First Transfer

Hola family and friends. How is it going?  Today was transfers and I was 10000 percent sure I was going to stay in the dirty south but I got moved to an area called Caparra.  It is near Bayamon and actually about 1/2 block from the mission home. Good week this week overall.  Transfers were the biggest surprise. We got a call form the zone leaders at 10 last night saying to be in the mission office at 8 this morning with the bags packed. So we were!  It was weird packing everything up...just by throwing it in the bag.  I included a picture with my zone leaders. Good people and I am gonna miss them cuz i am in a new zone now.  We no longer have a car. we are on bikes. I love the mission and thanks for raising me right mom and dad. Hope all is well at home. I love you all. Make good choices. 

con amor elder scroggins

The only natural rain forest in the United States (kinda) - Puerto Rico

 The Elders enjoying the scenery.

 MERRY CHRISTMAS our Elder Scroggins...love the hat?

 sporting the wares

 Wouldn't want to see the monkey that goes with that banana.

 This tan would be in complete contrast with Elder Mitchell J. Paul's white wonderland of Russia.  Stay warm Mitchell!  Keep thinking warm thoughts of Merrill Hall and the memories made.

only 21 more Fast Sundays

Hey family, here I am once again writing an email.  Like always, so much to say and not enough time to say it. This week has been rough. It has rained a ton and not too much success. The field is white already to harvest but just takes some time getting to the field I guess. We expected 11 people at church this week but we only had 3. The members are good here. They passed around a calender in Relief Society for feeding the missionaries. I'm glad they did but at the same time......man! that's a ton of food. They deep fry all the meat and put a ton of oil in the rice.  I was going to try and fight the weight but hey, I kinda want to hit 300 pounds on the mission. That would be way cool. haha.   I might have to send ya a pic when i do hit it.  That is crazy how much snow Las Vegas got, too bad Jon didn't get a snow day like I did my senior year. I appreciate all the sport scores, mom and good luck with school dad. I also appreciate all that you do for me. Parowan was way fun. I met someone from Cedar City the other day and realize how much fun Parowan was. Thanks for taking an interest in me. 

The bad thing here is the humidity. I bought a pack of gum and every time i opened a piece of gum it was wet... like someone was chewing it. Nasty! so i might just stick to tic tacs. I love you all and sent you some pictures. Only 21 more fast sundays.

 

con amor elder scroggins

PICTURES!

 Elder Scroggins and Elder Waldron both from Las Vegas...meeting up at the Provo MTC!  Brotherly Love.

 At the Dominican Republic MTC.....

 and then there's Elder Scroggins

 Ready for the mission field

 Christmas Time.

 The welcoming mat has been laid out in Puerto Rico.

 A few of the missionaries headed to Puerto Rico.

 The "laundry room"

The dryer works really well in Puerto Rico.

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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