THE END

These last couple of weeks have been a bit surreal and unfortunately writing emails was not high on the list of priorities for Elder Scott Donner.  This last communication seemed to be an impromptu question and answer session...

Mom - I'm sure there is a very logical explanation as to why you did not email us yesterday, but I sure wish there was a way for you to let us know why.  My mind goes into a million different directions when we don't get an email from you.

Scott - I'm writing today because yesterday I didn't have time because I was visiting some converts.

Mom - Whew...I am so relieved!

Scott - Breath mommy... breath :)

Mom - Lol...I'm trying...I think I've inherited your insomnia...lol

Scott - Just have one of the girls punch you in the face.  It's worked miracles for me jaja!

Mom - LOL...I think I'll pass on that one.

Scott - I only have one layover.  It's in Dallas.  (It will be a 5 hour layover)

Mom - That is a long layover.  Are any other Elders going to be waiting with you?

Scott - Everyone else will be in Dallas with me but they only have 1 hour layovers.

Mom - When do you go to the mission home this week?

Scott - I go this Sunday at 5.

Mom - Sooo...you can always call us if you would like...we still have money left on that calling card.

Scott - I will probably call you guys, don't worry.

This is the last email from Elder Scott Donner.

It's Hard To Know...

I am just going to answer your questions because it is way to hard for me to focus to write a huge letter for the blog.

Investigators are awesome.  My last weekend it looks like I will be baptizing 5 at the least, maybe more.

I am just keeping busy working and trying not to slow down to end strong.

I would like Hawaiian haystacks when I get home.  I don’t know why.  Probably because I don’t remember anything else from the food there.

Brownies or anything chocolate would be awesome.  Brownies are not well-known here.

Sorry Mom.  I don’t know what else to write.  It’s hard to know now that the time is so close.


Elder Scott Donner

Getting Stuff Done

Hey dur!


Well this week was just another week that went by way too fast. We busted our butts to get stuff done.

Its looking like right now that we will be able to get 6 baptisms. We have a family of four we are teaching and also a mom and her daughter. They are super solid people! Anyways I am not very sure what to write anymore. The video is of the sister missionaries teaching us how to make home-made flour tortillas.

I will let you know about baptisms when I have them. These last weeks are just very weird for me.

Love,
Elder Scott Donner

Super Exciting Week

Hullo,

I am super super tired after this week.  We were able to break the zone record of baptisms this month!  That is super exciting!  This entire week was spent running through and helping people out with their investigators and doing baptismal interviews.  There was so much going on.  I seriously had a headache every day jaja!  But I am really proud of everyone here in the zone, because we worked super hard.

I had to help all of the sister missionaries out with their baptisms, because there was no one to baptize their investigators.  I also had to interview an investigator of another elder in the zone.  She was 78 years old.  It was completely hilarious speaking to here because she knows English and she just kept on talking.  At the end of the interview it was really funny because she dragged my face down and gave me a huge wet kiss on the cheek.  Needless to say I was totally embarrassed, but I didn’t have the heart to tell her that that kind of thing was not allowed for us jaja.  She apologized later when she found out.

Anyways, I really don’t know what to write anymore in these emails jaja!  So I will end here.

Love ya guys!

Elder Scott Donner

Interesting Week...(June 16th Email)

Hey guys,

So this week has been an interesting one because my companion got super sick from some food he ate.  In other words, it’s been fun :P

We have been working with the same family basically all week and at the same time doing a ton of baptismal interviews!  Our zone is super close to breaking the record for the mission and we are pushing to it!

A lot of my week has been spent helping motivate the other missionaries and running to interviews.  It has been an exciting week for us.  We have been working hard as well to find new investigators so we can start the month out strong.  We have a fun meeting tonight just to purely keep the zone motivated and keep us working hard.  I am going to use the happy rings that were sent to me to also give to the zone so they stay happy and working hard.

