Things are changing here in Chairel! And PICTURES!!

Hi mom! Yay Broncos!!! Haha I actually found out this morning because Bricio is a big football fan and we saw him this morning so he told me haha. He has a manning broncos jersey! He is the federal cop in the pictures so no he isnt a member. Almost! We are working on that!

Gregor Kreutz is going on a mission!?! did you tell me that already? If so I forgot haha. oops- But good for him! That's awesome! Where is he going?? And Elder Gilbert is married since when!!?? Send pics! That's awesome! That will be fun to go to dinner with them. Tell them I say hi! And has Schoepfles mom progressed at all or is she still not a member?

That's a bummer about McCall :( But that's true that there is something better out there for her. The mission isn't for everyone I have learned. Sounds like the same kind of blessing we had with my hernia! glad I found it in the MTC! Elder Funke, a friend of mine who speaking of which I am going to live with him at BYU if we get in. If he doesn't get in he is going to UVU so if I get in I will have someone to live with still. But he told me his mom is bugging him about finding housing already. Have you looked in to any of that? He said he wants to stay in Raintree but for obvious reasons that would be weird haha. But he said for me to tell you to look into something :) But anyway Elder Funke had a hernia here in the mission and he said it was awful haha. They did the operation while he was awake! just local anesthetic! And for some reason afterwards they couldn't give him the pain meds for like 24 hours so he just stayed in the hospital in a bunch of pain haha. Poor kid. And that's the best Tampico has to offer in health care! Glad I haven't gotten too sick!

Sounds like brad is having a good time in the Philippines so far. Ya its still weird the whole Kelsie thing. I am excited to get to know her.

Jenn did not tell me about Addy. Cute! I am so excited to re-meet her and Tate! And when you say "his" bed does that mean my bed haha? 

Sonia did have her baby... and I don't know why its so hard to get married... mostly just laziness or they don't want to. Just Satan doing what he does. 

About this week...

It was all pretty normal at first but on Wednesday we had a worldwide missionary training! Which was super cool. It was called "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts" and they basically just reined us all back in and taught the basics. Nothing new, just the things we sometimes forget about. It was cool though. I really liked it. I have been studying the Twelve Weeks training book lately. It is just so simple and so easy but we just make it so complicated sometimes! I am trying to go back to the basics. It would be cool to train next transfer and finish my mission training and just focusing on the basic pure missionary work. Who knows though. On Thursday we had our district meeting which was fun, I sent pics of some desserts the sisters made. On Tuesday night we had a meeting with President Flores the stake president and President Ramirez. It was really cool. We basically talked about the stake and its needs and what we can do to help. We had already met with the Stake Pres and came up with a plan for January and February and we were able to get some great insights from pres Ramirez and we all left that meeting super excited to keep moving on! the zone is progressing a lot and it is awesome to see. The stake president is so animated and ready to work and he just loves us haha he calls us leeches because we are just on him all the time haha but he loves it and I think he likes having missionaries that are willing to work with him and work hard. The meeting was at 8:30 at night but Pres Ramirez gave us permission to go and afterward he took us to go eat tacos haha so we were out with president til like 10:00 eating tacos. He is so great. We were talking about the zone a bit and our investigators and he said he wants to come with us to go see a few investigators, so that will be awesome. I love having a close relationship with President Ramirez. He is a great man. On Friday we planned and had a super great day. Super busy teaching all day and it was great. ON Saturday we ate with Bricio and his sister and they made spaghetti (like real spaghetti!) and Barbecue ribs! It was so good haha we were in heaven. We cant decide if Bricio is treating us like his bros or his sons he never had haha but we get along really well and he is progressing! He is reading and told us he is going to stop drinking! the only hard thing is he cant really control his work schedule and sometimes works Sundays. But that's okay we can work with that. This morning he invited us to go to the central de abastos which is where all the stuff that is shipped to Tampico goes before it goes to the stores so everything is a lot cheaper. That was fun. He is a great guy. Elder Tipton and I already have plans to come back for his sealing. Oscar and Sonia had their baby so they were super busy this week, but we were able to teach just Oscar. He is working on getting his work schedule changed to have Sundays off and we are going to take him on a tour of the chapel tomorrow. he loves learning and has so many great questions. On Saturday we were there for like an hour maybe more just answering his questions and he was all over it. Very great guy. Yaneli is also progressing, but she couldn't go to church yesterday because her mom made her stay home and clean. We will see if she can still be baptized the 6th. Everyone else is progressing slowly but surely... We are probably being taught patience because we both came out of the offices just hungry to teach and baptized and we are having to wait a bit longer than we had hoped haha. I am nervous for this change because its possible I will be changed again. I am just used to only staying in an area one transfer now but its hard. There are so many great people here that will be baptized next transfer. We will see...
On Sunday we had the busiest day ever haha it was like a day in the office again haha. At 9 we went to an earlier weird to take the sacrament, 9 30 I had to do a baptismal interview, 10 o clock ward council, and 11 we did splits and I went with the stake president and my companion stayed with the first counselor and we went to the 3rd hour of all 6 wards in the stake and talked abut missionary work in the ward and the plan the stake has to improve. it was rough. I felt like a bishop or a stake president. We were in church from 9 to 4. At 4 we went and ate with the stake president and his wife made us lasagna that was SO good! It was real lasagna! And steak! We were super spoiled this week! At 5 we had a meeting of district and zone leaders and then  At 6:30 we had a meeting in the stake center of ward mission leaders. It was a crazy day. We got home and practically just fell into bed haha... This week should be fairly normal. We are excited for the weeks and months to come! Things are changing here in Chairel! Thanks for the prayers and the love and support!

