April 6, 2015 -- General Conference

General conference was great, as always. I liked the focus, although I was a little dissapointed that no one brought out Deuteronomy 22, Leviticus 18, or 1st Corinthians 6. Those make it pretty clear, right?

We met a pf (possibly future/part family) that consists of +20 people. We will be visiting them Tuesday. They gave us cake when we talked to them, so of course we will be coming back.

People contact us now, which is very, very great. It makes a missionary very happy.

Cesar brought us a man who lost his family (he was not married to his spouse, but they had 20 years in union libre) due to her having relations with another man. He has a testimony already, and he will be baptized on the 25th.

Concepciòn is progressing nicely, although slowly.

We will be talking with Nancy and her mother this week, but I'm not sure if they will be baptized. So, in one week we shall know who stays and who goes.

This is something I have found very useful with the people we talk to: the road to hell is paved with good intentions (el camino hacia el infierno es pavimentado con intenciones buenas). It gets the point across to people that acts are actually important, not just faith. I have begun compiling a list of useful bible verses to show the harder people that we are speaking truth.

Also, I found something really cool. Read Revelations 14:1-5. If any of these things go against your religious belief, then who are these 144000 people spoken of? This is what the bible says: Verse 1: The lamb (Jesus Christ) will be on mount Zion. Also, the 144000 will have the name of the father written on their forehead, in Spanish it reads only front. So, Jesus will appear on mount Zion (and where is that?) and the 144000 will have written (I say in a nametag) the name of their father (Jehovah is the father of the Israelites following what the old testament tells us, so Jesus Christ) boldly displayed for all to see.[Verse 2: Nothing. :) ] Verse 3: They will sing in front of God, cherubim, and ELDERS (the church, therefore, must have people of this designation) and the song will be one that no one else can learn if they are not one of these redeemed ones (they will be redeemed, or literally they will be bought, much like Jesus was bought with the infamous 30 pieces of silver). They will have already been payed for by Jesus. Verse 4: These souls will be virgins, and will be men, and will have served or will be serving missions (not contaminated with women {God has established his laws, if it specifically says this, that means it applies to the opposite sex} because they will be virgins. They will go where the Lord wants them to go {mission}) and they are the first to be redeemed out of the world (firstfruits for god and the lamb). Verse 5: They will be absolutely trustworthy because they will not have part in deceit. And with all of this, they will be spotless before the throne of god. Interesting right? Keep in mind that some words may be slightly different due to the wide variety of bibles used in the world today. Also, mine is in Spanish,and yours in English.

Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott

March 30, 2015 -- The Virgin Guadelupe

Well, I am doing fine.

My companion received The Miracle Of Forgiveness in the mail, and I read it. That is a really awesome book. It tells you how it is straight up. I liked it a lot.

I'm very excited about General Conference this week.

Also, can you guess what one of the most exciting things that happened this week was? I had a lesson with the best friend of one of the young women outside the young woman`s house. She accepted baptism, the young woman's mom was super proud and happy to see her daughter preaching, and her brother gave me 40 magic cards immediately afterward. Not only did the second most enjoyable thing for a missionary happen--when a member brings the friend and they accept everything--but one of the favorite Derik things, magic cards, also happened. I was ecstatic! Also, interestingly the friend's mother ended up being a contact we had due to an overwhelming sensation of sickness I had one day which made it so that we had to ask for help at the house where we conveniently met her. It's good to know that God provides the means so that even suffering has a purpose.

I found a turtle that was laying eggs--very cool. Also I did a whole bunch of balloon animals for the primary children as a reward for learning the follow the prophet song. Did you know that song has nine verses and that each one is super long? Wow!

Cesar blessed the sacrament! Yeah!

In other news the members are introducing us to their friends more now. :)

A woman named Leticia Guadalupe is listening to us. She is very, very, very Catholic--like super Catholic. And her husband is creente (believer), which means he believes in God, classifies himself as Catholic, but will not pray, and will not attend a church, but likes to listen. People sure are interesting, don´t you think? The brother is unwilling to do anything, and the sister understands almost nothing, but their son is already baptized. Also, they give us food and want us to keep coming. Leticia does not believe in the virgin Guadalupe, but every single one of her kids has that name as a second name.

