December 29th, 2014

December 29, 2014

Hey all you fans out there.  It was great to talk to you guys too.  It went so incredibly fast that I wish they gave us like two hours to talk.  That´s really funny about the accent because I don´t feel like I have one at all.  I guess that I am used to how I talk though so maybe it just changed little by little and I didn't even realize it.  I guess that must mean that I´m doing something right haha.  I am glad to hear that you all had a good Christmas.  I am sorry that Madeline felt a bit lonely on Christmas Eve.  So that she knows, I miss her too.  Our Christmas Eve was a bit interesting.  We ended up going to eat with one of our investigators.  It was a bit uncomfortable to be honest.  None of her family members or her friends that were there are members so they were all wanting to listen to music, drink, etc., but they didn't because we were there.  We felt awkward so we didn't stay that long haha.  Our renters brought a flan cake for Christmas and a member bought us pizza.  We had a pretty good Christmas, although it wasn't the same without the family.   It´s fun that you guys got to see a lot of the family.  That´s a bit of a bummer that Diana had to leave early.  I guess the positive thing is that it will only be for two more months and then she is back for good! 

We didn't have a ton of work this week because a lot of people haven´t been home, but we did baptize J., E's daughter, this Saturday and she was confirmed yesterday.  Gabriela and the O. family are preparing for January.  We really need to find a couple of new families soon.  I´m not really sure why, but we have been having a really hard time finding lately.  If you guys that fast could include that in your fast this weekend it would be much appreciated.  Well that´s about all that is new on this end.  I hope you have a great week!  I love you all!

Elder Schow 

December 15, 2014

December 15, 2014

Hey there everyone. Well it has been a good week once again. We had transfers on Tuesday. My new companion is named Elder Hood. He is from South Carolina. We are having a pretty good time together so far. He's got about 7 months in the mission and was trained by the same trainer as me. It has been a bit of a weird week. It was "Day of the Virgin" this week so everyone was celebrating "the birth of Jesus´s mother" by getting drunk and lighting of fireworks combined with the sound of loud music all night. Because of all the drunks we had to be home at 7:00 for two nights straight. It was kind of cool though because we got to know each other pretty well. My companion also has a guitar and is really good at playing so we just kind of chilled and waited out the noise.

The O. family are leaving town for Christmas so they will not be able to be baptized right now. They are so strong though it is amazing. She did not used to want to come to church at all and now they come every week without fail and stay all three hours. We are also teaching the 18 year old niece of a family in the ward that is going to get baptized in January. She told us last night that she knows that the church is true. If Sister H. keeps going strong without drinking coffee she will get baptized on Saturday. We found a really good new guy to teach yesterday- Brother H. He was a contact that we did with "He is the Gift" that we never found at home. We were passing his house yesterday and felt the strong impression to go and knock. He was finally home and he accepted us really well. He also gave us 12 pairs of new socks each. He makes socks so that's why he gave them to us. It was really nice of him.

I'm glad that you all are doing well. That's cool that Roger and Diana are back. That is a ton of pictures. I can't believe that. I need to follow that example because I hardly have like any. Thanks for all of your love and advice. I'm glad that you are getting better quickly mom.   I love you all.

Elder Schow

December 8, 2014

December 8, 2014

Hey everyone,  Well it has been a pretty good week.  Sadly, it's going to be my last day with Elder McEwan though.  They are changing him to who knows where.  I'll be staying in Espartaco with my new comp.  It'll be weird having a new comp for Christmas.  I'll miss Elder McEwan a lot.  We've had a lot of fun together.  I kind of hope that I get to train again, but I guess we will see what happens.  The O. family should be getting baptized on Saturday if all goes well.  (Well just 2 of them, the other 2 don't really want to listen to us yet, but it's a start).  We also found a new part member family to teach this week- the B. family.  They are interesting people haha.  It's pretty fun to be able to teach them though, they joke around a lot.  They get mad if we don't accept their food too.  They changed the church that we go to now. and it is like 5 minutes from where we live so it will make it a lot easier for the investigators to come which will be nice.  Sister H. should be getting baptized on the 21^st if she can give up coffee.  (It is giving her a lot of problems), and E's daughter on the 27^th.  It will be a really awesome month.  We taught M. A. again and he told us that he knows that the Catholic Church isn't true, and that he believes the Book of Mormon is true.  We're not really sure what changed, but it was cool.  "He is the Gift" has not been that effective here either yet.  Our district talked to 122 people about it last week and only 4 of them have become new investigators (not even 4%).  Hopefully we can find a more effective way to put it to use and that we can talk to even more people.  It is surprising sometimes how many people don't want to hear anything about Christ  or that don't know why we celebrate Christmas.  If they don´t listen here they´ll have to hear it in the next life.  Well that's about all on my end.  I hope you guys can get some snow for Christmas.  I'm glad that you all are well.  Love you all. 