Love you!
Elder Skalla

Pictures from this week:

Refiner's Fire

Hey mom!

Wow that's crazy that Brad lets you stalk him now! haha that's too funny. It´s still so weird to me that he is all the way in the Philippines! and that you can text him haha. I bet you would let me stay longer if I could just text you every once in a while haha.

crazy place with yucky smells sounds like Mexico! 

It would be way nice to have a job coming home... I see so many RMs here that just get home and sit on their bums and its just sad because they eventually go inactive and just forget everything they ever learned on their mission. So ya i need a job haha even if I have to go back to waterway.... but preferably something a bit better haha. 

That's awesome you used PMG to prepare for your lesson! My companion and I are changing things up a bit and instead of sharing a spiritual thought during dinner or any other time with members, we pull out preach my gospel and share something from there. Sometimes we practice with them how to share the gospel with their friends or how to contact someone on a bus. Its actually super cool! Starting in 2 weeks we are going to start giving Preach my Gospel classes after the 3 hour block for anybody that wants to come. The stake president wants to put much more emphasis in member missionary work! I would 100% recommend adding preach my gospel to your daily study routine :) 

That's sad that McCall wont be able to go on the mission. Is it a stress related thing? Where did she have her call to, I totally forgot... 

How is Elder Gilbert doing? and Schoepfle and Smith and the other ones? 

Quick investigator update:

Bricio: Went out of town for the weekend so he couldn't go to church but he is still great! I will let you know more next week!

Yaneli: Still progressing and will most likely be baptized the 6th of February! Yay!

Jose Luis and Yolanda: we have been pretty direct with them about the need to get married... There is something holding them back. but we cant really keep teaching them until they get married because they cant feel the spirit or anything til they do. We figured out the real problem though and we are trying to help them through it but it will be a bit slower than we had hoped. Keep them in your prayers!

Sonia and Oscar: The baby is still not here haha. Any day now! They love the message and learn really well and ask great questions, BUT he doesn't want to stop working on Sundays. With time though I think he will make the decision. He just needs to take that step of faith.

We have found some other new people that we are going to start working with, but those are the ones we are most focused on...

