Here's a Picture!

To answer some questions:

1) No, we do not have a car. We now have two stakes, the Granger and the West Valley Stakes because that one Elder did go home due to health problems. We just got bikes, and let me tell you...I hate it. I haven't ridden a bike since I was ten, and now we're going down main road, not on the sidewalk mind you, but straight up on the side of the car lane, with cars zooming past us (It's Utah, drivers suck here) so I'm definitely a little concerned...ok, A LOT concerned. Hahaha I'll have to talk to my companions about it, I'm really terrible at riding, and I'm afraid I'll lose control or a car will fly by or honk and I'll lose control and eat it big time!

2) No, we do not cook at all. We have dinners pretty much every day, and for breakfast and lunch it's just cereal, yogurt, fruit, stuff like that.

3) Every month we get $110 on our card

So it's still really hot. We should be having Rico's baptism this Sunday, and then two more next weekend. Sam, our big Tongan, wants to get baptized. He told his Catholic family on Sunday that he's been coming to church and wants to join...his family is now flying out here to Utah...oh boy. This will be pretty interesting, I'm not sure what will go down.

This Saturday, Pioneer Day, all the missionaries are going downtown in the morning to do extreme street contacting, just a competition to see who passes out the most stuff and things like that. Then we get to watch the parade, so if you see a big group of Elders, chances are I'm nearby somewhere!

We're getting a lot of new investigators every week. With the addition of the West Valley Stake, things are blowing up for us. Nothing else, well, I did buy me a Nerf gun. I know, I thought it was dumb at first, but the whole zone does it and I'm tired of getting stuck with a lame-o gun! Haha, so if I'm doing this I'm going to win!

The work is still amazing, other than the sun and the bikes all is well in Zion :) And yes mother I think I'm losing weight. We run in the morning, I don't eat a ton or anything unhealthy, and now with bikes..oh yeah, no way I'm getting fat anytime soon. Elders who get fat are just lazy, it's not that hard to stay or get into good shape.

Take care,

Elder Scotty

The picture is of Elder Barnett and I, with Sam (In the orange shirt) and a kid named Lenny, the nephew of the fellowship family for Sam!

Best Mission Ever!

Man, what a great week Elder Barnett and I have had! So, along with Rico, who is on date to be baptized the 24th, we also have two polynesians on date for the 24th! Matt James is a Samoan who's wife is a member. He took all the lessons up in Alaska where he worked and really just needs us to baptize him. He's so set, no problems, understands everything, super nice, he's definitely one of the elite people I'm here to find. Second we have a boy named Sam. Sam's Tongan. He's 20 years old and is here from California playing football at Utah State (Like most Polys, Sam is a giant). His dad is die hard Catholic and told him when he came to Utah that "He better not join the Mormon Church." Well, Sam has come to church the past 3 weeks, and soaks up everything we're teaching him. We have great fellowshippers for him, the Putuau's, a Tongan family. Tomorrow we are all going to temple square to see the Joseph Smith movie, I'm sure he'll love it. He's telling his dad on Sunday that we wants to join the church, he's already set on being baptized! There's a few other investigators that are progressing, and I'm sure some of them will accept a baptismal date within the next week or so.

It's still super hot here, walking is indeed an all day workout, but I'm still in high spirits! Salt Lake, like I said in past emails, is not at all like I expected. I had another anti-mormon moment with a man, started yelling at us about the dead sea scrolls and all this historical stuff about the apostles that proves this and that and how mormon missionaries always say the same thing like they're brainwashed to say certain things. It was humorous. Walking away he said our church was "cowardice"...I almost turned around to go off on him about all the wonderful and huge projects and things our church does in the world, and how no other church comes even close to touching ours. I restrained though, I'll meet many more people like that, I can't let myself lose it, even though I know I'm right.

This past week we had new missionary training. I got to see all the Elders from my MTC district. I love all of them, I really hope I get to serve with some of them later in the mission. I see all the other Elders that know each other and I'm super excited to see where I'm at in a year or so and all the people I'll know and stories I'll have. Still no distractions or anything. Some of the other new Elders are still holding on to girlfriends and things like that, I'm sooooooo glad I don't have a girl writing me!

I'll try to have pictures next week, hopefully some at baptisms! I'm sure I'll take some with Sam at temple square. The next week will be crazy though. An Elder in our zone is going home due to serious health issues, and so the plan right now is to have his companion move in with us. Their companionship is also over an entire stake, so if we do merge the three of us will be over two stakes, ten wards! I'm actually really stoked about this, I hope it happens. It would be a huge responsibility being over two stakes, we'd have to get bikes, but I'm up for the challenge!

I love love love the Salt Lake City Mission! I'm just so happy right now, the days go by fast, the weeks so far have just wizzed (How in the world do you spell that?!?) by! It's so true, when you work your butt off, the time just flies! Another week and I've been out for two months!?! It's ridiculous! I love this gospel, I love teaching, and I love seeing the look on people's face when they feel what I feel. Sam the other night asked us, "Why are you always so happy? When you talk about your church you always get a big smile on your faces? In the catholic church no one is happy like you when they talk about their religion and beliefs. Why is that?" Oh man, our smiles grew even bigger. Moments like this one that I'll always remember!

