Christmas 2009

Sorry- No letter this last week as we got to talk to Skyler on Christmas day! He was very upbeat and sounded so grown-up. Of course as soon as I heard his voice, I burst into tears! I was doing fine until then. He and his dad spoke in spanish to one another, and you should have seen the smile on dads face. Bailey chattered and Reagan kissed the phone. Mallory and Juliann did fine until they talked to hem before it was time to hang up, then they both cried. By the time I got back on, he was on the verge of tears. Guess we should have been braver! He really thinks that the 18 mos he has left won't be enough to do all he needs to do to be a fantastic missionary, but we all know that every day he works he's doing his best and that's all our Heavenly Father asks. We're very proud! 

Dec 16

Hey, sorry about this week. This pday sucks. We had mission conference yesterday, it was really good. Then I went with elder Gleave on exchanges last night. Elder Darbro and I went to top gun planning this morning. It was crazy intense. Then we had to get the oil changed on the car and wait over 1 hour for the oil to get changed. Now I have to use an express computer for 15 minutes to type, so this is going to be super short.

Yes, I did get the christmas package, thank you so much. The Garmin was a huge help in getting up to Richmond. THe other one was good, but it only holds a 1 hour charge and the streets here are so close together and that GPS just wasn't exact enough, so thank you soo soo much. I haven't gotten the garments yet, but they should come soon. Everything is going good; Elder Darbro and I have started applying some things that we weren't doing before and we're really excited to see the results! Hopefully we'll be able to get things rolling in Va Beach before the Sisters get their next transfer! haha seriously though! But yeah, I'm thinking I'm going to call at 2 my time, so 11 for you, right? Yeah. Ok, gotta go. Love you all very much. Talk to you in one week!

Love Skyler

Dec 9

Wow, so I typed you a huge 20 minute letter, and it got deleted!


Ok, so. Thanks for the thermals. Those will come in handy. The apartment usually is at 52ish degrees when we wake up because the heater doesn't work properly. And with the GPS. I don't want to spend a ton of your money. But eyah, like the cheap Garmin model would be fantastic!
So have I even ever met this Mary Matthews? It sounds really familiar. Does she have black hair? Cause if she does, I think I know her. There was this girl named Mary in my institute class, and when we had that "Night on the town" thing at the YSA, she was my assigned date. That would be funny if it was her! haha
We have 1 baptism set for the 27th, and he's super solid. He's only 9, and his parents are recent converts of 6 months, so I'm not so sure how much that counts, but eyah. We have this family who is super sweeet. Carlos and Ana. They're from Honduras. Elder Darbro and Ghelfy found tehm about 3 weeks before I got here, but when they didn't come to church the first time, Elder Ghelfy dropped them. But we had this appointment with them last night, but they called us about 2 hours before and said "Sorry, I just got called into work. But I read and prayed abotu the Book of Mormon last night. I'm going to do it again tonight to see if I get an answer." SO we're really really excited about them.
Elder Gleave caem down for exchanges yesterday. He was so excited. I was so excited to see him again! He looked so happy and was so energetic! It was so good to see him like that again. He was super unenergetic and kind of depressed when they sent him up to Harrisonburg again. But he loves being zone leader and he's good at it!
SO we're going to top gun on the 16th. I'm really excited this time. The only problem is that we have to be up in richmond on the 15th at 10AM for Mission conference, so we have to be out of our area for 5 days! It sucks! I'm so mad! 5 whole days without any spanish work in this area! It's really not good, but oh well. But I'm excited for Top Gun because I got in a bad habit of just taking myself completely out of lessons in Charlottesville because I couldn't stand working with one of my companions, and unfortunately that habit has carried down here, so I need to get out of that habit :(
That's crazy about the weather in Reno, especially so early in the season. It's pretty cold here, mostly due to the wind. So mallory's scarf has really come in handy!
Anyway, I still have to email president for my weekly letter. I forgot last week. Uh oh! So yeah. Until nextweek. Love you all. Thanks for your prayers, letters and support.

Skyler

Dec 2

Hey hey hey. And about the bad areas. Yes, Norfolk is where those two elders got shot a few years back, but we HAVE to go in there. It's a huge chunk of our area and there are a bunch of hispanics in there. We're trying to be smart and avoid the super bad areas, but sometimes there's no other option. So we'll be safe adn smart, but please keep praying for us.

As for thanksgiving, probably the worst thanksgiving I've ever had. We got a text last wednesday night from a number we didn't recognize. It just said "John Jones is stuck in nutty putty caves in Utah. Pray for him." and that was it. So we had no idea what was going on. Then we do weekly planning on THursday and afterwards, I figure I'll call Elder Washburn in C-Ville to see if it was Hno. Jones up there. SO I call him and ask whats going on, and he pauses and says "He died." I thought he was just playing a cruel joke, so we decided to call the number of the text. Turns out it was the old Zone Leader Elder Morris who was friends with Bro. and Sis. Jones from before his mission. They went to Utah to see his homecoming and on Tuesday night Bro. Jones went caving with some friends. He decided to walk into this one room and had to suck in his chest to get through this crack. Well he ended up getting stuck and couldn't get out. He was in there for over 24 hours and he ended up dying. Elder Morris told us that and we couldn't believe it. He was only 27 years old with a wife and a 1 year old daughter. I was so devestated. Elder Darbro and I just sat on the couch for about 30 minutes crying. It was terrible. Then in my interview with president on Saturday, I found out taht they can't retrieve the body, so they're closing down the cave and just leaving him in there. It's really terrible. I was so depressed about that. That man deserves so much better than that. He seriously changed my mission. He was one of the greatest people I've ever met. I really miss him, but I got some comfort in the fact that he's kickin so much butt on the other side right now. He's saving so many people over there it's insane.
But yeah, that's pretty much the most of the news for this past week. Sorry that's really depressing. But that was our week last week.
Mom- Glad to hear your thanksgiving was good. So I get to call on Christmas whenever I want to. I think I'll call at around 2 my time, so that's 11 bac k home, right? Don't hold me on that, I might change my mind, but I'll definitely let you know.
Dad- So how's everything going? Always fun to get your letters. Glad you had some time to finally go out shooting! And don't worry, we're not taking advantage of any of the members. They are the ones who set up the dinners with us, and we can't say "Oh no, we don't want to come over to eat with you." can we? So they talk to us in church on sunday and set up the appts usually.
Mallory- Your addiction to Twilight is terrifying. 3rd time you've read the book this month? That's scary! I'm glad you liked the movie though. How many times have you gone to see new moon? If you say more than twice, I'm going to cry for you! ANd yes, the scarf is working out great. Elder Darbro is jealous of it. And yes, some baked goods would be wonderful. But no pressure or anything. I bought a whole pie this week, so that'll last me for awhile.
Juli- How's everything going? You should just about be out of school for the winter, right? That's so sweet, you're almost done! Can you believe that? Hows work going?
Anyway, I think that's all for this week. I know, not very long, but I dont' remember really anything except for Thanksgiving day. But yeah. Hope everything is good and I love you all.

Love Skyler

Nov 17, 2009

Hey hey hey


So sorry I forgot to tell you last week, but PDay got moved to tuesday this week for some reason, so I wasn't expecting a letter from you mom, so it's ok. I'll just have one BIG long one to read next week! haha
Dad-Yeah, the bear was really crazy! It was freaking hilarious though! I'll put the memory card in the mail and you can see all my pictures, all the way back to like, Sept. 17th I think. And yeah, when we go to Henrico or some other apartment, we just end up sleeping on the floor or couch. I've been on floor both times. Last time (last Tuesday) I was on floor, elder washburn and elder Nelson as well and then Elder Lusk was on the couch and elder Pasker (his greenie) was on the recliner. I know, how crazy is it that missionaries have a recliner in their apartment!? And it's only Elder Wheatley and Elder Hernandez in that apartment! Thats ridiculous! But yeah, thats how it works up here in VA. And Brother Bear in spanish was AWESOME!!!! I think I might have a new favorite disney movie (besides Nightmare Before Christmas of course!) And also, Phil Collins did the music for that movie, and he redid his songs in spanish for the spanish version! It was sick! I think you'd really like it dad!
Mom- Sorry for the lack of info about P-Day being moved! It's ok though, I just get to type a longer email this week! maybe haha! So have you gone out with the missionaries yet? Oh man that's gonna be so sweet! SO how's work going, gearing up for the holidays! It's going to be like, your 2nd year straight working there right? That's insane! I've never had a job for longer than 8 months! hahaha
Mallory- Thank you SO much for the scarf and cookies! I opened the package last night and immediately put on the scarf and wore it around all last night. It was like, 72 degrees in the apartment, but I didn't care. That thing is SWEET! all the other elders in the apartment are so jealous of it cause they all have little wussy not awesome scarves! And the cookies are AMAZING! oh my gosh they're SO good! I had to hide them cause I don't want the others to know how good they are! But yeah, thank you sooo much!
But this week has definitely been interesting. We're supposed to be teaching a minimum of 20 lessons a week, which really shouldn't be too hard, but it's actually really tough to get that consistently. We had 2 lessons last week by P-Day, which was really bad. But by Sunday night we were up to 18, which isn't too bad. But we've been trying to be a lot more effective and teach more lessons consistently, but yesterday was not a good day for that, but I think I changed a kid's life yesterday! haha We helped Lulu move some furniture and I found 2 rupees from India in there and she told me to keep it, so I put it in my pocket. We end up going to Kroger(a grocery store here) and we run into Sis. Sanchez, so we help her carry her groceries out to the car cause she's prego. So we're talking to her and her kid, and she asks him if he wants to go on a mission someday and he says "I'm going to India to be a missionary!" SO I was like, "Oh, hey, I can help with that dream!" and I pulled out the Rupees and gave it to him. So our ongoing joke since yesterday is that he's going to get his call to India when he's reporting out he'll tell the story about the day the missionaries gave him Indian money! But then I started to get mad. We went over to maricela's house and I only wanted to spend like, 20-30 minutes there, but Elder Nelson and Washburn decided to spend 2 HOURS there!!! I was so mad! And then when we FINALLY left we went over to Rosi and Elder Washburn makes a joke and says "Elder Nelson only has 340 days until he's getting married!" (cause he leaves in 340 days!) and he got super ofendido and upset and it was just super awkward and then Elder Nelson got mad at me for saying a prayer to share a message and then end with a prayer, so it was just super crazy and contentious last night and ridiculous. And then we had to clean like CRAZY today because last week the crisis decided to rearrange the whole house so they moved their beds into their study room, our beds into where theirs used to be and their study room into the living room where we were sleeping. So our room is practically one giant gay bed(i'm not even kidding, there's about 2 inches between each bed) and it was absolutely filthy and cluttered and just ridiculous. So we had to clean forever this morning! But yeah, hopefully that's behind us and we can start getting to teaching lessons again, because we met our daily lesson goal on Thursday, the first time that had ever happened on my mission, and I was SUPER STOKED!

