LAUREL: (DERIK IS BELOW)
Missionary Training Center
May 14, 2017
Subject: And so it begins!
I can't believe this is actually happening, and that I am here at the MTC writing my very first missionary email. This feels so incredibly unreal. I've been dreaming about going on a mission my entire life, and now here I am, preparing to serve the Lord by teaching his children.
So, cool story, when I was sitting on the plane to come here, a girl sat down next to me. I didn't think much of it until she pulled out a Bible and started reading from Matthew. I was so excited, because this was my first opportunity to do some real missionary work! I asked her name and about her beliefs. She was from Idaho, and she knew a lot about the church, but she didn't know much about missions, so we had a great conversation about where we serve, how long we serve, and why we serve. Once you get set apart as a representative of Christ, the Lord will automatically start using you to spread his love on this Earth.
It somehow feels like I have been here forever and no time at all. The days seem to last years, but when I go to bed at night it feels like I just woke up. The first day here at the MTC was really busy. We had host Sisters help guide us to our rooms, and then we went straightway to our first class to meet our teachers and our districts. The girls in my district are the girls that I share a room with, and I am truly blessed to be able to learn to teach with such a strong group of righteous Missionaries. My companion, Sister Beecroft, is from Snowflake Arizona. She is such a sweet spirit, and her insights and testimony are such a strength to me. She has a quiet dignity about her, and when she opens her mouth to share her love of the Lord, you better hush up and listen because she speaks truth. The other two girls in my district, Sister Burnam and Sister Ward, are some of the most fun people it has ever been my pleasure to know. Sister Burnam is 6' 1", with a personality to match. She makes us laugh with her funny sayings like "sweet taco" (which is her version of "cool beans"). Sister Ward always looks out for all of us and asks what she can do to help us. Her kindness and humility are truly legendary, and I am learning a lot about Christlike love by watching her example. We all hit it off right from the start, and we have been fast friends ever since. It really does feel like we are a little family here.
Apparently Sister Burnham's name is spelled with an H. Sorry Sister Burnham.
The Elders in my district are wonderful as well. Elder Akers and Elder Bland are goofballs, and spend a lot of their time making us laugh and helping us feel comfortable. Elder Zoolakis and Elder Wingert remind me a lot of my brother. They are quiet, and when they do speak you can never be sure quite what they are going to say. You do, however, know that it will be either 1-entertaining, 2-hilarious, or 3-insightful and inspired.
In our classes we have been learning so much! They last three hours, and we don't waste one second. Our teacher, Sister Graham, is so the epitome of the kind of missionary I hope to be. She is kind and bright, and we can feel the love she has for us and for the Savior. In our class, we practice teaching investigators with her. She acts as an investigator, Grace, and then we teach her lessons about the God, the Savior, Repentance, and how to come unto Christ. We have taught Grace twice so far, and each time we teach my confidence grows and I can feel the spirit that much more.
The MTC is one of the most wonderful places in the World. It feels like Girl's Camp and Church and the Temple all smashed into one marvelous house of learning. I am incredibly glad for this mission, and I am grateful to my God for sending me to this wonderful place, to meet these wonderful people, and to learn even more about his wonderful gospel so that I can share it with the people in Tallahassee.
That's all for this week folks! My P-day here at the MTC is Saturday, so that is when I'll be able to answer emails. However, I can read them anytime throughout the week. We were given tablets to use here at the MTC, and one of the blessings that comes with them is that we can read emails as they are sent. There is also a really cool website, dearelder.org, that will allow you to write mail that will be printed off and given to me the same day that you send it. In case anyone wanted to send me anything, my mailing address for the MTC is right here. Miss you all dearly, and I will talk to you soon.
Sister Laurel Paige Scott
MAY30 FL-TAL
2005 N 900 E Unit 56
Provo UT 84602
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With gratitude to the Lord and all my love,
Sister Scott
Also May 14, 2017
The MTC is the most wonderful place on the Earth. I am so happy to be here and be serving the Lord. My faith is increasing every single day, and I cannot believe how lucky I am to know the truths that I do, and how blessed I am to be able to share all that I know with God's children! My heart is really full. That isn't to day that it hasn't been hard. It kind of feels like learning how to ride a bike after taking off the training wheels. Yesterday I was feeling really discouraged about the sheer amount of things that I needed to learn, but I asked my companion, Sister Beecroft, if we could leave our classroom so that we could have a prayer together to bring me comfort, and help me to feel the Spirit and Christ's love for me and the people I'll be teaching. It was almost crazy how quickly my fears and discouragement left me. We went on to give a great lesson, and I really felt the difference that simple prayer made.
We do get to call home for Mother's Day! My time to call will be 4:00-4:45, so be expecting a call from me around then tomorrow. I love you guys so much, and I am so grateful to you for allowing me to come out here and supporting me in this decision to serve the Lord. The amount of happiness that I have felt here, and the amount of love that I am enjoying, is astonishing. It's like my whole life I've been reading the table of contents for a novel, and now I finally get to turn the pages of the novel. Miss you everyday.
