Hey Family!

I love y'all so much!! I hope you know that, and I hope y'all know how thankful I am for y'all!

This last week was pretty rough, no lie. We didn't get much sleep at all haha, lots of stuff to do on transfer week! and we got dropped by a few investigators (everyone that had a date for baptism dropped us), and we didn't have any dinners all week for some reason (the Young Single Adult wards are not always great with the meals, lots of students who are doing good to feed themselves!). But it's okay!!! The Lord always provides!

We've already met some new investigators, Fa and Melanie Tu'uhekautafa are their names. They're sisters, and we're excited to work with them :)

And we eat with the Tongans this week  (they eat with the English speaking YSA ward one week and then the Tongan ward the next week) plus Thanksgiving with the Balderas family, so I'm going to get plenty of food haha.  

Elder Chappell (Scottie's companion) with his late night snack!

When we eat with the Tongans, we're well fed. When we eat with the palagi (white) (by white - he means English speaking) ward...we have to go to drastic measures at 9:30 at night haha

I'm really looking forward to Thursday! I hope y'all know how thankful I am for everything you do for me. And even though I'll really miss y'all, it'll be the last time I miss thanksgiving (he will be home this time next year)!! And I'll be with the Balderas family, which'll make things much better too. 

I'm happy and smiling. Elder Chappell is an incredible companion, and we're really loving serving together. It's like serving with a brother and best friend. Jarvis, Chappell, and I are going to be friends for life, they're awesome people. 

I see that you're in Disney World!! Have so much fun please :) I can't wait for that Christmas phone call so I can tell you all the stories of what's been going on. 

I love you! I'll email again next Monday and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving :) Please send my love to everyone back home!

Love always, 

Scottie

The 3 languages of his mission: English, Spanish and Tongan!

Hola Family!

It's the week before transfers out here so we've stayed beyond busy, here are some of the things that have kept us on our toes: 

1) Our car battery died on Tuesday...we found out at 10:15 at night when we were dropping a package off with some other missionaries. The guy we called to jump us took 30 minutes to get there, even though he lives super close by haha, but it was okay...we had Panda Express in the car with us, and we ate well (we didn't get dinner that night so it was a blessing in disguise to get some late-night Panda)

2) We collect the iPads from all the missionaries that are going home. 

3) We set up and get new iPads to all the missionaries going in (out into the mission). 

Setting up new Ipads

4) We talked with Pres. Swain (his Mission President) for over 4 hours on the phone this last week talking about transfers (part of his responsibilities as Assistant to the President) and who was going where...we finally got things figured out. It was a big transfer, for various reasons. Of our 75 companionships, 55 of them were changed in some way. 

Working out the transfers

5) Teaching! We had a solid week with 18 lessons, so that was pretty good considering how much time we spent working in the office haha. 

He got a visitor while teaching!

6) We did not spend too much time sleeping ;) But no worries! I'm healthy and happy :) (This seems to be a theme recently!)

Life has flown by, the last 6 weeks have been the fastest of my life. But things are good! We have transfer meeting tomorrow, but our day will start at about 4 am when we start taking missionaries to the airport. It'll be kind of sad to see some of them go, Elder Isabell was like a brother to me and helped me so much when I got transferred to be an AP, and he goes home tomorrow. Time flies too fast!

Scottie and Elder Isabell at the airport

I can't wait for Christmas, it'll be so good to talk with y'all face-to-face (we will get to talk/Skye to him on Christmas Day!). I'm sorry I can't ever include as much detail as I want, we just never have time. 

I can't wait to talk soon!

I love y'all with all my heart!

Scottie

(From his email to his Aunt Tammy):

Hey Aunt Tammy!!

I bet the sunshine is a welcome sight! I really don't like the extremely cold weather; we haven't gotten it too bad, but it was 20 degrees the other day and that's pretty cold when you've got to be walking around haha. Thankfully we have a car now (the APs, Assistants to the President are the only missionaries in his mission to have a car), so that'll keep me a little warmer!

