So Close and Yet So Far Away...

Hey Everyone,

So it was really interesting the meeting I had this last week.  I thought it was going to be a departure meeting, and it kinda was. But President wasn’t talking about our departure papers or anything.  He more wanted to talk about the "legacy we leave behind".  He referred a lot to the kind of impression we would leave on everyone before we finished the mission.  He is worried that a lot of us are going to "peacefully leave the mission", or slowly stop working and visit all of the places we haven’t visited yet and visit old areas instead of focusing on the mission.  He wants us to worry more about what people think about us when we leave, if they saw us as a hard worker all the way through or missionaries that just "got by".  He mentioned to us that the last 2 months of the mission would be the months we remember the most.  So he wanted to know what our goals were til the end of the mission.

Something else interesting was that he asked me if I would like to stay in my area till the end of the mission.  I told him I would pray about it and talk to Elder Pike about staying with him.  I felt that it was the right thing to stay in my area, so I let him know.  I also let him know that my goal is to baptize 20 people before I finish the mission.  20 people in one change is something that has never happened in my zone.  I will be busting my butt to get it jaja!

A cool thing happened to us at the end of this week.  We hadn’t been having much luck in the work, but we went on divisions with the zone leaders on Friday and Elder Pike with our zone leader contacted a girl named Brenda, which seemed like the only solid person they talked to.  When we went there on Saturday, she was there, but only because she had told us she would be.  They were remodeling their bathroom and she really needed to be somewhere else, but she was also interested in us.  So we went in and shared something short and sweet and invited her to church.  Long story short, she loved church and had a million questions about being a member.  We know she will be a baptism with her family if we do what we are supposed to.

Anywho, that was my week.

Love ya guys!

Elder Scott Donner

Choosing to Be Positive

Hullo,

It was a very tiring week last week.  Elder Pike and I were working our butts off so that we might be able to find someone to prepare them for baptism.  We were able to learn a lot of things this week.

I noticed that we had kind of picked up a negative attitude about the work, because we were literally doing everything we could, but were finding little to no success.  We went back to the house for a couple of minutes and talked about how our attitudes were affecting our work.  We didn’t necessarily feel unsuccessful or like we were wasting time, but we were working ineffectively and sluggishly, and my companion was getting slightly frustrated.  When we had talked about it, we decided that the Lord would only bless those missionaries who were going to continue to work as if everything depended on them, but prayed as if it all depended on God.

We were able to finish the week working positively.  Even though we didn’t find much success, we were blessed with a couple of referrals from other missionaries in this zone.  We are in the last full week of May, and then we will be working towards our goals in June.

Something interesting I came across in the Book of Mormon the other day was a couple of chapters in 2 Nefi.  I don’t remember which chapters, but in one chapter, it talks about how the Lamanites were condemned for their wickedness.  The chapter right after talks about how the Jews are condemned (the last will be the first and the first the last).  I found it interesting because I felt that they were almost comparing the Lamanites to the Jews, and then using that to teach the Nephites.  Just interesting.

Anyways, I have attached 2 videos.  One is a story of our weakness to ice cream.  The other is a little bit of Mexico night life.

Love ya Guys,
Elder Scott Donner

Coming Home July 23rd (Monday)

                                                                                                   

 



 Due to the Mother's Day phone call on Sunday there will be not email update for this past week. He is doing great and loves the people he is serving. 

Transfers are on June 11th which will be his last transfer and he is hoping to finish his mission with Elder Pike, but recognizes that sometimes the Lord has other plans.

He flies home on Monday, July 23rd and in Scott's own words..."It seems like so little time no matter how I look at it!"



The Phone Call!

Hey guys,

THE CALLED ME!!!  It was kinda overwhelming because the assistants called me this past week to ask me what airport I would be flying home to.  I was so nervous that I blanked and couldn’t remember jaja!  I was able to tell them though.

This last week was kinda a slow week.  We are working hard to find more people, and I will have more to tell you Sunday I imagine.

I think I will just send pictures and info.

One of the youth leaves for the mission tomorrow for Honduras.  Thats exciting.  The video is of him.

Today was the second part of the tournament that we are having here in the mission.  This time it was soccer.  Like a moron, I didn’t bring my camera again...  I am hoping that some of the hermanas can pass on some photos that they took.  But anyways, we ended up losing in the first game again, so it wasn’t too exciting jaja!

But ya. I am having trouble sending the videos, so I will next week.  Talk to you all this Sunday!

Love,

Elder Scott Donner

What a week!

Oh geez!

What a week I had jaja!  So basically we were busy spending the entire week getting everything ready for the baptism.  In the meantime, we were busy trying to find everyone that we had set appointments with, AND trying to cope with my insomnia jaja!  Sounds like fun no?  We also have a goal to start bringing more of the young men on divisions with us, because there are a lot of them and we want to help them prepare for the mission more.  So it was nuts right?