Spiritual thought for the week... I went on LDS.org just now and saw the thing about the new Provo City Center temple. There is an article and a video about it: http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/provo-city-center-temple-public-tours?cid=HP_TH_1-14-2016_dPAD_fMNWS_xLIDyL2-2_

As I was watching the video and seeing the flames and the destruction of the tabernacle, and all of the people mourning the loss of the structure. Immediately I thought about how God gives us trials and difficulties in our lives, mostly unexpected and always difficult to understand. We are sad for the loss of something we thought was good or important. But He always makes something better out of us. God doesn´t only make bad people good, but He makes good people better. Sometimes to do that he has to tear us down and leave us in a smouldering heap of ashes, barely hanging on. But He does it to strengthen us, to help us grow and to turn us into something that before we never could have become. It is a painful and difficult and long process, but if we let God shape us and mold us and do with us what He knows is best, we will truly become something amazing. The tabernacle was a beautiful and important building, but now it is a temple, the most important place on earth. It now has the capacity to bless generations and generations of people. Sometimes God takes good people and takes them down and puts them through the refiners fire, and at the end of it all we come out better and stronger with much more potential to bless others than we ever could have had before. There is a Mormon message about that that is really powerful. 

Anyways, I love you lots and I am so grateful for your support and love for me. I am so blessed to have the family I have and I am coming to understand that more and more each day. 

PS How is this whole Disney Land thing going to work out when I have to give my homecoming talk and report to the high council and all of that? We are leaving after that, right? or how is all that going to work out...

Elder Skalla

Lots of Progress

Hey mom! 

Wow those pics are cool! That boat is a little bit like the one I used to take to get to my first area... Mine was a bit fancier though haha. I am glad you had fun on your trip and learned lots! Haha I like the picture of the sign... I have heard Chiapas is pretty...

Those pyramids and buildings look pretty cool... You aren't allowed to go like inside them right? I have heard that there is some cool stuff inside. I have heard of ruins that have baptismal fonts inside. I definitely want to come back to Mexico after and go tour that kind of stuff... probably not in a tour group though.  I think it would be more fun on your own.

Haha everybody tried to charge more to the Americans. Especially if you pay in dollars. You just have to haggle haha. But it is just their way of life. Its sad. In Mexico its worse because of all the corruption. The cartels have a lot of influence and its hard to make enough to get by.

I will have to make you some REAL Mexican food when I get home. I'm guessing what you ate wasn't near the real thing, and that's what tastes best!

My last few days in the office were interesting... on Monday we sent a group of 10 missionaries home after finishing their missions. They were all sup´posed to go to Mexico City and then to their respective places. We got a call saying their flight was re routed to Michoacan! A completely different part of Mexico! We had no idea why and the airline wouldn't give me any answers. Me and the poor kid who replaced me had to resolve that crisis. It was fun though haha. One last hurrah before I left the office haha. Everybody missed their connecting flights but eventually they all got home. One kid who is form Ecuador didn't get home til the next day at 9 am! Poor kid! After getting Elder Porter, the new sec, trained and ready, we headed out to the area...

This week has been pretty great! We are both just super antsy to get out and work. I have to admit them I am so tired. Mentally exhausted. I had a a lot of late nights and early mornings and long days and stressful days in the office and all of that is just coming back to me right now haha. I hope I recover soon haha because I am tired almost ALL the time. 

Our area is super great! We were a bit worried coming in because we had seen the graphs and it didn't look too pretty. But we came and there is a ton of potential here. The members are great, we just have to show them that we mean business and are here to work. Little by little everybody is starting to wake up a bit and we are pumped! The ward mission leader is totally on board and is ready to work with us a bunch. The stake president is super excited about some plans we have for the zone. We have a meeting with him tomorrow and again on Thursday with President Ramirez. Chairel has never really been a zone that anybody really wants to go to. It's just kind of there. But from what we have seen it is a great area and a great stake. 

I have now been in all 5 zones in the Tampico area. Tampico, Madero, Ampliacion, Bosque, and Chairel. Apart from that, Panuco and Victoria. There are only 3 zones I haven't been in. Who knows if this is my last area. I hope not... Elder Tipton finishes the change after me so maybe he will stay and I will go finish somewhere else. I love the area but it's just weird thinking I will finish my mission here... And worse because the darn wards name is "Airport" haha. Just keepin me close I guess! 

We have found some great investigators this week!

