Turkey (or chicken?) Day!

I did it.

I kissed the Blarney stone.

I actually had to do it twice because the first time I just kissed the rock that's next to it. Swag.

It's supposed to give you the "Gift of Gab" and help you speak eloquently. I'm not sure I've seen it work yet... will keep you updated though.

Also. Something else that happened.

I RIPPED OUT LIKE HALF MY EYELASHES.

I have no idea what happened but one morning I was using my eyelash curler and my hand had a spasm or something and BOOM!

I look down and there are like 8 eyelashes on the curler.

Then, one morning the weather was so nice! So I'm like, "Yeah, I'll wear my toms today."

just going through my day and BOOM

rain and wind and colddddddddd.

We stopped at a posh looking hotel to dry out my shoes in their bathroom hand dryers. :)

Our Thanksgiving was catered by the corner store near our flat. Shout out to microwavable roast chicken dinners and Dr. Pepper. True American's over here.

It's okay though because this week our American friends are having us over. We are going to try to make pie. Pray for us.

I'm trying to read the Book of Mormon again before I come home and it's making my studies so much better. I love that we can read this book of scripture and find peace and guidance through it. Joseph Smith was called as a prophet and translated these records through the power of God for US! 

How lucky are we!? God truly does love us. I know this!  

Sister Skagen

photos:

1. Thanksgiving

2. Sister Sawyer and I - one of my most favourite missionaries!

Good ole Ireland.

Eireann. <---Ireland, in Irish. (pronounces like "erin"

People swear here like nobody's business. It's just their culture. And everyone is Catholic. And everyone drinks either tea or coffee (but that's a European thing in general).

The wind was crazy this week because we were getting the last bit of a hurricane. We were walking and talking to people and this guy gets blown off his bike by a gust of wind. LITERALLY, BLOWN OFF.

and lands right next to us.

Dunnae worry, he is fine. Not interested in our message but oh well. It was pretty funny and he was super nice.

Then, we walked into a shop quickly to write something down because we couldn't in the wind  and we witnessed something.

This woman walked in, picked up an ottoman and waltzed right out of the shop.

Sister Stevenson and I  =  o___O "uhh..did she just...steal that?" 

We weren't exactly sure what to do because neither of us had ever been in that situation before. We talked to the store workers and one tried to run after her but we aren't sure if he caught her. It was kind of a crazy day.

We also taught our German friend, Kevin! He is the coolest. Pray for him!

AND. Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came to our mission. Well, he came to Ireland.

Wow.

I feel so blessed to have been in his presence and to have felt the very real Priesthood power and Spirit he carries. 

He talked a lot about how we can't just be good teachers, we need to be GREAT teachers. 

We'll get there :)

I'm happy to be in Cork for the winter though... we were up in Dublin and we were freeeeezing haha. Yay for 2 degrees warmer :)

xx

Sister Skagen

Top a tha Marnin to ya!

So it took foreverrrrrr to get to Cork. We don't have transfer meetings in our mission because you could potentially be traveling for over 24 hours.

Let me explain.

Tuesday night we took the train to Edinburgh and stayed there for the night.

In the morning we took a 4 hour bus to the ferry and then a 3 hour ferry ride to Northern Ireland. 

Then a bus to the Belfast bus station. MADE ME MISS NORN IRN <333

Then a 2 hour bus from there to Dublin.

Stayed the night in Dublin.

Took a 3 hour bus the next morning.

I finally made it to Cork on Thursday afternoon. :)

and I love it! 

This is exactly what I needed right now :) And I've already been temporary companions with Sister Stevenson twice before so we just jumped right into work and didn't have the awkward new companion phase. hollllla. She's brill.

I will share with you a few things about Ireland:

--> Every sign here is in Irish and English and my brain gets confused.

--> They say "like" here SO MUCH.

             Like, more than I do.

--> Some of the people are small.

--> They use euro instead of the pound.

--> The Police is called the Garda and I need to get a Gardacard in order to live here.

--> There are so many foreign people from: Poland, Romania, Africa, Brazil, Italy, etc. etc.

--> The branch I'm serving in is pretty tiny but awesome.

Yeah I feel like Cork is pretty random and I'm random so it's fab. Oh! I met someone from Scranton, Pennsylvania! I took a photo with her like a creep haha. 

It's gonna be a good transfer. :) 

Sister Skagen

Setting Sail

Woah woah woah.

Moves call. Guess where I'm moving to?

IRELAND!

Cork, Ireland. It's at the very bottom of the republic. I'm going on the ferry again.

Dang. Not many missionaries get to serve in all 3 countries. I feel so blessed!

