haha holy crap...
sooooooooooo... lots happened this week. lots. i´ll try to get to
most of it. its hard though cuz we just dont have much time, but to
try and answer some questions.
im living in a nasty pench inside a town called parqúe san martin
its kinda crazy... its really hot and really humid and really really
smelly... its pretty incredibly poor. Its freaking nuts how good we
have it and we dont realize. people here live in shacks and shambles of
houses, honestly some of the houses look like they are ruins. like
pompeii but a lot dirtier. there are some nice houses here too. but
when i say nice houses, i mean much worse than anything we have anywhere
in utah... like the houses in the mayan villages in mexico are kindof
like an average house but it gets much worse and better. kinda hard to
explain better than that. sorry. but yeah lots of the roads are dirt,
like 60 or 75% are dirt and there is always the open sewage ditches
running alongside every road. its really really nasty. there are also a
billion dogs. ive never seen so many dogs in my life. most of the are
nice. actually most of them bark at us and hate us. you just have to
bend over and pretend like you are picking up a rock and they leave you
alone. but yeah i see a kinda nice house and im like wow thats a nice
house and then i think about our house... its just rediculous how good
we have it. if i can ill send some pictures of the pench. our pench
really is pretty nice compared to the other houses around here but ill
be honest when i first got there, i couldnt get myself to touch
anything. i didnt even want to hang my stuff in the closet because it
was just soo gross. everything. i have since grown accustomed to
everything and now it doesnt seem like such a big deal... is that a good
thing??? not sure.... anywyas, another thing i really miss is having a
microwave. we take those for advantage a lot. also our fridge is
really really old, like when were fridges invented? cuz this thing is
awful. the freezer doesnt work. and we dont have anything in it except
mayonase and ketchup... the staple of argentina. people eat tons of
mayo and mustard here. its gross. holy cow they eat sooo unhealthily.
they have tons of milonesa, breaded fried meat, bread, mayo, and hugo.
we might get to have an asado on sabado. thats exciting. the milk here
is in bags. thats kinda weird. we got lots of kanchitas. theyre like
really frosted frosted flakes. and the milk kinda tastes like 3% milk
would taste. its really creamy so i like it with the super frosted
frosted flakes.
sorry theres just sooo much to talk about. im just putting down whatever comes to my head.
anyways our area is weird cuz we have both a ward and a branch.
Parqúe uno and Parqúe dos. there are tons of inactives here. they both
meet at the same capilla which is pretty nice by the way. except the
piano freaking stinks. its sooo off tune and lots of the notes stick...
unfortunately i had to play in sacrament meeting. that was just great
because i cant play hymns. i practiced for a few minutes and just went
up there and did my best. it actually didnt turn out too bad. i played
loor al profeta (praise to the man) and it was pretty good. luckily
the rest of sacrament meeting was the primary program. it was really
cute, there was like 8 primary kids in the branch and maybe 13 in the
ward. both were excellent. but i had to stand up and introduce myself
up at the pulpit and when i said im elder skousen and yada yada, i
started to bear my testimony but then i saw my comp in the audience
(which consisted of liek 20 people) mouthing something to me. i
panicked and said the church was true amen and sat down. he was tyring
to tell me to bear my testimony but i was already doing that. it was
awkward. anyways i made it better in second sacrament meeting with the
ward. oh yeah i go to 2 sacraments. anyways there are tons of
inactives here... its stinks. the ward isnt really involved but we are
changing things and going to get everyone going. we are starting to do
an FHE thing at the church for both the ward and branch every week. it
should be good. also a futbol night on wednesdays for anyone to come
and we asked the members to bring people. we probably wont be playing
but its a good way for people to just congregate and so we can use the
capilla more. anyways so i was expecting this to be like what ive heard
of south america... just baptizing like crazy right? wrong... its soo
annoying, like 99.99% of our sitas have fallen through... people just
arent being as receptive as i´d hoped. the people dont really like us.
