Monday 29 June 2015
June 22, 2015 -- hospital
The mission office called to tell us that Derik is still in the hospital and would be calling us because he could "use a little cheering up." He still has a very serious infection, and when we talked to him Friday, he said he would be in the hospital for several more days (at least four) and then the plan is for him to be in the mission home in bed for two weeks. He sounds relatively fine, but he also seems discouraged but is trying to keep his head up. We're going to be holding a family fast on Monday if you'd like to participate. We're pretty concerned about him but know that he is in the Lord's hands, so he'll be fine. Prayers sure would be appreciated!
Thursday 18 June 2015
June 15, 2015 -- Useless
So I spent the entire week in the hospital. I had a urinary tract infection, which is really very fun, because if you do not want to operate that means they just keep you under observation (very close observation), stick an IV into you, and then give you a bunch of drugs. I did nothing. I read Alma, which is a plus, but overall the experience was not a good one.
The Castillo family came to visit me, which was a surprise because no one even knew I was in the hospital. It was a very boring week. I was fasting for five days. Now they let me leave, but I take a bunch of pills. And I am supposed to rest for 2-3 days in house. Grr.
Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott
The Castillo family came to visit me, which was a surprise because no one even knew I was in the hospital. It was a very boring week. I was fasting for five days. Now they let me leave, but I take a bunch of pills. And I am supposed to rest for 2-3 days in house. Grr.
Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott
June 8, 2015 -- Weird Things
A man offered us water during one of our lessons. We accepted and drank (we are always thirsty), and then I found a large wriggling black worm in my glass. That was gross.
But, I will now explain why this is not such a big deal after all.
We went and had a lesson with the Castillo family. They all cried. A lot. The spirit was very powerful. Elder Smith was jumping out of his seat because he was so excited about it. This family is amazing. They know. We are just waiting to see when they get baptized.
And the man that gave me the worm? We prayed for him. I got to be mouth, and we prayed for direction. To know where we should go to find the people that are ready for the message. At the end of the prayer, I looked at my companion and said (in Spanish), "we are going to go to the Sauteña, and we are going to Portales, then we are going to enter the first street we see and knock doors--there is someone waiting for us on this street, and the first person who answers will invite us in and will receive the message." And that was exactly what happened. He came to church, he loved it, and he has a batismal date that he is excited about. In his prayer during our lesson (investigators almost never pray the first time), he started to ask if what we shared was true, stopped and said he already knew it is true. The guy is really, really awesome. His name is Javier.
Also, Elizabeth, who is an investigator we have who is very aged and sick came to church and enjoyed it. It is great here.
We have a couple of investigators that my companion calls dimepieces. He explained to me what that is; apparently using the ranking system 1-10, you can explain to other people how cute you think someone is. 1 is low, 10 is high. Evidently, we are teaching some 10's according to him. I thought this funny so I wanted to include it.
I guess I will go back to work now. Love you guys.
Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott
But, I will now explain why this is not such a big deal after all.
We went and had a lesson with the Castillo family. They all cried. A lot. The spirit was very powerful. Elder Smith was jumping out of his seat because he was so excited about it. This family is amazing. They know. We are just waiting to see when they get baptized.
And the man that gave me the worm? We prayed for him. I got to be mouth, and we prayed for direction. To know where we should go to find the people that are ready for the message. At the end of the prayer, I looked at my companion and said (in Spanish), "we are going to go to the Sauteña, and we are going to Portales, then we are going to enter the first street we see and knock doors--there is someone waiting for us on this street, and the first person who answers will invite us in and will receive the message." And that was exactly what happened. He came to church, he loved it, and he has a batismal date that he is excited about. In his prayer during our lesson (investigators almost never pray the first time), he started to ask if what we shared was true, stopped and said he already knew it is true. The guy is really, really awesome. His name is Javier.
Also, Elizabeth, who is an investigator we have who is very aged and sick came to church and enjoyed it. It is great here.