Elder Schow

December 1, 2014

December 1, 2014


Hey there everyone,

Wow, I can't believe that it is December again...Time sure has flown by this year. I think that the fact that snow doesn't exist here makes it hard to believe that Christmas is right around the corner. I'm guessing that you guys might have plenty of that before too long. I'm glad to hear that you had a good Thanksgiving, and that you were able to visit with the family and what not. We ate really good on Thursday even though there is no Thanksgiving here. It wasn't turkey, but tacos are just about as good so I was happy. It sounds like a lot of things are changing with the house, everyone growing up etc. It will be strange to see all of the changes.

Well this week was pretty good. The church launched a new program for Christmas that we are putting into effect- it´s called "He is the Gift". I'm sure that you have probably heard of it. It is focused on helping the people to remember the real reason that we celebrate Christmas. It has been a valuable resource for contacting and talking to the people. We haven't found any new people to teach yet by using it, but we have several appointments lined up for this week with new people so it should be pretty cool to see what happens, especially ase we get a bit closer to Christmas. Well we have a few people that are still progressing really well. The O. family are doing really well. They are really excited to keep learning. They are accepting everything really well. We had a bit of a curve ball thrown at us this week with M. A. We have only taught him like 4 times and every time that we have taught him he has told us how much he hates the catholic church and how terrible it is. The last time we taught him we invited him to be baptized and he said no I would never get baptized in your church because I was already baptized in mine. We asked him which church he belonged to and he told us the Catholic church. I guess he hates it, but not enough to leave. It was a strange lesson. We started teaching another family this week that are just like him. It makes no sense, but I guess there isn´t much that we can do. All we can do is keep looking for others that are ready to accept the gospel. Well that´s about all for this week. I love you all. Talk to you soon!

Elder Schow 

Nov. 24, 2014

November 24, 2014

Hey there everyone,

Sorry that I didn't write last week, I was a bit indesposed, but I am back and that is all that counts. Well these last two weeks have been really good. R. got baptized last Sunday and was confirmed yesterday, and E. was baptized yesterday. Also, we are working with a few other investigators to prepare them for baptism in December. We are teaching the O. family. The boy is super funny. He's 10 and he hasn't been to church that many times, but he knows a ton. Sometimes he says some pretty profound things to his mom that really help her to see the importance of what we are teaching. We are also still teaching Sister H., and a man Señor G. among others. We have a really pretty good ward here. The members are super great with the investigators, new members etc. They are definitely some of the most charitable people that I have met. It's kind of funny, on of the counselors to the bishop is like the mexican version of Steve Martin. I hope I can find an excuse to take a picture with him before I leave the ward.  Haha.

Well I don't really think that I have any great words of wisdom to impart this week. The holiday season is coming up. Lately I have been trying to read a bit in the New Testament every day to learn a bit more about the life of Jesus Christ. I am impressed by his example and by his teachings. I am amazed at the love that he has for each and every one of us. I think every day I understand just a tiny bit more of that profound love. As we go into the holiday season let us remember the reason for the season.  Oh, and to answer the question that all of you asked, no, Thanksgiving is not recongnized as a holiday here. They call it the day of the action of giving thanks, but they do not celebrate it...so no turkey for me. It's alright though, I hope that you all have an enjoyable time with the family. And don't gain TOO much weight. Well that's about it on my end. Love you all.

Elder Schow

The asked us to tell you guys to not get on our Facebooks.

November 18, 2014

November 18, 2014

 

Sister Schow:

Elder Schow had diarrhea for two days we believe that he had dehydration and we saw that essential medicines were not working, so to avoid a major problem we send to the hospital only a preventive measure, the doctors decided to leave him in the hospital two days (Sunday and Monday) to make studies and to remove dehydration. According to the report by Doctor he has a gastroenteritis, so he gave him drug treatment and we will be observing your physical condition to decide what else to do.

