Transfers and District Leader Plus PICTURES!!!

Soooo I'm being transferred again! They are going to close Flores B so its just going to be one area for the whole ward. It makes sense because there haven't been any baptisms in a year and a half and there are only 3 active families but I'm bummed because I feel like All the work my companion and I did in this past transfer will go down the drain. We were just starting to have lots of success!  I loved my time in Victoria. Now I am in Miramar Ward Bosque Stake. Its like just outside of Tampico in a town called Altamira. My companion is Elder Camelo and he is from Hawaii. He just finished his training. Actually his trainer was Elder Merling. Well, for the first change. He had 2 trainers. He struggles with the language a bit but he seems like a great kid, a bit timid.

Haha yah I'm glad you liked the pics. I haven taken many because I honestly don't like taking my camera out.
Thanks for sending my package. I am closer to Tampico now so I will get it sooner. Man you have been sick forever! I'M sure you have already gotten a blessing... you will be in my prayers :)

Brad hasn't written anything about his plans... Sounds like you had a good lesson! I will try to read it! I will have to teach district meeting this transfer and its pretty nerve wracking teaching elders too! Well see how it all goes...

Mothers day... Man I forgot about that haha. ummmm Well our church here starts at 10:00 and we get out at 1:00... so like 1:30 I can call. Right now its 5:30 here. It does feel like it has gone way fast since Christmas. I do not like thinking about time haha.

I am very excited for the babies! Honestly I almost didn't realize because I was just kinda responding quick to everyone and just saw pics of Tate and Adalynn but then I saw the ultrasounds and I was like WHAT!?? No way haha. They will be a good age when I get home. I'm excited! How long till we know if boy or girl??

Kelsie told me she is in Georgia as an English missionary? What happened there?

Well this last week in Victoria was good. We were seeing the fruits of our efforts. It was a hard area but honestly I loved it and the members and well I know I will love my new area too. Its hard to just be in an area for 1 change because you just start gutting working really well and BOOM you leave haha. But I got some good news from Panuco that our investigator Blanca got baptized 6 days after I left! After 2 years going to church she FINALLY got baptized :D And Itzel in Villa Cuahutemoc got baptized too along with her sister! I am happy to hear all that news :D

I don't have much to say this week because my mind is kinda a blur and I am tired haha next week I will tell you all about my new area.

I love you lots and can't wait to talk to you on Sunday. 

Love you!

Elder Skalla

Elder Skalla with the Ward Mission Leader in Ciudad Victoria

Elder Durrant and Elder Skalla

Torta's!!!

Transfers

Happy 20th Birthday Elder Skalla!!

Hey mom! 

I had 40 emails to read and respond to and I left yours for last haha. I don't have any time to write but I love you lots! I cant believe I am 20 either... I feel old :(  We are going to the new Little Caesars that opened up with the zone leaders and our ward mission leader to celebrate. Elder Amador, our ZL had his birthday yesterday. And our Mission leader is 22 haha so we get along well.

love you lots!

Elder Skalla

From Mom:  Thanks to all of you who wrote to Ryan today!  I am sure that made his day!  I told him not to write to me cause I knew he wouldn't have time.  I hope some of you got a response back and I am sorry if you didn't!  He has limited time on the computer and reading 40 emails takes a long time!  

Hello!!

Hey everyone!

This week was a good week... On Monday right after I stopped writing the assistants called and said that they were going to spend the night in our house because we had Zone Conference the next day. So they got here around 7:30 and went to an appointment with us and then stayed the night in our house. It was fun to teach with Elder Flores again. We have both grown a lot. It was good to talk to him. He always knows what to say when you need it haha that was one of my favorite things about him in my training. He is doing well and told me to tell you all hi. He saw my calender and was jealous and asked if you could send him one. Was it expensive? Because if you can send another one, he said just the same as mine, that would be nice :) but if not I will give him mine no big deal. He goes home in October and it probably takes a while to get here no? so if it is going to take too long I will just give him mine.

Poor Adalynn! She is already in my prayers every day but I will pray that she gets better!

Weird that Seth and Cassie are getting married. And Weird that Stephen and the Bury boys are getting home so soon. I feel like they just left, right before me, no?

The area is going well. Not as well as we would like it but it is improving. We are trying out some new ideas that are working well. One of our investigators, Freyda, who was kinda off and on, we didn't have too much hope of progress, and had pretty much dropped her, we went by her house just to see how she was doing and she told us that she had received her answer and knew it was true and wanted to be baptized! It was awesome because in the 6 months she has known missionaries she has never accepted a baptism date but she accepted! Apparently she has had 3 dreams where her dad, who passed away, talks to her. In the latest one he told her to be baptized in the church so she could prepare his name to go to the temple and be baptized! That was an awesome feeling hearing that story! She committed to read and pray every day but she wouldn't commit to going to church every week because she works and they don't let her have every Sunday off. She said she will work on it. She said she was planning on coming to church yesterday but didn't show up. 

