The Gospel Changes Hearts‏

From 08/11/15

 

 

To All I Love,

 

 

Me and my wonderful
companion!

Well EVERY WEEK I say this but being on a Mission brings you true joy! To be honest I have NEVER in my life been this happy before and it all comes from the Gospel. Being able to devote my ENTIRE LIFE to the Gospel and to be in complete service to my Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ. If I was given the choice to be an eternal full time missionary I would say YES in a heartbeat! The Gospel is truly remarkable. Seeing hearts change brings sooo much joy to ones soul. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and it ALWAYS will be. Shall I start with what has happened this past week?

 

God's Plan for His Family:

This would have to be my FAVORITE presentation on Temple Square. Have you ever seen it?? Probably not! Why?? Because no one even knows it exists until the Temple Square Sisters say "Would you like to see God's Plan?" And then they look at us like "Huh??" Well you should see it! It's next door to the Christus up the ramp on the right. It's a presentation that takes you through 6 different rooms and it's only 12 minutes long. You see what God intends for each of his families. You see the different stages of life and ways we can apply these principles to our own families. The first room looks like you're in a canyon, then we move to the next room (a little girls room), then to a front yard etc. But you see this family and how life isn't perfect. I wish our families were, but hate to break it to you, NO FAMILY is perfect. Your life may seem perfect but it's not. We may be the happiest in the world but at one point or another you have experienced a trial. Trials are blessings from God but at one point or another they can seem hard.

 

Going to God's Plan is my FAVORITE! Seeing families go through and seeing their hearts change is powerful. Even grown men cry during this presentation. Today we took a family of 6 through. It was grandma and her 3 grand-kids and her son and daughter. Most of them hadn't seen it before which is great because it makes it even more special. My favorite thing is to observe them as we go through and see how they react. The daughter today - she is 47 years old. In each room I watched how the spirit was touching her and was trying to catch a glimpse of what she must be feeling right now. As we entered the last room we played it for the family and I watched the son who was probably in his late 40's as well. Personally, I think he was trying to stay a man and not shed a tear. Didn't last long. As I looked over I watched him lift up his glasses and wipe his eyes a bit and then watched as he continued to watch the film. At the end we asked what they loved most about it. The daughter, still in tears, says, "It brings an eternal perspective on things. That this life isn't temporary but this time is the time to prepare." As we talked further on we found out her dad passed away 20 years ago. And for her she was able to remember that this isn't the end. God's plan for each of his families here is to prepare ourselves and together as a family living a life centered on the Gospel to make sure we are each prepared to return to live in his presence. And as we do so and focus on entering the Temple we can make our families eternal ones. The family isn't to be temporary but God intends for each family to be an Eternal one. As we apply the teachings presented and recognize this plan that has been established for our families we will successfully wade out the storm that surrounds us each and everyday. The parents will know how to raise their kids in society that is crashing fast, they will know how to strengthen and edify their children. The children will know that this is an eternal perspective that they must recognize. They will have a further desire to apply these principles that will keep them safe amongst the storm that is raging all around us each day. As missionaries we don't know of the storm that is raging. We know it's there but we know what each family MUST and has to do in order to make it through safely. What are you doing to strengthen your family? How much do you love your family? 

Uncle Rich popped in for a
surprise visit!



Mom and Dad I'm eternally grateful for the foundation you established within me at such a young age! I feel blessed to have parents with firm testimonies of the Gospel, with parents who do all that they can to deepen those relationships with their Heavenly Father each day. Family, I love you!! 

 

 

 

A Change of Heart Through A Prophets Home:

The other day the weather started to drastically turn in Salt Lake City as the clouds got darker and were moving in pretty quickly and with that comes everyone running to get out of the storm. We were assigned to be at the Beehive House at the time. And you know me, I'm a weather freak, once one ALWAYS one. Which meant I was on the porch outside just watching the clouds move in, telling everyone to come inside the Beehive House. Moments before that this dad and his young son came by saying, "Do you have a drinking fountain?" We are like, "Yeah but its during the tour that we come across it. We can give you a tour and then you can have a cup of water when we get to the room." Missionaries are smart right?? Great way to sneak in a tour or a Gospel lesson. But who knew being in a prophets home would change the heart of this gentleman, probably in his mid to late 40's.

