Love you All So Much!!  

Tried to get the picture turned but couldn't do it.... sorry!

Merry Christmas from Sister Scott and Sister Johnson

Merry Christmas from Sister Brooke Scott!

Merry Christmas everyone:)

 

Time has gone faster than I can possibly comprehend! AAAAAAAH its christmas. This has been the greatest experience ever to feel the true meaning of what this season is all about and to see it in so many different families. All I want to do is give. Giving is what brings true happiness and I've never been happier at christmas time than I am now! I have grown so close to the amazing people out here. They have really become my family and I'm learning so much of what kind of a family I want to raise and what kind of a mother I want to be. uuugh I just love this so much and I love learning. There has been so many miracles! For one..

 

We had a rough start on our morning and Had no time to proselyte before lunch(thats drives me nuts). After we went to the mission office we just had planned to go home and plan. I felt a strong prompting that we needed to be at the brown apartments and contact this refferall we got abiout 2 weeks ago that NEVER answers. Totally unsure why but knew without a doubt that we needed to be there. The second we pull up a woman comes out of the door we planned to knock and I look at sister johnson and say "She looks like she's begging to be baptized"(not really, she was smoking a cigarrette, but thats whats we tell ourselves to remember the worth of every soul is great!) As we talk with her she ends up not living in the home but she comes down to the valley on the weekends for work. We talk to her about the book of mormon and she was listening intently to everything! She said this is something she had really been looking for for her family. I asked her if she would be baptized and I kid you not, her reply was "Right on! yeah I would!" I looked at sister Johnson like "I told you so." It was so great. We got her address and phone number and out of allt he places in spokane..she lives in my last area the river ridge ward in North Spokane where my first companion is now serving! Wow giving a refferall away has never felt so good! My mama(trainer) was so happy. Point one for team Jesus.. What an amazing feeling tho, knowing the spirit is able to work through us as we have that desire and willingness to do His work. Something I have really been making a goal is to live in the spirit at all times so if at anytime My Heavenly Father needs to communicate with me He can.

 

Something I have been challenging all of my invetigators and less actives is to give a gift to the savior. Soemtimes there are things We hold onto that Hold us back from feeling the full Love of the savior. This can be Pride, holding grudges, Judging others, sin, addictions. ANYTHING that hold you back from feeling the Love of your Heavenly Father, I want to challenge you to GIVE IT TO THE SAVIOR. There is no tangible gift you can give him that He doesnt already have. The one He desires from all of us is the gift of ourselves. That is what bring us happiness. His will IS our greatest happiness and as we completely turn ourselves over to Him and His will, We become so much greater that the plan we had for ourselves. We see ourselves in terms of Yesterday and today. He see's us in terms of forever. As we do that, we access the power of Christs atonement. He promised..

 

14 And I will also ease the ^aburdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as ^bwitnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their ^cafflictions.

 

Then we in return..

15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did ^astrengthen them that they could bear up their^bburdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with ^cpatience to all the WILL OF THE LORD.

 

The scriptures refer to Jesus as the ”Prince of Peace” – that is because peace comes only in and through Him.“May we give as the Savior gave…To give of oneself is a holy gift. We give as a remembrance of all the Savior has given. May we also give gifts that have eternal value, along with our gifts that eventually break or are forgotten. How much better the world would be if we all gave gifts of understanding and compassion, of service and friendship, of kindness and gentleness.” (President Monson)

 

 

It was a busy PDay but here is her letter.

Hello everyone!!

 

Sorry it's been suuch a crazy p day. I dont have much time but I just wanna bare my testimony to you all that I am so incredibly greatful for this opportunity to serve a mission. I have grown and changed so much it is impossible to write it in words. I am so incredibly happy. I love the gospel. Studying it has opened my eyes so much to what is most important in this world and what distracts us from that.There Is no greater Joy and happiness that comes than from keeping the commandments and living the will of our Heavenly Father. He truly has a plan for each and every one of His children and as we live it we recieve the greatest happiness we could ever obtain in this earth life.

            The greatest gift I have ever gotten from my mission is the knowledge on the atonement. Jesus Christ atonement means everything to me. My mission hasnt changed me, The atonement has. I am changing everysingle day and I hope to continue to change for the rest of my life until I can one day be like my savior. I feel closer to Him than I ever have before and He proves to me everyday that He lives. He is my best friend and my big brother. I have become completely dependent upon Him and My capacity to overcome trials has grown so much larger than I ever thought possible. No matter what happens in my future I can face it with the faith He's given me.

 

Ugh goodness..I could go on and on. But i Wont. If I could give everyone a present this christmas it would be to 1.)stop 2.) breath 3.) enjoy what this holliday is. Its about Him:) He loves you and wants now more than ever for you to feel that love.

 

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!

Haters be Hatin.....

Two Sisters Against the World!

6 months out!!

