Scottie with a prior companion, Elder Chavez!

Hey Family!

Sorry I haven't emailed an update in a while...we've been crazy busy, and then I got super bad  food poisoning last week, but I'm feeling so much better now. So here's some of the highlights of the last few weeks:

So over the course of the last 3 weeks, the work here has just exploded. The Lord is truly blessing us in our efforts to invite others to come unto Him.

It all started on September 2nd when we had our Mission Leadership Council (for all Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders in the Salt Lake City West Mission - Scottie is a Zone Leader). The meeting started at 6:50 AM, but we're used to getting up early so it was no biggie. The first hour of the meeting was led by Elder Arnold of the Quorum of the 70, and that was intense. He's got a very strong, type A personality. He kind of tore into us about making sure we were doing everything possible to be the examples to the mission, since we were the zone leaders and sister training leaders. He explained that our divine motivation for everything should be helping our brothers and sisters return to their Heavenly Father. Just the way he explained everything got us all fired up. We also talked about goals for the mission. Later in the meeting, Pres. Swain said that too many people in the mission weren't hitting the standards of excellence, so he lowered them and we all made a plan to get every companionship hitting them, then we'd move them back up. He changed the standard from 15 lessons with a member present to 10. Jarvis and I were already hitting the 15 mark, so we made goals to keep that going higher as well as get more baptisms in our area.

At the Mission Leadership Council

Throughout that week, we really applied everything we learned and were really bold with baptismal invitations. We invited 5 people to be baptized, and they all said yes! It was so exciting and just a testimony to me of the truthfulness of the Gospel, I love it.

Fun note, on Thursday, 9/4/14, we went down to Temple Square, and I saw Ayala Noguiera (the girl with orange hair that's dancing in that picture of me that's on the lds.org site haha): Scottie and Ayala on church website (Ayala is from our area, they attended youth activities together before their missions), she serves as a Temple Square Sister (missionary) right now. 

Elder Jarvis, Levi, Pepe and Scottie at Temple Square

On Friday, 9/5/14, I started feeling sick with a cold/flu-like symptoms. That was no fun, and it had me exhausted haha. Life is good though! Our zone training went well and hopefully I'll get better soon!

Happy Birthday Sophia (Scottie’s youngest sister)!!!!!! 9/6/14. I can't believe she's already 14, how fast is time flying?!?!

9/7/14: Today, Jarvis and I spoke in stake conference (a meeting for all congregations in the stake/area where he is serving), and I think that went well. Then we had our first meeting with Alberto. He's the brother of a recent convert in our branch, and he's been to church twice, but he just moved in with them for the foreseeable future, so we met with him tonight. He shared his strong desire to be baptized, and we felt impressed to invite him to be baptized in two weeks (since he'd already been to church a few times), and he said yes! We're way excited for that. Then, we did a fast today so that Allie (investigator) would be able to get permission from her parents to get baptized. She said that she talked to her parents again, and they didn't say yes, but they opened up and were okay with her going to church and stuff! The power of fasting is real!

9/11/14: I can't believe it's been 13 years since the attack on the twin towers. All I can say is I'm proud to be an American and live in a country that gives me so many freedoms. I'm thankful to all those who have sacrificed so that I can have these freedoms, and I'll always keep them in my prayers.

9/13/14: The cold I've been having hit its peak today. In the morning, Elisa called us and asked if we could help them pull things out at their house for a yard sale, so we got to help with that, and then she gave us some medicine. It made us super sleepy, so as soon as 9pm hit, we were home, planning, and asleep haha.

9/14/14: Today was an awesome Sunday...until 10:40pm. It was a truly good day at church and everything, all went really well and we had a few good lessons after church. Our dinner was dropped off to us, pupusas de chicharron. Jarvis wasn't hungry so he didn't eat, but I
did. After FHE (Family Home Evening) with the Balderas family, we got our numbers report ready, called it into the assistants....and that's when my stomach started doing backflips. Around 10:40 I threw up for the first time....and then did it every half hour until 10 AM the next day. I didn´t get any sleep, and it was rough.

Some of the "numbers" the Zone Leaders have to report

9/15/14: Monday. It was a recovery day for me. I tried to sleep, didn't eat anything all day, tried to get some liquids in me, but I threw those up for a while haha. When Jarvy (Elder Jarvis, his companion) went to play ball (It was p-day/preparation day), he dropped me off at the Balderas’ house so Pepe could be my companion for the afternoon, but I was just trying to get some sleep in. They're such an awesome family, they truly treat me like family and look out for me. I got home around 6:30, fell asleep at 7, and that's all I remember until 8am on Tuesday.


