[Mason] We need more time in the freakin day

If there is anyone in this world who needs more time in the day, it is the missionaries in the Lynn Spanish Branch.  Now the reason behind that, is because we found 7 investigators over the course of the last week and a half, and with them all, we make a total of 15 investigators, whom all are in need of being taught each week....how do we do it.  It is so hard to teach them all...I will be honest.

The coolest part though is that we had 6 at church, and we weren't expecting any to come.......because we have some that are to shy to come right now, until they learn more. but it made our day so good.

We had two dinners last night, and boy, did I want to punch a wall......my stomach hurt so bad.  I have been trying to get out of eating so much, and so I say I'm on a diet, and I need their help to keep it, and so they let me take it home, or they give me less.  Part of the reason why I can do this, is because I have one of the best and most open relationships with the members here.  They all love me, and I love them all.  They are the best.  But we had a lesson at 4, and we were told that we would not be eating, just having like a small snack, and I figured, that it would be fine.  We also had an appt at 5, where we were supposed to be eating dinner, and now, I wasn't too afraid of having, snack before....but I forgot that this family, the Velasquez family, knows that I can put down food, due to a recent party at the church, where I pounded down a bunch of food......and so we show up, and we are supposed to teach the grand-daughter the gospel of Jesus Christ, they weren't there, and there was this massive dinner prepared.....excuse me not dinner, a "snack".....I though it was supposed to be a snack.....and I didn't translate anything wrong...she said snack.  We then are invited to sit down....so I do.....and then she, Sister Velasquez, grabs our plates and scoops up rice onto Pennington's plate, and then on to mine, and then onto mine again....2 freakin scoops.....OK and then the chicken...1 piece for Penn, and 2 for me...what  the heck!.......sald...Penn doesn't want any,....oh look a scoop onto my plate....wooo hoo.  I ate for 4 people at once...I swear....but I finished it.....just so we are clear.

Now we have to jet and get to our next appt at 5, so we leave.....waddling out the door....and then we show up, and Sister Melo....my Spanish Mother....seriously just like you mom, but not quite as awesome....anyways, we show up and the plates are sitting out with the food.  She served them up already and guess what it was....Rice....Chicken.....Salad.....and Meatloaf......we ate pretty much the same thing.....and close to the same amount....i could not finish the plate....and the thing is that we were coming to her house because we don't have a dinner.....it was a nightmare.....my stomach still hurts right now....

Anyways...the work here is going great......we have been exercising pretty good in the mornings, because we all go to the beach, half of the Zone, and we all play ultimate Frisbee....and it is fun...we start at 6 am until 7am...then go home........but we have all these small guys right.....and we have a state champion runner, Elder Maughn, who is really really fast and fit.  We were playing at one point, and he was covering me.....and he couldn't catch me.....and nobody could.....and they all blamed it on the sand....well you know what, I'm running on it as well.....so then the next day we went to a soccer field.....and they couldn't shut me down....I was quicker than all of them....not faster...but quicker.....and do you know what some of them said......"Elder Scott, I think you can play Rugby in college."  and do you know what I did......I smiled and was so fascinated by that comment....so family there's always a chance....but i don't think I want to...right now.

So i didn't really have a topic i thought about all week...but i found this really cool Melchizedek Priesthood manual from like 1987, and it teaches how we can magnify our callings and become better Priesthood holders. and i really enjoyed.  I encourage all of you to find out why the Melchizedek priesthood is important to you.....Men and women....because it is on the earth today for nothing....we have it to bless women children and men, and to bind together Families for eternity and also to help people become true disciples of Christ. The priesthood and by the priesthood, God blesses us, because all blessings come from the power of God.

I have a testimony of the Church and of Christ and my testimony is that The Church of Jesus Christ is on the Earth Today and that Christ Lived, Christ Died, and the Christ Lives Again and i know that the Priesthood is the power of God and it is on the earth today, and that by the Priesthood, my family will be together forever.  Its not a belief, its not a guess, and its not a hope. its true. My Family will be together Forever.

Have a great week and ps....please send me my pink cleats.....I could use them over here....

Love you all

Elder Mason Scott

the Dominican Cake made by the De La Cruz Family....they are like the Dominican Cake Boss......we brought it for President Packards Birthday....