Hello everyone!

im 6 months old...wait..im a missionary? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? my mind is blown. I still have not accepted that i live in washington! We will be driving down the road and i'll see a sign saying spokane and i jump and say "Woh im going on my mission there!"...yep sister scott you are..RIGHT NOW. oh well it will sink in one day. This week has been wonderful as usual. Its most definitely getting colder. It was 7 degrees this week and i thought the cold was litereally eating my face. I wear 2 pairs of  fleese tights, sweats, 3 socks, boots, an undershirt, a normal shirt, a sweater, a jacket, then my winter coat. OH and a beanie(sorry dad). All i need is a pair of snowboard and im ready to hit the mountain! this has been a wonderful week.

 We had a big christmas party with our ward that we have been counting down the days until we could go and eat all of the wonderful food!(i know im horrible) But right before we felt we needed to go to our investigators home and see her. Kelly opened the door and walked away. we followed her into her house. she had been crying and there was stuff all over the floor. The day before she had gone to court to get full custody over her son tyler from her abusive husband. She says everything went horrible and the husband has taken 50% custody and he is anti mormon so he has refused to let them continue to take the discussions and tyler isnt allowed to see us anymore or his freinds at church. That very same day her father was in a roll over accident and had a heart attack and was in the hospital and she wasnt able to go see him cause she needs to stay in spokane with tyler. We did our very best to console her and tell her God would take care of them. Kelly responded by saying "God was not there for me yesterday. Why would He let this happen?" 

There is absolutely nothing worse to ever here as a missioanry becaue there is no direct answer you can give. We don't always know why bad things happen to good people but we must NEVER lose faith that God has a purpose. He see's the whole picture."my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways." The most important thing is that no matter how bad a situation can be. if we seeks God's will it always turn out for our good. My favorite scripture is d&c122:7

7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the ^apit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the ^bdeep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to^chedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of ^dhell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee ^eexperience, and shall be for thy good.

i felt so strongly that i needed to promise that when she went to go pick up tyler that her ex husband would soften his heart. she says "that would be an absolute miracle" and We bore our testimony on how "God is a God of miracles" and as we have faith and are diligent He will always deliver us. she told us if we saw her at the christmas party then she would believe again. We went home and fasted (all the christmas food by the way so this truly was a sacrifice) but I would have fasted days if thats what it took for kelly to continue to meet with us. We asked all the missionaries in our disctrict to pray. We waited and waited at the doors. I knew without a doubt that the Lord would provide. All the sudden tyler RUNS out of the car and kelly comes strait over to us and says"His heart was softened" and we all just cried. It was amazing. I KNOW the Lord will always provide as we hold fast to the faith we do have. He is our loving Heavenly Father and He has delivered me over and over again and will continue to do so as I put my trust in Him and submit to my father just as a child would. I love Him. I love being His missionary. and I will forever be greatful for this opportunity to bring others to His son.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! go forward in faith and face every trial with an eye single to His love!

love ya'll,

sister scott 

ps mom thank you for the thanksgiving festivities.

Just Walking off some Thanksgiving Potatoes!

Just some pie in the face... no big deal!

Post Thanksgiving.

Helloooooo eveeerrryybody!

Yes i am 20 lbs heavier. No not really. but never in my life have i eaten that much! Being a missionary during the hollidays is dangerous. You would think I walk around with a "help me im poor" sign because I am FED ALL THE TIME. dont worry tho, we do insanity every morning at 6:30 so Its ok. Besides the food hangover THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME!! i absolutely love my mission soo much. Every single day I am growing and learning things i never have before. I meet the most amazing people and I love nothing more than sharing with them what means the most to me in life. I love the Gospel so much. I love preachin it.

So this week I was having a pretty rough day and I told sister johnson. "we need to go get a chili verde burrito" so we did.  and after we were done I felt i needed to talk to this lady. She ended up walking over to our table and sitting with us! She's kinda weird. she is 80 years old and describes herself as a spiritual healing psychic detective. Im not even kidding. We had a good talk tho I think she is just a little confused about somethings..haha SO knowing that everyone is a child of God we took her on a church tour to help answer some qestions she had. It was so hard because she agreed to absolutely everything that we were saying. She says "it makes complete sense..why have i not heard this before?" and when We invited her to be baptized she said NO! We asked her to pray and ask God if the things we told her were true and she said she didnt need to because she already knew it was true!!....the most frustrating thing in the whole world to hear as a missionary. I was a bit shooken up cause I just loved her so much! But i know without a doubt that this message will touch the hearts of those that are ready to recieve it when God wants them to recieve it.

I remember saying a prayer asking Heavenly Father why we had to go through that and how come we havent been able to find anyone that IS ready. We decided to walk around the apartments and I saw this mann get out of his car. Immediately I knew we needed to to talk to him. He listened to the whole introduction of the book of mormon and accepted the invitated to be baptized!! Talk ask and ye shall recieve. Sadly he lives in huston texas but he said he is going to get it contact with the missionaried there!! God is behind everything.

