Week 51 - Here comes Hump Day!! 1 Year Baby!!

HEY EVERYONE! 

Hope all had a super sweet week this past week because mine was super awesome! 

So first, we had our consejo de liderazgo! Or our leadership council meeting for the whole mission! It was super sweet! We talked a lot about diligence and the importance of making sure the little things get done. Even though I'm busy running the powerpoints, computer, mics and all that jazz helping President, I'm always able to learn a ton and feel the spirit very strongly!

Second, we had our multi-mission (with the San Jose Costa Rica Este) meeting with Elder Quentin L. Cook! He's a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. Just like the 12 Apostles that Christ had during his earthly ministry. Well, Elder Cook, being an Apostle, is a special witness of Jesus Christ - a very very high authority in the Church. He shared that we as missionaries are the message and that we carry the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He gave us an apostolic blessing including that all the desires of our hearts will be accomplished and that miracles will flow from our hands. I loved that, and he shared his testimony of Christ with us. I don't think I've ever felt the Spirit stronger and President Duncan (the area President of Central America) said after, that it was the most powerful testimony he's ever heard from Elder Cook. SO COOL! I know that man is called of God and that he truly is an apostle of the Lord. Jesus Christ is at the head of this Church and his leaders (although imperfect) are inspired men. As a mission, everyone had shoes shined and suits and everything. WE LOOKED GOOD ;) haha and everyone was early! So that was good too.

At the conference, I saw my beloved son haha :) I LOVE ELDER HENRY - I MISSED THAT STUD!  Pacific Northwest Boys!!

And lastly, we had a baptism of the little girl who likes to crush my hand - Mariella! She is the bomb. I was super stoked and so was she during her baptism AND she even talked to me a tiny bit!

And funny story about this Sister missionary: When I saw her, I knew I recognized her from somewhere but could not figure out where...So I went up to talk to her.  So this one time, at BYU during summer term, my buddy and I got a hold of a pineapple and we decided that we were going to share it with some girls. I know.  So we went to the other side of the campus to the girls dorm and went to a random window and knocked on it. Well they opened the curtains and we showed them the pineapple and motioned for them to come outside. Long story short, they did and went back and got a knife and we all ate this pineapple outside.  So...this Sister missionary asked if I remembered her which I kinda did... She said that she remembered that I was in the BYU gym a lot and that we ate a pineapple together once. And that's when everything came back! Man, I died! hahaha I totally forgot about the whole pineapple thing! I apologized for my strange-ness and then we got a picture together - so that was a funny memory. Small world.

There were a couple of sisters and an elder that I also talked to (from the East mission) that recognized me from BYU. It was pretty cool to see people that I knew and people that remembered me hahaha. 

I have a picture with my lil' gangster Santiago and I playing guitar. He's a savage! 

So, this week was sweet! An all-in-all good week. And, I will hit my year mark on Thursday - so crazy! It's gone so slow yet so fast. And I'm loving every single minute of it. I'm so thankful for every opportunity to learn and teach people about this gospel that I hold so personal and precious. I can truly say that I know that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ and that the same authority that the 12 apostles and prophets had of old. I love this Gospel and I love my Saviour. 

Thank you for all the support and prayers on my behalf! I love all you guys so much! Cuidense mucho!

Pura Vida,

Elder Stott over and out! 

- Elder Stott

Week 50 - Cigarettes in my pocket, and the garbage man

Heya everyone!

Hope everything is sweet up there in the States or wherever you might be!

So, I've been reminded that my life is exciting to some people (even though it might be normal stuff to me haha) so I'm gonna give you all the reaaaal good scoop haha :)

So first, we're working with this awesome lady. She is 32, a single mom of two kids and really wants to get baptized. We were explaining to her that we as people need personal revelation from God. She asked how she could have her own it and we told her through the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It's something our Heavenly Father blesses us with when we are baptized and confirmed into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If we live worthy of it, the Holy Ghost can ALWAYS be with us...to guide, inspire and comfort us. This is something she wants so much!  We set up a baptismal date with her and it's coming up here soon in February. 

Funny story - So she is working at not smoking. She used to smoke almost 2 packs a day and now we have got her down to 6 cigarettes a day. One day, we came by and I asked her how many she had smoked that day. She told me 4 and I asked if she had any more on her. She had about half a pack and I asked her to give them to me and I took them. She laughed and let me take them. Well, I FORGOT I HAD THEM... when I got back home, I felt something plasticy in my pocket.  I still had los cigarros... haha so my companion and I tore them apart in the house and dumped them in the toilet :) It was pretty funny!

We almost died on the bus this week. Not really!? We hopped on a bus to head back to our area to work one day and the driver dude was NUTS. There was a bunch of traffic so he popped the curb on the side of the highway and we drove on the shoulder and the little grass thing in the middle.. It was pretty funny and scary but we did get home fast :) 

We have a baptism this week of a cute little girl. She's 9.  And for some reason, she gets shy and embarrassed when I come to the house. She won't say more than one word to me but she WILL talk to my companion! She's literally the first kid here that doesn't like me. AND, when I shake her hand, she grabs it as hard as she can, but it doesn't hurt because I'm a MAN! BOOM! haha but really, we're super excited for her to be baptized.

One of the zones in our area came to the office to watch a movie on their P-day and President invited us (being the 1st class office staff we are) to watch too. WE WATCHED EVEREST! It was SOOO good but sad too. It really teaches you the importance of teamwork. I definitely recommend it.

