One Year Down!

Man the time goes by too fast.... And they say (and its true) that time just goes by faster every day and that the second year goes by lots faster than the first. I don't like thinking about time but that's kinda unavoidable right now haha. That's crazy that its been a year since I was home. I have changed so much. On Tuesday we had interviews with president Jordan and he said "You just completed a year, right?" (Thanks for reminding me, pres :p) And we talked about the ways I have changed in this year. My testimony has grown and I have become more converted, I am more humble, but I still have a long ways to go. since that day I have kept thinking about that. I recognized a lot of ways that I have changed, good and bad, and a lot of ways I thought I would change but haven't, and what i can do to change those things. I want the second year of my mission to be everything it can be. I want to be more humble, more diligent, more consecrated, and more like Christ. 

This week was busy but good. Lots of meetings and interviews and stuff and a baptism so that always takes lots of time and it was a crazy busy week. The temple was awesome on Tuesday :) I will send pics of the baptism on Wednesday because the Internet in our chapel doesn't work so I have to do it in the stake center before district meeting. I love the ties and the MP3 is perfect :) Thanks, love you!

We have been seeing tons of miracles in this area honestly. I don't have lots of time to talk about all of them but we are HOPING to have a baptism every week in June and a few in July as well. Next week i will update you a bit more about our investigators.

Pamela's baptism went well :) There were like 8 investigators there too which was awesome. A baptism is a really good way to help other investigators feel the spirit and want to be baptized as well. Pamela is happy and is already doing a great job as a member and is helping us teach her neighbours, Sonia and Erik. They are going through some family and work problems right now and are very humbled and willing to listen. That has been the base of our miracles lately... finding humble people who are just ready to listen and are teachable. 

I love being a missionary and am striving to be a more Christlike person every day, I love each and every one of you so much and pray for you every day. Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Skalla

Pamela's Baptism

Temple Day!

First things first before I forget... I got the package and Elder Flores said thank you and that he is very happy and that he loves you haha.

Hello! 

Sounds like a crazy week... Those kids are already graduating man everyone is getting so old... And that's great that the Bury's are doing so well! When does Caleb get home?? And Chandler emailed me and asked me what I wish I would have done to prepare better. I already replied but now I am gonna reply again and tell him to CUT HIS HAIR! haha And good for Lauren Drake too! How is Natalie doing??

About our investigators...

Pamela- She passed her interviews and will be baptized this Saturday! She is super excited and super ready. She wants to prepare to serve a mission which is awesome and we are going to help her start her family history! (Speaking of that, I have been doing a bit of mine... I fixed all the problems it had before I left when nobody passed grama and grandpa on both sides was showing up. I think I have everything in now...) She is doing really well and we are excited for her baptism this Saturday.

Ester- She has come to church the last 4 weeks after moving here from a little town called Aldama. She was there at school but she came back here to live with her family because she had some problems. Her brothers are both baptized and the older one, Miguel, is starting his mission papers. Her sister and mom are birth Eternal Investigators that we are trying to get to be baptized haha but they keep saying Maybe Later! But Ester is super excited she reads the Book of Mormon every day and her brother is great and shows her Mormon messages and they watch movies about the church and stuff and she is super excited and will be interviews on Saturday! Pray for her! She also wants to go on a mission which is awesome!

Aldegunda- She has been coming to church every week for like 3 weeks but this past week she didn't come because she had some problem at home but on Saturday she came with us to a baptism that the elders in my district had and she liked it and wants to be baptized! We are hoping that she will be ready to be baptized on June 6th...

