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

May 5, 2014

Dear Family,

First things first i will be calling on sunday by 5pm on sunday which i believe that is 9am your time so hopefully that will be enough time before church. Unless you wanted me to call by 9pm and that would be like 1pm for you. Let me know.

Well i am trying to figure out where to start. Well with my new companion and i we are still in the Harbel Branch just swapped areas with Elder Haas so the area is new to us but not too new to the people. We received the area with only 2 progressing investigators and a few recent coverts to be teaching. SOOOO the goal of this week was being able to find people to teach, because nothing happens in missionary work until we find people to teach.

We wanted to start finding Shepard for the branch and not sheep. Which means we need leaders to help strengthen the branch once they come in. So who better to teach then the leaders of the Community. The leaders of the community are very wise mostly old men who know how to solve everyday issues or "palava" as Liberian's would say. So these wise men we began to seek and teach the message of the restoration. All were very receptive of us as missionaries and respect us like frog which is very sweet. Not going to lie it almost felt like being Ammon in the book of Mormon and being placed before a very humble King Lamoni. These Leaders are sometime called King inside there tribes.

In my letter to President i told him about one of our investigators we met last Friday and came to church on Sunday. Don't laugh at her name but its Candy Girl and she is really just a sweet woman.

My companion Elder Egbu can work which is a good thing because i will probably be killing this man as well. He leaves in July so only one transfer left and then he is outta here. Crazy that i have 3 transfers after this. I am beginning to realize i am an old missionary. Its going to be weird when i see the missionaries that just arrived on mission. So young and cute. haha. 

No we are really working hard and there is not a whole lot left to talk about so i guess i will be hearing from you on Sunday. I cant wait. 

Love,
Elder Skouson.

BTW. I went fishing this morning on a river with no fish inside. Its sadddd.

Dear President Kirkham,
This week has been a wonderful week full of just hardcore hard work. Elder Egbu can work! In the new area we have been assigned to it was on it knees with investigators we weren't progressing at all. So it was almost just starting from scratch. We have made contact with all the Recent converts and because we don't know exactly where the were we decided we would just teach them all the lessons again. Many of these lessons turned into member present lessons and we have many investigators now because of this.
We also had many rumors about mainly the church. People don't know really who Joseph Smith is so they cant really talk about him. But the church has this big thing around cotton tree that "Its a 5 dollar Church" first it pays people $5 u.s. each time you come to service, and also that we do weird rituals inside so that is why the church is growing so much. We just kind of shrug it off and just help people to understand the truth.
My companion came in really wanting to teach the leaders of the Community so that these rumors can be resolved. We got one of our Recent Convert brothers to come around and show us who these leaders where. We sat down with Three different men and there families. One was a Lower Margibi county administrator who was receptive to the message but convinced he didn't need to move from his church. Another was a Cotton Tree Community Leader who was very busy, and the last was a very receptive Gkissi tribe Leader who actually wanted to learn more about the message that we bring. We really think this will benefit the community if these wise men of the community come to at least visit the church. We think it will open doors for us and keep the rumors down to a minimum. I like what the church sometimes says any publicity is good publicity though. Its true because those people who are actually interested to ask questions about the church are though who are likely to allow us to visit and teach.
One of these people who allowed us to sit down with them was a girl named Candy Girl and her mother Annie. Annie had been one who had heard the our church was a devil worshiping church but still she let us sit down with her. We asked her if she had any questions or things she had heard about the church. She explained to us that she had and wanted to know if they were true. We then taught her about the restoration focusing how the church wasn't built by Joseph Smith just restored on the earth. We had a great lesson and discussion and the spirit was felt by all. She said that she wouldn't be able to come this week but that she would send her daughter Candy Girl. This was big because before she had explained to her children to never step foot in that devil church. The great thing was that Candy Girl actually came to service on Sunday and even bore a testimony. She can read and write and she is an outgoing almost missionary herself kind of girl. We expect great things from this family as well as the area.
President just know that we might not have very many baptisms here but we are doing things that are going to set this area up for the future. 

Love,

Elder Skouson

April 28, 2014

Dear Mi Familia,

What a sad but happy week! Yes Elder Kouao and Elder Oni are now Brother Kouao and Brother Oni. They finished their missions strong and i learned a great deal from him. 

I am now the district leader for Harbel District while Elder Haas and Elder Zaugg our our Zone Leada's. Now my new companion is... Drum roll please... Elder Egbu. He is a Nigerian from a place called Port Hartcourt. He is known around the mission as a work horse. This man works hard and that is exactly what we need in the new area i am in. Really Elder Haas and I just shifted places he took my position as Zone Leader and I took his as District Leader. If everything goes the way i want it too. I could actually die in Harbel and never see the city life again. WOOOHOOO!!!! But still i have 3 more transfers after this so anything can happen. 

Well this last week was crazy quick. The old Papay's left on Tuesday and Elder Haas and i became temporary companions. In which we had to cover two areas. We just did every other day in each area. My plan for my old area was to contact by going from house to house and being bold and telling people about the Restoration. The ones we saw were progressing we  would continue teaching. 

We tried this on Saturday for a couple of lessons. We were just very bold and testified of this Church being the only true church and telling them if they wanted to know come and worship with us. We have a few new investigators from doing this. 

We are going to be doing contacting like frog. Ever since Elder Kouao has come we have seen the best way to do missionary work is first by the spirit  and being bold about what we know to be true. Not beating around the bush but telling people yes this is the only church the baptism you did before was fake. Come and be baptized by someone who truly hold the priesthood power of God.

