So Excited I want to pee my pants!!

   Transfer calls came early again this week! I have been dying! I found out a day earlier than everyone else what was going to be happening to me so I couldn't sleep that night. But I am excited now and hoping that I will be able to do the things I need to do. Also I am excited to tell you about my new companion and area. So because I am me, we are going to wait until the end of the email to fill you in, or I might throw it in the middle so you can't cheat and scroll to the bottom :) 

  The area. Well, Jim the one investigator who was progressing got into some anti-mormon material. We are super sad about that. He hasn't dropped the missionaries yet but we are worried that he is going to. He was doing so well! But we can't just expect Satan not to come in when people are coming closer to Christ. That would be way to easy. We keep praying for him and hope that the spirit will be able to touch him as he reads from the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately there isn't much more to tell the area is slowly moving along. 

   Oh, I figured something out this Sunday. It isn't that the ward doesn't like the missionaries because we got a fairly good amount of people telling us they will miss us when we leave. I think the people here just don't quite know how to show the love that they have. And maybe we just needed to be better about taking baby steps with them and working more at their pace instead of expecting them to work at ours. I wish I had thought of that all earlier, but it is too late now. I will keep that in my mind in case I have any similar experiences in the future.

   Companion: She is great. She is definitely going to have a hard time leaving her first area, but she is going to be so great in Newbury Park! I am so excited for her to go out and experience a different type of people. This whole transfer she has really taught me not to worry so much. I can see the damage that worrying has and it prevents us from enjoying the moment and learning from the situation we are in. Obviously there are times when you can't help but worry. We all have stressful days but from watching her I have learned that we should make sure we are worrying about legitimate things and not so much about the little things that don't matter in the eternities. I have been privileged to serve with her and am excited to watch her grow over the next few months. Also I heard something that church that I really liked. There is a movie that shows an uncle Devil talking to a nephew devil and the uncle tells him that the key to making people miserable is not letting them live in the moment. I thought that was so good! It is so true! If he can keep us thinking that we messed up too much in the past and if he can get us to worry about the future then we won't and can't enjoy the moment that we are living in.

   drum roll please! sister arndt is my new companion!!!!!!!!!! (I didn't capitalize it because I didn't want you cheating and looking for the caps to see what was happening with transfers hehe). anyway, for those of you who have a memory like me, Sister Arndt was my trainer. And this is her last transfer so I get to be with her for one more Christmas. AND I get to go to the temple with her again!!!! I wanted to go this transfer but Heavenly Father told me to wait. So I did and now I am SO glad I listened to that voice inside my head. This will be a great transfer! Oh and I am leaving for Simi Valley! Yay! And one last suprise, I am a sister training leader.

    Testimony: This week my testimony was strengthened on our need for a prophet. I feel so bad for those people who don't think we need one. How else would we know how to live in this crazy time? In one of the most spiritually dangerous times in history why would God leave us alone? He wouldn't. Yesterday we were talking to this guy and he was telling me that I didn't understand the true character of God because I thought we needed prophets. I won't lie, at that point I had no clue what else to tell him. I testified to him of Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ and that was that. As I was walking away though I realized how grateful I was that we have a prophet today who can help us understand the character of God and Jesus Christ even better and because of that we can have a stronger relationship with both of them. I know Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and that he truly is inspired by God to do His work.

   Well, my time is up, I love you all! Pray for me!

Sister Skeeter

"Plus I'm Like A Fish"

 

The area is doing pretty well! Yesterday we had a great miracle. Well, lets actually start with Saturday. Sister Barnes and I felt like we needed to go see Jim and we had some things we wanted to talk to him about. When we got to his house he told us that that day wasn't a good day and that he wasn't going to come to church because he was in so much pain. We talked to him for a little bit about Heavenly Father and how much He loves Jim. We then talked about faith and how we can exercise our faith. Jim, told us that he really wanted to come to church but that he just didn't think it would be possible with how much pain he was in.  We said a prayer for him and after talked about how important going to church was to Heavenly Father. We talked about praying for the health and strength to be able to get to church. At the end of our meeting Jim said the closing prayer and prayed that he would be well enough to come to church. We told him that we would be praying for him as well. Sunday came and as we were walking into the sacrament meeting room Jim walked in with one of the members of the ward! We were so excited to see him there. He sat through sacrament and loved it. Here is where the real miracle is. Jim never stays longer than sacrament meeting but this week he stayed for second hour and our teacher taught about the Book of Mormon and we listened to Elder Hollands powerful talk about it. Jim loved the talk and recognized that the power behind Elder Holland could not have come from himself, but from God. Jim then talked about how he loved the Book of Mormon and how he has been reading it. He said that he has really enjoyed it and has recognized peace from it. He bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon without even knowing it. When I first got to the area he really didn't like the Book of Mormon. Then to make things even better our ward mission leader and his assistant offered to give Jim a blessing of healing. The blessing was beautiful and Jim loved it. Jim then stayed for Priesthood and came out of class so happy. It was so great to see him progress so much in such a short amount of time!

