Buenas Tardes!
This past week and a half have been super great! The missionary work has been incredibly slow, and it has been hard to get our area going, it has been a really great! Elder Fonnesbeck and I are on bikes officially, and it is going pretty good. It is incredibly hot here though, so. It is not exactly my cup of tea sprite, but all is well. Training is going alright. My year of experience in the mission sometimes does not give me any credibility apparently for things I do and certain ways I do things. Apparently I have no idea what I am doing, which is of course, false. New missionaries haha, all is well though. I am doing what I know how to do, and I am following the Spirit, so that is what counts. We are starting to meet more of the investigators that the missionaries were seeing last transfer. We met some members, whom have family that are not members. We received training last Wednesday from our zone leaders about the places where we are finding investigators, and how we are trying hard and working hard as a mission, but not looking and working in the right direction or area. Part member families, less active families, and recent convert families is where we have to focus our efforts. We learned a lot about how to work more efficiently with members.
On Thursday and Friday our zone got invited to go and do service at an elementary school for their parent teacher conferences. Can you guess what they needed help with? Translating! Elder Fonnesbeck and I went on Friday with Elder Sorenson, the other district leader in the zone, and his companion. Because Elder Fonnesbeck is exceedingly new, he could not translate, so he sat with me at the tables while I translated the conversations from Spanish to English, and he looked up words in his dictionary for me. It was quite fun to translate, it was hard, and I did not know a lot of school terms in Spanish, but it went pretty well. The gift of tongues is incredibly real. And I am very grateful for it!
Now to general conference. It was so sick! [and that's apparently a good thing] The coolest part was the fact that the speakers got to speak in their native languages! It was so cool! I learned quite a lot, I thoroughly enjoyed Elder Richard G. Scott's talk. Four simple and powerful tools we have - prayer, the scriptures, the temple, and ....(the fourth escaped my memory at the moment) but I enjoyed it! I also really enjoyed Elder Eyring and his remarks on personal revelation.
This past Wednesday I taught district meeting, as I am the district leader, and it was flippin awesome! Our mission has been struggling more than I would like to admit, and so we have been trying to discern what it is that we are lacking. Obedience, diligence, and faith. Three attributes that we all need to improve on, and I can say that studying and constructing the district meeting was incredibly powerful for me. I learned so much. I am not a perfect missionary, nor even close, and now I have goals to be more diligent, obedient, and faithful. I think one specific principle that spoke out to me was actually part of the mission call letter that states, "You will also be expected to devote all your time and attention to serving the Lord, leaving behind all other personal affairs. As you do these things the Lord will bless you and you will become an effective advocate and messenger of the truth. We place in you our confidence and pray that the Lord will help you meet your responsibilities in fulfilling this sacred assignment."
Looking back on my year of service so far, and this quote above from my mission call letter, I realize that I have not laid all of my personal affairs and everything about me on the altar of sacrifice. It is a hard truth to accept, but looking forward now, I have been given the blessing of understanding this. I have one year to serve as a full time missionary, and the rest of my life to devote my time and efforts and talents to my Heavenly Father and Savior.
This past Tuesday Elder Quito came with me on exchanges. Being District leader we are supposed to exchange with each missionary in our district each transfer at least one time. So Elder Quito came with me. Fun fact about Elder Quito, we go home together from the mission, yay! I love this Elder so much. He is a very hard worker, and one of the most humble guys I have met out here. I know he supports me in my calling, and he manifests in the way he fulfills assignments and in how we communicate with each other.
Monday night we went to see a family who is less active, and of course we got lost. Until one of the daughters came out recognized us as missionaries. She helped us find our way, and we met the entire family, and the mom is super cool beans her name is Hermana Trujillo. She has the same birthday as me! So she invited us over for our birthday on Tuesday night for some cake. Super fun!
Let's see, we went to the temple today, and it was the most spiritual visit to the temple that I have ever had. Very personal, so I will not share, but afterwards we headed to Olive Garden and got some decent eating in. I mean, special occasion right? Year mark!
Well that's all folks! I am very grateful for all of the support that I receive, and the prayers on my behalf. I am excited for the last year of service I have to give. I will hold nothing back! I love you all! :)
1) I cooked some fish on exchanges, it was alright, not the fish I would normally choose, it was found in our freezer, it was a huge peace of yellow trout. Kind of gross, but whatevs.
2) The cutest kids ever from a recent convert. I want them for my own children hahaha! They are so great!
3) District Photo in front of the temple!
4) Elder Maughn and I (my best friend out here)
[he forgot to actually attach those referenced pictures]
Your favorite Missionary,
Elder Weston Scott
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