No Hay Nadie (No ones home)

Mom,

This week was a really good week! Crazy because our area is gigantic and really different because Elder Flores is district leader but still really good. I do most of the planning every night now because he is on the phone with our district and the Zone Leaders so I just plan alone which is good because I am learning how to plan more and more effectively. On Monday night we had an appointment with two home teachers to visit one of our recent converts that they are assigned to, but they both forgot so Elder Flores and I visited him. When we got to his house he was laying on his bed just groaning and he told us that because of the changes in the weather he had a ton of pain where he had surgery a few years ago. It didn't make sense to me but we helped him sit up and gave him a blessing. He asked me to give it which freaked me out because I had only ever given one before and never in Spanish! I was freaking out! Its hard to listen to the spirit when you're that panicked haha but it went well and he went to the doctor a bit later and the next day went back to work. It was a weird but cool experience haha. He told us that that was the reason he didn't go to church on Sunday so apparently he had been in pain since Sunday! He told us he had prayed for us to come but that was the day before haha so we apologized for being late. 

On Tuesday we had another lesson with Karen and Emilia. Emilia is the one that we read 1 Nephi 3:7 with and promised that if she went to church that she would still be able to get all of her chores or jobs done. She was at church which was way cool and on Tuesday she told us that somehow everything lined up perfectly that she could get her stuff done! She is really awesome and I think she will be baptised this coming month! We also had a lesson with an old investigator who lives in the other side of our area so we took the taxi over there and taught her. I don't know why the other missionaries didn't have her progressing but she is awesome! Her name is Norma and her son was baptized a year ago. She has been hopping in between different churches but is ready to find one she can stay in and she is extremely accepting of our message. She told us a story about how one time she was at her old church and she started speaking in tongues while her husband was was shaking and we explained to her how the spirit works and she was really accepting and understood that it probably wasn't the spirit that did that haha. She came to church yesterday and liked it a lot. 

Yesterday we had 8 investigators in sacrament meeting!!! Brandon, who is in the picture with the pink tie, is going to be baptized along with Mari and Leo, the kids who have been taught for over a year whose parents aren't married, on the 6th of September which is exciting. We had 8 even though Mari and Leo, who we can always count on to come, couldn't go. It was awesome because there were almost as many investigators, recent converts, and less actives in sacrament meeting than there were active members. there were 18 less actives!

The work is really progressing here. We had our second ward counsel and it went better than the first but still not great, but little by little its improving. Saturday we had a lesson with Gloria and Iris, 2 of our progressing investigators. Gloria isn't married and her husband is military so she cant be baptized for a while but Iris started reading the Book of Mormon and is already in 2nd Nephi and told us that she knows this is the true church! Hopefully Iris and their friend Elena will be baptized next month too. We are expecting to have 6 next month if all goes well! 

On Friday we were in a part of our area that doesn't have any members and just a few not very great investigators. It is part of our old area, not the other side that's new, but still there aren't many people there. We are working over there every once in a while to grow the membership there but its hard because practically nobody wants to talk to us. We found 1 or 2 prospects walking around and contacting but while we were looking for one of our member references we greeted at a few doors (we don't knock we just yell BUENAS TARDES! haha that's what everyone does) and pretty much at every house someone would yell NO HAY NADIE! which is like saying nobodies home haha. One old guy just walked out without a shirt on, saw us, paused, and yelled NO HAY NADIE! which made us laugh and we have been joking this whole week saying No Hay Nadie! 

I am loving it here and everything is going great. I have been looking for clippers but haven't found any that are less than 60 bucks and trustworthy. We cant leave our area other than Wednesdays for district meeting and there aren't any stores on our route to DM that have them and are trustworthy. I can't tell you when I'll be able to go to Wal-Mart either... I really want to but its far away. MAYBE after the next training of new missionaries or MAYBE after transfer meeting when I get my new companion but that's a strong maybe. It might just be easier to send ours that we have and you can buy a new one there maybe? My hair is growing way fast for some reason so I really want my own clippers... Ill keep you updated by way of camera if I find something haha.

I don't have anything more to say I don't think... Ask me questions and tell me things, I want to know whats going on there! It doesn't make me homesick at all to hear things that are happening there to be honest it actually helps. 

Love you!

Elder Skalla

Up to the Challenge

Hello!

