[Weston] Anaheim Weekly November 12, 2014

Hello Everyone!

It has been a long time! Did you all miss me? That is what I like to hear! So this past week and a half have gone super well! Not too much to share though!

So last week we had an awesome family night with the Terán family, and we got of our recent  converts there! It was super great! I was asked to recite the First Vision. It was so spiritual, I don't think I have shared it as spiritual as well. It was quite amazing. We also met this new family in our ward who are becoming active again, they are so cool! I have never worked with a family that has so much desire to return to the Gospel. They have so many problems, but have so much faith.

This past week we had a district leader meeting, and so I got to go and learn from President Taggart. It was intense. I have a lot of stuff to do that is added upon my other duties. Woohoo! We had a sweet service project this past week as well, all of the Spanish missionaries were recruited to set up this huge cultural event. We worked way faster than they expected, and so we did so many random things that they could think of because we ran out of work! Missionary power! So this week Elder Cardon (General Authority) came and toured our mission. We ended up having a zone conference with him in which we learned a lot about following the spirit. It was super great!

I also participated in a missionary choir we made for a devotional that Elder Cardon spoke at. This is letter is pretty short, I know, I apologize. Yesterday we went and visited one of our investigators, Eric, who is part of a part-member family. It was a blessing that literally changed his life. I am so excited for him. Success is on its way that is for sure. Eric has struggled forever with the Word of Wisdom, and this week he finally hit a stumbling block with it and realized what it is doing do him and his family. 

Anyways, I am still working hard! I am still living and loving the mission! I love you all!

Your favorite missionary,

Elder Weston Scott

[Mason] Good morning from the East

Wow...so many things have happened this last week, which includes some exchanges, some emergency exchanges, some good eating, and a New Baptsimal Commitment, oh and some good exercise and hope...

Ok so I went on exchanges to Lynnfield with My Zone Leader and Dear friend Elder MacJanet and boy was it a blast.  We gave a devotional about the Restoration at a Campout in Salem on Friday night to start them off.  It was Fantastic! We worked out a bunch though.  Friday night before bed and Saturday morning we got up early...We did some Bi's and Tri's and then some chest...man it was exhausting. We have come to some new knowledge about building more muscle that is stronger and it is intense and it hurts so good.....so there is hope because I'm still one of the strongest in the Zone so...theres hope....hehe

Ok emergency exchanges happened for two reasones, but the elders with whom we exchanged only know one.  I will not elaborate, but boy is it hard to help to complete opposites work together in unison.  Also there was a baby blessing that I was asked to participate in and so we had to split because it was in another ward in revere, not Lynn. Funny story....the baby's butt was in my hand.....and he totally ripped butt into my hand.....it was nasty....

ok so The food is just good, I thought it was time to mention it

um Santos' date is now the 30th of November and it was a sweet lesson.

Um so for the week,a spiritual thought is that I have been really thinking at how the Lord really does prepare a way for us to accomplish that which he has asked us to do.  1 Nephi 3:7 is a clear scripture that has always made sense but now I have meaning behind it. I have never had to fix situations before or had to be the guy who everyone looks up to to fix everything...or he who is in charge.....nor do I feel like I could be that guy...but the Lord has helped me to be able to step away from Elder scott, and become the Leader.....The Lord filled me with Words and with solutions and answers and I never thought that I would have been able to fix anything, but I trust in the Lord and I am doing what he askes of me.  So he fulfills his promise...

So I know that that the Lord will prepare a way for us. Because that is what the Gospel is all About....a way for us to return home. If you cant believe me, or don't believe me, or are a little doubtful, I challenge you to Read the Book of Mormon, EL Libro De Mormon, o livro de mormon, or which ever language you are comfortable with, and you will find that Nephi does not lie. That God and Jesus Christ Live, and as they live thus will the Promise be that they will prepare the way for us.  They Love us more than how good chocolate tastes....they love us infinitely more than A mother could love her child, and with this love, they prepare the Path. remember that we have to put in our part though....

I know the Gospel is true and on the earth and that we all, as sons and daughters of God, will return back to him if we do as he says.

Have a great week, and have some fun, because fun is fun.  It wont beat the fun I'm having, but you can try.

Elder Scott

[Weston] Anaheim Weekly November 3, 2014

Hello!

This week was an interesting one haha. It was pretty great. My companion and I are doing great together now. Quite honestly I do not know what changed. Anyways, this week we had a lot of this that happened that caused us to lose time to work! On Tuesday there was a going away party for a senior couple that worked in the office, the Wades, and they will be missed. Everything seems to be changing in the mission, both bad and good changes. On a side tangent, there has been so much disobedience in the mission since we had a change of mission president, which is absolutely terrible. I can be 100% honest as well that it is not in the Spanish program. I know every single missionary in the Spanish program in my mission, and everyone is incredibly obedient, and it is so awesome and inspiring for me to always to my best and live the missionary standards. But anyways, it has been kind of ridiculous with the lack of obedience and respect for the mission President. President Taggart changed gears, and is now not going to put up with anything.  He has sent several Elders and Sisters home recently. 

