Golf?? Yes please

April 24 2017

Hello everyone!
This morning was cool! We went to a driving range with a members
husband. He is a deaf world champ golfer. He's traveled to many
different countries to play golf. Me having hardly any experience
learned a lot.

We are putting a lot of work in and trying to find more people to
teach and inviting people to our branch activity that is this Sunday.

We went to the temple this last week and it was great. I love being in
the house of the Lord.


We had the opportunity to help serve a recent convert to our branch.
We helped him cut down his mothers tree in her front yard. As we were
cutting it down with an power tree trimmer (yes that is allowed) a
huge branch started to come down and almost nailed Elder Jackson and I
but luckily it didn't. The recent convert was recording it and got it
all on video. As it came tumbling down he started cracking up which
made it all worth it.


Last night we had priesthood stake general session they shared a
scripture and had us dissect it looking for the miracle
Matthew 17:24-27
24 And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute
money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute?
25 He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented
him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the
earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?
26 Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are
the children free.
27 Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea,
and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when
thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that
take, and give unto them for me and thee.

Always and even in our time of need the Lord can provide us miracles.


Life is good! Look for the good in everyone you meet

Love you all
Elder Stotts

He Lives!

April 17 2017

Hello everyone!
Sorry for the short one.
This week was full of the easter pageant, Interpreting, and inviting
everyone to the pageant again. Last week was the only week that they
had certified interpretation for the pageant so we volunteered for the
members and investigators that wanted to go to see it. It was great!
It is wonderful to continually remember Christ and all he did.

Oh it is wonderful, that he should care for me, enough to die for me.
Oh it is wonderful, wonderful to me.

I love our Savior, I love the gospel, I love you all.
I know he lives!

Love,
Elder Stotts

Mountain miracle

April 10 2017

Hello everyone!
This week was super awesome!


First off to start Elder Stoker and I had the coolest experience last
week Monday! We decided to hike up a little hill to see what the view
looked like from the top. We get up there and take some fun pictures
then on the way back we felt that we should write our testimonies in
the copies of The Book of Mormon we had and leave them up there. So we
did. Well the day after I went to check Facebook messenger and saw
that someone had sent me a message 4 hours after I left the Book. See
below pictures.

We had a Mission meeting this past week where Elder Neilson of the
quorum of the 70 came to visit us. He is also the Executive director
of the mission department. He spoke some wonderful things to us. I
learned a lot of how we can improve and help others to improve. The
Savior loves us so much.

Also we got to attend Easter pageant! Our branch along with the
Phoenix ASL branch went the same night. There were a lot of deaf
there. This whole past week we have been going around our whole area
inviting as many as we could to go to that activity and we had a great
turn out. And it was super filled with the spirit. If you ever get the
chance to go to one of those then take advantage. We will probably go
a few more days this week so looking forward to it again and again!
I love you all!
And always remember that happiness will always be a choice.
Elder Stotts

Mountain miracle

Doing service painting

The Easter Pagent was awesome

Prince of Peace

April 3 2017

Hello everyone!
General conference was wonderful can I say. If you didn't get a chance
to watch it then please do. It will be worth your time.
This week was the first week in the new area. Elder Stoker and I found
some new people to teach. It's been great. We are still trying to
learn who the people are in the area. All of them are way new to me
from when I served here last. It's been pretty crazy too, we've been
trying to run around to everyone in our area to invite them to our
combine Mesa Phoenix branch easter pageant activity this Friday. I am
so excited for the Easter pageant to be here. It's truly the greatest.

Sorry this one is so short as time is short. But I love you all and
again encourage you to listen to the words of our Prophets, Apostles,
and church leaders on lds.org, don't go missing one session!
I know hey we're inspired from the Lord. May we all go about this week
being more loving to those around us.

You need to check out the Easter video it is super good.
Mormon.org
Easter
Prince of Peace

Love you all have a great week
Elder Stotts

"Dear Reader.."