This week was a crazy but really good week. On Wednesday we started the Super Divisions with our zone. I stayed in my area, which I was really happy about because I wanted to try leading the area without my companion and I learned a ton, and I was with one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Flores. He is from Sinaloa Mexico and is actually on his way to his house as I write this. This was his last cambio in the mission. He is a great missionary and he taught me so much. He is very confident and persistent and I learned a ton. My comp Elder Flores went with the other ZL Elder Hallman from Utah in their area, which is central Tampico. We both learned a ton from two great missionaries and are applying and teaching each other what we've learned. On Saturday one of our investigators, Brandon, who, if he goes to church the next two weeks, will be baptized the 6th with Mari y Leo, came with us teaching for almost all of the day which was fun. He's a good kid and says he wants to serve a mission too, which is cool. Yesterday was the last day of this transfer/cambio and Elder Flores was all worried they were going to transfer him because he has been in this area for 3 transfers and felt like he was going to be transferred. Turns out being transferred was the least of his worries... Before, there were 4 missionaries in our ward, and Pueblo Viejo was split into two different areas, mine and Elder Flores area, and Elders George and Raymundo the other. Yesterday we found out that both Elder George and Elder Raymundo are being transferred, they are closing their area, and expanding ours to be both areas. It's absolutely HUGE now! If you go to LDS.org they have a thing where you can do google maps with the ward boundaries, so go look at it. We now cover all of Barrio Villa Cuahutemoc. Also, Elder Flores is going to be District Leader too! So now we have a gigantic area with no car/bikes, that has absolutely 0 progressing investigators, hardly any active members, and Elder Flores is all stressed about being a trainer and district leader at the same time. I'm not sure how we are going to do it, but we will have to work insanely hard and walk a ton more. It stinks because we are having lots of success in our area and lots of progressing investigators and now we are going to have to revive the other area which is going to hurt ours. All we know is that we wont be doing it alone and that we will just have to push ourselves even further and trust in the Lord. 

I don't know how often you check the weather, but it's starting to cool down a bit and rain a ton more. This morning we woke up at 6:30 and went for a run because I can finally exercise and right when we got back it started dumping rain. I have a video I'll try to send. It's really fun when it's raining but after it's a ton hotter and everything's wet and muddy, but its fun.

With the scripture case, don't send leather. The other material is better. I don't now what it's called but it's not leather. And the best would be two separate cases, one for the Bible and the other for the B of M separate. I don't know what the material is called but it,s the same material as my shoulder bag or as my scripture case--Not leather though.

Grandma Judy told me about the bats last week. That's pretty funny. I bet Tate is having a blast at the ranch. We will have to go when I get back. I cant believe how big he is. I love the pic at Ryan's Camp with his hat and his Hurley shirt haha.

With the pictures, if Costco isn't too expensive, that would be perfect. Just small ones and maybe one 4x6

Also my watch broke which is lame... the date stopped working and we tried to fix it and accidentally broke it more haha. I have a backup but it doesn't have a date so maybe a new watch would be good. Nothing fancy, just simple with a date. I don't know if you remember the one we bought at Walmart, but it was perfect so if you find that one again or something similar. Just plain and with a date. and not a metal band, leather or rubber.

Things are getting better in the ward. We had ward council yesterday! Yay! And we made a list of home teachers with the EQ president and they are going to start doing that! Woot! The only thing is that they had this marvelous idea that the missionaries can accompany them to the home teaching visits, which is totally not our responsibility, but if that's what it takes to get them to do it and strengthen the ward a bit more I guess we will do it for a little bit. I don't wash my suit, and no there isn't a dry cleaner... I think that's all your questions...

Love you,

Elder Skalla

 Ryan has a washing machine but no dryer.  

I am not sure how things get dry with so much humidity!!

The District

Exchanges with Elder Flores, the Zone Leader

 The Zone

Divisions and RAIN!

Hello!

