[Mason] the most exhausting week of my mission....and the best

Ok so to outline the week, I will use bullet points and then go back and explain them

1. Jesenia's hectic baptismal date

2. Jesenia's baptism and confirmation

3. My birthday

4. My birthday is celebrated every day by the members

5. Too much freakin cake

6. I have felt nauseous all week long.

7. Transfer Texts

8. New calling

9. THE HOSPITAL NIGHTMARE

1. Monday we had Jesenia meet with President packard in the temple, and there, she was interviewed by him, passed, and her desire to get baptized changed immediately.  So we talked to her that night and she asked to get baptized on Sunday.....So WOW. we then got to work and so on Tuesday, my B-day, we asked her a few questions with regards to the baptismal service and she was like "can I get baptized on Saturday?....and actually I want to get baptized tomorrow!"....so we got everything set up and then she is like, "actually Friday will work best for my schedule", so then we were like "OK, we will get it set", and then she texts us and says...."actually I need to wrap my head around this whole baptism thing".....and so then she dropped the date.  We then, on Thursday night, receive a text from her, at 1030pm, asking if she could still get baptized on saturday...and so then we set that up....its was a nightmare...because she didn't what anyone to come, and the branch is getting after us and yelling at us and it was ridiculous....but we dunked her after 3 days of planning it.   Let me just say that that was the shortest turn around from date to dunk I have seen out here. holy cow!.

2.  So we dunked her and confirmed her this week. Elder Vizcardo baptized her and I Confirmed her....it was legit.  We then proceeded to be yelled at again by some of the members for not inviting them....ugh....not my fault.

3.  So let me see...we had a really busy day on Tuesday....and it was sweet....we had cake like 4 times....and the classic mordida where you bite the cake and they hold you down and push your head into it..... I smelled chocolate for like 24 hours afterwards because it was in my nose.

4. Since the members of the branch found out it was my bday...they wanted to all celebrate it....separately....and so every appt  I had, there was caked and singing and laughter and a stomach ache....ugh.....it was ridiculous, but I love the branch so much

5. Too much cake. Period.

6. I dont know what's been going on, but my stomach has been aching like I'm nauseous, but I can eat still, and drink, but its really bad in the mornings and at night time....and its awful...but I think it's from all of the cake.....we will see.

7. So I'm not being transferred...I'm staying to tackle my 6th transfer here in the city of Lynn.....WOW.....its crazy!.....but there are a lot of miracles happening here though and so I'm glad I can stay.

8. I am now the District Leader here in this district, and so I have a district of 10 people and it shall be exciting and adventurous....and productive as it had been.  I am excited to serve in this new calling.

9. Now its time to share the hospital nightmare.  As we know there is a classic phrase that goes like this...."there is opposition in all things." there is a lot of truth in that.  Now, we had our baptism Saturday night at 6pm...at the same time there was a B-day party for a 5 year old in our own chapel in Lynn, where there is no font.  So we couldn't make it, nor Branch President Fuentes.....While at the baptism, President Fuentes' Daughter, Ashley, did a hand stand or something, and fell and broke her leg, and I mean she literally broke her leg.  She broke the Fibula AND the tibia. they are both broken.  So she is driven to the Salem hospital but the doctors couldn't do anything....and we are at the baptism unaware.... because our phone was on silent and President Fuentes' phone was in his truck....So we all after the Baptism go get dinner for like 30 min, and while we are there, I check the phone because it was odd that nobody had messaged us or called us in the span of 2 hours....so I see several missed calls...and I return them...and I then find out the situation.  We then take off from there, and since we don't have miles to go to Boston with the President, who is the father, we ride in his truck.....We arrive at the massive Childrens Hospital in Boston, and we actually arrived  before the ambulance did, but she arrived and she was in so much pain.  Not one ounce of the morphine was helping it seemed....and it was so sad. So we gave her a blessing, and so Elder Vizcardo anointed and President Fuentes was going to seal it, but Ashley asked me to do it, so I did. and she went from screaming and crying to calm and sleeping and only a little pain by the end of it.  It was amazing to see the Lord step in and help her.  The hospital was so busy that night, that there was not enough orthopedic surgeons or nurses or anyone or even rooms,and so there was a massive wait.  We went, as I already mentioned, with the President in his truck, and so we were trapped there until he was able to leave....So at about 2AM, Brother Reyes, a high councilman, came and picked us up and brought us home.  Sister Fuentes called him.  It was awesome that a member could come and help us out.  Especially at that early in the morning.  But it was a sad night, because the Fuentes' didn't know what was going to happen, Sister Fuentes doesn't really speak English at all and so we were translating for her to the doctors and vice versa.  But the whole night was insane.  My companion ate some food at dinner, because her was starving, and President Fuentes and I decided not to because it was too late in the night, and so we both went without food for the entire night. but the whole day helped me understand more about my Savior and what he went through and that he felt that pain and any other pain that  she will feel, or any of us will feel,and it makes my heart fill with joy and peace, because I don't have to worry about my pain, because Christ knows how to take it away.

