Good things are happening in Palermo

Before the transfer: Elder Parra, Hermana Anna,
Hermana Isabell, Hermano Miguel and Elder Scott

There's not a lot of new information coming out of Trujillo this week from Elder Scott because he has been busy, busy, busy orienting his new companion with the in's and out's of Palermo (thumbs up). What I do know is he is loving his newest companion and the work they are doing. Elder Choque is one awesome comp, and according to Elder Scott he's super cool, chill, full of love and great at teaching lessons. They're looking forward to their upcoming move to a new apartment (happening this Saturday) and getting out of the super tiny room they're currently living in, and as an added bonus they are getting new single beds (hooray~the old creaky bunk-bed will be a thing of the past. Kyler legit thought the top bed was going to collapse on him every single night when he went to sleep), The Elder's are hopeful about a potential baptism (fingers crossed and prayers being said it works out) and excited about being able to teach one of Elder Scott's favorite investigators who he hasn't seen since the beginning of December. All in all it was an excellent and an exhausting week for the Elder's. Both adjectives are good words when describing the life of a missionary.

Elder Scott was ecstatic when he saw a Disney bag in Perú.  

It's the little things that remind you of home that often times mean the most. 

NEW APARTMENT COMING SOON

Hot Water with no live
exposed wires. BONUS!!

This place even has a
little kitchenette.

No longer a GREENIE!!

Lots of changes, excitement, and continuing to grow in the gospel took place this past week. Highlights included a Papa John's pizza night, getting new zone t-shirts made, receiving the most amazing scripture cover ever, going on companion exchanges with Elder Huezo who is one of Elder Scott's favorite people in the world, witnessing first-hand the reunion of Sister Flake and her parents after 18 months apart, "perfecting" sewing skills with a couple more needed repairs, celebrating a 4 month anniversary out in the field, teaching a lot of new investigators, getting a new companion and officially no longer being known as a "Greenie"! 

Whew...definitely a busy week. Here are some of the highlights in photo form.

Papa John's pizza is always a welcome treat.

 

 

The absolutely gorgeous leather scripture cover Elder Scott had made. It turned out stunning. The details are amazing. On the front cover is artwork representing Christ visiting the Nephite children and giving them blessings and on the back is artwork signifying the Lehi's dream and the Tree of Life.

Elder Scott and Elder Huezo went on a companion exchange together this week and had a great time teaching together in Bosque.

One of Elder Scott's favorite moments of the week was witnessing the reunion of Sister Flake with her parents. It was the last day of her 18 month call as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and her parents and grandfather flew to Perú to pick her up. Elder Scott wrote the following journal entry about the exchange, "We went out to start proselyting. The Elder’s live right next to a Parque Grande. Well, as we were walking down the street to the park, sitting on a bench was a family and they started looking as us weird, and then we noticed they were all white. As we got a little closer Elder Huezo is like, “Are those Hermana Flake’s parents? Ya, they are. What?” So we went up and started talking to them. Turns out the Hermana’s pensionista had invited them to lunch and they were staying at the park until Hermana Flake and Hermana Flores could come pick them up and walk them to their pench. So we sat and talked for like 20 minutes. They were soooo cool and it’s literally a total coincidence that we ran into them. It was so crazy and amazing. And, then we also got to see them meeting again for the first time in 18 months. It was so sweet and emotional. Lots of tears were shed. I got the reuniting on a video. It was so cool. Her mom, dad and grandpa flew down here to pick her up. It was such an amazing experience to get to meet them and be part of their reunion. Such a blessing!

 

To celebrate their last night together as companions and to celebrate Elder Scott successfully completing his training and no longer being considered a "greenie" these Elder's munched on panetone and Inca Kola.

These are the shirts Zona Palermo made up. Elder Scott chose #13 because that is the day his life forever changed when he boarded a plane and flew to Perú to embark on his 2 years of missionary service.  

Elder Scott's new companion will be Elder Choque. I'm sure a lot more details will come next week, but I know Elder Scott is really looking forward to having him as a companion and doing great work together.