I was planning on going to see the pyramids today, but all trips to anywhere but inside your zone has been canceled for right now.  I don’t have a lot of info on why, and I was kinda bummed because I was planning to go with quite a few people from my generation.

Anyways, the picture are "chicharron" or fried pig skin.  They eat it like potato chips here.

Love,

Elder Scott Donner

Mexico's Got Talent!

Hey there everyone!


This last week was a super crazy week for us! Let me start from the beginning...

Tuesday we woke up and went to the stake center because we were going to have a mission talent show on Thursday, so we were going to be practicing our talent. The talent was us singing the "Come Thou Fount" arrangement we had sung before in church, but with the words to O Mi Padre (#187 in the Spanish hymnbook). So for the next 2 mornings we did that. At the same time we prepared for the zone baptism. Elder Pike and I were going to be bringing 2 families, so we had to make sure they knew and everything.

Thursday was the mission Talent show all morning and then the zone baptism at night. I was able to video tape most of the talents of the zones, but I don’t think you guys would understand the humor behind it jaja! So we were there until 2:00 and then we had to run back to our area to get ready for the zone baptism. We were stressing, and they had asked my companion and I to prepare a special musical number for the baptism. So we ran for the investigators then ran back to the stake center (we were late) just in time to sing our musical number, which President loved. That finished up and then we ran around some more.

The next 2 days we spent doing interviews for baptism because everyone needed them and was baptizing. So we are pretty much dead today jaja!

And I washed my camera in the wash machine :S But don’t worry, it’s getting fixed by a member who works downtown.

Love ya guys!
Elder Scott Donner

Blessings of Working Hard

Candid shot taken by Elder Pike



Me Being Silly after church one day.

Hey guys!


So it was a good week this week. We were struggling for quite a while but we started to find people after a bit. Contacting wasn’t really working out for us so we decided on doing something else to find people. We tried going by old investigators, visiting part member families and all that. Finally we found some people. It’s really cool because this Thursday we are going to have a zone baptism and President will be coming. We are excited because we should be bringing quite a few people there.


Today was really cool. We had our last part of the mission tournament, which was dodge ball. Because our zone is so small, President had his daughters who were visiting play on our team. In between the 4 of them they have 19 kids, which I think is awesome because they played better than some of the missionaries! ja ja! Also it was really funny because one missionary from my generation (Elder McCarther) dropped to the floor to avoid getting hit and ended up chipping his 2 front teeth! jaja! It was funny because his teeth got stuck in the wood on the basketball court.

There isn’t much more to report on. My brain is kinda lost jaja!

Love ya guys,
Elder Scott Donner



I went and hugged a tree because Elder Pike said I was hated
by everyone and I told him the this tree loved me :P

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

Talking in Your Sleep...

Hi There Family,

Sooo this week was interesting. It was a week of
partying for everyone in the neighborhood AKA we didn't sleep very well
grrrr!!!!

This week was still a good week though. It was my
companion´s birthday, so we celebrated it on Saturday with some members.
That was fun. Like I mentioned, I wasn't sleeping very well, and it was
started to affect me heavily. So I resorted to taking one of my CRAZY
sleeping pills (Ambien). They gave me a bottle in the MTC and I still had
5 or 6 pills that they had given to me. I decided only to use them when
ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. Well this week was one of those moments.
Remember, this is one of the pills that would cause me to hallucinate after 20
minutes or so, and then the next morning I never remember anything. Well,
the first night I took one and obviously warned my companion about the side
effects of the pill. I woke up the next morning and my companion said I
went right to sleep. That is good. I was still tired though.

The next night, I took another pill, because the first
helped out so much. I told my companion again then I took it, and 20
minutes later I was out like a light. Or so I had thought....
Remember, I forget everything that happens. I woke up the next morning
and after getting out of the shower, found my companion watching a 20 minute
video of the things I had said the night before. It is pretty stinkin
funny, so I am sharing it with you guys. It is in a zip file, so you will
have to unzip it first.

