We had 8 investigators come to church!!!! May 21, 2013

Hello everyone! How are we this week? Thanks for the emails sound like everyone is doing great! And guess what? The Easter package came!! Thank you so much! And that book with a time line of the Book of Mormon is so perfect. Every one that i read i think, "man i wish i just had a timeline of all this stuff" and now i do! So i think you read my mind mom. Thanks so much! Also dad so fun all those activities for the stake conference that sounds so awesome! And so awesome that you guys are focusing in on missionary work. It is so true that if we love the gospel so much, why wouldn't we share it with everyone who we know and love?! I am grateful for this time because i am learning how easy it actually is to just talk to people about the gospel. It is so amazing and it can bless so many lives. So that is so awesome that you all are focusing in on missionary work. And cant wait to hear about your talk!

We had a great week! WE HAD 8 INVESTIGATORS COME TO CHURCH! We were so thrilled. Gladis came with her whole family this week and they were the cutest thing all just sitting together. And her "husband" is interested in listening now too! The only sad part is it could take 3 months to get them married because her papers are in northern Guatemala. They cant afford to take a bus trip there and it is a difficult process that i dont really understand but i think overall it could take a while to get them married. so we are working on that! But she is so cute and has changed so much. In her prayers she always says please help me understand the hermanas and for my papers to work out so they can baptize me. so cute. she is definitly chosen and ready to be baptized. Also her sister Sara. We first contacted her sister and thats how we found Gladis. Sara is 15 and when we met her she had really dark eye make up, lip peircings and all kinds of stuff. But now she doesnt wear dark make up, she always asks me to braid her hair, she wore nice clothes to church and she took out her lip ring! it is just so awesome! we can see the change in the whole family. 

Last night we went to President Cuburs house for FHE and Gladis and her family came. GUESS WHAT- i talked to Gladis the whole way to the Cuburs house. This is exciting because small talk is a lot harder in spanish then teaching the lessons in spanish, so i was so happy! so yes a lot of success with this family. Also we have Jorge who has come to church 4 times now and he is so ready to be baptized and we are going to set a date today!

Okay i love conference talks. I read Elder Bednars talk again about conversion and how testimonies arent going to be enough to get us through the hard times. We have to be converted to the Lord and His gospel. I think it is really cool especially for the people here in our branch! They really have to be converted because they cant really be converted to the ward, the teachers or the programs of the church because they dont really know  how other wards are. Sorry i hope this is making sense but overall i am just trying to say that i loved the talk and i am working on be more converted everyday haha.

Okay something i learned this week in the scriptures that i took as 3 steps for success from Alma 5:13. 1 Humble yourself 2. Put your trust in God 3. Be faithful until the end. I have seen these things in my time here on the mission how important they are so yes those are my little 3 steps for success from this week!

Tell sister Jensen thank you so much for the cutest letter from the girls in the ward and also sister Johnson for the letter! She said Katie Rauch is filling out her mission papers! i am so happy for her! And i think that is all for this week! Again thank you for the package and mom thank you for all the flee advice haha i will be applying that this week. I have never had to many bites in my life i really should take a picture to show you guys haha. Que bendicion! I love you all so so much and pray for you every morning. I miss you all a lot but all this people need to know about the gospel! have a great week!!
love you all!
hermana skousen

Tired Gal

A little P- Day nap at Sister Gainors home. 

Best Agenda Award!!!!! May, 14 2013

Hello how are you all? 

That was the funnest thing ever to be able to talk to you guys! i am so happy that everyone is doing well and that everyone was able to be in on the phone call. that was very fancy so i am very proud. So so good to hear all your voices and thanks for the encouragment and everything. And please tell Wilsynn i am sorry i didnt talk much to her when she was on the phone. Tell her to email me and tell her i am so excited for her to be in Guatemala with me! i dont think i will be able to see her because the CCM isnt in my mission and we wouldnt be allowed to leave the zone. But tell her to send me an email. i LOVE how many people are going on missions! The church really needs all these missionaries around the world and it is so awesome!

