Comforting note from the MP…

Dear Parents/Guardians of Missionaries in the Ohio Cleveland Mission,

 Tuesday 30 October 2012   11:39 EST

Due to hurricane Sandy and its impact in the US Northeast Area of the United States, we want to report to you that each and every missionary in the Ohio Cleveland Mission is safe and accounted for.  We have experienced much rain, strong winds, some snow, and some power outages.  Please know that your son/daughter is well.  Thank you for sending him/her to serve the Lord as a missionary.  We pray that the Lord will bless you and your family.



Sincerely,

Michael L. Vellinga

President, Ohio Cleveland Mission

Riding out the storm…that they don't know about!

Hey! 

 

Well I got my ballot in the mail a couple days ago so I guess I did my part haha!  Mitt is in Ohio today and a bunch of people were going to go see him this morning.  I guess it's getting pretty crazy here with the election.  Still annoying… no one wants to talk about anything but the election haha, even members.  We can't talk about missionary work, it's either politics or some big storm that is supposed to be coming.  I feel so out of the loop on everything haha.  I am supposed to tell you that the mission is prepared for the storm and to not worry haha. President sent us a message and made us all promise we would tell you that.  It's funny, we have no idea what is going on yet they just tell us to have food and flashlights and to plan on staying inside the next couple of days haha. It has been raining and really windy the last couple days.  Like all day every day…  It's been miserable.  Wednesday and Thursday last week were beautiful though.  We rode our bikes all day both days.  Lake Erie has been crazy though.  The waves are HUGE and you can hear them from inside our apartment.  I guess its supposed to get even crazier.  I will be way upset if we don't get to go out...  It will break my streak.  I have done missionary work every single day I have been here.  Haven't had one sick day or full day off.  Which is a blessing cuz missionaries are constantly getting sick here. 

 

So I am very grateful for the package I will be receiving and I will enjoy it as my LAST one.  I am begging you, please don't let anyone send me food or candy in a package.  I have been eating healthy and its bad enough eating desserts at members houses. I don't need any at home.  I know you want to send me packages and stuff but trust me I don't need it.  Nor any ties or clothing haha. I already have too much stuff that I cant pack.  Everything has been holding up well and I have taken care of it all so most of it should last through my mission.  Gift cards to anywhere are good! There is a QDoba in my area now that I have been catching up on.  haha but don't bank on that for Christmas cuz odds are I will be gone before Christmas.  I do have a couple things I want for Christmas though.  

I did get the letters from the ward!  They were awesome.  I will write back to the Robbins and send Bishop another letter. 

 

That's sweet brother Chipman is Bishop!  Good thing it wasn't dad haha.   Man it will be so weird coming home.  EVERYTHING is changing.   Oh well.  

 

This week went really well!  Found a couple new investigators.  We tracted into a mom and son and went back to teach them this week and it went so well.  They are a way nice Catholic family.  The son is 12 and is like 6"2 and super mature.  He studies religion on the weekends for fun.  He plays basketball obviously.  I told him I knew a few young men that would probably worship him if he came to play on the church ball team.  It was an awesome lesson though, basically they were really curious about the church and she wanted to know why we were so dedicated and why we wanted to do what we were doing so we just bore testimony of why we are on missions and then taught about the Book of Mormon and how it relates to the Bible and how they support one another.  They thought it was the coolest thing ever how you could cross reference it.  That was basically the most exciting thing that happened this week. 

 

Your taco bar thing sounds awesome.  Just make sure there is enough.  Zone conference lunches are something we always look forward to haha. 

 

Well I hope you have another good week and you can keep recovering from all your vacations.  Love and miss you!!!

 

Elder Skalla 

Cleaning out week…

Hi!  Looks like you guys had fun! By the way that shirt Ryan is wearing in the zip line is totally mine unless he got the exact same one.  Ali K gave that to me when she went on her cruise.  Those shirts will still be good when I get home so tell him to stay out of my clothes.  :) (brotherly love 2,000 miles away)

My week was pretty uneventful.  Lots of tracting and stuff.  Met a lot of new people though. I spent like 2 hours calling everyone in the phone with PI next to their name.  (potential investigator)  Got like 3 appointments out of it so that was good!  I still have another 50 to call though haha, there were 546 contacts in our phone so I am kinda cleaning it out. I have done a lot of that in this area haha, the apartment, the dead pool, the ward mission process the car.   Sister Jacklin even brought us over a carpet cleaner and is making us clean our carpets today.  That's just what I want to spend my P day doing...  oh well. 

