July 28, 2014

Dear Parental Units and Family,

This week is just like usual just half of the week was hot and humid and the other half was just raining cats and dogs. But through the sweat cold and tears we have made it to be a successful week.

We are continuing to focus on our families that we are teaching. In all we have about 8 couples with at least one of the spouses are progressing toward baptism. We are hoping that as we teach the couples together that we will have more partners prepared for baptism. This is what we are focusing on now. We have found that even though couples have been living together sometimes even 15 years that they say that they can’t trust one another and a whole lot of other things which is holding them from being married. Thankfully we have such a strong Branch President, President Harmon, who is in full support of the combined marriage that we wanted to perform. He each Sunday sits down with all of the couples who come to church and ask them about what they have done that week in order to have the money for the certificate.  This is such a blessing to us missionaries so we don’t have to worry about the marital problems people are facing but just teach them the commandment. Even sometimes when he gets off of work, we will find him to our investigators house solving problems that they may have and helping them to work out how people can have the funds for this marriage and also problems they may have. President Harmon is the perfect man for the job. He himself didn’t have a flashy wedding and big ceremony. They didn’t have any money at the time they wanted to marry so they said they didn’t have anyone besides family to come and witness the marriage certificate signing. He and His wife still to this day don’t where rings because they don’t have the money for them. Now, they have been to the temple and back and are sealed for time and all eternity.

We have started really focusing on the doctrines in our companionship study as well, and at least for me I can see a big difference on how we are teaching both as a companionship and what I feel inspired to talk about during the lessons. We had a good miracle happen as we were wondering what to teach one of our brothers named Anthony who had a hard time of being committed; he like the church, the teachings, and everything, but it was just being committed to the church was his problem. So we were reading in companionship study about “following the prophet” and we realized that this is exactly what this brother needs.  We sat down later that day with him and his baptized brother and had an amazing lesson which he really understood what we were talking about. He is a politician out here in Kakata and following leaders and being a leader is what he knows about so the whole thing just worked out perfectly.

On Wednesday as we went to Morris Farm we met this woman whose name is Nyampu. We started to teach her but there was a big fight next door so we decided to postpone it until Friday. We came back Friday and had a dope lesson with our Relief Society President about the message of the Restoration. We invited her to church and she actually came on Sunday. We were so happy to see hear there and the Relief Society sisters did a great job at putting her under their wing. We really wanted to meet her husband but he is a police officer in another part of Morris Farm and seems to be never home. After church we were proselyting in Morris farm when it started raining hard. Half of me wanted to go home and get dry and eat, my other heart (as Liberians describe it) told me that we should try to pass by Sister Nyampu and ask her how she like service. I told my companion and we went under the heavy rain. Just before we got there the rain stopped which was a miracle and we finally met Mr. Nyampu or Vesselie. He is such a dope guy with a lot of good questions and so we had another good lesson about the restoration which was a good follow up for Sister Nyampu. The lord blessed our extra mile that we walk and it seems to be like that every day.

I could really say like 3 more stories that happen just like that one this week. The Lord is really hastening the work here in Kakata, and I am just happy and excited to be a part of it. Can I just say I love being a missionary!

I hope everything is going well with our family back at home. I love and miss you but aint quite ready to come home yet. Give it a month or two.

Love,

Elder Skouson

July 21, 2014

Dear Family,
Well this has been a full week! Elder Khasiahi and i have been working really hard this last week trying to help as many people as we could. To be honest we were focusing on doctrines and trying to teach many lesson. We did alright especially for our first week as being companions. We taught in total 39 lessons. There is still room for improvement and i think it will come in better planning sessions and having back ups for our back ups.
Elder Khasiahi is super dope. He was telling me about what life was like back at home. Just makes me realize i did absolutely nothing when i was at home. In Kenya, he worked on one of the largest refugee camps for a few months until rebels took out some members of his team so he decided maybe its a little too risky. He has been filling me in on about how Somalia is just a bad country all around and that is where all the refugees come from. He is just a cool guy and is teaching me a lot about east africa. He is my first east african companion and i just sweet. 
Well, during the week as we were meeting our investigators i noticed that we were teaching a lot of husband and wives. Most of them, at least, are progressing. But just like i told my companion i don't have time to spend on non progressing investigators. So sometime we are dropping people so we can pick up new good ones.
During weekly planning i got to see all of our investigators and we have about 10 couples that we are teaching. I remembered about the general conference talk by Elder Anderson about the 8 or so couples in Mozambique who were all married at the same time and then baptized the day after. I brought the idea up to my companion and we talked about how we could do it. We decided that we need the Branch and Branch President to be behind us if we are going to do this. So we finally got to meet with him Saturday and discuss about what our idea was. President Harmon is so wonderful, he went behind it 100%. He suggested that some of the couples come early to churchtomorrow so that he could meet with them and discuss about how the church doesn't believe in something flashy. 
So the plan went into effect. By the end of church President Harmon sat with 8 different families to talk about how it would look like. We are planning on September 6 to be the marriage and thenSeptember 13 to be the baptism. We know this is going to take a lot of work on our side to be able to get these couples truly ready for their baptisms. Now some of the families, their spouse might not be as progressing as them but we figure if we work really hard and let Heavenly Father do the rest i know that things will work out. 
Not too much today but this is the plan that we have made and we are working towards accomplishing it. We are working very hard so i can finish my mission with no regrets, i am just glad to be dying in the field, so i can die with my boots on!
By the way we went fishing again today but as i said before there are no fish in Liberia. Well its not true, maybe the fish are racist. Until next week!
Love,
Elder Skouson

July 14, 2014

Dear Family,

Well just like I said I am outta Harbel, far far away! But thankfully I am not living the city life too much cause they sent me out to KAKATA. Kak city baby!!! So literally I will never see most of the missionaries in this mission ever again. Saddd but I am excited to be out here in the bush so I thought. To be honest Kakata is like little Monrovia. Everything moves very quickly out here. There is more business being done and bikes transporting people so it does quite have that bush feel like harbel but it is still pretty nice. Our apartment is Celestial because we don’t worry about turning on our generator but another person does it. We also have…..drum roll please…… working showers!!!!!!! I have taken two so far and that feel so good but to be honest I almost like buckets then you can control pressure to one section of your body.

Elder Egbu is now to the mission office preparing for his departure home. Saddd but good that he went home. We worked really hard this last week trying to prepare our people to not be taught by missionaries for the next couple of months.

I got to spend sacrament meeting in Harbel to give a talk on service and magnifying your calling, and then we loaded the truck and headed towards Kakata. This was the most scenic drive I have been on for a long long time. We were driving through firestone rubber trees on a dirt road and the trees cover the road and made like this canopy cover!! It was just beautiful.  We got there just in time to see the ending part of Kakata’s branch. I was just trying to get to know some people as one of the other Elders , Elder Marondera from Zimbabwe, was just taking photos cause he was going home.

My new companion is Elder Khasiahi from Kenya! He is just a sweet funny guy who is ready to work. He only arrived in Kakata 3 weeks before I did so we are both going to be learning the area! We sat down with the branch president and he invited us to eat some Fufu and pepper soup. It tasted pretty good, but the thing with Liberians is they say they can sleep if they don’t eat rice in the day. So he brought a bowl of rice and red oil as well.  We then discussed about what we could do as missionaries to be able to help this branch grow! He gave us some few suggestions and told us an interesting story. He himself is one of the most Christ-like men I have ever met. He just wants to always help people in every way he can. But he says he wasn’t always like that. He use to Drink, he says no small drinker as well. Couldn’t hold any job and people could not trust him with anything because he would go and pawn it off for drink money. But his friend introduced him to the church and he decided to change his life around. Now he is the man he is today. His house is very very nice, he works at the bank, and his family is just a Latter-day saint kind of family.

