Skibby sent the following email on Monday, November 14, 2016:

Date:  November 14, 2016 at 10:15 AM

Subject:  Normal

Hola familia and everyone!

Sorry, because I'm writing this really fast and I'll have to read your letters tonight, so sorry beforehand.

Hna Mendoza left this morning for Leon, with my ccm companion, Hna Webster. Weird. Also it was really sad, but good. Mixed feelings.

So we traveled a lot today and that's why I don`t have a ton of time to write. My new companion is Hna Quispe. She is from Peru. Already she is great. I guess my Spanish isn't good enough yet because I've been blessed with another native speaking companion.

This week has been incredible.

On Friday we had recent convert baptisms in ... Pavones! We took Carmen. Being young and spry, my companion and I didn't realize that the metro and renfe system would be a little bit rough for Carmen. There were a lot of stairs. Too many. But she braved them like a champ.  The temple was really awesome. She was baptized for her daughter and her mother.

I had another Hank Nelson sighting. [Note:  Hank Nelson and his wife, Kristy, are a senior couple from our stake who are currently serving in the Madrid Temple.]  He is a really good man. He said he was glad to see me there again and I said that our converts had been miracles. He said, "I believe in miracles." I don't know why I felt like this was really profound, but I did.

 

We took a taxi home. One of the members of barrio 6 came and picked us up. He is a taxi driver. That was a blessing for Carmen.

Our friend named Miguel Angel is very straightforward. Every time we ask him how he is doing he says-- normal. We are trying to change this and figure out how we can help him.

I was thinking about how we are a peculiar people. We walk around with badges and titles that we give ourselves. We have big meetings and transfers and lots of things happening in our world that nobody else knows about. We wait for transfers while the rest of the world waits for the next movie or iphone to come out. We are anything but normal. If we didn't have the authority, I, like everyone else would think we were crazy. But the authority makes everything real and important. I know that we really are here to help all of these people and that our calling comes from God. I'm so grateful to know that we have the permission to act in the name of Jesus Christ and have the fullness of the gospel.  When we ask the people on the street what their belief in God is, many of them say, the normal... this means Catholicism.

Everyone have a great week. Love and miss you all. I will send pictures next week.

skib