Re: Where oh were has Elder Mason gone...

Hey man I will email on Wednesday, our p day is different every transfer week, and Elder Romero is getting transferred out for some reason, but I will let you know more on Wednesday...anyways sorry for the late heads up...and everything is good between me and romero...so its the Lord that is moving him not the companionship...and I may be district leader...so  ya

[Weston] First Transfer over? Wait, what?... Wow...

Hey everybody? Como estan mis amigos, espero que ustedes esten listos para el ano Nuevo! Se que estoy listo! Tengo muchas metas para el ano Nuevo, y voy a tener exito en estas. Gracias por todo el apoyo que me dan, y tambien por las cartas que me mandarin! Me encanta a recibir correo! :) [ How are you my friends, I hope you are ready for the new year! I know I am ready!  I have a lot of goals for the new year, and I know I will have success in these. Thanks for all your support you have given me.  And also ask the letters you have sent me! I love receiving letters!]  Hey everyone I sincerely hope that all is well back home! The new year is approaching very fast is it not? T-minus 2 days! Crazy right? Did everyone enjoy Christmas? I know I did! Everything I got Rocks! I cant wait for next year haha! Anyways, is there anything new going on back home that I have not heard about yet? If so, keep me updated! Well not really, It doesn't matter that much! The only thing that matters is what I am doing here in Santa Ana, California! Saving lives NBD (no big deal, for those who are old... ;)) Anyways, the mission is fantastic. My zone was complimented by our mission president. President Bowen said, If we were chosen to make a District 3 (training videos), I would choose the Santa Ana East zone. Oh yeah!

We are having a ton of success in my area specifically. We had another baptism this past Tuesday (Christmas Eve). He is twelve years old, and his name is I.... He is absolutely incredible. I had the opportunity of confirming him this past Sunday during church, in Spanish, woot woot! I will be honest, it was a bit of a struggle, but everyone that I talked to about it said that it made perfect sense, my grammar was pretty much all correct. One of the members here, Hermano Sw......, served here a long time ago, and now lives here. He is a Spanish teacher now, and he told me that for the first time doing it, It sounded like I had several transfers under my belt. Cool I guess, I am still waiting patiently for the day that it all just clicks, and I understand what people actually say to me. For now I am just guessing. "Fake it till you make it right?" I have tried many different ways to study the Espanol, mainly because there are so many different ways to do the Estudias.

Let me give you all a rundown of this week! Just note, it was Christmas, so it was very hard to get a lot of lessons. Aight?

Monday - Did some studies, went to the other Elders apartment to get Vincent's hair cut, emailed, went to target to get a white elephant gift for the zone activity, and then played some serious sports, Basketball and Volleyball, oh yeah! I got a tortilla warmer with a nativity set on the front of it, and I gave a dog toy, and this AMC movie ticket I found in my wallet from back home. WE went and visited a bunch of members that night to remind them all of the Baptism that would be held the next day.

Tuesday - Had some killer studies, and then went and visited I..... our investigator who would be baptized that day, and reminded him that he needed to choose some one to baptize and confirm him. He chose an older elder to baptize him, Elder Wagstaff, and then chose me to confirm him. I was like, wait what? Ahhh! Spanish! Ahh! But it was all good. The baptism came through, and we had mostly only elders at the baptism. I....'s parents are divorced and are less active, and they were basically told to go back to church during the talk at the Baptism, because of their son now. It was awesome. We also had a different investigator there too. It was a great baptism!

Wednesday - Christmas baby! Opened gifts as a district of us four elders! Smallest district in the mission (not any more though). Called home from the atmojo family's home, and then at dinner with the bishop. It was so good. Handed out some gifts to little kids and yeah that was basically out Christmas, nothing to big, back to the apartment by 9 and in bed by 10:30. :)

Thursday - Back to work! WE taught Ef...., who is doing awesome! We taught another family named Ga...., they have a little daughter, who was so cute! She was way cool too! she was like 3 years old! We also had a district meeting.