Also, like I mentioned, my companion is teaching me to play
the piano, which I am grateful for. I am also sending a video of us
goofing around with a 2 part song he taught me. It also comes in a zip
file, so you will need to unzip it.

Anyways, we were able to confirm Luis yesterday, so that was
nice. Now we are on the lookout again for investigators jaja!

Love,
Elder Scott Donner

Really Good Week!

Hey family!!!

So this past week was a really good week. I especially enjoyed that it was conference weekend.

To start, we finished teaching everything that we needed to to our investigator that we had set up to be baptized. Let me tell you, he was probably one of the most solid baptisms I have ever had. It was really nice because when he told him about the spirit and when we identified it when it arrived in the lesson, he was so excited. He just kept smiling and talking about how cool the spirit felt. Imagine how he reacted when we told him the he would be entitled to the right to feel it forever with the Gift of the Holy Ghost. He was so ready to get baptized jaja. His name is Luis. Anyways, we finished teaching him everything and he had his interview on Friday.

On Friday, my companion and I were asked to help out with a Relief Society program that the hermanas were holding. They asked my companion to play the piano. BTW, I don't know if i mentioned, but my companion has been playing the piano since he was 6. He plays really well, and has actually been teaching me on Mondays. Sadly, I regret having never taken lessons... :(. Anyways, we helped them out with their program for a bit while Luis was being interviewed. We finished that and went home to prepare for Saturday General Conference.

We wanted to go to the first session with Luis, but he unfortunately couldn't, so we weren't able to stay for the first session. We started contacting a lot in the Tianguis (Mexican market that they set up only on certain days) because we realized we were lacking on our goal for contacts. We did that until we had to go to lunch at 2:00 when the afternoon session started. It was nice because when we went, the hermano set up to listen to conference on his laptop. So while he finished preparing the food we listened, and then also while we were eating we were able to listen to conference. That was pretty sweet. I really enjoyed Elder Holland´s talk. I always enjoy it when he talks.

Anyways, after priesthood session that evening, we told everyone about our baptism that we were planning on having in between conference sessions. It was funny because we walked back to our area with some of the youth who have just turned in their mission papers. One of them who was called to serve in Provo, and already speaks English, mentioned how he prefers watching conference in English, because you hear everyones original voices. He mentioned especially about President Eyring, because his voice sounds like Optimus Primes from Transformers bajajajajaja(refer yourselves to the recent movies)!!!!!!!!

Anyways, the baptism was sick the next day. We had a lot of people show up and, afterwards, Luis asked my companion if it was alright that he felt different. SO COOL!!! He will be a great, strong member.

Today we had another earthquake. Lost the cell phone signal for a couple of hours again. Also, for March Madness (everyone ask my dad if you want to know about it jajajaja), our President wanted to "take part" in it by having a basketball tournament today between all the zones of the mission. We lost on the first round jaja. I attribute the loss to being the smallest zone in the mission. I enjoyed myself a ton though. We are going to be having a Soccer tournament next month, and a dodge ball one in June. This was all President´s idea jaja! I am so excited.

I am sending the baptism picture of us. Luis is 20 years old BTW.

Love ya guys!

Elder Scott Donner

A Good Week

Hey there!

So this week was a really good week. Actually it was pretty sweet. I actually started out the week with strep throat. Who cares though right? We tried to do everything in our power to continue working, and our efforts paid off. We had a very successful week actually.

Just so you know, Ruben did get confirmed yesterday, which was nice. When he had gone back to his house to change, he sat down on the couch and ended up falling asleep, hence why he never returned to get confirmed. He apologized because he felt bad, but we told him not to worry. So he was confirmed.

During the week, like I said, I had strep throat. No worries. The doctor told me what to take. I was taking it. BUT, I was super drained. We still worked hard though. That's when we received a referral from our neighbors (who are members). The daughter has a boyfriend that was really interested in listening to us. Our first lesson was really cool and we felt the spirit really strong. We told him the spirit was there, and then we asked him to get baptized. He of course accepted and will be getting baptized in between conference sessions hopefully this Sunday. Every time we go over there, we are able to feel the spirit quite strongly with him. He will make a good member.

