Elder Skaggs vs the soda can tab - from 11/23/2018

Elder Biggs and I. He just came in about
a month ago and he's super awesome

Title: So here’s another great week of me attacking and wanting to destroy another object in this universe.

There’s an elder creating a shield or something out of soda can tabs. Well, yesterday we watched a movie and they had soda for all the elders. I told all the elders to save their soda can tabs for the elder. Of course, some elders didn’t do that because they forgot so I went through the trash can trying to find some cans that still had them. As I was ripping them off, I got cut by a soda can and my finger started bleeding. No need to fear, I am ok now, but I want to destroy all soda can tabs now. And that is how a soda can tab defeated me. I might have been able to destroy the doorbell and the smoke detector but the soda can won. Elder Skaggs: 2 -  Objects in the universe: 1

Elder Clark. He's one of the assistants
- he destroyed me today while playing Risk. 

Thanksgiving fun: Thursday, they combined exercise with all of the elders and we got to hang out together. Then we had a huge catered Thanksgiving dinner. It was amazing. We got tons of leftovers. Then I went to play Risk with some elders. Last night, we watched Rudy. It is an amazing movie and has some amazing lessons. I think it must be our mission presidents favorite movie ever or else he wouldn’t have let us watch it with all the language. Today, we had exercise again then we just chilled. We were going to continue our Risk game, but some of the elders didn’t come and so we just played with the assistants and I got destroyed.  Tonight we are in charge of helping in the JSMB Discovery Center.  However, that is not an open invite for any friends in the Salt Lake Valley to come visit me.  If I run into you, great. But don't come purposely trying to find me.

A turkey decoration that was used
and the lady let me keep it

Thanksgiving: I can’t be any happier than I am this week. Ok, maybe during Christmas, but there is so much to be grateful for. Sunday, my companion was sick and it allowed me the opportunity to spend about 5 hours to make a list of things I’m grateful for. I am currently at about 20 pages and 255 reasons. I am not finished with the list and I will continue to add on to it. I have even the smallest of things on the list. I think everyone should do this. Just because I like to hear about what people are grateful for, I want everyone to email me a list of 10 things you are most grateful for in life. You don’t have to do it, but I think it would be awesome. I won’t share everything on my list of 255, but I’ll share my top six. (Sorry I’m cheating everyone)

1.       My family and the comfort and love they give me and the support they have shown me      throughout my life

2.       Our Savior, Jesus Christ, who sacrificed his life for us and died so we can be resurrected. I’m grateful for his love and all he does to be there for us

3.       My friends for their love and support and always making me feel special and loved. I am grateful for the example all my friends have been in my life

4.       The mission - to be able to serve the Lord and share the gospel with others. I’m extremely happy to be here in Salt Lake and be able to serve those around me and people from all around the world.

President Unger. He's the second
counselor in the  mission presidency
and he also adopted me.

5.       The health and safety I have been provided. Due to this, I am able to accomplish many things and do things to the best of my capabilities. I know there are those with better health than me and worse health than me and I’m grateful for what I have and what I am able to do with the health I have.

6.       This beautiful planet and the opportunity I have every day to enjoy the beauty around me. Nature is amazing and I am grateful for what this planet has to offer.

I will definitely send out a longer list next time maybe. But, I don’t want to send too much. I think I’ll send maybe 2 or 3 things a week in my emails. I hope everyone appreciates this season and the opportunity you all had yesterday to love your family, friends, and those around you.

I’m extremely thankful for ALL OF YOU READING THIS RIGHT NOW. Without your love and support, I wouldn’t be here right now. You have all been there for me these past 8 months from Vegas, back to Temecula, and now up here to Salt Lake. Some of you have been there for my whole life, some only 10 years and some only a couple months, but no matter what, you have influenced my life. I am glad I have people who read my emails and blog every week and for your prayers and letters. It means a lot to me and I appreciate it all. It makes the holiday season so much better. I don’t get to go home and see my family for 2 years, and I don’t get to spend Christmas with them, but it makes me love everything so much more. I hope none of you takes the holiday season for granted. Cherish the season and the people you are surrounded by.

