ONE YEAR!

ONE YEARRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!! WHOOOOOOAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
That's so nuts. And you're right, longest year of my life. I feel like I've
changed so much and that I'm this mature man. Then I realize I'm thinking
those thoughts as I play with the rubber Dinosaur you guys sent as I mark
my scriptures with my Toy Story colored pencils. Not so mature yet, Elder Skinner. ;)
 

The Johnsons are my heroes. Such a rad fam. Connor is going to KILL it on his mission in Sweden. 

I'm sorry to say, this week was worse than last week. We had zone conference and that was probably the best part. 

The halfway point of his mission has been the hardest point so far! I won't go into all the details. He's just had lots to worry about. 

Although the week was just awful, your prayers were answered. I've been happier despite the conditions and have just taken it all very relaxed with the whole what-does-God-want-me-to-learn-here attitude. The Johnsons have helped that with their CJ pics. 

Little explanation: Our good friends,The Johnsons' dad was in an accident and has been in bad shape. They and everyone who has ever known their dad is exercising great faith and strength, posting pictures of themselves doing their dad's signature "CJ" face and hand gesture (including their own strong family). And miracles are happening, slowly but surely. 

A few highlights from his latest recordings:

They have a washing machine INSIDE their house, which he loves. Though the video shows a broken washing machine.... I hope that's not the one he was telling us about. 

Morichal has been a difficult area so far. He and his companion could use prayers.

My recordings are super depressing but I'm actually happy. Don't let the
Eeyore voice get you down. :)

I Love you all so much! Mom, you're the best and I can never thank you
enough for what you have done for me here and when I was home.

Elder JenkyBaby! #yoloswag

A cat in the ceiling!

Cooking on the floor.

A soda I used to hate, but have grown to like!

  

Things could be better... but they could also be worse.

Well, It's been a hard week for Elder Justin.  He's hanging in there, but he could use some prayers. 

Here's a picture of the whole mission, but I can't find Justin anywhere. ??? I don't see the eyebrow or the tongue. I don't think he's there...

Since I don't feel like posting his letter this week, I'll post a few pictures from before the mission, just for fun. And cuz I REALLY MISS HIM!

-ivy (mom)

I call this "Thank Goodness for Missionary Haircuts" 

haha

 Flashback to his Priest Quorum activity: "Cutting Justin's Hair"

Looking thrilled.

 Aw. All ready for the missionary picture to send his papers in. 

and then again a few months later...

And a year ago...

 I Love him and am so proud of him! 

1 Year.

Thoughts on Saul to Paul, Audio, Pictures and Video! Wow!

HEY Y'aLL!!!!

It's great to hear all of the stuff that's going on in the states! You all sound good.

I GOT THE PACKAGE and I love it!!!! Nothing but stuff to mess around with and I need to mess around a lot more. Already sported my Animal shirt playing soccer today. Got two goals and kicked the ball into someone's face... Good luck. That's what the shirt brings.

I'm so sorry to hear about Chris. I'll make sure my companion and I add him to our prayers this week. And do everything else the post says.

This wee has been pretty good. It wasn't really all that good with the whole teaching part but we are doing just fine. 

I had some really good insight from my personal study! First off, one of the assistants is pretty cool, but he has a history of disobedience. This is my second time serving in one of his old areas and I've heard a TON of just down right not okay things he's done (whether they be true or not, i'm not sure). But now he's an AP and is preaching a lot about obedience. Well, almost everyone in the mission is super mad about it and don't want to listen to him and think he's a jerk and  a hypocrite and whatever else you can call him. I haven't been having some very kind thoughts about him either. Well, I was reading in Acts again and in chapter 7 (I think) Saul is persecuting the church and sending the believers to jail. Some pretty bad stuff. But Christ visits him and rebukes him and after a few days of blindness and not eating, he's healed by a priesthood blessing form an Apostle. Well, Saul starts to preach of his conversion to the people and talk of the very Christ he had mocked before. Well, the people were like, "Hey, this his the same guy who was sending the believers to prison and mocking the very God he's talking about."