[Weston] Anaheim Weekly August 18, 2014

Hello!

Hope all is well back home for everyone! This week was pretty great!  Just some highlights I guess! We played charades as a missionary family night, and we had to act out Old Testament prophets, that was fun! I got Elijah. That was fun to act out hahahahaha. Anyways, we also got to go to the doctor again for me! Surprise surprise surprise!  It was fantastic! Hahaha not so actually.

We taught Axel our most progressing investigator. He is doing awesome!  He is almost done with Second Nephi! Boo yah! He likes the Book of Mormon a lot, and likes church too! He is pretty set for his baptismal date for the end of this month! Yeah!!!! We taught him this week about obedience, the Law of Chastity, and the Word of Wisdom. I was talking about a month ago with some other younger missionaries who mentioned the fact that they really dislike teaching the Law of Chastity because it gets "awkward." Not so. It is only awkward if you make it awkward.  Elder Orozco and I rocked that lesson. These commandments are so important! And the investigators we have need to know how important they are and what they even are! It was great!

The greatest thing that happened this week was we got to have a Skype Lesson! Our very first one for the both of us! Guess who it was with?  My Aunt and Cousin! Yeah! It was incredible! The spirit was so strong!  The tools we have these days in the mission and around the world are so powerful! Now we can teach anyone around the world if we have WIFI!

Anyways, the low of this week was when we went to visit Gina our less-active/ investigator. She suffers from severe depression, and has told me on several occasions about the fact that she has thoughts about taking her own life. This week it was extremely serious, the worst I have seen it since I have been here. We sat and talked with her for a while, and we offered to give her a blessing, and she said yes, and asked me to do it. The next morning we had Ward Council in which we explained the situation in full detail to everyone that was there. The bishop was already aware of the situation, but there was more that the entire ward needed to be doing for her. It was great to see everyone pitch in with ideas, and with help to give to her. They made some plans that now I believe will help her so much. We also made plans with her to call her twice a day, and try to visit her every other day. She needs help! Ay! It was hard to see her in the shape she was in. She is an incredible Sister! Her two kids are awesome! One of them basically is Spiderman.

This week, let's see. I also finished all of Jacob, Enos, Omni, Words of Mormon, and Mosiah in the Spanish Book of Mormon. Fantastic reading! #ILOVETHEBOM!!! I have really noticed a difference in the level of reading I now have in Spanish. It is such a blessing to see that our Heavenly Father truly does bless us with the talents we need to accomplish His work.

During Elder's Quorum yesterday, the Hermano Gomez was rebuking every single thing that the teacher said. It was very interesting, because literally every word that the teacher said was pure truth, and so it got very heated in there between all of the Elders and the Hermano Gomez. Some of us missionaries who were sitting farther in the back were smiling and trying not to laugh. It was hard. We were talking about baptism, and about the age that kids are baptized at, and he was not agreeing with anything!

Other than that, this week was pretty fantastic! Thanks for the support and prayers!

Your favorite missionary in So. Cal!

Elder Weston Scot

[Mason] Hello

Ok so not much time this week to write a letter. i will just be short in writing. we picked up 2 solid families of investigators that are so prepared and ready to learn.  And it is so fantastic. we had our interviews this week with president. we had church, and we taught 27 lessons this week...it is climbing.  We had an activity on Saturday night, and it was a movie night put together by yours truly and elder Pennington, and we watched 17 miracles, and our investigator, Amelia, came and brought her mom.  It was really awesome, and now the mom is interested in what it is we have to say. Amelia wants to be baptized and she kind of wants to serve a mission in a few years. the only dilemma is that she works on Sunday, and her boss will not change her schedule, and it is at the same time as church, but she was able to get it off yesterday.

Let me see...nothing else this last week, I may have time later in the week to email again if we are allowed to

Love you  all

Elder Scott

PS --
We had to go help a family move.....hispanic family moves never are short..it took us 4 hours...and we still were not done....it was hard.... I have to go now, I will talk to you next week, love you

Elder Scott

[Weston] Anaheim Weekly August 11, 2014

To whom it may concern,

This past week was pretty great! We got to get out and teach and find a lot more people! It was great! We also got to do some great service on Saturday for a young newly married couple in our ward. We were there for 4 hours moving things around and building things and overall cleaning up his backyard. It was a lot of fun.

