Happy and healthy!

Buenos días family! I hope you are doing well, and that this week has been super great!

Wanna know something sad/cool/interesting/exciting? We have a new mission president! I was really sad that Presidente Ardila left, but he finished his mission. And our new President is American! The official language of the mission is going to be English. Just kidding, that´s just a joke. We´re still going to speak Spanish. That was supposed to be funny, I hope you laughed.

Well, this week has been really interesting, filled with lots of super happy moments, embarrassing moments, and really spiritual moments. Yesterday, we had a lesson with an Hermana that has been inactive for over 20 years. During those 20 years, she had 6 children, and none of them are members. Yesterday we met two of them, Jesus and Roberto. They are two teenagers, super shy, that really don´t know much about God. Their situation is really difficult, half of the kids live with the dad, the other half with the mom, and neither of the parents have a job, and things are really difficult. Both of them were really excited to listen to us though, and even though they didn´t say much, they listened really intently as we talked. At the end of the lesson, my companion and I both felt the spirit so strongly, and we invited them to get baptized. They both said YES, and we are going to be working with this family to help them find and know God.

Things are great, we are happy and healthy! Sorry that I haven´t sent any pictures for so long, next week a longer email and pictures!

I love you all so much! Have a great week!!!! Know that I love you! Talk to you soon!!

All my love,

Hermana Scott

You need to be strong

Good morning family! How are all of you? I hope that this has been a great week for you and that you are enjoying the lovely summer weather. It´s actually been relatively nice here, we´ve had some sunny days and I´ve been walking around with a red face just like always. It´s been pretty great!

Last week, I didn´t really know how to write a letter because I was really, really bummed. I didn´t even know how to pretend that I wasn´t sad, so I just decided to skip the whole public letter things. It´s hard for me to admit that I am struggling, I like talking to God about it because I know He doesn´t judge me. But sometimes He´s the only one who knows because I really don´t like other people to know that I struggle.

Why is that? I still don´t really know. I think it´s mostly pride. I sometimes think that as missionaries, we have this expectation to be happy all the time, and that we shouldn´t complain because we´re doing the Lord´s work! We really SHOULD be happy, because we´re doing the happiest thing in the world. Seriously, it´s a message of happiness. But, unfortunately, we´re not prefect. And sometimes we get sad too. And I got sad last week.

But then something truly incredible happened. We had transfers again, and my new companion came. She is also from Bolivia, and she came from her other area really sad and really discouraged. She talked about how sad she was to leave all of the members, and how she knew she was going to be okay but that she just needed a little bit of time to get used to the change. She has 5 months in the mission, and this is the first time she´s had to leave an area. I felt bad, she was crying and the only thing I could do was just listen to her. She talked one night about how her dad told her that if she left on the mission, he wouldn´t support her or talk to her or anything, and that´s really what happened. He didn´t give her anything for her mission, he didn´t go to say goodbye when she left, and he doesn´t write her now that she´s here. It is so sad, and it breaks my heart. Right before my other companion left, she told me something really specific and profound : "You need to be strong Hermana Scott." It sounds a little dramatic, a little bit like a cheesy movie scene, but that´s one of the last things she told me. And that´s really just what I had to do. I just kind of had to suck up all of the poopy things, and get over myself. I feel like these are words I´ve said before in other emails I´ve written you guys, but hey, it´s all about learning and growing up. 

I have had one of the best weeks of my mission, I have been so happy and excited every day, and I know that it´s because I´m learning how to forget about myself. I´m learning how to love the people around me with a real, Christ-like love. I know that I have a lot of things to learn, a lot of things to work on, but I thank God for this time He´s giving me to serve His children and work out my kinks in the process.

I hope you understand what I´m trying to say...I´m forgetting more and more English every day.

LIFE IS GOOD! And I am happy! And I love the mission.

One time a friend said this, and I feel like it´s perfectly true -

"Every day I think about you less, but every day I love you more."

Time is flying! I hope you have a great week, the next time I write you I´ll be completing 11 months in the mish! What the weird?! I LOVE YOU!

All of ,my love,

Hermana Michelle Scott

Unshakeable faith

HI FAMILY!

So here´s the thing. I have 5 minutes left, but I just wanted to tell you something scary/funny that happened this week. 

We were in a lesson, and all of a sudden, everything started shaking. Or better said, everything started QUAKING (haha, that´s punny). I experienced for real my first earthquake! And it was not a little baby one...it was pretty strong. But the good news is that it wasn´t a big deal. But everyone and their mom thought it was going to be really bad, so everyone left their houses screaming and praying to God. I was genuinely freaked out at first, but all of a sudden, I felt the Spirit. I felt this great peace in my heart, and I didn´t understand why. But later in the day, after talking to everyone about how scary it was, I realized I felt that peace in my heart because I wasn´t afraid. Those people that started crying and screaming to God, they had something they needed to get off their chest before "the end of the world". I feel like I don´t have anything that I regret, I feel good with my God.