So funny story, we were at Maricela's last Friday adn I needed the other elders to get up off the couch really fast, so I yelled "Levantaos" which means "Get up" but it's in a conjugation that they really only use in the bible and in spain, and I didn't even think about what I said, it just came out like that, and Maricela just looked at me and the other elders jumped up and looked all strange and surprised and then we all just started laughing and it was really hilarious. Then on Saturday, America got baptized. She's the daughter of Juan and Lulu. And the baptism was amazing! All done in spanish and I understood everything and it was sweet! But Elder Nelson was in the bathroom before, the one with the lever to fill up the font. Elder Washburn and I are standing outside and we end up reading something and not noticing the mujer walking around the building. Well, we didn't notice her walk into the bathroom behind us until she shreaks (kind of) and comes out and says to us "I thought there were only two of you. Is he going to be awhile?" and it was super awkward and hilarious! But Juan didn't do the baptism. I don't know what it is with Hispanics, but they think that Missionaries and Bishops have special powers. The bishop did the baptism, but luckily Juan confirmed her, and the Spirit was just like BAM! in the room! It was so crazy. And then the next day, Roselyn finally got blessed, but once again, Juan had the Bishop do it. But it was funny, we asked Juan last Monday who was going to do the blessing, and he just sat there for a little bit, then said "the bishop. And all the old people." We asked why and he says "Because old people know a lot of stuff." Well, we couldn't argue with him about his baby's blessing, so we just said Ok and that was that! but yeah, it was an interesting weekend. I translated all of Elder's Quorum again, and the guy that taught is CRAZY smart and has a vocabulary the size of Texas and maybe Louisiana. He's a REALLY good teacher, but its' impossible to translate for him! But it was super good parctice. The primary program was also that day and Hermano Jones translated and a bunch of times when the kids would just yell something into the Microphone, he would just pause and say "no sE" or "ni idea" and all the hispanics are laughing out loud and the white people don't get it. It made me love being a spanish speaking missionary even more. But on Saturday, I talked with Hno. Jones about improving my spanish (because he talks sooooooo good in spanish) and he told me about this little exercise where you put a pen in your mouth sideways and hold your tongue underneath it and talk in spanish. It sounds stupid and idiotic, but it strengthens your tongue in the way you use it for spanish, so I tried it and my tongue is still sore! It was crazy! SO I think I'm going to keep doing that. And then he also told me about a game he and his companion played in Ecuador where any time one of them spoke english, they had to buy the other a candy or something. Now, things are a little more expensive here in VA than in Ecuador, so we upped it to every 5 times. I was the first loser. But we've barely spoken any english at all over the past 3 days. It's crazy. I feel like it's already helped sooo much. I'm trying to convince Elder Nelson to only talk to us in spanish even during planning, but he didn't like that idea. Oh well.
Anyway, I think that's about all for this week. Love you all and miss you. Hope you have a great day. Can't wait to hear from you next week. Adios

Nov 25, 2009

Hey there.
Wow what a week. Virginia Beach is awesome! I spent all of Wednesday packing and then Elder Washburn and I went to say goodbye to Pancho and Juan and Lulu. Thursday, we were supposed to be in Richmond by 9:40 for the transfer meeting, but that didn't happen. The guy who was going to give us a ride caled us at 9:00 and said he couldn't make it, so we threw everything in the van and hauled down to richmond in the remnant of a hurricane :) it was pretty sweet! But we got down there and I talked with Elder Gleave and Bishop and Elder Bishop had been telling all of the members here about me and how they could expect great things out of me, so I have to live up to the reputation he started for me now! haha But the drive down here from Richmond was like, 3 hours, but we got here and I met Elder Darbro and we went back to the apartment which is right down the streeet from the Library. My new address is 4633 Soho Court. Virginia Beach, VA 23455. It's a really nice apartment, and only me and Elder Darbro are living in it, so it's nice to be able to take a 10 minute shower if I want! So our area here is huge! I mean biggest area in the entire mission! We cover 4 cities here- Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, and then we also have suffolk in our area and we even have part of North Carolina in here. It's insane. But we only end up going to the 4 cities. We've been spending a lot of time in Norfolk to find investigators, because we need a lot of new investigators. But norfolk is GHETTO! I mean straight up morenosville! It's SO GHETTO! But its sweet! We were walking through this apartment complex yesterday and we asked this black guy if he knew if any of his neighbors were hispanic and he ignored us for a little bit, but we asked again and he just said "You better get out of here before something bad happens to you." It was sweet. But yeah, we spend a lot of time in Norfolk. There are hispanics dispersed throughout the entire area, so we use a TON of miles everyday, but we haven't gotten any new investigators since I've been here. But that'll change fast. This area is about to explode! I know it!

So we were involved in an accident on Friday on the freeway. The cars in front of us slammed on their brakes so we had to brake abruptly, and we come to a stop and we just hear SCREEEEAACHHHHCH behind us and I say 'OH FREAK!" and elder Darbro just says "HOLD ON!" and the mujer behind us slams into us. We were alright, but there was a ton of paperwork to fill out because it's a church vehicle, so that sucked. But yeah, now I've been involved in knocking out a bear with a car and getting rear ended on my mission! I told you this mission was going to be sweet!
Dad, you're going to love this. On Thursday when I got here, the first thing Elder Darbro asks me is "How many talks have you given in spanish before?" So I had to prepare a 15 minute talk in 2 days to give on Sunday in Sacrament. And I got it done. It was so nerve wracking. I was ready to vomit up on the stand, but I got it done and everyone was amazed that I only have 5 months out on the mission. The members here are really nice and yes, they feed us plenty. The branch president's wife asked us on Sunday if we had an appointment for thanksgiving and Elder Darbro told her no, so she just goes "Now you do. Be at our house at 7." So yeah, we're having a mexican thanksgiving.
We get hooked up so much in this area. The branch president owns a hair cut place, so they cut our hair every 3 weeks. This less active lady works at these dry cleaners across the street, so she dry cleans our suits and even repairs them for free. THe members feed us a ton. Every Sunday afternoon, monday afternoon and evening, Thursday lunch and Saturday dinnner we have fixed appointments with members, and then investigators give us stuff all the time. SO yeah, we get taken care of. It's awesome.

I do need a huge favor though. We're navigating the biggest area in the mission with a map right now, because the elder before me took his GPS with him. So we're very limited in where we can go and we've gotten lost a ton this last week. So if you could get the GPS out to me ASAP that would be a life saver. Like, you don't even know! SO yeah, as soon as you could do that, the better. Thanks.
So, what's new with the family this week? Any good news, bad news? On the flipside, Elder Darbro and I have already been planning our seperate trips to spain to find wives after the mission, so that's nice. I actually have it all figured out already, but you'll have to wait 19 months to hear about it. Maybe actually only like 16 or something, but still. SO yeah, that was definitely an effective use of our 45 minutes of freetime after nightly planning. Anyway.
Mom- Could you tell the feldmans I'm really sorry I haven't written them back? I got their letter a long time ago but I accidentally threw it out, so I don't have their address. So I would really appreciate that. How's the calling going still? Have you gone out with the sisters? I can't wait til you do, you're going to LOVE IT! The sisters have some magical power that the Elders don't or something, I don't know. People just seem to do what sister missionaries tell them to do! It's crazy! Elder Ghelfy, the spanish elder here before me, is a convert. He was telling us his conversion story and he said "The sister missionary just pulled out a calendar and told me I was being baptized on this date. She didn't even give me a choice. And I did it. I don't know why." So yeah, I hve a feeling the sisters in Reno are going to be getting some people wet, if you know what I mean!
Ok, well I think that's about all. I don't really know what else to write about this week.
Oh, actually, I DO! Dad, there's this Hermana here named Sis. Lagos here from Chile and she's from Santiago, and she left Santiago in 1978 or 79 I think. I just thought that was pretty cool. She's wayyyyyyy old and talks a TON but she's really sweet. And I had some lady from Peru tell me that I talked like a German because my pronunciation is really strong I guess. I didn't know what to make of that, but whatever. Then this Catracha (Hondurian) told me that Campbell is a name (apellido) in Nicaragua and Honduras. I thought that was weird. SO hey, we might have some central american family members! How sweet would that be? hhahaha yeah right
But now I've met people from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Chile, Brazil, Peru and Argentina. It's like I'm touring the world in Virginia, right? Just thought that was pretty sweet. But yeah, that's all now.
SO if you could please remember the GPS, that would be fantastic. Love you all. Have a great week. Talk to you in 30 days!  Can you believe Christmas is only 30 days away? Thats crazy!