We also didn’t know if we were going to do it in our building or the stake center, because our building hasn’t had water for over a month.  So we went on Friday night just to check to see if there was water.  There was, which was awesome, so we knew that we were going to do it in our building.  The next day we came to clean the font and turn the boiler on so we could fill it with hot water.  The only problem is that they took out the boiler and never told us, so she was going to get baptized with cold water.  Great.  Then we went to go and clean the font, because it was super dirty.  So we went and cleaned it.  Then we filled it up quick because she was getting baptized at 6:00 pm.  The baptism went by fine.

Later that night we got a phone call with changes.  This was the moment of truth!!! DUN DUN DUUUUNNNN!!!!!  I am going to be here another change with Elder Pike!  YAY!!!!  Which means that I might finish the mission here! YAY!!!!  Everyone else in the zone, besides the zone leaders, got changed out.

Pictures...

1st is me cleaning the font :P

2nd is the baptism foto.

3rd is goofing off waiting to interview someone for baptism.

4th is the zone picture.

That was pretty much our week jaja!

Love

Elder Scott Donner

Crazy....Rewarding...Great Week!

Wow,

This last week was a really crazy week but a really rewarding and great week.

Tuesday, we had our first appointment with someone that a member had introduced us with.  Her name is Aleida.  We taught her and she accepted everything that we taught.  When the spirit got to the lesson, we recognized it and were able to commit her to be baptized the 28th of April (that would be this Saturday).  That was super exciting for us, but afterword’s, it started to poor rain.  So me and my poor companion ran home in the rain.  It was really rewarding because right from the beginning of the week we started with success.

Wednesday, we returned with Aleida.  We taught some more and she accepted all of it very easily.  I was very happy.  Every time we went with her this week, though, she had given us soda and cookies, because she happens to live in a shop.  So me and my companion were already starting to get sick from the snacks she is giving us, because we have tried so hard to start away from those kinds of foods.

On Thursday, we got a phone call from the zone leaders.  They needed to do divisions with us because one of them was really sick, so the doctor told him to stay in for the day.  I was the one who stayed with him, so I tried to use it as an opportunity to get more sleep (which I didn’t jaja).  That day we also passed by with Aleida and taught her some more.  She promised to follow the commandments.

Friday was pretty much the same.  The zone leaders had needed our help again, but they actually went to the doctor because the Elder got worse.  Apparently he was very sick and close do dying, but because of his stubbornness, continued to work instead of getting himself checked out (he told me that jaja).  So now he was commanded to stay in bed for 2 days, not eat anything, only drink water and pediolyte (the electrolyte drink), and had to receive 3 injections, one every night, given by his companion.  So we did divisions with them again and I,  and his companion went to go buy all of the medicine for him.  It came to around $1800 pesos, so we had to call President so he could come and buy it for us jaja!  President is awesome; he drove all the way from the offices so he could help us out.

Saturday was funny because once again they needed our help.  I stayed in the house this time and me and the sick missionary talked the entire time.  In the meantime, we had visited Aleida every day last week, and Saturday she came to the mission ward activity of the zone leaders, because they had a movie night.  They watched The Testaments, and she loved it.  When they got home from the activity, the sick elder asked me if I could inject him, because his companion made him bleed the night before jaja.  He had to receive the injections in the butt cheek jaja!  Anyways, so I injected him Saturday and Sunday night, because he said I did it a lot nicer than his companion jaja!

So that was pretty much our week.  This week is the last week of this change, and then I start my second to last change of the mission.  I hope I get to stay with Elder Pike (my Drew Carry companion jaja!)

Sorry...  No pictures again this week.... I know you like them but there weren’t many opportunities to take them... I will try to be better at that.

Love
Elder Scott Donner

Working Hard...Still!

Dear family,

This week was a good week. It started out hard for us because we set up a full day of appointments on Tuesday, and they all fell. That was super frustrating, but we carried on. Eventually our hard work finally paid off. My companion had contacted a woman and we never really thought much of it. Most of the people, who we thought were solid appointments, weren’t there, so we didn’t even think much about anyone else. It was nice when we got there for the appointment and she was ready to listen to us. Also, while we were out contacting on Saturday, we ran into a member who was walking with a friend. The friend actually wanted to listen to us and the Hermana decided that the best way to find us was to walk around and they would see us working jaja. It really is pretty sweet that she would have that impression because she definitely found us.

Anyways, we really are trying to have an awesome month and finish hard.

Not really much happened in this past week. The weather is still being really strange though, and we continue to have tiny earthquakes and shockwaves here.

I still haven’t been sleeping that well, especially last night. I am not worried about it though because I can still function, and I will sleep eventually.

Sorry for it being so short. I will try to include more stuff next week.

Love

Elder Scott Donner