So i mentioned Gladis to you guys when we talked on the phone and she is doing great! We are happy about that. Still working on getting her married, but hopefully we will make progess this week. We had a lady, Poala, tell us that she prayed about the Book of Mormon. She said she felt the peace that we promised she would feel and the next morning when she woke up her first thought was the read the Book of Mormon. woo so awesome. and she came to church so we are so happy about that too. 

Lets see i think i told you guys all about my week on the phone but yeah i am doing great! We had zone training today and me and Hermana Blandino won Best Agenda award and won cookies! I was so proud of my agenda! haha

Okay so i finally figured out what the bus ride to San Lucas or Guate feels like. It is like tubing at lake powell! haha so we are winding though all these mountains and you have to stratigecally hold on to the seat in front of you in order to not fly into the person across the asile. haha so yes just imagine tubing at Lake Powell and then thats how the bus feels. haha so fun i love the crazy buses.

Everything is going good here. Still learning a lot and finding things everyday that i need to improve on. I am so thankful for the Atonement. Again it was so great to talk to everyone on sunday! Rachel how did the election end up? i love you and you are a rock star whether you won or not! Congrats to Jessie for having her baby! Have a great week everyone! i love you all so so much and pray for you all everyday!
Love hermana Skousen

"I promise you that this will change you forever." May, 7 2013

Hello everyone! so glad to here that all is well. 

mom is a tennis champ!! woow way to go mom! so awesome! And yes on sunday we get to talk!! i will be calling from the Ganers house on there phone and it is free to the United States so thats so great! I think we will be calling around 1 or 2 but im not positive.. i will have hna ganer email you and let you know what time exactly. And we have 40 minutes to talk so i am so excited! 

Okay this week was great. President Brough is the coolest mission president in the whole world. We had interviews on Thursday and you just feel the spirit right when you walk into the room. He asked me some questions and gave me some really good advice. I told him i think the thing i have learned the most so far is the need to rely on the Savior. As i have been thinking about this it is so crazy how almost every scripture in the Book of Mormon talks about just that. Put all your trust and confidence in the Lord and He will carry you through everything. I have really been trying to make it a constant effort to always have a pray in my heart.I dont think i ever really understood that before. But now as i am learning that everyday i need the stregth of the Lord, whether it be physical strength to keep walking or emotional strength, He can take care of it all if we are constantly trying to have the spirit and have that prayer in our hearts. The atonement is amazing. I think we can even understand the depth of the Atonement and that is just so amazing.

So this sunday we had stake confernce and it was a historical conference because they split the stake in Chimaltenango. So now we are in stake Antigua. Pretty cool. The church is growing to fast. And guess what Elder Amado came! And when he walked in the back he shook my hand! woow! i love the apostles and prophets so much. And we had 4 invesigators there and so it was cool to tell them "look! everything we are telling you is true! look! there is a member of the 70!". haha. so awesome.

Another thing with President Brough - i told him how i really want this mission experience to strengthen my tesimony and change my life for forever. And he looked at me and said "Sister Skousen, i promise you that this will change you forever". He said "the second i stop worrying about that and just forget myself then i will really be changed forever."  I just felt the spirit so strong when he said that and it was so amazing.

Ana the investigator i have told you guys about is slowly progressing. She always does her reading assignments but she hasnt come to church yet.. so hopefully this sunday she will come. Her and her husband always have really good questions so i love lessons with them. Also one of our other investigators, Galdis told us yesterday that she is feeling the change in her heart and really has desires to pray and make good choices! we were so excited about that!

Brookes graduation annoucment came in the mail and it is THE CUTEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN!! Woo congrats again. So awesome! I am only a little nervous to get a wedding annoucment in the mail... but if i do i will be so happy too!! haha.
Okay so yes we get to talk on sunday. im so excited. So happy everyone is happy and healthy! i love you all soo much! The church is true!
love hermana Skousen

