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