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