I LOVE MY MISSION!!!!

I LOVE MY MISSION!!!!

Hello family and friends, hi Brothers and Sisters, hi Mum and Dad.  What a great week!  I think back over this week and over my mission and say to myself, "I LOVE MY MISSION!!!!"  What could be better then serving full-time for the Lord to the people of Australia.  I had a sit down a couple days ago and had a think for a few minutes about my mission.  About how amazing it has been.  I thought about the amazing areas that I have served in on my mission about the wonderful people that I got to meet in each of those areas.  Whether that has been members, investigators, random people on the street, companions, or myself, and my Savior Jesus Christ.  I think about all of the happiness, and joy, and amazing experiences, but I also think about the hardships and trials which all of these things have brought me to who I am today.  How eternally grateful I am for my mission so far to this point and how grateful I am for the time that I still have left to serve and to help people come to know what this life really is all about.

Elder Tingey

Things are going great and my companion Elder Tingey is the man!!  What a great guy and a hard worker and wants to be obedient.  Haha he is getting used to the area and learning to adjust to the differences from the city.  Haha he's getting into the service groove and has gotten a lot of blisters this past week but they'll soon turn into calluses.  He just an overall great guy and knows how to be a missionary.  He is getting adjusted to missionary work and life down here in Merimbula and he is getting it down and we are becoming great friends!  It is different though because Elder Tingey has been called to the Mandarin Speaking program but there are very few Asian people down here in Merimbula for the time I have been down here haha I think I have seen like maybe 10 and we will have to see maybe we will find someone that speaks Mandarin how awesome would that be?!  Elder Tingey is very good at speaking the language and I just look at the books he reads and when he says prayers it just blows me away to be able to understand what something is saying with characters and stuff.  Really cool stuff especially to see the Hand of the Lord in missionary work and in learning and speaking a language.

Yay For Extra Study Time

It's cool because as a language Elder you have an extra hour of study each day to study your language as for me I have an extra hour to study in the Book of Mormon!!!  How awesome is that man what a blessing!!!:)  I wanted to share with you guys something that I learned and that stuck out to my in my studies this past week. 
So right now in my studies of the Book of Mormon I am in the book of Mosiah right in the middle reading about the story of Abinadi and King Noah. (Mosiah 11-17) As I have been reading this story this time I have been trying to focus on something a little different this time.  As we know the prophet Abinadi is such an awesome guy and a man of great Faith but this time as I have been reading it I have been focusing a little more on King Noah and why he is the way he is.  So as we know King Noah is a wicked Nephite king and rules as a wicked king which is so sad because his dad Zeniff is such a faithful man and teaches the people if they are on the Lord's side they will win and prosper. (Mosiah 10) One thing that really stuck out to me was what King Noah did in verse 5 and 6 in chapter 11.  Verse 5: "For he put down all the priests that had been consecrated by his father, and consecrated new ones in their stead, such as were lifted up in the pride of their hearts."  So King Noah got rid of these righteous Priests that were ordained of God from a Prophet of God King Zeniff and Noah got rid of them and he put new ones in.  Verse 6 tells us what kind of men these new priests were.  Verse 6 "Yea, and thus they were supported in their laziness, and in their idolatry, and in their whoredoms, by the taxes which king Noah had put upon his people; thus did the people labor exceedingly to support iniquity."  So it tells us what kind of people were now in charge.  When I read this I thought I bet when King Noah was put in charge he took out all of these Priests that were righteous and knew what they were doing just so he could put in his friends and so they could help be in charge with him.  Later in the story we find out that they are wicked men as well and are not very knowledgeable because in chapter 12 Abinadi starts to ask them what they believe and what they teach the people and they say, "we teach the law of Moses." (Mosiah 12:28)  In the next verse Abinadi asks them, "If ye teach the law of Moses why do ye not keep it?..." (Mosiah 12:29)  Later on Abinadi teaches them the Law of Moses and the 10 commandments because they do not know what they are.  I was thinking about this and I was like why would you pick people like this to be your Priests ya King Noah is wicked so he chose wicked people to be his Priests but wouldn't you pick people that at least knew what they were talking about.  Anyway I thought about this and I came to the conclusion that probably he chose his friends to rule with him.  I thought wow how important it is for us to make sure we choose good friends.  We all know how the story continues to go.  But something I always wondered made sense to me the other day in Mosiah Chapter 17.  So chapter 17 starts off talking about Alma and the start of his conversion but getting into verses 9 and 10 is right before Abinadi is going to be killed and he bears his testimony to King Noah and his Priests and what power and strength he has when he bears his testimony but I always found this so interesting in verse 11, "And now king Noah was about to release him, for he feared his word; for he feared that the judgements of God would come upon him."  King Noah was a wicked king but the Spirit was working on king Noah and softening his heart just enough to want to let Abinadi go but right before he was going to let Abinadi go king Noah's priests speak up in verse 12, "But the priests lifted up their voices against him, and began to accuse him, saying: He has reviled the king.  Therefore the king was stirred up in anger against him, and he delivered him up that he might be slain."  King Noah fell to what we can call today Peer Pressure from his friends who were the Priests.  King Noah listened to his friends and as we know Abinadi is killed. 

