So February has come to an end. We had 22 baptisms and 19 confirmations, the three "H" boys will be confirmed next week, they had a family emergency that took them away this Sunday. Friday and Saturday were the best days this week. Earlier last week, the same woman from the conference center that called us for the tithing video called again, and she wanted to come out and film Elder Clerveau and I for a few hours, doing "missionary work". On Friday she and a camera crew came and spent a few hours with us. It started off going around to Nepali people and inviting them to the Nepali baptisms later that night. After a few of those is when we turned into models. The camera man had us walk down the sidewalk, then stand and smile with the mountains behind us, and a bunch of "action" shots like that, and then they asked us to take them to a nearby park, where we did more posing and staged missionary work. They said that stuff is for what they B-role, images and footage that go into church archives, and when the church makes a film, they can pull a bunch of things from this archives and use it. With the tithing video they wanted a couple of shots of us to inject into our interviews. I had a good time doing it, but I definitely don't expect to see myself in a video or magazine soon. Sure, maybe elder Clerveau, he's black, but me, I'm the white bald-headed missionary! HAHAHA!!! I think they would get someone a little better looking than that for a cover or a movie! I kept laughing to myself about that idea as the camera man would say, "Alright look back to me, now look back to the mountains, look like you're pondering something, now back to me..."

 

Friday night was special. We had eight Nepalis baptized, and the service was well attended. We had a temple square sister come, Sister Khadgi from Nepal, who helped us with giving tours to our investigators, and she brought a van full of other sisters, I think eight total! There were five brothers who performed the baptisms. Myself, Elder Clerveau, Bishop, our translator, and one of our recent converts. It was awesome seeing him baptize, I hope to have many other of our Nepali brethren receive that opportunity.

Saturday the "H" boys were baptized, another wonderful experience to be a part of. I invited President and Sister Winn to the baptism, and they were able to attend. Seeing the dad baptize his sons was really touching, I shed a few tears.

Right now we don't have any other baptisms lined up, which shouldn't be a surprise, we had 22 of them this month! But I know we can continue having this kind if success, the Lord wants more baptized, and I know if I have faith and continue to work hard, those baptisms will happen.

Another great eat discovered! On state street, right by the court houses, is the restaurant Himalayan Kitchen, straight up Nepali food, but OH so good!!!! We went there after the baptisms Friday with our two main translators, and the place was packed with white people!!! You know it's legit if white people like it!

 

I'm continuing to have the time of my life, things that use to matter don't anymore to me. I heard BYU beat San Diego St. Awesome, but at the time I was only concerned with getting the "H"'s ready for their baptism, and that was a great feeling putting what really mattered as the top priority! March is my district's "FFC: Fit For Conference" month, so hopefully I will look good for those of you that will be there in four weeks! Hey Mom, I love the care packages, but no more chocolate turtles and gardhettos, those are my weaknesses! :)

 

Elder Scotty

I Forgot to Mention...

Tuesday we received a call from our zone leaders to go to the conference center in downtown Salt Lake City and meet someone. We get there, and we noticed that a lot of black sisters from temple square were there. The church is putting together a video on tithing for parts of Africa, and since salt lake's black population is like zero, they had to get missionaries to come and be a part of the video, and since my companion is black, we were summoned upon. We went down into the conference center to the studio and both of us were interviewed individually with all these bright lights on us and a giant green screen behind us. The interviewer asked us all sorts of questions regarding tithing, it was way cool! So yeah, if any of you are ever in Africa, and see a video with Scott Warczak in it, now you know why :)

Baptisms and Tongans

Hello everyone,

Another great week, we had two baptisms this weekend, a married couple. This weekend is going to even better. Friday night we are having eight Nepalis baptized! The eight are made up of two brother's families. The younger brother and his family were put on date for baptism last week, and this other family was put on last night. In January, the two older girls we baptized, this second family is the rest of their family. Truly amazing.

