First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!! I love you and hope you have a fantastic birthday!! I wish I could spend it with you. But there will be many more to come. I hope you have a fantastic day papsaroonious (idk how to spell it).
Family, ummm so I only received one Dear Elder [you can write to her and she can receive the letter the next day at dearelder.com. It's free! Contact me, Sister Skaggs' mom, if you have any questions about that] this week... hmmm you have a lot of catching up to do. You have one week to make it up. Mail is A BIG DEAL here. We are always checking to see if we have mail. Mom it definitely is not annoying. I have A LOT more time to read them than I do checking emails. I got the package. Thanks Mom! And dad I got your letter!
This week was just pure craziness!! I don't even know where to start.
I will start with Leah, our investigator, because that's where a lot of things stemmed from. I love her to death!! As we were teaching her this past week we LITERALLY were walking on egg shells when it came to talking to her. Don't ask me why, it's just Leah. She ended up bashing us multiple times throughout the week, yet again. At one point I started getting defensive, and I as I started going into defensive mode a thought popped into my head. I realized that as a missionary I am an official representative of Jesus Christ, that I'm standing in his place. And It occurred to me that Christ wouldn't become defensive. He would just love her and bare his testimony. So that's exactly what I did.
On Friday, I asked her, "Would you like to say the opening prayer?" and as I was asking the question I felt strongly to invite her to pray. She was glad to pray and said she needed to. Her prayer, even though it was 10 minutes long, was the most sincere and genuine prayer I have ever heard in my life. She thanked God for putting my companion and I in her life, that it's because of us that she is staying here at the MTC and isn't leaving, that she will start to trust missionaries more because of us etc. I don't remember everything. It was just so sweet. I, of course, was crying like a baby afterwards. I could feel the spirit so strong in the room. She asked us to come back Saturday. When we came back Saturday she gave us this bent nail that represented the burdens we carry and that it's through Christ that our burdens can be lifted. She sang this really pretty song to us. Oh did I mention her voice is AMAZING and she plays the guitar!! She said it's rare she gives such things out. That only missionaries who touch her heart and just love her get it. She thanked us yet again on Saturday and we just said, "You know, we didn't do anything, everything we said to you came from your Father in Heaven. He loves you and needed you to hear the things we said. It was through us that he was able to talk to you. We did absolutely nothing." We are going by for about 10 minutes the rest of the week because she really misses us.
Oh, so we ate dinner with her every night last week and then immediately taught her at the end of that. So we spent a good two hours with her every day for about 5 days. I have learned that we just have to love and be patient. The Lord taught me a great deal of patience this past week. He didn't give me what I wanted. He made me struggle and be patient. But it's a blessing because things will only get worse and so he blessed me with this trial now so that I will be better prepared for what I will be faced with on Temple Square.
Guess who got sick this week?? Yup, this sister missionary did. As of last Wednesday I was noticing I wasn't able to go to the bathroom properly. I just ignored it thinking all will be well later. Well I was noticing I was going pee about 16x a day. And then starting Friday I was feeling really nauseous and was getting a pretty bad headache. I was drinking 4 water bottles a day, eating salad, fruit and the main meal, getting 7 1/2 hours of sleep and so I didn't know what it was. I decided to drink powerade to see if that would help. Well, Saturday rolled along and my head was in so much pain. But it was really neat because Heavenly Father was blessing me with the strength and energy to get me through the day and was allowing me to focus just enough despite the headache I had. My teacher started getting worried and said I needed to go to the Health Clinic. My branch presidents wife, Sunday, was a little concerned. So Monday when it opened I decided I probably should go (I went cause I was kind of forced to). I had a non stop headache for 48 hours at that point and nothing was happening. I saw the doctor and after he checked my appendix, kidneys, bladder, stomach etc. he still couldn't figure it out. He said that it must be an intestinal virus that escalated. Yay. He gave me a shot and then I had to sleep for a good hour and a half before they would release me. He said it helps it to go away. I left and it still wouldn't go away. He told me to come back later if it was still
there.
there.
Well I came back about 4 hours later after taking Ibproufen and they had to give me another shot and I had to sleep for another hour. Afterwards he said the stress from Leah combined with the intestinal virus is what is causing this migraine. I still have it as I type right now. It's been 72 hours now with the migraine. Saturday night I received a priesthood blessing and in it, it was mentioned that "the trials, challenges and afflictions aren't punishments from your Heavenly Father, they are blessings. That over time your body would heal." Some other very powerful and neat things were mentioned. So I know all will be okay in the end. I just need to be patient. I feel so blessed to be put in this trial, because Heavenly Father is blessing me with awareness of how my body reacts under stress like that and he was informing me to not be stubborn and to turn to him instead relying on myself (in regards to getting better on my own). Even with the migraine I still have enough energy to get through my day. Don't get me wrong it hurts. But I know this is simply just a blessing.
I feel strongly that as we look at our trials as blessings from God our life truly will change. We will see things in a different light. We will understand things more clearly and we realize just how much he truly does love and care for us. Oh, and with that my doctor said I can't have anything dairy til Sunday (no cookies, milk, cheese, ice cream, cake, chocolate etc). If it has dairy I can't have it. I'm not allowed to have any juice concentrate. And I have to ease back on how much water and powerade I have. So basically I can just breathe in air. But hey that's better than nothing. LOL I'm managing so don't worry about me!
The Elders in my MTC zone left Sunday and yesterday. Such a depressing day. They are some of my best friends. Haha! We had a little too much fun with each other, but we knew when we needed to get down to work.
The elders in my district left Monday for Farmington, New Mexico and then the other elders left this morning for Everrett, Washington. We have a plan to all meet in Hawaii as a zone in a couple of years. We have all the details planned. I was like, "Yah, lets see if it happens." All the elders are like, "Sister Skaggs, think positive!!!!" Lol. I love them sooo much!!!
The Elders in my MTC zone left Sunday and yesterday. Such a depressing day. They are some of my best friends. Haha! We had a little too much fun with each other, but we knew when we needed to get down to work.
The elders in my district left Monday for Farmington, New Mexico and then the other elders left this morning for Everrett, Washington. We have a plan to all meet in Hawaii as a zone in a couple of years. We have all the details planned. I was like, "Yah, lets see if it happens." All the elders are like, "Sister Skaggs, think positive!!!!" Lol. I love them sooo much!!!
Since our district left they created a new district with the remaining 6 sisters and called my companion and I as the Sister Trainer District Leaders.
The food isn't that bad. We have been fed tilapia, burgers, pasta, salmon, tariyaki chicken, chicken, steak, shrimp, gourmet salads, meatball sandwiches, you name it we have had it. I don't think it's all that bad. But I got and intestinal virus so yah. But nobody else has gotten it but me. So yah...
Visitors Center Training starts tomorrow!! Ahhh I'm soooo excited!!
Oh so before I forget I met Sister Geddies somewhat uncle in the cafeteria yesterday (not enough time to explain) they are the Clark's. Such a sweet couple!!!!
In regards to gum I still haven't had any. Cut cold turkey a week and a half ago. Went from 7 pieces a day to none and surprisingly I haven't had withdrawals. I'm still doing good in regards to not being with my phone and not watching T.V. has totally been fine. Except can someone please give me an update on the Malaysia airlines flight???
Well my time is almost up. I love you all!!
Sister Skaggs
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