9/16/14: Tuesday. Today was much better! I still can't eat much, but I wasn't throwing up as often, only a few times all day. We did our District Leader Training meeting today, had an awesome lesson with the Santana family (getting baptized on the 27th of this month), and then
sleep.

9/17/14: Wednesday. We spent all afternoon biking copies of the Book of Mormon all over the zone to get them to missionaries. The shipment we ordered got delayed, so they finally got here and people needed them really bad haha. We dropped off about 100 of them on bike, which was fun. We had some good lessons today. I'm still not hungry, and I feel a little weak, but I'm getting there!

9/19/14: Friday. Man, I finally got to feeling mostly better. First day since Sunday I haven't thrown up haha, so I'm a happy camper. Today was chill, just some solid lessons and getting Alberto ready for his baptism tomorrow.

Scottie with his Zone - The Granger B Zone!

9/20/14: Today was an amazing day. We spent all morning participating in the stake community fair, we set up a missionary table there! It was cool. Then, we went home and discovered a small problem. Some onions in a cabinet we don't use too much had rotted, and when we opened the cabinet for the first time in a while, there were bugs and this disgusting black juice everywhere. Let's just say I was thoroughly grossed out. But we manned up and spent about 2 hours deep cleaning our kitchen, which is super clean now! We had dinner with Pres. Atwater, then the baptism of Alberto. Even though he showed up half an hour late haha, it was one of my favorite baptisms of my mission. His sister gave the talk on baptism, his brother-in-law, Emmanuel, baptized him, and his 2 little nephews gave the prayers. It was beautiful. I'll send pictures!

Elder Higgins, Emanuel, Alberto and Elder Jarvis (and one of the Sanhchez children)

Alberto and his sister's family

9/21/14: Sunday. Today was an interesting day for us. The Ogden Temple got rededicated today, so all normal church services were cancelled. Kind of weird to tell our investigators not to come to church one Sunday haha. We went to the first of 3 dedication ceremonies, and it was beautiful. Elder Bednar and Pres. Monson spoke, it was really cool to see. We had all afternoon open to visit with people, so we enjoyed that opportunity with 4 lessons. Then, we had pozole (one of his favorite Mexican dishes now!) with Hermano de Alba, taught Braka, and then had family home evening with los Balderas. It was a wonderful day, and numbers were really good this week! We had 24 lessons this week, and the other 13 companionships in the zone added on another 87 lessons, so our zone total was the highest it's ever been: 111 (with members present). Then, we had 18 new investigators and 13 new returning members. Things are looking good for the Granger B zone! Life is good, I'm feeling healthier, and looking forward to another week :)

Love always,

Scottie

(From his emails to his Aunt Tammy):

Hey Tía Tammy!! (Sept 8^th)

My last week was super, sounds like yours was too! 

I am so glad that I stayed here, this area is amazing (He did not get transferred to a new area). Things are going so well. We added two new families this last week, the Santana family and the Barragan family. 

My biggest mental challenge has been just learning self-control in timing. It's all up to us to make sure we're working hard all the time, nobody is on us about it all the time. But to have success in missionary work, you have to be diligent all the time, so you have to dominate self-mastery. My mission has truly taught me how to love people and understand people from different walks of life. I've truly connected with Hispanic culture as well, and I love it. It's cool seeing the world through the eyes of a different people, you learn so much. 

New word this week: inolvidable - unforgettable. Every week, I have experiences that are unforgettable. 

I'm doing so well. I love and miss you like crazy though. I've met people in this area that will be lifelong friends though, so hopefully you'll get to meet them one day. They said they're going to come visit Georgia when I'm home, so we'll see :) 

I love you!

Scottie 

Hey Aunt Tammy! (Sept. 22)

Yeah, being sick was no fun, but I'm much better now :) 

I'm glad you had a great trip to GA (she currently lives in Iowa but was visiting), I miss it so much. The picture you sent of the beach (Tybee Island) was gorgeous, looked like it was a professional shot. I can't wait to go to the beach.  

Tyler (Tammy’s son, Scottie’s oldest cousin, he is currently living in Savannah) looked really good too, glad you got to see him. 

I'm doing well now, no worries! :) 

Word of the week: recuperar - it means to get better or recuperate haha, thought it was fitting for this week. 

I love you Aunt Tammy, can't believe it's almost October, just closer and closer to seeing you! 

Hope you have a week that's as awesome as you are. 