(Left a Book of Mormon on the hill)

Transfers

March 27 2017

Hello everyone! Sorry I do not have that much time today.

We are going to a baseball game Kansas City Royals against Oakland A's spring training with most of the mission. 

So I am getting transferred into the east asl area and will be companions with my son, Elder Stoker again. Elder Jackson is coming back into asl and will be companions with Elder Glenn. Elder Riding and Elder Mathis will be moving up to Globe to be in the 2 English wards up there and they will also work with the deaf population up there to hopefully get a group started up before Elder Riding goes home in 3 months. 

This week was wonderful we took a trip down to casa grande to teach one of our awesome investigators who lives down there. She is super diligent to learn and expressed to us how she felt the spirit as we taught her and read the Book of Mormon with her. 

I love having wonderful studies each morning. Probably daily one of my highlights. I studied in Alma when King Lamoni and his father were both converted which also lead to the conversion of 1000s of lamanites. The power of the spirit and The Plan of Redemption is amazing. 

Well I hope you all have a good week! 

Love, 

Elder Stotts

"The Savior doesn't just want to save a few of us, he wants to save all of us"

March 20 2017

This week was great!
First off my awesome brother, Ethan just got his mission call and is going to El Salvador, San Salvador West/ Belize mission reporting July 5th! 
One of our wonderful investigators attempted to drop us out of the blue. She had been progressing so well and then randomly refused to keep learning all because of the "history" of the Book of Mormon, which didn't make sense because in the past we gave her a cool lesson of where the Book of Mormon came from that she was intrigued by. We kept persisting and didn't end the vp call just yet. About 30 minutes into it she finally brought up her concerns which she found on the internet. Anti material! We solved all of those concerns and didn't loose her. She isn't fully interested in being taught like she was in the past but that interest is still there and that is what counts. I have a testimony of persistence, when's t first something doesn't seem like it will work keep trying! And also I learned from our branch mission leader that if you search on google the word "Mormon" 80 % of the things you find will be anti material so don't do it!

Yesterday at church, a member of our stake young men's presidency came and also a high councilman came. They both gave great talks that really stuck out to me. The brother in the young men's presidency is a seminary teacher, talked about the Savior in a way that I haven't quite put together in my head till now. What really touched me was when he said "The Atonement and Jesus Christ are not 2 separate things, It's the Atonement of Jesus Christ". That statement hit me like it never has before in this time. I know that all that Christ did was for us. He lived and died for us. All of the attributes of Christ are exemplified to us in the infinite atonement. Look back at those moments in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the Cross on Calvary and think think to yourself of how Christ applied Faith, Hope, Virtue, Charity and Love, Patience, Humility, Obedience, Knowledge, and Diligence. At the close of his talk he then boldly testified "The Savior doesn't just want to save a few of us, he wants to save all of us" 

I know that he Lives and loves us too!

Love you all have a great week!

Elder Stotts 

Be Happy

March 6 2017

Tueaday:
I love Zone Training Meetings! We learned so much! Our mission has
changed our goals for the whole mission to make them more acheivable.
This is really nice for the ASL Elders because it makes us feel we are
actually at the right point. ASL work is very slow you have to be
patient with the deaf person's understanding and sometimes it is
really hard finding them! You really have to try not to compare with
the other missionaries because the way you teach and how much doctrine
you cover varies very much between english and ASL. We also discussed
Making commitments and dropping those that are not progressing with
Faith. I loved the things we learned and the spirit that was there.
Later that evening we taught the Spanish hard of hearing girl. She
hasnt been very dilligent in going to church. But she has been doing
great at reading and praying! We read with her the Book of Mormon
stories. She loved it and seemed more intrested. We wantee her to
learn more about Jesus Christ because every time we ask her about him
she has no idea who he is. So we showed her the things he did during
his ministry and helped her to understand who he trully is and what he
has done for us.

