Christmas Time...

Me and Elder Urrutia

Saying Good Bye to my companion

Hey guys,

It was great getting to talking to you guys and getting to see your faces. I really enjoying sharing my experiences with you and hope to be able to experience even more things here in Mexico so I can continue to share with everyone. Anyways, since I already shared alot with you, it will only be about where I am now.

The new area that I am in is call Arbolillo, en Estaca Arbolillo. My companions name is Elder Gamberdella. He is actually from my district in the MTC. Anyways, I am kinda stoked to be here now, because I am back in D.F. I kinda feel closer to everything now.

I will share some fotos with you and the video I showed you again.

I am planning on taking lots of fotos til the end of my mission.

Love ya guys!

Elder Scott Donner

That Special Time of Year...

We went bowling a week ago.

It was my companions BDAY

Elder Lozano, me, and Elder Regalado on the way to the Christmas party for the mission

Me and Elder Kenny whose dad owns the water parks aka Sunsplash.

Me and Elder Quirante from the Philippines

Me and Elder Martinez, from Oaxaca

Elder Pope, his MTC companion wanted a kiss at the Mission Christmas Party

Our Christmas tree and gifts :D We are waiting for Christmas.

Dear Family,

So nothing really excited happened this week. My companion and I found out early that we won't be together the next transfer, so I wonder what is going to happen. Anyways, I think last year when I arrived in Mexico, I think from pure shock, I never paid much attention to how crazy it gets here in Mexico on Christmas. Imagine Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Christmas all meshed into one day, and then every day in December preparing for that day. Ya its pretty much nuts. There are tons of peoples families coming into to town and whatnot. A lot of people have set up their stands in the Christmas Markets. AND THERE ARE A LOT OF DRUNK PEOPLE!!!!! The nice thing though, is that everything is on sale :).

Anyways, no baptisms this last week. We are working our hardest to fit all of the baptisms into this week to finish the month well. On top of that, we have literally 10 or so families that have invited us to their house this weekend to celebrate the holiday. What better gift to give to the missionaries than a referral :) We are going to focus on the families that have invited us, also inviting non member friends :)

Like I said, not much happened this week, but I do finally have fotos from the past 2 weeks :). So enjoy :)

Love,

Elder Scott Donner

Shaky Experience

Hey guys,

I know I am writing late again and, as a result, am not carrying my camera on me :S. SORRY!!! I know that all of you are dying for some pictures, which I now have a ton of! This week, like the past few weeks, has been quite interesting. We have been trying to get one of our investigators to leave her doubts and just take the step into the water. We have been working hard with her daughter too, and are hoping that she will get baptised if they both do it together.

The Christmas party is this Thursday, and our zone will be singing a special musical number. We also hear that we will be watching The Lion King, and another movie that the president hasn’t decided on yet. Anyways, I am super excited. Our ward is having their dinner on the 23rd. We will be going to that as well.

We also went to the temple this week. I took a ton of pictures of the Christmas lights, but they ain’t got nothin’ on the lights in Arizona jaja!

Now time for the exciting stuff. We were out visiting with a less active family this past Friday. We have spent quite a bit of time visiting them and inviting them back to church, because we lack priesthood holders. They were talking with us and everything and we felt the ground shake from a semi truck passing by. This is normal. But the ground didn’t stop shaking. I actually thought that maybe I was sick because my head was spinning a little. Well the shaking got worse, and the hermana started freaking out and pointed to the aquarium where she keeps here turtles. The water was splashing all over the place. That was when I realized that for the first time, I was experiencing an earthquake. I was the weirdest feeling ever. It wasn’t an up and down feeling but a side to side feeling. A couple of plates fell on the floor and the couch moved a bit, but we were only receiving the aftershock, because it stopped after a minute or so.

Anyways, I hope something freaky happens this week jaja!

Love,
Elder Scott Donner

More Adventures in the Field

Hey,

Sorry on writing so late tonight. My companion and I left too early in the morning and we barely had enough time to make it to the meeting at 6:00, so I am writing right now really quick. Anyways, another crazy week, but I am excited to see what happens this week. We received a pretty sweet referral from a family in the ward. It's a family of three girls and one boy, but the boy is 7. We went and met them and invited them to church. Only one of the daughters came, but that was without having taught them anything. We also have other referrals that we need to visit this week, so we are excited to see if we can't make this a month of miracles.

Anyways, sleep still isn´t happening very much. Thursday and Friday, I had 2 solid nights of sleep, which is something that I haven´t experienced in a couple of months, but now I´m back to not sleeping. I´m going to try and see if I can´t figure out what made me sleep those 2 nights and try and repeat that jaja!

Anyways, it seems that lately we have been having a lot of "fun" experiences here. Those three guys stopped following us, but something else always has to happen jaja!!! We were on our way to an appointment with one of our investigators, and a guy past us on his bike (that's the normal part, just wait jaja). He passed us and then realized I was American, so he started to cuss and swear at me in English, which made it clear to me that he spoke English. Usually people say one or two words like that, but he turned around, circled around us, and headed on his ways, all while cussing at me. We continued to our appointment that we had, and noticed that the same guy was outside the house where we were going. We decided not to go to the appointment and passed up the house, but he noticed us passing by, and started cussing and yelling at me again. Well, we started to walk faster, and he got on his bike with the intentions of chasing us. We turned the corner, and started to run. We made it to a members house on the other side of the block and knocked like crazy. They opened up and let us in before the man passed by on his bike saying "Where the **** are you guero?!" (guero is what they call Americans). Such nice language right? He saw us on another occasion, but we took off before he realized where we had gone.

