Peace, hope and miracles

Hello family!!! I hope you are all doing well and that this has been a great week. I feel like I always say that, but I really mean it!

 

Well, I´m writing you with tears in my eyes. But good tears; really good tears. I feel so happy and so blessed, I don´t even know where to begin, I don´t know how to explain how I feel.

 

Right now, I´m sitting in Surco. The place where I started my mission. I´m here because we had to do divisions today so that my companion can go to the doctor. So I´m here, in my very first area, almost a year later. As I was walking in the streets, I realized how different I am. When I started the mission, I was still so stubborn, a little too confident, and super prideful. Now, that doesn´t mean that I´m not still a little stubborn (still got lots of flaws....) but as I was walking around in these streets that I know like the back of my hand, I really felt that in the course of my mission, I have changed and grown and learned so much. It´s been over a year! Sometimes I can´t believe that a whole year has already passed, and I feel like it was just yesterday that I stepped off the plane, taking my first steps in a foreign land. I feel so happy, and I feel like God has blessed me SO much! It´s really just incredible.

 

I wanted to share an experience that we had this week. On Wednesday morning, we received a call from a sister that lives in a different area, but she had communicated with the missionaries in her ward and they gave her our number, and she called and told us that there was an emergency and that she needed us to go visit one of her friends. She lives in a city called La Molina, and we live in San Luis, but she works in our area with this guy. She explained what was happening, and her friend´s dad had already had cancer for a while, but it had gotten really serious and in the past few days it had really taken over his body and he was going die within a few hours. So she told us to go to her friend´s house at 6 in the evening, and we went with the elders so that they could give the dad a blessing, as well as the members of their family. So remember that in the church, men hold the priesthood of God, which is the power to act in His name with the intention of blessing God´s children. They literally can bless people in God´s name, the blessing being the words that God wishes to communicate with the person receiving the blessing. (I hope you understand my horrible English...it´s getting bad, sorry). When we walked into the house, it was such a sad scene. The dad was lying in his bed, perked up by pillows and attached to an oxygen tank thing, and he was already unconscious and totally out of it. It was really hard to see. And his kids, who are about 25 and 30 years old, just looked so sad. The look in their eyes was one of real pain and sadness, and tears just sprung to my eyes. We explained to them what we were going to do, what the Priesthood is and the reasons why we were here as missionaries...to be able to serve all people and invite them to come unto Jesus Christ. The Elders gave a blessing to the dad, and afterwards gave a blessing to the son (Jose) and the daughter (named "Lluvia" which means "rain" in English. cool name, right?) As soon as the Elder said the word "Amen" in the last blessing, the whole atmosphere of in the house changed. We all just kind of sat there for a minute, and looked at each other almost in shock for how strongly we felt the Spirit. It was a feeling that I´ll never forget. Afterwards, we sat down and spoke with them for a little while, explained a little bit about the Plan of Salvation, and scheduled another appointment to go back another day. Jose and Lluvia thanked us, and we left. When we were all outside (the 4 of us, with the elders) we just stood there for a minute smiling, with tears in our eyes. It was a moment when all 4 of us really felt that God had led us to that family and that they were ready to receive the gospel.

 

A few days later, we received a call from Jose and he told us that that same night his dad passed away. But in his own words, he said that he "felt a great peace" and that after we left, a feeling of calm and peace had filled them with hope. When at one point they were so devastated, they felt that they could accept the passing of their father, and felt that they had been changed by what happened that night.

 

So, now what? You can probably assume that we are teaching this family. You´re right! :) We visited them yesterday, and explained to them how the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored in these days by the prophet Joseph Smith. We taught them from beginning, and when we finished, they were all smiling and kept saying how they had been searching for the truth for so long and that they´ve finally found it. We´re going to keep visiting them and help them reach the point when they decided to follow the Savior and get baptized in His church.

 

That´s just one of the miracles that I´ve seen on my mission. But it´s a real miracle! THAT is a miracle. We have to find the sister who called us and thank her, and tell her how much has happened since that call she made, looking for someone to help her friend.

 

It makes me think of how my dear friend Emma Lattin invited me to church not so long ago. And, how even before that, Shelby Barton had invited me. I too was one of those people that needed to find God and find the truth. Through Emma and the entire Lattin family, all of the members of the Orchard Ward, and the missionaries that had so much patience with me, I too was able to come to know the truth.

