Christmas Eve

Hey I had a few minutes left after writing all my friends so I figured I would send a short letter to you :) Christmas was good. On Wednesday we had a meeting with 3 Zones close to Tampico in the Madero Stake Center. We had a talent show (I obviously didn't participate :p) and a Christmas devotional which was way good and then we ate tacos and went home. On Thursday we got to play volleyball, I talked to you guys, which was weird not gonna lie, we got to watch How to Train your Dragon 2 which was also weird watching a movie and we ate Carne Asada. That was all just with our Zone. It was fun and it is the best Christmas I have ever spent in Mexico :p I was able to grow my testimony of the savior and feel even closer to him. My companion was asleep all night Christmas eve so I just studied and listen to Christmas hymns and spent a lot of time just thinking and meditating and it was one of the best experiences I have had on my mission, so don't feel bad thinking I didn't do anything for Christmas haha! I hope you are all doing well still. I forgot to ask if anyone was pregnant haha. Jenni and Ali If you wait just a few more months to be pregnant I will be home when it comes! Send me pictures of what you all did for Christmas!

Oh yah, we recycled the felt Christmas tree you gave us into a shower rug so thanks for the shower rug haha! We didn't have one before...

Everything is going great here and I love being a missionary! Love you always!

Elder Skalla

Three Zone Christmas Activity

This is Ryan's Zone

Christmas SKYPE!!!

Not gonna lie,  Skyping this boy was the best part of Christmas for me!  He sounds and looks so good and his Spanish is amazing!  He sounds like a Native!  We met his cute companion who speaks very little English but you can see they love serving together.  I am so grateful for Technology and the Church Wifi!!  I am so proud of this boy!!

7 More Weeks in Villa Cuahutemoc!

Hey mom!

So I will be in my area for this next cambio and I will be able to finish training Elder Lopez! I am super excited but after this I think I will be super ready for a change haha. I love it here and all but after a while you have been to the same houses and walked to same streets and talked to the same taxi drivers a bit too much. This past transfer was only 5 weeks and the coming one is 7 for Christmas. The church doesn't like transfers very close to christmas. So I will be here till February 2nd. I am hoping I will be here for the baptisms of Karen and Naydalin, more members of the Ponce family. We don't have anyone here in our area that is close to baptism, but we are hoping to find a family this transfer. I really hope Elder Lopez can have baptisms in his first area. It helps you love an area so much more but it is very hard right now in the area because we don't have much member support and everybody is working more because of Christmas. They say the work is always a lot harder in December because everyone works more.

This week was pretty good. We worked hard and got some good results! We are finding new investigators but also having to drop some that don't progress. We are focusing a lot on less actives because there are TONS! We taught 21 less actives this week. Unfortunately we are hearing lots of stories about passed elders who... didn't treat the area very well. They were lazy and disobedient and now the members that they visited are used to the missionaries just coming to chat and mess around and not to help them come back to the church and it is just very hard. There is such a lack of true conversion here and it is so hard because as missionaries we can only do so much, the rest is up to the agency of the people and they just don't make very good choices.

I am almost positive we will be able to Skype on christmas. I will call you guys as close to 1 as I can but just always have the computer ready haha. If I cant Skype, I will call you from one of the ward phones on your cell because its the only one I remember.

I am glad you liked our pictures this week haha :) we had fun decorating the ironing board but we had to take it down to... well, iron. I was thinking about buying a few things for Christmas presents for my converts from the lds.org store. I will put it on the southwest card and an extra english hymn book to share with my companions. They like learning the EFY songs better haha so I usually write out the lyrics and teach them how to pronounce it and its fun.

I am glad that Amanda is still doing so great! The best part of being a missionary is seeing how the gospel changes peoples lives, and you don't even have to be an ordained missionary to do that!
I am so proud of James and the rest of our missionaries leaving from our ward James will be a great missionary.
On the 24th we have a Christmas devotional with the other stakes here close in Tampico (I will get to see Elder Flores again :)) and on the 25th we are together with our zone and we get to play sports for a day! Next Monday is NOT P Day because the 25th will be P Day so don't expect a letter. Haha but you get something better so don't worry.
Thanks for all the pictures and the updates! Love you lots!
Elder Skalla

Christmas Plans and humbling experiences

Hello!

