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Tuesday, October 29, 2013


Scottie and his companion at La Hispanidad!
(he says to ignore the guy in the background)



Hola from Salt Lake City West !

Tuesday: (10/22/13)
Today was a pretty solid day. We woke up early and got ready so that we could be at the 8am session at the temple. Always a super spiritual experience to be in the house of The Lord and feel the spirit. Then Elder Burgin and I went downtown and enjoyed a lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (I saw the same waitress that we had when we went the day before the MTC!). Then we went and did email at the family history center again, great computers there and it was awesome to talk to you all again and see that you're all doing well! After that we took the train/bus back to Magna and made a stop to take our suits to a dry cleaners (definitely needed haha). Then Hermano  Paredes came out with us and we had an awesome lesson with Judith and Javier, where we reviewed the restoration and talked about how the Gospel can truly bless families. Then we tried to visit William but he wasn't home so we called it a night after that. It's been a good night and I'm excited that we're one day closer to La Hispanidad!
Hey Jackson (family friend that is recovering from a serious dirt biking accident), I hope you're doing alright buddy and know that you're in my prayers! Love you bud.

Wednesday:
Pretty good day today! Up and out at 6:30 for another run to the cemetery and back, it's a really great way to start the day because then I'm fully awake for studies. We had a full, solid 3 hours of personal, companion, and then language study. I cleaned up the kitchen and then made some chicken and quinoa for lunch, then cleaned that up. Then we called Hermano Carrasco and he picked us up and took us to pick up our dry cleaning, which was super helpful of him. We spread some more hispanidad volantes (flyers for their upcoming Hispanic Cultural celebration) and then had an incredible dinner! Everything hand-cooked or hand-made: steak, chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, broccoli, salad, sauteed mushrooms (super good actually), and potato rolls followed by a spice cake and vanilla ice cream. Wow....it was pretty divine, this lady was elderly and said it was the first time she's fed missionaries in like 15 years so maybe that's why she worked so hard! Blessings to her. We left and then Hermano Espinoza came out with us and we had solid visits and lessons with Dixon and then William. Now, it's time to get to bed.

Thursday:
Super full day today! We got up extra early at 6am so that we could still get a solid 2.5 mile run in and get back, showered, changed, and then back down to the church building all before 8am. We did personal study there, then (Elder) Burgin (his companion) had district leader training, and so I basically had more personal study. I learned some good stuff though, there's a lot about faith and the atonement of Christ in Alma and it's super enlightening. Then Burgin and I went out to eat lunch with the Zone Leaders at Ken's Sandwich shop, and oh my goodness, it was probably the most I've laughed in a while. Those guys are all so funny and just good guys, I love it. Burgin had to type up an exchange report so I was in the room with all our super slow computers. Some don't work well for some reason so I got an idea and opened up several of the computers and did some rearranging of the RAM cards. I got one of the computers from 256mb of RAM up to 1.5GB and it increased in speed soooo much. I felt like Padre working on computers haha, it was pretty cool and now when we have to go use those dinosaurs at least 2 of them work pretty well now. Then we had weekly planning and went over to dinner. Afterwards we had a good visit with Dixon, then we headed to the stake center to work on helping set up for La Hispanidad! The gym now looks great and the people out here have all decorated different parts from the different countries that they're from, it's so cool! There's gonna be so much good food there tomorrow too, so we're super excited! Now, it's time for bed haha, I'm tired.

Cultural Performance


They had a huge crowd at La Hispanidad!





Friday:
Today was a pretty amazing day. Started off with our traditional run to the cemetery and back and then we did some studies before District Meeting. We each gave little 15 minute trainings on part of the Preach My Gospel handbook, and I gave a training on the importance of the Book of Mormon. We all grabbed a little lunch afterwards at Subway but then Burgin started feeling pretty bad (he actually woke up feeling kinda lame). We went back to the apartment and he took some medicine and rested  a while Then we went down to the stake center, after he was feeling a bit better, and helped finish the setup for La Hispanidad. Oh my goodness, it was one of the best nights of my mission. It started at about 5:30 and went all the way until who knows when, when we left to get home around 9:30 it was still in full swing. We started off with the food, I had amazing food from Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, El Salvador, Peru, Cuba, and a ton of other places. Sooooo much good food. Then the members out here put on about 10 of these awesome cultural dances and presentations and I got solid videos of them, I'll have to show y'all one day! I'll send the pics I took though. Then there was just a big general dance thing. I hung out with  (Elder) Rosdahl and Freddy Carrasco for a while and then fulfilled our missionary purpose there and talked to a bunch of non-members and less-actives and got to try and build some relationships of trust there. It was so much fun and everyone, even complete strangers, was just partying and enjoying each other's company. Super successful, but now I'm super tired haha. Buenas noches.

