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 Mission

Does anyone know where the book of Micah is? Elder Skinner does now! June 5, 2016

Afternoon, all of my best friends and family members! It's a wonderful day out in Ilsan, and email time is coming to a close, meaning it's time to send out my weekly email.

This week, it's been really hot. Nothing too bad, but it has been noticeably warmer this week. I just can't wait for this summer! (sarcasm)

But this week has been pretty good! I don

't have too much to talk about, though, as not a lot has happened between last week and now. We had a new family come to English Class, a service project delivering food to people who happened to be a little bit more advanced in years and also super nice, and to top it all off we had an awesome 2 hour choir practice, practicing a secret song that I'll try to share with you all in a few weeks!

A cool miracle we saw this week, though, was when we were out trying to find a member's house to give her a thank you note and some cookies for participating in a ward event recently. Unbeknownst to us, we had passed the turn-off and walked for about a kilometer in the wrong direction before we even realized it. So we find this out and it's almost 8:30, and we're really far from home, so we just decided to hail a bus and head back. So we get on the bus and guess who's sitting in the back of the bus, but the member who we had planned on visiting that same night! So we were able to give her the note and cookies and get home... before 9:30! (We were still late ^^;;) But miracles happen everywhere here in Ilsan!

I thought alot this week on one of my new favourite scriptures, in the book of Micah (Old Testament, near the end) chapter 7, verse 8. It reads,

"Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arise; when I stand in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me". I know that the Lord will never let us fall alone! He will guide us and help us to be strong in all things!

Hoorah for Israel!

~Elder Skinner

I run around, you run around... May 29, 2016

Morning everyone! I'm Elder Skinner, and I'm coming at you live from my new area, known as Ilsan! It isn't in the big city of Seoul, but outside of that it may be the biggest city in the mission! It's a really nice place, lots of parks and stuff, and I already love the area!

My new companion is Elder Paulsen, from guess where? Sandy, Utah! He's an actor and singer, and super talented in that field. He's a great missionary as well.

 

As for the events of the week, this Saturday we had an English Class Talent Show with the entire Stake! Ilsan was obviously the best, but I've gotta give it up to the other wards that participated, cause they were good too! It was all very well done and it seems like a lot of people really enjoyed it.

Our most progressing investigator is Eliot, who was born in the US and lived all around in Korea, the US and Canada for his entire life. Now he's looking for some more direction in his life, and is really accepting of the things we teach. Unfortunately, we couldn't get him to church yesterday, but he'll probably come next week!

That's all I've got for now, but here's a picture from Ilsan! Love you all and I'll try and send a better email next week!

~Elder Skinner

Elder Skinner learns how not to golf! May 15, 2016

The biggest development from this week is that I stink at golf, including screen golf! The bright side is, I got the highest score out of our district!

 

But anyways. Morning everyone! Unfortunately time is limited, so this will be a short, to-the-point kind of email!

This week was Branch Conference, which was super cool, but mostly because there was a huge lunch afterwards.

We got a new investigator this week named Richard, from China! He, like other Chinese people we've met in the past, is super awesome!

To close off, this month in Korea is Family Month, so I thought I''d share a cool scripture we used for an English Class message: Jacob 3:6-7.

"And now, this commandment they observe to keep; wherefore, because of this observance, in keeping this commandment, the Lord God will not destroy them, but will be merciful unto them; and one day they shall becomea blessed people.

 7 Behold, their husbands love their wives, and their wives love their husbands; and their husbands and their wives love their children;"

The blessings of families are as innumerable as the sands of the earth, and I hope you all this week will take a moment and think about the impact your family has had on your life, whether you be parent or child, husband or wife.

Have a wonderful week and I'll send another message next week!

~Elder Skinner