Friday - Weekly planning session, visited Ef...., and S..... Had a good talk about Eternal Marriage with S..... It was cool. She is incredibly nice, It is fun talking to her. She really helps out with the Spanish.

Saturday - We had exchanges. I got to drive the Zone leader's car. It was so fun, but I am a little rusty. However I am still a pro at parallel parking. But, I pulled a Mason. as I was taking my stuff out of the trunk of the car the night before, and well I left the keys in the trunk... they never made it to my pocket. But the car was unlocked so I did not panic. Then I went to pull the trunk lever inside the car, but guess what, it was broken. It had not been fixed yet. Que mala suerte! UGH! So Elder Prieto gave me the spare key, which was only a valet key, so still could not get everything out but it was all good. It was pretty funny. But driving felt good. I hope I can drive soon, because Elder Vincent is very bad at it. Whiplash every time he hits the brakes. He doesn't like to pay attention. I am surprised I am even alive.... But exchanges were pretty good, I learned a lot, Elder Prieto is from Peru. He is way cool.

Sunday - We had Church, I got to confirm I... a member of the Church, and Ef..... was confirmed by my companion. We visited our investigator named Gu........ and taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a great lesson.

Well I have to go now, but it was a great week! We have transfers today so our district is 33% new. I am loving my mission so far. I can see everyday now the message of the Gospel is changing people's lives. It is so incredible! I can not believe that 1/8th of my mission is already complete. No way! Time is flying! It is scary! I love you all so much, and can not wait to hear from you next week. If you find any free time, write! Thanks for all the support!

Your Favorite Missionary in CALI,

Elder Weston Scott

[Weston] Merry Christmas from CALI!

Hey all!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all are doing fantastic! Here in CALI, everything is pretty much great! I am enjoying the season! Pretty much all the Hispanic members love missionaries, and so we get tons of food, candies, and little homemade presents, like scarves, and hats, and gloves, and other stuff.  I even got a bottle of this Adidas body spray. Cool right? The members here rock! I love them all, especially since there is not a language barrier any more. Wait, what? Yeah that is right. I understand now. Boom. Not a hundred percent let's be honest, but I can hold a conversation with almost every member, unless they are Salvadorian. They use so much slang, it blows. I got some great news this week though! I told you all it is going to be a white Christmas right? Yeah well it is true! I had my first Baptism yesterday the 22nd of December. His name is Ef..... , he is from Honduras. He speaks Spanish so incredibly well, because his people speak straight Spanish, they apparently don't use any slang! I understand him perfectly. He has been taught for over a year and a half. He had been dropped 3 times before I arrived here in the field. Three weeks before I arrived, Elder Vincent made contact again, but he still was not interested. When I arrived, we went and visited him. Like my third day I think it was. We taught him about the plan of Salvation (or the Restoration, I cant remember) But as we were teaching him, I noticed something, He was a lot more receptive and willing to learn based off the facts that I got from my comp.  Anyways, I had him read 2 Nephi 31:20, and I asked him what he thinks about the scripture.  What does he need to do.  He flat out said, well, I got to get baptized brother.  It was so awesome! (Now this was all done is Spanish......... Yep) It was so incredible. We taught him at least every week, and yesterday after Church I got the opportunity to baptize him. I love this guy so much! He literally says "amen brother" to every thing that we teach. Golden!

Tomorrow night, Christmas Eve, we have another Baptism for I..... , our 12 year old investigator. He is so ready, but the ward is a little reluctant about the whole thing, because they feel that he could be a burden on the ward, because his mom is less active, and he does not have rides. We wanted to read Alma 5 with the ward hahaha. But we didn't. I get to confirm him next Sunday in front of the whole ward in Spanish, whew, I am a little nervous but I think I will do just fine.  Next Sunday we have another Baptism as well! Al... . He might have to get pushed back another Sunday, but it is so exciting to see him grow in the gospel and develop his testimony. He loves the Atonement. He spoke to me a little at the Christmas activity last Friday, and told me, "Elder Scott, (actually he said Big Dog, that is my nickname from him) I finally felt the spirit last night. Like you said I would. I have been praying and reading almost every night." I love this kid so much. He is 17 and is so ready to be baptized. My area is booming right now!

