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