Adiós CCM and Hola Trujillo.

Today Elder Scott will be boarding a plane to fly to Trujillo where he will begin the next 22.5 months of service in the field. He has been looking forward to this day for such a long time, and we can't wait to hear about all the incredible and unique experiences he'll have. 

For the past 6 weeks he's been in the CCM learning Spanish, studying the scriptures, practicing lessons and effective teachings tools, and learning how to be a great servant of the Lord as one of His called and chosen. He's ready to put into practice all that he's learned, and all of us back home are excited to watch his journey unfold. 

Our deepest gratitude goes to President and Sister Moore who lovingly oversaw his time at the CCM. He has a deep love for them and the knowledge  they so willingly shared and testimonies they freely gave. He also expressed his love for all the Elder's, Sisters and teachers he met at the CCM. He has developed forever friends in the short 6 weeks he was in Lima. 

In each of Elder Scott's letters home he shares some of the incredible insights he has learned. These are lessons he's applying into his life as a missionary, but are applicable to everyone in every wake of life. Recently he wrote the following entry which I loved, "One of my favorite parts of the entire lesson was really about the repentance process and how we can effectively use it in our lives. “If you have something in your past that has been reclaimed, leave it alone. Don’t dig up old trash!”  E+R=O (Event + Response = Outcome). If you’re having a hard time on your mission it’s not because of your past sins, not because you didn’t fully repent, not because God doesn’t fully accept you, not because you lost the Spirit from those events that you already repented of. You’re having a hard time because a mission is hard. It is full of trials and challenges. Don’t dig up old trash that has already been reclaimed into a beautiful creation. These feelings, they are only temporary. It will all be okay. Sometimes you need to stop, look around, and see just how far you’ve come. Everything is going to be okay.

Life can be hard. There are times we will feel like we are failing, that what we have to offer isn't good enough, but don't give into that way of thinking. Those feelings don't come come from a loving Father or from our Savior. They do not want us to dwell on past mistakes if we have already repented of them. Instead look at how far you've come. And no matter how you're feeling, or the mistakes you have made, don't ever question your Heavenly Father's love for you. He has a plan for each of us and it's a plan of happiness, a plan of joy, a plan of eternal salvation. He is there to lift us up and carry us through the trials and burdens we will face in this life. 

One of our great apostles,Elder David A. Bednar, stated the following, "Heavenly Father and the Savior can inspire, comfort, and strengthen us in our time of need, if we remember to cast our burdens at Their feet.....The gospel of the Savior is not simply about avoiding bad in our lives; it also is essentially about doing good and becoming good. And the atonement provides help for us to overcome and avoid bad and to do and become good. Help from the Savior is available for the entire journey of mortality-from good to better and to change our very nature....The Savior has suffered not just for our iniquities but also for the inequality, the unfairness, the pain, the anguish, and the emotional distress that so frequently beset us. There is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity or weakness that you or I ever experience during our mortal journey that the Savior did not experience first. You and I in a moment of weakness may cry out, "No one understands. No one knows." No human being, perhaps, knows. But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He felt and bore our burdens before we ever did. And because He paid the ultimate price and bore that burden, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy in so many phases of our life. He can reach out, touch, succor,-literally run to us-and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do through relying upon only our power." David A. Bednar,The Atonement and Journey of Mortality. April 2012

I am so grateful for these wise words and strong testimony to help strengthen my own. I have immense gratitude for all the missionaries around the world who's greatest desire is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to every corner of the world and give of themselves fully to this work. I am also grateful to all the wonderful people Elder Scott has met these past few weeks. Below are a few that have changed his life forever.

The highlight of Elder Scott's CCM experience

The Lima Perú LDS Temple

I can't believe it, but it's time to check off another week at the Lima CCM  which means 5 weeks have been completed and there's less than one week before Elder Scott boards a plane heading for Trujillo. He is so excited to get out in the field and use the skills he's learned to teach and serve the people. It brings him such great joy, and he absolutely loves being a missionary.

This week was extra special for all the missionaries at the CCM because the Lima Peru temple reopened after being closed the past month for cleaning and refurbishment. The missionaries in his district were able to attend a Wednesday afternoon session, and he said it was the most spectacular day. He had been looking forward to it all month long, and the day did not disappoint. 

