Adventurous Times

Another GREAT Week!!!

Hello!!!!!:) Haha man oh man here it is another week.  They just go faster and faster and get funner and funner.:)  This past week has been a blast and we have been everywhere.  I just want to say thanks for your guy's great emails!!!  What a strong Spirit.  I really believe that email time as a missionary is a "recharge" time.  P-Day is our recharge day.  I really try to use my P-day very wisely to get everything done and even some time to relax and play some sport so I can focus 100% the rest of the week on the work.  I am so grateful for P-days and for emails cuz they really do recharge me especially this week wow what great emails.  
  So this week has been great!!!  We have done a lot and have been all over the place.  On Tuesday after P-day we got to go to Wollongong!  The mission needed some help because they got a new flat down there for some new missionaries and because we are in a trio they called us down to help move in and set everything up.  Haha so on Tuesday at like 5 in the morning we woke up and took the train to the Mission Office.  Where we got everything and then headed down with one of the Senior Couple's to Wollongong.  It was really cool and a really nice city!!  It's right on the beach and I got to see the beach just for a quick second. :)  Haha it wasn't to good cuz it was raining and really cloudy.  But anyways ya so we helped set up a brand new flat and haha we were all kind of jealous cuz everything inside of it was brand new and we had to build all of the furniture and put it together and everything haha so at the end all of us wanted to live in the flat.:)  It was really fun the senior couple elder's name was Elder Thompson they are from Salt Lake and they got here a couple of months ago.  There real nice.  Haha and after we got down about 2 o'clock Elder Thompson treated us for lunch. :)  There is this place called Chico's burgers down there and man it was so good.  The burgers where Ginormous!!!!!  Haha like as big as my face none of us could finish ours.  And then after that we drove back to the mission office and then took the train back to MacArthur.  It took about all day we didn't get home until late.  Haha so that was adventure #1 Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were just normal days nothing to special.  We were tracting one day and we knocked on this one ladies door and haha we stood at her door for like 40 minutes as she tried to convert us to her religion.  It was a Christian religion out of Egypt.  Haha she was nice but kind of crazy. :)  We tried to give her a Book of Mormon but then we just went along our way.   

Saturday-Temple trip!!!

  Saturday was an amazing day though!!!  We got to go to the temple with J___!!!!!!  What an amazing experience that was!  Wow!!  We got to go to the temple and do Baptisms for the Dead with J___!!!!:)  We loved it!!!  He loved it!!!!  President Back and the church make it such an effort to go to the temple as soon as you can after they are baptized because if they can go to the temple it boosts them up so much and helps them to not fall away.  It was such a cool experience and the baptistery at the Sydney Temple is so cool!!!  Elder Delahunty was honored to do the baptisms for J___.  And it was so cool to sit there and watch one of my best friends on the mission Elder Delahunty baptize one of my other best friends and a new member J___ T____ for and in be-half of someone who is waiting for there temple work to be done.  What an amazing honor to sit there and be able to witness that.  The Spirit was so strong!!!  After that we did the confirmations and I was so honored and privileged to be able to do some confirmations for J___ in be-half of someone else.  Wow the Spirit was so good!!!  How amazing it is that we and that I have that priesthood power to be able to perform such an ordinance as that.  I feel so humbled and privileged.  What an awesome event that will change my life forever and adds to my own conversion.  That strengthened my testimony so much!!! :)   After the temple which was so cool man I will NEVER forget that experience and I know J___ will never forget it either, J___ and his friend that came with us, A___, took us to lunch!!!!:)  They took us to this really good steak place where you can get a big steak for $10!  Haha it was great and a lot of fun what an awesome day Saturday was.  That is why I am out here serving a mission is to help others and to be able to help someone so much my brother J___ to help him so much what little I have done to a few months ago we were meeting at a pond teaching him the Restoration to just on Saturday we went through the temple and did Baptisms for the Dead!!!  Wow!!!!!  What an amazing experience that brings me so much joy in my heart and something that I will never forget!!!!!:)  I love this Gospel it truly is so amazing!!!!!:)  Sunday (yesterday) was awesome as well.  Church was normal and yes Dani sometimes we are asked to help teach the primary and it's always really fun and it brings me back to the days when I taught primary before I came out. :)  But after church there was a recent convert fireside up in Mortdale as so we got to go with J___ up to that!!!  Haha we had to take the train but it was awesome!!!  The fireside was so good and such a feast.  I love all of these things that we go to as missionaries.  We always go to take other people like investigators of members or stuff and the event is more for them but then we go and I always leave on a Spiritual high just feeling awesome and edified.  It is so good and I really enjoyed the fireside last night and felt the Spirit and in what the Lord expects out of me the rest of my mission.  

Wise Words from the Elder---HOPE!