Unfortunately I didn´t get to see the Christmas Devotional because I didn´t know about it. They aren´t very good on announcements here jaja!! But we are having a ward Christmas party on the 23rd. So we have been inviting people like nuts to this activity, because we will be singing. The missionaries in the ward have all decided that I am the most experienced with music, and put me in charge of what we are singing. That oughta be pretty scary jaja! But I am excited because everyone will be sharing talents first, then a dinner, and a dance afterwords. We obviously won´t be there for the dance, but for everything else of course.

Anyways, I took pictures this week, but I don´t carry my camera at night, so you will have to wait until next week probably to receive them.

Love,

Elder Scott Donner

Being Careful

Hola familia,

So things are still kinda crazy here, and from what I'm told, everything is only going to get more crazy :S. I am going to apologize right now because I don't have any fotos for you this week, with a good reason why not. This past week, a group of 4 guys have been following us and trying to rob us. Tuesday night we got out of an appointment, and as we were returning to our house, these 4 guys yelled "elders" to us. This is actually very normal, because a lot of people know that we are called elders. So we keep walking, but my companion turns around just to be sure they weren't following us. Well they definitely were. We started to walk faster, and instead of heading back to the house, we decided to head over to the Bodega Aurrera (its like Walmart). There were lots of people, so we went inside and we were gonna wait a bit, but three of them followed us into the store. We thought maybe it was a coincidence so we stopped in one section and just browsed. No, they were definitely following us, because they followed us to the section. We went to another part and they followed us still. At this point, we weren't sure what to do, but we suddenly noticed they had disappeared. We quickly left the store and headed back to the house, going a different way than we came.

They next day, we were headed to another appointment and four guys yelled "elder" to us again. My companion told me he thought that was them, and I told him it WAS them. We passed them, and he turned around to find one of them following us. When we turned at the corner, I confirmed that he was still following us, and we started to speed walk to our appointment. We kept praying she would be there, and luckily she was, but by the time she let us in, the guy following us arrived at the door. Our investigator kinda looked at him and he said he wanted to talk to us. He just asked us for money, but we told him the we are missionaries and walk everywhere, so we didn't have money. He wouldn't leave, but the investigator shut the door on his face and we waited for him to leave. Apparently, her neighbor had reported that the same four guys were following her daughter. It was funny because we watched the police come by and pick him up. We had a really nice lesson with the investigator (her name is Guadalupe), and we were about to leave when her daughter entered the house and told us that the police had dropped the guy back off in the streets. This usually happens because he either paid them, or because he didn't have anything of worth on him. So we quickly left the house and almost jogged back to the house the entire way.

They have been following us pretty much the entire week now. The members have told us that this is because everyone in December everyone receives their Christmas bonus, so all the thieves come out and rob anyone who might have money. Its very common this time of year. We were told that we shouldn't carry anything with us that we didn't want stolen, so I have left my camera at home this entire week. SORRY!!!

Anyways, unfortunately the baptism we had fell again because of doubts. We are working a lot with other people that had dates before but fell for one reason or another. We want December to be a month of miracles for our area, since we will both be together all of December.

I'm really enjoying the work and trying to enjoy my last Christmas, but it makes me really sad to think this is my last one. I feel really weird because I am the missionary in our zone who has the most time out, and it really stresses me out that they keep saying things about this being my last everything jaja! I unfortunately have not been sleeping well still. Its hard for me for whatever reason. My insomnia might just be because I'm not in my own bed jaja!!!

We saw that taxi driver who we crashed with. He is still driving the same taxi. Who knows how he was able to get it to run again. Its still smashed up in front.

Anyways, we are going to see what happens this week jaja!

Love,
Elder Scott Donner

Tender Mercies...

Hi there family,

Soooooo...... I´m exhausted jaja!!! So very exhausted. This week was quite interesting for me. So beginning the week, I ate a mystery meat from the fridge (it was Sunday so I couldn't buy anything) that my companion had assured me wasn't old. It tasted alright, and I was starving when we had gotten home at night. When I wrote you guys last Monday, I was doing good. Of course it would be the day that we are supposed to leave again that I would start throwing up a lot. I pretty much got food poisoning. And it stunk, because we worked as much as we could, but in between throwing up, walking to lessons, throwing up in the bathroom while my companion taught the lessons, and drinking a ton of lemon/salt mixed with coke (because apparently that's their home remedy here, but I don´t buy it), it was alright. Unfortunately the baptismal date that we had, fell, and the investigators we usually visited at night, we didn't visit, because throwing up got worse at night. I also spiked a fever for a day and a half at 103 degrees (I didn't know food poisoning could do that to someone).

Some pretty crazy stuff happened today too. I haven´t let you all know, but my insomnia is attacking again, and only lets me get to sleep around 4 or 5 in the morning. So this morning, I slept in a little bit so I don´t die, but the other elders called to tell us we would be playing sports at 9:30. It was 9:00, so I got up and we got dressed for sports. We go outside to take a taxi to the chapel where we play. Everything kinda normal up to that point. While we are in the taxi, though, as we were driving on a round-about, we see a bus coming in the opposite direction. Our driver didn't notice right away because obviously he hadn't seen anybody when he entered, and nobody should be driving in the opposite direction. Never did I think I would be in a car accident on the mission before, neither did I think I would feel so protected in the process. It was an interesting experience, because I was very calm as I saw the bus coming, and when it hit, I almost felt a shield around me and my companion, who was in the front seat. Neither of us were jolted nor thrown forward in the taxi. The taxi driver got whiplash pretty bad, and his taxi didn't start anymore. Everything here is a hit and run. If you hit, and you can still run, then run! That's the rule here. The funny thing was though that we were still close to the station of taxis where we took the taxi, so the taxi driver yells to his buddies at the station to follow the bus that hit us. They ALL hopped in their taxis and started to chase the bus down. The taxi driver told us to get out, him and some other taxi buddies pushed his car off to the side, and they all took off in another taxi after the bus. Me and my companion were left in the street, but completely untouched. We were in shock too, so it didn't really occur to me to take any pictures of what the taxi looked like, but I was shocked that nothing happened to us, especially because the bus hit on our side.

