Sister Moody Calls Me Mama Skins

 

 

Hello Everyone!

Sister Moody and I are having a blast and she's made it her personal goal to get me to take more pictures on my camera this transfer then I ever have before so... yes you might get some good pictures and you might get some random ones we'll see how that goes.

So Monday sister Chen and I went through our last p-day together and we got a lot done! We also stopped by sister Lee, sister Tsui, and sister Cheng's houses and said goodbye to all of them and I loved it so much! They all really took me under their wings while I was in Bayview and I love them all so much! They are all super sweet!

Tuesday I said goodbye to sister Chen for the next six weeks and got picked up by another sister to go to Brampton for the transfer and it was awesome! I love missionaries. That probably sounds a little odd coming from me as I am a missionary right now but it's the truth, I love seeing them and getting the chance to be with so many wonderful elders and sisters. It's such a blessing. We then traveled the long two hour drive out to London and since then sister Moody has been showing me around like a pro and I've been trying not to fall asleep because I'm to tired! HaHA ha!

Seriously though this week has been amazing and sleepy at the same time.

I don't remember a lot of what happened this week except that Saturday was sister Moody's birthday and it was so much fun! We had appointments and we stopped by William a really old investigator who loves sister Moody and threw a mini party for her and it was so sweet! and then we got to go to Smokes which is only the best poutine place in Canada and it was the first time sister Moody went so that was delicious and also probably took a few years off of my life but that's what happens when you stick French fries, gravy, and cheese curds together and call it a meal! Seriously though we got home so full that night it was crazy.

So I really am like falling asleep on the computer but at the same time I know that we were just so blessed this week! There were so many miracles and working with sister Moody has been so much fun because she is one of the hardest workers ever and I just need someone to pull me along just a little bit this last transfer and I know with her I'll be able to finish strong! I love this girl to pieces and it's the best.

So I guess the biggest miracle for this week though was seeing all the wonderful people that I'm going to have a chance to work with over the next several weeks. I love seeing all these people and knowing that we are moving forward with them into eternity! Church really is such a blessing though!

Spiritually I've found a lot of solace in knowing that everyday even if all I can give is just a little bit God really does just take that and work miracles. We've been talking and teaching, laughing and loving every minute and I know that this is a blessing from God. Going forward is going upward and we fly every time we strive!

Anyways, I love you all and I wish you all the best. I might get transferred again this week because there is a new sister coming out today but president doesn't know where to put her yet because she's white... hey that sounds like my first transfer out! Ha! It'll be great love you all! Sorry for emailing so late we went to the mall and took squad pictures with the mannequins it was sweet.

Love you!

-Sister Skinner

Dying in London!

 

 

Hey Everyone!

No I'm not getting transferred across the pond, there happens to be a city called London in Ontario. I'm sure all of you knew that already but I figured I'd clarify! Ha! Though mind you, it might be fun to get transferred to a different Continent.
 

Anyways, I'm going to keep this email short partially because I'm kind of freaking out and don't remember much of what happened this week and partially because I'm also exhausted because my mind would not go to sleep last night! I'm actually super excited! I'm just never good with big movements until I know where I'm going to be sleeping! Ha! Seriously though, I'll be spending my last transfer with sister Moody working as hard as we can and I'm so ready!
 

I will miss Bayview though, I learned so much while serving here and I'm just so grateful for all those little lessons I learned while just interacting with the precious children of God who call this place their home. I know that God has a marvelous plan in store for all of us and I've seen the love and care that He has for all the people here. Sunday night we had a family home evening with sister Wei, Tony, and Dennis at the Lee's house and it was just so amazing to be surrounded by so many people that I've grown to care for so much. They are truly an example of the love of God.
 

So an interesting thing spiritually this week was that I read all of D&C 88 in one study session and I loved it. So much. Like I'm not even sure I've ever truly understood the doctrine of Judgement. I don't think I even knew why we needed a judgement until I read this chapter. It was one of the most spiritually edifying study sessions I've had thus far. I've had people ask me before on why some people will go to Hell and I wasn't sure how to answer them at first but this chapter truly helped me peek behind the veil and see the Justice and Mercy of our Perfect God.
 

We had some great lessons this week too and I just... I know that this church is true. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and that through him the priesthood was restored. I know that you are a beloved child of God and He's going to do everything in His power to help you. Never doubt that. He loves you so perfectly that I can't even truly explain it.
 

I love you all too and I hope you have a wonderful week.
 

-Sister Skinner

P.S. For some reason I feel the need to add this part right now. We all go through spiritual roller coasters sometimes. You will have points in your life where you feel like you are drifting away and you don't know what to do. You know that you want to be better you know that you want to come back but you're not sure how. Something I was thinking about this week is that sometimes we just need to pray until we want to pray again. That may sound a bit odd. But if you ever feel like you aren't getting an answer then take a page out of Enos's book and just pray until you do get one. I did that this week too and God really does listen to us sometimes we just need to pray until we can listen back. He's talking to you right now prayer isn't just us talking to God and sometimes He'll answer back it's literally a two way communication. Prayer can help pull us back onto the spiritual plane where we can hear His words.
 

