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 

Derik's 10-27-14 Letter

Well, this week was quite interesting. As the subject line reads, 

baptism--I had my first one. It really was quite something, not 

only due to the fact that it was my first one, but also due to 

the strangeness of it. As I believe I have told you all, Virginia 

was in a car crash and as a result has various problems with her 

right leg. One of these problems is that she cannot bend it. Due 

to this, our plan for the baptism was very strange. We had two 

chairs in the font, me, the bishop, and my companion (all to help 

this brave sister because her condition prevents her from standing, 

among various other fun things). I did the ordinance 3 times 

because we could not get her entire body under the water the first 

2 times (leg problem). But, when I was talking to her afterward, 

apparently she experienced no pain during the baptism, which is, 

quite frankly a miracle. She was in so much pain she could not 

move the day before. She is so very happy. Also, one of her good 

friends turned out to be the bishop of another ward that is a 

couple of hours away, and he was unaware of the baptism. When he 

found out, he came all the way here for the confirmation, and he 

did it. It was really, really cool.

We moved Virginia into a new home (same Virginia) and as a result 

we are going to teach one of her daughters who previously had 

absolutely no interest in religion. Service works, let me tell you.

Due to various circumstances, from moving out of our area, to 

family saying you cannot talk to the Mormons anymore, to death 

threats, etc., all of our baptismal dates for the 30th have failed. 

But, we have 3 more planned for the 20th of November now, and these 

ones I am sure will work out.

My new shoes, which are very, very nice, cost a total of 50 pesos. 

That is about $4.15. And, to make things even better, they are the 

type of shoe that Jessica and my mother were trying to get me to 

wear to be fashionable and for dating before my mission. The 

cheapest tie I have bought so far here cost 10 pesos, and it, too, 

is quite nice.

Things with my companion are better; we work well now.

I am having very vivid dreams that I am starting to actually 

remember. They are very interesting, and I have decided to write 

them down (useful for, if nothing else, to amuse me when I am 

really super bored).

I went with a bunch of the new elders to the Mexican equivalent 

of the consulate here to work on obtaining a green card. Most of 

my district from the MTC was there, and it was really super nice. 

We were kind of loud, though, because we were having such a good 

time, and that was a problem. I got my fingerprints taken and did 

lots of signing papers. It was alright.

Apparently there is a video of the newbies here in Mexico on 

facebook. If you would like to view it, please consult my mother, 

because I have no idea how to access anything but Myldsmail and 

the missionary website.

Once again, I would like to talk about my clothes and how they fit. 

Those nice fitted suits that I got just before my mission? Well, 

when I wear them, there is a large section of the fabric that folds 

in on itself underneath the belt that I need to put another hole in. 

I am working on making the sleeves tighter around my arms, but 

unfortunately, my arms are not massive enough for me to need to cut 

them open. (Haha, that was a joke. I do not want huge arms that ruin 

my clothes.) All of my shirts look massive on me, like I borrowed a 

shirt from my companion.

I send pictures to my mother every week and then I erase them from 

my camera so that I can take more. If you would like to view 

pictures, please consult her. (I do not know what she does with 

them.) [editorial note: I put them on this blog—big grin.]

And to answer your question about the picture of the jaw in the 

street, I think it was a dog jaw. We see some dead animals in the 

street, and usually it is a dog. Of course, it is hard to tell 

whether it is dead or soon to give birth, but when it is male you 

know it is dead. There are animals everywhere. I have seen people 

take belts into the street, rassle themselves a dog, and take it 

home. This country is very interesting.

This week I experienced something very interesting with our food 

situation. One day we ate 3 separate lunches. One consisted 

entirely of tamales and grape juice. Another was spaghetti with 

American cheese, fried tacos, and carbonated juice (I do not know 

the name of the fruit, but it looks like an orange, and the inside 

is pink) [second editorial note: I’m pretty sure that is a 

grapefruit; he’s losing the ability to remember English words]. 

And for our third, we had soup, tortillas and lemonade. I was so 

full it was painful.

Well, that is about all I have got. Love you guys, and have a 

good week!

Elder Scott

Derik's 10-2-14 Letter

Well, life is fun. Many things are happening right now.

We have one baptism scheduled for the 23rd, with the Hermana 

Virginia, who has a fractured leg (not sure exactly what, 

but problems) and FIVE baptisms scheduled for the 30th. 

Because that is my birthday, I get to do all of them. J Our 

baptism with Hermana Imelda fell through. We cannot convince 

her about divorce, and we are unable to teach anything because 

the conversation gets changed to it. Hermana Virginia is 

progressing really well, though.

I found out today during the missionary activity that the 

president invited everyone to that almost no one wakes up at 

6:30. And almost no one exercises. Well I am going to. I am 

losing weight. Like a lot. I moved down two belt holes, and all 

of my clothes are gigantic.

Tiangues (not tianges) are my favorite thing in the world. You 

can buy a good pair of shoes for 80 pesos and a tie for 10 (12

pesos is 1 dollar). They also have all kinds of fun knick knacks 

to look at, which is a good bonus.

Solfege here is different. The basic clef is do, re, mi, fa ,so, 

la, si, do. That is confusing. Si is sharp so in the states, but 

here it is ti. Bleh.

Did you know that I have been in the field now for a month and a 

half almost? I was thinking about that today. It seriously does 

not seem like it has been that long.

I have discovered four things that every missionary should become 

very good at because they will be doing them a lot: waiting, 

walking, worshipping, and wondering. I was unaware that being a 

missionary involved so much waiting. We wait for everything. 

We wait. Always. We walk absolutely everywhere, unless we need 

to get to the missionary center at the stake center. Then we ride 

rickety buses. They are fun. Bus fair here is 8 pesos, or 67 cents. 

Worshipping, because we spent 4 hours (3 after I finish my first 

12 weeks) studying the gospel, and everything we do is centered 

around it. The wondering, well, that is because everyone has this 

annoying little trait known as ´agency´. Sure, someone may promise 

to come to church or an activity, but they have the ability to 

decide not to. That can be hard sometimes.

Life is mostly fine. I do not think my companion likes me anymore. 

We are quite a bit different, and as hard as I try, you cannot 

build a one-sided bridge. We have exchanges Saturday, though, 

so I just need to endure to the end (hah, 5 principle of the gospel).

I discovered something that I find fascinating. In The Book of 

Mormon the story of Alma the younger is an amazing story. But, 

when applied to the language of Spanish, in which Alma means “soul”, 

the levels of meaning can get pretty deep. I thought that that was 

awesome!

Have to take care of a bunch of things right now, entonces. Saludos, 

y amor por todos,

Elder Scott