything around us is falling down, that we must keep our heads up high...yes it is hard to do this and to be strong, and yes it is hard to be grateful for these things that happen and see these trials as things we can learn and grow form and better ourselves. but we must keep our heads up, and look up. when we fall, we must get up. and its hard to get up, but we have the best thing in the world to help us.  The Savior.  Trials are put into our lives to make us stronger, because we can come closer to the Savior and feel his loving hand reach out to us and help us and lift us up.  Crap happens in our lives like this tragedy, and it is so devastating and sad. And if we let ourselves become filled with anger, and sorrow, we will fall further down. Satan wants us to feel this way because he knows and thinks that we will struggle and fall further.  Rely on the Saviors help and focus on how to help, and what you can do to be strengthened from this sad occasion. K..., focus on the good not the bad.

Anyway to focus on the good this last week, um not a lot happened, and sorry mom I dont have any new pics.

I am struggling to lose weight right now, which is ok with me, because I have been working out a ton because Romero has a gym membership, so we go at 5:30 in the morning, Monday through Friday, and so I'm getting stronger.  And my arms are getting bigger, they are almost to 17" around now, which is pretty good, but I will have them about 20" by the end of the mission. anyway, this last week was great.

Monday...was Pday, and I emailed you guys then we met up with our zone leaders, who are in my district, and we went shopping at the mall, and drove all over the place.  It was fun, and we actually, on accident, drove into Connecticut, because the ZLs typed in the wrong address.  It was funny.  Then we had a dinner appt with the Mo....  family, which is part-member, and the husband, is the non-member, and he is also a Pro Chef, and so we ate good, and they love feeding us, so like once a week we are there.

Tuesday...we had a meeting with the leadership of the mission, all DLs, ZLs, APs, STs, and the president. this is now every Tuesday over this thing called web ex, its pretty cool.  And we did service with this family who is moving, and I moved them by myself

Wednesday...another regular day, did service...moving same family by myself

Thursday...the same as above did service again, same family, same move my by myself...it was tiring, and we had an ugly sweater surprise bday party for the ward mission leader.  He lives out in the boonies.  And his house is from the 1700s, and it is heated by a furnace outside...and it has a water well in it, and it is so cool.   Brother Kurkpatrick is so cool and the must gungho about missionary work and it rocks.

Friday.......not a regular day. we were called by Sh...  an investigator, who speaks Chinese only...it was great.  Her heat in the house went out, so we went over to check it, and her oil tank is empty...ahhhhh. it really sucks, because they are expensive and old/hard to fill up. we then had district meeting and, right before that meeting we went over to the ZLs apartment to film something for the Christmas party, and it was funny.  After D-meeting, we went Olive Garden, and we got the soup/salad/breadsticks...man your soups are so much better mom.  We then went out and made some visits to less actives and did some service. and then we had dinner had the benches, a younger family, kind of like the Ahlstroms. they are so funny, and so sarcastic. then we went home.
 

Saturday...we had a lesson appointment por Ra..   y Be.... por el segundo leccion, pero , Be... nos llamo' en el noche de Viernes, Ra... was having serious chest pains, so he was admitted to the hospital that night, and it was scary. but we visited him in the morning, and we received a call from this family that was in another ward from my stake, and they were at the same hospital, Bay State,  because there daughter was in a car accident.  Her car started to slide as she was in the mountains or hills I should say, and she lost control and her car jumped the guard rail and landed 30 feet below...she is ok, minus a severely fractured ankle, and a cut face.  It's super scary/sad and so we gave her a blessing. anyway this week was pretty slow...and then  the snow hit, and everything really was slow.

I love it here and no puedo esperar por navidad y por la oportunidad que yo tengo que llamarles y hablar a traves de Skype y telefono. [ I can't wait for Christmas and for the chance I have to call you and talk through Skype ]

This week, during my study, I have realized that before I do anything else to study the language, I'm going to finish the BOM in Espanol. and so during my reading, which is so slow, I have just finished reading Mosiah 6 or 7.  And I read that as Mosiah was given the kingdom he promised to serve as his father,  and he proceeded to say that that as the people till the earth, he will also for he does not want to become a burden to his people. this mad me think a lot about how leaders in the church don't depend on others to help them.  They all have lives before they have callings.  And it goes the same way with families...families do all they can to serve one another in times of need, before they go out and do their calling, or job.  And Mom, I have really learned and realized how much selfless service you give and the charity you truly have towards all people. Thank you so much for serving everyone because "when ye are in the service of your fellow men, ye are only in the service of your God".  I love you mom, and Dad it goes the same for you too, in all your service in young mens and in your callings as well.  Remember, that Christ served to lift people up, not to lift himself, and we must do the same if we are to become Christ-like.  I love you all so much and I will see you on Christmas over Skype/calling