Maria de Lourdes:  Okay so crazy story on my first day here we were walking home at around 8:40 (we have to be home before 9) and some lady just contacted us in the street and said that she was listening to the missionaries a few years ago and wanted to be baptized but her husband wouldn't let her so she stopped going to church but that now she wasn't with her husband anymore so she wanted us to come back! So she gave us her address and put an appointment. I was on divisions the day of the appointment and my companion got lost and couldn't find the house so we didn't have the appointment :( the next day we found the actual address but they told us that she didn't live there :( so we though that she had given us a false address. So we were bummed but then like a week later we were walking to a members house for lunch (They feed us every day at 2 instead of dinner because here they eat dinner at like 9 and lunch is the biggest meal of the day) and my companion sees this girl on a bike riding along the street and just says (is that maria de lourdes daughter?" and I was just like ummm I don't know we haven't seen them for like 3 weeks I cant remember but lets ask her. Well turns out it was! My companion has like a super good memory of things that he sees, so now knowing that I am starting to teach him more visually so that he can understand and remember.  But anyway we talked to the girl and we asked if she would show us where she lived. She said sure and we followed her a few blocks and we stop at the house where they had told us she didn't live. Well turns out she rents a little house BEHIND that house and well we don't know why they told us she didn't live there but... who knows. They didn't want to listen when we tried to preach to them either haha. But anyway the girl goes and gets her mom and she was just about to leave so we couldn't teach much but we talked a bit and invited her to church on Sunday (which was going to be mothers day) and put an appointment. Well when we came back for the appointment she wasn't there, and she didn't go to church, so again we were bummed. we passed by several times but we could never find her at home until this Sunday she came to church which shocked my companion and I! It was awesome.... I will keep you updated about her...

The temple was great this morning. Very relaxing and calming after a lot of stress and worrying and just lots of stuff haha. Tomorrow we have interviews with president. Thanks for the package! Love you!

Elder Skalla

The note I got from his camera on Monday...

 Elder Camelo

 Elder Camelo and Elder Skalla

 Elder Skalla's District

These are the pictures that he sent a while ago of the new building in his area.  I just got them last week cause the wifi was down.  Love technology!!!

Elder Skalla and Elder Camelo

Beautiful new church building!!

But so different not having carpet in the chapel!

Happy Mother's Day!

Man long time no see haha

I also had some things I was gonna talk about but I don't remember them either haha don't worry about it.  Like I explained to Brad and like you said, our worlds are just so far apart. haha like the hot water thing, there are lots of things that are just part of life for me now that you guys cant really understand haha so its kinda weird. But I will be home before you know it honestly. The time goes way too fast. Every day and every week and every transfer is shorter. I am happy and you have absolutely nothing to worry about. If I really really need anything I will let you know. Like Christ tells his disciples in 3 Nephi and in Mathew, not to worry about what to eat or drink or wear. I don't worry about it, and you don't need to either :) I am well taken care of. I will send a video of my testimony in Spanish. I will try on Wednesday because I have sent pics to you from my chapel here but apparently the Internet has been down so It just says they were sent but really not. 

The Lord has SOMEONE prepared for you right now. He is (apresurando?) His work and every one of us has a purpose. Pray and ACT. read preach my gospel. Find someone! Make a list of all your friends who isn't a member or who isn't currently active and pray about each and every one of them and then go find them and talk to them and ask them about their lives and something they say will highlight a truth of the gospel that you can use to teach and help them. Everyone has at least a tiny chink in their armor of pride that we can get through and touch their hearts :) 

About my area: It's just a little town in Tampico (Well, Altamira but same thing) close to the ocean. I can't SEE the ocean (even though the town is called "watch the sea or see the sea or sea view or something like that) because there are a few lagoons in the way but it's close. It's just a normal town with normal people. The ward members are great and we have some great investigators. Its nice too because the houses actually have house numbers that go in order  and the streets have names! haha. The area is big and I wish we had a bike, but its okay we are working hard. But honestly the area is too big for just the two of us.

About Investigators: 

Pamela- Her friend, Edna, was baptized 2 years ago. She decided she wanted to change her life and Edna referred her to us. We started teaching her and she liked what she heard and started coming to church and started leaving behind her old life. She is 20 years old and will be baptized on the 23rd :) Pray for her!

Ana Ester, Ester, y Francisca (Fam. Lozano)- Ana´s son, Miguel, got baptized a bit over a year ago, and then her other son, Jose Guadalupe, got baptized a few months later. Miguel is preparing for a mission. Ana Ester comes to church every week but still doesn't feel ready to be baptized. Ester is her daughter and used to live in Aldama, about an hour north, but came back to live with her family and go to school  in Tampico after some problems in Aldama. She met the elders and went to church the first week and loved it and already wanted to be baptized and wants to serve a mission! She has gone 3 times including yesterday. She reads and prays every day and Miguel shows her Mormon messages and answers her questions. Her sister, Francisca, was about to be baptized 6 months ago but then Miguel inactivated for a few months and she stopped going, but started going again. They are on date for may 30th.