Skyler
PS- I'm going back to Top Gun on teh 19th of December. Lucky me! NOT! haha

Hey hey hey

So sorry I forgot to tell you last week, but PDay got moved to tuesday this week for some reason, so I wasn't expecting a letter from you mom, so it's ok. I'll just have one BIG long one to read next week! haha
Dad-Yeah, the bear was really crazy! It was freaking hilarious though! I'll put the memory card in the mail and you can see all my pictures, all the way back to like, Sept. 17th I think. And yeah, when we go to Henrico or some other apartment, we just end up sleeping on the floor or couch. I've been on floor both times. Last time (last Tuesday) I was on floor, elder washburn and elder Nelson as well and then Elder Lusk was on the couch and elder Pasker (his greenie) was on the recliner. I know, how crazy is it that missionaries have a recliner in their apartment!? And it's only Elder Wheatley and Elder Hernandez in that apartment! Thats ridiculous! But yeah, thats how it works up here in VA. And Brother Bear in spanish was AWESOME!!!! I think I might have a new favorite disney movie (besides Nightmare Before Christmas of course!) And also, Phil Collins did the music for that movie, and he redid his songs in spanish for the spanish version! It was sick! I think you'd really like it dad!
Mom- Sorry for the lack of info about P-Day being moved! It's ok though, I just get to type a longer email this week! maybe haha! So have you gone out with the missionaries yet? Oh man that's gonna be so sweet! SO how's work going, gearing up for the holidays! It's going to be like, your 2nd year straight working there right? That's insane! I've never had a job for longer than 8 months! hahaha

Mallory- Thank you SO much for the scarf and cookies! I opened the package last night and immediately put on the scarf and wore it around all last night. It was like, 72 degrees in the apartment, but I didn't care. That thing is SWEET! all the other elders in the apartment are so jealous of it cause they all have little wussy not awesome scarves! And the cookies are AMAZING! oh my gosh they're SO good! I had to hide them cause I don't want the others to know how good they are! But yeah, thank you sooo much!
But this week has definitely been interesting. We're supposed to be teaching a minimum of 20 lessons a week, which really shouldn't be too hard, but it's actually really tough to get that consistently. We had 2 lessons last week by P-Day, which was really bad. But by Sunday night we were up to 18, which isn't too bad. But we've been trying to be a lot more effective and teach more lessons consistently, but yesterday was not a good day for that, but I think I changed a kid's life yesterday! haha We helped Lulu move some furniture and I found 2 rupees from India in there and she told me to keep it, so I put it in my pocket. We end up going to Kroger(a grocery store here) and we run into Sis. Sanchez, so we help her carry her groceries out to the car cause she's prego. So we're talking to her and her kid, and she asks him if he wants to go on a mission someday and he says "I'm going to India to be a missionary!" SO I was like, "Oh, hey, I can help with that dream!" and I pulled out the Rupees and gave it to him. So our ongoing joke since yesterday is that he's going to get his call to India when he's reporting out he'll tell the story about the day the missionaries gave him Indian money! But then I started to get mad. We went over to maricela's house and I only wanted to spend like, 20-30 minutes there, but Elder Nelson and Washburn decided to spend 2 HOURS there!!! I was so mad! And then when we FINALLY left we went over to Rosi and Elder Washburn makes a joke and says "Elder Nelson only has 340 days until he's getting married!" (cause he leaves in 340 days!) and he got super ofendido and upset and it was just super awkward and then Elder Nelson got mad at me for saying a prayer to share a message and then end with a prayer, so it was just super crazy and contentious last night and ridiculous. And then we had to clean like CRAZY today because last week the crisis decided to rearrange the whole house so they moved their beds into their study room, our beds into where theirs used to be and their study room into the living room where we were sleeping. So our room is practically one giant gay bed(i'm not even kidding, there's about 2 inches between each bed) and it was absolutely filthy and cluttered and just ridiculous. So we had to clean forever this morning! But yeah, hopefully that's behind us and we can start getting to teaching lessons again, because we met our daily lesson goal on Thursday, the first time that had ever happened on my mission, and I was SUPER STOKED!
So funny story, we were at Maricela's last Friday adn I needed the other elders to get up off the couch really fast, so I yelled "Levantaos" which means "Get up" but it's in a conjugation that they really only use in the bible and in spain, and I didn't even think about what I said, it just came out like that, and Maricela just looked at me and the other elders jumped up and looked all strange and surprised and then we all just started laughing and it was really hilarious. Then on Saturday, America got baptized. She's the daughter of Juan and Lulu. And the baptism was amazing! All done in spanish and I understood everything and it was sweet! But Elder Nelson was in the bathroom before, the one with the lever to fill up the font. Elder Washburn and I are standing outside and we end up reading something and not noticing the mujer walking around the building. Well, we didn't notice her walk into the bathroom behind us until she shreaks (kind of) and comes out and says to us "I thought there were only two of you. Is he going to be awhile?" and it was super awkward and hilarious! But Juan didn't do the baptism. I don't know what it is with Hispanics, but they think that Missionaries and Bishops have special powers. The bishop did the baptism, but luckily Juan confirmed her, and the Spirit was just like BAM! in the room! It was so crazy. And then the next day, Roselyn finally got blessed, but once again, Juan had the Bishop do it. But it was funny, we asked Juan last Monday who was going to do the blessing, and he just sat there for a little bit, then said "the bishop. And all the old people." We asked why and he says "Because old people know a lot of stuff." Well, we couldn't argue with him about his baby's blessing, so we just said Ok and that was that! but yeah, it was an interesting weekend. I translated all of Elder's Quorum again, and the guy that taught is CRAZY smart and has a vocabulary the size of Texas and maybe Louisiana. He's a REALLY good teacher, but its' impossible to translate for him! But it was super good parctice. The primary program was also that day and Hermano Jones translated and a bunch of times when the kids would just yell something into the Microphone, he would just pause and say "no sE" or "ni idea" and all the hispanics are laughing out loud and the white people don't get it. It made me love being a spanish speaking missionary even more. But on Saturday, I talked with Hno. Jones about improving my spanish (because he talks sooooooo good in spanish) and he told me about this little exercise where you put a pen in your mouth sideways and hold your tongue underneath it and talk in spanish. It sounds stupid and idiotic, but it strengthens your tongue in the way you use it for spanish, so I tried it and my tongue is still sore! It was crazy! SO I think I'm going to keep doing that. And then he also told me about a game he and his companion played in Ecuador where any time one of them spoke english, they had to buy the other a candy or something. Now, things are a little more expensive here in VA than in Ecuador, so we upped it to every 5 times. I was the first loser. But we've barely spoken any english at all over the past 3 days. It's crazy. I feel like it's already helped sooo much. I'm trying to convince Elder Nelson to only talk to us in spanish even during planning, but he didn't like that idea. Oh well.
Anyway, I think that's about all for this week. Love you all and miss you. Hope you have a great day. Can't wait to hear from you next week. Adios

Nov. 4, 2009

Hey, so this week is kind of weird. Last week on P-Day after I emailed you, we went hiking on Humpback Rocks off of Blueridge Parkway (you should really look this place up, it's INCREDIBLE!) and we went
to this waterfall after. So on the way back, all of a sudden the elder driving slams on the brakes and I feel this big thud. Someone shouts "Was that a bear?" Yeah. We hit a bear. A black bear ran out from the woods and hit the van. So we get out and we start getting a little closer to the bear (don't worry, like 50 feet away) and it doesnt look like it's breathing. So we start to get a little closer adn we're like "That thing is dead, it's not getting up." As soon as I took 2 pictures, the things head lifts up and I turn around and spring towards the van and jump in the open trunk and see the bear running off into the woods and it was ridiculous! I haven't run that fast since High School! It was crazy! But everything is alright and we're all fine, don't worry. But yeah, that was last p-day.
Last Saturday, the Crisis had a baptism and we had 2 people show up. Maricela came and enjoyed it, but she was scared by how hard Elder Gomez dunked the lady under the water. Then we had crazy Cristiano
Jose come. This guy is an illegal from Honduras, but he talks and acts like a mexican. He told us that he was an illegal in Mexico and the migre there pick on central americans, so he learned to talk and act like a chilango (someone from DF or district federal in Mexico City) and when the migre came on teh bus down there, they asked if anyone was from central america and he said "No, I'm from the state of Mexico" and just started naming off cities there, so they let him pass. He's crazy. On Sunday, Rosi and her husband Joel came to church and Joel told us he's going to try to get work off on sundays so he can keep coming! Then we went over to Juan and Lulu's and they had taken a pizza out of the oven, so they start handing us slices and I say "Ya comI" which means I already ate and she just replied "No te preguntamos" which is We're not asking you! Monday we didn't do anything really, we raked Rosi's yard as a surprise and also this old lady Dorothy's yard. She's so lonely its really sad. She lives with her 53 year old son who's got some mental disorder and she just sits inside all day with her 14 cats so she was so excited to have us come over and she cooked us dinner and wanted to just sit and chat forever and I felt so bad when we had to leave!
Then yesterday we came down to Richmond for zone conference and we went to Wendy's before conference and as we walk in, this construction worker walks in and I go up to order and he jumps in front of me and says "Put all these guys in suits on my bill." So we're like what the heck? and he tells us his son served in Fiji and he loves missionaries and wanted to take care of us. So taht was pretty sweet. Then zone conference was awesome. It was pretty much a 3 hour rundown of what we're not doing and what we could be doing better and how we could be doing it, but I absolutely loved it! It was awesome! Then we spent the night in Henrico and got up at 5:30 this morning which SUCKED! but yeah, we have zone p-day today and we're gonna play soccer and watch Brother Bear in spanish! Should be pretty fun! So yeah, that's my week.
I got the package from the Wanlass's and I'll be sure to write them a thank you note. Also, if you could just tell everyone on the blog that if I don't write them back, I'm really sorry. I'm super busy, especially on P-Days lately, so I don't have much time to write letters anymore! Which is a bummer, but it happens.
All I know is this transfer only has 15 days left! It's going by INSANELY fast! So yeah, the spanish is coming along great. The accent is good, and I've just given up on trying to help Elder Washburn. But it's ok. 
Ok, well I think that's it for this week, until I remember something when I walk out the door :) haha But until next week. Love you all. miss you. Still not enough to come home though!