We taught a family named the ______ last night.  They are friends of the people the Gibbs are friends with.  It went really well and the wife has sooo much potential but the husband just won't give it a chance.  He just thinks the Bible is all he needs and anything God wants him to learn is in there and he just wants to debate doctrine with us.  I read him Jacob 4 like 4 verses from the end.  It was cool cuz I was reading it that morning and never noticed what it said.  But basically told him the Jews literally had the promised messiah, the very son of God in the flesh standing right in front of them and the "looked past the mark" and "sought for things which they could not understand"  Basically I told him we are offering him the fullness of the gospel and more truth and he is looking past the mark and wont let go of his traditions to see what is right in front of him.  He  (along with a ton of other Christians) is just denying that God can reveal more and they are limiting his power.  He didn't really change or anything, but hey maybe the spirit will touch his heart, I don't know.  Awesome family though.  Would be amazing members.  

That's about it for my week.  I realized I haven't sent a memory card home since like March so I am gonna send it home this week so be looking for it.  Hope you have an awesome week!! 

Love and miss you!!

Elder Skalla

Is the election over yet?

HI! 

Glad you are having fun on the cruise!  That is a small world about Max.  I never thought there would be so many weird connections with people and places on my mission.

This week was pretty normal.  Nothing too ground breaking.  We're finally getting to know the area and the members better and have been doing a lot of tracting.  I swear if one more person asks me who I am voting for I am gonna punch them!  haha it is getting so old.  It's like every other door now.  I can't wait till this election is over.  Finally at this one door this guy asked me and I was just like "we're voting for this guy, pointing to Christ's name on my tag, but were not here to talk politics were here to talk about Him."  He wasn't interested in talking about Christ.  I have just been trying to think of creative ways to use the question cuz I am getting sick of trying to be indifferent and avoiding it haha  Oh!  Also I was really mad because I was talking to a senior couple in the office this week and found out since I have been here over a year and have an address I could have registered to vote in Ohio. Some missionaries did.  Wish I woulda known that sooner.  She said they didn't tell everyone cuz they don't want us to be worried about that stuff.   (that's ok, Colorado needs his vote too!!)

It was cool to get a hand delivered package in church yesterday! haha thank you!  They were way cool and Sister Gibbs was way nice and excited haha.  It was funny cuz we had this investigator Shaun at Church.  He is a LONG story but he is this 25 year old from Afghanistan.  But after Sacrament meeting he was like asking me who the Gibbs girls were and if I could introduce him and all this stuff.  Finally I was just like Shaun did you come to church just so you could meet girls.  He was like ya why else would I come.  He is really weird.  Needless to say we pretty much dropped him after that! haha

That girl I was telling you about last week Kara is still doing really well.  She came to church and we met the rest of her family and her sisters friend wants to start coming to church with us so that's good!  We are still just trying to meet everyone and figure things out here but the members are awesome here.  I think it is a more "westernized" ward that any other I have been in so it's good.

Hope you have an awesome week!  Love and miss you!

Elder Skalla

This is the Gibbs family from Highlands Ranch who were on vacation in Ohio and able to take Elder Skalla a package from home!  What a treat for mom!!

Truly Converted

HI!  Dang I feel like you guys have been going everywhere lately.  I think I might rather go see Dave Ramsey than a cruise though.  I read like 1/4 of his book a couple years ago.  Besides probably nothing will top the last cruise we went on and its more fun at that age too.   If I can live through dad going to sporting events without me I can live through a cruise haha  as long as you make up for it September 2015 if ya know what I mean ;) (The BYU vs Nebraska game)

This week was really good but we didnt get  any work done in our area.  We spent almost every day planning or in meetings and conferences.  We had our training meeting on Friday.  It was pouring rain but we still went contacting downtown.  We were soaked and Obama was in town so everyone thought we were there for other reasons.  

Conference was amazing as always.  Cant believe it was already my 3rd one...   I couldn't believe that announcement though.  It will definitely shake things up a bit.  It will be interesting to see the young ones starting to come out in the next few transfers.  I'm guessing the number of missionaries will shoot up at first but probably level back down.  It was weird to think Ryan could be gone before I get home too.  But that is definitely not something he should ignore or decide right away. If the Lord needs him this summer he better be ready and you better be ready to let him go haha.    Something he will have to pray hard about.  Elder Holland totally stole my talk too haha well  kinda, I gave a talk on that same story my last week in Youngstown.  I have to say his was much better and much more convincing haha.  I hope you all got something out of conference.  I think the theme of it was that in the world we live in it is no longer enough to only have a testimony and knowledge of the gospel.  With the temptations and peer pressure we all face we need to be rooted and personally converted if were gonna make it.  And its something no matter how long we have been in the church or how old we are we need to be doing every day.  Every day being more converted and willing to follow the Lords counsel.  It was cool because Elder Perkins spoke in Priesthood and Elder Nash in conference.  2 GA's that have been to our mission since I have been here and have spent a day learning from.  It was cool to see them again and hear them speak. 