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With gratitude to the Lord and all my love,
Sister Scott
DERIK:
Baldwin Park 4/3/17
So if anyone ever asks you what the first thing a missionary should do when they reach their new field the answer is definitely not catch the flu. I did that, and as plans go it isn't a very good one. You end up with a headache that won't go away, painful coughing (the kind that makes you cry), and sinuses that won't stop leaking among (other things). On the plus side I got to use the money Grandpa gave me immediately for the medicine I needed, and it has helped quite a bit with my recovery. It brought me down from about a 7 to a 4 on the 1-10 rate-your-pain scale.
Things are very different here. I feel out of place and old around these missionaries. All the missionaries I've met are 19 and pretty much carefree as people go. I've not yet found any of the inappropriate behaviors which were prevalent in Mexico practiced here.
Regarding the mission president, he was actually made an area 70 during conference so he will be released from his mission some time next month. Also him wanting to spend some time with me was to ascertain whether he thought I would be alright, given the difficulty of my path to arrive here. He wanted to see how my Spanish was and if I would need anything special from him. Once he figured that out (took about 2 hours) he gave me to my companion Elder Davis.
Elder Davis is from Utah, he's been out for 7 months, and he's a pretty great guy all around. He's been nice about everything we've needed to do thus far and is very patient with some of the really abstinent people we meet.
I did receive my bike and tablet immediately, but they didn't send me a helmet so the elders in charge of bikes are going to go get me a helmet from them. Tablets are very useful. In our down time (there is a lot of down time now) we get to watch videos on the gospel library app or do what we want.
Only one of the people I've met so far that we've been teaching seems worth mentioning, and that would be Jose. He was baptized when he was 14 and when he saw us he wanted our help. He's having some struggles with addictive substances, but he wants to come back to church, get better, and have his family and friends hear our message and draw closer to the Savior. He’s really just a great guy all around.
That'll be all for now.
With love,
Elder Scott
Email #2: I just realized I didn't mention where I am, right now I serve in Baldwin Park. Which is apparently where all the poor people live here. Or at least that's what the missionaries I've spoken with about it seem to think. It's quite a bit nicer than Mexico I must say.
Email #3: So I forgot 2 things that are kind of important at home, my retainers and my tennis shoes. If possible could you send those to me? Also I might need to buy new pants at some point here but I'm not sure yet. Right if you can send me those that'd be aweskme, the shoes should be easy to find, the retainers would be in a purple case possibly in the black bag I left in that room I slept in for like 3 days.
Thanks Mon, love you
Email #4: Also I lost a belt today, I will probably have to buy one of those
4/12/17
Most of the work I do here is with less active members. We got one named Jose to come back to church, and we are working with him to get him off of drugs and a couple of other things. We met this guy named Crispin who talks a lot and thinks he was baptized in our church but was not. He said he'd be more than happy to be baptized then. All of his children and grandchildren are active members, and we actually sometimes run into them and they ask us if we've 'convinced' him yet. He didn't really need any convincing, though, so I find that a little strange.
Have you read the book of Moses Recently? If not I highly suggest doing so. I have noticed that I'm really good at answering questions about strange things or things that don't make sense. I have lots of fun bible verses marked.
We don't really do much teaching investigators here, mostly service and reactivation.
I don't know what else to right, so unless you have a specific question, Elder Scott out for now
4/17/17
Poggy is a member who helps us out and we email from his house. He's the one who knows president Bush. His real name is William Hartman. I like most Williams I meet. He's super fun and we tell each other jokes. One of his favorites is this:
'So this woman walks into a bar with a duck under her arm. As soon as the bartender sees her, he says, "I'm sorry, you can't bring pigs into this establishment, you'll have to leave." And the woman gets really mad. She says, "How dare you discriminate against me just because I bring an animal in here--men are so stupid--and it isn't even a pig, it's a duck!" So the bartender looks at her and says, "I'm sorry, I wasn't talking to you, I'm afraid I was talking to the duck."
We visit mostly less active members: that’s us talking to them, inviting them to activities, sharing quick messages, mowing their lawns, taking care of their groceries, that kind of thing.
Crispin is awesome. He didn't come to church this week, but he wants to be baptized on the 30th. That would mean he only goes to church 2 times before it happens, so that probably means we have to change it to the 7th the following week. But he told us he wanted to get baptized as soon as he walks into the church.
Apparently United Airlines is in trouble. I have no idea why, but there you go.
Transfers were today, and I'm still with Elder Davis, which is alright. My district leader got changed, but that was it really.
I haven't actually spoken with President yet. He said he'd call me some time this week to have me come in.
I watched the 12 step to addiction recovery videos today, and they are really crazy. These people have insane stories and their before and after pictures are super different. They don't even look the same.