Ok, so the Virgin Guadalupe: I really do not know what the heck this is. It is one of those things I am not sure I will ever understand. Basically it is Mary, but Mexican. and very brown. So Catholic churches here have both, María and Guadalupe, in their art pieces that they worship. It is very, very strange. Some of them worship her even though they tell me TO MY FACE they do not believe in her. What the heck is this? I'm pretty sure that this is what the Nephites dealt with a lot when they preached to the Lamanites; they taught them the gospel of God, and they had to leave behind their traditions. This world can be really crazy.

The Paz Martinez family dropped us. The brother says a whole bunch of curses when we come, and the sister cannot take it anymore. The brother reverted to alcohol (and we think drugs too) and the sister doesn´t want us to come any more because of him.

Life goes on, and I have work to do. Until next week.

Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott

March 23, 2015 -- 0 to 12 in One Week

Well, this week we went from 0 people with baptismal dates to 12. No one went to church because we had stake conference, and everyone was afraid of a gathering like that.

Things that have been reaffirmed in my mind right now:

1) There is no growth in a comfort zone, and there is no comfort in a growth zone. We offer higher knowledge and understanding. Many people reject this because it does not fit into their established world bubble.

2) People create their own version of truth. People have a tendency to believe want they want to believe. They convince themselves of the truthfulness of things with constant repetition and `logic`, which consists of whatever thing gives credence to what they want to believe, and that which refutes it they discard as rubbish. (You can see this in little kids, too. When they decide a toy is theirs and they are not going to share, they use the possessive. My truck. My toy. My barbie. When someone with higher knowledge comes along and refutes this knowledge--the parent--and says it belongs to them or a sibling, the child can react in one of two ways. They have entered a crisis. Basic truths of their personal universe have just been challenged, and proved wrong. There are therefore two options, accept or reject. Most reject. Once again they convince themselves the toy is theirs. Some will go into the fetal position and repeat the following: ``My toy. My toy. My toy.`` until they believe it. Rejection. Some will become angry and refuse to listen. Rejection. Some will get violent and fight against the truth and whoever said it. Rejection. Some, will say, "ok, this is not my toy, so what do I need to do then? Acceptance.) The ones who reach acceptance are the ones who repent and who change. I have realized that I only have 2 years here and do not have time to waste on people who refuse to hear. Those who see shall choose to be blind and those who hear shall choose to be deaf. Jesus said something to that feeling, but I do not remember how it was worded.

3)People believe want they want to believe. This world is set up very ingeniously. We are encouraged to believe falsehoods. Anyone who says differently is encouraged to do so. The basic norms of society are nonexistent. People create their own churches, religions, whatever they want. (For more information on this; please see info about the church of the giant flying spaghetti monster.) Anyone who speaks out is seen as offensive, behind the times, and basically an enemy. And why? Because Satan wants us confused. He wants us to use our free will (which he didn't want in the first place) to put us in a position worse than his. I am not the judge, but I imagine that outer darkness will be infinitely many times worse for those of us who receive bodies than for those who did not keep their first estate. Many choose to discount what we bring as of no importance. Cast not your pearls before swine, lest they trod them underfoot and turn again, and rend thee (more or less the quote, this is difficult translating from Spanish to English).

4)There are battles you cannot win. We are all going to die. Likewise, certain people would rather die than accept the minimalist belief in what we preach. I accept that. It is accepted. The lord does not waste resources on people who are unreachable. Jesus never said a word to Herod. Likewise, missionaries can not waste the lord`s time talking to people who repeatedly refuse him and his truths.

We walked to presidentes, which takes about 2 1/2 hours in the middle of nowhere, but we did it.

I have now officially been spit upon. Many of the rejections I received this week were stronger than those in the past. It is rather amazing how violent some people choose to be when two missionaries show up at their door and offer to help them with household chores. That I was not expecting. One of these told me he will never have time to hear us, and he was a baptized member that we wanted to visit to figure out why his family is not going to church.

