Preach My Gospel

Elder Uceda was incredible. All of the questions I've ever had about being a successful  missionary were answered. Preach My Gospel! That's the answer to everything! A preach my gospel missionary is one that will have success with his investigators. I've been taking it totally for granted. ElderUceda told us that every single one of the Apostales, including the first presidency, read, corrected and approved it and so it has EVERYTHING we need to be stellar missionaries. I've been applying that in my studies this week and it's made a huge difference. THANK YOU ELDER UCEDA!!!

There's this really cool site that I found when President gave me permission to print guitar music. It's called mormonguitar.com. The guy is VERY good at the guitar and he has albums. I figured you guys would like that for a Sabbath day thing. I think it's more interesting than just normal hymns. Check it out! And if you can, buy it with my money and
dropbox it to me!

My comp is still pretty funny. I've noticed something though. Everyone thinks and says he's a really hard worker. But really, HE's a SMART worker (Maybe not Hard). He knows HOW to work really well so he's got a lot of baptisms and stuff like that.  I'm learning a lot from
him! Things I need to do better and things that I shouldn't ever do. haha.
We've been getting along pretty well.

What else? It's hot. Still. There have been two shootings in our neighborhood. Other than that, everything is still the same. I love how he just glosses over the TWO SHOOTINGS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD! 

Love you guys so much! You're the best family in the world!!

Elder Skinner

ONE MORE THING!!!! I saw one of our converts from Limonar and she has a
calling as the young women's secretary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pretty nuts right?! Anyways, love you!

Things are looking up! :)

Sup family!!!!
First things first. Mom your haircut looks good ;) Glad to see he knows what's "first" and important! haha

This week was pretty good. We found a ton of new people and some of them are looking pretty dang good. It's been fun to have a new companion because Elder Ore is super funny and chill. It's been fun to get to know him. He's the senior companion so I guess they demoted me. haha ;) It's been fun.

I've been trying harder to be more obedient and that's helped me a lot. I know you all thought that I was obedient to begin with but one of the reasons I was complaining about the disobedience is because I was slowly starting to fall into it. But Now, I'm doing a lot better. My comp is cool but this morning he slept until 9. All throughout study I felt good that I was at least making an honest effort. That's one blessing in and of itself.

This week Elder Uceda from the 70 is coming to the mission and is going to blow our minds. With all the preperation and warnings they are giving us though, you'd think President Monson himself was coming. They want us to be there an hour early or they're not paying us back for our transport. haha. I'm pretty excited. I hope he gives me some advice to help me get lost in this work.

The investigator with the daughters did not get baptized due to stake onference yesterday. But because she didn't come yesterday to stake conference she can't be baptized...yet.

Well, short lame letter. But I got to write my little bros for once haha ;)

Love you mom! You're the greatest!

Elder Skinner

Sapo Skinner-The Red Toad

Well hello everyone!!! I'm so relieved that it's PDAY!!! It's been a long week.

Transfers came in and Elder Y se fue!!! He went to another zone and another elder from Peru showed up. Elder O. Anyways, it's been a weird change because it happened so fast.
Elder O is known for baptizing a TON. But he's also known for being really relaxed about the rules. But he came here this morning and right of the bat was like, "okay, we're going to find 14 people this week and baptize them all in three weeks." I really need to learn how to finish the work that I start and it looks like I got the guy who's going to help me learn how to do it. ;)

We played soccer today with the zone and I'm an IDIOT and forgot sunscreen. I'm SUPER sunburned on my arms and face and neck. It kills and and it's going to be hard to sleep tonight haha... 

But some prayers were answered! We've all been pretty mad about the whole Sapo Skinner thing right? (That's what some of the elders were calling him for telling on a few who broke some rules. Or should I say, for being obedient. Sapo means Toad which is equivalent for a Rat in American lingo.) Well, I was feeling basically alone in the situation until today when my zone leader, Elder Green (whose little brother is serving in Jacob's mission!!!), pulled me aside and told me that they trust me a TON. HE told me that they talked to the AP's and President and they all trust me too. HE said that if anyone starts to harass me about this again, I should just tell the zone leaders and they'll  talk to them. So now I know that President, the AP's and the zone leaders are ready to back me up whenever I need it. :)

We almost had a baptism this Saturday out of nowhere. Some investigator we have wants to be baptized! If she didn't have a smoking problem, she and her three daughters would have
been baptized on Saturday. She's pretty cool. She needs some praying to get over smoking. So anything you guys can do will help!!!

I'm excited for this transfer! I'm going to try harder to be a LOT better because I've been pretty bitter this entire week and that has caused me to feel pretty darn homesick. But I'll be better this week. 

LOVE YOU MOM!!!! and everyone else, I'm sure.

Elder Skinner👽

Meet the Mormons Burning Ties?

Hey ya'll!!! Isn't that how they talk in Oklahoma?

This week was a lot better. Our baptism fell through but my comp and I had had some cool spiritual insight together during lessons. We both received promptings at the same time to give one investigator a blessing for an accident he had. Super cool.

We are having a hard time finding investigators again and only had like three lessons since Thursday but we are taking it well and trying our best to be happy.

We had a stake activity on Saturday in which we showed "Meet the Mormons." We invited investigators throughout the week and when were about a half an hour to show time and only saw a few members, all of the missionaries in the zone went and swept the streets looking for people to invite. We split up and I was with Elder Mariscol who's from California and is brand new in the mission. He spoke Spanish before though so he's got that down. Well, we
went through the street talking to everyone like these super excited weirdos who were WAY too excited about a free movie but we had success! After we had a very nice family get excited and come to the chapel, Elder M started to tear it up! He was killing it. HE would talk to people before I would and so it was pretty crazy. We did end up getting a lot more people to come. It's cool to contact in divisions cause you  aren't in the comfort bubble that you and your normal companion have when you're together. 
(He's getting some flack for telling on some missionaries for breaking rules. He says he's hated by the other elders now and so he's been dealing with a lot. I haven't shared much of it on the blog and I'm cutting out some of it here, but wanted to explain cuz I'm leaving in the part where he talks about how he's learning.)
It's lame but hey. I see blessings already. My comp also thinks I did the wrong thing  so that leaves me with no one to vent to except you guys and God. My personal prayers have been amazing lately and so that's probably the greatest blessing that's come out of this. I've been feeling impressed that, although it seems like I'm being punished for being obedient right now, there are great blessings waiting.  The mission presidetne hasn't even
said a word to me about this. But to be fair, I haven't said anything to him directly about this. I will today so we'll see how the support goes after that. (Mama Bear wants to visit Colombia! haha. But I'm impressed with his continued efforts and growth! It has to be hard being persecuted by your own group of people for doing what you are supposed to be doing...)
Love you guys! 
Love

Elder Jenky Skinner






“Lizard in our house that i named Shaggy”
Somebody in my ward made mini versions of all the missionaries in the ward.
 I think my Mini Me looks like Peter Pan.”
The Tie I burned to mark ONE YEAR GONE.