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