Popayan and then Transfered back to Cali

The Central Park of Popayan

Sounds like everything is OK. (teehee!)

We've honestly had kind of a crappy week. We had very few appointments and
the ones we did have were kind of okay or not very good. We've been kind of
discouraged but it's only going up.

We have the new initiative for Easter!!! It's SOOOOO COOOL!!! Very
spiritual and I just love to think about our family being in the video and
saying stuff about Grandma Joyce and Grandmommy and all of the other passed
relatives that we have. It's pretty cool and the cards are so pretty. Ever
Single one of these new church missionary events just get better and
better. So that's going to be fun to use if we can get into the habit of
passing the cards out.

See Video HERE 

We are in the BEST place for Easter. Popayan is FAMOUS for it's culture
during Semana Santa and stuff like that.

(From Google Images)

Really cool but it's the time when
all the Catholics who don't normally go decide to be very die hard. So it's
easier to talk about Jesus because we are in the Easter mood but it's hard
to get anyone REALLY interested. Whatevs though. ALL IS WELL!

I love you!!! 
Love,
Elder Skinner

March 28th 

Well, Sadly I've been transferred to Cali. I'm now in Israel 2 with my
comp, Elder Chicaiza from Guayaquil, Ecuador. That's from Dad's mission too. He's
cool and has about 6 months in the mission.
(Didn't get any pictures from him for Easter in Popayan, so he must have missed it...)

 
I'm still district leader and ready to ROMPERLA! I'm pretty excited for
this transfer.

I got your package!!!! I love you guys so much!! I already gave away almost
all of the flags. They're a HUGE hit. A lot bigger than I thought they
would be. And the only lame part of your package was that YOU thought it
was lame. ;) I loved it and now I'm super hyped up on candy and probably on
my way to being  a diabetic....

Pedro is waiting til June to be baptized. :( He's really excited to keep coming to
church and is now showing up before the other members even get there.
Really cool. I just hope that he keeps going strong cause he said that he
wouldn't come back to church if they changed me.

Short letter, I know. I'm getting better at soccer but still not great.
Finding some cool things to bring home.

I love you mom!!! You're my favorite. Say hi to everyone for me.

Elder Skinner 

Miracle Contact?

So this has been a a pretty good week. We had this crazy miracle experience
the other day when we went to teach an investigator. While we were there,
her cousin gets there and starts to talk with us. Our investigator said,
"hey these guys can talk to you about Jesus!"

HE proceeded to tell us that he had this book that someone gave him four
months ago as a crack addict, along with many other books. He pulled out
the very familiar blue Book of Mormon and when we pulled out ours, he said
"hey that's my book!" (or something like that). He then told us his story.
To buy more crack, he sold all of the books but for some reason held onto
the Book of Mormon because it made him curious. He had it in his room for
four months and for some reason felt like he should bring it with him that
day. We just "happened" to be there that day and we had a very powerful
lesson with him. We talked about baptism and without hesitation, accepted a
date. We testified that this was God telling him to listen to us and follow
Jesus Christ. STELLARRRRRRRRR!!!!!!.

I now know more than ever that Heavenly Father really is preparing the
hearts of these people. He isn't just leaving us alone and watching,
but rather his hand is in the work. right next to our hands.

Still don't know my return date exactly. So i'll ask President to see what
he says.

I love you and I hope you have MORE FUN!!!!

Love

Elder Eskinner.

Training in Popayan

Sounds like some crazy stuff has been happening. I really like the most retro derby car you guys made. It sounds like he had the most style out of them all.

The new comp is pretty dang cool! He's form Bolivia and is 18 years old. I really like training. It's been VERY stressful because he's not really used to being bossed around and sometimes just doesn't want to listen to me. But he's very excited and is definitely on the mission for the right reasons.

It's been a LOOOOOONG week though. It reminds me so much of my training. In Popayan and everything. It's actually bringing back some of the homesickness I felt in my training in a strange sort of way. But no biggie. Getting better!!!

We had some cool experiences. We were walking to one of our scheduled
appointments in the night time and on the way there, I had this weird feeling that we shouldn't go to that appointment. I kind of shrugged it off until i thought we were going to be robbed and then suggested that we go a different way with more street lights, because it was dark. Well, the feeling just kept coming until I said, "Okay, we can't go to this
appointment". When I said it, Elder Mariaca also felt something weird. So we went to a nearby less active part member family to teach them. Well we got there and everything was going to normal until we heard their 6 month old baby screaming like crazy from the room. Turns out the mom was folding something and the baby fell and bonked her head pretty hard on the floor and was hysterical!!! So they brought her in and they were both in like this weird mad but panicked mood. They asked for a blessing and so we went and washed
our hands to give her one. We blessed her and then we left and sent the war mission leader to see if everything was okay. The next day, the son came to church and we later found out that Emily (the little baby) was perfectly fine after we left. We passed by that night and saw that her big goose egg was now just a little red scratch. They committed to come to church next week so the husband of 20 years old can get the Priesthood and his wife can get baptized. It was truly amazing because who knows what would have happened if we hadn't followed the prompting to go them? Nuts!!! I LOVE THE SPIRIT.

I love you, mom! I feel the prayers lifting my head up every time I'm feeling down.

I don't know the exact date. But my friend in the office who's form my group said we'll be going home somewhere around the 2nd of August. Yikes!!!!

Love you all!!!

Su favorito misionero,

Elder Esniker