MISSIONARY MESSAGE

McKay is a missionary serving in the Indianapolis, Indiana Mission. In this section you will find pictures and excerpts from his weekly e-mail.




"Hey guys,


How is everyone doing? I hope that everyone is doing well. I am doing great! We had transfer calls this morning and we didn't get a call but Elder Christensen did. He is the one I came out with. That sucks because I didn't want him to leave, we had fun together. But yeah we are all staying besides him. I think this is my last transfer here but I will get to see Paul get baptized and see Tim get the priesthood. I am excited about that. I can't believe how fast time goes by. I know I say that every week but you guys don't get it, it's unreal. It's not good, I don't like it. I don't want to sound mean or anything but I really don't want to come home. I love this. I don't think I have ever in my life felt so strongly about something, well besides BYU football and Angels baseball of course, but that's not counted. I don't know, it's weird, I would love to see everyone and everything but I like this a lot better than being at home. We had a very good week. A very balanced week which is very good. We had 6 with a member presentations and 11 others and 6 less actives and 2 new investigators and 2 recent converts. Very balanced, I like that a lot more than just getting 20 other lessons it's more effective when you balance it and it gives the Lord a chance to bless us in all aspects of the work not just one or two. Church was good, Paul was the only one who showed up but it was a good Sunday. We had to bless the sacrament and I haven't done that for a long time. I think I have only done it one time before this so I messed up on the prayer but I got it, it was fun though. Then in Gospel Principles Brother Renner ( He is like my best friend in the world out here. He is so cool and we are very close) was talking about the sacrament in his lesson and he said that everything has to be done to the "T" and he said when the sacrament prayer is not right, I will not point any fingers, Ha Ha Ha. I just laughed and said I did it because I knew you were teaching this lesson and I wanted to help you out a little. He just busted out laughing and everyone else too.


Last week on Thursday we went over to the Peaces, they are the ones from Costa Mesa. They are both 52 and they have 5 kids. The oldest ones are 2 sons in their mid 20's and a daughter 18 who was planning to come to California to attend Saddleback College but for now she is going to stay home and help with the family and take care of her Mom, and then Dallin and Oliva who are 10 and 11. Sister Peaces has had cancer like 4 times and it has come back and the doctor's are only giving her a few weeks left to live. We went to see her and we talked about life and everything and we talked about her and she said that it is crazy how think the veil is right now for her. She went to the temple and she said that she was in awe at everything that she saw, heard and felt. She is very in tune with the spirit. We talked about A's Burger's and the beach. She was very good friends with the Schelin's in your ward and it is Brother Peaces sister that lives in Newport Beach and she was very good friends with Gordon Jump. When she said that I got all choked up. All the feelings I felt when me and Dad would go see him and take him the sacrament and everything came back. I told her about it and what he would tell me, it was a very special moment."................"Sister Peaces invited us for brunch on Saturday and that was really cool. We talked about life and movies and plays and I told them that you guys had seen Wicked and they were very jealous. I sang some of the songs with them and they were impressed. I told them that this is what you get when you have 4 sisters and all they do is talk about Wicked. Jenna and I talked about how much she loves her family and me too and I told her that when I was a teenager I was away from my family and how much I missed them and she started to cry a little and said that she hopes that she has a family like that someday.


Sunday we had a lesson with Tim at his house and he is soooo freakin' cool. He wants to go to the temple sooo bad. We watched a movie called "Between Heaven and Earth" and every time he saw the temple he said I have to go now, I have to. I was like WOW this guy is amazing, he hasn't even been a member for a month and he has already grasp the importance of temple work. He is starting his genealogy so he can baptize his ancestors, like he is all on it. He is amazing, he is just WOW, I wish you could meet him.


Elder Jensen is doing a lot better. I told him a quote I heard from Tim Salmon at the baseball camp I went to a long time ago, The Mark Cressy Camp, "You don't have to be the best to be the best". He liked it a lot and he is doing a lot better.


I hope that everyone is being obedient at home, keeping the Sabbath Day holy and everything. FHE that is so important, more important than anything else on Monday night, it is so vital, it must happen MUST. Okay King Benjamin will stop but I love you guys very much thank you for everything.