For a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, temples are the most peaceful, sacred buildings on earth and are meant to be set apart from the turmoils of the world. They are different from our chapels. Currently there are 153 temples around the world and each has been dedicated as an actual House of the Lord. It's a place we go to feel close to the Lord and make sacred covenants with our Father in Heaven.  
If you would like to learn more about the purpose of temples, take a look at this link. 
 https://www.lds.org/church/temples/why-mormons-build-temples?lang=eng

Attending the temple took the better part of the afternoon, so Elder Scott had even less time than normal to write home this week, in fact this is the second week in a row where he ran out of time to write a big letter,but luckily he sent me 75 new journal entries and told me to piece together a few blog posts using those. I love that he sends me such beautifully written moments about his time as a missionary. The depth of growth he's experienced in 5 short weeks has been astounding and I am beyond grateful he has this opportunity. 

Because of the travel between Lima and Trujillo, there's a good chance Elder Scott won't have an opportunity to write next week either so it will be a couple weeks before we hear how my favorite missionary is doing. In the meantime, here's a great trick Elder Scott was taught in the CCM. It's a process you can use when you get anxious or upset: 

You need to stop and find 5 things you can see, 4 things you can hear, 3 things you can touch, 2 things you can smell or taste, and then breathe. Focus on your breathing until those feelings settle. Tell yourself, "I've gotten this far, I can get through the next"

Or,for a quick fix you can try Elder Scott's other trick which is to purchase new ties, ha-ha! Those of you who know Kyler know how much he loves his ties! He sent me a picture of these cool Peruvian ones he found on his way back from the temple. 

He's such a great kid, and brings a huge smile to my face every day. I am so grateful that our Father in Heaven entrusted me with such special children. I am truly the luckiest mom in the world! 

Questions and Answers Part 2

         

      In the last post I mentioned I had asked Elder Scott a series of questions that he answered inside the pages of his journal and sent to me. 

Here are the remaining six questions with his responses. 

      4. Is there anything that I wish I would have done differently before my mission? Ha-ha, yes. I wish I would have prepped more; In the language, in Preach My Gospel, in researching Trujillo, and in knowing the mission handbook, ha-ha. I also wish I would have learned how to sew and iron things better. To answer the second part of the question, Was there something that you look back on now and think ‘I should have done more or less of this?’  Yes, I wish I would have studied more, and I wish I would have paid more attention in church and seminary so I knew the scriptures better. I wish I had worked a little less and devoted more time to preparing for my mission. I also wish I would have packed more ties to trade, ha-ha! 

      5. When did I laugh last? Ummm, that’s a hard one because our district laughs a lot, but my most recent, really good laugh, probably was when someone pretended to fix Elder Avila’s tie and really undid all of his shirt buttons, including the very top collar button, and he didn’t even notice until like 5 minutes later and then he freaked out.  It was hilarious. One of my other really good laughs was watching Elder Wilson lean back too far in the office chair at Interpol and having it fall over and then not being able to get back up. That had us busting out laughing real good. I know that there have been countless more, but I can’t really remember them right now. Our district laughs a lot and is really light-hearted. It makes it so we all get along really well. 

       

      6. What do I love most about our CCM President and his wife? That’s a really good question. They are both such amazing people. I would have to say my most favorite thing though would be how caring and loving Presidente and Hermana Moore are though. They make sure they get to know all the missionaries on a really personal level. They both have so many Christ-like attributes. They truly are just so amazing. Plus, they are both so incredibly knowledgeable in the scriptures. They could answer basically any question you have and show you all the scripture references that support the answer. It’s truly mind-blowing to see. 

