Ruston, LA - Week #43

McKennah's zone in Monroe, LA (where Duck Dynasty is located)

Hey there everybody! This week I have been filled with the spirit and I am so grateful! We had stake conference this week and I had a lot of questions answered. I just know that God really does know us, and is aware of us! Sister Eaton is adjusting just fine. She has been feeling a bit homesick, and so that has been hard for me to see as a trainer, but other than that we have enjoyed being together and starting off on the right foot for the most part! This past weekend with it being stake conference, it was in Monroe, and so the STL's invited us to stay over at their house for the weekend so we could attend conference! It was super fun! We got to double work the area and meet a ton of new people! Sister Hannah Eaton from Idaho While we were on splits with the STL's, they had scheduled an appointment with a lady in their ward named Sister Earl. She is the kindest lady I have ever met. The cool thing about all of this is about a week ago, I had a distinct impression to work with the less actives. We have been praying about a family to focus on for this transfer,and our prayers were answered through sister Earl! She has a son in Ruston (Brother Chandler) He has one girl and a young boy, and the wife hates the LDS faith, and only one of the kids were baptized. Sister Earl told us that she has been waiting and searching for missionaries in Ruston to find him and help bring her family back to church. The very next day Sister Eaton and I met the chandler family and they said that they wouldn't mind if we came back. It was just a tender mercy to me that God heard my prayers, and not only heard them, but provided a way for us to act on our answer we receive. I testify that I know that there are no coincidences in this life! There are reasons why things happen, we may not understand it all now, but we will eventually. I am so grateful for this knowledge. I love ya'll! I hope you have a great week! Love, Sister Scott

MY GOODNESS! SEEING THIS MAKES ME WANNA CRY!

I am so proud of that kid, he will absolutely LOVE his mission! I love, love, LOVE what I do. Being a missionary, has brought me so much Joy into my life. It is hard yes, but I wouldn't change a single second of it! I can't put into words how I feel or felt as I watched that video of him. I also know that is where that kid should be! I cannot believe he will be leaving a month after I hit my year mark!! Holy smokes!! I can't wait to skype ya'll next transfer! It will be amazing. Thanks for everything you and dad have taught my brothers and I. We are blessed to call you our parents!! I am so lucky to have an amazing family. I so wish I could have been there to witness it all.

This week has been a good week for me! I have been doing really great. My companion is having a tough time though, she says that she feels like she needs to go home, she doesn't feel like she belongs here. She told me a few minutes ago that she wanted to call president and tell him that she wanted to go home. She says she doesn't feel right about staying. It is so sad :( Please pray for my girl! I want her to stay! We have been doing really well together and she was really getting the hang of things. Other than that, that sums up my week! Also, I received some spiritual promptings to go work with the less actives, I think it will be interesting to see where the Lord takes me with this prompting. I would really love to see these less active families be active again. To me, that would be equivalent to seeing a baptism. It truly is just as rewarding!

I miss you all so much! I just wanted to end this email with a scripture that means a lot to me, it was a scripture that was shared in stake conference. President Olson was there and he gave a great talk! In Luke 17:5-6 (The apostles are with Jesus and they had a pretty serious demand) And the apostles said, "Lord increase our Faith". Then Jesus replies and says, " if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this tree, be thou plucked".. I love this scripture SO MUCH because I think at one point or another we expect our faith to magically grow just as the apostles expected, but in all reality the Lord teaches them a lesson. He teaches them that Faith comes..step by step, precept on precept, here a little, and there a little. He says that even if we have the smallest glimpse of faith, we could do all the things we desire to do. That is my message for the day! Faith comes as we do the little things (attend church, pray, read ect.) It will take time but this is the only way we can do it. I love ya'll. I hope you have a great week! (:

Ruston, LA- Week #42

McKennah and her mom Sister Kendall

(Her fave!!!)

