[Mason] La Semana Pasada

Buenos noches mis amados hermanos míos, ?Que tal?

<< Mason wrote this in spansih then ran it thru google translate... this is how it came out>>>

This week was very stressful because of our investigators, Theresa, is still struggling with his faith and health and smoking for some reason I do not know.  But the stake president is willing to go ahead and have the baptism, and if she can not meet the requirements, then stop the service. 

With all of our investigators, we had lessons, and most told us they are planning to come to church and knew that is very important in learning the gospel. 

NOBODY CAME .... then, we felt that our efforts were in vain, and we both get frustrated but at the same time felt sad because no one decided to come and increase your knowledge and learn how to become like Christ and be a real disciple of Him but yesterday, we had many acquaintances and very helpful members. I gave a blessing to a sister called Luz Lantigua. 

It is great to be a priesthood holder, especially to be a vessel in which the Light of Christ and the Holy Spirit may be shining outside and touch the hearts of the children of God. It is a blessing to be able to give a blessing that could help and (depending on faith) healing a child of God, Our Heavenly Father.  The Spirit was so strong while the blessing of healing.  Especially in Spanish, because when you are trying your best to speak Spanish and have the desire to do the work of the Lord to the best of his abilities, the Lord wants to help, and this step is that, yesterday, in the blessing, with Luz Lantigua .  No Sabia and not what was said, but it was a blessing to attend one of the sacred priesthood holder responsibilities and the opportunity I received, I am grateful, and this is what made my week the best.

Ok so thanks for the package, though the granola may or may not be close to being gone, it was soooooo good, also I'm doing good with health...thought the past few days have been a struggle, due to the fact that we went so long without eating a few times, that we literally were starving, and so we....kind of....pigged out....a few times....but not again. it was awful to  feel that way again. 

So this week I fell into a research of faith, and learned about faith, and how faith can only be shown though a few of those things, and one of those being the good old classic word of Diligencia, or Diligence for those who don't speak the native language we speak here. so I guess, I have understood a new meaning of how to show faith, literally working with all the power you got, or that you can muster, and then your faith will  both be shown and increase...as we show our faith it increases as a testimony of itself. its amazing. 

As our Father who art in Heaven and His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, want to help the both of us, we absolutely have to show this desire of their help, aid, assistance, or whatever you may call it at that moment. but in order to do that, we have to be tried. not necessarily like a test or a quiz, or even a Challenge to overcome in your life, like Smoking for Theresa. it can be simply doing all you can and not giving up. i have found that when we give up, Satan has the power, because he says, quickly and quietly, "no  worries man, its OK that you failed, just keep .....doing whatever it is......because you like it, i like it, they like it, and its cool" quitting at something when the going gets tough gives Satan power over all of us in a way that gets us down on ourselves. do not ever say its too hard,  or its too heavy, or i am tired, or its not possible, when we all know it is or we all know that you can do it if you stick with it. we cant give up, because that is too simple. ..where is our faith when we do that....there aint no faith, because we GAVE UP.

We have to stick with it to the end, no matter what. Do you all remember the story of a man named Jesus Christ. HE struggled, suffered, battled, endeavored, was conflicted with, undertook, everything that one could go through, and guess what...HE DIDNT QUIT.   Because if He had, we would have no reason for anything, we would have no way or reason to show faith and work so hard for anything, because nothing would matter. Because Christ Succeeded, we must too, because he broke free from the Phrase "I CANT", and changed it too "I WILL"  or  "I MUST"  we must not ever give up on anything. our fatih is not just a goal put to the side, but instead, a desire and a hope that guides us and strengthens us to succeed. and when we do, then we have showed our fatih. then we have been tried by our faith, and that is where we receive the REWARD..... 

So GET OUT THERE AND BE A FAITH SHOWING DOER

Also we were given the amazing chance to go to the temple and participate in an endowment session, I was able to see so many people from the good old Springfield ward....yeah!!!!

I have some pictures. 

Um I love the blessing of being able to bless others....and I have been working on my Boston accent...

"pak the ca in havad squawe and i lost my ca keys yo"

Elder M. Scott.....loves you all

so....i fell asleep praying.....yahh.....whoops...#EVILCOMPANIONS

[Weston] Anaheim Weekly May 26th, 2014

Hello Everyone!

How are we all doing? This week was hard, and very slow but the rundown is as so.

Lunes - So we had a normal P-day basically. We went to the church to play some sports, which was good. We played some volleyball which was super fun, and yeah basically that is all we did for P-day, somewhat boring, actually, at the end of our zone activity, we played hot tamale, which is where you get wrapped up super tightly in a blanket, and then have to try and stand up. I could not get up...... Dang. It was fun though! After P-day ended we went back to work, and we found two new investigators, both of which seem pretty solid for the most part.

Martes - Okay, so Elder Tanner and I went to a funeral at a Catholic Church, it was the funeral of Luis' father who passed away about a two weeks ago. It was interesting.... to say the least...... definitely not an LDS Church that is for sure. It also happened to be Elder Tanner's Birthday, so that was pretty fun. We had some set appointments with some of our investigators, but nobody was home, we did teach a few people which was good. We taught this man named Arturo, who is a referral from a member in our ward, this guy is so Golden, I am so excited. So prepared, and so willing to listen to us! He is awesome! Apparently after we met with him the first time, his life has been improving a lot, and he recognizes that it is because he met us. Super cool! So we also had two lunch/ dinner appointments that day as well, because of Elder Tanner's Birthday, we were so stuffed. Whew. Good day, good day.

