Jan 13, 2010

Yes, I got the shoes. They're great. I have to break them in, I got two blisters from them on my heels, but after they're broken in, they'll be alright. They look dang good! And about the Jordans (shoes). We were helping a less active move and he pulled out this butt ugly shirt and says to Elder Darbro "Here, I'm not going to wear this." and gives it to him. Then he turns around and pulls out teh box of Jordans adn looks at me adn says "These should fit pretty well." and hands them to me. I said "Hermano, I can't take these!" and he just said "I don't want them, so take them!" so I did! haha Sweet right?


Man, the weeks are going by so fast and blurring all together. I can't remember what I told you about last week and what is new this week. We found 11 new investigators last week, but about 4 of them have skipped on their appointments and we can't get ahold of them. The other 7 we either have had only one appointment with or have not had another appointment with. This area is so big that it's impossible to see everyone everyday, let alone 2 times a week, so we're trying to keep everyone going with phone calls, but the hispanics always buy pay as you go phones, so if they run out of 'go', there's no way to get ahold of them, and we can't risk just driving to their house and have them not there for our miles limit, so it's REALLY difficult. We're trying here, but we're kind of stalling out. But a few of the gators (investigators)  are WAY sweet. This one lady Nery is from the Dominican Republic but speaks almost perfect english which is why we didn't talk to her at first, but then I heard her speak spanish and she LOVES the missionaries! She talked to them all the time down in the Dominican Republic, but never about the gospel. Interesting. Another one, Teo, is from Mexico. He's sweet. We found him living with some other investigators, and all of his questions and doubts led exactly through the first lesson. It was amazing! And when I shared the first vision, he was actually taken aback by the spirit. He was kind of scared, but we told him what it was, and he was super stoked. But he didn't show up to church on Sunday, he works a ton, and does't have a phone, entonces (I think this is like "therefore" he adds spanish words sometimes so I add the translation) its way tough to get ahold of him.

The zone leaders came down on Monday and we all went to eat at this restaurant owned by some members. It's a bar and grill, and we went in and the waitress was showing WAY too much skin in both directions, so we kept our heads buried firmly on the plates. It was way awkward. But then Elder Gleave and I went to eat with los Mendo (a church member?), and I was way stuffed, and Elder Gleaev looked like he was going to vomit, so it was awkward. Then I gave Hno. Mendo a blessing in spanish. First time ever giving a blessing, an it was in spanish. It was so nerve wracking. But then we went to this spanish tienda to find a newspaper with an article that I'm translating for you and I'm going to send it to you. I'm really mad. You'll see why. But then we went over to the Garcia's and they fed us a HUGE meal and it was crazy. SO that day was insane, I almost gave up eating food forever. But they liked what I had done with the area book so much that they asked me to give a training on Area Books at zone conference next week. SO yeah.

And with the i-phone. By the time I get done, the i-phone will be even sweeter, so that's what I'm gunning for. I'll keep praying though :) The prayers of a missionary have some extra umph behind them, ya know? hahaha

Oh yeah, the elders that got in the accident last week. Elder Romney. All of his organs that belong in his stomach got pushed up into his chest, he's still in a coma, and they're not sure if he's going to live. So if you could put him and his family on the prayer roll, that would be fantastic!

I guess that's all for this week. I always think of something to tell you right as soon as I log off, but oh well.

As always, love you, hope everything is good with you all. Miss you, but I'll see you in 17 1/2 months. Isn't that crazy!? It is for me! Man it's going fast!

Love ya,

Skyler

Jan 6 2010 letter

Hey, so this week has been a lot better. The president still sucks, but that's life. (clarification; the U.S. pres) The big news this weeek is ( duh duh duh duh, duh duh duh duh duh duh DUHHHHHHHH) WE GOT HERMANAS down here! How sweet is that? I'm so excited! They're soooo cool! And the members LOVE them! (I"m not kidding, one of the members shrieked and yelled "That's the best gift you could have given me for the new year!) So we're pretty much obsolete now! haha not really, but the members REALLY REALLY REALLY love them! It's crazy. Elder Darbro had some bad experiences with the hermanas back in Henrico, so it always seems like he's trying to turn me against them, but I don't care. I think they're awesome! We've been finding a lot of new investigators lately. I think we've gotten 7 since Thursday. While that's not a TON, they're impossible to find in this area in the wintertime. SO 7 is pretty dang good.