Transfers: I’m with Elder Bartholomew now. We came out together in the same group and he’s from….. Salt Lake. Haha. He lives about 5 minutes away, but he’s awesome. I’m excited for him to be my companion and I know it’ll be a great transfer. Also, my P-day has been moved AGAIN, to Friday. Sorry for my P-day always changing.

Elder Kupferer. Super cool guy and he's
 the brother in law to Jennifer's old roommate

Exciting things: I can’t think of anything exciting this week. I went to the Bells on Temple Square concert last week and that was extremely fun. I am also excited for the lights on Temple Square to turn on tonight. This will be exciting and a fun opportunity to see them for the first time.

There’s not much else I want to say, but I once again just want to share how much I love you all. Thanks for being alive and supporting me. I am grateful for the support and prayers. Continue to love those around you and look for opportunities to express your love and serve everyone you meet. Also, don’t forget to send me 10 things you’re grateful for. I’m excited to see what everyone is grateful for. Gratitude is one of the greatest things ever.

Continue to send letters and emails. I still love getting letters and emails and packages. It always makes my day. And I love hearing about the lives of all you and what you are all accomplishing. Keep up the hard work.

With love and gratitude,

Elder Michael Skaggs

15 East South Temple

JSMB 3 East

Salt Lake City, Utah 84150

Elder Skaggs vs the Doorbell - from 11/14/2018

Peace and love to all!

Before I get to story time, I want to be straight up and say missions are hard. I don’t want to sugarcoat things and make things seem as if they have been rainbows and butterflies the past 4 months and then the 3 months in Vegas. I struggled and I still do at times. Things won’t always be easy and I don’t expect them to be easy. Yes, I struggle with the schedule and with the work sometimes. And on a mission, you aren’t always going to get along with your companion and you won’t be best friends with every companion. If you are close enough with me, you know how difficult I am to be around sometimes and that is something I’m definitely working on. But, when I look at the struggles I face, I try to make things better instead of dwelling on the past. It’s hard to leave your family and friends and not see them for 2 years. Especially when you have a friend or family member going through hard times or pass away. I know two missionaries on the mission who have had parents pass away while they have been here and they continue to press on. What makes it so amazing is seeing the positive things and the overall goal and purpose of you being on the mission. Instead of dwelling on the issues going on back home, you think about what you can do to provide comfort and help, and then go back to serving the Lord and the people around you. If you continue to sit around and constantly worry about it, things won’t get better. I think about how I have 16 months and then I can be there for everyone in person, if they need me. If I have a rough day or argue with my companion, I try to make things right or think of something good about my day that happened. So yes, MISSIONS ARE HARD. I won’t lie about that. HOWEVER, I know that when I focus on the good things, it will give me the strength I need to finish the next 16 months of my mission.

Now here’s a fun story about the title:

Once upon a time as Elder Skaggs was trying to fall asleep, the doorbell rang at 9:45. As he went to answer it, he realized someone had ding-dong ditched them. He became furious because curfew is at nine for missionaries and obviously, some missionaries were out past curfew. However, he went to bed. The following night at 9:40, the same thing happened, but they disappeared into the night without a trace. Determined to catch the culprits, Elder Skaggs decided to sit in front of his door for a straight hour, waiting for them to do it again. Would they be stupid enough to do it 3 nights in a row? Well, they must have been smart because the stake out ended without an incident.

Elder Skaggs thought to himself, “Is this the end? Will they prank us again?” He had already gone to the assistants for help and informing them of the issue. He hoped this would be over because him and the other 3 missionaries in their apartment were sick and tired of this going on, especially while they were trying to sleep. Boy. He couldn’t be more wrong. Saturday night, as the 10 o’clock hour hit, he figured he was safe from the prankers. Not only had it been happening past curfew, but once 10 hit, missionaries were supposed to be asleep. Elder Skaggs knew he could sleep peacefully, however, at 10:20 pm, they hit again. Instead of getting up, he continued to sleep because he didn’t want to let it bother him, until 5:45 the following morning, they struck again. What could he do? What would solve the issue? Elder Skaggs pondered over this and came up with a solution.

