To All I Love,
At the start of this transfer Sister Rodriguez and I had felt as if something was missing from our efforts as missionaries. We were talking, studying, seeking to be obedient, but we felt something was empty. And it really bothered the two of us. We had a lot we wanted to accomplish this transfer and we wanted the Lord to know he could really use us as his representatives. We were sitting in the Tabernacle at about 8:15 at night and the Square was just plain empty. We saw maybe 2 people in that entire hour come into the Tabernacle. As we were talking we both just shared with one another our thoughts about how we felt we weren't living up to our potential at that moment. We felt empty. We really started to ponder with one another what it was that was causing us to not completely live up to our potential at that moment. A mission is one big roller coaster. You will have steep climbs to the top that seem like its taking an eternity, then will have the joyous ride down screaming and just filled with joy and then come across those sudden turns that are hard to grasp at times, then you go back up again and so forth. Well, leading up to this moment we were just on the hill. As we were talking we discussed some things that maybe could be the reason for causing us to not be living up to our potential.
Dotdot from the Netherlands - He had come on having several questions about various different things. As we continued to talk to him we testified and shared with him a little bit more about the Restoration and invited him to stay in contact with us and to read the Book of Mormon. In that moment he wasn't completely comfortable with having people he didn't know come to his door, which is understandable. The next day we logged onto Teaching Center and we saw we had an email waiting for us asking if he could chat with us. We proceeded to share with him that we would love to chat with him. About an hour later we had taught him the entire Restoration and pretty much the entire Plan of Salvation over Chat. He stopped us saying, "I think it would be okay now if the local missionaries came to bring me a copy of the Book of Mormon." We screamed a little bit. You have no idea how big a step that was for him to personally take. It will be interesting to see how things progress with him because he was interested but showed signs of not complete interest. But what matters is he felt the spirit, has a desire to have a Book of Mormon and said yes to local missionaries bringing him a copy. All of you that receive referrals in your local missions from Church Headquarters, take it to them ASAP!! There is a reason why PMG says within 24 hours!!!
Ahhhhhhh!!!! I jumped out of my chair in the kitchen with a half eaten taco in my hand and ran to the bathroom trying to find Sister Rodriguez. She was touching up her makeup and so I was like companion you have to stop right now, the text we have been waiting for just came! After I read the text we just freaked out together in so much joy! We texted Anna asking if we could call her and she said YES!! Now imagine me with a bowl of ice cream and a half eaten cookie.... Haha always at the wrong time. When we got into TC and called her she was so excited to talk to us and she went into detail about everything that happened. She has been searching for the right religion for a while now and nothing has seemed to fill the emptiness that she had been feeling until she found the church. And guess when it started??? Her senior year in high school when she had a class with a member of the church!!!!!!!!! That member now is attending BYU-I. You never know what a simple contact will do. Anyways she mentioned how she just loved church, loved Sunday school. They talked about the second coming and other things and then she loved Relief Society and all the ladies were so friendly and welcoming. And then they went to the Temple, which the Temple is LITERALLY right across the street from where she went to church. As they were walking the grounds they talked about a lot of various things and then the missionaries invited her to be baptized. She said, "You know, I just felt something and I knew I needed to say yes." She said, "I, of course, know there is more to learn and its a little scary but I had the feeling I had to say yes. I'm so excited to be learning right now and I'm just so happy I found this church and I look forward to everything I will be able to continue to learn, it just all makes so much sense!"
I haven't experienced so much joy before than being able to teach the people that live within the Kakata branch in Liberia. I love them so much, of course I love my Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ first and foremost and that will ALWAYS be the way that it is. One thing I have prayed for is for them to be able to feel the love that their Father in Heaven has for them. And maybe that is why I just feel as if there is no capacity to the love that I have for them. Because that is the love that our Father in Heaven has for us. There is and will never be a capacity on the true and everlasting love he has for us as his children.
I'm grateful for the remaining 2 months I have in the mission. I wouldn't want it any other way. I thought to myself earlier that the timing of my mission has been perfect. If I came any earlier or later I wouldn't be able to see these investigators truly progress and would more than likely not see our investigators in Liberia come full circle, I wouldn't have seen the miracles I witnessed in Virginia. The Lord's timing is perfect. We must trust in his perfect plan for us. He knows us best and he knows what we need. Obedience, Trust, and Diligence are key to experiencing eternal JOY.
