I love to see the temple, I'm going there someday, to feel the holy Spirit to listen and to pray

Man, sometimes I really am not a fan of transfers. I'm not a fan of change I guess is mostly why. I barely get used to something and God decides to change it up. *sigh* well, such is life. =)

My new companion, Hna Garcia is from California, but her grandparents are from Halisco (sp) Mexico. She's been out for a while and will go home in April. She doesn't like to tell people that though. She thinks she's going to be out here forever. She's really a very very good missionary. She knows exactly how to work with ward members and to help the ward out, which something none of my past companions really focused on so its good to get that perspective on things for once and see how one person does it. She's very spiritual and very good at listening to the Spirit. All I have for you about this is, I need your prayers. Her weaknesses aren't in working with members or being consecrated or anything like that, they're working with her companions. Don't get me wrong, she really is great and when she wants to be she's really nice, thoughtful, and fun. But like all of us, she's not always like that. I need prayers for patience, for understanding, and to be able to forgive her for the things she's said and probably will say to me in the future, and for humility to accept the ways she tells me I can improve. I can't do this work while harboring bad feelings toward my companion. I just can't. So that's a little update on where I am and who my companion is.

We have two baptisms planned for the first part of this month already. Edmundo Feb 2 and Fernando Feb 10. Edmundo is the old guy who has Alzheimer's and Fernando is nine and his whole family are members but they went in active and are working on coming back to church and just moved in with Hna Diaz, the hermana who threw me the birthday party. Fernando is a very important son of God. He just has this special spirit and is super cute. When we first went over with the intentions to teach him we taught him how to pray and asked him to say a prayer and pick a day to get baptized. He got a little overwhelmed and started to cry. So I told him I'd say the prayer and then he could pick. While I said this prayer I was overcome with this overwhelming love for this little boy. I even started to cry in the middle of the prayer, which even though I cry a lot now, I can usually hold it in until I get a moment alone. Fernando is special. And I'm so excited to continue to teach him. He picked his date the 10th of Feb. The next time we went by we taught him lesson 1 (the restoration) and all he kept saying was :can I say the prayer now? Can I say it?" It was so cute. So we let him say two prayers that day, the intermediate and the closing prayer. =)

Edmundo had his interview and of course didn't remember anything that we've taught him =) but Elder N says he's still good to go. He's such a cool guy. He always is laughing at us and our mistakes in Spanish and helps us know how to say things right and he just wants to learn. He even said that even though right now he can't learn, he knows God will teach him everything someday.

So the other day I was reading a talk in the Ensign by Pres. Monson about temples. It was so good. My goodness, I love temples so much!! I just love them. In this talk he quoted Pres. Kimball who explained that as parents, not that I'm a parent yet, you should have a picture of the temple in every bedroom so as your kids grow up they will already be looking toward the temple, so they will see it and know the importance that it has. And when the time comes for them to make those important decisions in life, they'll already know the answer. I will do this when I'm a mom, many many years from now. =) I'm even going to do it before then. When I'm in college here on the mission I'm going to have the picture of a temple right where I can see it. I invite you to do the same.

Well that is all, much love to you all. I'm sending a very big hug to each and everyone of you.
Hna Scott

Perhaps for faith to be faith, it must first be tried

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

GUESS WHAT

I'm not leaving Encanto.

I was sure I was. I've been here for three transfers now and it just seemed time to go. But we got the text this morning and it's not me who's leaving. Hna Folsom is leaving. And I'm actually very sad about this. She is technically my comp and Hna G is the one who doesn't have a companion and I know that if we didn't have this weirdo threesome thing going on, we (hna F and I) would have become really good friends. I just know it. With three you have to always be careful that you're not siding with one person too much or getting too close to one and not the other. As a result none of us are really that close at all. But it will be okay. I know it will.

In other news, it is now up in the 70s. And it is way too hot.

We're teaching an old man who's 74 who has a little bit of alzheimers and he has a baptismal date for feb 2. Yesterday he tld us that he doesn't understand a lot of the time, that he can't remember a lot of stuff, but he knows God will help him understand and will teach him everything one day. He says he feels it in his heart that he needs to get baptized and basically he's just awesome. He's like a kid almost. He has so much faith. It's amazing to watch. =)

My birthday was good. My companions tried to arrange a surprise thing with Hna Diaz. It didn't really work. I knew what they were doing, but just ignored it. They made me pozole (my favortie mexican food) and cake and they were nice enough not to shove my head too hard into the cake. It's a tradition. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before but you sing and then they started chanting some words that starts with M and you as the birthday person have to take a bite out of the cake and usually someone shoves your face into the cake. But nobody tried too hard. For which I am glad, but they then did start painting my face with the cake frosting. Do not fear I will include pictures.