 This week has been really awesome. I have experienced so many things that have changed my nature and who I am. Being companions with Johnson for so long has really taught me so much. I have been able to identify things about my character that I can change in order to become more like the savior. Because me and sister Johnson are so different I have been streched in ways I never knew I needed in order to overcome the natural man! I am so incredibly greatful for the atonemtent and I am growing and changing every single day because of it. I love my Saviors willingness to walk with me every step of the way in this journey, teaching me how to rely on Him and how to become more. Life is undescribably better as we allow Him to walk with us. Becoming submissive to His will is truly the only way to be happy and I will forever submit to what HE has planned for me because I know without a doubt that He loves me and WANTS me to be happy. Learning about my Father in Heaven and His character has changed my mission (and my life of course) But it all comes from knowing without a shadow of a doubt that HE LOVES US! There is no greater knowledge that than. I am here.. "But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me a commandment even so i do!!" john 14: 31

I love you all so much!! have an awesome ...woh its december. AAAAAAH see ya'll in a year!

love, sister scott

Baptism of Mr. Moore

Thanksgiving time be comin!

Hey y'all!

 

This whole eating thing is reeeally getting to be a trial of mine. This week I got to see brother moore be baptized!!!! Oh my goodness that was probably one of the most humbling experiences in my life. To see the man he was before and now is literally a night and day difference. He was so weak he could barely talk but before they took him away he called to me and sister hood to come over and see him. We knelt by his hospital bed and he grabbed my hand and said "thank you" I was just happy he remembered who i was but nothing could compare to that feeling. He was taken down into the baptismal font with 3 men carrying him on a chair. Me and sister Hood(my trainer) were hanging on the edge of our seats the whole time!! it was a liiiittle nerve racking! He came out glowing of course! He was talking more than he had been able to the past 2 weeks and he was smiling! BROTHER MOORE DOES NOT SMILE! it was a day of miracles indeed.

 

Another miracle! About 2 months ago we ran in to this lady named carla and she had just quit drinking and wanted to find a chruch to raise her daughters in. we set up a church tour and forgot to get her address! when she didnt show up to the church tour we were so sad we couldnt follow up with her! A week later we saw her walking and she got into her car too fast we couldnt talk with her! we look for her everytime we're in those apartments!(relevent for this next story)

 

So our investigator Angela hasn't been doing to well lately and we've been really really trying to find new investigators. We asked her if her has anyone she knows we could teach but Angela is rarely ever leaves her home unless she is going to see her mom but one day seh mentioned she had a friend that lives a few atp complexes over and for some reason I felt that it was HER that we needed to talk with. Angela said she had no idea which one she lived in so i just pushed away the prompting. The very next day we were looking in our potentials list and i felt we needed to go and see justin in apt #101. A little girl answered the door and Sister Johnson looks at me with big eyes and whispers "its carla! its carla!" She lets us in and tells us she was baptized at age 14 but has been inactive since. We share a lesson with her and her daughters and her 11 year old daughter was begging her mom to be baptized the whole time and she is The more we talked she told us there was a cute girl and her daughter they just recently started hanging out with named angela! MY MIND WAS BLOWN! Everything connected and i was just amazed we found her the very next day by planning to go to someone else! MIRACLES!

 

There is no doubt in my mind that the Lord is behind this work. There is absolutely no other way this could be accomplished. I will forever be greatful for the amazing things my Heavenly Fatehr is teaching me out here. I have never had to rely on my Savior the way i am out here and I have grown so much because of it! I will forever be greatful for His atoning sacrafice that gives me the capacity to change my very nature and become more! I Love living the gospel. There is no greater joy or happiness than doing the will of my Father in Heaven and inviting others to do the same!! I love you all sooo much and I hope you have an amazing thanksgiving! There is just so much to be greatful for! LOVE YOU ALL!!

-sister scott

 

"As we continue to live and act in this way, we then accumulate “a great cloud of witnesses”, which allows us to continue on with ever greater faith, in fulfillment of this wonderful admonition from the apostle Paul:"

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith.

(Hebrews 12:1-2)

Death (FAREWELL) to Elder Whiting! He returns home on Dec. 3rd! THE CRAZY THINGS MISSIONARIES DO!

Kelly, Levi and Sister Preston!

Hey erybody!

I fell like i talked to you yesterday so im not quite sure what to say..OH ok i have something. Well of course we saw miracles cause miracles are everywhere. We have 2 new investigators on date to be baptized!!! and the best part is THEY ARE ELECT! We go to teach the first discussion and she says"Well im not use to all this so i really want to study and find out if its true for myself."....i just sat there in pure amazement as she litereally stole the begin teaching points I was just about to say! The best part is..her son is even MORE ELECT!! He is the most adorable 11 year old in the whole world. The moment he we come in he runs and grabs his Bible to read with us. I have never seen someone so happy as him when we gave him his own book of Mormon! Oh my goodness. After we invited him to be baptized he said "yes, but when can i recieve the priesthood?" hahahah HE IS AMAZING!

