Keep On Keeping On

I love that saying. Hey guys! How are things going on at home? Things out here have been......ok. Sister Guthrie and I have been inside all week so we have been having adventures in our apartment! Most of which consist of us looking in out cupboards 10 times hoping that something new will pop up. No such luck.

    Either way though, Sister Guthrie and I have been doing really well at building compaionship unity. This is definitely going to be a great transfer! She is so happy and so easy to get along with. She is always smiling and so great at keeping things positive (even when she is sick and wants to go out and work). 

   The joke I have been saying lately is people are going to be terrified of us coming up to them. Sister Guthrie is 6'3" and I am considered tall as well (Although I barely go past her sholders haha). So there are two giants showing up on people's door step (and by giants I mean spiritual giants. Duh ;).

     Well, I wish I had more to update you on. Even though I had this whole week to study I really couldn't think of a message to share with you all. So I decided I would just tell you a little bit about what I learned at the General Women's Conference. The spirit there was so strong! I loved being able to sing I am a child of God at the end. I never realized how powerful that song was until I came out here. I know I have already talked about it, but really though! Every time with out fail the spirit testifies to me that we are His children. I also loved Elder Uchtdorf's  quote "I think God knows something that we don't". So true. When he gives us a commandment there is a reason, so just go with it. Pray to know if it came from Him and then take it and run! Close your umbrella and let him pour the blessings out on you. 

    Gah. My time is already up. I love you all! Sorry this one was so short and boring. Hopefully there will be more fun stuff next week.

Until then,

Sister Skeeter

Hi Susan and Penelope!

 

     Random quotes that make no sense:

"When I say you probably shouldn't I mean definitely don't."

"Goodbye! I'm going to the Haven!" Said is a spanish accent.

Hey people at home! This week was yet another uneventful one. Except for today. We got our transfer calls! And the verdict is.....

       Wait it wasn't uneventful! We had a zone conference this week! That was fun! Elder Malm of the second quorum of the seventy came and spoke to us. We talked a lot about how we could improve the mission and what we need to be doing on our own. It was very powerful. 

     There was one thing that really stuck out to me though. President Felix got up and I have no idea how this even came up but he says "Being in a young singles ward there are always young women coming to me looking for a Nephi. Why not Alma the Younger?"  Think about that for a minute. Who was Nephi? He was this stalwart young man who could do no wrong. He was dependent on the Lord and knew who he trusted. He was righteous and lived a worthy life and became a prophet. Now let's look at Alma the Younger. Also another prophet. He was strong in the gospel and brought many to the church. He trusted in the Savior and learned in a very different way who he could trust and of the Savior's atoning power. So what is wrong with Alma the Younger? Nothing. He stayed strong until his last day.

    I had never thought about that either. Being in a young single adult ward I experienced that first hand! All of the sisters want these men who have never made mistakes and who are seemingly perfect. What they don't realize is that those who are like Alma the Younger have great strength and have come to know the Savior in a more personal way than those who haven't had to use the atonement in the same way. President Monson gave a talk where he spoke about men. He had a conversation with someone about men and the natural man. This other guy says "Don't you know leopards can't change their spots." Then president Monson replies "you should know that I don't work with leopards. I work men and men change every day." Amen!! So good! Alma the Younger is the perfect example of how men really do change and who are we to say that the atonement hasn't changed them? That is not our place. 

And thinking about this I don't just mean for those poor guys in the singles wards who the sisters are overlooking. I am talking about everyone. When we see people who have made mistakes we need to make sure that we are strengthening them the entire way and helping them get back on to the strait and narrow. If we are judgmental and turning our backs on these people we can't expect people to want to change. How can we expect them to come back to the group of people who are looking down on them? That will work when pigs fly. Be friends to those who are in need. Help them feel of the Savior's love and help them to see that there is a chance for them! No one can fall so far that the sacrifice of the Savior can't cover it. That means we need to do the same. Forgive and forget.