They come in and we do our usual stuff before we start the tour, introduction, How To Begin Teaching, expectations, and what we do as missionaries. The dad mentioned that he is familiar with the Church and is wanting to open his son up to various religions, the son is 10. We begin the tour and we just start asking questions simple enough, that the 10 year-old would understand. He was a little shy and so it was hard getting through to him. Which is okay because I felt more pushed to work on the Dad. Don't know why but I just felt like he needed to be my priority on this tour. As we move from Brigham Young's office to the backroom that shows the prophets belongings we just start asking more questions. Questions are key to all things. If you don't ask you wont get your answer. The dad finally stops us and says, "Okay, let me give you a better understanding so you know what you are working with." We are like 'okay go right ahead.' He mentions to us that he is on a trip with his son to introduce him to different religions so he can choose for himself what he wants to believe and join someday. Earlier that day they attended a Catholic mass and now they are here at Temple Square learning more about the Mormons. He mentioned that his sister is a member of the church and so they know a lot about it because of that. He is just exposing his son to things and giving him the opportunity to choose. We continue our way through the home. Talking about Brigham Young and what he valued the most and how it can apply to their own family. We talked a lot about being an example, teaching his children the gospel, sacrifice and love. As we were in the last room, the dad's tone had changed quite a bit. To be honest, I have no idea what we said but at this point I could really feel the spirit as we communicated to him. As I looked up at him I saw a tear start to form as he looked at us in the eyes. At this moment he was working hard to be strong and to be a man. I don't know if he knew that I recognized what happened. But at this point I knew he was feeling the spirit and his heart had changed. We walked outside and he asked if he could get more water. We said "Sure. Let's go back in and get more." As we were talking again we asked more questions to get to know him and that's when he mentioned that he used to be a member. His ENTIRE family are members except him. He said, "I'm glad this has worked for you and this brings you happiness." But he said it in a manner that seemed like he was aching to be able to say that for himself. Out of nowhere I find myself telling him he needs to go back to church. Now he was probably Hawaiian and was a little intimidating and he was A LOT older than me. But I just remember saying something about how he should give it a try. "It's been years since you last gave it a try. It didn't work for you then but see if it can bless your life now. Go back to church and test it out. Read the Book of Mormon again. If it's blessed your family, if it's blessed our lives then why can't it bless your life? Just give it a try again." I was a little shocked with what I said. In that moment I knew it wasn't me speaking but the spirit. The spirit was strong at this point and while he didn't say anything to us we knew what his heart was experiencing and that's all that matters. We don't know what will happen now but it doesn't matter. What matters is that after such a long time this gentleman felt the spirit again, after so many years and was able to recognize it again. At this moment the spirit witnessed to him that he was missing that eternal happiness. The Gospel is amazing and it's the key to true happiness in our lives. We can have millions of dollars, lots of boating stuff, a private jet, a great job, etc. But if you don't have the Gospel you won't have that complete joy that you only can experience from living the teachings found within the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Blessings from serving a mission are remarkable, the greatest one is seeing the spirit work through people's spirits. We were only with them for about 30 minutes and it shows that the spirit doesn't need an eternity to work, it just needs a willing heart and a couple of seconds/minutes.

The Work is Moving Forward:

A visitor from Napal

Africa is doing great!! Our teaching pool keeps increasing. President Harmon has given us 20 people now to work with, with about 12 of them whom we have gotten in touch with and are actively teaching and then another lady we found the other day who lives in Accra, Ghana. Everyone was supposed to be baptized this past weekend but due to mission stuff the Mission Presidency hasn't been able to get to Kakata to do the interviews yet. However, the interviews will be this Saturday and they are each very excited and prepared! Anthony is one of my favorites!! He has only been to church 3 times but his testimony is phenomenal!!! I haven't seen someones testimony like his before of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith. Yesterday I had a 50 minute lesson with him as HE TAUGHT ME THE ENTIRE Restoration, as we went through ALL of the Baptismal Interview Questions with flying colors besides several that he didn't know about like Law of Chastity, etc. But we taught him the Law of Chastity as we did the Baptismal Interview Questions and he understood everything quite well and is grateful that God has led him to the "true church" - is how he put it. People are prepared. Now he wants us to teach his wife and son. Want to know how it all started???? A FRIEND inviting him to church!! Member Missionary work is vital. In fact, all of the solid people we are working with over there is from their friends inviting them to church. People are ready. We are expecting the baptism to occur on the 22nd. They are aiming for about 30 people to be scheduled to be baptized during this baptism. Which is crazy to think about. Imagine attending a baptism of 30 and then having 30 confirmations at church the next day!

 

Well I better get going! Know I love you each and I have never been happier!! Truly, I have never been happier. When I get into these random funks, which rarely ever happen, it's the most depressing thing ever! Being happy is the best feeling ever! Being around those who are filled with joy is even better. Okay. Well I love you. Be safe and seek for something you can change this week to become what the Lord expects you to become! Love you each, wherever you may be throughout the world!

 

Love Always,

 

Sister Skaggs