Now let me break down the week. Sound good? Aight.

Wednesday - P-day, and we went Christmas shopping. Stressful day, I played some basketball, and had to guard a fellow missionary named Elder Sorenson. He is 6'8". He also plays water polo. Yeah that's right. Then we just hung out and passed a ball back in forth pretending we were playing water polo. I miss it to be honest, it was good to do that, especially because he had been playing for 10 years, and I was better haha! He is not coordinated that well, Kind of awkwardly tall ya know? But anyways, it was good to talk about stuff!

Thursday - Zone conference! We watched Despicable me with President Bowen and then had a killer lunch! We also got a present from the President as well! Oh yeah! I.... had his baptismal interview as well.

Friday - We tried to set up facebook again. It still is not working. It kind of sucks, the whole thing is frustrating right now. I just want to use it now. Everyone that is on it now says it is way helpful! But it will eventually work I hope. We taught a less active member named V.....  . He is amazing. He has 2 kids and is not married, but they are trying to get married with in the next 2 weeks. His 'wife' L......  is not a member, but wants to get baptized. Oh yeah! But her family members and brothers are shooting her down pretty much, creating a lot of doubts for her. It is hard for her right now. She loves coming to church. V...... flat our told me the other night that his ultimate goal is to enter the temple with L...... . So amazing! I know that they will do it! Hopefully in a year, because then I can go! Same with Ef...... ! We also had a Christmas activity. It was posole night. Pot after pot after pot of posole . It was good, but I get so much of that from the members. Yeah.....

Satuday - Ef... had his baptismal interview, which was great. Elder Ollerton one of my zone leaders interviewed him, and said that he was the easiest one he had ever done.   Elder Ollerton has only six weeks left on his mission.  Which is sad, because I wish I was companions with him, he is so great. Still not trunky. I hope that I can be just like him later in my mission, and I just how to do it. Obedience! Oh yeah, we also had breakfast this morning with the Sa.....  family. They are so bomb. They made pancakes, eggs, bacon, Mexican hot chocolate, homemade milk chocolate, strawberries, and other stuff.  It was so good. Mom, it still didn't top your pancakes, but it was good to not have cereal or just an egg burrito for a morning finally. We had dinner that night with Edwin, another investigator. He is Ian's step-dad. He was supposed to make papusas, but he forgot. He made us tacos, and homemade Salvadorian salsas, guacamole, and other stuff. He is great, we taught him about the BOM, and about prayer. He has never been so open to us before. He is changing. I know what he wants to change. He has a problem with drinking, like a serious problem, but I know that as we keep teaching him, and being his friend, he will stop his bad habits. I know it!

Sunday - Church, and Baptism! Ef.... was baptized but there is a long stressful story with that too haha. He couldn't get a ride to church, so we left after sacrament with a ward member and picked him up. He was at church for only 30 minutes, when we realized, shoot he didn't bring his towel of a pair of white underwear. Shoot! So with another ward member, we drove him back, and he said that he would ride with his wife back to the church just before the baptism, because she wanted to go. He shows up like 10 minutes before the baptism. It was stressful to say the least. But he was baptized! We had a lesson planned with the stake president to come with us, it was a referral from the stake president, and I was a little nervous because, he is the stake president coming to a lesson with us, what if we mess up? Then I realized, I am still in training, I am expected to mess up, so then I made Elder Vincent self-conscious about it haha. The lesson didn't happen, the guy was not home. Oh well, next week probably.

