Boy do I love being a missionary!

Boy do I love being a missionary! A lot of really amazing things happened this week. Lots of miracles were witnessed. Just a day in the life of a missionary!

We were able to go on exchanges with our Zone Leaders this past week. It was a very good experience and I learned so much. I went down to Ephrata with Elder Hansen. Elder Hansen is an amazing missionary. He's been out for about 18 months and he's from Price, Utah. And he's actually a Spanish speaking missionary and we were able to have three lessons that night in Spanish. It was pretty tough. Since there's not much Spanish work here in Omak we don't get very many opportunities to use it. But it was definitely good to get some practice in.

Something pretty interesting happened two Saturday's ago that I forgot to mention. There's a small town in our area called Conconully and once a year for the past 20 years they've held a world renowned event: Outhouse races. They set up a race track in the middle of the road and people from all over the country bring their outhouses mounted on skiis. Haha it was fun to see.  

We were unable to see Karen at all this week. This flu that's going around is seriously hitting all of our most progressing investigators. Thankfully she's still on date for the 7th of February.  But we're really going to have to pick up the pace with her! So please keep her in your prayers. 

This last transfer we've had a pretty big struggle with getting new investigators. For some reason we were just unable to meet anyone new. But this week we were able to get five new investigators. Which is such a huge blessing! The first two were Dan and Cynthia. It was a pretty interesting with them. They live together and they have only known each other for about six weeks. Cynthia had been homeless for the past few months and Dan found her in the Walmart parking lot and told her that she could stay with him till she gets back on her feet. They both have a VERY religious background. Dan is a very "spiritual" man and Cynthia has been baptized in pretty much every single Christian church you can think of haha, except for the LDS Church! So there are definitely some barriers with them, but it's going to be very enjoyable to see where it goes from here. Yesterday we contacted a referral from a member who had told us that he had gone with the missionaries to see an investigator before. So we decided to check it out! Their names are Brett and Flory. They have a nice big family and are very Christian. They have met with missionaries in the past and apparently Flory is a distant relative of Joseph Smith? Who knows! But since I've been in the field we've never been able to teach an entire family. So I'm sooooooooo excited to be able to start teaching them. And the last new investigator we had this week is Chris. We met his mom while tracting a few weeks ago and have never been able to meet with her again. But we tried again last night and we had a really amazing conversation with Chris. He's still in High School and he's very curious about the Book of Mormon. I'm so grateful that I've been blessed to be able to be apart of these peoples lives. And to be able to have a certain knowledge that will bring them so much happiness.      

I think my biggest improvement this week is the love I have obtained for the people here. Every single of our investigators are just so amazing and I want so much for them. I'm so grateful for the Lord for placing these people in my life and for the chance that I have to serve them and in turn serve my Heavenly Father. I love this gospel and I love this church. It's brought me so much happiness in my life and it makes me even more happy to be able to share that happiness with others. 

I love you all so much! And I'm so grateful for all you do for me! 

Elder Scott 

p.s. The 29th is Elder Pullman's ONE YEAR MARK!!! WOO HOO!!! 

Martin Luther King

Today at 2:57 PM

Hello everyone!

Sorry I'm a day late. With it being Martin Luther King Jr. Day the library was closed yesterday so we get to email today!

It's been kind of a slow week this past week. Lots of ups and downs as far as the work goes. Lots of really amazing things happened, but also some not so good things... A day in the life of a missionary!

Our investigator, Rashel, who was planning to be baptized on Jan 31st fell off date this week. She still hasn't shown up to church and she is still struggling with the word of wisdom. She's making improvement though, she hasn't completely cut out coffee and she hasn't been smoking as nearly as much as she was. So she will definitely be entering the waters of baptism, it's just going to take a little more time than we hoped for.

We had an awesome lesson with Erik this last week. We've really had to take baby steps with him and our invitations. But this last lesson we had with him we invited him again to come to church with us, and he said that he will! We were both very excited about this, knowing the type of person that Erik was when we first met him, he has really come a long way.