So I will be in this area for the holidays, because this transfer ends on the 26th of December jaja! So we´ll just barely make it. And unfortunately, because Thanksgiving is not a Mexican holiday, we won't be celebrating anything about it jaja. Its totally weird to think that this is my last Christmas in the mission. My companion thinks its funny to remind me that after Christmas, all I have are 6 months left. I tell you what, it scares the living poo outta me. Definitely not ready to return to the real world :S jaja!

Anyways, I didn't take any pictures last week, but I will take a few this week.

Love,
Elder Scott Donner

Modern Technology

Hello,

Sooooo, not sure what the reason for changes were but it doesn't really matter because today is the end of the transfer. Anyways, things are going good here in my new area. When we talked about all of the 50 investigators we had, we decided that we needed to do one of 2 things: prepare them for baptism, or drop them if they didn't want to. Therefore, we started the process jaja!!! We have at least 1 baptism set up for this weekend with a lady named Guadalupe. She is quite interesting, but she hand knits some really cool purses :P There are a possibility of six people that live with her that could get baptized, but she is ready right now, so we are doing it.

We have received many blessings through something called the "ley de cosecha" (I'm not sure how it translates to English). Basically, it refers to not receiving the blessings for which we are searching, but receiving them later from something completely unexpected. For example, Saturday we were working our butts off trying to find people in their houses, and also contacting people. Time came around to go to lunch, so we started heading there. While on our way, 2 girls called us over, and me and my companion thought that they were just going to ask us who we were, where we are from, and then tell us how cute we are, because, yes, it happens quite a bit here jaja! But they were actually genuinely interested in what we did as missionaries. We explained to them our purpose, and one of them asked that if we had to, could we teach a lesson in 10 minutes. Of course we can. So they told us, " Well.... teach us". It was pretty sweet.

Also same thing happened, only the guy that contacted us seemed a little drunk, but we couldn't really tell because he didn't really smell of alcohol. He told us to pass by his house, but we weren't too sure about it because we thought that an hermana had mentioned that the house where the man lived was a drug house, so we told him the next day we would pass by. The next day, we went and asked the hermana if she knew him, and she said no. Rather than deny the guy the opportunity to listen to us, we left all our stuff with the hermana, and decided just to go check the house out and bare our testimonies at most. When we got there, he was waiting for us with his entire family. It turned out pretty sweet.

I get along really well with my companion, and we probably goof around a little too much, but I enjoy working with him, because we both want to work really hard, and we do. A little bit about him. His name is Elder Lozano and he comes from Monterray. He comes from a family of 4. He only has a younger sister and mom and dad. He said his parents weren't really active when they were growing up, so it was up to him and his sister to stay active in the church. I am proud of him, because there really aren't that many youth as strong in the church as him.

Anyways, now for pictures. To explain what I am doing, I will give some background. In our house, there is a tank above filled with water, which we use to bathe and wash and for dishes. There is no such thing as water pressure here. Below the house is a big empty space that fills up with water once a week that we can use. In order to get the water from the big empty space (called "sistena"), we have to turn on a water pump so it can pump the water from below the house to the tank above. What happened was the fuses for the water pump had blown, so I had to change them because my companion was afraid of getting electrocuted. So I had to climb in the little space and, hovering over the giant opening where the water is, change the fuses jaja!!!

Scott

Another Change...

Hey Family,

Once again Im in another area. More changes were necessary. Anyways, now I am in a zone called Xalostoc (ha-lo-stock). The ward I am in is called Jardines. It seems like a really sweet ward, and my companion is pretty cool. His name is Elder Lozano. He has less time than me in the mission, as do almost all the missionaries in the mission now. I am excited to be in the area because we have a really high goal set for baptisms. We have reviewed all of the possibilities we have for baptism, and have decided that we have about 50 people we could baptize this month. Now we just have to filter through them really quickly to find the elected and work with them.

Its funny because a year ago I heard that Xalostoc was the worst baptizing zone in the mission, but now it is one of the highest baptizing missions. The ward only has 10 active priesthood holders, so the majority of the members are women. Its our goal to find some men to baptize so we can have more priesthood holders.

I was kinda bumped having to leave my area, but, looking on the bright side, I know I can do some good here. I am definately going to visit that ward again when I have the opportunity. Hopefully it will be when the family I baptized gets sealed in the temple that I return to visit them.

Mom, if there is one thing that I can ask for for christmas is shirts. I need more white shirts, because the ones I have are either almost worn out, or way too big on me now.... I am a size 16 1/2 and I will need the TALL PLEASE!!!! I am still growing and if they are not tall, I cannot tuck them in :S

The picture I am sending is of me and Elder Lozano.

Love,
Elder Scott Donner

Happy Halloween!

This is me with the zebra I sleep with :P Seriously though..... I sleep with that zebra :)

This is of our journey to the temple this Saturday. The Family we baptized drove us there because they wanted to go to the visitors center. They treated us to REAL flautas :)

So in this picture, we decided to compare my feet to others, and we realized why it is difficult/impossible to find my shoe size here in Mexico jaja!!!