 Those were my thoughts from the conference. That was a long tangent from one sentence but there you go.

     Well, we are going to count that as my message for the week. That wasn't the one I was going to share but there is another video you should go watch. It is called "Lifting Burdens". Again it is on LDS.org or the mormon channel on youtube. It is a powerful video.

  Ok, I am sure you are ready to hear where I am going now. Drum roll please! I Sister Skeeter am going to....Moorpark! Woo. I am still in the same district so I am about 5 minutes away from Thousand Oaks. I am actually going to be companions with Sister Woodlands companion and I am going to be taking Sister Woodlands place. Funny stuff!

Anyway, my time is up! Love you all!

Sister Skeeter

Square Tires

Hey guys! This week felt very uneventful. The work has come to a screeching halt all of a sudden. Not sure what is happening. We still have a few people to teach but we used to barely have time to tract but now all we do is tract. Not that that is a bad thing. We just aren't really used to it. 

This week I noticed that I feel a lot healthier than I have the past few transfers. Sister Thompson and I have made a point not to buy any sweets when we shop because we get too much sugar with desserts each night and us buying our own candy on top of that. I am proud of myself because I haven't bought any candy in the last five weeks. With that we have also been running each day. I love the feeling. And now it isn't so hard for me. That difference gives me the motivation I need to walk away from any candy that I may want. 
Anyway, about the work. We were able to teach Julio this week. He is doing really well! He hasn't had coffee in a week and is trying his best to stay away from it. He told us in our lesson yesterday that he went to Denny's with a friend and when they asked if they wanted coffee he said "no" and turned to the member that he was with and smiled. He knows that what he is doing is good. He feels better about himself and knows that Heavenly Father is proud of him for making that decision. We are so excited for him and can't wait for October 11th to come around!
   Yesterday at church we had a few great miracles! And by miracles I mean people. We had a less-active there who hasn't been in years. He called us this week and told us that he needed to change and that he wanted to come to church. He says he recognizes that his way isn't working so he needs to turn to Heavenly Father now. He told us he would be at church and he was! He was even there before we were! He was only able to stay for sacrament meeting but it really touched him and he said he would be back next week. We are so excited to help him be strong in the gospel again and can't wait to see how it helps him.
We also had a less-active there who hasn't been in the longest time either. His wife is very anti-mormon and doesn't want him coming to church but he has made it the last 3 weeks! We have been trying to meet with him but we haven't been able to yet. Hopefully this week.
Any lastly we had a lady who has been less-active spiritually for the past few years come. She was there and as she was leaving she told us that she had a friend that she wanted to introduce us to so that we could start teaching her! We are very excited for that and should be able to meet with her this week.

   Also you should all pray for Walter this week. His wife hasn't let him come to church yet but he told her he was coming this week and that if he felt the need to keep going he would. Pray that his wife will let him and that he will feel the spirit while he is there. It is the primary program (aka best week of the year at church) so we are sure it will be a great sacrament meeting!

   Also in case you were wondering I have been stuck in summer for two years now. The last time I had winter was 2012. Yep, I am being serious. It has been in the 100s the past few days. Ew! Let me just tell you, it is really hard to go knock on doors when it is that hot. Not my favorite. 

    OH! OH! There have been a few birthdays lately! First Candice! Happy Belated Birthday!! I am sorry I missed it on the actual week! I promise I didn't forget! I hope you had a great day! I miss you! 

Also Elder Woods has a birthday this week! The kid will be 20! I can't believe we are already celebrating his birthday. I feel like we were just ordering him cake for his 19th birthday. Anyway! Happy Birthday Schmeffers! I hope your last mission b-day will be a good one for you! Tell your companion that he needs to do all of the hard work that day...just kidding, we all know missionary work doesn't succeed when just one person does the heavy lifting.

Oh, ps transfers are coming next week. Any guesses?  