Amen to what Elder Andrus said!!  (Elder Andrus, a friend of Dalton's who just got home, gave his homecoming talk and talked about hope and we relayed that message on to Elder Stott) haha I guess he's not Elder Andrus anymore. :)  That is the biggest thing about this gospel and the reason it changes peoples lives is because of the Hope that we get from our Savior Jesus Christ.  Because of Him anything and everything is possible.  Because of Him we can live with our family forever in the presence of God.  Because of Him we can repent daily and be forgiven of our sins.  Because of Him......  I don't know if you guys have seen it but there is a Mormon message called Because of Him and I love it!!!!  It is one of the most profound, Spiritual Mormon messages I have seen!!!!  I love it and you guys should watch it.  We had a family home evening this past week with some members and an investigator with the other missionaries and we watched that message and it was so powerful!!! :)  I love what Kyle said!  Tell him I say hi and tell the whole Andrus family hi.:)  I also loved what he said about being that lucky one.  I always think of it as the "privileged one" because this is the Lord's work and He can use anybody to help somebody become converted  but when He uses us or He uses me to help somebody what an honor.  What an honor it is every morning to stand in front of the mirror and put my name bag on.  What an honor it is to go out into the world and proclaim the Gospel of Truth and Hope.  What an honor and as we do these things He still blesses us.  It always amazes me every time I think about it how much God loves us!!!  He never stops blessing us and boy oh boy am I blessed. :)  I also loved what you said dad about Alma.  I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON.  That is one regret that I have before my mission that I wish I would have read it more.  I don't know it yous know but I had never read the entire Book of Mormon before I came out on my mission.  It wasn't until I was in Mudgee until I finally had read the whole Book of Mormon.  I know that is in the past but I do know with my whole soul that it is TRUE!!!  And I love being able to go out everyday caring the Book of Mormon and sharing it with as many people as I can.  I love what Alma teaches his sons in those chapters and verse 6 is very iconic.  We know as we do those little things over and over and over again they will strengthen us so strong.  I think of the General Authorities and the Apostles and what makes them so strong and so in tune with the Spirit.  I believe it is because they Read There Scriptures they Say There Prayers they Attend There Church Meetings and they Fulfill There Calling.  We do those things Pray everyday read the scriptures everyday even if it's a little bit and we go to Church on Sunday we will be spiritually strong like Nephi or like Joseph Smith.  The scriptures are so amazing how they teach us these things.  Because we do these things as missionaries it gives us the strength to go out each day and get rejected.  If we do these things as members we will be able to withstand the fiery darts of the adversary.  I love Helaman 5:12 and it teaches us such an awesome principle.  If we build our lives on the foundations of this Gospel we are promised we can withstand anything the devil throws at us.  Haha I have kind of made up my own foundation that if we make we will not fail.  I always think a foundation has the four cornerstones in each of the corners.  If we label one Prayer (at least twice a day) another one Daily Scripture Study, another Church and the last one and the most important Jesus Christ (Atonement).  Now of course there are many other things we can do.  Now I like to fill in the middle.  When somebody is making a foundation after the cornerstones they put all the re-bar in the middle.  I like to think of those as other things that we should do to help strength our foundation.  We can put as much re-bar in the middle as we want.  Like FHE once a week, paying our tithing, keeping the commandments, doing missionary work, helping others, etc... Then we can fill it up with the cement and there we go we have our foundation with our 4 cornerstones.  Now we can build whatever we want on our foundation.  We can build a family, we can build an education, we can build a career.  Whatever we want.  We have to remember though that sometimes our house on the foundation might break sometimes that is just how life goes but if we keep our foundation strong.  If we keep our 4 cornerstones strong and sturdy our foundation will NEVER break.  Alma teaches us that "through small and simple things are great things brought to pass" by reading our scriptures, saying our prayers, going to church, and having Christ in our life great things will come about like Exaltation with our families forever.  Helaman teaches us that as we build our foundation on Christ and His Gospel we will not fall.  Haha aren't the scriptures so cool!!!!  They teach us so much in how we can live our life with the most happiness and how we can return to live with our Father in Heaven.  Haha I love it!!!!

 

  Wow One year left!!!!!!!   

 

Man on Friday I hit my year mark and in a year from now I will be back home!!!  Man it is crazy!  I try to not think about it to much and just stay focused but next week we will talk more about it. :)  Thank you guys so much for sending me a package I  can't wait to get it!!!  You guys always send the best packages and they always have the most love in them.  Thanks for everything and things are going great here!!!!!  I love everyday of my mission and I am so honored to be a part of this amazing work.  J___ always tells me because we meet quiet a lot especially this past week that he sends his love back to you guys and I always tell him that you guys do to.  Thanks for all the support you guys give me and my companions and the people that the Lord entrusts me to teach.  You guys are the best and I love you guys.  Oh ya haha sorry about the pictures there are a lot more that I need to send but I was in the middle of sending them and my camera died. :( Hopefully we'll be at the chapel soon and I can send the rest.  I don't remember the ones I sent you guys but probably all of the ones of the missionaries and just of the ones serving in the same zone.  :)  Thank you so much dad for sending me the picture of my plaque. 

 When I saw it I teared up a little bit because some days to be honest it hasn't hit me yet that I am a missionary.  Haha I don't know if it will ever hit me that I am actually a full-time servant of the Lord but thanks for the picture it helped a lot and brought me a lot of joy. :)  Thanks for everything you guys!!!  Yous are the best.  Have an awesome week and be safe. :)  Loves yous forever!!!!! :)

Love Elder Stott