Hey everyone,

So I forgot to tell you about something really awesome. This past Saturday my companion got sealed to his family in the México City Temple. So guess what I got to do? That’s right! I was able to go through the temple with my companion’s family :) It was really a neat experience and was sooo stoked to be there with him. The also asked me to be one of the witnesses, so I felt pretty honored, because the mentioned that I will remembered by them forever. His uncle also came from Sonora, which borders Arizona. He said that when I finish, anytime I want to visit, I’m more than welcome there :)

So this past week was more of just a filtering process for investigators. We basically just visited everyone that we were teaching, and those that weren’t really progressing, we let them know we could no longer continue with them. But we are excited, because the family that we baptized has another family they want us to teach. Our ward is going to the temple this weekend, so the family wants to bring them along. And of course, we are going too.... AGAIN!!! :D Super stoked for that. I really hope I don’t get changed from this area because Im really enjoying it and we are having success.

Love,

Elder Scott Donner

Really Good Week!

Dads name is Jorge, Mom is Lucia, Daughter is Monserrat (Monse for short), son is Oscar :)

Sooo,

This week was really good. We did divisions with the zone leaders on Tuesday. That was a pretty sweet day because I got to know one of the zone leaders better. It was a nice opportunity. The divisions were all day so I didn’t have the chance to go to the lesson with our golden family. But when we got back together after the day had ended, the dad from the family took us home from the divisions. He dropped us off and my companion said that they wanted to get baptized the next day and would call to confirm us if the daughter could do it.

We received the call and went ahead with the plans! We had interviews right before the baptism, and they all got baptized!!! It was a really neat experience! Each one of them has strong testimonies and they are so excited to go to the temple in one year to get sealed! I told them that if they let me know that I would be there, and they told me I would be the first to know :)

They got confirmed yesterday. The daughter argued a lot with her boss to let her go to church to get confirmed jaja! She ended up working at night, but was very upset because her boss had promised her to give her Sundays off now. They are already strong and are looking for ways they can help out in the ward jaja!

Me and my companion were bustin our butts after that working hard, and we found some potentials, so we will have to see what happens with them :)

Love,

Elder Scott Donner

Birthday Pictures!

The Birthday Cake

The Challenge...to blow out the candle.
It's hard to blow out a candle when you're 21.

Hey Family,

So I will be able to send fotos this week. Just so you know :). This past week kinda zipped by for us, so i didnt really pay much attention jaja! It seemed like alot of time was spent with the family we are working so hard to baptize. One thing after another always comes up that seems to push them away or make them doubt. They unfortunately had a death in the family, and had the normal question of why. We have really been focusing on the Plan of Salvation with them and helping them to feel the spirit. We watched one of the church movies with them and afterwards they expressed to us how grateful they were that we were there with them.

We are now hoping this weekend we can baptize them. We received alot of referrals this week too. Some of them fake addresses but we are still excited to see what becomes of these referrals. Its exciting to be in the mission right now, because we are seeing amazing things happen here. President Tervort is also very excited, and he expects alot of everyone. We are still suppoessd to be receiving 30ish missionaries EXTRA before the end of the year. This will mean that almost every ward in the mission will have 2 sets of missionaries, some even 3! President saw one of the mission presidents from another Mexico city mission, and said that he had lost 3 and only received 3, where as we lost 4 and received 18 americans! Who knows how many from other countries.....

Im going to try a different method of sending the fotos, and just send them in a zip file. The one with the Moth is what I found this morning and my clothes that were out to dry.

Love,
Elder Scott Donner

Happy 21st Birthday

Hi ther,

So it sounds like you all had a very very crazy week. Personally I think Cody should stop putting needles in his arm jaja!.... ok probly not too funny. Anyways, I had a super eventful week this past week. Definately nuts! But a very rewarding week!

So lemme tell ya about it! So we start out Tuesday with an awesome referral from the zone leaders. They said that they were contacting and that a lady had talked to them and wanted the missionaries over. They are in our area, so they passed it off to us! We went over there and they had a ton of questions for us. We taught a really good lesson with them. We were kinda of embarrassed because they wanted to read the Book of Mormon and come to church before we had even invited them. So we set up an appointment to return on thursday. Not everyone was there on thursday, so we just checked up to see if they had read, and they had. They said they had prayed too and felt the spirit. They had also noticed that the husband was having more success in work since we had showed up, which he was out working at that moment. We just kept reminding them of the spirit, because we didnt want them to forget that feeling. We set up another appointment for Saturday, and the mom saw that my companion wrote in huge letters that it was my birthday that day. She turned to me and told me that her husbands was the day before that. We thought that was cool, but even cooler when later that night, the husband called and invited us to an appiointed with them the next day, so we could also celebrate our birthdays together. We went there and shared with them some more, but not only that, but they had prepared dinner in honor of our birthdays! The daughters boyfriend was there too asking us a ton of questions, so we taught a little bit to him. Then comes sunday, and we were running late because our alarms didnt go off and we have church at 8 in the morning. We are just walking out the door when the family pulls up and says ,"Elders! You´re running late! We´re gonna miss church!" I was so embarrassed but so shocked at the same time! We cant wait for our next appointment with them!

Also saturday, we ate with the relief society president, and she bought me a cake. I have pictures of that :).... which dont want to upload!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did I mention I hate computers here? Well I do!!!!

I will see what I cant do about sending them tonight after our meeting!

Love,

Elder Scott Donner

Reality Is Setting In...