     Message of the week: Forgive Men

This week Sister Thompson and I were reading in the Book of Mormon and we found the scripture in 3 Nephi 27:21. It talks about following the Savior's example perfectly and doing as He did. When we thought about that we thought about the power of forgiveness and we found this scripture in the Bible. it is in Matt 6:14-15. I am sure I have already used it. I feel like a teacher who has to keep teaching a lesson because no one is getting it. Are the students even listening? They should be.

     Either way, I love this scripture. It is so cut and dry. There are no grey areas with forgiveness. Either you forgive others and are forgiven or you don't and aren't forgiven. But who wouldn't want to forgive? For me it has been a tool to lift life's burdens off my shoulders. I clears away the darkness and helps me to love as the Savior does.

     There is a quote that I love that says "Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past should have been different". Amen!! When I think about that quote I think about Lot's wife and how the Lord commanded her to "look not behind thee." (Genesis19:17) When we are looking behind us we miss the greatness that lies ahead of us. We are choosing to drown in the sorrows of yesterday instead of receiving the blessings of today. Why are we choosing to be sad? That is one of the worst choices we could make while we are here! "Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy." (2 Nephi 2:25) We are here to be happy. So let't be happy! Forget about all of the wrong the world has done to you and focus on the great blessings that Heavenly Father has given us now.

There is a great new mormon message the church has made. It is called "Abide with Me" Go look it up on lds.org. It is a powerful one. The new 2014 ones are so great! 

Anyway, I hope you all have a great week! I love you!

Sister Skeeter. 

"Um, Yeah! I'll Take Some Fried Rat."

Hey everyone!  

This week was pretty good! We had some more great miracles happen! One of them was being able to set Julio with a baptismal date! We are so excited for him! We were able to teach him on Saturday and after the lesson one of the members that was there asked him if he had thought anymore about baptism (we had committed him the first time we met). Julio then turns to us and says "Oh yeah! I want to be baptized." So we set him with a date right there! We have a couple more lessons with him but he will definitely be prepared for the 20th. He even said the prayer in Priesthood on Sunday. He is so great! 

I don't even think I have told you about Julio! He is an 18 year old whose friend is a recent convert in our ward. He came to church one day and we were able to set up a time to meet with him. We have been meeting with him for the past few weeks now and guess what. He is so prepared! We had some RMs at our appointment this week and they called him Kinjin......(we are going to pretend that is how you spell it even though I am almost 100% positive that that is wrong). But it means golden investigator. That is exactly what he is! The funny thing is that he used to make fun of this recent convert for joining the church. That is what he gets! He finally sees the truth. But it has been fun teaching him!

    We also went on a miracle walk this week at 8:30 at night. Right after we get out of the car we hear someone say "Sisters!" We turn around and it was a member from our ward. We talked to her for a few minutes about some less-active members she wants us to teach and then out of nowhere someone walks past and Sister Thompson stops her in the middle of our conversation with this member. Luckily she had served a mission so she told us she would talk to us later and left. We then turned out attention to this girl Sister Thompson had stopped. She was in her mid 20s and at first she just wanted to bash. She told us that the Elders used to come by and that she would just argue everything they said. We didn't love the sound of what she was saying so we asked her what she knew about our church. Then she started to bash. We were able to testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and out of nowhere she says "Do you really baptize dead people?" We explained to her the concept and why we do that. Then something changed. She softened and became sincerely interested in what we were saying. We were then able to have a great conversation about the Savior's atonement and how it changes us. We talked to her about baptism and why we need to be baptized. At this time it was getting late and we had to get inside so we ended with a prayer and she was the one who said it. She gave a sweet prayer and asked that we would be comforted when we are discouraged. We were half expecting her to pray that we wouldn't be deceived anymore, but she didn't! I really feel like we were able to soften her heart toward the church and help her to better understand why we missionaries are out here. Unfortunately she wasn't a new investigator but by the end I really felt like we had done what Heavenly Father needed us to do.

