Toronto

Toronto
Toronto, Canada

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Open and Close the Door


Hello Everyone!

I honestly don't know where to start. It's only been five days since I last emailed you all and that is a really, really weird feeling. We got transfer calls last night and they're actually closing down Mississauga mandarin for the summer! This summer the numbers in the Canada Toronto Mission will be smaller then they have been in a long time. They'll go back up in the fall but for the moment they are temporarily closing down some area's and merging them with others. So all of our investigators and all of our work is going over to the AP's. They just called a new mandarin speaking AP and now they're in charge of our people... I'm sure they'll take care of them but it's kind of bitter sweet. 

So the news for me and sister Chen is that sister Chen is going to Bayview. (The only full Chinese ward in the CTM right now.) and I'm heading back to Kitchener with Sister Deng! I'm really excited to be working with her and to get to know her. I'm also excited to head back to Kitchener I've learned a lot from being here in Mississauga and I'm looking forward to putting my new knowledge into effect in my 'birth' area. 

So spiritually this week was definitely one of growth. I've known all week that I was getting transferred (Just intuition, or the spirit...) and so we've really been focusing on doing all that we can to help others. We went on exchanges again in Hamilton. I met a 5th cousin from our common ancestor Zera Pulsipher. He and his wife are really cool people. Sister Chen and I met a lot of people. We found people, taught a lot of first lessons, and really just talked to everyone. That's something I've really gotten good at. 

The last couple of month's I've had moments where I've had a hard time feeling the spirit or at least knowing if the prompting is me or the spirit. Sometimes I'll feel like I need to go knock on a door only to find that no one is home. Or that I need to go talk to someone, only to have them reject us right off the bat. It's been a little confusing, and there has been moments where I've seriously doubted my ability to recognize the spirit. But on exchanges this week, I was able to find the peace and comfort I needed, and my sister training leader, sister Strong. Talked to me about how we really do always have the spirit with us. In that light that night at badminton finding activity as we were closing down, we locked the building and said goodbye to all the leaving people but I felt like something was wrong. We were about halfway home when finally I told sister Chen. "We forgot something we have to go back." She asked what we forgot but I couldn't tell her. Walking through the church building though there didn't seem to be anything wrong. Until we got to the kitchen door which hadn't been locked properly. I felt like a great weight lifted off my shoulders as we locked up the door and I said a prayer of gratitude. I don't know what would have happened if the door had just been open during the night but I took a moment to be grateful for the spirit in my life and for the ability to recognize that warning. That was such a miracle to me and I'm so very grateful for it!

Anyways, I love you all so very much. There's something to be said for loosing yourself in the work. I'm sorry I forgot to send pictures last week but there's a lot this week to make up for that!

Till next time!

-Sister Skinner
 






 




 

Up's and Downs and Move Arounds... next week.

Hello Everyone!

How to start with this week! I guess first of all it felt like the fastest week of my mission to date. It just flew by. We taught lessons we were out of the street we role played till it felt like we were just doing the same thing over and over again but we worked through it all! Some ups were in the lessons really feeling the spirit. They were in the moments where the members looked at me and smiled and said. "Your prayers have gotten so much better." They were looking at our newest 12 year old investigator and seeing my little sisters Cheyenne and Calianne and feeling that same Christ like love for her as I do for them. God blessed us so much this week even though there were also down points. Points where people said that they just didn't understand why we need God, and points where even when watching another person get baptized we distinctly felt the lack of investigators who had committed to come and then hadn't. But learning and growing that happens every day. Particularly on the days that are hard. Sunday I woke up to find that I had slept on my arm wrong and I could barely move it. It was super painful and discouraging waking up in pain. But as church went on I could feel the sweet spirit of all the people around me and we had so many returning members come to church that day! It was such a blessing. 

We also went on exchanges this week. I was left in the area by myself on the same day we had our Chinese badminton activity, and of course the day the native Chinese speaker is gone is the day that we get a ton of new people who need to be introduced to the church. I was both a confidence boost and a humbling experience to gauge more of where my language is. We're hoping to see more of them in the next couple of week's though so that's going to be great! 

Oh I wish I could convey the learning and growing that happened this week but reading over my own words I don't think I could ever express the growth in my own soul this week and the miracles seen in lessons and in the eyes of people we're working with. 

