This Church is the same no matter where you go

Hello sweet family!

I hope you are all well today and that this past week was GREAT!

I´m trying to imagine what the weather is like in Colorado, but I don´t remember how winter feels anymore. It is SO HOT TODAY. Since I took my first step outside today, I have been sweating. That´s a nice little image for ya. It´s the truth though.

I just wanted to tell you a thing. Yesterday was Sunday, and instead of having normal church, we had a thing called Stake Conference. So all the Mormons that live in our big city, called La Molina, came together to listen to people speak. It was really fun for me. What I wanted to share was that it literally blows my mind how this church works. It´s the same no matter where you go. People speak different languages, and come from all sorts of different backgrounds and lifestyles, but this church is the same no matter where you go. I love it, and it really stuck out to me yesterday.

This week, we found lots of people and taught lots of people. But yesterday, one of the sweetest families in our ward came out to teach with us. It´s a sweet couple, both returned missionaries, that just love the gospel. We went to their house to talk to them before leaving for our appointments yesterday,and they had us sit down,and were like, " Just wait here one minute." 5 mintues later, they come down all dressed up, and were like "We're coming with you today!" So they came to all of our appointments, and shared some incredible stories and testimonies. I admire the great love they have for this gospel, after all this time. The love in the gospel never ceases to amaze me!

I love you all!

Thank you for your love and support! Have a great week!!!!!

All my love,

Hermana Scott

Buenas tardes

Hello family!! I am feeling really grateful for your emails today and for the love I can feel from you even though we are literally on other sides of the world. Thank you for the words of encouragement and the "I love you´s." Sometimes after a week of walking around and speaking Spanish I forget how much I love to sit here and read about what kind of fun things you´re doing, and receive such kind little messages. Thank you, it means more to me than you know!

So I just wanted to start out this email with a little funny moment. First of all, I STAYED IN CIENEGUILLA! I told you all about my hard emergency transfer thing, but in the end, they kept me here so I didn´t have to move again. It still wasn´t easy to know that I wouldn´t be able to say goodbye, but that literally is just what we do here in the mission. ANYWAY, funny moment. So my companion is Hermana Mack, and she is white like me, from Arizona. We get along really well and have a lot of fun. The other night, we were running late, and it was really dark, and we just happened to be in the darkest part of our area. So, naturally, we decided to run. Not like some frantic super scared run, just a "I´m a little bit spooked, we´re late, and I´d rather run" kind of run. So we were running down the street, singing Taylor Swift, and we saw this guy walking. Obviously, seeing a couple of white girls running in the dark singing in English isn´t a normal thing, so we were just going to pass him and just avoid the weirdness. But at the same time, we looked at each other, stopped running, and turned back to go contact this guy. Hahaha, his face was so funny. I think he was really confused. But we talked to him for like 5 minutes, invited him to church and did that whole missionary thing, then took off running and singing again. It was honestly really weird and we just cracked up, still running. Mormons are weird, but missionaries are definitely weirder.

So this week. I don´t really know where to begin. It was just really filled with a lot of unexpected things. First of all, my new area, Cieneguilla, is HUGE. Seriously. It´s unbelievable. We take a bus because we don´t even live in our area. I literally don´t even know how to explain how huge it is...if you were to go from one end to the other it would take AT LEAST 45 minutes. It´s big. And the thing is, the Hermanas that were here before had quite a few obstacles that prevented them from working so there is so much space that is just completely untouched, and for that reason they also didn´t have very many investigators. So this first week, we went to all the parts, and went searching for people. Just talking to people in the streets,knocking on wrong doors, or asking for help when we got lost. It was honestly super fun. We talked to a ton of people, found a ton of people to teach, and met some really amazing people. This part of my mission is unlike anything I´ve experienced until now...it´s just one huge (I´ll say it again because it´s literally HUGE) project that was just kind of plopped in my lap. I don´t know how or why God thinks I was the right one for this job, but thank goodness I have Hermana Mack because she loves to work. I just have such a huge amount of hope and I am super excited for the time that I will get to spend here in Cieneguilla.

