MERRY CHRISTMAS HARRY!

I'm so excited to skype with everyone! I can't wait to see all of your faces. :) This email might be shorter because we have to go to a Christmas Devotional today! 

 It finally snowed here! It was not feeling like the middle of December... it felt more like October here! But on Friday, we woke up to snow so that was kind of magical. The best part of this snow though is that it's gone the next day! haha me and Sister Merrill were happy to see the snow because it's pretty and everything but then it starts raining and it just melts away! We had to ride our bike in it and it was quite slippery... let's just say that we were walking a lot of the way. haha 

 And last night my district went CAROLING! It was so fun. We just went to our investigators houses and stopped random people on the street. It was fun being with other missionaries and just singing in the rain. I'm grateful that I am surrounded by other missionaries that love the Gospel as much as I do. 

 At this Christmas season, I really see the importance of families. They are essential to God's plan. They are a stable unit in this crazy world. I'm so grateful that I come from a good family that has taught me so much about how to be a good person. So thank you for that. 

 Please keep my investigators Jamie, Kameisha, and Misty in your prayers. They need prayers and direction. They will not fall! 

 MIRACLE OF THE WEEK: 

We were riding home in the dark and it was pitch black and we were riding on a busy road with not a lot of light...it gets really scary sometimes and we try to avoid it when possible. But I could feel myself get really panic-y and I started praying to Heavenly Father to help me see and to help me feel calm. I immediately felt His protection and then I noticed that it was not as dark because the sky was cloudless (weird for Washington) and there was a full moon. And then there was this really bright construction light that lit my path. It was just amazing to feel of God's awareness of me. He is really taking care of me. 

 I will talk to you all on Wednesday! 

 Love you all! 

Sister Scott

A Tribute to Sister Merrill

Hey Family and Friends!

How was everybody's week?  Is there a lot of snow in Utah?  There is no snow up here in Washington!  It's like 40 degrees!  haha, it's pretty nice :)

This week we were really involved in the Nativity Festival.  It's a festival that the stake put on and it was AMAZING!  It seriously was so cool.  Members of the stake donated about 500 nativities and it was set up in the Cultural Hall.  There were so many Christmas trees and lights.  Me and Sister Merrill set up all these twinkling lights around the nativity and we put little candles everywhere.  We also set up a lot of poinsettias around the tables.  It looked beautiful!  I was so impressed with all the decor.  They had beautiful scenes of Christ's ministry set up.  They had a life of Christ room and they Spirit was so strong in the room.  It is such a great tool to get non members a little exposed to our church.  There were so many people there.  There was also a stake choir that performed.  They asked me to be in it so I got to be in a choir!  It really made me miss choir!  I hope that Carols and Confections is good and I can't wait to hear about it!

I wanted to write a tribute to Sister Merrill.  I know that putting us together is inspired because she has helped me so much.  She listens to me when I need to talk.  She always knows when I'm feeling anxious or sad.  We've developed a system.  She'll ask me what number I'm at on a scale of one to ten.  She knows that if I'm at an 8 or a 9, I need to calm down a little bit and take a break.  She never pushes me or makes me feel bad about myself.  She is always so loving and caring and so willing to help.  She also makes me laugh a lot.  We laugh everyday together and I'm so grateful for that.  She reminds me to slow down and we love getting Baja Blasts from Taco Bell.  I am very grateful for Sister Merrill and that I can rely on her.  

This next week I have more doctors appointments.  I hope that everything smooths out soon, I have a lot of faith that it will.  I can't wait to talk to all of you in like 9 days!  That will be great! :) We can definitely Skype.  I'm not sure of all the details right now.  But maybe get a skype account ready.  I will be able to email next week so I will have more information then of what will happen exactly.  

MIRACLE OF THE WEEK:

Her name is Misty.  She is Jamie's sister.  At first, she wasn't really interested in hearing our message but the Lord has softened her heart and she wants to be baptized.  She said that for the first time in her life, she feels like her life has meaning and she feels like she has hope.  She wants to rid herself guilt and shame.  It has been amazing to watch and I'm grateful that I could be a part of it!  I love this family.  So. Much.  They mean so much to me!  

I love you all!  I miss you all so much too!  Keep going! :)

Love,

Sister Scott

It's C-C-C-C-Cold Outside

Hello everybody! 

