So my goal is to try an make these letters shorter. Why? Well first off, I doubt any of my missionary friends get to read them because they can be pretty lengthy, but then I have to remember all the people back home. So my goal is to keep this letter shorter... haha yah, that's not going to happen.
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| I get to see this gem every day! |
This week was an AMAZING week! Being a missionary is one of the greatest opportunities you can ever have! You know, it's honestly one of the only times when all of the distractions can be put a side and your full focus is on the Lord. And I mean ALL distractions! If you're debating to go on a mission JUST GO. These 18 months are the only months where I don't have anything 'clouding' my mind. It's the only time when the Lord can take me and mold me and eventually allow me to blossom into the Daughter of God He has always envisioned me to be. And I LOVE it! Is it hard? Oh yes, but you know, what a blessing it is to have this time where the Lord can take everything He has and mold us into who He needs us to be. Not only for the mission but for the future spouses and parents He needs us to be. When you're on a mission you have your choice to give Him your undivided attention and so with that He can go to work. He can go to work at refining us into a more effective tool in His eyes! Sometimes I wish a mission would never end and that I could just delete all my distractions for the rest of my life. But then I realize that's not a part of the plan. I just love my Heavenly Father!
Listen to The Spirit:
Yesterday was one of the neatest experiences I have had. We were late getting to the TC (which is the Teaching Center) where we call our investigators etc. As we were walking in I saw this girl about my age walking down from the Christus. She seemed happy but her countenance showed otherwise. In passing I just said "I really like your scarf" and then kept walking. As we were getting closer to the TC I had this nagging feeling I needed to go back and talk to her. But I kept saying to myself, "That's awkward to go back and talk to her. We are already late for the TC, we don't have time. She's fine." I finally looked at my companion and said, "I think we need to talk to her. I know we are late but we just need to talk to her." We ended up tracking her down outside. As we started to talk to her she started to cry and out of nowhere said, "Why did you serve a mission?" I mentioned to her why I chose to serve a mission. That my Savior was willing to give up His life for me the least I can do to repay just a fragment of what He did was by dedicating 18 months of my life to Him. We continued to talk. She is going through a lot right now. When the age changed [from 21 to 19 for girls to serve missions] she didn't feel she should go. She decided to wait for her boyfriend to come home. Things haven't moved forward since he has been back. She just doesn't know what to do with anything. It was neat to see the Spirit work. I pleaded to know what I was supposed to say to her at that moment. I just bore my testimony to her. By the end we both were just sobbing. The one thing I learned from that moment was just how much our Father in Heaven loves each of His children. He puts certain people in our path for a reason. I thought after, what would've happened if I didn't listen to the Spirit? What would've happened to Heather if I continued on with my day? Don't ignore the spirit. Heavenly Father uses each of us to be an instrument in His hands. He uses us to talk to His children. At that moment He needed to talk to Heather and He trusted me that I would listen to the spirit, that I would go back and talk to her, and that I would listen to Him and share with her the things she needed to hear at that given moment. Don't ignore those subtle feelings you have!!
Elijah:
Elijah is a less active [member of the church] we met several weeks ago on the Square. He has a history with a lot of things. He mentioned that he wanted to get back with the church and to turn his life around. I was skeptical at first because well, you just never know if people are true. But last Sunday, so a week and a half ago, he came to church with us and he even brought another one of his less active friends. Sister Casagrande and I were really shocked they showed up, especially since they didn't sleep the night before, apparently. During Sacrament meeting they ended up falling asleep and so they left during the musical number. We were bummed becuase we didn't really know where to go from there, we didn't know what it was we were supposed to do to help him. He texted us apologizing for falling asleep, but would love to meet with us later on during the week. We met with him again Sunday and he mentioned that he went to his local ward and that he met with his Bishop. He expressed to us his sincere desire he has to be able to go to the Temple someday. It's a perfect example of how it's never too late for anybody. I love how he has this desire to change and he knows that despite his past he can change and can become worthy to enter the Temple soon. We invited him to start taking those baby steps again of reading the scriptures and praying everyday. I'm excited to see his progression and I look forward to the day when he will come by and tell me he just went through the Temple. Our Heavenly Father loves ALL of his children. It's NEVER to late to change! He wants all of his children home. It reminded me of that 100 year old lady you baptized on your mission, dad!
