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