Christmas time

We all got together as a zone for Christmas and had a pretty good party. We played soccer (3 on 3 where you can't cross the middle line we can't play real soccer here) and we played a game called 25 we also got to skype home and that was a real treat. We ate lunch at about 7 at night which was crazy. We were all super hungry.

Calling home was fun. I was glad to see that my family is good and they are all happy.

We also are working hard with a man named Daniel, he is doing well and is changing little by little. We are trying to help him come to Christ.

This week I think I got to see how big of an obstacle the social opression can really be here in Mercedes Corrientes. We have a member from Corrientes Capital staying here with a broken hip in her sisters house. we went to visit her 2 times last week. the second time we visited her someone knocked at the door. the sister went and attended the door. she came back and told us it was the landlady who was asking her why she had let the mormons in. she had asked her aren't you catholic?

Then we went back Sunday to take the sacrament to her and her sister told us we could come back but not too much. There are a couple other people who see you guys coming.

I was reading also in Doctrine and Covenants in the first few sections today and noticed that repetedly God warns the prophet to not heed men more than God. I wondered how I do that, and including how I heed my own reason more than God at times. I think it is something we could all improve on.

God knows us and loves us and will guide us in the best paths if we are willing to heed him.

Love,

Elder Dallin Skouson

Following pictures:

horses crossing the road in front of our bus.

picture from a christmas party

picture of 2 recent converts with an investigator and us

Following pictures: 

fireworks from christmas at 12 midnight

me by a rare type of sign here. funny thing is that it's hidden behind a tree from the view of the traffic.

Following pictures: 

us cutting down a tree with our branch president

a kid in the branch with a lot of commotion going on all around him.

us with one of the members after we helped her paint a cabinet.

Christmas 2015

 It was so good to talk to Elder Skouson and just be together sort of---even though it was for a very short time. (45mins.) Elder Skouson is doing awesome, and we're so grateful! 

                        MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

All together sort of. 

                                       Brothers! Craig and Ryan

Kate

Mom. this week was good. my favorite part of Christmas was probably calling you guys. We also were all together as a zone that was fun. but I think it was most fun being able to talk to you guys. I also liked using those videos for Christmas they are really good and help the people recognize we are christian too which helps.

Dallin's branch. 

There is great joy in learning, applying and sharing

So, this week was a good week as well. We worked with a man named Daniel Luque and he made it to church. Elder Curtis and his last companion were working with him a little bit. He made it to church yesterday and we were very happy to see him. He stayed just for sacrament meeting but I think it was a good experience for him to see that hour in specific.

We also were unable to connect with Raul and Silvia all week long. They said they had gone on a trip. We are hoping they will keep reading the Book of Mormon and they will keep learning more.

I think the coolest part of this week for me was that I got to do the baptismal interview for some people that are from Curuzu. The Elders there have been working with a family and I got to do their interviews. The 8 year old volunteered to be first (without knowing what he was volunteering for) and he did an awesome job. the mom was next then the next daughter and last of all the dad. They all are well prepared for baptism.

some of the things they said are these:

The mom said one Sunday she had sold her bakery items like she did every day and didn't go to church. that night she was reading in the book of mormon and just read about the sabbath day. that was when she realized she had made a mistake and decided to change.

The daughter said she was excited for the church and she was excited to go to the temple as well.

I think that in the end the biggest lesson I learned is that the more we are fighting for God, changing our lives, and becoming better people the more desire we will have to become a better person and really live the gospel. Preach My Gospel says that (this might not be word for word, I read it in Spanish) The joy we have as we learn the gospel will make us want to apply it.

As we apply the gospel the joy we have will make us want to continue to apply it and to share what we have learned. There is great joy in learning, applying and sharing.

I know those things to be true.

Elder Dallin Skouson

Pictures:  Elder Curtis and Elder Skouson and some of our branch members. 

Temples are where we can be united with our ancestors from all over the world

So, this week went fast. We did a lot of walking, almost running to get from top to bottom to top of our area this week. We have an area that is twice as big as before.