I Love the Book of Mormon!! April, 30 2013

Hello family!! how are you all? so great to hear from you! Had a great week here! learning so much its crazy but i am so thankful. So glad to hear that all is well at home i pray for you all everyday. Tell Wilsynn congrats and give her a big hug for me! Okay so we have an investigator and her name is Ana i think i told you about her last week. She is really postivie and always has a lot of questions so it really good. i love the lessons with her. but her family is all really catholic and she doesnt want to go against them so she is hesitant but i can tell that she know its true. Also we have been praying for miracles because we dont have very many investigators that come to church ever.. but this last week we had 3! 2 sisters and Jorge. We had only taught Jorge once and then called him sunday morning to invite him to church and then he walked in right before the sacrament! definitly a miracle. we were so thankful and then we taught him last night and he said he really liked church. We taught about the restoration and then about the word of wisdom and he said he would stop drinking coffee and didnt even ask any questions! i am really excited about him and i really hope that he continues progessing. Also we gave these two sisters Gladis and Sara they both really like everytime we come to teach and when we started teaching about the Book of Mormon sara was like oh i think i have one of those books in my room and she went and grabbed a book of mormon out of her room haha she said it was from her dad. so pilas. But not the problem with Gladis is she lives with her quote esposo but really they arent married so we will be working on that the next few lessons. So yeah we teach lots of lessons all day and walk like 10 miles haha proabably not really but  it feels like that and for our mission we have to contact at least 20 poeple everyday so we are always talking with poeple asking them if we can teach them!

so this week i realized again just how amazing the restoration of the gosel it. sorry i dont want to sound like a weird missionary but the restoation is so amazing and so perfect. I am growing to love the book of mormon more and more. I really learn something every morning when we study. It is so amazing and i cant wait to read the Book of Mormon so many times. Elder Bednar said to get a copy of just a blue book of mormon and right a questyion at the front and then find answers to that question all in the Book of Mormon and he said do it over and over and then you will have a library of books of mormon with all these different questions full of answers. haha i cant wait to do it!

I am learning how evey day we have to rely on the Lord. we cant to anything on our own and the Lord wants us the just turn our lives over to him and trust Him and he will take care of us. So thats what i am trying to do. I already feel a difference and the hand of the Lord everyday. 

This is difinitly a challenge but i am learning so much. I am thanklful for this oppertunity. I am so thankful for my loving family. Dad i am so thankful that you are always a worthy preiesthood holder for our family. I see all these families and everytime they need a blessing they have to call the branch president who lives like 20 minutes away and it just makes me thankful to have grown up with a dad like you. Family i love you all and you are all amazing. So happy to hear about Ryan and Shelbys talks. Sounds like they were so great! Thank you all for your support. The gospel is amazing!

love you all!!!

love hermana Skousen

Hello Family!! April 23rd 2013

Hello!! How are you all? Its so great to read all your emails thank you! Sorry my subject titles are never very creative haha. So glad you made it back safe and had a good time in Hawaii! so fun. congrats again Brooke! This week was good i am starting to get into the swing of things and getting used to the schedule. So my companion and i are both new in the area so its kind of like we are starting from scratch but we do have some investigators who are starting to make some progess. We have taught a girl Ana twice and then for the 3rd lesson her husband was there too so that was a plus. We read Alma 40 and talked about the spirit world and then got into talking about the temple. They had a lot of really good questions and the spirit was so strong when we were talking about families. When i bore my testimony on eternal families i really felt the spirit and was just so thankful that we get to be together forever. I have been missing you guys so much but then i remembered that we get to be together forever and i need to bring the gospel to these families so they can be together forever too. So yeah the spirit was so strong and we are going back tomorrow so i really hope they did the reading and are ready to learn more. 

Okay so i am growing to love the Book of Mormon more and more everyday. I learn so much that i didnt even know was in there. I was reading 2 nephi 28 to 30 and it just makes so much sense why we have the Book of Mormon and how and why we should study it and everything. And also that i am teaching the people of Lehi makes it that much cooler. But yeah every page of the Book of Mormon just has so many cool things and i love it! 

My goal for this week is to not have a narrow focus and really enjoy every moment here. On sunday a counslor in the stake presidency came to our branch and he told us that they are going to assign 2 really strong families to come to our branch to help us out because we need some good leaders and teachers.So that is really exciting!

