Semana 19: Christmas!!! and my bday :)

Helloooooooo everybody!!!!! How was everyone's week?? I hope it was absolutely phenomenal!! Thank you so much for all of the amazing birthday wishes y'all made me feel so special :) This week was incredible and I'm sure you all know why haha! CHRISTMAS BABAY! Ah this is seriously the best time of the year and I am blessed everyday to be out here serving the Lord. Christmas hits very different on the mission and it really opened my eyes to how important it was to have a Savior born to this earth to "save us from ourselves".

"Dont embarrass the church" -Elder Wilson

For Christmas we had a crazy amount of finding. 4 hours to be exact! We called one of our old friends, Jeremy, just to check in and see how he was doing because we assumed he'd be lonely for the holidays. He answered and seems to be doing pretty well so that's great. He told us that he went to his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriends house for Christmas dinner(?).... yeah you heard that right. Trust me, we had to ask again just to confirm that's what he said. And yes, it was just the three of them. Awkward...SO we asked him how his cats were doing (I'm honestly surprised they're not dead at this point) and he told us that he bought two dog houses for his cats for Christmas(?). I don't know what is up with this man but he is fun to talk to and my comps and I love him so much ahaha!

Facebook bio of the week: "I'm blunt, I guess God just rolled me that way" 

That made me laugh

Oh look I've been impaled

Christmas Eve was a prettyyy normal day but we did get an hour cut out of prime time to have a zoom call with the Vest Family! We read Luke 2/Helaman 14 and talked about the birth of Jesus Christ. Then wonderful Sister Vest showed the entire mission how to make her famous sticky buns. We all got our ingredients to make it on Pday and it was so so fun. About half of the Elders got the wrong mix at the store (including us) so it messed it up BUT we still ate the buns because that's just how we be. Not too shabby! President Vest then read the entire mission a bed time story! It was called the Mansion by something VanDyke I honestly don't remember but there was a great moral to the story and it really touched me.

Who said unicorns were fake?!

CHRISTMAS! Nothing really has changed since being back at home... we said our morning prayers and ran downstairs and ripped open our packages like savages. Twas a great time. I got some money, ties, a speaker, money, lots of candy, and a lot of other meaningful momentos. Thank you everyone for the love and to anyone who sent me a letter or a package! Y'all are the best! Shout out to my Nana for getting me an ancestry DNA kit, I LOVED that. If I'm 1/8 Samoan then I'm getting a tribal sleeve tattoo. IM KIDDING... unless... ;) We sang a lot of Christmas carols and we even got someone to sing with us! Twas a great time even though he wasn't interested in our message. After primetime, we had another Christmas music devotional with the entire mission and we watched recordings of other Elders and Sisters either singing or playing the piano. I'm going to keep this between you and me, they played 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful' like 8 too many times. I was going slightly crazy but it's all good I am so blessed to be in a talented mission where lots of missionaries can share their testimony through music.

Beanies and glasses?? A look

A look part 2

Yesterday was my 19th birthday and it was quite the experience! Again, thank you for all the birthday wishes I really appreciate it! We went to church and did our normal daily routine... however, I drove up to Syracuse to stay the night with some Elders in their apartment because they live very close to the airport as I head to the Mexican Consulate in SLC. Guess who was there?? ELDER BOYSE!!! For those of you who don't know him, he is an absolute legend and is in my same stake back at home. It was so nice seeing a familiar face for once and we definitely hit it off the second we saw each other talking about home and girls and the whole 9 yards! He is a studly man. 

Elder Boyse

Our friend, Bobbie, is doing so great and she gets baptized this Saturday! She has a strong desire to be baptized and loves the gospel so much. We've had some pretty awesome lessons with her the past week or so. We are so grateful for her. 

Well by the time you all get this email, I'll either be in Salt Lake or on a plane but I hope everyone is doing fantastic. I love you all and I would love to hear from you! Feel free to shoot me an email anytime! Have a splendid week! Take care!

-Elder Scown