 So basically this week has been SO COLD. It's kind of ridiculous. It's a different kind of cold here because of the humidity and it just cuts through you and makes your bones and your muscles BURN. It hurts. But it's not raining so at least we're not wet...just really cold. :) 

 We had Zone Conference this last week. I love Zone Conference. Mostly I just love President and Sister Bonham. They are my favorite. They talked about listening to the Spirit. And receiving revelation and acting on it has become a lot easier to me on my mission. I'm not perfect at it, no way, but I'm a lot better at recognizing the Holy Ghost and then trying to act on it. Missionary work cannot be done without the Holy Ghost, it's just impossible. 

 It's almost CHRISTMAS! We decorated our apartment, we did the best we could haha. I'll send pictures in the near future. A member donated a tree to our cause and I didn't have a stocking so I just pinned up a red sock on the wall hahaha. Good enough, right? 

 Also, remember how I used to be on the Reservation? Well, because it's sometimes dangerous, Sisters aren't allowed on the Res anymore! Kinda crazy...but it's probably a good idea. 

 A couple of weeks ago some members knew I hated fish and they asked me if they made Salmon if I would at least try it. And all these people were telling me that salmon doesn't taste fishy at all and that it's delicious and they hate all other fish except for salmon, so I was like sure. I'll try it. Maybe there is still hope for me. So last night, I tried it. And lemme tell ya... I still hated it. Yup. It was still too fishy for me and there is no hope for me and fish. We just can't be friends. 

 Funny story. So remember James? We found him walking on the street last week. Well we had a lesson with him at the church on Thursday and so we walk in and the church is in pieces!! Okay, not really. But they were fixing the sound system and so the ceiling was on the floor...there were workers walking around everywhere and we're like whatever. We'll just ignore it...he won't mind. So we start giving a church tour and we start talking about the life of Christ and the Sacrament and then they start playing MUSIC! Like, rock and roll music and so we decided the church tour was shot so we just went and had a lesson in the relief society room haha... it was pretty funny though. But James is SO. PREPARED. We were already talking about baptism, but sadly, we found out that he is not in our ward boundaries :( so we had to hand him off to some Elders, but he'll get baptized :) 

 MIRACLE OF THE WEEK: 

So my new meds make me really, really tired and yesterday I was super tired and I couldn't really concentrate so I got to take a Sunday nap! I've missed those... and I got one :) It was fantastic. 

 I love you family and I can't wait to talk to you! It will be so good to see your faces! I miss you everyday. I'm glad that I could be here though. I'm glad that I could be a missionary at this time. I love you all! 

 Sister Scott

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy birthday Mom! 

 I hope that you have a wonderful day today! I will be thinking about you! :) 

 And Richie and Victoria, thanks for delivering the package! Thanks to Dad, Gma and Sue for the goodies :) Kinda weird that you know where I live now.... 

Congrats to Morgan and Rick! I wish I could have been there but I'm sure it was lovely :) 

So Thanksgiving! It was our P Day so we just stayed home and wrote letters and then we went to dinner at a member's home. It was very small and quiet. It was a lot weirder than I thought it would be, I'm used to the kids running around, it's-not-a-party-until-someone-spills-something type Thanksgiving.  But we did get a left over turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce...which is like the best part of Thanksgiving. 

 So this week was just a normal old week. We found a lot of potentials and we have a lot of appointments this week so hopefully we will get like a billion new investigators. We have had to drop a number of our investigators because of lack of progression but that just opens doors to new investigators! 

 This next week will be quite the busy week. We have zone conference tomorrow, which I am way excited for. This week is also full of doctors and counseling appointments. 

 I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I can't wait to hear about it and guess what! There is only like 23 days until I get to talk to you! :) 

 MIRACLE OF THE WEEK: 

We were just riding our bikes and there was a guy that was walking so we stopped to talk to him. He told us that his buddy is a member and that he has been to church a bunch of times and we asked him if he would like to meet with us and he said yes! So we have an appointment with him on Thursday! He was very excited to meet with us and so hopefully we will get a new investigator! 

 I love you and I miss you and I pray for you! 

 Love, 

Sister Scott

It's Thanksgiving Yo!

HEY FAMILY AND FRIENDS AND EVERYBODY

This might be a slightly shorter email.. I only have an hour on the computer because today's not actually P day! They moved our p day to Thursday (because it's Thanksgiving in case you didn't know) but they gave us an hour to email today! 

