Happy Labor Day Everyone! Hope everyone has a good day. And I hope you have fun eating hamburgers and ice cream (our family tradition) :) and enjoying time with your friends and families! A sweet couple in our ward, who are just amazing, and get along so well, that they make people happy just to be around them. They invited us over for a yummy barbecue they are having which was really nice of them! It will help our P-Day feel more like a Holiday too.
FAMILY MATTERS AND CATCHING UP
Happy (late) First Day of School dear brothers:) and everyone who has started or starting soon!
That's great that Kenny picked up his new saxophone from the music store! That is so exciting. We will all have to play a song or two together (maybe Christmas songs) when I get back! :)
I'm glad our ward at home, went on a temple trip to Palmyra, NY. The pictures you sent mom were great and just made me smile. (I wish there would have been one of all the awesome youth that went though!) :) I am so thankful for the times that we went as a family and as a ward to the temples. It was some of those temple trips that helped me to know the spirit and love that we can always have with us. And that this life isn't just about the here and now, but the eternities as well. What a wonderful blessing to live in a day where there are many temples to attend and even more being built! The temples are like no other place on earth. I'm also grateful for the times when I was at BYUH and I was able to go to the Laie temple with my friends there. I hope everyone is trying to go as much as they can. I know things get very busy, I always feel so busy on days like today, our PDay... but you won't regret a day at the temple:)
Thank you for sending me Jeremiah's mission farewell talk! I really liked it. I can tell he's going to be an amazing missionary. It was great to read that he quoted that scripture we (mom and I) both like so much about 'angels round about you, to bear you up.' (D&C 84:88) It always helps to know that you are not alone and not expected to do this on your own. (And I loved the Lion King reference in it too!!) :D
ZONE CONFERENCE
I had my first zone conference this week! So it made our week Awesome! It went from 9:30am to 5:30pm. It was great to meet so many other missionaries in my zone and to hear the inspired words from our kind Mission President. It is a good feeling knowing that we are in this together and we are trying to do our best and serve. I was also reunited with Sister E and Sister S from the MTC! It felt like a family reunion:) It was such a great day of hugs and smiles!
Because I am a new missionary, at the beginning of the Zone meeting I had to go up and bear my testimony in front of our whole group. I thought I would be scared but I felt (mostly) calm and it's great when the Spirit can help you out like that. I shared how grateful I am to be a missionary at this time and in this place. And to have the gospel in my life. I said that without it, my life would be so very different and I know I would not feel the peace and happiness that I do. It brings me real happiness and I am so glad I can share it with others! I want others to be as happy as I am :) It was also special to look out at all these Elders and Sisters when I was bearing my testimony and see them all looking up and some with smiles on their faces and know that we are all on the Lord's side. It's wonderful that they love our Savior too and are making sacrifices as well. Singing lots of beautiful church Hymns all together was also a very spiritual and uplifting feeling as well. It sounded like angels were singing with us. So thankful for Zone Conference.
JUST SERVE!
The main discussion of our Zone Conference was about this New Program that is going to be great! It is a website called Just Serve which has been tested in a few missions so far. Its main purpose is to help us find more service opportunities in our community! Such an amazingly good idea. We are now changing our service hours from five to ten hours per week! I am excited to get started! Plus doing service will not only help us fill the less productive hours during the day, but the tests have shown that it also helps all the missionary health as well! I mean, who doesn't feel good after doing service? :) I always felt good in Young Women's in our ward, when we would do service for others, like food and clothes donations and helping out schools in the city.
This program is not just for missionaries. Anyone can sign up online and volunteer or post projects they need help with. In fact, we just had a meeting during third hour in church yesterday about this exciting website. Our ward was invited to make an account, so I invited all of you to do the same! It is free and the projects are based on your zip code. You will be notified by email when there is a new project in your area. Projects can range from community clean ups, blood banks, food shares, so so much more! You can register here if you are interested http://www.
AND WE DID!
So right after Zone Conference we texted a nice lady in our ward to confirm dinner with her for the next day. She answered and then told us about a Service opportunity we could do if we were interested. We had just been so uplifted by hearing about Just Serve so we were like "yes please!" Then the next day we headed to a food share that another Sister in our ward was in charge of. It was so much fun to help! We got three hours of service in one day! It was amazing to help out others! Since we were being taught to do good, it reminded me of the song 'I Am a Child of God' - "Teach me all that I must do". You just know that Heavenly Father and Jesus love all of these people so much and it's good to know what to do to help them.
EVERYTHING IS AWESOME
I thought some of you would enjoy this story, especially my brothers Kenny and Kevin:) In Ward Council last week our Ward Mission leader was asked to give a spiritual thought. Instead of a scripture or a story from an Ensign article (church magazine) like people usually use, he quoted the song "Everything is Awesome" from the Lego Movie! He said there are great things around us all the time and we should be grateful for what we have. He told us that he has even made that song his ringtone to remind himself to count his blessings. Then later in the week on Wednesday Sister Xayadeth and I met with him for Correlation Meeting. While we were talking his phone went off and I may or may not have started dancing in my chair :) So that is the thought I leave with you all this week, remember that the World is Awesome! - 2 Nephi 9:3 "Behold, my beloved brethren, I speak unto you these things that ye may rejoice, and lift up our heads forever, because of the Blessings which the Lord God shall bestow upon your children." If you want a brighter day, remember Count your blessings!
I love you all, and I think of you all,
I hope you are doing well in each of your days!
Hugs and prayers,
Sister Skinner - Karatassos
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