Steve's baptism Saturday, July 25, 2015

"My Leg is Floating!"

We had a really amazing week this last week! Lots of tender mercies and miracles everyday!

First off, remember Steve from College Place? The guy in a wheel chair and with one leg? Well he got baptized this last Saturday. And since Walla Walla is pretty close to Kennewick, President let me go to the baptism!  It was so weird being back in an old area. But it was so good to see a lot of the members and other missionaries. They even had me give a talk on baptism and also perform the baptism! It was pretty tricky getting him into the font. He was able to walk a few steps if someone was there to support him. So we just had to wheel his chair up to the steps and Brother Shaw was there to walk him down the steps. It was pretty funny, as soon as he got into the font he said, "My leg is floating!" We tried sitting him down in a chair in the font, it seemed like a good plan until our first attempt to submerge him, but the chair was too high! So when we dunked him under, it was pretty much only his head that was under and not the rest of him. So then we just ditched the chair and had him hold on to the side railings and Bro Shaw there to hold him. And the second attempt was a success! It was such an amazing experience baptizing him. As he came out of the water, Steve was just so pure and so clean. At that moment he was so overwhelmed with joy he could barely speak. As we were in the bathroom changing he said that he enjoyed being baptized so much that he had to do it twice! What an amazing man.

Last Saturday was one of the happiest days of my life. And so it was with Steve. It was so amazing to see Steve take this step to follow Jesus Christ.

This last weekend was the world famous Tri-Cities Boat Races and Air Show! We were advised by our mission president to stay as FAR AWAY from the river as possible. So we made sure to do that. This whole weekend there's been a bunch of these crazy jets flying everywhere too! It's pretty cool. This one time these two planes drew a heart in the sky! Super awesome.

Oh yeah, I ate tongue for the first time this last week. It was pretty good, really weird texture though. Thankfully the Hermana who gave it to us was a very good cook!

We also got transfer calls! And Elder Laffiteau and I are staying! Fun stuff. I'm really excited to be able to stay--I just got here! And we have a lot of investigators who we are working with and are very promising.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. I love you all so much!

Elder Scott

Fallin' In Love with Jesus

Hello Family!

How goes it? I hope everything is going well as usual. Where the heck did July go? Where did 2015 go? It's almost August! As cliche as it is--time sure does fly!

Our area and our investigators have been making some progress this week. We're still doing a lot of finding, but we also have a lot of really great people who we're teaching. Our most progressing investigators right now are Bernice and Saul. I'm not sure how much I've mentioned them in the past but they've been making some really amazing progress this week. They're a part member family, their two daughters were baptized this last April, and they've never been too enthused about going themselves. But now they suddenly do! Which is really great and we're really happy for them. They still have some ways to go, but they're on the right track. And they fed us mole this last week--so good:) And we did, however, find out this last week that they're actually not married. So we're going to have to figure that out...

We're also teaching this other part member family that's really promising. Her name is Teresa and her daughter was just baptized a few months ago as well and she just moved in with her daughter a few weeks ago. And she's super interested in the church! There are so many people that are just falling into our lap. Miracles everywhere!

We also met some pretty interesting people this week too. We were walking around these apartments and there was this one lady who was mentally disabled. She looked lost and didn't know where she was going. I felt so bad for her so we went over to see if we could help her. I could not understand a word she said. So we just gave her a picture of Jesus Christ and we were about to walk away. But then she pointed to the Book of Mormon in my hand and yelled, "BOOK!!" Then she walked right up to me and snatched it right out of my hands! After another lady came by and took her away--along with the book! So I'm really hoping that's it's doing some good. If there's any book that you're going to steal, that's the one.

We met this other interesting guy, named Roger. He's a black Baptist preacher who has toured around the world singing all of his sermons. He sang us a song too, it was called, "Falling in Love with Jesus." At least that's what I assume it's called because those were the only lyrics in the entire song... People are great! That's one of the tender mercies of being a missionary, getting to meet all of the people that are placed in our path. Even if people aren't interested in hearing the message of the gospel. It's so amazing to see all of these diverse people and get to know them.

We had a fireside last night with the branch. It was all about the Sabbath Day. It was an amazing meeting. It was also interesting to see how much the Apostles are putting such a huge emphasis on this. On making the Sabbath Day more meaningful and also making the Sacrament more about the Savior. Which I love! I think that it's something so important that we have that short time each week to partake of the sacrament and get spiritually recharged for the week. 

