Elder Dalton Stott: Highest of High's and Lowest of Low's

Why so Low?

HI everybody!!! Hi mum and dad hope all is goin good sounds like you guys have had a good past week. My subject title pretty much tells the whole story of this past week. This past week has been the toughest week of my life. I haven't been feeling the best this week and I have been really missing my old life back in Cache Valley. I miss my family and my friends and just the comfort of everything that I know that is around me. From Monday night to Thursday night I've been on companion exchanges in Bathurst. Elder Johnson who is a Zone Leader and Elder Mills one of the Elders in Bathurst is a District Leader and they went down to Sydney for a few days for conferences and trainings. So it wuz me and Elder Ghanadon holdin down the fort in Bathurst. I thought me and Elder Johnson were gonna be goin back to Mudgee Tuesday night but he was down in Sydney pretty much all week. So first of all I only brought enough clothes for two days so like every night I wuz washing clothes. Second I had no idea what wuz goin on for four days cuz I didn't know any of the people we were talking to and Bathurst is kind of a different place. It wuz hard for me because I love Mudgee it's such a beautiful place and I'm gettin to know the area and everything and so it wuz hard to serve in a different place for a week that I'm not used to. Third I'm still the "Greeny. I mean this past week I wuz getting really down on myself questioning if I should even be out here serving a mission. I mean I wuz so blessed with everything back home and out here everything is going like crap. I've had like zero success not really any good investigators just rejection after rejection knocking on doors and talking to people. Like man I thought a mission wuz gonna be easier than this. This is so hard!!!

Why so High?

And then Friday came:) Friday wuz the best day ever. I wuz still down in the dumps but Friday wuz Zone Conference. Zone Conference is where everybody in your zone meets up somewhere and you have a huge training pretty much all day. President and Sister Back and their the AP's the Kinghorns and the Tolmans. So pretty much everybody is there for our zone. We have this huge training and everybody is talking to us and telling us how to become a better and more effective missionary. Man it wuz awesome and the spirit wuz so strong. Then Sister Back got up and man what she talked about helped me so much. I felt like the whole time she wuz talking directly to me even though she wuz looking at everybody else. She talked about what we go through during our missions and how we experience the "highest of highs and the lowest of lows" and at that time I wuz experiencing the lowest of lows but she talked about we won't be the lowest of low forever and she talked about enjoying the time we are in the "lowest of lows" because that is when we are growing and coming closer to God. Man she helped me so much and she talked about how we can turn towards God because he will always be there to help us it is us that have to turn to the Lord. Usually I am really good at saying prays I love to pray and prayer is so awesome that we can communicate with our Heavenly Father and I feel like God hadn't been answering my prayers especially this past week and not blessing me with any success. So after Zone Conference Friday night we were back in Mudgee so I sat on our couch and read some letters from my family and haha had a cry session and pondered on what I should do I wuz still pretty low. So I got down on my knees and I think this is the hardest I have prayed in my life and poured my heart out to the Lord and asked some many questions and prayed for so much and immediately after I wuz flooded with the spirit and happiness and knew that this is what I need to be doing and to not get down on myself. That he is there and does answer prayers in his own time and we need to be patient in waiting for an answer and to have faith that what you are going through is what you are supposed to be going through and it will help you so much in your life. I'm so grateful for prayer and being able to talk to our Father in Heaven whenever you want. So the next day wuz so awesome and I wuz feeling so much better and ready to get out there and talk to some people. Haha but another day full of rejection but as latter day saints we have true happiness in what we know and we can't make anyone listen to us.

Sunday was another great Day!!

So Sunday we went to church and we got there and our Branch President is supposedly in America and we are in charge and were both suppose to give talks in church. Haha so that wuz fun but I learned that if you are willing to put your faith in the Lord and open your mouth he will fill it with words. So that wuz a huge miracle and so cool to see that the Spirit really does work through anybody that is worthy and that puts in faith. Even an 18 year old struggling missionary like me. On top of that our one investigator that we have Ruecha came to church today and we got to talk with him for like an hour after church and share a lesson with him. It wuz so cool and the spirit wuz so strong in that room. We extended the invitation to be baptized on Oct. 3 and he ACCEPTED!!!!!!!!!!! The Lord really does prepare people to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. So were gonna work hard these next few weeks to prepare him to be baptized and it's so cool to finally see some success because we have been working really hard.

Other happenings

On a lighter note let's answer some questions. Ya mom if you wouldn't mind printing off every email I send home and any emails that you send me that you think would be good to print off. If that's all of them cool if not no worries. That's so awesome that my blog is doing so good sadly I don't get to see it cuz we're only allowed on church approved websites but I'm so glad it's doin so good. Um...fur a package kind of just whatever some American candy cuz the candy over here is kind of different and kind of whatever else you think I might like but there's nothin really specific that I can think of that I need. Haha popcorn I haven't had any since I've been over here popcorn isn't really a big thing in Australia but when we go shopping today I'm gonna buy some :). Hey mom so I wuz talking to Ethan Pritchard and he wuz talking about how you guys are friends on Facebook and get this he is a HUGE biker and he wuz super jealous of your pictures with the Schlecks and everything and so I wuz telling him about how much you enjoy it and how involved you are with the races in Utah. Ethan wuz tellin me to that he almost got on a team to race in the Tour de France and the other big races in Europe. I guess he wuz like one of the best amateurs in Australia for a while but then he got in a wreck right before he wuz gonna go over and try to get on a team to race in the Tour de France. So lame but that wuz cool such a small world. Thanks for all of the tips on the food and everything but I'm actually liking a lot of the things I've been eating.:)

Wise Words from the Elder

This past week has definitely been the "highest of highs and lowest of lows" I have grown so much this past week and looking back my faith has increased so much. I love this gospel and their is nothing I would rather be doing than serving a mission because I owe everything to my Heavenly Father and to not be so selfish and think only about myself and what I want and the success that I want. All I can do is try my hardest every day and the rest is up to the Lord. Always have a smile on your face and a prayer in your heart and faith in our Savior Jesus Christ and you can make it through anything. I have just made it through the hardest week of my life and have learned these three things. I am a living testament that if we put our faith and trust in the Lord we can make it through ANYTHING!!!! and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen

Hi mum and dad hope this didn't scare you to much :) but this week has been truly awesome!! I am coming so much closer to my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ while I am out here on my mission and I am so grateful for every trail I go through everyday. Just like Elder Watts said in his email I am starting to become a man and the person I want to be. Thank you so much for everything you guys have done for me and raising me in this gospel and for letting me come out on a mission. Thank you so much and I love you guys.

Happy Birthday Mom on Friday!!!!!!:):):)

Love Elder Stott