We also have some very good investigators named Raul and Silvia. Raul has some very good questions and likes to learn and to talk a ton. he will just start and go and go and go and go. They made it to church this week one of the members commented in priesthood so he leaned over and asked 'can everyone comment?'. he had good questions and comments the rest of the lesson. Silvia has more desire to come and do that stuff as well.

Alejandra had a dream and said that after she felt like she needs to keep coming to church. She felt like she was in a large building like a university, and she was sitting there and somebody gave her a piece of paper, but she couldn't remember what it said, but she knew that it was very important.  When she woke up from the dream she felt that she needed to go to church.  Well, that's the good news the sad news is that she is going to be going on vacation to Buenos Aires this month. we invited her to attend on her trip. we will see what happens. who knows maybe when she gets back she will be already prepared to get baptized. Or even already baptized. At least I hope it goes that well.

We also had a good meeting in church. some senior missionaries from the area passed by and visited the branch here. they came in during the second hour and then quite a few of them shared their testimonies during sacrament meeting the third hour. They were very good testimonies.

With Alejandra going down to B.A. close to the temple there we shared with her a picture of the temple and she said she had seen it before when she was traveling.

Temples are where we can be united with our ancestors from all over the world, where we can help those that have left their legacy with us to obtain salvation and even exaltation after this life.

Elder Dallin Skouson

We finished our month long Book of Mormon reading.

Summer is coming!!! My new companion was remarking how green it all is here. I started to look around and it is true. this week it wasn't too hot but it looks like it will be getting hotter here soon. Enero and diciembre sound hot but january and december sound cold. I guess they don't mean the same thing to me in my head. haha.

Last Saturday we had a baptism! it was the branch president's daughter. so not a missionary baptism but still it was nice.

We also had transfers. I stayed here. my companion went to El Colorado. They shut down one of the areas here in Mercedes and my new companion, Elder Curtis, just finished his training in the other area. So our new area is all of Mercedes instead of half. They also have me as district leader and we are in the branch presidency together. It's all is a lot of responsibility.

Elder Curtis is from Texas and is willing to take charge in the lessons and work together to get them done and help the people out.

We are going to be working hard. We have some good investigators here especially since they combined the areas.

We are teaching Alejandra who has come to church and wants to come again. Also we are teaching Carolina who read and prayed and knows the Book of Mormon comes from God. She is a 22 year old single mother of 2 kids aged 4 and 3.

And we are teaching Silvia and Raul. They are from the other area and are interested in reading the book of mormon and coming to church.

Pray for them! they need help to be able to really take hold of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its fullness.

We finished our month long Book of Mormon reading. it for sure helped build my faith. I learned a lot about being strengthened by the Lord and about having faith. It is not something that just comes and goes. true faith can help strengthen us because we will trust in the Lord even in the hard moments. We can receive strength though the atonement of Christ. I think that's something very powerful and important we often forget.

Love,

Elder Dallin Skouson

Unity really is as important as they say.

Clap, clap, clap.... door opens 'si, hola' person starts to walk toward us.

my companion in a whisper 'I don't know what to do' silence 'oh come on Elder' silence

'hola, ¿si?' a little bit of silence and sometimes a very quiet 'fine' then louder 'hola, como esta...'

that was about how the week went this week. It was Elder Butlers turn to take control of things and he did a very good job. the spirit was in the lessons. we taught with unity and he did a lot of good work.

I learned some good things: Unity really is as important as they say, unity is most effective when we give 100 percent each one, and that it is important to step out of our comfort zone so that zone can grow. We can often do more than we think we can.

We also had an investigator come to church. Her name is Alejandra. She is having a rough time in her life right now and we are sure the gospel of Jesus Christ can help her. we are working hard and we were very happy she came to church.

I also got to give a talk in church. I talked about the strengthening power of the atonement using examples from Moroni preparing his people for war in the end of Alma. 

The spirit brings the strength to us so we need to obtain it to be strong. We can all do some simple things:

-Fight for the cause of the christians. (fight for Christ's cause we must seek to what Christ wants and follow the example he set)

-Fortify the line that divides us from the bad. (set limits and boundaries don't let any bad at all in)

-Build spiritual towers to see attacks coming at put safe guards in them to be safe against the attacks when they get there. (read the scriptures, pray, go to church, keep the commandments...)