I hugged a man. Not on purpose I promise. =) his name is Hno Blanco. He's from El Salvador, really tall, the first time he read the BofM he saw it playing out in his head like a movie, and he's 72. It was his birthday too. And here you just hug when it's your birthday even if you've never met the person before in your life.. So he went in to hug me and I apparently it just left my mind that I can't do that sort of thing...until we were in the hug and then I was like AHHH! What am I doing!! so I kind of just patted his back awkwardly =) He reminds me of Bro Brenneman (and I'm sorry if I totally just slaughtered spelling that name.) Just like Bro B and I would hit elbows after shaking hands hno Blanco and I do the same thing. The first time I met him he says, now hermana this is how it's done. He's pretty legit. His wife is from the Mormon colonies in Chiuaua Mexico. (yes, I can spell)

Do not fear. The next man I met who tried to hug me I skilfully avoided bodily contact. His name is Carlos and it just happened to be his birthday too on Sunday and the addictions recovery class that they offer at the Stake Center every Sunday was throwing him a birthday party (don't worry I'm pretty sure he's not addicted to anything anymore. he was the Elders Quorrum pres in his old ward) so we kinda joined in on that party too. And when he tried to hug me I was prepared and stepped out of the way. =) You live and you learn.

My hair is getting long and it's almost like I don't even have bangs anymore

Oh and we had exchanges. Two actually since we're technically two areas. And I went down south. I saw some pretty cool things. 1. I saw stars!!! It was out of the city and there were fields everywhere with cotton and orange trees and all sorts of stuff so the air wasn't as yucky as it is where I live. 2. MOUNTAINS!!! I saw mountains!!! Okay they were kind of like hills but it was still cool. I do miss my mountains and I got to see some. =) 3. And the very best, I got to see Hna P. I went to the Aguila (eagle) ward but they live in the same apartment as the Montana del Sur (South mountain) hermanas which is where Hna P is. It was so great. I do love her so.

Well, that is all I can think of at the moment. Love you all
Hna Scott

Blessed are the peacemakers

Another week has gone by and as usual, it was intense. We have let go/given more time/benched/whatever you want to call it when you drop an investigator (we're not supposed to say dropped anymore) just about all the investigators we had in Encanto before this transfer started. Crazy. We knew it was going to happen. It needed to happen. We can't keep working with people who aren't willing to act on their faith. And surprisingly it wasn't that upsetting to me at all. It was almost a relief. And that makes it sound bad, but that's not how I mean it. I know it's what we were supposed to do. You can't build a fire out of wet wood. And you can't help someone build a testimony who who doesn't want to act. So we told Olivia yesterday before church that we wouldn't be coming by that often anymore. She understood. We told Enrique the same thing. I don't think he got it. But we have to take their dishes back since they always are giving us food.

Mom, asked if I have ever had to speak in a sacrament meeting. No. I have not. Yet. Knock on wood. It's a little different here than it is at home. I mean, we have 7 missionaries in one ward for heavens sake!

Have I mentioned it's freezing here?!? =) I know. I've got nothing to complain about. I'm not in Utah. BUT It hasn't been this cold here in Phoenix for twelve years. At least that's what two of the members of the ward said yesterday on two different occasions. And I have to wear a skirt. All the time. And tights only keep you so warm. And church shoes aren't very good at keeping you toes warm. BUT it's not -12 so I will stop complaining. Oh one more thing. A lot of these people don't have heating in their homes, so it's just as cold inside as it is outside. At least there you can walk inside and feel warm. Ok. Complaining now over. =)

In the next three transfers we will have over 100 missionaries that have been out for less than 6 months...woah man. CRAZY!! Oh and we got the news today that for the next couple of transfers we're moving to 5 week transfers. Because of the shortened time in the MTC all missions should be shortening transfer length for a while to complensate. This will start with the next transfer. also all missionaries that got their calls before the Oct. conference will be returning home a week early. Which means I will be getting home Jan 29 of next year or something like that. Not that I'm counting down or anything. Don't worry. It's just weird to me that soon I will have less than a year left. It honestly feels like I just got here.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love priesthood session of conference? Well, if I haven't...I LOVE PRIESTHOOD SESSION!!!! AHHHH!! Next conference I'm think about sneaking in the mother's room and listening to it. =) I'm almost done with my third conference issue ensign and everytime most of my favorite talks are in that session. I don't know why. Maybe I like how direct they are about things, or when they wabam the men saying "men we've got work to do" ...nah I don't think that's it. =) I think I just love the priesthood. If you think about it, it really is the power of God. You priesthood holders have been given the authority to act in the name of God. You hold the power used to create the world, to raise people from the dead, to recieve revelation, to perform ordinances for others that they couldn't perform for themselves. How much love He must have for you to allow you to have this opportunity. Man...the church is true. =) Don't worry. I do not wish I was a man and it does not bother me one bit that I don't have the priesthood. But anyway this came from the talk I was studying in personal study today. It's called Learning in the Priesthood by Pres Eyring. (okay and I love Pres Eyring) from the may 2011 session. He talked about how in preisthood cquorums you have the opportunity to learn together and there are three things that help a quorum learn together. 1. A leader/ the president that listens to everyone and makes everyone feel included 2. Love for each other and 3. a desire to lteach others about the gospel. I loved number two. He talked about peacemakers and their roles in quorums. That in order to have a successful quorum you must have a peacemaker. Well, I while ago I felt that being a peacemaker is one of the qualities my Heavenly Father would like me to develop.