Anyways, we had a super powerful Zone Meeting this past week,many we learned all about the Spirit and relying on him, receiving personal revelation, and recognizing the spirit. It was so powerful. I will attach the outline I received from the zone leaders. You all should check it out! :) We had exchanges on Thursday, and I went with my best friend out here, Elder Maughan. It was super great, I have such a great respect for this Elder, and we got some serious work done. My enthusiasm and excitement for the work has been recharged again and I love everything! :) I love exchanges like that. On Friday we had a 12-week follow-up meeting to review his training his going, and we watched this super spiritual video about the atonement. 

For Halloween we ate with a member and then we went to out bishop's house so that we could prepare for the Ward Activity that we were throwing the following day. On Saturday we set up the entire gym with tons of different activities, including a pumpkin pie walk and there was a bounce castle for the kids. It was super fun. I ran a donut station, so of course you can tell me how that went ;). It was great!

We had two investigators come to sacrament meeting this week, and we also finally got a baptismal date, but the guy is all talk and no action, so I am worried about him, his name is Mario. Sunday night we ate dinner with our Bishop's family. I got to wash all of the dishes! It was glorious! Haha Elder Quito and I washed together and we were doing hymns the whole time. It was fun.  

Anyways this week was great. Thanks for the support. Keep up the good work!

Your favorite missionary in So. Cal.!

Elder Weston Scott

1) Zone training
outline

2) Andrew, and I am wearing his Halloween mask. Looking good eh?

[Mason] Wow.....P-day nightmare.

Pues para empezar....well to start, we decided to do p-day a little different. we went ahead and shopped, Cut the good ol' hair, and then played some soccer for a few hours and then we went to a Brazilian Steak house and now we are here.   The nightmare comes to us in the rare form of stupidity brought to us by the people at the Brazilian Steak house.  We told them to charge us 16 missionaries separately.  We get to paying, and they can only accept  6 cards....what why.....they put us all on the same bill and the bill can only take 6 cards.....now the manager is mad.  OK nobody has cash...so I'm just like, get me cash asap, but I will pay now, so we can leave.  I pay, and it is $100.00, and we are like, what? why so much?....there are 6 of us, which would be 75......and the guy is like, well you guys should have paid separately, and we were like, excuse me, you can't do that.  So I was charged too much, which got fixed when Elder Arouja paid the difference.....but these guys wouldn't give us the money....so he went off in portuguese on these guys, and we ended up just walking out.  We can't have contention....not right now...

So this week was interestingly freaky....just so you know...don't be near Salem near Halloween, it is spooky...and there are a bunch of idiots....in terms of wearing all black and jumping out in front of cars at night time......ugh...guys....do you want to die?, hello? think about it....living or not?...ugh

Ummm also this week, we had a mission conference in Weston....that is the town name....and Elder Lawrence came, he is a 70, and he taught us of our lineage and about consecration and the gathering of scattered Israel.  Normally, when he does mission tours, he ends up speaking about obedience, and he didn't here.  He then said over the pulpit...."I know exactly what Elder Holland was talking about a few months ago, this mission is the best mission I have seen in a long time....you guys have a real chance at getting to the next level...in fact you are the closest I have seen....it was sweet!"

Let me see here...in the mission, we set a goal of baptizing 70 people in the month of November as a mission total....historically, the Massachusetts Boston Mission has never baptized more than 59 in a month.  So we set this goal and currently we have 110 dates set for the month. OK here is the catch.  In order for us to accomplish this goal, we have all, as missionaries, and some members, decided to sacrifice something in our personal lives, such as 30 minutes of sleep every day for this month, or candy, or sugar, or things of the sort.  Something that is important to us, that we enjoy and love, but are willing to do without to show our Heavenly Father that we want this Goal....its a sacrifice for more Blessing.   So, if you want to help out, you are invited to.  Pray about what it is that you could give up for a month to support the goal over here.  It is a stretch, that WILL HAPPEN. WE WILL DO IT.  There are no doubts over here.  In all of our prayers, public and Private, we are praying for this as well.....

IM SO PUMPED TO DO THIS.

We had a zone meeting this week, and I had to help the ZL's in motivating the Zone and helping the Zone to create a Zone Sacrifice as well. AND i realize now that for some reason, I like motivating people......its something that lets me be fun and energetic and lead....its sweet.