Well I am just happy to be out here in Kakata. The best place to sprint to the finish! Thank you for constantly praying for me and helping me in every way.

By the way, remember the Kenyans’ at the Noorda’s house who killed I think a goat and we had a feast! Ya, that has crossed my mind with my companion being from Kenya. Maybe we are lining up a Goat or a pig to do it with. I am pretty excited, I will try to send pictures if we do it. Maybe my birthday or something!

Thank you Kaden cuz for the letter. Mission will be the best two years of your life. Always live worthily for that call one day to come out on a mission! You will love every minute of it! just like i have.

Well that is all for this week folks, tune in next week when I actually teach people in Kak City!

Love,

Elder Skouson

July 7, 2014

Dear Family,

This week nothing too exciting. Elder Egbu and I now have 6 days left together. Its saddddd! This last thursday we found out that our area harbel 1 will be closing down. So sad news is i will be leaving harbel to go in town. I thought i was going to avoid town for the rest of my mission, guess not. I will miss the bush like frog which is saddddd. So ya i still don't know exactly where i am going though which makes it even more sad. But next week i probably wont be emailing you from harbel. 

But we are really trying to work hard with Elder Egbu being his last week proselyting. We are focusing on our recent converts like crazy because we wont them to be very strong because no missionaries will teach them. The Zone Leaders will still be in there area but we will be going. 

We have tried to help our people in the best way possible. We realized that many people both men and women alike don't understand much about the Priesthood. So we are going to be focusing on that through out the next week and help as many people as possible. 

By the way i love the new front yard it looks great. Shalese looks amazing, and her husband didn't shave. am i judging yes just because sometimes i want a beard too!!!! 

We had a really good lesson yesterday with one of our investigators named Martha Tambah. We invited our relief Society to sit down with us. We talked about the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day holy! As Martha sells cold water on Sunday. Sis koineg, the relief society president, bore one of the most powerful testimonies of keeping the sabbath day holy. Not going to lie before this happened we hadn't had a very good teaching week due to excessive rain and people working at our house. So this little small short lesson just made my week to say ya it was a good week. Times when you feel the spirit when other people bear their testimonies just makes my day or week just turn out great! Im sure it was heavenly father answering my prayers. 

Today we were suppose to be at a chicken farm eating at a restaurant for my companion Elder Egbu last p day, the place is in our zone but kind of far away. When i woke up this morning i had a small prompting that said, maybe you need to ask President if you could go. This never crossed my mind or the zone leaders minds but i feel like it was the spirit so i said it to the zone leaders. The zone leaders thought about it and decided to call. Which ya we didn't get approved to go. We don't really know why but i feel as though it was the right thing to do, and talking to the other missionaries they all felt the same way. I am just thankful for the spirit to be with us, to guide and protect us even. 

Well not much else to talk about, just know we are needing all the prayers we can get out here. I am truly thankful to be a missionary. This has really changed my life being here and learning the things i have. I love you all.

Love,
Elder SkousonDear Family,

This week nothing too exciting. Elder Egbu and I now have 6 days left together. Its saddddd! This last thursday we found out that our area harbel 1 will be closing down. So sad news is i will be leaving harbel to go in town. I thought i was going to avoid town for the rest of my mission, guess not. I will miss the bush like frog which is saddddd. So ya i still don't know exactly where i am going though which makes it even more sad. But next week i probably wont be emailing you from harbel. 

But we are really trying to work hard with Elder Egbu being his last week proselyting. We are focusing on our recent converts like crazy because we wont them to be very strong because no missionaries will teach them. The Zone Leaders will still be in there area but we will be going. 

We have tried to help our people in the best way possible. We realized that many people both men and women alike don't understand much about the Priesthood. So we are going to be focusing on that through out the next week and help as many people as possible. 

By the way i love the new front yard it looks great. Shalese looks amazing, and her husband didn't shave. am i judging yes just because sometimes i want a beard too!!!! 

We had a really good lesson yesterday with one of our investigators named Martha Tambah. We invited our relief Society to sit down with us. We talked about the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day holy! As Martha sells cold water on Sunday. Sis koineg, the relief society president, bore one of the most powerful testimonies of keeping the sabbath day holy. Not going to lie before this happened we hadn't had a very good teaching week due to excessive rain and people working at our house. So this little small short lesson just made my week to say ya it was a good week. Times when you feel the spirit when other people bear their testimonies just makes my day or week just turn out great! Im sure it was heavenly father answering my prayers. 

Today we were suppose to be at a chicken farm eating at a restaurant for my companion Elder Egbu last p day, the place is in our zone but kind of far away. When i woke up this morning i had a small prompting that said, maybe you need to ask President if you could go. This never crossed my mind or the zone leaders minds but i feel like it was the spirit so i said it to the zone leaders. The zone leaders thought about it and decided to call. Which ya we didn't get approved to go. We don't really know why but i feel as though it was the right thing to do, and talking to the other missionaries they all felt the same way. I am just thankful for the spirit to be with us, to guide and protect us even. 

Well not much else to talk about, just know we are needing all the prayers we can get out here. I am truly thankful to be a missionary. This has really changed my life being here and learning the things i have. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Skouson

Pictures from June 30, 2014

From Elder Zaugg: Elder Skouson and I doing what we do best

June 30, 2014

Dear Family,

Happy 4th of July!!!!!! in like 5 days. Elder Zaugg and I are still trying to plan something to celebrate with. We are thinking we are going to go all out and buy some hamburger meat from the super market and grill some hamburgers. He didnt like the idea of Chicken feet with a little BBQ sauce on it, on a piece of bread. Oooh that does sound nice. even drizzle some mayonnaise on it just to make it taste a little bit sweeter. Ya if you cant tell i am quite hungry right now.

Speaking of food... well i will get to that. 

Speaking of missionary work, we did a lot of that this week. It happened to be a lot of physical work that we did though. On Thursday we took a few hours to go down to the other Elders area and pump water with the hand pump for people to get our name out a little bit more. We would fill the people buckets then carry it back to there house for them. There is just nothing as rewarding as service!

On Friday we got a call from our repair man for the mission that he was coming out again to Harbel to pump water from the river and take it down to the baptismal font to fill the font for our baptism the next day. No small journey through the jungle on the back of a truck filled with water. Yup just everyday life here in the Bush in Liberia. We also did another small service project for an older woman that morning who because of the heavy rain her dirt porch was partially washed out and i  twas hard for her to step over because of the length on the water erosion. So we went into the rubber bush and found some bamboo to cut and carry back to the woman's house. You should have seen the happiness on the women's face. She was just so thankful for the help that we gave to her. 

We taught a recent covert named William Glay, he is such a great man who just has an excited personality. He gave a talk on the Sabbath Day and it was really great. He just gave it just like a pastor would. Actually kind of funny. We were teaching him about priesthood ordinances and blessings which he didn't know too much about. His friends joined in about half way through the lesson. and he kept telling them, you see this is why our church is true, or this is why the church is true. One man was a catholic man and had many questions and brother Glay did his very best to be a wonderful missionary. We are going back to him this week, i don't know i just like his lessons. 