Display honoring Mexico




Decorations for La Hispanidad!






























Saturday:
I take back what I said last night. NOW, I'm super tired. So Burgin was completely out of it all day long, super sick and just not even able to get out of bed. Poor guy. Last night at Hispanidad we'd organized a group to play soccer and since I was organizing I didn't want to bail, so Juan Mercado (lives here in the apartment complex) came over and picked me up and I went on splits with him, leaving Burgin with  (Elders) Jacques and Van Horn in the apartment. We had a sweet turnout at soccer and played for like 2.5 hours (7:30am-10). I played pretty well, for me that is haha, and it was just a ton of fun and super tiring! I walked over to the grocery store with Van Horn afterwards and we got some medicine for Burgin and then when I got back I grabbed some lunch. Then Van Horn and I went on exchanges to type up progress records, and we saw this old lady from the apartments run her car up over a curb and crash into the fence that leads out to the road! It was super crazy and we ran over and called for help and the police/ambulance came. She seemed okay but super shaken up, poor lady. She said her leg like cramped and she couldn't get her foot to come off of the gas pedal, made me kinda sad. But I'm glad she's okay, and the first responders there did a super good job of being considerate and taking care of her. Elder Taylor (senior missionary) came over and stayed with Burgin while I went to dinner at the Pilcher's home with Nielson and Curtis. Then I went out with Hermano Goodson from the branch and visited Dixon, and then the following families to get some updated contact info for the branch directory: Esquivel, Gasca, y Mercado. I came in, checked on Burgin (still pretty out of it), and now I'm gonna finish writing this and just pass out. I'm exhausted and did a ton of running/walking today, so that's probably why. But it was a solid day, I just hope Burgin gets to feeling better, hate to see a friend not feeling well.

Sunday:
Today was a super solid day for me, super rough for Burgin though. He was in bed sick almost all day, he's pretty bad off. I got up and went on splits all morning to go to a correlation meeting, church, and then come back. At church we had the Primary Presentation (a program put on by the childrens’ organization of the congregation where all the children get to participate and share messages and sing songs) which was awesome!!! They did such a good job, but it was super tough to translate because I can't understand some of those little kids haha, I had to blatantly make up what one of them said, it was unintelligible (he was like 3). Dixon came to church with us, and he's a really cool guy. We dropped him off after church and then I came back to the apartment and stayed with Burgin for a while (a missionary can never be left alone, they are always in pairs).He finally got to where we could get up and so we went and turned some numbers in and then had an awesome dinner with Jonny and Mai (he didn't eat too much but I really enjoyed it): stuffed chicken wings (a Hmong family recipe, like a chicken wing stuffed with egg roll stuff, they were good). We talked about all the youth and apparently all the youth really like Dixon and have been hanging with him and it's just awesome. Now I'm ready to get to bed and I'm excited to talk to all of y'all tomorrow! Hasta mañana :)

Happy Halloween!

Monday morning:
It's supposed to be weird temperatures here this week. Great weather today, high of 45 tomorrow, and then back up to 68 by saturday. So weird!

I've set a goal that, throughout my mission, I wanna run 1950 miles in the mornings. That's the distance between here and our house haha. If I run like 4 miles a morning, I would do it. Right now we're at like 2.5/3 but hopefully we'll get to increasing distances. I wanna run some races when I'm back so I gotta stay in decent cardiovascular shape :)

I'll probably have to go soon, but I just want you to know that I always love emailing with you, it's good to be able to stay connected to what's going on at home, and I love you all! Please send my love to all the families in need and let them know they're in my prayers, as are you guys, every night! I miss you like crazy but I know time will fly till I get to see you again! Love you! Have a great week!