Miercoles - Well with our new training from last weeks zone conference, I decided to begin running every morning. Elder Tanner and I got up and ran for about 20 minutes or so and traveled up to the Angel's stadium, it is not too far from where we live. It was fun. I was dying. Can anyone say, "I am out of shape!!!!!?" We had a district meeting in the morning, and we learned more about promising blessings when we teach. One powerful principle that I learned and have begun to but into practice is that every time that we are closing our lesson or whatever it is, and we promise blessings associated with a certain commitment such as reading in the Book of Mormon, I say something along the lines of, "In the name of Jesus Christ I promise....." I realized that I have authority to act in His name, meaning that when I promise anything it is actually Jesus Christ doing so. It is powerful, to bring it up every time. Boldness. I'ma be bold. We ate some lunch as a district at Which Wich, which was right next to a chipotle so I ate the latter. (Thanks Mom) It was a good day. We taught Denisse and Maria who have been taught for a long time, and we talked about what they are expecting to feel or how they want to know the Book of Mormon is true. It was a good lesson. We were supposed to have an activity at night with the ward. The Bishop assigned the missionaries to find and contact every single member that is on the ward list, and verify addresses, phone numbers, and I guess residents, because there were about 300-400 people unaccounted for that live within our ward boundaries, so we did just that. Each organization in the church was assigned to a pair of missionaries, and our group was the Sumo Sacerdotes (High Priests) and only one of them showed up for the activity and decided to go with another pair of missionaries. Not cool, so basically we have to do all of the work by ourselves now. Fun. It will all be good in the end though.

Jueves - Okay so Thursday was pretty cool, kind of. We did not do a whole lot. I ran again in the morning with Elder Tanner to the Angel's Stadium, actually just a little bit farther then we did the day before. I am so sore now though. Dang. We did some studies in the morning, and I kept drifting off into sleep unfortunately. I have been so tired lately! I made some brownies during lunch for Elder Tanner and I, they were okay.... We went out and started working, and did not have a lot of success unfortunately. We taught a less-active man named Ismael, who has a serious problem with the Word of Wisdom, and maybe some other commandments as well, but we set up another time to go back and give him a blessing. He has been super sick to. We went to Alfredo's house (recent convert) and only were able to teach his wife Gina because he was feeling super sick, and was in bed. We were there for so long, she suffers from depression, and basically bore her soul to us after we started talking to her more and more. One thing that I have come to find out here in the Mission, is that because I am set apart to be a personal representative of Jesus Christ, member and non-members feel comfortable to tell us everything. It is incredible to see my brothers and sisters open up, and for me to truly get to know these people that I am serving. It was a very spiritual experience to sit and listen to Gina. She has been struggling with a lot of things, and I told her that whatever it may be, she is doing perfectly. It reminds me of Elder Hollands talk when he spoke to mothers all over the world, that they are doing their job wonderfully and perfectly. I love being out here.

Viernes - Good day, we did some studies, then we had to leave right after lunch to give a blessing to a member in our ward, la Hermana Echevarria. She only wanted missionaries to go over, so we had to call and coordinate with our zone leaders because they were the closest to us to come and help us enter the home. It was good, Elder Ramirez one of my zone leaders is from Chile, so we let him give the blessing. We headed back to the apartment to start out weekly planning, and got not even half way into it when we had to leave and go to dinner. We ate with la Hermana Garcia, she made some super good food, it was really healthy this time too!  After dinner and a lengthy conversation with her, we left, and met up with el Hermano Castillo to go and visit a less-active member named Ismael again. I gave him a blessing of health and comfort so that he can finally be able to overcome his problem with the Word of Wisdom. It was a good experience, I have not given to many blessings in Spanish, it was good.We then left after that appointment, and went to go and visit a new investigator we met on Monday, and his daughter came out of the house as we were walking up to it, and started yelling at us, and being super rude, and told us to not come back (we had not even said a word yet....) Awesome. That was basically what happened!

Sabado - Let's see, we had some studies in the morning, and tried to do some more weekly planning, but had to leave and visit some peeps we are teaching. Nobody was home, and one of our lessons was canceled, unfortunately the one lesson that we were super excited about for the day. Dang. But we went back to the apartment and tried to do some more weekly planning, then left to go do missionary work over FaceBook at the Library, and then we left to go have dinner with Jorge Diaz. It was a slow day, and nobody was home! Very frustrating, this week was very slow and very boring compared to last week!

Domingo - So we had to be at the church for a meeting at 7:30am, and then had meetings that lasted until about 10am, and I left with Elder Yazzie and Elder Diaz to wake up some of the investigators and less-active members in our area. It was unfruitful unfortunately. Church was pretty bomb, we learned about when Christ established his church when He came, and how today it is literally the same. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true restored church of Jesus Christ. I know it, and I cannot and will not deny it. Ever. After church we went to the apartment, and then studied, and had some food. We spent the last part of the day finishing weekly planning and setting goals for the coming week. This next week should be good.  I am looking forward to this next week. It will be good. I am trying to finish The Book of Mormon again within the next 3 weeks, before transfers. I think I can do it! Well I love you all! Have a fantastic week alright!