Love always, 

Scottie 

(August 25^th): This last week has been pretty awesome! Here's some of the highlights:

(8/18) - We started the week off with a sweet trip to Kneaders for all you can eat French Toast on Monday - so good!! We spent Monday afternoon at the Walker's home for their missionary barbecue, but I couldn't enjoy it as much as I would have hoped, still getting over whatever stomach bug I had. But it's all good! We went out at night, helped Hermano de Alba (elders quorum president) with some things, taught Hermana Rodriguez, and that was that!

(8/19) - I hit 14 months on Tuesday (14 months out on his mission!), that's pretty crazy! We spent part of the morning trying to get Jarvy's (Elder Jarvis) bike fixed, it's in pretty janky shape right now (someone fell on it and taco-ed the back tire). Then, we had a mission-wide meeting for all Spanish missionaries about a new Spanish Initiative program the church is going to pilot here in the valley, we're excited about that. If you want to see it, go to mormon.org/preguntas (it's all in Spanish...but maybe Savannah could help y'all read it). We ate dinner with de Alba, taught Braka, and then had a great lesson with Allie. She's progressing so well and we're just super excited for her.

(8/20) - Wednesday was a pretty normal day, nothing too exciting to report. It was good though :)

(8/21) - On Thursday, we started off on exchanges (where they pair up with another set of missionaries and switch companions). I was with Elder Dunford in our area for the morning (he's from the Coal Mountain ward of our stake (our stake here in Georgia) and went to GA Tech with me), and that was awesome. We were going to do exchanges all day, then Jarvy remembered that someone in his last area was going to the temple so he got picked up for that, and I spent the night with Levi and Pepe (members of his local branch/congregation) as my companions. We had dinner with Barboza, taught a few lessons, and then switched back up with
Jarvis. Busy day, but good day :)

(8/22) - Friday was good! Elder Chavez gave a really good district meeting, and then we did some weekly planning. We helped Nefi do his ice bucket challenge too, it was pretty funny. Dinner was awesome though! Elisa Balderas made homemade chicken and waffles. We also joke that it's my favorite food since I'm from the south, and she actually made it! It was so good, I was impressed. Then, we taught a few lessons, met a new family to teach (sweet!), and then headed home.

Elisa making Chicken and Waffles!

Yum, yum!!

(8/23) - Saturday was awesome. We spent the majority of the morning down at Temple Square with Allie, Nathalie, and Levi. We did a bit of a tour, then watched the longer version of the restoration movie. Allie is really gaining a testimony, it's so cool to see! We came home, then had this incredible dinner with the Nava family. They're way chill and from this rancho in Guerrero, Mexico. The meat (I didn't know what it was) was super good, and I ate like 5 tacos and a ton of this broth stuff. I asked what the meat was afterwards (I couldn't ask during because there was some mystery parts that weren't meat, and I didn't want to ruin the experience haha). Turns out, it was chivo (sheep). The mystery parts: stomach. They killed the chivo after they bought it from a farmer the day before, cut up all the meat, then put it in the stomach with garlic and cilantro and other stuff. Then, they cook it in the oven, then when it's done, they chop it all up together. So it was one of the more awesome meals of my mission. I loved it.

Afterwards, we went to Gerardo's farewell (a kid from the branch). He leaves on his mission in 2 weeks for Mendoza, Argentina, so that's awesome! We ended the night with the Rodriguez family, they said they'll be at church tomorrow so we're excited for that.

(8/24) - Awesome Sunday today. We had branch council in the morning, then regular church (except we ended up teaching the gospel principles class and the elders/high priests, even though we weren't told that until about 5 minutes before each class haha - life of a missionary). The classes went well though, we talked about tithing in one and the keys and authority of the priesthood in the other. It's such a blessing to have the restored gospel and priesthood here on earth to help us draw closer to our Heavenly Father. After church, we had a stake correlation meeting, then we went with the Balderas family over to Nava's to eat more chivo - I really liked it haha, and the company is awesome. Then we met and taught the Santana family for the first time, then we went over to the Balderas family's for family night. We started off doing the ALS ice bucket challenge (Jarvy and I got nominated haha), I'll try to send the video (he did try to send it, but we never got it!). Then, we dried off, had a lesson, then finished up the FHE (Family Home Evening) with a fun activity/game. Then we came home, did numbers, and another week is in the books!

