The Battle Axe of +3 teaching skills July 24, 2016

Morning everyone! Elder Skinner's back this week with another reference to Dungeons and Dragons (which my companion is a pretty good fan of) and another weekly email! This week in Korea... It was hot, and humid! We've had to get pretty creative in the ways we were able to cool down and keep hydrated, but we haven't had any negative side effects yet!

Other news from this week, we played board games at a cafe with our Zone Leaders on P-day (one of them being my MTC companion) and we got playing an old western-style game, and I was the Sheriff... and I won. Obviously I just kept cool about it and stuff but it was pretty intense.

This Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder Conley!.. He's already my companion, but since we are Co-Senior, we decided it would be fun to have a day where we went on exchanges with each other. It was great fun, and we learned a lot and made everything fun.

I also went on exchanges with Elder Apigo, making this round 2 with him! Reason is, when I was all the way back in Shinchon, Elder Apigo was in his first transfer, companions with a Zone Leader. As my companion was District Leader, Elder Apigo and I were left together in Shinchon to work for a day. Now he's back, and the roles are switched around a bit! We were able to teach two lessons with new investigators, who were both awesome!

Lastly, because I have to get going, was President Interviews, a lunch appointment with a member, and Weekly Planning, all in one day! It was a great day, the food was awesome- Shabu Shabu and Rice Paper Rolls. I would highly reccommend it.

Thank you all for tuning in, and I'll talk to you all next week! DFTBA!

~Elder Skinner

Looking like a scrub, I have no idea how to be a District Leader, and other sentiments July 17, 2016

Time is short, but good morning, afternoon, or brunch to all those who roam the earth!

This week the missionary work has been going smoothly and splendidly. I was able to help a sister who just got to the mission a couple months ago to do her Korean Progress Program, which was a first for me!

 As for looking like a scrub, it can be summarized in this few-line monologue:

(Morning)- I shaved yesterday, I'm fine.

(After dinner)- Wow, I look like a scrub... I should shave now. How much longer do I have left in dinner?... 1 minute? Hmm... bring it on!

I'm sure you can imagine how that went ^^

We also had a cool miracle when Eliot, our progressing investigator, came to church today! He really enjoyed it and is getting integrated well with the ward.

You all have an excellent week, and I'll write a better email next week! Aloha, brothers and sisters!

~Elder Skinner 

Guide us to the Promised Land~ Elder Skinner encounters a wild Elder Conley! July 10, 2016

Elder Skinner used Great Ball...

Sorry. With all this talk about Pokemon Go back at home, I couldn't help it.

But hey, I caught an Elder Conley this week at transfers! There's a picture below for you!

 

Elder Conley is from Logan, Utah, has been a missionary for 1 year this Friday, and is the best missionary... around! I look forward to fighting Team Rocket (IE Satan's forces) with him!

As for other news this week, it's been a pretty slow week. Not a lot to report in terms of investigators or cool events from the week, but next week is setting up to be a pretty good one!

So instead of sharing uninteresting stories from this week, I'll share one of my favourite ways to pick myself up when things are hard- hymns!

Admittedly though not all hymns are created equal.

Here's the third verse from "Guide Us, O Thou Great Jehovah";

"When the earth begins to tremble,

bid our fearful thoughts be still!

When thy judgments spread destruction,

keep us safe on Zion's hill!

Singing praises, singing praises,

songs of glory unto Thee!

Songs of glory unto Thee!"

Brothers and Sisters, God will never let us go! I love you all and hope you have an amazing week! I'll see you all next time!

~Elder Skinner

A very large pork chop, buckets of rain, and a missed service opportunity far, far away.

Hello everyone! Good morning to all. As you could have probably guessed by the title of my email, it's been a pretty busy week! As an impromptu DL for a week, in a threesome, in the Western part of Korea in the summer has been quite the adventure!

However, I will attempt to keep it short, as as usual, I don't have a lot of time.

For P-day last week we rode bikes around the lake, but then we took a slightly more fun and exciting route... Two of us fell, and another one (that may or may not have been me) did some skids on the downward sloped curves.

Later on, at a member's house, I mentioned a slight back pain and the next thing I know I'm upside down in a back massage machine, getting my back painfully massaged in the heat... it was quite an adventure, and also very entertaining for my companions in the other room. It seems to have helped, but I'm not entirely sure...

On Wednesday I gave my very first District Meeting. I had only 24 hours to prepare, but it seems like people enjoyed it...

Then comes the reason for the title of this email... After weekly planning on Friday,  we planned to go help one of the sisters' investigators' father do some moving in his auto shop in a less-populated area of our area. However, we get down there and we find that he's not there and had conveniently forgotten to tell us that he would be gone (granted, we could have called ahead). So we're in our P-day clothes, in the middle of nowhere, it's pouring buckets for days, and we, being the smart missionaries we are, decide to walk home. Stopping on the way at a slightly more pricey restaurant specializing in Japanese pork chops (or Donkasse), we were able to make it home on time, drenched from head to foot.