Time for a short Spiritual thought:

One of Elder Scott's investigator's was asking him about a mass shooting he heard about in a Florida airport. Elder Scott didn't know any details about this incident (the whole living in the world but not of the world keeps him away from most news stories other than those he hears word-of-mouth). When he wrote home he asked me about it and so I shared a few simple details with him in an email exchange. He wrote back with the following, 

"The world is a crazy place. It really makes the final verse of the primary song, “Follow the Prophet “ring true. “Now we have a world where people are confused. If you don’t believe me, go and watch the news. We can get direction all along our way. If we heed the prophets, follow what they say. Follow the prophet; Follow the prophet; Follow the prophet, don’t go astray. Follow the prophet; Follow the prophet; Follow the prophet, he knows the way!” Just read that and reflect on how true that verse is. 

I was reading a talk titled, Abide in Love by Elder D. Todd Christofferson. In this talk he reminds us that God's greatest blessings are conditioned on obedience. This is why it is so important to read and understand the words of His prophets & apostles and make sure we put our trust in our divine Teacher, the Savior Jesus Christ, instead of resisting his counsel. In a "crazy" world where man's teachings continuously try to trump God's teachings, it is vital we turn to the Lord and follow His example and obey His commands. When we do,we will unlock more blessings and gifts than we can possibly comprehend. 

I felt this was some wise counsel to remember, "We may be quite content with what we have done in our lives and that we simply are what we are, while our Savior comprehends a glorious potential that we perceive only "through a glass, darkly." Each of us can experience the ecstasy of divine potential unfolding within us....Each of us can love and serve God and be empowered to bless our fellowman. "As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." 1 Corinthians 2:9.

This crazy world is also a glorious world full of magnificent people, and together with God's divine help, we can make it through. There are great things in store for all of God's children, and we might as well start partaking of the blessings now by following his counsel.

“Will you not love Him who first loved you? Then keep His commandments. Will you not be a friend to Him who laid down His life for His friends? Then keep His commandments. Will you not abide in His love and receive all that He graciously offers you? Then keep His commandments.” (Elder Todd D. Christofferson, Nov. 2016 Ensign)

Choose God's Plan

Elder Scott loves his scriptures. Every week he
sends home reading challenges to the rest of
us so we can learn some of the same things.

He is literally feasting on the  words he reads and 
learning so much in the process.

Elder Scott was at the slow internet cafe again this week so not many pictures were able to download before he had to sign off, but from what I saw and read he's had a couple amazing days paired with a couple rough days. Luckily, the amazing days always trump the rough ones, and he has a good knack of focusing on the positives around him and not dwelling on the negatives.

One amusing thing is more and more of his journal entries are a mix of Spanish and English and he wrote home saying  he's not sure if he should be sad or if it's more awesome that it's starting to get easier for him to think and write in Castiano than it is in English. I for one am loving the transformation. It shows he's fully immersed in the people and culture Perú offers. With that being said, I'm know I'm going to need to live with Google translate by my side and hope his Spanish spelling is better than his English so I can understand what he writes home lol.

As I was thinking about what to add to the blog today, I was reading one of the letters Elder Scott sent home about the Pride Cycle. Have you heard of this? You read about it all the time in the scriptures and it goes something like this.

Here are Elder Scott's thoughts about it: "It never seems to take people long at all to fall into sorrow and pride and sin. I always liked learning about the pride cycle in seminary. The scriptures show a constantly repeating pride cycle pattern. People are good. They are blessed. They start to take their blessings for granted. God has to remind them and they are condemned for their sins. Times get rough. The people humble themselves. They start to rely on God once again so they are blessed and start to be good again. It is a constant cycle; quite interesting to read about and so very, very true".

The reason pride is a sin is because it is the absence of humility which is a Christlike attribute we all strive to exemplify. Pride sets people up in opposition of each other. It has us act on our own will rather than God's will. It can start off small and subtle and appear seemingly insignificant, but will quickly escalate into something greater, more damaging, and inherently bad. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, "Pride is a deadly cancer. It is a gateway sin that leads to a host of other human weaknesses. In fact, it could be said that every other sin is, in essence, a manifestation of pride."