I wanted to share a little experience really fast. The most interesting part of our area is the very farthest part. You take a bus, and it´s literally the very last stop, so it´s like the end of this little world or something. It´s called Rio Seco, which means DRY RIVER. That sounds pretty appealing, right? It´s exactly that - dry. 100% rocks and dirt, and it´s just one giant hill. You get off the bus, and just start climbing this mountain. It´s just this little pueblo...some people that live in the bottom of the hill live in normal-ish houses, but the higher you get, the poorer it gets. They live in little wooden shacks with sheets of metal for roofs. Most don´t have electricity, and I´m still confused about how they have water...maybe there´s some water lines, but I don´t really know. Anyway, it´s totally different from the other parts of the mission I´ve been in. All of Cieneguilla is hills and dirt, but this part especially. Anyway, so one day we went to Rio Seco looking for this less active lady that hasn´t gone to church in 10 ish years. Her name is Isabel Marquez. It took us forever to find her house, because even though they have addresses, they don´t have like fancy little plaques with the number on it. So we asked a million and a half people where this hermana lives (made a lot of contacts though ;) ) and finally found her house after looking for a while. We knock on the door, and of course she´s not there. So we get all sad, and turn to leave. We´re walking down the hill, just kind of thinking about what we were gonna do next, just focused in our own thoughts. We passed two women and just said "Buenas tardes," and kept walking. But my companion and I looked at each other and just kind of the same time turned around to go contact them and invite them to church. We started talking and invited them, and we asked them their names. One said Rufina, and the other said ISABEL MARQUEZ. We just looked at each other and silently freaked out. We told her we had been looking for her and she just got sooo happy and invited us to her house. We had this super sweet,simple lesson with her and her friend, and talked about Jesus Christ like missionaries do, but the Spirit there was so strong. She just soaked it all up and was so excited to have us come back. As we left her house, she just stood there and waved, watched us around the corner, and my companion and I were SO HAPPY.

It was just something really simple. But in that moment, I just felt so strongly in my heart that I really am meant to be here. More than that, that God is preparing these people. It´s so funny how little we actually do out here. But I am just so blessed and happy to be here! I know I will have lots more miracles to share eventually.

I love you all so much! Know that I miss you and still pray for you every day. Have a great week, I will talk to you soon!

I LOVE YOU!!!

Hermana Scott

32 seconds

Buenos días mi querida familia!

I am just going to hop right into this email so I can tell you everything.

This past week was the last week of our transfer. The mission is broken up into 6-week transfers, and at the end of each transfer, missionaries are moved to different places and start in their new areas. Normally in our mission, we stay in one area 2 or 3 transfers, sometimes 4. I think you already understood that. But anyway...

So again, this was the last week of our transfer. Since I was temporarily put in my area, Monterrico, it was pretty much certain that I would only be there for one transfer. So the past few weeks, we have been working really hard. I think I mentioned that last week...we had been in a little slump from the holidays, but we just really picked it up and were seeing lots of miracles and getting to know lots of people. We were working really hard. Last week (Tuesday I think) we had this night of changes. Not for the bad at all - we talked about so many things. I don´t even know how to explain it all, but we just learned so much. About each other, about our goals, etc. And all together, I think we learned about our real purpose as missionaries. All of us are in different places in the mission - I have 5ish months, Hna Killian has 10, and Hermana Phillips almost has 14 - but we all learned and grew that night. It was a really speacial experience for us. 