As it is Elder Egbu's last couple weeks we are going to be focusing on teaching recent converts about the Priesthood and the power and authority we have in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints. We noticed not many people understand about the Priesthood and it is the last thing people would think about when they are sick or get hurt or anything like that. In which for me at least it is one of the first things that come to my mind. So we are going to helping people understand that a little bit better.

Ok now back to the food. So I was Elder Haas's One year on mission on Saturday so we tried to do something special for him. So we bought four pounds of beef and we grilled it over a coal fire. We also drizzled BBQ sauce on it before it was done. We fried and baked some french fries and had a can of re fried beans. Turns out we made some sort of carne asada fries. I think Bobby Flay himself would had tasted it an been impressed with what we did!!!

Well thank you for the constant prayers that you send my way, i know they truly help me work harder and harder everyday!

Love,

Elder Skouson.

June 23, 2014

Dear Family,

Thank you for your emails. They always help me so much!!! Sounds like its been quite a week back at home.

This week has been kind of heck deck as well. 

I wasn't feeling the best this last week. Nothing serious just fresh cold knocked me down and out for a day or two. But it is nice to get some good rest so you can just get back on your feet and work. My companion and i have been working hard to help some people prepare for their baptism next week. So we are working hard so that the branch members can be doing there part as well. Sounds kind of funny but the most effective missionary work is when members and missionaries work together. Sometimes it is just difficult to get the members involved in missionary work.

With rain season coming in at full force it has been hacking at our zinc roof little by little and where there is rust is now starting to get holes. So last week the mission hired some help to fix our roof small small so that we can sleep in dry clothes now yay!!!!

Even through all of these problems we were still able to have a good week proselyting. We have realized how our own efforts haven't been giving us too many results so far. So we rearranged our game plan and started asking for referrals from members like crazy. Any chance we have we have tried to get a member to show us, not only tell us, to somebody who is there friend. Emmanuel Giah is one that we have been using like crazy and he has literally shown us almost all of his friends, many in which are at least partially interested. Eman is going to be baptized on this Saturday. Which reminds me we have to set up a time with our bossman Felix so we can go to the river again and pump water and take it to our font again. That was a lot of fun last time so i am kind of excited to do some more service on Friday. Be praying that everything goes very well so we can have our baptism.

My Companion has less then a month with me now which has its cons and pros. Elder Egbu is a great elder and i am happy that i am with him. Teaches me something new everyday!

President Kirkham has had us start to just focus on teaching doctrines in the lessons. This helps our lessons to be shorter and more beneficial as we are hitting the nail straight on the head. We can see how are people are growing more because of the simpleness of our lessons. The are able to understand clearly and people are able to tell others about what this churches Doctrine is!!!! 

Recently due to our efforts we have been finishing rumors that are here in Harbel and cotton tree. People don't usually talk about the five dollar church anymore. The only now say that "latter day saint church". It is interesting that people don't use the word "Mormons" to describe the Church or the members. Well they also don't refer to us as missionaries, just white man, but that is another issue.

We have been teaching this woman who lives right behind the church and sells cold water right in front. She came to church 3 weeks ago because she says as she sells in front she has seen how we worship and likes it so she just showed up one day. Her name is Martha Tambah. She is very sweet actually. She lost her husband 3 years ago and has been struggling for work ever since then. But you should she her now. She has gone from a kind of depressed mode to an energetic woman in the matter of weeks. When she thinks about her husband it still pains her small but when we taught her about the Plan of Salvation those cares seemed to deteriorate. She has been doing so very well in the few weeks that she has been introduced to the gospel and the wonderfulness of Jesus Christ!

Speaking of Jesus Christ, I have been reading in the Doctrine and Covenants and i just love how he give the revelations to Joseph Smith and others. Just puts things into prospective a little bit more, as the Doctrine and Covenants was written not too long ago. I love studying the gospel and how it makes feel. The Spirit is there when you study, i wish we could get some of our struggling investigators to understand this a little bit more! 

Well this week has just been good. Trying to continue to sprint to the finish! No small something we are doing here. Thank you for your support that you have given me throughout!!!

Love,

Elder Skouson

P.S. Not that i am thinking about how or nothing, but you are welcome to send me a letter i can open on the plane ride home. Even you can send letters now for me to be encouraged to get on that plane, cause i am going to be very nervous to do that business.

June 16, 2014

Dear Family,

Word is out my release date is September 24. I don't like this at all that means i only have a little over 3 months left on my mission. Makes me want to hurl. So the antidote is just really hard work.

We had an amazing week this last week where we were able to teach over 30 lessons which is really good for this area!!! We are trying to teach shorter more powerful lessons which focuses on the doctrines behind the lessons. No matter what we teach it always goes straight back to Jesus Christ!

At church yesterday we had 11 investigators that showed up! I love to see who comes to church on Sunday because not going to lie it sifts out the progressing investigators with the not so progressing investigators. I was a great service and my companion taught our investigator class which was good. He is very knowledgeable about the bible and helps people understand scripture very well.

 

WE are planning on working even harder this week. My companion has only about 4 weeks left on his mission so we will be working like dogs these next couple weeks. Hopefully i will have the opportunity to train a new missionary this upcoming transfer to share all that i have learned and am so grateful for! This will keep me sprinting until i give every last ounce of energy. Make sure to have the oxygen ready when i get off that plane.

My companion has taught me so many different things while i have been with him. One thing the importance of being respectful to others. Everyone in this world likes to be respected and people see it when you do respect them and for missionaries it opens up paths to share the gospel. Another thing is that i have learned that patience is a virtue truly.

Well not much time on the clock i have to get going but i love you all very much!!!

Love,
Elder Skouson

June 9, 2014

Dear My wonderful Family,

This week has been "jack-a-la" as Liberians say. My companion has been suffering with this rash business so we are trying to solve it before he goes home so he doesn't need to worry about it again. 

On Wednesday we went into town to one of the hospitals, is it weird that i like the feel of hospital small? Anyways the doctors did a blood test and found that there was nothing wrong but they still cant find out what it is. Liberians think it is some sort of African Ju-Ju business that someone put on him. This whole thing is just a mess that i just want finished so the work can progress. I am so thankful for the couples and mission president who care so much for my companion and all the missionaries.

So we kind of had multiple small service project this week. My favorite one of all time was getting water for our baptismal font so we could have a baptism this last week. Bro. Felix our missions 'go to man' called us at 4:30 saying that he is coming to pick me and my companion up at 5 to go and get water for the baptism and finish by 7. No small work we did. We quickly changed clothes and put on our boots to go down to this river to pump water into a tank in the back of his truck. We drove very quickly down this muddy road to go to the river by the time we got out of the truck it started to rain cats and dogs. So we quickly learned how to use this pump and stuck one hose in the river and one in the tank. Really it was not small work and i had to ride on the back of the truck to make sure nobody took our tools or anything as we were driving back into cotton tree. I am just thankful that i didn't get sick or a cold from being soaked to the bone. We had to do that trip several times and we still got back on time for our curfew. As i was just sitting on the back, i was thinking to myself who would have thought i would be in the jungles of Liberia, on the back of a truck getting rained on for a baptism the next day. Can i just say i love my mission!