Wed. last and today!

Oct 14
Thank you so much for sending Martin the issue of the Ensign. He's going to love it. Dad mentioned something about getting him a subscription, but he's going to be getting transferred prisons soon and we dont' know where, so don't worry about that. But thank you so much! Yeah, we've been super busy this week. Elder Washburn has stepped off his pedestal a little, but he's still hard to live with. He's gotten in the habit lately of making up ridiculously specific scenarios to tell you so that he's never wrong. He just talks and talks adn says so much stuff that you just give up and he says "See, I told you so." So it's pretty tough, but its definitely a nice time to work on building my patience, right? haha Luckily Elder Nelson hasnt' gone too crazy with stress yet, but there's still time. He almost had a stroke the other day. We have a mission conference in Richmond tomorrow and we needed to find a ride down there and a ride back up, and he was FREAKING out about it going psycho! But everything is alright now and it's all taken care of. But there's a 70 coming to the conference, I dont' remember who, but we might have to do some one-on-one 5 minute role plays about the Restoration or the Plan of Salvation! How scary is that? I dont' know how to do those in English anymore? But it should be a fun time! Except for the fact that we have to be at the chapel at 7 am! We're donig this special choir thing, so we have to be there extra early! Oh well.

So we now have 6 elders in an apartment meant for 4. It's not working out too well, especially since our hot water has been out for the last week! I'm really sick of taking cold showers. And I mean COLD! Like, Lake Tahoe type stuff. The guy who owns the apartment is a member and he's tried abotu 4 times this week to fix it, but no luck so far. He's getting super frustrated and we're just getting sick of showering :)
But one of the elders in the apartment is Elder Jacob Justice. Not kidding. Superhero?? But he's the nephew of the Martin's from Washoe Valley Ward. Weird coincidence right? haha just thought that was kind of wacky!
So Santiago, the awesome investigator that we found that came to 2 conference sessions, we committed him to baptism. We were talking and we asked "se preperarA para ser bautizado?" which means will you prepare yourself to be baptized? and he just replies "Si, estA bien." And his biggest concern was that there wouldn't be a chapel down in Chiappas, Mexico when he goes back in 2 years. How cool? His biggest concern is that he'll go inactive. I love that man! He's so awesome. So yeah, his baptism date is Oct. 31st. We're still working with Ana because she hasn't been able to come to church and we're starting to worry that she'll just lose the desire. And she's been getting a lot harder to get ahold of lately, so we think she's already starting to lose steam! It's tough, but we're really really trying! But Rosi is doing awesome. She's just all sorts of sweet. We're going to set her sometime this next week I think. And then on Monday we found this lady Marizela and we came back on Tuesday to teach the Restoration and relate it to families. So we're doing that adn we invite her to church adn she says "Maybe, I dont' know." So we talk a little more and teach more of the lesson and near the end she asks what time cbhurch is at and we tell her and she just says "Voy a ir" which means "I'm going to go. It was super sweet. So we have another appointment with her on Friday. But we think she's got some pretty good potential.
So yeah, we've been super busy and getting busier. We're doing a lot of finding because we've been dropping a lot of useless investigators. I know that sounds harsh, but yeah, they're useless right now. So we need to find more to fill our teaching pool. So we do a LOT of finding now. But it's ok. We're outside walking around and it's nice.
Last night Juan Manuel and his wife invited us over for their nephews 9th birthday and made molay again. That is such a heavy meal. I wasn't feeling good at all all night. And as if stuffing us with tons of food isn't bad enough, then they fed all of us a massive piece of chocolate cake and a massive piece of flan. It was ridiculous. So all my attempts at losing weight and keeping healthy, right out the window. haha
But the reason we don't have many member dinner appointments is that Pres. Millburn banned the use of pass-around sheets for us to use because he said people feel obligated to feed us then. Which I personally feel they should, but I'm not the president. So then nobody offers to feed us and we end up going through our MSF funds way fast because we have to buy a ton more food. So yeah, that's the problem. We're supposed to have a member dinner everynight, but that doesn't happen if they dont' offer. So there you have it. Feed the missionaries! It means a ton to them, you have no idea!!!!


Oct 21
Ok, so yeah, I bought a winter coat at JCPenney. It's a big heavy duty wool pea-coat and it was only 70$, so I figured I'd jump on it because it has been getting REALLY cold here already. On Sunday, the high was 43*. Yeah, really cold.
So, this week was really not a great week. We started off in Richmond with Mission Conference(well, half of the mission) and Elder Kenneth B. Johnson of the 70 came. He was so amazing! It was absolutely incredible. But the entire thing made me think of how much stuff I could be doing better. So taht's what we've been trying to do lately. But it was amazing what he said- "I do what I do because I know the source of my calling." How cool is that? It really made me think about my calling and what I need to be doing to improve it. Unfortunately, that also made Elder Nelson go into overdrive mode on the "Let's be a perfect companionship" thing. So that's been kind of frustrating. And then on Monday Santiago, the guy that we thought was super awesome, dropped us. So no more baptism for him. Oh well. I was really upset and bummed out about that. But whatever. The Lord has a plan for him, and it doesn't involve me right now, so I've begun to focus on other things. Yesterday the Zone Leaders came up from Richmond for exchanges. I was with Elder Bishop and Elder Washburn. We were in this trailer park to knock some doors, and we look up from the car and there's just this kid with his pants pulled down pooping on a tree. In plain view. Not trying to hide at all. It was freaking hilarious! The kid's mom comes running over all embarrassed and this black lady next to us just had this shocked look on her face. hahahaha, oh man I was dying! Yeah, it was great. But then everything else fell through yesterday except Maricela, she's still sweet. She didnt' make it to church, but we're working hard on her. We know she's got some super potential. We just gotta do it right. And then we didn't have anything to do last night and we were right next to the apartment, so we get back to the apartment at 8:50. If you dont' have an appointment, you have to be back to the apartment at 9 pm sharp. So we get back and Elder Nelson is with the other zone leader and he has the keys to the apartment and the english elders aren't home yet, so we hang out outside for a bit. Edler Washburn starts freaking out at about 9:15 saying "Elders!!! We can't just sit here. We need to to get an appointment or something! We cant jsut sit in front of the house! This isn't what they had in mind when they said be back at the apartment at 9!" and he's freaking out and Elder Bishop and I tell him we can't go out to just talk to people so we can be out later and so he gets all mad and says he's going to go talk to the hispanics across the street (who by the way get violent when they're drunk, which is always) and so he just starts walking. And Elder Bishop and I can't see him and we have no idea where he is and so we start to walk over there and he is in the middle of the street and says "you could just bring the car you know." So Elder Bishop says "You could not just walk away from your companions and be disobedient!!!". Elder Washburn didn't like that one bit. So it was definitely an interesting night.

But yeah, that's really all that happened this week. We've got the Harrisonburg elders coming down on Friday for a district meeting and exchanges, and then on Nov. 3 and 4 we have zone conference and zone p-day which should be sweet.
Can you believe I hit 4 months out in 3 days? That's crazy! This past month went by SOOO fast. I can't believe it's almost november already! Thats' ridiculous. But yeah, that's my crazy schpiel for the week! haha
Oh, I also met the wife of the branch president up in Harrisonburg. Apparently Robbie Lund married one of her companions from her mission. Small world huh? I'm getting all sorts of connections here!
Ok, well I hope that's everything. Like always, I forget something everytime, but if I do, I'll let you know. OH, thermal garments! I just need those sometime, not any hurry right now. But just something to think about. But yeah, THAT should be it now. Haha. I love you all. Miss you. Have a good week.

University of VA in Charlottesville. Thomas Jefferson designed this rotunda.


Our apartment complex in C'ville

Heading to Virginia

Leaving for the field... Man I look good at 4 in the morning!


Elder Nelson and some guy in a red shirt



Elder Gleave




Our newest investigator. (Mom wants it!!)

Pictures

My offical name tag for the next 2 years!


Not me anymore!!



Workin' the call center. Or, "Welcome to McDonalds. May I take your order please?"

