77 Degrees and Freezing!

Oh man. A whole other week has gone by. It's crazy how fast it all goes! But at the same time while you're riding your bike down the street with you knees together so your skirt doesn't fly up and you're sweating buckets off your back it seems like it's going slow. But then you get home at night and wonder where all the time went.

 

We did exchanges the other day. I had to go up north...English speaking. Bleh. And it was the day we planned to teach Olivia the first vision and invite her to be baptized. I was super bummed. But oh well. The sister who came down here and took my place is a wonderful lady, in fact you know her. Dennis told me she was here but I didn't believe him, you know since he's old and suff I figured he was confused. =) But he wasn't. Lori from the soccer team is down here teaching the English speakers in Deer Valley about the gospel. It's pretty legit. =) Her area is completely a biking area so I had to ride a bike around all day. Never before has my butt hurt so much in one day. It was cool to get to know some of the people they are working with and to realize that God loves the English speakers as much as the Spanish ones. =) I met a man who's part of a band. We talked music for a few minutes and I loved it. He gave me some advice on how to keep practicing the clarinet even though I don't actually hae one and told me how I can make it easier to play bar chords on the guitar when I get back. All in all a good time except I've been sick since. I think I got dehydrated and have been slowly recovering since then. 

 

So a while ago we went to a Noche de Hogar ( family home evening, but when translated directly it means night of home) The ward does a big NdH almost every monday and there's always legit food afterward. =) Anyway, this night we had to ride our bikes since....well our car got towed. It wasn't my fault. But it got towed so we had to ride our bikes and I was upset and tired. The bike I was using is crap and is an automatic gear changer. Then we almost got attacked by a dog and then I couldn't understand any Spanish when we got there. Sommetimes your brain just turns off and won't concentrate enough to hear process and understand the Spanish words. As we were leaving Hna Da Bomb (aka the relief society pres) and Hna Lapez started talking to me and I didn't understand any of it. So given all the things that had happened that day I just burst into tears, right there in front of them said disculpeme (forgive me) and left. Don't worry this story has a happy ending. Like a week and a half later Hna Da Bomb went with us to teach this wonderful lady Danielle. During the lesson Hna Da Bomb started talking about certain feelings that we have sometimes that are not of God and are of the devil. One of these feelings is dispair. Then she turns to me and says if the Hna Scott starts feelings dispair because she doesn't understand Spanish as well as she'd like this is a feeling of the devil and she shouldn't listen to him. La Hna Scott is learning Spanish at the pace that is just right for her. Oh my heavens. I almost just burst into tears again. Hna Da Bomb is amazing. She's one of my favorite people out here.

 

Anyway, after this lesson we walked outside and it's like 9:15 and it's freezing outside!! All three of us were shivering, but we had to talk real fast about setting up dinner with Michal for the next week. It's freezing cold and then we get in the car and I see that it's 77 degrees!! That's not cold. What in the world was thinking!!  This Arizona weather is already getting to me and I've only been hear a month!!

 

The work continues, so much so that we have to go on splits the next couple of days. The church rocks. Watch conference.

 

Jess

Hey y'all. Just sitting in the library writing an email. Nothing really new. How about you? I heard mom ran in the race in ST. George. How'd you do? Dad said you've been injured. What happened? Did you run the Top of Utah Marathon? My teacher from the MTC did. The next time he came to class he couldn't even move. His time was way good, at least that's what I thought. He wasn't ahppy with it. Did you stop by the St. George temple while you were down there? My goodness, I love that temple. And one day in like two years give or take a couple months I will drive drown there and do a session there. The baptistry was so beautiful. I can only imagine how gorgeous the others areas would be.

 

What'dyou guys think of the announcement in Gerneral Conference? I wasn't even expecting it at all. But in my defense the MTC and beng here we are shielded from any kind of news/rumors about things like that. You going to start your papers then Ryan? I was so excited for you when I heard that. Will you finish the whole year or go after the semester? Work on them with your singles ward bishop in Logan or with Bishop Darger? You'd better write me back. =)

 

Joshua, man. I haven't heard from you in like two weeks! Dude! How've you been man? Arizonais hot. And there are scorpions here. I still haven't seen any. But there was one in the church and one of the members squished it. And then there was one outside our appartment, but they killed it before I could see it. Then another day Hnas W and G said that they saw a one of those big hairy spiders that some people keep as pets and I can't remeber what's it's called right now outside our apartment but he ran away too fast to kill him or get a picture. But don't worry mom they sprayed poison stuff through all the apartments a few days after that so he's probab;y dead now.

