What am I thankful for?
That's what we should all ask our selves this Thanksgiving Holiday. There are 2 reasons that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Haha first is because of all of the amazingly yummy food that you get to eat. Haha what is better then having a whole holiday based around stuffing your face with a whole bunch of yummy food!:) The second reason that I love Thanksgiving so much is because it reminds me of how much I truly really am thankful and how lucky and blessed I am in my life for all that I have. The Lord really has blessed me in my life for all that I have and all that I am and I am so thankful for Him and for all that I have. So this week I asked myself, "what am I thankful for?" I got thinking wow I am thankful for a lot of things in my life. I am thankful for my family, my friends, my health, the Gospel, but one thing that stuck out to me this year when I was thinking what am I thankful for I thought of my Mission. I am so thankful for my Mission. I think to myself where on Earth would I be without my Mission. I thought about it and I imagined it and it is somewhere that I would not want to be and I am so thankful I am on the other side of that in the light. I might not know everything and have my whole future planned out but I do know that I need not fear the future because I have the storyteller the one who is in charge of my future on my side and as long as I serve Him and continue to turn to Him for help everything will work out. I am so thankful for my mission because it has changed my life and continues to change my life each and everyday. So this Thanksgiving season I am thankful for Mission for it changing me into who the Lord wants me to become.:)
Thanksgiving
So Thanksgiving this year was great just like every year haha whether it is with a big feast with family or with your companion and chicken nuggets and cupcakes :) either way it is always great! So this year for Thanksgiving it was a real treat! So this week we had to travel up to Canberra on actual Thanksgiving day because the next day (Friday) we had a zone meeting in Canberra. So the Elder's we were planning on staying with Thursday night had a Thanksgiving feast they were going to because a member in there ward is from America and was celebrating it. Since we were coming up they invited us as well haha because we were both from America so Thursday night up in Canberra we had a big Thanksgiving dinner!:) With the whole lot.:) Mash taters, stuffing, turkey, rolls, pie, everything!! It was amazing and so nice for those members to have us for Thanksgiving.
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| Zone Meeting in Canberra. The Elder in the middle is Elder Fifita, an flatmate from MacArthur |
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| Thanksgiving Day- Feast #1 |
So the next day Friday we had another Thanksgiving feast!!! Haha two Thanksgiving Dinners man what a blessing and a treat. So on Friday all the missionaries in the Canberra zone got together for a zone meeting that's why we had to go up. Well anyway there is a senior couple up in Canberra the Clark's there the best and do so much for all of us down here. Anyways since it was Thanksgiving they wanted to throw a big old Thanksgiving feast right after the meeting. They got permission for President Back and we had an amazing feast! It was so good and once again the whole lot. Everything you normally have at Thanksgiving and it was just the best! So you don't have to worry mum I have been taken care of this Thanksgiving.:) But to be honest I loved last years Thanksgiving so much and I will remember that forever! It always reminds me of when I look back at that picture of what Holidays are really all about.
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| Thanksgiving Feast #2 |
The Reasons for the Season
What is the real reason we celebrate most holidays? It is to celebrate some special event and yes of course all the food and presents are nice and everything and just add the happiness and family time but we must never forget what the actual reason we celebrate a holiday is. This past week I have been thinking a lot of being Thankful and thinking of examples of it in the Scriptures and I found 2 in my studies this past week that I want to share with you guys. The first I found was awesome because right now in my study of the Book of Mormon I am at the end of the book of Mosiah and it was cool how exactly this week there was an example of Thanksgiving and the second example takes place in the New Testament. So the first one in Mosiah 24. So at this time in the Book of Mormon, Alma and the people that followed him have escaped from King Noah into the wilderness but they are now in bondage to the Lamanites and a leader named Amulon who has been put in charge of them. Amulon is being a harsh leader and will not allow the people to pray to God. But yet the people continue to pray in there hearts. How awesome is that remember we can always pray in our hearts 24/7.:) So the people are praying in there hearts because they want to be let out of bondage and as we know the story goes the Lord blesses the people with a Miracle because of there faith and patience. Mosiah 24:16,19) The people are able to depart into the wilderness and start there travels to the land of Zarahemla. But while they are traveling in the wilderness they do something that kind of surprised me. They stop and set-up camp. Now I thought to myself why are you doing this the Lamanites have woken back up and are chasing after you in the wilderness you guys need to hurry so yous don't get caught again. But how cool is it what they do in verse 21 and 22. "Yea, and in the valley of Alma they poured out their thanks to God because he had been merciful unto them, and eased their burdens, and had delivered them out of bondage; for they were in bondage, and none could deliver them except it were the Lord their God." "And they gave thanks to God, yea, all their men and all their women and all their children that could speak lifted their voices in the praises of their God." If you look in the footnote it says, "Thanksgiving" how awesome is that and how it was just Thanksgiving.:) Are we like Alma and the people and as soon as we are let free from bondage thank God for what He has done for us. Even though they were being chased by the Lamanites they still took time to Thank the Lord their God. Another example where it says Thanksgiving in the footnotes is in the New Testament in Luke 17:12-19. So this is the story of the 10 lepers. There was something that stuck out to me this time and something cool I noticed. So since me and my companion had to travel up to Canberra and back this week we like to listen to talks on our long drives up there. One talk that we listened to I really liked from Brother John Bytheway. I forgot what the talk was titled but he talked about the story of the 10 lepers. So as we know with the story of the 10 lepers Jesus is traveling and He comes into a village where there are 10 lepers. He tells them to go unto the Priests and they are cleansed and healed. Not what is astonishing about this story is not that 10 lepers are healed but that only 1 comes back to thank the Lord. Only one how crazy is that! One of the most powerful verses comes at the end of the story in verse 19. It says, "...Arise go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole." Brother Bytheway in his talk talked about how he was the only of the 10 men that was completely healed. Yes all 10 were healed of leprosy but only 1 was healed both outside and on the inside. I got thinking to myself would I be part of that 1 or 10% or would I be part of the 9 or 90%. Am I thankful and do I show that gratitude to God by thanking Him for what I have in my life. For healing me of my leprosy in my life or for freeing me from bondage how am I thankful and how do I show it. We must remember to constantly be thanking and praising God for what we have. What I like in both of these example in the Scriptures that they both praised and glorified God and the Lord in what had happened. Remember that the 2 words "Thank You" can mean so much. :)
Well Mum and Dad the week has been good! Haha were still working hard and doing good and getting excited for the Christmas season. We are so excited for the Christmas initiative of Light the World and 25 days of service we see it as perfect for our area and excited to get on it and working hard this Christmas season to bring the message of Christmas to people's homes through service and many other ways.