So last week we just got a random call from a girl saying she wanted to come back to church.  We met her on Friday night and she is 19 and going to school in Cleveland.  Basically she said she was sick of the way she was living her life went in and told her work she was taking Sundays off and going back to church and then called us.  Her and her family were baptized when she was 12 and fell away shortly thereafter.  She even came to the church with us on Sunday and watched conference.  I am pretty impressed with her.  She just decided to change one day and is actually acting upon it.  So many people, especially younger, realize they need to change but never do anything about it.  Or they do for like 3 days and then get bored and go back to what they were doing before.  I am excited to start teaching her and stuff though. 

Well I hope you have an awesome week and safe travels on your cruise!

Remember to ask the missionaries!  Cuz apparently we can help with everything!  Oh conference humor.  Its only funny to us out here haha,  but the statement is true haha 


Carlos H. Amado: “Some men are willing to die for their faith but will not fully live for it" 
 I think thats the difference between someone with a testimony and someone who is converted.  If you believe you would die for it if need be but if you are converted you will both live and die for your faith.  


Love and miss you!!

Elder Skalla

Message from MOM:
I got to respond right back to this email and was worried he would be mad at me for doing this cruise without him.  This is the response I got back:

"I have been out 15 months mom, I am at the peak of my mission, not much is gonna make me not want to be here haha  It's just a cruise.  Of course I wanna go though.  And Dave Ramsey will probably help me with my future a lot more than a cruise would haha"

I didn't ever think he would want to leave his mission for a cruise, but I did expect him to whine a little!  I  think I should have sent my girls on missions and my boys when they turned 16!!!  I love the growth, maturity and insight that a mission has given to Brad.  I love this boy with all my heart and I couldn't be more proud of him!  I highly recommend this mission thing!  Hardest thing and best thing EVER!!!

Transferred to Lakewood, Ohio (letter from 10/2)

Hi!!!  I am glad you had fun on the cruise!  It looks like it was a blast! 

So I am now serving in Lakewood Ohio...  Honestly its a place I never thought I would be.   It is TINY (area wise) compared to my last 2 areas which is weird to not have to worry about hour long drives and going over on miles.  It is right outside Cleveland and covers Lakewood, Rocky River, Fair View Park and Bay Village.  It is like the super nice suburbs of Cleveland so there is like not much ghetto and the houses are beautiful here.  Much different than downtown Youngstown.  Its so weird cuz there are just people everywhere and everything is so compact and there is just stuff everywhere.  I am way excited though, it is going to be a fun area.  The mission office is in our area too and all the senior office couples and the AP's live in the same apartment complex so that's fun we get to see them all the time and last night the Hokansons brought us a ton of food haha.   The AP's are our neighbors so we work out with them in the mornings.  The ward is really small but I think it might just look small cuz we meet in a big western type stake center and we aren't even close to filling it up haha.  It is weird because President lives like 5 mins away and his ward meets in the same building, so it was weird seeing them around the church building. 

My new companion is Elder Curtis from St. George Utah.  He is a great kid.  Really impressed me with his teaching already so I am excited to work with him.  He is scared to death of tracting though so we have been working on that a lot haha.  It has been kinda funny.   I love it though just cuz I have been doing it for so long tracting is just tracting and for him its like this huge thing that we do. It's so fun though, I am excited to train and we get along well already. 