Your favorite missionary in CALI!

Elder Weston Scott

Sunburn city

[Weston] Anaheim Weekly May 19, 2014

My Dear Friends!

I hope everything is going well! This week was pretty boss, I have a very detailed weekly report coming, I decided that I am going to start keeping part of my journal on my I-pad so that I can send you all a better email every week. Sound good?  Good.

Lunes - So we had a pretty lame P-Day! Well kind of.... Elder Tanner and I went to Goodwill to look at some stuff. and I bought two new ties. Now regretting that decision..... because they just do not tie very well. But oh well! We met up with our Zone at the stake center here, and set up the vollleyball net outside of the gym using two trees hahaha it was kind of awkward. But we played water balloon volleyball with some towels. It was super fun. Elder Diaz and I were pretty boss at it! We got some good distance on our throwing. Good Technique. We stopped by an investigator that we met last week, but she was sleeping, so we could not teach her, but as we were walking to a back up, we saw a less-active member family. They invited us in and we sat and talked for about an hour with them, and talked about Preach My Gospel with them. It was good, they have been struggling with the Church because something happened to them in the recent past. They have been badly offended, and so it was really hard to talk with them.  They told us flat out that we are invited over any time, but not a single other member of the church is invited over, and that we are not to tell a soul that they live where they do. The hermana has told everyone that she does not live where it says she does. I do not know what has happened, but I hope things can get better. I guess that is one thing that we can learn, to always be cautious of words we use, and things we do. We never know how it will affect someone. That was the Monday!

Martes - We had an awesome Zone Conference with President Bowen!  Sadly, it was the last one that we will have with him. He only has 5 weeks left. It is sad, I will miss him a lot. We learned a lot about teaching for understanding in chapter 10 of PMG. It was pretty good!  We also learned a little bit about the Word of Wisdom, and how it is not just a commandment of not doing things, but it is a commandment and a law of health. Our mission is now on a health kick, and I am going to lose weight, I need to and I want to because I just do not feel good most days. After the Zone Conference, we had dinner with a member, and because the member likes to talk, we got out of there too late, and were late to our appointment with our Golden Investigator.  Darn. But he had to leave anyways, he had a doctor's appointment that he needed to go to, so all is well. We did stop by Alfredo our recent convert's home, and we taught him more about the Priesthood, and about the organization of the Church, and the Auxiliaries. We talked a small amount about the Temple. They want to go! Anyways, that was my Tuesday!

Miercoles - So Wednesday was pretty cool! We had our normal studies, but we had to finish our Weekly Planning Companionship Inventory, and so we spent another extra hour in the Apartment. Which on a day like this day, FINE BY ME! It was so hot! It was over 100 degrees! Our car read 108 degrees at one point. Holy Cow! Santa Vaca! It was hard to move all day long, but we contacted so many people. It was a good day for us, we found two new investigators, and also taught a young man named Luis. We have known Luis for about 4 or 5 weeks now, his dad had Cancer, and unfortunately passed away last Saturday evening. We went over to his home to talk with him and see how he is doing, he is very strong. I am not sure if it has quite hit him yet, but we talked about the Atonement with him, and watched the "Because of Him" Video. We also explained about Eternal Families, and about how Baptism is the key to achieving that Eternal Family, I invited him to continue to read in the BOM, but to also pray to know specifically that he can have an Eternal Family, and if Baptism is required. I am excited for him, he is such an awesome kid! He is so prepared! Nothing else huge happened, so yeah! My Wednesday for ya!

Jueves - Okay so Thursday was pretty awesome! It was so hot again though I was told it got up to about 107 degrees. AHHHHHHH!!!!! We had some pretty good studies that we got done, and around 12 we went to the office to give our Vehicle coordinator a receipt for our car, and then also to use Facebook and Mormon.org. Quickly after we went to go visit a new investigator we found the day before, but he was not home.  So we went to another one of our investigator's home and set up an appointment, and then knocked a few doors. We found one new investigator, and he seems pretty cool, his name is Luis.   We ate dinner with the Laguna family, and then right after headed to another investigator's home (Maria and Denise) to teach them, and they fed us as well. It is hard to get on a health kick when we get so much food, I swear! But we read with them in the BOM and I explained more about why the book is so important, because literally if the book is true, then everything else is true! Everything rides on whether The Book of Mormon is TRUE! We then went and visited Alfredo our new convert and his wife Gina, we had to fill out his baptismal record, and we taught Chastity to him again. The awkward thing with Gina is that she was baptized when she was about 18 years old, in another ward in our stake here, but we cannot find her record anywhere! It has disappeared, and so she may have to be baptized again, if we cannot find her record. We talked a little bit about that possibility with her, and she is fine with it, she kept saying to not look for it, because she wants to be baptized again to start over again. It is kind of weird how we cannot find it, but oh well. we got back so late to our apartment that night, it was after 10pm, awkward......... That was Thursday! (Jueves!)