Saturday we ate with Iván. It was his birthday that day, so there was cake and everything. It was pretty stinkin' funny, because as you know, tradition here is to shove the birthday boy´s/girl´s face in the cake jaja. So they had me do it :P. It was pretty funny, and a tradition that I think that I will start in my own family jaja!

Anyways, that was my week. BTW, this is my third to last transfer. We just had changes.

Pictures are of us with Iván.

Love,

Elder Scott Donner

PS

I definitely felt the earthquake jaja.
I was using the bathroom and at first thought the neighbors below were playing with the piping or something, because the toilet was moving jajajaja!!!!!!! THEN I GOT SCARED WHEN I REALIZED IT WASN'T. We ended up losing communications by way of phone and Internet and everything for 6 hours jaja. Pretty cool experience for me.

It's Been a Bit Crazy!

Hey Der Everyone!

So this last week was a little crazy for me. We spent the entire week looking for this kid (Rubén), because he really wanted to get baptized.

On Tuesday, we went to his house at 12:00pm, the time we had previously set an appointment with him. Of course we wouldn't find him there, nor anyone else for that matter. So instead of playing games, we went back the next day at 9:00am (just for the record, Mexico wakes up at about 10:00am, so 9:00am is considered early to some). He was there! JAJA CAUGHT HIM!!!! We talked to him and set up his baptism for Sunday morning at 8:00am because he couldn't on Saturday. So ANYWAYS, we made it a habit of going there every morning at 10:00am for the rest of the week so he wouldn't disappear.

Friday we had his interview, but what do you know... NO ONE ANSWERED WHEN WE WENT BY! We we waiting out there for an entire hour, when finally we just resorted to yelling jaja. His grandma finally opened up (rude that she didn't before), and told us he was sleeping. We said wedidn't care because he had plans with us, so she woke him up and he got interviewed for baptism jaja!

Now we realized at what time we had his baptism. Mind you, fonts don't fill fast with hot water here. If you want hot water in the font, it takes 3-4 hours to fill, depending on the font. So we planned on cleaning and filling the font halfway the night before, which we did. While we were there though, it started pouring and hailing (weather is wacked here lately). So we stayed until 9:15pm when it finally stopped and went home. Then we had to wake up at 4:00am the next
morning to finish filling the font.

Talk about hilarious. We arrived, turned on the boiler, and then went and found a place to sleep while we were waiting for the water to heat up (about one hour). I didn't realize how funny it was how we were sleeping. We had turned on the water an hour later, then went back to sleep jaja. Well, someone came in and took pictures of us while we were sleeping (we were tired jaja). I am going to try and get these pictures from them because they are priceless jaja.

So we had the baptism. It was sick. Church started at 9:00am so Rubén went home to get changed for church. We didn't know this at the time, someone else told us. So we waited patiently only to have him not come back to get confirmed. Go figure jaja!

And THAT was my week jaja!

Love,

Elder Scott Donner

(Here's last weeks email that somehow never arrived)

3/11/12

Dear family,

I definitely had a tough week this past week.

We had planned to baptize a youth this past Saturday, but the kid disappeared all week. That was super frustrating for us. We also passed by and talked to a lot of members that had said that they had referrals for us. Unfortunately, every single one of them told us that they wanted to talk to them first. Now this week, we are going to be the squeaky wheel so they will let us talk to these referrals.

The weather is still really crazy this week. It continues to be blazing hot, and then turns around and starts to rain and hail. I am not liking it whatsoever. There was one storm this week that passed RIGHT over us, because when the lighting decided to strike in the street about 150 yards away, I screamed like a little girl jaja! So we decided it would probably be safer to look for cover. This happened on Saturday.

