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| Christmas morning in my Christmas Eve jammies! |
SNOW, Christmas, Snow in Temecula??:So I want to start off by saying wait, what???? SNOW in TEMECULA!! Why did I come to Utah? I could have just stayed in California and could have gotten snow. And several inches, too, from what I heard. The weather is so weird. But it makes sense because the weather in this half of the U.S. has been weird lately. So, it was Christmas Eve and we still hadn't gotten a single drop of snow on the ground, well, like maybe a small dusting, but it melted in hours. Rumor had it that we were expecting a storm to come through and well, sure enough, it did. We woke up Christmas morning to a WHITE CHRISTMAS! My first White Christmas ever. Family, I loved being able to talk with you on the phone!! It felt so good hearing your voices. Glad I was able to hold back the tears till the end. Hopefully I will be outbound for Mother's Day so I can Skype you guys! :)
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| Sis. Skaggs & Sis. Bryuzgina |
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| Gifts from some unknown "elves" |
Christmas here on Temple Square was different. So we woke up at our normal Christmas schedule 7:15 (early schedule) 7:30 (normal schedule) and then made breakfast (crepes, roasted potato). We were told we could do whatever we wanted, we just had to be in one of Theaters at 1:00 for the Christmas Devotional (which was amazing!). All of the different nationalities sang different songs with a slide show in the background of everything that led up to the Savior's birth. Then afterwards the whole mission gathered in the basement/mission office and had cookies etc. Then they mentioned that some elves in the Salt Lake area got together and bought Christmas presents for all the Sisters. This was just amazing and I wish I could thank whoever did it. But we go upstairs and in our South Visitor Center there were presents by zones scattered in different corners. We each received stockings just stuffed with a whole bunch of stuff and then each sister got super nice soft/fuzzy blankets with a picture of the Salt Lake Temple embroidered at the bottom. It was just remarkable. Whoever you elves are, thank you so much! It brought a smile to over 160 sisters faces.
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The Square reopened at 3 pm and so we were all back to work. It continued to snow. Throughout the day we received a good couple of inches worth of snow. We had a shift in the Beehive House and then after we went downstairs and a nearby stake came and brought all of us sisters a traditional Christmas dinner (ham, potatoes, rolls, salad, green beans etc.). It was truly something special. With everything that has been occurring these past couple weeks I hope someday I can do something to repay them or at least pass it on. It truly reminds me of the spirit of Christmas. A season of giving. Here all of these families and elves didn't have to do any of this. We aren't their assigned missionaries so they have no obligation to do any of it. But instead, they chose to do so. It was definitely a Christmas I will NEVER forget.
Brown Family:
The Brown Family got BAPTIZED. I totally forgot to tell you last week. But all 6 of them were baptized almost 2 weeks ago and they are just doing amazing. Every Sunday the mom, Melissa, is like "I have been waiting for your call". The baptism took 2 1/2 hours and then it took 30 minutes for all 6 of them to be confirmed in Sacrament meeting the next day. I asked her how it was and she just loved it. I was able to talk with Bruce last Sunday and he was excited to be a member and to finally be baptized. The one thing they really work hard to do every day as a family is hold family prayer and scripture study. Melissa said they really love reading the Book of Mormon together everyday as a family. They are just taking it page by page until they finish it. Oh and get this, they have mentioned that they may get sealed as a family here in the Salt Lake Temple!! They live in Northern Arizona near Lake Powell. They are just a solid family! They are going to be such a powerful family when it comes to the Gospel. I love them so much!
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| SNOW on Temple Square! |
On Sunday Sister Bryuzgina and I took this couple from Miami, Florida on a tour through Temple Square. Such an amazing couple - we are both praying all turns out with them. They said they are in town to ski but they figured they would come to Temple Square to learn more about the church. We took them to Scriptures and Revelation and taught them the Revelation and then we felt like we should take them through God's Plan for his Family. This couple will be getting married at Disney World in about 3 weeks so we thought God's Plan would be perfect to take them to. They are just amazing. Michael (the soon to be husband) had mentioned that he had a copy of the Book of Mormon when he was younger but doesn't have one now so we mentioned we would give them one at the end. Well, as we were taking them through God's Plan they were both just crying. We talked with them a little bit more and then we mentioned that we would love to stay in contact with them so that we could share with them more about how this could all apply to their life. We mentioned that we would love to send local missionaries to come to their home and to share with them more. They accepted both invitations and were planning on reading the Book of Mormon. Tracy (the soon to be wife) was super excited to read it. Michael is like "by the time you call us next Saturday, Tracy will have the Book of Mormon read". We all just started laughing. I pray that they will be able to see how the Gospel of Jesus Christ will benefit their life; that they will be able to recognize that this is the only way back home to their Father in Heaven again. They are such a sweet couple. They are probably around the age of you, mom and dad. Sister Bryuzgina and I will be calling them on Saturday. With the wedding happening here soon things will become a bit complicated. They have 75 people coming to the wedding and it's at Disney World so they have a lot to do. They were going to Paris for the wedding but due to logistics it didn't work. Haha - that would have been crazy trying to teach them with them planning a wedding in Paris.