Anyways so this was my week in a nutshell.

Santos has a Baptism date for January 4 2015 and so that will be a cool way to start of his year, I think.

Our new investigator Sanchez was in institute the other night, and said to the teacher, that nothing else can be said to  convince him that the the church is true, he knows it is, from reading the first 10 pages of the BOM...and so all we need is another miracle to get him to church.

Thanks for all the support.

Elder Scott,

Be the change you want to see in the world

[Mason] Hello everybody.....

Ok sorry this is coming so late, we were at the temple all day today. We did a session de investidura [initiatory] and then we worked in the laundry room for like 2 hours after.  It was great. the best part though was what happened during all of the temple experience.

So this last week was really slow and we had several meetings, and the first one was monday night, and it was sad because we met with Jesenia and Santos, and Jesenia said that basically she was done investigating.  She had a really hard week after committing herself to being baptized and now she put two and two together and it results as the church being the one to blame.  So it was hard for her to even pick up the Book of Mormon. and so we went home devastated for we knew not what to do.  We then had a meeting so called RETURN AND REPORT where the new missionaries gather and discuss how training is going, and their concerns,...but the trainers have the same meeting.  It's real fun, I tell you what.  It was so funny.   So during the meetings I was having a hard time paying 100% attention because I was still thinking about what I can do to help Jesenia. I then had this amazing epiphone while listening to I  think it was Sister Packard speak, where we need Jesenia to meet with President packard ASAP. So we made that happen today at 1030 in the temple of to the side where we as missionaries can have lessons and meet with non-members.  Now President Packard has hinted to us that she is doing much better and wants to get baptized and so we will find out here shortly hereafter. 

But this is the highlight of my week.  Wwe after that meeting however were able to attend the temple and do an endowment session and so I attended 2x this week.  It rocks.

Um just trucking along here, not much to say and not much time anyway.  We have transfer texts this week so we will see.

I hope to chat next week I guess, and BTW what is Weston's address?

Thanks for the mail everyone,  I appreciate it.....and really mom....Lobsters!?....with the months i have left.....talk about t.r.u.n.k.y.n.e.s.s. ahaha jk. I love it though. 

THe crowd here new I ddon'tstand for the darn ssurpriseparty and I was expecting one, and so what they did was they went behind my back and did it on Saturday night, this last Saturday....and it caught me off guard....so I already ate the cake and celebrated...I will include a pic. 

I am stoked this week for yet another week to work my tail off and one of these weeks I will be able to teach up to 35 lessons.......I can do it....I just hope my COMP is ready.....hehe

Also I was given the opportunity to baptize a little boy who turned 8 yesterday, His name is Henry.  I absolutely love this little kid so much.  He is so awesome.  During church yesterday, he came up to me and asked me..."you are baptizing me right?  My response was "only if you want me to"  He smiles and says "yes!!!" and then he gives me this bear hug.  It was awesome

#LET'SGO

#I'MPUMPED

#ONLYONEMOREYEARTOMAKEANAMEFORMYSELF

Have a great week

Elder Scott

[Weston] Anaheim Weekly October 13, 2014

Good afternoon!