Anyways this week was pretty cool! Some great experiences happened. I think my English vocabulary and grammar are diminishing. Sorry for bad the grammar. I cant exactly help it. Spanish is backwards from English! I figured out this week, that if you compliment someone here on something they have, they will just give it to you. Which then makes you feel awkward. I complimented a kids watch at the Christmas program this week, and he is like, it yours! Now I have a super cool watch, and feel bad about it??????

My companion and are I are doing great at teaching. He gets mad at me because now I am understanding and speaking more in lessons, like equal amounts now, and he just want to talk more. We are supposed to take equal chances so.....Coach? What shall I do? I don't know what to do anymore with him but I am trying to be patient and learn from him. It is interesting living with some one else. I will tell you right now, I would never choose my current companion as a room mate in college, I miss you Brothers and Parents, I will do anything. Please give me someone that is organized (or somewhat) knows how to clean, and how to be sanitary! But if that is not the plan, Give me some ideas on how to get past those things that he does that bother me!

Well I want to thank all of you for your support and love! First Christmas away from home! It is going to be great! We are making ginger bread houses in the morning! And I get to call home/ Skype! Thanks for everything! Please send emails and letters! (preferably letters). I love you all!

Merry Christmas!

Elder Weston Scott

[Mason]: its beginning to look a lot like christmas here...except its so humid here....its weird..

Dear all...this last week was great...I had 4 x 3-hour drives to and from Boston this week... I don't recommend it...people are scary drivers early in the morning, and late at night.  We had our Christmas party and then I had a return and report meeting for new missionaries.  Life is great out here...

The cold weather is kind of gone right now, which is good and bad because the snow is melting and it might not be a white christmas.

Weston (Elder Scott), that stinks that you are driving a Dodge caravan, because I'm in a Ford Fusion, and its great. its almost at 50,000 miles, so we will most likely get a brand new one...hehehehe (we have the sport edition, its like a freakin mustang with half the weight) =)

Anyways, I'm planning on skype calling around 4 pm or so, but we can also do a [voice] conference call too.  At least I can, President Packard said I can do both, so I can talk to Wes too.

Thanks for the Gift...the CD is cool, hard to sing to because it is in Spanish...but its great stuff.  The Tie is LEGIT man...por favor, si ustedes me mandan discos Compactos, hasegurense que esten en ingles porque me gusta cantar con los canciones para guardarme despierta en los noches...Gracias... y les Amo. [please if you send me CDs make sure they are in English because I like to sing along to keep me awake at night... thanks.. I love you ] ( Context: We sent him a CD with hymns in spanish )

La Espanol esta progresando mi despacio ahorita porque todos los miembros quieren practicar su ingles conmigo...no me lo gusta, pero estoy tratando a aprender tanto como pueda a fin de que comunica con personas que puedan hablar espanol. [ The spanish is progressing very slowly right now because all the members want to practice their English with me... I don't like it, but I am trying to learn as much as I can  so eventually I can communicate with people who speak Spanish]

tenemos Navidad para hablar mas, entonces terminare con hablando ahorita y guardar los otros cosas por la llama.  [ We have Christmas to talk more, so I'll make an end to my speaking now, and save the other things for the call ]

Tyler, espero que obtienes el trabajo con UPS y ahorras dinero por la proxima ano de escuela. [ I hope you get that UPS job to save some dinero for next year ]

por los fotos, mandame los de Karissa y tambien un de Chloe... [ RE: photos, send me the ones Karissa took and also one of Chloe]

gracias por todo de los cartas y si es possible, mandame otros camisas largas para tocar puertas porque no tengo suficiente ahorita porque tenemos vestirnos en ropa de abrigo , pero si no puedas, no te preoccupes  [ Thanks for all the letters, and if it is possible, send me more long sleeve shirts for knocking doors.  I don't have enough right now because we we are wearing cold-weather clothing, but if you can't, don't worry ]

os Amo...o les Amo

Elder Scott

les llamare en miercoles en la manana para establecer un tiempo exacto... [ I'll call you on Wednesday morning to set an exact time ]

[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