As we were proselyting this week i greeted one old ma and said how di day? She responded like usual saying "When you sleep, and Day Break, you tell God tank you." How true it is some times we forget about how much heavenly father has done for us, we just need to learn to be grateful for everything that happens to us. It is in the midst of trials i believe we grow the most. Now nobody actually wants trials but when we do receive them we just need to have the attitude of gratitude. So laugh a little. 

Speaking of Laughing i was on exchange with Elder Haas from South Africa ( the one who bore his testimony in Xhosa. the clicky language). We just get along so well and we were just laughing so hard in the middle of our area. Laughing is totally contagious or it at least brings on a side-affect of smiling. This just helps peoples perception of us missionaries. We aren't just robots who want you to come to our 5 dollar church. We are literally given you a way to improve the quality of your life. That is when you come unto Jesus Christ. We give you this for free too we will come to your own house to teach you only if you will do what we ask! 

Missionary work is just too sweet!! Speaking of sweets ( we are speaking of a lot of things this week) Elder Zaugg and I made Carmel popcorn last night and i think i still have a sugar headache this morning. So i beg please try to ease me into all the sugar we eat back at home. Pineapple is about the sweetest thing i eat now, which is super sweet. And i am convinced that i need to try the BWW hot wing contest soon after i get back when i still have no sensitivity in my mouth and lips.

I love you all very much and hope you don't get too tired of my emails. 

Love,
Elder Skouson

If you have questions for me please just ask!!!  

Dear President Kirkham,
This week we had a really good Tuesday but the rest of the week seemed to be filled with doctors appointments for elder Egbu's rash, and fixing our apartment. Hopefully by the end of this week are apartment will be fixed. It seems like Elder Egbu's rash is going down small but then again maybe not, kind of sparks in other places on his chest now. But with the pills he is taking it should finish pretty quick.
Elder Haas and I went on an exchange this past Saturday. Elder Haas is such a great missionary we truly try to get to know me and legit-ly cares for me. He also cares for the people we taught immensely. You can see a little bit of Elder Kouao in him as he teaches. He teaches for understanding and is very bold with people about the gospel. You can see the caliber of people we taught were branch builders in the making. What i also noticed about him he really doesn't look at the outside of a person when he teaches, he teaches them on what they need to know to be better. He uses the spirit to direct him about what to say and acts on that prompting.
One thing i learned from this exchange is the power in shorter spiritual building lessons. My companion and I usually have quite long lessons and sometimes they are just us speaking. But what i understood from the lessons we had they were having the investigator talk almost just as much as we are. This avoids just filling people with a bunch of information and has them act on what we are discussing. So now i have a big testimony of short powerful lessons are much better then long almost boring lessons.
Another thing i enjoyed about Elder Haas is we walked and talked and laughed together. I would watch people's reaction when they saw us talking and laughing together and it just like they themselves want to be apart of the conversation. This makes us missionaries much more approachable. People ask us questions about who were are even what makes us so happy all the time. This happened quite a few times as we were going from lesson to lesson. I just felt like i had the spirit about me and we were very much focused on our missionary purpose in an approachable way, where we truly cared for people. When your companion becomes your friend then the work really can progress.
By the way, President, my family is so blessed for me being on mission. I'm not saying this because i am such a great man or anything but i am just thankful i am here. Being with Elder Egbu has shown me the importance of gratefulness. I loved i believe it was Pres. Utchdorfs talk last conference about having the attitude of gratitude. When we do everything in life just becomes more enjoyable. I love the saying, "Life is how we make it to be." Cause no matter what circumstance we are in if we are grateful then it just becomes better.
We didn't have quite as many lessons this week as we would have liked but we will constantly try to improve. Thank you President for all that you do for us missionaries.
Love,
Elder Skouson

June 2, 2014

Dear Family,

This week just like always has been very busy. We working very diligently and not caring about the rain. Most of the time by the end of the day we are soaked all over even down to my shoes. Actually the only reason my socks are wet is cause my soles have holes in them. Oh well that is mission.

Sometimes or actually all the time we are asked to go out of our comfort zones and be somebody that we didn't even thing we could. Now that i have the Spirit more and more in my life and i am learning to recognize the promptings i feel as if those things i thought were quite challenging 6 months to a year ago now just come and go just like a breeze.

When i first came on mission when i was still learning what were the lessons about i was so scared to get asked questions. It seemed every time i tried to answer a question i would just ramble for long and not actually answer the question. Now as i try hard to listen to what the spirit tells me to say i have become more confident in the answers i give. I was especially scared to teach classes because that is where many of those questions would be. I have come to understand that heavenly father wants us to help others and so he will give us impressions and thoughts about what we should speak, really fulfilling the promise that he will give us what to say in the moment that we should say it.

It always amazes me when we teach people when questions pop into my mind on what to ask people to either start a conversation or try to help someone understand something. It happened this week when Elder Zaugg and I were on an exchange in my area. We were going to teach this recent convert named Grace. Grace is the only member inside her family. I noticed a women a little bit older then Grace and asked her who she is. Grace told me its her like half sister in law. Half because her and her brother aren't married. So i got the feeling that this girl has a lot of questions but she was stubborned and didn't want to sit down. So for about 5 good minutes Elder Zaugg and i asked her inspired questions to get her interested in the gospel and feel comfortable to sit down with us. For us missionaries we don't force people but sometimes it is force. She sat down with us as we taught her the message of the Restoration and answered some questions about the Book of Mormon.

My companion is having this rash or skin problem that its almost like he is a lizard and shedding his skin which is kind of weird. But he is doing well has less then 6 weeks to go home which is crazy. I am just hoping i am rewarded with a greeny to train to close out my mission. I will just make me the absolute best missionary i can possibly be. And i want to give all the knowledge i have acquired to someone else

I cant remember if i have told you before but what we are trying to do every week is at least one service project. This last week we entered into my old area to give some service near our branch presidents house. A house burnt down a couple of months ago there and the destroyed one of the gutters that are their so we came in and fixed it up for the rainny season. We also went into the bush and cut some bamboo and fixed a bamboo bench. All of dads wood working skills that he showed me are paying off as we are serving more and more. 

We passed our apartment inspection with flying colors.( to be honest i don't know why they say flying colors). Sister Heszeltine was highly impressed. I have a good habit of making my bed every morning now which it is nice getting into a fresh bed each night it is just one of those things i look forward to now. 

Well not much else to talk about. I love you all and i am trying to do my best to focus in on the work. 

Love,

Elder Skouson

May 26, 2014

My Dearest Family,

Hello again from Liberia. 

This week has been just another great one. We are continually working super hard. Lets just say it is quite difficult to white wash an area. I would not suggest it really to anyone. Its almost like this area is brand new. So we have been working our guts out the last couple of weeks to find investigators who want to progress right now. Heavenly Father has been blessing us each day. It is very great because no effort that we put forth is wasted. Much of the teaching we have been doing is to help everyone understand that this isn't a church that will give you five dollars each time you come to church. For me i don't understand if i didn't have a lot of money and there was a new church in town giving out 5 us. you would see me inside that church the moment it opened. But that is just me...  We have taught many community leaders to help them understand what kind of church it is and help them understand that we truly have priesthood power. I don't really know about back at home but all the churches or pastors that we have taught they really have no idea what priesthood or having power from God is. 