Just you and Dad wrote me this week so I have more time to write you :) To answer your questions: Yes I did get the hymn book and its great :) Just not too much time to practice :/ but when I can I am using it. I love the music! But my CD player broke and I haven't been able to fix it and President just changed the rule that we can no longer use our USBs with the DVD players we all have in the house for the training videos because they keep breaking and he doesn't want to keep buying new ones. So I bought a speaker that can play MP3 and gave my USB and all the discs to a youth in the ward that downloaded them all and put them on the USB for me haha. So yes I love all the music! Especially the children's primary songs! Elder Lopez didn't get to go to primary so its fun singing the sunbeam song and book of mormon stories and I hope they call me on a mission haha. I hope I answered all your questions... TO make it easier and more likely that I answer your questions if you put them all in a line at the end of the email in bold or something, that way I can answer them quicker.

I am glad you liked the video haha. I wanted to do something fun for her birthday but I couldn't think of anything. It wasn't raining haha it was the fan in our house I think. And we don't have very many light bulbs in our house so its kinda dark sometime haha. But I thought the video was pretty funny and I hope Adalynn loved it :) 

Looks like you all had way too much fun this week! Haha I will lie and say I'm not jealous haha. Looks like Disney is milking all they can out of Frozen still. Didn't that come out over a year ago? And its still like the biggest thing ever. Haha but that's fun the pictures were cute. Poor Tate has to be tortured by Santa Clause while his cousin is in Disney Land having fun haha! He isn't a big fan of the holiday people so far with the Easter bunny and Santa. I love the picture of Adalynn with Pluto. He was always my favorite :) And the pic of Jenn in the hat made me smile. I bet Jenni was just dying the whole time. Should've had dad take the pictures of Adalynn's face and Greg the face of Jenn and see which is more excited haha.

This week was pretty good, but we had a ton of meetings :/ Tuesday we went to the temple and we got back to the area late and we were in a big rush to get P Day stuff done and we hardly got to rest because when we got back to the house finally at 5:50 we had to go into Tampico and bring Elder Arcela a bunch of his clothes. He is still with the secretaries and we don't know whats gonna happen with him. He goes home in a week. Either he will be with us in trio from Wednesday till he goes home, or he will stay with the secretaries. This transfer is only 5 weeks long because the church doesn't want transfers so close to Christmas. There is a probable chance that I will leave the area next week. I have already been here 4 transfers and its very rare that they leave a missionary more than 4, but I also am training and would need to finish training Elder Lopez but they could put him with another trainer. Its all up to president and his revelation but I'm kinda worried. I don't want to leave. I am ready for a new area but I want to finish training with Elder Lopez. We have gotten along really well and I love training and I wouldn't mind being here in the area for Christmas. But we will see what happens next Sunday!

Did dad read you the rules for the Christmas calls? I will call on the 24th and we can call on Skype. Send me all the information with your account and my account. I don't remember what my Skype account is so if you just make a new one that's fine. What time do you want to talk? We can only talk for 40 minutes on the 25th and we have to be done talking at or before 4:00. When is the best time for me to call?

I don't know where I will be for Christmas but I am hoping I am here in Villa Cuahutemoc! I will let you know Sunday through camera what happens!

This Friday we had our meeting with trainers and trainees. It was nice to see Elder Flores again and Elder Lopez liked seeing all his MTC friends. Haha my family is very brown, no? At least my grandpa is white haha. He just when home when Elder Lopez got here. His name is Elder Bartschi (I think) from Las Vegas haha but the rest of my family is latino!

The Christmas tree you sent me broke but we found something even better. I'll send you the pic haha.

We did watch the Christmas devotional. It was good but I honestly expected better. I had never seen one before. 

I cant think of anything super special that happened this week so I will share something I forgot to share last week.