Anyways, this week is the last week of this transfer. This transfer has just flown by for me. We are going to try end this change with a baptism.
Maybe more if we can find people.

Hope all is well this week.

Love,
Elder Scott Donner

Gotta Love the Hail

Hey persons of the world to the North,

Well, this week went by super fast for me. We are set up to have a baptism this next Saturday. We have also seen many blessings of working hard pay off. We have gotten even more references this past week. I am extremely excited to visit them, even if they aren't good referrals. Just because it will help us to do something besides knocking doors jaja!

I am really enjoying the mission in this moment. I love my companion. He is such a great guy and we laugh so much together. He laughs like an old man, and that gets me going jaja! He wheezes jaja!!!! I am really glad though that I get to be his companion. He still has the
whole greeny stubbornness, but its slowly going away jaja!

Something really cool for us last week, we had the opportunity to help a family change houses. I have been KILLING to do service like that for a long time! It was funny because they depended on my help alot. We have a lot of youth that are pretty tall and pretty strong, but it was pretty sad
watching them try to lift some stuff jaja! They were really grateful for our help, but we had to leave before they finished.

Anyways, I have a couple of pictures and a video this week :)

First is obviously of me. I was NOT impressed by the hail. ESPECIALLY before rainy season.

Second is me and my companion. We played ping pong last Monday in the institute building :)

Third, I spelled my name when we went to eat with Iván :P

That's all for this week really. I will update you next Monday about the
success :P
Love,
Elder Scott Donner

Better Days...?

Hullo Everbuddy!
Well, this week was definitely a better week. We have been working just
to get into peoples houses lately. Honestly though, through our
searching, we didn't really find anyone very interested. But, through our
hard work, we have received a really nice reference from a family in the
ward. They are a family that we have never met. There are five
people in the family. Apparently they contacted the family from the ward
and asked why the missionaries never passed by their house.
Anyways, I think I am about to start knocking this area for the 3rd time.
I don't mind it so much now. I think its funny how many people remember
me. I figure that eventually they are gonna get so sick of me knocking
their door that they will just let me in jaja! Also, probably only 20% of
the houses we knock are actually there. This is me trying to be positive
jaja! Is it noticeable??? :P
So once again, not very many pictures we taken this week :S I really only took
one picture. I kinda wanted you guys to experience a little bit of what
goes on with some of the religions here. The picture I am sending is of a
"burnt offering". I will explain with what I was told, and bare
with me. This is an offering that the people who worship the Santa Muerte
(Holy Death in English). I really find it interesting what they say they
believe. Apparently they make offerings by burning live animals, so they
can experience the blessing of the Santa Muerte bringing a living creature on
to the next life. They believe that we can't make it on our own, so we
need the help of the Santa Muerte to take us over. This was very
disturbing to see in the morning when we were passing by. Obviously it is
illegal here as well, but they get away with it.
The other foto is of me in the internet right now jaja :P
Anyways, I hope to have more stories for you next week.
Love,
Elder Scott Donner

So...So...Humid!

Hi there!

So this week was another long week. We worked our butts off with little toshow. So remember how last week it was raining every day? Well this week it definitely wasn’t, In fact it got a ton hotter really quick!!! So I have been sweating my brains out. Literally! I swear that a little piece falls out every day. So that has definitely been making it more fun for us to work. My companion and I have been trying to utilize all of the tools the mission gives us to find more investigators. We have gone through the list of part-member families, dropped investigators, contacting everyone we see, knocking doors, asking converts for referrals, EVERYTHING. We aren’t exactly sure why we haven’t had much success, but we are hoping that it is just a trial of our faith that we
are having.

We still haven’t found that family of 4 which is really frustrating, and the father of one of the member girls now has a new job where he works all day every day, so that’s pretty much a no go. We haven’t had a single person let us in their door, and anyone who has told us to pass by or come back is never there. But we continue to work hard.