I sincerely hope all is well with everyone! I just emailed about four days ago, so I do not have a lot to say about the work. Elder Fonnesbeck and met, saw, and taught a lot more people this week, and now we are getting into the rhythm of the work. It feels great! On Thursday this past week (my year mark) we went out at 6 because it was our p-day and we went to find some of the members we had not yet met, but they were not home, and so we stopped by a member named Vilma, and we talked about temples with her, and then we ended with a prayer. Then went upstairs to see a recent convert named Jaquelin who stopped coming to church, and we taught about the importance of keeping the sabbath day. I remember making a simple comment, "the temporal things of this life are not and never will be as important as the spiritual truths which we know as members." It made me think long and hard as well. It is so true.

On Saturday we had exchanges with our zone leaders, and Elder Nixon came with me in my area, fun fact for you, he is one of the missionaries that got transferred out of the area this transfer, and he spent his whole entire mission there so far, 5 transfers, (yeah he is younger than everyone and is a zone leader, #nextAP) and so we went around meeting people and talking to members and the investigators that he had been working with. It was very effective. We then went to a wedding reception, which was super fun! We got a true of the food to take home on Sunday after church. So much chicken and rice hahaha. Free food! It was a good exchange though!

At church it was fast Sunday of course, and so I decided to bear my testimony in front of everyone, and it was funny because I just do feel good on fast Sunday, and so I got up there and I realized that I was like the grumpiest guy ever trying to bear a testimony hahaha. Funny to look back on. 

The district is struggling a lot lately, but we are keeping up our excitement, well, at least trying to. Thank you for all of the support! :)

Your favorite Elder in So. Cal.!

Elder Weston Scott

We tried to look stupid hahaha! It worked!

We were tired on Sunday.

[Weston] Anaheim Weekly October 9, 2014

Buenas Tardes!

This past week and a half have been super great! The missionary work has been incredibly slow, and it has been hard to get our area going, it has been a really great! Elder Fonnesbeck and I are on bikes officially, and it is going pretty good.  It is incredibly hot here though, so.  It is not exactly my cup of tea sprite, but all is well.  Training is going alright.  My year of experience in the mission sometimes does not give me any credibility apparently for things I do and certain ways I do things.  Apparently I have no idea what I am doing, which is of course, false.  New missionaries haha, all is well though.  I am doing what I know how to do, and I am following the Spirit, so that is what counts.  We are starting to meet more of the investigators that the missionaries were seeing last transfer.  We met some members, whom have family that are not members.  We received training last Wednesday from our zone leaders about the places where we are finding investigators, and how we are trying hard and working hard as a mission, but not looking and working in the right direction or area.  Part member families, less active families, and recent convert families is where we have to focus our efforts.  We learned a lot about how to work more efficiently with members.

On Thursday and Friday our zone got invited to go and do service at an elementary school for their parent teacher conferences. Can you guess what they needed help with? Translating! Elder Fonnesbeck and I went on Friday with Elder Sorenson, the other district leader in the zone, and his companion.  Because Elder Fonnesbeck is exceedingly new, he could not translate, so he sat with me at the tables while I translated the conversations from Spanish to English, and he looked up words in his dictionary for me.  It was quite fun to translate, it was hard, and I did not know a lot of school terms in Spanish, but it went pretty well. The gift of tongues is incredibly real. And I am very grateful for it!

Now to general conference. It was so sick! [and that's apparently a good thing] The coolest part was the fact that the speakers got to speak in their native languages! It was so cool! I learned quite a lot, I thoroughly enjoyed Elder Richard G. Scott's talk. Four simple and powerful tools we have - prayer, the scriptures, the temple, and ....(the fourth escaped my memory at the moment) but I enjoyed it! I also really enjoyed Elder Eyring and his remarks on personal revelation.