The first day of this transfer I was with Elder Castillero, a missionary from Panama that is in Elder Lopez's generation. We were walking around exploring the area a bit and contacting and we saw a man working on his car and I told Elder Castillero to contact him and give him a Book of Mormon. It was his first time contacting but he did good and we gave him the Book of Mormon and put an appointment for later in the week. Elder Lopez and I later went to teach him and invited him to be baptized and he accepted and we invited him to church and also accepted. We left happy and with a return appointment. When we went for the appointment he wasn't there, so we kept passing by hoping he would be there but he never was. So last Saturday we said Okay we are just gonna pass one more time at Jose Luis's house to see what he says and so we went and he was there and we put another return appointment and got his phone number and invited him to church the next day. He said he might be working but he would try to come. I was thinking oh well he isn't gonna come, his loss. 

So the next day in church I was playing the piano and Elder Lopez said ¨Hey lets send a message to Jose Luis and remind him about coming to church and I just said well okay if you want to you can but he said he couldn't come, and I just thought it was a waste of two pesos haha our minutes our really valuable! But we waited and finally sacrament meeting started and I had to bless so I was sitting up on the stand and After the opening prayer the door opened and a ton of people came in, including Jose Luis and his wife and 5 daughters! I was in shock and I just looked at Elder Lopez, who hadn't notice, and he turned around and his face just lit up haha. It was humbling for me and made me happy to see Elder Lopez so happy. We went to see him this week and put another baptism date and invited him to church again and invited him to invite the rest of his family to talk with us (They were all in another room watching soap operas) and he said again he was gonna try to come. Well he didn't come to church this week but we have high hopes that he will progress and the whole family will be baptized, if not while I am here but while Elder Lopez is still here. Its hard because I want him to have success in his first area and his training because I know how big of a motivator and up lifter it was for me to have baptisms that I felt like I actually had a part in in my training. But since we are opening an area we have to be a bit more patient, but things are looking up.

I hope I wrote enough to make up for the last two weeks!

Love you!

Elder Skalla

Exact Obedience

Hi! Again I didn't leave much time to write you this week! Sorry! Lots of people are writing me haha but I will try to fit everything in. Everything you listed I did get,  just forgot to tell you haha. One thing I didn't get were pencils...? But the rest yes. Jeez I don't need anymore packages haha You can hold off for a bit. 

Yes I have read about dad putting money in the account I just didn't say anything about it. I am thinking of ways to use it still...

The temple today was great! 

I have been wanting to write to Pres. Doman but I just don't have time! Tell him I say hi!

I´m glad everything went well at the funeral. Sounds like it was beautiful. 

I am so excited for James! I bet Brad is super jealous! Will he get to meet Brads President? That sounds like the perfect place for him and I am so proud! Ya he will be teaching the other elders in his district in the MTC haha. There is no better training than in the field!

Everything is going well here in Mexico! For thanksgiving I ate quesadillas and forgot that it was thanksgiving until later haha. But we ate with the Ponce family and I love quesadillas so everything was great! Brads girlfriend is pretty. Can he wait 18 months!?!? Elder Arcela left on Friday for his surgery and everything went well. He will stay with the secretaries for 10 days and then come back with us until the end of the transfer when he goes home. Pres wanted to send him home but Elder Arcela wanted to stay. 

Have fun in Disneyland! I was actually thinking this week that you should invite grama to come with you to Disneyland haha! I'm glad you did!

I don't have much time but I wanted to share something with you that I have liked a lot this week.

I really like the book of Ether, but there is one part in particular that I like a lot. If you read the last Ensign it will sound familiar, but I think of it in a different way.

Read Ether 2:16-18

The Jaredites needed to get from point a to point b, and the Lord instructed them exactly how they should build their boats to get there.

We want to get from this life to eternal life, and the Lord, through the scriptures and Prophets, has shown us exactly how we need to "build our boats" to get to the other side.

Now read Ether 6:5

To make it to the other side, the Lord sent a furious wind. That wind tossed them ALL OVER the sea, but without it, they wouldn't have made it across. It was necessary.

We all have trials and difficulties in our lives, but they are necessary in carrying us to eternal life and exaltation.

Now read Ether 6:6

It describes the waves not just as little things, but MOUNTAINS! These waves, in our lives, are like our trials. We cant control them, they come from God, and they push us down into the depths of the ocean or the depths of sadness or whatever you want to say.

