Notes from letter of August 20, 2012
Leaving La Smith

Why do I have to be so bipolar? This entire change I have wanted to have a change, and now I have one. I am leaving La Smith. But now that I have one, I don´t want to leave. There are a few people we are teaching that are just awesome, and I want to be here for their baptisms, I want to be here to help them. But I feel the spirit right now and I knew that this was going to happen, all the members knew as well. The members yesterday said some really nice things to us as well. They said that in the Sociedad de Socorro (relief society) that they talk about us by our names and that they say we work really hard. The member that told us that proceeded to tell us that if they know our names, it means something really good. I then went on divisions with our ward mission leader who is an 18 year old preparing to go on the mission and I mentioned that a lot of the priests in the ward are starting to want to go on divisions with us on sunday; we even have a priest that has asked 3 weeks in a row to leave with us, and he told me that a lot of the jovens in the ward like me and that his family likes me a lot as well. It seems like all my doubts about areas, about myself, about what I am doing all seems to fly when I am about to leave an area. I know I shouldn´t base my happiness on what other people think, but hearing stuff like that really really does make my day.

 

Remember what I said about the last week and about my frustrations? Remember how I mentioned that I tell myself when I am passing through something bien duro that it is only a test, and the blessings are about to come/the dam about to break type of thing? Well, the dam broke. We found out on Thursday that an the hermana from one family (who we have been working with for a very long time -- they had all the problems with their papers for the wedding), well we had been working on her husband for quite some time with drinking. He came to the house on Wednesday drunk and she kicked him out of the house. She said the Lord had told her over and over again that he would never change and so she finally got up the courage and kicked him out. She told us "now I can get baptized. I am getting baptized the 25 of august" and we said "yes, yes you are. we will be preparing everything." We had mentioned that I might not be there for the baptism and she just told me that, no I was going to be there. Then on sunday she told us "There is a primary activity on the 25. I am getting baptized on the 18th." We prepared everything. She got baptized the day before yesterday. She is probably my favorite baptism I have ever had. She has so much faith and is so charitable. She gives us food every single time we go there, or if she doesn´t, she wants to give us money so we can buy something. I think if nothing else this area was worth it just to be here for her baptism. I did nothing; she had already been prepared for months by other missionaries, and even a longer time before that by the Lord. She is so happy, even in her trials. And after all that time of waiting patiently, always trying to better herself and help others around her, she received her reward. She asked me to baptize her and I felt so privelaged to do that for her. There is that scripture in DyC where God promises us that if we cry repentance unto His children every day and we bring but one soul unto Him, how great will be our joy in the kingdom of our Father with that person. Maybe I didn´t actually do much for her but I have been crying repentance every day with all my soul, and I guarantee that with her, I will be rejoicing in heaven, along with all the others I have helped bring in. I can already feel that joy. Besides her, we also baptized Adonis, who is the brother of Agustin who we baptized the other month. Now everyone in that little family (well everyone that lives here) is baptized and they are all really excited and happy with everything that has happened. Right now, my joy is full.

 

 

A few weeks a go I gave the class in the Principios del Evangelio about charity. And something that I read/realized while teaching is that in order to have charity, one of the first steps is... to love yourself. That has always been really hard for me. I have always worried that I don´t have enough charity for the people I am serving. That sometimes I feel too selfish or that I can´t give myself completely to the Lord or to them, and I honestly think that this is the root of the problem. I don´t love myself. That sounds weird. But its true! To have charity for someone else you first have to have it for yourself. So that is my new goal. Develop charity for myself.

 

The whole thing about the church losing more members now more than ever I feel like is very true. A word badly timed can mean years of inactivation for some members. I was thinking about this yesterday in church: "how many of us would say without hesitation ´I would die before denying my faith in Christ´? But then how many of us let something as simple as a remark or a joke or comment drive us away from the only true church of God? Sometimes I feel like it helps to take something big, like dying for our faith, and applying the lesson to something small -- staying active and strong, even though there was a bad comment made. I don´t know something like that. Someone eloquent rewrite it!

 

Well, I love you all. 

 

Love!

 

Elder Skousen

Another week in La Smith

Notes from August 13, 2012 letter

Okay, to start off this week: thanks for the care package! I probably won´t get it for a while, but we will see how everything works out. I have had 6 ingrown toenails in all. 3 in each big toe. And I am hoping that everything will be fine from here on out. My first pair of eccos have a hole right through everything. As in if you look at the bottom of my shoe while i have it on, you will see my foot. It is good fun. I was going to see if i could make the shoe last until the one year mark, but I think this past ingrown toenail killed that desire.

I was reading in the Book of Mormon about Mormon and Moroni. And how they had to see their entire people get wiped out from the face of the earth. How they, being righteous men full of the spirit, couldn´t do anything to save the souls of their fellow brethren. There is a part in the last little bit of the Book of Mormon where he is talking about how all his family, friends, and familiar places are dead and gone and he has no where else to go. I can´t help but be grateful. I have my family, I have my friends, and I have a very specific place where I need to go.

