Better Days...

Hello Family,

So we blanked this transfer. Or in other words we didn´t baptize. Ya its kinda depressing. We were really tried, but it didn´t happen. But like I said, the good news is that now we have a ton of people set up for this next transfer that we can baptize. Not going to lie, this transfer has been a hard one for me, and President is leaving both me and Elder Cervantes here. We´re glad, and also glad that President put more white people in the zone (I was the only one last transfer). I´m not racist or anything, but I´m going to forget english altogether if I´m not able to speak it every once in a while. Its horrible because my companion is learning english, but I´m teaching things incorrectly because I think of how sentences are structured in spanish and not english.

Anyways, I love how bold the people are here in Mexico. A guy had approached us the other week (thats normal), and start talking to us about god (also normal), and drugs (completely normal still), and then asked us for money (still normal). The bold part that I am talking about, is that when I told him we didn´t have any (we always say that), he told us that originally, he was going to rob us, but decided not to after he had seen how big I was up close. He pulled a knife out of his pocket and said he was going to use it, but was afraid that I was like Superman or something, and the knife would do nothing, and then I would just break his neck. I kinda wanted to laugh at that, but I wasn´t sure what this guy was going to do, so we continued to tell him we had nothing. He said that all white people have money, so I pulled 1 peso out of my pocket and gave it to him, and told him that was all I had (still lying). When I pulled my hand out of my pocket, the pocket dropped and the money in my pocket made a noise. He then got angry, and tried to start selling me things on his person, like the knife and lighter that he had. It was super funny until he started swinging the knife around. He fell on the floor (because he was high) and we booked it down the street as fast as we could. When we got tired, we sat down and hid behind a car, but somehow, the idiot ended up coming down the street we were on to search for us. Luckily he didn´t see us, and me and Elder Cervantes got up and ran back up the way we came. We were laughing afterwards.

Anyways, this week we were finally able to put people on date for baptism. We realized that there are a ton of things that we could be doing better, that I just kinda took for granted with Elder Moss, because where he lacked, I made up for it, and where I lacked, he made up for it. Thats definately not the situation with Elder Cervantes, so we have to figure things out this transfer, and change alot. But anyways, the people we have put on date are super solid. They grew up never knowing religion. When we knocked on their door, Guillermo (investigator) told us he origanally wasn´t going to open the door but something told him that he needed to. So he did. When we taught him, we could feel the spirit right away, so we went through the process of putting him on date for baptism, along with his wife and sister. At our 3rd visit with him, he told us that the night before we had come, he had dreamed about two people coming to his door and it changed his life. He then woke up that morning at 4:00 and couldn´t go back to sleep. He realized that if he hadn´t let us in, he might have lost the opportunity forever. Its funny because the ones in his family that are on date now still have never been to church. The rest of his family are now part of a religion called "Luz del Mundo". I´ll let you look that one up, but it only exists here in Mexico. It was created by an ex-missionary of the LDS church who got mad at the church. Quite interesting, but we weren´t about to tell them that jaja!

I finally received a ton of the letters you sent Mom, but still no package with the shirts.

I´m sleeping fine still, but I think suffering from headaches and migranes will just be something that I have to endure. I imagine it comes with the stress of being a missionary.

We are always climbing mountains, because thats all our area is. We are either going up or down jaja!

Video of this week, we had contacted an old man and asked him what he felt for Jesus Christ. He told us "GOOD". And when we asked again, he said the same thing. So we did a reinactment of it jaja! We are such losers! (Couldn't get it to load...will try later)

The Appointment

Hola,

So I have to say this wasn´t such a lovely week for us. It was actually one of the hardest weeks in the mission for me. We worked our butts off this week, only to have very little success and now it is not possible for us to baptize this transfer. We had a goal of six, and we´re ending up with zero. Its kinda embarrassing, but I talked to Elder Moss, my old companion, and he hasn´t baptized at all this transfer either, and they had a goal of 11. For basically the same reasons too! None of our investigators come to church! We met this really solid guy this week, Guillermo, he said he wasn´t going to open the door when we knocked, but something told him that he had better do so. So he let us in, and then told us that he had been up since 4:00 that morning because he felt like something important was going to happen that day, and felt that us showing up was that something important. But when we passed by to bring him to church, his mom answered the door and said he got called into work on an emergency. Nobody showed up to church again, except for one person.

One of the benefits though, after church, we went to the houses of all of our investigators that promised to go, and gave them the drop talk. They all apologized and promised to do whatever to be able to at least come for one hour. This will be good, because that at least guarantees us for the minimun 15 baptisms this next transfer (which starts next Monday BTW). I guess that could be something exciting, but it still kinda bums me out because I didn´t meet my goal this transfer. I´m sure President will be pretty bummed too. Not to worry though, because if I DO baptize those 15 people next transfer, he won´t be so upset jaja!

Anyways, one of our investigators, Alfonso, told us stories yesterday about him hopping the border into Arizona. I can tell you what, after hearing that story, I will never judge again the Mexicans that hop the border for work. Mostly its just men who hop the border to come and work for a year so they can earn money for their families and return to Mexico. Some of the things that he told me that happened, I will not repeat, but it made me want to cry for him. He is a really solid guy though, and he really struggles with his wife right now. How funny is it that we take advantage of the fact that our families so united with the gospel in our homes. Its wonderful that I was able to tell him that he needs what we have brought to him as missionaries.