    

Speaking of elect children! My most favortie family in the belle terre ward is the fletchers! The dad has a CRAZY conversion story and for the last year has been the most faithful saint I have ever seen. they have been preparing to enter the temple and plan to this the beginning of next year! they have pictures of temples all over their home its so awesome. But their son levi is so amazing!! He's about 8 and when he was taking the missionary discussions he went to church and (before he ever hear the first vision) he asked his dad "Is this the church the little boy saw God?" Then he said "oh good. This is a good one dad." He's the most spiritually in tune little boy I have ever met. He's so smart! it was hilarious..each year he gets to pick his birthday cake and his paretns try to create it.. so this year since they have been talking so much about temples but he loves baptisms he wants his brthday cake to be a baptismal font like the one in the temple! hahahahaha his parents are trying to figure out how thye'll pull that one off haha but they said we could help! haha

Sister preston: The bishop sent us a name that has their records just recently moved in from the washington jail or prison(dont remember) and when we go to see her I was stunned. I thought to myself "there is no way she went to prison she is so sweet!" We invited her to come to church and she has been coming the past 2 weeks! She has the most amazing story! She has been inactive her whole life until her husband was baptised. He died a week later and she says it was the hardest thing she has ever been through. She asked us for help to prepare her to go to the temple so she can be sealed to him. while she was in jail she attened a lds church every week and read throught the book of mormon and d&c 3 times! She prayed to Heavenly Father to help her learn more about the bible and it was that very day we showed up and asked her to do a bible study! We were all crying as she told her story of everything she has been through and she has given up everything so she can come here and prepare to go to the temple. I'm so excited for her!

We had a meeting with our Bishop, ward mission leaders and Ward missionaries to get them to assist us in this new goal to baptize weekly. When Pres mullen found out He left a meeting with the stake presidents that he was asked to speak at just so he could come to our little meeting! It was so humbling to know see how much he truly loves this work and will do anything for his missionaries to help them out! That meant so much to us! I hope no matter what situation I am in I will always choose to do what the Savior would. His work truly is so important and i am so happy to be a small part of it! Have an amazing week I love you all and am praying for you!!:)

-sister scott

Sister Scott is an Auntie once again!!

 It is my honor.. NAY!..PRIVELEDGE! to announce that I shall now be known a missionary auntie scott! shout out to my new adorable nephew talon kade showgchrogchk .

 

Sorry for being so late ya'll but duty calls and I am on the lords errand! This has been an awesome week! So we had a huge mission conference with our president because he received some counsel from an apostle that our baptismal rates need to be doubled. That means each missionary needs to be baptizing WEEKLY. uuuuuh I don't know about you guys but I haven't been apart of a baptism since the first week I came into the field.... sooo I feel like the lord has just asked me to build a ship..in the middle of a dessert... that has just collapsed from an earthquake. Just as those thought entered my mind I felt the words "I don't need lamen and lemules..I need Nephi's." It was that moment on that I decided that I don't care what my worldly outlook on our situation might be but I will "go forward in faith" because the Lord has asked me to and that is all the reason I need to truly believe we can accomplish this. The Mission president then called in our district(which is the 5 couples of missionaries that serve in our valley area) and He said this standard will be implemented in the whole mission in the next year but for your district it starts now...My heart sunk then at the same time I felt the spirit so strongly that we are not doing this work alone. This is not me or my district hastening the work. This is truly the Lord that is behind it. Even if he asked us to triple or quadrouple the baptismal rate we could just because He id the one that has asked it! I have never felt the spirit so strong than when we were in that meeting and the president asked me to share my testimony of how the Lord has supported me.

nephi 17: 13 And I will also be your ^alight in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the ^bpromised land; and ye shall ^cknow that it is by me that ye are led"

 

This week I received some information about a man I was teaching in my first area. You might remember how frustrated I got with him and how stubborn he is! He is an atheist who's family are all members. He Had been meeting with us for weeks on end and I have never felt the spirit so strong while teaching then the lessons that we had with him! My companion would get so frustrated with me saying "we need to drop him, we need to drop him" But i felt so strongly that we needed to keep meeting with him just a little longer cause HE KNEW IT WAS TRUE!! He would believe all the lessons we shared and keep all the commitments but he would never admit He knew god was real. He is the only non member i know that has home teachers! ugh It was soo frustrating haha but the last lesson we had with him We gave him the ultimatum and he chose to stop meeting with us and I was completely crushed. I left that area feeling sick every time I thought about brother moore. This week I felt we needed to go to the church to check on this meeting. When we walked through the doors I saw Brother Price(brother moores home teacher) He said "Oh my goodness sister Scott! Im so glad I saw you! I have news about brother moore. He has been admitted to the hospital. They found 7 tumors in his head and gave him 8 weeks to live." Because of this he has decided to meet with the missionaries and desperately wants to be baptized! I was freaking out to say the least. He is paralyzed from the waist down so they are working on teaching him the discussions again and getting him ready for baptism! He keeps telling them he just wants an eternal family and how important this decision is! ugh I could not even tell you the feeling of peace that came over me. This was such a testimony builder to me that everything will happen in the lords timing. He is aware of all of His children and he has a specific plan for each of them, of that I have no doubt!

 

 50 And I said unto them: ^aIf God had commanded me to do all things I could do them. If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should say it, it would be done.

 51 And now, if the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that he cannot ^ainstruct me, that I should build a ship?

Im workin on my tools to make a ship! Get ready Spokane. Ya..I'm pumped. I love being a missionary so much! Love you all have an awesome week!