He is better today, but we are waiting for him and his recovery.

Regards.

Nov 17, 2014

November 17, 2014

Hey, I think my president told you but I've been in the hospital so I couldn't write. I'm out now and seem to be doing okay. I had diarrhea and throw up at the same time so they took me in for dehydration and intestinal swelling. Hopefully it is all taken care of. I love you all and hope all is well.

Love Britton

November 10, 2014

November 10, 2014

Hello everyone!

Well this week was a pretty good one.  TIme is going super fast by the way.  It´s a bit strange.  Anyway, so, R. should be getting baptized this Sunday if all goes well!  She´s doing super great.  It has been hard for her to give up smoking, but she is doing so good!  If you could keep her in your prayers that would be great.  E. hopefully will be baptized the week after.  She couldn't come to church on Sunday because she lost her money.  As they were going to get on the bus she realized that it had fallen out of her pocket and she couldn't find it anywhere.  We are thinking that she can still get baptized though.  I will keep you posted.  The week after we should be baptizing a 9 year old girl named A. that is the daughter of a recent convert.  She and her little sister K. (3) are pretty funny.  It has been really fun to teach her!  It has also been very dificult becaues her little sister is super loud haha.  The last time we tried to teach her her sister kept yelling at us that we were salchchas- hot dogs.  We got a good laugh out of it.  We are also teaching a family called the Ochoa family that are going through some really hard times so if you could keep them in your prayers that would be great.  

We found a really strange guy this week named M. A.  He was a reference that we received.  We got to his address to find that there were about 20 door bells.  We just starting ringing door bells and we actually found him and he let us in.  He asked us a lot of questions (asking us in what would seem a very angry manner).  I guess we answered well enough his questions though because at the end he told us that he had enjoyed himself and to come back.  We'll see what happens this week.      

That's cool about the pictures that you are going to make.  I'm guessing that they are going to be similar to the Mickey Mouse ones that dad did right?  That's nice that you are getting to see Lauren, Cam, and Ella frequently.  It sounds like at least once a week or so. I bet that's really nice.  Wow, ISU won again.  That's a shocker haha.  That's cool about your temple trip.  I miss going to the temple.  Hopefully when the re-dedicate it we get to go!  I would like to work on geneology too when I get back.  I didn't realize that there was much left to do haha.  Well, I love you all.  Talk to you soon!

Elder Schow

November 3, 2014

November 3, 2014

Hey everyone!

Well it has been a good week. Well we had transfers and I am going to be the district leader. It’s going to be a great opportunity to learn and to serve. I’m excited to see how it goes. My companion is named Elder McEwan from Lehi, UT. I should probably start sending you pictures of my companions, huh? He has about a year and a half in the mission and has been district leader for like a year. He’s a really great guy- super humble, good teacher, funny, all that good stuff. It’s nice to be able to speak a little bit in English too. He’s here to show me the ropes. I know that I have a lot to learn from him. There are 4 sisters in the district and 2 other elders. One of the Elders was my last district leader and we have been in the same ward several times in the mission so that is kind of cool- Elder Wilhelmsen. We had companionship exchanges with the zone leaders this week which was really great. I learned a lot of things that I am doing well as well as a lot of things that I can improve on. The Elder that came with me is an amazing teacher. He speaks Spanish really well and he asks super inspired questions. I will also be able to learn a lot from him this change. I want to be able to learn to follow the spirit as well as he does.

Well not too much is new here. We found a couple of new people to teach this week, but no one is progressing super well. It doesn’t help that half of the world is sick either haha. It sort of killed our church attendance- it was like 50 people less than last week. Things are still going really well with R. She fed the four of us missionaries this week. She should be getting baptized pretty soon....like 2 weeks I think. She had a few small issues with the word of wisdom so we had to wait a little bit. We found a drunk guy that wanted us to talk to him in Portuguese a few days ago. That was interesting trying to explain to him that we don’t speak Portuguese haha. No matter what we said he did not believe us.