This upcoming week is transfers. Almost every companionship in our zone is getting changed in some way, but Jarvy (Elder Jarvis, his companion) and I are staying put, so I'm way excited! We'll be in this area through October Conference at least!! (transfers take place every 6 weeks) Life is good :)

I just want to share my quick testimony that I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church restored in these latter days. I know, without a doubt in my heart, that the priesthood has been restored, and that through that priesthood we can participate in the ordinances that will allow us to return to our eternal families one day. I have seen my faith and testimony grow so much, and I'm thankful for the blessing of my mission. Christ lives, and as our Savior and Redeemer, he is always there for us to help us return to our Heavenly Father. Through His grace and atonement, we have the opportunity to get better each day. True and complete happiness can be found in the Gospel. I've seen it, I've watched it change people's lives (including mine), and I love being part of it. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. :)

I love you Madre, I hope you know that. I always will.Life is good though :) I'm feeling much better, and I just can't seem to stop smiling lately. Life is really good.

Sept. 1st/Labor Day: 

How are you! Mama, I'm so sorry you fell!! (I took a bad fall down a set of concrete stairs leaving church!) For real, that looks so painful. I wish I could just take all the injuries on myself, I hope you're okay!
  

Me, in the hospital after my fall!

My finger, before they cut my ring off!

I'm doing well this week, healthy and such. How are you feeling? I love you so much!

As a zone leader, we stay so busy and have to run around so much that our cooking is highly limited. But I'm okay, healthy and whatnot, no worries.

I'll try and send the long update later, I'll send a picture of the baptism we had this week.

Scottie with President Atwater, Kimmy, Jessica, their mom and Elder Jarvis

The Rodriquez girls get baptized!! 

Hey, we gotta go get ready for tonight. I hope you know how much I love y'all and how much I miss y'all. Just a heads up, it's looking more and more like May 5 will be the release date for me, so I'll let you know when it's official, but that's probably gonna be it. 

This upcoming week we'll have mission leadership council (tomorrow actually) and Elder Arnold from the Quorum of the 70 (General Church Leadership) is gonna be there, that's another kinda cool perk of being a zone leader. 

I love y'all so much. I love this work. I love this area. I've met people in this area that I'll be friends with forever. And the Balderas family is my family away from home, just know I'm being taken care of out here. 

I can't wait to email  you next week! I'll have more prepared and try to take more pictures haha. Love everyone, be safe, and enjoy the week!

Scottie 

(From his email to his Aunt Tammy): 

 (8/25) - 

Hey Tía Tammy :)

This last week has been awesome, life is just really good and face-paced out here

It'll be so cool to have you back in GA with us Aunt Tammy :) (She is planning on moving back to Georgia) I'm excited!

This week, I've continued to learn the importance of the Gospel. It amazes me how much it can help and change people's lives and outlooks on life. We have transfers this week, but Jarvis and I are staying put, so I'm excited about that. Jarvis is the man, love this guy. And I love this area, I don't ever want to leave haha. 

New words: chikiwiti - it's the name of the container that people put tortilllas in (a slang term used in the state of Guerrero, Mexico). It's pronounced: cheek-ee-whit-ee. That's fun :) And we ate sheep cooked in its own stomach this last week...so that's pretty fun and interesting haha :)

We're seeing great progress in the area. The Rodriguez kids are planning on getting baptized on Friday, so we're excited about that!

The thunderstorms have been kind of cool...they're less cool when we have to be outside biking around in them though, but that's life! And life is good, no complaints here :) 

I love and miss you tons too Aunt Tammy.

I can't wait to see you soon!

Love, 

Scottie

(8/18)
Hola family!!

Sorry I haven't been able to write too much these last couple of weeks, life has been crazy!!! But everything is going super well :) Here's a little update of what we've done this past week:

Monday: (8/11)

Like I said when we emailed last week, we went to the Hogle Zoo today. The people we went with made it really fun, the zoo itself....well, it was a zoo. Thanks for bringing me! (inside family joke – it basically means you’d rather be doing something else!) haha :) afterwards, we went and did shopping, email, and then we went and we're going through the missionary lessons with our branch president's son, Abelito. He's going to turn 8 in 2 weeks so they just wanted us to help him feel a bit more prepared for his baptism.

The Zoo Crew!

