Dec. 17th Letter…Calling as Assistant to the President

Well I have a lot to write and not a whole lot of time so I am gonna try to remember everything.  So I know I say this a lot but this has by far been the most insane week of my mission/life haha!

 

So it all started on Monday.  We were playing basketball and like the first 2 seconds I was in the game I was going for a ball that was headed out of bounds and Elder Morse, (he is 6'8)  comes flying over me and tries to hit the ball and it smashed right into my finger.  It hurt like crazy but I have had tons of jammed fingers so I just kept playing.  I went on a triple up exchange with Elder Higgins and Elder Lincoln in Strongsville which is another story in itself.  But I iced my finger and stuff that night but when I woke up it had like doubled in size and it was like black and it was tingling and I had no feeling.  We went to district meeting and when we were in the office sister Jacklin saw it and made me call Sis Vellinga.  Sis Vellinga made me go to the doctor after much arguing haha.  Brother Thompson drove me to the doctor and after forever waiting they took x-rays and the doctor said I did everything but break it.  I have some torn ligaments in it and it was just badly bruised and swollen.  So that was dumb, it will be the most expensive splint ever.  Speaking of that I apologize if you get an urgent care bill for me....  I was confused about the whole insurance thing and went to a place that was covered by missionary medical but I don't know if Kaiser covers it and I was told to use my insurance first soooo, ya I am sorry if you get a bill haha. 

 

The rest of the week went really well.  We taught a couple good lessons.  Had another awesome lesson with Sam and did a lot of good work.  Friday it starts to get crazy....

 

I don't know if you will believe me when I tell you this because I still don't believe it but Friday afternoon President Vellinga called me to be an assistant....    I went and met up with Elder metcalf and Weaver and have been in a triple up with them since Friday night. 

There were 4 things I didn't want to have happen on my mission.  1. Shotgun (train a greenie in a brand new area) 2. Triple up ( 3 missionaries in a companionship) 3. Midnighted (assignment change mid transfer) and 4. AP.    All four of those have happened in the last 2 transfers....  I am glad Heavenly Father has a sense of humor haha.

I wasn't really sure what to think when I got the call.  I honestly would have expected it more 2 transfers ago but this was a total shock.  I was just like Heavenly Father I hope you know what you are doing because I sure don't.  It is definitely humbling though...  I have done a lot of thinking since Friday with not much sleep.  Multiple times I have woken up thinking it was all a dream which has never happened to me before. It still hasn't really hit me haha.  I am scared out of my mind but I know with the Lords help I can do what He and President ask.  I am grateful for the assignment and am excited to see what is to come.  The last three days have already been insane. 

 

Its amazing the information that keeps piling on when you are an assistant...  All the sudden the assistants and President are telling me things I have never heard or been able to know before haha.   Sunday nights are gonna be a blast.  I was at the office late late last night and back there early this morning.  haha I am still sleeping in my apartment and I was in bed well after Elder Hicken and Curtis went to sleep and was up and out the door well before they got up haha.  But President is changing a lot about how much the Ap's have to do in terms of administration and office work.  He wants us to spend more time in our area and training instead of doing office work which will be nice.   Elder Metcalf said he hasn't had a full P day once in his 7 months as AP so there goes my basketball days haha.  This morning we made some last minute transfer changes which was intense.  Then we had a staff meeting and went over the next few days with arrivals, departures and transfers.  Its gonna be crazy.  Right after this I have to go to Kirtland to pick up all the departures and get them ready to go in the morning.  I have to say bye to Elder Johnson again now! haha  President doesn't want anyone to know about me yet so I have had to make up story after story of why I am not at district meeting or taking numbers anymore.  Some missionaries came in to the office this morning and he made me hide in a corner behind his desk haha.   He is seriously so funny.  We had lunch and a sacrament meeting with them and a couple sick sisters at the mission home yesterday and it is so weird to see them like not in serious meeting settings haha I love it.  This is going to be quite a ride.  I am nervous but excited. 

