Week 104 - Going On 2 Years!

Well hey everyone! 

Hope everybody is having a rock out week there in the States or anywhere!

As far as Elder Stott goes. Things have been pretty great! I just got back from San Jose getting my last interview from President! It was so crazy because we talked about my whole mission and then set goals for the future. Crazy to think of what I'll be doing in 10 or 20 years! Good stuff there!

This week we helped a couple of different families move different furniture around everywhere. I feel like I have the back of an 80 year-old man now but that's all good, service is always worth it! 

We've been working hard to find new people and we're talking to everyone haha. I've ended up talking to the same people more than once, just finding them in the street! Haha and a couple of them have accpeted us to come back and teach them in their homes so we're stoked for that. 

I went on divisions for 2 days with an Elder here in San Ramon that is pretty.. interesting haha. He's pretty new in the mission and is just trying to figure-out why he's out here on the mission. I think I connect with him pretty good because he likes to talk about random stuff (really random haha) and I've been trying to be a better listener, so I guess it just works out great haha. We had a pretty good time. I think that I like to be with new missionaries so that I can try to give at least a little nugget of advice sometimes to help them out. I just do what I can to help :) 

Well this week we're headed back to San Jose for a hospital visit for my comp (he's fine, just getting a check-up) and then on Friday there's Consejo de Liderazgo so we head back to Chepe (San Jose) AGAIN. So lots of traveling. WHOOOOOO! Good stuff.

Today, if we have time, we're going to head to Volcan Arenal because it's pretty close to our area, so if we end up going, I'll make sure to take lots of pics! 

This Saturday, I'll hit my 2 year mark so that will be SWEET! It's crazy how fast time flies by! Today is my last P-day because next monday, I'll be in San Jose! Crazy stuff! 

HEY. Special Shout-out to my little (but bigger brother) Dill on his mission call to the Ukraine! He's gonna kill it out there! Proud of you man! 3rd missionary from the Stott fam. 

Well, thank you everyone as always, for your love and support! Keep those prayers coming please! 

Pura Vida!

-Elder Stott 

Week 103 - Thai Food - A Spiritual Experience

Hey fam bam! 

Hope everyone is hanging in there in the States or Worldwide! 

Well this week was pretty great! First of all, it was Week of Miracles. We had divisions like the whole week which was because I got to work more with other Elders from the zone. I stayed here in the area to work here. It was pretty great and cansado tambien, because we did service the whole week. I dug a huge hole 3.5 feet wide and 6.5 feet deep. That took forever haha. And then the next day, I moved a ton of wood and had to get all the nails out too. That sucked haha. And then lastly, we helped a part-member family move and they had tons of heavy stuff (or so it seemed haha). So that was all really fun. Not really, but it was good to serve :) 

Great news! Haha so in divisions, I met this nice Asian lady in the street and talked with her for a while. Turns out she's from Thailand and she knows perfect English (and very little Spanish) but she married a tico and moved here. Well, the best part is that she has a THAI FOOD RESTAURANT here. So for sure, we went and I had my first Pad Thai in more than 2 years, and it was pretty good. It was almost a spiritual experience for me haha. Good stuff.

(remember to click on the pictures if you're on a mobile device)

Things with Giovany are going pretty good! (The dad in the part-member family). He offered me some liquor so I took the opportunity to teach a little about the Word of Wisdom (which is completely inspired and true by the way) so that was pretty great. He's progressing pretty fast too so I'm getting excited :) 

FINALLY got my companion to put on his new tie that mom gave us for Christmas. The problem is that he loves it too much (he loves that it's Michael Kors) and I had to fight him to wear it to church. He was scared to get it dirty haha :) 

Other than that, things are great here! Loving my time in San Ramon, even though it'll be short-lived hah. Thank you everyone for the love and support! 

Be strong always! Molon Labe ("come and take (them)") or come and get it :) It's a spartan saying haha.

Love you guys! 

Pura vida! 

- Elder Stott  

Yeah, it's BIG

Eating healthy

Week 102 - A Normal-But-Good Week

Hola todos que tal?

Hey everyone! Hope everyone had an awesome week! Mine was pretty sweet too haha.. actually it went really really fast… It’s crazy how sometimes time goes by really slow or super fast, it’s never in between! 

So this week we just focused on helping out other areas in our zone, so we headed out to other areas and work with them and their investigators. It was pretty cool to meet lots of other people and work along-side our missionaries here in the zone! It is really tiring too because we have to wake up early and travel a lot to get to the other areas.

We also had divisions with the Assistants too! I was with Elder Escobar - he's actually the one who's hanging on my shoulders in a picture from Liberia. It was pretty good - he's a lot different than when he was a Zone Leader with me there in Liberia, but he's still a great guy! 