When we do this is helps us sift out the people who really want to progress. But we have been trying to us new ways were we can find the people who are wanting to progress right now. One of the things we do now is if we receive a bounce we find a potential family immediately and start teaching. We had a great experience with this last week. We went to go a man who owns this funeral home but he wasn't there so immediately we looked around and we saw a middle aged man and we introduced ourselves. We went to his house and taught his whole family. To bad they didn't come to church on Sunday but we are still praying that they will progress.

Being with a missionary when he is about to die is just very um challenging. I don't like it at all. And this is my second time back to back. No word yet if we will be together next transfer yet but odds are yes we will. Just keep praying for me as i am working and sprinting as hard as i can. Some times difficult carrying two people though. 

We have started this new things in Harbel were we do a service project each week. Which means i am starting to build back up my Calais small small. This is also helping with our image as a church and missionaries. 

Well just know i am working hard each day. I love you very much and want you to know that.
Love,

Elder Skouson

May 19, 2014

Dear Family,

Another week has gone by out here in this jungle of Liberia. Not much happened this week. 

We saw general conference yesterday. Well just one session of it. Very very good. Harbel branch is really progressing. everyone was attentively watching the conference and when i talked about conference after with some recent converts they were telling me things that they understood from these white people that spoke. I loved Bishop Gary A. Stevenson's talk he gave about the Olympics and this small 4 minute interval of life is the time for us to perform. I loved him talking about the members of the church who went to the Olympics. Just goes to show that the church isn't just a bunch of weirdos who never do anything besides go to church. haha
 I also loved President Ballards talk speaking about following up and things he learned from his mission. I was interesting how he talked about everyone reading from Preach my gospel. One thing my companion and i have been focusing on reading is the Finding People, or chapter 9 i believe. We are trying to find new ways that we can people who are ready for the gospel right now. To" find them that will receive us". We have had much success in the past few weeks as we have been here in our new area. 

This week as i was reading the Doctrine and Covenants i was learning and studying about putting on the Armor of God in section 27. I especially like what it said about your feet. That our feet are our goals and objectives. To have our feet shod in the preparation of the gospel of peace. I thought this was  very interesting. It also reminded me of the quote in The Knights Tale." how will i know the way back? Just follow your feet William!" I put it in gospel terms when we may ask our Heavenly Father how will we know the way back to him. He would reply follow your feet if your goals in life are being able to follow my son Jesus Christ, you will have no hard time finding your way back to me!

Some times i think about the love God has for each of his children. I pray for this same love as i go out each day that i might have Charity with all people that i will be able to see each person i open my mouth to with the same kind of love God has. 

I still wish i could memorize scripture like i can remember movie quotes. those things just don't leave my brain. 

I loved also President Monsons talk about loving our neighbors. Which reminds me. We had a great service project on last Tuesday afternoon. We wanted to fix this womans our neighbors bathroom. We needed to get bamboo because the sticks that were there were rotting. So we hiked about 1/2 mile into the bush to cut bamboo and then hall it back to the place. No small distance with heavy bamboo on our heads and shoulders. We then used our machete to cut the bamboo into size and stuck them into the ground and got the aluminum zinc to wrap them around. It was a good hard working 4 hour project with no breaks so we were tired after wards. only two or three blisters on my hands. But remember when we are in the service of our fellow being we are only in the service of our God.

Thank you family for the inspiring letters you write each week. It really keeps me going. 

AND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MY PACKAGE it got here yesterday and i looks like i wont have to buy food for the rest of my mission. WOO HOO!!! You are really the absolute best. just wondering if the in-n-out shirt was from you or Lynn. haha 

Love,
Elder Skouson 

Keep calm and just do what is right!!

May 12, 2014

Dear family,

Today my email wont be too long because i mean i just talked to you yesterday.  But i wanted to talk to you about one of my old investigators traditional marriage and civil marriage. 

Her name is Kuku Mcgill and was represented by Mr. Mcgill. His name is Samuel Sangbeh. He was represented by Mr. Sangbeh there fathers. So they whole thing with this traditional marriage is to "Buy" the women. Aint you know like the whole 4,8,10 cow women thing? This is more like a dowry payment of at least 48 us to the brides family. Mr. Mcgill the father of Kuku job is to try to collect as much money as possible from Mr. Sangbeh. Mr. Sangbeh represent all the money that Sam has. He knows exactly how much has but is trying to pay as little as possible. 

So the drama goes like this. The "bride" comes out in a whole lot of towels and lappas covering her head. Now the grooms family has to pay a certain amount to get each lappa or towel off the women's head to see if it is the bride. This drama part last for forever. 3 false brides came out before the real bride came out. 

The whole time the two representatives are trying to get the other people to donate money towards the cause.

Finally the bride is reviled and the dowry needs to be paid and more acting and drama to make the groom's rep pay, but they demanded that at least 60 U.S. needed to be paid to the family in order for Sam to receive Kuku. Just a whole lot of stuff that i am glad that i don't have to worry about unless i marry a Liberian women. 

After Sam payed for his wife they went to the church for the civil part of the marriage. This where is was just sweet. NO shouting or yelling just peace and many awwwwws. And now Kuku can be baptized. What a process but it will be well worth it. She now will be able to enjoy the blessings of being baptized and receiving the gift of the holy ghost. The holy Ghost will be able to guide and direct her and her family to do what is right all of the time now. 

This is just the small experience we had this last week. 

It was so great to talk to you all and its kind of weird to think that they next time we speak will be in person. But i still have a lot to do before that time reach. 

I love you all.

 Love,

Elder Skouson

Dear President Kirkham,
I have learned a lot the last week. First of all Candy Girl is about 20 years old and now has invited her brother to be taught by Elder Egbu and I. He can to church yesterday and it was great. He is a little bit more out spoken then Candy Girl and asked  a few very good questions during our investigator class.
Well President what i meant to say is that we are working towards people who need the gospel right now. Elder Egbu and I are trying and working very hard to help everyone understand our message. We are contacting a lot of people and I they aren't really progressing we get rid of them just like you have instructed us to do so. But really the lord is opening up our eyes as we go out. You once said pay close attention to things that seem out of the ordinary or catches my eye. I feel like we have really started to do this.
We have a really good experience with the spirit and service projects this week. On Thursday we have planned for a service project that happened to fall though. Since we were already dressed up in our casuals we decided that we would find one. This is where the spirit kicked in. Elder Egbu and I felt prompted that we should go and see if one of the recent converts needed any help with anything. His name is Patrick. When we got there Patrick said that he didn't have anything for us to do. But then he said let me take you to someone who does need some gardening done.
This is where we met Vivian and Momo who are a young couple who have a wonderful family. We worked for about 2 hours straight helping them with Patrick, and when the work was finished we decided to just talk with them small. We found out the he ( Momo) works quite a bit but they were very thankful for the work that we did and they accepted for us to come back and teach them sometime. We made an appointment and we will try to see them tomorrow. It was just amazing that even in doing just a service project we were prompted by the spirit who we should go to.
I loved the training that was given to us this past week in the leadership training. It helped me to focus keenly on the things i want to do very well and focus on for the rest of my mission. I want to be exactly obedient so i can truly have the spirit flow through me to be able to help others. I want to be able to help my companion. I know there was a reason for putting us together and i think it is for the both of us to help each other grow. He has such a strong desire to work hard all the time and that is exactly what i have needed.
By the way i know you like to hear about my family sometimes, and they are doing great. Despite of all the trials they have been through while i have been here on mission i know Heavenly Father is taking care of them. It is such a blessing to me that even though these trials they see the light at the end of the tunnel. I know that is how are Heavenly Father wants us to view the trials we have in our life. Just like a mountain to climb to be able to get to the top and see our true potential. Repentance is one of these ways. When we humble ourselves enough to except correction or move from our sins that's when we are starting to reach the mountain Heavenly Father has given us. Truly we tank God.
Love,
Elder Skouson

May 5, 2014

Dear Family,

First things first i will be calling on sunday by 5pm on sunday which i believe that is 9am your time so hopefully that will be enough time before church. Unless you wanted me to call by 9pm and that would be like 1pm for you. Let me know.

