9 Investigators on date for Baptism!

I called Chase Bank and they said they aren't allowed to open my ATM card because Colombia is a high risk country so I be able to use my card while I'm here :(
But I have a guitar now!!! I had some cash from when I arrived and the
store that we found would take it and give me the change in pesos! So I got
a guitar, a capo, and a pretty nice tuner for like $55. The guitar is an
ugly shape and I'm not too big of a fan of the paint job but it sounds and
plays great!!!

In other news, this week was super fantastic. We have 9 investigators on

date for baptism and they are all looking pretty promising. The family that
we found through the Castillo family is super amazing and actually keeps
their commitments! They've read everything we've left them and have prayed about
all of it and they are growing their own little testimonies. We are super
stoked for them. I had to awkwardly explain to the wife (who is just the
sweetest lady and super sincere) that we didn't drink coffee after she had
started to brew some for us. That was really hard actually cause I was
scared she would get offended. Usually, if you turn down food or something
that a family offers you, it's pretty rude and offensive. But she took it
well and next time we are teaching the Word of Wisdom. haha ;)
 Castillo family

Our lunch family has been going through a rough time lately though. The mom,
who is also the sweetest and nicest lady, found some weed in their sons'
(ages 19 and 18) room and that has been pretty hard for them. The sons, who
are not planning on missions are and are inactive, feel pretty dang bad
though. I had my suspicions because they are both really into American rap
artists like Whiz Khalifa and Kid Cudi (both very pro weed rappers). But
they have agreed to stop and we've been taking the 18 year old out to
lesson with us and it's been truly amazing. He was present for the most
spiritual lessons that we had and he has been feeling the spirit a lot.
After one of the lessons, I had the chance to talk him and found out that
he's been a member for his whole life. When I related he said, "It´s hard
isn´t it?"
He explained that he didn´t have a testimony and that his whole life he had
just been told that the church was true. (This is a lot like I was about a
year ago. I thought I didn´t have a real testimony and that the only reason
I "knew" was because I didn´t know anything else.)
So I told him what I did. I prayed tried to gain my testimony and in the
process, found out I already had one. This kind of got him thinking and in
the past couple of days, we´ve been asking him to bear his testimony at the
end of lessons. And wow, it{s making a big difference. He´s starting to
realize that he DOES have one and the spirit doesn´t have to make you cry
your brains out to testify of the truth of something (EXACTLY how i was).
After one of the super spiritual lessons we had, we took him home and he
said something like "Mom, I want to go on a mission" (if I understood
correctly).
WOWZAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
It's been really cool and he's getting better and better every day.
That's been my week!! 

I saw some snow!

I'm starting to realize that because I don't live with my
family anymore, I don't need to buy things in the biggest, or even the
second biggest size of pretty much anything. I just barley finished my
second tube of toothpaste, my first thing of gel, and I'm down to maybe
three more days with my first bottle of shampoo haha. And that my loaf of
bread will last me for about two weeks.
I love you mom! I love you family!
Love, Elder Skinner

The Stake Center

Audio of Justin 8 minutes long- click  HERE!

Dreams in Spanish and New Investigators

 
Spanish is coming a lot better now. I´ve been having dreams in Spanish
lately and that is when you really start to pick up the language. I said a
prayer in English the other day for a recent convert and it was so stinking
hard to do haha. Praying in Spanish is all I ever do (and I try to do that
with my personal prayers too.) 

But hey, the mission is a very humbling place. Including here. I´ve definitely

changed for the better.
This week was super rad! We found ten new investigators and 7 of them were
in the same day. Remember the guy we just baptized? Well, in the process of
converting him, we reactivated his inactive extended family that he was
living with and through them, we found the seven new investigators that I
just talked about. So that is a double whammy times 7!!!! (or 3.5)
I finally asked President Pricoli if I could buy a guitar and now I´m
waiting on that answer.  I really hope it´s yes because we
found this super stellar store that has a ton. They are all pretty nice and
the cheapest one goes for 85000 pesos. (around $42). SO hopefully that´s a
yes!
We are looking towards getting some baptisms on the 31st for at least two
people. If the other family we are teaching decides to be baptized then we
could have three more on that day! So keep praying guys! Our prayers are
most definitely being answered guys!!!!!
Pretty much all of the candy you sent is gone haha. That´s a good thing.
Something about the mission and growing up really makes you remember all the
things you loved as a kid. I am remembering all of the awesome parties that
you had for Ian and me growing up and all of the old video games I used to
play. 
Love you mom! I miss you a bunch and I really appreciate your love and
support. It´s been weird not having you around. Especially because we hung
out so much during the whole preparing for a mission phase. Like when we
went to get those weird shots in my arm and my face X-rayed for the wisdom
teeth. Back in the good old days when I had long hair haha. I got a hair
cut today and I hate it. It looks fine but it´s a haircut and now the
weird shape of my head is more visible haha.
I love you!
Love
Elder Justin Skinner