Don't stop praying. Don't stop trying. If you are feeling like you are far from God then do something about it! He'll help you! Our purpose as saints of God is to help everyone draw closer to Him.

That includes you.

 

 

 

Another Week with No Regrets

 

 

Hello everyone!

Don't know where to start because I'm still not sure I remember everything that happened, but it was a good week!
 

So last Monday we went out to lunch with Tina the member who likes to feed us at least once every two weeks usually more. (She's a sweet heart even if she speaks so fast I don't always understand what she's saying!) and then we went to Pacific mall the largest Asian Mall in Canada. Sister Chen took one look around and was like... "This is what China looks like." I laughed and then we went exploring and I bought more pens because I have fallen in love with Chinese office supplies while on my mission and if I go to Taiwan someday I will come home with suitcases full of pens and little notebooks! Ha!

That night we taught Jade again, for the first time in a long time. It's difficult teaching 8 year old's especially when their parents don't particularly care about God. We're working on it. We also taught Alwin that night, he had some of the same questions but this time when we told him. ONLY our church has authority he finally seemed to hear what we were saying... we'll see if that had any impact on him this week.
 

So Tuesday we went to lunch at a members house and of course got so much good food! I'm so blessed here in Bayview! We then dropped by a bunch of less actives in the most poorly organized little town house block I've ever seen in my life. The Streets would change names half way through and the corners were all in the wrong places and I swear we spent more time just trying to figure out where was where then actually knocking on doors. Anyways, afterwords we went to go teach Faye and it went really well. It's actually her birthday today so we're excited for her! and then we had dinner, and Tony and Brother Wu and all was well!
 

Wednesday was March 1st February as usual turned out to go by super fast! But this time that meant that sister Chen and I forgot to buy our bus passes for March the day before and so March first we looked at each other, squared our shoulders, and planned the two hours of walking to the nearest subway station to buy a bus pass. God works with what ever we give him though so it turned out to be a very productive two hours of talking to people and we set up an appointment with a woman for the next day! After our long walk we dropped by a few more people. Both of us dead on our feet at this point but we kept walking and talking to people until 4 o'clock when we went to teach Sister Wei and Dennis with sister Lee. It was a good lesson, and then we had dinner with sister Ye afterwards. Just as we were leaving sister Tsui the relief society president invited us over to help her with a couple of things so we got a ride to her house and I helped take care of her grandson while sister Chen and she talked over logistics for the upcoming Relief society birthday party. Ha! I think I got the better deal! We went home with very tired feet!
 

Thursday we got to meet with the miracle lady from the day before at a McDonalds and I diligently ignored the music and only had a song stuck in my head for the next three hours so that was a win! Ha! But really the lesson was really good she hasn't heard a lot about religion before but as we taught about prayer and she said her first prayer she looked at us afterwards and told us. "That felt so peaceful." It was wonderful. We also taught Raymon the random guy we're preparing to pass to the Taiwan missionaries because he's leaving soon! But he is super prepared! At least he's going to Taiwan and not to China so he wont get lost! After his lesson we made a mad dash to get the Lee's house to meet with Iris and that was a great lesson even if we were 30 minutes late!
 

Friday was Zone Council! Yay! Love those meetings. It was very needed and I really enjoyed feeling the spirit that always comes when there's so many missionaries in one place refocusing ourselves on our purpose. Afterwards we weekly planned and had dinner and another mad dash to Cherry to teach the restoration and she just lit up! And then we had another mad dash to teach Mr. Liu who told me that I am far to expressive when I share my testimony! Ha! Well I'm sorry sir but this message is true whether I say it in a monotone or with the fire of heavenly passion, you are going to get the spirit either way! But then our member present shared his testimony and Mr. Liu got really thoughtful and even though he's going to china soon too he promised to contact the missionaries when he gets back. We're going to hold him to that.
 

Then we exchanged! So I spent Saturday with sister Allred who is going to french work next transfer! First sisters going to French work in the history of the CTM. Needless to say she was freaking out and we had a blast with our mixed. French and Mandarin Language study. We enjoyed the exchange and then met with our companions that night. Sister Allred committed me to celebrate the little victories and sister Keahr invited sister Chen to clean our apartment better (Sister Chen and I got a good laugh about that because that's the first time in either of our missions that someone has implied that we were messy.) but we went through and reorganized everything anyways, and enjoyed killing five or six cockroaches. (We're still waiting for the exterminator, but we think it's improving... maybe.)
 

Sister Chen and I needed the exchange though. We needed a day away from each other to really realize how grateful we are to be together. I am so grateful that we have this chance to work together and to be the best we can be.
 

