Happy Birthday Pres. and Sis Vellinga!

Hi!! 

 

Sorry this is so late!   It has been one heck of a week...  It just keeps getting better and better too.  From here on out we are always runnin with this new transfer and everything that is going into it.  I had no idea how much it would take.   I am at presidents house right now.  I dont know if I told you about him but we had a skype meeting with Brother Donaldson today.  He is one of the guys from the missionary department that came to train us in December and it was way intense and stuff.  But the meeting we had today was sooooo good.  Good things were gonna implement.  Then President let us do our laundry and wash our car here and Sis Vellinga made us dinner.  We were at the office today till like 3 and then have been at the mission home since.  So much for a P day...  oh well too much to get done. 

Man I dont even know where to start for this week.  So many things happened.  The last two zone conferences were great.  It was a little weird because it was a little snowy on Tuesday and Wednesday.  For the Cleveland Conference President had us wear our jeans and coats so we could help Elder Jacklin with the vehicle inspections.  Wednesday it was snowing pretty bad and we had the meeting in Youngstown so he had us do the same thing.  We got there and the Jacklins and Lemons and President were all like 45 minutes late because of the weather so I had to conduct and make stuff up for 45 minutes till they got there,  all while wearing jeans and a t shirt haha.  

Everyone gave us a pretty hard time that the AP'S showed up in jeans to a zone conference! haha But everyone made it safe and the meeting went well.  After the conference I got to go on exchanges in Y town which it sounds like you have already heard all about.  I got to see pretty much everyone I wanted to and it was the best exchange ever.  I talked to Dylan and he is still doing good and told me he wants to go on a mission!  I also talked to Anthony, a priest we worked with a lot and went on a mini mission with and he should be getting his call this week!  Then I saw Tina and Alicia and they are doing awesome and she is preparing for the temple and is right on track!  Thursday morning we went and did service at the H family's house and they were so surprised to see me.  They are doing so great!  They have a date to go to the temple and be endowed and sealed as a family this spring!  From smoking and drinking to sealed in the temple all in the short time I have known them.  Everyone I grew to love there is doing so well and progressing amazingly.  It was one of those times where I just felt like it was all worth it.  I can not even begin to describe the feeling you recieve when people you have fasted, prayed for and worked so hard with are going on missions and to the temple!  All because the Atonement is real the gospel is true.  You would never be able to deny that if you had been able to watch the process of conversion in each of them as I did.  What a blessing to be involved. 

After exchanges we came back and got all ready for giving president and sister Vellinga's birthday present to them.  We got the picture and wrapped it up with brown paper and tied it up with string.  (his favorite movie is the sound of music)  We also worked with the Lemons and made a "Deer catching kit"  and Elder Lemon wrote up all these instructions.  All it is is a little box, a hanger and some string.  But its the inside joke with him right now because he is obsessed with the deer in his yard haha.  So the Lemons had their farewell dinner and then we, and the rest of the office staff, went over and surprised them and gave it to them.  I have never seen those two laugh so hard in my life when they opened up and read the deer catching kit.  I thought they were gonna pass out they thought it was so funny.  They loved the picture too and already have it hung up in the mission home. 

Friday and saturday were pretty boring.  We spent all day at the office working on transfers with president.  We hadn't heard from David all week and we were getting a little worried and then he didn't show up to church Sunday.  He ended up calling us Sunday night and felt really bad.  He said he was just busy with the move and stuff and said he really wanted to meet so were teaching him again tomorrow.  He is still solid and looking good to get baptized in March. 

I wish I had more time to write.  There are so many things I wish I could tell you and so many feelings and stories I want to tell you I just dont have time haha.  One day I promise I will sit down and just write to you haha.  You get most of the stuff though. 

This week is full of craziness moving furniture, training meetings, transfer stuff and a billion other things we need to do.  On March 8th when this is all over I am gonna be sooooo happy.

Oh ya kinda a weird request but will you send me my running shoes?  No rush but my next companion is gonna whip me into shape haha which is a good thing.

Love you,

Elder Skalla

This is the Presidents car they washed at the Presidents house and they are wearing the Presidents clothes!  Too funny!!!

 

Seeing people change…

Hey!! haha I am glad you get to spend some time at home now. I did get your valentines package! Thank you!! It is not helping me eat better but it was good haha. I am gonna go get my suit dry cleaned today. I used to wear it twice a week but now I wear it like 5 times a week with different meetings and stuff. I also got to listen to that recording thanks!