Some highlights this last week: 

 I got sick AGAIN. Seriously... it's getting to be a bit ridiculous. I lost my voice so you can just picture me talking in a squeaky voice. haha... I'm mostly better now.

 We got a new district leader! His name is Elder Pectol and he's from Heber. So I'm about 90% sure that we're related because we have Pectol's in our family. And he's from Heber..sooo... 

 And of course, we saw ELDER BEDNAR! what the crap. It was definitely the best conference or fireside or whatever you wanna call it I've ever had. It was so amazing. He is SO COOL. He was just so relaxed and he's hilarious. He's probs my new favorite now. 

 He got up and said so you're all probably expecting me to give a lecture and for you to write down everything I say... and he said that was not how it was going to work. He said that it has become culture in the church to just write down everything the speaker said and that we should just write down impressions from the Holy Ghost. Because we won't loose them and we will use them later. In preparation for this meeting, we all had to read three talks given by Elder Bednar. So we studied our little guts out and he started asking us... "Okay, what did you learn from the talks?" Then someone would stand up and say what they would learn and how it effects them. He would elaborate a little bit and then move on to the next one. We did this for probably an hour and a half. Then the last hour and a half we got to have a question and answer with him! Basically. The COOLEST THING OF MY LIFE. He just answered questions about doctrine and about missionary work and about life. It was such an intimate setting and making eye contact with Elder Bednar is just about the best thing ever. He taught a lot about teaching. He also taught about agency, marriage, and he taught about miracles. He is a man of God, I sure have a testimony of that. 

 MIRACLE OF THE WEEK: 

Well I was sick this week and the lovely Sister Lewis from the ward brought me Airborne and a huge thing of Diet Coke. What a gem. :) I'm grateful for people who take care of me out here. 

 I love you all so very much and you mean the world to me! Unfortunately, I'm still having panic attacks but one day it will be fixed! 

 Sister Scott

Marysville 4 Life

Hello everybody! 

 So I'm sure that all of you know about the Typhoon in the Philippines (you probably found out way before I did) and I just wanted to express the sorrow that I feel for these people. I'm grateful that all the missionaries are safe and people have been telling me stories about these things that the missionaries are going through, and they are an example to me of endurance and sacrifice. I can't imagine going through something like that while you are on a mission. It would be so terrifying and we pray here for them everyday. I know that the Lord is weeping with these people and that He protected all the missionaries. I know that the Lord protects me everyday and I'm so grateful for that. 

 But even with all the devastation in the world, the work moves forward. This week, we taught a bunch of lessons and they were really powerful. I've really tried to make studying Preach My Gospel a priority this week and it has really paid off. I've been able to recognize and follow the Spirit easily so that people can hear what they need to hear. Heavenly Father really blesses those that are obedient to Him! Okay so I wanted to tell you some facts about Washington that I didn't know until I got here... 

1. It gets dark at about 4:15. I'm not even joking. It's like pitch black. At 4. 

 2. Everyone says bage instead of bag. Canada, eh? 

3. The grass is green in the winter and brown in the summer. Backwards? 

4. Nobody turns on lights in their home. Everyone just sits in the dark. We have lessons in the dark! 

5. Old people say Worshington. It's true. 

6. The rain here is like a mist. Like one of those misting machines.

 7. It always smells like a camp fire. 

 8. There is ALWAYS traffic. Doesn't matter the time of day, it's always there. 

9. There is a coffee stand on every corner. Surprise, surprise. 

 And I've realized that I haven't really told you about where I live! I live right next to WinCo. So basically, it's great! haha...our apartment is huge! We have two full bathrooms, so I get my own bathroom. I love that. And we also get free Baja Blasts at Taco Bell, just cause we're missionaries! 

 I've noticed that I am changing into a better person. Because of my mission, I will be a better wife and mother. I'll be a better friend, daughter, and sister. I'll just be better. A big change that I've noticed in myself is that I'm really clean.... it's kinda weird because I used to be so messy! haha... if our apartment is messy, I get like really anxious and I can't do anything so I have to clean haha... what has my life come to!? haha oh well it's a good life skill to have I guess. 