We had a new investigator this week, Micheal. He has a pretty sad story. He has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and tells us that he barely has a few months to live. So his response to us inviting him to read the Book of Mormon was, "I'll give it a shot". :)

We were out tracting when the Seahawks were playing last Sunday and all of a sudden we heard loud screaming coming from every direction from all over town. We looked at each other and said, well, the Seahawks won. Going to the SUPER BOWL!! YEAH!!

Last Tuesday we went on exchanges. And I was finally able to take over the area for the first time! I was super excited and I felt very ready to do it. And things started off super great! Everything was going according to plan and running very smoothly...until the very end of the night. We planned to go see our investigator, Karen, who's on date for baptism. She lives WAY out in the boonies so it takes a while to get there. I was with Elder Tipton at the time and he was driving. We were more than half way to Karen's house when the gas light came on. Crap. We decided just to keep going because if we turned back to get gas we wouldn't have enough time to teach Karen and make it back for curfew. So, we just kept driving. We were about a half a mile away from her house when the car slowly came to stop. We were completely out of gas. It was 15 degrees outside and it was pitch black. Our first reaction was to say a prayer and ask for guidance about what we need to do. After we prayed we walked up the road to the nearest house we could find to ask for help. No answer. We found another house, no answer. We found another house, a lady answered and told us that about a mile down the road in the opposite direction there was a man that would help you. We kept walking up the road and we finally made it to Karen's house. At that point I thought, it will all be okay, she can help us and we can even have a lesson with her! For the first time ever her house didn't have a single light on and no one came to the door. So, we started our journey back to the car. After walking for about 20 minutes in the freezing cold we could see someone in the distance holding a flashlight. They were right around our car and they were looking to see why it was sitting in the middle of the road. As soon as he spotted us he shouted, "You boys need some help?" we both shouted "YES!!" We told him our situation and he told us that he had a gallon of gas in his shed. He lived in the first house we found but he just got back from a bible study class so he wasn't home before (go figure!) and that he would be happy to help us out. He put a gallon in our tank and we were both so grateful for that man and what he did to help us. On the ride home Elder Tipton and I were talking about why things happened the way that they did. Why our Heavenly Father didn't just send the man earlier or why didn't He have Karen help us? And I realized that it's because sometimes our Heavenly Father requires us to pass through tribulation before we find salvation. Most of the times He requires us to work for what He wants to bless us with. He wants us to do all that we can, then He will provide a way. I have definitely found this to be true in the mission field. Most of the time things are very very hard. But our Heavenly Father requires for it to be so. Because in the end, we are able to understand and grow so much from our suffering.

I'm so very grateful for my Heavenly Father who loves me enough to call me to pass through tribulation. Because I know that through the help of Jesus Christ, we can all get through anything. And I'm so grateful for the chance that I have as a missionary to preach His gospel to the people here in Washington. The church is true and I love my Savior!

Thank you all for your love and support!

Elder Scott

"I love being a missionary!"

Hello Everyone!

Man, it's been a pretty slow week this week. We've really had some trouble getting in with some of our investigators, which is pretty unfortunate, but we know that this next week is going to be great!

We've mainly been struggling with our investigator who's on date for baptism, Rashel Stanley. She's been really sick lately and we haven't been able to see her at all. We're afraid that we'll have to reschedule her baptism date. She still having a lot of trouble with coming to church and with the word of wisdom.