Viernes - Kind of a boring day, basically I had a doctor's appointment in the early morning at 8am-ish and we were there for a while. It was so funny while we were there because there is a new hire there, that basically stalked Elder Tanner and I.  She just graduated High School is what the Doctor told us, she kept staring at us, I guess it is because of the Tags we have.  Chicks dig the Black Name Tag. It was pretty funny. But afterwards we went back to the good old apartment, and did some studies, and during lunch I laid down on the ground for a few minutes, and fell asleep for about an hour.  Much needed I tell you, I used to take naps all the time during lunch, and I have not done it for a while.  Felt Good. We finished up some studies and then started our weekly planning session, and we finished everything this time except for the Companionship inventory. Which is okay, because we can do that during any moment of the week. We were supposed to eat with an hermano named Jorge (the guy that fed us sardines the one time) and he was not home, and so we called him, and he asked us to come back around 7 that night because he had forgotten, so we did.  He forgot again. So we just left and went to go see a less active woman named Ruth. She is pretty cool, the thing about her is that she knows everything is true, and knows that going to church, reading, and praying will help her out, she just flat out does not do it. She does not know why, she just puts no effort into it. We shared a video about Mother's Day with her, and talked to her and her husband about prayer.  It was a short, but a good lesson I thought. We got back to our apartment early because we were going to start exchanges that night, so I cleaned the kitchen, and pretty much the apartment before anyone showed up. Whew.That was the Friday.

Sabado - Wow. Super long day, where can I even begin! Anyways, because our District Leader is in a trio, he left his companions and came with both me and Elder Tanner for the day. It was a fun exchange, we got a lot of work done, we had seven lessons, with the potential of actually eight, and also got like two or three new investigators. It was good, super tiring, but a good day. We worked hard. We had some normal studies in the morning, but when we woke up we had planned to go and play basketball at the church, but we went to bed later then we should have, and so we all decided against it in the morning when the alarm went off at 6am. Anywho, during lunch, Elder Pace decided to make some weird drink he made the other day, it did not turn out, it was with a sandia (watermelon). So we went out and worked, and talked to person after person after person, and I ran out of cards that day because we made a goal to talk to literally every single person that we saw that day. It worked, and we passed out over twenty-five cards. It was fun, there was one man I stopped who was with two other guys, and I started talking to them, and my other two companions were talking to another group of people, and so I was solo..... there is definitely a difference when we are in a companionship trying to teach then when we are alone, but it was fine, the guy was drunk and contradicted himself with every thing he tried to bash with me about.  Drunk people.......  My Favorite! (Smiling is my favorite!!!!) Yeah, we knocked a lot of doors, and talked to a lot of people that were just not too interested unfortunately, but we have a couple solid investigators now.  I am so excited, our area is seriously picking up now. Elder Pace lost our phone before a lesson we had, without knowing it, and well, we lost it for about two hours, right when we needed it because he was supposed to perform a baptismal interview, but I remembered where it could have been left. We drove to one of the church buildings that we had used about hours prior for Facebook, and well what do you know? Found it!  Because of that whole fiasco, we did not eat dinner, because we had some lessons to attend to. Super hard, we did not eat for 9 hours.  Super Duper Fun! Anyway, it was a fun day, a super fun exchange.  President Bowen texted us and asked how our day was, and we told him that we got seven lessons, and he was super excited for it. That was the Saturday folks!

Domingo - First off I had a super interesting dream..... Okay not really.... But I do not normally have dreams. But about two minutes before my alarm went off, I was dreaming. My dream was this, I was a bowl of cereal. Yes. A freaking bowl of cereal, specifically a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats. Coolest dream ever! I was just chilling there on a table, and the alarm went off right when a spoonful of me was being lifted out of me. I just said out loud as a bowl, Dang.... Good dream right? It was awesome! Some people are superheroes in their dreams, I got to be cereal. What?! That is right. Anyways, it was a good day, we had a couple meetings in the morning, and then I took Elder Yazzie with me to go and wake up our investigators, but we had no success with that front. Darn. But church was pretty good, we learned about covenants in Gospel Principles, it was pretty good, Maria and Denise came to church, so at least we had two of our investigators attend. We went to Mia Santos' baptism that evening, she is the daughter of Obispo Santos, she is super cool beans. That was the Sunday. We taught twenty lessons about this week. It was a good week. I am very tired, one of the best weeks I have had out here, I am just so dang tired though! Whew.

This week was fantastic. We worked hard. One thing that I learned this week in our Zone conference was about personal conversion. The fact of the matter is that I cannot convert anyone beyond my own conversion, so it made me think if I truly am converted to this Gospel, and you know what, I am. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the the true church of Jesus Christ, and the proper and true Priesthood Authority from Christ has been restored through an unbroken chain of Priesthood ordinations. I hope you all have a good week!

Your Favorite Missionary in CALI,

Elder Weston Scott

(Sorry, no new pictures this week...... I Failed..... Forgive me please....)

[Mason] Hello my dearest people, que tal

Ok, so this week has been really slow, eventful, exhausting, and FUN, because it is the missionary life style....thing after thing after thing after thing, and then one specific thing happens and it makes everything worth it.

So we this week met with almost every one of our 13 investigators, but the ones we didn't meet with we had appointments, and we showed up and they were not there, and or we get a message from them that we don't see and we planned some hardcore amazing lessons, but we didn't get to teach them....

