The Only Constant in Life is Change

Well, first things first. I am being transferred all the way down to Walla Walla Washtington! Specifically I'm going to be in what's known as "College Place". I've heard a lot of great things about there. Even before I hit the field I've been hearing about College Place and how cool of an area it is. So I'm super excited! But it is very bitter-sweet though. I've been here in Omak for almost 6 months and I've really come to love it here. All of our investigators and the members here are so great and I'm going to miss them a lot. But that's apart of being a missionary. As soon as you get used to one thing, it changes again. It reminds me of something a member here told me once, "the only constant in life is change." This statement really reigns true being on a mission. It's definitely something that I'm still learning to get used to. But overall, I'm just so excited to go to a whole new area!

Jared and Candy fell off date. They didn't make it to church yesterday and it's been virtually impossible to get in with them and teach. But Elder Helzer and the new missionary will definitely get them back on date! 

Both Jason AND Samantha were at church yesterday! It was so great to have both of them there. 

 We went on exchanges this week...twice! Once with Coulee Dam and then also with the Zone Leaders in Ephrata. The first exchange one of the Elders from Coulee Dam, Elder Yeske, came to work with me in Omak. Elder Yeske actually goes home on Thursday! So that was a fun experience to be able to work with him a bit before he heads off. Then we had a district meeting in Coulee Dam. Then, we after that I went down to Ephrata! So it's been kind of a hectic week going all over the place, but it's also been fun. 

Some of our new investigators this week are Norma and Lester. We met them last week through tracting. They're an older couple. Norma is from the Philippines and Lester has lived in Omak his whole life. They are both very kind and genuine people. A part of me really wishes that I could stick around for at least ONE more transfer to see these people progress. But I know that there are people down in Walla Walla who I'm called to teach.   

We had an amazing lesson with one of investigators, Dan, this week. It's been forever since we've last taught him, but we decided to go by and check on him. We couldn't go into his house because he was repairing some stuff. So we followed him down the Okanogan River bank. It was very beautiful there and the Spirit was so strong as we told him about the Book of Mormon and the Prophet Joseph Smith. He was very accepting of the message and so hopefully he can get progressing.  

Some pretty cool things have been happening with Jack Payne. He's the less active who Elder Pullman and I tracted into a months ago and has been coming to church ever since! Last weekend he joined the ward on the their temple trip and dead baptisms. And yesterday he was interviewed by the Bishop and he's going to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood. I'm so happy for him. It was kind of a bummer never to see a baptism here in Omak. But I'm so happy for Brother Payne. He's made so much progress.

It's crazy that I've been here in Omak for 6 months, but I'm so excited to experience something new. I love being a missionary! 

Love you all!

Elder Scott

p.s. Oh, and just send letters and stuff to this address for now...

8202 West Quinault Ave. Suite D 

Kennewick, WA 99336  

I don't want to leave!

Hello there family!

Well this transfer has officially flown by. We get transfer calls this Saturday. I don't want to leave! Elder Helzer and I have only been together for one transfer and the work here in Omak is better than it's ever been since I've been here. But I will go and do wherever the Lord needs me! ...but I would love to stay in Omak:)

We had a Zone Conference last Thursday and I was able to see Elder Pullman again! It was super good to see him again. It was also really good to see President Ware again. Being this far North we NEVER see any other missionaries. They talked more and more about getting ipads. I honestly could live without them. So I guess we'll see what happens. 

We had an amazing turnout at church yesterday! Well...it was pretty amazing compared to the last few weeks. Maria showed up again! I guess she had been out of town for all of last week, so that's why we haven't been able to see her. But she came to church and loved it! We were also able to see her later that day. And we were able to put her back on date for baptism for the 28th of March. It's coming up pretty quick, but we're going to be working with her as much as we can to help her be ready for the 28th. 

Jason also came to church. And he even came without Samantha, who's already a member! I guess Samantha's dog was really sick so she had to stay home and watch it? But Jason still came! So we were really happy about that. We have an appointment with them tomorrow afternoon as well. He's still on date for the 28th. But he's still having some word of wisdom issues he's working on. He told us that he can cut out coffee, but chewing tobacco would be a little more difficult. So we may have to push his date back a few weeks. But we know he'll be able to make it soon. 