This past Wednesday I taught district meeting, as I am the district leader, and it was flippin awesome! Our mission has been struggling more than I would like to admit, and so we have been trying to discern what it is that we are lacking. Obedience, diligence, and faith. Three attributes that we all need to improve on, and I can say that studying and constructing the district meeting was incredibly powerful for me. I learned so much. I am not a perfect missionary, nor even close, and now I have goals to be more diligent, obedient, and faithful. I think one specific principle that spoke out to me was actually part of the mission call letter that states, "You will also be expected to devote all your time and attention to serving the Lord, leaving behind all other personal affairs. As you do these things the Lord will bless you and you will become an effective advocate and messenger of the truth. We place in you our confidence and pray that the Lord will help you meet your responsibilities in fulfilling this sacred assignment."

Looking back on my year of service so far, and this quote above from my mission call letter, I realize that I have not laid all of my personal affairs and everything about me on the altar of sacrifice. It is a hard truth to accept, but looking forward now, I have been given the blessing of understanding this. I have one year to serve as a full time missionary, and the rest of my life to devote my time and efforts and talents to my Heavenly Father and Savior.

This past Tuesday Elder Quito came with me on exchanges. Being District leader we are supposed to exchange with each missionary in our district each transfer at least one time. So Elder Quito came with me. Fun fact about Elder Quito, we go home together from the mission, yay! I love this Elder so much. He is a very hard worker, and one of the most humble guys I have met out here. I know he supports me in my calling, and he manifests in the way he fulfills assignments and in how we communicate with each other. 

Monday night we went to see a family who is less active, and of course we got lost. Until one of the daughters came out recognized us as missionaries. She helped us find our way, and we met the entire family, and the mom is super cool beans her name is Hermana Trujillo. She has the same birthday as me! So she invited us over for our birthday on Tuesday night for some cake. Super fun!  

Let's see, we went to the temple today, and it was the most spiritual visit to the temple that I have ever had. Very personal, so I will not share, but afterwards we headed to Olive Garden and got some decent eating in. I mean, special occasion right? Year mark! 

Well that's all folks! I am very grateful for all of the support that I receive, and the prayers on my behalf. I am excited for the last year of service I have to give. I will hold nothing back! I love you all! :)

1) I cooked some fish on exchanges, it was alright, not the fish I would normally choose, it was found in our freezer, it was a huge peace of yellow trout. Kind of gross, but whatevs.

2) The cutest kids ever from a recent convert. I want them for my own children hahaha! They are so great!

3) District Photo in front of the temple!

4) Elder Maughn and I (my best friend out here)

[he forgot to actually attach those referenced pictures]

Your favorite Missionary,

Elder Weston Scott

[Mason] Me vs. the World

     This last week was Fantastic, And the Duties as a Trainer dont even seem real anymore, because im so far past them. We are really getting along great. Elder Vizcardo has a great Knowledge of the Bible and I do not.....and so he, almost daily, reviews the bible with me, and so now  I  don't have to worry to much about certain stories that we refer to, and then I take over and I teach him how to be a better teacher and how to be a more focused and effective missionary...he also corrects and helps me with my Spanish....but its all good.

    Alexander and Ariana.....our two awesome investigators......we taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ and invited them to be baptized, just a soft invitation, and they accepted.....and we then decided at that moment to not set a date, but to re-invite with a date after we teach the Plan of Salvation......now we had planned on teaching the plan of salvation, but things change according to what God wants....right?

We taught Jesenia and Santos, our Couple of 21Yr olds, and we have finished all the lessons so far, and now they cant get enough of Gospel Principles, so we are beginning that right now. 

Amelia and Raisa.....slowly progressing.      Amelia needs work off so that we can set a Date with her.    Raisa is Catholic and likes  being catholic. She believes in the BOM.....so right now she has homework to answer a Question we left her.