The Paz Martinez family got married legally for our efforts to help them. Unfortunately, that is all we could accomplish it seems. The brother rejected us, and will not deign to see our faces or talk to us. The sister is confused now, and we are going to see if she prays in order to know if she needs to be baptized in the church like she wanted to. So, maybe I could not baptize them, but we helped get them married.

We provided service for a normal woman in the street--cleaned up her yard. Afterward, she gave us Little Debbies chocolate brownies and showed us the pool where her husband baptizes people during the summer. We also cut down a tree with a machete. The brother and sister are inactive members (more than 20 years) are not married, and we are going to teach the kids to see if they want to be baptized.

My time here is very interesting. I hope to be able to relate more good news next time.

Love,
Elder Scott

Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott

March 16, 2015 -- No Time

No my camera didn`t break, it was the cord, but I have yet to find a replacement (the head is really strange). So I still have photos, but I am unable to send them.

I am now in one of those suffering stages. The Paz Martinez family dropped us the day of the interview of the daughter for her baptism because some other missionaries showed up at their house and preached to the brother things he wanted to hear: that getting baptized again is a sin, the Mormons are from the devil, it is not a commandment to get married and you don't have to do so because in Gods eyes you are married,etc.

Also, I cannot walk well right now because I have an intestinal issue that I am taking medication for. Well, I can walk, it just isn`t comfortable. Everything went wrong the same day this week, and until now it hasn`t gotten better. Sure hope it does.

I have also learned that you have to be incredibly blunt with most people or they do not understand, which stinks because I feel like a jerk a lot, but it is stuff they need to hear and understand. It is the best way to help them grow.

I cannot believe how normal lieing is; we get lied to all of the time. It makes me feel sick. Right now I just feel exasperated. All the good intentions in the world cannot lead to salvation because you have to actually follow Christ in your daily life to be like him not just do him lip service once. Apparently that is a foreign concept. You`d think people would understand. Back to work then...

My answer to an atheist:

Faith is a gift I have yet to receive.... hmmm. Well, first: Is it something he would like to have? Does he want to have faith or to be an atheist? If you want to be an atheist, you do not want to recieve faith, and we reject all gifts we do not want. (people are mean like that) If, however small the desire you would like to know there is a god, well I have good news! You can know! Religion is based on a couple of principles.

1) The written word. In this case the bible and the Book of Mormon. If those books were written because someone with more power told the writers to write them, well great. This is also the case for textbooks, whatever type of written document for the accumulation of knowledge. And so we arrive at 

2)There is a God. Faith is believing in absolutely whatever thing. That some event or individual or group of persons more powerful than we as humans understand is the cause for the reason we are here. Atheism does not make sense. Believing in the big bang theory: faith in science and the power of the human mind. That there is an order to all things. Action-reaction. Believing in god(s): faith that a being (or beings) with infinite power caused you (an infintesimaly small individual in the scheme of things) to be created for a purpose wether that be a)salvation (god is our father, wants us to go to heaven) b)continuation (gods created us, and we are here to amuse them and maybe if they want to they will put us in a good place when we die (greeks-romans) c) negation (we are here to progress to a point of nothingness and ultimate peace for this, otherwise known as reincarnation) or any other number of things (i will not include here because I do not know everything, sorry).

3)There are messengers. People, specially chosen for some type of characteristic (not important, be it brains, brawn, humility, etc.) Transmit knowledge to others. Prophets give us knowledge of what god wants us to know. Proffesors give us knowledge of math, whatever subject in school you may find. They have a special relationship with what they preach. They learn about it, and they are more qualified than you are to explain what it is. Please prove to me that 2+2=4 without using any equations or gestures, whatsoever type of helps you can find. Go on. I am waiting. The person who figured that out had to have studied a ton, had to have a reason behind why he came to this conclusion.  Ok, great. Maybe, on the off chance you can prove that, please imagine that I have never tasted salt, and describe to me how it tastes. Can you do that? Well, these points lead up to 

4) There are many things that are unprovable. Or unexplainable. With our limited knowledge we are unable to explain things very simple to others if they have not knowledge of these things. We need a base, a comparison. And there are some things we just take on faith. Wind for instance. Does it exist? Are you sure? Why?I cannot see it, therefore it does not exist right? No. Faith is to believe in things which are true, which are not seen. Like the wind, there is a force that helps us to know things that are true.