We had to drop Tom Black. We had another lesson with him and he told us that he has no interest in "converting". And that he was pretty content with the way that he was living at the moment. It was really cool experience to get to know him though. And always forget to tell you guys but a few weeks ago we had to drop Erik. We had been teaching Erik for several months and he had read the Book of Mormon one and a half times. It was so hard to let him go, but it just got to the point where he wasn't progressing. But since then we've been able to find new opportunities to teach to other investigators who are ready!  

One of out new investigators this week is Richard. We had tracted into him a few months ago and we've never been able to catch him home since, except last week! Richard is a super cool guy he's married and has three kids. He's very open to learning more about the church and the Book of Mormon. We're going to see him tomorrow and hopefully we can meet his wife and start teaching their family. 

It started to pour rain yesterday. So... it was an awesome day. I will NEVER get sick of the rain. There's just something about it that makes me so relaxed and calm. And I definitely need times like that in missionary work. So it was a huge tender mercy that that happened yesterday. 

We're so excited for all of our investigators right now. So many of them are doing so amazing and they're progressing so much. Our Heavenly Father is blessing this area every day! 

I'm so grateful for this chance that I have to be a representative of Jesus Christ and preach His gospel. I love to be a missionary! 

Love you all!
Elder Scott 

4.2 Million In Tithing

Well... I know I say this every week. But this week it's definitely true--this week was amazing! So many amazing things happened and I'm so excited for this coming week.

Maria is officially off date for baptism for the 14th. We've been having the hardest time getting in contact with her and set up appointments. But we should be able to see her tomorrow so we can put her back on date for baptism! 

Some of our new investigators, Jared and Candy, are also on date for baptism. Like I've mentioned in the past, they are very open to the message and they have a desire to know that it's true. We just hope we will be able to receive an answer to their prayers. And another thing that's in the way is that they aren't married and they're living together, so we are also trying to figure that out as well. 

We were also able to see Samantha and Jason several times this week. And we heard some awesome news! That Samantha is okay to move in next door with her parents until they get married so that they won't be living together! So we were very excited to hear that. It also came along with some bad news. We found out that Jason does have some word of wisdom issues that he'll have to overcome. But we know that he can do it. Thankfully we were still able to put him on date for baptism as well. I'm so excited to help these people! 

We were able to get some pretty amazing new investigators this week. One of them was Mitch. He was a member referral and he has to be the most interesting man I have ever met. He is currently living in a storage unit to save some money. He is very interested in learning more about the Book of Mormon. In fact, the first thing he said when we met him after introducing himself was "I want to be baptized!" Apparently he doesn't really stay in one place for too long, so I guess he's off to Denver in a few weeks. And like I said, very interesting man, almost verging on manic. He was telling us that he owns a rock worth more than 4.2 Million dollars that he's going to throw in the Okanogan River. But he did say, "well, maybe if this whole Mormon thing is true I'll just give it to the church." That's a lot of tithing! Haha so we'll see where he goes.   

Another one of our new investigators Elaine. We decided to call a few numbers in our phone that we didn't know who they were, so we just picked a random number and called it. It was this lady who wanted a Book of Mormon because she had lost her other copy. She then told us to meet her at the park the next day so we could give her a copy. The next day she actually showed up! Elaine first picked up a Book of Mormon about ten years ago. She has been reading it ever since. She couldn't stop telling us how much she loves the Book of Mormon, she was even telling us about her favorite verses. At first we thought she was a member, but she's not! We asked her what's preventing her from being baptized. She said that she just can't seem to quit smoking. It seems that's always the problem. She feels that she doesn't need to be an official member of the church to be able to benefit from the Book of Mormon and its teachings. The entire time we were talking with her I was just amazed. I couldn't believe someone could have that strong of a testimony of the Book of Mormon and not want to be baptized. Elder Helzer and I are going to do everything we can to help Elaine. I told her about how much potential she has that we know that she will be able to overcome her trials. Keep her in your prayers!   