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| Sis. Skaggs and Sis. Rodriguez |
To sum up this week all you can say is it was a week of miracles, blessings, lots of tears, and an overabundance of Joy! My all time favorite week of my mission would have been this past week. Don't worry, I will tell you all about it. To be honest, I don't know how I will ever express my gratitude to all that my Heavenly Father has blessed us with this past week. The only thing we have thought about is we must just work even harder to pay him back for all of the miracles he allowed us to witnesse this past week. I'm sitting here trying to contemplate as to where I should begin. And what comes to my mind is Sunday November 22nd at about 8 P.M. that is when it all started.
Sunday, November 22nd:
At the start of this transfer Sister Rodriguez and I had felt as if something was missing from our efforts as missionaries. We were talking, studying, seeking to be obedient, but we felt something was empty. And it really bothered the two of us. We had a lot we wanted to accomplish this transfer and we wanted the Lord to know he could really use us as his representatives. We were sitting in the Tabernacle at about 8:15 at night and the Square was just plain empty. We saw maybe 2 people in that entire hour come into the Tabernacle. As we were talking we both just shared with one another our thoughts about how we felt we weren't living up to our potential at that moment. We felt empty. We really started to ponder with one another what it was that was causing us to not completely live up to our potential at that moment. A mission is one big roller coaster. You will have steep climbs to the top that seem like its taking an eternity, then will have the joyous ride down screaming and just filled with joy and then come across those sudden turns that are hard to grasp at times, then you go back up again and so forth. Well, leading up to this moment we were just on the hill. As we were talking we discussed some things that maybe could be the reason for causing us to not be living up to our potential.
One was obedience with exactness. You can be obedient on a mission, but in order to reap the rewards of missionary work, you have to be seeking to be obedient with exactness. It's hard and takes effort, but the Lord has set bounds that when we seek to abide within them that is when our hearts will be filled with joy. I'm NOT PERFECT, let me make that clear to you. But we have to be seeking and striving to be as obedient as possible. Two, diligence. We must be diligent with the things we plan to change that would enable us to be more effective. Three, making simple changes that would allow us to give a little more to the Lord, kneeling at all times when we pray even when we go to the Square or in the Teaching Center. Little things like that or using our lunch time to go home and have extra study time or to go into TC and call our investigators. Little things that allowed us to use our time more wisely. I so wish I could say everything went perfect. Hahaha, yeah - I would be lying. It seemed as if Satan was always putting things in our way. But we sought to make the effort despite the road bumps that came into play. Personally, we feel that because of these simple adjustments the Lord allowed us to witness some truly amazing miracles this past week. Miracles that brought us to our knees in tears, as we couldn't comprehend and grasp all that he had blessed us with and why. Well, it starts with Tuesday.
Witnessing the Elect:
This past Tuesday Sister Rodriguez and I were assigned to have the closing shift of West Gate. Because we had no tours being sent out at that point due to the lights, we decided we were going to take chats from people that came onto Mormon.org. At one point we had about 10 chats going which was a little stressful but so worth it. We were multi tasking - swapping between chats, answer their questions and trying to teach together and end chats when people weren't prepared. It was a tremendous blessing because we found several elect children during that 3 hour window of being in West Gate. During that 3 hour block we were able to find about 3 new investigators, 2 of whom were open to meeting with local missionaries. Let me tell you about Dotdot & Jenna!