-sister scott

This is the pizza train and this is the booth i set up for indoor trunk or treat for our ward! (yes that is a ghost missionary) HAPPY HALLOWEEEN ya'll

Post Halloween and other things!

Hey people!

SO many miracles this week! I love being a missioanry. so the work is pickin up! We had an awesome primary program and this little boy named tyler that is a non menber has been coming with a member family in our ward and he invited his mom! she went to all three hours of church and now wants to meet with us!! they have been through a lot and she described the church as "feeling like home" to her. Music to a sisters ears.

One day we went to the gas station to check oil and fill up the tires with air (I can do that now cause im awesome) we were strugglin a bit getting the hood open and this suuper nice man comes up to us and says hey "your sister missionaries right"? we said ya! and he said "well let me help you out!" He has tatoos all over(which means he's elect) and a giant beard (even more elect) so i was reaching in my bag to grab a book of mormon to talk to him and even before I could turn around he was gone! I was heart broken cause I really felt we needed to talk to him! Me and sister Johnson made a VOW that day to not pass a single person and talk with everyone. Later that day we were driving to a Less actives and we see this man raking his leaves...we had already stopped at 5 others homes that were outside and nothing had come from it..I looked at sister johnson and said, "one more..we can do it." We ended up talking to him for almost an hour. He is a recovering alcoholic and had been through a lot in the past 5 years and we talked about the savior and his atonement and how he has felt every pain and affliction He has and can lift any burden he has felt. We read from the Book of Mormon in alma 7:11-12 and mosiah 24: (my favorite verses to read to people). He said "Wow i need to get one of those..those verses are beautiful." We gave him the book of mormon and he has been reading everyday since! We have a church tour with him today at 6:30 so im sooo excited to start teaching him! I know without a doubt tho that we would not have stopped if we didnt have that experience at the beggining of the day with the tatoo man! We would not have made that vow and we would not have stopped and met tim!! The Lord is behind everything and He is always leading us to those that are ready.

Halloween was so awesome! We met a lot of crazy people and ate at a place called pizza train! its literally a train. we have a recent convert in or ward that has lived in this government housing his whole life and is the maintenance man in the apartment complex. He is one of the hardest workers i have every met and has sacrifices so much to join the church. Just as he was about to get off work his boss told him to clean up 8 giant piles of leaves before he went home. He was going to miss his halloween party and would have had to spend the whole night alone. On halloween i felt we needed to go see him and we brought our gloves and ended up helping him. It was such an awesome halloween talking with him and how he keeps a posistive attitude always, deticating everything He does to the lord. "It makes everything better and then I dont  feel like im doing it alone" such a tender mercy for me to hear.

I have really been making that my moto. Opposition is how we learn and grow. Thats what has brought the greatest change in me is when I've experienced hard times and become completely reliant upon my Savior. The power the atonement has to lift burdens is real. It is the only way to progres and experience the greatest happiness in becoming more like Him. It increases our natural capacity to overcome all opposition. I feel so much stronger and capable than I have in my whole life and I know thats because of Him.

 " The purpose and central blessing of life is change. it is to move from one degree of intelligence to the next, and from there to the next until you see God face to face and know Him as He knows you. "48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, apray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true bfollowers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall cbe like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be dpurified even as he is pure. Amen. He doesnt see us in terms of yeaterday and today. He sees us in terms of forever. and as we pray and keep that communication with Him, He can direct us to true and lasting happiness. I KNOW THIS TO BE TRUE! i have never experienced a harder and happier experience in my life than my mission and I know its because this is when I've been the closest to Him. I love you all and will see ya'll soon!
-sister scott

I LOVE HALLOWEEEEEEEEEN!!!!

She loves Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!

THE HAPPIEST OF HALLOWEEN TO EVERYONE!!!

 

I don't even think I can describe my excitement for Halloween. I. LOVE. HALLOWEEN. I love it. Our rules on Halloween is proselyte until 7pm then we have the rest of the night to ourselves! I shall be making a Halloween feast, carving pumpkins, painting pumpkins, eating something pumpkin, and watching the testiments! Im seriously debating on creating my own indoor haunted house..Someone call the cops! it might get a little wild! hahahaha sister scott on the loose. ANYWAY!

 

This week I went on exchanges with a sister in the Spanish branch and it was the funnest thing in the whole world! I absolutely love going to the Spanish area because everyone is so friendly and I get to say Hola all the time. Hermana Dishong taught me how to pray in Spanish and I have been practicing and practicing! We got to got to this Spanish members home and she made the most amazing food ever and they invited an investigator that the missionaries have never taught before. we walked in and I did my whole "hola mucho gusto" thing and then Hermana Dishong has them ask me to say the opening prayer for his first lesson! ONE. I haven't understood a single word since I stepped through the door so my brain was fuzzier than a peach. TWO: I haven't prayed in front of people especially an investigator and the two Spanish elders that were there too! THREE: My mind blanked from fear and I couldn't even think of how to start! to say the least, I was terrified. I smiled and said........SI. hahah I bow my head and close me eyes(I sat in silence for about 14 whole seconds) PRAYing the lord would fill my head with words! I opened my mouth and started speaking and the Spanish started to flow out of my mouth without me even fully understanding what I was saying. Everything I had studied (that day) was flooding my mind and the spirit was so strong It felt like my chest was on fire. The spirit was so strong I knew without a doubt the Lord was helping me. When I said Amen Sister Dishong looked at me astonished and I looked right back with the same face! hahah it was so amazing. I felt like a missionary. LOOK OUT SPOKANE IM GOIN SPANISH! just kidding... but that would be magnifico <--(see im basically fluent)

 

So this sunday me and my companion sang in the choir and we sung my most favorite song in the whole world. its called fear not and my favorite part is the second verse.

