First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BROSKI!!!
Seriously cannot believe you turn 16 on Saturday... Where did the time go??? Happy 16th Birthday Michael!! I love you little bro!! Oh, fyi, a piece of advice from your older and wiser sister, now that you turn 16 it doesn't mean you have to have a girlfriend and that you automatically have all of these perks. Hey look at me, I didn't get into my first relationship till I was 18, so yah! Anyways, I love you and so wish I could be there for your birthday!! Hey ask mom to send me a slice of birthday cake for me please.... jkjk!
Family, I'm so glad you are doing well and that everything is okay. Glad the house didn't burn down and that none of you were injured with the gas situation last week. Brandon, next time I think it would be a good idea to turn off the stove... haha... love you stinker! I read the letter in District Meeting since I got it right before and their jaws just dropped. Heavenly Father was definitely watching over you guys, especially you Brandon. Cause 3 hours of gas leaking is not good at all.
Dad so do you know an Elder Tafala (idk how to spell his name)? He came up to me the other day and was like "Did you have a brother or uncle serve in Billings, Montana back in like the 80's?" I was like, "Umm yah. My dad did." He was like, "Did he love playing basketball??" I replied with, "Was it the 50/50 guy? Yah my dad is the basketball guy and still is." He says you were both in the same zone etc. He says Hi and asked what you were up to.
Well this week was a great week!! As is any other week!
BUSY SEASON:
These next 3 weeks are our busy weeks and then we will be completely dead for 2 months and then it will be COMPLETE CHAOS for a month. Yesterday we had the Ogden Temple dedication which means ALL of Utah had no church so what does that mean??? Well if you have a family with young kids you came to Temple Square! Haha it wasn't that bad but we did have more people than usual. And then this Saturday we have the Women's General Meeting which I'm sooo excited for and then we have the Grand Finale of all weeks.
Which you know what I'm talking about... GENERAL CONFERENCE!! Picture this 100,000 people in 48 hours... Yup that's how many people I will see next Saturday and Sunday. It's a BIG DEAL here. We are on the square from about 7:30am to 9:00pm and we get two 20 minute breaks for lunch and dinner. And that's it and I'm not exaggerating at all! That's how it has been in the past. It's so funny.....General Conference is like Prom for the Sisters. Planning their outfits and hair, makeup has to be done etc. Why?? Well we have to look our best since it's our biggest weekend of the year and well pictures will be taken. But besides that I'm soo excited for Conference! It is one of my FAVORITE weekends because I love hearing what it is that our Heavenly Father needs us to hear at that given moment. If you have never heard of or have never seen general conference before I STRONGLY encourage you to watch it!! You wont regret it. On the plus side you wont be clueless when all the 'Mormons' start talking about Conference and you will blow them away when you mention something to them. It won't kill you to just watch one talk, or one session or maybe just one weekend worth of General Conference. For all of you that have the opportunity to watch conference please don't take for granted the opportunity you have to watch all 4 sessions. I would LOVE to be in your shoes to be able to sit down and watch all of the sessions. Here on Temple Square they need us to be on the Square so we only get to go to one session and then after General Conference weekend we have to make time to listen to them or read them. Which is really hard to do!! So take advantage of it pleaseee!! Cause some people would love to have time to watch it! (cough cough) ME!!! Why are YOU excited for General Conference???
 |
| Sister Skaggs on top of the Conference Center |
Ogden Temple Dedication:
Can you believe that temple was finally dedicated! I had the opportunity to watch a temple dedication for the first time in my life! It was absolutely AMAZING! My appreciation for having Temples grew so much. We had the privilege of going to the little Theatre in the Conference Center to see the 10 am viewing of the dedication. I just can't describe to you how amazing Temples are and what a blessing it is to have them in our lives. President Monson spoke in the first viewing and the thing that I loved so much about what he said was, "We need to Love the Temple, Appreciate the Temple, and Attend the Temple," which is sooo true!! How often do we as members of the Church [Mormons] take for granted this opportunity to love the Temple? Cause if you truly love the Temple you would actually attend the Temple as frequently as possible. I miss not being able to go every week. And I look forward to being able to go to the Temple once a week when I go back up to school. The Temple is the House of The Lord, how are we setting aside time to enter into his house?? Several of my favorite comments from the dedication were "In the Temple we see clearly who we really are." "When we dedicate the Temple we are dedicating our lives." "The Temple is a point of intercession between earth and Heaven." President Monson at the end of his talk promised amazing blessings as we attend the Temple. I want to invite each of you to strive to attend the Temple AT LEAST once a month. And if you can't attend the Temple for any number of reasons prepare yourselves to be able to attend, ask questions as to how I can prepare myself to be able to enter. Anyone is welcome as long as we have prepared ourselves spiritually.
MY COMPANION:
Sister Ferguson is AMAZING! She just returned back from Outbound from the Columbus, Ohio mission. She is 21 and is from Tuscon, AZ. It's funny how similar we both are. First off we LOVE food! And she loves unhealthy food, chocolate etc...
