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 [?]

서울시 종로구 자하문로 152 1동

서울 선교부

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

Faith, Prepared kids, and a lot of heat... Closing off another in Ilsan! August 14, 2016

 Morning everyone! Wishing you all a happy anniversary today... What of? Korean independence! Korea today celebrates its liberation from Japanese colonization shortly following World War 2.

So the atmosphere in Korea today is a lively one!

But as for the events of this past week here in Korea Seoul, our team has been starting to find lots of tender mercies as we set appointments to teach lessons at an accelerating rate to prepare ourselves for this coming week! It seems like God is trusting us with some of His prepared children to work with this coming week.

However, not all appointments are alike. This week, for instance, we set an appointment with, we thought, a nice kid we met by the lake and talked with for a bit, who we couldn't get a phone number from but we gave him a card with our number on it. So we go down there with high expectations, but soon we find that it wasn't him, but a middle-aged woman working as a missionary from a rather infamous church here in Korea. We quickly left the situation, with a warning from president not to work with people of that religion.

But later on, we were able to meet with Eliot and help him work on his commitment to live the Word of Wisdom. It went really well and we gave him a new baptismal date for the 2nd of November (which gives him enough time to quit entirely)!

And just yesterday, we left a ward gathering early because we felt like there were prepared people outside, and as the dinner had ended it wasn't too big of a deal to step out. So me and my companion go out to talk to people, and we find not one, but two really prepared kids on the street! One doesn't have a phone, but we're meeting with the other one on Wednesday to teach the Restoration!

And lastly, Transfers are in, and me and Elder Conley are to stay together in Ilsan! However, the other elders out here will be closing their area and combining it with ours as they move out to other areas. So we'll have a lot more people to talk about next week!

Thanks for reading my long email, and I'll close it off with a quick thought.

This week I learned that the principle of faith not only means faith in Christ, as important and essential as that is. It also includes faith in yourself. You have to believe that you, with God's help, are able to accomplish anything, and that you can do the things that God expects of you. Then, when you are weak or cannot go any farther, having faith in Christ allows you to have confidence in the future, and that things will all work out.

Love you all, and I'll talk to you next week!

~Elder Skinner

Exchange Miracles! Aug. 7, 2016

Morning everyone! How's it going in the world today? I don't really know, honestly, but if North Korea ever does something... Anyway. On to the weekly email stuff!

The monsoon season is up and roaring out here, and while there's not a whole lot of rain, it's sure been hot and humid. I'm not a big fan either, but so far I've been able to deal with it pretty well. Lots of water, sunscreen, shady areas and air-conditioned buildings, and just about anything we can think of to get out of the heat.

In the midst of all this heat, my companion (Elder the Best Companion Ever) goes down to meet with the Zone Leaders and passes the second level of LPP, the Korean language learning program. So we're all super proud of him and stuff.

Later on in the week we had a zone proselyting activity in our area, where we set up some fun activities and used them to teach people about the Gospel. As the district leader of Ilsan, it was my job to get everything prepared and set up and make sure it was good! And at first, it didn't look like it was gonna go too great, but amidst the stress of the situation, I took a minute to pray and was able to think clearly enough to move everything over to a better location and allow the zone to find lots of miracles!

We're still meeting with Eliot and though his baptismal date is fallen through, he's still doing well and we're trying to help him to progress towards a new one.

On exchanges, me and Elder Judd saw a few cool miracles! We met three nice people (all of whom spoke English ^^;; ) and though none of them were able to meet again, they were super cool! Exchanges always bring miracles!

Then on Saturday, we hosted a Mutual night with the YM/YW. I hosted a game of Mafia, and at first it turned out a lot like the zone activity- it looked like it was gonna be a flop, and no one was gonna come. But we waited it out, and the people that were there got it on like Donkey Kong and started calling everyone that wasn't there, so that 30 minutes later, we were able to have an awesome activity.

So this week I guess you could say I learned a lot about relying on the Lord in times of stress. It's comforting to know that after you've done all that you can do and things seem like they're about to fall apart, the Lord makes sure that things will work out somehow.

Long email is long, but one more item of business... This week we got 12 packs of the spiciest ramen in Korea! Wish me luck this week as I try to finish this 불닭 볶음면! (Bul-dak Bokkum Myeon- Spicy Chicken flavoured stir-fried noodles).

Love you all,

~Elder Skinner

They don't pay me enough to do this in only an hour! July 31, 2016

Meaning that once again, I don't have much time! But here's the week in wrap-up!

Monday was not P-day, but we still had a great time having a streetboarding activity and going down to Wondang (The other area in my district) to conduct Language-Progress assessment with one of the sisters in the district.

Tuesday was not only P-day, but we went to the Temple! As always it was an awesome experience, and afterwards we took some pictures, ate sushi, and went down to Dongdaemun to buy some fancy ties!

Wednesday I had district meeting! It was scary! But it went well and the spirit helped me to teach the district what we needed.

Friday we went back to Seoul to have a meeting with former Korea Mission president, President Brown! He taught us some cool lessons about missionary work and about the history of Korea in the gospel. I also went on exchanges with my Zone leaders!

Sunday we met with Eliot! He stopped answering his phone so we went down to his house and he was there and we went out and taught him a bit. He drank last night, but is still willing to meet and in interested in the Gospel!

Sorry but my companion's waiting for me! I'll talk to you all next week!

~Elder Skinner