Security:
Being on Temple Square we have ALOT of things we can't say or do. Why? Well we have to be professional at all times and it's for security reasons. One of my favorite things is when people come up to us and ask "How long have you been out?" For security reasons we can't divulge how long we have been out, we can only say "Under a year or over a year." It's really funny because I always reply back "Under a year" and a lot of the time people are like "Oh wow so you are almost done. What? About 6 months left?" I just have to say "umm yah kind of." And then I start laughing hysterically inside because well, I'm not even done with my first transfer and these people think I'm almost done with my WHOLE MISSION. It's funny too, because we have all of these little rules since we have to look professional at all times when you're within mission boundaries (Temple Square, Lion House, JSMB, Conference Center etc.).
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| The view from on top of the Church Office Building |
We can't eat whatsoever when we are in mission boundaries [in public areas], but the second we cross the street we can eat. When it comes to P-day we can't say anything about when our p-day is because apparently there have been members, and nonmembers in the past as well, who have stalked Temple Square sisters. So we have to keep everything on the down low. We can't say where we live, period. Even when we leave the mission. When it comes to taking pictures, we cant take pictures when we are on the square after a certain time because again we have to look professional and if we pull the camera out it doesn't look professional. There are just a bunch of little things here that we can't say or do because of security reasons. It's kind of funny, but you know every rule we have is put there for a reason. The Lord wouldn't have asked for these rules to be put in place if He didn't see it necessary.
Zone Activity/Sisters:
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| Gotta love Sis. Chen! |
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| Zone activity at the park! |
Last p-day we had our zone activity. We ended up going to a park somewhere around Salt Lake. Imagine 20 sisters blasting church music, during football practice, in the rain while roasting hot dogs and smores.
Yup, that was us! It was a blast though! I love these sisters to death! They are all so unique in their own special way! It was funny, one of my favorite Asian sisters kept coming up to us while we were roasting hot dogs and would feed us Cheetos. She also is the one who took all the selfies on my camera and every other sister who brought her camera.
Oh something really neat too, while we were driving to the park we drove by the High School where High School Musical apparently was filmed.
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| Sis. Ranama from Fuji - My District Leader |
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| High School Musical! |
I love miracles! One of my favorite miracles this
week happened at our Zone Activity. You would think "Oh it's p-day. Missionaries don't work." Well that's definitely not true!
We were all just mingling when this man named Israel came over to us and started talking. Long story short, he used to meet with the missionaries but stopped because he didn't see the need to being baptized again. He knew the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. Several of the sisters invited him to our ward on Sunday and then I felt I needed to read 3 Nephi 27 with him. Small problem...nobody had a Book of Mormon on them. But then I remembered this random Book of Mormon that we found just sitting in the car earlier that day. We ended up reading it together and then before he left I invited him to pray to know if it was his Heavenly Father's will for him to be baptized again. He said he would. Guess who came to church on Sunday?? I don't know what will happen with him because another sister talked with him first and so she will be in contact with him. Only one companionship is allowed to teach someone here. I bump into that problem A LOT where you meet someone but another companionship is already teaching them or talking to them and so at that point we can't talk to them [in a missionary teaching sort of way]. But it's all good!
Uncle Rich, Aunt Nancy, & Lauren:
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| Me with my Uncle Rich, cousin Lauren and Aunt Nancy! |
Friday was a bit of a rough day and so I just prayed that I would see a miracle. We decided that we were going to go get ice cream to lift my spirits back up, but at the last moment I decided we should go get fries. As we were walking down the stairs to the City Creek Food Court this young man my age with his girlfriend yelled down "You sisters are doing such great work. Thank you for everything." I looked to my companion and said "That totally made my day. I found my miracle. I just love Heavenly Father!" We were going to go to McDonalds but at that last moment I saw Temple Square sisters getting Chick-Fil-A and so I decided we should just go there. As we're standing there all I hear is "Jennifer". I turned around and there was Aunt Nancy, Uncle Rich and Lauren just sitting there waiting for their order. I almost started crying. Heavenly Father knew EXACTLY what I needed. Thank you for being there when you did! Thanks again for everything! It was more than a miracle seeing you when I did.
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| My awesome companion and me! |
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| All is well! |
Life is great! The Mission is great! The work is great!
I wouldn't trade these 18 months for the world. I love ALL the different people I meet everyday. I meet sooo many different people! I wish I could talk about them all but I just can't! I will have hundreds of stories to share though when I go home, that's for sure. Keep working hard! Don't forget the Lord loves you! Allow the Lord to mold you into who He has always envisioned you to be! Good Luck this week!!
Until we meet again!
I LOVE YOU!!
Sister Skaggs
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| Me and Sister Tiritilli from home!!! |
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