Coming Home!

Dear Family and Friends,

The mom speaking here. We received some sad news yesterday. It seems Scott has not wanted to worry his parents with health issues and he is really struggling with one. He has been having severe headaches which have gotten to the point where he is unable to work without becoming very ill. The good news is he had a CAT Scan which came back clear. The bad news is the headaches continue to become worse. The area medical adviser has met with the doctors, Scott, and President Watkins and they have made the decision that Scott should return home for treatment on a medical release. I spoke to President Watkins today and he told me what a great missionary Scott is. Scott is currently serving as a zone leader and was asked by the president to obtain his driver's license in Spain. I know he is highly thought of. President Watkins said that Scott is sad to be coming home but is in such pain he knows that he needs to receive treatment. We do not have his flight plans yet but have been told he should arrive on the 18th or 19th. He will be honorably released at that time. Please remember him in your prayers. Here is his latest letter.

Dear Family

I am going to start with Dad's letter. Currently I am in the city of Oviedo, which is in the province of Asturias. Little known fact, Asturias is Brad Pitt's favorite part of Europe, in case anyone was wondering. And yeah, we had to go to another city to watch conference, and it is a place along the beach, so we got to see the ocean and sand. I am a little bit sad for BYU, but then again I am not going to be going there after the mission, so I guess I'm not too sad. I am also happy to hear the Kirilenko might leave the Jazz. I am just hoping for a new championship team next year. So whatever is necessary for that to happen sounds good to me. And missing sking is definitely going to be harder here seeing as there is a pretty good mountain like 30 minutes away. But it will be even better next time I go I guess. I was talking with a kid who loves to board, and I told him he should learn to ski. He said he would like to and now I am glad I can tell him that I can let him borrow a pair of skis because my Dad just keeps buying new equipment.

Anyway, the weather is a lot wetter here. I kind of like it. Maybe I will move to Washington after the mission. We have had it rain on us during our soccer activity two Saturdays in a row and it is always way more fun that way. And wow, Craig is going to Mexico. What part? Does he know that I speak Spanish? Actually supposedly from what Spaniards tell me, Mexican Spanish from Spanish here is the most different from any other Spanish, so I would probably struggle in Mexico. And so neither Craig nor Dennis have proposed yet? Ha, ha. I keep thinking I am going to go home to married siblings but maybe not. And yes, you can finish applying to the U whenever you want. About transfers, there is one the 16 or 17 of October, whatever Monday that is, but I think my companion and I are both staying. I still have no idea what I am doing and he just barely figured it out, so if we both don't stay, I will just be a little lost puppy. Speaking of lost puppy, I got beso-ed again. This time by a 17 year old Ecuadorian, all of a sudden I felt the warm smooth cheek of a woman against mine. I don't even know if I feel bad, because it was the tenderest mercy of the Lord at that time. Ha, ha. It's funny though because if one companion takes it, the other has to as well, or you just make the person super embarrassed and defensive. So next time we will have to tell her we don't beso. And actually there is a ton of work here. In our branch of 40 people, like 15 of them are recent converts from one year, and 15 others are recent converts from 2 years. Then a couple other families and junk come that have been members for a while.
Well the only other thing of interest was conference. But I feel like missionaries also just talk a ton about it, so I will be short. It's real good. Oh, another funny story was from Monday, when we were shopping for food, we were thinking about buying a leg of ham. Like a leg, from a pig, cured, and sold. And while we were debating this in English, some 21 year old blond blue eyed New Yorker said, oh wow English. Where are you from? We then told her a little bit about what we did and who we were, then she told us a little bit about pig legs, and how black hoofed pig legs are always way better than white hoofed legs. So, we decided not to buy the leg, because it had a white hoof. We actually ended up talking to her for like an hour, which was way weird considering we were right by the refrigerated section and I was freezing cold, and it was pretty funny because my companion did this backwards contact. He asked, have you ever asked your students about religion? They always are either Catholics or atoes because a lot of people don't like how every Catholic has to be baptized. They always like having the choice and feel like people should be baptized when they want to and when they know things. Coincidentally, that is what we are sharing. A message about baptism. Ha, ha. I was like half laughing because it was pretty sly and pretty direct. I don't even think she knows she got contacted. We are actually going to try and teach her soon. Other than that, the work continues. Stay pretty. E. D.