Elder Mason Scott

[Mason] howdy to all those who are cold as well

It is so spankin cold here all the time, like seriously, it doesn't warm up...I get up in the morning and have to scrape the car, 3 hours before we go use it. Buts its all good fun. please do not send me the ipod, just send CDs and what not, yes pictures of the fam...the ones that we just barely took. I don't need anything for the cold weather, people literally buy us expensive stuff because they want to.  I will go ahead and purchase tennis shoes here since you cant find them..and the next package you send...be it soon or whenever please send my old church shoes, with shoe goo...just in case. Thanks for the package with the cookies, which I finally got, they were so hard...but its all good. why cant you send me my new pillow?

Anyway this last week was great, we did so much that the week pretty much flew by, which makes it difficult to talk about the week because I don't remember anything. let me see...

MONDAY...after emailing we went down to the Amherst church building, where the sisters in our district are, to film a Christmas skit video for our mission party in a few weeks...its so funny. we then proceeded to a members house to eat dinner and share a message that night.

Tuesday...I got up, worked out, showered, ate some cereal, and then studied (the usual morning) and then we left to go contact some less actives and do mormon.org/mormon channel stuff at the Chicopee library. we did contacting for almost the entire day, and then had dinner at the M.....s (who are Samoan!!!) and we had some great food. (Springfield is full of Samoans and Boricuas (Puerto Ricans)). I shared a message with them and then we went home.

Wednesday...pretty much the same thing as above.

Thursday...we contacted for a while, and then we went over to this house to give a non-memeber a blessing. Hermano N..., a less-active member is friends with this guy, and he was there as well. this guy, Ra..., and his caretaker, Be...., were there. Ra... is a current lung cancer patient and he pretty much only speaks Spanish. and its in a raspy whispery voice, so I cant understand a single word. anyway, when we got there he could barely even speak at all, and this was going on for a few weeks I guess, and so we gave him a blessing to be healed and after the blessing we all waited in silence and then Ra... tried to speak. and before you could just slightly hear him, and so he began to speak, in the super quiet, discernible voice, and by the 5th or so word, his voice all of a sudden was 10x louder...it was sooooooooo cooooooool. I was like booo yaaaa...jk. he was so happy after it. we set up an appt to teach him on Saturday, and he said that he was going to come to church on Sunday, with Hermano N....

Friday...Zone conference about some up the morning to about 3pm, and then we had our ward Christmas party. this day was so great because we had set a goal with our ward to bring 1 non-member from each auxillary unit, and they all did. I was so busy at the party talking. anyway I set an appt with Ro... to go over and teach a lesson, and Ro.... is the one that I talked about before, he is a non-member, but has started to come to church, and his mom was excommunicated a long time ago...but anyway we set the appt for Sat as well.

Saturday!!!...usual morning routine. lesson with Ra.......restoration.. I tried to help teach and elder Romero would literally tell me what to talk about and I did but I couldn't follow anything they were really saying. then we tried to set a baptism date...he said not yet he wants to learn more...great! We can help...its was great...he didn't show up at church though, but I think he is sick or something because he wasn't feeling to good on Sat. then we went to teach Ro... we didn't get to the lesson because he just wanted to play his guitar for us and talk about stuff, but we have another lesson this week with him. at 7pm, the BYU bball team came to the stake center and we all got to go to it and hear them speak...which is funny because they lost their game earlier that day, but they had some super powerful messages. and I got to see the mission president...he seemed a little frustrated because of my companion's knee getting hurt again, but I talked to him and he was like I'm not mad at you, I'm sad because Romero is making the situation and your training harder.   I reassured him that all will be ok.  I love President Packard so much.

Sunday...church time baby...lets see, I pretty much had the best day ever. I dont know why, but its was really good. Ro... was there, and he is doing really great,but he struggles, it seems, with smoking...but also with weed.  I happened to glance over in his house, and there was this little pot of soil with a green stem growing up and it made me laugh so hard when I got back to my house that night. but I'm so happy right now. He (Ro...) bought me and Romero each a pair of leather gloves from Banana Republic...we are talking $90 dollar gloves here... I love that guy.

Anyway the mission is great, and I guess if you want you can send me my ipod, I believe its in the casio container in my room...its in the watch case...I believe. no me recuerdo exactamente. but cds are great too. Disney/church stuff is great.

