Text From Brother Skeen

Mindi, your son is in his second transfer here in our ward and we LOVE him. Here is him and his new companion, Elder Bauer. Thanks for sharing him with us! Brother Skeen

Week 58: Goats

This week was a fun one. This week was transfers and my companion went home! I now have Elder Bauer. He is pretty cool, hard worker. It is going to be a good transfer. On Saturday this week we had a lot of service for one of the people we have been working with. We helped her pull weeds and then we walked her goats! That was fun. They didn't really use leashes, we just had a bag of treats and we would shake them and follow. We took them out onto some trails. It was a lot of fun. They run sideways!

I also got to attend the second stake conference of my mission this week. That was cool. The stake here is pretty big so the stake center was packed. Plus the mission president was there. He spoke and explained some of the mission rules that members here have a hard time with over the pulpit. It was cool. We have an online thing to sign up to have us over in the evening, and some people signed up while he was speaking. It was funny.

Stake Conference

Week 57: All Over the Place

This week was insane. It started off normal with a pretty average Tuesday full of a lot of tracting. We ended up teaching a really cool guy for a little bit and he invited us back, which is always nice. Then, on Wednesday elder Monsen had a chiropractor appointment so we drove to the mission one. We did that really early in the morning. Then, that evening I had a baptism. She lives back in Gig Harbor so I got a member to drive me back for it. It was really cool. She bore her testimony at the end of it and it was really powerful. The next day elder Monsen had a departing missionary temple trip so we drove him up bright and early to drop him off at the mission office in Tacoma. Then, me and the zone leaders drove back and I stayed with them for the day except they had exchanges scheduled so I went with elder Thacker to Tumwater and Elder Loader (a Tumwater elder) for the day. Then, the next day elder Monsen was in Tacoma still for a 9-9 with all the other missionaries going home (tracting from 9 am to 9 pm) so I went back to the zone leaders area and worked the day there and then I met back up with my companion Saturday morning. I served in 4 areas in 3 days, sleeping in 3 different apartments. It was a weird week but a lot of fun.

Week 56: It's Thundering and It's Lightening

Another good week this week. On Tuesday we did zone service for a lady cleaning out her backyard and removing some vines. While doing so, we ended up disturbing a wasp nest...I was standing right next to it but somehow managed to not get stung. However, my companion had a couple of them that flew up his shirt. He was stung a couple times. It was not fun for him, but we got some medicine and it healed pretty quick. The rest of the week was pretty wet with it thunder storming one night. It was very unusual. Biking in the rain was kind of fun though, even if I was soaked. Then, the next day it rained pretty heavy for a couple hours (rain like Georgia, not the mist we usually get). While we were tracting yesterday we came across a family who was doing a yard sale and went to go get some stuff and it poured on all their things while they were gone. We asked if we could help and ended up ringing out a bunch of clothes and putting some things together. It was a lot of fun. We got to teach them a little bit too! All in all, good week.

Week 55: Interviews

This week was good! We had interviews with our mission president this week, which is always good. Time keeps moving faster. I feel like just yesterday was last transfers interview. It was good to see the mission president as it always is.

This week we also had the building manager come and help us move all the pictures in the church building so that we could do church tours better. That was a lot of fun. I got to use a hammer to punch holes in the church walls in order to put the pictures in new spots. It was a lot of fun, and now all the pictures are in the right places! It will make the tours go a lot more smoothly.