Week 68 - Goodbye Elder Vorwaller, Hello Rain

Hey everyone!

Hope all is well up in the states or wherever you are! 

Things are good down here in Costa Rica. I think rainy season is hitting a little bit now. Good thing I got my handy-dandy shoe dryers ;) haha THANKS MOM!

Well, Elder Vorwaller had changes! Sad to see him go. He was put as Zone Leader in San Ramon (really far away) and was happy to go back to Guanacaste again. They sent me an Elder that was in Cañas (my hood). He says they still talk about the blonde who sang and played guitar which is funny haha. His name is Elder Fuentes and he's from Mexico - so thus ends my run with the English comp haha. He likes to exercise and is pretty chill, I think we'll get along really well. I'm the District Leader now here in Santo Domingo (so there went all my free time) hahaha ha ha... nah but I'm excited to help some other missionaries out in Santo Domingo and in San Rafael. Exciting!

I played the piano today for our meeting with the Missionary Department.  I met the guys that film the mormon messages (they filmed today too), a couple of 70's and the director of the Saratov movie.  Really good stuff.  

Nothing else really happened this week though... I did bring around my ukelele and people love that little "guitarita" haha. It works about as well as card tricks to get into houses. I did buy an oil/wax burner which is pretty chill - gotta get me some of the scentsy from the scentsy dealer that's in our ward (every ward has at least one haha)

Just really excited to be working here still! And all the food that we get - hopefully I still don't get fat... we'll see about that.. :)

Hermana Rodriquez's Apple Pie

Well, love you guys! Have a great week everyone! 

The church is true, pura vida and good vibes :)

Elder Stott, over-and-out! 

Boom. 

Elder Carrion (right) and my Grandson :)

Week 67 - Ash and a Baptism!

Hey guys!

Hope everyone is doing really good!

Things here went really well this week with Semana Sacrificio. We had to walk a ton and pretty much climbed a mountain to get to this place called concepción which was really cool - just a really long walk. Some pretty cool pictures!

So Volcano Turrialba is still going crazy, launching out ash clouds. One explosion reached like 3 or 4 km straight up. We've had to sweep the house a couple of times to get the ash out. It just settles everywhere during the night but it's alright!

We had another baptism which was awesome! She's this girl that's 9 but she acts like she's 12. I swear people grow up faster here... I don't try to guess people's ages anymore, it's way too hard haha. But anyways, it went really really good. Her whole family went as well as her inactive grandpa so we were stoked for that. Her brother/cousin (I forgot) was there and he's super awesome too.

Today we're gonna have a BBQ for Elder Dale because he's leaving next week - so crazy because he was here when I got here and I knew him my first day and he's been my favorite ZL so I'm gonna miss him. Grandpa (Landlord) is gonna be the one to cook and it's a giant flank steak so I'm STOKEDDDD. Sweet.

Well, nothing else really happened this week. I have been playing a little guitar so that's been fun and I'm teaching Elder Vorwaller - he's a good padawan (not sure if spelling is good there haha)

Well, have a really great week everyone!

Love all you guys!

Pura Vida, the church is true :)

Elder Stott :)

Week 66 - A Volcano and My Cooking Show

Hey guys!

Hope that everyone is doing super flipping good!

I just ate Taco Bell, and it will be the 3rd and last time I ever eat Taco Bell here. If you think it's really trashy in the states, wait till you try it here. NOT RECOMMENDED. I'll eat it in the states later.

BUT anyways, yeah, life is great here. We're still being spoiled by our grandparents here - plus, Elder Vorwaller made us all his specialty: BLT's. They were pretty dang good.  Here we are eating ribs and mashed potatoes at the Rodriguez's. She is a good cook!  Yum.

Not much else to report here... We are going to have another baptism this week and I call it operation titanic - baptize children and women first. Because she's this little girl who's 9 and lives in a member family but for some reason, they never got to baptizing her so we're being really blessed right now!  Things are going really really well! We're hoping to find lots of new people here who are ready to hear the gospel! But it's hard sometimes.

Ahh, we're going to have a big meeting with the Church's Missionary Department and they're going to come here because we were chosen as an example mission. It's a big deal because it's not just any 70 coming to visit, it's the missionary department, and 70s who are in charge of the whole shabang, so it'll be cool :) I'm going to play the mission hymn for it too which is sick :)

Oh yeah - Turialba exploded in the middle of the night and left volcanic ash everywhere in Heredia - I saved a little bottle of it because it's way cool. It kinda bugs your lungs and eyes but it was gone after like 2 days. So we're good now - just lots of cleaning!