We had this pretty cool activity this past Monday that we are going to have again tonight!  Basically it is family night, but as missionaries we are inviting as many people as we can (investigators, recent converts, less-actives, etc.) because we discuss different principles from PMG and make it into am activity. This week we are going to play charades! Boom!

We had an awesome zone meeting this week as well! We learned about and practiced using The Bible and The Book of Mormon in every teaching situation. We learned about how we need to use scriptures in every teaching and finding situation. It was pretty exciting! Elder Orozco has had a lot of success using the Bible and The Book of Mormon approach in every situation, so we are working in making our teaching better!

Something that I have found is that having a native speaker as your companion gets difficult sometimes because often they just do not want to speak to their companions in Spanish. This week week we broke that barrier, and my companion is willing to speak to me more in Spanish. I spoke more Spanish this week than any other week I have had so far on my mission!  It was so awesome!   I am trying hard to get used to just responding and speaking in Spanish, and I believe it is paying off!

We had exchanges this past Thursday which was pretty good. Elder Gardner, my District Leader's brand new greenie came with me for the day in my area. Very interesting kid. He just graduated, which was so weird! They are all so young! Haha. It was a good exchange for the most part. We taught Gina and Alfredo our less actives, and they are doing well enough, but just do not want to come to church very much. Frustrating right? Why!!!! We tell them and tell them and tell them the things that they can do to have more happiness at home and just be better off, but they just do not do them! They wonder why things are harder than what they think they should be. If they would just read in the scriptures and pray and go to church! If only they truly could understand!

This past week we got to teach Axel our most progressing investigator! He is so incredible! He only has 17 years but is so mature! We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ this past visit. He enjoyed it a lot! We needed to reschedule his baptismal date because it was supposed to be yesterday, and so after we finished the lesson, we straight up asked him if he would prepare to be baptized for the end of this month, and he said yes without even a pause! The first time he was so unsure about it, now he said yes without doubts! It was awesome! He came to church yesterday as well, that makes two Sundays in a row! And he is understanding so much in the Book of Mormon right now! He has already read to 2 Nephi 8! He said he has a goal to finish it before school starts again, he has about a week and a half. He is so great! There are not words to describe or explain what I am thinking! Pray for him!

I am now in Mosiah in The Book of Mormon in Spanish! I love the scriptures! I wish we had more time to study each day haha! It would be so nice! Three hours is not enough. I know it seems like it could be, but it isn't. Anyway, this week was another good one, I cannot believe I have been out here so long now. Crazy! Time is flying by and I really do not like it! Slow it down please!

Your favorite missionary in So. Cal!

Elder Weston Scott

[Mason] um bom dia....Pronounced as ohm bohm dgia....( its Portuguese )

Ok so this last week was very nice....lots of things have happened that have so much meaning to me. 

We had our lovely zone meeting, put together by Elder Calvert and Elder Tait, the Zone Kings over here in the Cambridge North Zone.  It was very nice, and it was about personal contacting, and asking questions, and getting new investigators.  We had an X-CIA agent there that is a member, Brother Stokes, that taught us how to ask questions, because he used to be an interrogator for the CIA.  It was cool. we then had a personal contacting Role play, and the Zone chose who was to do the role plays, based on who they think is the best in the zone, and they all said Scott and Pennington....so our companionship got up and role-played...it was real great.  The "civilian" brought up why we wear this clothing, and then went into "well, Jesus wore sandals!..." but we saved it and it was really fun. the only problem, is that it was in English, and so it is so much harder for me to contact people in English.....we normally skip the white people on the streets here in Lynn, because we only want to speak to the Dominicans and Guatemalans, and all of the Spanish population....and elder Penn is the same way.  We do not talk to WHITE PEOPLE...they just are not very nice over here.

