Week 10 - Happy Birthday Elder Ortiz

So, the 14th is Elder O's B-day, so we've spent the last few hours walking around centro, buying ice cream and hackie-sacks, and going to music stores. We also went to Carl's Jr. with Hno. Uribe. I missed burgers. 

Elder Ortiz and I were pretty pumped for the music stores, butthey're honestly kinda trashy. They have lots of guitars (Nice for Elder Ortiz, not so much for me) and all their instruments were really low quality, except a few guitars and basses. No pianos were in sight, and all the accordions were kept behind the desk, so I couldn't even try one. Interestingly, they only have valved trombones here. They have them so trumpet players could play low notes sometimes, I guess. Who knows?

 

We haven't had a normal proselyting day since Thursday, and we probably won't until Thursday. Friday, we were running to Unidad Morelos,and didn't get to teach anyone. Saturday, all our appointments fell through. Sunday, we had a choir practice for our Monday event.We had the "Ilumina el Mundo" (Light the World) event yesterday, and it was pretty cool. We set up a giant tent in the Zocalo, with tons of booths about the church. We just asked people what they knew about the church, and they were pretty receptive. We got probably 5-6 references just for our area. And today was P-day. We had a loesson planned with Guadalupe at 12, but it went until 1:30. So our day has been pretty short.

Honestly, I feel really bad for the guy who was supposed to direct the choir, because he got to conduct for about 10 minutes, and then the accompanist and the soloist just kinda stole the show from him. They would constantly interrupt songs and give their opinions, or just start conducting us and run rehearsal without asking the guy. He took it like a champ, though. I get the feeling that that happens to him a lot. By the way, in my amatuer opinion, the soloist didn't know what she was doing, and the accompanist should learn what it means to accompany a choir and not be accompanied by a choir.  Needless to say, I was pretty opinionated on the subject.

When we do lessons, everything still goes over my head. I Just smile when the investigators laugh - in an attempt to look genuine. It's still pretty rough, but I'm slowly getting better. Poco a poco, cada dia.

Love you guys, and hope you're all doing awesome! Best of luck, Millie in future performances, because you were very fun to watch. 

Sounds like you guys are all set! Have a great time, and know that I'm really gonna miss doing Christmas with the family this year. I've learned to really appreciate those Christmas memories. It really is going to have a new meaning from now on. I Love, yall, and Nos Vemos.

-Elder Scott

Week 9 - Heat and hills everywhere

November 6 - We had divisions with one of the AP's on Tuesday, Elder Kerr. He schooled me and my trainer. He put 3 of our investigators with baptismal dates, and he contacted everyone. He's really a great missionary, and we learned tons from him. So, using what we learned from him, we now have 6 invstigators with a date. We've  had a pretty productive week.

Today was P-day, and Our zone leader invited us all to go bowling. We had a blast, and we got to go downtown to central Morelos, take a taxi, and went to the Temixco tianguis(Market) where Elder Ortiz and I bought some new clothes. I actually have a really hard time shopping here, because people only sell what they know they can sell, and nobody wants to sell clothes my size. 

So I'm feeling fine. I'm not sick. But I did get sick Sábado pasado when we got some Little Ceasar's pizza and I got food poisoning. That's about it In terms of health.  We have to walk everywhere, and there's no way they'd let us drive here. Everyone is insane, and the road systems make no sense. There will be five streets called "Cinco de Mayo" and all of them have a house #27.

This week's been a lot easier for me, but there's still lots to learn. See y'all next week.

P-day with zone leaders

Week 8 - We made it through one week. Only 93 to go!

Elder Ortiz and Elder Scott

So I got here, but we had to spend the whole day in the stake center doing interviews and training. We didn't even get our companions or areas. It was kind of a long, boring, day.It was pretty rough, but we made it through.

I got my companion Elder Ortiz, and we're serving in Temixco, one of the largest areas in the mission. It's so large that we physically cannot afford to not take buses everywhere. We end up having to spend a lot of our own money, because we spend twenty to forty pesos on buses alone, every day, each. It gets kinda rough at times. Speaking of rough, the Buses (Rutas) are insane. In fact, driving in general is insane. The roads are bumpy, and everyone drives crazy. If I don't get the opportunity to drive a car here, I'll be fine. The buses are even crazier. They're like a small rollercoaster. They jerk you and turn you, and there's not nearly enough leg room.

We've taught quite a few lessons, but it's usually Elder Ortiz teaching and me listening, or trying to follow along. 

Week 7 - Arrival in Cuernavaca

October 23, 2017

I made it to Cuernavaca, safe and sound! There are so many people here that we don't get our trainers or areas until tomorrow. I'm really tired, but I'm excited to be here! I'll probably have more time to email tomorrow. Adios!




October 24, 2017

I made it to Cuernavaca and my first Area is a place called Temixco. I'll be here for the next 12 weeks at least, with my trainer, Elder Ortiz. He's from california, and, thank goodness he speaks English. I'm excited to be here, and I can't wait to get started.

