Sister Jennifer Skaggs: Acts of Love/Service‏

From 09/07/15

To All I love,

My comp, Sis. Brito, licking beaters
for the FIRST TIME!

Can you believe another week has come and gone?! I'm amazed though with all that can really occur with in a week and what the Lord shows us. This time to be in complete service to my Savior and Father in Heaven is sooner than later going to have to come to a close. Being a missionary is a treat. It's hard, but the fruits of the labors are so worth it. Compared to last week this week was 10x better. Was it perfect? No. But I'm learning to look at the small areas of improvement rather than the things that aren't still going right. Let me begin by sharing with you all that has occurred! It's been an eventful week!!

Only in the Service of our God:

This past week can only be described with Learning to Serve. It reminds me of the scripture "...When

Making oatmeal cookies

ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." As we let go or our natural man, just like in Mosiah 3:19, and learn to serve our fellow man we are only letting go of ourselves and submitting our will more to the will of the Father. And in the end becoming more like our Savior. Later on this past week I received an email from a 'very close friend' of mine that made mention about the importance of service and how those simple acts of service can change someones heart. That was the start to what the spirit ultimately taught me this past weekend. I thought a lot about what he said in his email and how that is applicable to each of our lives right now. As we seek for ways to serve those around us hearts become softened. That is how my heart was ultimately softened at the start of my mission. Early on I recognized the great deal of pride I had. And how my first trainer was diligent at serving ALWAYS. When we forget ourselves and seek to bless the lives of others by finding ways to enrich their lives through acts of love, things change. That is something that I greatly learned this past week.

As the week continued on I thought about that and how that is key. It was interesting because as I was sitting in Sacrament meeting yesterday partaking of the sacrament I was reading over my Patriarchal Blessing and a certain part stood out to me that hasn't stood out to me quite like this before. And maybe because I was fasting this past weekend for specific direction. It said "... acts of service to those in need." Aren't we all in need?? It made me think about the importance of acts of service or, in other words, acts of love to the children of God that we will encounter on a daily basis. Think about a time that someone served you?? How did you personally feel??

On exchanges with Sister
Mahoney

Later on that morning I had an opportunity to talk with President Poulsen and at the end I asked, "What is it that I can do for you?" He paused and said, "Go out and preach the gospel" and then paused again and said, "Serve. We have many sisters right now that are in need of that service and you two can bless the lives of that service." Well, that was the icing to the cake. A 'very close friend' of mine that I greatly trust their advice said it, the spirit and the Patriarchal Blessing said it and then the Mission President said it. As I was kneeling down to pray last night I pondered on how service can bless the lives of others. Service, lately, I have pinpointed as an area of great weakness. But as we progress through life we must be willing to serve in order to stay humble and in order to accomplish our ultimate purpose here on earth. This is one characteristic of Christ that we must each be seeking to develop and engrave upon our hearts.

Miracles and the Elect on Temple Square:

A man taking us to dinner
at Chick Fil A

Travis at the Priesthood Statues - With the week being a little bit slow compared to last transfer in regards to the work I was just seeking for a simple miracle to occur in regards to the work before the end of the week. Saturday rolled around and it was a little rocky earlier in the day but I felt prompted that we needed to follow our schedule and go to the Priesthood statues as planned. Last year at this time, a lot of success came from the Priesthood statues. It's just always been the good luck spot. As we walked over we saw this guy, probably in his late 20's, walking in our direction. When you're a missionary you learn to TALK TO EVERYONE. Travis came to find God about 5 years ago and then met a member of the Church about 8 months ago. They met on accident but continued to be friends. They are living in Kansas and his friend needed a ride to Salt Lake City for his sister's wedding, and so Travis offered to drive him out here. We met him as he was walking around while waiting for them to finish taking pictures. He said, "I love this feeling that I feel here. That peaceful feeling that I get to experience right now. I haven't felt this good before. And I love how it's so family oriented here and how loving and welcoming everyone is." We talked about a lot of things. He mentioned that he is looking forward to attending Church tomorrow and seeing how it's like as well. We invited him to stay in contact and stated our purpose as missionaries, that we are here to be guides to help him learn how each of these things we talked about can be applied to his life. He mentioned that would be fine. He is really prepared. Not super prepared like he will be baptized tomorrow. But his heart is pretty opened to the spirit right now. We sent him a text this morning asking about Church and this was his response "... I'm not sure I can describe the experience besides that it opened my eyes and my heart to a whole new experience. The wedding went great. I'm getting a chance to meet a lot of great people and they've all been more than happy to answer questions. I'm having a great learning experience."

Heather is going through the Temple!!! - I talked about Heather multiples time now in my emails. She is the one going on the mission, who I met about a year ago with Sister Casagrande. Well guess what?!?! She is going through the temple this week!

This is the email she sent me:

"Dear Sister Skaggs,

More news!! I get to go through the temple this week on my 21 birthday. [: I get to go through my favorite temple, the Bountiful temple.

It's been an interesting ride... my parents won't be able to go through with me and neither will my older brother. It's been bothering me. But my Grandma Jane, my namesake (Heather Jane), will be escorting me through, and a lot of my extended family and three of my returned missionary friends will be there, too.

Tomorrow marks the one month wait until I enter the MTC! I am super excited.

I pray that you are safe and happy!! I'm so grateful for our friendship.

Love Always,

Heather "

I'm beyond happy for her!

My college roommate's mom!!!

Sis. Lundquist and Tayli
I LOVED seeing them!

This past week has been amazing! Things have improved greatly, had the opportunity to have smoothies with Elder Bennett of the 70 and his wife after we met them in Costco. Saw part of my second family. Saw Susan's Mom. Ran into Sister Burton (Relief Society General President) and her film crew on the stairs at the Humanitarian Center as we were there for Explore Day (She was filming a segment for in between General Conference Sessions, it was awkward though because the Camera Guy came over and started filming us on the stairs as she asked where we were from, why we were there and what is our name.). Was able to witness miracles and to learn a lot. This week was a blessing in so many ways!

Know that I love you tremendously! Family, your emails this past week were such a blessing. We are able to read our emails every night after planning now on our I pads and it brought a smile to my face as I was able to read an email from you most of the days. I felt like I was with you. Know that I love you, but most importantly the Lord loves each of you. As you consecrate your life to the Lord miracles will be performed!

Love Always,

Sister Skaggs