Our first few days here were crazy.  I thought being a zone leader was hard but shotgun training takes it by far haha.  The previous Elders were so kind as to leave us 0 appointments for the week so we get here and neither of us knows anything about the area and my greenie is just waiting for me to say what we are gonna do.  haha I had no idea what to do!  We figured it out though and met some of the members and less actives and stuff so it was good.  Not much going on investigator wise here. That's probably why it was shotgunned, but we will figure it out eventually haha.  Again the apartment was disgusting and smelled like mold just like it was when I first got to Alliance.  We spent a lot of time cleaning and scrubbing the shower and stuff.  The complex is really nice and is by all these huge houses right on the lake but the apartment was nasty. The night we got there we went to the store and bought a little food and some cleaning stuff and air freshener.  When we were leaving the lady checking us out comes over and like whispers in my ear "hey where could I get a Book of Mormon?  I had one years ago and lost it and I want to read it."  We got her info and stuff so that was pretty cool.  She hasn't picked up the phone yet but we will keep trying.  It was cool for Elder Curtis though.  That night a member called us and there was a LA in the hospital so we went with him to give her a blessing.  Elder Curtis got to give his first blessing so that was cool for him too.  I think for both of us not knowing what was going on we did pretty well our first week. 

I am trying to remember that exchange with Elder Read...  I don't remember visiting an ex member.  I remember him telling me about one but not teaching him.  I don't know you do so much stuff you can't remember them all.  (He remembered when I told him the story correctly!)  And I am not the best at writing in my journal… :/   I write but not a lot.   He got called to be a zone leader this transfer.  Its funny cuz we both went to each others greenie areas.  He started here in Lakewood and I started in Tallmadge where he is at. 

Well I hope you have a good week recovering from your cruise!  

Love and miss you!!

Elder Skalla

Saying goodbye to people he has come to know and love.  That was hard!

Elder Berryessa and Elder Skalla

Leaving the truck behind…now he drives a Subaru Outback!

 Elder Skalla's roommates from the MTC together for the first time in over a year!

Elder Curtis is his new companion and "Greenie" that he is now training.

Elder Anderson, a former companion went home this transfer.

Elder Skalla's "sons" Elder Curtis and Elder Buxton

Missionary lingo for missionaries he has trained.  

Transfer Week--Sept 25th Letter

Glad you guys are having a good time on the cruise...  Im jealous.  I was reading an article the other day about adjusting to post mission life and a psychologist from the missionary department said one of the best ways to adjust is to go on vacation when you get home... hint hint haha just kidding kinda

This week was soooooooo crazy. I guess that's normal now though haha.  Tuesday I had my trainers meeting up in Cleveland.  It was really good, it just takes the entire day to go there so you don't get to do missionary work.  I feel like I didn't do much of that at all this week.  Friday was the best day.   Elder Perkins of the Seventy came and spoke to us.  It was cool because at the beginning of the meeting he asked us to write down two questions.  One personal and one about the work with your companion or an investigator concern and see if it gets answered.   One of my questions was how can I stay motivated during hard times.   Like 5 minutes after telling us to do that he says well I felt impressed to do this at the other meeting yesterday and didn't and now I feel like I need to do it today.  He then spent like an hour talking to us about why we serve, why we obey, why we do anything and different levels of motivation and how we can achieve the highest level.  It was sooo cool to see one of my questions answered like that.  We were all supposed to come prepared to teach a 10 minute lesson on the sabbath day.  Of course Elder Berryessa and I get randomly called up to role play this lesson.  Let me tell you there is nothing more nerve racking than teaching a lesson in front of 70 other missionaries, your mission president and a general authority and then having them evaluate you!  I feel like we did pretty well though, it was fun.  On Sunday I spoke in sacrament meeting about President Hinckley's talk Find the Lambs, Feed the Sheep.  That went pretty well too! 

SO this week was pretty rough having to say bye to people....  This area has been like my whole mission.  I have worked in every single proselyting area in this stake over the last year.  I never thought I would grow to care about a stake so much and the people there.  We had dinner with the Warner's Sunday night.  I don't know if I have told you about them but they are in the Alliance ward and he is a resident from Utah.  We had farewell dinner #3 haha this one for real though.  He is like one of the smartest guys I have met out here in the gospel and I have had long talks with him about all kinds of stuff about life and the gospel.  I have learned so much from people like them and many others and it sucks to leave!  Missionaries usually don't stick around for a whole year so I have gotten pretty close with some of these people.  I had to say bye to Tina and Alicia and Andrea last night too.  Man that was hard.  You get to see someones conversion process and grow and change in the gospel and then you just have to leave them!  I made a lot of promises to come back though haha I hope I will keep them!  I know the Lord has other places for me to go though and others I will grow to love.  I am so grateful for serving here though.  Something I will never forget. 

I still have no clue where I am going though... My greenie is going to find out where we are serving before I do haha.  Oh well I am stoked its gonna be quite the adventure trying to figure it all out haha

I hope you guys have a great rest of vacation!  Love and miss you!!

Elder Skalla