All Is Going Quite Well, Quite Well Indeed!

Hey Everyone,

         It's been another great week here in Los Angeles. The weather has been great ever since I've gotten here. It has rained a couple times but other than that it's been great. I'm getting along great with my companion Elder Ditton. He's quite a stud missionary who has a lot of common sense. His Spanish is great and he has such a great relationship with all the members here. He's musically gifted as he sings and plays the guitar really well. Every P-day, we've gone down to a guitar center in front of our apartment, so he can play. It's fun to hear and I've tried playing but it's not like playing the violin. He's also quite a big fan of Spongebob, and we entertain ourselves by trying to remember episodes we've seen before. I've come to appreciate that show a little more than I did before. On Thursday, We had zone conference, and the whole meeting was dedicated to how we can use the role of members in our mission efforts. In our mission, the average baptisms that each companion will get through our own efforts is 1 out 25 investigators. However 1 out of 6 referrals we receive from members will be baptized. The difference is significant. Elder Ditton was able to give a talk this Sunday about this subject to express to the members in the Hermosa Liahona Ward that we need their help in finding. We've also seen success come from teaching with members as well. Elder Ditton and I have been finding a lot of new people to teach and finally I think some of them are starting to stick to listening to the lessons. The lessons are going well because we have a member present there with us. We had a lesson on Friday with Ana, and we had Hermano Salazar come with us. We taught her the first lesson and shared our testimonies about the Restoration. Something that Hermano Salazar said really touch her and the Spirit had a really strong presence in the lesson. We going to see a lot of progress in our investigators through the help of members in our ward. With Spanish, I'm understanding more every day, but continue praying that I can just open my mouth more. My companion says I'm doing great, but there's plenty of room for improvement. Anyway I'm loving my area here in Lawndale, and I have meet the greatest people.

           It's good to hear Mitt and My Cards are doing well. I'm "sorry" Albert and his new team aren't, but could care less.

It's good to hear that Leo is still an idiot. I was getting concerned that the lack of my presence would increase his sanity. The animals here are crazy. Pitbulls and Chihuahuas everywhere. Anyway, I'm glad you all got to go to Kansas City and enjoy your time at the new temple. I hope Aubrie's appointment goes well tomorrow, so she can have the blessings of serving a mission soon.

Thanks for the card, and your prayers. Tell Phil to write me back before he head's out to the MTC. Give him the names of Brother Rasmuessen, Brother Bulloch, and Brother Gillon. They were my teachers, and he might have them while he's there.

Well until next week 

Os Amo tanto!

2nd Week In and Doin' Great!

Hey Everyone!

This second week was great and its so crazy on how much things have happened during that time. It was a busy week with a lot of meetings and crazy mix ups, but everything turned out fine.

Tuesday

      In the morning Elder Ditton had a training meeting because he's serving as district leader. So I went on splits with two other Elders in our zone. In our zone there's 4 spanish speaking comps 2 ASL companionships and the rest are english speaking. So I was with Elder Bushager (English) and Elder Finnell (ASL) We had an interesting conversation about the atonement as week were tracking in area called torrance. My companion and I got back together and went tracking some more. We had dinner twice and one of them was with Griselda and her kids Connie, Manuel, Daisy and Little Joey. They are absolutely hilarious, and they like to take advantage of my little understanding of spanish. She made Posole which is basically a slab of beefsteak cooked in some really good latin soup recipe. Griselda and her daughter daisy are recent converts that Elder Ditton had a couple transfers ago. He's been here in this area since December so he's gotten to know the area really well, especially with the members. Then we went to a members home, Sanchez's who just started being active again, and Brother Sanchez got to baptize his daughter last week. We got alot of referrals from that baptism as many of their family came to see the ordinace. It's awesome to see how they all are doing the best to get active in the church again. It was sister Sanchez's birthday, so we had some really good pastel. Latin cakes are so delicious.

Wednesday

     EXCHANGES! I got to do exhanges with some other Elders in our district and I was able to serve with Elder Olsen in the Compton area. He's a really great guy and he works really hard. I was my first day on a bike, but I was using Elder Shumway's bike, who was exchanging with Elder Ditton. I was quite the long commute to get to everyone we wanted to see. We found a new investigator, and we taught an investigating family about the word of wisdom. They were so awesome and I wish I was still able to teach them. They also served us this really good guacamole chicken breast meal with cucumber juice. I was great to see another part of the city.

This week we also had the privledge to have a mini missionary come out and work with us. His name was Jose and we got to do a lot of tracting with him. He lives downtown and we got to have him from Friday night to Sunday Afternoon. We had some funny things happen to us during that time. The Zone Leaders car broke down so we were having to go on a lot of splits with them to go everywhere. We transported a crib from a members house that we could give to one of investigators that the Compton elders have. I was hard as they had to stuff me and the whole crib in the back seat of a little sudan. It was pretty incomfortable having massive planks of wood pounding against my whole body. I was laying all across the back seat basically. I thought that once I got on a mission wouldn't have to do that kind of stuff again, oh well.

