President & Sister Alverado with Elder Scroggins - November 2010

HOLA!

HOLA!!!!!

 

Wow first week over!! finally. haha only 94 weeks left here in the PR. where to begin my process of thought. first of all i want to say that we only have one investigator. his name is hedrick and he is a suspect in a murder case. that is the only thing preventing him from being baptized. he says he is innocent so he has nothing to worry about. hope it all works out for him. he goes to church and is a solid guy... i think...

 

need some more recipes something easy to cook, so far i have just been having balogna sandwiches and mac and cheese. pretty good not going to lie. but maybe i'll want to spice it up one day who knows. i dont know whether to thank you and dad or not but i just got done cleaning the apartment and dang it was a mess and i could not stand living in a small apartment with dust on the ground. eww maybe i didnt pick up my clothes from the floor when i was home but dang that apartment was rediculous. it looks good now. probably going to eat dinner off the floor tonight...

 

I wish i played the piano. make sureJon learns how and adam and andrew. we have a piano in church but no one can play it. sad. i don't want to ewnbarass my self otherwise i would try but we got some instrumentals we play on a cd player. last sunday i had to bear my testimony and introduce myself in chruch. not too bad only 100 people show up every week a little less. i couldnt think of the right word for something and the whole congragation shouted it to me haha it was funny. they are super nice and have a true belief in God. Most puerto ricans do its just translating the belief to going to the only true church in the world and obeying the commandments. 

 

most the names of the people that we teach here are just american names with spanish accents on the veronica, andrew, shaniqua. and that is how the mc donlads menu is. its not a tocina y queso hamburguesa. its a bacon and cheese burger but pronouncded really bad. haha i love it. my comp elder baily is a good guy he is very patience and does most of the talking is the contacts i can get them started but once they reply i am lost its all good though. i am learning more and more each week.

  

Spirtiual thought for the week is in 1 nephi last verse. lamen and lemual say how big and bad laban is but then nephi replys in verse one chapter 4. the Lord is mightier than the whole earth. if we pray we can do anything. i know that this is what we need to do. thanks for everything mom and dad. Merry Christmas.

 

This has been a pretty exciting week.

This has been a pretty exciting week.

i just want to start out by saying that i miss you all very much. we got the opportunity to stay up late on sunday evening and to listen to the first presidency christmas devotional. had a couple thoughts during it. the first of all was that dieter f uctdorf looked like alex trebeck from jepordy with the gray hair and the blue screens behind him. haha then i just started getting sad because although christmas is a time that we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ it is also a big family time. made me miss home. everytime i see a christmas tree it kinda just reminds me of home but then just listening to the prophet speak made me realize how much on the mission i have grown up and learned. before the mission i couldn't even stay awake during general conference. but now here i am loving listening to the words of the first presidency taking notes and wanting to just keep on listening. just makes me appreciate the opportunity i have to be here in the field.

the week after that was bittersweet. after the christmas devotional we realized that our time in the DR/ mtc was slowly coming to a close. monday we took picutes at the temple as a district and as a group. i love my district and even though they are not family it was hard leaving them because they were my family for the past 6 weeks ya know what i am trying ot say?? my district leader was elder sweeney form oklahoma. bout 4 of the 6 people in our district go to byu so well see eachother soon.

tuesday moring was the day we had to wake up at 4 to checkout and got to the airport. said good bye to all the elders that were staying in the DR and the rest of us headed to the airport to go to Puerto rico. even though it is only a 56 min flight for some reason they had us at the airport 3 hours before our flight. as soon as we got to the airport me elder hargadon (california), elder gines (st george) and hermana ghersi (utah) ran to dominos and bought some pizza. 6 weeks without it is rough haha i am a lot tighter with the elders going to PR than the others so that was good that i got to spend an extra day with them.

we were picked up from the airport by the asistants and president alvarado and his esposa. we went ot their house to take picutes and eat luch. and interview. later that night we went ot the mission home to meet our trainers and to get a little taste of tracking. it was crazy. me and elder perez(san diego) went to the train station and road around san juan on a train for and hour and a half just talking to people. my spanish was horrible but people helped me out. i am excited to finish learning spanish. i met my companion. he is from boise idaho. elder bailey is my trainer. wednesday morning this morning we finished up with the interviews and left to our respective missions. everyone is serving on the island not on the little island right now. president alvarado threw out some number  like there aree 16000 baptized members on the island of PR but less than 3000 are active. crazy my first area is on the south eastern coast cities of ayuro, and salinas i think that is how you spell it. anyway i am excited to start working but i miss my family. miss my mtc buds and i know this is where i am suppose to be. i will send pictures soon or i might just send my memory card home. i finished a tape for y'all. i tried to get a dominican speaker to give my talk so it seemed likei had a thick accent but unfortunaltly i didnt haha. i love you all.

keep reading the scriptuers and pray always that you might come out conquer.

con amor

elder scroggins

The Last Letter....before I leave the MTC

mother´n´company

Well the next email you will get from me, I will be back in the good ol US of A. Almost. I definetly am not ready to be going out in the field physically. Don't know any Spanish it seems like, but one piece of advice they gave us here is to be fluent in the language of the spirit. The spirit will recall memories in times of need. I feel like I need to forget English to learn Spanish and if that is true I have no idea but in John he talks about needing to forget himself, make himself less so the Lord could be more in his life. This email is really short but I will have more to say when I get to puerto rico. I love you all though. Don't forget that! Hope all is well back home.