I'll miss Dundee though :(

HUGE MIRACLES.

1. We've had a pretty awful two weeks after working so hard we saw nothing successful in our numbers...we're talking zero.zilch.nothing. Why is this happening? We are in a city, talking to everyone, etc. etc.

THEN TWO RANDOM GIRLS SHOW UP TO CHURCH AND ONE WANTS TO BE BAPTIZED.

I didn't even know that could happen in real life.

And now I'm leaving the area.

It's fine, it's fine. Only a little bitter. ;)

THEN.

2. Okay so do you remember I lost my camera like 7 months ago? Yeah so basically a very nice man named Sam found it on the train and through the pictures found my blog and then my facebook and Callie gave him my e-mail and

I GOT MY CAMERA BACK LAST NIGHT!!!

I thought I lost 6 months worth of photos forever.

Heavenly Father loves me.

I'm thankful for the knowledge that I have and the opportunity I have to change and to serve. I love this work!

And I'll miss Scotland!

-Sister Skagen

Change

Wow.

I feel like my mission changed this week. There were things I knew but didn't really KNOW, if you can understand that. We put into practice and a few things and holy cow we saw some success :)

We met this guy named Aaron and he is awesome. He is a hip-hop dancer (Sorry Jess! I'll try to get a video of his sweet moves) and we met him when he was dressed in a clown suit.

We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he absolutely loved it.

Then Renato came to church for the first time and the poor guy..he missed sacrament meeting but came to Gospel Princples and guess what the lesson was?

The Law of Chastity.

But he said he would come next week so that's a plus, especially since he looked so uncomfortable.

Also, he accepted a baptismal invitation and we invited him to Josie's baptism and we said:

    "You can come and see how it works and what a baptism is like."

"No...I like surprises."

Hahaha.

We dressed up in our onesies and deep cleaned our flat for Halloween since we had to be in early. I'll attach photos.

And a photo of my exchange with Sister Wagner. I love her!

I love Scotland!

Sister Skagen

One Year

Wow. I don't even know what happened this week.

It was crazy!

I was on exchanges with Sister Wagner who I basically haven't seen since the MTC so it was pretty awesome. We spent the day before our year mark together and so what did we do?

We got haggis wraps and Irn Bru to celebrate.

I mean, haggis is okay. I will eat it but it's not my favourite thing in the world. It's mostly lung, did you know that? Crazy. And illegal in America. Lots of things over here are....

We had a death by chocolate party at a member's house because I was fasting from it for 40 days. I really did think I was gonna die from the chocolate we ate but it was soooo good.

OH YEAH. All the missionaries in Dundee ran the Tay Bridge for morning exercise.

It was awesome.

And, we had a Sister's Conference yesterday. I got to see 6 of my 8 companions which was amazing. The Conference was so so good and we all needed it.

For one second, let me just address that I have been out for a year. (I burnt a skirt in honor of it)

I'm sorry, what? When did this happen?

My life has been completely changed in the last year.

I can't even explain to you the things that have happened to my soul.

This gospel has become etched into every part of me.

I know who I am and I know who I want to become.

I know that Jesus is the Christ, He is our Saviour and Redeemer.

I know that right now I have authority to preach His gospel.

I represent Him.

I love this work.

It's hastening and the world needs valiant people to step up and be strong. If you think you can't do it, you can.  "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

I love you all!

Sister Skagen

Jaws on the Floor

This week.

We were walking and stopped this man whose name is Freddy. Two of his friends came up and I literally felt like I was talking to the Three Stooges, they were so funny! They are all in the 50s and since we were all outside a café they asked:

"Do you drink tea?"

Sister Norin: "No...but we eat cake!"

And that's how we were treated to cake by 3 nice old men. It was so funny.

And then, we were in another café talking to 3 men from Libya and one of them treated us to something to drink.

It was just so funny because it was always 3 men.

I went on exchanges with Sister DeMille this week and she is the best! I love her so much. I was with her on her halfway mark and we may or may not have burned some tights in honor of it. :)

It was solid week..we saw miracles!

And basically, I want to teach Brazilian people for the rest of my life.

Eli?

Yeah he's so cool.

We walked in our lesson the other day and after telling us about what he'd studied in the Book of Mormon he goes:

   "I don't understand these religions that believe God has stopped speaking to us! If He called prophets back then, why would he just stop calling them now?"

JAWS ON THE FLOOR.

We were just like, Welllllllll that's exactly what we are going to talk to you about today... :)

It was amazing.

Oh also. So next week I won't be e-mailing Monday, it will be either Sunday night or Tuesday. We have a Sister's Conference next Monday :)

I love missionary work!

Sister Skagen