This Saturday we also have the four "H" boys getting baptized. They are wonderful boys. About a year ago, circumstances that arose in life had "humbled" the family, and they moved into our area. The parents were not active, but the father started coming back to church and greatly desired to become active again, because, as he expressed, "It always felt like something was missing." His boys came into the church full force. They are involved in scouts, young mens, church basketball, you name it they're in it! They cannot wait to pass the sacrament and be baptized. The mom is still not interested in coming back to church, but I have faith she will soon, when she sees her husband baptize her boys, she'll feel the spirit.

The snow this week was fun. We came home the night of the storm and got inside. In case I haven't mentioned it, a pair of spanish elders live in the apartment below us, and a pair of tongan elders live next door to us. I heard a crash at the window, and saw that Elder Tupou had thrown a snowball. It was war. Elder Clerveau and I got dressed and ran out and started a huge snowball fight with the Tongans. Soon the spanish speaking elders came home, and they didn't stand a chance. We got them involved and soon six of us missionaries are running around on the street and everywhere else engaged in a heated battle. I love having the Tongans next to us, they make things so much fun!

I can't wait to get back to work, P-day has become somewhat of a drag for me. I'm so excited to see what other miracles will take place, and I know they are coming. I'm so continuing this success into March, this is what being a missionary is all about. I can't wait to tell you all about this weekend, and I'll make sure pictures get sent!

Love,

Elder Scotty

Baptisms Everywhere I Look

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!! Just another day for me, my valentine is missionary work, how I love it so! That and Taylor Swift, but she doesn't know I exist, so I can't really claim her! HA! My deepest apologies for no email last week, I sent it I swear. I received a message today that said an error occurred, and the email did not go through. Lame, it said it did. Oh well, what cha gonna do?

 

This past weekend we had two baptisms, a married couple who are both 24, they have an 8 year old son. They were married when they were 16. Crazy, I know, gotta love Nepali people. We have 2 more for this weekend, the 19th. Tula and his wife. Tula was some work, he was baptized Christian in Nepal, and didn't see why he had to be baptized again. We taught him and told him to pray to know if the LDS church was true and promised him an answer. The next night he told us of the dream he had. It's very touching, I won't go into it, but he received his answer and knows the church is true. After them we have 7 on date for the 26th, our three "H" boys and a Nepali family of four. So as of right now, if all goes well, we will have 18 baptisms this month. There was a family of 6 earlier in the month that contributed to the 19 on date, but they will not get baptized at this time. Three in the family want to be baptized, but the man of the house said no, "either all of us do it together, or no one does it." It's sad, we know of seven people that want to be baptized in various families, but the head of the home won't give permission for that same reason, it's "all or nothing." I knew we could baptize every week this month, so when this particular family and others we hoped for didn't come through,  I wasn't worried about it. I knew I had faith, and if I worked hard, Heavenly Father would deliver and prepare people for us.

 

Last week I wrote about how a coordinator from the MTC was coming up to spend the day with us and see how the new missionary lessons were working out. His name was Brother Snyder. Very nice guy, we had a lot of fun with him. That night I discovered one of my new favorite places in Salt Lake, Moochies. It's this bomb sandwich shop on 800 south that has the best philly cheese steak sandwich. It was even featured on the food network, with that man with the bleached hair, Guy, on his show. It was voted best sub in Utah, so yeah, check it out, it's to die for.

 

Back to missionary things, the Lord is really blessing us with the Nepali people. We have others that look promising, and we hope to continue baptizing every weekend into March. I have really gone through a transformation so far this month. My attitude is much more positive, and I don't just believe that miracles can happen, now I know that they can happen, and that they are an everyday occurrence. Salt Lake has been the perfect place for me, I envision who it is I want to become, and I feel myself becoming that person.

 

I thank everyone for letters I receive, especially Sarah Porter, my new best friend! She's the only one down at BYU that talks to me, everyone else has moved on without Scotty Warczak. She's even married, pregnant, and working, and still finds time to write me a quick letter and keep me posted on her and her husband's life. So a shout out to you, Sarah Porter, thanks for being awesome!

