Say What?

So uh... we got moves call.

And I just don't understand but...

I am going to be in another trio.

What is life anymore?

This is so unusual. There is something I'm not learning from the past million trios.

So it will be me, Sister Turner and Sister Norin (she is from Sweden).

But I'm staying in Dundee so that's cool. It's a great time here.

This week we went on exchanges, the elders had a baptism (Alison, she's awesome), we went to Edinburgh for like 1 hour, and stopped teaching some of our friends.

But Zoe (a member, she's the one in the photo) gave me some sweet tartan ribbon and basically I'm gonna wear it in my hair every day.

I'm so grateful to be a missionary and witness the small miracles that happen every day! It's the coolest thing.

Here's a way good quote for you :)

     "God can be known only through revelation. He must be revealed or remain forever unknown."

Search Him out, "seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you."

I love Scotland!

I'm still working on my accent!

Love,

Sister Skagen

I wish I could Apparate

They are changing our area boundaries so we went to St. Andrews one last time before we can't anymore. And we stood on the old golf course! I'll attach a photo.

I don't even golf but I bought a golf ball.

This week we attempted to do some street boarding.... without a street board? Nice one, sisters and elders. It wasn't hugely successful but we tried with our little district.

One man said as we approached him "Oh go away, I hate you people."

But he said it in the nicest way. It was unusual.

Another man said "Disappear with you!"

Sir...I really wish I could apparate.

hahahaha. People are so funny.

We tried by someone who doesn't actually live there, we did some service (sorted through donations) for the refugees from Syria and one of our friend's dropped us.

But, Dundee is great.

We had lunch with Shannon (a member going to Germany to study) and we ate at Project Pie. It's the coolest! It's like Subway but for pizza! SO COOL.

One day after a dinner appointment, we went to grab our things and I cannae remember what happened but all 3 of us fell on the floor laughing. Like, hysterically laughing. I'm thinking we relieve stress that way but it was just so funny. I love my companions.

My e-mail is kind of random, sorry.

But, the Holy Ghost is cool! Whenever I teach people about it, I explain that Heavenly Father can't come down and talk to each one of us individually -- I also thought about it as He can't because there's not enough time, etc. etc. -- But it's actually because He can't, not that he doesn't have the power, but because we are unclean and imperfect and no unclean thing can be in the presence of God! 

Cool, huh? I know I'm probably behind on this but it finally clicked in my brain.

I love Heavenly Father! And my Saviour Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit that can communicate messages from God to us! How blessed we are!

I love you all!

  Sister Skagen

I love Scotland!

I just need to say I seriously love being a missionary. Like, it is the coolest thing!

This week was WILD.

-I went on exchanges with Sister Wilkinson! Much needed. I missed her. And we got to borrow the Assistants car (they're like, the top dogs--right underneath the Mission President). So we took a picture in their car hahah we are so cool.

-We met a woman named Jade who asked if she could take a selfie with us after we got her contact info. Awesome. I'm pretty sure she snapchatted it hahaha.

-We also went by a less active who has 8 rats and a mouse named Stuart. We sat there with hundreds of show prize ribbons streamed around us, mesmerized as she picked them up, cuddled them, and talked to us about her rats. 

And now we are just full of rat facts... although I can't remember them now. Sorry. But she was super nice!

-We had tea at the Nicholson's yesterday. They are the coolest family! I literally felt like I had been adopted in. It was so fun and they are so kind!

And now. The mother of all stories for the week. :)

As we walked to an appointment, we felt prompted to talk to this man but we had already passed him..eventually we ran after him and struck up a conversation. Said man turned out to be pretty drunk (keep in mind it's only 6:30pm) and wasn't really interested in our message. He tells us his name is Michael Jackson..

what? No way you silly drunk man. You are just saying that because we are American.

and guess what?

He pulls out his credit car and shows us his name...

HIS NAME IS MICHAEL JACKSON.

A few things happen and we decide it's time to go and as we shake his hand..he won't let go of mine. And he gets really close to me and I'm assuming to see my name badge (that's what most drunk and sober people do) and he starts pursing his lips and getting closer!

Mayday Mayday! Abort! ABORT! 

Thankfully my companions saved me from this drunken kiss.

We turn around and guess who we see walking our way? A potential we met a few weeks ago and his friend. Said friend used to meet with missionaries but went on holiday and lost contact but he wants to learn again!

Sometimes you have to almost get kissed by Michael Jackson in order to find the promised people.

Hurrah for Scotland!
What e'er thou art, act well they part!

Sister Skagen

New Flats

We did some finding in St. Andrews the other day and that was fun!

We stopped this man on the street. His name is Andrew and he wasn't interested in our message. But, we got this weird prompting to invite him to lunch with us. Errr... so we awkwardly asked him and he said "Might do. If I don't, good luck with your missions!"