    

      7. What had been your strangest, most bizarre moment so far? Good question. I think I’m gonna have to go with getting off the plane in Lima and then going through customs and immigration. That was truly a bizarre experience. You get off and they shuffle you through a glass hallway, and on the other side is the normal airport. Then they have you go downstairs and are put in a queue to go through immigration, but they don’t tell you how to actually fill out the forms and they are all in Spanish. Of course, at that time, none of us actually know how to read Spanish, and the info we needed like what to put for our address, what to put for occupation (since we were all just entering as tourists), what we needed to fill out verses what to leave blank. It was a mess! Plus, the immigration officials were never any help. They just would say “no” in a mean voice and point to the end of the very long queue. I was lucky and guessed my way through enough for them to take it on my second try. A lot of other missionaries were not as lucky though. After immigration, we were stuffed into a hallway that led into a gigantic baggage claim and we had to try and figure out where our claim area was. It turned out it was on the very end. We got our bags and had to go through customs. For that you had to load your bags onto a very large x-ray machine and if they selected your bag to search you had to sit there and unpack it with them right then and there. Luckily, I don’t think any of the missionaries were selected that I know of. After that you were shuffled through double doors into a room where you were continually questioned if we wanted taxi’s or anything. Finally, after that we were released into a main area where we had to find the guy holding our sign. That was another long process because they didn’t speak very much English and we didn’t speak Spanish, and we had a problem of our check-in’s not coming out right. We would learn later that it was because a missionary missed his flight and they didn’t know it at the time. So after an hour of trying to sort all that out we finally left the airport. It was definitely an experience I’ll never forget.

     

      8. What am I looking forward to most in the next month? I’m gonna have to go with leaving for the field and seeing where I’ll be sent, meeting my new companion, and learning about the area and the culture. It’s gonna be a really cool experience. I’m hoping that I’m paired with a gringo so I can talk in English when needed.

     

      9. How much has the past month changed you? A lot, ha-ha! I would like to think that I know a lot more about the gospel, and I know that I am a lot more knowledgeable in Spanish, not fluent by far, but I know a lot more than I should for one months’ time. I’m glad that the gift of tongues is real. It’s definitely been a crazy rollercoaster over the past month. I’m so glad that I’ve been able to meet such amazing people and done so many amazing things. I have loved being able to go out and see the country on our field-trips. Going to Lima South was such a humbling experience and really showed me just how many things we take for granted back in the States. There are so many people that are so poor and have so little that live in what American’s would assume is rubble from a demolition. It’s so sad, yet the people are so loving and caring and happy! They are a very special people. 

10. Most importantly, do you know how much we love and adore you? What can we do from here to help you the most while you are there? I definitely feel your love and know just how much you love and care for me. I know because I have so much love and care for you, too. I’m so glad that I’m able to go out on this journey. On this new experience. In this new service. I feel your love and prayers so often. I know that you all are always on my mind, in my heart, and in my prayers. I love you all so much. I miss you dearly. I miss the goofiness, the jokes, the worry, the sarcasm, the “brotherly love”, the small things, but I know at the same time I have a purpose down here in Peru. One of such great importance. The proselyting experience proved that for me. I need to be down here with these people. I know that I am always in your minds and hearts. I’m always reminded of that in your e-mails filled with love and care. I love being able to read about the little things like a scab fell off and there’s healthy skin underneath, or that there was a sub in English class. I love being able to know what is going on in your life even though I might not be there. I love knowing that mom takes the missionaries out shopping on Monday’s or that dad is at a new store, or that Florida is prepping for a hurricane, or that lightning struck the church as someone pushes you out of the way to get back inside. I love being able to hear about your lives. I know very much how much you love and adore me. I know because I can feel it in my heart. Now for the second part of that question. What can you do from there to help me the most while I am down here? Stay safe and have fun. Keep on making those lifelong lasting memories. Keep me in the loop and let me know how your days are going. Most importantly though, stay safe. Don’t get too stressed out. Always remember that whatever might be happening, it’s only temporary. Don’t let it get you down. Keep your chin up and your head held high. You’ll get through it and come out on the other side just fine. Life will be okay. There’s a plan for all of us, even if we might not see just how everything will play out. We just have to put trust in our Heavenly Father that it’s going to be all right. We need to remember that the richest blessings come only after the trial if our faith. Keep your head up and put your trust where it belongs in your Heavenly Father. Pray and talk with Him regularly. Your Father wants to hear from you always. 

