Elder Skaggs vs bipolar Utah weather - from 01/11/2019

What's up fellow friends and family??!! Well, I couldn't think of a title for this week because it's been a pretty mellow week, so it's pretty boring and not super interesting. We haven't done much and I didn't expect much to happen, just the same as usual. Oh, but I met a member of the quorum of the seventy. I'll explain that later. 

This is me trying to be a burrito the other day when it was
way too cold outside. I am one with the burrito and the
burrito is with me. (This isn't a direct quote, but I hope you
guys are able to get the reference.) This is the blanket
my mom made for me for my mission.

BIPOLAR UTAH WEATHER: Sunday we woke up and it was raining, then we went to Music and the Spoken Work and it was snowing, for a lot of the morning and early afternoon, it was snowing and it started to stick. However, in the middle of sacrament meeting, the sun came out and melted everything. Then Monday morning, it was raining then it started hailing then snowing then hailing then raining then snowing and so on and on. Moral of this story: Utah doesn't know how to make up it's mind and you can never prepare yourself for what type of weather we will have. I thought California was bad, but man Utah is worse.  

This is what happens when Elder Walker gets a selfie 

            stick. Umm, just don't ask questions.

Helping people: I actually helped quite a few people yesterday and I loved it. It was a few quick things, but still really fun to be able to assist them especially since it's been slow lately. 

Meeting Elder Kim B. Clark: So, Elder Clark is one of the former presidents of BYU Idaho. However, he wasn't president when I was there. Anyway, today, we went to the COB cafeteria with the assistants. One of the assistants is Elder Clark's grandson, whose name is also Elder Clark. As we walk out, Elder Buers, his comp, is slightly nudging him and trying to tell him something. Then he says, "Hey Papa." I finally understood what was going on. Anyway, so Elder Clark comes up to us and hugs his grandson then we all introduce ourselves and shake his hand. It was actually pretty cool. Now I'm trying to add my numbers up. I have personally met Elder Renlund, Elder Brough, and Elder Clark. Then I have just seen President Oaks and Elder Gong up close. I think that is it. Well then I have seen the prophet and everyone else at conference, but I don't necessarily count that. We also saw Sister Eubanks on Monday. She was in the JSMB and my comp always recognizes her and said hi. Then she told us to stay warm and we said you, too. She is in the Relief Society Presidency for the church. It was pretty awesome because she's way nicer to the missionaries here as she has gotten to know us. So yeah, I have met more and more apostles and with 14 months left, I will probably meet more. Holy smokes, I can't believe I am almost at my year mark.  

Sorry for the short and boring email. I just don't think I did much this week. Pretty slow. Hopefully I am able to have a more fun week next week and give you all a more entertaining email and not something boring. 

I love you all and I hope everyone continues to do amazing things in the world. Spread love to everyone you meet. 

Elder Michael Skaggs 

15 E South Temple 

JSMB 3 East 

Salt Lake City, UT 84150

Pictures: here is a link that possibly gets you to all the pictures that I want people to see. I don't know if it will work. https://photos.app.goo.gl/Q6bA83JfN2PNCQw7A

So, somehow I keep losing weight, like in an unhealthy way,
but this is what my diet consist of. I SHOULD BE GAINING WEIGHT.
I only complain because I want to stay at 140, but my metabolism
sucks and I don't always eat 3 meals a day so when I skip a meal,
I'll lose like 3 or 4 pounds. That is not healthy. But, yeah, I only eat
chips and nacho cheese.

Elder Skaggs vs 2019 - from 01/04/2019

How we keep things cold here in Salt Lake

So, here's the thing. There's this guy who is bothering me. His name is 2019. I was just minding my own business the other day, when all of a sudden, he popped up out of nowhere. I was enjoying my time with my friend 2018. Now, 2018 was a nice fellow, but he was mean to me sometimes, and he didn't always give me what I wanted, but I ended up liking him. But, then I woke up Tuesday morning, and 2018 was missing. I wondered where he was then 2019 told me he got rid of him and that he was now my "friend". Apparently, he wants to be my friend and help me out. He tells me that he wants me to do good in life and enjoy life. He also promises me that I'll have a ton of fun, but also be blessed with a good life. I don't know if he's fibbing or not. I don't know if I trust him. However, I didn't like 2018 when he first showed up and got rid of 2017 because he did the same thing, then I ended up liking him. So, we will see what happens. Hopefully I learn to love him. 

Speaking of new things and new friends, it's also the new year. So, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! Disclaimer: the above story has nothing to do with the new year and the names 2018 and 2019 and 2017 are just a coincidence and in no way do they actually represent an analogy of my life. 😉 

I don't know if I have done a lot this week. My mind is drawing a blank. I really haven't done a ton. Music and the Spoken word was amazing as usual on Sunday. Man, I love listening to the choir. 

New Year's eve: New Year's eve was the same old. We went to zone then went back to the apartments. We ended up celebrating an Antarctic New Year. We celebrated at 8 pm which is when the station in Antarctica celebrates the New Year. Then I went to bed. My body actually woke up at midnight and I said, "Oh cool, it's 2019." Then I heard some fireworks, looked out my window and went back to sleep. Greatest New Year's ever because I didn't waste time staying up in celebration of the earth rotating around the sun another time. Congrats earth for being another year older. (Wait, is that how it works?) 

