Sunday, December 27, 2009
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!
Monday, December 21, 2009
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
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
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
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
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