Hello hello!
THEY HAVE DIET COKE IN HERE, I HAVE BEEN SAVED. It's caffeine free but whatevs, I will make it through!
H'okay
so. The MTC is crazy! Awesome but crazy! The days are sooo long. We
sleep for 8 hours and work for 16. #holla It's sweet though, I am
learning a TON. Especially from my companion Sister Reed. She is from
Houston, Texas and says y'all. She kind of looks like Tina Fey and talks
really similar to one of my great friends Meghan Wotring. Sister Reed
is a nerd but the good kind. She loves Star Wars and Harry Potter and
actually knows what she's talking about when it comes to football (which
is not nerdy but I felt like saying it). She is super smart, I learn so
much from her! She is a gospel whiz which is great when it comes to
teaching.
So I can't really sleep here which is
normal for me but hard when the days are so long. But it's amazing what
happens when you pray for things and the Lord helps you. Through Christ
I can do all things!
Something I was nervous about was getting up at 6:30am everyday, I was scared that I would miss the alarm. Because lets be real, I don't get up that early. I didn't really sleep at all that night and there I was just laying there terrified and the alarm goes off and I literally JUMPED out of bed. More like flew but whatevs. Point is I DID IT. And have successfully done it since :) They stress "exact obedience" here so I do jump out of bed every morning now so that I am up at exactly 6:30am.
Something I was nervous about was getting up at 6:30am everyday, I was scared that I would miss the alarm. Because lets be real, I don't get up that early. I didn't really sleep at all that night and there I was just laying there terrified and the alarm goes off and I literally JUMPED out of bed. More like flew but whatevs. Point is I DID IT. And have successfully done it since :) They stress "exact obedience" here so I do jump out of bed every morning now so that I am up at exactly 6:30am.
So
my district is made up of 8 missionaries, 4 sisters and 4 elders. And
our zone has 7 more elders and 5 more sisters. 15 of us are going to
Scotland/Ireland and the rest are going to Hill Cumorah Visitor Center
in Rochester/Palmyra New York.
We have some
really interesting names, I think my favorite is Elder Hornberger
BECAUSE Hornberger?! Sometimes I call him Elder Hamburger just for fun.
The sisters in my district have a hard time with my name sometimes. They
call me Sister "Skager" "Skagens" "Skags" or "Sister Grandma" because I
am old apparently. BUT. we found out I am NOT the oldest in my zone!
WHAT. Sister Graham is 23. Boom baby. But I still feel like the mother
hen because I have to remind lots of people to do things. Sister Reed is
very forgetful haha.
My favorite thing here
(besides all the spiritual things) is gym time. BECAUSE FOUR SQUARE.
Heavens to Betsy, why has it been so long since I've played that game?
Basically our mission dominates (except against the missionaries going
to Russia since they've been here for foreverrr) because we are the
coolest and everyone wants to be us. For real though, whenever people
ask us where we are serving and we say Scotland/Ireland, they're like
"That's my dream mission!" And I'm like, yeah I know ;). There are
people here going to serve all over the world here! You hear so many
different languages on a daily basis. It's super cool! I know you're
supposed to talk in your mission language as much as possible but come
on, I can not understand you when you respond in Finnish! I just wanted
to tell you to have a good day!
One day for gym time we did
zone yoga which was sweeeeet. But according to how sore my muscles were
the next day, I am not in shape. Good thing I'll be biking and walking a
lot when I get to Scotland/Ireland. #beastmode
Sister
Reed and I have been teaching an investigator with a drug addiction. We
have been praying and studying and practicing for hours! We are working
hard. But it seems like every time we plan out this lesson, right
before we meet with him the Spirit prompts us to do something else.
For
example, we planned out this great lesson about the Restoration and
then 20 minutes before the Spirit told me that that was not going to
work. I looked and Sister Reed and said "Uh...Sister...I don't think
this is what we should teach...it is not going to work." And she looked
at me with this "You've got to be kidding me look." So we prayed and we
both felt good (and frustrated!) about changing our lesson and it turned
out really well. The Spirit was definitely helping me teach, there is
no way I could've done that on my own.
Then two
days later we worked super hard on a lesson about the Plan of Salvation
and 5 minutes before I felt that same feeling from the Spirit that this
was wrong. OH MY GOSH. haha. I sheepishly looked at Sister Reed and
said "Sister...I hate to do this to you again but..." and it turned out
that she had the same feeling! The lesson went great.
It's scary to rely on the Spirit of God but I know that "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear."
I
know this church is true. I know that the Lord and our Savior Jesus
Christ appeared to Joseph Smith and through him, restored Christ's
gospel again on the earth. I know that we don't teach the investigators,
the Spirit does! I know that I have been called of God to teach the
people of Scotland/Ireland and I couldn't be more excited. The Lord has
strengthened and helped me so much in just one week. I know that Jesus
Christ is my Savior and because of His great sacrifice we can return to
live with Him and our Heavenly Father again one day.
I am loving my time as a missionary!
I hope you are all doing well, I think and pray about you often.
Love,
Sister Skagen
P.S.
MTC food is not very good and I think I'm losing weight because it does
not make my stomach happy. BUT. It's food. #blessings
P.P.S. The computer won't let me upload photos. :( I wanted to show you my nametag because that is my favorite part!