    We also had an incredible lesson with a person who works for a member in our ward. Her name is Alyssa and she is a care taker. She comes to church each Sunday to help the member. Yesterday we were able to teach her the restoration and talk to her about temples. She has three kids and a husband and really likes the idea of eternal families. We were able to commit her to baptism and she told us that he husband wanted to learn too. Unfortunately for us they live in Santa Paula so we will have to turn them over to the other missionaries but she is so prepared and ready for the gospel! 

    Ok, want to hear an awkward story? Of course you do! We love hearing about other people's pain. Here you go:

  Yesterday we were walking down a street called Warwick. Just so you know that is the sketchy part of our area. As we were walking to the street two hispanic guys walk past us with a huge case of beers. They see us and immediately start whispering to each other. They say hello to us and then start talking about the weather....woo. At this point we kind of had a bad feeling about talking to them so we walked to the other side of the street but they called after us asking "Su mormon?" At that point I 

felt kind of guilty so we stopped (in the middle of the street) and start talking to them. I was kind of hoping they would stay on the other side but they walked over to us and started talking to us about the church and saying "Tajeta?" He was asking for a card. We gave him a card and we tried to talk to him a little bit more about the church and out of nowhere he said "Usted bonita! Tu bonita, y tu bonita!" pointing at each one of us. I am sure I don't need to translate that for you. At that point I am thinking "crud we aren't talking about the church building anymore." We then tell them that we need to go and that we have an appointment to get to. So these men then tell us that they "like the ladies". We are dying to walk away at this point. So we tell them we are leaving and then we see their arms stretch toward us. AH! They were totally going in for hugs. So one tries to hug Sister Thompson and she successfully pushes him away before he gets too close and while she is doing that she is telling them that we can't hug them, and I am doing the same. Unfortunately for me they didn't hear me and the other one comes in to hug me....the funny thing was, he is this tiny little hipsanic that barely came up to my shoulders haha. Mikayla can you imagine this? You would be dying at this point! Anyway, I take one for the team and we walk off. 

So probably not as awkward as you thought it was going to be but when you feel gross about something and then they start talking to you like that, especially as a missionary, it just isn't fun at all.  

Ok, on to something more spiritual.

This weeks message is titled "In the world but not Of the world."

    Sister Thompson and I went to a zone meeting with the stake presidency yesterday and President Williams said something that I really liked. He says "Knowing the church is true and acting on that are two separate things." Amen! How many of us know the church is true but are too lazy or too of the world to do anything about that? A lot of us are. Life these days isn't easy at all! There was another saying that was "We are in the great and spacious building now." Meaning, we are surrounded by the world and we are still expected to uphold our standards.     These days in the great and spacious building I feel like we are surrounded by loud laughter and garbage being shoved into our faces at every turn. We are constantly mocked and there are plenty who are standing around pointing fingers at us. But we need to stand up for what we know to be true! How can we expect people to see our light if we are caving and getting lost in the great and spacious building? They can't. That is why it is so important to stand tall and not be afraid to be who Heavenly Father would have us be. As we are obedient we can help others find their way through this building and strengthen those who used to be pointing and laughing. 

    Elder Holland of the 12 apostles says "Defend your beliefs; with courtesy and and compassion but defend them!" We don't have to be rude or standoffish but we do need to let others know what we will and will not do.

   As we read our scriptures and pray (D&C 10:5, D&C 93:49) for the strength that we need Heavenly Father will be there to guide us and give us the power to continue holding fast to the gospel. He will help us be examples to those around us and He will help others to see the difference in us.

Well, my time is up! Love you all!

Sister Skeeter

Get Off The Field!

