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