Letter #2 from Pasto, Colombia

¡Hola familia!
This week was full of all sorts of ups and downs. We had a baptism on Saturday and the power was out for the whole thing so that was pretty fun! It was a wonderful service and I have finally had a baptism in which I was involved with all of the teaching! WHOOOOOT!!!!
I´m pretty happy about that.

We found a super awesome investigator through a recent convert. We were going to her house because we are supposed to teach the lessons again to people who have been recently baptized and we asked to invite a man over to the house (we aren´t allowed in houses without a man a least 18 years old). So she said she would and when we got there, she had invited a friend she a had made recently. He´s this guy about as tall as Emily who had more
metal in his face than Iron Man (just a few facial piercings really). But he was super nice and he loved the first lesson and was really excited when we gave him the Book of Mormon. He said he would definitely read it and that he was very excited because he loves to read the New Testament. Then the girl he was friends with gave him the complete Bible because he didn´t have the Old Testament. The whole lesson was super cool and he seems really legit about learning more. So we are going to teach him again on Saturday.

IN other news, we have been teaching this 14 year old girl who was visiting her cousins who are members. So they have been bringing her to church and she loves it! We´ve taught her all of the lessons and she loves them all. She wants to baptized b ut she lives in Bogota with her mom. Her mom doesn´t know she´s been taking the lessons and she is going back to Bogota this Tuesday. So the last half of this week has been encouraging her to keep up with the church and share it with her mom. She really wants to and says that she wants to be baptized with her mom (who sounds like she would be accepting of the gospel). And when this girl prays, she always asks God to help her keep the faith and testimony she has and always thanks Him for "putting the Elders in my way". !!!!!! One of my favorite parts of the
mission is hearing our sincere investigators pray to our Heavenly Father. It´s truly amazing. Her cousins have been an amazing help and they are so supportive of her exploring the gospel.

I have been little discouraged about Spanish because I feel like I´m not progressing and studying is usually super hard to do. My comp wants to help but he doesn´t really know how to teach (kind of like me with English). It´s been hard but I´m still trying and have a goal to try harder this week.

Love you guys! Keep being awesome.
Love Elder Skinner

First letter of 2015 and from Pasto, Colombia!

Audio track (7 minutes) of Justin talking HERE!

Some cultural hat they have for a dance at the carnivals here.

Howdy ya'll!!

Sounds like New Years was a blast with all that sleeping you got to do (Dad...)! Here, they blow off fireworks ALL NIGHT. Like big booming and house-shaking fireworks coming from across the street. ALL night. Didn´t get much sleep that night.

But Pasto is beautiful and very mountainous. The air is very thin and I´m still getting used to that. 

Here's a picture of the active Volcano we live next to!  Galeras Volcano

The bus ride was eternally long but I arrived safe and had some nice conversations with a Catholic man. (He made sure that I knew He was Catholic. Every one is scared we are going to shove Books of Mormon down their throats. haha.)

The weather is actually pretty dang cold... Like about as cols a Utah in the fall. And how do you spell "gross"? M-Y-N-E-W-H-O-U-S-E. The companion before me was not a very clean person and so we've spent this week cleaning up this disgusting place haha. I'm pretty sure I´m the first one to clean my bathroom in literally around 6 months... There was a bag of
garbage that hadn't been moved or touched in months and the kitchen was horrid. To the point that I didn't keep any of my food in there until we deep cleaned it. (My new comp is actually pretty clean. So since there are separate bathrooms, only mine was dirty and he was totally willing to help clean it.).

A view from our roof terrace.
 (Sounds fancy, but isn't really haha. 

It´s just the third floor without a roof or good floor.)