5)The holy ghost. Religiously speaking of course. For science it would be reason. A force that tells us what is possible, how we can prove it. It provides reassurance of the answers we have already found. We have to have faith that there is a reason. If we do not have reason, well life has no purpose huh? So, broadly, and probably very offensively speaking, whatever person who professes to be an atheist is lieing to themselves. If this person really didn`t believe in something more than him, He would not waste his time inviting others to argue with him about theology. He would come to a decision. If there is no purpose to this life, well why live? 

6)hope. Religion provides hope. Without a hope, there really is absolutely no reason to do anything. Might as well just sit and wait to die. If you do not believe in something, this life is all you have, and nothing you ever do will fill the void of emptiness you carry with you. To accept that there is a god is to accept happiness. The hope of a better tomorrow. That someday, somehow, everything will be better. And it is free. Pray about it. I don`t care if you still say you do not believe in a god. Tell him that, because if you didn`t believe in him you wouldn`t waste your time talking about him and belittling those who do, there would be no point. Pray to him and ask him to tell you he is there. Ask him to send his spirit to comfort you. Go to church. Try to want to know. Other than that, there really isn`t much to be said. Good Luck. I hope at some point you can accept this wonderful truth. He is waiting for you to do so. Know that even if you do not love him, he loves you.

Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,

Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,

Elder Scott

March 9, 2015 -- baptizing Cesar

Well, I baptized Cesar Saturday. It was really something. He is the single most spiritually prepared person I have ever met. He teaches the lessons Sundays sometimes from his seat. Also he already received the Aaronic priesthood. He's already a priest. He sure does move fast!

So, my 4th companion Elder Hancock does work. It is good. He is from Utah. He is a pretty serious type guy. But he plays the piano very very well.

I literally have nothing to say. My life is kind of boring. We do contacts all day, and every once in a while we get a lesson and baptize those who are ready -Cesar- and that is really it.

Oh. We are now teaching a sister who has a partner (not spouse) who is an excommunicated returned (full time) missionary. Those lessons are very interesting. He cannot say anything during the lesson due to his status (which his partner doesn´t know about), and he talks using hand motions and omits words that are harsher and in place makes squeak noises. He feels very off, but he is a nice person. The sister is very hard to explain to. We cannot get the spirit into the lesson due to the presence of the brother (cannot visit without him) and that makes things difficult.

Cambios would be transfers.

And I really have nothing else to talk about. It is work, and it isn`t all that interesting. Usually the people reject us outright, refuse to answer when we talk to them, or lead us on hoping but never do what we ask them to. You get desensitized. Yeah. Sad.

But I can keep hoping. There are people like Cesar who really want to know out there. This I know. I just have to find them.

Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott

March 2, 2015 -- Cambios

I do not remember that word in English, but it means new companions. I will be with Elder Hancock, who I have yet to meet, and we will be running like mad on lessons so that Cesar can get baptized Saturday. Hope we make it.

It was was nice being with Elder Phelps, and now I am going to be with another gringo. "Hancock" sounds pretty gringo to me at least.

We are going to have to start over on investigators basically. We figured out that those we were visiting were in love with Elder Phelps and do not want to come to church or progress if he won´t be there. That seems to be a pretty common thing, actually. The Paz Martinez family still wants to get baptized, which is good; we just have to get them married, and yeah. Woo!