They didn't want to listen and end up casting him out of the city, completely ignoring the Atonement of Christ and it's ability to change people. As I read that, I thought of this elder and how the missionaries (including myself) were just like the people. We have been focusing on his past mistakes but ignoring the Atonement. It was definitely a little bit of
a chastising from Heavenly Father because I need to look at myself before I look at any others. So now I need to just focus on what our mission's version of Saul (the AP) is saying. Because we all know that Saul became Paul, and Paul is a STUD!!! I love this inspiration. We used it for our family home evening lesson after reading it. :)

Video:

 

























Well, nothing else super rad happened this week so I'll try to have more adventure in this next one.
Click HERE to hear his latest audio file!
I love you guys! I pray for you everyday!

Elder Animal.

New area (Morichal) and Pictures!

 
HEYYYYYYYY EVRYONE!!!! You'll finally get some pictures this week. We aren't writing from a super cheap internet place today so the computer is actually loading stuff!

                   Here's My new comp. Elder Yanzapanta, from Ecaudor, and the P-day Tie.



This week has been pretty good. Morichal is pretty cool so far but it's a LOT poorer than Limonar. And yes, it's part of Cali. There's Morichal 1 and 2 (areas where the missionaries are) and I'm in the second. Critchlow got sent to 1 which is even poorer and renowned for being one of the most dangerous areas in the mission. Ours is hovering around second or third (it;s really not too bad). So I lucked out with the whole danger and stuff like that.

My comp is pretty cool and pretty chill. I haven't to work extra hard on personal obedience because he goes with the flow. I could say at any second, "let's go see a movie" and if I was dead serious, he would probably go (he's not THAT chill haha but you know). But he's been pretty good so far. He still writes the girl I think. Our area is tiny and the chapel is five minutes away from the house. 

We taught this lesson with a less active lady who stopped going to church and starting going to the Catholic church again. So when I went with Elder Y, I was the "new guy who doesn't know anything" so I was able to ask all of these really direct questions. Well, she told us that she has no clue why she doesn't go. So we pulled out Mark 13:31-37 and "passed the saw"
(Colombian phrase for rebuking or talking directly), asking her what excuse she was going to give the Savior if He were to come tomorrow and she was inactive. Well the lesson was an alright one and she gave the closing prayer. Then half way through the prayer she starts bawling and takes about five minutes to start again. Then she kind of just finished the
prayer silently. Well, it was obviously the Spirit because she was super happy and we could feel it too. We asked what the Spirit had told her to do and she said, "The Lord told me I need to go to church." It was pretty cool ....BUT she didn't come!!!! It was a super cool moment but she didn't actually follow through with it... So I guess we have to either
let her be or try again.

I studied Acts 5 today and I was really struck by the part where Peter and John (at least I think it was John) are arrested for the hundreth time and beaten for preaching about Christ. Well, when they are let go, they praise God and thank Him for seeing them as worthy enough to suffer for the name of Christ. That was like a BOOM! moment in my head. In the states I was  pretty loose about standing up for the church when people who weren't
members insulted us or made fun of the beliefs. But these guys were arrested by witnesses to a miracle done in the name of Christ and then beaten for talking about him. So that really was a "Hey Elder Skinner, you should be proud of Christ" feeling. Now I know what to do when I get home. ;)

To answer your question, all interviews with president are in person. They travel to every zone to do them. I still have not gotten my package. I think next Pday we'll go to the office oursleves to pick it up (which I was not aware you could do). 

I love Colombia for the generosity of the people and the wonderful juices! :) 

I love you guys! I'm stoked to hear about Ian and his desire to go on a mission and Emily and her personal progress. Garrett and Owen are super funny with their puppets.

We made these puppets and they've been video

 taping puppet shows ever since. 

Love you guys!!!

Elder Skinner

Our Pensionista in Limonar

Birthday! Colombians break an egg on the head of the birthday boy. 

 Elder Chritchlow's present to J for his b-day.

Andrea's Baptism.

 

 

 Our Ward mission leader in Limonar. He's super funny.

 Apple Soda!