Haven´t received your package or letters yet, Mom.

And I´m sleeping again!!!!!! Mexico has some crazy cold medicine, let me tell ya...

Anyways, I will be sending you videos to tell the rest of my story jaja!

Love,
Elder Donner

In the beginning...

More...

More...

No adults home...appointment rescheduled.

Carry On...Carrry On...Carry on....

Hello Family,
So this week was really rough. Thanks to my insomnia, which btw has not changed much, I have been kinda up and down on the health. It has made it super hard to work some days, but it doesn´t matter because I refuse not to work. The headaches have gotten better, but I´m pretty sure because of the lack of sleep I have, they have not withdrawn themselves altogether.
Anyways, this week was ok with the investigators. I think we finally might baptize this week. One of our investigators, Daniel, told us this week that he thinks he´s gonna become Mormon, and we were just kinda like o really now? You know thats why were here right? He didn´t know that missionaries were allowed to baptize. He´s a really cool kid. He asked us to fill out a bunch of passalong cards with our names and number. Then he took them and handed them out to people he knows and was like call them, they´re awesome! We´re kinda excited to that because he wants to know at what age he can become a missionary.
We want to baptize him this Saturday, so we will see what happens.
We had investigators at church this sunday, so we got to stay.
Actually it was the stake conference here, so we had to stay because President Tervort had to speak along with his wife jaja! But it was nice because we were one of 2 companionships that had investigators at the church.
So we got to listen to Elder Oaks talk today in the morning. Yes, I GOT TO SHAKE HIS HAND! We also listened to Elder Rasband of the presidency of the 70. He gave a really cool conference talk a while back about assigning missionaries to their missions. Read it, its awesome. I don´t have my notes from the conference with me right now, so I will send you information on it next week.
I am attaching a video. I took alot this week and will send them next week. But here is one of them :)
Love,
Elder Scott Donner

Phone Call

Family,

That was a great talk on the phone yesterday. As I´m sure you realized, it kinda takes me a bit now to be able to say some things in English now jaja! Fortunately, I don´t have to pay anything when I go to the doctor here in the mission. It is actually the doctor in the MTC so he does it for free and is paid by the church. I pay whatever for medications he suggests, but the church reimburses me for them, so it is kinda nice.

The doctor actually suggested that I take a higher dosage of melatonin for one week straight and then call him in a week to give him the results. If nothing has changed, he is going to call in medication from Salt Lake that is more effective. He doesn´t know why I have insomnia either, but he said he is just going to start with the basics to try and help me.

As for the stomach problems, he said that is normal and that the headaches I get are from not sleeping.

Anyways, theres really not that much to say now that we´ve talked. Let me know if you have anymore questions.

Love,
Elder Scott Donner

GOOD NEWS...Bad News

Familia!

Not gonna lie, this week has been a hard week for me. Not because I´m struggling with investigators, or because I´m not getting along with my companion or something like that. It´s because I literally have not slept one single minute since Tuesday night. Yes I know how dangerous that can be and I have let President know, so he is officially aware. He is looking into things to see what he can do to get me help. I am not sleepy at all, but I have definately seen a decline in energy, health, appettite and all the fun stuff that keeps people alive. Other than that, the week has been pretty stinkin solid. We have found quite a few investigators and families that are excited for us to pass by. One family, every time they see us, always remind us when our next appointment is jaja! Unfortunately, the investigators that we do have all went out of town for Día del Niño, so no investigators in church again....

Something really funny, a few of our investigators are a bunch of drunk guys that contacted us on the street the other day. For whatever reason, the drunk people take more kindly to the Elders because we´re nice and don´t chastise them for their wrongdoings and being drunk jaja. They enjoy listening to why some giant white guy is in mexico talking about god instead of in the United States with a hot wife and going to school (literally they asked).

My knee is doing alot better. I guess constantly running up and down the freaking mountain has actually strengthened it for the better. I have to say, I hate hills. I will never live on one. If I do, it´ll be a huge stinkin house and I´ll have a helicopter fly me up to the top. I never EVER want to live on a mountain! I have had some luck with shoes lately. The only Elder taller than me in this mission just went home, and left me a pair of his old shoes, but made me promise I would send them back to him once I got more shoes and had my other ones repaired! So I was lucky in that :)

We had interviews this past week with President. He apologized for moving me, but told me that he had somewhat of another special assignment for me. He said not just anyone can start up a brand new area and baptize, and thinks that I can do it. He also said that my companion, Elder Cervantes, still lacked alot of what he needs to know, that the other missionaries had taught him nothing new. Basically I´m the missionary who is supposed to save him before he learns bad habits and turns into a dead missionary. I feel honored but kinda wish I would just have a normal companion jaja! I figure though in like another week or so there will be no problem, because he will have learned from me, and will be my Mini Me! jajaj!

Anyways, I don´t have any new pictures this week. I really didn´t have time to take any. But I promise to take some this week, and hopefully some more videos for you all!

Love,

Elder Scott Donner