 Remember the kid who said he wanted to be a missionary like us after he heard that? He went to church for the first time this sunday and has a baptismal date and I guess he is like really excited. This week was zone conferences so we were all over the mission. I drove over 1000 miles this week it was crazy. I am so sick of driving haha. Zone conferences have been really good. We have 2 more to do this week. We studied and practiced teaching the Law of Chastity and a senior couple who inspected every apartment in the mission gave a presentation on cleaning which was really good. It was kinda different talking about Chastity and Cleaning in a zone conference but I have liked them all! It is fun to see how different each meeting is. We usually help with the training and run the computer and evaluate role plays and stuff. One meeting President randomly called me up to share my testimony of the law of Chastity. I had never shared my testimony of that before and it was a really good experience and it was definitely something I will never forget.

 This week we have the Cleveland and Youngstown zone conferences and I get to go on exchanges back in Youngstown so I am sooo excited for that. We met with David a couple more times this week and man is he amazing. Teaching him just feels like I am role playing or something. Our lessons have been awesome. He is just slowly gaining more light and you can see it in his countenance. I dont think I told you this but we met with him last friday for the first time and he came to church sunday. After the second hour I asked how he was doing and he was like pretty good I am just really tired. I havent had Coffee or tea in 3 days. That friday he like briefly asked about that and we mentioned we dont drink it but didnt even teach him anything about the word of wisdom but he stopped on his own. Last week he came in jeans and a t shirt to church and this week he showed up in a dark suit, white shirt an tie. He comes in to the chapel and was like ya it was weird the dry cleaners lost this suit 3 months ago but this week they randomly called and said they found it. He recognized that that probably wasnt a coincidence haha. There is some bad news with David though. He is moving to Lakewood this week... I was like so sad when I found out. Our ward has really taken him in and has great fellowship and now he will have to switch. I am way sad but I think Elder H and Elder C need it. They havent taught a single investigator since I left... Everything kinda just fell apart with everyone cuz they still dont really know what they are doing. So maybe this will help them pick it up. Were gonna go on exchanges with them every time they teach him so we can kinda make sure its going the right way. Neither of them have ever taught anyone this far or planned a baptism so we are gonna help them a little so at least I will still get to see him sometimes.

 So a member donated a really nice leather couch this week to us so saturday night we went and picked it up. We took the mission van with the trailer on it so we could put it in there. When we left it was like snowing lightly but nothing was sticking. The member lived 20 mins away. Basically it was a bad choice to drive a huge van with a trailer in the snow. It got really really bad and took us over an hour to get home. There were points I couldnt see more than 3 feet in front of me and the trailer was like fishtailing all the time. But we made it! I am just never doing that again. I was so tense driving that dumb thing. Well we have a ton to do today so I better get going.

 Love and miss you!! Elder Skalla

This time…a NEPHEW!

Elder Skalla is going to be an Uncle again.  Ali and Ty are expecting July 17th!  ONE week after Brad is released….Ya, you can't time your blessings!!  We are thrilled and Elder Skalla is too.  I think he is having a hard time imagining being an Uncle to little Adalynn who we keep sending pictures of, but she is kind of a figment of his imagination.  Baby #2 is likely in the same category….


CONGRATULATIONS!   I did read your e mail first by the way haha.  I bet you are both very excited.  I am excited to meet him when I come home!  Any ideas on a name or anything else?  Love and miss you!   Elder Skalla

Miracles Happen

This week was another insane one.  I am constantly mentally exhausted, stressed and tired but I cant figure out why I am so happy... This week was incredible.  Tuesday we had mission council which went really well.  Wednesday we were with President planning zone conference and we ended up rearranging his furniture in his office which was the funniest thing ever.   I want to make a TV show like the Office but with the mission office.  I swear I could already write like 10 episodes haha.  Thursday we went to Kirtland for our meeting with all the new missionaries and their trainers after their first week.  It was really good.  Probably one of the best I have seen.  Friday I got to go on exchanges with Elder Newey down in Tallmadge.  It was sooooo fun getting to work there again.  I was surprised that so many people remembered me!  They didn't remember my name or anything but they asked if I had served there before.  It was fun getting to go by some of the families I worked with so long ago.  Driving around Akron and going to the university just caused memories to flood back of Elder Johnson and I in the heat on our bikes in downtown Akron.  It was a fun day.  The next morning we helped someone move and then Elder Weaver picked me back up and we went back to Cleveland.  We had a meeting that day with president to run through the Mission President fireside.  We pulled in the parking lot of the church and then 2 more cars pulled in right after we parked and the wheel on one car was all messed up.  The mom in the other car was like yelling at her son who was driving the damaged car.  We walked over to talk to them and then President pulled up.  When we were walking over there the tire just started to smoke and then the whole thing just burst into flames.  The kid was like throwing snowballs at it and I ran into the church and got a fire extinguisher and put it out.  I had never used one of those things before!  It was pretty exciting.  I got some fire extinguisher stuff on my suit but it came out.  The fire department and police showed up and we just made quite the scene in the church parking lot ha ha.  It was probably a good thing we were there to get in the church and get the fire extinguisher though.  The things you do on a mission... sometimes its just unreal.  