BUT, now read Ether 6:7

Even when they were sunk in the water, below the surface of the ocean, surrounded completely in their problems... No water entered. Why? Because they had followed EXACTLY the instructions that God had given them to build their boats. EXACTLY. What would've happened if Jared had wanted to put a window so he could see the ocean, or something else that God had not instructed him to do. What if he had cut corners and not made the ship so tight? THEY WOULD HAVE DIED! They still would have been sunk in the depths of the ocean, but the water would have entered and they would have drowned. But that didn't happen, because they followed exactly the instructions from God.

We will always have problems. We will always have trials. Even as big as mountains. BUT, they can only hurt us if we have a weak spot in our ship. A window that we wanted to put in. Something that God told us not to do. That's the only way they are going to hurt us. But if we are tight, and if we follow exactly the instructions of the Lord, we will arrive at the promised lands.

Now think... What are your windows? What are the things in your life that are against what the Lord has instructed us to do? It doesn't matter how big or how small. It could be a drinking problem, or it could be keeping the sabbath day, or it could be not magnifying your calling, it could be not doing family history, it could be any little thing.

I love this story and I love inviting the people to think about the little things in their lives that they need to patch up, and I love doing it with myself too. I make the same invitation with all of you. To think of the little things that we are doing (or not doing) that are against what God wants for us.

That's my spiritual thought for the week :)

Love you!

Elder Skalla

Too many packages???

Mom,

Man you are sending a ton of packages! I cant say I don't like it but man! I got one on Friday after the interviews with president and the other one yesterday when we went to the mission offices! Thanks for everything you sent! If you can, send me the pictures with my converts again because I already gave the ones you sent me away. I wrote a little note on the back of each one and gave them away haha. Sorry!   (I sent them over a month apart!) 

I am glad you got to see Papa one last time and say goodbye to him. You are all in my prayers! Give everyone a big hug from me and tell them I love them! My interview with President Jordan was good. He just asked me about papa and my family and it was nice. I know papa is in a much better place doing much better things. I am sure its hard for you and grama and your siblings. Give them a hug for me!

In the thanksgiving package there was...

Kit Kats, Reeses, A bunch of leaves, pictures, t shirts, turkey toes, a talk, and the cards with the things you are thankful for. I think that was it... oh and the card

In the Christmas one there was a flash drive, a bunch of CDs, a ton of sticky notes, a tree (which was broken by the way :/), lights, decorations, snow. I think that's it.... Oh and index cards. 

I think that was all but I might have forgotten something!

President also told me in my interview that before my mission ends we will have tablets which is exciting. With all the stuff about not chatting and other stuff that we have to do differently to prepare us for the tablets, I asked him about my wifi camera. He said that it was okay as long as it cant receive anything. You lucked out :p

Nothing too exciting happened this week. We are seeing progress in the area little by little. 

Oh yah one thing that happened... Yesterday Elder Arcelas companion had special transfers to another part of the mission so right now we are in a trio covering the whole area again! Yay! We don't know how long but Elder Arcela has a surgery on the 1st for his hernia. We thought they were gonna send him a new companion to teach the area and take over when Elder Arcela goes home but now we have no idea. Everything is kinda crazy right now and I'm stressing out,  but its all gonna be okay. We are gonna have fun with it and I am happy because I can see all the families that I love again. We will see what happens and I will update you next week!

It still hasn't registered that Andie is getting married and its weird every time you send me pictures haha. send me one of her husband I still have no idea who this guy is!

Everything is going great here in the mission!

Love you all and you are in my prayers always!

Elder Skalla

Elder Lopez and Elder Skalla

His new apartment

 A package from home!

Primary Program

Wisdom beyond his years...

 His new companion Elder Lopez from Western Mexico

This must be his District.  He told Ali it was a little cooler.  He loves it but others are freezing!  I think it was a low of 57 degrees.  

Sorry I only left myself 5 minutes to write to you! oops! (it was more important that he write to his Grama--letter below) Ummmm this week has been good. A bit difficult but we are seeing progress in the area. We found a few new less active and part member families and a few new investigators. The weather has been a bit colder than normal but I like it. Elder Lopez is awesome and will be a great missionary. I have learned how much progress I have truly made on my mission until now, and how much I still have to go to be a truly effective tool in the hands of the Lord. 