His companion had suggested they disable the doorbell a few times. Without further delay, Sunday evening, they went out to their doorbell with a knife (they didn’t have a flathead) and unscrewed the cover on the bell. Carefully, trying not to electrocute himself, he took the wire from off the bell and tucked it into the hole where it came. Finally, they fixed the problem. Elder Skaggs may not have ever caught the culprits, but at least the culprits wouldn’t have the satisfaction of winning. Their efforts of ding-dong ditching would be pointless because Elder Skaggs and the three other missionaries in their apartment would never be able to hear their doorbell. And since then, Elder Skaggs has slept happily ever after.

I hope you guys enjoyed the story version of how I destroyed our doorbell. First the fire alarm and now the doorbell. Stay tuned to see what I destroy next week.

Service is fun!

Service: We did some more service at the humanitarian center this week. Afterwards, we asked the assistants if we could go to Taco Bell, even though we were in street clothes. They said if we made it there by 8:30, and brought them back food then we could go. Since I was one of the drivers for the project, I got five other missionaries and my comp and he hoped into the car and sped off. I made sure not to drive too stupidly because I didn’t want to get pulled over. However, we made it there in time. It was amazing. I hope I’ll have pictures.

Kitty: There are wild kittens and cats that roam around Temple Square and I got to pet one for a few minutes the other day. She was so adorable. Cats usually don’t like me, but kittens love me and it made me so happy. I don’t know if I have a picture for that.

Getting the Tabernacle ready for
Christmas

People: This past week was great with helping people. There was a woman I helped with scanning documents and uploading them to Family Search. She didn’t get them uploaded in the order she wanted so I told her I would spend my morning and re-upload them and then she could come pick up her documents. She was so grateful. I also got to help a woman with a service dog and I was able to pet her dog. The dog was really cute. I don’t have a picture because I decided to leave my camera at home that day.

Saturday night: That was a fun evening. We started by going to the temple and then went to Kneaders, where someone gave us both a $10 gift card. Then we went to Deseret Books (we go there all the time) and some girl had 3 necklaces and asked us which one was the nicest one. I thought it was funny to ask us and to get the opinions of two missionaries. But, hey, I’m always here to help even if it’s just to pick out a necklace for someone.

Music and the Spoken Word: This Music and the Spoken Word was phenomenal. It was Veteran’s day themed and I sweated through my eyes the whole entire time. I loved the music so much and it made me extremely grateful for everything God has given us on this beautiful earth.

Just spreading the love..

Veteran’s Day: Speaking of Veteran’s day, I want to express my love and gratitude for all those who have served in the military. You are all amazing and I love you for serving the country. We couldn’t do it without you all. I hope you know that you haven’t gone underappreciated for your service.

I don’t have anything else fun to share this week. I guess this week was more eventful than past weeks. So, that’s a good thing because it put content into this email. Oh and if anyone wants to give me something for Christmas, Deseret Book’s gift cards would be great because I want to buy a ton of CD’s for various Latter Day Saints musical artist. But, food gift cards to Kneaders, Costa Vida, Chick-Fil-A, Cheesecake Factory, and McDonald’s works too. However, none of that is important, I’m just putting it out there for you guys to know.

Hej da och jag älskar dig (I forget plural for you) I haven’t learned or practiced my svenska lately

Elder Michael Skaggs

15 East south Temple

JSMB 3 East

Salt Lake City, Utah 84150

Elder Skaggs vs the smoke detector - from 11/06/2018

I don’t know about you guys, but one week seems to take forever when you want to email, but when you only have 5 days in between emailing, it seems to go by too quickly. It seems like these past few days has gone by way too quickly. I guess I can’t complain too much because I love emailing and contacting you all. Well, let’s be honest. The first half hour consist of me reading emails and responding, then I send my group email. The rest of the hour and a half consist of me staring at my computer screen waiting for someone to email. Haha. It’s not too bad.

