Skating Around Satans Traps‏

To All I Love,

Welcome to Woodbridge:

Doing planks AND
eating brownie
mix

Sis. Skaggs can multitask - eating
brownie mix WHILE planking

Well as you know I was transferred this past week. I'm so grateful for this opportunity I have to be in my new area. I was transferred to an area about 30 minutes north of Fredericksburg to a somewhat suburb of Washington D.C. I have been transferred to a town called Woodbridge. So far I love it here! Sister Moore, my companion, said we have a really awesome ward which I do have to agree with her. Our Ward Mission Leader is phenomenal! He is so involved with the work. It's pretty amazing. This area is a pretty fast paced area. Nobody is laid back here. It reminds me of Southern California with everyone being on the go or busy. I again have elders in my ward so our area is about half the ward. The ward is A LOT smaller geographically compared to Spotsylvania. It only takes about 10-15 minutes, without traffic, to get to the other end of our ward which is pretty nice. I'm really excited for what these next 6 weeks will hold here in the Woodbridge 2nd ward. I feel really blessed Heavenly Father has allowed me the opportunity to serve here. This ward hasn't had a Temple Square sister before so it will be a little interesting seeing how they all react to that. Some of their facial expressions have been pretty hilarious when they start asking me about why I will be leaving at then end of this transfer when I have only been out for 8 months. Then I inform them that my mission call is to Temple Square.

Oh, so fun fact: my area has EVERYTHING in it. My last area was HUGE and we only had 1 gas station which was 20 minutes from our apartment. My new area literally has everything. You name it, I can go to it (Costco, Mall, Olive Garden, On the border, Chili's, Bob Evans etc.).

Meet Sister Moore:

My new companion is amazing. I love her so much! She is actually in her last transfer so we are both "killing each other" out of this mission, but I'm killing her out of missionary life in general. She is from Centerville, UT and is the 2nd oldest of 8! It reminds me of your family, dad, instead you're the baby of 9. She has gone through so much but she is still so strong despite everything she has experienced. When she started opening up to me and telling me, my jaw just dropped. I could never imagine going through some of the experiences she has had to face with her family. But despite everything, she is still so solid in the Gospel and has such a desire to serve her Father in Heaven.

Skating Around Satan's Traps:

"Skating" in Woodbridge

An icicle that grew in hours

How are we avoiding the traps that Satan is putting in front of us? Yesterday the area experienced, I don't want to call it an ice storm, but we just had a lot of freezing rain in the morning. With the freezing rain we experienced in the morning it caused a nice layer of ice on all the cars and sidewalks and some on the roads to the point where we were sliding/skating/dragging our feet on the sidewalk because it was to slippery. The thing about it was you couldn't necessarily tell it was ice at certain parts unless you were being observant. But I started thinking this morning about how this applies to our life. Here we are going through life so focused on everything around us that we don't see this trap Satan has laid in front of us until it is too late. There were moments yesterday as we were walking on the ice where we stopped and truly did not know how we were going to take our next step because we were afraid of falling. Whoever was in front would warn the person behind, "Hey, there is a very slick patch of ice here be careful." Satan will do everything in his power to get us to fall into one of his traps. He will do whatever it takes to make us fall on one of those patches of ice that can't be seen. What are we doing to make sure we don't fall on that hidden patch of ice; that hidden trap? That's where the Atonement comes into play. Our Savior Jesus Christ has already walked that path for us, he has already taken those steps for us and he knows exactly what we must do to overcome those traps that Satan has put in our path. As we look to our Savior in all that we do he will be by our side to guide us around those slick pieces of ice, he will be there to catch us when we fall and we can't get up on our own. That's why the Atonement occurred, because we can't get up on our own. He is the only one who has walked the path that we will ever walk. He is the only one who knows what we will face but as we rely on him he will be there to guide us safely home. How comforting is that? To know that there is someone who is willing to be by our side to guide us and catch us or to even help us get back on our feet to continue going. Satan will do whatever it takes to trap us but as 

we skate/slide down that icy path filled with seen or unseen patches of ice we can know we don't have to do it alone. Our Savior has already walked the path. He has experienced our falls. He knows the pain we go through when we do fall. He knows the sorrow and heartache when we feel like giving up. I invite you to reach out to him and to rely on him -- allow him to guide you on this icy path back home to your Father in Heaven.