Hi,

So this week is already the start of a new transfer. Crazy huh? Im definately not ready for it, because that means I have somewhere less than 7 changes left. NOT EXCITED!!! I might extend when the time comes. Anyways, I really enjoyed general conference alot! Although I only got to see them on Saturday and the priesthood session because we were given the wrong times for the Sunday sessions, so that was a bummer. I really enjoyed the priesthood session this year though. This was probably one of my favorites, especially when Holland talked and President Monson talked.

Anyways, this last week really zipped by. We met a really neat family who we are hoping to baptize soon. They had a ton of questions for us! When we explained to them that we dont get paid (after they had asked), they felt so bad that we lived alone and paid for anything we needed, so they gave us a bunch of food and bathroom stuff. It kinda made me laugh, because we´re not suffering, but they felt that it was very hard to be away from the family, because they are very obviously a really close family.

So I started Christmas shopping for the familys this week. I´m actually very excited to send some of the stuff. Mom you will have to help me out with the distributing part :) Everying here is so very cheap but such great quality for the price. You will all be receiving stuff that you can only find in Mexico :)

So I´m still losing weight, and see that I am going to have to invest in some new pants again. I found a place here that sells them cheap. BTW, I received my package :) I love the fact that there are 21 ties :D and the shoes are actually perfect! I am pretty sure these will last for the rest of the mission. I was actually borrowing some shoes from another missionary who gratefully has my shoe size. I only have my shoes that I wear to church that will fall apart if I wear them anywhere else jaja!

Anyways, working on taking some pictures and am going to be sending home a flash drive with all of my backed up pictures on it. :)

Love,
Elder Scott Donner

New Approach

Hola,

Well this week was just a week of searching. We talked to alot of people this week, because the mission is really focusing on urgency while we are working. We are also focusing alot more in using the Book of Mormon when we contact people. I really like the method because its really peeks peoples interest when we ask them questions like, "Do you ever wonder what was happening here in America when Christ was in Jerusalem?" I am enjoying using the Book of Mormon approach very much.

We have 2 colonies in our area, one of them being "super catholic", meaning they arent open to discuss religion. We have only been working in that part, because we dont have any members in that area. Well we finally got tired of being rejected by most of the people, or having people give us false directions. So we decided to start working in the other colony finally. The first street we knocked in that area, we found 2 families that let us teach them. Frustration terminated!

We also have a Circus that is in our area right now, so we are going to see what we cant do about visitng it :)

No new fotos this week, sorry!

Love,

Elder Scott Donner

Moquitos!!!

What it looks like outside the apartment window

Rainstorm

Sheep near their apartment

Mosquito Damage

So happy about the bites

Not even the legs were spared

Ahh the joys of mission life!

Hola,

So this week was pretty crazy. It was the week of Mexicos independence, so alot went on. Unbeknownst to me, we were required to stay in the house ALL DAY on Friday. But the 2 days before that ended up just flying by! So Tuesday we had a full day almost of lessons that we had pretty much filled in with people we met. Alot of them werent there, which is ok because we always need to be weeding those people out. We contacted one man who was moving dirt around in his house, so we offered to help him. He declined but said that we knew who we were. This seemed weird to us because most of our area has never been touched by missionaries. In fact, one whole colony doesnt have but one member living there. But the man explained to us that his first wife was a member of the church so he knew a little about it, mostly that we dont drink. He has a second wife, who is japanese, and has 2 kids with her, who are now older. Im glad we contacted him because he told us that his daughter actually really wanted to talk with us, because she always sees the missionaries walking from afar, but never talks to them, I imagine because she is super shy. Anyways, she shows alot of promise and we are going to see if she will be baptized this weekend.

Wednesday was a little bit slower. We knocked alot of doors. We didnt contact as much as we should have. We met a man named Gregorio who is actually studying with the Jehovas Witness. He seemed like a hard cookie to crack at first, until the point that we told him that we didnt want him to believe a single word that we had said. He was confused until we told him that it was God that we wanted him to believe, so he needed to pray to ask him and not ask us. Of course we shared our testimonies with him.

We receive alot of referrals from the members here. Most of them are part-member families where only one or two of six are members. Im excited to be able to work with those families. Alot of them are inactive families, but that is the fun part about missionary work.

I was eaten by mosquitos this week. BTW, fun fact. Mosquitos are called "moscos" in spanish, but they say "mosquitos" to say that they are "little moscos". Almost everyone here reffers to them as "mosquitos". So mosquitos is actually a name we have taken from the spanish language :) But ya... they ATE me this week. And yes I will finally send pictures, because I can :)

But ya so after almost 2 boring days in the house, we went back to work. It was really cool Friday though, because the members brought us breakfast, lunch, and dinner because they knew that we were going to be stuck all day in the house. Ya... we have a really sweet ward!

The pictures are all bug bites. I will send more in another email because, yes, I know I owe you quite a few.

Love,

Elder Scott Donner

Emergency Transfer...?

Hey Family,

So some pretty surprising news. Im definately not in Cuahutepec anymore. I got emergency transfered back to my first zone. But Im not in the ward I was before. I am in a ward that now has 4 missionaries called Real Hacienda. Anyways, it still happens to be quite a large area, but it is all flat :) Anyways, because of that, I dont really have much to say. We are also at an internet right now that doesnt allow me to hook my camera up to send pictures, so I definately cant try that, but I will be looking throughout the week. Also, I did receive your pictures.

My new companion is Elder de la Cruz. Dont know much about him yet, but I will tell you next week.

Sorry,

Elder Scott Donner

Still Searching...

