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