Week 39 - Living on a Prayer

I literally have been waiting for half my mission to use that as my subject title. But guess what? I am half way through my mission this week. Crazy how time flies? I feel like I am still in training out here.

But, apa khabar semua!

This week I think I will just tell you all about some of the amazing people we are teaching, because I love them so much and my world revolves around them.

First, there is Luz. Her husband has been a member his whole life, and when she first met him, it was his pure, genuine way that he lived his life that she married him. Now their children are all grown and she has been living life like she has been a member, but she says she is ready to be baptized. When we sit down to go through the missionary discussions, she always bears testimony on how living that has already blessed her so much. She is amazing AND recently she returned from a trip in Germany and brought us back real German chocolates. That is a quick way to get to my heart too.

Next there is Jian. She is a referral from a member in the ward who she works with. She also recognized the difference in the way that he lived his life, and started to say prayers with him before they would go into stressful work meetings. A few months of this, she started experiencing back pain and she mentioned it to the member, and he offered to give her a priesthood blessing. She already had a testimony on prayer, and agreed to have the blessing. After the blessing she said she felt God's power, and her back pain was gone. She went to church once, and then asked to meet with us so she could be baptized.

There is a mother we are teaching, her name is Joselyn. She has a three year old son named OJ, and her husband works in America. We found her playing with OJ at a park, and ever since we promised that we could teach her more about Christ and strengthen her family, she has been on board, and has met with us after long days of work to learn more.

Finally, there is a girl we met this week. Her friend is a recent convert in Japan and has been updating her on his whole conversion process. When she ran into the missionaries she was so excited to find out that the church was in Singapore also. Since meeting with her four days ago, she has read several chapters in the Book of Mormon, and has a strong testimony on the Plan of Salvation. 

I love this part, the part where your feet hurt, and your eyes are blurry. But then you remember the people you are teaching, and their excitement and growing testimonies. So you talk to one more person, and offer one more smile. I love this gospel and I know that it is true. It has brought too much joy and happiness into too many peoples lives for it to not be true.

I promise that if you cant feel that happiness in your life right now, it is still there for you. Just start over from the begining, say a prayer, read the scriptures, and start going to church with an open heart.

I love you all. Have an amazing week!

Sister Skinner

Week 38 - Ether 12:27

Apa Khabar! Hello everyone! I am so sorry about the little email last week. I also forgot my journal this week and so I don't even remember what happened last week. But this week was full of miracles so I remember a lot of it! So here we go! We got the opportunity to meet with a mother this week. We have really been focusing on finding families, and we met a mother who is raising her three year old son by herself. She is so excited to learn more about Christ and she has already read a few chapters into the Book of Mormon.  A few weeks ago my dad told me about a women he met at a work conference he had in Arizona. This women works here in Singapore. I was able to get in contact with her and have lunch with her and three other of her colleagues this week. Even though none of them really wanted to meet up to learn more, the spirit was felt and Sister De Campos and I got to bear our testimonies on the Book of Mormon. It was a very cool experience. Finally, after a long day of finding we went to a hawker center, or just a Singapore version of a food court and even though we were tired we sat down in front of a lady and started talking. She  asked me how I decided to serve a mission. I shared about how I was scared to talk to people and that I wanted to learn how to rely on the Lord to become better. She told me that she was struggling with the same thing and wanted to open up to people more. We were able to teach her more right there and even close with a prayer. The scripture I chose for my mission is Ether 12:27, where God promises to make our weaknesses strengths. I have found that I still have my weaknesses, but because of them, I relate to a lot more people. God gives me the strength to help them as they find hope for improvement too, and as I teach them how I have learned to turn towards the Lord and rely on him. So my weakness is my strength even though it is still my weakness? Isn't the Lord funny sometimes? Hey! I love you all! I hope you have a good week! Some other highlights of this week include: Finally getting a visa to stay in Singapore. When a person we are teaching took us out, and we ended up having to buy soda at a bar and explain a little bit about the word of wisdom. Perry the Potted Plant died. l just really don't have a green thumb. We brought a new person to church, and my old ward and my new ward combined to fellowship her out of this world. She has more friends at church than I do at the moment. Having 11 sisters stay at a four sister house for the week because it is zone conference here in Singapore! Love and pray for you all! Sister Skinner

Week 37 - It's STILL Chinese New Year

Apa Khabar Semua! 