Well i am trying to figure out where to start. Well with my new companion and i we are still in the Harbel Branch just swapped areas with Elder Haas so the area is new to us but not too new to the people. We received the area with only 2 progressing investigators and a few recent coverts to be teaching. SOOOO the goal of this week was being able to find people to teach, because nothing happens in missionary work until we find people to teach.

We wanted to start finding Shepard for the branch and not sheep. Which means we need leaders to help strengthen the branch once they come in. So who better to teach then the leaders of the Community. The leaders of the community are very wise mostly old men who know how to solve everyday issues or "palava" as Liberian's would say. So these wise men we began to seek and teach the message of the restoration. All were very receptive of us as missionaries and respect us like frog which is very sweet. Not going to lie it almost felt like being Ammon in the book of Mormon and being placed before a very humble King Lamoni. These Leaders are sometime called King inside there tribes.

In my letter to President i told him about one of our investigators we met last Friday and came to church on Sunday. Don't laugh at her name but its Candy Girl and she is really just a sweet woman.

My companion Elder Egbu can work which is a good thing because i will probably be killing this man as well. He leaves in July so only one transfer left and then he is outta here. Crazy that i have 3 transfers after this. I am beginning to realize i am an old missionary. Its going to be weird when i see the missionaries that just arrived on mission. So young and cute. haha. 

No we are really working hard and there is not a whole lot left to talk about so i guess i will be hearing from you on Sunday. I cant wait. 

Love,
Elder Skouson.

BTW. I went fishing this morning on a river with no fish inside. Its sadddd.

Dear President Kirkham,
This week has been a wonderful week full of just hardcore hard work. Elder Egbu can work! In the new area we have been assigned to it was on it knees with investigators we weren't progressing at all. So it was almost just starting from scratch. We have made contact with all the Recent converts and because we don't know exactly where the were we decided we would just teach them all the lessons again. Many of these lessons turned into member present lessons and we have many investigators now because of this.
We also had many rumors about mainly the church. People don't know really who Joseph Smith is so they cant really talk about him. But the church has this big thing around cotton tree that "Its a 5 dollar Church" first it pays people $5 u.s. each time you come to service, and also that we do weird rituals inside so that is why the church is growing so much. We just kind of shrug it off and just help people to understand the truth.
My companion came in really wanting to teach the leaders of the Community so that these rumors can be resolved. We got one of our Recent Convert brothers to come around and show us who these leaders where. We sat down with Three different men and there families. One was a Lower Margibi county administrator who was receptive to the message but convinced he didn't need to move from his church. Another was a Cotton Tree Community Leader who was very busy, and the last was a very receptive Gkissi tribe Leader who actually wanted to learn more about the message that we bring. We really think this will benefit the community if these wise men of the community come to at least visit the church. We think it will open doors for us and keep the rumors down to a minimum. I like what the church sometimes says any publicity is good publicity though. Its true because those people who are actually interested to ask questions about the church are though who are likely to allow us to visit and teach.
One of these people who allowed us to sit down with them was a girl named Candy Girl and her mother Annie. Annie had been one who had heard the our church was a devil worshiping church but still she let us sit down with her. We asked her if she had any questions or things she had heard about the church. She explained to us that she had and wanted to know if they were true. We then taught her about the restoration focusing how the church wasn't built by Joseph Smith just restored on the earth. We had a great lesson and discussion and the spirit was felt by all. She said that she wouldn't be able to come this week but that she would send her daughter Candy Girl. This was big because before she had explained to her children to never step foot in that devil church. The great thing was that Candy Girl actually came to service on Sunday and even bore a testimony. She can read and write and she is an outgoing almost missionary herself kind of girl. We expect great things from this family as well as the area.
President just know that we might not have very many baptisms here but we are doing things that are going to set this area up for the future. 

Love,

Elder Skouson

April 28, 2014

Dear Mi Familia,

What a sad but happy week! Yes Elder Kouao and Elder Oni are now Brother Kouao and Brother Oni. They finished their missions strong and i learned a great deal from him. 

I am now the district leader for Harbel District while Elder Haas and Elder Zaugg our our Zone Leada's. Now my new companion is... Drum roll please... Elder Egbu. He is a Nigerian from a place called Port Hartcourt. He is known around the mission as a work horse. This man works hard and that is exactly what we need in the new area i am in. Really Elder Haas and I just shifted places he took my position as Zone Leader and I took his as District Leader. If everything goes the way i want it too. I could actually die in Harbel and never see the city life again. WOOOHOOO!!!! But still i have 3 more transfers after this so anything can happen. 

Well this last week was crazy quick. The old Papay's left on Tuesday and Elder Haas and i became temporary companions. In which we had to cover two areas. We just did every other day in each area. My plan for my old area was to contact by going from house to house and being bold and telling people about the Restoration. The ones we saw were progressing we  would continue teaching. 

We tried this on Saturday for a couple of lessons. We were just very bold and testified of this Church being the only true church and telling them if they wanted to know come and worship with us. We have a few new investigators from doing this. 

We are going to be doing contacting like frog. Ever since Elder Kouao has come we have seen the best way to do missionary work is first by the spirit  and being bold about what we know to be true. Not beating around the bush but telling people yes this is the only church the baptism you did before was fake. Come and be baptized by someone who truly hold the priesthood power of God.

We had a great Lesson this last week. Sister Wesseh our Branch presidents wife gave us one of her friends Lisa Gbollie to teach. We taught her about the Restoration and Joseph Smith restoring Jesus Chirst Church on earth today. We told her small about the Book of Mormon and promised we would bring one next time we sat down with her. We came back and talked about the introduction to the Book of Mormon. This time her mother was there Beatrice. She was kind of sitting small far from where we were but we asked her to join us and she kind of refused but she had question. After answering her few questions to clear her doubt another man came and sat down asking more questions. My companion Elder Haas started speaking with the man very boldly trying to get him to be more interested in hearing our message rather then just telling us what we believe. It was interesting as we were teaching is man both Lisa and her mother Beatrice started to back up what we were saying. We could tell that this small family already knew our message was true. After teaching the man we invited them all to pray and come to church. Thankfully both Lisa and her mom were there very early to church. It was such a great lesson. I wish i could explain it better. Just know there was just a wonderful spirit felt by all that were there. 

Not much else to speak about just know i am working hard and excited for this new upcoming transfer with my new companion in new area as a new District Leader. Everything is new new. And truly We Tank God.

Love,

Elder Skouson

Photos from March 10, 2014

Before and after photos of our service project close to our apartment. No small thing.

April 21, 2014

Dear Family,

This week has been an eventful one and the last full week my companion will be on mission. So we tried hard to make it a very productive one. 

I got my wish of going with my father one last time out to proselyte on an exchange. Elder Kouao is the best missionary i have ever served with. I will be a sad man when both he and Elder Oni leave tomorrow.