We had to leave the CCM at 6:00 in the morning and spent all day doing orientation and interviews. It was honestly a really long day, and I'm really glad that I'm at least in the field at the moment. We've already been fed by the members and we taught a fake lesson to a member just to test my Spanish. Sorry I don't have more to tell you. I'm sure Ill have plaenty to say next week

Love you!

Elder Scott

Q&A with Elder Scott

• Tell us about Cuernavaca and Temixco (also, how do you pronounce Temixco?)

Cuernavaca is dense and crowded. Sidewalks are for decoration, and nobody uses them to walk on. They're too small, and they plant trees right in the middle of it. Our area is pretty big and covered in hills. Some streets are so steep that there is no way they'd fly in america. It's been cool so far. We already taught 2 lessons and have been fed by members. Salsa here is muy bueno.

It's pronounced Teh-mee-sco

• Do you have roommates besides your companion?

No other roomates. Just me and Elder Ortiz. I'm also the only Elder from my MTC group in the multi-zone area. Most of them, like elder rice, went to acupulco.

• Have you met the rest of your district yet?  Any other greenies in it?

I'm the only greenie in the greneral area. There's one other sister, Hermana Garcia.

• What is your mission president like?

My mission president is pretty cool. He mainly speaks spanish, so I haven't gotten to kow him a ton, but he's really quite nice. He'll be leaving sometime next year.

Most missionaries are just getting to their missions today. I'd say that everyone should get an email by tomorrow, and if they dont, then they have a stickler companion. Best of luck to you.

Week 6 - Last Week at the MTC, BOOOOOOI!

I am super psyched to get out into the field. Disregarding the fact that Spanish is still difficult because there are 3 past tenses, a hypothetical tense, a command conjugation, plus additional endings for -ing verbs, future, and conditional. Other that keeping those straight, and not knowing how to understand sometimes, I think I'll be fine! 

I ran into a friend from High School here on Tuesday. It's Jon Soto! I'll try to send a picture with him later. Sending pictures can be difficult, because I can only take them on P-day, and emailing is the very first thing I do every P-day. I'll try to send some pictures later, but I don't know. 

You asked what is my favorite thing about being here. I like the people in my CCM group the most. They're super funny and we're probably the coolest district in the CCM. We have a lot of fun, and some of them live really close to me, so they'll be a must have hangout when I go home.

P-day at the MTC with Elder Butterfield

I would love to hear from Dan or Joey.

Oh, yeah. It gets cold. If the sun isn't out, it's cold. We're 7,200 feet in the air. It gets really cold at night, but really nice in the day. It's really hard to get up at 6:30 every morning when its so cold at night. And it doesn't help that we're in a valley, so we don't even see the sun till 8:300 or 9:00. So it can be pretty chilly.

Thanks for sending the Jellybeans and DR. Pepper. You can-t get cola down here, so Dr. Pepper is a life saver. I'm glad everything is going good for you guys. Love you, and I pray for you.

Model of the Mexico CCM Campus

Boundaries of the Mexico, Cuernavaca Mission and stakes

Classroom building at the Mexico City CCM

Week 5 - One Month Today

Elders Scott and Park right after haircuts. It's not the
haircuts that make them look blurry.

So it's week 5/6 and it's flying by. We were talking last night, and decided if every month goes by this fast, we'll all be fine doing this 23 more times. It really goes. Days are so quick and routine. I like being here, but I can't wait to get out at the same time. Next week we get our "Last Week" dots for our tags. I am pumped.

No specific scripture has stuck out to me, but the scriptures take on a new meaning as a missionary. They are very unique and specific in ways I hadn't seen before. I loved reading the last bit of Alma, because of the specificness of the scriptures and strategies of war.

I probably write 5-6 emails a day. Not a ton, but it keeps me occupied for an hour.

I've gained about 7 pounds while here, but this is some greasy stuff. It's no suprise everyone gains weight here. In Cuernavaca, a lady was telling me that there are tons of Mangos in everything. I'm excited to get out and eat nothing but mangos for 2 years!

We get to go to the temple again today. I'll probably buy some more ties and tie clips at the store they have. I'm excited to go again because  going through the temple in spanish is Awesome. You get to read off a spanish card to someone who is forgiving if you sound like a gringo, and you get headphones for the video in english.

Our district with our teacher. She is getting married
Friday, so this is our last day with her.

I'm pretty excited about it all, I'm just tired of teaching fake investigators. I want the real deal. But I also want to learn spanish, so, It's kindof a toss up at this point.

Love you guys, and I can't wait to hear what's going on with all y'all. I love getting your emails, so keep em coming!

~Élder Scott

Week 4 - Time is Flying

He's adorkable.

So Dad wanted me to talk about the daily grind a bit. We have classes from 8:30 to 12:15. Right now we're learning about future and present progressive conjugations, which are the easiest by far. I'm excited and also not excited for those. We have more classes from 3 to 6, and then we do computer work for an hour or so. We have gym time from 1:30 to 2:30, and our district plays some mean volleyball. We had a district tournament and won. We play a lot of volleyball and foursquare on p-day and during gym time. But on the days I want to take it easy, our district leader lets me go on splits with Elder Muñoz. He's writing a short story, and always wants me to play some mood music for him, with which, I am happy to oblige.