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| The crazy faces one can make! |
Anna (name changed) "This is what I have been looking for, I knew I had to say yes" - On Tuesday during that window of TC in West Gate, Sister Rodriguez took over mainly teaching Jenna while I was focused on Dotdot. I don't know clearly what happened on Tuesday, however, I know that she really wanted to learn more, had been studying on her own, wanted to read the Book of Mormon and just ultimately wanted know more about the church. Sister Rodriguez invited her to meet with local missionaries. She said yes and asked if she could call them. We gave her the number to the local missionaries and said we would continue to stay in contact with her. We had asked if we could call her and she said she wasn't comfortable with that but would prefer to just email us. Which that is totally okay. Wednesday we emailed her and she replied back to us briefly on Wednesday. Here is her response:
"Hi Maria and Jennifer! I hope you both had a wonderful day! It's so nice to hear from you! Reading all of this was really wonderful. I'm good! I'm really excited about this and hearing again from you made me even more excited! Thank you so much! Going by myself is definitely not the easiest thing in the world (I'm still really nervous, I tend to be really shy) but there's something in my heart telling me to go. I don't question the Lord when I feel like He is calling me to do something. :) I actually was unable to call the local missionaries today for numerous reasons. The first being that I actually lost the numbers you were so kind to have sent me last night! :( I accidentally exited out of the chat before copying them down and I realized my mistake right after. I also was insanely busy today (I'm in college here in Orlando and we have our final exams next week so it's been really crazy lately!) so I wouldn't have had a moment to call them even if I had had the numbers. If there's anyway you could send them to me again, I would so appreciate it! I think I'll have time to call them tomorrow. Well, that's a long story! I really don't remember any moment when I began to feel called, the feeling just grew more and more as I learned more about the church. I watch this family on YouTube who post videos daily about their lives and they are Mormon! I always admired how close the family was and how strong they were in their beliefs. They seemed so happy and so sure in the Lord, and I became more and more interested in learning about everything they believed in. So I started reading a lot about the church! I read websites and I looked at mormon.org and watched a ton of videos.. and everything really seemed to just make sense. I've been a Christian for most of my life, but when I read about what was practiced in the LDS church, it just made so much sense. It was kind of like as if I had this uncompleted puzzle and when I found the church it filled in all the pieces. I was really young at the time though (this was two years ago) so I didn't have much ability to do anything with this. I just read more about it and pondered on whether or not I should attend a church service or not. Now that I'm a little older and I have a lot more freedom, I've finally decided to go. When I made the decision to do so, a huge feeling of relief and happiness flooded over me. I prayed about it and the Lord has only been sending me positive signs since. I trust Him and I really think that this is a calling from Him! I actually have started reading the Book of Mormon! I saw a lot things during my research in which so many people suggested reading through the book and praying a lot throughout the entire thing, and then the truth would be revealed to you. I don't know if that will happen to me, but so far I've gotten through 1 Nephi and started 2 Nephi! It's a little difficult to find time but I'm trying my best! I have an app on my phone that has a reading schedule for me so I don't get overwhelmed. :) I'm definitely not deaf, no. :) Sometimes I just have a hard time understanding what other people are saying over the phone, and I know that can be very frustrating. I'm also really shy so phone calls are a little scary for me! I really love everything you had to say and I really cant wait to learn more. Thank you for your time sending this email to me! It was lovely to read! Talk to you soon,
Anna then emailed us back on Thursday and this was her response:
"Hi Maria and Jennifer! My day is going really well so far! I hope yours is going good as well :) I was able to call the missionaries (yay!!) and we set an appointment for tomorrow at 4:30! I'm really, really excited. I'm ... years old! College is a little crazy but it's wonderful and fun. ... That brings me so much comfort to hear, you have no idea! I'm sure everything will be fine, and it'll be worth it in the long run. I think if I got up the courage to talk to you and to call the missionary, I'm sure I can go to a church service. These emails are something I look forward to so much! It's amazing to finally have someone to talk to about this. :) The story about your mom gave me chills! Just to know that someone else felt the exact same way that I do really just shows that the feeling is real! Thank you for sharing that with me! I'd love to hear more about it! It sounds familiar and I think I know what it's about but I'd love to hear what you both have to say. I really love learning about this church and everything else that comes with it :) Aw, thank you so much! It is a little difficult to understand and there's definitely some parts of it that have been a little confusing, but I think I'm getting it for the most part and I'm excited to read more of it! I think when I get a little more into it it'll make a little more sense. That's really good advice, I'll definitely take that to heart and do that in the coming weeks! Thank you! Okay, I think I can probably work up the courage to talk on the phone! I'd love to talk to you both about all of that. I look forward to it! I'm just a little busy in the next coming days and so I'm not really sure when I'll be able to talk on the phone next. Hopefully sometime soon! :) Thank you for everything, :)
From that point we weren't able to really talk to her. She had briefly texted us on Friday saying she loved meeting with the Elders that they talked all about Prophets, the Book of Mormon and even brought a member from the congregation to their appointment!!! (Member presence make all the difference in a lesson!) And the Elders invited her to church on Sunday! These Elders are everything we want in a local missionary. We didn't talk to her at all Saturday and she wasn't replying to our texts yesterday (Sunday) which scared us just a bit because we were nervous not knowing what was happening. But one thing we had fasted for was that the spirit would work in the hearts of our investigators and we would see miracles be performed I had specifically fasted for about 10 of our investigators. About 15 minutes after I ended my fast about 3:15 in the afternoon we received this text. It was just me in the main kitchen with all of the other sisters there and my companion not being there. hahaha imagine what my expression may have been... What would yours be?? It reads as follows:
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| The cell phone where we get these GREAT texts! |
"Hi there! I'm Great! Sorry I haven't had an opportunity to text you, I've been so busy! Church was amazing this morning! Everyone was so nice and welcoming and it was so cool to hear so many testimonies today! I really liked how the meetings are structured and I loved the things discussed during the meeting. And afterwards, I was able to go with the missionaries to look at the Orlando temple!! It was so beautiful! We talked a lot about so many things but we agree that I would pray continually and continue to meet with missionaries and go to church with a goal of being ready to be baptized by January 30th. I of course still have a long way to go but I'm really excited about it!! :)"
At that moment Sister Rodriguez and I just fell to our knees after and just cried. I honestly can't express enough to you the gratitude that we both felt in that given moment for our Father in Heaven and all that he had blessed us with. And that was only the cherry on top to the entire day. I still have a whole other story to share. When we put the Lord first, seek to go the extra mile and seek to be obedient to his will, we will experience joy. My favorite scripture is "I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say, But when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." I can testify that this is true and it can be a living witness to each of us when we put his words to test. The Lord promises to bless us when we are obedient, he is bound to do so. But he doesn't have to do anything when we aren't obedient to what he expects of us. Now I want to share with you our next miracle that brought us to tears!!