Satan is Real but Tereza Endured and was BAPTIZED:

Tereza, at her baptism, with her mom
and little sister, Abbie

Sorry I'm talking a lot about this but we have just experienced a lot of the adversary this past week. There is this 9 year old little girl who is so amazing!! I just can't explain just how amazing she is. I have never seen a 9 year old with faith as strong as hers. She was finally baptized on Friday, which was such a beautiful baptism seeing this little girl so excited to make this covenant with her Father in Heaven. But Satan was doing EVERYTHING in his power to get it to not happen. The weather had already cancelled the baptism the week prior and then so many minor yet big details for the baptism was going wrong. But this little girl and her less active mom had the faith that she would be baptized. Despite everything that was occurring, even minutes before the baptism, she was baptized on Friday! She was just beyond excited! We went over before the baptism so I could braid her hair. She was like, "I'm getting baptized soon and will be making that covenant with Heavenly Father and I will get the Holy Ghost." That is the one thing she has just been beyond excited for was to get the Holy Ghost. Well, Sunday rolls around and like I mentioned before, the weather was just not good. Wards were being cancelled for the second week in a row due to the weather, the sidewalks were horrible, and Tereza got sick. 

Sis. Skaggs, Tereza & Sis. Moore
at Tereza's baptism

 Sister Moore and I just couldn't believe everything the adversary was doing to stop this 9 year old little girl from entering into these covenants with her Father In Heaven. Due to the weather they cancelled the last 2 hours of church and started 15 minutes late. The thing that scared us was Tereza's mom has a bad foot and she said, "I want to make it but if the sidewalk is bad I'm not going to be able to walk up the hill with ice on this foot." Our apartment sidewalk was horrendous and so we knew that her sidewalk was going to be horrible. When we received word from our leaders as to how bad it was we decided we needed to say a prayer and ask that a way be made possible so Tereza and her family could make it to Sacrament meeting so she could receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Despite everything, Tereza and her mom and littler sister made it to 

Abbie and Tereza with something
they put together about Tereza's
journey to her baptism

church right as we were singing the opening song. And despite Tereza being sick, she was still confirmed and received the Holy Ghost yesterday. She is an amazing example of faith. Satan is real and did all he could to stop this little girl to the point that she was sick. But she had the faith and she knew that her Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ would be right by her side to help her. She knew the importance of receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and being baptized and she wasn't going to allow anything to stop her.

It really makes you stop and think "Do I have the faith this little 9 year old girl has? Am I willing endure through anything?"

Volunteering at the Assisted Living Center:

One thing we get to do every Friday morning is we go to the near by assisted living center and we get to work with some of the people that live there. We work with a group of about 15-20. We go into this room and we sing nursery rhymes with them for about 2 hours. It is such a neat experience. One of my favorite parts is Sunday afternoons. We go over and for about an hour we have 'church' with them. We sing hymns with them and then share scriptures that go with it and then share a brief testimony. I can't explain to you the spirit that I felt in that room yesterday. Those individuals are people that already hold a special place in my heart. We have this cute lady. Her name is Mrs. Martha and she likes to lay back in her chair and sleep but while she sleeps she sings the hymns with us. She knew EVERY hymn we sang. After we sang we went and gave a hug to each of them before we left and the sweet spirits they each have just brought tears to my eyes. Several asked, "Where are you going? Why are you leaving us?" It was just so sad but we promised we would be back next week. They are some of the sweetest yet funniest people I have met. Haha, I just can't stop laughing right now at some of the experiences I have had with the two days I have been with them so far. It has always been a dream of mine to do something like this but I have never known about how I could go about do something like this. It's funny how years later your prayers can be answered. It comes not on our time but on the Lord's time. I'm so excited I get to spend the next 6 weeks with them.

Sis. Pincock and Sis. Skaggs

I love it here. I love being a missionary and I love EVERYTHING I'm learning. I love the people I have had the opportunity to meet and to witness the change in their life as they take the Gospel of Jesus Christ and apply it to their life.

Family and friends, know that I love you and care for you. I hope my comments make sense. It made sense when I was thinking about it but I don't know how it came out when I wrote it. I love you!!

Love Always,

Sister Skaggs

P.S. I found out Temple Square just received IPADS!!! Can you believe it?!?! Ahhh the work is hastening!!!! When I logged onto my missionary portal it said "your mission has just been authorized to use mobile devices please press next to learn how you will use your iPad." I was like, "Huhh? We don't have iPads here." And then I realized that I'm still connected to Temple Square and putting two and two together I realized that Temple Square must have iPads now! Anyways enough of that!