But that is what stuck out to me this past week is how important it is for to choose our friends.  I remember growing up and everybody telling me make sure you pick good friends and choose your friends wisely.  I never would have thought the story of Abinadi and King Noah to be an example of how important it is for us to pick our friends.  If it weren't for king Noah's priests that would have told king Noah false things about Abinadi, king Noah would have let Abinadi go and who knows maybe they would have been converted of course it all happened according to God's plan that He has but I think that how cool that the Book of Mormon teaches us how important it is for us to choose good friends.  I think of my friends that I have and especially my friends back home and during High School and what AWESOME people they are.  I don't have the perfect friends and not all of them are members like I have some friends that are not members and some friends that are less-active members and some that are active and serving missions but I think of my friends and even if not all of them are members of the Church what great people they are!  Shout out to all my friends I love them and support them in whatever way they go.  My friends are great and they know what is good and bad in life and it was so much easier to grow up as a teenager with friends that had the same goals and ideas in ways that they didn't want to go.  Peer pressure is real and I have seen it so much out on my mission and that is why when we are little everybody teaches us why it is so important to pick good friends so we don't end up like king Noah who yes himself was wicked man but his friends were even more wicked and did not want to listen to a Prophet of God.  Pick great friends that you can help in there lives and they can help you but remember to not be picky or judges because there are great people who are not members of the Church but there are great people in the Church as well.  Like my amazing great friends that I have and also my amazing family!!!!:)  That's something I guess I am going to share today in my letter from my studies this past week.

Friends From Home- Ryle, Joe, Wyatt and Josh

Josh, Jake and Ryle

Ryle and Wyatt

Working Hard!!

Hi Mum and Dad!!!!  How are you guys?  Haha it's funny because I never plan for what I am going to share in my letters but I guess this is what the Spirit wanted me to share today because this was something cool I saw in my studies this week.  This past week has been great!  Me and Elder Tingey are doing great and becoming good friends!  We are working hard and our area is doing very good.  D_____ is doing awesome and is still thinking about whether he wants to go on a mission or not which would be so cool!!!:)  W_____ is doing great she came to the Family History Centre this week and also came to Church.  She is awesome and we are so excited to keep helping her in any way that we can, whether that be baptism or growing her Faith or whatever it is.:) 

Thank you so much always for your awesome letters they mean and help so much.  I'm so glad what I shared last week about our new President helped and we just must remember that God is over all and that He loves us. 

Mum thanks for attaching the photo haha from last Thanksgiving man those were some great memories with Elder Leal in Mudgee!!:)  Haha I still remember the feeling after that meal haha we felt sick but it was a good Thanksgiving.:)  I will miss you guys for this Thanksgiving but it's crazy for me to think that next time I will be home stuffing my face with all of you guys.:)  Hope yous have a great Thanksgiving and have lot's of turkey and yummy food for me.:) 

Last Year's Thanksgiving Feast!

Questions

So let's see questions...

so the name of our mission district? So mum do you mean our zone or our mission?  Maybe what you mean is our zone name we are in Canberra zone.  

I asked Elder Tingey if he is related to her and he says probably some how because he knows he has family in Cache Valley. So some stuff about Elder Tingey let's see...he went to Davis High School haha so he's a Dart!  He plans to go to BYU when he gets home and is a very smart kid.  He's a swimmer and likes to camp and snowboard.  He wants to be an electrical engineer and something cool he grandad used to be in Quorum of the Seventy and also used to be a Mission President in this mission way back in like the 70's or something like that.  Really cool and Elder Tingey is a great guy.  He is very good at Mandarin and probably won't be using it much down here but maybe we'll meet a couple people.  Elder Tingey isn't to big into bball haha which is a shame cuz he so tall but he loves to swim which is also a bummer cuz we can't do that but he likes ping pong and is pretty good at it.

Dad your questions, what do people do for work well all sorts of things but there is a big cheese factory out in Bega that produces cheese for a lot of Australia so a lot of people do that.  The members a lot of them are teachers or do day care at home and some work at the Bega Cheese Factory.    

Haha the spiders!  The spiders are crazy down here and massive and we definitely smash our fair share haha in a day. Well save the spider stories for back home.:)  I've been bitten a couple times but not by any of the bad poisonous ones which is good. 

Here's a spider that Sister Naomi Shoobridge had jump on her shoe on her run. Ugh!!! Just to give everyone an idea of the spiders there. Wow!

I know I can't believe Christmas is so soon and we get to Skype next month!!!  AAAAHHHHHHH so excited!!!  I'll let you know once we get the Skype and things set up.:)  Thanks so much for a package man I'm so excited to get it thank you guys so much I know it costs a lot but it sure does mean a whole lot.  Well I better get going but I love you guys and hope yous all have a great week. 


Wise Words From the Elder

Keep the Faith say your prayers read your scriptures and life will be good.  Remember to be thankful this week of Thanksgiving.  Love yous all so much.:)
Love Elder Stott