Anyways, it was nice to be recognized as something in the zone.....but something even better than that is that, on Tuesday, we had 6 lessons planned, ok and over here, that's quite a bit, because if you think of it, that could be 30+ lessons a week....so we get to Tuesday morning, and 3 of them cancelled....as we get to the first 3 they all cancelled. we had members scheduled for each one...anyways so it was a nightmare at first....but I realized, that it is God telling me like look...you have this time, let me see what you will do with it.  We filled it with 5 lessons....so in total, we taught 8 lessons with an hour of English class in between that...now we felt like masters of the Work over here.  It was so sweet...but the only downside, was that we didn't get home till like 10....but it was by far, one of my most favorite days of the mission and not to mention we did it all on bikes!!!

My thoughts have been focused on a few different topics this week, but to be short in writing, I want to focus on the atonement of course.  Just thinking this week, What are we all?...Sinners, we cant help it, and because of this hard cold dreary fact, we have consequences that are a result of our natural desires.  Now we read that Jesus Christ suffered for all manner of pains and afflictions, and our sins, and loneliness, and sadness, and all manner of anything and everything we will go through in our short lives here on earth....because in reality, they are short in the greater scheme of things.  Now these consequences of these sins can be painful as well, and they can cause us to weep, and they can cause us to mourn and suffer, but one part of the atonement that we must not overlook is that the atonement of Jesus Christ, the expiational sacrifice of Christs Body and Blood for us, the Human Race, is to Redeem us from our fallen state....because our state after we have sinned, is still a fallen state.  Christ not only suffered for the sin itself, but also for the pain wrought by said sin, and this he did to bring mercy upon us, to comfort us, because if he hadn't, we would not be able to repent.  Only God can forgive us of our sins, because he knows what we are going through, and so he knows exactly how we feel, and we we will have to go through after sin.  All this he did for another wise purpose, and that purpose is so that we are never alone.  Loneliness truly is a dark and scary state to live in, and only Christ suffered that, because in reality, we cant suffer that, because God and Jesus Christ will always be there.  Christ had to suffer it so that we wouldn't ever be alone. so that he would know how to truly succor his children.  We must use the Atonement to help us overcome the consequences of sin as well, and i know that if we do, we will truly find the peace and happiness that we want and need to be able to press forward, or A Seguir Adelante, and I have a testimony of the atonement. I know that there is a power that comes from accessing the Atonement in full, and that we can do it by ourselves. we cant do anything by ourselves. we have to accept that fact because when we do we can let the healing power of the Atonement, and the enabling power of the atonement enter our lives completely and fully, and when that happens, we will truly find who we are, and who we can become.

We are going to Salem today, to do the tours on the Red line there, its really weird , because I have walked up there a few times before today, and I remember all the places we went in October 2012....its weird to think that i walked here with my family, and now its just me....

Um I'm enjoying the mission, and I am so eternally grateful for the changes that God has granted me in my own life.

Elder Scott

[Weston] Anaheim Weekly August 4, 2014

Hello!

This week was very interesting! It was packed full of all of these random things we had to do, and so literally we had not time to work this week. We taught a record low number of lessons this week for me personally, I bet it could be in the run for a mission record. It was a great week nonetheless. We had several opportunities to do service this week, which was fantastic! I love service! Elder Orozco and I on Wednesday got to help out a young member clean up a new home he had bought to move into. Can I just say gross. The sisters in our ward, our zone leaders, and us were all there, we were painting, cleaning windows, scraping floors, cleaning kitchen cupboards and so on and so forth. We went out the the garage to clean out the garage, and when he opened up the garage door, I about freaked out. So incredibly nasty. Rat droppings everywhere. There was a hole in the side of the house that let rats inside, and the previous homeowners did. It even care. I felt so bad for this Hermano. But we got pizza afterwards! Sweet!

Saturday morning during our companionship study, we got an urgent text from the Bishop, basically named project clean.  An Hermana in our ward had to evacuate her home within 24 hours. And so we left our apartment and went over there to get to work. Wow. That was a project. She makes homemade signs and billboards that go on freeways and streets and things, and she liked to keep everything. Wow. Anyways, the Bishop and I were going to town crushing these billboards because they had to be less the 5 feet in length. It was fun, basically we folded the giant plastic whatever material signs, and then with our feet slammed them to the ground, causing the sign to break in half, with an explosion of sign materials going everywhere. It was fun. There was a lot of trash she had, and so we separated the metal out, and went and recycled it and got some extra money for her, it was very sad, because she is a single mother with five kids. She has two sons that are fifteen and sixteen, Julio and Arturo, both of which are fantastic young men. They are incredible, but it was hard for them to pack up everything and leave. So we did this Saturday, and on Sunday after church they needed a lot more help, and so we headed on over there and started working again on all of her things. It was some good exercise, I used a hand saw to cut up some things, then the Hermano Solano told me that there was a couple power tools I could use instead. We got a lot done for her, all of us missionaries in the ward were there Saturday, and Sunday it was just my district leader and his greenie, and my companionship.