Something really amazing happened on Saturday night. We visited one of our investigators, Karen and her granddaughter Abby (who's a less-active member). And when we first came over, we knew that it wasn't going to be a very good lesson. Karen had some friends over and they were crowded around the TV watching the Seahawks game. It was very loud and it was very hard to listen to the Spirit. But still, we continued to do all that we could to have a descent lesson with her. She was telling us about how much she loved the Book of Mormon and the Restoration pamphlet that we gave to her. She even answered all of the questions in the back of the pamphlet, which I've never seen anyone do! We answered a few questions that she had about it. And as we were talking, her granddaughter, Abby, jumped in the conversation and said, "Grandma, have you been baptized?" Karen then said, "Well, I was when I was a little girl in the baptist church..." We then told her more about the restoration of the priesthood, and about proper authority. By then, we were pretty reluctant to invite her to be baptized, because of all of ruckus from the game going on and people screaming. But then I remembered something that we learned about in our Zone meeting--never hesitate to ask someone to be baptized. So we did! And she excepted. She's planning to be baptized on February 7th. And we're so excited for her! And she also came to church yesterday and really enjoyed herself. Keep her in your prayers!

We had a zone meeting this last Saturday. And we were all given a piece of paper that went over all of the technology policies in the mission. And after we all read through it, one of our zone leaders said, "President Ware wants us to be prepared for when they come." And we ALL knew exactly what they were talking about--iPads. So I guess we might be getting iPads pretty soon. We think that it will be right after the mission splits.

EVERYONE is getting sick around her. Honestly, when we go tracting, probably one in every three people have the flu. It's pretty crazy. And neither Elder Pullman or I have had any symptoms--yet! So we're really doing our best to stay healthy!

We're going on exchanges tomorrow with our district leader. And I'll get to take over the area! I'm actually pretty excited! I've never been able to do it before so I'm really looking forward to it.

Thank you all so much for all that you do. Thank you for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers. I love being a missionary! And even when we have pretty tough weeks like this when the work was slow, I'm still so grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord.

I love you all!

Elder Scott

It's 2015!!!

Happy New Year!!

On the very first day of the year, I realized, the year of 2015 will be the year that I will spend completely on my mission. And i also thought, best year ever! I can't believe the new year is already here. And with a new year comes greater things to come, especially when it comes to missionary work!

We were able to get a lot of members to come out with us this week to lessons. Which is something that we've really been struggling with in the past. But our Heavenly Father really provided a way for us to get members! One cool story about it. We had a scheduled appointment with our investigator Erik. We've never been able to get a member to go with us for him. This last Saturday we got a member to say he's come with us, but about an hour before the appointment, he cancelled. So, we thought that we'll just have to go through another lesson without a member. After that we decided to go visit a less-active, Brother Clark. Neither of us had met him before, so we didn't really know what we were in for. He turned out to be a super nice guy. He just recently went through a divorce and that's his excuse for not wanting to go to church. But then we asked him, "Hey, we have an appointment with one of our investigators in about a half hour, do you want to come with us?" Surprisingly he said he'd love to! He was telling us that he used to go out with the missionaries all the time! And that if we ever needed someone to come with us, he'd be there. The lesson we had with Erik was wonderful too. The testimony of a member can do pretty amazing things. 

We were able to meet with Rashel twice this week. And unfortunately, by the pace that we're going right now, we'll more than likely have to go push back her baptismal date. She hasn't read from the Book of Mormon at all and she hasn't really been praying. And she's not very serious about the word of wisdom yet. She's still trying to quit smoking. So please include her in your prayers! 

Another of our progressing investigators, Adolfo, is also struggling with the word of wisdom. He has that desire to quit smoking and drinking, but he just can't fight the temptation. But we're not giving up on him! 

Unfortunately, we were unable to see Carol at all this week. Pretty big bummer considering that she's so amazing! But we're really praying this week that we'll be able to teach her again. 

I was finally able to drive this week. Since it's a new transfer and I'm not being trained anymore, I'm allowed to drive now! It was pretty weird. I mean, I hated driving even before the mission, so I definitely hate driving after I have touched a steering wheel for four months. After driving for a bit I told Elder Pullman, "I really hate driving" then he said, "I really hate being passenger." So we switched! 

We finally got our fair share of winter yesterday! It was a complete blizzard! And I absolutely love it! It's kind of a pain to drive in though.