Hahaha so for starters thanks dad for giving me a heads up... I kind of guessed I was getting a package but I didn't know I was getting cookies! Soo excited! It takes a good 5-7 days to get a package here and about 4 days to receive letters. Which, by the way, I LOVE LETTERS! So if anyone is EVER bored, well, you now know what to do with your spare time. Send Sister Skaggs a sweet letter!! I know just how much you would love to write me... jkjk. But seriously though ;) Thanks family for the weekly letters. You have NO IDEA how much I love and cherish hearing about what's happening back home. Tell me how other people are doing as well because I only hear from well, like no one, so I'm COMPLETELY CLUELESS with what people are up to besides some of my missionary friends and well, Josh.
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| A box full of homemade chocolate chip cookies! |
Dad, when did you start wearing glasses?????? I promise I have not been gone that long... I have only been gone what like 3 months. Anyways don't get too old on me papsaroonious!
Mom, I look forward to getting your package soon!! Crossing my fingers it comes in today!! [Package arrived just after she sent this e-mail. She was able to take a picture and send it to me real quick so I knew she FINALLY received the cookies!] And I still haven't gotten your weekly letters from last week so I'm hoping I get those today as well! But who knows what will happen.
Chubby cheeks (aka Brandon), how are you doing??? You should send me another letter soon. You know you want to write me! ;)
Well, I guess it's time to get down to business telling you about how my life here in Temple Square is going. SOO MUCH happened this week!!
Humanitarian Center
I NEVER knew just how much the church actually does! It's AMAZING all that we are doing! Did you know our Humanitarian efforts have reached about 95% of the world? We have been in almost every country besides a very small handful. We serve there twice a week and I just love it! The people that come in are just amazed with all that we do which amazes me everyday. I love all the people we meet there, whether it's the workers or the guests we have come.
I love to see first hand how the church as a whole is following our Savior Jesus Christ's example. That we strive our best to help out those throughout all the world who can't help themselves, that it doesn't matter your age, race, gender, background, etc. A story we really love to share is about what it is that we strive to do: This man came one day and asked "Why are you putting another foundations logo on the boxes, shouldn't you be putting our own logo?" They replied, "We don't care how we get the stuff into the country; whether it be by our own logo or someone else's logo, we just care that the stuff gets into the country and to the people who need it."
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| LDS Humanitarian Center - Salt Lake City |
I look forward to what lies ahead at serving here. I have already seen so many neat things! I just love the people I get to meet!
Uncle Lenny and Aunt Wendy!
So as you know Mom and Dad, Uncle Lenny and Aunt Wendy came last Wednesday to see me which I loved so much! It was so great to see them. When I received the email last week I was super excited and hoped it would all work out. It was really weird having Sister Hansen and Sister Asay call you both last week to try and schedule a time to meet with them. They both loved talking to you both! Afterwards I was like you have no idea just how much that probably made their day. When they started calling you, mom, I was like, "She probably wont answer. She will either be exercising, going to the bathroom or in the shower." Haha did I call it or what! [Note from Sis. Skaggs mom - I was in the shower. The joke with that is that while Jennifer was away at school whenever she called me I was either exercising, in the bathroom or taking a shower - and that's EXACTLY what happened when they tried calling me last week -- the irony of it all!]
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| Uncle Lenny, Sister Skaggs and Aunt Wendy |
President Poulsen said I could give them a tour and have the opportunity to see them which I really loved. It was so great to see you both. I love you two so much and it totally made my day being able to take you on a tour and being able to see you guys! It sounds like you both are doing really good which made my day! I will have to talk to my Mission President again to see what the jurisdiction is on food in regards to dinner etc. Thanks again for coming up here to see me!! I'm glad we were able to make it work.