Good morning mom! Thank you for your email! Today is transfers as you may know, and I am currently sitting next to Sister Kendall! She is in MY ZONE!!! We are both training, and will get to meet each others companions! I am super stoked. She is probably sleeping over tonight because they have a lack of miles :/ but it will be so fun to be with her again in the same zone. It will be super fun!! (: 

This week has been all about prepping for Sister Mellor to go to Shreveport! She will be companions with my really good friend Sister Mati! We spent 6 months together in the Hattiesburg zone, and so I am at peace with sending her off to somebody I know! We ended our companionship well, and so we are off to great things! I have confidence in myself that these next few transfers will be good. I am thinking I will be in Ruston until my year mark, or barely right before it. I may have only 3 areas in my mission, that is so crazy!! I am excited to see where it takes me. It should be good! I have a good feeling about everything in the area and with a new companion. 

This is basically my week! Nothing too crazy! I will be looking out for you package, yay (: 

McKennah teaching 3 roommates from Louisiana Tech

Good morning ya'll! 

I hope everything is going good with everyone! It has been one hectic week for us. Sister Mellor got a phone call from the zone leaders the other day telling her that she will be transferred to Shreveport! She will actually be companions with one of my really good friends Sister Mati! We served in the H-BURG zone for almost 6 months together, and so I am super excited for her!! She is a great missionary, and we ended on a super good note. I am happy for her! Today Sister Kendall and I got to reunite and that is always the best!! I love that girl so much!! She will be training in Magnolia which is not too far from me, it will be really fun! I am super excited for these next couple transfers. We will have a blast!! 

This week was exchanges, and I was with Sister Huffaker and we had the best time ever! I was her last exchanges in the mission. She will be going home on wednesday. I will miss her so so much!! I will send a picture of us. We had a really cool experience. It is always the simple things that get to me, they are truly the best miracles. Sister Huffaker told me that her ward are not very good at feeding missionaries. We were going to visit a sister who lives in a nursing home and she was the sweetest lady! She heard about all of this and felt super bad about not feeding the sisters, and so she told sister Huffaker that she had something for her and she pulls out this cardboard box, and she started to dig in the mini fridge that she has, and gave a good portion of her fridge up to them! I was super impressed! It made me think about the story about the "Womans mite". She gave everything she had to her tithing. It wasn't necessary the biggest contribution, but it was everything she had to offer. I just got to thinking to myself, "Would I give that much to my savior". In the scriptures he talks about how he isn't necessarily asking us to "burn offerings" anymore, but he is asking us to offer "broken heart and a contrite spirit". It dawned on me that he is asking of us to give of our time, and talents to his work.  It was just a good eye opener to me when I met that lady in the nursing home that day. I just have a testimony that as we give of ourselves fully to the Lord, that he will bless us. I know that I am giving 18 months of my time to serve is exactly what the Lord would have me do right now. I am so grateful for that! I love you all! Have a fantastic week! (: 

Saying goodbye to Sister Huffaker

Valentine's Day party with members

Ruston, LA- Week #41

Good Afternoon to my friends and family in various parts of the world! I hope that this week has been full of happiness and love this Valentines weekend. You are all amazing! I just wanted to give a shout out to all of my missionary friends who are currently serving, or who have served already. You guys are such huge examples to me! I am so lucky to know you!! Thanks for your examples that have lead me to go on a mission! 

I have some news for this week, one being that I have made it HALF WAY THROUGH MY MISSION! It has been so fun, and the best decision I have ever made for myself! I have had some amazing experiences and have seen so many miracles! The other news that I have is as of tomorrow, it would have been a YEAR SINCE I OPENED UP MY CALL! I have been blessed to have been called into the Mississippi Jackson Mission. I love it so much!! Anyways, that is my exciting news. For those of you who don't know, my brother Logan will be getting his call any day now, and it is so cool to hear about his process in preparation for his mission. He will be the best missionary ever!! 

This week, I have just a simple story to share that happened a couple weeks ago! Every Sunday in Sacrament the Moore's family usually sits by us, and they have 2 twin girls and they are the cutest things! A few Sundays ago, I was sitting in sacrament thinking of what I needed to do next to help a couple of my investigators progress. It seemed like I was hitting a plateau and wasn't sure what to do next. I was waiting for a specific answer from the Lord and the answer came in a way I wasn't expecting. The girl that I was sitting by tapped me on the shoulder and whispered in my ear, "This is for you". I looked down, and it was a note that she gave me. On that note it said "Sister Scott, Do your best. PS- Look Up, Love Addi". It was just what I needed. I am sure it was the spirit that directed her. I know God gives us direct answers as we need them, He will not leave us hanging and make us feel helpless or hopeless. He will let us know one way or another that he is there. I love this gospel and I know it is true! We can know it for ourselves by reading the Book Of Mormon and praying about it. I love ya'll. Have a fantastic week! 