 

I have appreciated so much every ones support and prayers throughout my mission.  I need them more now than ever though so please keep me in your prayers.  I am pretty overwhelmed already and I haven't even really started. 

 

Sorry I couldn't write more I love and miss you!

 

Elder Skalla

December 10th Letter-Uncle Brad meets Adalynn via pictures

Man she is adorable!!!  Tuesday morning Sister Debaltzo called and asked if we had dinner and our dinner appt actually had the flu so she told us to come by later and pick up dinner so she gave me a cool little laminated page with pictures and stuff on there.  I didn't know if you made it or if she did but it was awesome!  I had no idea.  Definitely really special.  I am so excited to meet her in person.  It still hasn't hit me that that is like Jenni's baby haha.  I am sure it will when I meet her though.  I am glad she and Jenni and Greg are doing so well!!  I wish I could be there...

 This is what sweet Sis. DeBaltzo made for him!  I love her!!

This week has been amazing for me though.  Not really like investigator wise but I guess personally.  The last like month with being stressed in the triple up and never having this much lack of success my whole mission I was just like in a rut.  I sucked at tracting I didn't care teaching I was just doing missionary things just to do them.  I obviously prayed for help and tried to fix it.  On Thursday we had a leadership training.  2 guys from the missionary department came and met with us and it was amazing.  They ripped us apart on things we are doing wrong and then fire hosed us with more things to do.  They also gave us a little taste of what will be changing in the next couple years.  They talked about iPads too.  They said they already have the apps and software developed they just need to test them.  A lot will change though.  The way things work now and the way things will work when Ryan goes on a mission will be worlds different.  He probably wont do any of the same things I do.  It was seriously exactly what I needed and I think I learned more there than I ever have in a meeting.  I just felt an incredible urgency after that haha.  That night after the meeting we taught Sam.  I don't know if I have told you about her but she is a really cool 18 year old girl we have been meeting with for a while.  She is like a super Christian and really involved in her church and stuff.  We have had like ok lessons with her but nothing too earth shaking.  We usually meet with her at like coffee shops and stuff but we are trying to avoid that so we went to a study room in the library.  It was a pain cuz we all had to get library cards and all this other stuff but we finally got to meet with her somewhere that is a little quieter.  The lesson was probably one of the best of my mission.  I just like talked to her and we read 1 Nephi chapter 1 for 2 hours....  It was one of the only times in my life I just felt the spirit just take over what was coming out of my mouth.  Elder Curtis and Elder Hicken and the member we were with didn't say 2 words the whole time, they said they didn't want to ruin it haha but it was just an amazing lesson.  After I asked her how she felt and she said she felt like God was sitting next to her and she wanted to give me a hug haha ( I didn't let her btw)  Honestly I don't think Sam will get baptized anytime soon but I do no she felt the spirit that night and that all I can ask for.  I just hope I can start teaching like that all the time.  I really do wish I would have had that meeting way earlier on in my mission though. 

So on Friday night we had dinner with the Thompson's.  We printed out that picture of all of their missionaries in Kirtland and put it in an 8x10 frame and gave it to them for Christmas.  It was sooo funny.  Sis Thompson has a rough exterior and personality but she teared up and was like "Damn you boys"  haha I love them they are probably my favorite members. 

Ha referrals, I wish, we don't get any of those.  We pretty much find them on our own.  I talked to Dads friend and he is talking to the people he knows and said he would let us know what happens. The friends of the Gibbs are members already...   

That is so sweet about Rachel!!  I am so excited for her.  I cant believe Brad is home and Eric and Kris are coming home.  All my friends are gonna start flooding home the next 6 months.  It is crazy how fast it goes.  I got called an  "old" missionary the other day by some other Elders at the meeting.  It made me sad haha, I liked being the young one.  I remember when I was new and seeing like all the old ex zone leaders and thinking how awesome they were.  That's just not me haha.