This week was crazy! On Tuesday we had divisions with our zone leader. I went to his area and his companion Elder George came to our area. It was a really interesting experience. Elder Raymundo is from Guatemala and has 4 months left in the mission, and is already dying (Mexican way of saying trunky). It was really weird because for the first 3 hours we didn't do hardly anything. We wandered around the area for a while, ate lunch, and wandered around some more, went to a funeral for 45 minutes, taught a few lessons, and then went home at 7:30! The whole day we spent going back and forth from the house and back out to teach because my comp was sick and so I thought he just had to use the bathroom again, but we didn't go back out after that! In the mission the rule is you have to be back by 8:30 at the absolute latest. I felt really uncomfortable and wanted to say something but wasn't sure what since it wasn't my area and wasn't my companion. If it was my area and my companion I would've,  but I just felt weird. They always complain that their area is like opening a new area, but from what I saw they don't do anything to try and find new people to teach! Ridiculous. This Wednesday we are having Super Divisions with the whole Zone, every companionship is going to split with another companionship in the zone for 2 nights. We will find out who and where we are going on Tuesday night. I hope I get to stay in my area because I think it would be a good experience to lead the area without my comp for a day and that I would learn a lot, and we have air conditioning :) 

Wednesday we had Zone Conference which was really good. The zone leaders brought a bunch of members from their ward and we practiced contacting and teaching. It was really good. My comp and I are really bad at contacting people in the street. It's one of our goals to work on. I feel awkward just walking up to people and talking to them, but I just have to do it. Thursday we had the training meeting with all the missionaries from my generation which was really fun. I got to see Elder Hyde and Elder Merling. They are doing great! Friday was a good day but was frustrating because the numbers we had didn't show the amount of work we did. Hardly anyone that we had appointments with was able to meet with us and was just a frustrating day. Saturday however was really good. We taught almost all the lessons we had planned and found lots of new investigators. We had an appointment to teach a less active in the ward who is mostly blind and used to be a 7th day Adventist. We went to teach her and found her finishing up lunch with 3 of her Adventist friends! We sat down and they asked if they could share something with us and we said yes and that we would like to share something too. They taught us about the book of Revelations and how it says that there will be a period of 1000 years when Christ will live on the earth. (Wow!) We taught them about the Book of Mormon. It was actually a really powerful lesson. We talked about where the Book of Mormon came from and how it can help us in our lives, and why it would be important to read it because if we read it and ask God if its true, and he tells us its true, then that means that its translator, Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, and that the church that he established through Joseph Smith is the restored Church of Jesus Christ on the earth. They all agreed that it would be important to read the book and find out if its true, but when we handed each of them a book they just started saying no over and over and saying that they respect us, but they already have their religion. It was like a switch was flipped from saying oh ya makes sense we need to read this to NOPE! It happens all the time. There are TONS of Catholics, 7th day, JW, and all kinds of churches here. Sunday is always the hardest day because we have to wear our suit coats, we don't have study in the morning, we usually never have solid appointments, and if our investigators don't show up to church, its always sad. In the mission you have to go to church 5 times consecutive only missing once in between to be baptized, so if they don't come to church we have to set another date 6 weeks in the future. 4 of our dates fell out yesterday. Brandon, who is the 14 year old son of a less active that we teach, we think his girlfriend is causing problems. He was going to be baptized on the 30th. Itsel, who had to stay home and take care of her drunk grandpa, but she also wants to wait to be baptized when her mom comes back in December. Lino, the brother of one of our active members who is a good investigator just doesn't come to church. And Elias, who is also a good investigator but hasn't come to church. Its frustrating because they like our message and want to be baptized but aren't willing to change or to do the things necessary to be baptized. Remember the lady named Gloria that practically contacted us in the street? She can't be baptized yet because she isn't married and her boyfriend won't come back from the military for a few months, but her daughter Iris and their friend Elena will probably be baptized next month if all goes well. They have been to church twice and they love it. 

One of the last lessons we had we brought out a picture of the temple and they LOVED it and started saying how much they wanted to go there and one of them was crying. It was very cool and the spirit was so strong. One of Gloria's daughters is a member and is visiting her right now which is good. There are lots of highs and lows in the mission. I think its more mentally tiring than it is physically tiring, and its really physically tiring. But I am learning to love it more and more. This morning our alarm went off at 6:30 and as we were trying to force us out of bed we heard a giant crash of thunder, loudest I've ever heard, and then it just started POURING! It was really cool. I love rain and supposedly this is the start of a really rainy season here so I'm excited. This morning only lasted like 30 minutes. I think the primary song that talks about the beauty of the earth after rain probably confuses the Mexican kids because it just makes everything dirty and muddy here haha. But its fun. My Spanish is getting better every day. Sometimes I'll make mistakes that are funny, kinda like my comp speaking English. The other day we were practicing teaching the fall of Adam and Eve and the Plan of Salvation, and I accidentally said that Satan Tempted Eve to eat the fruit, and she ate him, instead of it. It's literally a one letter difference but my companion couldn't stop laughing at Eve eating Satan. 