I’m glad that you guys were able to get away for a bit mom and dad. It sounds like you had a good time. You guys are a great example to me of a functional marriage that is based on love, respect, etc. I have seen so many destroyed marriages here. It’s a pretty sad thing. I know that if we base our families in the teachings of Christ that we will be so much stronger. I’m glad to hear that everyone is doing well. I like Ella’s costume. It’s super cute. There were actually a lot of people dressed up here on Saturday night trick or treating. Day of the dead was a bit underwhelming. It probably would have been more cool if we had been able to go to the grave yard. It’s all good though. I can look up a lot of pictures of it up on the internet after the mission. It’s a bit of an odd tradition. Well I’m about out of time, but I love you all. Talk to you soon!

Elder Schow

P.S. Were you guys able to get the videos off of my memory card too?

October 27, 2014

October 27, 2014
Hey there family :)

I hope that you all are well. It has been a crazy busy week, but a good one. Well it is my last day with Elder Cumbe...I will really miss that kid. We have sure had a fun time together, and we have learned a lot from one another. It will be interesting to hear tomorrow where he is going and with who and who is coming with me. I will make the best of whatever and whoever comes.

Three of our investigators are progressing so well. E. and R. are probably the most golden investigators that I have ever heard of. They show their faith through their works. They always read, they always pray, they do all that they can to come to church and as a consequence of their hard work they are seeing major changes in their lives. The teachings of Jesus Christ are changing them. He was not just a good man that taught beautiful principles. He was and is the son of God that came to this earth so save each and every one of us...Of course on the condition that we do our part. If we do our part and use His atonement we can be changed. It's not rocket science, but sadly, there are so many that just don't get it. As one of my companions always said, ¨I look around me at all of the people here and I see the need for a savior.¨ It is so true. There are so many people that suffer temporally and spiritually. All that they need to do to find relief is to come unto Him. I guess that is why our purpose as missionaries is to invite others to come unto Christ...not to invite them to come unto us, or unto the church, or to compel them - just to invite. These things help, granted, and they are essential parts of coming unto Him, but ultimately it is a decision that each and every one of us must take. To come unto him. I have been reflecting a lot about this lately. Have I really come unto Christ? Am I trying to be like him? Have I taken his yoke upon me? I know that I have a long way to go, but I can say that I am grateful for the progress that I have been able to make. I am grateful for the gospel and for my mission. I would invite each and every one of you to do all that is within your power to share this message of joy with others. I love you all so much and I think about you all often. Until next week.

Elder Schow

Oct 20, 2014

Oct. 20, 2014

Well I only have 5 minutes, but hello everyone.  This week has been busy but good.  We had a lot of companionship exchanges this week so I was outside of my area a lot and got to know several other people.  It was fun.  I got the letters from family home evening!  Thank you everyone!  It was so great to hear from you all!  We found a new family this week- the Ochoa family.  They are really great.  Only the 10 year old son came to church this week, but we are positive that they will all come the next week.  R, E, and E are still progressing really well, and are really seeing changes in their lives through the atonement of Jesus Christ.  I know that they are being prepared for the spirit.  The mission is going by so fast.  I am trying to do all that I can to take advantage of this special time that I have in my life to serve the people of Mexico.  It is a great work.  It is the Lord´s work.  I love you all.  I will write more next week. 

Elder Schow

October 13, 2014

October 13, 2014

Hello everyone! 

Well this week has been a long but good one.  We have just been trying to work really hard as usual.  We had a pretty successful week in several aspects.  We were able to bring a lot of members to lessons this week.  They have been a huge help.  They actually formed some great friendships with some of the people that we are teaching so that has been great!  Many of them have even asked us, Elders when can I come to appointments with you?  My jaw about fell off of my face when the first person asked us that.  I don´t think I have ever heard that question in my whole mission so it was pretty cool.  I know that the Lord has been helping us a lot in this area.  When I got here it was not in the best of shape.  It still has a long way to go, but the Lord has really put prepared people in our path.  We are still teaching a lot of the same people this week, and many of them are progressing muy bien.   I am really coming to love the people here.  It is hard to explain, and it was something that was very difficult for me in the start of my mission but things are definitely changing in that aspect.  Little by little I think that I am beginning to understand a bit better the love that Christ has for us.  I am also starting to understand much better the changes that he makes possible in each of our lives.  It has been really fun teaching E.  She is a character.  The last time that we taught her she was telling us about some experiences that she has had visiting other churches.  She said that once the separated her from her daughter that was about 7 at the time.  When the service was over she asked her daughter how she had liked church.  Her daughter told her that it had been fine, but rather than teach them anything that they had forced the children to prepare dough for doughnuts haha.  There were a lot of strange stories that she told us.  I'm convinced that there is something whacked out with our apartment.  We had exchanges a few nights ago and we were praying sitting down because our DL can't kneel down because he had knee surgery.  While I was praying I distinctly felt something tug on my tie a bit hard twice.  It was super weird.  We've been a bit on edge at night.  We know that nothing can happen, but it´s still a bit strange.  Truthfully though, things are going great.  I'm glad that you all are well. It sounds like it has been a good week.  If you see someone without a smile, lend them yours.  Love you all!