So crazy story.  Saturday night we were walking in Lakewood and we were crossing an intersection and there was a guy on the other side coming the other way with what looked like a cane.  I was like all ready to talk to him and give him a card and stuff but then he just like runs to this car with this lady in it and tries to get in!  She was like screaming and floored it into the intersection almost hitting us.  Luckily we didn't get hit but then the guy just like casually walks the other way like nothing happened.  haha It was crazy. I have seen lots of fights and drug deals and stuff like that on my mission, but I think that was my first car jacking! haha 

Transfers are the 19th and I will find out if I am leaving on the 18th so I will let you know then.  I have no idea whats gonna happen.  So many crazy things have happened I am done trying to predict transfers haha.  I would like to stay in Lakewood though.  I just want to be a junior companion to someone who has been out over a year haha but I doubt that will happen anytime. 

Well I hope you have a good week and enjoy your granddaughter.  I love and miss you!!!

Elder Skalla

Doing great!

Hi!   Man you are gonna be in Boise for a long time, haha I am excited to see the baby!  Tell Jenni and Greg good luck for me and that I will be praying for them.  Also ask Jenni if she ever got my birthday letter I sent her.
I never met that girl but that is way cool!!!  Do the missionaries have a lot of success around there?  I have always wanted to spend some time with them and look at their numbers and find out how the mission works there. 

That is funny about the Fb requests. It is probably just a bunch of RMs from here.  I am glad your friends with Tina too!  I saw Elder Berryessa this week and he always gives me an update on her.  I am so excited for her to get her patriarchal blessing!  Man I dont think anything has ever made me happier than seeing her progress in the gospel.  That is so crazy all these girls on missions!  I was hoping Cassie would come here.  I could totally see her as a Kirtland sister.  So hearing that some of those boys could be on a mission before I am even home made me sick haha and maybe question the new age change! haha kidding!  There is a little difference in the ones that haven't lived away from home.  Not so much in the work but just like street smarts and stuff.  Like Elder C and Elder H have a hard time shopping, haha they are just confused and don't know where things are or what to buy.  I never realized it, but living away from home gets you used to things like that. 

That's cool Steph wrote you!  I love her, she is one of the few girls I know that has her crap together in her life haha. 

This week went really well.  We had our Christmas conference in the Kirtland Temple which was awesome as always.  I don't think it was as good as last year, but it was still cool.  We got to go look at the nativity display at the historic site and it was so sweet.  There were like 700 nativities and stuff, it was cool.  Also the Thompson's came.  I don't know if I have told you about them but they are like my favorite members ever.  He was reactivated and she was baptized a couple years ago and they LOVE missionaries.  Like its crazy how much they love them haha, but I told them to be in Kirtland at 4 on Tuesday for a surprise. Then all 8 of the missionaries they know that are still here met up with them and surprised them.  They loved it!  Sis. Thompson said it was one of the best days of her life haha.  They have a huge picture frame on their wall of missionaries wedding announcements haha that's how much they like their missionaries.

Then Elder Johnson and Elder Dowley bore their testimonies and Elder Johnson made me cry. haha I am gonna miss that kid so much.  It sucked saying goodbye to him.  It was such a good day on Tuesday though.  Probably one of the best. 

We went on exchanges with the zone leaders this week too.  It was funny I went to Garfield heights with Elder Morse and he has only been a zone leader for like 2 weeks and he was like Elder Skalla I have no idea what I am doing or what I am supposed to train you on.  I think this exchange is more for you to train me haha.  It was fun though.  He is like 6'8 so I felt tiny the whole time haha This week should be a good week.  There are some people coming from Salt Lake for an LTM on Thursday so that should be good.  Still no one significant to tell you about teaching wise unfortunately.  Just gotta keep working though.  I hope you have an amazing week and have fun with the baby!  I love and miss you!!

Elder Skalla

Happy Thanksgiving

Hi!