THEN, the next day, we find out that Hermana Deoporto is going to get surgery and won´t be able to return to her area. It´s hard to explain the situation exactly, but basically, I was sitting in the mission office, happily talking to my companion and some other missionaries, and President and his wife come up to me and tell me that I have to leave Monterrico and go to the area of Hermana Deoporto to take her place. Looking back, I don´t really know why it hit me so hard. But that was like the end of the world for me. It was the last thing that I had expected. I had recently grown to really love Monterrico, I was getting to know the area, and my companions and I had had this really powerful spiritual growth together. We had so many goals for the end of the transfer, and here was President telling me that all of that was just getting thrown out the window. But it´s not like I have a choice...so I went. As soon as he walked away, tears just started rolling down my face. I wasn´t really even crying - it was just like this pain that had overcome my heart and the only way it was going to come out was through some never-ending tears rolling down my cheeks. We went back to the room, I packed up my stuff, and we left. The bus ride to Cieneguilla is like 2 hours, so I just sat there that whole time, with those broken-hearted tears rolling down my cheeks, thinking about our investigators, the families that we had come to know, and all that we had been planning to do. Maybe it sounds dramatic, but in that moment I just didn´t understand. I really didn´t. I was talking to God, just saying things like "Are you crazy? Seriously, are you crazy?" We teach people all the time that God has a plan for us, but in this moment, I just really didn´t get it.

To make the rest of this short, I just wanted to say that I figured it out. I learned more than I already have that really as missionaries WE DON´T DO ANYTHING. If He wanted to, God could just do all this stuff in 32 seconds. But He doesn´t. He gives us this year and a half or two years to learn and grow. He gives us the chance to know these people, He gives us this love that we feel for the people. It all comes from Him.

This scripture is what I read in Moroni in the Book of Mormon "I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite ^agoodness and ^bgrace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end."

I can´t be there forever. I can´t do everything. I´m just some weird American 20 year old, that walks around with ugly shoes and a backpack full of scriptures talking to people in broken spanish. The thing that actually matters is that the people we talk to can hear the message we have, and that we do all that we can to serve the people WHERE WE ARE, and do all we can. Take advantage of each moment that God has given us. 

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

Have a great week, and just know that you are always in my prayers.

I LOVE YOU!

Con amor,

Hermana Michelle Scott

Happy New Year!

HELLO FAMILY!! How are you all?? I hope that this week has been a good one, and that you passed the new year happily :)

 

This week has been kind of dificult out here. Well, acutally, it was one of the best weeks I´ve had. Which doesn´t really go together, but somehow that´s how it works.

 

This week, my companions and I really worked hard. The holidays had us in kind of a slump, and we hadn´t really had a lot going on because either people left to go party on the beach (I don´t blame them) or didn´t want to talk to a couple of gringas because they were hanging out with their families (again, I don´t blame them). We were kind of bummed becuase we just kind of felt like we hadn´t been able to do a whole lot. So we set some goals, and decided to just "go out and do the missionary work." BUT, there´s a little bit of an overlapping story...

 

So my first companion, Hermana Deoporto, and I had our problems. We loved each other, we worked hard together, we saw miracles together, and we had a great time together, but it was not an easy time for either of us. First of all, I didn´t speak any Spanish at the time but was still convinced that I knew everything and that everything should be done in my way, so that didn´t help very much. We defintely had our rough patches. Long nights, trying to work things out. Lots of goal setting, trying to overcome the challenges and trying to learn how to love each other and just focus on the things that really matter (AKA God and His children). I could see that she was struggling, but I don´t think I knew how to help her. We worked together a lot, and as my Spanish improved we were able to talk about a lot of things, but I think that there were a lot of things that got left unnoticed.

 

My current situation is that I am the companion of the "sister leaders." I don´t remember if I already explained this, but if not,every mission is broken up into "zones." For each zone, there are about 20+ ish missionaries, and there are 2 elders that are called Zone leaders. Recently, what the church has decided is that 20 year old men can´t always help 20 year old women with their problems (interestingly enough), so recently they have assigned sister leaders to be sort of like zone leaders for all the sister missionaries. In our mission, there are two companionships that are sister leaders, and I am just the companion of two of the sisters. I hope you're following me. So I am not a sister leader, but I am their companion, and so I obviously do everything with them and help them when I can with their responsibilities.