Elder Schow    

September 22, 2014

Sept. 22, 2014

Hey everyone! 

So it sounds like this week has been exciting!  Ella was born!  I can imagine that it was really fun to get to see her.  I´m glad that she was born without any sort of complication.  She´s very cute too!!!  I will wait with anticipation for more pictures soon.  Hopefully dad and Maddie don´t eat little Caesers too often haha.  Sorry about the car dad....that´s kind of a bummer.  It is really old though...I´m glad that the primary program went well.  It´s always fun to see!  That´s cool that the Moncurs are adopting another baby from China.  I´m very happy for them.  That´s cool too that Roger and Diana might be moving back to Pocatello.  It´s crazy how long they have been gone.  

This week has been good!  As you all know I got transferred to a new area.  I am currently in an area called Espartaco 1!  I am finishing the last 6 weeks of training for Elder Cumbe from Ecuador.  He´s a really good missionary.  We get along super well, and we've had a really fun time together so far  So it´s really a pretty cool area here.  It´s super chill, and sometimes it´s easy to forget that we are in the middle of the big city.  The thing that´s not so great is that the last several missionaries that have been here except for my comp. have been super lazy and there are like no investigators.  We have been working a lot on finding new people to teach.  We have been contacting like animals, okay not really haha, but we have been contacting a lot.  To be honest it´s something that I hardly ever did before.  I kind of regret a bit that I didn't do it more often before.  Hopefully it yields some fruits soon.  So I've decided that I like training.  It´s really fun.  This week I have really been able to understand better that we can be obedient, and serious about the work, but that we can also be a little bit loose and actually have a lot of fun.  It has been a good learning experience for me.  The ward here needs a lot of help. We really can do great things here if we can start to work with the ward.  I am really excited for this transfer.  It is not going to be easy, but with hard work it is possible.  This week I adopted a phrase that I really like: act as if it were impossible to fail.  I have really tried to internalize it, and I have seen some results.  Well I've got to go.  I love you all.  Talk to you soon!

Elder Schow 

September 15th 2014

September 15, 2014

Hey everyone,

Well my time in Independencia has come to an end...I am leaving tomorrow.  To where I don't know and with who I don't know.  My district leader saw something when he went to the mission offices a few days ago.  There is a rumor that I am going to an area called Ajusco.  It is way up in the mountains.  It's like 2 or 3 small outlying towns supposedly.  I guess I will see tomorrow what happens.  In some ways I feel ready to leave for a new area and in some ways no.  I will miss some of the people a lot.  R.  didn't end up getting baptized yesterday.  He couldn`t make it to his baptismal interview on Saturday because of his work.  Hopefully he will be baptized this Sunday.  I will probably miss him most of all.  He has been a really awesome person to know.  We were with him last night when the transfer calls came.  He was really sad.  He hadn't realized that there was a chance that I might be leaving.  He told me that he had hoped that I could be the one to baptize him and that I had had a very special effect in his life.  He really has changed a lot.  I hope that stays strong in his desires to change and that he goes forward with his baptism.  I know that the atonement can really change lives.  I am understanding that more now.  I am excited to go to my next area and to be able to use the knowledge that I have aquired here in Independencia.  I am leaving a lot of great people here.  There are some that I will never forget.  None of them came to church yesterday though so I didn't get to say goodbye to like anyone, but I feel that they will be in good hands with Elder Martinez.  Sometimes I feel like I didn't accomplish much here, but maybe my function has only been to help plant seeds in the hearts of the people.  So stay tuned.