In other news, the Justin Beiber concert was this week. He performed in the Maverick Center, which is in the Granger East Stake. I was on exchanges that night, and so was in the area. We had to drive through there a couple of times, and my goodness, I've never seen so many glitter shirts and neon colored signs before in my life! Beiber fever was in full affect! All the other Elders I was with have been out a while, and don't know who JB is, so I gladly informed them of the awesomeness that is Justin Beiber!

Hope everyone is great, I greatly appreciated the mail this week! Until next week!

Love,

Scotty

HAZAAAH! MY FIRST BAPTISM ON DATE!

Soooo much has happened this past week. We just had zone conference yesterday, LOVED IT! There's a few changes happening on our mission and missions worldwide. The church is starting up this eight lesson thing to go with preach my gospel. They did their research and I guess they think it will help missionaries learn and teach faster and better. we'll get info on it soon. They're implementing it next june or july in the MTC's around the world. Also, in our mission zone conference will be quarterly, not once every transfer, so I only have seven more zone conferences! President Winn is amazing, simply the best. Before saying bye yesterday he said he wanted me to be the best missionary in the field, I promised I would be. Seriously, the SLC mission, I won't say what apostles and prophets have said about this mission, but MAN OH MAN! This truly is a special place, unlike any other mission in the world.

I have my first person on date for baptism, his name is Rico. He's the sweetest guy ever. Thirties, a recovering alcoholic, he wants to turn his life around by being baptized! His girlfriend is a less active member, but they went to the Oaker Mountain Temple open house and ever since he's set on getting married there. He's gonna adopt his girlfriend's three young daughters and they are getting married!!! He is soaking up everything we are teaching him, and is soooo so excited for baptism! He's set for the 24th so hopefully all goes well and it happens.

Still walking, still sweating like crazy, but still loving it. Utah...still don't quite understand this crazy place, but it's growing on me. I sometimes forget I'm here, and then we get on the freeway, or go up a hill, and I can see downtown and the U on the mountain and I'm like, "Oh yeah, I'm in Utah, I go to school 45 minutes THAT WAY!" It's surreal. I haven't received any mail yet, which I thought would make me upset, but honestly it hasn't. My companion is getting a ton, with him going home in a month and all, and I just laugh when he brings up packages and letters all for him. I really don't miss anything or anyone, I guess the only bummer thing is music, it's tough not listening to it or singing a song while your walking down the road if it's not mo-tab. I saw on a bus in downtown that Ben Folds was performing with the Utah symphony and I was like, "WHAAAAT!?" But other than that, it's all good. Just a heads up, mail gets delivered to us on Tuesday, so if baked goods or anything like that are coming my way, don't send them early on in the week, I'd hate for my first package to be a pile of goo :)

Last week when we went to the temple for the sealing was ridiculous! That was my first time doing temple work inside the SLC temple, that place is ginormous! It was a great experience. The Pioneer Day parade I hear that missionaries are allowed to go and see that, so I'm excited to see that. Wierd that a year ago I was in that thing sporting off the utah red. There's so many Ute fans around here in West Valley City, I don't tell people I go to BYU! I wish I spoke Spanish too, every other person I talk to is "lo siento, no hablo ingles, para awpwiehfhfuhgfnvvoirhg......." It's like "Come on! Learn English so I can talk to you!!!!" I guess that is my biggest thing I wish was different, there's sooo many spanish speaking people here! Well, I got nothing else, the days are busy, the days are long, but it's all good. Gotta write my weekly letter to the mission prez, adios (I'm at least picking up some spanish, so who knows, maybe I will speak it come two years from now!)

Feeling Hot Hot Hot!!!

whoah, so much to say, so little time. Today we are going to the temple for a family sealing, a family my companion baptized last year in Wyoming. So busy day, but it's gonna be a great one! I spoke in church on Sunday, we had about oh...one day to prepare it! The Elders before us accepted the assignment to talk but forgot to tell us about it! It went well, I was able to whip something quick together. I busted out the cancer card and bore my testimony through tears, the ward we spoke in was full of grandma's, I'm pretty sure they're all in love with me now :)

Ok, now the low down...

First off, I HIGHLY underestimated Salt Lake City. I thought for sure we'd be baptizing like crazy and everyone would love the missionaries and life would be amazing...NOT SO!!! If people aren't LDS already, there's a reason they're not. And if they're inactive..there's a reason they're inactive! And everyone knows the Mormons and had an opinion on them already, so we never meet anyone who's like, "Oh, yeah I just moved here. A Mormon? What's that?" No, people definitely are not what I expected. I was called Satan and the Devil a couple of times already, that's always fun. Even though many people don't like us here, let me tell ya about people who do, Polynesians. Polys freaking love us, let me say that again, POLYS FREAKING LOVE US!!!! They give us money all the time, and you can't say no cause that's super offensive! They always honk and wave and are the kindest people I have talked to yet! (Hey mom, I met a friend of the Aalonas, a guy named Pale Finai, went to high school with them!)

The work is going slow, but it's going. I'm out of my shy and "not-sure what to say" stage, I'm full blown missionary now. I'm excited for this area, I'm excited to start teaching. It's wayyy hot, and I'm getting really tan, but sweat like a pig! HA! It's ok though, I always have a smile on my face. Our new mission president and his wife are super kind, they'll be great! Gotta take off for the temple now, I'm sorry I suck at sending pics, I'll work on that!

To sum it up, it's hot here, the work is really hard but I love it....I am in love with Polys!

Elder Scotty