Sunday night was the fireside.  This was the first one we have ever done and it was kinda our trial run.  It went sooooo well though.  Everyone loved it and there were tons of people there. We tried to do something different so we didn't have anyone conduct we just had the meeting flow and had some Mormon messages a bunch of musical numbers recent convert testimonies and President Vellinga and the Stake President spoke.  I sang "This is the Christ" with a couple other members and then all the missionaries sang which is what you saw.  I think we are going to start taking it to all the other stakes around the mission.  Miracles happened because of it.  Just one of the stories is amazing.  This guy that we play ball with in another ward has been working with an 18 year old.  He wasn't going to but felt like he needed to invite him to the fireside so he called like 30 mins before and invited him.  They came and he loved it.  We were talking to the member after and he was saying how the much the kid loved us singing "I know that my Redeemer Lives" and leaned over to him and said "How can I be a missionary like those guys" after the song.  So the member invited him to come to church and meet with the missionaries.  So cool!  He isn't in our ward but still.  And that was just one of the many stories we heard.  

The thing that made this week the best was David.  He is an answer to prayer.  I have been praying the last like 2 weeks saying Heavenly Father we need people to teach and we have no time to go find them, please help us find another way.  While we were driving back from Kirtland Thursday we got a call from the office saying someone called and said they wanted to be a Mormon and is staying in a hotel in North Olmsted.  We just thought it was another crazy person referral that we get all the time. All our appointments cancelled that night so we just called and asked if we could come by.  He said we could so we went and we weren't really expecting much but man it was amazing.  I haven't had a lesson like that in a long time.  He is so prepared.  I wish I had time to tell you the full story.  He is 26 has a wife and little boy and just got out of the Army.  His wife isn't too sure about the church but we taught him that night and then again in the church on Saturday with our Bishop while president pretty much babysat his son.  But that's another story in itself.  The lesson was awesome, we committed him to baptism and he offered such an amazing prayer at the end.  He came to church on Sunday and really liked it.  He has a lot to overcome but he has so much desire.  I am really excited about him.  

Well we got word Friday that were getting 5 Visa waiters coming in today so we have been working on finding places for them and Elder Weaver and I have to go to the airport and pick them up so I gotta go. (It really never ends, one surprise after another)  I love and miss you!!  

Elder Skalla 

Release date already?..

Hey!!  

Man I am actually really sad I wasn't able to be there for the blessing.  That would have been really cool.  I am glad everything went well!  Speaking of Ali's baby and everything I found out my release date for sure this morning.  I fly home July 11....  Makes me sick.  There are only 3 transfers older than me now... But I try not to think about it.  

Transfers went really well!  Everything went smooth and we didn't really forget anything!  Its such a crazy but cool time to see them all come out.  It's fun to see it from the other end too and see how much goes in to getting them here and situated and fed and transported and everything.  After transfers President had us drive Sis. Vellinga home from Kirtland to get dinner ready.  That was kinda weird cuz we were just alone with her haha. It was fun though.  She is really bad at keeping the conversation focused on missionary work so she was telling us all kinds of stories and asking about home and what were gonna do and stuff.  Anyway she starts talking about children and she asks how many we want to have and we both said like 3 or 4 and she started crying, she said if there was anyone she would want Heavenly Father to send His children to to raise it would be us. It was one of those things you kinda had to be there but she is just so nice.  It was fun to get to know her better.  When we got back to the mission home she made Elder Weaver and I take a nap.  We had been up with President till like 1 the night before and woke up at 5.  I dont think I have ever crashed faster in my life.  We both woke up to the alarm 30 mins later freaking out because we thought we slept through something.  Ha ha, so there are always deer around presidents house and he always feeds them.  He has a goal to get one to eat out of his hand by the time he leaves.  That night at like 11 30 he made us go out and feed the deer haha they are starting to come up all the way to the porch now.  He is obsessed and Kristen hates it.   She is so funny too, she acts like our little sister.  She like always makes fun of us and is on us about everything.  But we finally got to the point where we do it back. I love their family.  