Me trying to beat up the smoke detector

Title: Last night I was boiling water and when the stove starting burning a little bit. Well, our smoke
 detector is super sensitive and started going off.  I pressed it to turn it off, but then it went off again. Since I became agitated, I decided to take the battery out until I finished cooking my food. I figured it wouldn’t be an issue since I wanted to cook and eat in peace. Besides, I would put the battery in again later. When I put the battery back in, the thing started beeping every few minutes because the battery must have been low on power. However, I would not let the fire alarm defeat me and annoy me. I was determined to solve this issue once and for all and would do whatever it takes. Finally, I decided to look around the apartment for something to smash it with and well that’s how we got the picture you see here. Don’t worry, I didn’t smash it and I wasn’t really going to, but I figured it would be a great picture to express my anger towards the fire alarm. Speaking of destroying fire alarms, I have never understood carbon monoxide or whatever chemical detectors. The reason we have them is because you can’t smell it and it quietly kills you. The way I see it is that if I’m gonna die from it, I would rather die in peace and quiet instead of the obnoxious machine yelling at me as I die. Of course, you’re supposed to get out quickly if you hear it, but knowing me, I would just ignore it and keep sleeping and so I would rather die quietly. I think this is the worst logic ever, but I’ll just take the loss.

When the other missionaries put your name tags
on your ears. Just a new fashion style

P day change again: Ok. You guys already know how I got my p-day from Saturday to Thursday to Tuesday.  Now
it might be getting changed again to Wednesday. No, that doesn’t mean I will be emailing tomorrow, but if it does get changed then I won’t be emailing until next Wednesday. Sorry, not sorry. It just makes it more convenient for us.

Seeing people, I know: When I was at the baptismal font on Saturday in the Salt Lake Temple, I saw my old FHE sister, Kyra Bingham. It’s weird because I have only really seen FHE sisters lately. But, she’s the only one I have seen since conference. I don’t recall if I’ve seen anyone else I know.

Yeah, I was scared too 

Service: I got to go to another assisted living place this past Sunday. It was very entertaining and I loved it. This was more of a rehabilitation one and not so much an old folks home. Nonetheless, many of them never get visitors and it was still nice for them to see them and visit with them. I love hanging out with people like them.

I really feel like I had more to say, but forgot. I don’t think anything else went on this week. I’ve had a small cold and that sucks a lot, but oh well. I’m just trying to fight through it. I hope everyone else had a more eventful and exciting weekend. I hope I will have more to say next week and if we’re lucky I will have more content.

this week's flower pic

Spiritual thought/life lesson: Never give up and always endure. I feel like I say that a lot, but it’s because I really think it’s a concept everyone needs to remember. Things will always get rough, but you have to remember to persevere. You will go through many trials and hardships in life, but you need to have the faith and trust that our Heavenly Father will help you through them.

I think all of you are amazing and I love you all. Continue sending those letters and emails. It’s awesome.

Farewell.

Elder Michael Skaggs

15 East South Temple

JSMB 3 East

Salt Lake City, UT 84150

Elder Skaggs makes a discovery larger than the moon - from 11/01/2018

Sunlight through the trees

Hey everybody, I hope you all had another great week. Well, it’s also only been five days since I last emailed. Don’t worry, I have not been sent home. I am still here and I have a perfectly good reason why I am emailing today. I hope you guys feel happy to have an email early this week. And you should start getting used to it.

