Elder Josh Skousen

So this week was pretty good, but still not quite as good as i was hoping, I think that I´m being tested, so that the Lord can bring me higher.  like I said, I worked on testifying this week, and i think that it went pretty well, my goal was to be more bold and to help others feel the spirit.  but in the end, I still feel rejected at every turn, we had awesome plans for a señora named Amalia to come to church with her two grand daughters, all of which seem very interested, we passed by Saturday and made good plans, but they didn't want us to come pick them up (always a bad sign) but they assured us they would come...  They didn´t...  

I´ve said this before but i came down here expecting to have baptisms every week, and just having lots of humble people that are willing to listen to the gospel.  I set a high standard at the beginning and i realized that after a while i realized that this is just how it is, we just don't baptize that much here.  then i decided to pull my head out and I realized that its probably my fault, I lowered my standard of expectation for myself, thinking its normal, I'm deciding to be above normal, but you gotta work for it. I have been reading in Alma and I read about the first half this last week or so, and learned a lot from Alma, Ammon and the sons of Mosiah.  I just wanna be like those guys haha.  but Alma 26 has been my favorite chapter in the book of Mormon since before i left, but every time i read it, it burns inside me.  I can just feel how excited and happy that Ammon is because of the success he had and the opportunity to be a tool in the lords hands.  he doesn't boast in what he did, he boasts in the Lord, and puts all his confidence in Him.  I´d like it if you all could read this chapter, and think about your own missionary work.  I love the first half of the book of Alma.  the first 45 chapters or so.  seriously!  It just reaffirms my testimony of the book of Mormon.  I just wish that I could get somebody to read it, because i know that if they did they would feel the same way i do.  This is true happiness that i want to share with everyone! I feel like Alma, when he wishes that he were an angel and had the power to testify to everyone.  anyways I´m not gonna get down, this is my comp´s last week here, we´ll see if we cant have some success.  anyways, that's all for this week, thanks mom for your letter, it was inspiring and yes, the safety for the soul is my favorite talk that I've heard, Its really awesome to watch it, you can watch them on lds.org.  you should also watch that, it will build your testimony of the Book of Mormon.  I like how it says that nobody can leave this church without crawling under around or over the book of Mormon. 

We had zone conference this week and I'm just super pumped now.  I learned a lot.  it was pretty awesome.  they said they were gonna put something about it on the blog so you can look that up if you want. 

anyways to answer questions
1. yes i´m pretty much back to normal strength, glad that's over
2. yes i used oils
3. yes i got the valentines day package! thank you so much for that! You´re the best mom!
4. still workin on music
5. dog bites are ok, i washed them out and it left a little scar on my hand but its all good
6. that lady is never freaking home!!!! we will keep going by but we challenged another lady and she accepted but didn't come to church either sooooooo yeah, but we will keep trying with her, it seems kinda promising


anyways just to clear up some stuff, I wasn´t in the train that crashed, but its a good thing that we weren´t going to capital that day or else we totally woulda been smashed...   :S 

also that stinks to hear about chase´s companion, we had an Elder down here get stabbed 3 times and his throat slit, a while back and president gave him a blessing and said that if he wasnt in the lord´s service, he would be dead.  but he´s not.  he goes home this week.  church is true. dont worry, im in a pretty safe area...  for now... hahahahahahahahahahahahahhasdklfjhasdlkfhsadfkls

Thats all for this week.  I love you all!

Elder Skousen

Josh's mission president posted on the mission blog about zone conference (click here to read).  I found these photos there.  Check it out!