Elder Scott also wrote home about a few things he wished he had done differently before leaving on his mission; pay more attention in seminary, not only read but ponder the teachings found in the scriptures, spend more time with family, work a little less, devote more time to the things that matter long term, "It's funny how powerful hindsight can be, but I can only change the future now so I'm trying to do that as best as I can". I think Elder Scott's above quote goes hand-in-hand with the pride cycle. If you look back on your life and all the choices you've made up to this point, instead of living in regret over bad decisions, vow to make better ones today. Luckily God is forgiving. He let's us have do-over's. He's not a "one strike and you're out" disciplinarian. He gives us chance after chance after chance. The thing we learn with hindsight though is we will see a pattern. The times we followed Him are the times we were the happiest, the most productive, and the times we were filled with peace because we were following His way instead of our own. He paved the way for us already, we just need to take His path rather than try to machete our way through an overgrown jungle of darkness. The effort has already been done for us, all we need to do is decide to ACT on His teachings, on His ways, and let him Him lead us down the chosen path. He has promised the end result is worth it. It is truly a Plan of Happiness. A Plan of Salvation. A Plan of Exaltation. We cannot come up with something on our own that is greater than His already perfect plan.

Elder Scott was able to go on a missionary
exchange with Elder Willard and loved every
minute. They had an outstanding day filled
with teaching and learning from each other

There was a slight delay in a
Christmas box of goodies we sent him
which worked out perfect because he
was able to share all the treats with
Elder Chapman and Elder Willard

The after-math once they tore through
the box and ate the Chocoton,Oreo's and
some of the cookies. You gotta love Elder's
and their appetites :-)

He ended P-day with Papa John's pizza. What a special
treat that Hermana Desiree and Hermana Elsa helped me
pull together. I love these Sisters and the love they
show the missionaries.

Happiness is the object and design of our existence.

Last week I posted about love and this week I'm going to post about happiness. How great is it that the two go hand-in-hand? Joseph Smith stated, "Happiness is the object and design of our existence." and in 1984 President Gordon B. Hinckley gave this inspirational quote,

It is so important to find happiness and joy in this life, after all it's not a mistake that our Heavenly Father's perfect plan is known as The Plan of Happiness. He wants us to have joy. He wants us to be happy. He's given us the tools to do so, but in order to have everlasting joy you must follow his counsel and advice with exactness.
Last week Elder Scott wrote his brother a wonderful letter and included the following thought about happiness:

I hope you are happy and really get to see the beauty that's surrounding us in this life. It's there, trust me. We just have to take the time to find it. It's always there. Even in the toughest, most challenging of times, there's still beauty in life. I honestly hope you can learn and always remember that. It is key. It will bring you peace and joy in this storm that is life in today's world. Don't get distracted by the things that honestly, in the long run, won't matter a single bit. 

There's a key to life; it's work. Work is tied into success. Nothing in this life is ever free. Not a car, not a house, not a family, not even the gospel. They all require some sort of sacrifice to obtain. And the better it is, the more personal the sacrifice. So what are you willing to sacrifice to obtain what really matters; Love, peace, joy, and happiness? I'll give you a hint. The gospel gives you all of those, but you only get out what you put in as a sacrifice. I love you!

Here are some of the many things that brought happiness to Elder Scott last week.

Real chocolate given to him by a
church member.

He thought this was extra delicious.

An impromptu trip to Lima to pick up his visa.
He only found out 25 minutes before he had to
leave and managed to get ready, pack and
eat breakfast in the short amount of allotted time.

Flying to Lima with7 other
friends he hadn't seen in weeks 

Elder Huezo and  
Sister Dallimore

Seeing these gorgeous views.

Elder Scott firmly believes "Happiness is a Choice"
and tries to live by this motto every day.

The streets of Lima.
Okay, so the streets didn't necessarily make
him happy, but the people he was with sure did.

A mini CCM reunion with
Elder Weeks and Elder Weller.

A package filled with tins of homemade cookies
baked by Donna arrived in Perú. Yum!!
He loves her and all of his Publix family.

Ringing in the New Year in Perú.
He wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

Hermana Elsa keeps him happy and well fed.

This picture made me happy.
Hahaha!!

A mini panetón to celebrate the season.

Above all, missionary work and the chance
he has to teach about the gospel to the
Peruvian people has brought him more
happiness than any of us could have ever imagined.