As far as investigators go, there's this family where the dad isn't a member and he's been coming to church but hasn't been all that interested. Well this Sunday, he told his wife that he'd like to maybe prepare to be baptized so we went over and taught an awesome lesson with him. It went really well - the only doubt that he has is about the music.. haha he comes from an Evangelical church that basically has rock concerts with some christian lyrics, so he's trying to get used to the hymns. But we're working on that! He said he's going to work to be baptized the last week of this month, or the first week of February so we're excited! 

We had a fun little birthday party yesterday where we watched a church movie and there were investigators there which was awesome - so we got to teach a little bit! 

The ward keeps bugging me about how I'm ending soon haha which is annoying sometimes. So I've come to the point where when people ask me how much time I have, I tell them "a little bit more than a year" :) haha

Other than that, in a nut shell, it was a normal-but-good week haha :) I'm still trying to eat healthy (eggs, spinach, chicken breast, smoothies) and all that jazz. But it is really hard to get motivated to exercise too because you don't have a ton of energy haha. But you just grind through that.

The area is hard because there's not much work catching on here, but I'm trying to find the positive. My comp is pretty cool, he's kinda tough to get along with sometimes, nothing that I can't handle. I've just learned how to get along with other people even if they're nothing like me! but I'm happy here- just grinding on!

Well, hope everyone has an awesome week! 

Love everyone!

Pura Vida

Elder Stott

Week 101 - An Uphill Battle

Hey everyone! 

As always, hope everything is super awesome up in the States or wherever you are! It's nice an chilly here in San Ramos.

I got my package this week two! It was sick! I loved it!! Special shoutout to Mom, Dad, Aunt Karen (Poopsie) and Carson for my awesome gifts! 

(If you're on a mobile device, click on the pics) 

My week was a pretty good one and it flew by! On Wednesday, I completed 23 months in my mission which is super freaking crazy because I feel like I maybe have 10 months or something like that haha. Really weird. 

We headed to Consejo de Liderazgo so that was pretty good. President always gives super awesome advice for now in the mission, as well as after. Prepping for life and all that good stuff! Like always, I played piano but I love playing the Mission Hymn here and especially in Consejo - you can always feel so much power! It's cool because my name is on the mission hymn sheet music :) haha

This week I did divisions with an area called Pital - it's really really far from where I live, so I spent the whole day traveling. There in Pital, they grow a TON of pineapple - a family gave me one! And they always send it all to the States. It's funny because pineapple costs like 2 dollars each, but you'd expect it to be cheaper haha. In an area of missionaries nearby, there's a TON of HUGE hills - I tried to take some pictures, but they still look small. The hills are huge and they suck to climb haha. 

"If you are on the right path, it will always be uphill" - Henry B. Eyring

Other than that, it was a good week! There was a cool rainbow in Pital so I took a picture of that too! 

Not a whole lot of baptisms for our little area this month, so we are working for February now. 

Thank you everyone for the prayers and support! 

I love all you guys! 

Pura Vida! 

- Elder Stott

More views from my rooftop. It's a good place for pictures.

Say hello to my little friend

Week 100 - WEEK 100 BABY!

Hey everybody!

Hope everyone had a sick start to 2017, let's hope all of everyone's goals lasts more than 1 month haha. It was weird making goals for the mission and goals for home life at the same... really crazy stuff actually haha!

So for my area: I love it. I really really miss everyone in Liberia, a lot. But, I do like my new area too. It actually gets pretty cold her at night which is something way new for me... i'm used to sleeping with a fan on every night! There's lots and lots of hills too, so I'm gonna get me some quad and glute excersize in here haha. No but there's a lot - they're kinda sucky hah. The people here are really really friendly or really rude - never in between haha. There's a lot of college-aged kids too so I find that I get along with them really well. A lot of ward members gave me a hard time for ending soon here so it's been pretty funny. The bishop announced that "coffee and milk" would be giving their testimonies (we're two new missionaries here and one is latino, so I bet you can guess who's milk haha) so that was pretty funny too!

Two baptisms in my last area got baptized - I was SO stoked! Man we taught them a ton and finally they got baptized. Kinda stinks that I wasn't there, but it's all good. We all put our shoulder to the wheel in different ways. A lot of elders reap, and others sow. So I guess it was my time to sow :)

Other than that, we're hitting the area hard here in San Ramon. We have a consejo de liderazgo (leadership council) this Friday so we'll be headed to San Jose for a little capacitatión (training)! Woohoo!

Good news: my Christmas package (sent December 1) finally came yay! :) Long-waited!

I'll try to take lots of pictures this next week of everything so everyone can have a look into the daily life of Elder Stott!

Love all you guys!

Pura Vida!

Elder Stott 

Pics from my new place. The mountains surrounding San Ramos and some views from our rooftop: (If you're viewing from a mobile, click on the pic)

One of the mountains surrounding my area