Feb 24, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Another fantabulous week here in Harbel. We did some exploring in our own backyard this morning for P-day and found some pretty amazing things. We found the Firestone hydro-plant. Its crazy the work they did to create this power plant. They have pretty much diverted all the rivers in two different counties into this one location. No small thing here-o.

But before i get too carried away i want to let you know that my back feels great now i haven't had a problem with it since last week Monday so thank you for the prayers and everything it has truly helped. We have had a great week here.
We have had some amazing lessons with our people this week. Things are really shaping up. We sat down with a girl who has been coming to church for a while now. Her name is Cynthia Cooper. This was our 3 time sitting with her and because Chastity is such a big problem here we try to teach it in the first few lessons. She happened to have a few friends over to her place that we selling dried fish. We asked them to come a join us for the lesson. We found that one of the girls was actually a less active member. Our mission president, because Chastity is such a problem here, asks us to be very specific and almost explicit when we talk so the people will know exactly what is wrong and what needs to be fixed. With all of these 5 women (ages16-20) Cynthia was the only one without at least one or two children. By the end of the lesson though each one commited to Keeping the Law of Chastity and also coming to church. Turns out that only Cynthia came. But its really a good thing that we are doing here. Teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ whether people except and keep commitments or don't helps them at least to see a better way of living then in there natural state. Many people we are just planting seeds for other missionaries to come and harvest which is ok. It happens so many times that we sit down with people who have been taught by the missionaries before but now they are truly ready. This is what i pray for as we see good people who sometimes are just too busy or too caught up in the world at that moment will someday get chance to have the missionaries walk by and the people will call out to them. That is the hard thing about mission is you cant force anyone to know the truth. It is something that is gradual. Many people have a testimony of Jesus Christ but few are converted unto him. 

We also have been teaching our branch president, Pres. Wesseh, cousin, His name is Jefferson Wesseh. Kind of funny but he is in the cafe with us right now. He is quite a business man who really wants to know. He comes to church almost every week now. He brings his two daughters and we are trying to get his wife to come as well. We finally gave him Baptismal Date of March 22. We are really hoping that he will be prepared for that time. We are going to make an effort to see him at least 3 times this week. Sometimes its hard because he can go to work.

 But he is a great man and will bring much strength to the branch here in Harbel.

We had a great service yesterday in church. We are very young as a branch still trying out how to say callings and sustaining and call people up to receive the Holy Ghost. There are a lot of long pauses with someone whispering to them in there ear on how to say it. Its good because they are very willing and want to do it the correct way so that there is no corruption in Harbel Branch.

Things are just going great here in Liberia just know i am doing very well here. 

Love,

Elder Skouson

P.S. i will try to send pictures of the power plant and real Africa.