JOELLE
Guess what?!?! The missionaries went and visited her last week!! I'm so happy for her! She is so excited to be meeting with them now and to be taking those steps of entering into her first covenant with her Heavenly Father [thru baptism]. Sister Ferguson and I talked to her the other day and she mentioned that her Baptismal Date has been pushed back till Nov. 1st. There are several things that need to be taken care of first. But she is just AMAZING! I have never met someone who is truly so prepared to receive the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ in their life! She is an amazing example to us. She says her daughter isn't all that happy about what she is doing. She is like, "My daughter says I'm in a mid-life crisis." But we may be talking with her daughter in a couple days/weeks to help her understand more about what it is her mom is doing. Apparently her daughter was frustrated with everything cause one of her best friends this summer met an RM [return missionary], just recently got engaged and then found out she can't go to the ceremony since it will be in the temple. So, hopefully we will be able to shed some more light on why she can't enter the Temple yet and why her mom has chosen to be baptized.
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| Sister Skaggs and Ferguson |
Ahh Julio, I just love him! He is doing okay right now. He still has a strong testimony but it's really hard for recent converts when they don't have that strong local support. We are contacting his local leaders to see what is going on and to see if they can help him out. So we will see what happens. Tip of advice: PLEASE WELCOME and be friend to anybody who is new in the ward whether they be visiting, new or new to the church. It is soo vital!! I never knew just how important it was to truly welcome people until now. You think someone is doing fine when reality is they may be be struggling. It just takes that one person. It's not solely the missionaries purpose to help the investigators and new converts be welcomed. That's where the ward members come into play. I want to challenge you that the next time someone unfamiliar walks into church that you will talk to them. PLEASE!! They may be a Julio. Far too often these recent converts become less actives. Lets stop that trend, lets befriend them, welcome them into our wards with loving arms and do all that we can to help them strengthen their testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Denise
I love Denise! We have such a great friendship. I hope no matter what happens that I will always be able to stay in touch with her. The seed has been planted so who knows what will happen. We called her last week and she is so prepared, but I don't think she is fully ready yet. We invited her to pray to see why she was supposed to talk with us so we will see what happens with that. I never knew I could grow to love a random stranger so fast. Either way I'm hoping we will be able to stay in touch. The two of us understand each other and just have this really neat special bond! I just love Denise. She is retired now and so she likes to just travel so its really hard to stay in contact but hey, if there is a will there is a way so who knows!
32 year old men
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| Busy weekly schedule for the Temple Square Sisters |
SMALL WORLD!
Okay, so if this isn't a small world then I don't know what is. Sister Ferguson, ever since she has been back from outbound, has been talking about this Megan person. And I'm like who is this girl? Apparently she is from Southern California and is just amazing. Well, this past week we called her and Megan and I got talking. She was like, "Where are you from?" I reply with, "I'm from Temecula." Megans reply, "No way. I'm from Temecula." I scream, "Wait! What?? Where?" Long story short, we started asking questions she went to TVHS but then moved. I mentioned I went to Vail Elementary. She said she did as well. Get this, we both had the same Kindergarten teacher!! We both had Mrs. Black. We started talking further and someone she is dating (somewhat complicated story), is someone I know. Crazy, I know right? I'm like, "This is really weird!" She is like, "Haha me too!" So yah. Apparently she came on chat many months ago like back in April and Sister Ferguson started teaching her and she was baptized in August. Oh and get this, she was also Sister Sughroues best friend in Middle School. I'm so excited to be able to get to know her further she is so amazing and has such a strong testimony of the Gospel!!
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| Sister Skaggs & Ferguson after walking in a thunderstorm |
CHATS!!!!
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| More selfies after running through a thunderstorm |
Columbus, OH
Haha funny story!! So Sister Ferguson saw a picture of Josh and was like, "He looks so familiar why does he look so familiar?" I'm like, "Ummm I don't know." I remembered that his brother was serving in one of the Ohio missions and I'm pretty sure it was the Columbus, OH Mission. Well Sister Ferguson started looking through her pictures from Outbound and guess what? She has a picture of Josh's brother in a group photo taken at a fair. She is pretty confident it his him. If he isn't in that mission and didn't go to a fair within the past 2 months then this portion of the email just got really awkward. But she is 99% sure it was him. So yah small world. I know, right?
