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Wednesday, June 25, 2014

June 23, 2014

A quote that he loves!


Hey Family!!! Sorry I've been so late on this, I'll try and fill in the highlights from the last few weeks. I've been super busy and we've just been running around like crazy, thus my lack of long updates, but here we go: 

Birthday cake to the face!

6/9/14:
It's my Birthday!! Today was an awesome day, it started off with working out, and then Kordon Vaughn pulled over on the street next to us while we were walking home. He brought me the caramel cake and it was so cool to see him....and the cake was amazing (update: it was gone within 3 days). (see previous blog entry for photos) At P-Day activity, we played basketball, then some of the missionaries set up some piñatas for me....and during the second piñata, while I was blindfolded, they attacked with water balloons, which lead to a huge water balloon war...it was so cool! Awesome day, it's kind of weird to think I'm 20 now!

Elder Higgins and Sister Juarez - she got him with the cake!

6/10/14:
We had missionary leadership council today...I think I sent you the picture last week of everyone   there. Basically, it's all of the zone leaders and sister training leaders and Pres. Swain (Mission President) and the Assistants getting together to talk about the state of affairs of the mission. We discussed problems, what we could do to improve, how we were going to do it, and we got trained on several things. I was so cool to be surrounded by all those people I respect and look up to and get to hear all the testimonies that were shared, the Spirit was really strong during that meeting. It was definitely a highlight moment of the mission.

Missionary Leadership Council

6/13/14:
Today we had our first zone training (since becoming a Zone Leader). It's like district meeting, except all of the districts in the zone combine and we're in charge (as zone leaders) and it lasts about 3 hours. We invited the Sister Training Leaders (Aschroft and Joseph) to come and train with us, and they're absolutely incredible missionaries so it was awesome to have them there. The training went really well, and we planned some activities for the middle so it wasn't too boring for 3 straight hours, but the time really flew by. I really love this zone, it was so cool to hear everyone's opinions and perspectives and points of view on missionary work, I'm really thankful to be surrounded by all of these good examples.

6/17/14:
Today we had a pretty exciting day. This afternoon, we went with Ramon and Patricia to the marriage license office in the afternoon and helped them get all the paperwork filled out and settled, and they now
officially have their marriage license :) They're going to get married on
the 28th of June, and we're super happy for them. Patricia will then be getting baptized soon afterwards, so there's a lot of good changes coming their way. It's so cool to see how happy the gospel can make people, I love it!

6/18/14:
This day will always stand out to me. I said a special prayer for the Prince family today (I pray for them all the time, but especially today). My thoughts and prayers go out towards them, and they always will.  (Today was the 2-year anniversary of the tragic boat accident that took the lives of Griffin and Jake Prince, the young sons of our dear friends, Mike and Tara Prince.) They're amazing people.


We had an impromptu mission leadership council today to talk about some updates to the iPads (including a new online progress record form, that's pretty cool). (Scottie’s mission is a Pilot Mission for new technology) So we talked about that and we're excited to help train the missionaries on this new tool! Also, while walking from dinner to our apartment to pick up our bikes, we passed this Mexican gentleman working in his yard with this sweet black leather cowboy hat. I stopped and, in Spanish, told him I liked his hat. He walked over to the fence and said "Here" and placed the hat on my head, and I was like "Are you serious?" and he was like absolutely, have a good day! Just take care of it. So now I have this sweet hat haha, pretty cool moment.

They call me Pepe - with the hat he was given


6/19/14:
Hump Day!! (The half-way point of his mission!) Wow, it's absolutely crazy to think that it's been a whole year since I entered the MTC. Time is really moving, but when I look back on all that's happened in this last year, it's been a crazy amount of stuff! I'm super thankful to be out here, my testimony has grown and my appreciation for life in general has increased. I'm so thankful for the restored Gospel, and now, more than ever, I know that Jesus Christ, my Savior, Redeemer, and big brother lives. That's a powerful thing to know, and I love it :) I was super surprised by the package I got from y'all today, and it was so cool!!! The camel cookies (we baked camel-shaped cookies) were really good, that was the first time I've had animal crackers (we went through a big bag of animal crackers to find all the camels!) in a long, long time, and that Hump Day shirt is way funny haha. The 2 poems you included were really insightful, and the digital picture frame is by far the coolest thing ever. I was so surprised when I turned it on and it started rotating through pictures of my family and friends (all holding signs that said "Happy Hump Day"), that was really special to me and it means a lot, so thank you so much! Y'all know how to make my day, so thank you so much! I love my family, I hope y'all know that :)

6/21/14:
Today was a super tiring day, but so much fun. We got up at 5:45, a little earlier than normal, so we could go and do Insanity but get done before 7. By 
7 o'clock we were at Hermano de Alba's house with Alfonso making carnitas (like the ones we love at Monterrey). It's a long process, about 4-5 hours, and we made about 40 pounds for the Father's Day activity we had today. It was so fun just hanging out with them and making carnitas. Then, in the middle of that, we ran over to the chapel and helped them clean (Hermano Aguirre is a professional cleaner, so he had some of those vacuum cleaners that you wear like a backpack, and I got to use one of those). The activity started around 11, and lasted till 6 PM. There were activities, food, soccer games, ultimate Frisbee games, more soccer games, break time....then more soccer games. Haha, let's be real, the branch loves soccer...it was so cool to be there and spend time with them, and we had a bunch of investigators and less active people show up and they loved it! My legs feel like they're going to fall off from all the running around, but it's been an awesome day. I love this area and the people, and I really hope I don't get moved anytime soon :) Life is good!!!! And my face is only mildly sunburned haha....no worries, nothing too serious :)

Making Carnitas

With the janitorial equipment!



So this is what happens when you serve in the Spanish program. We were in a big meeting in our church's gym...and I sat next to the young men's president...and this is what he was doing during the meeting. Yes, that is the US - Portugal World Cup game, live stream to his tablet haha. too funny, everyone here is SUPER INTERESTED in the World Cup, 24/7!!

World Cup Live Stream, during a meeting!


Love you all,

Scottie

(From his email to his Aunt Tammy):

Haha, non-teenager Scottie-man, that made me chuckle!

Yeah, I ate it pretty hard on my bike haha. (see previous blog entry for more info and photos) We were going at a pretty good speed around 7 am (coming back from morning workouts), and I kind of tried to maneuver around something on the road...and I ended up feeling my back tire slide out from under me as I went down pretty hard. The bruises and bumps are healing, the road rash is almost gone, and thankfully that's all that happened! I changed out my rear tire on the bike but everything else was good! It could of been way worse, so I'm just counting my blessings. I know you know what it's like to fall hard on the bike!

This week has been going great! We did meet a couple of new people, and we actually committed another couple to getting married! And the last couple that got married is doing awesome. She just learned that she's going to have a baby boy in December, so that's exciting!

New word for the week: abnegado - it means selfless. Christ was the perfect example of a selfless leader, and I love learning to turn towards his example to see what I can do to improve. I love it!

You're awesome Tía Tammy!! I hope that you're having a great day today and that you have a great week :)

Love always, 

Scottie-man

Awesome rainbow that he saw







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