In this group of trainers I am the only one that hasn't been in the mission more than a year. most of The rest are district leaders and zone leaders. I feel very unqualified to be in this group of great missionaries training a new generation of missionaries. president is hoping to "baptize" the mission starting with the newbies and training them to be great and sending them off afterwards to change their companions and change the whole mission. I have learned so much this week. Sorry for not being able to write much! See you next week!

Love you!

Elder Skalla

Hi Grandma! 

My mom updated me on a few of the things that are going on with papa. Know that you are always in my prayers no matter what! Prayer has an incredible power in our lives if we take advantage of it. It helps us understand the will of the Lord and align our will with His. Understand why things are the way they are. Learn what He wants us to learn. Just remember that this life is nothing more than the tip of a needle on a string with no beginning and no end. We have the peace of knowing that we will be eternal families, without pain, sorrow, or affliction. Just joy and happiness in its fullness in the presence of our Father. With an eternal mindset, death is just one more step of progress on the way to our eternal reward. Rely on the Lord for your strength to make it through this tough time and remember that He is always always always by your side. Papa will be a GREAT missionary. Something my mission president told us last week is that sometimes we have to walk hand in hand with the Savior through Gethsemane, suffering the smallest fraction of what he felt, bearing a bit of our own cross, but remember that he has already suffered our pains and heartache so that we don´t have to..

         Love you and you are always in my prayers!

Elder Skalla

I couldn't be more proud of this boy and I know his Papa Doc is proud of him too.  

Called as a Trainer!

Hey Family and Friends!

So this transfer I´m going to be a trainer! I will stay in Barrio Villa Cuahutemoc but I will be in the área Villa 2, which is the opposite side from where I started. I´m a bit sad because the Ponce Family and Brandon and a bunch of other members I love live in the other area and we will only see each other on Sundays but that's okay. Norma lives in this side of the área and Ismael also. There aren't many active members in this side but there are a few families and TONS of less actives! We were looking at MLS with the 1st counselor and there are almost 600 members in our Little Ward! I'm sure that the majority are less active and don't even live here anymore but LOTS live in my new área so we are going to search em out and rescue em! There are 4 families that I know that are less active that I really want to active because it will help the Ward tons! I am really excited for this transfer! We might not have baptisms or many investigators but we are gonna work hard and rescue some less actives and "echarle ganas" like they say here in Mexico! I am excited to train but super nervous! We will be learning together haha. Elder Flores is training again too at the same time as being Zone Leader which is crazy but we are going to see each other more often. Today I am here in the área with Elder Castillero from Panama. Just for today we are going to work together and then tomorrow we go to the training and get our new companions. Hes a greenie but he isn't my companion. Well he could be but we wont know til tomorrow. 

Thanks for sending the scripture! We use Jeremías 1:5 tons in the misión to teach The plan of salvation and the vida preterrenal (I cant remember what its called in English, Pre Earth life, right) but I had never read  the verses after. 

Sounds like you had a crazy week! I want to share with you one of my favorite scriptures that has carried me through my misión thus far. Its in Doctrine and Covenants Section 6:33-37. I love the words of comfort and counsel the Lord gives to Joseph and Oliver in the midst of their trials and persecution. Even when it seems like everything is against us, if we are doing good, we cant fail.

I will keep Pam and Dean in my prayers for sure! As well as the Elders!

Oh ya I almost forgot! In zone meeting this week they were talking about a few announcements from President. One of them was about no chatting I wasn't sure about the rule but they told us that its not allowed to chat. BUT, they told us that Our misión is on the list of Mexico missions that could potentially be one of the trials for tablets! They said that probably nothing bad will happen if we chat with our family BUT we should start practicing integrity now so that when the tablets come we can show that they will be a good addition to the work and not a distraction. So no chatting, but maybe tablets!

Nothing super exciting happened this week. Did I tell you guys that last week we got to cross the Tampico Bridge to go to Stake Conference? Our whole Ward went in a bus across the river and it was pretty exciting haha. I have always wanted to cross it since I saw the pictures on google haha!