Are you guys Busy working away.
The branch is still doing and all the members are good. D___ is doing great and W____ is doing good except for she was sick this week so she wasn't able to make it to Church and we weren't really able to meet with her but we hope she is feeling better and we will see her this week. Our trip to Canberra was fun and Thanksgiving was great!!! Me and Elder Tingey are doing great and becoming great friends! The start of this transfer and the start of this week I wasn't as close to Elder Tingey as I wanted to be and so I was praying and trying to figure out how to become closer and better friends and then we had our trip up to Canberra and something just happened and it brought us just so much closer and I feel like we are on the same page now and were doing great!:) He's a great guy and friend and an awesome missionary. Love him to death. So I am not sure when it will be yet but I'm pretty sure that it will be on Christmas Day for you guys and the day after Christmas for us is when we will Skype even though that is transfer weekend we think they are going to bump transfers back a couple days because of some holidays and stuff but I'll let you know once I find out but the location haha has already been set up by the Shoobridge's. They are going to let us do it over at there house and Josh says he is going to set it up on a projector and everything so it will be real big.:) Haha yep that's the plan so far but we'll let you know once I know more. Man can't wait to see you guys it's been so long haha since Mother's Day but at the same time it seems like last week. Wow Crazy!! Also thanks so much for my package! I should get it next week cuz President and Sister Back are coming down for a zone conference up in Canberra.
Question time.
(do you know about the Light of the World that the Church is doing for Christmas)
So mum your questions we are so excited for the Light the World message and we are encouraged to do a service activity everyday and to share the video and these pass along cards they gave us to everybody we know. Were excited to see how it goes.
(a lowlight of the week)
A low light of my week man I have to think about that....um...let's see...I think probably that W____ was sick because it always stinks when people are sick and I just felt bad for her and I just hope that. she is feeling better.
(a highlight of the week)
Haha a highlight of the week was the whole week and just remembering to ALWAYS keep a good attitude no matter what but definitely Thanksgiving was awesome haha especially 2 feasts!:)
(how long has Elder "T" been out)
Dad your questions oh and also thanks for the pictures of the Christmas lights they look awesome and I love the Aussie Tree!:) Elder Tingey has been out for 14 months so he came out one transfer after me with Elder Leal and Delahunty and Plata and Newman haha I have had lot's of companions from that intake.
(do Aussies go all out for Christmas)
You know not really Christmas doesn't get to big in all the shops and like decorations and everything I think because it's summer time over here and it's hot so they don't have snowman and coats and fires and snow and stuff like that but I mean they still celebrate it but just not with like decorations as much as we do back home.
(do you like being so far away from all the other missionaries)
Haha honestly I love being away from everything and everybody else and just having the whole area to yourself. Of course I love being with the other missionaries and it's nice to get together for meetings haha but that about does it for me and then I'm ready to go back to our area and do our own thing. Also not being around other missionaries all the time makes it easier I think because then it's not like a competition which sadly some Elders make it into that which it's not meant to be so personally I like being out on our own but it's also fun at times to get together with all the other Elders.
(tell us about the neighbors in you flat complex)
Our neighbors in our flat complex so there is a total of 5 flats. So we live in number 4 there is an older single guy who lives in number 5 he is very busy with work so we don't see him to much. In number 3 I am pretty sure it is a holiday one because every once in a while some people stay in it but usually it is just empty. In number 2 is our neighbor B___ haha he is this Aussie guy and he is actually the owner of the complex and he talks to us quite a bit and he is just a great guy.:) In number 1 there used to be a lady that lived there but she just recently moved out so now it's for sale. Haha so yep those are our neighbors and we have a few potentials with our neighbors around us.
Thanks so much mum and dad and Dani for your awesome emails always they help so much and make me happy and re-charge my Spiritual batteries for the upcoming week. We have a busy week planned and are excited to see what comes of it. Let me know if there is ever anything you don't want me to talk about in my emails or if there is anything you want me to add. Most of it I just go off or the Spirit and what he wants me to share so I hope that it helps. I'm doing great and am still just in love with my Mission and learning and growing so much. Hope you guys have a great week! Thanks for all yous do and join in the Christmas season and the AMAZING Christmas initiative and help Light the World even if it is just with a smile.:)
Love Elder Stott
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