Title: Before I get to that, I’m going to explain the title. The other day, while I was on Family Search, I saw my uncle was posting memories of my grandparents. I read a story about my grandmother’s life and found out my grandparents served in this mission about 24 years ago. I think it is awesome I am serving where they served. The mission also has some mission memories books that I looked through and I found more pictures and stuff of when they served here. I am ecstatic. In addition, everyone should get a family search account and start finding their ancestors. It’s free and super easy. It’s also really fun when you make huge discoveries and find out where you family came from. Trust me. It will be worth it.

Elder Blanton- we started off as enemies,
but became good friends and he just went home

Transfers: Well, it was another great transfer. I am staying in Help services for at least another month. My new companion is Elder Gale and he’s from Provo, Utah. So far, he’s been great and I have a feeling this will be a good transfer. I’m emailing today because my pday has been moved to, well, today, but it was moved again. It was originally supposed to be today, but due to other circumstances, it has been moved to Tuesday. I am emailing today because we already planned on it, but expect another email on Tuesday and then all my emails for the next month will be on Tuesday. Anyway, I’m stoked for this transfer and it will be an amazing time. I also hope all of you are having a blast.

 Elder Ferguson- he went home to do a service
mission, but he was such a great friend

Halloween: Last night, we went to the JSMB after it closed and we watched Coco and had Domino’s pizza. It was so awesome. I really love that movie and my favorite pizza is Domino’s. Win-win for me. Our mission president rented a theater back in February and paid for the whole mission to see it in theaters. Sadly, I was not here for that. I was partying it up with my friends in Rexburg. Shout out to all my friends in Rexburg who I visited. I’m going to get sidetracked real quick. That weekend was one of the best weekends ever. I had such a fun time and made so many awesome memories. Sad, though, because I said goodbye to some of my friends for the last time for 2 years, but I saw a few of them back in July, so it’s not too bad. I do love all the friends I hung out with and for all them being super awesome. I have the greatest friends ever. I just wish they wouldn’t all be graduated by the time I got back to school. If any of my Rexburg friends want to procrastinate their schooling, that would be great, because I need friends when I get back. Actually it shouldn’t be too bad because I’ve made a few friends here and I’m slowing making friends with some of the Temple Square sisters, so maybe I’ll have friends from this mission and that mission to hang out with.

Ok. Sorry for getting so sidetracked. I’m really good at doing that and I love to brag and boast about my friends. College was the greatest experience of my life. I hope all is well in Rexburg and BYU Idaho. Let me know how things are going. I heard they are building a parking garage there. But, back on topic.

Such a beautiful dog

This week I have met a few awesome people in zone. I met a couple from Norway, and I loved it. Since I have been learning Swedish, I talked to them a little bit about how I’m learning it. Swedish and Norwegian are a little similar, along with Danish, but Danish and Norwegian are more similar. However, we ended up exploring Norway for about 10 minutes while I was helping them. I also met a dog, whose name was Rorie. I don’t know how to spell that properly. She was a service dog for a blind woman and I got to pet her and take a picture with her. I will post that in here. It was a black lab and it reminded me of Delta, our dog we put down a year ago.

I'm gonna start pleasuring everyone with flower pics each week

This week has been another great week and I continue to learn and grow. Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that we went to an orchestra last Saturday and it was amazing. I actually really enjoyed it. But, I hope you guys all continue to have amazing lives. Let me know how life is going. Until then, be safe and continue to stay strong! Everyone around you loves you! Don’t let anyone tear you down.

See you Tuesday!

With all my love,

Elder Michael Skaggs

More flower pics 

15 East South Temple

JSMB 3 East

Salt Lake City, Utah 84150

Elder Skaggs is lazy this week and doesn't have any content - from 10/27/2018

Hey guys,

I was lazy and didn't type up anything, but nothing cool happened. The service project was really fun. This is the Place Park is awesome. But, I am loving it. I'll just share some pictures and then a scripture.

Doctrine and Covenants:
"63 - Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.  64 - Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name it shall be given unto you, that is expedient for you;

Have faith and diligently seek for answers. Our Heavenly Father is willing to help us and love us. We just need to put forth effort and faith.