Happy big 'ol 18 to my brother, Dillon.  It's tough being away from your best friend for 2 years.  But I'm stoked for the Stott studs to hit up BYU when I get back.

Sorry for a short email - we're going to take lots of photos this week because it's going to be Semana Sacrificio! Whoo hooo! Time to get one of 2 things: soaked, or sunburnt! Nah, but it'll be really great! Today I completed 14 months just in Costa Rica which is pretty crazy!

Here is a video of a funny cooking show I did with Elder Vorwaller with our branch.  Those are his hands - he is hidden behind me.

Well, hope you guys all have a great week this week!

Love you guys all a ton,

Much love, the church is true!

- Elder Stott

Week 65 - A Baptism and Skype time

Hey guys!

Well, this week went super super well!

First off, WE BAPTIZED GIOVANNYE! It was so great to be there to share that life-changing moment with him. He asked me to be the one to baptize him so I was super excited for that. The water was super flippin cold but... refreshing... haha. Stay tuned to hear what happens with him because he's going to progress fast in the Gospel :)

SKYPE FOR MAMA'S DAY! Man, that was way to good. Was really really great to see the whole fam together! Things look exactly the same since I left except for a new dog haha. They say I don't look fatter or skinnier so I'll take that as a compliment. I hope all the mothers out there had a really great day, especially the missionary moms. 

This week is Family Week in Costa Rica so we have a bunch of fun activities planned for the week including a family home evening group thing in the church. We're going to show off some magic tricks and do a skit - maybe I'll wear that magic hat that Dillon always wore when he was "Melvin the Magician" hahaha.

Not much else what to say... Still don't like papayas or anything so that's still the same!  haha

Well, thanks for all the support! Love all you guys so much!

Keep up the good work, the church is true, and good vibes!

Pura Vida!

- Elder Stott :)

It was SO great getting to visit with Josh for Mother's Day.  He's still the same funny Josh, but so much better!  ;)   We got to see him twice!  Once while he was at a sweet member-mama's (Adriana Rodriquez) house for dinner and she Face-timed me.  Super fun surprise!!  And later that night on Skype.

 A few random things from our Skype conversation - 1. Josh has a pretty thick Tico accent now...like Mexi-Irish.  Very funny.  We kept making him say the word, "October"...like George Lopez and Sean Connery mixed together.  2. His grandma-landlady is feeding him VERY well!!  She makes killer steaks and loves to cook for the Elders.  And, although he never thought he would feel this way, he's finally had his fill of gallo pinto, which is served with every meal everywhere he goes.  He's extremely grateful anytime it's served with a hot sauce...anything to give it a little flavor.  3. He continues to be amazed and humbled by the way people live in his area, but also finds it funny that while most live in corrugated, tin shacks, they also have huge flat-screen tv's and new iphones.  4. The missionaries there are really working hard to get their branch made into a ward.  They have 100-110 people  coming regularly, but need 120.  Lots of inactive members that they're hoping to connect with and bring back.  5. Lastly, his new favorite apostle is Neal A. Maxwell.  Elder Stott is digging deep ;)

Week - 64 Pretty Flippin Rainy

Hey guys!

Hope everyone had a great week up there in the states!

It's been pretty flippin rainy down here in Costa Rica but I have a pretty nice umbrella so no worries there!

Things have been good in good ol Holy Sunday. Lots of work to get done here. We did get 103 people to come this Sunday and that's not counting a bunch of really active families that almost always come so we're hoping and praying really hard to grow the branch into a ward here!

Giovannye is progressing really well and we're hoping that everything falls into place this week for his baptism this weekend. His cousin that lived with him was killed on Sunday morning so he's been struggling a little bit, but I know that the gospel will help things turn around. It always gives us a better outlook :)

My companion got a guitar and I'm teaching him too so the infection process in going well right now haha ;)  We recorded a couple of songs.

We did go to Pricemart too (the Tico Costco) and I found dark chocolate covered acai berries :) :) :) They are flipping good.

My landlord-grandparents (The Cordero's) went to see the Costa Rica temple this week! They loved it. Grandpa C is pretty good with the selfies.

Hope everything goes well this week for everyone! Happy early mother's day to all those moms out there (especailly mine :) ) Look forward to talking to you next week mom :)

Spanish Allelujah 

       

Love you guys!

Pura Vida & the church is true! 

Elder Stott