Love Always, Sister Scott <3 

McKennah's district in Ruston, LA

Her apartment

This pic was titled "We got a hoop!!!"

Ruston, LA- Week #40

Good Morning everybody! 

How has everybody's week been? We have been doing really well! This week has been a slower week in the mission because it is "Mardi Gras"! It is a holiday dedicated to the people in the south! Most of our investigators are out of town or busy with family, so it has been pretty hard to see people! Over Mardi Gras they have a tradition where they always have "king cake". Sister Mellor and I got to try it and it was super yummy! It is like a regular cake, but it is filled with cinnamon roll on the inside and I think there was some whip cream or something that they stuff in it! On top they have this purple and green, and yellow glitter on top and it is super good! If ya'll ever get a chance to come to the south you got to try it! I will send ya'll a picture of it! We also got to spend time with Leora! (who is a less active in our ward) She took us to get pedicures! Oh my, if any of you truly know me, knows I love pedicures! It was a miracle! haha it has been so long since I have been. Anyways, that is my exciting news for the week! I hope ya'll have a great valentines weekend! (:

Ruston, LA- Week #39

Dear Family and Friends!

I don't think I tell you all enough how much I love you. I am so grateful for you all. You mean so much to me! I am very blessed to know you and I am so grateful for your examples to me. If it wasn't for you I would not be who I am today! 

This week has been a pretty tough week. We have been so so so blessed at the same time though! This is the experience I had this week. We have been meeting with these group of girls who are all roommates at Louisiana Tech University. They are all strong in their faiths, but they are interested in what it is that we believe. This past week we met with them twice. We taught the Restoration, and the Plan Of Salvation in one lesson because they have had so many questions! The ultimate goal of these girls was to find fault in our teachings and doctrine. They would ask questions like " " How do you know the Book Of Mormon to be true? How do you know that Joseph Smith was a prophet? How can you put so much trust in an ordinary man who claimed to be a prophet? How do you know that there was a Great Apostasy?" These are hard questions to answer! And they continued to ask these questions until we would give them an answer.

 Here is one of the questions that they asked that I think would be good for all of us to think about "If we are followers of Jesus Christ, been baptized, try to keep his commandments, and attend church on sundays, are we saved?' This question does not have to be hard, we know that God has a place for all of those who desire to follow him, we explained that those who are living their absolute best with the knowledge that they have been given would be taken care of. What we DO KNOW is that we can know where we stand. We KNOW that God's restored gospel is on the earth again today. We KNOW that the priesthood has been restored and that we can be baptized by God's proper authority. We KNOW that God has provided us with the Book Of Mormon to help guide us in our lives, and help us understand the bible better. The things that we know, will ALWAYS trump the things that we don't know. I know that if each one of us gain a testimony that Joseph Smith is a prophet, and that the Book Of Mormon is the word of God then everything else will fall into place. I am grateful for this knowledge. I know that these things are true! I hope you all have a great week! Love always, 

Sister Scott <3

McKennah with Sister Hunsaker, an STL who goes home in 2 weeks!

Hey Mom and Dad,

Some nights I have a hard time sleeping because I am thinking of those that I am teaching and planning in my head how we could be prepared for the next time we saw each of them. I am finally understanding what it means to have charity. As Moroni put it "It is not selfish, nor puffed up. It is long-suffering, patient and Kind".

It is amazing the changes that Sister Mellor and I had in our companionship. We are getting along so much better now, and the transfer is almost over :( Sad that it took us so long to get along and love each other. I am grateful for the atonement. It works miracles. I love ya'll, I really really do, thanks for being the perfect example of charity, and how I should treat others. I hope you all have a great week! Love, Sister Scott <3

McKennahs friend Rachel who is 22 years old and autistic.  Sharing her talents of painting with McKennah.

Little Magladana and her baby brother