Week 15 (and still counting)

Wow, that week just flew by! Here's this week's letter from our wonderful son/missionary


Hey hey hey everyone. Another p-day already! This one is crazy. Our world got rocked yesterday! Transfers! We were all freaking out cause none of us want to leave because we've just started getting the awesome investigators just pouring out at us. But we got the transfer sheet last night and Elder Gleave is headed up to Harrisonburg. He was kind of upset because he hasn't left this side of Virginia in 10 months adn they're only sending him to H-Burg to turn that area around because the 3 elders up there right now only did 2 investigator lessons last week. Only 2! What were they doing? So he's going up there to whip the area into shape adn get the ball rolling again. Poor guy. Elder Nelson is now district leader and is keeping me and elder Washburn is coming up from Richmond to be with us. Weird, I know. I'm still freaking out, but we'll see how everything works out. Elder Washburn is just really intense now since being with the Zone Leaders, so we're hoping he doesnt scare away our investigators. Elder Nelson, oh man, it'll be interesting. He takes everything wayyyyyy to hard. He over reacts and goes into crisis mode at the smallest thing, so we'll see how he handles 2 greenies AND being DL. But that's the biggest news of the week here! Oh, and yes, Elder Gleave did date Whitney at BYU. I got in the elevator at the library and said "Elder Gleave, did you ever date a girl at BYU named Whitney Young?" and his face just goes blank and he says "I don't want to talk about it." HAHAHAHAHAHA how funny is that? That's so wacky. Gahh so this past week has been intense. So many investigators, so little time! Conference was AWESOME though, right? Elder Hales' talk was INCREDIBLE! and Elder Holland, oh man! The english elders we live with had an investigator who has problems with the BoM at that session and Elder Holland just went off, and the guy got up and left shortly after. I dont' know if he was upset or overwhelmed or what, but that talk was amazing! Also, Pres. Eyring at Priesthood was freaking ridiculous! I loved it! Conference went by wayyyy too fast though. I wish there were more sessions! Haha, I bet you never thought you'd hear that coming from me did you? I was so excited to go to conference here, I was like a little school girl!
Thats' awezsome you got to see so many church sites! Jealous! Sounds like you are having(had?) a wonderful time up there! Lots of sites and fun! We had some fun yesterday. Elder Gleave and I met this one hispanic guy walking in this trailer park, he's wearing snakeskin boots and matching belt, pinstripe suit, shirt undone halfway, a black stetson adn some shades and he's got a plastic bag with what looks like a bottle of Rum, but definitely some type of alcohol. So Elder Gleave starts talking to him and he just says "Cowboys. Cowboys." SO we're like "You like cowboys? Like, the football team or the people on horses? to which he replies "horses. Horses. horses. horseeees. I live in Austin. TEXas. Austin. Yo soy vacation. De Austin." His name was Samuel and I don't think i've ever met anyone as trashed as he was! It was insane! But funny. So man, we've got Ana set for baptism but she still hasn't been able to come to church. We're getting ready to set Rosi, Melicia, Pancho, Erica adn Santiago. How nuts is that? we're going to be shooting for 6 investigators set for a baptismal date soon! That's insane! But keep on praying for it, we need the blessings to get these people some time off work! So my spanish this week has been nuts. I feel like I haven't progressed as much as I would like to, but I've been making more and more phone calls in spanish, but I still have to give the phone to Elder Gleave or Nelson a veces because I can't understand the hispanics over the phone. But I haven't said anything embarrassing like "Jesus Christ suffered for my fishes" in awhile. So taht's good. Oh man, what else is there to tell this week!? This week went by too fast that I feel like I already told you about everything in my LAST letter.
Soooo, wow, I don't know what else to write. Pretty much transfers was the only really exciting thing this week. It was crazy. Um, I guess that's all. I think.
I always think of something else to write after I get off e-mail but I can't think of anything right now. But can you believe that my first transfer out of the MTC is already over? That's insane. Everyone says the first one goes by so slow and then they speed up after that, but mine went by SOOO fast! It's crazy. Hopefully they don't slow down to a crawl! That would be terrible! But when the language becomes more natural, I have a feeling they'll start going pretty fast. Man that was a fast 6 weeks. OH also, Martin, the guy in the jail, is doing really really really awesome. He's reading the BoM everyday and praying and has really good questions to ask us everytime we stop by. I told him about conference and he said he would have liked to go, but since he's in jail, yeah, you can see how that wouldn't work. He's doing so good and he's SO awesome. We would set him for baptism right now, but he's not getting out for another 19 months, so it wouldn't work :( oh well maybe in 19 months right?
So ok, that's all for this week. I'll talk to you all next week, even though it'll seem like 2 or 3 days! Love you all.

Letter from 09-30-09

Sorry, we're out of town, so I won't get the new pictures on until next week, but here is the latest update from Elder Campbell

Wow, ok, story time!!! So Friday we went to Waynesboro because the spanish elders hadn't been there in abotu a year. So wer're there doing some followups not having much success and Elder Gleave finds this former investigator in the area book, so we punch it into his GPS and it takes us about 38 minutes to get there because it's in the MIDDLE OF FREAKING NOWHERE and we thought we were lost. We pull up to this little tiny cottage house, and we're like "there's no way a hispanic lives here! But we knock and sure enough, this lady Erica opens the door. So we start talking and she looked really surprised this whole time. So we ask her what was wrong and she says "Well, the missionaries havent' been here in almost a year. I was ready to get baptized, but they stopped coming when I was going to tell them. And my life is really terrible right now, I'm thinking about going back to Mexico because my husband is never home and I stay here all day alone with my daughter and I don't have any friends. So I was talking wtih my husband last night. I told him how much I missed hearing from the missionaries. I missed their visits and their friendship and how I felt when they would come. And then you show up today." HOW AMAZING IS THAT??? Coolest story ever!!! She told us that she has already received an answer about the Book of Mormon, and when the answer came it was so strong and powerful she was scared and almost stopped reading! So we're trying to get rides to church for her, but she lives about an hour away from the chapel and her husband has the only car and she doesn't have any friends. So it's reallly tough! But the lord has been pouring out amazing investigators our way! That Rosalva lady I told you about!? She was talking wtih Elder Nelson on Monday and told him how she was ready to change religions and liked ours. So she's coming to conference this weekend! And she's cooking us rabbits on thursday! haha how sweet!? She's so awesome! And then there's Santiago. He's living with his friend Iglien. Elders Gleave and Nelson had taught Iglien before and given him a book of mormon, but we hadn't been able to follow up with him. So on Sunday night planning, I suggested we follow up with him. SO we stop by on Monday and Santiago opens the door. Elder nelson talks with him for a little bit and gives him a card and says "We'll pass by some day this week to see how you're doing" Santiago says ok and the door closes. About 20 seconds later, he comes running after us and says "When can you come by? Tomorrow? I really want to hear from you tomorrow!" so we came back yesterday. We're talking about all different kinds of stuff, and I asked him if he would have time to attend conference this weekend. When we tell him what it is, he says he'll definitely be there. Then he asked what we do regularly for church. When we told him it's at 12:30-3:30, which is when most hispanics come up with excuses, he goes "Oh great, that ends 30 minutes before I have to work! That means I can go to all of it every week!!" He committed himself to conference and regular ettendance! Who does that? It's crazy! He also told us he didn't know everything about our religion and so he couldn't be baptized. So we told him he didn't need to know everything right away. Then he told us he wanted us to start coming by 2-3 times a week! So we came back today and taught him the Restauracion. I did the first vision with him and it was absolutely incredible!!! The spirit was amazing and after we got done talking about it, he says "Well I guess I need to pray to god to know if all this is true. I'll do that tonight." At that point we're freaking out. Then we tell him about the Book of Mormon and what it is, and he says "That sounds nice. I'd like to know if that's true as well. I need to read that." So we gave him a LdM and He just says "Call me on sabado at 11 to remind me about conference." He just set up our verificacion time for us!!!! This guy is amazing! And he WANTED to give the opening prayer both times we've met together! What is going on in Virginia? We just started the 40 day fast 4 days ago and this is already happening! It's insane!!!!!!
Wow so this week has been crazy! Ana is progressing nicely, but her boss hasn't come to work since we committed her so she hasn't been able to come to church yet and you have to attend 4 times to be baptized. But she's coming to general conference this saturday, so there's 1! And dad, who says co-habitating? I almost squirted milk out my nose when I read that! haha we just call it juntar-ing(spanglish) and since we're pretty sure her and Felix have been juntar-ed for about 24 years, they're going to have to get married or one of them has to move! And Ana has told us before that she thinks they need to get married, so we'll see how that goes down! But we're trying to keep her excited and interersted and progressing, so pray for that please! I'm teaching my first solo lesson tonight! I'm going with Hermano Beni(I don't know his last name) and we're going to teach the Restauracion with the video, so hopefully I'll be able to pull that off. I'm not too worried though. THe people we're teaching feed us a TON every wednesday when we go over there. It's ridiculous. Last week they made us quesidillas and gave us flan and pan dulce and smoothies. It was insane! SO we'll see what I end up with tonight! And the Aguilar's haven't been feeding us AS much which is good. Juan got a job at a ranch, so that's good, and America shoudl be getting baptized in the next month. But we havne't been going ovre there as much because we have lots of investigators to worry about. Actually, we have just as many investigators because for every really solid investigator we found, we dropped a useless one. So far we've dropped Cecilia, Adolfo/Pablo, Tomas, Eloy and we're about to drop Medarlo/Kenia/ninya(there's no n-yay on this keyboard) and Maria. Its sad because elder nelson and I both got the same feeling at an appointment with Maria that she was going to be a great member, but we must have done something wrong teaching her, cause she hasn't progressed at ALL! But oh well, the Lord has a plan for her. So Monday night, Elder Fraga gave us this referral for these guys in this apartment complex we've tracted a ton. We go knock on the door of a building we didn't even know existed and these Costa Rican brothers answer to door, Johnny and Roy. They just invite us in and we sit down and they are the COOLEST! They are so awesome! I think they're my favorite people I've met so far! There's 12 other brothers of theirs living in the 2 floors above them and 2 more living with them. So there's 16 brothers, all from the same family! I don't know how that happened, but I dont' care because they are AWESOME! And they gave us about 4 referrals! so that was nice. but they are so sweet! I want to go to Costa Rica so bad now! If everyone is taht awesome! Ok, so I need to pick a soccer team so I have something to talk about with the hispanos. I picked the Pumas but I don't know anything about them. So could you look up the Pumas in the Liga Mexico and give me some stats of their better players please? Maybe some results of some games? I just need something to talk about with the hispanics cause I dont' have anything right now. So I'd really appreciate that! And then yeah, if you could send me my sweatshirt, some multivitamins, and now a stencil of the alphabet I would really appreciate it. Maybe get mallory to throw in some baked goods :) I want to start writing scriptures and hanging them up around the apartment, but I haven't been able to find a stencil anywhere! It's insane! But I'd appreciate that. And I'll see if Brinae can drop those sweats off before you send it off. Thats so funny mallory found the girls eating dog food. That doesnt' surprise me. I knew they were going to be trouble ;) I'm glad to hear they're doing well though. Hows juliann? I haven't heard from her in likea month and a half? I know she's busy, but I'd love to jsut hear a little from her every now and then. How's Remy doing? I bought a 365-day kitten calendar for next year, so I'm excited to start using that! My companions haven't stopped making fun of me, but whatever. They're just jealous. haha so wow I can't believe it's p-day again already. seems like I just wrote you like 2 days ago! It's insane! Its amazing how fast the weeks go when they're good weeks! And this was a reallllllly good week! Oh, did I tell you, I got my drivers license? I think that came in the mail after I wrote you last week. It's really ugly. They make you keep a 'neutral' face, so that means "Look really ugly for your picture!" adn they punched a hole in my Nevada drivers license :( sad day. But I'm officially licensed and legal in Virginia. I just need a car now! haha but yeah, that's all taken care of, so I don't have to worry about that.
Alright, well I think that's all this week. Thank you for your letters and support. Love you all. Miss you. But not enough to come home :) haha -Skyler