Well it was another pretty slow week...  seems to be going that way across the mission now for some reason.  Winter is tough.    I got your package!!  Thank you!  I wish I had something exciting to tell you but its been pretty much the norm.  Thanksgiving went really well!  We had dinner at the Carlson's.  They feed us every week, they are pretty cool. I couldn't really taste anything though...  The night before we had dinner with a member in his way cool apartment.  It's right on the shore and it overlooks the bay and all of Cleveland.  He lives on like the 20th floor too so its pretty cool.   But anyway we had tortilla soup and I burnt my tongue from it way bad.  I woke up Thanksgiving and had like little blisters on it and couldn't taste anything haha it still hurts really bad.   Thursday morning we went over to the Jacklin's and had breakfast with them and the other senior couple and the 2 new office sisters that came this week.  It was so fun.  The Hokansons are going home this week though so I am sad about that.  The office staff is like our grandparents out here haha especially when we are neighbors with them.  After dinner we went and played basketball for a few hours.  It was fun and it was nice to have like a full day off to relax.  Much better than last Thanksgiving haha I read my journal from last Thanksgiving and I wasn't very happy haha
I am so excited to see the baby!  Especially in an NU hat! haha Have they decided on a name or anything yet?  I cant wait to see her at Christmas.  What are your plans for Christmas?  Are you just going to Boise?

Well hopefully we have a better week next week.  I am excited for tomorrow.  We are having our Christmas conference in Kirtland.  We are doing it with Youngstown so I get to see my whole zone.  Although it is bitter sweet because I have to say bye to Elder Johnson and Elder Dowley...  They are going home on the 17th...  haha honestly that will probably be the hardest goodbye yet.   I love those 2.  Both of them changed my life.  Hopefully I will get to see them soon though.  I may have Elder Johnson convinced to go to USU with me in the fall but we will see. He doesn't think he is good enough at football to walk on at USU now that they are good haha
Well I home you have an awesome week and I cant wait to hear about the baby!!

Love and miss you!
Elder Skalla 

Slow week….

That is sad about the funeral and stuff.  Thats is good they are taking it so well though.  I dont know what we would do without the gospel and plan of salvation...  It'd be tough.  

This week was horrible teaching wise… We couldn't get any appointments or anything all week.  It was nice weather though so we got to bike and stuff so that was fun.  I really don't have much to tell you since it was so slow.  I did get a little good news.  I was talking to Elder Newey and Elder Read on the phone and they are ZL's in Tallmadge together and Elder Newey just spent the last 6 months in Alliance so I was seeing how everything was in my old areas.  Do you remember like 9 months ago when I was all excited in the library about some guy named Jay coming up and talking to us about food storage and we gave hima  Book of Mormon and stuff?  Well Elder Buxton and I tried to teach him but we could never get a hold of him and he was always busy so we never saw him again.  Like a month ago Elder Newey and Elder Read ran into him again somewhere else.  He just came up to them and started talking to them and said how he met a couple missionaries a few months back. They made an appointment with him and taught him at the church and Elder Newey said he thinks he may have read the whole Book of Mormon we gave him.  When we first found him he had no idea what was in it and Elder Newey said he was talking about everything up until the 3 Nephites in 3 Nephi.   I guess they had a really good lesson and he is still hard to meet with but really interested.  That like made me so happy though!  God is good! 

Thats about the only exciting thing that happened this week though.  We are going to a members for Thanksgiving and then probably playing basketball.  I dont know what the difference is about football and basketball or what the difference is about not playing football on thanksgiving but we can on any other p day but whatever. 

I will keep thinking about the christmas thing.  I dont know if I want to do the DVD thing but I will let you know.  I have a couple of those DVDs with it on there from last year.  It is only like 6 mins long though I don't know if I need to give it to people, we will just show it like we did last year. 

Well I hope you have a good week and a nice quiet Thanksgiving!  

Love and miss you!  