 So it's transfers week this week! Me and Sister Merrill will stay here in the Fire Trail ward. I'm very happy about this! I don't feel like I could train right now because I don't exactly feel emotionally stable and Sister Merrill is helping me everyday to help me be more okay. So yeah, still here in Marysville. Probably be here for my whole life or something. :) 

 So on Saturday we have ELDER BEDNAR IS COMING! What the.... I'm really excited but also he might give us like a spiritual smack down or something so I might be a little nervous haha. But, it will be good. He is speaking to just our mission and it's just completely random that he's coming, but it's awesome! I'm not sure we will be able to shake his hands, I think we are all really hoping he will! But President asked me to direct the music, so I will be able to sit on the stand with him, which is way cool. I'll let you know next week how it is! 

 MIRACLE OF THE WEEK: 

So when I came into this ward, the ward didn't really seem to like the Sister Missionaries. I mean, they respected us, but they didn't really treat us like real people. And I came from a ward where they LOVED us and so coming into this ward was a little bit different. But, throughout this transfer, I've seen the ward members really warm up to us and as we talk to more people and are friendly with everyone and work hard, I see them really changing their view of us Sisters and we've developed some great friendships. (shout out to Sister Lewis) 

 I love you and I pray for you. I'm taking things one day at a time. Sometimes I even take one hour at a time, but that's all I can do right now. The church is true! 

 Love, 

Sister Scott

The Hunger Games

Helllooo everybody! 

 I hope that Dad's birthday was fun and that Dad had a good day, I sang Happy Birthday to him...my companion is was a little weirded out what I busted out in song haha... 

 This week has been a week of music, for which I am so so so grateful. I sang in Sacrament on Sunday and it was wonderful to be able to share my testimony through music. This lady named Sister Crawford in my ward accompanied me. She is so wonderful, I really love her. As we were practicing, she stopped and said "Wow, you really share your feelings through the way you sing." When I sing, I feel the deepest emotions, music just does that to me, it brings all these feelings and they are expressed through singing. It's a healing power for me. Also, we went to a dinner appointment at a women's house. She said that she has a tradition of the missionaries singing before dinner because it really brings the Spirit. Sister Merrill starts like having a heart attack and I thought she was joking so I'm like "Sure! I'll sing!" And then she got out the hymn book and I quickly realized she WASN'T joking and that we really did have to sing. Sister Merrill hates singing and so I just sang a solo. It was acapella and wasn't anything special, but I LOVED it! 

 On Wednesday and Thursday of last week me and Sister Merrill were sick. We even got our flu shots and everything! On Wednesday, I woke up feeling terrible and I couldn't really move haha... and then on Thursday that is how Sister Merrill was feeling. We are mostly recovered now, so don't worry! But for two days straight the only time we went outside was to get the mail... haha... we went a little bit crazy. 

 Yesterday for P Day, we went to the church and played blow darts with our District. We are on teams and we hide behind tables and chairs and shoot the other team. I don't even know why, but it was SO MUCH FUN. Basically, I just pretended I was really good at it so people got scared of me haha. The last round we played, we weren't on teams, it was just everybody goes at each other (kind of like Hunger Games) and guess who was the victor? That's right. I was. haha. Me and Sister Merrill decided to be on an alliance and so we destroyed everybody and then it was just us left and everybody was like "Okay! Now kill each other!" and as Sister Merrill was saying how she couldn't shoot her companion, I just killed her without even a blink hahaha... it was hilarious. We have to do some companionship inventory now hahaha just kidding, we still love each other :) 

 I would like to share a scripture that I read this week. It's Alma 36:21. Alma the Younger is talking about his repentance process. It says "..there could be nothing so exquisite and bitter as were my pains...that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy." There is opposition in all things. We have to feel pain to feel joy. And so if you feel a small amount of pain, then you'll only be able to feel a small amount of joy. But as you feel more pain, you can feel more joy. What a beautiful, beautiful thought. Even though I've felt more pain and more trial than ever, that opens the door for me to feel more happiness and joy than ever. 

 Anxiety, depression, lonliness, etc. it's all there. And I'm not sure when it will go away or if it will go away. But every thing that is unfair will be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I can't believe how lucky we are to have this knowledge. Keep your prayers coming, I love them. I pray for you all everyday. 

MIRACLE OF THE WEEK: 

So a new investigator just fell into our hands. His name is Fred. He is 50 and he is severely Autistic. He is so sweet though. His mom is a member and she decided that she wanted to get him baptized so we get to teach him now! He is on date for next Sunday, but we are not totally sure of when it will happen. 

 Love you all! 

 Sister Scott