APOSTLES, TEMPLE SESSIONS, DAVID ARCHULETA, ELDER HOLLAND/PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND SEVENTY
Here in Temple Square we have an opportunity to go do a Temple Session in the Salt lake Temple once a transfer and so this morning the majority of our Zone decided we would go to the Temple in preparation for General Conference this weekend. I honestly didn't think much about anything. I have been having this issue on my mind and so I was needing answers and so that was what was consuming my mind. Well, Sister Ferguson leaned over to me while we were waiting to start and said, "That's Elder Oaks and his wife." I was like, "No it's not. When would we ever get to be in a session with them?" Well I was wrong. That moment was now. As we sat down in the room Sister Oaks sat 2 people next to me and we kept smiling at each other and then every time we moved Elder and Sister Oaks walked right in front of me. It is definitely something I will never forget. It was neat to be able to see that he is just human. That even though he is an Apostle of the Lord he is still human like the rest of us.
As we were walking out of the Temple today Sister Ferguson and I were just like, "I can't believe Elder Oaks, an Apostle, was in our session." Well Sister Ferguson stopped and was like, "That was David Archuleta" - referring to the young man and woman who walked past us. I was like, "No it's not." Uhh yet again, I was wrong. We stopped, looked back and as he was walking through the sliding glass doors he stopped, looked back at us and smiled.
Last Thursday for Relief Society the Managing Director over the Public Affairs for the church came to speak with us to give us "Anti" training (referring to the Anti-Christ's we encounter here). Well, as he was in the middle of speaking his assistant interrupts him with a note, which I thought it was odd that she would interrupt him. He looks at the note and says, "Sisters, umm excuse me. I need to make a phone call. Elder Holland needs to speak with me before he heads into the Temple to meet with the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve." We all just started laughing and we're like, "Is this seriously happening?" Well it did. He left for like 5 minutes and then came back. It was just a really funny situation altogether.
So after seeing Elder Oaks and David Archuleta this morning we decided we should get breakfast since we were starving and well, since my stomach growled throughout the whole session. As we were walking back this gentleman stopped us and started talking to us. We asked if he was working here and he said, "Umm, I guess you could say so. I'm here for conference. I'm in the First Quorum of the Seventy and I'm stationed in Russia right now." Guess what?? He mentioned he was just recently released as the mission president of the Kiev, Ukraine Mission. He said he knew Elder Crookshank which I thought was really neat!
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| French toast on steroids |
I just can't express to you how happy I am to be on a mission, and to be here as a representative of my Savior Jesus Christ. I truly don't want to be doing anything else with my time. Is a mission hard?? OH YESS!! Can it be frustrating?? It most definitely can be. Am I pushed to my limits? Of course I am. But that doesn't change anything. I love the fact that I get to let go of the world for 18 months to just serve my Heavenly Father, to just rely on my Savior Jesus Christ and to help those around me grow closer to their Savior Jesus Christ and Father in Heaven. Missions are something truly special! I don't know if I will be able to leave in 18 months. This is Gospel is true, it really is true!!!
Oh and guess what?!? MY FAVORITE WEEKEND is this weekend!! GENERAL CONFERENCE I'm beyond excited!! What is it that you are searching for?? I want to invite you, if you are reading this right now, to pray and read your scriptures everyday this week and seek for something you are needing answers to and then take that question to General Conference. I promise you that if you have an open mind and if you truly are seeking for an answer you will receive your answer. Ahh, I'm so excited for you to watch conference! So wish I could have the opportunity you have being able to see all of the sessions this weekend. I have to wait until I have free time, which may be a ways out.
I truly love you all!! And wish you are all doing well! Don't ever FORGET YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES YOU!!
Love ALWAYS,
Sister Skaggs
Hey I'm 32 too gotta say you are kind of cute What's your real name? by the way I found this by googlingGod what is going to happen tomorrow?
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