The bread here is weird... Elder Skinner nearly dies from huge gigantic bees!

Aloha, everyone! Sending lots of love, but my email won't allow the download.

This week's been full of excitement for us out here in Guri, and the weather is getting super nice as well! As a result, though, I've been seeing plenty of bees fling about, and anyone that knows me knows my opinion towards those suckers. Some have been massive! I saw one just the other day the size of a ping-pong ball!

This week we had a mission conference, where our Area president, Elder Ringwood, spoke to us a bit. You may remember him from General Conference, where he talked about everyone's favourite Book of Mormon hero, Shiblon. Anyway, he gave a lot of good advice, memorized everyone's names (I'm pretty sure he has superpowers or something) and answered a few questions. I would go into more specifics but I don't have my notes with me :(

Also during that adventure, I received a special tie, signifying that I can speak decent Korean! It's pretty awesome, and I'll send a picture with it next week!

I also went to the temple this week! It was a cool experience, and I went through in Korean again because the English session was full when I got there!

As for our investigators, Bei came to Sacrament yesterday! We couldn't convince him to stay any longer but he's a good person anyway. I love him a bunch.

Yi gets back from Malaysia today, and he should call us today or to set up another appointment.We have a couple of meetings with former investigators, and we'll see if they can be picked back up. We are hoping and praying for them as well.

This week we've also been focusing on working with members. We've made a few little cards with magnets on them and putting them on members' doors and stuff, just being nice.

Not a lot of time left today so I'll end off with a short testimony, that Christ Lives, overcame death, and through Him we can all do the same.

Love you all,

~Elder Skinner

So apparently the Piano Guys showed up... Elder Skinner gets home really, really late!

 Hello everyone! Hope you all are doing well.

This week's been pretty good for us out here in Guri, Korea! Spring is here and everything is super pretty. I do wish people wouldn't throw trash in the rivers, but what can you do.

So yesterday, most of the mission got to gather together to see the Piano Guys before they went and played a concert in Seoul the next day. The Cello guy and the producer kind of guy both served in Korea (Busan and Daejun, both not quite as awesome as Seoul), and we got to hear their testimonies and some music! It was super cool.

Me and Elder Barr also went back into Seoul to complete LPP, and finished for reals this time! Well except now we need to take a written exam, but other than that! We both passed!

Saturday was super busy, cause our Ward Mission Leader invited us all to lunch, then we had a group streetboarding activity, and English Class, and Family Home Evening... It all turned out okay though. With our Ward Mission Leader (His name is Yun) we ate Shabu Shabu, which if you don't know what that is, imagine an all-you-can-eat buffet, and then put it into a soup. It's actually pretty good.

Not much to note from English Class or Streetboarding, but Family Home Evening was pretty good. Bei came for a bit and enjoyed himself a bit. He's starting to like the Missionaries and some of the members a lot.

As for our other investigators, we met with Yi this week, and started teaching the Family English Program. They are in Malaysia this week so we can't meet again for a bit, but he's still interested!

We haven't been able to meet with any other investigators this week, but all has been going pretty well for us!

Gotta cut it off for this week, but I want to leave off with my testimony that the Lord lives, and is in the details of our lives. One thing the piano guys said struck me a lot, he said "rarely are things accidents". God guides and directs even the smallest part of our lives so that we can do his will. I know that.

Good luck everyone! 잘생겼세요!

~Elder Skinner 수 작선

I don't always give the best talks at Conference... Elder Skinner watches Conference!

Hello everyone! How has your week been? As for me, one week later than most of the world, we all watched General Conference! There were a lot of good messages shared by lots of people, but before that let's talk about what happened the week before!

This week me and Elder Barr went to the heart of Seoul to complete LPP with the APs... It was quite the trip, and we get to make it again this week because we didn't finish! Yay! But it all went well, we just had to cut it short because of travel time.