The work is always slow transfer week because we are out of our area for 4 full days but we had some really good experiences!  I think I have told you about the family that is coming back to church that has a 16 year old daughter they are adopting that is gonna get baptized.  We had a lesson about keeping the Sabbath day holy and choosing to serve God last week and we went over this week and the family was totally different.  They were like happy and the mom was telling us about how they had FHE and read scriptures that week and all this stuff.  Then they all were at Church for the first time since I have been here yesterday.  So they are doing really good!  Then our other "investigator" the adorable little 9 year old bore her testimony in church yesterday!  Too bad her  parents weren't there to see it.  Those 3 girls are gonna bring that family back one day.  Well the dad isnt a member but the mom is.  

So this week we are having our first mission president fireside in the Cleveland stake.  We are trying to have more events for members to bring friends to.  Its gonna be really good though and Elder Weaver and I and a couple members are singing "This is the Christ".  We also have our training meeting in Kirtland, Mission Council and a couple other smaller meetings this week so still not a ton of time to proselyte.  The weather has been crazy here too.  It was like 10 degrees and then it was 60 the 2 days of transfers and it has been freezing and snowing every day since Thursday. I cant wait till it gets warm again.  

I finally finished the Book of Mormon again last week.  I did the last 90 days of the year thing but it took me a while longer after being called as an AP since I dont always get to study.  It honestly kinda stunk this week.  I have read the scriptures every single day my whole mission.  When you get into a habit of really studying the scriptures and then just stop you can tell a HUGE difference. I always thought it was just a saying that you feel different when you dont study but I just never studied enough to find out what those feelings were haha.  Its amazing what a consistant study of the scriptures can do for your attitude, outlook and ability to listen and follow the spirit. I hope I can always make that a habit. 

I hope you have a good week!  Love and miss you!!

Elder Skalla 

A decision to go on a mission….

Click on the link below to see a video of Elder Johnson's story:

Elder Skalla's Trainer and friend shares his decision to go on a mission.

Buurrrrrr!!!

Hey!! 

Yes it has been freezing...  I have been on my butt in meetings and things every day this week so I wasn't out in the cold much but I felt for everyone else that was.  It was freezing.  The lake even froze.  Its cool cuz it freezes in like waves.   The roads were bad a couple of days but I think Youngstown go it worse than us. 

Well it was another absolutely insane week getting ready for transfers and what not.  This week is gonna be crazy.  And then all of Feb. will be crazy.  We were looking at a calendar this morning and with zone conferences coming up we have meetings all over this mission every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for the whole month...  its gonna be fun.  We got a TON done this week though.  We rearranged the huge transfer board on the wall in presidents office and made space for 60 more missionaries and created 4 new zones.  Also I have been using all my "spare time"  (which is early in the morning or late at night)  creating a new transfer board on Excel.  The old one is just crazy with all the weird things in it and it cant fit all the new ones so I have been making a new one.  Makes me wish I would have paid more attention in my information systems classes in high school and college though ha ha. 

We had interviews with President this week.  It was weird like going in and having an interview with him since I like talk to him all the time any way.  We had a good talk though. He told me he loves watching my face because he says he can tell I am constantly thinking about something or analyzing something or trying to make something work better.  I didn't really realize it but my mind has been going faster than ever in this assignment.  From the moment I wake up to the second I fall asleep ( which is like before my head even hits the pillow)  my mind has been occupied.  Which is a good thing.  Anything I was ever distracted with before is completely gone ha ha which is nice.  If only they could keep all missionaries as busy as we are. 

The work this week went well actually.  We didn't have a ton of time but we met 3 less active families we have never met with a lot of potential.  One he is the only member and hasn't been to church in 20 years.  We had an awesome lesson with him and I gave him a blessing because he has been having a hard time with things because of what he has seen in the army.  He has to see a psychologist and everything.  Anyway it's a long story but it was a great lesson. 

Well sorry this is short.  We need to get all our p day stuff done because we have to go to an area and pick up a missionary who is going home tomorrow.   

Thanks for the stories about Ashley and her Family and Elder Johnson ( still cant call him Brent).  I love them both and am glad they talk to you. 

Have fun in Boise.  Love and miss you! 

Elder Skalla