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 

Week 63 - It Finally Came!

Helloooooooooooo! 

Hope this week went great for all you guys - pretty rainy down here in good ol CR!

So first of all, I GOT MY BIRTHDAY PACKAGE! Thank you mom :) And that hand grip that's 200 lbs is a BEAST... My goal is to be able to close it before I hop on that plane! ALSO, we got the Jelly bean game where they have a bunch of sets of 2 flavors but they're the same color so you don't know if it's the good or bad one until you're chewing it - just saying, Rotten Egg is horrible.... I almost threw up. We took some really funny videos so hopefully those get through. (they didn't)

Second, we met this completely awesome dude named Giovannye (yes, it's spelled like that). His girlfriend is Peruana and she really brought the gospel to Giovannye's life. Plus, his mom is an inactive member for more than 20 years! So we're really excited because he wants to get baptized soon. We're starting to prep that up! He's the crazy dude in the blue shirt.

We took some cool railroad tracks pictures too!

We're also still meeting with the young mother.  She's really faithful but really doubtful at the same time.. She's just unsure even though I know that the Spirit has testified to her so many times. Some of the best lessons I've helped teach have been with her!

I'll make sure to do something extraordinary this week so I have something super exciting to write about :)

Well, love all you guys. Take care and remember that our vision is often very short-sighted. Things always end up just fine :)

Church is true!

Pura vida mop! (pure life dude)

Elder Stott

Week 62 - Staying in Santo Domingo!

Hey everyone!

Hope all is going well! I officially don't have changes/transfers so I'll be here in Santo Domingo for another month and a half! Woohoo - means we should have some more baptisms here soon AND I'll get even more spoiled by my tico landlord-grandparents!

Nothing very new down in here in good old in Santo Domingo, Heredia, Costa Rica! Still pretty toasty and hot but that's just part of the deal down here.

Today I got to play a 12 string guitar which is one of my favorite intstruments ever - it sounds soooo good. And elder Vorwaller slayed it on the drums - we'll have to start a band here soon haha ;)

I should finally be getting my package today so I'm stoked for that!

We have a bunch of people who are progressing and planning on coming to church this week which I'm super stoked for. One mother that we're teaching here has lots of doubts so that's been tricky.... She's had some really really good questions, but we're praying that she just keeps praying and reading the scriptures.. It really doesn't matter how many doubts we have, we just have to keep going! Gotta move in the right direction!

Well, more next week!

Love all you guys, keep pushing forward, the church is true!

PURA VIDA PAPAAA

Elder Stott

Week 61 - A Baptism and The Phone Call

Hey guys!

Hope all went really well this week!

GUESS WHAT - THE DRY SPELL HAS BEEN BROKEN. We baptized this week :) It's this guy that we've worked with for a long time and his name Giovani. And he's kinda strange and super awesome at the same time. He went to church for months before he finally decided to get baptized! I was so stoked and he asked a recent convert to baptize him which was even cooler! So that was a great Saturday! He's the one without a mustache haha :)

 Also, one of my favorite ladies here (I call her my mama tica) got a super super cute dog named Jack - he's a shitzu and looks like a bear haha.

We are teaching this family that are progressing like at a medium pace but they're awesome. They've got three daughters and one of them is blonde (they say 'macha' for blonde girls and 'macho' for the guys) so everyone calls me "ayyy macho!" haha but anyways, she LOVES us and begged to take some pictures with us too so we got a photo shoot there! She's a cutie!

Not much else to write about this week. But there is sacrifice this week which will be super duper cool. I'm stoked :) I'll probably burn myself again haha.

Well, thanks for the prayers and good thoughts! Hope everyone is doing great! 

The Church is so true.

Pura vida and good vibes,

Elder Stott :)

From mom:  A funny story from this week.  Due to holidays and 3 missed delivery attempts, Josh still hasn't received his birthday package.  I got the number of the mission office in San Jose so that they could track it down before it ended up lost or in a holding cell in the Post Office there. The Elder who answered the phone spoke limited english.  I tried to explain who I was and what I needed help with.  He told me he was the only one in the office, but that he would get me a number for someone who could help.  I thought it would be another missionary who spoke english.  I called, and when they answered the phone I just heard spanish mumbling in the background.  I said, "Hello?  Who is this?".  Then the response..."MOM!! YOU CAN'T CALL ME HERE!!".  I about fell off my chair...and then stumbled to find my words.  I quickly explained what had happened and that he needed to get to the Post Office on Pday.  The entire conversation lasted about 25 seconds.  BUT IT WAS AWESOME.  An accidental tender mercy...  One more month until we get to Skype with him for Mother's Day.  I will survive :)