Tuesday: (8/12)

Man, today was an awesome day! We had zone conference today (every transfer, we either have a zone training, where the zone leaders are in charge of everything, or a zone conference, where President Swain (Scottie’s mission president) plans things out and we help with the training). It was my favorite zone conference to date (my 4th or 5th one, wow, time is flying). We learned so much and there was a super powerful spirit there. Elder Jarvis (Scottie’s companion) and I trained on righteous routines (planning and studying and making sure they're effective and connected to our teaching), and we felt really good about it. (As Zone Leaders Scottie and his companion are responsible for helping train the other missionaries in their Zone/area) After the zone conference, we had dinner with Hermana Solis and her family (one of my favorite families in this area, they're awesome!) and then we stayed busy all night visiting people and teaching lessons. Something I learned in the zone conference that stuck out to me is just the importance of living in a way that allows us to feel the Spirit, and once we do that we can help others find their own testimonies. I love it.

These are some of my best friends out here, love em like brothers: The one on t he left, Chappell is an AP, Rosdahl, the other one , is a ZL in another area

The Boys: Elders Chappell, Higgins, Rosdahl and Jarvis

The "Boys" with President Swain

Wednesday: (8/13)

Pretty standard day today. We had our regular morning routine, then we gave a district leader training on the importance of charity and love in the mission. After dinner, we went out with Elisa (our young women's president) to teach Raquel and her boyfriend/fiance person she's living with but not married too haha. The lesson was about the Book of Mormon and it went really well! Elisa was a big help too. We were going to go visit the Rojo family, but when we got there the dad was outside of the house with a friend, both pretty “impaired”. The one friend then came up and got in my face and starting swearing at me and saying all sorts of vulgar things, which I didn't really care about, but then he turned to start heading towards Elisa and I stepped in his way, told him to have a nice day, and we left. I've learned that I don't really care what people say or yell at me (and this area has tons of interesting people who just cuss at us for no reason haha, it's pretty funny), but when it comes to those that are my friends or that I care about, that's where I have to draw the line. No worries though, life is good :)

Thursday: (8/14)

Another pretty solid day today! We had our normal morning routine, then spent the afternoon visiting the weekly planning sessions of the missionaries in our zone. That went pretty much as planned, one of the sister companionships is really struggling with each other right now though. They just can't seem to get along, and that must make the mission pretty miserable. I've been lucky to have pretty solid companions, but Elder Jarvis is the man! We're like brothers now, we've yet to disagree on anything and we just truly love serving with each other. Time is flying even faster because we're just loving every day. After dinner, we went and taught a few lessons, and then went over to Elisa's (the Balderas family) house to end the night, they made this Nutella and Oreo pie thing that was super good! Then, the Assistants (Elders Isabell and Chappell) (assistants to the mission president) came over and we started exchanges (switching up companionships with another set of missionaries) with them. I went with Elder Isabell into their area, which is kind of cool because they're the only missionaries with a car haha (all other missionaries in Scottie’s area either walk or ride bikes). I couldn't drive though....and I tried like 4 times (he really misses driving!), Isabell is awesome though, we get along super well and I really respect and look up to him a ton!

Friday:(8/15)

It was a jam-packed day today! Life as an Assistant is hectic, that's for sure. We got up, exercised, studied, and then we had to drive to a few different district meetings to go and help missionaries who were having iPad issues (for the most part, it was user errors, but 1 missionary had a legitimate concern haha). Then we went to the mission office and (Elder) Isabell had a bunch of reports and paperwork to work on....I just hung out and talked with him. We did that for a few hours, and we were supposed to be having lunch with one of their investigators, but that kind of fell through. We went to eat around 2:30, and I was starving, but we had a great lunch at La Fountain (Mexican restaurant, you already know!). We taught 2 lessons, and then headed over to have dinner. It will go down as one of the strangest dinners of my mission: 1 boiled hotdog, one uncooked potato, and a glass of water. The dinner was truly interesting, and the guy we ate with is a recovering addict....who had relapsed one day before. Sooooo, the conversation was sparse and slightly random, but I truly appreciate his kindness to invite us over anyways. Good guy, though. After that, we had two lessons, on opposite sides of the mission (the AP's (assistants to the president) cover a Samoan YSA (Young Single Adult) area that covers the whole valley basically), and that was that. We finished up exchanges and I really enjoyed chilling with Elder Isabell, but I'm glad to be back in my Spanish area haha.

Saturday: (8/16)

Another full day: morning studies and whatnot, then the Assistants picked us up and we drove out to the Hunter area to go to choir practice. After choir practice, we ate lunch with the Assistants (celebrating Isabell's birthday, which was on Tuesday), at a place called Pizza Rev - it's like a subway, but with pizza instead of sandwiches! Then, we spent the afternoon doing our weekly planning, and then we had dinner with the Atwater family. We left to go visit the Banuelos family, then came back to teach Abelito again. Then, we had a great lesson with Allie.  She’s totally prepared for baptism, and after she comes to church a few more times, she'll be getting baptized! We're so excited for her!!!!