So the baby still hasn't come, eh?  Now that is a big surprise to me...I thought that she was going to come like last Tuesday or Wednesday.  I guess it isn`t her time yet.  I hope that Lauren is hanging in there well.  It sounds like you guys have had a good week.  Sorry mom about the 5K.  I`m proud of you guys for doing it though.  It is pretty rare that we run in between appointments, but when we do let me tell you...I am dying haha.  I have been exercising a lot better in the mornings though so I think that some of it might have to do with the elevation.  I`m glad that you had a good family home evening and that you got to see everyone.  I`ll be excited to get the letters.  Thanks for sending the package!  I will await it with anticipation.  Good luck with the primary program.  I hope that it turns out well even though the practices are stressful.  Also, thanks for the quote mom.  It really is something good to think about.  I am learning a lot about the effects of choice in our thoughts and the difference that it can make to have good, positive thoughts.  Well I love you all!  I will talk to you next week....Hopefully Ella will be born by then!

Elder Schow

Picture

                                                             Too much fun!!

September 8, 2014

September 8, 2014

Hi, howdy, hello, hola,

Well I'm just dandy!  How are all you fine folk doing?  Well this week has been pretty good.  We had quite a few good things happen.  Before Sunday we had 10 investigators with baptismal dates.  Two of them fell because they didn't come to church though- E. was one of them.  He has to finish high school, but he has to take his classes on Saturday and so his job is making him work on Sunday.  If you could pray that he can find another job it would be much appreciated.  R. has his baptismal interview this Saturday and his baptism is programmed for this Sunday if he passes his interview.  Also, if you could keep him in your prayers it would be much appreciated.  We have been blessed to find so many good investigators these last two transfer cycles.  If they keep progressing like they are progressing now I feel that many of them will be baptized.

We definitely found a couple of interesting people this week.  We found a family that we started to teach.  The mom is like 70 something and we taught her and her daughter the first time.  The second time that we taught them her husband was there...and he was basically wasted.  He was a super funny nice drunk though.  He did many sporadic things that ranged from all of a sudden leaping out of his chair and starting to dance to running into another room to bring a book that he wanted to show us.  He told us that he had a very important book about Christ to show us and brought in an art book produced for Reader´s Digest.  We had to pretend like it was really a book about Christ and that it was very interesting.  It was pretty hard not to laugh.  Needless to say we couldn't teach them much so hopefully he is sober the next time that we come.  We also taught a 90 year old Jehovah´s Witness.  He definitely had some interesting things to say as well.  

I´m glad that you guys have had a good week.  That´s really cool about Cheryl.  I´m glad that she had a good time with you guys.  She´s kind of like a 3rd grandma.  I hope that she and her animals are doing well.  I´m sure that she will really like to go out with you guys from time to time.  That´s cool about the 5K.  I hope that you guys destroy your last times!  I´m excited about the music dad.  I definitely miss music some times.  I´m excited to hear all of the new selections.  Also, I had companionship exchanges with my district leader and he likes a lot of the same movies as our family.  It was funny to be able to talk to someone that has seen some of the really strange movies that I have seen.  I even told him about Santa Clause Conquers the Martians haha.  Thanks for the advice and all.  It means a lot.  Love you all!!!!

Elder Schow  

September 1, 2014

Sept. 1, 2014

Sup everyone.

Well this week was good overall.  I don´t have any big news or stories to tell, but yeah it was good.  For whatever reason we didn't find too many people to teach this week, but we kept working with the families that are listening to us right now.  We had the chance to take 4 investigators to the visitors center of the temple yesterday. Unfortunately, some of the transport routes were closed due to a marathon so we only got to stay for an hour, but all four of them really liked it.  One couple especially liked it and are excited to get married and prepare for their baptisms.  We have a baptism planned for the 14th of September- a young man named E.  A girl from the ward invited him to institute dance on Friday night and he really enjoyed himself.  In fact he didn't get home until 2:30 in the morning because he was talking to her for a super long time.  We joked around with him quite a bit about that.  If something works out between them though we just might open up a matchmaker service haha.  To be honest I really don´t have too much to say this week, but I can say that something that I am learning more and more every day is the importance of deciding to make the most of our situation.  There will always be challenges in life, but we always have the agency to choose how we will respond to these challenges.  Well I love you all.  I will try to write something more exciting next week.  Better yet, I will make something exciting happen.  Adios!

Elder Schow   

August 18, 2014

August 18, 2014
Hey!!!!