You didn't send the simplified hymns. But maybe I can order it from store.lds.org to have it sent here if you want. 

That's all I have to tell you for now! Love you lots!

Elder Skalla

Tampico Zone T Shirts

 A reminder of home haha

Weird Week

This week was pretty weird... In between finding a new house for the other half of my area, moving all the furniture and junk from one house to the other, and cleaning both houses, and then doctors appointments, stake conference, and a 3 and a half hour long ward council, we haven't had a whole lot of time to work unfortunately. It stinks but there isn't really much I can do about it. The good thing is we found a house and that is a gigantic weight off my shoulders! We are about to get 20 new missionaries in the mission this transfer so President needs as many areas as possible so he told us it was very urgent that we find a house. We were looking and looking like crazy and we aren't allowed to contact while we look for a house so that was lame but every single house we found was good with just one problem, whether it be that there isn't water, they want a deposit and the mission doesn't pay deposits, or the house is too close to another church, or they don't want to rent it to us because we are missionaries and tons of other problems. We wanted to find it before the end of the month so we didn't have to pay another month of rent in the house we aren't using and so we have been praying and searching really hard these past few weeks. Finally on the 31st we found a house! Its a house that the daughter of the 2nd counselor in the bishopric was going to sell but we asked her if she would rent us the house and she thought about it and told us yes! The house is awesome, nobody has lived in it and its perfect. The very next day we cleaned the house and changed everything over to the new one and called the crazy landlady from the other house to tell her we weren't going to rent it anymore haha. But I am so glad we found a house because having 4 missionaries in the ward again is going to help a TON! I am thinking that I will stay in the area this transfer and that they will change Elder Arcela over to the other area and give us new companions since we both know both parts of the area. I am hoping that happens at least. I love this side of the area and will be a bit sad if i have to change over to the other side even if the house is better haha. 

This week we got some great news! One of our investigators, Karen, who is Emilias sister and also Leo and Maris sister, hasn't been able to progress because she works on Sundays, but she is reading and we teach her once a week on her break day. Her daughter Naydalyn is 8 years old and always comes to church with the rest of the family and wants to be baptized but we wanted to wait till her mom could be baptized too. Karen always said it was impossible to be able to have Sundays off and that there is only one position in the whole store that can have Sundays off and its already filled. Well yesterday morning before stake conference we passed by their house to go to conference and Mari told us that they changed Karen into the position that has Sundays off and she was going to go to conference! I was so excited! Later that night we went by to visit Karen and she told us the whole story of what happened and how Naydalyn and her always say their prayers before going to bed and usually she helps Naydalyn but she started doing it without help and a few nights ago she prayed that her mom could have Sundays off so they could both be baptized and two days later her schedule changed! She was crying and told us that she wants to be a better mom and a better daughter and a better person and that now she is sure that this is true and will help her accomplish that! It was awesome! So now we just have to wait a month or so to teach her more and so she can go to church a bit but she is going to be baptized soon! 

We also have another investigator named Ada. I don't remember if I have told you about her but she is a former investigator that we visited and started teaching again. She is as Seventh Day Adventist and has a really strong testimony. A lot of times when we go it turns into a bible bash about sabbath day worship or something but the last few times we have actually been able to teach and we had a few really good lessons and she committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray if it was true. We came back for the next visit and she had read the introduction and the testimonies of the 11 witnesses and she said she was confused but was willing to keep reading. We answered her questions and talked a bit about the apostasy and Restoration and how the Book of Mormon came to be and she said she would keep praying and read more. When we came back we asked if she had read and if she had any questions and she had read the beginning of the testimony of Joseph Smith and had all kinds of questions about the plates and angel Moroni and why he wasn't in the bible and all kinds of things and the spirit was kinda lost and we started getting into bible bash again and I just kinda sat there quiet because I don't like bible bashing and I am not confident enough with the bible to do it, but eventually we just realized that she wasn't going to progress and we both bore our testimonies and told her that if she reads the Book of Mormon with faith and sincerely prays to know if it is true than God will answer her and told her that we don't come to visit her to argue about the Bible and told her we wouldn't be coming by as often but invited her to read the Book of Mormon (the actual scripture) starting in 1 Nephi and to pray about it and that she was always invited to come to church. She said she understands and that she just can't accept our doctrine and that she knows what she believes is true and that she isn't looking to change from that right now. After that lesson I just felt really bad and was thinking a lot about what we could have done better. I don't know how to explain why the sabbath is Sunday and not Saturday or anything like that and I just tried to bear my testimony about the Book of Mormon as much as possible but I guess she still has her agency. I think the only thing we didn't do was teach the doctrine using the Book of Mormon instead of the Bible and actually reading with her. I feel bad but I think eventually she will join the church its just not her time yet.