Wednesday:
The Zone leaders asked us to help them with a service at a ladies
house. We weeded her yard and cleaned up the place in a good two
hours. She was so grateful! Although she is not apart of our faith she
noted that missionaries have been maintaining her yard for the past 2
years. And she was so grateful. It warmed my heart to know that I had
the opportunity to serve one of god's children. "And the King shall
answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have
done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it
unto me." (Mathew 25:40) I know that as we serve others we not only
serve those people but we are also serving our loving heavenly father.

Thursday:
I went on an exchange into bike English area. I am so glad it is not
summer yet because bike and summer don't mix very well. We had a super
great experience visiting a convert who sold animal fur for s living
around the world. He has been struggling with health issues and yet
still has a strong spirit and strong faith.

Friday:
We had a great lesson with our progressing investigator! She is such a
smart lady. Dang she is really prepared. We taught her the Word of
Wisdom and explained that it is revelation from prophets that we have
received it. Also that we have a loving heavenly father that has given
us a body and he wants us to treat it right. So he gave the Word of
Wisdom. She completely Accepted it! I am in awe of this lady she has
so much faith in the scriptures and the modern day prophets that we
have had on the earth. I hope she continues on her journey closer to
our Savior Jesus Christ.

Saturday:
We had a service where our district leader invited us to help with
this Member's Neighbor. That Member had us help out an elderly lady
with picking all her oranges. The service took an hour. But I loved
how the member invited all of us over not to help him personally but
to help out his neighbor. She didn't even know about it! She was so
thankful for our help.

Sunday:
I loved sunday! We had a great church awesome lesson's on prayer. We
can always have a better relationship with God! Earlier i  the week We
had some Spanish Elders that were contacting a family and noticed that
the daughter was deaf, they didnt know what to do so they contacted
us. We were able to meet her and learn that she wasnt 13 like the
Elders had said but actually twenty (She was really short). We were
able to talk to her and she knows ASL really well. We invited her to
the Easter pageant. We asked if she was intrested in learning about
Jesus Chrsit and she said, yes. I am really excited to see her come
closer to christ and to feel the joy of the special message that we
try to share to all the deaf people in the Valley.

Service and repentance

February 27 2017

Hello everyone!

We had some great lessons this past week. Things are coming great.

This Saturday was a great service day. We got to do our annual service for the Mesa- Phoenix marathon last Saturday. We gave out Gatorade, water, and fruit to all of the marathoners and of course cheered as loud for them as we could. Then later that day helped a non member who works for Sorensen video relay move into Mesa. And then found some other guys on our way home that were moving and we offered to help them.

Then at church yesterday after being harassed by a lady who has been harassing a bunch of Elders in our Mission and Tempe mission (woo Elder life) I met my great grandpa and great great grandpa. Or my trainers trainers trainer and then his trainer. 

We had Zone conference this past week and it was amazing! Our Mission President is so wonderful. He's one of the most humble men I know who truly relies on the lord. I look up to him for that. He wants to do zone conference and interviews every transfer which will make them more busy and I'm grateful because that shows how much he cares for us. In preparation for Zone conference he asked all of us to come prepared with a 3-5 minute talk on an aspect of Repentance and he would pick a few missionaries to come up and share what they learned and to to then give him detailed notes or outline. I didn't get picked but that was alright because the 3 missionaries that did shared wonderful testimonies of Repentance. My focus for that talk was the Forgiveness part of Repentance. I believe they go hand in hand together because one doesn't work without the other. 

Passing out Gatorade 

Don't forget to pray

February 20 2017

Hello everyone!

We had a lesson with an investigator that is a 11 year old hard of hearing
girl. We have been having trouble with her understanding so we taught with
lots of visuals and as simple as we could. We taught the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, My favorite lesson! She said something that really stuck out to me
but was funny. We asked her "do you want to live with god?"  ......
"No"...... "Why!?"....... her answer: "I want to live with my
family"......... "oh ok so you want to live with god and your
family"......"yes". What is really important about the gospel is that we
can later live with our families forever. And not only with our families
but with our heavenly father and Jesus Christ. With his gospel we can all
achieve that! Usaully when we teach her we sign and talk at the same time
to give her both options of ASL and English.   We also had a really good lesson with an investigator who is super smart!