-And surround us with security don't let the bad even get close. (have good friends, avoid places of temptation...)

To finish the talk I tried something President Franco recommended. We wrote our testimonies in a book of mormon and I presented it during the talk and invited a member to come up after and take it (I left it on the pulpit) then explained that when we share the gospel with others that we love and that love us it can be so much more powerful. The spirit can testify through those that love us so much more closely and more powerfully. So I invited the member who took it to pray to know who to give it to and to then look for that opportunity.

The recent convert in the branch took the book at the end of the meeting. Hopefully good things come of it.

I know that Christ lives and loves us and wants to help us. he can give us strength to overcome obstacles and become a better person. 

Also some other interesting things that happened.

We went to Resistencia for a multi-zone conference. We left here at 3 in the morning got to resistencia at 7 were in the church all day until the office elders left at 9 then we tried to go to Corrientes Capital to get our bus here again. We went to the taxi stop to Corrientes across the river and they said there was an accident on the two lane bridge. So we ended up stopping a regular city taxi and paying 2 times as much to get over there.

I felt bad for the driver, He had his light off when I stopped him and was on his way home. I think he saw an opportunity for a quick 20 bucks and then it turned out to be 2 hours of mostly sitting and waiting but we finally made it.

I was in the first taxi over there. We got there about 12 at night. the bus left at 11. so we went looking. we found the next one that left at 12:10. We called the other Elders in the zone, convinced the driver to wait 5 minutes so that all of our zone could come with us and we got back home at about 4.

so in the end it was a day that lasted longer than 24 hours from when we got out of bed to when we got back in it. next time I'm going to get over there earilier and try to see if there is a bus that gets back here sooner.

We were stuck in the apartment for the voting that was going on Sunday so we made cinnamon rolls. our oven only has one temperature so they came out burnt on the bottom just right on top, but it was still really fun.

Elder Dallin Skouson

The Gospel can fix and enhance our lives

This week went really fast. we are working hard 2 interesting things happened this week.

We explained to an investigator, Oscar, that if he wanted to go to the Celestial kingdom and stay with his family after death he would have to keep the commandments of God. and one of those was getting rid of the saints that he prays to. We asked him the questions would you rather follow your saints or God? he said I can't choose between the two. We then asked So would you rather choose your saints or your family? We passed by later in the week and he had decided that he didn't want to pray about it to know if the commandment came from God and he didn't want to live it. Hopefully he will change later in his life. And I learned that we all must trade in our sins and be made clean through Christ and that is the way that we choose our families as well.

We also are trying to help out Alejandra, she has been investigating the church for a while and her cousin is a member in the branch here. She lost her job the other day and was very sad we are going to try to help her see how the gospel can help her out in her life.

We also finally found marshmallows. I have been looking for a while now and we finally got a 300 gram bag for 60 pesos. so pretty expensive. They are not the same as they are there but they are very similar.

They also redid our bathroom. They had to break away a bunch of brick and tile and replace some stuff. we are happy to be back to using it as normal.

The Gospel can fix and enhance our lives we just have to let it do that so that we can feel the difference. I feel blessed to be working here in Argentina.

Love, 

Elder Dallin Skouson

The pictures are the marshmallows we found

Elder Butler and me right before we get on the bus to a district meeting

and out the bus window on the way back from the district meeting

picture in the elevator

I'm on the phone

and some cool lightning that Elder Butler's camera got good pictures of

The Lord's work

To start we have come up with some interesting lunch ideas.

We cooked rice with tomato sauce in it as it cooked and we threw in some peppers and onions and ate that with a side of pancakes. It was good and my companion tried the rice on the pancakes but I was not quite that brave. we also made hamburgers with pancakes for buns that was quite good as well. better than the rice on the pancakes I imagine.