Sunday was fabulous. But I was exhausted for some reason and was fighting sleep all day long. That's okay we got a lot done anyways!
 

So to finish off the things that I learned this week. We got the Ensign in this weeks zone council mail delivery. (Side Shout out to Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik and my wonderful MTC companion) But in this month's magazine there was an article titled "My Regrets, Her Forgiveness" It's a brief reflection from a man taking care of his dying wife. He wonders what regrets he will have about the way he treated her as their earthly time together draws to a close. But as he casts his mind back to what regrets he knows are there he can not find anything. He is surprised but in this moment the spirit whispers to him that his wife had forgiven him long ago for any misdeed he had done and that she loved him.

The same is true of Christ He loves us so perfectly that as we come to him even as imperfect as we are He'll forgive us. And because of His love we can make it through this life with no regrets. So many times on my mission I've felt lost because of mistakes that I knew that I was going to regret later. But as a read this talk I felt the same spirit speak to me just so clearly.

No regrets doesn't mean no mistakes it doesn't even mean being perfect at trying and wanting to be better. It means taking the sacrament every week and taking the moments where you do want to be better and working with them for as long as you can.

I haven't had a perfect mission. But as I read this talk I realized that as of now I don't have any regrets. That's a blessing I can not fully express in just this short amount of time but it means so much to me. The concept is fully based on love. As we love God, His love is poured out more fully. His love is always there but it's our part that we need to work on.

I love Him. That's is something I will never ever regret.

-Sister Skinner

 

Wizards, Witches, Muggles, Miracles, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost

Hello Everyone!
 

So this week started out with a zone conference call in which elder Munsey and Elder Shu started out by signing Hedwig's theme from Harry Potter and inviting us all to participate in the missionary Goblet of Fire. It didn't take them very long to realize that I am an encyclopedia of Potter Knowledge which was a good thing for them because Elder Shu only knows all the character names in Chinese and Elder Munsey will be going through the repentance process after the mission when he goes to read the books. As a result I've been getting random Potter Triva questions all week and I love it.

Sister Chen who will also be going through the repentance process when she gets home has only been mildly exasperated with me and my far too wordy replies to their inquires

Anyways! The real news for this week is that Wei Xin and Dennis got the gift of the Holy Ghost! They were confirmed this Sunday and it was a wonderful experience for them. I was just about ready to burst with joy. They coming unto Christ and that's a wonderful experience for anyone.

So backtracking a little.

Wednesday was the 'Muggle contacting Challenge' In which sister Chen and I talked to 76 people in between our appointments for the day and found a women named Lisa and her two year old son. Lisa was so excited to see us and set an appointment for the next day. Miracles happen when you open your mouth and speak to everyone!

Thursday our morning started out with her lesson at 10 am and it was amazing, her words as she asked about why Christ had established a church if it was just going to fall again were inspired. I learned so much from her and I could see the joy in her as we shared how to pray and know for yourself. She unfortunately can't meet with us due to a surgery she'll be going through soon but she looked at us with so much hope I don't doubt that we're going to be meeting with her again. Besides that Thursday so many people cancelled on us. But that didn't stop us from completing the Marauders map challenge to invite at least 10 people to have a church tour.

Friday we had six lessons starting at 9 am with Iris who basically solved her own problem about the Word of Wisdom and is actively wanting to come to church. We're so happy for her. Anyways we were running around teaching and trying to eat a little bit on the in between and we handed out four book of mormons to complete the "Deliver the Daily Prophet Challenge." It was a good day. I enjoy being busy like that.

Saturday we had lunch down town and so had to travel a long ways to get to the members house but it was delicious. Duck wraps wish Haisien Sauce are so good. We then traveled to meet with Tony who forgot... but that's okay. We'll keep working with him. And then we met with a returning member and then dashed off to coordination and then to a really late dinner at Rose's house and that was so good too! So much wonderful food in Bayview. I'm so spoiled.

Sunday was also good and we finished our weekly planning since we had 0 time to do it that week.
 

I suppose I should also mention the fact that the companions that stick together get sick together! Sister Chen and I have been sick all week and we didn't really slow down but we did have moments where we both just wanted to die because our noses were running so much and it was awful. But we're both on the mend. So that's good.

Really I think the thing that stuck out to me the most this week is that God really does take care of His children, when I got a blessing for healing after District meeting on Wednesday the words that most stuck out to me were "Know that nothing will stop this work from moving forward." and There really isn't anything that will. We ran into a lot of people who wanted to argue with us this week, (probably because 'The Book of Mormon Musical' is in Toronto right now.) But it was still just so good. Everything was able to work out and we're going forward to be the best we can be and to help who we can.

That's a blessing that I'm not willing to trade for anything.

I love you all and I hope you can feel the love that God has for each of you.

Till next week.

-Sister Skinner

This is what happens when I get to choose what groceries to buy for myself.