Sister Jennifer Skaggs: Because of Him

So I totally forgot to mention this last week but HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Mom and Dad!!!

I feel soooo blessed to have such incredible parents in my life and such great examples! I love you soooo much!! It has been really neat this past week when we were giving tours of Temple Square. I was able to testify of Eternal Families when we got to the Temple and Temple Model I was able to share with people that 23 years ago, almost to the day, my parents made the choice to be sealed for time and all eternity.

I was able to share with everyone about how much that means to me and the opportunity I have to be with my mom, dad and two younger brothers for ETERNITY because my parents made that simple choice. So, thank you so much!! I hope I can raise a family someday like you two have been able to raise the three of us!

It's funny I say this EVERY WEEK but I really don't know where to start off. So I guess I will start off with all of the funny and really neat stories first!

MODELS 'R' US.COM:

There is a man that comes to Temple Square EVERYDAY his name is Bob but I call him "Bob my Best Friend". I just love him to death!!

He is super funny. Kind of reminds me of Grandma Susan and her jokes. Anyways, Bob and I love to just joke with each other and make each other laugh. We just have such a great friendship. I was walking across the Square last week and we stopped and just started talking to each other. He grabbed my hand and was like "you know who you look like?" I was like "Who do I look like?" He said, "You look like a model from models 'r' us.com." I was like "You're funny. No I don't." He said, "No but you do." He was dead serious about it. It was really funny. I got a good laugh out if when I walked away.

BLESSED BY A MINISTER:

The other day my companion and I gave a tour to this 21 year old girl. We finished at "God's Plan for His Family" and started to talk to her about Eternal Families. She asked us other questions about our faith and then she thanked us for our time. As she was walking away she turned around and said, "You know, do you mind if I bless you?" We can't really say no I guess when people ask to bless us so we said yes. There was nothing too extreme about it. It was just interesting because I never in a million years expected to have a 21 female minister bless me especially while I'm on a mission. But she was super neat and was grateful for the time we took to help answer her questions and to help her understand the importance of the Book of Mormon, etc.

APOSTLES:

So this past Thursday I was on exchanges with my district leader. We were heading down to the lounge to eat lunch when at the last minute we decided to head to the COB (Church Office Building) for lunch. They have a cafeteria downstairs that we are allowed to go to eat lunch. As we were coming to the entrance of the parking garage, we were about 15 feet I would guess from the entrance, we looked out and saw a security guard standing in front of the entrance. My District Leader whispered to me, "The General Authorities must be near because they only have security out like that when they are near by." I immediately went on high alert and was like "Wait. What?" Not even 5 seconds later we see, about 10 feet in front of us, 5 of the Apostles walk by. When we entered the garage we noticed it was Elder Oaks, Elder Bednar, Elder Cook, Elder Nelson, and Elder Ballard. I cannot explain how strong the spirit was being that close to 5 of the 12 apostles. Elder Nelson ended up stopping to talk to this couple in front of us. He made eye contact with us but that was about it. We were kind of on cloud 9. But then as we walked into the cafeteria we almost ran into Sister Oscarsen, the Relief Society General President. We were walking in and she quickly walked right past us with her food. We could tell she definitely had somewhere to be. So we quickly ate and as we were walking back we came near the entrance of the Temple (underground) and we saw that security was still there. One of the Security guards stopped to talk with us and mentioned how we missed Elder Holland by about 2 minutes and that there were still 2 more brethren to come out. We waited about 5 minutes but we needed to be exactly obedient so we had to leave. So that was a little different of a day. That was my fan girl moment of the week. lol! I need to work on that... I learned that Thursday's are the BEST days to go to the COB to eat lunch! ;)

LESSONS LEARNED:

Saturday morning I woke up with a sore throat. Not fun, I know, especially while being out on a mission. A simple sore throat turned into everything else. Long story short, I have been out of commission since Saturday now. They had me pretty much just rest down in the lounge Saturday. I was frustrated at first as to why I was sick when there was so much I needed to do. I quickly learned that my Heavenly Father allowed me to get sick so that he could teach me a lesson. With being sick these past couple of days and not being able to work he has allowed me to reflect on these past couple of weeks and on all the many lessons he has tried to teach me. I have learned that it is only through our Savior Jesus Christ that we can become who he needs us to become. Our Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ love us so much that they put various trials in our way to help us grow and become the individuals they need us to become. The one scripture that I have really treasured these past couple weeks is Ether 12:27 [from the Book of Mormon]. I have been given so many weakness's not as burdens but as blessings. As we take each weakness he has given us and turn to him for help and truly have that desire to grow and be strengthened, that through him we will see our weakness's turn into strengths, our faith & love for him will greatly increase and more than ever we will feel of his love. I have come to realize that I don't like to be taught. And so being out of commission these past couple of days was more or less his way of taking control of the situation for him giving me the chance to see who he needed me to become instead of who I wanted to become. He has been trying to teach me so much these past couple of weeks and I haven't really allowed myself to take in all of the things he has been trying to teach me. With being down it's allowed me to reflect on all the things he has been teaching me this past month.

I first was looking at it from the point of he is breaking me down so that he can build me back up into the missionary he needs me to be. But I was talking to Sister Brigg's (one of the AP's) on Sunday and she said, "You know I don't like to think of it as he his breaking us down but I like to think of it as an arrow. He is still holding on to us and we are still pointing in the right direction but he is just pulling us back just a bit that way we can go further." With all the things he is teaching me he is just pulling me back and soon he will have given me the strength I need to be able to have him let go for just a bit. You think about it. An arrow pulled back a long ways pointed in the right direction can go a long ways. But an arrow not being pulled back can't go anywhere.

When he is pulling us back we are allowing him to teach us the things he needs us to learn. The more we allow him to teach us the further we will be able to go, the more we will be able to accomplish.....compared to if we don't allow him to teach us.

I also like to think of that with the atonement. How the arrow, in order to go a greater distance, needs to lean on the person behind it pulling the string back, pulling the arrow back. That's like the atonement. As we apply the atonement in our lives, as we lean on our Savior Jesus Christ at all times, we will be able to accomplish so much more with our lives. We may think our lives are perfectly fine. Funny, that's what I thought. But, there is soooo much more we can learn, that we can become if we just lean on the Atonement and our Savior Jesus Christ.

We had zone training this morning and several things really stood out to me that I would invite you to think about for yourself. What do these questions mean to you individually?

How are we becoming like him?

What does the Atonement do for you?

How are we remembering him?

I would also invite you to watch the video clip, it can be found on youtube, called "Missionary Work and the Atonement" by Elder Bednar and Holland. It's one of my all time favorite videos. As you watch, really think for yourself what your Savior, Jesus Christ, has done for you personally.

I just want you to know, that our Savior Jesus Christ lives. That it is through him and his Atonement that we can become who our Father in Heaven and Savior, Jesus Christ, need us to become. I'm so grateful to my Savior, Jesus Christ, and his sacrifice for me, for all that he went through because he loved me so much.

I love you all!! And I hope everyone is doing well!!

Sister Skaggs

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