Let me see here.....we don't have heat in our apartment...so we are living at 64 degrees....It isn't too pleasant...but we found out today that we are moving either this week or next week...so yippee. We will be getting a gym near our new place...and so I'm pumped for that as well.

Something cool that we learned as part of the mission conf. was that the reason people are most likely interested in the message we share is because they have what Sister Lawrence calls "Believing Blood".  What that means is that they are most likely Descendants of Abraham and with that they are naturally inclined to heed to the message and precepts taught because they are from that blood line.  They are the chosen people of the Lord, literally.  Those of us who are Descendants of Abraham, or of the covenant people, we are more inclined to like it.....food for thought....and I encourage all who don't really know too much about their lineage, to study it and understand their role in the building of Zion on the Earth today.

Well love you, and have a great week.

Elder Scott

pic1...so i had an itchy back....and i grabbed what was closest, and i thought i grabbed a closed pen and use the back of it. turns out it was wrong....way wrong....completely and 100% wrong. but it sure did feel good at the time before realizing it...we got the stain out though....so no worries.

[Weston] Anaheim Weekly October 27, 2014

Hey Guys!

So this past week was very interesting, for the most part. We taught a few lessons, and we are trying hard to teach stronger and more powerful lessons. Something I have found, is that when you have a new companion that does not speak much Spanish, he can accuse you of just chatting during a lesson, or during a dinner appointment. Not so. It has been a severe struggle this week, more that others. I cannot explain over email how overwhelmed and stressed I feel. I have been called to train Elder Fonnesbeck,for a reason I still know not. I am trying very hard to be patient. This week I dove more into zone Christlike attributes section of Preach My Gospel in order to see what it was that I immediately could do to work on. I read over Patience and humility. Both of which I desperately need and want right now. I am at a road block with knowing what do to with my companion. 

We had district meeting this week, and I had the privilege of teaching! Sometimes I feel like I am literally the worst teacher, but hey, maybe that is not so! This month we have been focusing on teaching for understanding, and diligence, and shorter lessons (basically everything fro, chapter 8 in PMG). I decided to use the notes I had taken from a zone conference in May to create district meeting. I taught about teaching and expounding on everything we teach, explaining scriptures, and asking inspired questions. It seemed to go pretty well. For some reason the AP's came and joined us for our meeting, which does not normally happen. It was interesting. On Thursday I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Tanner in his area, and spend some time with a former companion. It went well, we talked about everything from our past companionship, and also about what I can do to improve as his District Leader, and what I can do as well as a trainer. 

On Friday night after planned and everything we went out to see Brian our 9 year-old investigator. He was not home, but his grandma Jaquelin who is a recent convert was. We sat and talked with her for a while, just a simple conversation, and we talked about her life, and different things she has gone through. We flat out told her that we never come by to drag people to church (she is less active and a recent convert). We asked her some personal questions, and we testified to her of our role as missionaries, we testified very powerfully as well of church, and the importance of following Christ, and that we must accept him and all He has done. We mentioned that Christ needs to be first in our hearts and in our lives, and that we must put Him over all other things, and trust in Him. The Spirit was incredibly strong, and it really helped me to realize my role again here as a missionary.

I think that the overall lesson I am facing and learning right now, is to trust and rely on the revelation President Taggart received for me to be a District Leader and a Trainer. I sustain my leaders, and so I sustain their actions. It is still hard for me though. I am learning to rely on the Lord, and the decisions He makes for His vineyard. I am just a servant, and I will do what I am asked to do, the best that I can do it. I am here to sacrifice everything, my time, my thoughts, my life for this work. I am starting to understand more about losing myself in this work.

Thanks for everything!

Your Favorite Missionary! :)

Elder Weston Scott

[Mason] Buenos Dias

       This week was legit just so all of you know, and the reason behind it is because of many things, but the main thing is that I have found my absolute favorite story in the Book of Mormon. It is found in the book of Helaman. And it is not Samuel the Lamanite, but instead it is Nephi, son of Helaman. It's a sweet story of defending your faith and being bold and knowing your stuff and trusting in God.

    Anyways, this week was pretty slow it seemed, planning District meeting, making sure that everyone is OK, and helping everyone get motivated. It is hard to be a leader sometimes, because when you love these people so much, you don't want to see them struggle or see them fail of even fall at all, and it happens, and it just kills me. It is hard because I can only do so much, and go on exchanges and stuff, but sometimes it's not enough.  So it's hard to be a leader but it's a blessing, because you learn how to love people more.