We get along so well. It's exactly what I needed! She is pushing me to new levels of boldness. Oh and she brings many miracles to the companionship. Thursday morning we had Teaching Center time. The VERY FIRST phone call she took a man came on asking about the "Finding Faith in Christ" DVD. He said it was okay if we called back and then he referred his mom. But it just amazed me at what she was doing! I was like "wait that's even possible?... ummm yah it is." The one thing I'm learning from her is don't be afraid to take a step of faith. We are doing great and I feel beyond blessed to have her as a companion this transfer. It's funny just how much Heavenly Father knows us, His children. I will have so much to share when I get home!! Sooo much to share!!
 |
| Sister Ryan - someone Sister Skaggs met before her mission! |
Joelle= MIRACLE!
Last Thursday Sister Ferguson took this call from this lady asking about how she can meet with missionaries. Well when you get asked that question as a missionary your ears perk up and your like, "Wait did I just hear those words?" Joelle has been trying to contact the local bishop to get in touch with the missionaries because she really wants to be baptized, but the bishop never answers so she called through mormon.org to see if there was another way. She already started reading the Book of Mormon and knew it was true and wanted to be baptized. Within 10 minutes of being on the phone with her Sister Ferguson set a baptismal date with her for Oct. 11th. The only problem is it's taking forever for the local missionaries and her area to work with her so it may be pushed back. We told her to go to church yesterday and to talk to the missionaries but she ended up getting really sick. She is AMAZING! It's amazing just how prepared people actually are. She already does everything. We taught her about the Restoration Saturday over the phone and she was like, "I totally agree with all of it, I know it's true." She had several questions but we were able to answer them for her. Now we just have to wait a couple more days to see if the missionaries will go see her. And if they don't then we will have to go to our next line of authority. I never knew people could be so prepared to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives. I'm finding more that there are sooo many people out there who are prepared they just don't know where to find it, are too timid to ask, or just don't know they are prepared until we give them a little push. Hopefully, fingers crossed, the missionaries will go see her this week so she can be baptized on Oct. 11th!!!
Denise!
 |
| Celestial room of the Washington, DC temple |
This actually happened this morning. We were at the TC desk (Temple Construction) and I saw this lady walk in and decided to talk to her. She mentioned she was from Morristown, NJ and was out on a road trip to bring her son out here. She just felt like she needed to be here before she got on a plane to fly home. We got talking and boy is she prepared. I taught her about Temples and the pioneers building it etc.
I mentioned that she should go see the model replica of the inside of the Temple but if she had questions to please come back and talk to me. I would be here for another 30 minutes. I NEVER say that to people, not to that extent. People never come back so I figured she won't be back so, yah. As she walked away I just had this uncomfortable feeling that I didn't do what I was supposed to do. I just said a quite prayer pleading that if its Heavenly Fathers will that I will be able to talk to her again and I will say what she needs to hear. Well guess who came back around the corner 15 minutes later??? It was Denise. She came over asking the most simplest question (idk what it was). After I explained several points of doctrine she was like, "I don't understand why all these churches have parts of the truth. It's like different pieces to a puzzle." HAHA! I was like,
"Did you realllly just ask a missionary that question??" (thought it in my head). I went into full blown missionary mode!! I was like, "Well let me tell you why we have so many churches today. Have you ever heard of the Restoration??" At the end, after I taught her the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation I said, "You know Denise, I have shared with you a lot of things just now and I want to invite you to find out for yourself if the things I have shared with you are actually true. It's through the Book of Mormon that you can find out if this is all true. Will you read the Book of Mormon to see for yourself?" Guess what her answer was?? "Yes I have a lot of time since I will be flying back home to New Jersey today." HeeHee. Well guess what my next question was... "Denise do you mind if I stay in contact with you and call you in a couple of days to see how it is going reading the Book of Mormon?" "Yah, that would be totally fine." I will call her on Thursday. I don't know what will come of this whole experience but I do know that the seed has been planted. I hope it works out. Why?? Because she is a Daughter of God and her Heavenly Father wants her to return home again.
My District
You will NEVER guess who is in my district this transfer????? SISTER SUGHROUE!! Yup! She is in my district this transfer which means on top of seeing her ALL THE TIME I will see her EVEN MORE because we will have District AND Zone activities together. I love having her here now. It's so weird seeing her EVERYDAY but I LOVE it so I'm not complaining at all!!! Since we have the same P-Day we are going to bake cookies tonight, eat popcorn and hopefully watch the Best Two Years! Oh and did I mention she lives like 2 doors down from me... [note from Sis. Skaggs mom - Sister Sughroue is a good friend from home, here in Temecula. Also, the Best Two Years is a missionary movie. A really good one, too! P-Day is like a "day off". The Temple Square Sisters are on the Square in the morning so their P-Day begins in the afternoon - hence why Sis. Skaggs mentioned eating popcorn and watching a 'movie'.]
The Gospel is TRUE everyone, it really is! And if you don't know for yourself that it is please read the Book of Mormon and ask like Joseph Smith did if it is true (James 1:5). Honestly, if the Gospel of Jesus Christ wasn't true and it wasn't restored in it's entirety then 88,000 young men and women wouldn't be out dedicating 18 months to 2 years of their lives. I love this work so much!! I love the people I meet, I love the Sisters I work with, and I love more than anything my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. There is nothing more that I want than to be able to return to live with them both again someday!! I hope you are doing well! Please hold tight to the Iron Rod! [The Iron Rod is the word of God]. I love you ALL!! And I LOVE THIS GOSPEL!!
Scripture of the Week: 2 Nephi 31:20 Love this scripture so much!!
God be with you till we meet again!
Sister Skaggs
No comments:
Post a Comment