We have a couple of investigators that my companion calls dimepieces. He explained to me what that is; apparently using the ranking system 1-10, you can explain to other people how cute you think someone is. 1 is low, 10 is high. Evidently, we are teaching some 10's according to him. I thought this funny so I wanted to include it.
I guess I will go back to work now. Love you guys.
Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott
Tuesday 2 June 2015
June 1, 2015 -- Rio Bravo
There are a ton of bugs. A ton. The gnats make it darker than it is, and I am always itching. BUT, I am really really happy here. This place is awesome. The main reason why this place is so great is because we already found some of the people we got sent here together for.
I am currently serving here with Elder Smith, born in Utah, raised in California. He is a surfer dude during the summer and a skier dude during the winter. He is a very, very friendly person. He was having zero success here with his last companion due to this elder´s unfortunate lack of wanting to be in the mission. So, we had no one when I arrived.
Then we got to contacting and contacted the Castillo family. There are six of them. Their names are Irma, Juan, Juliet, Lizbeth, Lissete, and Juan Jr. They invited us in because the mom (Irma) had seen a post in facebook that talked about the missionaries! It said that we walk around all day in the heat, without water, trying to help people learn about God, and that many people turn us away. So she decided that the next time the missionaries tried to talk to her, they would enter her home regardless of what she was doing at the time. ;)- We found her washing clothing. We got invited in, we shared the message, and then we got invited back. That first lesson, only Irma and Juliet were present; the rest were doing homework and getting ready to play soccer. In the second lesson, they were all seated on the couches waiting for us when we arrived, and they listened. And they accepted. Juliet actually told us this is what God has been preparing them to hear their entire lives. All of the kids went through catacysm, so they had a basic knowledge of the bible. They decided they would be baptized the 13th of this month. Then, they came to church. They arrived at 8:40. The meeting started at 9:00. Most of the members arrived at 9:20. And they absolutely loved it. ;)
Also, people are more willing to talk to us here, even though it is because most of the time they are drunk. We prayed to know where God wanted us to go, and he sent us to Sauteña. There, we met a man who is possessed. He investigated the church, and on the day of his baptism for some reason the bishop could not attend, so he decided he did not want to do it. And he stopped going. He went to another church. He explained to us about his Espíritu Santo, or holy spirit. He remembers how the spirit felt from when he went to church with us. But he has a different spirit now--one that appears to him in a cloud and tells him to do things, makes him feel really good, and started taking control of his body while we were talking to him. It changed his voice and started yelling things that were incomprehensible at us. We did all that we could. But he let the demon win in the end. We are trying to find him again so that we can exorcise him.
So we prayed again to know where God wanted us to go. We got the answer: everywhere. Every part of the city [with the exception of one where we got a distinct "NO--do not go there"], we got an affirmative. This place is great. :)
There is a lot of mud, though. It floods mud here, not water. The flooding basically ended, but when it rains we get pretty dirty.
And that was the week.
Love you guys!
Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott
I am currently serving here with Elder Smith, born in Utah, raised in California. He is a surfer dude during the summer and a skier dude during the winter. He is a very, very friendly person. He was having zero success here with his last companion due to this elder´s unfortunate lack of wanting to be in the mission. So, we had no one when I arrived.
