Guess Who Got BAPTIZED‏

Love you All,

A Day to Remember:

Yesterday was one of the most memorable and greatest moments of my entire mission! Why? Well let me back track and explain why. When I was down in Spotsylvania we were teaching this family who holds such a dear place in my heart for the amazing examples of faith they are to me. Right before I left, Sis. Stoddard and I had felt that we needed to put this family on date for baptism. As we were praying separately and together we both had really neat spiritual experiences that this family needed to be put on date for March 15th. It was weird though, because if they were baptized then that would mean they wouldn't receive the Holy Ghost for a whole other week. Several things occurred during that lesson and they said they would work towards that date and see if the spirit tells them that they need to be baptized then. Well, I got transferred out and then got really busy out here in Woodbridge and so I didn't think much about that whole situation. Then this past Wednesday I received permission to go to lunch with a member from my old area, Sister B., and one of the first things she says is, "The Whalens are getting baptized!" I pretty much freaked out in the middle of Cici's when I heard that. Fast forward to Sunday. My Ward Mission Leader up here found out about it and offered to take my companion and I down there to the baptism with his wife, which its about an hour drive there.

Haliegh and Sis. Skaggs

The Baptism! Due to traffic, we arrived just on time for them to be walking down the hall to take pictures. One of the greatest moments was seeing the four of them all dressed in white, walking down the hall together. It just didn't seem real. But it was such a sweet sight to see. I have just grown to love this family a lot and to see them together making this choice was just an amazing sight to see. The Relief Society room was filled to capacity, which made me so happy to see so many people coming out to support this family making their first step together of returning back home to their Heavenly Father. The entire time we were there the spirit was very strong. But the greatest moment of them all was when we got to witness each member of the family enter the font and be baptized. Sister Stoddard and I kept looking at each other every time one of them was baptized and we each just had a huge smile on our face. We both knew just how much their life will change/be blessed for taking this step of being baptized and of starting this journey back home to their Father in Heaven. Nothing can describe the feeling it was to see this family together be baptized. It is something that I have never seen before and so seeing it for the first time and seeing it be a family I know and love just made the whole experience that much more special.

Sis. Stoddard, Sis. Skaggs and Haliegh

Making faces with Haleigh

After everything was done I was talking with the dad and was asking him when he knew that they were to be baptized. Recalling back to me he said, "After you and Sis. Stoddard gave us that date we sat down and discussed it as a family. We knew it would be a good step for us to take in our life. It was about a week later that I was thinking to myself and I just realized that we needed to just do it and take that leap of faith." That last comment really stood out to me, "We needed to just do it and take that leap of faith." Many times in life we are hesitant to do things because of the unknown factor or because we are just hesitant in general. But, if it is a good thing, then sometimes we need to take that leap of faith. Heavenly Father doesn't always give us a witness of things until after we take that step of faith.

Sis. Stoddard and Sis. Skaggs

The Bognars and Sis. Skaggs

I'm beyond excited for what lies ahead for them. I know just how much their life will be blessed as they now take the Gospel of Jesus Christ and really apply it to their life. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, that is something I, personally, will never deny. It is something that as we sincerely take and apply the various principles to our life and take that leap of faith we will see it mold and shape our life. Not just our life here, but for the life to come. The individual steps we take now in our life, those choices we make, is what is shaping our eternal destiny. What are we doing to make sure we will be prepared to live with our Father in Heaven again? Is our Father in Heaven and Savior, Jesus Christ, number one in our life? Do we strive to apply the
Gospel Principles? How do we uphold our baptismal covenant, etc? These are each things I have reflected a lot upon since coming out on my mission. One thing I have learned is just how valuable our time here on earth is, our time to prepare to meet God.

Barbara:

Barbara is a recent convert who was baptized back in Dec. She is like a sponge. Okay, that sounds weird but its true. We met with her the other day and she was just soaking everything up as we were speaking with her. She is a little older with a family all grown up. But it just amazes me with how willing she is to just take the gospel and just soak it up. She came with her scripture case, her journal, everything and was just highlighting and writing notes like crazy. When we mentioned something new her eyes got really big and she was just excited to have learned something new and to be able to apply something different to her life. Being on a mission you meet many individuals, like her, who are willing to just soak up the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When you understand what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is, you understand the importance and need to soak it up and then to keep it there by applying it to our life. It's a blessing to be able to know her. I'm so excited to spend the next couple of weeks to be able to continue to get to know her.

Woodbridge:

Socks from my mom....so missionary
appropriate, huh?

From my St. Patrick's
day package from home!

This area is just so amazing! Crazy but amazing. Haha, crazy in regards to traffic. It is a suburb of D.C. which means at about 3 pm in the afternoon we have to add an extra 15 minutes to where we want to get to because the traffic is just horrendous. It's like Temecula on a Friday afternoon. Which reminds me, EVERYONE here that I meet knows where Temecula is. Which is weird because we aren't that big of a city. But apparently everyone is like, "Ohhh, you're from Temecula. I have been there. I go there for business trips. I have family that live there, or I have oil from the Temecula Olive Oil Company." It is really weird! Don't ask my why we are so well known because I couldn't tell you why. My Bishop is the one who is like, "I buy my Oil from the Temecula Olive Oil Company. Whenever I travel to San Diego for business I go and get my Olive Oil. I used to drive up there but they now have a store down there [in San Diego]." Haha. I about died laughing when I found out that my Bishop here, all the way out in Virginia, buys his oil from there. And I have proof. We go over to his house every Monday night to discuss ways we can use the Ward Council in our work. He showed me his Temecula Olive Oil. It was weird seeing it. He travels about once a month to different parts of the world for his job and so it doesn't surprise me that he has made his way to Southern California.

The Work:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The work we do here involves a lot of Less Active or Recent Convert work. We have several investigators but a lot of our time is used working with the Bishop - in regards to working with the Less Actives that we have here in the ward. This is a very diverse ward, and I love it so much! I feel so blessed to be here and to have this opportunity to work with a ward. I have just under a month left with outbound. It's weird how fast it goes. But I'm loving every minute of it. It's weird because being here has become my normal. I know I'm a Temple Square sister but at the same time I don't feel like I am because this is my new normal. I know I will be going back and I'm excited to go back but at the same time I just don't feel like I will ever go back.

Well I have to go. I love you all! Continue to work hard, be safe and soak the Gospel up! :) Have a great week!!! I feel blessed to have such amazing individuals in my life! Love you!!!!!

Love Always,

Sister Skaggs