I thought of some things you can send me when you want to send a package:

Vitamins

Book of Mormon INSTITUTE manual in English. We have one in Spanish but I want an English one

I don't know where you would find this but having some pictures of the Tampico temple that are just little that we can give to investigators and converts would be really cool.

A scripture cover case thing for my Spanish scriptures. I didn't buy one in the MTC because they only have the ugly ones, but my comp has a simple black one that just zips around his bible that I like. So if you can find anything like that...

Crayola Twistable Colored pencils and a short, clear ruler for marking scriptures

A small English Book of Mormon, just the regular blue ones that the missionaries give to people

That's all I can think of! Don't send clippers, I will try and find one here.

That's all I have to say.... Any question???

PS I get to go to the temple every 3 months if I am close, so I will go at the end of next transfer

oh ya and also the missionaries don't ever baptize in our mission, only members.

Answered questions and PICTURES!

Mom, friends, and family,

I know you too well haha. I definitely could see the smile on your face and maybe even the tear in your eye when I sent those pics. I hope you liked them. Also I could here your voice saying Why aren't you sending pictures of YOU! so I took one with those kids haha. There honestly isn't much to take pictures of here... I will try to take more but idk what you want pictures of... 

Don't worry I'm getting a haircut today! I have been looking for somewhere to buy clippers to cut my own hair but I don't know where I can buy them. If I find some should I buy them on the CC? Maybe walmart or somewhere, but we don't have walmart in our area and I don't know when we can go there. This Thursday is a meeting in Tampico with all of my generation so I will get to see Elder Hyde and Elder Merling which is exciting. We MIGHT be able to go to walmart then. I wouldn't send a gift card because I don't know when we will ever be there and it just makes more sense just to use the credit card I already have, no? I honestly cant think of anything I need or want that you can send. A water cooler is probably at the top of the list of things I want haha but that's not something you can send me lol. The assistants are the only missionaries that have one... spoiled lol. Just send me stuff you think I would like because literally I can't think of anything practical that I want. Maybe more handkerchiefs for the sweat... no clue!

Question about my contacts... Did my prescription flip flop? I have two boxes, 1 left 1 right, that have one prescription, and the rest of my boxes have an opposite prescription. I'm confused and don't know which ones I should wear in which eye...

I feel so tall here its ridiculous! I try not to slouch but everything is so short and low its impossible haha. In the pics I felt like if I didn't slouch my head wouldn't make it in the picture haha. I don't have any good stories this week... sorry. I taught my companion how to say squirrel witch was really funny haha. A few of the other elders in our district tried it too. Its impossible for them to figure out how to say it and it's so funny. 

okay I don't have anything else to say so I'll answer your questions now, but I'm going to send this one so you can answer my questions before next week...

Do you write from an internet cafe?  

Yes. They're called Cibers (Sea Bear)

Do you have to pay? 

10 pesos an hour

Are you able to print stuff if I send you articles to read or stuff like that? 

Yah its just a few pesos which is fine. I have plenty of money

Where do you do laundry?  

We have a washing machine in our house, and we hang dry everything

How are your feet and shoes? 

Smelly and fine

How is the food?

Smelly and fine

haha no just kidding its pretty good usually. I guess theres some myth that missionaries are capable of eating 5 times the amount of normal people and everyone just gives you so much food its awful. most of the time they ask and you can say no but sometimes they just heap it on and you have to eat it. Theres this one old less active couple that ALWAYS feeds us no matter what every time we visit them, even if we just ate. this week we ate their cold leftovers which was a tough one haha. My stomach is getting stronger and my tongue number lol.

What kinds of things are you eating? 

Siempre tortillas and rice, some sort of meat, salsa, beans, tortas, all kinds of stuff. Nothing like American Mexican food. 

Even if people don't want to talk to us or hear our message they will always give us water or food which is cool.

Do you have enough money?

Plenty

  

What can I send you??

Pictures...

I honestly cant think of anything! 

Why are sports and activities banned on Pday??

I guess some elders were sacrificing their study time to play more soccer and others were playing too rough and a few elders got sent home for injuries so we are on a break, but we don't know for how long. its kinda lame we don't do anything on p day. my comp sleeps and I clean and study.

Love you!

Elder Skalla

Getting a little sun!!

Baptism in his district

His church building

My boy!!