Love always,

Scottie

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Scottie at the State Capitol 

Hola!
So this is what the past week looked like:


Monday:
Today was an awesome P-Day (preparation day)! We went downtown for email and afterwards we went out and ate lunch at Benihana, haha; haven't had that in a long time! We stuffed ourselves and then got some froyo....I didn't eat for the rest of the day haha. We then ran over to the Utah State Capitol building, which is beautiful and set up on this hill with mountains all around it, it's a really beautiful sight. And the inside is completely marble so it's just impressive. I'll try and send some of the best pictures we took. We went back home, did some quick grocery shopping (chicken, fruits, and vegetables haha) and then we visited with the Sandoval family, which is always fun. We turned in some reports online and that about summed up the night. I'm pretty happy right now, it was a good day.


Tuesday:

He looks cold!!

So we had a great and exhausting day today. Got up at 6:30 and started the day off with a 2 mile run to the Pleasant Green cemetery. It was like 35 degrees and super cold but so worth it, cause I felt great all morning. Good studies followed by some online things and afternoon visits. We spent a good bit of the afternoon dropping off volantes (flyers) for the cultural celebration coming up on the 25th, La Hispanidad. We had a great lesson with Dixon, he's an awesome kid and really progressing in changing his life. We ate dinner with Sarahi Mercado and her brother Juan, who are super cool. They made us pollo y arroz y frijoles all covered with mole poblano, which is basically this super traditional Mexican sauce that's like peppers mixed with some sort of chocolate. Sounds kinda weird, but tasted awesome and I ate tons of it haha. Then Ernesto came over and dropped off an invitation to their wedding this Friday, ahhh we're so excited for them! They've worked really hard for this and they deserve to be happy! Then we went out and had awesome lessons with the Sandovals and William with Pres. Castro (President of the Spanish congregation he is assigned to) helping us out. That man is a spiritual giant and really explained the gospel incredibly, he's a good man and a great example for me out here. Now I'm super tired and ready for bed!

Sights from his run!




 Wednesday:


Up at 6:30 again this morning, I wanted to go running but Burgin (his companion) wasn't up for it. I did some ab workouts, ate breakfast (banana, apple, and peanut butter) and then did personal study and read some of the past conference talks in Spanish for my language study. I cleaned the kitchen up and then made some oatmeal + banana for lunch and then we went to do mini-exchanges. Elders Burgin and Bragg had a choir rehearsal so Elder Terry and I stayed here in Magna and did some afternoon visits to some of the people they're working with. We met up and re-exchanged and then did some more afternoon visiting. Hermano Tomas Carrasco's took us to his daughter's house and she made this huge dinner of chicken, rice, salad, and one egg. I don't know why one egg, it was kinda random, but it was all super good! And we were super grateful that she shared with us all, fun time. We visited with the Sandovals again, and then we met up with a new family: Luz Maria y Leo Mesa. Leo was just getting back from work, but we got to talk with his wife for a while and they've only lived in the area for like  9 months so they're relatively new. Both from Chihuahua, México, and super nice to us. We taught William and then Hno. Carrasco dropped us off back at our apartments. Again, I'm super exhausted, and ready for some sleep!


Thursday:
Super solid day today. Up at 6:30 and another successful run to the cemetery and back. We came back and ate breakfast then ran on down to Mara Carrasco's house to pick up our bikes, since we thought we might need them this afternoon. We were supposed to be helping Hermano Carrasco with service but that kinda fell through because the person we were going to help move in never showed up haha. Pres. McLean (branch Pres. in Burgin's old area) picked us up and we went downtown to temple square to teach one of Elder Burgin's recent converts from back home actually. We had a super powerful lesson about eternal families and the importance of a gospel-centered family, it was very powerful. I bore my testimony of how thankful I am for my family and the plan of salvation, and it was just amazing. Fun fact, in the middle of the tour we walked right by Mitt Romney haha, pretty cool. We came back to Magna after that awesome experience and ate carne with the Rodriguez family, and then had a correlation meeting. Now it's  time to turn in, and I'm exhausted. Oh, and I got an awesome package from Aunt Tammy today with treats and a letter and such, it was a very nice surprise and I truly appreciate her support. Can't wait for this upcoming weekend, so much good stuff coming up!