Hey guys,

So I´m still waiting on the letters and pictures you´ve sent. I haven´t received anything just yet. Anyways, just another week of searching searching searching. I´m really just trying to work on finding a family. Using the spirit plays a big role in everything we do as missionaries. We keep learning more and more about how the spirit testifies to everyone about the truth. The only difficulties we seem to be having are getting into peoples doors. Ya we have found a few people, but not alot. Not like we need to, because the sad thing is we know some of these people won´t continue to meet with us. But we are going to continue to work.

Our zone ended up breaking the record for baptisms in a month. We are really excited and want to break our record again. Things here having been getting really nuts though. Its close to Mexico´s independence day, so everyone is buying flags and getting ready to have parties and stuff like that. Apparently it gets super nuts here, so president doesn´t want any missionaries outside or setting appointments for that day. We´ve actually set up a mission conference that day where we are going to review everything that we have learned in the mission. Afterwards, we are required to go back to our houses and stay there. I´m kinda excited to see what goes on. I won´t be outside or anything, but everyone tells me it gets super crazy with a ton of fireworks and a bunch of people in the streets just partying. I´ll have to see if I can´t just take a couple of fotos from the apartment.

Anyways, I´m really enjoying the work. It´s getting close to the day that I entered the mission field, so it´ll be wierd to thing that I have almost been in the field for a year. Time is flying by, and now I almost feel like I don´t have enough time. I´m going to be scrambling!

Sorry, still having trouble with fotos...

Love ya guys,

Elder Scott Donner

New Door Approach...?

Hi there,

Well it was an interesting week this week. So we were pretty much struggling this entire week. We weren´t finding very many new people, and if we did, they weren´t there when we returned. Try and try as we might, it was still a struggle. Also the zone leaders don´t share the ward with us anymore, so there are 2 new Elders to take their place. It has also been a little interesting with them. I recognize I am the only Elder who stayed in the ward. So they all kinda depend on me, and right now, the members only know me. So they only like me. The other Elders didn´t quite understand what was going on. I went through the same thing and really haven´t been in their area, so I kinda had to let them know that they were going to have to figure it out.

Anyways, like I said, this week was interesting. Saturday, the zone leaders came to my area and we did divisions. They are trying to help out all of the companionships with their areas. I can tell you that they definately helped us out in our area a ton! Saturday we were able to find a bunch of new families. The zone leader that was with me really helped me out a ton. I was able to recognize what I could do even better. He kept asking me what I was learning. What a humbling experience it was for me, but the most humbling are the ones where we learn the most.

Something funny happened this last week on Saturday night. So it was 3:00 in the morning, my companion was asleep, and I had just gotten to sleep. We awoke to our neighbor screaming for her mom to help her. She was outside with 4 friends and screaming super loud. We didn´t want to get out of bed to investigate, but then they knocked on our door.... Wonderful! I wasn´t even about to open the door, because it was way too late for that, but you can sure bet that I decided now to get out of bed and start spying through the window. I saw her, still yelling, and four guys with her. One of her friends was passed out on the floor. Everyone was clearly hammered (intoxicated). I couldn´t help but laugh. They continued to knock on the door, and I couldn´t think of anything we could do to help, except let them throw up in our toilet, so I didn´t open. Finally, her mom opened the door and they carried her friend inside. For the rest of the night, we could hear them each taking turns throwing up in the toilet. Funny story right? I thought so jaja!!!

I still haven´t received anything that you sent after the beginning of July, so I am still waiting jaja!

I´m still working on the camera problem. I can´t seem to get any computer to recognize it or the card, but I can still take pictures, which I am doing.

Love you all,

Elder Scott Donner

Change

Well,

This past transfer just ended. I´m staying, but they took my companion away :( I´m kinda sad about that. Its not that I don´t like the companion I was given, but I really liked Elder Martinez. We were both kinda super bummed out. It was interesting because I just traded companions with another elder in the same zone. I received his kid and he got my companion. I kinda thought we were going to be staying together, but that wasn´t really the case.

Not really a whole lot went on this past week again. It was a pretty normal week. It was a little slow kinda. We didn´t find many people either, which was super frustrating. Everyone kept using the excuse that school is starting up again and they don´t have time right at this moment to listen to us. Of course, I´m going nuts because I haven´t baptized in quite a while. But still working hard to do so. I haven´t given up hope.

Anyways, my new companion´s name is Elder Quirante. He is from Texas, but his entire family is Phillipino, and he looks it. Its funny because no one here knows that, because they all think that he is Japanese or Chinese. I´m not even sure if they know what Phillipino people look like. Anyways, he and his entire family look alike. He showed us a picture and it was really hard to figure out which one he was. He doesn´t have very much time in the mission, but he will be another missionary that completes his 6 months with me as a companion. Elder Martinez did too.

So I´m going to be here another 6 weeks. I don´t think I will be here anymore after this next transfer. But who knows... Interesting fact, the next transfers we have are on October 3rd, 5 days right before my birthday. I´m trying to remember when it is this year because last year I forgot. Man its really close.... I don´t like to think that I´ll be turning 21. Makes me feel old. Especially since most people here guess that I´m 30 years old.... I´m hoping thats just for my height and nothing else.

Elder Scott Donner

Doctor, Doctor...Give Me The News...

Hi there family,

So I shot a call over to the doctor this week (I wonder how many of you are going to read the first part too fast and think I shot the doctor jajaj!!!!), and he has me taking some medicine to help out with things. He thinks its the food that I have been eating may have given me food posioning or something other than that. Anyways, I´m starting to get better little by little.