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes!!! It was a good day. We didn't do anything too out of the ordinary, but we happened to have key lime pie at lunch and my companion bought me cookies! Thanks for the package everyone! It was a fun thing to share with my companion. He was super excited to have rootbeer because it is super hard to find here. We enjoyed it. Well I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well. It sounds like you guys had fun at the cousins reunion and Madeline with Lauren and Cam. I am happy to hear that. It sounds like you did a lot of fun stuff! It´s crazy that it´s already the middle of August. Ella will be here before we all know it. It sounds like the baby shower was a success! It´s a good thing that you all got inside right before it rained. It has been raining like crazy here too. There has also been a ton of lightning. The thunderclaps have been literally ginormous. I have never heard thunder so loud before. One night this week I woke up to an earthquake and a huge thunderstorm at like 5 in the morning. It was like the second coming or something haha. It was pretty cool. It was just a baby earthquake though. That´s a really cool story mom! Something similar did happen to us.

Well this week was good. We had a zone conference this week and our Mission President talked about the importance of really studying the scriptures. He talked about when Nephi was commanded to build a boat and helped us to analyze his obedience and all of the work that he did that sometimes we don´t really see when we read the scriptures. This week was pretty good. We are teaching several good families right now. R should also be getting baptized in about three weeks. If you want to keep them in your prayers they are the C. family, the T. family, the B. family, and R, O, and A. We have been blessed to be able to find several new people to teach these last 2 months. Some of them have obviously gone cold, but they have been the means of finding others.

We are working really hard to excite the ward about missionary work. It has not been easy. We are finally seeing some changes. Our bishop finally talked to our investigators this Sunday for I believe the first time ever. It is a small thing, but it is improving. My comp is really good. We are trying to work really hard, but have fun at the same time. I really like a quote that he always says,¨ I´m so optomistic that I go after Moby Dick in a rowboat, and I bring the tarter sauce with me.¨ Well that´s all folks. Love you all a ton!

Elder Schow

August 25, 2014

August 25, 2014
Hey everyone,

Well from the sound of it it has been a pretty eventful week. So you finally broke down and bought a new fridge, eh? Hopefully dad didn't blow up the old one so that you can still get a bit of use out if it haha, assuming that it still works of course. Ah...and the blue couch is gone. That´s too bad. That´s crazy about Jimmy´s house. I had no idea that he had alarms etc. Crazy. Good luck with the 5K. I´m so proud of you guys for going for it. I hope that it goes well. Where is it going to be held? Sounds like you've had a lot of rain. We have too. I´ll be honest. I´m a bit tired of getting wet...and staying wet, but it´s alright. Just part of the job description I guess. Yea dad from the sound of it the city has changed quite a bit since I left. It´s crazy how much can change so quickly.

Hmmm... what to say about this week? Well all in all it was a pretty good week. Like every week in the mission it has it´s ups and downs but over all it turned out well. We had a good turn out at church yesterday. Many of the investigators that came were coming for the first time. We started teaching a family this week named the G family. They had gone to church with one of their family members that lives a couple of hours away a few times, and several of them are very well prepared. Three of them accepted baptismal dates yesterday for the 28th of September. We also started teaching a woman named R. She is 18 and has 2 children. She had her first child when she was 14. Super sad... She came to church with us though and we think that she really liked it a lot so I will keep you posted on what happens with them.

I am grateful for the mission and all that I have been able to learn so far. I can definitely see personal growth in a lot of areas as well as a lot of room for growth in others. Right now I am learning the importance of setting goals. Without meaningful goals it is hard to progress. I an also learning the importance of patience. It is probably something that I have struggled with the most on my mission. I know however, that when we are obedient and work as hard as we can that good things come. Thanks for all that you do. Love you guys a ton. Talk to you all in a week!

Elder Schow  

August 11, 2014

August 11, 2014

 

Hello there everyone!  Well, there is some groovy techno going on in this internet cafe so I feel motivated to type faster haha.  Hopefully I will have more time to write to some of you today because of it.  Sorry that the last few weeks I have been a bit short on time.  Thanks for all of the birthday wishes!  To be honest I doubt that we will do anything that exciting haha.  I haven't really told anyone that it is my birthday so it will probably just be a quiet, normal day.  Thanks for putting money in my account, though I really don't need it.  How much were you wanting me to take out?  Also, the package got here.  I will open it on Wednesday :) !  I`m glad that you had a good time at the wedding and that it was a nice time.  That`s also nice that you got to visit with so many members of the family.  What?  Kim Barker got married?!  That`s crazy haha.  I thought that she was a lot younger.....Now I feel like an old fart haha.  Like dad said, time is a really strange thing.  It goes super slow until we stop and look backwards and realize how fast it has gone.  So I think that the beg bugs are gone.  Last Monday we stood my matress up and punched it a bunch and I prayed that night that we would not have more problems with them.  We haven`t received any new bites like all week, but we will see what happens.  I'll keep you posted.

