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

Patience, Love, Diligence, Humility

Mom and family and friends,

Hey! Haha I have learned from watching you when Brad was on his mission and knew exactly what would happen if a letter didn't come on Monday so I did what I could to make you a little calmer haha. I didn't want you worrying too much.   (I got this note via his wifi camera on Sunday-he is so creative!)

We went to the temple this morning and it was great! Everything was in Spanish but I understood so it was really cool! They have carpet! We took pictures and the ZLs are going to email them to us so you will have it next week. 

Things are going alright in the area... We baptized all of our investigators already haha so we are looking for more people to teach. We don´t knock doors and the members don't have many more references so its hard but we are finding people. Also this past week all the soldiers in the military came home for the week and we had a few investigators that were too busy spending time with their husbands to talk to us so we were spending a lot of time this week teaching less actives and converts and asking for references and contacting. OH and looking for a house. We have to find a house in the other side of our area for the other elders to live in. We are still paying rent on the old one but Pres. Jordan doesn't want missionaries living there because its in a sketchy part and doesn't have water so we are spending (wasting) a lot of time finding a house. Zillow doesn't exist so we just go around asking everybody in the streets and outside their houses if they know anyone renting a house but while we do this we cant bring up the gospel unless they ask so its not very useful and we haven't found a very good house yet. We found one but they want 3500 Pesos every month and that's a ton. We pay 1900 in our house now and the other house pays 2000. So we are spending a lot of time doing that. My companion and I are doing okay but I wouldn't say we are friends. We are just very, very, very, different but that's okay.

 I am learning patience and love and diligence and humility more than ever here. I cant remember where but I read a talk that talked about having your pride surgically removed so that Christlike attributes can be put in its place and that's what I feel like right now. And there isn't much anesthetic haha. 

I cant remember if I know Sean or not but I that's awesome that he is going to be baptized! Its always awesome when families become more and more complete in that way!

Have fun with your missionaries haha that sounds like a fun activity. (We are hosting missionaries for a Mini MTC Stake activity)

I bet its great living close, but not with Tate and Ali and Ty now haha. What ward are they in? I don't need candy either so don't worry about it. 

I heard about the Meet the Mormons movie and I wanna see it haha. Good Idea to invite your tennis friends! Let me know how it goes and don't be afraid to bear your testimony! 

Thanks for sending some talks! We get the Liahona in English so don't worry about that either. The English elders get a Liahona in English and the Spanish get Spanish. I didn't know Liahona existed in English but it does haha. 

The bishops son here in our ward got his mission call this week. He is going to Brasil Rio De Janeiro! Thats Tanners mission right?? He enters the MTC 11 of February. Elder Gonzalez is his name from Tampico Mexico. I told him to look for another Elder Skalla. He is going to the Brasil MTC and has to learn Portuguese so he will be in the field sometime in March. 

This weekend is the baptism of Emilia and Cristian! I'm really excited! I will send pictures!

I don't think there is anything more to tell you... just that I love you and I hope everything is going well! I have 20 more minutes here so let me know if you have any questions!!

Love you!

Elder Skalla

General Conference

Hello!

Sounds like you guys had a crazy week! Mine was pretty uneventful. Its hard adjusting to a new companion and its insanely stressful being the only one who knows the area at all. I have never really ever been one to stress out much, but here its hard not too! I´m not gonna lie and say that my companion is the greatest in the world or anything, but I´ll just say it will take a bit of getting used to. Elder Flores and I got along so well because we both had the same vision and we were really good friends, and through that unity we had a lot of success in the area. Elder Arcela and I just still haven't clicked yet. I'm working on it though... 

Conference was great but a little weird. We got to the chapel at like 10:30 and just the bishop and his son was there, and then they left to go get the projector and didn't get back till 11:15 and nobody else had gotten there so my companion and I were watching it on the computer in the office haha. Later we got the projector all hooked up and a few more people showed up but there was hardly anybody at the first session. At the second there was one more family and a few came for the priesthood session. We were listening in Spanish with English subtitles haha. It made me have to pay more attention but I couldn´t take notes because I would miss a part if I looked away. When the speakers spoke in Spanish I listen without the subtitles and I actually understood pretty much all of it, but I still like English better haha. I am excited to get the Liahona in November so I can read and study them more. I loved the sessions on Saturday the most! Basic doctrine and things we need to be doing that we just aren't doing. I loved a lot of the talks but I cant remember very well who said what. Remember the Elder Hamula from the seventy in the Sunday morning session? His son was in my Zone in the MTC haha. I loved the talk about Joseph Smith and about the Sacrament by the Sister. I have never liked a talk by a sister more than that one haha. I also liked the one who spoke about daily prayer, scripture study, FHE, and temple assistance. Im not going to say anything about not making me watch conference, but we still hardly ever did FHE... just sayin haha. Also the one who spoke about the apostles who said "Is it I, Lord?". That one really made me think... I am here in Mexico teaching these people and I don't even understand very well the Doctrine and I don't/didn't even keep all of these commandments... I also liked President Monson's during the priesthood session and David A Bednar's in the Sunday Afternoon. I will tell you later which ones I liked the most when the Liahona comes haha. 

I will keep grama in my prayers! Crazy hail storm for sure! Will insurance pay for repairs or what? Oh yah and I was worried during conference if they were going to announce that Pres. Monson had some sort of health issue during one of the talks on Sunday I cant remember which but about following the prophet no matter what state or condition they are in. I also loved the story about the sister who wrote the GA and asked what she could do because she was a member and her husband isn't and he said to be patient and kind and after 12 years of waiting, he got baptized a month later haha. I loved this because Norma and Emilia were there and both their husbands aren't members and Norma is and Emilia is getting baptized the 18th and they both told me they felt like it was directed at them and it was just great!

Think harder about everyone you could possibly send the gospel to! I don't think I have anything else... Things are going well here in Mexico... Love you lots!

Elder Skalla

Watching Conference with Leo