Why wait? Why not just have faith in God NOW, trust in Him, and do those simple things he asks us to do? I´m not gonna lie, I´m a little earthquake paranoid, but everything is okay. I know that what we´re doing out here is important, because everyone deserves to have an "unshakeable" faith in God. I have a lot of work to do with that too. We always need to improve, and show God that we love him.

I LOVE YOU ALL! Have a great week! 

All of my love,

Hermana Scott

Let your faith show!

Hello family! I hope you had a great week. This week has been really fun. My companion and I are becoming friends, and it turns out that life is happier when you laugh a lot.

I just wanted to share a really weird experience I had the other day. We were basically running from one appointment to the next, because we were a little bit late. The streets here are really crowded and there´s always a ton of people going from place to place, but as we passed a restaurant, I saw a blind man struggling with the steps leading down to the sidewalk. He made it safely to the sidewalk and started moving hesitantly toward the crosswalk. We caught up to him, and passed by just as he ran straight into a light post. It was just like what you would see in a movie - his face hit the pole, and his body kept moving, and it just looked painful. Nobody else noticed, thank goodness, because someone might have laughed or something, but he just shook his head and kept moving. It was a moment that made me feel so sad. I don´t even know how to explain it...just so much sadness for this man, I don´t want to say I felt pity but basically that´s what it is, right? I told my companion we should help him cross the street, so we went over and started talking to him. He told us where he needed to go, thank goodness, because he was headed in the complete wrong direction. I put my hand on his shoulder to keep him from walking into the middle of the busy intersection, and asked if we could help him. Very quickly he noticed that my accent was not Peruvian, and asked where I was from. I told him I was from the USA, and that we were missionaries from "La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días." If we´re being totally honest, I think the part that was most interesting to this man was the fact that I was American. But, we crossed the street, and somehow he managed to get his arm completely around my shoulders, so I was hunched over completely trying to help this short (very, very short) man cross the road. We get to the other side, and he just plops this huge, slobbery kiss on my cheek and takes off. I don´t know where he ended up going, if he got to where he needed to be, but I just stood there so surprised. My companion just died laughing, and I didn´t know if I should be offended or if that was like my "thank you" and I should just say "You´re welcome". Hahaha it was really just a strange moment of my life. 

I feel like that´s just a weird example of life, the way that we as people serve other people. There are a lot of times when we have the chance to serve others, but we just pass by because we are busy or because in the moment our problems are more important than whatever could be happening in someone else´s life. Sometimes they´re little things, like helping someone cross the street, or sometimes they´re bigger, more noticeable things. The funny thing about this man, is that no matter how much I might wish that my little act of service would be the reason for this man to search our church, talk to the missionaries, and get baptized, it just isn´t going to happen that way. That´s just not how it works.

I just wanted to share that little thought with you. Also this one - 

I was reading the talks from General Conference (where all of the leaders of the church speak to all of the members of the church) and the Elder Russel M Nelson said a few things that I loved in his talk in April : "Faith is the antidote for fear...When we speak of faith - the faith that can move mountains - we are not speaking of faith in general but of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ." He also said "Truth is truth! It is not divisible, and any part of it cannot be set aside. Whether truth emerges from a scientific laboratory or through revelation, all truth emanates from God. All truth is part of the gospel of Jesus Christ."

I can´t explain the greatness of the truth that Elder Nelson expressed right here. Everything, every single basic thing in our lives, is centered in Jesus Christ. Those little acts of service to waking up in the morning to go to work. All that we see, who we are - all of it comes back to the basic fact that there is someone greater than us who loves us perfectly and gave us all that He was so that we might be able to find Him in this life, and exercise that faith that Elder Nelson mentioned.

I want you to know that I believe that is true. With all of my heart. I am so happy! I love my mission and I love Jesus. Thanks for being the best family in the world. I love you all so much! 

Have a great week! I will be talking to you soon!

All of my love,

Hermana Michelle Scott

We just follow Him and He does it all

Hey there family! I hope you had a great week, I love, LOVE the picture from graduation. Seriously, it makes me feel slightly weird but at the same time I love it and I am really happy that I could kind of be there to support the big stud on his big day :) Thank you family, for being weird enough to bring a giant cardboard picture of me to a large public gathering. If that´s not love, I don´t know what is.

I´m writing you today from my new area, Canadá en San Luis, Lima, Perú! It happened, transfers came. It´s been a little rough this week, I really do honestly miss Cieneguilla like crazy. I cried a lot the first few days, during breakfast, during lunch, during dinner. Sometimes during planning at night. In the bathroom. The good news is that I´m not a super dramatic crier. Just a few tears that come from the soul, as I like to say. But I think that I´ve cried enough, and the truth is I really like my new area. I just have to learn to love it just as much as I love Cieneguilla. 