I have to say, today, we went inside the high school owned by the church, called theBenimerito de las Americas. THEY HAVE THE MOST GREEN GRASS THAT I HAVE SEEN IN ALL OF MEXICO. We went there to play soccer today. I have gotten pretty darn good at it too. And by good I mean that whenever I decide I wanna steal the ball from the other team, I just run really fast towards them and they usually get scared and just move jaja!!! Funniest thing happened while we were playing because one elder stopped playing because he said it wasn’t worth getting runover by me (which has never happened!).

Anyways, we continue to receive a lot of support from the ward. The bishop is working really hard to help the members understand the importance of giving us referrals, because it is such a small area. I have talked to most everyone more than once or twice here, so it would be a lot easier to teach people with the help of the members. Hopefully we can get them more involved in that aspect.

Anyways, didn’t take any pictures again :S SORRY! I am trying to be better about that, and having a greeny as a companion makes me think about it more because he takes pictures of EVERYTHING!!!

Love ya Guys!!
Elder Scott Donner

Valentines?

Hey guys,

If I said that this week was eventful, I wouldn't be lying :P. There were just a lot of things that happened jaja!

We´ll start with Tuesday :) Me and Elder Pike left to work, and we ran into problems in the Tianguis. We were walking through, and some old lady claimed that the backpack that I was using had been robbed from her tiangui. It obviously wasn't true because I had bought the backpack in the tianguis that they set up on Saturdays from a different lady. So we ended up just walking away after a while when others started to tell us just to ignore her.

This entire week it has been raining. Monday through Wednesday after lunch. Every other day it has rained all day. Well on Wednesday, it was so wet that I fell down an entire flight of stairs. That was also very fun. Even more fun being that the dog at the bottom thought that I was attacking it, so it latched onto my pants, and now there is a hole near my shoe.

Thursday I woke up with a huge migraine, and it was freezing cold. Good thing we didn't have water so we couldn't shower. I was so happy that I was able to be cold all morning. So it was just a fun day for everything, because it was raining all day. When we got home that night, we both took freezing hot showers (notice the oxymoron). The water was hot, but the air was freezing because someone decided it was a great idea to put slated windows in our bathroom so the air can enter right in.

Friday and Saturday we did some damage control and passed by people with whom we set appointments. There wasn't anyone very promising. We still have a few good possibilities for baptism. They show up to church, but the key would be to find them when they are home.

On Sunday they made my companion share his testimony in Sacrament meeting. He speaks really well for only 4 months in the mission.

Anyways, I got my camera this week.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING GRAPHIC IMAGES MAY OFFEND AND/OR INVOKE VOMITING. IF THERE ARE ANY PERSONS WITH A WEAK STOMACH, IT IS ADVISABLE THAT THEY LEAVE THE ROOM :)

I am gonna show you the bathroom before I cleaned it :)

Ok so obviously it was really gross. Imagine how grossed out I was when I found that our shower tiles were actually blue and that our sink and toilet are cream colored. Yucky......

And the last image is of me and a good friend from the ward who really helps us out. His name is Iván.

Anyways, have a happy Valentines Day everyone!

Elder Scott Donner

It's Raining Cats & Dogs!

Hey ther everbuddy,
So this was a really interesting last week. Most of it was spent looking for a bunch of people that we set appointments with, and also visiting some random people that showed up to church. Also, this entire week it has been raining, making Mexico a very cold and wet place. But there have been advantages to this. We were returning home one night when it was raining this week, and that family of 4 that we were going to baptize, drove by and gave us a ride home. They had disappeared for a little bit, but finally showed back up. We have an appointment tomorrow with them, so hopefully we can get them back on track. I am kinda excited, because they are 4 people, and we also already have a couple more possibles starting out this change.That's another subject.
My companion got changed and I received a new companion. Surprise!!! It was shocking to me too jaja. My new companion is Elder Pike. I don't know if you remember him. He is the missionary I said looks like Drew Carry (from Who´s line is it anyway and The Price is Right). It's really funny, because his voice sounds a lot like him too. Anyways, I am his second companion, so this will be fun :)I would send you the pictures that I have taken this last week, but unfortunately my camera is with the zone leaders (by accident).