the kids always mock us and occasionally throw rocks at us. i havent
been robbed yet but people tell us to give them our money and we dont.
but its ok, we endure afflictions and hardships on the chance that we
might save some soul. (Alma 26... my favorite chapter in the BOM)
anyways my comp is named elder aaron edwards from hyrum utah. its
right next to logan. hes pretty cool. hes a good trainer i think. we
work hard. theres a couple things that we could do better and im trying
to be better.
my bedding is working out just great. i love my sheets. ive been
sleeping pretty well. its also nice because the sun actually comes up
at right about 6:30 and shines on my face. its easier to wake up
sometimes. but still really really hard. sometimes its hard to sleep
though just because its soo hot. but eventually ive fallen asleep every
night.
this week my biggest challenge has been castellano. but i have
gotten tons better this week. its awesome. i can usually understand
like 70% mas o menos whats going on but sometimes more :). for some
reason its just hard when people ask me direct questions. i usually
dont know what exaactly they are asking. but its ok, ive made big
strides and everyone is complimenting me on how good my spanish is. so
we are tyring to reach all of our metas and we barely finished them all
on sunday. like barely. it was awesome kinda. i think that heavenly
father provides away if we are trying our best.
to answer some of dads questions, the people are friendly but when
the see its us, they dont ever want to hear what we have to say. we´ve
made some good contacts but then they never seem to work out. ugh its
so frustrating. sometimes i feel like we´re having success but then
nothing seems to come of what we do. the Christmas season doesn't seem
to help at all. actually i didn't really think about Christmas or
thanksgiving til you mentioned it. it feels like july haha... we
dont have anything planned for thanksgiving. except some service. but
yeah i totally forgot about that. we do eat oreos every Thursday
night. thats pretty cool. mom i really really appreciate the cooking
instructions but i highly doubt we will be able to do anything like
that. Thursday is going to be a normal day. it make me kind of sad haha
but hey seriously im ok. im happy and in the service of our lord. but
if somehow we can manage to cook something up when we get back to the
pench Thursday night i will let you know. our oven sucks anyways, its
just a gas fire, with no way to control the temperature, its either
crazy hot or like 125 degrees. but dont worry seriously it might sound
kind of depressing but its not, i will eat an oreo for each of you and
count my blessings. they are many. even though sometimes it doesn't seem
like it. ive occasionally had to sit there and think for a long time
to think of some blessings that i have received that day and its hard.
but they are there. its humbling sometimes when you have to find them.
so yeah these are all random thoughts im having but just fyi... our
branch president and bishop are both awesome. the president is a really
humble man with daughters who want to be baptized but the wife wont
let them. its sad. but hes awesome.
i was just thinking about how awesome it is that dad is called into
the bishopric. that's really soo cool. you have even more opportunity
to do good. think of all the people you can help! :) it will probably
seem overwhelming at times, and i feel overwhelmed at times but i love
how the lord doesn't give us something we cant handle. only things that
will help us continue to grow. soo good luck with that dad. and the
rest of the family too. you will probably have to pull together and
help each other through some stuff. but you will all be better for it.
oh yeah so i bought a little thing to keep some pictures in, a
little photo album. people love to look at your pictures. people i don't even know love to see other peoples pictures.. they always ask if
you have pictures its kinda weird but i kinda like showing you guys
off. :)
Anyways, i think that that's all i have for today... sorry if i
didnt answer all your questions. if i didn't email me and tell me list
them kinda like mom did. its a little easier that way :) I love you
all sooo much. Jake im sorry to hear you guys lost but i heard you did
awesome soo chin up. also siera go kick butt out there in cali. Jared
and Dad have fun in St George. Nicole.... uhhhh i love you and do good
in stuff you are doing. :D Mom have fun with siera and all of you know
that i love you and im thankful for all that i have this thanksgiving.
With much love,
Elder Josh Skousen
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