           

We also had a really good lesson with an investigator who is super smart! She basically taught us the lesson. That lesson was at the visitor center
and at one point during the visit we went to the Gospel of Jesus Christ
booth, at that we watched segments of baptism and the Gift of the Holy
Ghost. During the Holy Ghost video she proclaimed "I want baptism." It
caught me and  Elder Glenn by surprise. 

Throughout my mission I have studied prayer. This past week I was reading
in Mosiah 26 and I came across something that I didn't notice before.

13 And now the spirit of Alma was again troubled; and he went and inquired
of the Lord what he should do concerning this matter, for he feared that he
should do wrong in the sight of God.
14 And it came to pass that after he had poured out his whole soul to God,
the voice of the Lord came to him, saying:

Then the Lord reply is 17 verses, pull it up and read his reply.
I encourage you all to pray and give thanks to the Lord in all you do. Pour
out your whole souls in prayer and ask for his help that you won't make the
wrong decision.
Love you all!
Elder Stotts

I enjoy serving with Elder Glen 

It is better to look up

February 13 2017

This week was wonderful.
I love this work and everything about it. Transfer news is out. I get the
privilege to continue being companions with Elder Glenn. He is a sharp
missionary and I'm happy to still be with him. He has taught me a lot.

We had our area 70 come to us in stake conference yesterday. Him and his
wife gave a wonderful talk about The Doctrine of Christ. It is a never
ending cycle.


One thing I love about Arizona is how beautiful the sunset and sunrise are.
I may even have to say it beats seeing the sunset over the ocean but on a
different level.

Each morning we go exercise and as everyone knows missionary work and
everyday life can occasionally be stressful.

I am reminded of a talk that I was shared with several months ago that had
a big impact on me.

"It is Better to Look Up"

"At the end of a particularly tiring day toward the end of my first week as
a General Authority, my briefcase was overloaded and my mind was
preoccupied with the question “How can I possibly do this?” I left the
office of the Seventy and entered the elevator of the Church Administration
Building. As the elevator descended, my head was down and I stared blankly
at the floor.

The door opened and someone entered, but I didn’t look up. As the door
closed, I heard someone ask, “What are you looking at down there?” I
recognized that voice—it was President Thomas S. Monson.

I quickly looked up and responded, “Oh, nothing.” (I’m sure that clever
response inspired confidence in my abilities!)

But he had seen my subdued countenance and my heavy briefcase. He smiled
and lovingly suggested, while pointing heavenward, “It is better to look
up!” As we traveled down one more level, he cheerfully explained that he
was on his way to the temple. When he bid me farewell, his parting glance
spoke again to my heart, “Now, remember, it is better to look up.”

As we parted, the words of a scripture came to mind: “Believe in God;
believe that he is … ; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both
in heaven and in earth.” As I thought of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ’s
power, my heart found the comfort I had sought in vain from the floor of
that descending elevator.

Since then I have pondered this experience and the role of prophets. I was
burdened and my head was down. As the prophet spoke, I looked to him. He
redirected my focus to look up to God, where I could be healed and
strengthened through Christ’s Atonement. That is what prophets do for us.
They lead us to God.

I testify that President Monson is not only a prophet, seer, and revelator;
he is also a wonderful example of living the principle of looking up. Of
all people, he could feel weighed down by his responsibilities. Instead, he
exercises great faith and is filled with optimism, wisdom, and love for
others. His attitude is one of “can do” and “will do.” He trusts the Lord
and relies on Him for strength, and the Lord blesses him.

