Monday 17 November 2014

October 6, 2014

So, this week was alright. Tuesday we were not allowed to proselyte due to all of the shootings in our area as well as all of the police, marine, and army helicopters that were patrolling our area. I found that interesting. Army convoys have gotten more frequent here, which is nice.

One of our investigator families got threatened by a creditor they could not pay with having the bad people sicked on them. As a result, they moved. We lost all contact with them for a couple of days, but we found them again yesterday, and they are very happy and safe as well. That made me really glad.

I do not know if I have already mentioned Virginia, but she is a very interesting woman. We found her because she saw a flash of white out her window, so she sent her son to go take whoever it was into the house. Which I thought was weird, but, whatever right? Turns out, she’s been listening to the missionaries in the states, but on a drive she got in an accident that resulted in her getting her right leg impacted into her gluteus maximus. We taught her almost all the lessons, and she is getting baptized on the 23rd. We gave her a blessing, and she is healing remarkably fast, so fast that she was able to attend conference with us at the chapel after being bedridden and not healing for almost 4 months. The power of faith is wonderful.

Imelda, our investigator with the divorce problem, has discontinued conversing with us. We will keep trying, however.

Oh, so funny story, Elder J, whom I met this week (and is almost exactly like Garret Vance, for reference) asked me about how I am doing, and I expressed to him some of my frustration about my companion. He had Elder H in the past. He explained to me that he has never, in all of his 15 months here, worked out. I was somewhat astounded by this declaration--because it is in the white handbook I thought we all did it. I was wrong, apparently. There are other things he does that I find incorrect, so I discussed them with my zone leaders, and they explained them to me. I had the wonderful idea of going running in the mornings, in order to force my comp to work out, but we are not allowed to leave the house because it is so dangerous. I did this after he suggested buying a basketball, because we live right next to a park, but when I voiced my suggestion he shot it down immediately. I was astounded, and after Elder S (zone leader) explained this to me I was simply confused. Oh well.

I am very thankful for all of the things I learned to do before my mission. I had the opportunity to make balloon animals for a couple of kids, I made them a dog, a swan, a cobra, a butterfly, swords, while, suffice to say it was fun. Beatboxing has helped start conversations with other missionaries, and is very useful for teaching tempo. I have had the opportunity also to teach piano, solfege, and how to sing and read music to some of the other elders as well. That was interesting, because I do not know how to play piano, but when I sat down to help him play I found it not to be too hard. Of course, I could only do one hand at a time, but hey, it was a really cool experience.

I have found that most highly technical words are the same in every language, so teaching this stuff to people who do not speak English was not too hard.

General conference was great, I filled 8 pages of paper with notes I took from it. The Spanish talks were great, although the one in Portuguese was hard because it sounded similar, although the meaning I did not understand at all, so I listened in English to that one. General Conference is so much better at the Church building. You are dressed up, you are focused, you are sitting with others who are focused and the spirit is tangible. It was amazing.

I have found that the only hard days here in the mission field are those where WE cannot proselyte and when our investigators have huge problems in their lives.

My favorite people are the ones that call out the Mormons in order to invite us to come teach them a lesson at their house. That does not happen often, but when it does it is great. The mission is great.

The pizza buffet here gives me stomach problems every time we go to it, and we have gone twice. I actually eat less at the buffet than I have to at the homes of members. We went this week to celebrate the birthday of Elder Ortiz, and it was great. The birthday song they sung lasted 3 minutes. All of the elders jammed out in the bathroom to hymns, and Michael Jackson. The employee we did not know was in one of the stalls was very appreciative.

Oh, the elder who uses the picture of Jesus Christ is not my companion in case anyone was confused about that. I have yet to meet him.

Well, that about all I can think of right now.

With Love for all,
-Elder Scott












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