I got to talk to my family this morning! But we are trying to switch our emails to a different domain and there have been some problems. I am not able to log into my email from a computer. So I will not be writing a weekly this week. But I love and pray for you all! 

Sister Skinner

Week 36 - Perry the Potted Plant

Apa Khabar!

Let's just jump into it!

This week Sister De Campos and I decided we needed to liven up our apartment. So we bought a plant. His name is Perry. We were going to name him Elder Perry, but there is already an Elder Perry out there and we didn't wan't to replace him. Also, it was Chinese New Year Eve, and there was literally NO people out. Singapore is a BIG city. We went to one of the biggest malls in Singapore thinking that there would be a lot of people. We saw like five people. So we went to Marina Bay Sands, because that's where we heard that is where all the people went. It was PACKED. Mostly with tourists. But we were on our way back and guess who we ran into. None other than my Mission President. I will tell you what, I was very motivated to talk to every one there pretty quick.

Tuesday, Sister De Campos was sick. So we had a waffle for dinner. Don't worry mom we are taking good care of ourselves. We also ran into a man who told us a very dramatic retelling of how he went to India to find Christ. There was a lot of hand waving and pointing. But we promised that if he wanted to learn even MORE about Christ, no out of the country trips were necessary, just the Book of Mormon. So we will see how.

Wednesday we got invited to a members house for dinner, we thought it was going to be a nice member apointment. But turns out it was a Chinese New Year Party. We did something called "Toss Salad" (It has a Chinese name but I don't remember it) Basically you add a bunch of salad ingredients into a bowl and say things like, prosperity, fortune, and such, and then you all gather around it and use chop sticks to mix up by throwing it in the air. While you are mixing it you add in other blessings you want this year. Sister De Campos and I threw in things like referrals from the members, and kind of hoped the others there got the hint. But there is some good voodu out there now. We will keep praying for member referrals as well.

Thursday was full of miracles. We were able to help a women choose a date for baptism, address concerns about the commandments with another we are teaching. Then at the end of the day, we found a miracle family who was excited to learn more about Christ and come to church. So far those  have been hard to find. It was such a tender mercy.

Friday, was full of contacting, to talking to people and getting said no to. But I also got a banana muffin. So I will count my blessings. We have to go through the no's to get to the yes's.

Saturday, we met with a women who first talked to the missionaries in September, but just barely decided to meet again. When we asked her why she decided now to meet with us she said she had a dream, and felt really strongly she needed to learn more about Christ in her life now. We gave her a tour of the church, and she was so amazed at all the pictures of Christ and all the "good feelings" there.

I hope you all have had a good week! Happy Birthday to you all! (Some Chinese New Year thing, look it up.) It has been crazy busy, but crazy good.

I love you all!

Sister Skinner

Week 35 - Gong Xi Fa Cai

Apa Khabar Semua!

Happy Chinese New Years!

I hope you are all doing well!

Here are some miracles that happened this week!

1. We had zone conference this week, and of course it was everything I needed to hear to get going and get pumped all over again for missionary work.

2. Sister Dayley got to come by for a few days and serve in our area! It was so good to see her and see how much we have grown from the MTC. I needed her love and support, I missed her!

3. I told you all that we had NO teaching pool last week. Well. Later. THAT Monday, we taught two lessons with people referred through the members. They are now both solid people that we are teaching and one of them has picked out a date to be baptized. They are both so prepared for the gospel. We asked them why they chose now to start learning with the missionaries, and they both said that they felt the time was right to learn more and become members. I have no doubt in my mind that the Lord saved them just for Sister De Campos and I. 

4. Sister Dayley taught the whole Restoration to a guy who was giving us a ride to the airport.  He is a guy being taught and we will meet him again tomorrow.

5. Sister De Campos and I made a cake. (It's a miracle because I love cake)

It was a good week! We are building up our area and spending less time lost and more time finding people who are ready to learn. 

Keep praying for us! We need it!