Well, this week we had some fun troubles with our car (dead battery), so we had to get that fixed. We had another missionary want to go home, and we tried talking to him but he didn't want to talk to us, so he flies out tomorrow. And we also have transfers tomorrow. I'm not going anywhere for a while, but it is kind of cool to be able to counsel with our mission president and help pick where everyone goes. The advice we give a lot of people that are struggling with home-sickness is just to pray and think about why they're out here, and really talk it out with the Lord. We try to help them see the joys and positives of serving, and there are a ton! I love being out here and I'm happy all the time :)

The Holiday season is definitely interesting as a missionary, because we see everything as so family-oriented...but we can't be with our families. But it does help that I know have people out here that may as well be my family. For example, the Balderas family. They treat me like family, and I'll be spending Thanksgiving with them. 

Tongan word of the week: Sisu Kalaisi - it means Jesus Christ. I know and can testify that he is our Savior, our Redeemer, and that he atoned for our sins so that we can one day return to live with our Heavenly Father. 

I love you Aunt Tammy!!

Scottie

Elder Chappell, Elder Higgins, Elder Jarvis and Elder Rosdahl

Hey Family!!!!

This last week has been crazy, but here's a few highlights. 

The BOYS!!!! Passing over the 18 month mark, coming up on less than 6 months until that May 5th date. Craziness!!!! (All these Elders entered the mission field at the same time, they have become good friends!)

Scott, Elder Jarvis, Elder Chappell, Elder Rosdahl

We had Mission Leadership Council on Tuesday. It was my first time leading the meeting as an Assistant, so that was pretty interesting, but we think it went really well!

Tuesday night: it was the first time we were going to bed at 10:30 in like....5 weeks haha. We were literally crawling into bed....when the phone rings. President Swain: "Elders, I'm sorry, but I need you to go take care of an issue with a report I was supposed to get." We didn't have to do this report, but the missionary that was in charge did it incorrectly and thus, we went to fix it. Bed time--> 11:45. Haha...so close to good sleep :)

Wednesday, we took a missionary to the airport...turns out, you can't park on the side of the drop-off lane...even for 5 minutes to run someone inside. The guy that wrote us the parking ticket said one of us should have stayed in the car, we tried to explain our mission rules that we have to stay with our companion...he said "I don't care" and walked away. Somebody didn't have "sunshine in his soul" that day haha. No worries, lesson learned and on to the next day :)

Saturday to Sunday was our stake conference, way cool experience! Turns out, a YSA (young single adult) stake conference focuses heavily on dating haha, which is comical from a missionary standpoint, but it's all good. There were plenty of spiritual messages too :)

Thanks again for the shoes! They're awesome. (His old ones were worn out so we sent him some new ones)

I love y'all tons! I hope your week is awesome, Christmas is rapidly approaching! Have a great week and we'll talk soon :) I love you all!

 I'm healthy! Mildly sleep deprived but healthy :) no worries, I'm smiling!

Morning exercise....usually doesn't happen. I wish we could do more, this week might be a bit calmer, but it's kind of rough to find time for that haha

I love you!

Scottie

Hey there family!

So sorry I couldn't ever get on last week to email, we never got a P-Day (being Assistant to the President sometimes means there is no time for Preparation Day) really and then when we were going to try to email later in the week on Thursday (our most free afternoon), we got a call from Pres. Swain (his mission President) and had to drive out to Magna to deal with some disciplinary things (part of his AP duties), and that took all afternoon. So that kind of took away that opportunity haha. But here's a small recap of things that have been going on:

I don't think I've ever been this busy in my entire life. This is truly an opportunity to grow and learn. I thought the mission had been challenging but very manageable up until this point, but now I'm getting to learn and grow like never before. It's such a unique perspective on the Work of Salvation, and it's keeping me beyond busy.

We have been doing our absolute best in our area this transfer, and it's starting to show the results. 1 baptism and 3 reactivations so far for October, and we're hoping for more this upcoming weekend. We found a few new investigators, a cool experience was that a guy in the Tongan ward came home from his mission 2 weeks ago, named Nella, and he brought his 2 sisters to church. Their names are Fa and Lupe. They aren't members, and their dad is a pastor for the Church of Tonga, but they want to get taught and baptized because they've seen the blessings in their brother. SO cool!!!!!