I don't have much more time but next week I will tell you about a few other people we are teaching... love you lots!

Elder Skalla

First week in Miramar

Haha I thought you might like those videos! Maybe Ill start taking more in Spanish haha, but to be able to send them they can only be 30 seconds. I will just teach you guys the missionary lessons in 30 seconds :p and you can show them to Olga! Perfect.

That incline looks cool! I had never heard about it but it looks fun. Looks kinda like my last area. haha no it wasn't that steep. 

Tate is too big! And his hair is super long. Oh I have to tell you about the weird dream I had last night. I dreamt (sp?) that it was time for the new babies to be born and that Jenn's came first because it was born a month early and we were all scared but it was fine and then Ali's baby came. I remember that the names they gave them were super weird. Jenns was a girl and Ali's was a boy and Jenn's named hers "Palestina" (please don't name her that) And Ali named hers something with a C like Conrad but weirder. I cant remember well. It was super weird.

Ya, We have some members that are going to loan us their laptops to Skype on Sunday. We are gonna do it like right after church which ends at 1:00 so it will be like at 1:15-1:30. We just have 30-40 minutes, like last time haha. This week I searched for my user name and all that so everything is good there.

Sounds like Brad has a crazy summer ahead of him. I would tell the punk to get married already but.... But tell him to cut his hair! It is way too long in that picture you sent (By the way you got a great pic of that shirtless guy behind you guys in the picture haha)

I was excited to hear that Blanca and Itsel and her sister got baptized too :D on Wednesday I will try and remember to send a pic of Itsel so you can remember who it is.

So this week was a great week! This is the first time my companion has lead in an area so things are going a bit slower, especially since we are opening the other side of the ward too because they took 2 elders out of our ward when I got here. So right now I am just kinda letting my companion do his thing to help him learn. It would be easy to just take control and do everything and get stuff done but... that way my companion would never learn. So right now I just kinda follow him and let him make decisions, but I'm always there to keep him from going too far off haha.  Everything is going well so far. The area is great and I love the ward! I hope to stay here longer than my last two areas. I don't like these "two years of goodbyes!" haha You really get attached to people and places very quickly! We have about 10 or so investigators that are really potential baptismal candidates that are attending church and keeping commitments so we will probably have a few baptisms this transfer! The hardest part about baptisms is just that even if they are keeping all their to their commitments, if they don't go to church 5 times in a period of 6 weeks without missing more than twice, they cant get baptized and have to start their 5 weeks again. Its frustrating sometime but worth it because that way the converts are more converted at baptism and they don't inactivate as easily afterwards.

ON Friday we had a seventy come visit! Elder Lester Johnson form the 4th quorum of the seventy! We had a little 5 zone conference in Tampico and we learned a lot! He had several volunteers come up and practice teaching different principles and coached us and stuff. Elder Arvizu and I got to teach together again, which was fun :) It was great because I got to see lots of mission friends. I talked to the elders that are in my first area right now and they say that most of the converts are doing well. Norma finally accepted baptisms for the dead! I don't know if I told you but right before I left she started getting super defensive about that and started denying Thu book of Mormon and stuff and I have been super worried but she is good now! yay! And EMILIA IS PREGNANT! So I am going to have 3 new nieces/nephews in a few months haha. I consider them my Mexican family and they have adopted me too haha. Also Elder Arvizu told me that they are going to start building the new chapel in Panuco which is great. We did it! They say that Panuco is growing lots and is close to being a stake :D  

I hope you liked all the pics haha I will try to take more. I am writing in my journal every day now because I decided to repent finally haha so that will help me remember stuff to tell you. Everything is going well! Love you lots! See you on Sunday!

Elder Skalla

PS Send President Doman the pic of Elder Camelo and I. Elder Camelo was in his district in the MTC too! Weird! I already wrote him but he wrote back and asked for a pic. thanks!