Ok, so some Ecco's would be AWESOME! That lace up one sounds perfect. I'm a size 10.5 I'm pretty sure, so we'll see how that goes.
Oh, so we also built a cave in the house. We hung some blankets from the ceiling and moved the couch underneath them, beccause we were sick of our study area being 60 degrees. Now, we can get the study area up to about 74! It's awesome! We woke up on Sunday, and it was 44 degrees in the house. It's been absolutely freezing here lately, it's miserable to walk around outside for 2 hours in 30* weather, but oh well, that's how life goes!
We had english class last night, it went pretty well. We had about 8 people show up, and Olivia, our investigator who we passed off to the hermanas, came and brought her kids. I went and played some ball with the kids while Elder Darbro was teaching, and then we all went and played some futbol(saying soccer just sounds so weird). It was sweet, but I'm way tired, so naturally we're going to play volleyboll with the English district today for P-Day. SO that should be fun.

Well, I don't really know what else to write this week. SOrry I'm so boring. It's all just blending together now. I can't believe it's already 2010! How crazy is that!? Man, first full year of missionary work! Should be exciting!
oH ALSO, dang capslock, if you ever find some Pentel RSVP pens in all purple (cap, barrel, everything is in all dark purple), could you please send me like, 4 cases of those things. I gave my last 3 away to some members because they LOVED the pens, so now I'm using these pens that I hate and I can't find anymore of those Purple RSVP pens ANYWHERE! SO yeah, that would be awesome.
As for birthday present, I figured it out. Don't get me anything this year or next or for christmas this year, but when you come to pick me up, bring me an i-phone. That seems fair, right? haha yeah, anyway! hahahha

Love you all, miss you. Hope you're all doing great.

Love Skyler

Dec 30 letter

So that backscratcher is amazing! I use it EVERY morning! It's awesome! The toothbrush is great, and I absolutely LOVE both of the ties! The sweats are super comfy. Everything is great. Hope you enjoyed your christmas. Time since then has gone by fast, but not soo good. On Saturday we went to some investigators Olga and Teofilo. She reads the book of mormon everyday and is so ready to get baptized, would totally do it in an instant. He on teh other hand is not so interested, but they're not married either which is a problem. So we went over there and we were just straight up with them. We told them they need to get married to enjoy the blessings God wants to give them. And we were super bold and looked at Teo and said "Do you love Olga?" he said yes. Then we go "Then why won't you marry her?" and he just went on this 10 minute spree of bull crap excuses. SO they said they'd pray about it, and then on Sunday he called us and said "We got an answer, thanks to God. We want to talk to you tomorrow at 5." So we were super excited and we go up there, and they're not there. So we call them and he says "We're washing our clothes." So we can't see them Monday. yesterday, we call him and he just flat out says "I don't want to get married." So now we have to go chat with Olga about it and see what she is willing to do, because he's just completely holding her b ack and it's ridiculous. Then last night at English class, I was teaching again, and this gringa lady came in with her husband who is from Mexico. She's been taking spanish for the last year, adn she thinks she knows everything, so she was trying to correct me on everything. She was quizzing me on what we've gone over, and when I told her we hadn't done the silent e (drive, hide, die) she goes "Shame on you! They need to know that!" and it was super annoying, so I finally just told her "You know what, we speak with hispanics every day. We learned in 2 months what it's taken you a year to learn. We've seen what works, and we know what they're going to use in work and in daily life. That's what we're going over. They don't need to know why there's a silent e on drive right now. Maybe later." and just started ignoring her. It was driving me insane. I wanted to strangle her. Then we were talking afterwards and she dropped the f-bomb in the chapel and I was SUPER mad! I justa grabbed my stuff and left. I was so done with her.

On the bright side, Jose Manuel got baptized on Sunday. It was sweet! Unfortunately the water was freezing, because the water heater in our chapel is retarded! AAnd his dad had to do it twice because he said en el nombre del padre, del hijo y del espiritu santo, he left out the y before hijo. Pobre Jose. Oh well. So now I got my first one under my belt. Excited. I got the program.
So our Branch President is an idiot. I was talking to him about this less active lady in a wheelchair who wants to go to temple prep class and get her records transferred here, adn he says "if she wants to talk to me, she can come to the chapel and set up a meeting. The help of the church is for those who are 100% active." I was sooooo mad. I hate that man so much. My first sunday here, we had 70+ people in sacrament. Now, we're lucky if we can get 30. Everyone I talk to says that he's the reason they left. He just offends everyone in the branch. It sucks!
So yeah, there's my vent session for the day. Now that that's over.
So transfers got here yesterday. I'm staying here, so is Elder Darbro. Elder Landry, the english elder here, is going up to Newport 3rd with Elder Beckman. Yeah, he's going to be Alex Beckman's companion. Crazy, right? I thought that was pretty funny.
Anyway, not much new to say here. I got most of that out on Friday.
Ok, well I think that's it. Until next week. Love you all. It was great to hear your voices. Hope everything is going well. See you in 18 months!


Love SKyler