To answer Mom's questions

The weather here is always nice, but the sky is usually very gray and foggy. Something to get used to

Apartment is nice and its just me and my companion. We don't try stay in there too long so its a little cluttered at times.

I'm sleeping fine.

we will usually do email at the library

I've only biked twice, but we plan on biking more this week. My bike is really nice and everything seems to be working ok

I'm not sure on the temple, but it will be one of the next to transfers

I hope Dad and Kurt get in alright

It's exciting to hear that Aubrie is doing better, I hope she's able to go back out soon

I'm sorry that you and dad couldn't be together for your anniversary.

Anyway I doing great I will look forward to writing you again

Os amo tanto!

Elder Marrott

Elder Marrott's new L.A. address

Elder Marrott I know will appreciate some letters sent his way!

Elder Scott K. Marrott

California Los Angeles Mission

1591 East Temple Way

Los Angeles, CA 90024-5801

First report from L.A.!

Hey Everyone

           There's so much I want to say, but I just say Los Angeles is a blast! Yeah it was an eye opening experience just seeing the crazy and different atmosphere here. However all the people here are awesome and super nice! And I've already witnessed 2 baptisms! It's a great start. I'll to cover everything you all need to know. Well the plane ride here to LA was great. I was talking to a Hawaiian man named Brother Hugo who lives in San Fernando, the mission north of LA. We had a great gospel conversation and he helped me get pumped for the mission. So there was Sister Snyder, from my district, Elder Baich, from Argentina, Elder Rodriguez from Mexico, and 4 other Elders who didn't get their visas to Mexico came out to LA with us. President Baker, his wife, and the APs came and found us by the baggage pick up and we drove off to a ward building right behind the LA temple. OH MY GOSH, the temple here is huge! I can't wait to go inside it. Anyway. The president is a very stern, bold guy, but he shows his passion for the mission work. Basically is a business man, and wants to get things done. I enjoyed the interview I had with him, and I hope to get closer to him. His wife is very serious and quiet, but has the same attitude, business is business. But yeah I loved the first day. They broke us off into our "temporary companions" (even though ended up being my companion) and we when off to do work, so I was in my first apartment the first night. My companion's name is Elder Ditton. It's funny to hear that you got to see Elder Ditto again, but he's different than Elder Ditton. He's from Logan, Utah and he's been here for about 8 months. His Spanish is really good and I'm looking forward to speaking like him. He's one of the friendliest people I've met, he's a great singer and plays the guitar very well. I'm in the South Bay Zone and serving in the Centinella area. It's in Lawndale and it's probably in the center between Torrance and Inglewood. The area, as my companion would say, is ranked a 6 out of 10 on how nice it is for LA. We have a pretty nice apartment on the very north border of our area. So don't worry Mom, I'm pretty safe where I am. Elder Ditton has told me some funny stories of some places in our area where there are drug deals and stuff like that. It's funny that the ice cream man is one of the "dealers" here and here he came down our street at 9:00 at night with the jingle playing. It's just so funny down here. I love it. About the mail, just send everything to the mission office and they will give me all the mail on Fridays and I will read them on Mondays. The Spanish here is common, but I still hear English everywhere too. It was hard picking it up at first, but I can get a jist of what is being said most of the time now. I'm not speaking as much as I should as I'm trying my hardest just to listen, but it I though it was going to be a lot difficult than it is. But starting this week we are going to try to find more people to teach other than just visiting investigators, potentials, and members. The first lesson I actually was involved in was with a 15 year old boy named Alexis and he's totally ready to be baptized but he just doesn't feel "religous" enough. We are not to concerned about him, and he's going to get baptized hopefully pretty soon. I was just awesome to actually be in that situation in an amazing lesson where the Spirit was there and he was actually seeing and understanding everything. Anyway, the Hermosa Liahona ward here are just amazing and as converted as can be and its a fairly big ward. Sunday was great. We went to a stake priesthood meeting at 7 in the morning, had chuch at 9 and had a baptism at 4:30 of a 9 year old boy Micheal. His family just started to be active again and I was awesome to see. We also had a baptism on Saturday for a little girl from a family that started to be active again too. But yeah the people here are great. Today was Beach P day, and we got to go play on the beach with volleyball and soccer. I was just awesome to play outside again after a really long time. Anyway I have to go, things are great here I love it, and keep up the prayers and hope that the Spanish comes faster haha. Thanks for everything

LA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Os amo tanto!

Elder Marrott