Hey there!

Man, it sounds like y'all stayed super busy this last week. Thank you again for the update, I   always love hearing what you been up to. That is so crazy that the Yellow Jackets did so well this year - that makes me happy to hear.

This last week was pretty crazy for us. Mission leadership council went really well, but Elder Arnold (from the Quorum of the Seventy) was there for an hour and I feel like we're making good progress in the mission which is good. There's still a lot of things that we can improve and do better, but we're doing the best that we can and slowly improving, which is all we can do at the moment.

We had a busy week, and a lot of cancellations. But that gave us a lot of time to find new people, and we have a few promising prospects.

This week, I tried something that I had never had before. For dinner one night, we had Elk heart in venison steaks. I will send a picture of the heart. It actually tasted really good, and I would eat it again if given the opportunity. The guy that fed us was a real country boy, and he had shot the elk himself with a compound bow - then butchered it himself.

Elk heart for dinner!

I am definitely learning a lot being in this position (assistant to the president). It pushes me in a lot of ways that I haven't really been pushed before on the mission, its one giant balancing act. Where in charge of so much administration office work, and then we have to go out and do the same missionary work we were doing before, but without as much of an opportunity to study the Scriptures and really plan out what we're going to do with the people that we teach. It is such an amazing opportunity though, and I love the challenge. I'm learning tons, and I've learned a lot from Elder Chapell (his companion).

I really cannot wait for our Christmas time phone call, it is going to be so good to hear from you all again. It's hard to believe that it will be my last call home. May 5 (the official release date for his mission) is coming up way faster than I thought that it would, but I'm going to work hard until the end. I love you so much, and I can't thank you enough for all the support that you give
me.

I love y'all! Our big project this week will be getting out new phones. Our mission is switching over from Sprint to AT&T, so we are in charge of getting every companionship (75 of them) A brand-new phone, transferring over there contacts, and then updating the online missionary information system for all of them. It will be quite the task but we are hoping that it will aid the work in the long run :-)

Love y'all!

Scottie

(From his email to his Aunt Tammy):

Hey Aunt Tammy!

It's so good to hear from you. Thank you so much for sending all the pictures, I love seeing what's going on with you and your family.

Thanksgiving was awesome. We got to spend most of it with the Balderas family, and we had lots of good food, football, and basketball. It's crazy to think that it'll be the last Thanksgiving I had out here in the mission field.

We are staying busy as usual. We are finding new people to meet teach and we are seeing great progress in the Tu'uhetaufa sisters. They are going to be baptized on the 20th of this month, so we are quite excited.

I don't get to practice Spanish as much as I used to, but here's some Tongan words that I've been learning:
*ofa atu - I love you
* Malo 'aupito- thank you very much
*sisu kalaisi - Jesus Christ

I love you aunt Tammy. I hope that you are doing well, and I can't wait to see you soon :-)

Scottie