Humans are odd creatures. We are naturally self centered but as we turn out wards it's like blooming. We are literally flowering and the people around me are starting to really bloom. We may not have a baptism this transfer but the changes I've seen are real and they will keep growing until one day they bloom into what they are meant to be. 

We will keep working though and with God and His blessings will keep pouring down on us! 

I love you all. I hope you can all feel the love that God has for you. I hope you are all reading your Book of Mormon! That's such an important book!

Keep going!

-Sister Skinner

PS. My next p-day is this coming Saturday because of holidays and transfers... I'm not sure how that's going to work but you'll be hearing from me on Saturday instead of Monday. Just something to keep in mind...

Also very important is my love for my soul sister Miranda who got married this week. Congratulations dearest sister of mine, congratulations. 

On Dandelions and Perspective




Hello Everyone!

It was a really good week this week! Even if we still didn't quite hit mission standards this week we still managed to get a lot done and set everything up so we're set to hit standards this coming week. It was such a blessing to do weekly planning this coming week and to realize that for the first time in a month we were going to be able to teach 20+ lessons and that we are all set up to find the people prepared! 

Mothers day was also a wonderful thing to prepare for. We made cards for all the active members and cookies for many of the less actives and then we went to visit them! We did see much success from that and I'll just copy and paste a bit of my president's letter for that part. 

So area wise things started picking up this week. We've done much better with our how to begin teaching and we're excited to have the chance to keep working with some of the people we've seen this last week. Li yu is particularly ready. She has questions that the gospel can answer and she very clearly understands what our purpose is. We look forward to seeing her again soon. Brother Tian unfortunately backslid a little this last week. He still doesn't seem to understand WHY the Book of Mormon is so important. We've been over the fact that it's reading that will answer his questions and let him really know if there is a God but he's so stubborn. We committed him again this week but it's so sad to see him and to know that he holds the answer in his hands he just wont open it. We're going to try reading with him next week. Hopefully that'll help. Contacting also picked up this week. We've really been focusing on asking God where we need to be at any time during the day and it's helped a lot helping us have more confidence. On Saturday we were weekly planning and making cookies for some of our less active mothers in the ward and I felt distinctly that we needed to head over to a certain house right then. And we did and they weren't there. So we started knocking around only to run into the very family we were looking for coming back from a walk. Because they were outside of their house (And because we had cookies with us) they were much more willing to talk to us and we now have a return appointment for Wednesday! It was a wonderful experience. 

Some of my thoughts this week is on perspective. One of the things that I'm loving about Canada right now is the fact that it feels like the whole area is completely covered in Dandelions. The bright yellow flowers just make my mornings joyful. So beautiful! But I hear so many complaints about them. I can understand the objections but something that really hit me this week is the complaining won't do anything to fix it! Either you enjoy the bright things or you do something productive about it! This seemed pretty consistent with the lessons we've taught this week. Brother Tian has his agency but we've also got to realize that we need to constantly give him the choice. That's what the mission is about! helping people realize that God put beauty all around us. Sometimes we just need to change our perspective. 

So Yes, I really love you all! There is so much to be grateful for and I know that as we trust in the Lord that He will send us so many blessings. 

Till next week!
-Sister Skinner
 






 

Thursday, May 5, 2016

On Diamonds and Families



Hello Everyone!

My lesson learned this week. You must prepare for everything! Even, no especially, miracles. 

This week started out with sister Chen and I trying our best to find new investigators hours and hours of tracking and street contacting and trying to figure out the best way to help our investigators and members. How do you help someone develop desire? You really can't. The Holy Ghost can though. But the Holy Ghost doesn't teach for you, He doesn't knock on doors for you, He doesn't talk to people for you, He doesn't study for you. In short, He won't do anything for you that you can reasonably do for your self... But what you can do He will be there with you for. He will make preparation a spiritual experience, He will make the doors knocked on the one's you are searching for, and He will soft the hearts of those who hear your words. 

I should probably put the declaimer on this that it was not nearly as easy to learn this lesson as I am making it sound as I type it out. 