I don't know what else to talk about, so seeya.
4/24/17
So not sure if I mentioned this, but we are visiting with a man named Angel. He is one of those people who are sometimes referred to as eternagators. He has a problem with cigarettes. We've been working on weaning him off them for a while now, and this week he dropped from a pack of cigarettes a day to 2 a day. Why? Because he had internal bleeding from cuts in his intestines. So he wants to get right with God now and figure out his life and everything. He gives all the missionaries he visits with nick name, and mine is Dr. Strange. My companion, Elder Davis, is Hawkeye. He has a baptismal date for the 21st, which he believes is enough time to completely stop smoking. He stopped drinking and his other bad habits cold turkey after his hospital scare. Smoking is a little harder to just stop because of the nicotine addiction, but we are definitely getting there.
We have a problem with Crispin. Every Saturday he goes down to Tijuana to give his time, money, and belongings to the poor--which is great because serving others is awesome. But remember that talk about good, better, best? That's the better. The best would be coming to church so that he can be right with God. We can't baptize him if he doesn't come, and he does want to be baptized. For now we moved his date to the 14th. If he comes to church next week, that would be great.
We had a person tell us he didn't want to talk to us in a really interesting way this week. We went up to knock on the door and we hear (and I quote), "There's no one home, oh, and we're Mormon.' So we said, “Oh? You're Mormon? So are We! Do you think we could share a quick message with you? 5-10 minutes of your time.” We then heard (and I quote), "uuuuuuhhhhhh, my mom isn't home." Then he went and hid in his room. This guy was like 30. And we knew they weren't LDS because we had already contacted his mother, and she had told us they were catholic. We found that really funny.
Sunday was branch conference. For us missionaries that started at 8:00 a.m. and ended at 4:00 p.m.--long, but good. We talked about Elijah and the spirit of Elijah. In Spanish that is Elias. That makes it so that there are 2 Eliases in the books of 1st and 2nd kings, which makes the explanations of his life, miracles, and purpose so much more confusing. Good times! I was happy I had actually read those books so I knew what the heck the members were talking about.
We got invited to and then attended a couple of parties. A family of investigators invited us to their kid’s baptism (he is 3, and they are catholic), but afterward decided their father (priest) probably wouldn't like having us there, so they decided we would just come to the after party. So we did. Everyone was super happy and drunk there except for the 3 year old who had been baptized, who looked super traumatized. I imagine that was a really hard day for him. He didn't get to do anything he wanted to do all day, they made him sit still for a long time in a bathtub, then they poured water on him while he was naked in front of a huge crowd. Tthen they paraded him around at a really loud party all night in a white tuxedo with the Virgin Guadalupe on the back. The parents that invited us were super happy to see us--super drunk and busy, but really happy. They served us food and big plates of it, a potato/chicken salad and seviche. Now if you don't know what seviche is, this is how you prepare it: take some raw shrimp, and marinate them in lemon, let stand for 2 days, dice tomatoes, onions, and cilantro, remove shrimp from lemon and dice them, mix all ingredients, and then pour lemon juice and tomato juice on them. Serve. Now you might be thinking, 'Wow, that doesn't sound good--why would anyone eat that?” And you know what? It isn't good, and I have no idea why anyone would choose to eat that. The potato/chicken salad was excellent, though.
The other party we attended was a birthday party for a less active member. She had prepared menudo. It was excellent. I turned my right hand black while playing with one of her tiki torches, but my hand is normal looking now. The cake at her party was made by one of her friends, and was (I think) a coffee flavored 3 leches. So except for the one gross layer that was good. They tried to smash cake on Claudia's (her birthday) face, and so she ended up running around for about 5 minutes. She explained why to me; she is allergic to chocolate and the cake had chocolate frosting. There was no alcohol at her party, though, so that was good.
So anyway, about the pickaxe… We were asked to take apart a washing machine, and the only tool we had was a pickaxe. Needless to say, we had fun. We pulled apart the sides of the machine by using it like a crowbar and then picked apart the spinning part from the top. Just a great time. Best service ever!
May 8, 2017
Was in a minor bike wreck this Wednesday. Have a fractured clavicle so we are walking. Typing and writing is difficult, as are most other activities. It takes like 15 minutes for me to get dressed now . Doesn't hurt too much. I still don't feel anxious. I have been unable to talk to my president. Oh well. Had some fun lessons this week. Don't really have anything else to say. Bye.
What do I have to do to pass the sacrament?
Can I be baptized right now?
At what age can I leave on my mission?
What do I have to do to be called as Quorum President?
--and a bunch of similair questions that every missionary dreams of being asked. The problem is that we had no idea how to answer all of them. Each answer just brought up more questions. These two young men are named Saíd and Carlos. And they are the best. 
The mom is super nice but she is conflicted because she isn´t sure what to believe. She is unwilling to pray and ask god. We are working with her. 