 

Do you not see how true it all is? To me, it´s just too simple. I feel so blessed to be a missionary, to be able to testify of Jesus Christ and get to know so many wonderful people. Life is hard, and we all of trials and weaknesses and temptations and doubts. But God knows His children, and He has a plan for them.

 

I just want you to know that I am so happy. I love being a missionary, and I wish this time of my life never had to end. I also understand that someday you´d like me to come home ... ;) Just don´t worry about me. Everything is great here; I´m happier than I´ve ever been in my life.

 

I hope that you can learn to trust in God, and look for answers to your questions. Have faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ and always believe in miracles. One of my favorite scriptures says it all perfectly: "...this is my life and my light, my joy and my salvation, and my redemption from everlasting wo. Yea, blessed is the name of my God, who has been mindful of this people... yea, I say, blessed be the name of my God, who has been mindful of us, wanderers‍ in a strange land. Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful‍ of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen." (Alma 26 36-37)

 

That is literally exactly how I feel. I am a wanderer in a strange land, just like Ammon was so long ago. But it´s okay, because God is mindful of me, just as He is of each of you.

I hope you each have a great week! Remember that I love you SO much!!!

All my love,

Hermana Michelle Scott

A new companion

Hello family!

Well, this week we had transfers. And the crazy thing is that my companion had transfers! I stayed here again in Canadá! Isn´t that weird? Maybe not for you, but for me it´s super weird. She only had one transfer here, and I already had two. But they changed her, not me. We didn´t understand why, and my companion was really sad.

But that day that we had transfers, we had a huge reunion with the whole mission. EVERY missionary in our mission was in the same chapel at the same time. That´s over 200 missionaries. It was one of the coolest moments of my life. We sang the classic missionary hymn "Called to Serve," and our mission president started to explain to us that he hadn´t really wanted to change all of us. But that it was the impression that he received from the Lord; that all of the changes that were made were made because that was what God wanted. My new companion is crazy; just to be honest, she is the last person that I would have chosen as my companion if I ever had to chose. But in these days, I have felt that what our president said is true. I really believe that I stayed here for a reason, and that I am with my companion for something greater than we understand right now.

My companion´s name is Hermana Paris, and she´s from Chile. I am with a sister from CHILE, named PARIS, in CANADA, in PERU still. What the weird, right? Lot´s of things going on there. Like I said, she´s crazy, but we are having so much fun together already. It´s going to be a great 6 weeks. 

I just want you to know that I know that God has a plan for us. He is in charge of everything we see. Like it says in the Book of Mormon, in 2 Nephi 2: But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.

I love you all so much. Have a great week, and remember that I´m always praying for you!

All my love,

hermana michelle scott

He shall prepare a way

Hello my dear, sweet family!! I am writing you on a sunny afternoon. I LOVE THE SUN. Winter in Lima is not the most beautiful thing in the world. It´s just cold and gray and humid and rainy. But, if you´ve got a smile on your face and a Book of Mormon in your hand, the cold´s not so bad ;) But today we have sunshine!! And that´s the best! So there is nothing to complain about.

Today we had a big P-day of all sisters. That was super fun. We just hung out and watched a movie, and played some funny little games. I kind of felt like I was at a Young Women´s activity at church. It was super fun and all of the sisters were just being...sisters. Hahah I don´t know how to explain it. But it was a great time!

This week has been really interesting. A lot of really small miracles have happened, and those are the reasons we keep working right? If we don´t have the results we want, we still need to look at the small blessings we have. For example, there is a family in our ward, the Familia Ynga, that is like 92 % inactive in the church. The whole family are members of the church, the grandma and the grandpa, and all of their children (8 in total), but only the grandparents go to church regularly. It´s really sad actually, but we love them all and we are visiting them and trying to get them back to church. The grandpa was inactive for YEARS also, but in the past few months has started going back to church and is active again. That has been a huge blessing and honestly a big surprise for his family. His name is Alfredo but everyone calls him "nene" which means "little boy" in Spanish. His wife is Elena, but they all call her "nena" or "little girl" :) they are the sweetest humans in the world! I love them so much. But anyway, el Hermano Nene is a little stubborn. We were telling him that he needed to talk to the bishop because the next step for him and his wife is entering the temple to get sealed! He was really nervous for the interview and really didn´t want to go. We went to visit them the day of the interview, and talked to them about enduring to the end. We talked about the importance of the family, and of the priesthood. He really understood the lesson, and afterward he told us he was going to see the bishop. He stood up and said "Let´s go nena. I gotta go talk to the bishop." (in Spanish, though) The bishop told us later that it was a super spiritual interview, and since the bishop can´t tell us anything that the hermano said, he just said "Trust me hermanas, he listens to you when you teach. He is one great man." So he´s getting ready to enter the temple with his wife! Its going to be a great time. We´re not sure when, but he´s in the process. He will be a great example for all of his children as well.