Work has been tough lately since the sisters are gone from our area, and it makes me slightly anxious because there is so much to do, so much to teach, and not enough time to do it....but I'm figuring it out with my companion, who rocks, and so its all fun and games...minus the games so just focus on the fun...

Something new is that we have exchanges tonight, and I'm staying here, and my zone leaders are coming to work with me and my companion, but I really have to rely on my own language skills for the next day, because the zone leaders don't know Spanish

Also, none of our investigators came to church, so all of our hard work this week didn't quite seem to pay off in the way we expected, especially when we have to drop 1 date for maria martinez, and then maybe one for stefani velez....

Nothing much to add, other than the fact that my Spanish book of Mormon, from the MTC, broke, and right now its getting rebound by brother Baird in my last area, which is nice...but I miss it...it makes me sad...but I am reading Jesus el Cristo, and also everything else....and so its great.

I don't really have anything super corny to talk about, but one thing that I have been studying lately is the atonement, and i have come to realize that the atonement isn't just giving us power over death and power over our mistakes in this life, it is giving us the power to purify our hearts and be perfected in Christ and be true disciples of him. Moroni says" "Yea, come unto Christ and be Perfected in him..." the atonement is exactly this.  The perfection of us in Christ. as we turn our hearts towards him, and move our lives to be in harmony with his teachings, and to be in harmony with Our Heavenly Fathers plan for us, we will be purified. think of the refiner fire....in order for him to make pure silver from the ore, he has a long process of purification, that doesn't end until you know when you have been perfected in Christ. we receive strength from this gift of our Savior, if we truly let it be used in our lives to help others in theirs. as we come unto Christ and do as Christ did, we understand the power that comes from it. We become as Christ is, and being as Christ is , we have the power to do all things required of him and of our Father in Heaven.

A story that  I read this week really touched my heart, and it really makes me desire to be better in every moment of my life

More than thirty years ago about fifteen LDS soldiers crowded into a frontline bunker in Korea to hold a Sunday service. They used their canteen cups and C-ration crackers to bless and partake of the sacrament. Then they held a testimony meeting. One young man introduced himself simply as Sergeant Stewart from Idaho. He was a short, small man about 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing about 150 pounds. His great ambition had been to become a good athlete, but coaches considered him too small for most team sports. So he had concentrated on individual competition and had gained some success as a wrestler and a distance runner. Sergeant Stewart related to his fourteen battle-weary brethren an experience he had just had with his company commander, a giant of a man named Lieutenant Jackson who was 6 feet 7 inches tall and weighed 245 pounds; an outstanding college athlete. The sergeant spoke of him in glowing terms as a tremendous officer and a Christian gentleman, inspiring those who were fortunate enough to serve under his command.

Shortly before the Church service in which they now found themselves, Sergeant Stewart had been assigned to a patrol under the direction of Lieutenant Jackson. As they moved down near the base of a hill they held, they were ambushed by enemy fire. The lieutenant out in front was

riddled . . . by automatic small-arms fire. As he fell he managed to drag himself to the shelter of a nearby rock . . . while the rest of the patrol scrambled up the hill to regroup.

Since he was next in command, the responsibility now fell upon Sergeant Stewart. He [sent the] largest and seemingly strongest man . . . down the hill to rescue the lieutenant. The others would provide him with cover.

The man was gone for approximately half an hour, only to return and report that he could not budge the wounded officer.he was too heavy. . . . The men started grumbling about getting out of there before somebody else got hit. [Then] someone was heard to say, "Let's forget about the lieutenant; after all, he.s just a @$%@$%!" At this point Sergeant Stewart turned to his men, and pulling himself up to his full 65-inch stature, he spoke in very matter-of-fact tones: .I don't care if he.s black or green or any other color. We're not leaving without him. He wouldn't leave any of us in similar circumstances. Besides, he's our commanding officer and I love him like my own brother. "

Then he headed down the hill alone.

. . . When he finally reached [the lieutenant, the officer] was weak from loss of blood, and he assured the sergeant that it was a hopeless cause.there would be no way to get him back to the aid station in time. It was then that Sergeant Stewart.s great faith in his Heavenly Father came to his assistance. He took off his helmet, knelt beside his fallen leader and said, .Pray with me, Lieutenant.. . . .

"Dear Lord," he pleaded, "I need strength.far beyond the capacity of my physical body. This great man, thy son, who lies critically wounded here beside me, must have medical attention soon. I need the power to carry him up this hill to an aid station where he can receive the treatment he needs to preserve his life. I know, Father, that thou hast promised the strength of ten to him whose heart and hands are clean and pure. I feel that I can qualify. Please, Dear Lord, grant me this blessing."

Then he thanked his Father in Heaven for the power of prayer and the privilege of holding the priesthood. He then put on his helmet, reached down and picked up his fallen friend, cradled him over his shoulders and carried him back up the hill to safety

The atonement is what purifies our hearts and enables us to have the power, because we desire to do as Christ did, to walk where he walked, to speak how he spoke, and be as he IS. Us the Atonement, and remember that it is by Faith in Christ that we begin our journey and it is by the atonement that we continue that journey.

Have a great week, and change some peoples lives!!!

ELDER MASON R. SCOTT

No pictures this week, sorry

[Weston] Anaheim Weekly May 5, 2014

Good afternoon everyone!