Had an interesting experience just this morning actually. One of our investigators didn´t come to church. Its one of the only time she hasn´t. We figured something had come up and she wasn´t able to come. We received a text from her this morning and she explained to us that she had a horrible Sunday and she thinks that coming to church would have made a world´s difference. That was a huge testimony builder to me to see that investigators recognize that the gospel really does change their lives. I guess our whole lives we have just kinda taken it for granted. We don´t really the grand difference that it has in our lives.

Anyways, we really didn´t find too many this past week. It was a little interesting. I don´t think we had very many people open up to us. But we are starting to do more street contacting, because our zone has decided that its super effective. We realize we need to be doing everything in our power to be able to find the people who are searching for the gospel, or open to accept it. Its fun to try and find new ways to do contacts. We are constantly trying to have fun. We even considered asking to take pictures with the people we contacted, BUT.... we thought better of it jaja!!!!!

Speaking of pictures, I failed again :(. I have to admit that taking pictures isn´t the first thing on my mind, though it should be in there somewhere jaja!!!! But I did get the pictures you sent be email. Still waiting for the ones by mail. I´m actually really excited to see which pictures you decided would be good to show to the investigators. I thought of a funny one the other day when I decided to puts the girls´ hair clips in my hair, and you all thought it was hilarious, and so we took a picture. I´m going to see if I can´t get some ridiculous fotos taken for everyone, just to liven things up a bit jaja!!!

Its weird to think that one year has past... in one week I will have 13 months. No I´m not counting, but our zone leader is jaja! But it kinda scares me, because you all know how fast the end of the year seems to fly by. Well I can tell you one thing, that definately doesn´t change now that I´m in Mexico. But I realize that even when I reach the end of this year, I will only have 6 months left :O. Definately not ready for that.

Anyways, I´m going to wrap things up with this email.

Love,
Elder Scott Donner

Good Times...?

Hi there family,

So its been a good week. Alot of working this week. Still alot of raining too. I keep getting sick from the food here too, its quite interesting. I think everyday this week, I have thrown up after eating anything. And it just so happened that this week, we were fed a ton of food as well. Anyways, I´m really enjoying the work lately. Weeks like this week makes me glad to say that I´m a missionary. I learned alot from our zone leaders this week thanks to some splits we went on. Its amazing the little things that we can change in the way we work, that could end up changing alot in the end. Like, when you knock a door, excuse yourself for bothering them. Even though your kinda not sorry, they find it polite and are probably going to listen with more intent. But that has definately helped me to become more interested in the work, not that I wasn´t interested in the first place. But sometimes, changing what you do can help you not to get bored.

Anyways, I just love my companion. He is probably one of my favorites. I always find something out about him everyday. He told me to share some of the things about his home with you guys. Like the fact that most of his life, he has slept outside in a hammock. Its really hot where he lives in Oaxaca, so he has always just slept outside, because it is the most comfortable thing to do. He also already has his own house. He says its not the greatest thing, but he is going to rebuild it when he gets home.

Its hilarious because he was looking at my calendar of the family. He says I look alot like Uncle Mac, Uncle Mark, and Aunt Kim. He thinks its funny because he says none of us are actually white, so he doesn´t know why they call us gueros (means white person). He says we are all actually red, like dad jaja!!! We get along really good. He says I need to visit Oaxaca when he gets off the mission because he wants to show me how much different it is there. The beaches are apparently really gorgeous.

Anyways, we are starting to grow a little bit with our pool of investigators. I´m really glad, because it seemed like we were working with the same people, and we are struggling with them. Apparently the marriage office is a little more difficult than I thought.

I´m really sorry, but I really don´t have any pictures yet. I´ve been horrible about that lately... I´m going to do better this week, promise!

Love ya guys,
Elder Scott Donner

Hola Family,

So this week was alot better, and alot different. My insomnia had been affecting me so much that a few people had asked me if I got punched in the face, because the baggies under my eyes were so dark. We still worked super hard, and I really actually enjoyed this week. The rain hasn´t let up at all. Its almost been kinda fun, because I feel like I´m in a movie, and this would be one of the climaxes of the movie.

Anyways, we still are working with our investigators. One thing we are still working for is baptism. It seems to be a great struggle sometimes. We are also enjoying working with alot of less active members in the ward as well. The work I really have enjoyed lately. I am still not able to upload any photo´s to the computer because my cord doesn´t work, so I am just going to buy a usb device to plug my memory card in instead.

I have been showering with cold water for the past week. Why you ask? Because I´m a "codo" and don´t want to buy more gas jaja! You´ll have to ask someone who speaks spanish what a codo is. And no I don´t mean elbow.

Really not much exciting going on this week. I received the package finally. To my surprise, the cocoa that was put in the package had exploaded and got everywhere. I had to wash the pants. Also the picture that Nicki drew me is now on brown paper instead of white, but I can still see the drawing :)

I did not burn a tie. You do that at six months. I burned a shirt :D

I was told that you have to ask around to find out what holds up well in the sun and the rain for shoes. Theres no specific brand.

Not much news, sorry. If you have questions, maybe I can think of something.

Love,

Elder Scott Donner

So Sorry!

Dear Readers,

This post as you will notice, will be addressed to everyone who reads. First and formost, I would like to apologize for the very horrible and negative things that have been posted on my blog in the past little bit. I have been notified about how uppsetting some of the things that I wrote were to some of you. How sad that it took someone else telling me to realize how horrible I have been. I´m sure if none of you knew any better, you would not think these things coming from a missionary, even less a representative of our Savior.