We were officially able to start teaching Tom Black! It's been forever since we've been able to see him, but we saw him last week and we actually started to teach him! Haha Elder Helzer REALLY wanted to see him since he's Jack Black's dad and all... Haha he's such a funny guy and I'm really excited to see his progression. 

We had Stake Conference yesterday. It was super good! Three members from the Omak ward gave talks and they were all amazing! The whole conference was centered around the effectiveness of ward councils and how we can make them more effective. They also emphasized the involvement of the missionaries in the ward--so it was super great! 

It's going to be hard to top this last week. But I know we can! I've been able to see so much progression in our investigators and also in myself this week, which I am so grateful for. 

I know this church is true and I'm so grateful to share my witness to the people here.

I love you all!

Elder Scott  

6 Months!

Hello Family!

It's crazy that I hit my 6 month mark this week. It's just flown by! I still feel so green and like I just got out here! But I still love it. I'm learning each day and I'm learning how to become a better missionary and a better person.

I mentioned we had a dinner appointment with a part member family, Samantha and Jason, last Monday and we were really hoping we would be able to put Jason on date for baptism. Unfortunately we weren't able to. They are a couple who are living together and they aren't married. They understand that he can't be baptized unless they get married or don't live together. They are planning to get married, but not until July. Only because they want to be married by Jason's grandpa and that's the earliest he would be able to. So... We're going to see what we can do! Because Samantha and Jason are just so amazing and we want to do all we can to help them.

We were, however, able to get someone else on date for baptism this week! One of our new investigators from last week, Maria, accepted baptism for the 14th of March. Like I mentioned last week, it's difficult to tell how serious she is. But if she keeps her commitments, then she should be able to make it for the 14th!

We had a pretty amazing experience tracting on Saturday. We were working up in Oroville (pretty much Canada) and we picked a random street to knock on some doors. The very first house we knocked on was this woman who clearly wasn't interested. But as she was closing the door, we heard a softer voice in the back say, "Mormons? Let them in!" Haha we didn't really take that as a good sign. We were gearing up for someone to do some bible bashing with us. But as we went in and we saw who let us in, it was a very frail old man sitting in his recliner. We sat down with him for a bit and turned out he was a member of the church. He has been less-active for most of his life. He also told us that he was not doing well health wise. We asked him what we could do to help him and he told us (even though his wife wouldn't approve) that he would like a blessing. We layed our hand on his head and I gave him a blessing. It was a very interesting experience giving this blessing. I've given several blessings since being in the field. And each one I've given, I've gotten the feeling of that they are going to get well soon. But with this man I could tell that his time was up pretty soon. I was so grateful for this experience. I really felt like God was guiding us that day to give that man a blessing. The next house that we knocked on we met another interesting guy. As he first came to the door, he didn't respond to a single thing we said to him and all he did was give a nasty glare. He was in the middle of chewing on something, I swear he was going to spit his food on us or punch us... But then he said, "Where are you two from?" I told him I was from Spanish Fork. He shook his head and laughed and said, "...come on in." His name is Mike and he was born and raised in Spanish Fork. And he is also a member of the church! First two houses we knock on, and they're both less-active members! Mike has been living in Oroville for a pretty long time now and apparently he came up here to get away from the church. He was a very cool guy though, he's a payed musician and plays just about every instrument under the sun!

I was able to bear my testimony yesterday during testimony meeting at the Omak ward. It was pretty crazy how less nervous I was yesterday compared to before my mission doing something like that haha. Something interesting that I've found about bearing testimony, that it's when I am bearing testimony of truth is when I receive the most affirming witness that it is true. I remember something that one of my seminary teachers told me, "testimony is found in the bearing of it." I could definitely feel that yesterday. I was so grateful for that chance to share with that ward what I knew to be true. And it made it even better that our investigator, Adolfo, was there to hear it as well.

So I would just like to bear my testimony to all of you. I know that this is the true church of Christ. And that the fulness of His gospel has been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I also have a testimony of the Book of Mormon. I know that it is the word of God and through it, I have been able to come to know Christ.

I'm so grateful for all of you and for this chance that I have to serve as a missionary.

I love you all!

Elder Scott