Experience has taught me that if we, like President Monson, exercise our
faith and look to God for help, we will not be overwhelmed with the burdens
of life. We will not feel incapable of doing what we are called to do or
need to do. We will be strengthened, and our lives will be filled with
peace and joy. We will come to realize that most of what we worry about is
not of eternal significance—and if it is, the Lord will help us. But we
must have the faith to look up and the courage to follow His direction."
I too know this is true. At all times as we continue to look up we are
reminded of Gods love and direction for us in our own lives. We have a
living prophet who guides us today.
So that is my commitment for all of you. At any point in your day this next
week that you feel down or stressed remember to look up. How could you ever
be down when looking at the heavens above?

I love you all!
Have a good week

Stay safe

February 6 2017

So this week we had some fun things going on
Elder Glenn and I took our monthly trip down to Maricopa, Casa Grande,
and Arizona City to contact some people. We only do it monthly now
because less mileage given to us. For people who don't know where
those desert towns are they are somewhat close to Tucson. It was an
enjoyable trip. As we drive we will occasionally spot other
missionaries driving in the other missions and they will make eye
contact with us and typically have a really confused face at who we
are. It's east to spot one another because of tiwi.
One think that I enjoy doing whenever we get the opportunity is to
teach people in English. It's a big difference from teaching in asl.
So this past week we attempted to visit an investigator who wasn't
there but her hearing daughter was. In the past we had taught her the
restoration and committed her to be baptized and the sisters in that
area have been teaching her with what seems to be not much success. So
as we visited with her we read and explained the introduction to the
Book of Mormon and the importance of it. It was a really spiritual
experience.

Once a week Elder Glenn does a deaf day and we do that Saturday's. So
basically he takes his hearings aids out all day and doesn't talk
unless necessary. It is like having a deaf companion again.
Occasionally I will interpret for him but he is really good at
lipreading.

We went to the visitor center with one investigator who is really
progressing. In the visitor center they have a video section that
moves from room to room. It's called "Gods Plan for the Family". It is
a really touching video and can be for all. It really focuses on
forever families, building good relationships, and how life can be
reunited again with passed loved ones.

Miracle of the day? So we were in the left turn lane waiting to get on
the freeway this morning to head to the hike. I turned around to look
at something Elder Stoker had been doing and they told me to go
because it was green. I was the second car from the front. I was maybe
3 seconds late then started going and as I did so car in front of me
got hit from the front passenger side by a truck towing a trailer that
ran the red light coming the opposite way. Doing so thus totaling his
car. That man who got hit was an older man who had no one else in the
car. We pulled off on the on ramp to go see if he was okay and all of
the other witnesses didn't bother to stay back. The older man was
terrified but alright. The cop came and took my name and information
as the witness for what happened.  I'm in the system. The miracle
being not the fact that he got hit and it probably In a way was and
wasn't a miracle for the man who got hit with no one else in the car
and no noticeable injuries but if we had switched places with him and
got hit instead several of us would have been hurt as we had a car
full of people

I know I say it often but this work is wonderful. There is absolutely
nothing bad at all that could happen to us as we live it faithfully.
As we give up our pride and give into heavenly fathers will we will
have no need to worry.
Have a spiffy week. Love you all
Elder Stotts

Elder Riding will be 'dying' for two weeks while he has medical treatments

Hyroglyphics 

Official witness to the accident and got to leave a report

Tree of Hope

January30 2017

Another good week!
Life is good here in the Mesa branch. The work is moving along. We
found another person to teach, she is a young deaf girl who has been
raised oral her whole life. She is neat to teach and neither of her
parents speak English, only Spanish so that is interesting for us.
Elder Glenn and I are seeing lots of miracles.
Another neat thing happened this week that I'm sure every missionary
emailed home about. They changed the schedule around a bit to give
more flexibility to missionaries. It's an interesting change that I
enjoy.

We had Elder Ballard and Elder Joaquin Costa of the 70 come visit us
yesterday. Elder Costa had all the missionaries in the stake had us
stand up and he had us all recognized. It was really cool. He did that
because he joined the church 29 years ago and loves missionaries.
Elder Ballard talked about a lot of different things. He talked a bit
about repentance and how we need to daily be worthy and repent daily
as needed. He shared his testimony of Christ after only 10 short
minutes of reading the stories of Christ in the Bible with our stake.
Which he encouraged us all to do more often. I am super grateful for
living apostles and prophets in these the latter days that lead and
guide us on the right path.