2. When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,

My grace, all sufficient, shall be they supply.

The flame shall not hurt thee; my only design

Is to make you more holy, more pure, and refined.

A mission is the greatest thing that has every happened to me. It is most definitelty NOT easy haha Im pushed out of my comfort zone every second of everyday but I wouldn't have it any other way. There is no growth in the comfort zone and there is no comfort in the growth zone.  It's in those hard moments that I am completely dependent upon my savior and "His grace, has been my supply". He said "without me, ye can do nothing," I testify that THAT is Gods truth. My Savior truly is building me into something so much greater than what I had planned for myself. I feel happier. I feel more capable. I can carry so much more on my shoulders because He is the one strengthening me and carrying it with me. That's a relationship I will carry with me through the rest of my life. No matter how hard things might be "His only design is to make us more holy more pure and refined". I love you all soo much! have an amazing Halloween and I will see ya'll soon!:)

love, sister scott

Ha Ha Look How Great This Sign is!!

No Transfers this week! Miracles in the making and other great things!

Hello everyone!!

 

transferst this week have brought no changes! for once!! Im going to finish up training sister johnson and continue the work in the belle terre ward!

  this week has been a week of miracles. So like you know we have been kinda struggling to find people to teach. SO i will list these miracles by name.

 

Errin: she is a former investigator that has some mental problems, lives in governmental housing and has really bad depression. We go by every now to check on her but she isnt ready to really investigate and learn. We will teach her a principle and she will blow it off. We have been trying to teach her prayer for the longest time and she just wont believe in it. Finally we got her to pray and she asked Heaveny Father to help her with her depression. We got a call the other day of her crying on the phone. she said "hey sisters you were right, God does answer my prayers!" She had been trying to get a kitten cause hers got electricuted(not even kidding haha) and she found a baby kitten outside of her door the morning after she said her prayer! she says this will help her with her depression and she wants to start meeting with us!

 

Austin and Mason: so we decided to go on a car fast and bike. My comp knows my rule of no passing anyone and we and racing down this huge hill and i had a feeling we needed to go back up the hill..my companion hated me but we ran into two boys age 17 that listened to the whole story of the book of mormon and both said they would be baptized if they read it and felt it was true! we have a church tour with them both on wednesday! doesnt matter he stopped me in the middle if the restoration to tell me i have beautiful eyes..i swore i wouldnt flirt to convert..BUT HEY what can ya do? hahah just kidding but they are two hick boys from the south that say "yes ma'm I would like to be baptized". How could you deny that!? (dont tell josh)hahahaha

 

Brother Green: He has been less active ever since he was baptized and the bishop has been trying to get a hold of him for 4 years. We knocked on his door and he said "I really am glad you two are here. I need to come back to the mormom church" he said that he had been to every church they have in spokane and he couldnt find anything compared to the happiness the mormon church has given him. He said that he loves the way we teach and he wants to re take all the missioanry lesson from us! miracle.

also we were about to cancel meeting with him and we needed a call from him if plans were to work out. I sais sister we need to pray. The moment we said amen the phone

 

Skylar Garvin: He is a 14 year old who went onto lds.org or refferend himself to the missionaries!!! crazy! he was on date to be baptized and randomly stopped everything. That was abotu 4 months ago and me and sister johnsot tracted into him yesterday! We were aboutu to go home and felt that we needed to stop at this blue house but we were trying to get home on time! I said a prayer and said ok if a red car drives by i will know for sure that wasa prompting. Sure enough a red subaru pulls around the corner so I flip my bike around and it ended up to be skylars house!

 

I could go on and on about all these amazing experiences we've been having but to sum everything up I know without a doubt that Heavenly Father is behind this work and we truly are just instuments! He loves all of His children so much and wants them all to return back to him! The greatest happiness I have ever felt in my life is getting to be a small part in my Fathers work. Even when times "so that the world my know that I love the Father and as the Fatehr gave me a commandment even so i do, arise and let us go hence" john 14:31 I read that to myself everyday I go out. I love being a missionary so much!! I love all of you! Im thinking and praying about you everyday!

 

-sister scott

She received my Halloween Package!!

Someone actually gave up their entire box of coffee for baptism!

Needs no explaining!

Harvesting Grapes at "Edward Cullen's" house for you "TWILIGHT" fans!

Week before transfers, splits with Spanish companions and searching for investigators. Oct. 14, 2013

HAPPY BIRTHDAAAAY DDAAAADD!!!! I love you SOOOS so much!:)

 

Well hello everyone!!

