First pictures

Scotty sent these home to my parents and my dad scanned them for me. Hopefully Scotty will send me his memory card soon so I can upload some bigger files. Until then...

Hello Salt Lake!

Grettings from the mission field! Yeah, I said it...MISSION FIELD!!!!! AHHHHHH!!! Right now I am assigned to the Granger Stake in West Valley City, there's five wards we are over. My trainer is Elder Barnett, he's from Alberta and only has a few months left (This is actually his last transfer!!!) He's great, loves the work and is VERY motivated to finish the mission strongly! The area was white-washed, meaning both missionaries in the area are new to it. Apparantly the Elders before us weren't the greatest with the members, and so we have a lot of work ahead of us. This place sounds like it's ready to burst with missionary work, so we're very enthusiastic about it! The apartment is alright, got some cleaning to do but it works for us (don't worry mom, there's no holes in the wall or rats running around!) So yeah, so far so good. I sent a letter home the day I left the MTC, disregard the piano music I asked about, mission rule is mo-tab only, and then on P-days EFY and hymn renditions are allowed. So I would like EFY music and Paul Cardall's piano music, he does hymns so it's ok. There's a lady hear named Sister Hardy, she and her family treat the missionaries very well! She reminds me oj Jodi Hjelm. Anyways, all is well, excited to be here. Take care!

Scotty

Week #3 "Blueberry Muffin Tops"

Well, I leave tomorrow morning at 6:30 in the morning, and yes, all nine Elders in the district are going up together. The new mission president gets here at the MTC tomorrow and will be up in SLC on the 27th I think. So kind of a bummer, we'll meet the current mission president and be like, "Hey...you're outta here in a week, so ummm nice to meet you?" Ha! I'm super stoked to be leaving, the MTC has been great, BUT I'm sure the mission field will be 10000 times better! I feel ready, I don't know all the scriptures and I don't know everything in the lessons, but I have my testimony and a desire to work, and that's all I need for now, the other things will come in time! I feel like a missionary, I mean I'm not some peter priesthood Elder or anything (We had one of those in our district....he was interesting, to put it nicely) but I don't know. I don't freak out if I don't get mail, in fact I don't even think about it when I go and check mail, I'm surprised if I have anything at all. And when friends write me and tell me what's going on I'm like, "Oh that's nice...Hey Elder Orr we gotta go do that one thing...." I just don't really care about the outside world right now, and it's a great feeling. Now with that said, I HATE KOBE BRYANT AND THE LAKERS!!!!!!!! WHAT THE CRAP BOSTON!?!?!? Gosh, we have an L.A. fan in our district and he was SOOO happy to hear the Lakers won and talked about it all day long! Needless to say it was not the most pleasant day. So other than that, yeah, I feel like a missionary! Laundry, check. Bags packed, check. Ready to get into the mission field and work my butt off for two years......double check! The only thing about the MTC I'll miss, is all the blueberry muffin top cereal I want!!! It's like a blueberry muffin...but in cereal form!!! It's genius! Is it just a Utah thing? I've never heard of it before.. Anyways, glad to hear all is well, I look forward to telling you about my first week in the mission field! Scotty (Ok, so I can't use Enter to space down, so....end of paragraph!) Todd: A large Mariners shirt would be best, I trust you will pick a good one! And you need to keep me posted on Pac-10 stuff, I heard about stuff from other people, did the Texas and Oklahoma schools really join along with Colorado and Utah?!?! I need to know! Joce: Thanks for the package, it was awesome! I ate the cookies anyways, they were delicious! But yeah, the MTC is nothing but crap food, and I'm sure in Salt Lake I'll be fed ALL THE TIME, so yeah no need for packages I think :)

Week #2

Hello Family!!!!

So, to answer your questions father, Elder Orr is from Oklahoma, his Father actually served in the Utah, Salt Lake City, go figure! So the past week was ridiculous! SOOO much drama in my district of 14E! Two Elders were ready to kill each other and the whole thing escalated to the point where I was staying up until one in the morning talking to the branch president and talking to the two Elders. It subsided and all is well, but man oh man, we're missionaries here people, if someone hurts your feelings....SUCK IT UP!!! AHHHH!!! I guess the whole thing was good experience, I just wish everyone was as ready for a mission as me. As DL I also collect the mail, and some Elders have girlfriends and are OBSESSED with getting the mail and getting letters from "the girl". I find myself laughing inside, if only they knew girls don't wait! Hahaha yeah, definitely glad I have no lady friends I'm writing on a regular basis. Speaking of mail, mother dear, I appreciate the package you sent me, just a few things to tell ya:

No gum at the MTC (I guess it's a missionary rule, if you're chewing gum you look like you're lazy, or being too casual, or something like that with your image. I don't know, but whatev, a rule's a rule). Please no more candy/food. There's so much crap here at the MTC, I don't need anymore. Sorry. And you didn't send my watch, so if you could send that to me that would be grrrreat! Probably just send it to SLC.