Sister Skinner

Week 34 - The New Newton Ward

Apa Khabar Semua!

We had another mini half transfer this week. I have been moved to another Ward, and a new area in Singapore. I am now in the Newton Ward. Which is basically downtown Singapore. It is a LOT more fast paced and it is crazy. I am also serving in a ward with the AP's, the Mission President, our new Mission President (coming in July), and the Stake President. But because that wasn't enough pressure, we also had an area 70 come casually visit yesterday. But it is okay. Because I will do my best and the Lord will do the rest... Right?

I moved across the COUNTRY (Basically just an hour away), and opened a new area, (a bunch of old areas combined into one big new area)  with Sister De Campos. Who, actually, guess what? I knew here from BYU before my mission too. Isn't that crazy? But here we are, serving in Singapore together.

It has been pretty crazy, with all the changes a lot of information got lost and for a couple days, it was just Sister De Campos and I finding all day because we had no member numbers, no people previously being taught. Nothing. So we are starting from scratch! (We have the members numbers now though, don't worry)

Life is good. Not a lot happened this week because we have no one to teach! But we will find them! They are out there. This week I have had to rely a lot on the enabling power of the Atonement to be able to get through every day. Just taking one step at a time.

I love you all. I hope you all have a great week.

Sister Skinner

Week 33 - Three Stars

Apa Khabar y'all!

What a week!

Monday we went to the Sentosa SEA Aquarium! We decided we would contact there everyday if it was in our area. But it is not.

Tuesday we ran into a guy that we had taught before and sat down with him. We taught him a little more and asked him if he was willing to pray to find answers for himself. He told us that he just wasn't the person to pray, but he would learn more. This was a 25 year old man. I challenge each of you to read 2 Nephi 32 and just pray! God is there for you if you ask for him to show his hand, it will be there. If you ask your questions, he will answer.

Wednesday, we met with a girl who said she preferred English, but as we started teaching her more we realized that her Chinese was better. She was so cute though. Her family isn't Christian, but she wanted to learn more. As we taught her about Christ and his life on Earth she got really excited and said things like "I never knew this before!" She honestly just wants to learn more about Christ. We will have to pass her to the Chinese speaking Sisters though.

Thursday, we were challenged by other missionaries to find a creative way to help people to help people confirm that they would go to church that Sunday. So we wrote a song. I just want to say that I never sung before my mission. At least not well. And now I do it all the time and I am still not good at it. But if it helps others get closer to Christ I will sing til their ears break or my voice gives out. Which ever comes first.

Friday one of our recent converts was bullied at school because he was using his break time to read the Book of Mormon. He reached out to us, but most importantly, he reached out to the ward. In the ward group chat there was immediate responses of encouragement and upliftment. It was so touching to see the love and support that comes from the ward. God is so good giving us wards to help us and give us strength when we need it! HIs experience reminded me a lot of "Dare to Stand Alone" By President Monsen, the Mormon Message. I encourage you to gop watch it again!

SATURDAY! Saturday Mark got baptized. I don't think you understand how prepared this guy was for the gospel. He really is the reason people go on missions. He has helped my testimony so much and I am so glad that I could help him on his journey to Christ. There were a lot of happy tears.

Sunday we learned that Singapore is getting a YSA ward! Basically all the 18-30 year olds in the country of Singapore will have their own ward now! All the missionaries want to serve in that ward! But we haven't heard any news from the Mission President yet.

I also got to hear the conversion story of a member this week. He said that he used to be a sailor and would make month long journeys to other countries to deliver things. On one of these trips his boat got stuck in a really big storm and he prayed and told God that if he survived he would repent and start going to church. When he survived and got back to Singapore he met the missionaries. He wasn't too convinced until he got to the part in Nephi where they are crossing the sea and there is a great storm. He could picture the storm that Nephi's family was in and remembered how scared he was. He read about how Nephi didn't complain and turned to the Lord and the storm was calmed. He knew that God was talking to him and that this church was the one he was meant to find.

I am so glad I get to be out here and to meet all these people and hear all their stories. 

Hey! I love  and pray for you all! Have a good week! You are a child of God and he loves you so much. Pray to feel his love for you and you will find it. I promise.

Sister Skinner