This week was rough around the edges but there's a reason they call it diamonds in the rough. We did find a new investigator who we have high hopes for. We did manage to have a good lesson with Brother Tian, We even had an investigator a church this week and got one of our returning members to bear her testimony at a fireside. The success from our preparation was there. But it was the in between moments where we learned that we can be preparing more. It was the moments where I heard people talk about how they were prepared as they came into church and it was listening at district meeting and thinking about the fact that I knew exactly how to help because of lessons my family had taught me. It was being able to bear testimony that when you pray together as a couple your children will see and will feel of your love, my mind flashing back to all the times I'd go to my parents room only to find them kneeling together in prayer. 

The mission is pushing really hard on temples and families right now. (In president Clayton's words. "We are finding the lost sheep.... and then encouraging them to have lambies!") And through it all I have found that there was so much in my life that was preparing me for my mission. Personal Progress, Drivers Ed, family home evening, making friends, even computer programming. So many things came together to prepare me to help prepare others. But the biggest most important thing that has helped me prepare is my family. The testimonies continuously born, the extended family's love, the hugs, and the love. This church is about hope and the greatest hope I have ever found is in my family. 

We'll keep moving forward and hopefully by nest week we'll be able to report we were able to help more people come unto Christ... though the love they feel from their families. 

Lots of Love,
-Sister Skinner
 
 

A Chance for Change


Hello Everyone!

Miracles come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and I'm so very grateful for every single one of them! I love working in and with the ward and trying to help them come closer to Christ. We have a long ways to go but something the mission has really been focusing on is growing 'grace by grace'. We can't run faster then we can walk but we can make sure that every area is better when we leave it than when we found it. There have been so many little things that have strengthened my testimony this week. We got to serve an English speaking member in the ward by helping her paint in her house. (I forgot to take pictures! I was so sad!) We got to talk to so many people, knocking on doors and talking to people who were both interested and not.

I know that there are people out there though. People who need this gospel. Sunday was so good for us. Even though in the end none of our investigators showed up the entire meeting was centered around one of my dad's favorite sayings. "It's your choice on whether or not you want to be happy." God stands with us in every moment! Sitting in that sacrament meeting with just sister Chen and I on that one pew wondering if there was more that we could have done. Something we had forgotten, or if we were just unlucky, I felt a deep sense of peace wash over me. A conviction that I don't think I've had in a long time, a knowledge that the spirit of God was in that room. That the covenants that we had just renewed with our Father were real and life changing. Something learned in district meeting came back to me and I had one of my spiritual 'clicking' moments. 

Sometimes we (myself, or investigators) when we hear the message we want that life changing moment. We hear it sometimes in testimony meeting or even just in our day to day lives. "This changed my life!" and we want that one thing to come in and turn our thoughts and actions around. We wait and sometimes that waiting turns into wasting.  
Wasting time, 
Wasting opportunities,
Wasting away. 
In saying that we want a life changing experience what many of us are saying is we want someone or something else to change us. In short we want to be acted upon. 

This is not how God works.

One of my favorite parts to share in the Plan of Salvation is the role of agency in our day to day lives and in eternity. Agency is such a big part of the plan of salvation and when we are active in using our agency we actually do make it to the end. Agency is a part of Enduring. It's choosing everyday to change a little. 

This is why we call the gospel 'life changing'. Not because it happens all at once, but because it changes all of us. Piece by piece, line upon line, precept by precept, we learn we grow and our life changes. Completely and fully. When we act on the gospel, the gospel then acts on us. 

This is how God works. 

And that is the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It's to shout from the roof tops, to sing it to the stars, that you can change! If you want a life changing event then we are here to tell you that your life changing event already happened and it's called the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The catch? You've got to use it yourself. 

So don't wait for something that has already happened. Don't waste away the preciousness of that ultimate gift. Go forward, change yourself, change others, change the world. Because Christ lived, died, and lives again we have the chance to reach the ultimate potential. 

God lives and God works miracles, Jesus is the Christ, and He is our savoir and Redeemer. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has the authority and power to administer the ordinances to be saved. The same power that created the earth is now on the earth again, and it's though the Mercy and Grace of our God that we can and do use it every day. 

His name I praise, everyday, and in His name I end my testimony, praying that He will help you and those who hear His message find their life changing event.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

-Sister Skinner