How are you all doing? What's the word on the street? These past few days were pretty good haha, I emailed on this past Thursday, so Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were all I need to hit right? Cool!

Thursday - Okay, we had p-day. The zone leaders decided that we would all go this park, a different one then the previous 2 or 3 we have gone to. We played some basketball in like 90 degree weather. We could only play for about half an hour before we were dead tired. I do not like that big yellow ball of fire in the sky. It is so mean! I was so dead! I bought a new tie from the goodwill. Cool tie, I like it. And we taught one of our investigators the Restoration. It was super cool, because seriously our message is unique. Almost every time that we share the first vision, people change completely, and that is what happened to our investigator named Sebastian. He was not interested at all in what we were saying, but when we brought up Joseph Smith, and about how the True Church has been restored, he gave Elder Tanner and I his full attention. It was amazing! It was a pretty good day!

Friday - Alrighty! So we had a service project in the morning with our Zone leaders, and it was pretty awesome, some pictures will be attached. Elder Gallego is the one I am battling with.... It was fun. We also had to take our car to the dealership, and get a rental car from Enterprise. I got to get a rental car even though I am not even 21! It was cool.... We are in a Nissan Altima now. Darn.  But it is all good! We tried to get our weekly planning in, but that didn't go very well..... We only had about an hour and a half for it. We taught Alfredo our new convert, and it was awesome, he has been struggling this week with bad thoughts about his baptism, but he was still continuing to do all he can do read and pray. He is awesome!

Saturday - We taught a couple of lessons. We taught a brand new investigator named Guillermo, who is awesome! He is a young father of 21 years or so, and his baby is due in 2 weeks. He is super interested, I am so excited to keep working with him! We also had another service project that night. We got to clean up after a cinco de mayo event here in Santa Ana. Wow. Latinos sure do know how to throw some parties! But we picked up trash! It was lots of fun actually!

Sunday - We had some meetings in the morning, then church at 11. Elder Yazzie and I went on exchanges to go and wake up my investigators before church, and no one came. Darn. That was the first time since I have been in this ward, that none of our investigators have shown up. We ate dinner with Elder Acosta's (of the Seventy) wife and her sister as well. It was super fun! We went back to our apartment to finish weekly planning, then went to the Bishops house, because he had something to share with all of us. It turns out that while he was sick all week, he was working for us missionaries. He called all of our parents, and got them to make videos to send to him for him to share with us! I love Obispo Santos! He is the best bishop ever! We got permission to stay with Obispo Santos for as long as we wanted, we ended up leaving his house at 10:30..... Awkward..... But it was awesome!

This week has been amazing! I am loving the mission so much! I am so excited to skype on MOTHERS DAY!

Not much else happened over the past couple of days..... Transfers.... I did not get transferred so yeah! Have a good one!

Elder Weston Scott

[Mason] Buenos dias hermanos

Que lo que mis manitos, or whats good my dudes...its Dominican ok, I have decided I want to learn Dominican Spanish, because it is so hard to understand, that I will understand everything else.

Anyways big news this week, I am not being transferred and nor is my companion, however we just received 6 investigators because the mission is now making some drastic changes. we do not have as many missionaries coming in as we do leaving at the moment and for the next few months, entonces nuestras hermanas se van a otros lugares [so our sisters are going to other places]....and it stinks....because we now have to cover all of the work in our area by ourselves. It is going to be slightly easier than we thought though, because as of yesterday, we are getting a car that we have fighting for for a month now, because we have an area of 22 cities, granted they are not that big, but without a car, we cant get to our investigators, and member help is scarce, but Elder Scott stepped up to the plate and laid it down flat to them, that we can do it without a car, but we may lose investigators and the work will be so slow, or we can get a car and cover twice as much ground, and get our area booming again.  I am fine without a car because we will do whatever, but it is just unwise and so the AP's and the vehicle coordinator put two and two together, and are now giving us a car.

So ya, its exciting. we have a few baptismal dates right now, but they are towards the end of the month and next month, but nobody is coming to church, and its sad because that's what they say they need to do and then they don't come.

OK, so lo que paso esta semana... [what happened this week]

  

So Monday, we had a fun pday, playing sports in all, and you know shutting people down and what not, but i was playing basketball, and Elder Spencer set a pick but was moving forward still, and I saw him out of the corner of my eye, and tried to get around it, but my face hit his shoulder and I bit my lip....it hurt man, and so the cut it still healing over but it was so fun that day....

Tuesday... I was on exchanges with the zone leaders, and I was in my area, and it was fun, we didn't get lost once, and so I really figured out that I know my area really well, but um he challenged me to figure out why I like to help people, and then asked me to bear my testimony about that in our zone meeting which was a few days later. um I learned that I should be more outgoing and that I am a good missionary, and it was nice to hear that from some one who only has seen me for one day. i felt really great inside, and man exchanges are so fun....but like everything cancelled on us that day....it was a nightmare....but its all about the attitude you got when stuff happens.

so Wednesday, just a regular day

Thursday el mismo [the same], but I had the best day ever in studies, because I have been studying preach my gospel so much and focusing on so many things at once, I haven't really had the chance to take a step back and learn one new thing, that can help an investigator solely, and so I studied chapter 4 for some reason, but I came across a scripture in 1 Corintios 12:3, and this is talking about the gifts of the spirit, and it says "Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost" and so I we have 2 investigators who are struggling to understand that they have felt the spirit before,and I actually with my companion used this scripture and we had such a great lesson with her.

