British Sign Language

Wow.

All I can say is wow.

Kirkcaldy is completely different than my last 2 areas. Different in like, every way. I love being a missionary!

I'm learning British Sign Language. It's hard changing my brain from ASL though. And BSL isn't very widespread in the church. Our deaf investigators/recent converts don't know the church signs so we can't learn the BSL gospel signs from them. We have 1 book of LDS BSL signs which is helpful but we need more! We do a lot of acting out for them and loads of visuals.

So ya know, interpreting in church was pretty interesting.

I like to call it ABSL on account of it was a mixture of both.

And I still do not like to sign the hymns because I don't even know what they mean in English! How am I supposed to translate them?!
The whole ward was laughing at me. I'm sure my face was priceless.

It is a good time here, folks.

I am just beyond excited to be serving here. I know this is where I'm meant to be right now. I love deaf people and sign language and missionary work and e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g!

The church is true! Jesus Christ is our Saviour!

Love,
Sister Skagen

P.S. Sorry no photos, I lost my camera. 6 months worth of pictures, gone.. :(

Drum Roll Please!

Drum Roll Please!


So.

I am moving again.

To Kirkcaldy to be companions with Sister Wilkinson

And

Guess

What.

THERE ARE DEAF PEOPLE THERE.

They just had a deaf woman baptised and are teaching the ward British Sign Language.

ACH.

I cannae handle it. So excited.

In other news. Richie has given us 32 pages of online material to disprove the Book of Mormon.

Man.

Not sure if we can help him any more. He wants such physical evidence but when you deal with spiritual matters, you need to look for spiritual answers and he just doesn't want to do that. And we can't force him. He's still cool though.

Basically all I can think of moves day. I was quite surprised to be moving after only 6 weeks in Montrose but I know that Kirkcaldy is where I need to be right now!

I love being a representative of Jesus Christ and sharing his gospel with everyone! Til the work is done!

Sister Skagen

BringBackthePower

This week was an adventure for sure.

Tuesday after a wonderful District Meeting, we ran by Richie's to pick up his list of questions he said he had for us.

A list of questions actually means a 6 page essay of why there is no God but if there was one, His nature shows that He is a bully and doesn't deserve our praise.

Whew.

We met with him on Friday and it was an interesting lesson to say the least. We assigned him a few Book of Mormon chapters and he promised to read them so we will see.

We went to the Watson's house for tea this week. I have so much love for that family. We played a "tag" game outside with them called "Black Poison" and I will definitely teach it to my future kids.
Note to self, do not wear skirts while playing this game unless you want to run around bent over holding it down trying not to flash everyone.

Yesterday, poor Sister Kirkpatrick woke up at 4:30am with a stomach bug. So while we are trying to fix this situation the power decides to go out. Twice.

And we weren't smart enough to have spare water jugs. (I will have a testimony of food storage after this).

Here I am running around filling up water pitchers and anything big I can get my hands on so we will have water when it stops coming out of the faucet.
But it didn't stop coming out...just didn't heat up. Except the shower didn't work? Apparently it was electric.
I do not understand Europe sometimes.

She is feeling loads better today so tomorrow we should be up and running. :)

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary. I know the Book of Mormon is true! I can know say it for certain. I am amazed at Joseph Smith's courage and faith and his martyrdom. He died for a BOOK. That is saying something. I know he was called as a prophet to restore Christ's gospel and the beautiful Priesthood power back to the earth. How lucky are we!

Til the work is done!

Sister Skagen

Happy Easter

How was everyone's Easter?! Mine was delicious on account of fabulous European chocolate. Heaven.

The Scottish have a tradition where they boil an egg, paint/decorate it and then roll it down a hill. Sister Kirkpatrick and I searched high and low to understand how this related to Easter and we discovered...

It is meant to represent the rolling away of the stone on the morning of Jesus Christ's resurrection.
We thought that was pretty clever but the majority of the people don't know why they roll the egg--they just do. So, we helped to spread the message that Jesus Christ lives! And #becausehelives we can live again. I love my Saviour!

This week we met Richie. Let me just tell you that he is probably the coolest human being on the planet. He's a single dad with two little girls and he came to the door with...

purple, sparkly, painted toe nails.

He can give you one heck of a conversation and we plan to meet with him this week. :)

We had tea with the Crawford family this week, they are lovely! We just had a fantastic time getting to know them better and laughing the whole time! We also had lunch with the Rollo's and they are a great family as well. Brother Rollo does "falcon-ing" which is when you train falcon's to hunt. WHAT. So they have falcons and an owl just chillin in their back yard. So legit.

We went down to Dundee to listen to a few sessions of General Conference. Um, yes. Love. All of it. If you didn't get a chance to see it, check it out on lds.org.

SUN.

The sun was out yesterday and we didn't have a jacket on. WHAT. I can't wait for summer!

Sister Skagen

P.s. I didn't know Alma had a bar!? hahah Walked by and had to snap a photo.