Cow Hoof Marshmallows?

My new comp is here and I really like him. His name Is Elder De Vivanco
from Peru and he's pretty chill. He actually obeys the rules too. 
But we have had a difficult week cause we have like four investigators and
none of them have very much time so we've been trying to find new ones. We've
gotten some pretty promising contacts though but we haven't been able to get
a hold of them yet.
Our reactions vary when people find out we are Mormon. "oh I'm a christian"
or "oh I'm a catholic"
So we usually say that we are Christians too and then tell them that the "He is the Gift" video is for all Christians and not for church members only. So
our week consisted of teaching like 3 legit lessons that were all really
good and contacting new people. But elder Devivanco and I have been getting along great and we have been having fun.
We had a Zone conference on Saturday and an English Hymn competition! And
we (Elder Johnson and I) Totally bombed our verse and it was probably the
funniest thing ever hahaha. I was laughing really hard on stage and Elder J
was totally embarrassed. So yeah that's pretty awesome.

The new star wars speeders are awful... Buyt the Stormtroopers are SUPER
sweet looking haha (In reference to the pictures we sent of these things for the new Star Wars movie.)

I wrote some of the info form this week to dad but I'll just write some
personal stuff to you! things have been weird without a mom helping me out.
It was pretty hard to adjust to that but now I'm doing just great. I have
this little mom in my head that screams, "Justin, Justin, JUSTIN!!!!!!"
every time I almost get attacked by a dog, hit by a car or even ride in a
taxi. ;)
I'm starting to learn how to cook and stuff like that. We make lunch for
ourselves every sunday and so i've been getting good at it. Wahoo!!!
What's the full name of our current stake pres? I need to write him a
letter.
I also am not fond of the cow hoof flavored marshmallows. Ugh..... Those are
horrid.
Love
Elder Skinner

The Chapel they attend in Popayan

First Baptism!

Hey howdy hey family!!!
This week was not the best but not too bad. Since we had to drop a lot of
investigators and we didn´t have any to fall back onto, our numbers were
really really bad this week. But we had a great lesson with Jose and
he is really digging learning about the church. Whether or not he is
interested in joining I can´t tell, but he came to a baptism for the zone
leaders and he seemed really intrigued by the way we do baptisms. He´s come
to church twice, but for some reason he has ended up in the branch that
meets after us both times. haha. So we´re happy about him. But we had a very
difficult week trying to find people to teach.
BUT I BAPTIZED SOMEONE!!!!!

 

It was another investigator of the zone leaders and she asked me to baptize

her!! That was really cool. I didn´t mess up on the prayer or her name and
she was really happy for the rest of the day. The only catch was that it
was supposed to be last weekend but she had to work. Then is was supposed
to be this last Saturday night, but she had to work... Soooo we did this
baptism at 7:30 in the morning on Sunday! hahaha. We were all tired but that
wasn´t important (especially when we got in the water. FREEZING!). The
spirit was so strong and I can´t even begin to describe what it feels like
to help someone enter the truth like that.
We found out Saturday night that my companion is getting transferred to be a zone leader with Elder Gomez (the son of the missionary mom that found my blog and is from Oklahoma). He leaves tomorrow and I get my new companion sometime this week. So I´m excited and very nervous for that because I´ll be the leader of this area now. Yikes.....
But I´m having fun and I´m excited for the change.
No one was really interested in "He his the Gift" (I wonder how he is showing the people this. I keep forgetting to ask. Oh... Wait. I bet they are just passing out the cards NOT showing movie...) this week so we have no new investigators which we desperately need so that was hard to deal with. Click HERE to see the short movie clip. 
People really like Christmas though. They don´t celebrate quite the same
but it´s really nice to see some trees in the houses.
I love you guys!!
Keep it real!
Be ready on the 25th!!!!
Love YOU :)
Love,
Elder Skinner

Some Random Questions Answered.