 

So why this is all important - as the companion of the sister leaders, I always know when people are stuggling, because they always know and are always working to figure it all out. But sadly, Hermana Deoporto has really started having problems, and just is sort of giving up little by little. She had told our mission president that she wanted to go home, and she was really going to do it, but he talked it through with her and she changed her mind. But recently things have gotten really bad....this week, we did a Little division. Since my companions and I are a group of 3, my companion Hermana Phillips went to their area to work with them. To make a long story short, Hna Deoporto just kind of had a break down last night. She started screaming (this is something that I have experienced before, and really, it is SCREAMING) at her companion, and my companion was there to see and hear all of it. She started packing her suitcases and said she was calling president to go home. We got a call at midnight telling us that she had settled down, but the moral of the story is that she is having a really hard time and no one really knows how to help.

 

I kind of blamed myself for a minute when all of this started happening. Like maybe I could have done something or said something to help. But I realized that I shouldn´t think that way. something that Hna Killian (my other comp) said the other day has just been replaying in my head... her friend told her this, but I feel this words in my heart whenever I read them -

 

"I´m on my mission to become someone new. If you´re thinking about where you've been and what you´ve done, you´re limiting your vision of what you can become."

 

Hermana Deoporto is a dear friend of mine. We have overcome our hard times and become friends. But I know that these words are true for me, and even though I know I have so much more to learn and so much more to do, I can feel myself changing. And the amazing thing is that Hermana Deoporto too has changed so much for the better. She just needs to see that, and believe that.

 

Thats the point of all of this. That our own thoughts, and our own actions are the things that keep us from having a bigger vision. A bigger vision of what we can become.

 

I´m out of time. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! Know that I am thinking of you and I am always praying for you!!

 

Have a great week!

 

Mucho amor,

Hermana Scott

A week filled with love and sunshine

Buenos días!

What a week it has been! Seriously, this week has been so great, so filled with love and sunshine. A little cheesy, but true.

 

I wanted to start out by explaining, as I may already have before, that I am almost a giant in this country. Being 5´9 isn´t that impressive in America, but here, 5´9 is equivalent to 8 feet in the States. I realized this as I was standing in one of the buses that we take everywhere, called "combis" which are basically just like mini vans with a roof that is up just a little bit higher than normal. I was standing next to this sweet little Peruvian lady, she was just standing there normally, her head not even touching the ceiling, and I was literally hunched over in the most uncomfortable position, with my neck bent in some unnatural, inhuman way. It was a funny moment until I got out of the combi and smacked the top of my head super hard just like I do EVERY SINGLE TIME. It´s just one of those things you never really get used to.

 

I don't have much time left, just like usual, but I just wanted to share something I learned this week. I absolutely loved talking to you guys on Christmas. I thought it was going to make me sad and homesick, but it literally just made me so happy that it was impossible to be sad. And I´m still feeling that happiness! That was easily the best Christmas gift I´ve ever gotten. I was honestly kind of bummed because none of my packages arrived in time to open on Christmas, but on Christmas Eve my companions and I swapped some small gifts, shared stories about our lives, and just hung out in the dark in our room, HAPPY, listening to the traditional Peruvian Christmas fireworks as we went to sleep. I realized that night that I didn´t need the material gifts, and that was even clearer to me as we started talking on Christmas day. That was just so fun for me!

 

Sorry to throw in a scripture, but I´m a missionary so I can´t help it. In Luke chapter 2 in the Bible, we can read about the birth of Jesus. I didn´t read this until the day after Christmas actually, but it talks about when the angel appears to the shepherds. It says that the shepherds were attending their flocks, taking care of them, doing their jobs just like normal. But the angel comes, tells them about Jesus, and IMMEDIATELY they leave to go see Jesus. Not only that - the thing that I find most interesting is that the angel never really even tells the shepherds that they need to go see Jesus. It wasn´t even really a question - the angel just told them what was happening. But the shepherds recognized what they needed to do, so they left immediately to go and do it. They come to the place where Jesus, Joseph and Mary are, they see the baby, and the scriptures say that from that moment they left and told all people about what they saw. It´s something really interesting, and I can see very clearly how this scripture would apply to a missionary, but it applies to all of us. Christmas has already passed, so the trees come down, and we move on and go back to work and all of the other things that we normally do. Just like the shepherds, we have all of daily duties that need to be taken care of. But we can always find room for the things that are most important if we can first be willing to act, and second be ready - Ready to accept guidance, change, invitations. Whatever it may be. The thing that matters is that we have a Savior. We don't just have a Savior on Christmas, but every day. Always.