Friday.....zone meeting, waffle party, transfer-text, hospital blessing for the branch presidents wife, several cancelled appointments and service, and dinner at El Tical, and it was such a fun day.

Saturday, just appointments, and correlation

Sunday...church, and about 5 miles of walking in circles, because we visited investigators que no asistieron iglesia y miembros [that did not attend church and members] also, and then we taught the great lesson with Amelia...we then waited for a bus for an hour that never came, so we called our sisters to take us home, but while waiting we played around on our cameras and used the long shutter mode and made us look like ghosts n stuff ans see through, and it was fun.

The reason I have found that I like helping people is because I am a child of God, and he loves all of his children, and because we have the same characteristics and traits that he does, as any father to any son, and so I love people and I want to help them as well.  My charge to all of you reading this, is find out for yourself, what character traits has God given you in this life that have impacted, can impact, and will impact God's children?

Anyways, Elder Scott here is doing so good, and is excited for the next transfer to come, and mothers day of course

Elder M. Scott

Lo que quieres, agarrarla, y nunca dejar ir

Chiquis, the cutest little girl in the world and she is the branch presidents daughter

Selfie of me and Lynn

This is me and my branch mission leader, Hermano Paredes, who is basically one of the three Nephites.....no joke....with Lynn in the background and East Boston way far out in the distance

[Weston] Anaheim Weekly May 1, 2014

Hello Everyone!

How is everyone doing? It has been a while! This past week..... And a half have been great! We did. It get to have P-Day this past Monday because we had training for our Mormon Helping Hands Project that we were supposed to be helping with this coming Saturday. We were going to be translating for over 400 people, and helping them to begin their citizenship papers, it was going to be awesome! However, the project was not approved by the Church HQ before they organized and once it got up totem, they shot it down use to some possible legal issues. Dang.... I was so excited to get to use my Spanish skills and help people become U.S. Citizens. So now we have no Mormon Helping Hands project, and we wasted the day we could have had for P-Day. No big
deal. But we had some awesome stuff happen this week!

Alfredo was baptized this past Sunday! Boo Yah! It was awesome! He had his interview Saturday night, and I sat on his couch for such a long time while they talked with Elder Pace in another room. They came out smiling after an hour or so and well. We had a baptism! The hard thing was planning the baptism, because there was supposed to be a ward baptism that day for a young eight year old kid named Esteban. His mom wanted a separate baptism for family, but with new church policy the Bishop shot that down and so the ward basically planned the whole baptism for us! It was awesome. There were so many people there! Oh my Gosh! But it was a good week! This week I also took the reins on driving, because we almost does several times. Elder Tanner is not a
safe/ aware/ good driver. So I took the keys, and told our vehicle coordinator. Yay!

Alright, the break down for the week.

Monday - So I cut my district leader and his companion's hair, and then we went to a park shortly after and played some frisbee and what not. While there, well, I broke my nose..... Truly I did. I was trying to reach the frisbee while at ground level because it landed on top of one of this jungle gyms. There was a steel ladder above me that I did not pay attention to, and so I jumped full force to reach for the frisbee, and well..... Smashed my face into the ladder in 4 different parts. Nice huh? No worries ladies, my nose is not crooked (noticeably) ;). There is a part that I can feel that is not straight. Boss right? Note to self, never play on children's play grounds because I will get hurt. Fact. Another note to future children of mine, you will not be allowed to play on said jungle gyms. Ever. So that was a super fun day!

Tuesday - Okay so we had an apartment check, and I forgot that we had not cleaned the base boards in our apartment yet (in fact they had not been cleaned in over a year) so I got down and scrubbed for over half an hour before our zone leaders came by. Nice. Passed. Boom. It was a good day, my nose was not super black either, so only about half of everyone that I talked to noticed my nose. We read in the Book of Mormon, and talked more about how we will not progress with the lessons we have planned until they do their part by reading. I think they are finally starting to understand the importance of reading. To me it is quite simple! The Book of Mormon is the Keystone to our religion! Without it, we have nothing. Boldly stated enough, our church is not true unless the book is true. If the book is true, them Joseph Smith is a prophet. And if Joseph Smith is a prophet. And if he is a prophet, then all that come with that, and what we proclaim as missionaries is true. The true church of Jesus Christ has been restored.

Wednesday - We had our district meeting and we learned about how to tach more powerfully by the spirit, and also about listening by the spirit. It was so totally awesome! We ate lunch at chipotle, which was fun, it is just not nearly as good as what I get every night out here haha. Love the comida here. :) We ate two dinners, one with this woman that totally grew up here in California haha of you know what I mean. "Oh stop it!" (Insert accent here.....) it was so hilarious! We then ate dinner with two of our investigators. Had some American style tacos. We taught the about the Book of Mormon as well, and about our own personal stories with how we came to know that it was true. It was good for the most part!