They ALL went to church! The Missionaries will be back tomorrow! I love you!:
I haven't experienced so much joy before than being able to teach the people that live within the Kakata branch in Liberia. I love them so much, of course I love my Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ first and foremost and that will ALWAYS be the way that it is. One thing I have prayed for is for them to be able to feel the love that their Father in Heaven has for them. And maybe that is why I just feel as if there is no capacity to the love that I have for them. Because that is the love that our Father in Heaven has for us. There is and will never be a capacity on the true and everlasting love he has for us as his children.
As we were talking with the Branch President yesterday we asked how church was and he said, "Oh it was great. They gave great testimonies at church." He then said everyone was at church. I was like "What do you mean by that?" Well Gaiduwo, Anthony, Jayedward, Miapta, Siannes, Wenneta, Jimmy etc. all came to church. Everyone. They have NEVER all been at church at the same time. He just started naming them and I just started crying. Because we know just how much church will bless their lives and they know just how important church is for them. Several of them we used to teach but due to the connection we had, caused us to have to "former" them were at church as well. It is a living witness that God still hears and answers our prayers. We have prayed for months that the spirit will continue to touch their hearts and they will recognize the truthfulness of these things. Then President Harmon said "Sisters we have great news. Four missionaries will come tomorrow! The apartment is done and we just received word that they are coming tomorrow. They will meet with the investigators and we hope to have the baptism before Christmas or by the end of the year. We have lots of children, families, investigators and many prepared people here that are waiting to be baptized."
You will NEVER know just how much that meant to hear!! Hearing those words flow out of his mouth brought me to tears and are bringing me to tears as I write this. I love these people and I know just how excited they are to be baptized. That is all they talk to us about and just ask us to prepare them to be baptized. To have the opportunity to teach them for over 10 months now is a tremendous blessing and miracle in my life.
Siannes and Jayedward this week as we were hanging up the phone said "I love you." We are like "We love you too."
When I started my mission I never once thought the Lord would allow this to happen. I didn't know or even imagine the Lord would allow me to have this opportunity to be a part of their life. I haven't done a single thing, but I am grateful to have been able to have witnessed this. To have seen such humble people, willing to do what God needs them to do in order to find eternal joy. The Gospel is true and the Lord is hastening his work throughout the world and will do whatever it takes to have his work hastened. From Liberia, to Mainland China, to Sudan, to India, doesn't matter where you live, the Gospel is there and the Lord is doing all that it takes to get his message to all corners of the world.
I'm grateful for the remaining 2 months I have in the mission. I wouldn't want it any other way. I thought to myself earlier that the timing of my mission has been perfect. If I came any earlier or later I wouldn't be able to see these investigators truly progress and would more than likely not see our investigators in Liberia come full circle, I wouldn't have seen the miracles I witnessed in Virginia. The Lord's timing is perfect. We must trust in his perfect plan for us. He knows us best and he knows what we need. Obedience, Trust, and Diligence are key to experiencing eternal JOY.
During this Christmas season I invite you to ponder what you can change to experience a glimpse of eternal joy.
Know that I love you and am SO SORRY for this eternally, long e-mail.
Love Always!
Sister Skaggs
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