 

Sorry I am out of time again. I just want to say that I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and enjoy the beginning of this new year! You know what´s crazy, I complete 5 months in the mission tomorrow...aah, time flies.

 

I LOVE YOU! Until next week!

Hermana Scott

I wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Hello family and friends! I can´t believe that it´s already Christmas! I hope that each and every one of you have a very Merry Christmas and that it is a day filled with love and SNOW, 'cause I certainly won´t have any of that! :)

Speaking of days filled with love, I had the best birthday! Thank you for all of the birthday wishes. First of all, I got to talk to you guys briefly on the phone, and that was probably the greatest gift I could have ever gotten. It was so awesome, because as a mission we celebrated Christmas that day also. So half of the mission came together (the other half did it the next day...there´s lots of missionaries, we have to take turns) and celebrated Christmas! We just did a lot of goofy things, like every zone did a skit in front of everyone, and we watched some videos, sang some songs, and they gave us some sweet gifts. We all got a personalized journal and a santa hat. AND about 100 missionaries sang Happy Birthday to me in English AND Spanish. There is a girl in the mission named Hermana Mack, and it was her birthday, and she completed 20 years too! It was cool. I can´t believe I am 20 years old. The first thing I said when I woke up was "Ew I´m 20." Haha but it was a great day! Later we went out to this fancy Peruvian restaurant, then went to this huge park called "El Parque de las Aguas" or something like that. It sounds funny, because it is. It was a park of a bunch of huge fountains, water tunnels, and random things like that. All of the missionaries just had a blast becuase we don´t ever do weird things like that. It was awesome and hilarious and we just played and ran around, and it was a very happy day :)

Other than that, we have really worked hard this week. While we were celebrating Christmas, we ran into this teenage boy at the park, and starting talking to him, and found out that he lives in our area. So we went and visited him this week, and his sister in law and brother were also there. They told us that they had already been to church a number of times, but that they had gone in a different city and when they moved they didn´t know where the church was. So they listened to us, and basically just told us straight up that they all want to get baptized, and that they wanted us to meet the rest of their family because her mom had always wanted to get baptized. We were just sitting there with the dumbest look on our faces like, "Yeah...sure." That NEVER happens. Let me repeat that..NEVER. That is a LITERAL miracle, and I don´t know how to explain the joy that we felt. We left, and since they live on the third floor of this building, they can see us until we turn the corner of the street, so as we were walking we were like "okay just keep it cool, act natural..." Then we turned the corner and just started jumping up and down, there may have been some tears, but really we were just so happy. It amazes me every day how as missionaries we literally don´t do anything. We just show up, or talk to someone on the street, and realize in these moments that God has already prepared these people to receive our message. I am realizing more and more that I need to be SO dang humble to do this work, because there are still so many times that I just want to do things my way, and realize that I really don´t know anything. I like to think that sometimes when I say stuff, God just kind of chuckles to himself and says "Someday you´ll learn." We have taught this family twice, and they are learning little by little, they have about 100 million questions, but we love to answer them. Bryan is 18, Cesar is 17, and Winnie is 21. Vanessa, the sister in law, is 25 I think. And they introduced us to Winnie´s boyfriend Carlos and Cesar´s friend Piero last night. They´re not even members, but they´re already so excited about the church and just want to learn more about it. It´s really amazing, and they´re all so sweet.

