Skibby sent us the following email on Monday, October 24, 2016:

Date:  October 24, 2016 at 10:31 AM

Subject:  Well, the rain in spain clearly doesn't fall mainly in the plains because we've got loads of it here.

Hello Family.

I love and miss you.

We’re having a Halloween party this Friday as a ward, but if we don't have investigators there, we can't go. So I might just celebrate Halloween alone. I don't know if people here haven't seen Little Mermaid or Brave or some other movie that's a little more flattering for redheads, but everyone here thinks I am Pippy Longstocking. They like to show me pictures and compare the two of us. It's great. So maybe I'll dress up as Pippy Longstocking and take pictures for them.

Juancito had surgery on his eyes, so now I play the piano for sacrament. Except yesterday I played the organ. We're lucky to have an organ, but the cover doesn't go all the way up, so it's hard to choose the stops. I'm not really sure how it sounded. I chose the wrong and decided to follow the congregation because they weren't following me. Also, they changed the last hymn rapidly to a Spanish hymn that I'd never heard and the sight reading was a little bit rough. I thought it sounded fine and figured the congregation wouldn't notice because they're not music scholars. However, several people came up to me and told me they were a little lost in the music.... whoopsie:) I am convinced that my piano skills are rapidly going down hill. It's like if you don't go to church or read the scriptures every day, you fall into apostasy. Except with the ability to play the piano.  But lots of people really enjoyed the organ, so I'm just going to press forward and do better next week.

Spanish

I have learned some things -- mucho inteligente and mas mejor doesn't sound the goodest.  I think I have selective speaking. It's like selective hearing, only it's not selective. Sometimes I can understand everything and speak really well, and sometimes I can't understand or say anything. But more than the on and off switch, it's usually on a dim where I recognize that I know the words, but they don't make sense in my brain.

Recently I made a poem of my Spanish. I call it Snowy Cottage on a Winter's Day. This is the shortened version:

Who's streets these are I think I know

His house is in cielo though

My horse begins to question why

we've stopped to see the snow so bleak

And I've got miles to go before I speak,

and miles to go before I speak.

Honestly, I think my Spanish has improved a lot, but there is a long long way too go. My companion helps me a lot and I'm really grateful for her. She's really awesome and caring and care free and happy. We have a lot of fun, and we speak a lot of Spanish.

Lessons we've had:

The biggest miracle of last week was our lesson with Andrew. He is from Nigeria and really loves God, but we've felt like he hasn't really understood all of our lessons. Monday night we had a lesson with him, and he brought his friend, Stan. Stan started to talk a little bit rudely about the church and the Book of Mormon. He said, "Do you believe in this Book of Mormon!?" and Andrew said, "I believe in God. And Mormon was a prophet for God..." and he went on to loosely explain the background of the Book of Mormon. It was really intense. It was amazing to see him defend the Book of Mormon and our beliefs. I think we set Stan straight. After he had his fit and we explained the Book of Mormon a little better, he accepted a Book of Mormon and left. It was like one of the parts in the Book of Mormon where it says people will scoff and scorn and try to make the believers feel stupid. If Andrew didn't work every Sunday, I think he would come to church.

We also had a lesson with Luz. She is a luz [translation: light]. She is really accepting and willing to listen to us. She told us, "I feel really good when I'm around both of you; we all get along really well. I feel peace and tranquility." This is the same thing Elian says about the church. I have decided that if everyone were a little bit more like Elian, the world would be a much better, healthier place.

Well, that's about all I have for now. I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween!!