We've been beyond busy this transfer with office stuff, even more than usual according to Elder Chappell. We've had 6 Emergency Transfers, no good. 4 missionaries have gone home early, which is always sad. We even took one to the airport ourselves. We had to wake up at 4am to get him there on time, after having gone to bed around midnight the night before, so that made for a tired day haha. But it was a weird experience. This kid seemed pretty sad, he'd only been out for about 3 weeks, but he's going to go home and get some things in order. It was interesting to see what the process is for missionaries going home, craziness. And everyone (at the airport) kept asking where I was going haha, I just kept saying, "Nowhere, this is my mission." Then they laughed and asked again....and I told them I was serious hahahah. I love this mission so much though, it's such a big blessing to be able to be here and learn from all the people and President Swain.

I'm sorry I can't write more. So, in a meeting with Pres. Swain last week, he brought up a concern. Tons of missionaries are claiming that they're homesick, and he doesn't like that because it causes missionaries to go home early. He stated that he'll be enforcing a new rule, that during email time, we can't "chat” (email back and forth) with our family and friends back home. He said he knows that it doesn't negatively affect everyone, but it does some people, so he's just going to make it a rule.

I know that'll probably make you sad. I hope you know how much I love y'all and wish I could just pick up the phone and call you all the time, I have so many stories and I just can't get them right via email. But I'll be calling you in just a few weeks! (He gets to call/Skype on Christmas Day!) No worries :) Please don't be upset, just know that I'll make a big effort to take more pictures and write better letters so you know what's going on.

This upcoming week, we have Mission Leadership Council, which will be fun. I'm excited because I really feel like we have good Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders in our mission, and it'll aid the work so much. I know that the Gospel is true, and I gain a more sure testimony of the Atonement of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, every single day. There is no way to fully describe the joy that comes with the Gospel, it has to be experienced. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be able to be here and share it. Also, if y'all haven't ever read the talk "Rejoice!" by Quentin L. Cook, from the October 1996 conference, you should go check it out. It's amazing! Rejoice by Quentin L. Cook

I love you so much, thank you for being the best family and support ever.

Love always,

Scottie

P..S. Thank you again so much for the package (we sent him a Halloween package), and thanks so much for sending one to the Balderas family too. They were beyond hyped to get it, they said thank you to you so many times, Elisa is super excited to meet you, Levi said "Love you Mama Higgins!", and they're just really thankful. You're awesome for so many reasons, best parents in the world.

(From his email to his Aunt Tammy):

Hey Aunt Tammy!!

I'm definitely staying way busier than I ever was before with all this new responsibility and new area, but I'm loving it. 

Thank you so much for your constant support and love. These last few weeks have been a big time of learning and growth for me, I wish I could just pick up the phone and call you! But I’ll be home before you know it, this week marks only 6 months left. Crazy to think about. 

I am doing really well though. Very happy, very fortunate to be here in this mission. 

I love you! Can't wait to see you again!

Scottie

Oct. 20^th

Dear family, this last week has been insane!

I've learned a few things as an assistant. For example, we don't really get sleep. This last week we had our mission tour with Elder Arnold of the 70 (First Quorum of the Seventy – a General Authority for the Church). He is an extremely spiritual and very intense man. His list of what he wanted for the mission zone conferences was long and detailed, and he expected it to all be perfect.  We spent the three days of Monday-Wednesday on a combined 14 hours of sleep, but we got it all done and it was incredible! We learned tons from Elder Arnold, and one of the coolest parts was the one on one interview we had with him!

Elder Arnold of the First Quorum of the Seventy

After mission tour, we tried to get back to focusing on our proselyting area. It's so cool to serve in YSA (Young Single Adult congregations). The English ward is pretty cool, the bishop is a former mission president so he's super awesome at helping us out. The Tongan ward is awesome! This last week, we even taught a lesson in Chuuk (Micronesian language). I can't speak it obviously, but I read out loud from the Book of Mormon in it. The person we were teaching told me it sounded exactly right. I just pronounced it like I would pronounce Spanish haha. We even got to teach a young man in Spanish, so that's good, I can still practice my language skills.

Life is super good. We stay busier than I even anticipated. Most days start before 6:30 and we don't get home until midnight, but I love it! I feel productive and feel like we're getting tons done, now it's time to focus on helping the mission keep moving forward and helping our brothers and sisters learn about the true and restored Gospel.