Did you all get to watch the CHRISTmas devotional? It was so great! My favorite part was that I was able to watch it in a member's home this time! But that isn't the best part. This member had a brand new CHRISTmas tree and it smelled so good! The whole time we watched the devotional I could smell it. What is better than that!? Nothing. So my favorite part was when Elder Christofferson talked about how Christ is a spirit child of God as well as us. So when we came down to the earth it was a sort of condescension for us as well. He then went on to talk about how if Christ had to descend below it all and suffer to learn then why wouldn't we have to descend below some of it to learn for ourselves as well? It just makes sense! I feel bad for those people who turn against God when things go wrong. I wish they could understand that we are here to learn. If we didn't have any hard times we wouldn't grow at all! Duh! Those trials are there to turn us toward God not away from Him. I have loved being able to turn to Heavenly Father during my times of stuggle. And there is actually a quote that that reminds me of, it says "Do your prayers at times sound and feel the same? Have you ever said a prayer mechanically, the words pouring forth as though cut from a machine? Do you sometimes bore yourself as you pray? Will prayers that do not demand much of our thought merit much attention from our Heavenly Father? When you find yourself getting into a routine with your prayers, step back and think. meditate for a while on the things for which you really are grateful. Look for them. They don't have to be grand or glorious. Sometimes we should express our gratitude for the small and simple things like the scent of rain, or the taste of our favorite food, or the sound o a loved once's voice. Thinking of things we are grateful for is a healing balm. It helps us get outside ourselves. It changes our focus from our pain and trials to the abundance of this beautiful world we live in." ok funny story that isn't the quote I was thinking about. oh well. I already have it typed out, might as well keep it. That quote was by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin. The other one spoke about enjoying Heavenly Father as we pray. I love being able to have a real conversation with him and hearing His answers. It is the most comforting thing when I know that He is listening and I can and will receive answers. Either way prayer can fix so many things.

oh wait! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKAYLA!!!!! Next Birthday I will actually be able to come celebrate with you! I hope you have a great day! You are going to be 22! Weird! (Also if any of you send me a letter with T-swifts lyrics in it I will not be happy. Kiera already did that and it wasn't good. Hahaha) Well, just know that I love you tons! I can't wait to see you again!

And another birthday side note...happy birthday to Tanner and Kenny. Why I still remember their birthdays I don't know, but their birthdays were last week.  

Well, my time is up! Love you all! Have a great week!

That's It! New sign!

Guess what! This week we tried something new! It was so much fun! We went a a quick blitz (with permission from the president of course) so Sister Wilson and I went to the busiest street we could find (State street in Downtown Santa Barbs) and held up a sign that said "Ask a mormon!" It worked surpisingly well! Now before you start to think this is a good idea I have to tell you that it was not my own. One of the elders in the mission started doing it. I didn't know if I would be brae enough to do it but I did. At first it was super awkward because of course people are going to be looking at you and reading what you have written on the sign. So you automatically become the center of attention. I was super nervous for the comments that we would get and I was hoping that we wouldn't get too many angry people who have been pumped full of anti material. This wasn't the case at all though! We got out there and we got to talk to a good amount of people! The most common question we got was "are you christian?" Of course we told them that we are and pointed out the name of the church on our name tags. "The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-Day Saints" I don't know why that confuses some people. Oh well! We were able to set some misconceptions straight which was nice. The people loved it too. We had so many people laugh as they walked by. I asked one of the people why they were laughing and they told us that it is because they had just never seen anyone do that and it was different that what they were used it. A lot of people came up and simply gave us kudos for being different. So we had a good time with that. I think we are going to make a few different signs and use them at random. We are thinking about putting up thought provoking questions. Any good ones you can think of? They need to be kind of short so people can read them at a glance. That is the hard part. Making it a thinker but keeping it short. So there was our adventure for the week.

    Thanksgiving was fun! We went to a member's home and had some really yummy food! My favorite was the mashed potatoes and the green beans! Her green beans were so flavorful and yummy! Anyway the members that we were with had their parents there and one of them is an older guy who isn't quite all there. He was SO funny! We were having a conversation with the members and out of nowhere this old guy looks at sister Barnes and says "You have the most beautiful smile!"then he looks at me and says "Yours is ok too, but yours! (turning to sister Barnes again) It makes me happy just looking at you." hahaha Brother Dunn (this guys son) started cracking up. He and I had a good laugh about how nonchalant this guy had been when he said mine was "ok".  I wish you could have seen this man.Just looking at his face can tell you how devious and funny he is.

     As far as other things go that is about as eventful the holiday was. We only had the one dinner which was kind of odd. Normally missionaries have a few to go to. Oh well. We are finding that this ward has no idea who Sister Barnes and I are. They know the other two sisters really well and they love them but they forget and don't even know what we have four of us. Which is really sad because they say our names all of the time in sacrament meeting. We are all working on changing that. Kahuna has done a decent job at helping with that. 

    As far as my message goes...I haven't been able to study the past two days (don't ask why) so I haven't been able to put one together. But I will say this. The day before Thanksgiving I wrote down something I was grateful for for each week of my mission. There was 59. First I can't believe it has been that long but second the cool part for me was being able to see that I couldn't have gone a lot further. I have so many things to be grateful for including family, friends, and a place to go home to, but I think the thing that I am most grateful for is the fact that Heavenly Father has trusted me to take care of His children out here and to help them return to Him. That is a huge responsibility and He has given that to me. How great is it that He wants me to feel the joy that He was when He sees His children turning to Him and gaining a relationship with Him. That is the best gift anyone could give.Anyway, I don't know if that even makes sense. I hope all of you gets to realize how blessed you are and how much our Heavenly Father Loves you.

Anyway, I love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Skeeter