Our New Year's day celebration
when we watched Ben-hur

New Year's day: Well, New Year's day went pretty slowly. We didn't do a ton. My district managed to get a ton of cleaning

done and we cleaned out our fridge. That actually wasn't too bad. Then I stayed back with Elder Gorman while my comp and one of the assistants went on a hike and the other assistant was with Elder Gorman's comp. We spent the morning studying the scriptures and talking. Around 4, we went to the church building and watched Ben-Hur, the original one. I wish more movies were 3 hours long. It was an amazing movie though. The mission also catered J-Dawgs and those were pretty good. Other than that, we didn't do too much else because that took up the rest of the day.  

I don't think I have done anything else that is exciting. I feel like I might have run into a friend this week, but I can't remember. Probably not.  

Snow

Spiritual thought: DON'T MAKE NEW YEAR'S RESOTIONS. Ok, hear me out. New Year's resolutions are poorly planned and are never kept. Instead, make and set goals for yourself. When you set goals and you have a plan, then they actually happen. If you just have a dumb resolution, but nothing to back it up with, then of course you aren't going to keep your resolutions. I made goals and I think they will be pretty good. So, consider setting goals and following through because there is always something we can improve on throughout the year and become a better person. It will bless your life. 

Anyway, that's about it. I hope you guys are doing good. Have a happy new year!!!! 

Elder Michael Skaggs 

15 E South Temple 

JSMB 3 East  

Salt Lake City, UT 84150

Elder Skaggs vs the White Christmas (or lack thereof) - from 12/28/2018

Okie dokie everyone!!! I hope everyone had a great week and a great Christmas!! 

 

Title: Well, we never got the white Christmas that I wanted. It snowed on Christmas eve, but we didn't get anything Christmas. I was really hoping I could get, but I always have next year. Then if that doesn't work out then I will just go visit a place that usually does get a white Christmas.  

Picture of my skype call with the fam

Christmas eve: For Christmas eve, I called my family. It was super awesome to be able to see them and talk to them.  I also opened up some of my presents in front of my family. It was super fun. Afterwards, I went to Fat Cats with my comp and a few other elders. We were going to go bowling, but it was a two hour wait. Instead, we decided to just play billiards and we talked to some of the Salt Lake City mission elders. They were there, too. When we finished, we headed back to the church building to help set up for our Christmas eve party. We had Café Rio catered for us and we had a blast. President Fenn dressed up like Santa and handed out some presents. He gave each of us a Book of Mormon journal edition. I'm super excited to use it. I just finished the Book of Mormon the other day so now I will be using this one. I was going to go buy myself one, but now I don't need to now. Then we hung out with the assistants for the rest of the night. We had a blast. 

My mission president as Santa

Elder Foxworth and Elder Martin
and I on Christmas

Christmas: I woke up on Christmas and opened some presents. Then my companion left to go do his calls with another member of our district. So, Elder Gorman and I hung out at the apartment and we went to Maverick to get something to drink. The rest of the morning Elder Ghiya and Elder Garr came over and hung out with us. We had a blast.  There wasn't much to do, but we did talk and hang out together. I also made a super cool video with "Mary, Did You Know?" by David Archuleta in the background while I read Luke 2:1-21. It was really cool.  In the afternoon, we had a Christmas party with some of the senior missionaries. We had a blast with that and I loved getting food.  The rest of Christmas we were in the mission office hanging out with the assistants since they had to be there while everyone did their calls. It's always super fun to be in the JSMB when it is cloed to the public.  

White post-Christmas: We had a white Christmas eve, a wet Christmas, and then a white day after Christmas. We got about 3 or 4 inches of snow Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. The most snow we have had all winter. I'm really disappointed though that it happened after Christmas and not Christmas. We also got snow yesterday and it snowed most of the day. I had a blast though, walking through it. It was pretty fun to be able to have it here all day. I was on exchanges yesterday with Elder Slack and I got to push him around in his wheel chair. That was super fun because I would slide around on the snow/ice while pushing him, although I almost died a bunch of times. But, we had a blast hanging out together because our companions were at a leadership meeting.  

Temple: We went to the temple this morning as a mission and it was an amazing session. You could feel the spirit so strongly. I loved it. Temples are amazing. 

Spiritual thought: Moroni 9:25: "My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever."

Elder Dunn and I looking weird

I think this is a great scripture because it's right towards the end of the Book of Mormon.  At this point, most of the Lamanites have destroyed the Nephites and wiped them out. Mormon has written to his son Moroni, informing him of everything that is going on while Moroni is hiding and finishing up the records. I love the first couple lines where he tells him to be faithful and not be discouraged by the news of his father. Many times we are wanting to give up or quit because we hear about bad things happening to friends or family. However, we shouldn't allow these things to bring us down. Yes, we can "mourn with those who mourn and give comfort to those in need of comfort", but we shouldn't let that take us away from accomplishing the will of the Lord. We need to continue to look to Christ for hope and comfort. We need to remember the sacrifice he made and all of his sufferings for our sake. We should always remember that there is always a reason for everything and there is always a way through it because God provided a way. Don't ever get discouraged by the small things, but keep your head held high and look for comfort through our Savior and his atonement.

Picture of the snow...
This picture was taken 2 days ago
and they literally just chopped
it all the way down yesterday
so it doesn't exist anymore.

Anyway, that's about it. Thanks for all the love and support. I hope you all had a great Christmas. I'll send pictures and videos in another email. I have a ton of them this week.

Love always,

Elder Michael Skaggs

15 E South Temple

JSMB 3 EAST

Salt Lake City, Utah 84150

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