Speaking of my new comp, His name is Elder Cortés  and he's really cool! He´s from Chile and he's kind of hard to understand. He kind of slurs everything together but I´m getting there. :)

In teaching news we have some really amazing investigators. We have two that are on date and one that is in the process of asking her mom if she can be baptized. (She´s been living with her cousins who are members. So we´ve been teaching her and she loves the church.) Yesterday we had an amazing lesson and we were all almost in tears with the Spirit. Her grandma passed away recently and she has been really liking the "Families can be together forever" message. I didn't actually know that her grandma had died until we left or else I would have talked about Grandma Joyce. I've mentioned her a lot and how I know that one day I´ll get to meet her because of the blessings we receive from the temple. This Saturday we should have two baptisms for the other two investigators. They are relatives of an inactive family who is now being reactivated because of the lesson we've been teaching.
Things have been better in this area already!

Inside the Stake Center

My new years resolution is to lose myself in the work. I wasn´t trying all that hard before and was letting my mind wander far too often but now it´s been getting easier as I´ve prayed specifically for that. Now the Lord is blessing us with more work to get lost in!
Love you guys!! Keep things fresh and don´t do drugs like the crazy New Year's partiers do.
Love,
Elder Skinner.
P.S. Google image search Carnavales de Negros y Blancos Pasto. These are the festivals that have been going on lately and they are nuts. The floats are ridiculous and crazy, some are kind of sketchy so be careful with what you show the kiddies haha.

 President of the Relief Society in Popyan. She´s also the self proclaimed second mom of the missionaries. Her older son is the one who will be living with his inactive dad in OKC in a few months.
 She will be in North Carolina.

Carnaval De Negros y Blancos floats found on Google Images from 2013

Last Letter of 2014!!!

It was certainly amazing to see you guys. If it weren't for that, it wouldn't have felt like Christmas haha. It was pretty tough to hang up but it was still really cool  and I´m super glad you guys had a good Christmas.
So big news that might dominate the rest of this email... I'm being transferred for the first time!!!! I´m leaving Popayán at around 3 AM tomorrow morning so my Pday was spent packing my stuff and saying goodbye to families. Man it´s so weird. Packing has me feeling like I´m leaving my family again so it´s been pretty weird and rough so far. But all is
STELLLLLLARRRR!!! That's m'boy. He's determined to have a good attitude. 

It´s pretty crazy because I´m not going to get to say by to a lot of the members and they won't find out I´m gone until Sunday. Down here it´s pretty rude to leave without saying bye so I´ll have to make some calls tonight. 

My new area is called Pasto and it´s supposed to be ¨really cold¨ there. And those quote marks must mean it's cold for Colombia. Here's a link for average weather in Pasto.  The low in January is still in the 50's... 

I heard from some other elders that it´s one of the best areas though and that the work, ward, and members are all really cool. I know that Pasto is more of a city and it's a lot bigger than Popayan, being as it has a Stake with wards. So I´m really excited! I´m pretty nervous about my new comp though cause he´s from Chile and they are supposed to speak ridiculously fast. And sloppy. According to the Colombians who are renowned for having the most crisp and clean Spanish in the world. But we´ll have to see! Can only get better at the language from here!

In other news, our area is still struggling and we are having a hard time finding investigators. But we´ve had some great experiences that have kept us going. We found a new and great investigator named Daniel right after we had prayed to find new people. He´s very ready to hear about the gospel and we are super excited for him. In our first visit with him, which was five minutes after we met him, he agreed to be baptized on the 17th of
January!!!!! So he´s very ready for the gospel and he came to all three hours of church yesterday! (I´m kind of ticked I´m leaving as soon as we get this guy but hey, the important thing is that he´s a great investigator.)
So yup! I loved your package and the pictures are wonderful! Thanks for the comics O and G! They drew some comics for him. Take some pictures of the presents you didn´t get to show me.
And what´s this talk of Universal?!?!?!?! Are you guys really going there? That´s pretty cool! I´d be more jealous if it were Disney World though;)
I love you guys and it was great to see you!!
Love
Elder Skinner

I forgot to mention that I´ll be on a bus for six hours going to Pasto. But I'll be alone so please pray for my safe and un-robbed arrival haha... ;) I haven't had any calls from the  mission president so I'll assume this is what happened. :)

Also, my new area is famous for eating rats and guinea pigs. They call it
Cui! ;) ?@*#&%!!

Pictures of Pasto from Wikipedia:

A View of Pasto from North of the city. 

Galeras Volcano

He's evolved so....far?