 To answer some of your questions, we get around by walking or taxis. And
the taxis are probably have some of the meanest drivers in the world. (some
of them are super nice though). They are super junky cars too. None of
them have seatbelts so every ride is just holding your breathe for fifteen
minutes hahah. We usually just have cereal for breakfast and we almost
never eat dinner. Maybe like a snack because all of our investigators are
always giving us bread and juice and what not. The juice... SO GOOD (unless
it´s papaya. That stuff is jank). For street contacting we just walk up to
people and ask them about Christmas and then share He is the gift. I'm wondering how they share this? Is it just the pass along cards, because I don't think they have a way of showing them the video...

 But for other months, we just ask them if they have a family and if they want to be
with their families forever (the answer is almost always yes).

 We go to the chapel in Recuerdo and you could probably find it on google earth! I couldn't find it... The building has a kind of junky piano but nobody can read music so it´s never used during church. The son at our lunch house IS a member, but in the process of becoming a better member so he´s slowly getting better. (I think). 

The branch pres is super nice and cool and he´s a doctor. Our branch is about to do a temple trip to Bogota so they´re all pretty excited about that. 

They do have peanut butter but they come in jars the size of those little
relish jars and they cost around six bucks. But I still have mine. I´m
waiting until Christmas. Can you send a recipe for french toast? We want to
make some PB&J´s and french toast for Christmas.

I actually met Elder Gomez His mom found this blog and commented on a post. They lived in Oklahoma at one time. Small world. and he already knew who I was. He´s super cool
form what I´ve met and he likes Oklahoma a lot haha.
The mission is fun and I´ve been growing a lot! Both in sprirt and in belly
size because the rice we eat gives you a rice belly. (a beer belly but with
rice). I´ve probably lost weight but rice does that anyways :P
I love you guys! I´m working on writing better letters so let me know if
I´m getting any better or if you want anything specific!!
Love,
Elder J-Skinny

No pictures. And the recording we got was meant for Tressa so we didn't listen to it and forwarded it to her. She got the one meant for Connor. So if anyone got one meant for his family...PLEASE send it to me! ivyskinner@gmail.com  

HAHA!

He sounds happy. When I read his letters I can hear his voice. Can't wait to see and here him via Skype on Christmas! :) 

"He is the Gift" - the video is a gift to see!

Things here have been up and down, back and forth, and all around! We had to drop a couple of investigators that just won't progress and are showing no signs of progressing any time soon. So that was kind of hard to deal with. But to counter that we got some new investigators and some our inactive members are coming to church!

 "He is the Gift" is such a blessing to all of us who see it a LOT. We are getting lots of interest from investigators who didn't really care about us before. And we are getting lots of really good feed back.

We got a new family of investigators. The dad has spina bifida that makes it so he can't do anything with his legs other than stand enough to use his walker. He and his wife (girlfriend) have three sons and I think the youngest has the same thing. It's really sad but humbling to see them. Well, they live really close to us and we always see them so we went and talked him a few days ago and he agreed to have us come over to his house to hear the first lesson. Well the first lesson went well and they liked what they heard! They agreed to have us come back and now every time we see them outside their house they are all happy and excited to see us!!WOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!! Pretty stellar right?! So they are looking good right now and I really like to go visit them. They have a wonderful spirit about them. :)

In other news, my Spanish is getting better and now I don't have to think quite as much about what I want to say before I can say it. I still have a ridiculously hard time understanding anything but it's getting better slowly. I've been a lot better about studying the language. HOORAY FOR THE GIFT OF TONGUES!!!!!

Things are going great! It rains every single day here now (which rules cause I lent my umbrella to our investigator at church a few weeks ago cause she didn't have one and then she moved out of our area...). But sometimes the umbrellas won't even help because it rains side ways. haha. ;)

But I've been using my water proof jacket and my shoes keep the water out. Maybe if they last for my whole mission Ian can use the other pair I have. haha. I'm pretty sure we bought the mission shoes from missionary mall. Supposedly they are working good so far. :) 3 months though isn't too long is it?  

Love you guys and I hope Everything is going well with school.
Love,
Elder Skinner