Three months out!

So guess what!!!!!!????? We have an investigator set for baptism!!! Ana! Elder Gleave and Nelson found her before I got here, but we were ready to drop her because she wasn't keeping her committments and wasn't progressing at all, so we stopped going to visit them. Well she called us after about 2 weeks of no contact and said "Why don't you come visit us anymore? You should come over tomorrow!" So we go over there and we start talking to them about the Restoration and in the middle of the lesson she says "I did what you asked. I prayed to God to know if it's true." At that point we're all freaking out! It was boring and mundane and then she drops that bomb on us! So we say what happened? and she replies "I was praying, and I got escalofrios(goosebumps. I've never felt anything like that. I know it's true." WE WERE FREAKING OUT! So we came back the next day and asked what she thought she needed to do and she says "Follow Gods will I guess. He wants me to be baptized, right?" How AWESEOME IS THAT!!! She's so solid! Her faith is amazing! And her useless husband Felix was sitting there and she looks at me and asks "It's kind of like a cleansing, right?" So I told her exactly and she looks to her husband(they're actually just juntar-ing right now) and says "You could use a little cleaning yourself!!!" But how amazing is that? We're so excited! We set her for the 26th of october! We're also going to set Pancho tonight. His name is actually Francisco, but as soon as we started calling him Pancho he started progressing and responding to us, so we just went with it! He's super crazy and can't talk for more than about 6 minutes at a time or else he gets super tired and just stops talking mid sentence, but he's great. He just told us the other day that he knows the book of mormon is true, it was revealed to him in a dream. I don't know what it is with hispanics and their visions! It's weird! But yeah, he's gonna be gettin wet soon! hahaha The Zone Leaders came up from Richmond on Monday for some more exchanges. I was bythewaying at this place called pollo loco(its a hispanic shop but the receipts say pollo loco ???) and I started talking to this guy from El Salvador. He started talking about sin and how when we see sin, we need to do what a pig in a rodeo does- go limp. I didn't quite get that. But then he went on to talk about the Padre at Church of the Incarnacion(latino catholic church here) and how he's been telling everyone that the padre is posessed. Well apparently the padre doesn't like this so he's threatening to call migra on the poor guy, but he says he's just gonna stick it out. Wacky. We taught this lady Rosalva last night. She's SO solid! She understood everything we told her about the restoration and she was excited to read the BoM before our next cita on thursday and it's just awesome. She's sweet! So our ward is going to start a 40 day fast this next week and we're getting in on it. We're stoked, something big is about to happen here, we can all feel it. We're getting I think 4 or 5 new spanish elders not this next transfer but the 2 after that! We're gonna be opening up I think 2 new areas and maybe zebra-ing a few( 1 spanish elder and 1 or 2 crisis') so that would be really exciting! So tomorrow is Elder Gleave's b-day! He's gonna be 21. I can't believe he's been in Charlottesville for 8 months now! We have a feeling he's getting transferred really soon, so maybe I'll have 2 trainers! How weird would that be? So we're going to start playing soccer on tuesdays with the hispanics at this field complex on the other side of town. Apparently it's a legitimate finding activity, so we're taking advantage of that. Also, Elder Nelson and I found out that KFC does a buffet on the east coast. We also found out that it's one of the worst idea's ever. I haven't felt that sick in I don't even know how long! It's not good, I would never recommend that. Sad day, we went to the jail yesterday to visit Martin, this really awesome kid of some inactives. The other elders had been visiting him for about 2 months, but we hadn't seen him in 2 weeks because of Top Gun. So we went to visit him yesterday and we waited there for 1 hour because he was making up his mind if he wanted to see us and then decided he didn't. So that was a big waste of time. But we were worried that was going to happen because of freaking top gun!!!! So I doubt we're going to be able to get in and see him for awhile, if at all. Oh well. Oh man what else is there this week that's exciting?? Ummm, we got to write letters to soldiers today. We did this day of caring thing with United Way and a few members from the wards around here and us walked around this rally thing just to "presence it" as they call it with the yellow "Mormon helping hands" vest on and then we went to the chapel to write letters to the soldiers. Umm, the hispanics aroudn here have been going crazy with world cup qualifying going on. I need to keep better track of my futbol if I want to have conversation topics with any of them! haha Man I always forget about all the awesome things I want to write to you because they happen so early in the week!? I'm always like "oh, I'm going to write this, it's awesome!" and then I forget... I feel like that's all but I know that as soon as I log off the computer, I'm going to remember something that I want to tell you. But I have no idea. Oh well. Next week then! Love you all. I miss you. Can't wait to hear from you. Have a good week everyone. Love your favorite Elder

Hey. So this week I get to email from the mission office! WE stayed at the apartment of the APs and the Training Assistants because we were doing the Top Gun training and the office is just right across the street. So i'm sitting in the office right now emailing you! how cool is that? Also, we have zone pday today because yesterday was zone conference, so all the spanish elders from across the mission came up to richmond and we get to watch Brother Bear in spanish today! Pretty sweet huh? So this week went by super fast! Top Gun wasn't as bad as I thought, but it reallyh hurt my spanish! Talking english for two days straight, it's tough to talk in spanish now, but I'll get over it! THe first day it was me and elder nelson witgh elder doxey. He's only been out 8 months, but he's apparently one of the best teachers in the mission. So we went to appointments with him all day and taught. We taught this really really really old couple. The husband got baptized 13 months ago and is going through the temple in like 2 weeks but the wife is still "I have a bunch of doubts". SHe started trying to argue about when JOseph Smith said that God was once like we are and how that makes god seem so insignificant, but I totally changed her mind and committed her to read the BoM. It was awesome! And her husband bore a really powerful testimony and said "if this is right and you don't take advantage of it, you don't have much time left, so you'd be in a world of trouble wouldn't you! If this is right and you ignore it, you're going to be gone forever!" I thought that was pretty funny. And then we went to this house for FHE and taught a really good lesson about the atonement, but the lady's brother who lives there started spouting all this false doctrine and hippie medicine crap, but we committed him to go to church next week, so Elder Doxey will have to worry about fixing his false doctrine later! haha So yeah, no wacky stories like last week to talk of. EVerything this week went pretty normal.
Yesterday I was with Elder Doxey again and we taught this guy James. When we walked in the door he said "I'm not interested in changing anything. I've already been saved and I'm happy." So we kept talking and he asked "Why are there so many churches? They all lead to one Jesus Christ, but whatever. I respect that. They all save you, so it's alright I guess." So I pulled out 3 Ne 27: 7-8 and he completely changed his attitude. He siad "I want to read that book you have. I need to know if this is true for me." How amazing is that??? Super amazing! It was so much fun! But I'm happy to be able to go back and start talking with the hispanos again! I miss them. So I don't know if I told you last week, but Lulu, a recent convert in Charlottesville, gave birth on the 5th. Finally. Or as the hispanos say it "dio la luz". How wacky is that? Gave light means had a baby in spanish. Its weird. But whatever. Her name is Rosalin Aguilar Something(none of us really know what Lulu's last name is...) She was 8 lbs. 2 oz and has a freaking TON of hair! it's ridiculous! But she's adorable. It's sad though, because Bryan, the 2 year old boy, well his world just got rocked. He was the center of attention and got whatever he wanted. But when we walk into the house now, he's usually just sitting on a chair in the living room with this blank look on his face like "What is going on? I don't understand?" and looking around. It's hilarious but sad at the same time. And America, Juan and Lulu's daughter, is turning 8 on the 15th. So she's up for baptism pretty fast. Juan is freaking out about the baptism interview cause he pretty much thinks America is retarded and that she's going to fail the interview, so now she's all worried and panicking and it's just a huge mess but it's hilarious! We're trying to set this investigator Melicia for baptism for the 26th. She's been investigating for awhile, but her Brother won't let us come over to the house so it's really difficult to go and teach her. But she came to church and was really excited and we're stoked to go and teach her. I think she'll accept the invitation. Oh mom, Elder Beckman entered the MTC the same day I did, left 6 weeks before me and is currently serving in Newport News. Also, I was talking with some guy at church on sunday and he told me he served in Nicaragua. I asked him what years and he told me 01-03 so I said "Oh, maybe you served with my cousin. Elder Steven Drury." He gets this worried look on his face and says "Elder Drury, from Southern California? Tall, blondish? That Elder Drury!?" So I said yup and turns out he did! So you should tell Steven that Elder Knight says hello from Virginia. Haha. So Elder Wheatley is doing good. He got to baptize someone 2 days after getting to Newport News! He messed up on the baptismal prayer like 3 times he said! haha but he's doing really good, except for when he accidentally siad to an investigator that Joseph Smith was a liar of some sorts. Spanish words are so confusing! haha But he's excited and working hard. Elder Washburn is still crazy as ever! WHen I asked why he had a 3 story apartment, he goes "Because I'm a zone leader. That's what happens." His companions were just staring like "What the heck did he just say?" because he's not a zone leader, but apparently he thinks he is! haha
SO that's awesome about youth conference! I'm glad you enjoyed yourself mom. Sometimes the lord works in ways we don't understand, but he has his reasons! That's good you're recognizing that! It's all about aligning our will with the will of the lord and doing it.
Oh also, Elder Hatch says Hi! You dont' know who he is, b ut he's one of the APs. He reminds me of Steven Drury with glasses, but about 200 pounds of pure muscle. So that should be a good picture. That's all for this week. Tell everyone Hi, I miss them and I hope they're doing well. I Love you all. Oh, can you also believe that when I call on Christmas, I'll have been out for exactly 6 months!? Thats pretty cool huh?!? alright. I'll talk to you next week! Love you all tons!