Stake conference yesterday was great! President Jordan always speaks in the conferences and he spoke about obedience, sacrifice, and consecration and it was great and an area seventy Lester Johnson came and spoke about the work of salvation. After the general session there was a meeting just for recent converts, bishops, ward mission leaders, and missionaries. Elder Johnson called each wards bishop, WML, and missionaries up and read their list of recent converts and asked if they were active, if they had a calling, and what plans they had to retain them. It was awesome because everybody realized that a lot of their converts had fallen away and that the ones who hadn't didn't have callings and then he bore his testimony about the importance of retaining our converts and the three things they need to stay active. I was glad that all 6 of my converts were there haha. none of them have callings still but our bishop now knows he needs to get on that! The ward has the greatest responsibility for the converts, not the missionaries. A little bit of public humiliation is good every once in a while for the bishops and WML

Well that's all I can think to tel you and I don't have much time. Love you and talk to you next week!

Elder Skalla

Ryan bought Leo this cute scripture cover

Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico

5 Months Already?? PICTURES!!

Yah it definitely doesn´t feel like 5 months at all haha. It goes by so fast its ridiculous! 

My companion has gastritis so basically he cant drink soda or eat chili or he gets really sick. On Tuesdays we eat with a recent convert family and they gave us mole and my comp ate it and it wasn't spicy but it did have a bit of chili so he got sick. We went to the doctor to find out what he could do or get medicine or whatever and they told him that the gastritis can be treated with medicine but... He has a hernia! So the next day we had to go back to the doctor but one of the secretaries went with him and I just hung out in the mission office for a few hours which was interesting haha. President and Hermana Jordan are in Puebla, or were in Puebla, for a training so it was just the one secretary, the assistants, me, and another elder who had been in the hospital and it just recovering. They came back after a few hours confirming that he had a hernia and that we had to go back to the doctor at 1:00 to get some blood test results. So we went back to our area but the doctor is across the river in Tampico so we didn't want to get to far away since it was already like 11:30 so we couldn't really go do any of our plans and my companion was all weak from getting his blood drawn so we just kinda slowly wandered around trying to find less actives but then the doctor called us saying the results wouldn't come till 2:30 so we ended up just going back to our house and teaching a less active family before we ate at 2 and then we went to the doctor. After the doctor my comp was too weak or tired to do anything so we just went back to the house until ward council at 6:30. That's when I wrote the note and sent it at the church before ward council.  

So this week has been pretty boring honestly. We had to send the diagnostic and ultrasound to Hermana Jordan so she can send it to Mexico City and then we have to wait a few days so the church doctor in Mexico City can tell us what to do. If he has surgery I will just have to wait in the hospital for a day and then rest 2 days in our house and work really slowly for the rest of the time we are together. I didn't make a video of my Spanish because I didn't know what to say haha but I will try to send one on Wednesday. Yah the clinic had wifi. I haven't been able to us my SW card and I don't know why. The bodega I used it at my first day is rejecting it now for whatever reason.

The pictures were from divisions with Elder De Los Santos from the Dominican Republic. Hes a bit crazy but it was fun haha. The stairway is how you get from one part of the city to the lower part haha. The elders live in a house in the middle of that hill. haha ha It's pretty awesome. The other pics is the view from one of the highest parts in Pueblo Viejo. Its prettier in person, but you can see almost half of the area and Tampico and the lagoon.

The suit and tie one (case) I bought for Leo from a member in a different ward haha. 

