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.

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 20, 2012

Dear Family,

Well, I am on to area 2. Maybe I will get to serve in Florida. :)

I will not be going Black Friday shopping. Although, Maybe my companion and I could go and pass out mormon.org cards to people standing in line. "Either listen to us, or lose your spot in line. Your choice." :)

Matt got his mission call?! Ah! Tell him congratulations!!! That is so exciting!

This week was great! Sister Sheffer and I were able to see a lot of recent converts and less active members. And some of the less active members we visited came to church. I accidentally prayed that their son would have extra strength as a mother at the end of the lesson, so I was especially happy to see them there. We taught the couple that I am always talking about the Plan of Salvation last week. the husband had kind of a difficult time in the beginning, but it was great watching him as he started to understand what we were teaching them. We role played them in District Meeting and we realized that maybe he didn't understand how and why we pray. So on Saturday we asked him to say the closing prayer. It was so great! I absolutely love hearing our investigators pray at the end of the lessons!

I am feeling quite sad about being transferred. I really don't feel like I accomplished what I was sent here to do. The Walters didn't get baptized. Hopefully this will motivate me to be a better missionary in my future areas.

I love you all so much! Thank you for all of your love and support! Have a wonderful THANKSgiving!!

Love,
 Sister Scott

The Bishop's wife gave us THREE bags of Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins!!!

BAM!! Be A Missionary!

November 5, 2012

Dear Mom, Dad, Rachel, Spencer, Ryan, Kyle, and Tyler,

How are you doing? Okay. So once upon a couple times this week I was showing people our family pictures. And every single time people pointed to Rachel and said "Look! It's you!" I would just laugh and tell them that actually I was the other one. :)

This week was pretty good. Sister Sheffer has been kind of sick. But I think we did quite well despite that. To be honest, I can't believe it is already Monday again. We were supposed to go on a turtle tour today, but our tour guide is up helping out with Hurricane Sandy. How are Holly and Jared and their family? Did they have to evacuate?

Let's see... what happened this week? We had a baptism! I was so happy! Not only that, but her nine year old daughter decided that she wants to be  baptized too! So we set her date for this Sunday! She is super excited! Her mom texted us last night because she wanted to know what she should be reading in the Book of Mormon.

We are also teaching a couple children of a less-active member. That lesson was pretty interesting. The mom told our Relief Society president that her children wanted to be baptized. However, when we got there they didn't really show any interest. But Sister Sheffer was basically amazing. The kids were talking and telling their stories and not really paying attention, then Sister Sheffer was like, "Okay, after you tell your story it's my turn to tell a story." The kids agreed and said what order each of them were going to take in telling their stories. Then Sister Sheffer told Lesson 1 like a story. When she was done the kids didn't even care about their stories anymore. They were quiet and they listened to the rest of the lesson and took it a little bit more seriously. I don't know if that really made sense, but it was pretty great.

This week we also went and helped our Catholic friend who feeds us every Sunday. We helped her for a little while and then she fed us some of her amazing food. And while we were eating she asked us some questions about our church. And she told us about how one of her friends whom she had really looked up to in her faith had just committed suicide. She then told us that if there was anything that we knew that she didn't know, she would like us to tell her. This was perfect! In Zone Conference a month or so ago Elder Cardon (member of the 70) told us that we know something that everyone else doesn't know. And that is what went through my head as we were talking with her. I really wanted to leave her with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet, but of course I didn't have one. I love this woman so much! And I would love to see her find happiness in the gospel!

I have learned a lot about perspective this week. It is our choice whether something is a good experience or not. We can laugh or cry about something depending on how we think about it. We don't know what other people are going through. Before we get offended or mad at what someone does or says think about maybe what they are going through. I guess you could say that I am a firm believer of giving people the benefit of the doubt. It makes life better and happier when you aren't holding grudges against people.

...Sister Sheffer may have been late to a conference call. Our ward mission leader didn't yell at us or anything, but you could tell that he was frustrated. You know how it talks about having your heart pricked in the Book of Mormon. That's basically what happened. My heart was definitely pricked. Pricking might not be as bad as a stab, but it still hurts. The worst part about donated blood is having your finger pricked. Anyway. Sister Sheffer was not super happy about how he acted towards us, but I definitely feel like we deserved the pricking. Plus, I feel like he has been under a lot of stress lately. He just hasn't really been himself. I really love our ward mission leader. He is wonderful. And we will just work harder so we can keep his trust.

I have learned so much by being a missionary. You boys should be excited! (And Rachel, and Mom and Dad, if you decide)  :)

I love you all so much! Have a super-duper terrificly wonderful week!

  Love,
     Sister Scott

Hey Y'all!

November 1, 2012

Dear Family,

Sorry if I scared you by not sending you an e-mail. I got your package! Thank you so much! Sister Sheffer and I loved all the stickers and toys and treats! And thank you for the post cards and the key chain! I love them!

I don't know if I told you, but I tried alligator a couple weeks ago. It just tastes like chicken. However, mentally it was still a little hard to eat. Alligator? Gross! It really was just like chicken only a little bit more chewy.

Speaking of hymns, there was a baptism for these cute little 9 year old twin boys this week. The elders in my area taught them. The night before the baptism they texted Sister Sheffer and I and asked if I would give a double talk on Baptism and the Holy Ghost. I talk about them all the time. But normally to older people, so I needed to change it so they could understand and so I could keep their attention. (I wanted to blindfold them and assign someone to be their Holy Ghost to lead them around the room, while other people were telling them the wrong way to go and leading them into chairs and such. But I decided that might be going a little over the top for a baptism talk...) I am also used to teaching two and maybe three people at the most. Now I was standing in front of a room of people. It was a little nerve racking. I thought, it's okay. I can just go over my talk during the hymns. Well, we got there and my name was on the program for the pianist. It all worked out though. We sang, Come Follow Me, which is what I based my talk off of. Plus, I played both hands for most of the song! (I told the Elders that I can play the right hand of any song in the hymn book, but there are only a few songs that I can play both hands -especially when it is on the spot. -And I know you are thinking that that song is super easy. And it is. But I never get to practice. Plus, I'm just not great at playing the piano...)

The primary program is in the next couple weeks for my ward and I will think of you. :)
I am learning how to be more on time with Sister Sheffer... Which means that it is time to go. But that just means that you will get another hand written letter this week. :) I love you all!