I absolutely hate seeing people struggling. I really wish I could help every single person succeed and get through the failures and make them all be super successful. I feel like that is my duty here.  Ever since the first interview with President Packard in the Mission Home, I have felt like a major part of my duty here is to help missionaries know their stuff and know how to do their stuff. I have been striving to do that ever since.  Now that I'm actually called to do that, I feel lost in how I can.  I want the best for everyone here.  I want flourishing areas for all of them, so they never have to feel down, because when a missionary has nothing to do, he or she gets sad and depressed, and it hurts me.  I want to cry sometimes when people say that they don't have anything to do, or when they come home frustrated for reasons that nothing happened that day.  It makes me so sad.  I want to just go in and work work work and find new people and talk to all the members and set them up for life.....but at some point, I realize this now, that they have to fall before they will get picked up. I'm planning on jumping and helping everywhere I can as soon as I can.   Part of this is also in my own companionship.. we have been struggling to get on the same page.  I have desires to work as hard as my body will allow, and even skip all the meals and everything, because I want this message out there. but he takes things at a slower pace, a little more timid pace, and not as much direction in terms of work load and how much we can actually do.  After the last few days of me jumping on the wheel 150% I showed him the true desire of the work we had 10 appts planned for after church yesterday.  The day before that several more.  We were heading towards the goal I have of teaching 32.  This is a milestone for the Lynn area, but also for the whole zone. Now my companion has caught fire of it.

Just  a shout out real quick to my brother.  I read through his email, and he said was talking about a training on keeping appts shorter and getting to the point and establishing our purpose and fulfilling said purpose as missionaries in these appts. and I have been trying to figure out what this district needs.  I know what it is and it is this. So thanks Elder Scott for helping me out.

I'm excited for what is to come in this district, because I have 3 different languages....English, Spanish, and Chinese.....so it is going to be fun when I have to go do interviews in the chinese side....I don't speak that....

I'm sorry for ranting about the previous stuff.  I am just passionate towards the Lord's Work. I can't bear the thought of Wasting the Lord's time anymore. there is not a second that he hasn't given us and so im just thinking out loud over email....

This last week we were able to teach our investigator, Sanchez, about prayer and also about why we read the book of Mormon....and he told us that he read the first ten pages of the book and he knows it is true.  It was sweet. He goes to institute on Fridays, but he can't make it to church yet, he is on fire.

Ummm so if you have any ideas on how to motivate people to want to improve constantly, please respond asap because that where I'm at.  I feel like I need help in learning how to motivate others to be better every second

I'm doing good otherwise, and I love this area.  Everyone is saying that I'm going to stay here through Christmas now,.. I'm hoping so....

I love you all, and have  great week

Elder Scott

[Weston] Anaheim Weekly October 20, 2014

Hello!

This week was so fast! I cannot believe it! My birthday was this past Tuesday for those of you who did not know. I will go over some interesting details of the day. So, we started out by taking my bike to the shop because it was having some issues, and that ended up being almost a hundred dollars in replacement parts, no biggie, and then I went to have a doctors appointment for my shoulders. At the doctors, I was evaluated for my pain in my right shoulder specifically and was given a cortisone shot. That hurt quite a lot! It was not very pleasant for a couple of days because the next day I literally could not  lift my right arm. Fun stuff! We got to have interviews with our Mission President this past Wednesday which was absolutely fantastic! I also got to teach District Meeting and I taught about the importance of teaching shorter lessons. It was pretty good, especially because President is going to try to get me some physical therapy to help me make it through my last year in the mission. Now, is it me or am I always writing home with a new ache or pain each week? Definitely not me right?

Our Ward mission leader Hermano Badillo is now the Bishop of of our ward, and so on Sundays I am the teacher for Gospel Principles. Kind of fun? Haha not. However, I speak Spanish way more fluently than I have ever given myself credit for! It is really cool to see that I can have a full on detailed conversation just about anything now! It is truly a blessing! Specifically I taught about talents, and the importance of developing our talents. I enjoyed the topic, but I only had ten minutes to prepare to teach the lesson. This week Elder Fonnesbeck and I got to do some actual knocking which turned out very well. We had an hour and a half, and we taught three lessons and got three new investigators in that time period. It was pretty great! 

Towards the end of the week, my companionship hit a rough spot, rougher than I have ever had on my mission, and we straightened it out completely on Saturday Evening. I have realized what it takes to truly be an effective leader, and I am trying to change the methods I was using beforehand. Everything is going smoothly now!

Thank you so much for all of the birthday wishes! I truly appreciate it! I can feel the support and love from you all sustaining me out here. Thank you!

Your favorite Elder in So. Cal.

Elder Weston Scott

1) Mine and Hermana Trujillo's birthday party! (And cake) she invited me over to share our birthday together.

2) the cake I made for my birthday. It came out super well!