Anyway we also had some good experiences working with people. I have had a bad tendency to get frustrated when people don't listen or seem to not want to take the obvious right choice. We taught a family that is Evangelico (i'm not sure what that actually means in English. It just like one of the many churches of whoever, so not catholic, not protestant, just a church...) and they were pretty right on up until we mentioned Joseph Smith. they hastily told us that his name wasn't in the bible and started to ask us firey questions. One of them removed himself from the situation and the other two were rather quiet. We stayed calm and invited them to pray about the message. What greater witness can you have than from God? They wouldn't answer us straight so we still calmly asked them why they didn't want to pray to ask God directly. That question was able to make room so the spirit taught them. although they didn't want to progress I know we did our part.

We also had some huge success with a less active lady and her son. we went to her house and asked her to come to church and read the Book of Mormon. they didn't make it to church so we went back again and read with them in the book. they then made it this Sunday for 2 of the 3 hours.

These two experiences taught me a lot. This is the Lords work and we are not in charge. He has put us where we are knowing our weaknesses and it is his spirit that is going to do all the work we just need to say and do what he wants us to. Then we can have success whatever happens.

Elder Dallin Skouson

seamos fieles! In English, Let us be faithful.

So, the beginning of this week was kinda rough, but then we had a very very awesome district meeting and we got to do divisions with the district leader I got back a lot of excitement after that. We also had interviews with president. in the end of the week we ended up with 7 fixed appointments Saturday afternoon and 6 Sunday. (not everyone was there but we were still super busy).

At the beginning of the week I was feeling quite negative with a lot of people. Many people don't want to listen to us. We did divisions and watching Elder Olivera just be friends with everyone in contacts helped me out to see that I can control if situations are positive or negative. It took work but It really helped to try to apply that. My attitude did change. We can decide if we are going to be negative or not. if we are really trying hard to be happy with everyone and be happy with ourselves we can be happy.

That really helped us out when we came around to Saturday where I learned another lesson. literally 0 of the 7 people we had set appointments with were there and willing to listen. But we tried to talk to all the people around those houses we could and we were able to fill the night with teaching instead of just wandering aimlessly. In the end we had a lot of success.

Sunday was better. We were able to find new people to teach, make it to our plans and get a lot of good lessons out of the day. We also try to have 21 lessons each week that look like they could lead to a baptism as a goal for the mission and we haven't been able to get that in this area before but this week we made it. we got 22.

I think these things really helped me to see how what I am reading now in the book of mormon applies. we are all trying to read the entire book as a mission by the end of this month. so I started from the beginning. When we are at an appointment that falls through seeking the guidance of the lord and being faithful to keep the commandments and spiritual promptings we get will help us get the job done and find the people we need to talk to. Like Nephi constantly reminds his brothers. Let us be faithful. the Lord knows who we are and where we are and how we can lift where we stand.

Elder Dallin Skouson

Doctrine and Covenants 10:5---We can use prayer to strengthen us against the temptations of the Devil.

This week the most exciting thing that happened was what's going on with Rosalia. We had another lesson with her. She had lots of questions. among them were found some like, if we get baptized what's going to happen to our son being in a catholic school? and also I don't know if I can do it because I couldn't imagine being away from my son for so long like you are from your parents. But she also had some doubts about single mothers in the church and she was chatting with someone on mormon.org and reading everything for and against. We are going to really focus on helping her pray to know.

so that was exciting. Also we are working hard on teaching some other people. They all have their own obstacles and doubts but we are trying hard to help them all. one lady we are teaching named Alejandra is cousin to a member who told us they invite her all the time to church we are going to have a lesson with her tomorrow and I'll have to let you know how that goes.

We also have been working on finding and there are lots of people here that are a lot more closed off than in other places. but we keep working hard and we find some success.

also we made chocolate chip cookies the other day. it didn't work out perfect and we used azucar negra instead of brown sugar but it worked out okay.

Anyway this week was good and we are going to keep working hard here. Remeber that prayer is always available.

Doctrine and Covenants 10:5 Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work.

We can use prayer to strengthen us against the temptations of the Devil.

Elder Dallin Skouson

Divisions transfers and more---When we have diligence we can overcome our obstacles and find answers to our prayers.