Unfortunate part of this last week, we had an emergency transfer on Saturday that moved about 6 elders and sent one home, which was no fun to deal with and we felt bad for those involved, but it'll be for their best in the long run. Elder Chappell and I spent all day long transporting missionaries and their things from one place to the other, pure craziness! (Part of his new duties as an AP: Assistant to the Mission President)

I feel like I'm going to blink and it'll already be Christmas time, can't wait to see y'all :) (We will get to Skype and talk to him on the phone that day!!!) Until next week, just know that I love y'all and you're the best family ever :) Keep on smiling!

Life is good though. Crazy, but good :) I love being on the mission!

Hey Madre! I love you! I'm sorry my email time was limited. We had a “kind of” P-day today.  We had a mission office meeting all morning, finally got some food/did some shopping, then just had a couple of hours to play ball and clean, so that's what we've been doing. But I love you! Thanks so much for your long update, I truly appreciate it and I'm so thankful to have a mom like you, I brag about you ALL the time. Seriously, you're the best. 

Love always,

Scottie

(From his email to his Aunt Tammy):

Hey Aunt Tammy!

I'm glad to hear grandma and papa are healthy! (My sister is currently visiting my parents)

So my favorite part about this new assignment is the opportunity it gives me to grow in leadership skills. Least favorite part: we get very little sleep. We don't really get to follow the (normal) missionary schedule because of all the extra assignments we have, so instead of 6:30 am to 10:30 pm it's like 6:30 am to midnight haha, every day.

We get exposed to plenty of opportunities to learn how to correct/assist the missionaries we serve over when they’re disobedient as well as plan for the mission goals and implementing general improvement plans.

Phrase of the week: no puedo esperar. It means I can't wait. Each day that's how I feel about the next. Each day is a great opportunity to learn and grow :)

I love you so much! See yah soon! Send my love to everyone back home please.

Scottie

Oct. 14th

Hola Family!

Here is my official mission newsletter announcement as AP :)

Elder Higgins is a new AP!

So today, we didn't get a P-Day,  this is a week where we won't get one (now that he is an AP – Assistant to the President – his P-days will not always come regularly, depending on what needs to be done in the mission office) . We have 1 hour of "free-time" today, and we have to go shopping too. much easier with a car though! (As an AP he now has a car for the first time since he has been out on his mission)

We've stayed so busy this last week. We've been super busy over here. We haven't gotten back to our apartment before midnight once this last week, there's always so much to do! And we started our mission tour today, so Elder Arnold of the First Quorum of the Seventy (a General Authority of the church) was here to speak to our mission and Elder Chappell (Scottie’s companion) and I were in charge of setting up everything, getting mics, projectors, chairs and tables setup, everything. We had to conduct ( lead the meetings where Elder Arnold was speaking), slightly nerve-wracking when there's a General Authority staring at you haha. But today's meeting went well, just have to worry about Tuesday and Wednesday now. It is kind of cool driving again, no lie, I like that part. 

I'm happy and healthy though. Slightly sleep-deprived, but it comes with the job :) maybe I can take a nap after mission tour is over on Wednesday :) 

I got congratulated by a member of the 70 today and that was kind of cool! He told me and Chappell we did a good job setting everything up, it felt kind of good, because we lost lots of sleep over it :)

I’ll try to send some pics of a cool experience we had this last week, but until then, I love y'all and I can't wait to email with you next week :)

We went downtown to pick up our iPhone 5, an upgrade from the four we have currently, and this was inside the Missionary Department of the Church Office Building. That's 350 broken iPads from all over the world, that missionaries send in because they broke them. That's why missionaries in the future have to buy their own!

What happens when a missionary falls off his bike...And then lands on his iPad. No worries, it wasn't me, but thisiPad is destroyed

Thanks for being the best and most supportive family ever!

My new apartment seems great, the bed is decently comfortable.  Ha-ha we come in, fall asleep, wake up,  shower, get dressed, and leave. I am barely here :) 

Elder Chappell is amazing. I came out (from the MTC: Missionary Training Center) with him too, so we've been buddies up until now, and now we're just meshing and working hard and doing good work. I love serving with him, 

Our eating consists of lots of fast food and skipped meals (they are now over 2 Young Single Adult Wards so not many family meals). Not super healthy. We did get some bomb dinners from the Tongan ward though, and they always give us left overs, so we eat that lots too :)

Love, 

Scottie

(From his email to his Aunt Tammy): 

Hey Aunt Tammy!!