Also in the office...Elder Black and I made a little lipsync video for your viewing enjoyment. His mom posted it on Youtube.  Hope you like it.  If you haven't heard this song before, make sure you listen closely to the words!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNrKyIGjltQ&feature=share

Oh and by the way, we threw our garbage outside in the normal pile and after it landed we heard a grunt... THERE WAS A DUDE SLEEPING IN MY GARBAGE PILE. Interesting.  It was probably the grumpy Oscar dude from Sesame Street hahaha.

Well, there's a little taste into the life of Elder Stott!  Have a good week y'all! Until next time!

Pura Vida,

Elder Stott 

Week 49 - Mmmm....Mystery Meal

Hey everyone!

Hope everyone had an awesome week!

My week was super duper long, but it was good. We had semana sacrificio or sacrifice week. We basically go out super early and start preaching the gospel to everyone we can talk to.

One time I got so excited to talk to a guy something switched inside me and I started speaking English. Haha it was kinda like the Spanish mode that Buzz Lightyear got switched to in Toy Story but the other way around. Well the guy thought it was super funny and he invited us to come back. So whatever happened, I guess it worked haha!

Man, it's been flippin' hot here! I feel like I'm back in Guanacaste now... But it's just something you get used to. Things have been good in the office because we haven't been there yet!   haha  We'll head there this week again and start grinding again. RISE AND GRIND BABY! - That's been my saying this month every morning. I scared my companion once because I yelled it haha. It's my mantra.

Well, not much else happened this week. I did make my companion laugh so hard that CEREAL came out of his nose. Now THAT, was funny. I recorded a funny video of Elder Black and I too so I'll try to pop that on Dropbox this week - coming soon!

Ate something interesting. I'll let you guys guess what.

Well, I love you guys all so much! Thank you for all the support and prayers.

Stay fly,

Pura Vida

Elder Stott 😁

Week 48 - Steak makes me happy

Good morning Vietnam!

Hey guys! Hope everyone had a sick week this week!

Speaking of getting sick, guess whose turn it was? You betcha, this guy haha. It wasn't all too bad just a quick two-day cold but it was rough haha. Hit a good ol 104.5 fever again with some body aches but that's when you just gotta keep on grinding! 

This week was a good week. We had a mission leadership meeting with all the ZL, Sister Training Leaders, AP's and Secretaries. Man, does President Laboreal know how to give a capacitacion. The whole thing was 7 hours long but it was awesome. He taught about obedience and how we can all improve the mission together.​

We've been working like crazy in the office as well... Three time this week we didn't get back into our area until 8:30. That's barely enough time for a quick lesson so it's been a little rough. But, I LOVE working with Presidente.  I love him - he's such an inspired and loving man.

I found a cool headband thing so I decided to model it.

We got invited to go eat with a gringo family that was visiting Central America (the dads served in the Central American Mission - they're old haha) and we went to a freakin sweet Peruvian restaurant. I got a steak with seafood on top. It was the best steak and only steak *tear rolls down cheek*, that I've had in a long, long time. And they had this hot sauce that made my tongue go completely numb so that was pretty cool. I'll try to get the group picture on DBox soon.   

Nothing much else happened this week. But we are getting geared up for Semana Sacrificio here this coming week. It's gonna be a long but successful week. 

Thank you all for all the support and prayers in my behalf! Enjoy that snowy weather because it's 90 degrees here today.... haha

Hasta la vista babay!

Pura Vida,

Elder Stott

 

A little fun in the office.  I love this job!

Week 47 - Happy New Year!

Hey everyone!

HAPPY 2016! I hope that all you guys have a super sick year and that you will all stick to any goals that you set. 

So this week was good. Nothing totally new here in the office. We're finishing up our report for the month of December and that's really, really, big and scary but hey - I got this!

I love the temple

We did get to go to the temple this week! My compañeros convert got her endownments so we got go for that.  That was SUPER sick. I love the temple. I would seriously spend all day there if I could. It's just great. :) 

Hey, I heard Two Steps Behind by Def Lepard this week. I totally forgot about and missed that song so that was a little tender mercy haha. It was in a little chinese restauraunt and I moved right under the speaker because it was playing kinda soft. But yeah :)

I uploaded some pictures from some of the office staff. The darkest one (with his eyes closed) is my companion from Arizona - Elder Larsen. He's super chill and we really get along together. 

Elder Contreras - (will be my companion again in February)

Queso

My companion, Elder Larsen

I started reading a talk that is super duper good about bearing burdens and trials - and why we have them. It's called "But for a Small Moment" by Neal A. Maxwell. I invite you all to read it. It really opened my eyes a lot and made me really thankful for the trials I've had in my life. They prove that God loves us. Read it and found why :)

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/neal-a-maxwell_small-moment/

I just want you guys all to know how much I seriously love my mission. Don't get me wrong, some days it's super tough. And it almost seems like there's more of those days than the good days. BUT, the good days ALWAYS make the bad ones worth it. I really love the people here and I'm making friendships that I hope will last a long time. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. And through it, I know without a doubt that, we can really, truly be happy. I know that we have a Father in Heaven who loves and knows us perfectly. He isn't some abstract and far-away being. He is personal, perfect, loving and involved and is always aware of our needs. I know that Christ loves us perfectly too. He is the Savior of the world, and it's His message that I carry with me. I love Him with everything I have. 

Love you guys all a ton! Have a sweet week and be good!

Pura vida baby,

- Elder Stott 

Proverbs 23:13 hahaha