Friday:
Today was a great day. We started off with a District meeting from Elder Burgin about Christ-like attributes and how we can apply them to our lives. Some of those attributes include charity, patience, humility, faith, and hope - so all really good things. It was a powerful meeting and none of us out here in the mission field are perfect, but that's no reason to ever make excuses and stop trying to be better, so I'm gonna work really hard to implement those things more in my life. We all went out to Subway for lunch and made some afternoon visits to pass out more Hispanidad volantes. Then we came to the highlight of the night: Ernesto and Melissa's wedding!! Ahhh they've been working towards this goal for a really long time, and they truly deserve to be happy. It was a really cool ceremony and our branch president, Pres. Castro, presided. It was super sweet and all of their kids were wearing matching ties and suspenders and they had a mariachi band come out and good food and it was cool to see how happy they were. I think they're gonna be really happy together, and they'll help each other keep Christ as a part of their lives. Then, to top of this awesome day, I checked the mail right as we were getting back from the wedding and I found the awesome package you sent me (with the recipes and food, thanks so much!!!!) so I was just a pretty happy camper haha :) Good day.


Saturday:
Super busy day today! We started off getting up, working out and grabbing a quick breakfast before Hermano Carrasco picked us up and we went to the Jordan River Temple again, because someone in the branch was going for the first time. That was a really powerful experience and then he took us to that Chinese buffet again, which destroyed my eating healthy for the day haha. We visited a few families in the afternoon and then it's our stake's (a group of area congregations) Stake Conference, so we were invited to the 4pm leadership session which was pretty good, dealt a lot with home teaching. Right afterwards we went over to the Letona's house and had this super good chicken and rice dinner, then we went back over to the church for the 7pm session. Naturally, it was all in English, but we had our members from the branch there too, so Pres. Kessler (stake president) asked me to translate. I thought it was gonna be just like on Sunday's when I sit on the stage with the little mic and headset and just translate, but they actually had a room set up in a storage closet upstairs (see pictures) with a little tv feed of conference and a broadcast headset haha, so that's where Elder Burgin and I sat during the entire thing. It was kinda cool, like our own private little booth, and I felt like I was on the translating team at General Conference. And it was definitely a task, because I was translating from English to Spanish for over 2 straight hours! Man, I'm exhausted now, but it was really fun and we had a great conference that focused on hastening missionary work and sharing the Gospel, so lots of awesome things were said. Now it's time to get to bed, cause I'll be translating the session tomorrow too :)


Translation Room for Stake Conference

His Spot for translating


Sunday:
Another in a long string of super busy days! We were up at 6:30 and we studied conference talks and then I made pancakes from the recipe you sent me...thanks again, they were super good and I miss traditional breakfast food haha :) So then we went to the morning session of our stake conference, and I was up in our little room again to translate for another 2 hours straight. One lady talked so fast that I thought my tongue would fall off but it was awesome, and translating like that definitely keeps me paying attention. Pres. Swain (His Mission President) was even there to speak, and since he's a future general authority for sure haha, it was super powerful. We came back to the apartment, ate lunch, and then went back out to pass out a ton of volantes for la Hispanidad. We had a great lesson with Dixon and read the Book of Mormon a little with him, 2 Nephi 31 about the doctrine of Christ. It was great. Then we went to eat dinner with the Esiponiza family. Wow, it was one of the best meals I've had on my mission, but hands-down the spiciest! It was cauliflower and stuffed calabaza (pumpkin) in a red sauce combined with stuffed jalapeños. Jalapeños are usually alright but they'd left all the seeds and veins in and wowzer, it was super super spicy, but I loved it and ate all of mine and Burgin's (he doesn't do too well with super spicy food haha). It was great and then we went directly to the mission president's devotional (monthly thing, always spiritual). I hung out with one of my good friends out here, Elder Rosdahl, and it was a ton of fun. Then we came back and now we're starting exchanges, Elder Curtis came into our area with me so we'll be together tomorrow. I'm excited and ready for some sleep! It would normally be a P-Day tomorrow but since we have a temple day on Tuesday that'll be our p-day!


