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