BTW! I am starting my last 4 changes!
WEIRD!

Love ya all!
Elder Scott Donner

Chili Peppers?

Hi family!

So this week was super slow. We spent all week just looking for investigators. It was a long week, but now that it's gone, it's weird to think of how fast it actually was for me. We met one man who came to church because he wants to be close to his daughter who is a member. It was nice because he is willing to do whatever he can. We set an appointment with him for this Wednesday.

Not very much more happened. This week is the last week of this change, which is weird to think, because for me it flew by.

My knee is doing ok. I scraped it up pretty good playing soccer last week :S jaja!

Today my bishop mentioned to me that the easiest way to bring chili seeds from here to the states would be to eat the before I leave Mexico, and when I get home, just poop in a hole in the ground, because the seeds don't digest jaja!!!!!! I laughed pretty hard on that one. I can probably just bring seeds normally, but we got a kick outta laughing.

Love,
Elder Scott Donner

Time's Flying

Hey guys!
So this was a really good week! We baptized 3 yay!!! We are really
stoked that everything went well. We had a little bit of a scare because
somebody we had baptized didn't show up to church until the very end of
sacrament meeting, so we kinda thought that she had gotten cold feet at first.
This week we are kinda just gonna be working on finding people so we can start
off February good. We are going to try passing by some of the people who
originally had dates but fell. It was hard seeing them fall, but I know
that it was their own choice.
Its a little weird to think that I have less than 6 months left in the
mission. I don't really like to think about it even though I talk to my
companion about it all the time. The closer we get, the more
nerve-wracking it is just thinking about it. We wonder what our reactions
will be to everything. There is a return missionary that served here who
is now living here to go to school. He tells us that the last six months
just zip by. YIKES!!!
This pday, we played soccer again, and I ended up taking a nasty spill.
My knees were bleeding pretty bad, but as far as that goes, nothing more
happened to my knees. Me and my companion were so exhausted. We
were just saying how sad it is that before the mission, we had all this energy
to be able to do things, and you would think that being in the mission would
give us more energy, but the truth is, we have even less! BTW! We
have officially started our 6 months of sexy and are not going to miss a day
until the end of the mission :)
Anyways, here are the baptismal fotos :)
Also, my companion and I thought it was funny that the bus couldn't get by
because of the horse in the road :P
And my companion looks pregnant :P
Love ya guys!
Elder Scott Donner

Good Times!

Hey guys!

A lot of good stuff happened this week. First, I will start out by telling you we found a lot of people that are going to get baptized. We have approximately 11. Five of them are going to be getting baptized this coming Saturday! So cool!!! All but 4 of them we found knocking doors. They are all pretty solid. When we baptized them all, we will have baptized the most of the zone, and the most that any single companionship has ever baptized in this zone!!! I know that we will be able to do this!!!

Anyways, today was a really sweet Pday. Know why?! We learned how to make TAMALES!!!!!!!!! AND YES I HAVE PICTURES. No, I will not send instructions because it is something you have to show. But I did write everything down :) We spent about three hours learning how to make 3 different types of tamales. We only got to try one type though, because the others are cooking right now jaja! But let me tell you, they are SOOO good, and they are definitely something we could make in Arizona.

Anyways, me and my companion decided to rearrange our house this week too, because it was really messy from other missionaries. We also had a lot of fun goofing around in our free time. I really enjoy the ward that I am in right now. It is a really good ward and they want to support us.

1st picture is me mixing the "maza" or dough. Yes, you have to mix it with your hand. Cry about it :)

2nd picture is us learning how to put the maza in the corn leaves, along with whatever we want to put in the tamales.

3rd picture is of most of the tamales wrapped in the corn leaves.

4th is the end result :)

I love you guys so much!!!

Elder Scott Donner