Schoko Tatzen! Mein Deutsch be poopsen! Sept 25, 2016

Happy Monday everyone! This is Elder Skinner. I don't have much to report this week, except that we received some Schoko Tatzen from the sister missionaries, who got it from someone else, who probably got it from a snack store somewhere. The point is, they were super delicious and my companion ate way more than half of them. >.<

But I'm not bitter about it.

This week as well, I held a district meeting, like District leaders do, but as the other missionaries are reporting on investigators, President and Sister Sonksen walk in! So naturally I proceed to lose my mind I mean play it cool as the rest of the training goes on. Thankfully it was a good training, else he'd have had my head! 😌

Later on, we met a nice kid by the name of Oh, who met missionaries in Seoul about a year ago and wanted to meet again. So we met and ate some food, taught a concise lesson about the Book of Mormon, and he's super accepting and willing to learn. The thing is, he lives on the other side of the province, at least 2 hours away by train. So... send him to the other missionaries! 

Then at English Class, I played Balderdash with the advanced class! Using such words as Haberdashery and Spelunking, I totally stumped them! I think they enjoyed it, and they learned a few new words in the process.

Then came transfer calls! The news is......... I'm staying! But Elder Conley is moving to Seoul. I'll be receiving a new companion from the Philippines, who has just finished training! So I'll be working with him until I return home in 5 weeks.

Lastly, I want to share with you all D+C 90:24. I don't have time to paste it in, but please read it on your own and remember that even the little things make a difference! Have an amazing week, and remember: P Sherman 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney!

~Elder Skinner 

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Your weekly email in record speed! Sept. 18, 2016

This week was pretty great! Not much in terms of new investigators but that was because for half of the week it was Chuseok! A traditional Korean Thanksgiving, us missionaries spent the holiday doing normal P-day things, cleaning the house, and holding a special Chuseok conference at the mission office!

On Friday, I also conducted a baptismal interview for the sisters' investigator in Wondang ward. She has a great testimony and it was great to be able to do that for her.

I just have a short spiritual thought coming from my ponderizer for this coming week.

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." ~Psalm 42: 5,11,43:5

Someone said at Chuseok conference that their favourite word in the Book of Mormon was "Rejoice". I think I'll steal that one from him, because it's just such a powerful word- a call to remember the mercies of God, to praise His name and be glad.

I love you all, I'll email better next week, hope you have an amazing, spectacular, all-good very happy day!

~Elder Skinner [?]

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Elder Skinner Learns English! Sept. 11, 2016

Morning everyone! This week was pretty normal out here in Korea, which also means that I don't have a whole lot of time left to write my email! So here are the big events of the week, as quickly as I can give them!

The biggest news this week will be quite a shock, because well I haven't actually said anything to my family about it yet but! This week at zone training we learned that due to our mission president leaving for Japan (Area meeting of some kind) on the week of November 10th, They've moved my return date back to the 3rd! So as for the plans that some of you may have had to come by on the 10th, you'll have to move them. Apologies, but there wasn't much I could do.

Moving on, the reason for the title- we met with an investigator named Tom this week (I don't know if I've mentioned him before, but he's a nice guy, basically fluent at English), and he told us about the work he's doing as part of his English Linguistics major- and I still don't understand it! Auto-logical words (look it up), pretty i

nteresting.

Then came Stake Conference, where we heard from Elder Choi of the Seventy, talking especially about caring for family and the responsibility of husbands and wives in raising children.

Time is short, but here's a scripture that helped me out this week, D+C 58: 3-4.

Love you all, hope you have a wonderful week! Hoorah for Israel!

~Elder Skinner [?]

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The Pirates who Don't Do Anything... Elder Skinner's P-day in 6 words! Sept. 4, 2016

 Morning everyone! Hope you had a great week. I sure had a great one out here, but time is short, as usual, so I'll move right on in to what that week consisted of!

We went up to a couple new areas in the area this week, one of them known as Wi City (Pronounced "Wee") with super nice apartments and accommodations, but really far away from the rest of Ilsan, especially the church. Another one turned out to have no one there, so at least now we know not to go back there unless visiting the member family that lives up there.

As for being pirates, me and Elder Conley didn't have anything to do this P-day, so that's exactly what we did- nothing. Slept, hung out, studied the scriptures.

But that all changed at Wednesday's District meeting, where, just hanging out on one of the sprinklers on the roof of the Wondang church building, is a HUGE bee. It didn't chase us down as we walked by, so we had district meeting (making sure the doors were closed), and afterwards Elder Conley (being the only other Elder there- I wouldn't even go near the thing) was commissioned to go and kill it. Seriously, it was almost as long as Elder Conley's pointer finger.

31 day at Baskin Robbins was this week, and you all know what that means. #Thebiggestsize

But that's just about all the excitement from this week. I do have one more to close things off, though, as we were able to see a fireside with General Primary President Sister Jones where she talked about the newly dedicated Sapporo Japan temple and how important the temple and family history work is in our lives. I know that both play a huge role in the work of Salvation in these days!

Love you all, eat some ice cream for me!!

~Elder Skinner

It rained buckets on us and now it's cold. Aug. 28, 2016

 Hello all! I'm short on time! Again! But I love you all and I'll do my best to tell you in great detail how my week was!

The week began like other ones in the recent past, with a lot of heat and sweat and all of the wonders that the hottest Korean summer in a long time brings, but then in the middle of the week, it rained... hard. It only rained for a few minutes, but it kept us inside for the rest of the night. Ever since then, it's been drastically cooler- meaning not quite cold, but cool. Kind of weird, but at least it's better than the blistering heat!

I made the Advanced English Class take a test this week, and following that we all got together and taught them how to play Go Fish. It was quite fun for all involved.

I went on exchanges this week to Wondang, the other area in my district, with my zone leader Elder Dye! For those that remember (cookies if you remembered), Elder Dye was my companion way back when in the MTC! So that was quite the adventure, a lot was learned and a lot was shared.

During our exchange, we were called to provide service for some old people at a care center. We came pretty unprepared (as we were expecting something other than what had actually happened) so we performed a play of the Parable of the Talents (I got 5 talents!) and sang some songs for them.

That's all I have time for, but I'll see you all next week, 6 PM Eastern, 9 Pacific! Love you all and hope you have a great week!

~Elder Skinner

I have no time for subjects! Aug. 21, 2016

This is gonna be a short weekly email, but it's okay because I didn't do much anyway!

How are you all doing out in the real world? Excellently, I hope. Summer is coming to a close out here, and pretty soon the nice, refreshing cold will be returning from a long absence.

In the midst of all this heat, however, we had plenty of appointments with potential investigators to keep us going!.. But alas, most of them fell through or had to reschedule. We did meet with a couple of nice people this week, though, the first of which being Afari, a nice man from India, working in research here in Korea. He'd meet missionaries before, but it had been a little while so he was happy to see us again.

Later on, we adventured into a part of our area we had never been! It was a nice place, kind of small, and the time we went wasn't ideal for contacting, but it was a good adventure for us, it got me excited to work!

But that's the news of the week. Stay cool,

~Elder Skinner