We had a great Lesson this last week. Sister Wesseh our Branch presidents wife gave us one of her friends Lisa Gbollie to teach. We taught her about the Restoration and Joseph Smith restoring Jesus Chirst Church on earth today. We told her small about the Book of Mormon and promised we would bring one next time we sat down with her. We came back and talked about the introduction to the Book of Mormon. This time her mother was there Beatrice. She was kind of sitting small far from where we were but we asked her to join us and she kind of refused but she had question. After answering her few questions to clear her doubt another man came and sat down asking more questions. My companion Elder Haas started speaking with the man very boldly trying to get him to be more interested in hearing our message rather then just telling us what we believe. It was interesting as we were teaching is man both Lisa and her mother Beatrice started to back up what we were saying. We could tell that this small family already knew our message was true. After teaching the man we invited them all to pray and come to church. Thankfully both Lisa and her mom were there very early to church. It was such a great lesson. I wish i could explain it better. Just know there was just a wonderful spirit felt by all that were there. 

Not much else to speak about just know i am working hard and excited for this new upcoming transfer with my new companion in new area as a new District Leader. Everything is new new. And truly We Tank God.

Love,

Elder Skouson

Photos from March 10, 2014

Before and after photos of our service project close to our apartment. No small thing.

April 21, 2014

Dear Family,

This week has been an eventful one and the last full week my companion will be on mission. So we tried hard to make it a very productive one. 

I got my wish of going with my father one last time out to proselyte on an exchange. Elder Kouao is the best missionary i have ever served with. I will be a sad man when both he and Elder Oni leave tomorrow.

Just like i said we had an eventful week. Thursday after doing some interviews for baptism we visited a member of the branch presidencies house that is about 30 away on motorbike. So we paid the bike man less than 2 U.S. or 120 LD and we went off. Never really thought how big this firestone company is. But it is huge. Maybe the biggest in the world. No small money is made here. 

But anyway we met with the Kone family and had like a family home evening. The greatest part about it is we didn't have to show them how do do anything. They are a legit latter day saint family. We sung hymns and the whole family didn't need a hymn book. It was a sweet experience. Bro. Kone served a mission and came back in the time of war. He said it wasn't easy at all but the kept the faith and says that he didn't go hungry one day during the war. Which is a big miracle cause many people did of hunger and thirst. He was just so happy we came he says it has been 6 years since the missionaries have stepped into his home. Just a sweet family.

The rest of the week was just helping my companion get ready to ship off to Nigeria. I will miss this man like frog. This is the hard thing about mission is building great relationships with people and then having to separate. I dont even want to start to think about leaving Liberia. It will be a sad day for sure. 

I love you all and i am enjoying mission like frog.

Love,
Elder Skouson

Dear President Kirkham,
Not going to lie hearing one of my best friends on mission has gone home is really kind of shocking and sad so we will definitely be praying that he has a speedy recovery and comes back soon.
Speaking of people going home I went on an exchange with my father Elder Kouao. I believe the best missionary in this mission. Though i was "suppose" to be training him, it was the exact opposite. He trained me on how to be bold but loving with people. To be straight and not beat around the bush when discussing someones salvation. We met with one man named Jefferson Wesseh and his wife Naomi. We have been teaching them for some time now and they come to church one one time. He is a important man inside his church and has many responsibilities there. As soon as we sat down i could see the Elder Kouao knew this was a good man but needed some small tough love about the gospel. We began by asking inspired questions for Elder Kouao trying to get to know him. To be honest every time Elder Oni and I have come I always feel like we were only seeing the tip of the iceberg and that the real problem or issue he is hiding. By asking these inspired questions we got him to open up more then i have ever seen him do before. He began to tell us that the people in his church are persecuting him like crazy. Almost threatening him if he leaves his church. We could understand why he asked so many questions about this church being a devil church. He just didn't want to be losing his soul by coming to The Church of Jesus Chirst of Latter Day Saints. Just like we had so many times before we invited him to pray. He has prayed before many times but he said he didn't really want to listen because he has been listening to so many others before. We jumped on this and invited him to pray with his whole heart and wait for the response that heavenly Father wanted so desperately to give to him.
Needlesstosay it was a very good lesson, lasted a little long but it was much needed for the Wesseh family. The best thing about it was President Wesseh our branch President was there to help him understand. Presidnet Wesseh before he was baptized went through a very similar persecution among the church he was attending before. So i was great to have him there to help Bro. Jefferson understand and he did and what Jefferson needs to do.
Another thing that Elder Kouao unofficially trained me on is seeing the potential that my area ,camp two, has. We were walking not far from President Wessehs house  down a street we don't normally take and he helped me see all those who are potential investigators. He came up with a great idea that me and my new companion will do when he comes. We don't really go knocking door to door at all in this mission, but what we are going to do is take one day to teach a whole street of people. Now this might sound crazy or foolish but for this line that we were on it would be great. It will help these people understand the doctrines of the Church not the rumors.
Just wanted to let you know that Elder Kouao has done some great work and it was great for me to go out with him one last time before he leaves.
I am excited for the transfers. Its a much needed thing here in Harbel we are excited to whoever comes just we want ones who are ready to work.
President thank you for your hard work you do for us missionaries and the people of Liberia.
Love,
Elder Skouson

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.

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