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