This week started out about normal but we had some interesting things happen. we had transferes and one of the elders staying with us left. his companion just finished training and is waiting to get his companion.

probably the most interesting thing that happened this week was when we did divisions with one of the members. Elder Butler and the other Elder that's waiting on his companion went out to work in the other area and I stayed here and worked with a member that's a little timid. We had no success for the first 2 and a half hours or so. we contacted and got a lot of no and I'm not interested answers. we also had some appointments fall through.

We were at a point where I was a little bit sad and just frustrated I thought why why today when this member is here and I really want him to have a good experience. So I decided to go talk to everyone. we talked to all the people we saw outside on the way to our plan b and we found a man named sandro.

He was very interested he asked us what the Gospel is. He asked us why there are so many churches and he expressed how good he felt as he heard the answers testified to his heart by the spirit. We explained how the Church was restored. It was a super awesome lesson and Sandro was literally on the edge of his seat.

We then got to go to another appointment and she was there. Rosalia had read the pamphlet we left and knew the entire thing forwards and back. her husband said I've seen that book and always wanted to read it. we gave them a Copy and they were excited to see what is inside.

When we have diligence we can overcome our obstacles and find answers to our prayers. We can complete so much more when we are willing to work to accomplish what we have been sent to this earth to accomplish.

Love,

Elder Dallin Skouson

Rain!!!!

This week was a good one.

We did divisions with our zone leaders and that was a fun experience. We got to travel from 930 at night to 130 in the morning 2 nights in a row. but we made it and we are feeling recuperated on sleep now. the day we did divisions Elder Butler said it rained in the zone leader's area. and it rained on the ride home (it only got a litlte bit inside the bus on my knee. and then the next 2 days it rained in our area. just a constant slow misty type of rain. I actually wore my full winter coat and it's supposed to be spring time.

Divisions were fun but it was weird being with Elder Sipple. it is his last transfer in the mission. he was a little bit 'trunky' but not too bad. we showed up to try to help the city with our service project. And they still don't have materials. So we gave the guy in charge our number and are still waiting to hear back.

We have been working with some good people in our area recently.

Oscar went to work out on a farm this week and we didn't get to see him much we taught him about fasting and he said he wanted to apply that in his life to be able to stop smoking. we are doing all we can and we just hope that he does his part of the work to be able to stop.

We also are working with a man named Ramon. he is a good man but is very sad. one difference between him and most other really sad single men I have met on my mission is that he is actually willing to read and to do stuff. He has been reading a little bit in the Book of Mormon and is seeing a difference. He also lives in an old building that used to be used for the train. he said the city gave it to him and that he doesn't live under a bridge because there are no bridges close by.

We are working as well with a man named Coqui he works taking the fabric off of couches and putting new material on them. (the word that describes that just isn't there in my mind right now)

We have been very blessed to be able to find the people that need this message and we are working hard with them to help them come to Christ.

I have been thinking a lot about why it's important to have the true church in our lives as well. many tell us here that they believe that all the churches are the same. We know and the should know though What Christ says on both continents during his personal ministry.

3rd Nefi 14:

13 Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, which leadeth to destruction, and many there be who go in thereat;

 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

We need to find that way and that gate. and we need to enter it. We can all start with baptism at the gate and the way, if we follow it, leads even to exaltation. I think it's worth changing our lives over.

Love,

Elder Dallin Skouson

We also made root beer floats with some root beer flavoring that one of the elders here has!!!!!!

I could feel it even though it's my second language.

Today we got a bunch of personal letters from our boy.  Let's just say.  Paycheck!!  He didn't want these in the blog.  :) We love him and are so grateful for all the growth we see happening to him while he's faithfully serving a mission.  So, our blog entry for today is a bit short.  

We also went and talked to the mayor to see how we could do some sort of service project for the city. we are going to go see this week but we are going to maybe be helping to rebuild a house for a woman who's house is falling apart. so that will be exciting. also the mayor is very personable. I could feel it even though it's my second language.