Jose Luis (inv) and Yolanda (Less Active): Yolanda is in the process of reactivating. Their son Albert got baptized a few weeks ago. They aren't married but have lived together for 15 years. Surprise! He has a bit of a drinking problem. He is super smart though and is willing to learn and to work on his problem. He accepted a baptism date for the13th and they are going to pick a wedding date before the next time we visit them. We´re going to have a wedding!! yay! That means future eternal family! They didn't go to church on Sunday (The son did, parents no) because there were some people working on their roof, but next week they will!

Yaneli: Friend of our Ward mission Leaders (Mahonri) sister (Abish), has been going to church off and on for the past few years, hasn't been able to be baptized because of the rule that one of her parents has to be baptized because she is just 14. That rule changed 6 months ago but she went out of town for a while. Now she is back and has a date for the 6th of February! Didn't show up to church at first but 30 minutes in to Sacrament meeting she showed up! Hurray! She is super great and ready to be baptized.

Bricio: Recently moved into the ward a few weeks ago. His sister is an RM and her wife is RC. He is a federal police officer and works in the airport. Has been listening to the sisters for a few years off and on (more off than on) but has never talked to elders. He lives with his sister and his wife and his daughter (whose name is "azul" haha) so maybe what he needs is just some guy influence haha. He expressed to us a desire to come closer to God and a feeling of having drifter away from God in the past few months. Went to church on Sunday and is committed to listen to the Book of Mormon on his phone every day. We invited him to be baptized but we didn't want to pressure him so he is going to think about a date and let us know. he said "Finally, missionaries that aren't pressuring me to just get baptized already!" We are super excited for him.

Oscar and Sonia: Former investigators we found in the area book. Sonia is going to have a baby any day know (Guess what they re going to name it! Emma! Weird, right?). They are super humble and teachable and they want to find out the truth. He works on Sunday's but I'm guessing he will be willing to give that up. We are excited for them too! 

Keep them all in your prayers! We are so blessed to have them as investigators! This morning the 1st counselor in the stake pres called us and said that some family friends came to their door saying they are going through some problems and are interested in learning more about the church! We have a family home evening with them tonight!

Things are going miraculously here and we are super excited to work hard! I love missionary work and it feels great to be back in the field!

Love you lots!

Elder Skalla

PS I totally forgot to tell you... Remember that guy that chased us down in the red truck a while ago? He got baptized last week! woo!!! Also in Unidad, the area I was in first as secretary, When we left and regular missionaries got there, they baptized 8 in 2 changes! Crazy! Lots of people Elder Bis and I taught but weren't able to devote a whole lot of attention too :(

Transfers!!!

Hey mom!

So I thought I´d write just a little bit so you know where I am getting transferred... It was kind of crazy.

Elder Gurrolla, one of the assistants, got sick so my companion and he went to the house to rest and Elder Tipton and I stayed to finish some stuff in the office. Elder Tipton was just putting the finishing touches on transfers, making sure all the districts had district leaders and just final details. President called and said he was done and they were good to submit and send off to the missionaries. I was in a different area with a different missionary, where I had been since they started working on changes. Then President said he was going to do one last change so Elder Tipton refreshed it and then just looked over at me and I looked over at the transfer board and I got moved to a different area haha. So... I´m going to Zona Chairel, Aeropuerto Ward. I will be a zone leader again and we are opening the area... And my companion is Elder Tipton! Haha we were both super shocked, but we are pumped. The zone is kind of struggling a bit so we are already planning what we are going to do to help it out... It´s going to be a fun change! We get along really well and are pumped to get out of the offices and back in the field! I´ll write more next week! Love ya!

Elder Skalla

Elder Tipton and Elder Skalla

Happy New Year 2016

Hi Mom!

Sound like you had a great time in Mexico! Sorry you had to take a cold shower! That´s a bummer! Haha and imagine the heat in the summer if it´s so hot now! Actually here a cold front came in so it started getting cold on New Years Eve in the night. That's cool you got to go to a place where Kris served. And that´s a cool story about that sister who is getting baptized! Lets hope the missionaries and ward members stay in contact with here while she is taking that class. That´s easy to fall away when you aren´t going to church. It requires lots of follow-up. Haha sorry you have to be on a bus all day. Do you know what kind it is? Is it like the tour groups bus or do you go in like normal charter buses? Too bad "Those Nephites" didn´t build their cities closer together haha :p With all the delays and stuff did the rest miss any part of the tour? Haha and speaking of souvenirs you better tell me what stuff you bought so I don´t end up buying any of the same for you! haha. Probably not because the culture and stuff is a bit different up north than it is in the south. I loved seeing and talking to you as well. And don`t worry about the babies, if they would have said anymore I probably would have just fallen in shock haha.