Elder Skaggs
15 E South Temple
JSMB 3 East
Salt Lake City, Utah 84150

So, we decided to have a sleep over last week. It was a horrible idea, but so funny... here's a pic:

Elder Skaggs becomes an astronaut - from 10/20/2018

Elder Walker, Elder Whiffen, and I. Once again,
I have no idea what's wrong with my smile

Man, I feel like one week I have a ton to say and then the next week I don’t have much to do. I think this week had been a little bit more slow. I can’t think of too much that has gone on, but I’ll try to make this email more entertaining. It has been another great week, though, and I continue to love it here.

the rovers we played with

Planetarium: Monday evening, for a district activity, we went to the Clark Planetarium. It’s a free hands on museum with a ton of space themed exhibits. They have like Mars rover type things we can control through a remote control and some other cool things. We spent about an hour there and then headed back to the apartments. We had a blast. Hence, the reason my title is about me becoming an astronaut.

Service project: Sunday morning, I had the opportunity to go to the senior assisted living home again. I love going there and meeting all the people. It’s sad to see them all there and how many of them don’t get visitors. However, they had therapy dogs there and the people allowed us to pet them, so I spent about 5 minutes petting dogs and it was so awesome. I really needed it. Dogs are the best thing to ever exist.

The service project with Elder Walker, Elder Hall,
Elder Eades, Elder Royal, and Elder Wright

Food bank: Thursday night we went to the Utah Food Bank and we bagged spaghetti noodles. We had a blast doing that and I enjoyed it. I had been hanging out with Elder Walker, Eades, and Hall. Then Elder Clark, one of the assistants, spent some time with us. We bagged about 100 pounds of spaghetti.

Training zone tour: Whenever my companion has a meeting with someone in the mission office, I’ll usually walk around the mission office and talk to a lot of the senior missionaries working up there. I’m pretty sure they all get annoyed. Haha. Anyway, Elder Walker, one of the training elders, decided to take me on a tour of the zone. He is also a young elder and the same elder mentioned above. We started by going to where his companion was at the desk they work at. He started showing me some cool stuff his mom sent him in his package. Then he turns to me and says, “Do you want some cookies?” So we went to the break room where only the training zone is allowed to have the treats there. And we headed over to the other training leaders where we had some popcorn and he handed me a Hershey bar. As we headed out, he pointed to a candy bowl and told me to take a piece of candy. I found it hilarious because I felt like a little kid they were watching and having to entertain. Elder Walker is probably one of my favorite missionaries here. I actually have a picture in here with him.

another super beautiful sunset

People I have met: There isn’t too many I remember. I did help a lady from Spain, but there was nothing we could find. I then helped a guy who was pretty old and I had to type everything in for him. I really enjoyed talking to him. I also helped a guy find a few sources on when his grandparents immigrated and where they were born. It’s always really fun when you are able to break through brick walls. Thank goodness for countries that kept records and for countries that weren’t destroyed and had all their records destroyed, too. [This is Elder Skaggs' mom...I don't get that last sentence, do you?]

I can’t think of much else that has happened. Sorry, this email is pretty boring.

I just want to share my love for service and how much joy it brings me. It reminds me of Mosiah 2:17: "When ye are in the service of your fellow being ye are only in the service of your God." It brings me so much joy when I serve others. This past week of being able to do service twice and being able to do service later this afternoon, has been the highlight of my week. We are going to the This Is the Place Park this afternoon to do something and I’m excited to help preserve and clean it up. Service is awesome. Go out there and serve others. That’s why I emailed so early today.

me showing off the super awesome socks that my mom sent me

I love the mission and I love being able to serve God and by fellow brothers and sisters on earth. Thank you for all the love and support. Continue to send me letters and emails. Hope you all have a great week and continue to do good in this world.

Peace out.

Elder Michael Skaggs

15 E  So. Temple

JSMB 3 East

Salt Lake City, UT 84150

Me posing on my balcony with the temple behind
me. It's awesome to have a view of the temple
and to see it everyday