Pretty cool huh? Sounds like your talk went well. Maybe while I am waiting at home for Elder Arcela I will write out a letter to the ward so I can just type it up quick. 

Sounds like you had a fun Halloween. (Trunk or Treat Pics sent)

Yes they do Halloween here but I don't think it is as big of a deal. They also do day of the dead which I think is a bigger deal but still not as big of a deal as they say it is in high school haha.

I'm jealous you went to the Broncos game! Sounds like they are playing great! 

Keep my comp in your prayers! I don't really have anything else to add... Just a boring week haha. I wrote a list of things I want for Christmas but I left it in the house so I will take a picture of it and send it soon. 

Love you!

Elder Skalla

A Great Baptism and Pictures

Hello!

This week was great! We had a baptism! I don't remember if I have told you about Emilia yet but she is the older sister of Mari and Leo. Their mom has 2 daughters from a previous marriage that are older and they each have an 8 year old, Cristian and Naydalin (I think that's how you spell it..). A few weeks before the baptism of Mari and Leo we asked Celia (their mom) if she knew anyone that we could visit. She told us that she had 2 daughters that live here in Pueblo Viejo that might be interested so we found them and started teaching them. At first Karen was more interested but she works ALL the time and would have to change her schedule to have Sundays off and at first she said that was impossible and we could only teach her once a week so she didn't progress but Emilia started getting way more interested after going to church for the first time and on Saturday she was baptized with her son Cristian! Her husband is a marine and right now he is home for just 3 weeks (he leaves this week I think) so he got to see their baptism as well. He doesn't want us to teach him (yet) but Emilia says he is more open about it now than before so hopefully in the future he will be baptized and they can be sealed in the temple! 

It was funny because The dads name is Cristian Ivan and the son is Cristian Alexander and when the bishops wife called us to ask their names for the program I told her that it was Cristian Ivan so the programs all said that he was getting baptized haha. We all had red faces I think but it was funny and he laughed about it. 

SO the kids in the pictures (below) are Cristian and Naydalin. They're adorable! Its a great feeling sitting in sacrament meeting next to one of your converts, just after two of your converts were confirmed, and having another one of your converts pass the sacrament to you. All 6 of them went to church yesterday! Such a great feeling... I am infinitely grateful to my Heavenly Father for letting me have a part in their conversion. 

Oh yah another thing about the baptism is that Cristian is afraid of the water and his uncle (Leo) was teasing him about how the water was going to be up to his neck and he would have to stay there for 2 hours and so he started panicking as he got in the water. It really only went up to his belt but he wanted the bishop, who baptized him, to carry him but he was still panicking so we had to calm him down and help him down in the water and in the middle of the prayer he said "Am I gonna be down there 2 hours??" haha so bishop started over and just dunked him real fast and when he came out he had this huge grin and just said "Ya!?!?!" which means like that's all or already haha it was cute and funny.

Yes I use the temple pics a lot they are perfect! (the ones I mailed to him)

I don't know if you remember our investigators Gloria and Iris from a few months ago? We kinda lost contact with them while Gloria was sick and Iris was working and we didn't teach them for a while and they stopped going to church. We have been calling them to put an appointment but they never show up. We called one last time and put an appointment and just Gloria showed up. She said that they have just been very busy because one of her daughters, that is a member, moved and Iris also is moving! and Gloria too is thinking of moving! It makes me sad because Iris had a testimony that the church was true and the Book of Mormon was true, like she flat out said they she read and prayed and knows its true. We have their address in Chihuahua so we are going to send the reference.

We had divisions this week with Elder Cortez from El Salvador and one of the zone Leaders, Elder Del Aguila from Peru.

For Christmas I want printed pictures of Adalynn and Tate and my converts, toothpaste (Dr. Bart gave me special toothpaste before I left and I like it! He gave me 4 tubes and I used the first in about 2 months so send a few more if you can! Next time you go to the dentist ask him. 

That's all i can think of to tell you now... I am doing great!

Love you!!

Elder Skalla-

**More pics that I got this week from that awesome wifi camera!

From the day at the temple...

Looks like he gets some familiar food!

Leo and Ryan are buddies :)

His companion, Elder Arcela