I am very ashamed and disappointed in myself for having written those things, and would not blame any of you for thinking poorly of me. I would especially like to apologize to the parents of the missionaries, and the missionaries, for what I have said about some of them. The adversary has clearly been working very hard on me to see what things he could make me do, without me really realizing who I was hurting. I have let him get the best of me, along with the negative frustration and stress of being a missionary. How absolutely unacceptable it is that I chose to take it out on others. I cannot apologize enough.

I want you to know that I love every single one of the missionaries that I have had as companions. They have each impacted me in a different way, each one making me a better missionary. I am glad that you, as the readers, have brought these things to my attention. You will no longer see content like that in my blog anymore. Please understand that I truly am sorry, to each and every person who I have and have not offended.

Sincerely,
Elder Scott Donner

Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head...

Hi Family,

So I actually ended up staying here in this area and my companion got transferred. My new companion is Elder Martinez. Wouldn´t you like to know that I am greeny breaking him? He actually doesn´t seem that bad. I just kinda wish I would receive a companion that I didn´t have to help learn everything that his companion before didn´t teach him. I´m hoping he actually knows alot. As you can tell I am actually super stressed lately. Not sure why. It could be that I still don´t sleep very well. It could be a lot of things. I think I´m going to talk to President because its starting to affect me alot.

Anyways, we are still pushing this freaking family to get married. Its funny because they come to church and the activities like they are already members, they´re just not married. Who knows when its gonna happen. I think the mission could help if they absolutely couldn´t pay for it, but the fact is that they have stated (mom and dad) that they could pay for them to get married. Not sure what the hold-up is. We are just working really hard with them right now.

It´s been raining really bad this past week. It literally makes it almost impossible to leave the house. 2 missionaries actually got trapped on top of a car for 3 hours because it flooded here. So work has kinda been really slow. Its a joke when we go to knock doors or stuff like that, because people just tell us its raining and to go away. What joy.

I have more pictures of the rain this week than anything. Ok just kidding. My camera isn´t connecting at all. So I will send them next week I guess. Hopefully I have some better news this next week.

Anyways, I know my emails have been short recently. Its just cuz there really isn´t that much going on lately.

Love,

Elder Scott Donner

Still More Rain....

Me and Ailyn
Azul after painting herself.

Azul and her daddy after painting him.

The best shot I could get of the rain before it got dangerous.

Hi dur Family!

A lot has been going on this week, especially rain. I never thought it could rain so much in my entire life. I can now officially say that I 'm glad it doesn't rain so much in Arizona, because it is a very unpleasant experience to be stuck doing nothing because everything is flooding outside and you literally cannot walk. I really wish I had taken some fotos and video of it, but I didn't. I was actually kinda scared because you know, being from Arizona, I haven't seen so much water in my entire life (jaja, I make joke).

Anyways, there really hasn't been much progression with any of our investigators this week. It's been the same old with them. They need to get married to be baptized. One of them pushed is off, we spiritually tell them off, they feel guilty, then find another reason why no to get married. And thus has been my life for a month jaja! We visit them with members, take them to church, have family home eveing with them, and they now hold it themselves. It just seems to be our rotten luck to have investigators that aren't married.

Changes are in a week. We kinda get the feeling I'm leaving, but who knows. This are has kinda just made me a very angry grumpy person. I have alos learned a lot. Like...

• 
  
  The top bunk is better than the bottom bunk because chances are that your companion is going to throw his dirty clothes on the bottom bunk and forget about them.


• 
  
  There are actually 42 different types of tamales.


• 
  
  The feathers from a chicken do not digest in your stomach sometimes.


• 
  
  In Mexico, they think that lemon mixed with Coke will cure any problem that you are having with you tummy.


• 
  
  Body piercings are mor heard of and common here that in the US, but almost NOBODY has tattoos.

Love ya!

Elder Scott Donner

Rainy Days Ahead

Family,

So this week was quite interesting and let me tell you why. Rain season is finally here, but in Mexico, it is a worlds difference than it is in Arizona. Rainy season here means it rains everyday here for about 3 to 4 hours more than it would in Arizona and it can ruin your day because nobody wants to let you in our come out to see who you are because of the rain. I don't thing I've ever seen so much rain in my life. I think I would enjoy it if I wasn't a missionary and rain meant that contacting people would be hard. But other than the rain, it's been a pretty decent week.

We have been working with a certain family for about a month now. The mom, Argelia (remember to pronounce it like you would in Spanish mmkay?), used to go to the LDS church as a kid. Now she really wants to get baptized but doesn't want to do it until the rest of the family is on the sam boat. We just me her husband and taught him. He is one of those people that will make a joke out of anything you say. It's fun trying to teach him. They can't get baptized until they are married. Neither can 2 of their kids, because they aren't married either. Fun stuff right? The only one who right now could technically get baptized is her 8 year-old son. It cost $870 pesos to get married. That's like $80 bucks. Already a pain jaja! But I'm not complaining, because it if were easy, where would be the fun in that right? We're going to continue to work with them though.

We really don't have anyone else that we are working with seriously. Seems like the poeple here are really stubborn. We find people, but they just don't understand the intensity of the message we share.

Anyways, things are going better with the comp. This week he started to let me know more things wrong. Although he still thinks that the best time to start a conversation with me is when I'm reading or indulged in something else. Even when I try to ignore him, he talks even more jaja! I laugh now, but in the moment I'm just kinda like, "you do realize I'm doing something right now, which is not talking?"

Anyways, I got videos this week.

Hopefully you enjoy them.

Love,

Elder Scott Donner