The next day I went on exchanges with our new District Leader, Elder Kang. He's working really hard to be a good DL and his English is excellent. That all went well, we went out a bit to 도농, and just overall had a good experience.

On Friday, we had an appointment shortly after Weekly Planning, so we had to hurry and catch a bus out to the area the appointment was, and once we get there Elder Moore realizes that he forgot his tie... Naturally embarrassed, but we made it through the dinner, and the member even gave us a referral! After that we immediately returned to the apartment, but before he grabbed his tie we figured we were already being punks, so we bought Cheese Balls... for Conference... haha.

As for conference, we were able to bring Bei to the Saturday Morning session! Not sure how he took it (we were downstairs watching in English) but it seemed like he had fun. We have another appointment with him next Saturday.

Otherwise, not much happened on the investigator front... We did try and meet with Jung but he kind of chickened out on us... (Get it? He owns a chicken shop! Haha ^_^) and wouldn't you know it, our phone broke on Friday Night, so we can't call Yi or Seong. We'll keep trying though.

And now to Conference! This time I really enjoyed a few talks, but especially Elder Renlund's talk about trying hard, and the quote "'Twas I, but 'tis not I" was really good. I also liked Elder Holland's talk about the two brothers climbing the cliff. It has a lot of applications in our lives.

In priesthood session, there was also a super awesome musical number, "Master, the Tempest is Raging" to close out the session. It was super good.

I'll end off today with a picture that I'm sure you all will appreciate. Good luck, and 화이팅!

~Elder Skinner

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Spring is coming, and it didn't even knock! Elder Skinner runs out of Kimchi! :(

Good morning and 안녕하세요 to all! It's spring out here in Korea, and it's super nice! The weather has been awesome, if a little wet, and all the trees are starting to bloom. Plus, this week has been pretty good for us in 구리!

So to start... Interesting thing about transfers...

So Elder Barr (In our apartment) was supposed to go to a new area this Wednesday, but he got a call from the APs Tuesday Night that he was going to stay, and someone else in our district (Elder Yi Jung Hyeon 이중현) was going to the Office (He's been having some physical problems that make it hard for him to do missionary work). The Elder that was supposed to replace Elder Barr was going to replace him instead. Thing is... Transfers were on April Fools' day, and they didn't tell us anything about this call, so they pretended they were going out to transfers, and then when we were about to start personal study, they jumped back inside and shouted "April Fools" at us and explained everything.

So after that, we've had some success the past little bit. We met with Yi this past Tuesday, and he was super nice, and we're gonna start teaching him and his family English, and the Gospel at the same time! He's met with a lot of missionaries before and we're hoping that we can bring him closer to Christ.

Also, Bei randomly called us this week and wanted to meet. We said sure, and we ended up bringing him in to our English Preparation Meeting. I worried that he'd be super bored but apparently he liked it, and wants to meet us again this week. I like him. He's cool.

Right after that we met with another man we met on the street, named Kim (We'll call him Seong). He's older, and has a physical condition (I don't remember what it's called in English) that makes him unable to use the left half of his body... It's super sad but he's super cool. He listens really well and said that he'd accept baptism if he decides the message is true. We're gonna keep trying to help him.

In other news, we were able to start Recent Convert lessons with Kim. He's a great kid and we're hoping he stays strong in the Gospel, especially since he's got a little while before he goes to the military... The military can cause a lot of members to fall away, I've heard.

But that's all good! We've been doing super well out here, and we figured out that Gatorade is super cheap at the local market...

Leaving off with a scripture story today, it's in Mosiah Chapter 27 Verses 3-5, which talks about the people of Zarahemla and how much charity they had for one another. It mentions a few specific things they did, and ends off with the phrase, "and doing these things, they did abound in the grace of God". I testify that if we have charity towards one another, that we too can abound in the grace of God.

All of you have a good week, enjoy General Conference, and Don't Forget to be Awesome!

~Elder Skinner

There are no more Book of Mormons... Elder Skinner begins rationing out Books of Mormon!

