Another Long One from Sister Skinner

 

 

Hello Everyone!

The news is in and sister Chen and I are staying together for ANOTHER transfer going for the Gold! Six transfers! taking them two at a time! two in Mississauga, two in Kitchener, and two in Bayview! It's been awesome but sometimes I worry we know each other too well... Ah well! We're excited to keep working and to go forth with renewed vigor!!!
 

So Tuesday was a long day and by long I mean we got a request for service from a member down on one side of town and that was a blast! Loved it but it takes an hour to travel from our house to hers and then we had an appointment way up on the OTHER SIDE OF TORONTO! So that travel time to get to there was almost THREE hours in the bus, and then after the lesson... Which was a little weird as he wanted to share his own testimony with us and not really hear ours... We had to travel back to our apartment and that took another hour and a half! So even rounding down we were in the bus for FIVE HOURS! Sister Chen and I were just about dead after all of that travel time most of which were in buses that were so packed that we were smashed into seats or clinging desperately to poles. Not the best contacting environment. Still, we learned a good lesson in better planning out our lessons and to not travel across Toronto during rush hour.
 

The miracle of Tuesday was during service there was another member who came to make us food and she was so kind and the food was so good and seeing the joy at being with people and missionaries when she's usually alone touched my heart and made the whole day worth it. It's really those small moments where I see why we share this gospel, young or old God's gospel changes lives and warms hearts.
 

Wednesday was the long anticipated Worldwide Missionary Broadcast. I have five pages worth of notes but I think I'll list a couple of my favorites.

• Stop worrying about your success and you will be successful
• Teaching involves a constant spirit of prayer
• The ultimate confrontation with the natural man is when you examine your own motives.
• The Holy Ghost is the senior companion.
• Faith is Action Fear is Inaction.
• God lives and He's doing something!
• Don't be to fatalistic! But if they aren't willing right now then it's okay.
• I will respond! That is real intent.
• Help the understand that baptism is a part of the Plan of Salvation.
• Always believe you can baptize because you CAN and you WILL!
• Talk about Christ constantly, it will never be too much.
• "You tell them that they Hallow every door they knock on. That is what being a missionary means."
• Now go and put what you learned to WORK!

Okay that was more than a couple but it was all so good! Even the cheesy 'mission office' tour they gave at the beginning. And the way that Elder Oaks smiles in to the Camera makes it look a little bit like he's laughing at the whole recording situation. And of course they also said that there was going to be big changes of the missionary schedule. Planning in the mornings and if you so desire going to bed by 9:30 in the evenings. Every mission in the world has more discretion on what works and what doesn't I'm not sure ours is going to change much because it's not implementing here until President Shields can meet with his Jedi council and teach them his will to pass onto us. So for now we're still planning at night... Also a little thing is that lunches are now half an hour and the Farsi elders were freaking out. "BUT IT TAKES 30 MINUTES TO MAKE RICE! WHAT ARE WE GOING TO EAT?"  and then sister Chen replies. "You can freeze rice and eat it later?" and he's just like "What? NO! that's gross!" and I'm sitting there like... We just got so many blessings and you're worried about rice? Mind you I was a little worried about it myself later when I realized that it takes us forty minutes to make a good soup but it'll be okay! HA!

Okay after wards we went to teach Faye who's so cute! But is going to China like everyone else and their mom! Still it was a good lesson and she has a real desire to know god! We also traveled to go meet Mr. Liu who we haven't seen all transfer! But we met and he actually agreed to pray this time! I was so excited. Miracles I tell you!

Thursday is the day that I have to confess to you all that I got sick again. I've been sick all week, with a particularly Nasty cold. I've been doing all the home remedy stuff that I can: Humidifier, (which we found in the apartment and was also a miracle this week) medicine, (both chinese and canadian) sleeping early and during eating hours (don't worry I ate food too).

But Thursday was the peak day and we had about four hours of being outside talking to people scheduled. I woke up that morning and knew that if I wanted to live to see Sunday our plans would have to change. So I asked sister Chen if we could do an inside activity instead and so we made a quick stop to Dollarama and then made a wonderful dot map of our area! It's great but it's still not done even after those four hours so next sick day we'll keep going!

Anyways we did have some lessons that night. We had dinner with a member, and then dropped by a part member family. I got to watch their eight year old son practice teaching his little year old sister how to fence. She was actually doing it. And they were fighting each other with shoehorns, and it was the cutest thing ever! Ha! You probably think I'm a bit crazy but they were adorable. We also taught Alwin who doesn't seem to grasp time lines. As we were teaching him about priesthood and gospel dispensations and he asked how Joseph Smith and Lehi knew each other, and why if we have prophets today their words aren't in the bible? That was a fun experience, we're bringing visuals next time.

The Miracle on Thursday was that we did actually set an appointment with that part member family even though we stopped by at a super inconvenient time. God prepares the people and we just walk around and do our best.

Friday I actually wasn't feeling much better but we did our best! We taught Sister Wei and her son's and her husband was actually in the room for some of it! So that was cool. It's been tough trying to figure out their situation and I'll tell the whole story when we finally get them all baptized this transfer. Still it was a good lesson while we were in it I explained what the difference between a covenant and an ordinance and promised sister Chen I would make her pancakes the next day and said this is a covenant and then the ordinance is when we shake on it in front of people who will keep me accountable. I can't quiet explain it well in email but I thought it was good! We also had a huge dinner and then stopped by another part member family who weren't there. But we left a Happy New Years card on the door and headed home.

The miracles came that night when Sister Wei texted us and said if we needed to we could start meeting twice a week to get Dennis baptized! It's going to be great!

Saturday we planned and had coordination and Yiwen fed us Hot Pot again! So good. They also gave us the best cheese cake I've had in my entire life. We then ate that cheese cake with chopsticks... I loved it!

Sunday was the real day of miracles though. Sister Wei, Dennis, Tony, and Thomas, the father came! ALL OF THEM! THE WHOLE FAMILY! And they said they were all going to come next week! WHAT!? YAH! So much love from our father in heaven, and then later James and Cherry came! We haven't seen them in two weeks and they just came to church! It was so cool! God really does just pour out his blessings on us. We also had dinner with the Lee's that night and as usual it was fantastic.

I totally just made this super long I'm so sorry, but at the same time I'm not despite being sick I've been so blessed this week we're going to take it one day at a time and keep loving it every step of the way!
I love you all!
-Sister Skinner

Oh also I got a Christmas letter from SriLanka this week! HA!