That's cool you kind of got to be among the people for a bit. They really are great :) The kids are the best though, you are right. So innocent and loving. And yes, the members are the most blessed. Not all of them though. Some of the most faithful and obedient and hard working members I know live in shacks. But even living in a shack they are happy and they don`t worry about the same problems other people have to worry about. 

With New Years, my "Year of the Mission" is over :( 2015 was an incredible year, but I feel like this year will be even more crazy. I have a lot ahead of me. 

This week has been pretty interesting! I did lots of things I have never done before! On Monday or Tuesday, I don't really remember, I injected a missionary with the Influenza Vaccine! Elder Ordoñez studied medicine and his dad is a surgeon so he is teaching all of us how to inject. It´s really not that hard but I was nervous. But apparently I did an OK job haha. Later Elder Ordoñez got sick so he had to have injections so he let us all inject him haha. But that wasn´t in the arm.

On Thursday I got to go to Pueblo Viejo! A missionary serving there went home so we had to go pick up some stuff of his. I obviously volunteered to go haha. It was strange going back... Unfortunately I couldn´t go anywhere other than the house or visit anyone, but from the house to get to a taxi to go back and cross the river we had to walk right  by the Ponce families house. Celia was outside and I saw her from like a block away and I could tell she saw me and thought it was me but couldn't really tell. When I got closer she was super surprised haha. It was really great seeing them. Celia and her husband were outside and I was so happy to see that he recognized me and had a big grin on his face. He´s a big dude that a lot of missionaries are afraid of but really hes just a teddy bear, but most missionaries don't include him in the lessons or anything because he looks intimidating. Be he's great. Then Cristian and Naydelin came out and that was awesome and Mari and Leo and Emilia and I got to meet Emilias new baby Jimena! She was born in October and is precious! The bad thing is I didn't get a pic! We were just there a few minutes but it was really cool to get to see them. as I was leaving Celia said "Dont forget that you´ll always be a Ponce! Elder Skalla Ponce!" Haha. They're like my Mexican family. 

On new years President gave us permission to sleep in the office and watch church movies. We watched Ephraim's Rescue and 17 miracles. I hadn't seen Ephraim's Rescue but it was really good. We stayed up til 12 and at 12 we watched the illegal fireworks going off all around haha. It was pretty fun. We even splurged and bought cream soda. On New Years Day we went to breakfast at this breakfast buffet place. It was like the nicest restaurant I have ever eaten at in Mexico haha. Super awesome all you can eat with pancakes and omelette's and yogurt and fried bananas and a bunch of other Mexican breakfast dishes. And not that expensive either! Reminded me of the New Years Day Mimi's breakfasts :)

This week was my last week in the office! Most of what I was doing was preparing for the new guy to come. I will stay here a few days before going to my area to train the new guy. There is a book/folder thing that kind of explains the job but it's old and outdated so I have been redoing it. I am almost done but it's been a lot of work! I'm not sure who I am going with yet, but I have an idea. I'll find out later tonight. Odds are I wont have P Day on Monday so the next time I write will be NEXT Monday. Yay for Monday p days again! I bet you are excited! Or upset because you're just barely getting used to Saturday P days haha. I bet Brad will be happy. Lets see if his promise is true and he really does write me more with my p day on Monday. I bet he will be pretty busy in the Philippines. When does he leave?

I am excited to go back to the field. I am scared a bit because I have seen that lots of past secretaries have left the office and really struggle getting back into the normal missionary lifestyle. I already talked to president about it though and he gave me some ideas so I think I will be fine. I am hopeful for a bright future in front of me and I am excited to go out, work hard, be happy and finish strong. 

I love you all so much and I am so thankful to be a part of my great family and 

to have all the support I do. Thanks for everything! 

Love,

Elder Skalla

México Tampico Mission