Hello everyone! So as the title says, there are no more Book of Mormons in our area... Or in our zone... Or in the mission... or in all of Korea... So we've gotta be careful where we give those out. Even with this shortage, though, we still gave out 55 this week! And we made our goal of 1000 this month!

We had a super-fun Easter activity this past Saturday! We watched a video on the resurrection, shared a good message, and painted eggs... With pastel paints! Apparently there is no food colouring here, but it worked out okay!

So other news this week... Kim 2 dropped us... He's been super busy the past little bit and he just said he doesn't have time to meet. I'm sure that sometime later, maybe in better circumstances, someone else will bring him back in. He's so ready.

We have an appointment with Yi tomorrow, so we're gonna try and talk to him about doing the Family English Program. He loves missionaries and likes our message, so we just have to continue to invite him.

Not much time left, so I'll leave off with a scripture from Ecclesiastes, Chapter 4, verses 9 and 10... "Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow:"

I know that Christ lives, and through Him we can become healed, and overcome all things!

Work hard, everyone! 화이 팅!

~Elder Skinner

Crazy English Ladies! Elder Skinner meets some interesting people!

Hello everyone!

So this week has been going pretty well for us! We managed to give out 51 Book of Mormons this week! Our zone is trying to get 1000 before the end of the month, and it looks like we're well on our way to reaching that goal.

So quite a few good stories to tell from the past couple days, so we'll start with those.

On Saturday, we had English Class (you know, like we do), and one of the ladies in the beginner's class was there. She'd come a few times before, and we've learned she's a bit wild, but she's pretty good about it. This week, though, she really scared my companion. We were getting ready for English class, and she came in, acting all mad at him for something. She tried to get us alone (Which, of course, is not okay) and at one point tried to lock us in a room (with another male english class member). So he's pretty scared... Thing is, she may just be joking around, so we're not quite sure how to handle that. We'll see how things go I guess.

Then on Sunday, we had someone call us that we met a couple weeks ago on the street, and asked if we could meet then. The place he lived was a half hour away and we had to take the train, so we cut lunch short and made our way down there.

On our way back from that appointment, a 전도사 (a street preacher, basically) starts yelling on the train. People are pretty good about ignoring them usually, but this time she was being ferocious. She was telling everyone they were going to hell, the end is nigh, believe in Christ... All the good stuff. Then some people told her to get off, and when we reached the next stop (one stop away from our stop), this college student shoves her off the train, into this middle eastern kid (like 2 or 3- he was okay). She tries to get back on, but he's just standing in the door and not letting her back on. So she flips her scarf all sassy-like and walks off. The student apologizes to the kid's mom (she didn't speak Korean, or English, but she understood), and people go on with their lives. So that was memorable.

Now to our lesson we were going to in the first place. We come in, he's hospitable, and gives us tea (actually it was just some dandelions in hot water... Kinda weird but not bad) and oranges. We teach a quick HTBT, intro the Book of Mormon and a bit of the Plan of Salvation. He asks a ton of questions, and I don't understand all of it, but the spirit was there hardcore. He said he'd read the Book of Mormon and call us if he had questions or interest.

No updates on our investigators this week... Yi's wife has been sick so we couldn't meet him, and Kim 2 has been working, so we haven't been able to meet with them.

I'll close off today with this... Don't go out into the desert wearing only flip-flops. What I mean by that is we don't have commandments just for fun. They are designed to protect us and guard us from the dangers that are in the world today. Don't let yourself think that the rules and commandments are no big deal, because they are there for our benefit. You might not get stung the first time, or the second, or the hundredth, but you will get stung eventually. I encourage everyone to follow the counsels of their leaders and of God in our lives.

Love you all, and long email is long, but it's good stuff,

~Elder Skinner

The view from my apartment

This is a bap burger... It's a burger with rice instead of buns. It's kind of cool.

• This is my Korean name, pronounced "Su Jagseon". It means "The Hand that Does the Good"