Cesar had to drive a Narc around for 5 hours on Sunday; the guy showed up at his house and ordered him (stoned and drunk) to take him places, nowhere in particular, just around the city. His daughter is not married to her boyfriend (she is 15, he 18), and she also is not legally the daughter of her father due to her parents never being married. So marrying them against their will is impossible. We are working on how we can help them with that. His son (6) has the same story book game of the Disney movies that we had and played with a lot. We explained a bunch of things to them--namely much of the Law of Chastit--and we gave them The Family: A Proclamation To The World.

Life is really complicated for some reason right now.

Thats is all the time I have. Bye!

Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott

February 23, 2015 -- Cake!

Well, Evalyn did get baptized, which was really cool. Her good friend who helped us teach her got to baptize her, which doubly cool for her and her friend. The taxi driver, Cesar, brought his entire family to the baptism but did not come to church and we are not sure why. We will be figuring that out this week. But he enjoyed the baptism. Evalyn is super happy, and when she entered the font she had two bracelets that my companion took and forgot to give back, which is pretty funny now.

While Evalyn and her friend were changing, the missionaries had a special number (we sang), which everyone enjoyed. Here in Mexico, people know (generally) how the hymns go but only melody, and they are unable to sing that part. We sang in parts, and it wowed them all. "Mas cerca dios de ti" is a glorious song. We sang all 5 verses, the first in unison (which no one payed attention to), and we sang the rest in parts (which everyone was enveloped for). The bishop was particularly fun to see the change, tablet to staring in an instant.

It is very normal for people here to tell you exactly what they think. People refer to people as they are. Telling you that you are fat is normal, and being socially acceptable is not something that exists. People always tell me I need to eat more, because I am enflacando, or getting less fat. I do not see it personally, and my weight stabilized at 195ish for the moment, so there is that. People refer to their daughters as the fatty, little fat girl, and names similair, and their parents as the ancient, old woman, crone, the works. Also, they love to tell people exactly how attractive they are. If you are ugly, you will hear it many times when you talk to people, you get desensitized; if you are pretty, you will hear it many times, and you will get a really big head. Normal.

Quote of the week (I will try to include one every week): "Soy ateo, Gracias a dios." In English, this means "I am an athieist, thanks to god." Due to the giant catholic influence here, everyone thanks god for everything, regardless of whether or not you believe in him or what to church you attend. It is very funny sometimes.

We are waiting for the news on who is changing (or not) this Saturday.

Apparently it is a pretty normal thing to smash the face of the person who has a birthday into the cake here. I found this very strange! Here is how this happened... I am Elder Scott, innocent as to the things of the world. It is my companions birthday, and the first thing he tells me is not to tell anyone it is his birthday. Well, ok, however you want it man--your day. So we go about the day, trying to be normal. Three member families have, somehow or the other, discovered it is his birthday. The first one happens after the lunch of the day. The sister brings in a cake, and everyone gets out their cameras. We sing happy birthday, and then they tell him he has to take a bite. I am sitting at his left, Elder Uribe at his right, and the other people on the other side of the table. He does not want to do it. He has everyone but me stand up and step back from the table. I just want to eat the cake, so I want him to take the bite so we can eat. He tries and fails 3 times to take the bite. On the 4th try, he goes in, and Elder Uribe jumps a couple of feet in order to slam his face into the cake, which happened in something like 2 seconds. Then he jumps back and everyone starts cheering. I started, confused, and then started laughing because his face was covered in icing. I had never seen anything like that before. Twas a new experience. :) The second family made us eat dinner with them. I said made, and they found us, brought us to the house, and fed us delicious gorditas. The 3rd had us come to their house and sang the Mexican version of happy birthday, which the missionaries did not know, and we ate more cake. I was a happy camper!

In other news, church now start at 10 because all the people who live in presidentes The colony farthest away from the chapel need an extra hour in order to try to arrive at church on time. It helped a lot of people get there. The Zuñiga family are officially reactivated after a lot of time and missionaries trying to get them to come to church. We were the succesful ones! Muahaha! Lots of people come to church now. The Paz Martinez family is waiting for the 28th, the day after the free marriages so that they can all get baptized. Woohoo! Well, that is about all I have right now. Until next week,

Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott