One More Day!!

December 24, 2012

Dear Family,

One more day!!

It got one step closer to being officially Christmas last night. We made gingerbread houses! We stopped in to see a less active family in our ward, and the husband isn't a member. The wife invited us right in and they invited us to stay for dinner. It wasn't quite ready yet, so they asked if we would make gingerbread houses with their girls. I still can't decide if they were actually happy to have us do that with them. Who would want to give up the opportunity to make a gingerbread house? I hope the pictures that I sent turned out... After dinner we shared a message. We shared a quote from President Monson, "Before we can successfully undertake a personal search for Jesus, we must first prepare time for Hin in our lives and room for him in our hearts." We asked them what that meant. The husband explained it perfectly for his little girls. I had been under the impression that he wasn't really religious, so I was a little blown away with his response. Both of the girls prayed while we were there, which made me so happy to know that they have worked on that with them. Their eight year old wants to be baptized, hopefully that will also help the husband.

I have learned so much this Christmas season as we have prepared our Christmas message to share with the people we come in contact with. I have been humbled as I have been studying. I have read the Christmas story many times. The story is simple and the nativity scenes that are displayed all over tell the story in a blink of an eye. But this year I have come to a better understanding of how much more there is to Jesus Christ's birth. The shepherds who urgently followed the sign to find our Savior, humble setting of a stable, a manger for a bed, the inn that was full of people coming into town to pay their taxes. I have thought of how much love Mary must have had as she held the Baby Jesus in her arms that night. I love babies. And I haven't had one. I'm sure that a mother's love for her baby is even greater than my love for babies, especially when the baby is her own. I can hardly imagine the love Mary must have had for our Heavenly Father's Only Begotten Son, whom she just gave birth to. It must have been incredible.

I hope you have fun with the family tonight! I love you all!

Love,

Sister Scott

Balmy Christmas in Florida

December 17, 2012

Dear Family,

Thank you for your letters! They are definitely the highlight of my week!

It's pretty hot here in Florida. It has been rainy for the past week, but today it is pretty warm.

I didn't have Mr. Treglown for a teacher, but I know both of his sons. Aaron is my age and Ryan was in my ward at Utah State. It sounds like you all did really great on the run!

There is a little boy here at the house I'm doing e-mails. He has been singing a bunch of songs and he has most of " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas" memorized and he is two! He is making me kind of miss preschool.

I get to talk for 30-40 minutes. I am planning on calling around 1 Florida time. ...so 11 your time? Is that okay? I will let you know for sure next week.

We have a drawer full of freshly picked oranges and lemons in our refridgerator.

I can't wait to get your package!

Sorry this e-mail is super lame, but I will send you a letter in the mail. :)

I am super super super excited to talk to you on Christmas! It is only 8 days away! I love you all so much!

Love,

Sister Scott 

Merry Christmas!!

December 10, 2012

Dear Family,

CONGRATULATIONS, MOM!!! Guess what?! Saturday night we went out for dinner at a BBQ restaurant too! I was celebrating right along with you! *sigh* BBQs bring a family together even though they are thousands of miles apart. :)

Congratulations, Spencer! I haven't had much of a chance to sign. I did sign with a man with autism, but he would just sign the same signs back to me. We call ourselves Preach My Gospel missionaries if that says anything to you. So to answer your question: Yes, we use it quite a bit. :) Monsters' Inc -ha ha Smooth

It sounds like you all had a great week! I also had a great week! This week Sister Jensen was added to our companionship. So now I am once again part of a trio. And you know what? I like this trio. Not that I didn't like the one I was in at the MTC, but this one is just super! We have only been in this trio for a few days, but we seem to teach really well together.

I got to go up to St. Mary's again for another trade off, which will probably be the last one for a while. I got to see *****, who is that lady that I am always talking about. Her husband is really concerned about tithing and got offended that a single mom who spoke in Sacrament meeting was asked to pay her tithing. I guess they haven't been back to church. But ***** let us come over and she made hot chocolate for us. What was supposed to be a five minute visit (because she was tired) turned into a little over an hour. She said that she really wanted to see me. I shared a scripture with her -Alma 27:17, which talks about Ammon being so excited to see Alma he fainted. She said that she was almost that excited to see me. -which fit in perfectly because we wanted to talk to her about "likening" the scriptures. 1 Nephi 19:23

I did get the music. ...however, there wasn't a lot of room in the program and I wasn't sure when I would get the music, so I told Sister Sparks not to worry about putting me on. I have enjoyed playing it on Sister Pearce's keyboard though. So, Thank you! :)

And thank you for all the pictures! Lucy is SO cute! Tell Matt and Lindsay Congratulations!!

Sister Jensen said that I can use her coat that she has.

I can Skype or call. You pick. :)

I just can't wait to talk to you! Ah! 2 weeks and 1 day! :)

I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Scott

Welcome to Florida!

November 26, 2012

Dear Family,

Guess what?! The moment you have all been waiting for has finally arrived! I am serving in Julington Creek, Florida. I live with a member. Her name is Sister Pearce, and she is so sweet! She has a son who left for his mission in California just a couple weeks before I came on my mission. Her house is the second nicest place I have ever lived in my entire life. -the first being our home of course. :) And Dad, guess what? I finally have a friend with a dog that I get to live with! I forgot to take pictures of her. Her name is Dakota and she is a husky mix. She is pretty old, but she is still a dog. :)

I just love living with Sister Pearce. I feel so good there and she just really takes care of us. If she ever sees anything that might be in the least bit uncomfortable for us, she fixes it. She has insisted that we have a space heater in our bathroom so that we aren't cold when we get out of the shower in the mornings. ...it may not be snowing here, but it does get cold in the mornings and nights. I have been told that I will want a coat. Especially, in January and February. I haven't decided what I am going to do about that yet...

We had Thanksgiving dinner with Sister Pearce and a couple other families in the ward who came over. It was really yummy. Banana pudding seems to be really big here in the South. And apparently most people here also have macaroni and cheese as one of their dishes for Thanksgiving. Of course they don't make theirs out of a box though. We also went over to the Bishop's house for pie. And we were also invited over to another member's house for Thanksgiving, but they had already cleaned up when we got there. Darn... So instead of stuffing ourselves even more, we just got to visit and share a message.

This area is a lot different from St. Mary's. The ward is full of a lot of strong members. Not that St. Mary's didn't, but there are just a lot more of them here. And maybe part of that is that the people here have cars and the money for gas. Apparently there has not been a baptism here in the past two years, and there haven't been Sister Missionaries in the area for the past four years. Sister Crowton and her last companion white washed this area. So both of them came into this area as companions  when neither of them had been serving here before. So Sister Crowton and I are basically on the same page with trying to get to know everyone. So far I really like this area. We don't really have any investigators, and I think I have knocked on more doors this past week than I have my whole mission so far. oh my goodness. tomorrow is 5 months. crazy!

Sister Crowton and I were meant to be companions. She taught first grade for a few years before she came on her mission! She is incredible! I don't think I could knock on so many doors if she weren't my companions. She has been a great example to me and I really think that I am going to learn a lot from her. She loves cold cereal and running. She has a mormon.org profile if you want to see what she looks like and know a little more about her. Her name is Katie Crowton and I think you can find her if you look up St. Mary's. She was trained in St. Mary's too! 

Wow! Walmart security sounds pretty adventurous. I'm glad that it wasn't super rough. I still think that you are all very brave.

As you were talking about playing the piano and singing it reminded me of something... Sister Sheffer signed me up to play "Where Are You Christmas?" while another Sister sings at the Christmas Conference we are having. I am still not quite sure how I feel about this... Is there any way you could copy it and mail it to me this week so I can practice?? ha ha not only practice, but so that I can perform it... Oh, Sister Sheffer. What has she gotten me into?

I love you all so so sooo much! Have a terrific week!

Love,

Sister Scott

I'm not sure what these pictures are. The computer won't show me. But hopefully they are the ones of the house I'm living in.