This last week has been crazy busy! I loved driving again, and yes ma'am, all in English (As an AP he is no longer serving in Spanish Speaking congregations). My companion speaks Spanish, so I can keep it up somewhat by talking to him :) Being assistant is very fun. It's super intense and I feel like I'll learn and grow a lot. I will probably not get transferred anymore, not 100% positive, but it looks like this is my last area!

Spanish word of the week: obediencia. Its obedience haha, just like it sounds. But we've been learning tons about that in the mission, especially focusing on Mosiah 2:41. Great stuff!

Love you!

Scottie

Scottie watching General Conference in the home of Senor de Alba

Hey family!!!!

So let me just say, this last week definitely has changed my mission. That's for sure :)

On Tuesday we started our exchanges (on exchanges they pair up with another set of missionaries and switch companions for a day) with our Assistants to the President (APs), and I had interviews with Pres. Swain (his mission president) that day too. Pres. called me in, sat me down, and we started with a prayer. Then, he said, "Elder Higgins, the Lord would like you to serve as an AP." So....I'm definitely getting transferred haha. 

The new assignment becomes official!

Being an Assistant will bring an incredible amount of new responsibilities. Because it's so much, I left my area last Tuesday and have spent the whole week with the AP's (except Saturday, I got to go back to my area and and watch General Conference and say bye to people), and I've been on information overload mode trying to learn everything. To give you an example of how crazy our life is sometimes as AP's, we got here to the office to work on Transfer details (transfers occur every six weeks, during transfers new missionaries come in, those finishing their mission leave and missionaries are moved around as needed) yesterday at 4:30pm....and didn't leave the office until 12:15am. 8 straight hours of work, no dinner haha. Would've ordered a pizza...but it was Sunday. We've got 21 missionaries coming in tomorrow so lots to do with that. 

Elder Jarvis (Scottie's companion) snoozing - after conference, I'm sure :) 

It is pretty cool, I got to sit in on the meetings with Pres. Swain to talk about transfers, so I know where every missionary in the mission is going and I got to help pick some of them. (His mission has 160 missionaries and 20 Senior couples – married couples serving together)

Monday morning meeting with President Swain

I also get a car now. I got to drive for the first time in almost a year and a half last Thursday, which was awesome. 2013 Ford Focus, nothing too fancy but driving is fun :)

I love y'all and we've got lots to work on today. We don't really get a pday (preparation day) today since we've got so much to do, but hopefully next week I can try and write more. I'll send some pictures too!

iPads for new missionaries!

Elders Isabell and Chappell training Scottie on his new AP duties!

I love y'all. I'm excited for this opportunity. I know I'll learn tons! I'm sad to be leaving all the people in my last area, but it's okay, I know our relationships will last after the mission :)

The AP I am replacing is going home in 6 weeks, he's already been assistant for 7.5 months, so pres. (President Swain)  is letting him do his last transfer in the field. 

I'll probably spend the rest of my mission as AP.

I'll be in 2 wards: an English YSA (Young Single Adult) and a Tongan YSA haha....I'll miss Spanish. (He has been serving Spanish congregations and communities since he began his mission)

The wards both meet 9:00-12:00, but have sacrament on opposite ends of the block (of meetings). So it goes: 

Ward council from 7:00am-->9:00am

Sacrament in one ward from 9:00-->10:00

Classes for an hour

Other sacrament meeting

Other ward council meeting

And we don't always get a P-Day as AP’s, and sometimes it changes randomly, depending on the day. So we'll just have to be super patient there :)

And because it's YSA (Young Single adults – they don’t do much cooking!), we almost never eat with people (missionaries normally have dinner with different members of the congregations where they are serving). They give us money, we go out to eat. They eat in restaurants A LOT! It’ll be way different (he is used to eating dinner in the homes of the Spanish-speaking families he served) haha

Love you!!!!

Scottie

(From his email to his Aunt Tammy):

Hey Aunt Tammy!!

Sorry it's kind of short, but we've had a crazy last week. I got called as an Assistant to the Mission President,  it is the highest leadership position you can get assigned to as a missionary (there are only two AP’s in his mission). So I'm pretty nervous and excited at the same time. 

We've got a crazy day, but I'll try to send more emails next week :) I love you! I'll send good vibes out to all!!

Te amo!

Love, 

Scottie