Then we got to contacting and contacted the Castillo family. There are six of them. Their names are Irma, Juan, Juliet, Lizbeth, Lissete, and Juan Jr. They invited us in because the mom (Irma) had seen a post in facebook that talked about the missionaries! It said that we walk around all day in the heat, without water, trying to help people learn about God, and that many people turn us away. So she decided that the next time the missionaries tried to talk to her, they would enter her home regardless of what she was doing at the time. ;)- We found her washing clothing. We got invited in, we shared the message, and then we got invited back. That first lesson, only Irma and Juliet were present; the rest were doing homework and getting ready to play soccer. In the second lesson, they were all seated on the couches waiting for us when we arrived, and they listened. And they accepted. Juliet actually told us this is what God has been preparing them to hear their entire lives. All of the kids went through catacysm, so they had a basic knowledge of the bible. They decided they would be baptized the 13th of this month. Then, they came to church. They arrived at 8:40. The meeting started at 9:00. Most of the members arrived at 9:20. And they absolutely loved it. ;)
Also, people are more willing to talk to us here, even though it is because most of the time they are drunk. We prayed to know where God wanted us to go, and he sent us to Sauteña. There, we met a man who is possessed. He investigated the church, and on the day of his baptism for some reason the bishop could not attend, so he decided he did not want to do it. And he stopped going. He went to another church. He explained to us about his Espíritu Santo, or holy spirit. He remembers how the spirit felt from when he went to church with us. But he has a different spirit now--one that appears to him in a cloud and tells him to do things, makes him feel really good, and started taking control of his body while we were talking to him. It changed his voice and started yelling things that were incomprehensible at us. We did all that we could. But he let the demon win in the end. We are trying to find him again so that we can exorcise him.
So we prayed again to know where God wanted us to go. We got the answer: everywhere. Every part of the city [with the exception of one where we got a distinct "NO--do not go there"], we got an affirmative. This place is great. :)
There is a lot of mud, though. It floods mud here, not water. The flooding basically ended, but when it rains we get pretty dirty.
And that was the week.
Love you guys!
Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott
Monday 1 June 2015
May 25, 2015 -- One Day More
It continues to amaze me how ignorant people can be of their own `beliefs`. Emmanuel, an investigator with a lot of questions, explained this to us. Lots of missionaries have tried to preach to him. We have been the only ones he has not sucked dry of information in 1 hour, basically because the gospel has substance and all the answers are there. He explained to us that he has managed to turn people away from their church by showing them evidence of what exactly their leaders are doing wrong, based in the bible and teachings of their church. He tried the masons thing with us, so we went to Matthew 22:11-14 and he didn't ask any more questions.
Also I had exchanges with Elder Uribe. We talked with a man named Mario who asked us many questions that we answered very easily. The spirit was very powerful. He wanted to cry but did not understand why. I get frustrated a lot that people teach apostasy about how the spirit feels and for this people do not understand it when it testifie. He asked us specifically not to tell him to pray but to give him concrete answers. So we did. But in the end, it comes down to prayer. We started with "How can I arrive at a knowledge of whether or not god exists" and ended with dinosaurs. It was really, really awesome. Afterward we were drained.
My companion, Elder Palma, received his Patriarchal Blessing, which was really cool. I got to sit in on it because I am the closest thing he has to family right now. :)
The Medina family invited us to a party. One of the little girls had a birthday. It was incredibly uncomfortable, but I did an awesome Elsa balloon.
It rained (a lot) and flooded for the first time I know of here. We had to climb gates and fences to get out of the street we live in. It was very comical in our suits. We ended up getting wet anyway.
I am going to Rió Bravo tomorrow. That means I do not get to know what happens with the people we are teaching right now. But it is all right.
Until next week and I have things to say,
Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott
Also I had exchanges with Elder Uribe. We talked with a man named Mario who asked us many questions that we answered very easily. The spirit was very powerful. He wanted to cry but did not understand why. I get frustrated a lot that people teach apostasy about how the spirit feels and for this people do not understand it when it testifie. He asked us specifically not to tell him to pray but to give him concrete answers. So we did. But in the end, it comes down to prayer. We started with "How can I arrive at a knowledge of whether or not god exists" and ended with dinosaurs. It was really, really awesome. Afterward we were drained.
My companion, Elder Palma, received his Patriarchal Blessing, which was really cool. I got to sit in on it because I am the closest thing he has to family right now. :)
The Medina family invited us to a party. One of the little girls had a birthday. It was incredibly uncomfortable, but I did an awesome Elsa balloon.
It rained (a lot) and flooded for the first time I know of here. We had to climb gates and fences to get out of the street we live in. It was very comical in our suits. We ended up getting wet anyway.
I am going to Rió Bravo tomorrow. That means I do not get to know what happens with the people we are teaching right now. But it is all right.
Until next week and I have things to say,
Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott
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