Time is going fast…

Hey I am glad there aren't any vacations to tell me about!  The election was quite disappointing to everyone here.  Most people are mad because voter fraud and all this other stuff about how there were some counties in OH where Romney did not get one vote and all kids of stuff so we are still hearing about it every day haha.   The other day tracting this lady on her porch yelled at us and was like "Romney lost guys, go home!"  I started walking across the street to talk to her and then knocked on the door but she wouldnt open it.  We have been doing this like what 180 years now and people still dont understand, its crazy to me haha.  

Sorry I am e mailing you today,  we were at a funeral ALL day yesterday.  The lady Elder Curtis and I gave a blessing to our first night here passed away so we were helping out with the funeral.  She LOVED the missionaries cuz most of her family are not members so they wanted to make sure we were there.  Thats my third funeral I have been to on my mission.  I never really thought I would go to any.  Especially people that I kinda know.   We had a pretty good week though.  We started the triple up on Wednesday.  Ill be honest, it's not my favorite.  It takes longer to do anything and its weird tracting with 3 and bringing 4 people into teaching appointments and stuff.  My new companion is Elder Hicken.  He is from Sandy and is actually in President Sorensen's ward.   (Found out he is the new stake patriarch)   He has only been out 3 months so he just got done being trained.  I am the only missionary I know of who has ever trained and greenie broken at the same time haha. **mom note: I love missionary terminoligy

Its a long story with the Subaru (photo below) haha I thought I told you but I guess I forgot.  We were in like an alley type street one of our first nights here and it was dark and raining and we had 2 members in the back seat and I couldn't see out the back very well so I was looking at elder Curtis out the side window backing me and I guess he didn't see the telephone pole and I backed into it.  haha It's pretty sad when you back into a pole with someone backing you haha.  Thats why we were driving the van because ours was getting fixed.  I am the driver all the time. Again...   You are supposed to get like transfers off driving but I have been driving every day since December 7th last year when I got Elder Buxton.  Since he couldn't drive, Elder Anderson got his license stolen and Elder Berryessa lost his, I had to drive.  Its ok though I dont mind it. 

Man it makes me sick Kris is coming home so soon.  That went by so fast...  Its gonna be my turn before I even know it.  Elder Johnson and Elder Dowley go home in 4 weeks.  I am seriously gonna cry haha.  I get to see them one more time before they leave.  I still remember Elder Johnson and I talking about how weird it is gonna be when he goes home when we were together and it just seemed like the day was never gonna come.   I hate when people go home haha. 

I like your DVD idea for Christmas!  But what is gonna be on the DVD?  I will keep thinking of other things too and let you know if I come up with anything.  Dont mail anything to me until you find out if I am getting transferred or not.  I will find out on the 17th and let you know the 18th.  Its ok if I dont get anything till after Christmas.  Dont spend more to get it to me by then haha.  Oh and Yes!  please send me a conference ensign!  With some stamps in there too :) 

That is so sad about Dads friend...  I cant even believe that.  Do they know what happened?  Was he the one with the girls my age? 

I hope you have an awesome week!  Sorry this letter is kinda boring.  Love and miss you!

 

Elder Skalla

Dent in the Subaru :(

Back to normal…

Oh man I don't even know where to start with this week.  This has probably been the longest, craziest week on my mission.  It seemed like it took FOREVER.  Maybe it was just because everything was out of the norm and I wasn't getting the groundhog day effect of doing the same things every day haha.  I hope I will remember everything... 