Sunday: (8/17)
Pretty normal Sunday today. Branch council --> church --> mission president’s devotional! That was it really :) I'll send photos though! The devotional was held back in the first area where I served!

Scottie and one of his first companions, Elder Burgin

Missionaries with Hermano Tomas Carrasco 

Scottie with missionaries and members from his first area!

I hope you know how much I miss you. I can't tell you how many times I just want to call you and ask for your help or advice, because you're always so willing to give it. Thank you for always being there for me! I love you so much and I miss you, can't wait till Christmas! 

Love you tons,

Scottie

(We didn't get a long update for 2 weeks - but we did get some photos and some brief emails!!)

Missionaries after District Meeting

8/5 - Hey! Yesterday, we got caught in a crazy rain storm. My iPad got wet and water inside it.  I'm still trying to dry it in rice, it's acting up a bit. I should be email a bit soon though! I love you all :)

Trash Bag Ponchos - after the 1st rain!

We left a house, and it was sunny. By the time we got to the next house, we were completely soaked.  Literally, I could pour water out of my shoes. iPad, wallet, phone, everything was soaked!

After the 2nd Rain!

I love y'all!

8/6) - We went to the temple today, it was an awesome experience!

The Temple Crew!

Hopefully next week I won't have technical difficulties haha, dumb rain

Y'all are the best family ever :)

I'm happy and safe and healthy.

I'll try and send a long update tonight if I can! (a long update never came – so he must not have been able to!)

Till next week :)

Love always,

Scottie

8/11 - Hey, sorry, we just got home. Crazy day so far. We went to the zoo for p-day (preparation day) activity....not my favorite haha. Not the best zoo but it was good company, so I'm happy :) how are y'all?. I miss and love everyone so much!

They borrowed the Senior Missionary's motorized scooter at the zoo!

This was Elder Steffensen's and my reaction to whoever chose zoo day haha:

The zoo, really?!?

My iPad is working mostly perfectly! a few pixels are discolored, but it works fine now.

I'll try and work on a long update :) (also never got a long update for this week :-) !) but I did take pictures at the zoo and I sent a bunch of pictures just now.

Always makes me think of that story of when the bird scared me when I was a kid haha (we went to a "Birds of Prey" show when he was younger and a very large bird came after him!)

Memories - at the Birds of Prey show!

I'm really loving my mission right now, it's the best area with the best companion surrounded by the best people.

This is Elder Duke. He goes back home to Arizona this weekend, this was the last chance I was going to have to see him, figured we should get a good picture together.

Elders Duke and Higgins

I'm still in the process of the bike sitation. I'm riding a borrowed one for now. They said it would be like 250 bucks to fix mine (since the front fork broke and that's really expensive, and not something I could just do myself). I'm gonna find a better solution though, that's a waste of money when I don't have enough time left on the mission that I'll be using a bike (i've still got winter coming up) (they don't get to ride the bikes once is starts to snow).

Hermano de Alba offered a solution for his broken bike!

Sorry, we got to run! Gotta grab a quick bite to eat before our first lesson tonight.

But I love you so much and I'm so thankful that we were able to chat (via email) for a bit! Hopefully you got all the pictures I sent and I hope you know that I think of y'all all the time! Can't wait to email next week :)

Love always,

Scottie

(From his email to his Aunt Tammy):

(8/11)Hey Aunt Tammy!!

Sorry I couldn't respond last week, I bet my mom told you that my ipad was slightly water-logged haha...crazy rain here lately. But it seems to be working well now :)

I'm glad to hear that you and the family are doing well!

A yard sale seems like a good idea! Aunt Tammy, I'm really excited that I'll be able to come and visit more often when y'all move to GA, I miss you so much. I really can't tell you how much I appreciate your constant support and love, you're awesome!

In the particular area where I am, they don't really have farmer's market. They might in the bigger cities, but West Valley is pretty devoid of that haha. Several Latino markets though! And that is really cool, I loved going to see the things like that in Atlanta when I was at Tech. 

New words:

Talacha - arduous work. Sometimes, it's the talacha that gets us through and gets us moving forward. 

Echale ganas - it's a phrase to say "keep it going, keep working hard." We all need to echarle ganas, and that's what brings the success :)

Tia Tammy, I love you bunches and just can't wait to see you again. Know that you're loved and constantly in my prayers. 

Scottie