Even it has been a  frustrating week, I know why I am here and I know where true happiness is found. And that is in Jesucristo. Nothing will sever that tie that I have formed with Him this past year, and I will remain true.

Love

 

Elder Skousen

 

p.s. we went to dinner with a family last night and the hno who is a little bit elderly stared at my name tag for a bit and then all the sudden goes "... hai hittler!". Later that night before we were about to say the pray he does that again and goes "hai hittler! Haga la oracion!" The ZLs were there at the dinner with us. They about died from laughter.  

Some pictures from past areas
And a picture of one of the toenail surgeries!

Letter from August 6, 2012 Highlights:

News: I just got my 6th ingrown toenail taken out a few hours a go. This is one where the nail had previously fallen off and just grew back completely wrong. La hermana Smith is going to see if they can bring me to a dermatologist to see if there is anything we can do. Her personal belief is that we just don´t rest enough after the surgery. That generally means we would have to rest for about a week after, but because these are so common in the mission we can´t do that. But for at least today I am supposed to rest. And I am on an antibiotic again. It just seems like the trials and challenges never ever stop coming. I honestly feel like this mission has put everything that I am to the test. Everything. 

We have had a lot of challenges this week with investigators. We went to talk to one family about marriage and quickly found out that getting married was very much the hermano´s idea and she was having a hard time grasping it. So she kind of freaked out about that. Later, none of them came to church and so we were kind of sad about that. We did divisions with some members of the ward and my companion went where they lived and supposedly yesterday they received a water bill for 40,000 lempiras and a light bill for 80,000 lempiras. This is something that happened in about 20 days. That is a bill for about 6000 dollars. It is literally impossible for it to be that much. And if they don´t get it resolved here soon their house will be taken from them. But the good news is that there is a member that is willing to spend his own money to help the couple get married! Another one of our investigators, that has become seemingly and seemingly more pilas as time goes on didn´t show up either. He got called into work really quickly, so that was understandable. And also a 15 year old girl who is now working/living with a member family and her sister (who is also a member/works with the family) came to church last week, but not this week. So we will see how it all pans out.

Baptisms also fell this week and will be pushed back to the 18th, which scares me because changes are the 22th and if they get pushed back any further there is a chance I won´t see these wonderful people baptized. I want so badly to see these people enter in this covenant. It is always so amazing to see people take this step. I wish more people would take it! The members and we are going to start working together a lot better and I honestly think we will see miracles happen. Because right now, we have the people, we just can´t be in all places at once. BUT with the help of the members, we can! There is so much good members can do just by showing up and saying hi to someone that is at church. One thing that I wish members would do more is when they see a family there at church for the first time, or second time, invite them over for dinner! If a member did that here it would be a 100% wonderful!

Well, I will stop here. All in all it has been a very good week. Just working on health issues that I never knew I had. 

Love you!!!

Elder Skousen

 

I wonder if Elder Skousen means he is going to see a Podiatrist?  He has had so many surgeries that they have stopped posting pictures of them on the mission blog.  I wonder if he has the record.  It is not a record that I hoped he would set on his mission!  

STILL NO NEW PICTURES!   I am going to send him a new card reader this week, which means that it will be several more weeks before I can post some pictures.  (Note from his MOM)

Notes from letter of July 30, 2012
 God has showed us miracle after miracle this week. It was rather amazing. Can I just testify to how many doors can be opened through a smile and being friendly. I have this habit of smiling, waving, and saying "buenas!" to almost everyone on the street. Well that gives me a door a lot of times. Example: the other day I just waved and smiled and a guy got a smile and waved back. I thought "he is friendly towards missionaries" I went up to him and starting to talking to him. The missionaries visited his house when he was 15, over 15 years a go, and he has played futbal with a few members. We asked him if we could stop by, he said of course. We have a cita mañana. We also just stopped on the street randomly to talk to another guy. He basically told us he has yet to see a message from a church that has actually helped unify the family. And that most of them tend to destroy the family more. This was also after he said how he has seen our ads and liked them alot. He then started asking us just about every question that lesson 2 the plan of salvation answers.  Someone actually having questions about the soul!  We have an appointment tonight. Miracle after miracle. I feel like all of our hard work is paying off. 

I have learned a lot on my mission about faith. Faith is the source of everything we do. It is where we draw power from our Heavenly Father. If we don´t accept something as true when in reality it is true, it is because we don´t have enough faith to accept it. If we don´t repent it means we don´t have the faith sufficient. If we become discouraged and give up, it is because we don´t have the faith that there is that lady praying around the corner that someone comes and saves her from the life she is currently living. Miracles exist. They don´t just happen. God makes them happen through our faith, through our efforts. Pray for a miracle, get off your knees and start doing.

Love,

Elder Skousen

Elder Skousen at zone interviews in July

These are the "long-distance" hugs some of the kids made for Elder Skousen (I think they all needed a bath right after, thus the shirtlessness.