And then. He.showed.up. at the restaurant! Whaaaat.

We ended up having a really great discussion. He still wasn't interested but it was the coolest thing. Obey the promptings you get!

Our friends that promised to come to church didn't so that was frustrating but all is well. You just can't let little things get you down :)

My companions are great! We have fun together and we are allowed to get lifts from the Elders since there are 3 of us. And now both sets of elders in Dundee have cars so more lifts for us. Hollaaa,

I just need to shout out to my Zone Leaders (who will never read this but it's okay), Elder Wells and Elder Salinas. Last week they spent their entire P-day and then some rearranging our new flat so that we could get 3 beds in one room. They literally changed up the entire design of the flat and organized it really nicely for us. All the while they let us borrow their car and were out enjoying our P-day, shopping, etc. Boom. People are great.

Basically I just love being a missionary. I'm so excited I get to continue to serve the people of Scotland every day! It's a blessing to wake up and serve.

(And it doesn't hurt that the senior couple left American pancake mix in the flat :))

I love this gospel! Jesus Christ is our Saviour. He was triumphant and so shall we be!

Sister Skagen

the view from outside our front door :)

Taking a break from cleaning the old flat

Going to bed in our new flat

The gulls

This week has been a bit crazy since we are moving flats so we've been doing a lot of packing and cleaning and getting stuff sorted. Our new flat is a bit smaller but super nice and right by the water.

Although that means more gulls....as in sea gulls. Let me tell you those things are SO loud and obnoxious. They just squawk all the time! And they attack people! It hasn't happened to me but a gull dive bombed a sister in the mission and knocked her on the ground.

This is real life people. The gulls are taking over.

We borrowed the zone leaders car and drove down to Edinburgh one night - photo attached.

We also met with Dimitri who is from Latvia. He is a STAR. He's studying biomedical engineering and is doing his masters at Dundee University. It was the night before his last day of his course and he walked 50 minutes to come to our lesson at 8:15pm and then had our lesson and we find out that he still has course work to do! But he just wanted to come because he loves what he is learning. What an example, ach!

We talked with an awesome homeless man named Darren, had an East Scotland conference and Andrew my deaf recent convert came to my ward yesterday!

Quote of the week:

     I collapsed on the floor in fake agonizing hunger.

                  " I want cake! ..... I want rice!"

              Sister Turner: "Do you want a rice cake?"

hahaha it's probably not that funny but..it is.

Oh yeah, I've been reading in Jesus the Christ. WOW. That.book.is.amazing. Jesus Christ is real, He is the Son of God. He lived and He lives. How blessed are we to know this!

I love this work.

Sister Skagen

Dundee Fundee

So Dundee is a party.

It's weird to be serving in a city when I've only ever served in small towns. There are loads more drunk people! It's been great though.

We met  and taught some wonderful people, did some service and learned how to say "Hi, my name is Sister ____" in Mandarin!

We also went to St. Andrews for p-day! (It Wednesday's on moves week) I'll attach some pictures. I haven't stood on the golf course yet though.

2 favourite quotes of the week

- Sister Turner bus contacting someone

and this was her opening sentence:

                             "Do you see a lot of tractors here?"

I almost laughed out loud.

- Young boy (about 8 years old) shouted

at the beginning of primary on Sunday:

                              "Can we just start now? I'm getting a bit fed up!"

hahahahah :)

Pictures of the trio: Sister Turner, Sister McBride and I.

and then us soaking our feet in the tub to bond.

The St. Andrew's golf store and the St. Andrew's Cathedral ruins.

I love Scotland!

Sister Skagen

Movessssss

We got moves call.

I'm leaving Kirkcaldy! :( Waaaah. 

I'm literally just bouncing around the Dundee Zone. I'm going like a 30 minute train ride up the way. The Dundee curse is real. Once you're here, you get stuck! 

I'll be in another trio...not particularly chuffed about that but it'll be fun. It's always a good time with loads of missionaries. 

I gave some training at a Zone Meeting this week on learning to laugh and positivity in missionary work so that was fun and a cool thing to study. Proverbs 17:22!

We also ran into Gordon again, or as everyone else calls him "The Werewolf." He is the coolest guy ever! So friendly. Loves American baseball and football and is basically just awesome. 

Sister Jackson and I have a bad habit of chapping houses with a For Sale sign. We just don't see it! So we stand and knock, ring the doorbell, chap and nada. Only then do we realize no one actually lives there and do a "walk of shame" while the neighbors look on in amusement. 

In other news, we met a super rude grandma, our friend was afraid of a butterfly, and yesterday we had dinner with the Brown family and they gave me profittarolls (creme puffs) because they are my favourite. It has been a wonderful week!

Love you all, from Scotland!

Oh, also. We got 3 days of summer this week! :)

Sister Skagen