Elder Dallin Skouson

I think this gospel is really amazing

So, This week we worked hard. This area has been different than most of my other areas. The word Mañana here means 'tomorrow' sometimes and most of the time it means 'I don't want anything'

We have been working hard though and we have found a lot of people with real interest in the message we share. we are trying hard to get the people interested and to work together. My companion is learning spanish really fast and is good at teaching the people.

Today we also got to go see 2 museums we saw one that was a bunch of poorly stuffed animals and some culture stuff. they had an american quarter from 1992 in a glass case interesting. And a very cool museum about the train that has been shut down for about 15 years now. A man who worked in the train station for about 50 years gave us a tour of the now museum. he showed us the telegraph boards and still has morse code memorized. he showed us an original letter he wrote and an old black and white picture captioned 'Workers celebrating railroad day' and had us guess which of them was him. he gave us a train ticket stamped with the date of the last day the train ran with passengers here as well.

We are also planning on making a video with a recent convert to invite people to come to conference. to put on facebook I'll let you guys know how that goes.

I think this gospel is really amazing. we found a man the other day asked us yeah but all the churches say they are true and how can I know which one it is? Well prayer is the key. and he said but I still have questions about things why is there still bad in the world if God is there. Well we have the Book of Mormon that answers those questions and all you have to do is read it, find your response, and then pray to know if that response comes from God. The gospel is so simple and I am so greatful that it makes so much sense when we reason our way through it no matter how much we ponder on it. so search ponder and pray are the things that we must do.

Elder Dallin Skouson

some pictures of the museum

Our friends really are a very important part of who we become

So, we are now in Mercedes Corrientes we have the south half of the city as our area and we live in the only high rise building here. we live on the 8th floor so we get a pretty good view. we are all living there together the 4 missionaries that are in the city and probably the best news is that we have a washing machine. It was also kinda surprising that the other elders left the first day we were here with their bags on. We feel very safe here compared to where we were at.

The area is good. It reminds me a little of campo largo but it is bigger. the people here have an interesting accent it's been a little harder to get used to. they also have a lot more money than the people in the last area and the branch is a lot smaller. there are about 15 active members. 

There is a man named Arturo who has been investigating for a while and we are working with him to try to help him get to be baptized he needs to get divorced and remarried as well and we are going to try really hard to help get him there.

We also met a man named Sebastian and his wife named Atina. Sebastian is in the military and he thought it was way way cool that Dad is too. So far he hasn't made too much progress with what we have left him to do but his wife had a ton of really good questions. she was asking about marriage and about all sorts of stuff the church does. It is always fun to get the question: do you guys have to marry someone in the church? Well no but there are blessings you miss out on. to marry in the church it is for all of time and eternity and not just this life. that is quite a powerful thing that the priesthood can link 2 people and their family together like that.

We also had a district conference where they talked about getting married quite a bit and how important it is. It was good.

We have been working hard at finding and we are having some success in doing it. We have had hard days and easier days but we are getting to know our area well. My companion is a good missionary and I think we work well together we are going to keep on working hard and we are going to find someone to baptize.

Also if we focus on it and do what we can the Lord will guide us to know what we need to. I had a feeling I should study Helaman 6 because it was next in line in my reading and that day we found a guy who asked if my girlfriend does bad things should I stay with her. I thought of how bad it went for the Nephites when they upheld the gadianton robbers and we gave him a book of mormon to answer his question with that part marked. If we focus even during study time it can really help us with the time we use in the street. In the district meeting we also heard a story from the mission counselor about a girl who stayed with her friends that were doing bad things and ended up dropping out of the church and also dropping out of school. Our friends really are a very important part of who we become.

Keep working hard. The spirit can guide us in all we do. and remember to always lift where you stand.

Love,

Elder Dallin Skouson

also some other interesting things we saw in our last area. we saw some kids race a horse and a motorcycle across a soccer field. the motorcycle won but I think the horse took off faster. Also we saw 4 horses and 2 dogs eating out of the same dumpster at once. That might be a new world record for most farm animals eating out of a dumpster in a neighborhood at once.

..lunch after the district conference

..a very dark picture of everyone that lived in our last apparment together at about 6 in the morning before we left.

..my last apartment

This is the view from my new apartment 

                                                            This is our elevator