Love you all so much.

con amor

Elder Scroggins

Thanksgiving Thanks

Mama and Company.

It is Thanksgivng. So thanks for everything! Rachel, Jon, Mom and Dad...thanks for the emails. Andrew, Adam and Emma. Well, lets pick it up... haha jk.   Hope all is well in the town of Vegas. I hear it's cold. Glad i'm not there. It has been a rough week this week. 

Me and my companion got two Dominicans moved into our room last week. It helps that they speak spanish beacuse we can always practice.  It is hard being in the mtc on thanksgiving. I think we are having rice and beans for dinner tonight, not the same, and my football will consist of the scores that dad and jon send me. (btw dear elder me the u of u byu score asap) but to kind of repeat what Rodney said, this is way hard and really not enjoyable sometimes.  I do it because I am grateful to the lord for everything that he has done for me. Thanks for raising me in the chruch mom and dad. Thanks for being good examples siblings. We have a lot to be grateful for. where much is given much is expected. With great power comes great responsibility. The church is true. I know it and want to tell others about it. They just teach us gospel pinciples and hope that the spanish will sink in. I taught the law of chastiy to a mock investigator last week and the Holy Ghost really will help you reacall words when you need them. I do miss you all... and college football. Only 97 weeks left. Love you all and have a very exciting black friday.

THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!

To Whom It May Concern:

 

This week has just flown by. zooooeeemama!!! crazy how fast things can fly by when you are just doing the same thing day after day and also crazy to think that 80 years in eternal perspective isn't even a grain of sand in the big picture but the choices we make here have eternal infiniate consequences. This week was basically the same but hey it was one of the best weeks that I have had. I am Kinda bumed that all the Haitians here in the ccm have left but it would be pointless for them to spend moe time here. They have amazing testimonies and are going to do work. After they left on Tuesday we were allowed to venture out into the real world.  We went to a wal mart but it had a different name. (siare or something like that) We got to do a little grocery shopping and a little messing around....good times. I bought some nonsense items that I will be sending home for Christmas. I didn't buy any but they had knock off ps3;'s and wii's they were called mii's and funstations. hahaha only like 20 bucks. btw how is my ps3 doing?? hope I can still own Adam when I get back home. Yesterday we went ouside for gym and played bball for a solid 50 minutes. I was so tired and sweaty, as everyone was. We came inside and due to the construction they had to turn the water off. We all were kinda disappointed we had to go to class sweaty but as we were getting ready to get ready and our teachers were complaing that they didn't want 10 stinky elders in their rooms, so we just had gym for the rest of the time the water was off. another 2 hours. 3 hours of gym really boosted the moral of the men. BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!!  Elder Schaffer and I get latinos in our room today. They all are in a orientation meeeting right now and we will get to meet them when they get out. Me and mi companero have been the only peope in our rooms for the past couple of weeks but the 4 people one shower thing might get interesting. we will see. Keep on living the dreaem and trying to be like Jesus. Happy birthday Rachel and to everyone that I missed birthdays for.

 

 

con amor. elder scroggins

(no subject)

Dear Familia,

a routine day here in the compound is

630 wake up

7 breakfast

730 personal study

830 companion study

930 class

1230 lunch

130 class

4 gym

5 dinner

6 class

9 plan for manana

1030 bed

Not complaining, it is good to get into a routine. Not too many sweet stories to share with y'all. I am way bummed bama lost to LSU, guess this is thier off season?? better than byu's off season.  We just got back from service. We walked to the university and picked up trash. It wasnt bad except for the 200 degree weather with 100 percent humidity. I've been looking at a map and I didn't realize how far away the DR is. I thought it is just off the coast of Florida but I am almost in Venezuela. on our way back form the university from picking up trash a bunch of Dominicans started yelling at the Haitians in our groups. Using American curse words that were not nice. People are the same everywhere. It is just sad that everyone has to think that they are better than someone to keep themselves satisfied. i love these Haitians and love all of Gods children. I keep on trying to think (and I believe an apostle first said it) to make less of me and more room for Jesus.

I am studying in Jacob right now and a great scripture is in Jacob 4:10 - talks about just letting the will of God happen. God knows us better than we know ourselves (blows my mind to think about) so we just got to trust him. I pray to learn Spanish and it will happen because I am trusiting in God - not because of me. I am doing great here. My Spanish is horrible but hey its a little better than it was in the States. 