Yeah. I know. Hna Scott being a peacemaker? Who would have guessed. Not me that's for sure.

But Pres Eyring talked about what their role is in a quorom (or in a tripod companionship) as a peacemaker. And that it seems like He has set a very high goal for us, but we can succeed if you have faith, love, and a desire to improve. So that's what I'm going to work on for the next while...maybe my whole life before I even get there, but that's why we're here in the first place.

Love you all! Keep being awesome.

And please remember who you are. That your Heavenly Father loves you and you are precious to Him. If you hold the Priesthood, please oh please always remain worthy to hold it. It is a special gift. Alway remain worthy to use it.

Much love
Hna Scott

If You Want to Make a Difference in the World, You Must Be Different from the World - Sis Dalton

Well, good afternoon folks! It's a balmy 55ish degrees outside and the sun is shining. Yes, the sun is shining. It's weird having it be January and there's no inversion going on. I'm not complaining at all. I've only been having a little bit of sinus problems this winter which is great. Though I have been waking up with a headache every day for a while now and my throat often hurts too. BUT there's no inversion so I am happy. =)

This week has been intense. (I think I may just say that every week, but just believe me and know that it's really true.) People are now starting to come back from Mexico and other various places around. We saw Olivia for the first time in almost two week. She went to Tijuana. Her sister lives there and Olivia always takes clothes and other things down because apparently when you're in the not tourist part it's really really poor. Even more feo (ugly) than it is around here. At least according to Olivia. =) We took our ward mission leader over with us and he just busted out in asking her where she is spiritually if she's reading what her doubts are etc. It was intense man. =) Eventually he finally admitted to him what it is that's bothering her. It came back to the polygamy thing that I thought we had resolved a while ago. She starts going off on all these "facts" she's found on the internet about Joseph Smith. She's just naming them all off. Everything. And I mean, it's not like I've never heard it before, but it really got to me. That this lady who has so much faith would be led astray by such a silly thing. She just kept saying, "No sabia esto? (You didn't know this?" "You haven't looked into this before?" with this smile/look on her face like she was trying to cross us in our words to catch us in something.

And my heart broke.

Finally we just told her that these things didn't matter. That God would tell her if Joseph Smith was really this man who had 33 wives and some of them were "hidden" and others were younger than 14 or if he was good and that he really was called of God. We told her to come to church and God would let her know if it was where He wanted her to be. And then she didn't come. When we went over to find out why afterward, her husband told us she was at her Catholic church.

 And my heart broke again.

She had the truth. She knew...

 But no effort is wasted, as Pres Greene up in Logan has said. No effort is wasted. The hard part is keeping going after something like that. After finding and working with her since I got her and then having to let her alone for a while. How do you go to the next lesson smiling? That's where faith comes in I think.

A couple of days ago, we, my companions and I were all talking about crying. I'm not sure why or how we got on this subject but we were. Hna G says that she's never cried while on her mission. And I just wonder how that can be. How can you not start to care about these people so much that when they fall or something bad happens to them you don't cry for them. But you know, I'm just turning into a bawl baby here on the mission. =) No big deal. I have decided I will be like Pres Eyring one day. I will be able to cry in front of millions of people during conference and do it in a dignified manner. It's gonna be legit. =)

And that whole email seems super depressing. The week was good. Don't you worry. We had interviews last Friday and I really admire Pres Taylor. A lot a lot. He's very in tune with the Spirit. He said some things to me that he never ever could have known about me unless the Spirit told him. At one point he got this concentrated look on his face then he just busts out in this fact about me, one that I rarely tell people. He listened to the Spirit. That's the only way he could have known. It happened multiple times that day. Yep. He's pretty cool. And it testified to me of God's love for me. Again. =) I've been getting that a lot lately. I know He is in the little details of my life and that He knows how to help me perfectly.
Love you all lots and lots.

Have a good week.
Much love
Hna Scott