     This week has been a little crazy! I have been soo teacher hungary cause we have not had ANY invetigators(ther is nothing worse as a missioanry) Its almost like a cougar in the dessert. a monkey in a pine tree. Im starving for feeding the human soul with spiritual knowledge or like a waterfall holding the fountain of youth water while being blocked by the hoover dam. Ok..anyway.

  

 It only made matters worse when we got to go on exchanges this week with our sister training leader sister dishong (she is the spanish sister that lived in my apartment in my first area) so that was SOOO much fun to go back and see my old room! I always learn tons of spanish whenever I go cause all their investogators are spanish speaking. I always get a good ol laugh every time i open my mouth. Sister dishong walks up to a man and says (in spanish)"hey how is it going? my name is hermana dishong and this is my companion sister scott. she cant speak spanish..all she can say is 'Hi how are you' " (thats my cue) and i say "o la..Mucho Gusto" and they laugh everytime. Occasionally I'll throw in a Si or magnifico.. Im a good ice breaker. I also tell people I have a blue bicycle! haha there is a reason that I did not go foriegn speaking. Its bad. BUT i know how to pray in spanish now! so thats kind of a big deal! So this next miracle is a miracle and a half! We were in a lesson about the word of wisdom with one of their investigators and we must have done something right cause he got strait up after the lesson and handed me his coffee box! hahah i've taken away many cigarette boxes but a whole coffe box..that's a first!

  

Heading back to my area was kinda depressing cause we went strait back to finding and finding some more. it's moments like this that you just got to step back and enjoy what you do have. The more you focus on what you dont have the harder the work gets. "Men are that they might have joy" (new favorite scripture) its amazing how when im happy I see miracles. When I'm down I see nothing. We can always choose to be happy reguardless of our circumstances!

  

SO second miracle. We have been really praying for a new investigator and I wanted to fast. Sister Johnson has a problem fasting but she decided to try it and I prayed that something would happen to build her testimony on fasting. So just this last sunday we fasted to find a new investogator and we soent a whole day looking. We were cold tired and wanted to go home and I said "ok sister one more house." We knocked on this apartment and the most adorable little girl answered the door. We have seen her mom before and she invited us in! We were trying sooo hard to get throught the restoration and her daughter kept stopping us EVERY 2 sentences and her mom was not being able to focus at all anyway. I shut the pamphlet and grabbed a book of mormon and opened up o the picture of moroni. I taught the little girl who Heavenly Father was and how to pray. As I looked up her mom was sobbing. Nataya(the little girl) says "mommie these girls are like angels". we gave her the book of mormon and her mom told us she slept with it last night! She cant read but she has been trying to get rid of her bad dreams and everytime she prays and sleeps with is she doesnt have bad dreams:) I promised her that that would happen. So now we have a new investigator and sister johnsons Testimony of fasting has definitely grown:) It was a wonderful week.

 

One more week until another transfer! So i will let you know next week what happens! If I end up training another missioanry I will email you on tuesday instead of monday. I love you all and hope all is well! I will pray and pray some more for you so keep your head up and always choose to be happy!:)

-sister scott

Tallest Tree's and Tallest Treehouses!

General Conference Week!

Hello family!!

 

Never in my life have I watched all sessions of conference and LOVED IT. well this week..i did. Oh my goodness it was so wonderful. Best part is when he said "we don't get good at basket ball by watching tv, we improve when we apply the principles we learn and live them!" That's exactly true. I've learned so much from really dissecting the conference talks and applying them to my life! The words of the prophets are so amazing! Family, and friends...from a missionary to a member WE NEED YOUR HELP. these talks on member missionary work have been soo inspired I was shaking with happiness when they were giving them! THAT is what we need and that truly is the only way that this work will go forward! So I want you all to pray for missionary opportunities and then write me all of your amazing miracles. The first time I prayed for a missionary miracle THEY CHANGED THE AGE so don't tell me prayer doesn't work! hahah miracles have not ceased my friends. He is more than willing to give us the opportunities if we truly desire to have them!:)

 

Not gonna lie, the work has been pretty rough this week. We just lost our only investigator from a disease called NOT ELECT. But it is ok because the Lord is preparing SO many peoples hearts and He will provide miracles this week. I can feel it.  I had the biggest tender mercy of my whole mission the other day. We just got finished with an awesome church tour with Katie (our last investigator) and I was so bummed cause you could just see she wasn't progressing and she didn't want to meet anymore. We walked around the building to shut off the lights and we see these two adorable little boys sitting on the couch. Even though I was not really in the mood. I felt so prompted to talk to these little boys and teach them something. He

 

 I said "hey boys. how old are you?" one said 7 and one said 6. "ooh you're both getting close to be baptized that's exciting!" I pulled out a pen and sat next to him. I explained the holy ghost to him like the cap on a pen. When we make right choices the cap comes on and tells us we did a good job. when we make wrong choices the cap leaves. But when you are baptized you receive the GIFT of the holy ghost(and you click the cap on the pen) and say "and the Holgy Ghost becomes your constant companion" (turn the pen upside down and shake it) "even when things gets hard, the Holy Ghost wont ever leave you" We gave them both a pen and He says "Wow that is the best gift ever!" hahah then He got really serious and sad. He says "But I don't have a father." I sat back down and said "Do you remember the spirit we talked about? When you feel that, that is your Heavenly Father telling you that He loves you and He is always watching over you." He got so excited and said "I can feel it right not! I'm feeling it!..it feels so good like my heart is really warm." It took every ounce of my SOUL not to burst out into tears of joy because He truly was feeling the spirit cause in that moment I felt is so strongly too! He says "I think Heaven is really close to me." Could children be anymore elect? I don't think so. The scriptures aren't kidding when they say become as a little child. If we were all meek and submissive like that we would always feel of our Heavenly Fathers love and recognize what an amazing gift that is!