Rolando and Soila.....we haven't seen them, they keep cancelling....but not cancelling because for reasons that are classic.....they are legit reasons,,,,,,so we are patiently waiting for an appt to be set again.

Jade Shawn and Awilda are in limbo in terms of the fact that sure they want to learn, but they don't keep commitments nor do they answer our phone calls or the door....so we are kind of dropping them.

Emily, angel and Angie.....we haven't seen them for a while.....they kind of disappeared. and the member kind of slacked off, and she was our communicator for them.

Sonya caba is slowly getting into the BOM....and we have left everything in her hands.....if she wants to continue...ok great.....lets go...bu we are waiting for her to make the choice.

Stephanie velez.....ugh...answer the door and phone......

Maria came to church last week, not this week, but we are waiting for the divorce of Sergio's wife, so that Maria can Marry Sergio and then get baptized and so we are waiting for that stuff to process.

So ya we worked with a lot of members as well

But  the message of this week is that we all encounter various levels of stress in our lives, and a lot of it is accumulated through our own selves not accepting the will of God.  Now I don't mean that in the same way as doing what God wants us to do. We have things that happen that cause us to be mad. I am a witness to this and i testify that this is truth. things that don't go our way Make us unhappy, and until now i never realized that when we get unhappy and stressed and mad, we are not accepting the Will of God and we are making ourselves Prideful. Thursday, our day when we normally weekly plan, was destroyed by some key miscommunication that really made me, Elder Scott mad.  I have a hard time accepting and being ok with things that are out of my control....so what happened was that somebody needed our keys...and so we gave them up with the agreement that we will see them in an hour at our chapel, where we will do our planning.  It turns out that they never went to our chapel, and didn't let us know, so we show up, and nobody there, and then by the time we locate the keys....we have an appt. and so we couldn't go get them because they were 45 minutes from us. after the appt., we left to get them, picked them up and had to drive an hour back to another appt that was already far from the church. so we missed out on a revelatory experience and on some good solid planning for the next week. ....so the whole day I was mad...up until the end of the night, when Vizcardo say, crap dude we didn't go get that thing at Walmart for so and so....and so on our way home, we stopped by. while here, we met the most wonderful lady ever, and it made my day better. now if the keys wouldn't have been lost, and the time "wasted" through endless driving, we would not have seen her nor talked to her.  

All things happen to help us get to where we need to go, not necessarily where we want to go. I pray that we can all accept the hard cold truth, that God has his plan. and His plan is not Our plan unless we make it our own. let us all be willing to put a smile on and take the next step on the path.

So, as we are all pretty aware, my brother and I are nearing the good ol' 1 Year Mark in the Mission, as well as the Big 20th....whew....and all I really want here is to help the people understand that the Savior Really can help them with their troubles.  The Savior can do anything which is why he is our Savior. He will save us from our lives. He is also our Redeemer. for her will redeem us of our mistakes. I just want the people here to listen to this message. it will help them.  I know it will, it has helped me. Christ has healed me and lifted me up, and now all i want is for the people here to have the ability through Christ to Stand up and move forward.

As I learn more of how to be an even better missionary, I find better was to how I can truly help people understand this message.

Have a good week, and Remember that Jesus Christ Lived, Died, and Lives. Remember is a powerful word. it means: to have in or be able to bring to one's mind an awareness of (someone or something that one has seen, known, or experienced in the past). We all knew him before. 

Love,

Elder Mason Scott

So, Sister Laudie sent me a Package from Utah.....and it was tight....it made my day even better

and Sister De La Cruz Alcantara gave birth to Jose Ernesto De La Cruz, and he is so cut.....an he smiles real big...just not for the picture i took.

And Vizcardo...

[Mason] La Conferencia General me impacto muchisimo

This last week was insane, only because of the amount of stuff we had to deal with.  I had the opportunity to be on exchanges twice this week, and it was a nice break, and I really learned what my job is here, even more so.