Boy, have I been a slacker! I apologize! Life in the Campbell home has been busy to say the least.
Skyler left the comfort of the MTC on Aug. 26th for Richmond, VA. He called us from the airport in Cinncinati, OH. He sounded excited and great! Very grown-up!! His sisters were able to listen in and do a little bit of talking (Juliann was in school, so she called on her cell phone and we held it up to the phone and Mallory and the girls came up to the house.) His time in the MTC was really good. He left there with a good knowledge of basic Spanish and was totally excited to get out in the field and use it. There were 21 missionaries in his travel group; all going to VA. That night they bunked at the mission home where they had dinner and each of them had a personal interview with Pres. Millburn. As busy as he is, he took the time to write a letter to each missionary family telling them about their missionary. The next morning they were given their companion assignments and left for their new areas. Skyler was assigned to the Pembroke zone in Charlottesville where the Univ. of VA is and also Monticello (home of Thomas Jefferson). His companions (yes, companions) are Elder Nelson and Elder Gleave. We recieved a letter from him that he wrote from the mission home in which he informed us- "Getting rejected in Spanish for the first time is going to be awesome!" How's that for a positive attitude. Anyway, he e-mailed us a letter the following Wed., so I've included it below for you all. Thanks for reading Skyler's blog, and keeping him in your prayers.

Wow, I can't believe it's already been a whole week since I talked to you all!? It's crazy! The first day here was crazy! Oh, I'm in Charlottesville by the way. The weather here isn't bad. When I stepped off the plane, the humidity just dominated me. It was terrible. It's not QUITE as bad here in c-ville, but it's still there. It's been raining here for a few days, so the humidity has been worse, but it was fun tracting in the rain. I'm in a trio with Elder Scott Gleave from Littleton, CO (my trainer/dad) and Elder Nelson from Ogden. Elder Nelson has a friend, Elder Alder( its actually Aldste Alder now, he's going to Sweden) who just left the mtc. That elder, Elder Alder, was on my floor at the MTC and I played 4-square with him all the time! Small world huh? The apartment is pretty nice, it was really messy this week because they had to rearrange all the beds and desks because I showed up, but we got everything cleaned up now. There's a weight room here and tennis courts. We've been using the weight room pretty well, but over the last 2 days, these people have been showing up when we have 10 minutes left and turning on the TV, so we have to leave. I think I'm justa going to ask them to turn it off next time because working out is the only way I am able to stay awake during personal study! But the first day here was nuts. We went to check up on an investigator just down the road from us, and I couldn't understand a word she was saying! Elder Gleave just said everything. He used Tu form with me when we were talking to Maria and I didn't pick up on it at first because I've never used Tu form, so I just stood there for a few seconds in silence and then realized "Oh crap, that's me!". The teachers at the MTC told us to not even worry about Tu form because we're only allowed to use Usted form on our mission. and then when we were walking off the porch, I was so freaked and excited and nervous, I didn't see the AC box and I ran my head right into it! haha The investigator, Maria, was probably thinking "Why do I get all the super gringos here?". She lives in this trailer park with a bunch of other investigators, so we do a lot of work in there. That's where our favorite family, the Aguilars from Veracruz, live. Manuel, the dad, was baptized in January and his wife Lulu was baptized in May. They don't speak a lick of english, and the first day we passed them at this bus stop, so we stopped and talked with them. People from Veracruz talk SOOOOO fast it's insane! But we spend a lot of time at Manuel's because he feeds us a lot. On Monday he fed us Breakfast/lunch and dinner. I feel bad because they don't have jobs, Lulu is super pregnant and there are already two little kids running around their house, but they always call us and Manuel does his 'business voice' and forces us to come over and eat. He's thinking about moving back to Mexico to start being a police officer again, but he had to leave the Police force down in Veracruz because of the Mexican Mafia's influence in the police, so if he went back he'd probably get killed, so we're trying to help him find work. But I can pretty much understand most of what he has to say now which is really cool! I don't have a huge vocabulary, but I can understand most of the verbs he uses so I can piece together the sentences into cohesive statements. But he always laughs and talks, and when he laughs, he talks faster and is SO much harder to understand! It's hilarious though! The only bad thing about eating over there is he feeds us so much picante and that stuff really destroys me! I've been sick for about 3 days straight because of that stuff! But oh well! It's better than the food at the apartment! Oh, by the way, my address here is 1311 Villa Way, APT A, Charlottesville, VA 22901, so yeah, you can send stuff here and tell people to write me! It's getting lonely without letters!!! No, it's seriously a BLAST here!!! We had to take the bus 2 days this week because we ran out of miles because our area is so big, so we just drive as much as our miles will allow. The bus is SO innefective though, it's terrible! But I got to see a lot of the city that way, so that was cool. On my first day here, Elder Gleave took me to go ''by the way'' which is where we pretty much loiter outside of a store and hand out passalong cards and contact people. The hispanos are so polite and nice and willing to listen always, and they always say yes to an appointment, but that is also kind of a bad thing because then when we show up, they just aren't there or tell us that something came up. So we end up wasting a lot of time doing that, but we have to. We're currently trying to get a branch set up so we don't have to go to church with the Gringos. They don't even talk to the spanish elders or the investigators (i know it would be difficult, but we could translate) and we have like, 3 spanish families. We dont' have many investigators that show up to church because unfortunately we are assigned to go to the chapel on the OTHER SIDE OF TOWN! so we can't get many rides for the hispanos. Luckily our ward mission leader is awesome! His name is Bro. Jones, but we call him elder jones. He served in Ecuador and told us that he asked his wife if they could only speak spanish with each other! When he served, they didn't have preach my gospel, but he bought a copy in spanish and reads it for fun! We asked him if he could come to a lesson with us this week and he pauses, looks at Elder Nelson, and says "I'd rather do some finding. How's 6-9 on wednesday night? Can we make this a weekly thing?" and elder nelson's freaking out now. I was laughing SO hard! Elder Nelson is gonna get worked! So we got to teach this guy at the jail yesterday. He's the son of a member who was taking the lessons before he went to jail, so we went and taught him a little bit. We also went finding in an apartment complex. We were getting all the yard workers. One of them is from Chiappas and he could tell I didn't speak much spanish so he started speaking to me in english but I just kept talking spanish to him! He was really nice though, we talked with him for probably 10 minutes. I do alright at talking to people; it's just when I have to make small talk with them, that's when it gets difficult. But I'm practicing and tryin my best! Oh man, what else is there? I think I just described my entire first week here to you! Crazy! I can't believe it's already been a week. The first few days I was having a really tough time staying awake, but it's a little better now. I just get a good workout in the morning and I'm alright. But it's definitely tough getting up at 6:30 every morning. It sucks that Elder Nelson sets his alarm for 6 am and then just keeps hitting snooze until 6:30. It's really annoying. I might have to have a talk with him about that. But we all get along really well and like each other. We joke with elder nelson that he's gonna get married within 6 months of getting home (he dies in ~13 months) and he freaks out cause he says he doesn't plan on getting married until he's 28! It's wacky. It's definitely weird being out in the real world though. It's especially tough being in a town with a huge college and tons of people (and by people I mean girls) living and walking around town. I had completely forgotten in the MTC that there ACTUALLY ARE people who don't follow church standards for dress and appearance! It was quite the shock when I drove around the first day! But I'm getting pretty good at avoiding worldly things! It is tough though, believe you me! I'm going to freak out when I get home and actually have to start HUGGING girls again! It's going to be really awkward! But luckily that's still 22 months away! So yeah, everything here is great. I'm in the apartment with another companionship, Elder Fraga from Sandy, UT and Elder Gomez from Hawaii. He eats every one else's food so we get mad at him. We make fun of Elder Gomez because he has a spanish name and is the only one in the apartment who doesn't speak spanish! (Elder Fraga's parents are from Argentina). We call the English elders here Crisis (but pronounced like in spanish "creasies") because they're always running around like they're in a crisis. There are only ~20 spanish elders in the entire mission!! it's crazy! Elder Washburn got put in Richmond with the ZL's Elder Morris and Beach. Elder Wheatley got put in Newport News/Virginia Beach with Elder Lusk. The zone for the spanish elders covers the entire mission, so it's kind of weird, the whole chain of command here. So I have yet to teach more than 1 principle out of a lesson because we have so few return appointments kept. I got to double team "endure to the end" with my dad on Monday when we taught Beni. Beni has been baptized for exactly 1 year and 3 days now, so we started teaching him about prepping to go to the temple. I know, that's a long time that we didn't teach him that, but he was gone for a long time, so we started now. Unfortunately his family isn't supportive of his membership, so he's having a hard time right now. He's so awesome. It's funny just how much I already prefer being around hispanos than I do around white people. We were walking through an apartment complex last night and this family of white people walked past and when I said Hi, they just glared at us and kept walking. We don't contact non-hispanos because there are so few spanish missionaries we just usually ignore them, but we still say hi. But whenever we say Hi to a spanish speaker, they're really friendly and polite and willing to chat with us. They're so awesome! Oh, dad would like this- On thursdays at 7 we teach an English class to about 4 or 5 people. The first night I actually brought my notebook so I could take notes too! haha I couldn't understand people at all, but I've gotten to the point that I can understand at least about 60% maybe of what people say, sometimes more depending on where they're from. Hondurians, Veracruzians, and the 2 Chileans I've run into here are the most difficult to understand. Unfortunately, almost everyone in Charlottesville is from Honduras or Veracruz! But it's good practice! I'm trying to speak as much spanish as possible, but it's tough when I'm completely surrounded by english so much of the day. But I bought a Spanish for dummies book so I can get super fluent super fast! haha . But seriously. I did buy it. So we've driven by the University of Virginia campus a few times. I got to see the rotunda which was cool. If you don't know, it was designed by Thomas Jefferson, but you probably all know that. Also we drove past the football stadium which was sweet, and depending on if there's a game that starts around 12ish, we might be able to go! How cool is that? I'd be so stoked, and elder Gleave is a football freak! So he's even more stoked than I am. We're also allowed to watch a few disney movies in spanish on our p-days because it helps us with the language, but we only can watch them at the chapel. And we only have 10 p-day miles a week and the chapel is about 12 miles away, so that's tough to swing. So yeah, that's pretty much everything I guess. There's actually a lot more, but I don't have much more time to tell you and I couldn't fit it all in on an email. So yeah, you've got my address so now you can write me! hooray! The MSF cards don't get us very far cause we have to buy a lot more food because we never get member dinners except from Manuel, so we usually end up eating out instead of wasting the miles to go back to the apartment. I know, we could take a sandwich and some other stuff, but we always forget. So I hope everything is going good back home. President Millburn is awesome. I didn't get to spend much time with him because we had SOOO many interviews to do last Wednesday, but he seems like a really cool guy. He's really down to earth and he's actually pretty funny. I won't get to see him that much, but that's ok. I should be in this area for a while. Elder Gleave has been here about 5 months. He has only 11 months to go. So yeah, I have a feeling I won't get moved around a whole bunch. Alright, well that's all I got for now I guess. I can't wait to hear from you and anyone else you can convince to write me! Les amo(dad can translate that one). Stay safe. Write me. Let me know how everyone's doing. Ok, love you all. Talk to you later.