Thursday - We had some normal studies to do, and we were told to take our car in to the dealership because our Chevy Cruz model was recalled with some sort of defect in the front right axel. But our vehicle coordinator Elder Butterfield told us last second not to go, because he did not have any spare cars if case they take ours. So we waited to go.  But we did some cool contacting and found some new investigators! Kind of a slow day, but we tried pretty hard!

Friday - Had some awesome studies in the morning,then during the almuerzo I made some more Hortchata, and it was pretty good. We then did our weekly planning session. Super good one, we made some solid plans for this week. It was good! We ate dinner with the the relief society president which was awesome! We had some interesting mole/chili chicken mix. It was delicious. The only thing is that it attacked my shirt haha. It is funny. Me manché! I always say that, or something like "I've been shot!" Super fun! We then went to Jorge Diaz's house to help him prepare his talk for the 27th. I explained an
outline that he could use, and read over the material he was given to use. It was really good! We taught Alfredo after that, and got him
even more prepared for his baptism. His interview was scheduled for the next day. We started exchanges that night.

Saturday - So my district leader Elder Pace came with me in my area, and I showed him around. We taught a few lessons, and set a new baptismal date for this young 14-year-old kid named Luis. He is so awesome! The awful thing was that when we went to the lounge/ business center in my apartment complex to use the wifi for Facebook and Mormon.org, well, we walked in on this giant party that some of the English missionaries were having........ Sports games on the TV, and other stuff. We walked out immediately. For the past transfer I have witnessed this kind of thing happen, and so I simply asked President Bowen if there was something that he wanted me to do. I did not tell him who it was or anything, simply that I wanted to help these missionaries remember their call as a missionary! Well, in the middle of our lesson with Mario that night, Elder Pace felt the phone go off, and he pulled it out and it read, 'President Bowen'. He called to talk to me about what happened, and asked me to meet him in his office the following day, to identify faces........ Ugh. That night was fun. But
the exchanges went great!

Sunday - Okay so we had a couple of meetings in the which we planned Alfredo's baptism with the ward. We drove to wake up some of out investigators for church. It was good! At church we learned more about the Priesthood. Our zone leaders taught because the Bishop was sick with Pink Eye. We ate dinner at the young men's presidents house, Hermano Solano. It was awesome. Had some chilies :). Quickly after we set up everything for the baptism, because there was a ward baptism and our convert baptism together, so we had to get everything set upthe way the ward wanted it. Fun!....... Haha. Alfredo did great! The
baptism was fantastic, there were so many people there. Wow! We stopped by Bishop's house to give him back his keys to the facilities in the church building, and ended up staying there for about an hour. His wife gave us some food, and some ice cream haha. We set up some appointments for him to come out with us. Bishop was so excited because we had a baptism. It had been almost two years since our specific area has had a baptism. All of my leaders are so excited right now. They have all told me that my area is the hardest Spanish area in all the mission, because it is mostly white. So a baptism was awesome! Oh and my interview with President Bowen was cancelled, he figured out who it was all on his own. So I was happy that I didn't
have to do that! Those guys are all my friends, I felt bad. I was not trying to be self righteous or anything. These guys came out on their missions for a reason, and I want them to remember that reason, before it is too late, or before they go home.

Monday - Okay, so we had a training meeting for the Mormon Helping Hands project. It was so long, and so informative. The application for citizenship is super intense, and there are so many words I would never know between English and Spanish. The English Elders found out somehow I said something, and well, now they all want to kill me. Super fun. I think President Bowen might have said that it was a Spanish Elder he found out from, so that narrows it down to pretty much me. Yup. So that was fun. It should all be okay hopefully.

Tuesday - Normal day, we took our car in because Elder Butterfield told us to finally, and they has us set an appointment for the following day. We ate dinner with the Bishop and his family. The picture is on Facebook, but I will send it as well. We had Pasole, with a piña colada drink for desert. Super delicious. We taught a few lessons, and found another new investigator. Boss status!

Wednesday - We had a zone meeting, in which we learned a lot about extending commitments. Also about how we need to promise specific blessings to our investigators, so that they will feel more obligated to fulfill their commitments. It was awesome. We took our car in, and well, what do you know? Our car is a rolling time bomb. Our front right axel has the defect, and basically it could break at any moment while driving, but there was no other car we could use for now, so they ordered the parts for it, and sent us on our way with our car. So.... Sketchy? We are protected!........ :) we tried contacting at
night time for about an hour, and we walked around for a while! Holy crap!

Anyways. This week (and a half) was super awesome! The mission has really made me think a lot about who I truly am. I know that I am a son of the most powerful figure that exists. And of all the titles of deity that he has been given, He has asked me to call Him as my Father. I know that my Heavenly Father is there for me, and that he truly loves me. Through prayer I have been able to communicate within, and I know that he listens. I know that my Savior Jesus Christ loves me as well. I know that as long as I keep the commandments, and keep my covenants, then I will be protected, and will have power to
overcome all trials, temptations, and hard times in my life. I know them personally. Como yo dije hace dos semanas, a mi Salvador. "Lo conozco," también, I know my Father in Heaven.

Have a fantastic rest of your week! I will talk to you all on Monday! That is only four more days. Awesome right?

Your favorite missionary in CALI!

Elder Weston Scott :)


So a couple of photos. The baptism of Alfredo (minus my companion, he
was cut out for some reason). And also dinner with the bishop.