I really learned the meaning of Christ-like Love and how I need to truly show it.  I have solely focused on the things that we struggle with as a companionship, instead of the things that we do great at, and more importantly the things he does great.

We had a classic comp inventory this week, and I tell you what, that was a very interesting session....no details will be shared other than the fact that it is in he past and we are moving forward, in unity.

De la conferecia, [from conference], I learned a lot about how I need to love more, and be more charitable, and some other things, but I don't have my notes in front of me.  Our investigator, Santos, was with us all day Saturday for all of conference, and man is he legit.  He's just so awesome, I wish you guys could meet him, he is so cool.

Elder Bednar's talk was sweet and I absolutely loved Uchtdorf's Talks, he is the boss.

So the work here, well first off a change.  We can't play sports in the morning anymore, due to some unfortunate circumstances, so I'm jumping back onto the bandwagon of Insanity and P90x and running and what not.  It should be interesting.

We made contact with a few of our distant investigators and it was a relief, because they seem more open now and its awesome.

I was hit on at this restaurant called el Tikal.....and the only problem is that 2 other people there are interested in the church.....and its awkward not and we don't know what to do. because she told us to come back at nights, and when we are there we are normally with a member.....so we probably aren't going to go again for a while. .....she literally gave me free food.  Not even my companion...just me....it was awkward, funny and there was free food.

So birthday is coming up and right before is the good old classic 1 Year mark, and its amazing to think back to who I was, Who I am now, and who I will be shortly after this part of my life.  I enjoy seeing how much I have changed. and I look forward, eagerly, for what life brings to my table, and how i will get through, around or over it.

Today, I was given the chance to attend seminary at 6am and talk to the youth about what its like to serve a mission, and before and what to expect.  It was a great opportunity to bear my testimony, and I was asked about how they don't understand what kinds of blessings come from serving a mission, and I was able to bear my testimony about my Grandpa choosing to be baptized.  It was cool

This morning, upon preparing myself for the day, I had a chat with the Zone leaders, who stayed the night to go to seminary with us, and we discussed obedience issues in the zone, and then they proceed to tell me, "Elder Scott, we need your help.  We need your example throughout the zone, please help us with these new missionaries that dot our whole zone".....and I am the  one that has been here the longest and Im the only 3rd oldest in the mission age.... and there is obedience issues out the wazoo. So today, this morning, I Had a "come to Jesus Moment" where I realized I have a chance at something that I have been trying to fulfill my whole mission. "Help the Missionaries to be the best they can be." my whole mission I have felt like that is part of my purpose here and so now I have a real shot of fulfilling that, and so I am now at a point where the rules are my commandments and I cannot break them, or else.

I have to be the leader here. President Packard says all the time that the "Calling of a Trainer in the MBM(Massachusetts Boston Mission) is the highest calling in the mission, and only a few missionaries can handle the job", and I understand what he means by that now.  I still feel inadequate, but the Lord makes up the rest after I do my best.

Anyways,

Elder Scott

pic1....heading to fenway on the green line

pic2....Exchanges with Fishy....it was fun

[Weston] Anaheim Weekly September 29, 2014

Hello everyone!

This week was super fun! Hahahahaha. White washing is so great, because all of the addresses are wrong that were left, and we do. It know anyone! However, I learned that I know Spanish a lot better than what I though I did. Quite fantastic! My new companion does not speak Spanish, at all, so I al working hard on helping him. This week was flipping awesome though because I got to teach district meeting, which was pretty great! We talked all about contacting everyone, and about the importance of always relating what we talk about to our unique message to the world. It was awesome! This week I also got to give a blessing to a man named Victor, a recent convert, who has a burning testimony. It was a fantastic experience. Other news, I am officially going on bike tomorrow, unfortunately hahaha. All is well though, I apologize, but not too much time today, we have a lot of stuff to get done. I have learning a lot about Faith, and it is such an incredible, and overlooked. Keep up the good work back home! :)

Elder Weston Scott