Just like i said we had an eventful week. Thursday after doing some interviews for baptism we visited a member of the branch presidencies house that is about 30 away on motorbike. So we paid the bike man less than 2 U.S. or 120 LD and we went off. Never really thought how big this firestone company is. But it is huge. Maybe the biggest in the world. No small money is made here. 

But anyway we met with the Kone family and had like a family home evening. The greatest part about it is we didn't have to show them how do do anything. They are a legit latter day saint family. We sung hymns and the whole family didn't need a hymn book. It was a sweet experience. Bro. Kone served a mission and came back in the time of war. He said it wasn't easy at all but the kept the faith and says that he didn't go hungry one day during the war. Which is a big miracle cause many people did of hunger and thirst. He was just so happy we came he says it has been 6 years since the missionaries have stepped into his home. Just a sweet family.

The rest of the week was just helping my companion get ready to ship off to Nigeria. I will miss this man like frog. This is the hard thing about mission is building great relationships with people and then having to separate. I dont even want to start to think about leaving Liberia. It will be a sad day for sure. 

I love you all and i am enjoying mission like frog.

Love,
Elder Skouson

Dear President Kirkham,
Not going to lie hearing one of my best friends on mission has gone home is really kind of shocking and sad so we will definitely be praying that he has a speedy recovery and comes back soon.
Speaking of people going home I went on an exchange with my father Elder Kouao. I believe the best missionary in this mission. Though i was "suppose" to be training him, it was the exact opposite. He trained me on how to be bold but loving with people. To be straight and not beat around the bush when discussing someones salvation. We met with one man named Jefferson Wesseh and his wife Naomi. We have been teaching them for some time now and they come to church one one time. He is a important man inside his church and has many responsibilities there. As soon as we sat down i could see the Elder Kouao knew this was a good man but needed some small tough love about the gospel. We began by asking inspired questions for Elder Kouao trying to get to know him. To be honest every time Elder Oni and I have come I always feel like we were only seeing the tip of the iceberg and that the real problem or issue he is hiding. By asking these inspired questions we got him to open up more then i have ever seen him do before. He began to tell us that the people in his church are persecuting him like crazy. Almost threatening him if he leaves his church. We could understand why he asked so many questions about this church being a devil church. He just didn't want to be losing his soul by coming to The Church of Jesus Chirst of Latter Day Saints. Just like we had so many times before we invited him to pray. He has prayed before many times but he said he didn't really want to listen because he has been listening to so many others before. We jumped on this and invited him to pray with his whole heart and wait for the response that heavenly Father wanted so desperately to give to him.
Needlesstosay it was a very good lesson, lasted a little long but it was much needed for the Wesseh family. The best thing about it was President Wesseh our branch President was there to help him understand. Presidnet Wesseh before he was baptized went through a very similar persecution among the church he was attending before. So i was great to have him there to help Bro. Jefferson understand and he did and what Jefferson needs to do.
Another thing that Elder Kouao unofficially trained me on is seeing the potential that my area ,camp two, has. We were walking not far from President Wessehs house  down a street we don't normally take and he helped me see all those who are potential investigators. He came up with a great idea that me and my new companion will do when he comes. We don't really go knocking door to door at all in this mission, but what we are going to do is take one day to teach a whole street of people. Now this might sound crazy or foolish but for this line that we were on it would be great. It will help these people understand the doctrines of the Church not the rumors.
Just wanted to let you know that Elder Kouao has done some great work and it was great for me to go out with him one last time before he leaves.
I am excited for the transfers. Its a much needed thing here in Harbel we are excited to whoever comes just we want ones who are ready to work.
President thank you for your hard work you do for us missionaries and the people of Liberia.
Love,
Elder Skouson

April 14, 2014

Dear Mi Familia,

This is the week it started to rain....

Yup good news folks it is the beginning of Rainy season. I feel when i walked outside my skin could breathe. Hopefully i wont see the Dry Season but who knows. Liberia always looks better when it rains. I guess growing up in a place that never rains means that i have a different perspective of the rain than most people. Anyways i am thank ful that my skin will have time to rest from the sun.

This week has been really great. Started off by having Zone Meeting up in Kakata, and an Exchange with Elder Erickson. Zone Meeting was good and spiritual, always is when you have good positive missionaries. Then the exchange was even better. Kakata is full oh really great people who really just want to become what Heavenly Father wants them to become. This is sweet for us as missionaries, because all our job is to help them to come unto Christ. Its amazing how simple but profound that that phrase is. Come unto Christ. 

One of the things that we emphasized during our Zone meeting is that our message is true yes, but it is also important. This is for investigators who likes us coming to teach them but not really making any efforts to find out for themselves. We let people know that we have a purpose in sharing our message not to just hear about some good truths about Jesus Christ but be able to come unto him by following his way. In the Book of Mormon i have been reading 3 Nephi and its interesting to hear what Jesus Christ says to his children. He always goes back to the basics or the Doctrine, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I just love showing our investigators this path that he has set for us. 

One of our investigators, Kuku Mcgill, finally has a date for her marriage which means she can get baptized soon after.  As we sat with her she talked about the faith that her and her husband to be have had. A marriage certificate is 50 U.S. a birth certificate is 10 U.S. each as well as small additional expenses. Now Kuku and her fiance only had enough for the marriage certificate but they decided to go through the process anyway. 

Miracle after Miracle happened when they did this. At first it was going to be a very small wedding with no food, but by the help of family and friends they are going to have a wonderful wedding. Very humbling to hear about miracles like this. I has been great to see her process of coming unto Christ. It has to be the most rewarding thing ever on mission.

Heavenly Father has blessed us with very great investigators this week. We have been praying hard to see how we could focus more on investigators who are progressing, even to find new investigators who can really help the kingdom of God in Liberia progress. One couple named the Wesseh's,came to church with there whole family and are just fantastic. Things are looking up in Harbel which is good. 

I love you all and thank you for your email that i receive. 

Love,
Elder Skouson

My letter to President Kirkham.

Dear President Kirkham,
This week we started out with a wonderful exchange with Elder Erickson. We focused on the things that we were suppose to like studying from Preach My Gospel about Finding People. We applied the things we learned as well and we got some great new investigators who were ready for our message. We also focused on the fundamental We Invite, They Commit, We Follow Up. Elder Erickson and his companion are very good at following up and remembering each commitment that they give out. I even learned some new easy ways that i could keep tract of all the commitments that we extend.
Elder Erickson is a great teacher and a very effective missionary. You can tell that he has studied through out his mission. The way he teaches exemplifies it. I was impressed with the fact that he teaches for commitments as well. Just like you say that we are not just dispensers of Knowledge. That we have a purpose and reason behind every visit or lesson we teach. Elder Erickson is an overall great Preach My Gospel missionary.
To be honest President I have been worried about our own investigator pool. In the past two weeks we have dropped quite a few investigators, though we were looking for Good Shepard's we were having a hard time. At the beginning of this week my companion and I prayed for New good Shepard investigators. When i came back from Kakata we started to search not on our own efforts but looking through spiritual eyes. I always remember what you said about paying close attention to things that stick out to me. This week I feel i had many of those promptings and we acted upon them. As a result we have 5 new good investigators who we are going to be working with.
Elder Oni and I were also questioning some investigators who we were teaching. We prayed to Heavenly Father to know what we should do with them. Some that we prayed about weren't making a lot of progression so this is why we prayed. Our prayers we answered on Sunday Morning as the family we prayed about all came to church for the first time as a family. The Wife had many questions and the branch did a great job of welcoming her in.
In my Book of Mormon reading i am just finishing 3 Nephi and so i am a little behind but that will change as i focus my nights to have effective studies. During the course of my reading i have been trying to see the Character that Christ has and trying to apply it. I have learned that because of his character that is how the atonement was able to be made. He endure all things and had the right character everytime something happened to him. I have been trying to reach past my own needs and think about others all the time. Though i am not prefect or even good at it as i try to think about it i start to progress.
Thank you President for the love you share to us missionaries.
Love,
Elder Skouson.