    This week we had zone conference. It was a weird one for me. I don't know why but I have been on this ridiculous roller coaster for the past 1 and a half transfers. Some days are great and others not so much. I have been doing a lot of talking with my Heavenly Father to see what I can do. Still kind of waiting for that ah-hah moment, but I know it will come. Just trying to stay focused on the work! Anyway, zone conference was one of my more....not so fun days. Which it should have been because I love zone conferences! They are the best for learning and receiving revelation for the investigators. One of the speakers though was talking about a general authority who said that we all are playing a football game. The missionaries are on offense and are trying to score. Many times though, the members are on the defense and get in the way of the scoring. He then told the people to get the members off the field. Now obviously the members are incredible important when it come to missionary work. We could not do it without them, but it is true that sometimes the members kind of stand in the way and make it difficult (but not impossible) to score. We had an experience with that this week after that talk. Yay. It isn't too bad it just makes things really confusing for us.

    Ok, on to happier things: 

      This week has been pretty good! We found some great people that we are really excited about! On Tuesday we went to go visit a former investigator and as we were walking up to the door we ran into a lady who was sitting outside smoking. At first she wasn't interested at all in what we had to say. We talked to her for a few minutes and she kept telling us that she believed in Jesus Christ and that she had strong faith in him. We brought up the Book of Mormon and how it would strengthen people's faith in the Savior and at that point she softened up a little bit. She told us that her brother had talked to the missionaries before and that they had a Book of Mormon sitting on their coffee table. She then told us that she had never read it and that she read her Bible and other books. After talking to her some more she mentioned her tough times and how her mother passed away two years ago and that she was having a really hard time with it. She also mentioned that she watched over her grandmother and how she was ready to pass as well. We talked to her about the peace the Book of Mormon brings. She in turn asked if we believed that Jesus Christ  was the Savior of the world and if we believe that he died for us. Of course we explained that he was the center and leader of our church. Here is where the miracle comes in: she told us that she would read the Book of Mormon and we committed her to read 3 Nephi 11 and we were able to set up another appointment with her.  We are excited to see her on Tuesday and will let you know how that goes!

     That same day we had a member tell us that he had a friend that wanted to learn about the church. We set up an appointment for that night and went to this member's home. We were a little worried that they wouldn't show up because the member and the referral were both 18. When we got there they were ready to learn and we had a very spiritual lesson about the restoration. At the end we were teaching about how the spirit works in us to testify of truth. We talked about feeling peaceful, love, and happiness. The referral (whose name is Julio) then said "Oh, like right now!" We were so excited. We were able to see that he was feeling the spirit and he told us that this feels right. We set up another appointment for Thursday and we were able to teach him about the Plan of Salvation. Before the lesson started he said "Oh! Guess what I found out! My mom was baptized Mormon! She was going to go on a mission but her mom didn't want her to and she made her stop going to church and become catholic again." That was crazy to hear! He had tried to get her to go to the lesson that night but she wasn't able to make it. He is hoping to try again this week. Julio is incredible! We committed him to baptism but we are going to have to turn him over to the young single adult missionaries unfortunately. But at this point I just want him baptized, I don't care who gets to do the teaching. He just needs the gospel and is SO ready to accept it.

      One last thing before I go. Sister Thompson and I decided that we wanted to start doing a little spiritual message in our letters so today we were reading in Doctrince and Covenants and found these scriptures:

D&C 62:9: "Behold the Kingdom is yours. And behold and lo, I am with the faithful always. Even so. Amen. 

D&C 61:36 "And now verily I say unto you, and what I say unto one I say unto all, be of good cheer, little children, for I am in your midst, and I have not forsaken you."

D&C 50:40-42 "Behold ye are little children and you cannot bear all things now; ye must grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth. Fear not little children for you are mine and I have overcome the world  and you are of them that my Father hath given me; and none of them that my Father hath given me shall be lost."

   I love these scriptures. They show us how much Heavenly Father really does love us. We are literally his children and we have the potential to become just like Him. He wants us to be happy and to trust in Him and His promises. They are sure and He has the ability to keep them. That is why we can so fully rely on Him during out struggles. Turn to Him and He will help. We are His little children and we need his help regularly. He wants to give us that help and is there ready to lend us a hand.

    Ok, I don't have time for anymore this week. I love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Skeeter