Monday:
Busy day on the exchange today! We got up at 6:30 and worked out and then showered and had solid personal study (Alma 32 about faith, awesome scripture). Then the other elders asked us to come with them to help with some service. We went to a farm that had like 500 rabbits and had to shovel all of their poop. It smelled awful, but that was nothing compared to the sight of a little bunny that had it's feet eaten off it by a wild cat. Sooooo disturbing, and then Elder Jacques killed it to take it out of it's misery. Not my favorite service. We came back, did comp study on faith, and then ate lunch. We had some salsa and I fried some tortillas to make tortilla chips (turned out pretty well for just cooking off a hunch haha). Then we spent 4 straight hours walking around and passing out flyers for La Hispanidad. Wow, I was getting tired. We ate dinner at Rancho market and then Bro. Carrasco came out with us to visit the Salinas family and Bro. Ortiz. We met back up and re-exchanged, and now it's time for bed. I'm tired but excited for temple/p-day tomorrow!


Today (Tuesday) was mission temple day, so we were there with a bunch of elders. That's why our p-day was today! The temple was awesome, 2 times in 4 days so I'm spiritually charged :)


It was so good to hear from you! I'm working really hard out here, I really hope I don't get transferred (even though I have a feeling I will haha) because I love this area! But It's an awesome experience. It's really hard being away from y'all.


I love you guys! I hope you're doing well, have a good week, travel safely, love you!!!!!!!


Scottie


(From his email to his Aunt Tammy:)
The box was so awesome! Thank you so very much for sending that, it means a lot and I sent you a picture of me using part of it haha :) Thank you again!

Scottie and his "artwork"!


My companion and I get along super well, we're really good friends (24/7 with someone for 3 months....I'm lucky we get along haha). And yeah, we are always together. But I've heard missionaries say when they get back (home, after their mission is over) that not having a companion and doing things on their own seems weird haha.


Our word for the week can be aferrar, which means to hold on to. If we hold onto the gospel and the teachings of the gospel and our families and the good things in the life, we can build our own refuges from the crazy turmoil in the world. That's definitely a blessing.
I love you tía Tammy and I hope you have a wonderful upcoming week!
Love,
Scottie Man



Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Scottie and Jordan Arenas!




Hola mi Familia!

Monday:



Pretty cool P-Day (preparation day) today, we went downtown to the Family History center in SLC (Salt Lake City). It was nice to hear from y'all and see that you had a great past week. I definitely appreciate being able to keep up with all of you. Oh and Aaron Patel, if you're reading this, please know that Peyton Manning is greater than Tom Brady. Fact. He's a champion haha. After email we went over to the Gateway mall to find some lunch with elders Murray and Paraza, and guess who I saw? Jordan Arenas! I heard someone yell Scottie and I almost didn't even turn around because nobody has called me that in almost 4 months, and he was just there grabbing some food! He actually lives pretty close by, hopefully I can run into him some time again. I've always looked up to him, and he told me I speak Spanish like a Mexican haha, he served in Argentina so our accents are definitely different. We ate lunch at this place called Z'Tejas (I got a black and bleu burger) and then we caught a ride back to Magna. We did a little grocery shopping and then we visited with Dixon Bautista and the Salinas Family. The Salinas family gave us arroz con leche y pan dulce too, so that was an awesome end to the night. I feel like I'm still tired from General Conference weekend, so I'm gonna be heading to bed now.