Saturday night, we were asked to bring some missionary supplies to decorate a table for the Solano's son who is leaving on his mission. He had his Eagle Scout Court of Honor combined with his Missionary Farewell, and so his parents asked us to bring supplies, and be there. Little did we know that when we arrived he was going to have us help set up everything. We had no problem doing so, until we had to bring the piano in to the gym. We found one in the church building with wheels, and rolled it to the gym, then shortly found out that no one that could play the piano that had showed up, so we took it back to the primary room. However in that same room there is a self playing or automatic piano. Very nice, the only was that it was so heavy! And it had no wheels. So we grabbed the Bishop and Hermano Solano, and we start moving it, then we get to the door, I am walking backwards, leading, and Hermano Solano got stuck at the door and had to bail out on my side. Wow. Heavy Heavy Heavy Piano! It was fun though.

Service was awesome! I have not had too may opportunities to do service on my mission so far so this was fantastic.  I had a follow-up appointment this past Wednesday for my foot surgery, I finally got my foot to fit in a normal shoe again. I am not a fan of feet anymore. Ugh. But all is well!  Our most progressing investigator Axel finally came to church! It was awesome! I cannot believe it! He said he enjoyed it for the most part! He is planning on coming next week.

So my new companion and I are getting along very well! He is super great, he graduated in 2013 as well, and we literally have the same ideas. It is pretty cool. He is helping me out a lot with Spanish. It is funny, I have to say things twice a lot of the time, and so if he doesn't get in when I say it in English, I say it in Spanish. It is fun. Sorry in pictures this week!

Your favorite Missionary in So. Cal!

Elder Weston Scott

[Mason] I really hate slow computers....this email will be shorter than the norm

Dear Everyone,

This week has been a real Hoot. Seriously a real HOOT. I enjoyed everything this last week. We got a Car, on Thursday, and it has been a delightful Experience, because we have literally had to use it a bunch. but the sad thing is that we don't get to use the bikes much anymore. But its all good.

So With the Tornado Clean-Up, we only helped on Monday, the Day of the Tornado, because the City just knows what they are doing. (I will send some pictures)


 I feel like everyone in the Branch Loves me enough to where they think they can Call me GRINGO and I will be ok with it....my accent is getting worse somehow...I really work on it a lot. Mira, cuando yo estaba en springfield, la gente me dijo que yo tengo uin accento de los mexicanos....pero ahora es gringo. [ Look, when I was in Springfield, the people told me I  had a mexican accent... but now its gringo!? ] What the Freak Happened.  But I realize now that it will most likely stay gringo, because I am gringo...

Pero esta bien conmigo [ But it's all well with me ]

Um this week I gave my training on Our Missions 5 priorities

1 Progressing investigators

2 Ward Leaders

3 Members

4 Service

5 Personal contacting.

I ran out of time in it, because we had to end early, but it was so fantastic. I absolutely know that God helped me to give this Training, because I felt So good during and after and I felt like I learned something as well.  One thing that I didn't get to share, was a scripture, one that I found that hits me hard in terms of my own personal conversion.

Alma 5:14-17

 14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?

 15 Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you? Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?

 16 I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?

 17 Or do ye imagine to yourselves that ye can lie unto the Lord in that day, and say—Lord, our works have been righteous works upon the face of the earth—and that he will save you?

Now I hope all of us can truly think about where we are, and that we can answer these questions with a Yes. Its hard to say yes because every day tests us, and we have to seek and strive for the answers of yes. All of these questions, in my opinion, cant be answered now. these are eternal questions, that, over time, as we strive to answer yes to, we will eventually say yes. Every day, we must seek to find the answer to these questions, and always strive to have a better answer.

Love you guys, hope all is well,

Elder  Scott