April 7, 2014

Dear Family,

My mom says I'm finally an auntie I am so happy. I cant wait to see Ainsley Kate. Guess i still have time though. No Problem. 

Another great week here in Harbel and Cotton Tree. We were able to go in town for our mission council meeting with President. They stressed on the fact that we need to be very careful with what we touch and take in. So we are not allowed to shake anyone's hands and we cant eat anything that we don't make ourselves. So no FMs which is really bad cause i am really starting to drop some weight. We are eating a lot of noodles and oatmeal because those are the cheapest things around here. We splashed out and since my companion is Nigerian we had some Ebba and Okra soup which is just really really good. 

Crazy Elder Pentreath has 6 days left on Mission. My companion has 19. Me i have 199. SO no big deal. and no they don't rub it in every chance they can. But really i am doing well. With the no FMs means that we can have a true full fast if we desire. I desired this last Saturday and Sunday. I fasted for the full 24 hours. no small thing but it really gave me a good look at things in our area that we need to improve on and also my personal growth. Fasting is really turning from your physical to something more spiritual. 

Yesterday as we came home from church to break our fast then go back out to proselyte. Fasting i think really helps us see past our own needs and turn towards others. Me and my Companion went to our area with spiritual juice in us and we had some really great lessons. In each one of our lessons we taught something different then we had first planned for. We taught this single mother who is our recent convert about how she can teach her children through Kindness and Love. What wonderful lesson for her. We taught her that beating or flogging isn't always the best form of discipline. We even did practices with her about situation that could come up in the week and how she could deal with them. In the beginning the only way to help them learn was saying "I would beat them if they did that" To coming up with other solutions to teaching her children. I was a great lesson for her. 

We also had a great service project helping this women paint her house green and bright orange. Not the colors i would choose for my house but it looked good after we got done with it. She was very thankful and wanted to give us food but we couldn't eat it. It is really hard to decline food here. I don't know if you have seen the Indiana Jones movie when the small tribe offers Harrison Ford the bugs squashed up in a bowl and gave it to them. Although we don't bugs very often the concept is the same. People just know what we do even if they are not of our faith and just praise us for it.

Sorry its not too plenty. Just know i am loving the work and the Lord. I love you all as well.

Love,
Elder Skouson

March 31, 2014

Just the usual Spiritual Boost kind of week!

Hey family,

This week has just been a jack-a-la week. We are working very hard to sprint to Elder Oni's finish of his mission. Cant believe that Sister Benfield is already coming home. 

We had a great teaching week as well. We were teaching one man named Jefferson Wesseh. I think i have talked about him before but our focus of the lesson was to help him and his wife to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. We started with the lesson by answering some questions and helping him to understand what the Book of Mormon is all about. His wife is very smart and wants to go back to school to be a lawyer. She also had quite a few questions. This was while i was on exchange with Elder Finau who is now an assistant to the president. Elder Finau and i still had the companionship unity that we always had so it was just sweet. 

I started to bear my testimony after we had committed them to pray about the book of mormon together. When i said that i Know the Book of Mormon is true. Thats when i hit me. I had so much love for this couple and i just wanted them to know so bad. The spirit hit me as well and i had to hold back the tears in my eyes. Elder Finau knew what was happening and jumped right in so i didn't get too carried away. This was the extra spiritual boost that i have needed. Mission is really no small thing. And sometimes its just great to feel the reassuring burning feeling inside your chest. Heavenly father really does watch out for us missionaries. 

We have some new investigators who have a lot of potential. We had a lesson yesterday with two men both named arthur. Its kind of funny cause i had never met someone else in liberia named arthur and yesterday met two. Anyways they are both doing so great and they are really seeing why the church is different then all others. We had been very bold in our teaching with them and we are really seeing them progress because of it.  They had both committed for a baptismal date and to invite there families to join in our lessons. Things are looking up for these guys.

Not a whole lot else went on this week. Until i was asked to give a talk in Sacrament meeting. I was asked to speak about Work. Now this is something i know so i felt like i truly had some input on this. Heavenly Father really guided me on what to say to this Harbel Branch. Work is something that isn't new to Africans especially Liberians but something that is new is working in callings and teaching and other things that the church requires of us. So my talk was based about in the Church or Serving in the church. I related much of my talk to Missionary Work because, its what i do, haha. But Heavenly Father really helped me to speak clearly and i knew people could understand me by the reactions so it was a good talk because they really understood the message Heavenly Father wanted me to give to them.

I know Heavenly Father truly loves us. That is something that has stood out to me in this past week so much. I have been trying to love him as well. I have taken an evaluation of my prayers and there are things i need to do to improve on. But i know that Heavenly Father sees the big picture and all he wants to do is help us stay on the right path. We sometimes need to do things that aren't too comfortable for us in order to see the path. But he is there ready to greet us when we return back to him. 

Missionary work is the best work we can be doing. I am thankful for each minute and its kind of scary to think that there is life after this mission. 

I love you all and hope you all are doing very well.

Love,
Elder Skouson

March 24, 2014

Dear Family,

This week was kind of one of those work your guts out kind of weeks. 

Elder Oni my companion has about 1 month still in the mission field we both want to has his last transfer be the most memorable.( im still trying to convince him of that though). 

We did work really hard though. Things are starting to pay off because of our hard work. Saturday we had a baptism for a woman named Christiana Gwesiah. She is our Branch President's wifes best friend. Christiana is 21 years old and has really changed throughout the last month or two since we have started to teach her. Funny how we got in contact with her. She actually was running away from the PPD or police/security system that is here in Harbel because she got into a fight with a guy. Its a long story but the hole thing was figured out and we started to teach her. 

Now since that time she left her rotten boyfriend and really has repented and wanted to follow Jesus Christ. 

Its really the best thing about missionary work is just seeing the change people can have. I love the quote from i think President Monson's talk about how leopards cant change there spots, but people change everyday. This is what i have seen time and time again on my mission. This is what brings me the most joy is seeing people truly let Jesus Christ into their lives. Not an apostate "Holy Ghost Fire" but truly letting Jesus Christ be the one you look towards as the one who can heal our grief and give us a peace of conscience.

It was great because her mother came to both her baptism and confirmation which means she came to church. I always love to ask the question about how they felt at church. We get the usual answer of just felt at peace like i could think. Then that's when a member who comes with us to the lesson usually says its a lot better then dancing and sweating and singing our hearts out. 

Her mother name is Gharmen and was very receptive as we sat down and talked about the restoration of the gospel. She also exected a baptismal date of April 26th. Next lesson we will have to find out if she is married to her husband though. So we pray she will be. 

I am doing great out here and trying to work hard so i wont have any regrets when i leave this mission. 

Love,
Elder Skouson

P.s. I made the sweet and sour sauce and nobody really would eat it except for me. Its sad i know. but oh well.