Tuesday:
Busy day today! We got up and were doing our studies and got the call that our flu shots were today at 1 at the Peachwood building (our mission office, over in the Eastern end of West Valley). Burgin (Elder Burgin, his companion) and I decided to bike all the way over there for fun, it's about a 9 mile ride there, but it's pretty flat so that was appreciated. We got the shots (some of the elders were super scared of the needles, I was laughing pretty hard. I'm glad I've always been cool with shots) and hopefully that'll keep me safe throughout this winter. Then we rode the 9 miles back to Magna, but the wind had picked up and that definitely made it more challenging! We stopped at McDonald's for a quick snack and this crazy worker was giving Elder Burgin the hardest time for no reason at all. Super weird! We worked on planning for La Hispanidad (the upcoming Hispanic cultural event we're going to be having on the 25th) and then we went to eat dinner with the Zone Leaders, Elders Terry and Bragg. We left and did a power hour in the Parkside ward tonight, where all of the missionaries team up with a member and then we go around and try to meet everyone in the ward and see if we can do any service or stop by and chat for a while. It's a great way to explode the work and help the members get involved too. So it was a busy day, my legs are a little sore, no lie, but it was a fun day.

Wednesday:
Fun day today! We went on exchanges (where a companionship splits up so that they can team up with another set of missionaries in the area) starting at noon, so I went with Elder Bragg into his area and Elder Terry went with Burgin into our area. Bragg is from Austin, Texas and he's a funny guy, he's only got about 2 months left so that's pretty crazy! We all ate french toast that Terry made us for lunch and then Bragg and I spent the afternoon walking around and visiting families in his wards, just trying to get to know the people a bit since he's new (to that particular area). We had spaghetti again for dinner haha, the English (non-Hispanic) wards don't vary too much. We then went around and visited some more people from the ward and the lesson they had planned cancelled which was kinda lame but that's alright, we still had a productive night. I'm staying at the zone leader's place tonight and it is janky! They have 3 plates total! And only 2 spoons, 2 forks, 2 knives. It's hilarious. They also don't have a shower head, it's just this one stream of water coming out of the wall. It's pretty funny, I guess I'm spoiled from our place!

Thursday:
We started the day off with a nice 6:30am jog. Elder Bragg let me borrow a hoodie which was cool because it was super cold outside haha, like 39 I believe. We came back and ate, showered, studied, and then went back to our apartments. That walk was less than perfect...mostly because it was like 42 and raining the entire time, and we had to walk 2 miles! But I had that big coat that repels water pretty well so we were all smiles. I cooked us all lunch today since Terry did it yesterday: lime-paprika chicken, black beans, and rice. And I made some salsa to go with it, it was pretty solid. Then we had weekly planning and Elder Bragg needed to borrow my bike because his was messed up and as zone leaders they have to travel around the zone and see how everyone is doing. Burgin and I then walked over towards the house where we were meeting the zl's (zone leaders)  for dinner and Elder Bragg just had this hilarious look on his face. I asked him what was wrong and he was pushing my bike and just goes "HERE"S YOUR CHARIOT OF FIRE!" hahaha. Apparently, while they were riding down 84, which is all downhill, and my front brakes just freaked out and locked up on him....sending him flying over the handlebars....and into a giant puddle of muddy water on the side of the road hahahaha. Elder Terry was like yeah, I just heard something and turned around and Bragg was just sitting in a puddle of water. So funny. After a pizza dinner we went to teach Dixon Bautista. We were sitting outside teaching him, and his mom has always been a little cold towards us, I don't know why. But suddenly she just comes out and is like "Would you like to come inside?" She's never let us inside before, so I was super excited. Then she asked if we wanted to eat dinner with their family! That's huge, because it was a great time to build a relationship of trust and get to know the family, and if a Hispanic family invites you to eat with them, you've got their trust. It was a real blessing. Then we went to our correlation meeting and that was that. Another tiring but successful day.

Friday:
Pretty solid day today. Elder Burgin gave a good district meeting about teaching people not just lessons (focusing on them and not just rushing through things) and then we all went out to El Habenero as a district. Then we did exchanges again, just for the day though. Elder Nielson came with me into our area, and he doesn't speak any Spanish, so I did pretty much all of the talking. We taught Jesus in the afternoon and then went by this referral. The person we were looking for no longer lived there, but a very kind Hermana Gomez did, and she gave us papusa's and carne asada! Delicious, delicious food! We had a dinner set up already and it was like 5ish so we biked about 2 miles with no hands again, thankfully it was almost all downhill cause I was carrying all the food she gave us. We had pizza with the zl's at an English (non-Hispanic, I love how he calls all non-Hispanic families “English”!) family again and then we dropped our bikes off and Hermano Tomas Carrasco came out with us on visits. We had a great lesson with Ricardo Pacheko and then went to go visit Hermana Herrera. She had just started cleaning her giant fish tank, like a 50 gallon one, so we offered to help her. We siphoned all the water out, cleaned the rocks, refilled it and then replaced the fish. She was extremely grateful and it was pretty heavy work, so if we hadn't been able to help her, it would have taken her forever to do it by herself. Then we got to share a spiritual thought with her and we re-exchanged (met up with their original companions). Burgin and I headed back to the apartment, changed, and it's time for sleep.