Another sweet tie trade...

And another

ME!

Waiting for the Dr.

Watch out or I'll suck you up!

Letter from Aug. 5, 2009

Greetings from the bomb shelter. So, two interesting stories this week! On friday, we had a TRC appointment, where they give us scenarios that we'll face in the field and we have to teach the lesson based on the investigator and such. Elder Washburn and I were teaching the Carriers, who are both like 100 years old and they fall asleep all the time. Well, we're talking about Jesus Christ's atonement, and I decide to say Jesus Christ suffered for my sins. Well, that is a preterite tense conjugation, and I've been having trouble with that since we got here. But I totally figured how to say it and I was super duper stoked, so I say "Jesucristo sufrio para mis...pescados?" and I turn to Elder Washburn and say "pescados?" and he says yeah thats totally it, so being all confident, I say it again, "Jesucristo Sufrio para mis pescados!" and I'm all happy with myself. Well, the teacher who was watching us embarassingly whispers from behind me "peCADos". I sit there and think about it for a little bit, and it hits me! I said "Jesus Christ suffered for my fishes!" Yeah, I ACTUALLY said that! Can you say embarrassing? Then yesterday, Elder Washburn and I got a chat in the RC from some guy named Trevor. He wants to know about priesthood and the spirit. He's from the Church of the Nazarene and he says he can heal people in Jesus's name and that he holds the priesthood. Well Elder Washburn and I just keep disproving everything that he said out of the bible, and we were using the Bible to do it, so instead of answering us, he just keeps moving on. He then gets to the point where he says John the Revelator passed his priesthood on and that LDS made up that lie. When I tell him that I've received an answer to my questions through prayer, he says "Skyler, don't be a robot for LDS! Read the bible without your Book of Mormon and see the truth for yourself!" We finally get to the point where we can ask him to read a scripture out of the Book of Mormon, and when we push him the link to Alma 40:11, 12 and 13 in response to "Did Hitler go to heaven?" he just logged off. It was sad. I wonder if in the next life I'll see him and he'll say "Hey, you're the one I talked to that day! I was so close!"? Anyway, this week has been ridiculous! I didn't get released as District Leader unfortunately, I thought they revolved them every 3 weeks, but apparently not. Oh, so I didnt' get to chat with Clairr again. Dad, what we do is set up a return chat appointment through email which she gave, and i told her that I would be on on Sunday at whatever time, but she never got on and asked to be transferred to me. Oh well. So yeah, this week has been really hard with grammar. We did passive voices which are really hard to understand. Passive voice with Se is kicking my butt!! Luckily we have an amazing tutor here, so he's been a huge help! Unfortunately, Hno. Ortiz is leaving this week for the rest of our stay here, and he's a better teacher than Hno. Del Toro, but oh well! SO funny coincidence story! Last Wednesday night, Hno. Ortiz took us around to talk to the advanced students which was really intimidating! We met some guy who spoke English, Spanish and Japanese before his mission, and now he's learning Hmong! He said this sentence that was just different tones of "gu gu gu gu gu gu gu gu" and it meant I threw the ball, it hit the wall, it came back to me. How crazy is that? Well we went into the native speakers classrooms, and Elder Washburn and I got assigned to talk to Hna. Salazar from Houston Texas. When I told her that I was from Reno, NV, she says "Do you know the Wilsons?" And I'm thinkin, "I know like, 4 Wilson families!" So she says "Cielle Wilson?" and I get all excited and say "yeah, her mom was my seminary teacher last year!!!" Turns out that Cielle is Hna. Salazar's sister-in-law! How crazy is that? So I blessed the Sacrament in church on Sunday, in Spanish, which was interesting. Elder Washburn said the blessing on the bread, but accidentally started reading the blessing on the water! That was embarrassing! So then I got up and bore my testimony and it was great! We heard the 1st lesson in English the other day, and it was SO weird to hear it in English! Its so natural to speak and think in spanish now its crazy! We're all trying to speak in spanish more, but we still don't know how to say that much, so its a lot harder than we thought! But we only have 21 days left exactly! How crazy is that? I've been in here 42 days already!!! Its ridiculous! Mallory, thanks for the pictures! I was so happy when I got them! I showed everyone and was like "mis sobrinas son mas bonita que sus sobrinas" to everyone, which means my nieces are cuter than your nieces! And I'm super glad you've started reading the scriptures again! I started the BoM over on the 21st and I only have like, 50 pages left! sorry to hear about your ring incident! That kinda sucks! Juliann, sorry to hear things are still goin rough. I know you weren't undermining what I'm doing. But Sis. Krueger, my branch president's wife, said "how can we expect blessings like abraham if we don't sacrifice like abraham?" Just remember that. Once you make it through this, your blessing will be so many you won't know how to count them! Just keep on keepin on, things will look up eventually! Dad, I hope you have a blast on your hike! Be safe and don't get eaten by any bears.Mom, sorry they've been working you like crazy. Hopefully you'll get a break soon! So if anyone sees any awesome Paisley ties in purple, dark red or any other awesome colors, or some sweet small floral prints in the same colors I would love some more ties! I've made 3 sweet trades so far, but everyone wants to trade me for dads peruvian tie, my scottish wool tie or my mormal tie! I'm not gettin rid of any of those! Ok, well I gotta go get my laundry! Love you all and miss you. Cant wait to hear from you! Flight plans next week hopefully! -Skyler