Other than that the district is great! Most of the Elders are 19, but then Elder Dodge, Willnauer, an me are all 21. I really like both of them, especially Elder Dodge, He's a nerd and we talk about ninja turtles and video games, and he's down right hilarious! He also had health problems too, so him and me are tight. Last week at devotional we had Elder Hales speak, he's the man. I won't waste time being all spiritual and telling you all he said, but dang, I got wayyyy more appreciation for him, definitely moved up a couple of spots on my favorite apostle list! I lied my first email. We thought we were leaving the 30th, it's the 23rd for sure. Our new president gets to the MTC that day and gets to the mision home June 27th, so we'll be out about a week before we meet him. A kid in our district is from Delaware where my president is from, and is actually from the same ward! He says he's SUPER strict....like..."do something wrong and i'ma gonna kill you" type strict! I'm not worried or anything, I'm gonna be the most obedient missionary, I'm just a little concerned for other Elders, I don't want any of them to get hurt! Hahaha I'm still humble mom, no worries! Other than that life is good, I'm loving on the scriptures and making notes/highlights in them, I love class and learning, I LOVE THIS CHURCH!

Now to what has been on my mind, SPORTS! Todd, I'm depending on you for most of this info! Boston 3-2, sweet! What about world cup? I hear U.S tied England 1-1, not bad! What's going on with the NBA? Any major switches, where's Lebron at??? AND most importantly, WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE PAC-10??!!? Colorado is for sure in, and we're trying to get the Texas schools!?!?! What's going on in the world of college football!?!?! Please DearElder me, we get that stuff everyday and it's free, it'd be nice to get a note in the mail every day or so. Thanks Joce for sending me one, it was so good getting one amongst all the crazy girlfriend letters and DearElders! Well my time is expiring, time to check out. Peace out Fam, I look forward to hearing from you!

Scotty (Yeah, that whole "Elder Warczak" thing...kind of over that now, I'm still Scotty to you and the outside world!)

Week 1 in the Missionary Training Center

Why hello my dear family, today is Tuesday and I have almost been here a full week! My goodness gracious, there is sooooooo so much to absorb being a new missionary at the MTC, let me tell ya a little bit about what's been going on:

My companion is named Elder Orr, and he's from OOOOOOOOklahoma! He's around 6'2'', muscular kid, super awesome! Not to brag or anything BUT, our teaching skills rocks, and we definitely know how to work together. We're just two chill guys who know how to get things done! I'm district leader for my district, 12 guys in all, I guess I should have expected it when I introduced myself as the 21 year old that had cancer to the branch president. I'm sure he thought, "Oh yeah, this kid's got experience!" I guess if barfing my guts out for a year gives me experience, sure, sign me up to be DL! Haha no really, it's a really humbling experience, there's some guys who I think would be way better DL's than me.

So of the 12 elders in our district, 9 of us are going to Salt Lake, and 3 are going to Omaha, Nebraska. Everyone gets along great, no one is staying secluded or is shy to speak up! One of the Elders though kind of has an attitude and isn't the hardest worker, so in my kind loving DL voice I simply ask him to stay on track with his studying and the schedule, while really I just wanna scream "HEY BUCKO, FIGURE IT OUT!!!" Some of the missionaries too are just soooo wrapped up on the schedule and making sure we're on time or early to everything, and they NEED to know exactly what's going on every minute of the day. Now I'm not condemning them, being punctual and obedient are very important to an ELDER, but when it begins to sound like my three year old nephew (Shout out to ya Warren, LOVE YA!) consistently asking me a question, ya get how it can get annoying. I simply reply to them, "Don't worry about it, everything's going to be fine".

As for everything else, I am loving the MTC! Our teachers are amazing! Brother Bastian and Brother Bott. And teaching, oh my GOODNESS! I LOVE TEACHING! Elder Orr and I have been practicing a lot with fellow missionaries, and on Monday we got to teach the restoration lesson in a more "formal" setting. Our lesson went perfectly, and I quoted Joseph's first vision, "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head..." and holy spamoly! The Spirit hit me like WHAM!!!!! So yeah, don't worry Mom, your son is becoming more and more spiritually inclined with every passing day! I don't miss family, or friends, even with BYU being right down the street it's like whatever for me. To answer your question Mom, I think we are leaving the 30th, I'm not entirely sure why. I heard our new mission president gets in that last week of June, so maybe they want us to stay around and meet him??? Who knows, I'm not worried about it like some of the Elders are, I figure, "Hey, another week at the MTC, more time to prepare, noooo worries."

Things I would like:

Todd: A mariners shirt, i figure you'd be the dependable one to go to get this. I need to sport off my WA pride!

Mom and Dad: clock, check. watch, check. That's it for now, I'll let ya know if something else comes up!

Steph: Thanks for the sweet letter, it was nice to get my first letter as a missionary! Keep 'em coming!

Time is UP! Gotta go, we have devotional tonight. One week down, and loving every second of it!

Elder Warczak

(I figure I'll sign my letters as Elder Mom, we had a whole talk on respecting the title of Elder and yadayadayada!)