So I wanted to share one more thing this week. After I found out about Karl, Claire, and all that happened, my heart just shattered. I can´t even explain the sadness that I felt...it´s just so hard to be so far away, and just worse to think about the sadness and pain that so many people are experiencing right now. I wanted to share a personal experience...so I literally didn´t know how I was going to work that day. Every other minute, I would just start crying, I think I cried that whole day. I wanted to get out there and work, but I was just an emotional wreck. One thing that the men in the church do is give blessings of health and comfort, and what we believe is that they have the legitimate power to speak for God. So when someone receives a blessing, it´s not just words coming from the mouth of some random dude, rather they are literally speaking the words that God is saying to this person receiving the blessing. The only thing I could think of to do was receive one of these blessings, because I had no idea what else to do. So I called our zone leaders (one american, one latino) and asked if I could get this blessing in English. I don´t really know how to explain exactly what I felt in the moments that I was receiving the blessing, but one of the things that he told me that God knows us perfectly and has a plan for each and every one of His children. I have been hanging on to these words this week, and doing all that I can to believe in them without any doubt. I don´t doubt it, but sometimes we just don´t understand why things happen. I don´t know why all of these had to happen at Arapahoe. I don´t know why any bad thing happens to anyone, but I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God has a plan. We may not ever understand it, but He does.

I wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Just know that I pray for you and love you all more than I can explain! Thank you for all of the Merry Christmases and Happy Birthday´s, they mean more to me than you know!

I LOVE YOU!

Hermana Scott

Feel the love

Hey there family!

So I am feeling really weird as I write this email. I know you all told me not to worry about it, but what you have all told me about the shooting really really surprised me, and I still have tears pouring non stop down my face. I just can´t really fathom the fact that that really happened. What´s more is that I knew Karl...he was my friend. I was his Link Leader. He bought my AP US History text book for $30 right before I left on my mission. Never in my life would I have imagined that this would happen. My heart goes out to you guys, that community. I don´t think I knew Claire, but regardless, that´s the most heartbreaking thing that I have heard in so long. I feel bad, I just ran out of this internet cafe bawling like a maniac, and my district leader from Honduras had no idea how to help me. I know this situation isn´t a funny at all, but I kind of laughed when I saw his face, probably thinking... "crap, that girl is white and doesn´t speak spanish, and she´s a girl." My life is still awesomely awkward.

All I can really think about to tell you at this point is one thing that happened this week. We had divisions for two days with some hermanas in a different area, and my companion Hna Phillips and I went to an area called Cieneguilla. It is probably the most beautiful area that I have seen in my almost 5 months out here. First of all, their area is HUGE. You have to take a bus for like 35 minutes to get from one end to the other. And it´s all mountains, hills, and GREEN trees. There´s not a whole lot of green in Lima. Just a lot of buildings, dirt, and empty windows. But not in Cieneguilla. When we were there, I felt like I was on a grand adventure. I loved being able to see green, flowers, and mountains again. It was amazing. The greatest part though was when we met the bishop. So Hna Phillips had served in this area for 5 months, so she knew everyone really well and had the area memorized almost. And the bishop just thought she was the best missionary in the world. Which she is amazing, but it was just so cool for me to see how much he appreciated what she had done for his ward. He is kind of a funny, awkward guy, but the love that he has for people is something that you can just feel. We had gone to his house, and we met his whole family, and you can just tell that this family is being raised with so much love. The kids are just happy, little balls of energy, and they are so friendly and just love to play. The bishop and his wife live in a humble house, but they are so happy and they love serving the Lord, and they´re not ashamed to talk about how much they love the church. I literally don´t know how to explain it, but I had been thinking of my first area a lot, and missing the people there, and when we had this division I missed it more. I just fell in love with Surco, what can I say. But meeting this bishop in some random part that I had never been in, I realized that that is exactly what this gospel is all about. Love. The love of God for His children, the love of Jesus Christ. Of course the missionaries, who teach this thing all the time, should feel that love. That´s the hope at least. That we feel love for the people we serve. And as I talked to this bishop, and could so easily feel and see the love that he has for this gospel, I felt it too. And I thought of the people I´m serving now in Monterrico, the less actives, the investigators, the members...I love them, too. I don´t really know what Im trying to say, but the love that I feel and teach about every day is something undeniable.

I think I thought to share that because of what happened at Arapahoe. There are so many people in the world who don´t feel that love, who don´t know the happiness that comes with believing in something greater than yourself. I am so thankful for the knowledge that I have of this love, and grateful that I not only feel it from my Heavenly Father, but from all of you as well. I love you, and I miss you. Take care of yourselves, and know that I am praying for you.

All of my love,

Hermana Scott