That's about it for this week. The weather is finally calming down again. Hopefully it will be even cooler this week.

Thank you for your prayers! I love you all so much!

Elder Scott

Making the Best of It!

Another pretty good week has come and gone. It was pretty difficult this week with meeting with our investigators. It seemed like everyone was gone or out of town this week! But we were still able to make the best of it.

We were able to meet with this recent convert family who is now less active this week and we were able to have a special fast with them yesterday. It was a very moving experience when Hermana Palomo, the mom, told us why it is that they wanted to fast. She said that she wants to do everything that she can to keep the commandments and come closer as a family. She bore very simple testimony of the strength that she has felt in the past through living the Restored gospel as a family. Overtime things have just become it little bit harder to do. She started the fast and her prayer was very powerful. They're a pretty amazing family and the Lord is going to bless them greatly!

We had a pretty amazing experience finding this new investigator last week. We were walking down the sidewalk and we met this girl named Yasmin. Apparently she had just been released from prison only several hours before we had ran into her. She's had a very rough life. She's only 19 years old and she's spent a good deal of her life in prison or jail. But what's great is that she has such a sincere desire to make a change in her life. She wants to do everything that she can to go down the right path. We promised her that through Jesus Christ and His Atonement that that's possible. She agreed to meet with us and to be baptized! So we're just excited for her. We're praying that she will have the strength to make the right decisions from here on out.

We had interviews with President Ware this last week. Interviews with him are always the greatest! I'm always able to receive so much revelation and receive so many answers to my prayers. 

The weather really took a turn for the best this week. It was so weird. One day it was like 105, then the next day it was about 91, then the next day it was about 75 degrees! It felt so nice! And it's been pretty cloudy ever since then. So it should be raining one of these days pretty soon. And you all know that I LOVE the rain:)

Thank you all for you love, prayers and support. Being a missionary is the greatest thing in the world and I'm just so happy to be here.

Love you all!

Elder Scott

Seventh-Day Adventists to Muslims

Hello everyone!

This week was a blast! Especially with it being the 4th of July and all. Well, I guess it wasn't that much of a blast, we could kind of see some fireworks from our window. So it was a great 4th of July!

We've definitely seen a lot of miracles this week. We've been focusing a lot on inviting everyone to be baptized. And it's been amazing! We have four on date for baptism! Some are a lot more solid than others, but these people are really making huge steps of progression. Since I've been here, it's been very difficult for us to find new people to teach, but this week the Lord has truly answered our prayers with six new investigators. And we're very excited for all of them. It's amazing what the Lord can do if you're just willing to show your faith and go to work!

It's funny how all of our area works. There is this few streets that seriously have like six different apartment complexes. And they're all huge. So end up spending about 80% of our time there. Because that's where most of our investigators live! And it's also very unusual because in those apartments are the wide range of cultures I have ever seen. Primarily Muslims from Somalia. Unfortunately, a lot of them don't speak any English. But we talk to everyone that we can. And yesterday we actually found out why the heck all of these different cultures are living here in Kennewick Washington! We were talking with this Muslim guy and he was telling us how there is these relief organization that help families from all over the world and get them out of bad situations. And they send them here! It's pretty cool. There are people from India, Korea, Egypt, and of course--Mexico! It's pretty cool to see all of these different cultures and to be able to share our beliefs with them.  

We had a unique sacrament meeting yesterday. Every member of the branch presidency were out of town. And since the branch doesn't have a High Priests Group, it was up to the Elder's quorum! Very interesting to see the Elder's quorum president on the stand with his quorum passing the sacrament. Pretty cool to see. It's really amazing to be apart of a church that is just so organized and perfect. Elder Laffiteau and I also taught the gospel principles class yesterday. I'm still getting over my nerves with speaking Spanish in front of large groups. I'm becoming a lot more comfortable when we're just teaching lessons. But huge classes?? Man! I still get pretty nervous, it went really well though. Good practice for me!

Our mission finally split this last week. Now we're just this tiny little mission in the middle of Washington. They sent us a picture of the new borders for the mission. And actually the majority of the mission is in Oregon! Pretty crazy.