Saturday:
Today was a good day. We got up and did the regular morning routine, and then Andrew came over! Haha, he's such a bro. Then Elder Burgin and I went and made the flyers for our big upcoming cultural celebration, La Hispanidad! We have been meaning to get them made for a while, we've just been super busy! Now we have them and can start passing them out to everyone we see. We went and ate dinner with the ZL's again....pizza haha. It's crazy, we've had nothing but spaghetti and pizza this entire week. I miss hispanic food. We had an awesome lesson with Dixon tonight about the restoration of the church and the funniest thing was that as we were leaving, his mom had been in the other room (we didn't really know that). As she waved good bye, we saw that she had the restoration pamphlet in her hand and had been reading along as we taught in the other room. Such progress! We had a cool lesson with Jason and Angelica where they taught us about faith (something to help them get more involved in the lessons) and then we gave Jason a blessing for his leg - he's got nerve damage that bugs him like crazy. I'm pretty tired.

Sunday:
Today was awesome! We had a ton of people come to church with us today: William, Dixon Bautista, y la familia Sandoval: Judith, Anjuar, Edwin, Leslie, Kenya, y Kiara! It was so exciting, and church was super crazy because we were trying to help everyone find the right class and all that and everyone was like "Elderitos!!!!!" and wanted to talk. Ahhh! But it was a super successful day, and I was very happy. After church we had a branch council meeting and then we went back to the apartment and scrounged up some lunch. We baked some cookies and took them over to Freddy Carrasco as a thank you for helping us out with rides to and from conference, and when we went to leave it was raining pretty good so he loaned us some umbrellas. Super cool of him. We made some afternoon visits and ate dinner with the ZL's for the last time: the family finally broke the streak of pizza and spaghetti! We had these burrito things that were pretty good, super Americanized but pretty good! Then we were walking around in the cold rain all night, making some visits and finalizing some plans for la Hispanidad. Jean Barboza gave us a ride back to our place (which was cool because his house is about 2.5 miles away from ours) and we stopped by Freddy's to drop off his umbrellas. He traded us the umbrellas for some fresh-made empanadas, so it was a great night. Now I'm gonna try and do some cleaning and then pass out and get some sleep. Can't wait to get your email tomorrow!
Monday:
Hola,  How are y'all today?!?!
I love you all so much and I'm so glad I got to communicate with you all and hear how everything is going. Please have a great week and know you're always in my thoughts and prayers. I love y'all and I can't wait to get your email next week :) Next week, my P-Day will be on Tuesday, not Monday. Weird schedule next week, just a heads up!
My bike is fine haha, we're off bikes for the year pretty much though. We can't ride them once snow starts and it's looking kinda rainy for the next couple of weeks until snow, so we'll all probably be a walking mission for the next good while!

Love always,
Scottie

(From his email to his Aunt Tammy):
The air temp is dropping here too, and yesterday it rained which was super lame but no worries, I've got a jacket and scarf and I stayed mostly dry and warm :) Transfers are pretty much just finding a member with a truck and having them help us move all our stuff about. We don't bring mattresses along but we do bring all our sheets and blankets and pillows, which does take up an entire suitcase haha.
No issues this week, but one of the coolest things was that we had 6 investigators come to church! That was amazing! New word/phrase: la luz sobre el monte: the light upon the mountain basically. We can all strive to be good examples to those around us in our daily lives, even with just little actions. It's something I'm trying to do, be a good example, just as Christ was :)

I love you Tía Tammy, y espero que tenga una buena semana!

Scottie