It started Monday right after I got done e mailing you.  It was raining and windy but nothing crazy when we left the library but we got a text saying we all had to be inside by 1 Monday afternoon and weren't allowed to leave until they told us we could.  We were just super board in our apartment all day Monday but then president said if we had appointments Monday night we could go but other than that we had to stay inside.  We had one at like 6:30 so we went to that.  After that is when things started to get crazy.  We were walking out of the appointment and the wind had picked up a ton and the sky kept lighting up green from transformers blowing up everywhere and the power kept flickering.  Driving home we kept getting hit with branches and stuff from the wind.  We were driving down Lake Rd which is this way long straight road and as we were driving everything just went black.  It was kinda cool, it was like a movie.  I looked in my rear view mirror and just saw all the lights going out in a row till the whole city was black.  No stop lights or anything.  It was actually really weird being in a big city but having it be completely dark.  We kept driving and made it to the bridge which goes over the bay and man I thought it was gonna blow the van right off the bridge.  We like kept going back and forth, I couldn't keep it straight.  We finally made it home and luckily Elder Curtis had his little flashlight so we found our way in.   We just planned like normal and then hung out with the assistants for a while before bed.  The wind was just howling at that point and you could even hear the waves crashing and sometimes a tree falling inside our apartment.  It was seriously so loud.  I took some Advil pm and put some ear plugs in but neither of us slept very well.  It got pretty cold in our apartment and the wind was just so annoying.  Tuesday morning we got up and got ready and showered with our little flashlights. Luckily there was still enough warm water for both of us to get 5 mins each of luke warm water before it went freezing.  We had cereal with warm milk over candlelight for breakfast, haha then we just had our normal studies with our flashlights.  It like didn't even get a little bit light till like 9 and even then it was still pretty dark.  Then it got rough.  I went back to bed for an hour, studied, worked out a little and just like sat around board to death until like 6.  Then president called and told us to come to the mission home to spend the night.  It took us like 30 minutes to drive 5 to the mission home cuz every road we took had a tree down but we finally got there.  It was us, the assistants and like 12 sisters there who all didn't have power.  It was actually pretty fun, we just studied the scriptures about storms and sang hymns and stuff, it was a good time.  Slept much better that night and then in the morning we all studied together again and then everyone left at like 10.  We went back and our power was still out Wednesday morning.  We went out that day and did our best to work and stuff.  Our power came back on at about 7 Wednesday night.  We were lucky.  Some members just got theirs back Sunday night.  It has been interesting the damage you see driving around. Just hundreds of trees down, some smashed on houses.  Out of everyone I know here only 3 members had damage to their house.  Saturday we literally spent the entire day helping people clean up yards and chop up trees and stuff like that.  It was fun, but man my back was soar.  I haven't worked that hard in so long haha. Everything is pretty much back to normal now.  I have never seen so many power trucks in my life so it looks like they were working hard to get everything fixed.  I am sure it is still a mess further east though. 

If the storm wasn't enough to make the week crazy we had some more curve balls thrown at us yesterday.  We had our ZDM yesterday and President pulled Elder Curtis and I into his office.  He had to let Elder Curtis know his grandma passed away.  The mother of his uncle that just passed.  Poor kid cant catch a break.  He is taking it really well though.  He was pretty quiet the rest of the day.  This one was unexpected.  Then President pulled me aside and let me know we were gonna be in a triple up this next transfer...  He said he hated to do it to me while I was training but we had an odd number and needed someone that knew what they were doing to take on a "newer" missionary...  So now I pretty much get 2 greenies haha.  I assured president I still had no idea what I was doing but he wouldn't change his mind.  So this transfer is gonna be pretty weird.  I hate being in triple ups but oh well we will make the best of it.   Oh and in other bad news President nixed us playing in turkey bowls this year.  I was upset cuz I didn't get to play last year and this ward has a huge one.  Not sure what the difference is about playing football on p day and on Thanksgiving but whatever.  Its not like I came here to play football anyway.  Well that's about it I think.  I just can't wait to move on from last week haha. 

 

I like your Christ and the government thing!  I may use that sometime.  I am so excited for this to be finally over though ha ha.   It has been wonderful for the church but man I am sick of hearing about it haha.  Some guy just walked up and he was like so you think Romney is gonna win tonight?  I just said Who? with a confused face. haha  His face was priceless.  Well I hope you have an awesome week!  

Love ya! 

 

Elder Skalla