Questions, Answers, and Service Projects

I haven't received an actual letter from Elder Scott this week, but he was able to send me about 55 journal entries and a load of pictures, so for this week's post I will be pulling thoughts he recorded in those two mediums.

This past week the Elder's from the CCM had the opportunity
to provide service to a school for disabled children that is
located across the street from the CCM. It looks like they had a
wonderful time doing this and further strengthened the bonds
they have with each other. 

Last week I wrote Elder Scott a series of questions and asked him to let me know the answers in the next couple of weeks. He took a picture of the questions so he could look at them later and recorded his answers throughout the week in his journal. Here's the first 3 of 10.

      1.  What do I like about my companion? I like that he is so willing to learn and really pushes himself to learn the language. He’s a very hard worker. How has he inspired me?  Elder Weller has inspired me by pushing me to learn the language. What has he taught me? He has taught me that I need to kick harder in soccer, ha-ha. Does he have a quality that you want to magnify in your own life? He is very humble and light-hearted and I think I could work on those characteristics in my own life a bit. Do we have fun together? I believe we do, there’s not a lot of time to really play around due to the packed schedule, but I would like to think that in the time we have that we both have fun. 

      2. What has been my favorite P-day activity so far? (side-note: P-day is short for Preparation Day which is the one day of the week Elder Scott has an opportunity to read letters from home, respond to those letters, do his shopping for the week, finish laundry, etc) So, to be honest, our p-days are super laid back with the temple being closed for maintenance for 4 weeks (just one more p-day to go before it’s reopened) so there hasn’t been much to do around here. My favorite activity would be writing my family, but besides that it would either be playing soccer or last week they put on Meet the Mormons which I hadn’t seen before. It was really good. Besides that our normal p-day schedule so far has been to wake-up, have personal study, have a 45 minute breakfast, go change, do nothing for an hour or so, go have a 90 minute physical activity time, (here he writes he had the death of his first pen, how sad. Good thing he took like 50...the kid is obsessed with pens lol) go and write our families, go for a 45 minute lunch, do nothing for 2 hours, wash our clothes, dry our clothes (they normally take a few times to actually dry so we don’t take them out in the time we are technically supposed to) go to dinner, come back, teach our progressive investigator, have a class, plan for the next day, and then go to bed. Once the temple reopens we won’t have the extra free time because we all will go through the normal cycle in the morning and then we all go to the temple in the afternoon. 

       3. What’s been my favorite overall moment so far? Um, that’s a hard one, lol. It most likely is our first District devotional the first Sunday I was here after the devotional by Elder Rasband We all went around and shared our testimonies about the devotional and our mission calls. The spirit was so powerful!   What’s your least favorite moment so far? Hmmm, that’s also a hard one, ha-ha. There really hasn’t been many at all. It would probably have to be that special meeting they scheduled for District Leaders, Zone Leaders, and Sister Coordinators last week. They had us all gather, but then he presented it all in 3 minutes in complete Spanish so I understood very little of it, ha-ha. But, from what I gathered it wasn’t very important at all so it’s okay, lol.

There's even more questions and answers to come, but for now I'm going to wrap up this post with some photos of great Elder's he's already met at the Lima Perú CCM along with names of those I know so far. Thanks again for all your continued love and support while Elder Scott is serving his mission. If you have a minute today send him an e-mail. He LOVES hearing all the normal, everyday things from friends and family: kyler.scott@myldsmail.net
s

Elder Avila & Elder Gibbons

Elder Avila

Elder (one day I'll know)

Elder Mortensen

Elder Turley

Elder Whipple

Elder Vorhees

Elder Earl

A success day of service

Elder Jentzom

Elder Bird

Elder Holt

Elder Grover & Elder Cook

Elder 

Elder Johnson & Elder Foutz

Of course Elder Scott's constant companion,
Sam the Flamingo
hasn't missed out on any of the fun. 

A day of food in the CCM

A typical breakfast consisting of an
egg, roll, yogurt, fruit & juice

You can always count on having
rice and beans as a staple menu choice.

Dinner

The stages of eating a Peruvian fruit called a 

granadilla. 

It's not the most appetizing thing to look at, but Elder Scott swears it tastes delicious.