Scotland

Wow! This week went by pretty darn fast! It's crazy to think that we are pretty much halfway to Christmas! This Christmas season is flying by! Here are some highlights from the past week! 

• I got my ORBCOMM card! Which is a fancy way of saying that I can drive now haha! 
• Our branch had the best Christmas party ever! It was so much fun! We made so many dumplings and had so much Chinese food! 
• I am now officially a dumpling-making master! I was taught by a member named Lily who is so funny haha! She would make sure to tell me if one looked bad and how I could fix it! But when I finally got it right she treated me as if I were the champion of the world! 
• I also learned some aikido! Now if anyone ever grabs my wrist, I can take them down! Or if I have a gun to my back, I am well equipped with the knowledge to take them down haha! 
• I had an exchange with Elder Porter and Elder Hofhiens! It was super fun! 
• I got to go to a baptism because Elder Porter was doing a special musical number for it and it was so cool! I can't remember the last time I went to a baptism before this one! What a special experience! 
• Elder Thorley received his visa and he headed out to Taiwan Monday night! I'm so glad I was able to serve with him for the short time he was here! He's going to go kill it in Taiwan! 

Hmm... when thinking about what I want to talk about in these emails, I really try to think of a big takeaway I had during the week. I originally thought I would totally talk about the baptism I got to go to because the spirit was so strong and I know that baptism is how we get to start on our path to becoming like our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. But upon some more thinking, that's going to have to wait... maybe for when the Chinese program finally gets a baptism! Because today, I want to talk about Scotland. Not the place, but the guy. 

Elder Hofhiens had to quickly fulfill his leadership calling the other night, leaving behind Elder Thorley and I. So we did a last-minute 2.5-hour exchange with Elder Lund and helped him with a couple meetings he had that night. The first meeting was with a guy named Scotland. My first impression of Scotland was when he pulled up to the church on an electric scooter that was extremely rare and could go up to 50 mph! Attached to the scooter was a $200 Bluetooth speaker! He was pumping some old classic jams as he strolled up to meet with us! 

Wow! Already this guy had the fun toys, he was funny, he strolled right up and shook my hand with confidence... I was so excited to get to know more about Scotland! The reason he was meeting with us was because he wanted to know more about family history. He had seen a booth of ours and figured out we had a free online family history resource with the world's largest database! Who wouldn't want to learn more?!?! As we moved into the light of the church building, I realized that his clothes had been worn many times, same as his shoes. He took off his hat, which exposed some pretty crazy hair that looked like it hadn't been done in quite some time. We made it to our room where we were meeting and he took off his relatively thin coat, revealing a thin, long sleeved shirt. I didn't know how it was possible he could ride on a scooter in those clothes without freezing! 

Anywho... I realize that I'm probably drawing this out and you just want to know why in the world I'm giving you all this detail about a guy that's named Scotland haha! So I'll get to the point. As we were talking with Scotland about his family tree, he started telling us all about his life, his family, and where he was at now. Scotland didn't have very good parents. His mom left them when he was young because his father was a really bad guy. After his father remarried a lady, she joined the husband in making Scotland's life pretty miserable. At the end of 5th grade, Scotland left his house and family and headed off. He ended up bouncing around for his whole upbringing. He fell into drugs and wasn't going anywhere good. He told us that one day he decided he had to stop and change. So he became sober and worked so he could go to college. He graduated and eventually started his own company. His company became a success and he found a wife and had kids. They were happy, but Scotland one day fell back into drinking as he got more and more success. He ended up doing something that wound him up in prison for a couple years. His wife divorced him and he lost his house while he was in prison, leaving him back to the streets where he now sleeps in a tent under a bridge. Six months after getting out of prison, he was sitting down in a church with 3 missionaries (us) doing some family history.

 

Scotland hasn't been able to see his kids for 5 years. He told us how, more than anything, he just wanted to be a part of their lives and how he would do anything for them! Scotland has been given a pretty rough set of cards! There were multiple things that I learned from this experience that I'd like to share (feel free to email me back with insights you have as well)! 

First, never judge a book by its cover. This is a pretty classic one! At first appearance Scotland is doing good! He has a fun scooter that gets him around and he just listens to music! But that is most definitely not the case! Second, you never know what people are going through! If you gave me 100 guesses, I wouldn't have been able to guess his life story! So, who am I (who is anyone) to judge others when we don't know where they've been and what they're going through! Third, family is so important! This includes family on both sides of the veil! Scotland knew it was important to do family history work even though he had everything else going on! Never take your family for granted. If you don't love your earthly family, try doing some family history and make connections with those who have passed on. I promise you, they are very much a part of your life! Fourth, commandments are a HUGE BLESSING! God just loves us so so much and so he gave us commandments! I feel like we need to get rid of the thought that commandments are all about rules. They are simply a rubric for how to be your happiest! If you can't see this, then please reach out and let's talk about it! 

So, that is the story of Scotland! I probably won't ever see him again, but I hope everything goes okay for him! I'm grateful for the little time I got to spend with him, and for the lessons he taught with me without even knowing it! I challenge you all to do one of two things (or if you want to do both, then you can totally over achieve;)) One, get to know one fact you didn't know about someone you struggle with! Get to know a hidden detail about someone that bugs you or has wronged you. Just try and get to know them better in one way! Two, learn what the stuff family history is haha! I need to work on this one for sure haha! I really don't know what family history is all about! So I'm not saying go do a whole bunch of family history! I just challenge you to read and become familiar with what the concept is and why it's important! 

That's all for this week 我的朋友们! Keep reading your scriptures, talk to your Heavenly Father, lean on your Savior, and know that if nothing else goes right… God is still good:) 

我爱你们！加油！

Elder Steadman 司长老

Dumpling-making master!

Driving privileges... granted!

The Washington DC South Chinese-Speaking Elders