A Blog Dedicated Solely to Derik

I've decided after the last couple of months of posting Derik's letters here that I'm going to make him his very own blog. Enjoy!   elderderikscott.blogspot.com

Derik's 11-10-14 Letter

Hello All. How goes life. What challenges are you facing? Would you like to hear about my life? Blahty Blahty Blah. Almost nobody writes me, and that makes a poor vicious-canary [our family term for “missionary”—big grin] sad.

Life this week was difficult. We had a lot of rain. I spent all of my time soaked, even though I was wearing an impermeable coat. At some point during the rain I got sick. I have inflamed intestines. This makes constipation look like child’s play. I hurt all the way through the tubes, when they allow things to pass through. I could not use the bathroom successfully for 2 days. I still have it, but I am taking medication to help `ease` my suffering. My companion is really sick due to his allergies. But he refuses to take medication. We teach that in order to receive blessings, you have to do all that you possibly can to deserve said blessings. For getting better from sickness, this includes taking medication, don`t you think? Can`t get him to do it, though.

Had exchanges for 2 of he 6 working days of the week. Elder Zagal and Elder Montes. Zagal has 6 months, Montes has 1 week. We accomplished a lot. Met some great people in the other area, whom I am absolutely sure are getting baptized.

Had Alexandra and her mother Guadalupe come to church this week, in addition to an assortment of small children. Some of which were not hers. They enjoyed it a lot, and I answered a lot of her questions (of which there were many). They enjoyed themselves, and we have more lessons before they are getting baptized. This is happening. They want it.

To tell you the truth, growing out of your clothes (either way) is no big deal here. You can buy jeans for 10 pesos. Shoes for 50—a full suit for 75. 3 piece? 100. Shirts? 5. Do not know how much a belt costs, but I do not need a new one quite yet. It actually costs more to repair an article of clothing than it does to buy a new one.

In other news, my camera has quit working. I am working on fixing that, because there are many interesting things I want to take pictures of.

Gave a blessing to this kid who asked for one. Had absolutely no time to prepare or anything, so the best course of action is to pray before. Pray that you will be an able conduit for the spirit to tell this child of god what they need to hear. I promised him health, which is what the blessing was for, and as I was going to end it I found myself promising that he would meet someone this week that he would have the opportunity to bring into the church. And that, should he faithfully try to bring this person in, he would be successful and would find a ton of joy in them and their accomplishment. And that he would gain a personal testimony of the importance of missionary work. Twas pretty cool!

Life is pretty boring otherwise. It is work.

Love you guys.
-Elder Scott

Derik's 11-2-14 Letter

This week was pretty much boring. Not much happened.
 
My birthday was interesting. We spent the first half of the day doing service for Virginia. Due to a long period of absence from her home, she had no water--this due to the fact that her piping and sinks, among other things, had been stolen. I found myself itching to do what they brought in professionals to do because I did this type of thing with dad and they were making it way too complicated. All of that stuff I did not want to do that dad made me learn how to? I have ended up using that knowledge a ton here. I fix things all the time. With or without tools. Of course, technical language is different in Spanish than in English, so I cannot explain how to do what I do in Spanish. Only by example. Which, although it works, is far less productive than being able to accompany your works with words.

My companion seems to think I am a 4 year old. He tells me to do things that I have already done, also, he disallows me to do things like this, which I know perfectly well how to do. Also every time we come to a street crossing, he tells me to look both ways. Which, when I do not find it annoying I find downright hilarious. He is 22 and believes that I cannot possibly know more about anything than he does. Well, that irks my sense of pride; but hey, being prideful is kind of not a good thing. So, I am going to let him continue thinking I am hopeless when it comes to real life, and simply do what needs to be done in the best way I know how.

Anyway, done with that rant, after service we went and tried to teach lessons. I say tried, because we were there, the spirit was there, but some of the people were not there. (physically or mentally, both or take your pick) The law of agency can be really annoying. I think I can understand how Lucifer´s plan managed to pull away a third of the hosts of heaven. It seems like it would be really nice to just force someone to do something like be converted and baptized, because we know it is the best and only way. But, then again, forcing someone to do something never makes them happy about it. So, in the end we know that agency is needed and important. Each and every human on this earth agrees that agency is important, otherwise they would not have a body.

After that, we went and had dinner with the mission president. That was a little scary. We went to sirloin stockade, a golden corral type buffet place, but more Mexican (more tacos and the like, and fewer different types of food)--twas good, though. After that we went outside. I ended up beatboxing for the mission president. An elder who was going home the next day (Halloween? really?) filmed me, and supposedly put it on the internet. Based on the lack of talking about it in mom´s letter, I do not think it hit the web. The mission president showed me a video of a missionary in Spain breakdancing. Very strange day, that was.
 
My companion is the district leader now. It is a little bit of a change; he has more responsibilities now.
 
Hey! Who the heck is Alex, and why has no one told me about him? What is his relationship with Jessica? She brought a boy to family dinner? Really? What is he like? I must know, for if he be found unworthy, he shall not have her!
 
We have more dates set up for baptisms in the month of November, but I will only tell you about them after the fact because I have found that many times circumstances set themselves up in such a way to make baptism difficult, if not altogether impossible, without an individual being willing to give up something that is very important to them.
 
We brought a 9 year old investigator to stake conference. The entire family was going to come, but it seems like everything conspires against people we have asked to come to church and they find themselves unwilling to give up something they absolutely have to do right now for something as unimportant as church. So, the parents handed us their nine year old and told us to have a nice time. Apparently, they trust us. Their four year old wanted to come, too, but the mother did not want her to leave. We got the mom to promise to bring her to church next week. Muahaha! Anyways, nine year olds have a lot of energy. And stake conference was broken up into pieces due to the size of the stake here. Our half lasted for 2 hours. That is far too long for an active child. We ended up following her around for the last bit of the meeting. I do believe missions are great preparation for being a parent. I seem to learn more about dealing with children every week.
 
We got a bunch of new Elders this week. Talking to them was fun. You can tell which missionaries are new, because they all look shell shocked. They share this face that shows that they are all absolutely lost whenever anyone speaks Spanish to them. Encouraging them was fun. I may have only been out here in the field for nearly two months, but you know what? I know a lot. And having concrete evidence
that they can eventually get the language and everything helps them feel better about how uncomfortable they currently are. Most of them
have American companions, too, so they can actually understand and talk to someone. I remember my first day. It was really terrible.
 
Well. Do not have anything more to talk about. 

Love you guys.

Elder Scott