Transfer calls came the next day, and while I will be staying in Ilsan, the threesome will be splitting up. Elder Paulsen is going back into Seoul, and Elder Polley will go to the countryside, far away from here.

I lack the time to talk about Eliot, our best investigator buddy, or about our day yesterday with many miracles just that we noticed, but I hope you all have a wonderful day and that you don't have to walk home in the rain like we did! See you next week!

~Elder Skinner

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Deep Blue Rub and another week in Korea Seoul!

Morning all! I once again have zero writing time and a whole lot to talk about, so this email is going to be fast-paced and a little bit intense!

This week was a good one! Beginning with Tuesday, when we had our temple day and also our P-day! After going through the temple super late (we got into the third session... in Korean!) we traveled down to Yongsan where my companion bought a new camera, and I bought a selfie stick! Yes, now you all know that I am the kind of person with a selfie stick.

But I digress. Later on in the week, on exchanges with Elder Nam, our district leader, we went out to meet a potential investigator in what turned out to be a toilet museum! He showed us around and we were able to teach him about the Book of Mormon. It was loads of fun.

Then came Ward Conference, where I came closer to falling asleep than I ever have been without actually falling asleep... And we had two musical numbers to perform! Needless to say, the music could have been better, but it still went without hitch!

Then a surprising bit of news... Elder Nam, the above mentioned District Leader, will be reporting to the Office tonight, so his companion, Elder Polley, will be joining our team in a threesome until next Wednesday, when transfers come in. So that will be quite the adventure on our part!

I'll let you know how all that goes next week! As for investigators, we have one! We met with Eliot this week and talked for a bit, we taught him the Word of Wisdom and he decided that he needed to quit some of the things he's been doing that are against that. He's super nice and though he didn't come to church this week, wants to continue to meet with us!

But that's all for today. I'll talk to you all next week, and until then here's a photo of us elders in Ilsan! Peace out girl scouts!

~Elder Skinner

102 reasons Ilsan Ward is the Best~

Morning everyone! Sorry I'm a bit late to emails this week, we had an appointment! But I'll talk about that in a bit. How are y'all doing? Getting along well this fine day?

This week has been full of miracles, beginning with last week on Monday, when we met with a new investigator! He came into contact with the church online, but hadn't been contacted for a long time... That is, until we got a hold of him! ㅋㅋ. He's super nice and willing to learn, but doesn't have a lot of time before he moves back to the UAE for school at the beginning of September.

This week was also mission tour with Elder Yamashita of the Seventy, where he taught us a lot (some of which I don't remember very well ㅋㅋ) but I did enjoy it and it answered a lot of questions that I have about our area.

Also this week we've been focusing more on work with the members. This past week we called each member family (the ones in which the father was a member) and encouraged them to bring a friend to next week's Ward Conference. They accepted well and were talking about it the next Sunday at church!

Saturday we had some more experience with the youth, as we were invited to help the Ward to do baptisms for the dead at the Seoul temple! That was a great experience and a good way to bond with the youth... That, and they invited us to a Sushi buffet afterwards (picture included)!

And finally, yesterday (Sunday) we got together as a zone in a large shopping center in our area to do a finding activity together, and a lot of the members came! They all helped, admittedly some did better than others, but that'll happen sometimes ^^;;. It was great, though, and we saw some cool miracles!

That's all I have time for this week, but I'll see you all next week with some fun stories and some wonderful adventures from the Promised Land of Ilsan! Love you all, talk to you next week!

~Elder Skinner

A DJ with a 문제! Another week bites the dust!

Morning everyone! I know it's morning where you are because I can see through the little camera on the upper frame of your monitors. You seem surprised, but don't worry about it!

This week was a pretty good week for us missionaries here in Ilsan. I'm gonna try and summarize all the amazing adventures that have taken place in a short email because I know that you know that I know that you don't have time for this. So! On to the week.

Monday was spent down at Costco, spending a lot of money on food that should last us for a little while! Probably!

This coming week is our mission conference, so this Friday we had a conference call with the entire mission, reminding us to be prepared, clean our apartments, and also to tell us to get some ice cream because he passed his drivers' test!

This week has been slow in term of investigators, but we were able to teach several lessons on the street, which is something we've been trying to work on this week! That's a nice little reminder that we're still doing the Lord's work!

It's been good, it's been hot, it's been humid, and we've seen miracles! I hope you all are as stoked for this next week as I am! I'll talk to you all next week, but for now, DFTBA!

~Elder Skinner 

The photo below is of the Ilsan district! From left to right, Sister Dorough, Sister Kim, Elder Nam, Elder Paulsen, Elder Polley, and Elder Skinner!

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Seoul-Si Jongno-Gu Jihamun-Ro 152 1-Dong

Seoul Mission