 

Well, I figured I should fill you all in on a few things. We have so much work to do here in the Encanto ward. For the passed couple transfers the Encanto area and the Cielito area for the sisters have been combined. But with this last transfer and 24 new missionaries in the mission they were able to divide up the areas again. So basically the work is booming. We're just about always booked with appointments. We've only had time to go finding a couple of times and those times were very profitable. There's one lady, for the sake of  the story we will call her Olivia. Anyway we were knocking doors on her street doing Windows of Heaven ( where you pray about a street to go to the night before and then knock all the doors) Hna P kept telling me I had to take the lead but I always got so nervous that I never did. Until we got to her door. When she opened it I managed to blaber out, "Somos representates de Jesucristo. Tenemos pasar?" Whish means we are representatives of Jesus Christ. Have we come in? I told botched it. What I said didn't make sense. At all. But Olivia still let us in. We sat down with her and talk about faith and Jesus Christ asked if we could come back and she said yes. YES! We've taught her threeish time now. Including a church tour and giving her son, Eric a blessing because he was sick. She came to church all three hours the first sunday we asked her to AND she came to a session of general conference. Eric, her son, was super bored during it so we told him to tak notes and write down any questions he had and he did it, lik seven little post it notes full. By the way, Eric is 11! =) So that Olivia and Eric. They're both bosses. We still haven't been able to invite them to be baptized because one of the apointments fell through but we've repented and will invite them both the next time we see them.

 

Oh one other day when one of our appointments fell through we went and knocked on this door that was a referal but all the other times no one had been home. A woman around 28 answered. Her name is Cynthia. She is probably somewhere between 25-28 years of age and has 5 kids oldest is 10 youngest a couple of months. Oh my heavens they were so excited her oldest daughter just drunk everything in that we said as did Cynthia. She said previously she and her husband had been going to the LDS church in MEsa and the missionaries had been coming but then they moved. And we had founf them again! Yayhoo.! We challenged them to be baptized that first night and they said yes. We set another appointment and left. The appointment time came and no one was there. So this last week we managed to sstop by again. They moved. This wonderful little family so prepared had moved! I was devistated. As I walked back to the car, I thought to myself, "they're lost again. We lost them." And immidiately I voice in my head whispered, "They are not lost to me. I know exactly where they are." He knows where they are and someone will find them. He will direct a member or some missioonaries to knock omn their door again.

 

One more story, just last night actually. We walked by these group of men on their porch drinking PEPSI =) and they asked us what we were doning and hna P explained (in Spanish) They told her her Spanish is very good and one of them pointed at me saying "hablas espanol tembien?" And guess what!! I understood!! I don't know what the deal is but when people talk directly to me I can never untderstand. Even when it's something as simple as De donde es? whish means where are you from. But I understood!! Right away and I didn't even have to think about it!! WABAM!! And then...yes it gets better...Without even thinking I say. Un poco estoy aprendiendo. Which means a little. I'm learning. Without thinking!! WABAAAAAM!! It was so exciting. =) I didn't realize it right after it had happened, but last night while I was praying it was pointed out to me. Anyway, that is all. 

 

I love you all very much. 

Hna Scott 

Have I told you lately...

Okay, this letter is going to take the "Have I told you lately..." letter form. I got it from KT. (love ya) And just to shake things up I'm going to do it with you all =)

Have I told you lately...

1. That I love you.
And yes, please start humming the song. =)
Being here, in a place where a lot of people don't have a lot, where dads don't always love the moms and the moms don't always love the dads, where most people didn't graduate from high school, where most women became mothers between the ages of 15-18, it's made me realize a lot of things that I was blessed with that I never really thought about before.

2. Papa Scott, have I told you lately that I am so thankful that you love mom? There's an awesome mormon message about how to raise your daughters. You should look it up and it's all about loving their mother. It's great. A lot of the mothers here are single. Left to raise their kids alone. And it makes me feel so thankful that I have a mom and a dad and that you love each other.

