Sister Skidmore's Sacramento: WOAH We're HALFWAY THEREEEE WOAH OH LIVIN ON A PRAYER

On Monday in Training Resource Center which is where volunteers come to the MTC to be practice taught by the missionaries- I met a man named Tomaso - We taught him and he talked with us (in Spanish obvi (: ) about missions. Come to find out - HIS DAUGHTER IS IN MY MISSION - SPANISH SPEAKING AND EVERYTHING! When we made the connection, he ran out of the room to get his wife who was being taught in the next room over. When he told her that I was going to be with their daughter, She started crying! Crying! It was the sweetest. She took my picture!! and emailed it to her daughter.hahah SMALL WORLD!

In a recent devotional Elder Arnold of the Quorum of the 70 said, "We are all well acquainted with God. We lived with him before this life for a very long time. He knows us personally. There is divinity in the face of every man and woman becuse they are literally the son or daughter of a loving Father in Heaven. We ought to treat eachother as such." or something like that. I genuinely love the people I teach. It's amazing how that works. The Lord really blesses us with an added measure of charity to help us share His Gospel with His children.

We had a challenge to write the Gospel in a few sentences here's mine:

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the way in which we can become like God.

Through faith in Jesus Christ & His Atonement, we can be made clean from our sins.

This process of identifying and committing to do our best not to repeat those sins is called Repentence.

When we are baptized, our sins are literally washed away.

We are given the Gift of the Holy Ghost to guide and direct us in following the commandments which enable us to endure to the day when we meet God again.

Kinda rough but I like it! Nice and simple! The Gospel in one word according to Sister Skidmore: Becoming.

I have fallen in love with teaching the Gospel. Since the beginning, I've been really unsure.. but as I teach more and more, I learn to trust the Spirit more, work together with my comp (who is incredible) and everything is okay.

Okay here is the culminating event of my MTC experience so far....

We have an investigator named Loupe (names have been changed). Loupe is 18. He's from California but lives in Utah. His dad is Athiest and his mom is Catholic, but they don't go to church much. His parents are divorced. His mom leaves for weeks at a time leaving him to care for his siblings. He has Mormon friends from school and is on the track team. He's been to seminary (early morning bible study) but didn't really understand it.

The first time we visited Loupe He seemed so sad. He didn't know whether or not he belived in God because bad things have happened in his life, he prayed but he didn't feel like God answered his prayers because bad things kept happening. Gosh, I love Loupe so so much. For some reason, I really identify with a confused Teenager who is looking for some hope. I guess it's because I can't imagine going through my teenage years without the Gospel and my relationship with Jesus Christ. Anyways, we taught him about pratyer, asked him to try praying again to know that God is his father in heaven that loves him.

The next time we returned, We didn't really know how to prepare because we didn't know what kind of answer Loupe would get. RIGHT before the lesson, I felt inspired that we needed to find more scriptures. We had kind of gotten a hint that Loupe had been abused or something.. so I looked through my Book of Mormon for references on Hope and stuff. Jacob 2:8 I think is one I found. Anyways, I found one last scripture before we went in and it turned out to be THE scripture that would really hit home for Loupe.

We knocked. Sat down with Loupe. He didn't feel that he got an answer. I could feel his frustration and his desire for blessings in his life. It made my heart hurt. We read some scritpures and we tried to explain that some times God sends trials to strengthen us. It got really quiet.

Loupe expalined that the day before we visited him for the first time, his step dad (he lived with his mom) had tried to kill he and his siblings... that's all he said.. or that's all I understood (keep in mind this is all in Spanish). I could see, feel and hear the pain in his voice, eyes and heart. Like I said, I really identified with him.. I started to cry. I STARTED TO CRY. My heart pounded. As my comp bore a beautiful testimony. I went to my last scripture Alma 34:41.

I asked Loupe to read it.. He got chocked up as he read it.. I didn't realize that until afterward when Hma Davidson was like he was crying!.. I thought he had a cough..

The scripture He read - It's about having patience through your afflictions. Tears welled up in my eyes and I could barely catch my breath as I bore solumn tesitmony to Loupe and GOD DOES NOT ABANDON HIS CHILDREN. Life is hard. But I know that through Jesus Christ, and ONLY Jesus Christ and His gospel, can we find true peace, comfort and understanding as we endure the ups and downs of life.

The Spirit was so strong. It was incredible. I cannot find words to describe how grateful I am for the opportunity to meet people like Loupe. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true church on the earth today. I am so grateful for a loving heavenly Father who is aware of each of us. I pray every night for the people who are in Sacramento who are wondering if God forgot about them. To them I say, "I'm on my way. God's got this."

My scriptures are so colorful and marked up. My testimony is burning. My heart is full. and The Church is true. This work is hard. Please be nice to the Mormon missionaries when you see them. Even though you may not agree with what we teach, you cannot disagree with the fact that we genuinely love everyone that we encounter. As representatives of Jesus Christ, we are simply here to help and invite others to hear our glad message. If you happen to meet some missionaries, humor me. Listen to them. Ask them to bear their testimony. It just might change your life.

Se quiero siempre. (I love you all, always)

-Hermana Skidmore