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.