3. Mom, Have I told you lately that I'm thankful for all the values you taught me growing up? I'm so thankful I was taught about God and about values at a young age that the things we should and shouldn't do in this life aren't hard for me because I started learning them at a young age. Thank you.

4. Have I told you Josh, man buddy I miss you!! I would love a big huge hug from my brother Joshua right now. There are a lot of ten year old boys around here. There's one that acts a lot like you. His name is Benji. He's awesome. His whole family except him and his mom are baptized. We're going to start working with him this next week. I taught our hand shake to some kids we are teaching. I hope you don't mind. Now I will think of you every time I do it. Love ya dude!

5. Have I told you that being in Arizona is just about the best thing ever. Yeah, it's like a 14 hour drive from our house, yeah it's hot, yeah there's lots of red dirt everywhere, yeah it's not somewhere across the world somewhere exotic, but it's where I'm supposed to be. It's exactly where I'm supposed to be. Right here in Phoenix, working with these wonderful people. Working with this amazing culture and language.

6. Have I told you that all the women here kiss you on the cheek when they see you? It was a little odd at first, but now I love it. So when I come homw and just go arond kissing everybody on the cheek don't think I'm too odd okay? =)

7. Have I told you lately that I love these people. I'm so glad I get to serve them. There are times, when we're going a little slower, when we're eating dinner with a member, when a little girl a member of a recent convert famly comes up to me and whispers in my ear that I'm pretty, when we're dring home from a cita (appointment) and the people have just shared their doubts their life story (you ask these people how they are and they WILL tell you. Don't ask if you really don't want to know. =) ) and I'm just overcome with love for them. The desire to make everything all better for them. My heart aches to hear of their trials past and present. I really wish I could make everything all better. But I can't. Sometimes it's overwhelming...okay, a lot of times it's overwhelming. I come home from citas and just throw myself on my bed, having to recover from what just happened. I am a missionary a representative of Christ and I am here to help them find Him. And that's the best kind of help they can get at the moment.

8. I know Pres Taylor told you that Hna P is awesome. But I want to tell you that she really is. She accepts me for who I am. After nine weeks of not being able to be myself, of feeling friendless and alone, of feeling more judged than I ever have in my whole life, I am finally able to be who I am again. It is the most bestest feeling in the world. She says I need to grow some balls (yes she actually said that, but in Spanish =)) and learn to be myself no matter what, that I shouldn't change or apologize for who I am no matter what. And she's right completely right. It's something I really do need to work on. She is dedicated to this work. So much so that's it's literally hurting her. She gets sick at night and just throws up for hours. Please pray for her. And really, she hasn't heard from her family the whole time she's been out here. (8 months) Her mom is blind and both her parents are inactive. So if you have a moment, when you write me a letter send a little something to her.

9. False alarm. I have to tell you now. False alarm. You really can send stuff to the apartment. They have these cool secret storage areas for packages that they put a key in your mail box so you can get your package. Which leads me too....

10. Eric and LeRoy, have I told you that you're the bestest aunt and uncle ever? =) On the Hill side at least. =) no, but really, thank you. You both are awesome and I really appriciate the cookies. Hna P says that you're both bosses. =)

11. Grandpa, have I told you lately... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! feliz cumplianos (I think that's how it is in Spanish. That's not exactly something they cover in the MTC =) I hope it's simply splendid!!

12. Have I told you lately that (somebody get this message to Adam and
Mitchell) congrats you two!! This really will be that best thing ever in your lives. I'm a newbie here, but I have already seen myself grow in so many ways!! Somebody fill me in on when they're leaving and how Paoola and Wendy are feeling about this news. =)

13. Have I told you that I'm not counting down the days until I leave, but I am super excited to see all of you again. I'm super sentimental. I try to pretend I'm not, but it's the truth. So being away from everybody that I know like this is harder than I thought it would be. You've all been great influences on my life. I love you all. Remember the church is true. Go to General Conference with a question and it will be answered. (Steph. you should go to. Or watch it online. Love ya girl. Have you still not gotten my letter?)

Much love, Hermana Jessica Scott