 

To top is all off He says "hey are you a missionary?" I said "Well, How did you know that?" Thinking he'd say, cause you tag or cause you taught me the gospel but out of all things He says "Because your pretty". AAAAH I about died. I felt like a Disney princess that the kids run up to at Disney land. hahaha I love being a missionary. I have never in my life felt so much love from my Heavenly Father. Heaven truly is so close to us and if we just take those small moments to look for it we will be amazed at how much He truly is influencing our lives. "pray to see with spiritual eyes the effects of His power" I pray for that every morning and it's changed my whole mission. I love you all and pray for you everyday and prayer is real! Love you guys so much. I'll see ya soon:)

Capturing the beautiful Spokane Temple with a Rainbow and Capturing her companion falling asleep in Church. (I think she was praying) ha- ha

Hello everyone!!

           wow I cant even think of what happened this week IT FEELS LIKE YESTERDAY! So this week we had TONS and tons of meetings on how to be effective missionaries. From this huge change in age more than HALF of the missioanries that are out right now have been out less than 6 months..crazy so we're all like chickens running around with their heads cut off..luckily the spirit doesnt need a head to preform miracles! I continue to see so many instances that we are not doing this work alone. I think it was Elder Holland that said "if a Book of Mormon had legs, we would send IT on a mission instead of you!" HAHAHAHHA i take no offence cause I testify that THAT is true! haha the best lessons we have is when we let the spirit work through us and get out of the way and power of the Book of Mormon. There is such an amazing spirit that comesf rom reading the Book of Mormon.
            Continuing my goal to never pass a single person, We were street contacting and I saw this guy at a barbecue in his back yard. He peaked around the corner of his back yard and then turned back around. The spirit very sternly told me "there he is." I said "OH no spirit, Im not going in this guys back yard in front of all his family..ok if he looks ever at us one more time I'll know you want me to go" Sure enough he looks stait at me and without noticing my feet started strait for him! My trainee looks at me like "what are you DOING sister your crazy!" hahah poor girl. Awkwardly I walk up to that guy and ask Him if he has a church he's going to. He says yes and like clockwork, his wife is right next to his side and says "we are not interested..goodbye" I pull out the Book of mormon and I look at him and asked if i could leave my card with him and he smiled and said "that would be great. thank you". Just small little things like that happen every day. I dont fully understand why or what that does in the long run but I leave with the most amazing feeling of love know Heavenly Father see's the effect of small acts like that.
           The spirit is so amazing, I've never felt it so strong in my life that out here. It becomes more and more familiar and recognisable as I am obedient to it. On my planner I wrote. "If the sprit promts me to do something, I act. If i think its the sprit prompting me, I act. If i have the smallest thoguht that the spirit might be prompting me, I act." Its when we keep that mentality is when we build that trust that Heavenly Father that he can count on us to obey anything He decides to throw our way. I feel so much closer to my savior I truly want to see everyone as HE see's them. I read this quote when I dont want to talk to anymore rude people haha

 "if you knew that only a few would care that you came, would you still come? If you knew that those you loved would laugh in your face, would you still care? If you know the tongues you have made would mock you, the mouths you've made would spit at you, the hands you've made would crucify you, would you still make them? Christ did."
 No matter how bad people treat you, or dont appreciate the sacrafice you're making, Christ does. He is the most perfect example of charity. Everything I'm learning reflects back to the Savior and the atributes He had. The more we become like Him the happier and closer we will be to Him. I am so happy. I love my Savior and will forever be greatful for His atoning sacrafice that enables me every day!!
love you all!! see ya soon:)
-sister scott


*quotes from my companion this week..(hopefully this will give you a good glimps of how hilarious she is hahaha) she REEEALLY likes writing fictinal fantasy crap..I mean stuff. its funny the things she says.
 "HEY look! that sign has the same same as a fictional character of mine!"-seriously sister johnson? you're a missionary not jk rowling
one day we were role playing the plan of salvation to an investogators needs and right in the middle of a really spiritual part she stops me and say
"you just converted my favorite character!" C'MON SISTER! hahah she's crazy but I seriously love her .haha She's obbsessed with aname and writing fantacy fiction novels. at least she promised to turn me into one of her characters...
I CAUGHT HER FALLING ASLEEP IN CHURCH!! hahaha im good
this is a beatiful picture of a rainbow and the temple:) almost as good as yours mom!! haha