This week we went to pick up Elder Riding form a treatment at the
doctors office and we found a cool tree with all of these ribbons tied
on it. Look at the pictures

You are all great!
Have safe be fun!
Elder Stotts

Visited elder Riding at the hospital and they had this Tree of Hope in the lobby

Tied on on for you mom!

There are some wealthy people in Mesa

Odd things you see driving sometimes

do you know buffalo??

January 16 2017

Hello wonderful people!
We had another busy week!
Elder Riding has been in the hospital and we have been in a trio for a
few days. It has been good trying to juggle both areas. He is doing
good
The new missionary comes in tomorrow and we are excited for him to get
here. We have a lot planned for him this week and weekend.

We had ZTM and we learned that we can all raise the bar in our work.
Also to learn that we can only control things that we are able and not
to stress about the things that we can control. Something also that
was mentioned that I have come to find that just like in Joseph smiths
first vision bad things happen before things that wonderful or life
changing happen. So right before you get discouraged or feel down look
for that  good to come and it will. I promise. Push through it

We had the first lesson with an investigator this week! She has
finally decided she is ready to start learning after a few years of
being in another church. It was awesome the members invited us over
for dinner with her then a lesson right after. It was good we taught
The Plan of Salvation because she had question from the previous
Gospel Principles class.

Next weeks email will be wonderful I promise
You all I love
Elder stotts

Happy New Year

Jan 2 2017

We had another wonderful week. Elder Mathis is now my companion for a
few more days! He has taught me a lot already!
I never thought Sunday could be as busy as it was yesterday. We had an
awesome meeting with our new branch mission leader and discussed how
to help one of our investigators get to baptism. That should be
happening soon just a few other things have to happen before. We get
to church and several people showed up that we didn't even expect
along with a lot of other visitors. It was a spiritual day filled with
miracles.

This past week we went down south to south Chandler to contact one of
our investigators who has been pretty flakey on us. We went to his
house on the Indian reservation there for the first time and it turned
out he doesn't live at that house. But 2 people were sitting outside
that house that we talked with. They said they had met missionaries
before and knew that our message brought peace and comfort. From the
spirit of it they seemed ready for a change. We left em with copies of
the Book of Mormon after we testified of its truthfulness and the
light it can bring into their lives and referred them to the Tempe
mission. I look forward to their baptism. On the way back we took a
quick wifi stop at mcdonalds to see if our dinner had confirmed with
us. Inside that store were 2 other people a grandma and grandson who
asked "hey are you preaching the word of God?"  They were both from
Tucson taking a trip up north to Mesa. The grandson said he had met
sister missionaries coming to visit his house recently but he thought
they were FBI agents or something along nose lines so he didn't let
them in. Well they offered to buy us some food just because we are
servants of God. The grandma seemed strong in another faith but she
said she accidentally downloaded the Book of Mormon on her phone and
reads it daily. She even posts scriptures from it on her Facebook
wall. We asked if the missionaries could come by and they were
interested. I also look forward to be invited to their baptism.
Well everyone! God is good. He knows exactly what we need and when we need it.

Love
Elder Stotts

Merry Christmas

Dec 26 2016

Hey!
How was everyone's Christmas? I hope you all enjoyed it

It was wonderful here! We had a really busy day visiting different
people that wanted to do Christmas activities with us. And at night it
ended with us singing in the missionary choir at the Mesa visitor
center and skyping my family and almost brother in law this Friday!

I hope we always take this time for me rest of the year to make more
goals to become more like our savior and not only focus on him this
time of the year but always!
Thank you for all the love and support you have given me this year!
Make the next on a good one

Love you all
Elder stotts

My family!!

My other family