Spriritual Message...and cool fact. President Packards 1st counselor is Clayton Christensen, aka the author of your fav book...and anyway.... the spirit works is so many ways my friends. at the M...s house at dinner I talked about success in missionary work and how it comes not through how many people we bring to the gospel, but if we simply invite and ask. Even if the answer is not, we have success because we asked and invited. anyway i taught about this, and in elders quorum, Brother M... was teaching about examples and the example that Joseph Smith set in doing all things. And I guess something I taught Brother M... stuck and he talked about what he felt and he learned form the lesson (I taught him...I dont really remember anything I taught the guy though. We must remember that we can not keep our mouths closed to share the gospel.  We have to open them and not be afraid to talk...because the Lord will fill us with what to say... I have experienced this.  Please always remember that fear only exists because satan wants it to.  He wants us to be afraid because then we don't act, or we don't do that one thing that will help us or someone else come closer to the Savior or jump onto the path of righteousness.  Always take courage with you wherever you go, for that is one of our strongest weapons against satan.

I love you all and I will talk to you next week

Elder Mason Scott

[Weston] 2 Month Mark!

Hello Everyone!

I hope all are doing well this Christmas season! I cannot believe it has already been 2 months. It does not feel like it has been that long! Crazy! I do not know if anyone would think this to, but I thought that California would be warm year round. But instead, it is freezing. Okay not freezing, but it is the 40's  most of the time here. It is quite cold here. I am not thrilled about that, plus is rains a lot here too. Santa Ana is strange, I never would have thought that it was like this. Anyways, all is good with life here in California. Two months of training down, another 2 and some to go. Training is super fun. Okay maybe not that fun. I wish that I could be done already and have a clue of what I am doing, but sad to say, I do not. I am learning a lot though. Spanish is hard still, and I hope that I can start understanding better real soon, It is interesting, during lessons when I get off because I don't know what is going on, I just sit there, and feel embarrassed. I really hope that changes. Anyways, the food is killing me here. I cannot stop eating the food I mean. Tortillas beans rice enchiladas, posole, tacos, lengua, everything is so bomb. I cannot stop eating. But I have increased my working out schedule because of it. I work out in the morning and before I go to bed because other wise I would probably die of fatness. Mexican food rocks! Alright let me break down my week for everyone.

Monday - Monday we had to go to the Doctor for my companion, he is having a serious problem that I cannot mention for fear of him finding out. But that pretty much took up my whole day. I wrote 5 letters also, but had no stamps, which I was not happy about. Then we taught out investigator family I....y A... , who are cool, but they just think way to had about everything. Plus I... used to be a JDubb ( Jehova's Witness) So they are always easy to teach! ;)

Tuesday - Tuesday we taught few lessons, to our recent convert B...., and other investigators. Just a normal day. The families in out ward are getting mad at me and Elder Vincent because we have a car and the sisters are on a bike, but they crashed their car, and my comp. Has a medical problem that keeps him in a car, and the members seriously yell at us because of it, and we cant do anything about it. Coach, Help? (anyone got ideas?)

Wednesday - Zone meeting, and studying. we put up Christmas lights on our ward mission leaders home, that was super fun! I love doing service, but it is super cold here. So sometimes It really is not service with a smile.

Thursday - we taught B...again, which is sad, because she is like 75, and lives in a garage. She freezes all the time and we have nothing that we can give her to keep her warm. She is always sick, but she loves the church which is awesome. Tonight I think we are going over to give a blessing.

Friday - we taught our most progressing investigator A... . He is 16 and so cool! He loves to skateboard, and he is getting baptized on the 29th, we have a lot to teach him still, but he comes to church all the time. It rocks! We also taught another investigator who struggles with the Word of Wisdom, he cannot stop drinking. We are dropping him because I wont do anything that we ask him. He does not want to change, It is very sad for us because He would be so great in the church.

Saturday - we knocked a ton, as in for 3 hours in an apartment complex, I started some discussions and we only found 3 new investigators, which is awful. Nobody would open their doors. But We had a member with us the whole time so that was cool.

Sunday - Studying, meetings, Church, and dinner. Then the Christmas Devotional It was a great day, we topped it off at a members home with Hot Chocolate.

This week was super good! I learned a lot about myself, and I know that my mission is improving my life. I am changing, and helping others change. The refiner's fire is comparable to the mission. I honestly could not ask for a better mission to serve in, but If I could choose a companion well I am fairly certain that Mi gemelo (my twin) and I would rock the socks off everyone here. I know that I am here for a reason and I cannot wait to finish training and get out there and focus 100% of my time on others!  I love you all and cannot to hear from you all next week!

Your favorite missionary in the CALI,

Elder Weston Scott 

P.S. Please write letters!

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