Happy Easter!

The week has been a slow one. Our translator, Vishma, hasn't been available to us this past week much. And when I say not available, I mean, he didn't feel like coming out with us at all! Hahaha oh man it was a hoot trying to teach lessons this week, I did a ton of singing and dancing, just to make the Nepali people laugh! MY companion's a stiff guy, so it was just me, but that's fine with me,  don't share the dance floor with anyone!

This Sunday I'm not sure what my plans will be. I could be here or I could be somewhere else, pray it's not Wyoming! I'm not a cowboy, I hear it's a great place to serve, but I just don't have it in me!

I really love my district, it'll be sad if I leave. On Thursday for lunch, in between district meeting and weekly planning, I had bought pizza supplies, and we made pizzas in the church kitchen. The rain here is coming down hard, I need May to be here! My birthday is just a couple of weeks away. Birthday wishes....none really, sunshine and a companion that wants to run in the morning! And of course more people to teach the restored gospel to!

We had a real blessing this Sunday. As I've expressed in past emails, the ride situation and getting Nepali to church has been driving me insane. Well, the Haven Ward has recently been assigned new service missionaries, Elder and Sister Hill. They have been asking Bishop for Nepali families they can be assigned to, but Bishop hasn't had any to assign. With our new Nepali families that are desiring to come to church regularly, Bishop assigned the Hills to them. They said they could help with rides, and when I asked them how many they could fit in their cars my mouth dropped. "We have an eight passenger car, and also another that can fit four." YES!!!!! I can get twelve more Nepali to church every Sunday, huzzah!!!! Watch, I'm going to get transferred out now, haha whatever happens with me in irrelevant, I'm just excited that now more Nepali people can be helped. We have five baptisms for this weekend. The "S" family of four are getting baptized with another Nepali family that live in the south mission. The two families are two brothers, so they want to do it together. The baptism will be in the south mission, so we'll get to go to that. Cool huh, how many missionaries get to go into another mission and have baptisms?!? The other baptism is a woman that has been coming to the Haven ward on and off for a year. She is the apartment manager for South Parc, a place where a ton of refugees live. She knows the Bishop very well and many of the ward members that live in South Parc. She told Bishop she wanted to be baptized before Easter, and so we're going to be teaching her everyday this week and hopefully she'll be ready for Saturday! She's a great woman, I helped Bishop give her a blessing a few months back, I think she's ready!

With Easter, remember our Savior and all He did and continues to do for us. Jesus Christ lives, and He is at the head of this church and work that I am a part of!

 

Love,

Elder Scotty Warczak

The Sun is Out...What?

Finally the sun is shining upon us here in Salt Lake! So what is new with the Nepali people, well, I'll tell you! All the ones we are working with are still forever away from the Haven ward, so rides are still an ongoing issue. We were able to get two cars for this Sunday, so we had 8 Nepali come to church, but it will be a challenge trying to make it an every week thing. I hope the process for a branch can speed up, because once the Nepali get one, watch out! Baptisms galore! Transfers are next Wednesday, I'm indifferent as to whether I stay or go, I'd hate to leave the Nepali in the hands of someone new, but then I have been there 4 1/2 months. Either way has it's positives and negatives.

 

I'm still enjoying being a district leader. I love weekly training and making posters, and singing primary songs. Everyone really has a good and uplifting time! This past week we had a baptism by technicality! An eight year old boy named Oscar, that my former companion and I taught a few times, was getting baptized. We taught him after dinner when we were at his grandma's house about baptism, because at the time he was only seven. The bishop did his interview, and went to check his mom's records downtown, but alas, they were not to be found! The mom is a very less active lady, and so wasn't too upset about it. Oscar has been talking about baptism forever! And he was going to be baptized with his best friend Juan! So with neither parent as a member of the church, "technically" Oscar needed to be handled as a convert. So bishop called us up, we set up the interview, and Oscar was baptized Saturday! A very bright kid, and he's very well known and loved in the Haven ward, where he comes to church with grandma. All these other Nepali we are teaching want to get baptized, so hopefully we have those happen in the next few weeks, as long as we can get them to church!