It was pretty surprising to hear about President Packer's death, Elder Perry's was so recent. It's interesting to see how it seems like the apostles leave in packs! It's never just one at a time. I remember very vividly when President Uchtdorf and Elder Bednar were called at the same time. And now we're going to have another two called this next conference. President Packer is an amazing man. One of his teachings has helped me profoundly in my life. His talk about how the mind is a stage and how we control who's performing. He's so inspired and he definitely has a place prepared for him along side Elder Perry!

Thank you for all that you do for me. Thank you for all of your love prayers and support.

Love you all!

Elder Scott

Gracious! Goodness Gracious!

Hello to everyone!

Another great week! As usual... A lot of amazing things happened. But man has it been hot! Yesterday and Saturday have been almost 110 degrees. What the heck! I thought I was called to a mission in WASHINGTON--feels like Arizona! You feel like your dying just standing outside. Elder Laffiteau doesn't mind though, but that's because he was practically born and raised on the equator. Don't worry though, we're not going to die, we've been drinking plenty of water.

We've been having a lot of trouble teaching lessons this week. Our only super solid investigator, Neftali, dropped us this week. That was a huge bummer. But after planning out this next week, Elder Laffiteau and I feel really good about the people we're going to focus on. Most of them are part-member families and they're super great and have a lot of potential. One that we're really excited for is Salvador and Jackeline. Kind of a funny story, all of their kids are baptized (except for there one boy who is 7 but is being baptized this October when he turns 8), but they themselves aren't! And it's because they're not married and they don't really want to. So we're going to keep working with them and keep helping them. So please pray for us that we'll be able to teach more lessons this week--and that we won't die from the heat!

The branch activity this last Saturday had a pretty good turn out. Almost all of the recent converts came and a lot of less-actives too! And it was really great too because it also made for a good turn out at church! We didn't have any investigators there, but we had quite a few less-actives that we were really happy to see. This is definitely one of favorite parts of being in this area. The branch here is just so amazing. And it's filled with some of the most solid recent converts I've ever met. They're such an inspiration to me and they strengthen my testimony so much. And I'm so grateful for this opportunity to be apart of it.

Like I mentioned last week, there is definitely a lot of work to be done. But in many ways it's very humbling and it's a great motivator to work our hardest to get this area to it's full potential. We have the faith that there are people here who are prepared and ready. We just have to go out and find them!

Thank you so much for all of your love, prayers and support.

Love you all!

Elder Scott

Oh yeah, here's my new address:

19507 S Redwood St

Kennewick, WA 99336

This is Steve. The best guy ever!

Elder Laffiteau. What a goof!

I'm in Kennewick

Jun 22

Hello everyone!

Well here I am in Kennewick! Well, Kennewick East that is... I already love it here! It's pretty different than College Place but it's really good. Definitely a lot of potential and a lot of work to be done!

So my new companions name is Elder Laffiteau (pronounced laffy-toe:). And he's so great! This is his first area and he's just awesome. He just got finished being trained and he's already an amazing missionary. He's from Honduras and he didn't know any English before coming on his mission. But now he can actually speak it very well! We're definitely helping each other a lot. Since we're both learning these foreign languages we need all the help we can get! So he helps me with my Spanish and I help him with his English, and it works out really well.

We also live with members here, the Blodgettes. It took a little bit getting used to living in an actual house with people you don't really know. But they're a super nice family and it's been really great being with them. And... I have the BEST bed EVER. Haha it's sooooo comfy and big. It makes it harder to get up in the mornings but let's just say I've been sleeping very well these last couple of days:) 

The Spanish Branch here is really amazing. It has a bigger Elder's quorum than Omak and College Place Wards combined! It's amazing that it's still only called a branch. Apparently there's enough Priesthood but not enough active members. So we'll see what we can do about that! The people are really great here though. And VERY missionary minded. They're having activities all the time! We had one last Saturday and we're having another one this Saturday. I'm really excited to be able to serve with these people.

This area is definitely a lot slower than College Place. We don't have a whole lot of investigators and other people to see. So we've been doing a lot of finding these last couple of days. We do have some amazing people we're teaching right now though! One is named Neftali. He just randomly showed up to church a few Sunday's ago and wanted to meet with the missionaries. I met him last week and he's really great. He has a very strong desire to follow Christ and to be a good person. So now we're just helping him put that desire into action.

I  already love it here! It's been a great experience so far and I'm so excited for what's ahead.

Thank you for all of your love, prayers and support, love you guys!

Elder Scott