Okay yesterday we went to Antigua for pday and saw so many cool things and had lunch at this really good crepe place! you all need to save up so you can come here at the end of my mission because i cant wait to show you all these cool `places! Sorry my thought are kind of scattered but also we watched the Joseph Smith movie and the quote at the end of it is should we not go on un such great a cause. That just really hit me and made me think how this work is such a miracle and all these people need to know abnout the truth. So even when days are long and i have bug bites all over my body and i am so tired haha i try to keep that in mind that this mission cant be about me and that i need to bring this message to these poeple.

Okay also i read this talk and it is called the 4th missionary. You all should read it. It is pretty long but its worth it and i think it can apply to everyone in life not just missionaries! And could you maybe print it off and send it to me? sorry i hate to ask for things. 

But yes things are great here. I am glad to hear that everyone is happy and healthy. I cant believe the semester is already over haha time is going by fast! i love you all so much and think and pray about you often. Keep reading and studying the Book of Mormon! My testimony is growing everyday and i feel the help of the Lord. I love you all!!

Love Hermana Skousen

I am catching up on Sister Skousens blog. This post is from April 16 when she had been in her first area for a short time.

Hello everyone! thank you so much for all the pictures! you guys are doing so many fun things! Brooke ahhh congrats. So proud of you. the pic are beautiful you all look great. Rach loved the bunnie ears and the AZ poster. So awesome! Ryano HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! hope it was great! I wish i had more time to really look at all the pictures because they are awesome! i want to see a pic of mom and dad surfing haha. 

Okay lets see this week we had our first zone conference. It was really great President and Sister Brough are really good teachers. and i am starting to understand almost everything so that helps too haha. One thing that president Brough did was had us read Moroni 10 and 2 nephi 33 and then asked us what are we going to be able to tell Nephi and Moroni at the judgment bar that we did with the Book of Mormon. I have been thinking about that so much every since he said that. I have made it a goal to really learn something from the Book of Mormon everyday and then also when i am teaching, share the Book of Mormon and tesifiy of its truth. Its amazing how the Book of Mormon is evidence of everything we believe. I think growing up in the church i never really studied the basic basic doctrine and every time we teach the first lesson it is just amazing how much sense everything makes and how perfect the gospel is. Eveything about the restoration and jose smith and the Book of Mormon just makes so much sense. So the tricky thing is to get the poeple to understand how obviously true it is haha.

We did have a few let downs this week. We had been teaching 2 poeple Omar and Carlos and at the 3rd visit they both told us that they didnt want to learn more about the church and they were satisfied with how their lives were right then. It is hard when poeple say no because we know how important it is for these people. But we did what we can and planted the seed so hopefully they get interested later.

We taught a girl named Gabby how we found on the street. She is the sweetest lady every and i cant really tell if she understands all my spanish or if she is just being nice. But in our last lesson with her she told us that she thinks we are an answer to her prayer. and i think she is absolutly right. It is just amazing how stong the spirit is when we tesifty of truth and share experinces and scriptures and everything. 

Okay so mom you asked about food and laundry. We eat breakfast at the house and then eat lunch with MariaElena a lady in the ward. She makes good food so it has been great. and then when we get home at 9 we just have a little snack and then go to bed because i am so tired every night i feel like i am going to die haha. And then there is a lady who lives right by us and she does our laundry every monday. 

Okay so sunday was an eye opener. We went to church with our little branch with only about 40 people. It was so weird. i led the music and sister turley played the piano and sister turley taught the gospel principals class. It made me so thankful and realized how blessed i am to have grown up in a huge ward with leaders who fulfill their callings and a huge young womens and everything. man it made us even motivated to baptize and try and get the rama a little bigger.

I think about you guys everyday and i miss you guys a lot but i am starting to get into a groove so its getting a little easier. Again the pictures were great and you all look fabulous. Everyday i am so thankful for my amazing family and for being raised in the gospel. Thank you mom and dad for everything you do for me. I love you so much. and i love Ryan Shelby Brooke Meagan and Rachel all so much too. I pray for you guys everyday. The gospel is true and i am so thankful that we are blessed to have it in our lives.

Love you all have a good week!

Hermana Skousen