Wendell - well I don't know what is up with Wendell. He isn't really a priority to call anymore. I mean, I will call when I have time. I don't feel he is fully prepared. Sister Bryuzgina and I are trying to just focus our time on the elect - those who are truly prepared instead of trying to find those who we will have to push. Believe it or not, there are elect people out there. We just have to search for them. In our [mission] call letter it states "...As you serve with all your heart, might, and strength, the Lord will lead you to those who are PREPARED to be baptized..." So I know there are people who are prepared to accept the invitation to apply the Gospel of Jesus Christ into their lives. I just need to focus on finding them.
John is from Cape Town, South Africa. He came on chat about a week ago wanting to meet with local missionaries. When I first called him I didn't think he was prepared but I set up another appointment with him. I was super 'smart' and forgot to write down the appointment and so I missed it. Yeah, not a good thing to do when you have a 2nd appointment with an investigator. I contemplated calling him the next day because I didn't know if he would have even remembered our appointment. Well, I decided I would call him and one of the first things he says is, "It's okay I understand. I was waiting for you to call but you never did. But I understand." That was a complete blow. I learned a VERY VALUABLE lesson! I will NEVER miss another appointment with an investigator again! We ended up talking for a long time, close to an hour. We did a lot of how to begin teaching (aka - getting to know you). But then we were able to weave the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith into the conversation. He mentioned he was going to go onto lds.org and read the Book of Mormon until the local missionaries came into the picture and brought him his own copy. He is pretty devoted to his own faith but I invited him to be baptized and explained the importance of doing so. He said that he would be baptized if he came to know that this was all true. We briefly talked about him going to church on Sunday but didn't talk a whole lot about it since the conversation was over how long they should be in the first place. His girlfriend and several good friends are members and so whenever he goes home he always goes to church with them. He has read a couple of pages from the Book of Mormon before. So we will see what happens. We will talk with him again on Sunday morning.
Meet the Mormons hits the Legacy Theater:
Monday morning we had a training with the Missionary Department. I feel like we have a training with the Missionary Department every week. But they were telling us about what will be happening with Meet the Mormons. Starting Jan. 2nd Meet the Mormons will begin showing in the Legacy Theater. We have been anticipating it coming soon and so now it's here. I figured they would wait until the lights shut off. What will happen is currently we play "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration" in there but they will be replacing it with Meet the Mormons. We are super excited for this change. We all feel a lot of success will come from this. If you want to see it there you have to go online and get free tickets from the scheduling office on lds.org and apparently on Friday night we are actually going to have a stand-by line. It will be interesting. This movie is AMAZING - not just for people not of our faith but for members as well.
Packages:
Mom, yes I have received all of the packages by now. Haha - all of the sisters think you're the best. I'm excited to make the chocolate covered Oreo's tonight! Everyone is like "no way she made those." I was like "yah". Everyone is like "you win, Sister Skaggs, now at the most packages." Haha. Love you guys!
A Noble Birthright:
This morning in personal study I was studying a lot about how we have been given so much and with that, so much is required. We are born with a noble birthright. We truly have been given so much. There is a scripture in D&C 82:3 that says, "For of him unto whom much is given much is required..." Our Father in Heaven has given us so much! First of all he has given us his son. What father would give up his son for others? But I was thinking about what I can do to give back to my Father in Heaven. You know when we are baptized we are automatically re-enlisted into God's army and we are to fight and defend the Kingdom of God. I was thinking, "What am I doing to help win this battle?" But really though, if you think about it, what are you doing to win this battle? Could you stand up at the last day and say I was a noble and valiant one? Did I truly do all that I could to defend the kingdom of God? I was thinking a lot about how I am preparing myself so that I won't be taken out in this battle. And it reminded me a lot about my Savior Jesus Christ. We have been promised that as we rely on him we will be saved in the last day. I love 3 Nephi 9:22 [Book of Mormon] "Therefore, whoso repenteth and cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive, for of such is the Kingdom of God. Behold, for such I have laid down my life, and have taken it up again; therefore repent, and come unto me ye ends of the earth, and be saved."
I can promise you that as you come unto Christ, that as you rely on Him you will be able to stand firm and hold out unto the end. This Gospel is true. This is the ONLY way back home. For those who take the Gospel of Jesus Christ and apply it to their life will be saved and will live with their Father in Heaven again.
Sister Skaggs
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