Guess the giants won the world series. Our district had a musical number on Sunday and it didnt turn out as bad as i thought. Over all the most exciting thing here is still the basketball. I play so much that I got these way nasty  blisters on my feet. I guess you are suppose to tape them so they go back into your feet. I taped em up but the tape was pulling on the hairs so I shaved my feet. I love you all.

Love Elder Scroggins

Tell Becky I knew the giants would win. 

The making of an Elder

 Elder Scroggins' District in the MTC

 The Line Up

 Met up with an old Sierra Vista High School friend in the MTC (Juan Martin)

Elder Scroggins' first temple trip to the Provo Temple

fill in the blanks...........

2 down. 102 to go.

iHola!

It is hard to notice your growing when everyone around you is growing as well. This is what Elder Nelson said at our devotional last Tuesday. Its when you take a step back that you can reconize the progress you have made. That was an awesome experience having an Apostle of the Lord come to speak to us. He stood there and made some promises that you kinda think are included in being a missionary but he made them sound so cool. Don't need to worry mom he said that we are in the Lords hands and we will all be protected for the next two years, if we obey all the mission rules. He also said that no matter the choice of career we choose to be in when we return, we will progress much faster because we have served a mission then if we were not in the MTC at this time. pretty cool.

This past week we had a mock lesson with a lady from Peru that spoke just about as much English as we spoke Spanish. My companion who had always done most of the talking, just froze up.  I had to do most of the talking and I have to say that the Lord helped me on that one. I remember learning all the stuff and verbs in class, but the Lord did help me speak almost solo Espanol.

I am being tranferred to another compound on Thursday. It will definately be good though. I've just have a hard time imaginging other people as "investigators" when obivously they are just other Elders. When I taught that Peruvian lady I was able to teach her because it was a matter of her not understanding me if I didnt speak Spanish. I am also getting a bunch of letters form chicas y homies at BYU, it makes it hard to know that are just outside my prision, uhh i mean MTC. When I get on the airplane it's like me signing the contract to do this. I have to be at the travel office at 3AM. I normally go to bed at that time. We leave SLC at 6am. depart DAL at 9am. depart MIA at 1pm then land in DR bout 4pm. I am stoked for that but at the same time, I am really going to miss being district leader. I love these people. It's not a war but I feel like they are my men. haha  Well time is short. The desks are hard and the night are harder.

Love you all. Next email will be from a foreign land.

Elder Scroggins

Week One...but who's counting?

Dear Familia,


Where to start?  I feel like I got dropped off here ages ago. It feels like an Eternidad but it's only been 3 days, 14 hours and 11 minutes....but who is counting?  They ask us to speak Spanish as much as possible, which is good because it gets you in the habbit of speaking it. I'm not too good, but I love speaking broken Spanish.  I know about x3452345234 more spanish then I did a week ago. 


I only have two minutes left on the computer but I want to tell everyone that sharing the Gospel and sharing the love that our Padre Celestial has for us is essential to the plan. Don't be scared to tell everyone about the gospel. I love you all.  It hasn't been made known unto me at this time, but the Lord wants me to be district leader.  For the first time in my life, I feel stress.   I pray every night for my district, that they can learn the language so they can serve the people of their respective countries. It is not easy.  I am really growing with my district. It seems whenever you do anything with the sprit it makes the progression faster. I am growing with them.  I will keep a seperate record in my journal apart from what I am writing on the plates of internet so you will have to wait until I get home to read it. 


Spiritual thought of the week: Keep it simple. If an eight year old child can understand the gospel then why do we need to complicate it?


I love you all,


Elder Scroggins


pictures coming soon.....

The First Letter

This is excerpts from a family letter Elder Scroggins sent home.

Today was my first day in the MTC.  Please don't expect a letter everyday, but I felt like I wanted to write.  Today was an overall good day.  We don't have to remember each others name around here because we all wear name badges, which is a good thing because there are too many of us.  I met my companion today.  He used to live in NW Las Vegas and has since moved to Sacramento.  His name is Elder Mangleson.  He is a very nice man.  We got to know our district today.  I really enjoy being around so many great people.  There are a lot of "fluent" Spanish speaking missionaries and a bunch of us "newbies".  I need to pray to Heavenly Father to conquer this language.  I will be in trouble if I don't.  I saw Elder Waldron, Adams, Watterson today.  The food is good, but nothing like Mama makes back on the farm.  Take care.  Love, Elder Scroggins

MTC Arrival

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Elder Scroggins took his first steps onto the campus of the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. It was a natural transition that we have been preparing to take for the past 19 years. We are grateful for blessing of family and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Brian will transfer to the Dominican Republic MTC in three weeks and be assigned there for 6 weeks before he gets his official assignment in the mission field of Puerto Rico, San Juan Mission. As soon as we receive word from Elder Scroggins, we will post. Thank you all for your love and support. Elder Scroggins address will be updated as he changes locations.