September 29, 2014
Dear Family:
This last week has been one of my
favorite weeks of my entire mission. It was full of craziness, but just had the
perfect ending. We are continuing to see growth and member involvement in this
area. Miracles are happening too. A less active member called us on Monday and
asked us to come over on Tuesday, and when we did, she presented us to her
20 year old son who just came from Peru...new interested investigator, just
like that.
Throughout the week, nothing too
crazy happened. We continued to work hard to help the families we're working
with. We're seeing huge progress with los Santana (the Santana Family) and Allie. It's a huge blessing to
be in an area with so much member support.
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They made hot wings! |
This week, we also had a crazy
amount of weird foods haha. Wednesday night, we had a dish with a
family we're teaching: caldo de patas de pollo y pescuezo. It was soup made
with chicken feet and chicken neck. Except, they ate the chicken feet, and
expected us to do the same. Chicken feet....not my favorite. There's no meat!!!
It's just straight bones, nerves, and skin. That was kind of gross. And boiled
neck...enough said. Then, yesterday, at church, our branch clerk gave us what
he called "Aztec food" - chapulines. It was pan fried grasshoppers
cooked with lime juice. Needless to say, pretty interesting haha.
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"Aztec food" - pan fried grasshoppers! |
Saturday we had our baptism,
for the Santana couple. It was stressful at first. Our ward mission leader told
us he would go and fill up the font, just like he did for our last
baptism...but when we got there 45 minutes prior to the baptism, there was no
water in the font. We turned the lever to start filling the font...and no water
came out. None at all. Several people came to try to help us figure it out, but
nothing was happening. At 3pm (the time of the baptism), there was
still no water...but after a prayer and some other people looking at things,
the water finally started flowing and we had a beautiful baptism, they had
nonmember family members there too and it was amazing. It was certainly
stressful at first, but it turned out really well. I'll send pictures!
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The Santana Family w/ Pres. Atwater |
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The Santanas, Pres. Atwater and Elders Jarvis and Higgins |
Then, Saturday night,
we had a truly powerful lesson with the Pacheco family. They haven't been to
church in about 7 months, just moved here. We went over at 8pm to
teach them, and we had a lesson where there whole family (7 people)
participated and they were crying and saying how much they wanted to come to
church and overcome their problems. The kicker: they texted us earlier in the
day to tell us not to come over because they'd had a fight, but we just got a
bunch of "no content" messages to our phone. First time I've ever
been thankful our phone is kind of junky, blessings! They were all at church
today :)
Sunday was an amazing day at
church too! We had 134 people there today, when I first got into this area, 110
was a good average (for their
Spanish-speaking branch/congregation). We had a recent convert
blessing the sacrament, another one passing (the sacrament), the whole Pacheco family was there,
Alberto, Maira, and Esteban all got confirmed...it was just wonderful. It's so
cool to see how much the Lord is blessing us in this area.
We're excited for the upcoming
week, with General Conference! What is General Conference?
The only scary part is that next Tuesday (Oct.
7th) is transfers (transfers are help
every six weeks and missionaries could move to another area within the mission).
I'm hoping and praying I don't leave this area, I love the people here with all
my heart, I do not want to leave!
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Ayari - the daughter of one of the families that he is close to! |
I just want to share a quick
testimony of our Savior. I know that He
lives and is at the head of this church. He and The Father love us so much that
they provided a plan for us to return to live with them in eternal happiness
one day: the plan of salvation. Through the gospel, we can learn about this
plan and how we can apply it to our lives. Also, I've gained a strong testimony
of the atonement of Christ and what he did for us, so that we can return and be
happy with him one day.
I also love the last verse of the
song "Abide with Me": "Abide With Me""Abide With Me"
What but thy grace can foil the
tempter’s pow’r?
Who, like thyself, my guide and
stay can be?
Thru cloud and sunshine, Lord,
abide with me!
Abide with Me!
I love y'all so much! I can't
believe we're already to October. Before you know it, it'll be Christmas! (the next opportunity we get to talk to him by phone/skype)
This is crazy :) I hope everyone back
home is doing well. Thanks for all your love and support! And no worries, I'm
healthy and happy and smiling and just all around thankful for all the
blessings in my life.
Love always,
Scottie
P.S. We met Allie and Nathalie at
Kneaders on Saturday morning so we could teach Allie and get
delicious French toast (Kneaders is kind of like an Atlanta bread company, but
with a heavier emphasis on breakfast). While we were there, the conversation
came up of whether or not they'd want their parents to come with them to
breakfast. Jarvy (Elder Jarvis, his
companion) and I just looked at each other and we were both, at the
same time, like "man, what I wouldn't' give to go to breakfast with my
parents." (I'd love to have breakfast with my boy!!) I love and miss y'all and Savannah and Sophia so much. I'm so
thankful to be able to have y'all as my eternal family :)
(From his email to his Aunt Tammy)
(From his email to his Aunt Tammy)
Hey Aunt Tammy!!
I'm glad you're back in the south though Aunt Tammy, now I just gotta get back so I can go and visit :)
This week has been crazy! We did have some more baptisms, and I sent some more photos my mom's way, so she should be getting those up on the blog. Total, I've probably gotten to participate in close to 20 baptisms, which is pretty spectacular to see all those people participate in an ordinance that will allow them to work towards an eternal family.
I'm looking forward to hearing the prophets speak (at General Conference) and answer my questions. I've got a few about what I should do post-mission, and I bet they'll help give me some guidance. We're gonna try and go downtown for one of the sessions (General Conference in held in the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City), so I'll try and take some pictures :)
New word of the week: vislumbrar - to glimpse or make out in the distance. sometimes, it requires faith to move forward, because we can only vislumbrar the future or what will happen, but our Heavenly Father knows and loves us and wants the best for us :)
I love you so much Aunt Tammy, can't explain how excited I am to see you soon! The time is quickly approaching :)
Love always,
Scottie
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