Double Rainbow he ran across this week!

Hola!

 So we got the iPads this last Tuesday, I'm not gonna lie, they're pretty cool. I think I'm pretty fortunate to be in the mission that gets to test them out and see the good they can do for advancing missionary work. We use them as our planners and area books and they have the Gospel Library app so pretty much any manual, scripture, or picture I have, in English and Spanish, which is super useful and makes our lessons much more interesting. We can also show a lot of the videos of LDS.org and the “I'm a Mormon” videos (found on Mormon.org) which make our lessons a bit more interesting sometimes.

We got the iPads on Tuesday and spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday learning how to use them and updating all the information and "provisioning" them. We have been staying crazy busy and finding some new people to teach, including the Sandoval family. The mom is from Chihuahua, Mexico and she has 5 children. They are 3, 5, 7, 10, and 12 years old and they're all like super smart and intelligent. And they say the funniest things, they keep asking me if I have a house and telling me that in 10 years I'll be a "viejito" (little old man)!

I wanted to share a scripture I found. In Proverbs 3:5-6 it says "Trust in The Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." This last week there's been some times where we had to trust in The Lord,  not knowing the outcome, but things always turn out right when we trust in The Lord. One time I just had this feeling that we should go visit a guy that lived in an apartment complex (I think it was Thursday). We hadn't had much luck that night finding people to teach, but I had a good feeling about this one. We knocked on his door.... and he wasn't home. I was kind of bummed, thinking we'd wasted our time. But as we turned around to leave a U-Haul truck was pulling into the complex. Another family was moving out and we just offered to help them out. We ended up spending the next 2 hours moving boxes and furniture and tables and bikes and all sorts of their stuff, in full pros clothes (shirt, tie, dress pants), and it was such a fun experience. The family was pretty funny and we just had a really good feeling that let us know the reason we were there at that very moment was to help out a family we'd never met before. It was pretty cool.

I miss you all a whole bunch, a lot of the families here are planning things for Labor Day and I just wish I could be with y'all at Grandma and Papa's house for some delicious pork shoulder and ribs and playing in the pool. I hope y'all still get to go enjoy that and I just wanted to say I'm thankful for all the time I got to spend with you all as a family when I was growing up, that meant a lot to me. And Madre, don't worry, before you know it it'll be the summer of 2015 and I'll be outside, annoying you with that dribbling sound of the basketball every day! (I sent him a card telling him how I heard a neighbor outside playing basketball and I immediately thought of him, I never thought I would miss the sound of him bouncing the basketball over and over!)

On Sunday we got to eat with a family from Elder Burgin's (Scottie’s companion) old area. We had been fasting all day so when we showed up and the guy had prepared this amazing carne asada....it was pretty heavenly. We feasted on sooo much delicious food, including some cactus that was prepared in a pretty delicious way. But then the other elders (Coffey and Van Horn) called us and said we needed to eat with them so that they could eat with someone whose husband wasn't going to be there. We literally biked (stuffed beyond capacity) to another dinner. I was praying that it would be a light meal....alas, it was not. It was literally super heavy: meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and then these giant hand-made cinnamon rolls. I tried to muster through as much as I could, but afterwards I literally felt like I was going to explode. The curse of the Utah missionary. The food was good though :)

Elder Burgin has been out for 7 1/2 months now, he's from Knoxville, TN, and I met a elder from Virginia and we've hung out with him a few times, he's super Southern! I like him, it feels like I'm more at home.  And I miss southern accents so badly!

It's funny, several people have told me I don't seem like I've only been out 2 months (I try to be mature and not act like a greeny) (greeny = a missionary that has just recently begun his mission) but then I think about how much time is left and I'm like....yup, still a greeny haha!

So last night we went to visit the Sandoval family (investigators). The 7 year old boy, Anjuar, was feeling really sick. Like, he was just clutching his stomach and crying and lying on the couch, and his mom said he'd been like that all day. I told his mom that as missionaries, representatives of the Lord, we could offer him a blessing if he wanted. He was scared because he didn't know what it was but we just told him that it would be a prayer to ask Heavenly Father for help, and because we were his helpers, we could do that. He agreed and we asked him if he thought it would help (faith), and he said he did. Elder Burgin did the anointing and I did the sealing and blessing and literally before I'd even finished my prayer he had stopped crying and then we said Amen and he sat there for like 10 seconds and then just ran outside saying he was going to go find his friends, and that he felt so much better. That was a pretty powerful experience for me, and I can testify that the priesthood (The priesthood is the authority to act in God's name)  is restored here in the Latter days so that we can serve those around us. We learn a lot about faith and it just makes me realize that we do a lot of things in this earth on faith, but when you see miracles like that, it helps my faith to grow immensely.

My Spanish has also improved so much, I'll try and include a note to send Aurora (his favorite server at his favorite Mexican restaurant)  with my letter to Savannah or Sophia, I do miss Monterrey's (favorite Mexican restaurant).

(Notes from email he sent his Aunt Tammy):

Yeah when you're a missionary in Utah everyone wants to feed you and give you food all the time, it would be super easy to gain 50 lbs.! 

Workouts are good, I'm trying to stay on track so I don’t come back from my mission and just stink at all the sports I love so much haha. We only get a little time in the mornings, but I try and make the most of it. 

Spanish word of the week: Evangelio. That's the Spanish word for Gospel, and something I learned was that Gospel comes from the Hebrew word for "good news." That's funny, because it truly is good news and it can bring great blessings into our lives. It's pretty special. 

I have to go now, I think we are going to join some other Elders and go for a hike today.

Love,

Scottie