 

Our goal as a mission is 3,000 baptisms this year. As of the end of March, we had 760 baptism, 1/4 of 3,000 in the first quarter of the year. Right on track! It's exciting to be a part of it, last year the goal was 2,500, and we only had around 2,300. Our president has hit us hard with faith and using it, and expecting miracles to happen as we do our best to serve. Well, miracles are happening all around the mission, and I fully expect to hit over 3,000 baptisms this year. Who would of ever thought, 3,000 in a place like Salt Lake City, Utah!?! It's going to happen, this is my only full year as a missionary, I don't want to miss this! Everything else is going well, no crazy stories to share. I ate at Moochies again this past week, those Philly sandwiches still blow my mind! The cool black woman I told you all about a few weeks back got up and spoke in church on Sunday, and the entire time I felt like a "HALLELUJAH" or "PRAISE JESUS" was going to be yelled over the pulpit! Sadly my aspirations did not take fruition, but it was still a sight to hear and see nonetheless!

 

More of my friends have entered the bonds of marriage as of recently. At the top of that list would be my dear dear friend, Sean Harvey, who served his mission in my forefather's land of Poland. Hey Sean, when I'm done, it's you, your wife, me, and a girl yet to be chosen, going on a road trip to see Dave Matthews in concert!!!!

 

Love you all, the church is true

 

Elder Scotty

Conference, WOW!

General Conference this past weekend was superb, I learned a great deal. I only started losing focus during Elder Hoyos, but he was hard to understand anyways! My favorite talks were by Elder Oaks discussing desires, Elder Scott talking about his wife (HOW much longer until I'm done with my mission!?! I gotta get married and have a wife like that! Hahaha!) And of course Elder Christofferson just throwing it down, and how we ARE commanded to be perfect! Give it to us straight D. Todd! I saw my roommate last year, Brandon Robertson! How I love him so! I saw a few random people here and there, mainly in passing by them. I'm sure others were around, but I was more concerned with when the next session of conference was starting.

 

Yesterday was also zone conference, so I'm just "conferenced" out, my brain is running on nothing! Yesterday we sung happy birthday to the elders and sisters with birthdays occurring before next zone conference, which is in July. Is my birthday really in 5 weeks? We have found many new Nepali people, I am confident much good will come from these new blessings. I'm still thrilled to teach people about Christ, especially people who have never heard about Christ! I'm still working on teaching simply who Christ was and why He is so important to someone who isn't even christian, but it's exciting, nonetheless.

 

I did hear about the newly discovered ancient records found on metal plates, but thanks for the link anyways dad, saved me some time looking it up! How awesome is that. Hard evidence and facts won't convert anyone to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, only the spirit can do that, but still, it surpasses all my understanding how there are men and women out there that will still declare that Joseph Smith was a fraud, and his story of "records written on gold plates" and bound by metal rings is nothing but fictional. Oh well, Christ raised the dead and healed the afflicted on countless occasions in front of others, and the people still crucified Him. I'm reminded of the account in the New Testament, where Christ heals the withered hand of a man on the Sabbath, and after witnessing it the pharisees counseled how they might destroy Him. Proof does nothing, evidence holds no weight, only the testimony from the Holy Ghost will be the conversion factor for someone. With that said, it is like a fresh breath of air to have artifacts like these new records come forth, and give even more strength to the prophet Joseph Smith and his divinely appointed calling to bring about the restoration of the true church of Jesus Christ.

 

I hope everyone who reads this had a chance to watch conference, and if not, will take the time to view the talks again online at the church website. I'm comforted in knowing I have a living prophet on the earth, and the quorum of the twelve apostles, to lead the church of Christ. So begins another 6 month waiting period until October conference, which I'm sure will arrive as promptly and quickly as this one did.