We had another investigator in church yesterday whose name is Alicia. We had only taught her once or twice and we weren't really THAT hopeful that she would come to church. I mean she said she was going to go, but if everyone that SAID they were going to go actually went we would have like 10 investigators every week in church haha. But she actually came and she loved it! She did later complain about the noisy kids but, hey, welcome to a Mormon church. She is very interested in learning more and is going to read the Book of Mormon this week. The hard part is she works all day every day and only has Saturday and Sunday off so we can only teach her those days :/

We have lots of hopes for our current investigators. If they would just KEEP the commitments they accept, they would have much less problems! Thats a question for Brad. How can I invite and commit people better? They ACCEPT but they dont FULFILL. 

Ummm about addresses, pretty much there are addresses. Mail doesn't really EXIST in Mexico haha but yah the streets here actually have names generally which is an improvement but the number system is all messed up. they don't go in order everyone just chooses a random number to stick on their house. what we use most of the time is which streets their house is between and their "manzana" and "lote" which is like their block and their lot. Its a bit interesting finding addresses here :)

Lots of people think of conference as one week of rest from going to the church. Which would be ok if they watched conference in their houses but they don't haha. Most people come to Sunday morning and priesthood, but the others they don't care much :( And ya the bishopric had to do their report so they did it during conference. Welcome to Mexico. 

How Has the restored gospel blessed my family? Well... We have the surety that families can be eternal through our obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. We have a correct understanding of our relationship with Heavenly Father. We have a living prophet to guide us through modern trials and problems, we have access to revelation and scripture that most of the world doesn't know. Lots of ways :)

Sorry to hear about your cousin :( Share with him how prayer helps you receive strength to overcome trials in your life. Maybe the man has never REALLY prayed in his life, and now is when he needs it most. Don't be afraid to share what you know :)

Love you!

Elder Skalla

Conference!

Actually I have a new talent I have been meaning to show you! Maybe if you are lucky I will take a video and send it on Sunday ;p

(this stems from an inside family joke)

The pics of the Sacred Grove! It is a painting in the stake center here and I love it! If you look real close on the right hand side you can see Joseph Smith kneeling and if you look close on one of the trees there are the initials J.S. engraved. I love that painting!

Conference was awesome! And we got to watch it in English! Elder Durrant and I and Elder Forbes, one of the Zone Leaders, watched it together in the bishops office haha. It was fun. The last session we watched half in Spanish because the bishopric was doing their tri-mesteral report or something so we couldn't be in the office :( but it was okay because we watched the 2 Seventy's that spoke in Spanish in Spanish so that was fun. One of them has a weird accent that was fun trying to understand haha. But I understood everything, its just so much better in your own language. I loved when President Uchtdorf started talking in German haha. so funny. Did you guys notice that there were people who opposed the prophet, the first presidency, the apostles, and the seventy!?!?!?! how sad. Has that ever happened before? Oh and 3 cool places for temples! I bet Carol is happy!

I loved all the conference talks! Like I told Brad and Dad, It meant more to me this time because I came prepared with questions, and then afterwards I made a list of things that I am going to change after hearing the conference, like Elder Nelson asked us. I loved it all!

Sounds like you all had a fun Easter!

Thanks for the birthday gift of sharing the gospel! Barbie sounds like she has been prepared a lot and this could be her time to accept the gospel. Yay! If not, she is one step more prepared! I will pray for her. Don't think you´re done yet though, you still have more Amiga's that are being prepared as we speak!

Tell my brother Bigfoot he needs to shave his beard! haha....

So I have a few stories for ya! One funny and one about investigators!

The funny one... The day finally came... a day that I have been dreading my entire mission, but surprised that it still hadn't come. The day someone gave me milk. I have made the goal to not refuse anything anyone offers me as long as it wont kill me, and I have overcome a lot of my old pickiness, so I thought maybe milk would be no match for me. I was wrong :( first of all the milk here in Mexico is EVEN WORSE than at home! On par with Sintons, I would say. But I did it. I drank the whole glass. I wasn't happy about it, but I drank it and I didn't throw up. I never want to do it again. I have changed a lot, but some things just don't change haha.

Now about our investigator... We found a new less active (inactive member) last week! His name is Adalberto (or Beto for short). And guess where he was baptised? IN GREELEY, COLORADO! Weird right? And he is just awesome. He wants to reactivate and he is keeping his commitments of reading and stuff, just didn't come to church this week :( BUT the best part is that his girlfriend isn't a member but is pretty much Golden! We taught her last week and she accepted a baptism date and she has a Book of Mormon and she is just awesome. But... They aren't married. And that wouldn't be a problem because they want to get married. But... Beto is already married, but separated. Where does his wife live? IN COLORADO! So if he wants to get divorced he has to go all the way to Colorado to do it! Which is a bummer. But we are going to fast and pray with them so that they can figure something out! But they are great people and I hope we can get through this little obstacle. Pray!

Well that's all I have to say. Love you lots and miss you! Be good! Enjoy not melting like I am! haha love you!

Elder Skalla