Something interesting happened with my companion a while ago that I never really explained. She had a period of time when she literally wanted to go home, and didn´t want to work. She would tell me that she was going to call the president, have an interview, and she was convinced that he would hear her out and send her home just like that. It was rough to see her like that, because I knew that she didn´t REALLY want to go home. Sometimes she´d be normal and happy, but something difficult would happen (cancelled appointments, lack of sleep, upset stomach) and she would get all depressed and just not want to do it anymore. I know how hard it can be, but during that time, I had to just put a smile on all the time and help her to get over it. There were times when I wanted to just tell her to shut up, or times that I wanted to just let her call president and let him deal with it, but somehow God helped me to have the patience that I needed to be able to help her. Patience has always been an attribute that I lacked...I still need to work on it actually, but I feel like I came to understand a little bit more about it. And there have been many times when she has had to be really patient with me. It´s really funny how the mission is. It can be so dramatic, but it´s the best time in the world. The other day I was pretty emotional, a little stressed out about some things and sad about the up-coming transfers, and my companion told me, "Hermana Scott, even though I never tell you, I really do love you. Don´t worry. Every thing is going to be okay if we trust in God." It just made me want to cry. I feel really blessed to have been able to see this great change in her. That is what this gospel is all about...forgiveness, love and change. I felt so grateful for what she said to me that day when I was a little down in the dumps. She reminded me of one of the most famous Mormon scriptures: 

And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save He shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which He commandeth them.

I love how God teaches us. I had thought that I was placed with my companion to help her, but really it seems like it was the other way around. God does all that He does for a very specific reason, and He will be with us in each step of the way to help us understand and do what he wants us to do. 

I feel really blessed and happy. I hope that you are enjoying the last little bit of summer. We´re going to be leaving winter soon, so when it´s cold over there, I´ll be getting sun burned and enjoying the sun here :) I love you all so much more than you know! I hope this week is filled with little miracles and that you can understand a little bit more of God´s great plan. 

I LOVE YOU!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Scott

Families are the best

Hey there family! I hope you are all doing well. This week has been super great, our area is progressing and changing so much. It´s still pretty cold here in Lima, but what really is a bummer is that it´s really humid. I feel like it wouldn´t be as cold if it wasn´t so humid. But that´s okay.

I wanted to share a sweet experience that we had yesterday. Remember how I told you about Nancy? We have been teaching 2 of her 6 kids, Jesus and Roberto. They are super great, but super shy also. They don´t talk very much, but they really like our visits. They seem to be understanding everything that we are teaching, and they are starting to open up a little bit more. Roberto is 15 and Jesus is 13. Roberto has been getting a lot more involved in the church and going to all of the activities. It stinks because Jesus is a little bit more shy and hasn´t really gotten very involved, and he wasn´t going to church for the past few weeks. Roberto went 2 Sundays in a row, but Jesus didn´t want to go. This week, we had a really good lesson with them both, and they were asking questions and talking a lot more. Yesterday, we went to their house to pick them up with a lady from our ward, Patty, and her son Sebastian, who is their age. Jesus was the first one to walk out of the house - he finally went to church!! It was so exciting. They became friends like right away, and Jesus and Roberto really actually had fun in the classes with the other Young Men. It was so sweet.

The best part? We all sat down together in the sacrament meeting, Nancy, Jesus, Roberto, my companion and I, and all of a sudden another one of her sons, Julio, walks in and sits down next to us too. He is a member of the church already, but is inactive and hasn´t gone to church for years. It was such a sweet moment, I couldn´t help but let a few tears out. It was just a sweet moment when a broken family could be all together to feel God´s love. 

Families are the best. We are always taught that we should always look for FAMILIES to teach, because we were put here in families to learn and grow and progress TOGETHER. 

This week is going to be really good, I´m really excited. It looks like we´re going to be having exchanges next week, we´ll know on Tuesday. It´s possible that they kick me out of Canadá, but we´ll see. 

I hope you have a great week, I love you and I will be talking to you soon!

All my love,

Hermana Michelle Scott