Elder Skeen




I want everyone to read Alma 32 and to liken it unto themselves. Take your faith or your seed and make sure you are watering it with the gospel (scriptures, daily prayer (over meals also EVERY even out at dinner places, be an example) President Hinckley said it best, "Our muscles, if you exercise them they will grow but if not they will shrink. It is the same with our testimonies and our faith, there is no idle station on the road of faith, it's up or down. I hope we all, including myself, are always going up...


Douglas M. Skeen (remember the M)

ADDIE'S ARRIVAL

For the past several weeks we have been sleeping with our cell phones nearby on the chance that we might get the "Mom, I'm in labor" phone call. When they decided to induce Megan on July 20, I took a chance and scheduled my airline reservation using the Southwest Rapid Rewards Reward that I have been hording for just this occasion and then I frantically threw myself into preparing to be gone for a week. On July 18, I was shopping at Costco, the logical place to prepare for anything, when I got a call from Megan, about 3:30, informing me that she was leaving her Doctor's office with orders to go directly to the hospital to prepare for delivery and could I somehow get to Salt Lake that evening. As with all compulsive list makers, I was still crossing off the items on the July 18 list in preparation for the birth of the July 19 list, while making preparations for Tracy, Jeff, Taylor and Austin to arrive July 19 to attend Tracy's 10 year high school reunion, Kelly, Caden, and Carter arriving for the weekend and Morgan working and packing to leave for college. My heart sank a little as I realized that Doug would have to navigate all of this without me here. Tim did a masterful job of changing my airline reservation and reserving me a car, all I had to do was get home from Costco, pack and get to the airport by 6:00. With Kelly's help I made it.

As I climbed on the airplane and sat down, amazed that I actually made it, I phoned Megan and Ryan notifying them that I was on my way. By the time I reached the car rental agency in Salt Lake, it was midnight and I was more than a little anxious to get to the hospital. Fortunately for me, not so fortunate for Megan, she was still in the beginning stages of labor. It wasn't until 26 hours later that our little Addison Linda Spiers made her entrance. Her sweet disposition became immediately apparent as she snuggled, wrapped in a blanket in Megan's arms. I had commented to Ryan earlier that I thought it would only take minutes for her to wrap him around her finger and I was wrong, it took seconds, as is evidenced in the picture of her holding his finger seconds after delivery.

I have now returned home after spending a little more than a week with this new little family. As mother's we are given the wondrous and terrifying responsibility to raise, teach, train and love these little spirits that have been entrusted to us by our Father in Heaven. When you then see your children become parents you realize that you have come full circle and you hope that you did your job well. A quote that I like goes like this, "A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary." Megan and Ryan have begun their journey of parenthood and Addie is really in good hands.

"A mother laughs our laughs,
Sheds our tears,
Returns our love,
Fears our fears,
She lives our joys,
Cares our cares,
and all our hopes and dreams she shares.

Julia Summers

YOU CAN TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS

The Skeen's have entered the age of the Blog! After harassment from my Blogging children, I decided that Doug and I would try our hand, liver spots and all, at blogging. I can remember, that alone might come as a shock, when we first started using a computer. There was no such thing as the internet, Al Gore hadn't invented it yet, and for that matter there wasn't a fax. Communication was limited to our brave men and women in grey or Alexander's phone. When you think how much has happened to catapult our communication forward starting with the internet and fax, cellphones, The Blackberry and now the iPhone, it makes my grey rooted head spin. I have managed to conquer to varying degrees the above mentioned devices with the exception of the iPhone, which I have managed to avoid. The computer still offers me some challenges now a then, however, I have become Queen of the Email. It has become my preferred method of communication to the dismay or joy of my family and friends.

As with all new techie things, I have discovered that there is a new vocabulary to be learned. Here are a few of the terms that I have discovered:

• Blaudience - The readership of a blog
• Blawg - A blog focusing on a commentary about the law
• Blog Carnival - A blog with links to other articles
• Bloggernacle - A blog written by and for Mormons
• Bloggies - a blog award
• Bloglet - a small blog with one or two sentences
• Momosphere - A blog written by mothers
• Plog - A political bog
• Gulog - A blog so depressing it's as if it were written in a Soviet labour camp
• Blogoneer - A person who blogs with an expert or pioneering attitude.

Well so I guess I can now call myself a blogger. I don't know if I will ever become a blogoneer with a bloggie on the mantle and I hope never to write a gulog but I can tell you for sure that I plan to have a blogtastic time.

ADDIE'S ARRIVAL