 

I love you all,

 

Elder Scotty

Last Week's Letter

Wow, a great week for us. We had seven baptisms this past Saturday, a family of five, and another couple - the parents of the teens we baptized a month ago. We are hoping to have two more this Friday, maybe three, the couple's son may or may not be eight yet, so we're getting to the bottom of it. So as of right now, we have five or six people on date for baptism this month. A family of six fell off date, they weren't ready yet, but that's alright, my faith has been strengthened greatly in the past couple of weeks, I know others will take their place. Our goal is twenty baptisms this month. we have had I think some solid new investigators this week, and i know if I do my best and believe that our goal will be achieved!

 

Get this. We received a call from the assistants today. The MTC is sending someone up this Friday to spend the entire day with us and record everything we do. The success we have been having has become somewhat a big topic of discussion amongst the mission, especially with President Winn. The MTC wants to see what we are doing to have the numbers we are having. Cool huh!?! I hope we don't disappoint, we're really not doing anything outstanding, we're just being obedient and working hard. I'm excited for this, I'm going to work even harder these next couple of days to make sure Friday is a great day. We'll have more people on date by then, I have no doubt.

 

Everything else has been normal, I'm loving what I'm doing. With baptisms every week, February is just flying by. I definitely want to continue this. I'm excited for this transfer to be over, soon spring will be here and I'll be hitting the pavement without a suit jacket on! Then things will really take off! Elder Warczak, street warrior of righteousness!

 

Thanks for those of you who read my blog and keep me in your prayers, I feel the much needed strength to do this work everyday, and I know it's because of all the prayers being offered for me. I love you all, can't wait to tell you how this week goes!

 

Elder Scotty

Pictures

1) Two girls - Soni and Chunkhu - our surpirse baptisms!

2) The wall of religion! I guess by the time they got to us they lost their creativity...and their ability to spell :)

3) Robin and his sister Saru were our first Nepali baptisms

4) Typical Nepali meal...a butt load of rice and a side of...stuff? All eaten with our hands

Week of Miracles, Missionary Style

Let me tell you, the Lord has a way of working that makes my head spin. Don't ask me what I did or how it happened, it just did. Right now, Elder Clerveau and I have 19 people on date for baptism for the month of February, 16 of them are Nepali. The 16 Nepalis are made up of former investigators, and new referrals from this week. We would get a call, "Hey, this family wants to be baptized", or "We've wanted to get baptized for awhile, but were scared. We are now ready to be baptized." Literally. There was no convincing any of them, we didn't say anything that sparked something inside of any of them, we didn't prepare mind blowing lessons. All I can think of is that we are being obedient, and trying hard to be effective missionaries, and the Lord is trusting us to not screw things up for these 19 people. Whew, I have been spirit bombed too many times this week. My faith has increased tremendously, I was lacking in it and wasn't sure what to do with the Nepali people. The Lord works in mysterious ways, and I will never again doubt. Obedience to God's commandments is huge. Just do things the Lords way, and everything will work out. My testimony of that is secure.

 

I would tell you more about our week, but...what's the point? Everything pales in comparison to this wonderful news. 19 of Heavenly Father's children have chosen baptism, outstanding. I'm going to do my best to make sure all these people go through with their decision and make it to the waters of baptism. I need to keep this going, I refuse to baptize all these people and then go cold for 3 or 4 weeks with no one else. Nope, not doing it. I now know the Lord has prepared people everywhere, and if I do things right, the prepared souls will always be there.

 

The church is true, no other church in the world is so bold in their claim of that as we are. This is the Lord's kingdom on the earth, and it will never be stopped nor destroyed. The stone cut without hands continues to roll on, and everyone in the world will know it, especially the Nepali people!!! Elder Warczak will make sure of that!

 

Much love everybody,

 

Elder Scotty