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

June 2, 2014

Dear Family,

This week just like always has been very busy. We working very diligently and not caring about the rain. Most of the time by the end of the day we are soaked all over even down to my shoes. Actually the only reason my socks are wet is cause my soles have holes in them. Oh well that is mission.

Sometimes or actually all the time we are asked to go out of our comfort zones and be somebody that we didn't even thing we could. Now that i have the Spirit more and more in my life and i am learning to recognize the promptings i feel as if those things i thought were quite challenging 6 months to a year ago now just come and go just like a breeze.

When i first came on mission when i was still learning what were the lessons about i was so scared to get asked questions. It seemed every time i tried to answer a question i would just ramble for long and not actually answer the question. Now as i try hard to listen to what the spirit tells me to say i have become more confident in the answers i give. I was especially scared to teach classes because that is where many of those questions would be. I have come to understand that heavenly father wants us to help others and so he will give us impressions and thoughts about what we should speak, really fulfilling the promise that he will give us what to say in the moment that we should say it.

It always amazes me when we teach people when questions pop into my mind on what to ask people to either start a conversation or try to help someone understand something. It happened this week when Elder Zaugg and I were on an exchange in my area. We were going to teach this recent convert named Grace. Grace is the only member inside her family. I noticed a women a little bit older then Grace and asked her who she is. Grace told me its her like half sister in law. Half because her and her brother aren't married. So i got the feeling that this girl has a lot of questions but she was stubborned and didn't want to sit down. So for about 5 good minutes Elder Zaugg and i asked her inspired questions to get her interested in the gospel and feel comfortable to sit down with us. For us missionaries we don't force people but sometimes it is force. She sat down with us as we taught her the message of the Restoration and answered some questions about the Book of Mormon.

My companion is having this rash or skin problem that its almost like he is a lizard and shedding his skin which is kind of weird. But he is doing well has less then 6 weeks to go home which is crazy. I am just hoping i am rewarded with a greeny to train to close out my mission. I will just make me the absolute best missionary i can possibly be. And i want to give all the knowledge i have acquired to someone else

I cant remember if i have told you before but what we are trying to do every week is at least one service project. This last week we entered into my old area to give some service near our branch presidents house. A house burnt down a couple of months ago there and the destroyed one of the gutters that are their so we came in and fixed it up for the rainny season. We also went into the bush and cut some bamboo and fixed a bamboo bench. All of dads wood working skills that he showed me are paying off as we are serving more and more. 

We passed our apartment inspection with flying colors.( to be honest i don't know why they say flying colors). Sister Heszeltine was highly impressed. I have a good habit of making my bed every morning now which it is nice getting into a fresh bed each night it is just one of those things i look forward to now. 

Well not much else to talk about. I love you all and i am trying to do my best to focus in on the work. 

Love,

Elder Skouson

May 26, 2014

My Dearest Family,

Hello again from Liberia. 

This week has been just another great one. We are continually working super hard. Lets just say it is quite difficult to white wash an area. I would not suggest it really to anyone. Its almost like this area is brand new. So we have been working our guts out the last couple of weeks to find investigators who want to progress right now. Heavenly Father has been blessing us each day. It is very great because no effort that we put forth is wasted. Much of the teaching we have been doing is to help everyone understand that this isn't a church that will give you five dollars each time you come to church. For me i don't understand if i didn't have a lot of money and there was a new church in town giving out 5 us. you would see me inside that church the moment it opened. But that is just me...  We have taught many community leaders to help them understand what kind of church it is and help them understand that we truly have priesthood power. I don't really know about back at home but all the churches or pastors that we have taught they really have no idea what priesthood or having power from God is. 

When we do this is helps us sift out the people who really want to progress. But we have been trying to us new ways were we can find the people who are wanting to progress right now. One of the things we do now is if we receive a bounce we find a potential family immediately and start teaching. We had a great experience with this last week. We went to go a man who owns this funeral home but he wasn't there so immediately we looked around and we saw a middle aged man and we introduced ourselves. We went to his house and taught his whole family. To bad they didn't come to church on Sunday but we are still praying that they will progress.

Being with a missionary when he is about to die is just very um challenging. I don't like it at all. And this is my second time back to back. No word yet if we will be together next transfer yet but odds are yes we will. Just keep praying for me as i am working and sprinting as hard as i can. Some times difficult carrying two people though. 

We have started this new things in Harbel were we do a service project each week. Which means i am starting to build back up my Calais small small. This is also helping with our image as a church and missionaries. 

Well just know i am working hard each day. I love you very much and want you to know that.
Love,

Elder Skouson

May 19, 2014

Dear Family,

Another week has gone by out here in this jungle of Liberia. Not much happened this week. 

We saw general conference yesterday. Well just one session of it. Very very good. Harbel branch is really progressing. everyone was attentively watching the conference and when i talked about conference after with some recent converts they were telling me things that they understood from these white people that spoke. I loved Bishop Gary A. Stevenson's talk he gave about the Olympics and this small 4 minute interval of life is the time for us to perform. I loved him talking about the members of the church who went to the Olympics. Just goes to show that the church isn't just a bunch of weirdos who never do anything besides go to church. haha
 I also loved President Ballards talk speaking about following up and things he learned from his mission. I was interesting how he talked about everyone reading from Preach my gospel. One thing my companion and i have been focusing on reading is the Finding People, or chapter 9 i believe. We are trying to find new ways that we can people who are ready for the gospel right now. To" find them that will receive us". We have had much success in the past few weeks as we have been here in our new area. 

This week as i was reading the Doctrine and Covenants i was learning and studying about putting on the Armor of God in section 27. I especially like what it said about your feet. That our feet are our goals and objectives. To have our feet shod in the preparation of the gospel of peace. I thought this was  very interesting. It also reminded me of the quote in The Knights Tale." how will i know the way back? Just follow your feet William!" I put it in gospel terms when we may ask our Heavenly Father how will we know the way back to him. He would reply follow your feet if your goals in life are being able to follow my son Jesus Christ, you will have no hard time finding your way back to me!

Some times i think about the love God has for each of his children. I pray for this same love as i go out each day that i might have Charity with all people that i will be able to see each person i open my mouth to with the same kind of love God has. 

I still wish i could memorize scripture like i can remember movie quotes. those things just don't leave my brain. 

I loved also President Monsons talk about loving our neighbors. Which reminds me. We had a great service project on last Tuesday afternoon. We wanted to fix this womans our neighbors bathroom. We needed to get bamboo because the sticks that were there were rotting. So we hiked about 1/2 mile into the bush to cut bamboo and then hall it back to the place. No small distance with heavy bamboo on our heads and shoulders. We then used our machete to cut the bamboo into size and stuck them into the ground and got the aluminum zinc to wrap them around. It was a good hard working 4 hour project with no breaks so we were tired after wards. only two or three blisters on my hands. But remember when we are in the service of our fellow being we are only in the service of our God.

Thank you family for the inspiring letters you write each week. It really keeps me going. 

AND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MY PACKAGE it got here yesterday and i looks like i wont have to buy food for the rest of my mission. WOO HOO!!! You are really the absolute best. just wondering if the in-n-out shirt was from you or Lynn. haha 

Love,
Elder Skouson 

Keep calm and just do what is right!!

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