Lotts of Joy from Elder Lott

 

 

A month or so ago Mike received this text from one of Alex's mission companions, who is now home and engaged.  His message really touched our hearts.

 

 

Alex was my last companion.   He taught me a lot about the importance of the family unit and always added a great testimony at the end of lessons about Heavenly Father's plan.  Him and I saw a lot of miracles happen in that area, and for the short 6 weeks we were together we saw a significant change in that area.  He had really good relationships with the members which made member missionary work really fun.  I went home before any of the baptisms occurred but I'm glad he was there for them.  He also really improved in his language skills and grew spiritually.  I consider it an honor to have served with your son.

 

Elder Williams

 

 

 

 

 

 

12-14-15

Well this week was so busy but it was such a fun week.  On Wednesday we went on splits in my first area.  It was my second time going back there since I transferred.  I miss the members there.  they are so nice.  Most of the people that we went to I already knew, so it was pretty exciting.  It was nice to be able to talk to them and to actually understand most of what they were saying.  We went to dinner at one of the members.  She cooked some adobo and that is my favorite adobo that I have had on my whole mission.  After dinner our district leader was messing with one of those huge spiders.  He was just letting it crawl all over him.  He actually put it in his mouth and it was still alive.  I don't know, but he must have some problems or something.    I was looking at the pictures that they have of me from my first area and I look so different.  Man I look like a little kid.  On thursday we had our christmas devotional in ilagan.  We listened to our mission president and his wife.  We studied a lot about the birth of christ.  It was pretty cool.  They told us a lot of cool facts about the birth of christ.  We had a good lunch with some mashed potatoes and stuff, but they are no where near as good as yours.  We got assigned to do a christmas skit with our zone and I hate acting.  They gave us some random props and we only had 30 minutes to plan and we had to sing a christmas song during our skit.  Lets just say that it won't win any awards or anything.  By the time that we got back to tugue it was like 7 so we didn't have any way to get home so we slept at our zone leaders.  They had a dinner appointment so at least we got a free dinner out of it.  On sunday we had a christmas devotional.  So we went to tugue to watch it.  I enjoyed it.  It made me think of going to temple square and seeing the lights.  That will be fun to do next year.  I am super excited to skype next week it is going to be so fun!  I love you guys so much!  Have a great week

Love Elder Lott

 members from my first area

 

Gross!!!!

 

 

12-20-15

 

Well the weather sure has been crazy here this week.  It has been raining for pretty much the whole week.   On the way to tugue this morning we were in a tricycle and got pretty wet.  Hope I dry off before our christmas party later.  The temperature has also dropped this week with all of this rain.  It has been pretty nice, but it has been getting chilly at night.  This past week we got some texts from a lady that is in our area.  I have never been to that part of our area, but she said that she has some sisters that we should teach so we will hopefully go this week.  If we can find it.  We have been teaching our other investigators, brother niko and I can't remember the other ladies name.  They didn't make it to church this week, but we had an investigator come.  It has been like 3 months since I have seen him and he was really progressing when he was coming to church, but then he just stopped coming for awhile.  I don't know where he lives either cause we always taught him at the church, but it is a good thing that he attended church.  Me and my companion got assigned to talk in church AGAIN next week.  I am not looking forward to that, but I am guessing that I will be transferred on the 30th since I have been here for 6 months or so.  I am pretty excited to get transferred and go to another area.  And who knows maybe my next area will be my last area!!  I am super excited to be able to skype in a few days!  I can't believe it is my last christmas in the field.  It is crazy how fast the time flies.  Then I will only have 1 more skype!  I am not getting my hopes up, but I hope some of the members feed us this week with it being christmas and all.  Hopefully me and my companion will be able to skype at a members house.  I don't have any pics this week, but we will see each other in a couple of days!  I am so excited and I love you guys so much!  Let us have a Merry Christmas, but not forget the true meaning of christmas!  Love you guys

Love Elder Lott 

 

 

 

 

 

12-27-15

 

Wow I cannot believe that december is already over.  This past week was fun.  The highlight was obviously skyping  you guys.  If only we could have skyped for longer haha.  This week we had a couple dinner appointments and a lunch appointment.  I guess the members will only feed us if there is a holiday or something cause I have had like 5 dinner appointments in 6 months.  The food was alright, but they had this graham cake.  It is like sweet and condensed milk, graham crackers, and like fruit cocktail.  They layer it kind of like a lasagna, but it is good.  Last monday we had our missionary christmas party.  So we had a individual person in our zone to buy a present for and we did a white elephant.  We also had games and some food.  It was pretty fun.  It was fun to see some of the white elephant gifts.  After that the 4 sisters in our zone and me and my companion and our zone leaders went caroling.  It was really weird caroling without snow haha.  We were singing at one house and this guy threw a rock at some tin that we were next to.  I guess he didn't want to listen to us haha.   Then tuesday was our last district meeting before transfer.  So during my mission I have spent 1 year of it in the tugue north zone!!  This morning for p day we played a lot of games and stuff while we were waiting for the transfer list.  I am transferred...finally!  Like every companionship in our zone has someone transferring except for two companionship's.  Now I am super excited to go home and pack either later today or tomorrow ughhhh!  Who knows my next area could be my last area so who knows I might not have to pack again until I am ready to go home.  That would be nice, since I have a lot of stuff.  Yesterday in church me and my companion were speakers AGAIN!  I was pretty busy this week so I studied my topic on sunday morning.  My topic was the promised land, but my talk went well.  Thank goodness, hopefully I won't have to speak for awhile now.  I have known this for probably 3 months but I thought it was a joke.  My parents told me that I have to take 40 minutes for my homecoming!!  I told them that I would just go less active for a bit haha jk!  I don't even know how I am going to speak for 40 minutes!  Good thing it is 6 months away, guess I better get thinking.  Now that I will be going to a new area though that time will go by so fast.  I was asked where I wanted to eat after I get home.  Well I would like a full rack of ribs from texas roadhouse!  My family is so nice that they told me that they were going the next day!  Thanks for making me jealous guys...and hungry!  I hope you guys have a great week.  Happy New Year!!  Love you guys

Love Elder Lott

Ps- Happy B-day dad!!  You are getting old haha jk.  Hope you get my card

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Merry Christmas
Dec 25, 2015 

 

 

 

 

The highlight of our Christmas day was being able to Skype with Alex.  It was the following morning for him due to our distance apart.  He looked and sounded great.  It was fun to hear him speak in Tagalog.  We love him so much and are so proud of him.  We can't wait to see him on June 22 when he comes home.  But until then he is where he needs to be, in the Lord's hands.

 

 

 

Pictures from the mission blog.  We were thrilled to see so many with Alex in them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before and After pic

The picture on the right was taken his first week in the Philippines.  Boy has he changed.   Alex told us he has lost 40 lbs.  I asked him how his clothes still fit so nicely.  He said he has had them tailored.  That makes sense.  I don't doubt he'll put some of the weight back on once he gets home because I know he loves to eat.  But he looks great and we are so proud of the man he has become.