My new companion is really great. Her name is Hermana Arratia, from Bolivia. These days, she´s been really supportive when I´ve been a little sad about leaving Cieneguilla. She was originally called to serve in Venezuela, but she had to wait for her visa so she started in Bolivia. Four days before Christmas, they sent her to Venezuela, and just 2 months ago she came to Peru because the situation is really bad in Venezuela. So all of her transfers have been a little bit more intense. She is really great, and she teaches really well. We get along really well...we´re really different, but it´s okay. It´s working out well for now.

Something really cool happened the other day. We were walking to an appointment, and a guy stopped us in the street and told me he had a Bible that he wanted to give me because it was in English and he didn´t know how to read it. It made me laugh at first, I thought "How do they ALWAYS know I speak English?" but he went into his store to look for the Bible and we waited for him outside. When he came out, I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time, because it was a Book of Mormon!!! I couldn´t stop smiling. He said, "I really want to read it but I don´t know how, so when you passed by I thought you might like to read it." It was just one of the sweetest moments of my life. We talked to this man about the Book of Mormon, told him that we were going to send missionaries to his house, and gave him a Libro de Mormon that he can actually understand. It´s pretty amazing how God works. I always say we don´t do anything; we just follow Him and He does it all.

I want you to know that I am really happy, I love being a missionary, and I love you so much. I hope you have a great week, know that I love you and I will be talking to you soon!

ALL of my love,

Hermana Michelle Scott

Feeling the love

HI!!

I don´t have much time left. But I just wanted to tell you something sweet. Yesterday, since it was my last Sunday in Cieneguilla, the bishop asked me to go up and share my testimony and the end of the reunion. I am a little bit of a mush ball, but I didn´t cry. But when I was up there, I felt so much love. I felt this genuine love for the people of Cieneguilla, and a huge, undeniable love for and from my God.

I´m going to know tonight about the transfers, so next week I´ll tell you all about what happens!

I love you so much! Have a great week and I´ll talk to you soon!!!

All of my love,

Hermana Scott

The blessings of Skype

Hello family!!! It was so great to see your sweet faces yesterday. I am sorry that the connection was so bad, but it was okay because we still got to talk and I got to see you. Thank you all for being there to share that sweet little moment :) Hermana and Hermano Balvin and my companion all loved being able to meet you! They said that you were all very nice and "lindos" which means cute. So that´s a nice compliment! I think you´re all cute too. Except that weird creepy card board cut out of me is definitely less cute. But that´s okay.

So since I just saw you yesterday I feel like there´s not much to say. But I wanted to tell you a little story about my companion. After I hung up with you guys, my companion called her family. My companion is so sweet, and from what she says about her family I´ve just assumed this whole time that they were all sweet. And it´s true! She introduced me to her family, (it was a little bit easier for me because I actually speak Spanish) and they were SO excited. Her mom started crying and kept saying "Thank you for taking care of my daughter," and her sister said the same thing "Thank you for taking care of her". Her dad didn´t say much (he made me think of you, daddy) but he also told me thank you. Her sister also said to tell you Congratulations mother for getting baptized!! It was so sweet to think that my companion had told her family about that, and when I met them over a little skype phone call, they expressed so much love for something that I sometimes think is so simple. For example, whether I love my companion or not, I have to be with her all the time. If I´m "taking care of her" it´s because we literally have no other choice. Now the good thing about that is that I really do love my companion, and I TRY to take care of her, but it´s something that her family sees in a very different way. It was really interesting, and it was honestly really touching.

As she was finishing her phone call, she talked directly to her dad for a minute. Her dad is a member of the church, but hasn´t gone in years. He didn´t want her to go on a mission, but told her that he always knew she was going to and that he would support her. As she was talking to him, she asked him really bluntly if he was going to church, even though she already knew the answer was no. She said "Papi, if you want to understand what it is that I do here, if you want to know why we love it so much, and if you want to be with us forever, you have to go to church." Then she bore her testimony about all of what she believes in, and they all cried, I think that her dad cried the most of all of them. 

I know that you know that I love you guys. I know that I´ve always been a weird, loud person that "eats a lot," like Hermano Balvin said last night. But seeing you and talking to you yesterday made me realize that I love you so much that there´s nothing else that I could possibly do to show it than to be out here on a mission. Being here, teaching about what I believe to people I don´t know everyday, is how I´m showing you that I love you. Because this really is the truth. God isn´t just a good idea that some caveman made up - He created us and put us here in the world so that we can know him and be genuinely happy in our lives. The Bible teaches us about Jesus Christ, and talks of a "restoration of all things" - the Book of Mormon is the evidence of that restoration, and also of the love of God for His children. I know that the things that I teach everyday are true. I know that Jesus Christ came to this world filled with pain, sicknesses, and sadness to save us and show us the way to live with Him and the Father forever, as FAMILIES.

I love you all so much, and all the skype phone calls in the world could never express it. 

ALL of my amor,

Hermana Michelle Christine Scott