So we had transfers this week.  I said goodbye Elder Mendoza who is now in his house (CRAZY!!!) and I recieved Elder Martinez.  He was Elder Patey`s trainer....so in mission terms my grandpa is now my companion.  He's a really really hard worker.  He goes home in 3 months so I'm guessing that I will leave the area the next time that we have transfers so that I don`t end up staying here for 9 months.  That would be a ton of time in one area.  He`s a really good missionary.  He's a bit bossy haha....it`s sort of a I know everything about the mission and we are going to do things my way sort of attitude, but I have a lot to learn from him.  We made a huge map of our area this week.  It`s like 6 feet by 3 feet.  We marked all of the members, everyone that we are teaching, and all of our future investigators with different colored stickers.  Hopefully it helps us to plan a bit better.  

We found a few new people to teach this last week that are really great.  I'll don't know them super well yet so I`ll tell you more about them later.  We had an entire family come to church on Sunday.  The C. family.  I think that I told you a little bit about on of them.  The ex-Jehovah's Witness.  We were super surprised that they all came.  I'll keep you posted on thier progress.  We are still working with R. and M. and the T. family.  We have several that have a lot of interest and we are receiving a lot of names of new people to teach.  Things are going well!  Love you all!

Elder Schow

August 4, 2014

August 4, 2014
Hey everyone,

I'm glad to hear that you all are doing well and that things are exciting as ever! Well yep I am going to be receiving a new companion....but I have no idea who. I am staying in Independencia though. Our president decided to change how he does transfers. The only thing that we are told is if we need to bring our suitcases or not. No one is told if they are training, DL, ZL, etc. I guess it will be kind of a surprise. I think that there must have been a problem with people complaining to other missionaries about their new companions. It should be good to see who it is though.

Well to be honest I don't really remember much that has happened this week. It has all kind of been a blur. We have been really busy teaching etc., and trying to get everything ready Elder Mendoza to go home. He has been pretty sad this week, but I think that he has finally come to terms with everything. It will be the start of a new adventure for him.

We did find several new investigators this week to take the places of several that has fallen of the face of the earth. We are finding a lot of new people to teach, but they have not been progressing very well. R. is still progressing really well, but we are feeling very rushed to teach everything that we need to before his baptism. I want to stop teaching him in his house though. I have bed bugs now, and I'm pretty sure that I brought them from his house on my clothes. I have to figure out how to get rid of them. My companion hasn't been bit, but we found a big one in his bed. Maybe we can start teaching him in the house of a member so that we don't keep bringing more. We also have another investigator named M. that has come to church 5 times. The problem is that his visa expired so he has been living here illegally and he needs to get married to his girlfriend but he can't without a visa. We are trying to see what we can do to fix that situation. Things have been pretty normal for the most part. I did however find out this week that eating pineapple on a hamburger is really good! Who knew haha?

I've had some good study sessions this week that have really helped strengthen my testimony and help me to have a clearer vision about why I am out here. It really is going quickly. I almost have 10 months already. I really want to make the most of the time that I have left.

Thanks for sending the package mom. I´ll let you know when I receive it. Thanks for all of your love and advice everyone! I love you all. Have a rip roarin' week!

Elder Schow

July 28, 2014

July 28, 2014
Hello ya'll,

I'm glad to hear that you are all doing well. From the sound of it it was a good week even though nothing too terribly exciting happened. It's normal though. That's what makes the exciting weeks more exciting. There must be an opposition in all things. Yeah in a lot of ways I can't believe that it's almost August already. It's crazy how fast that this year is going. It'll be Christmas again before we know it.

Well this week was a good week. We were blessed to be able to find a lot of new people to to teach this week. We have been following the counsel of Elder Johnston- the area seventy and have been seeing great results....more on the end of the investigators than the members, but hey we aren't going to complain haha. We have been blessed to find several families. There is one family that has a 17 year old son named Oscar. He is progressing really fast. He prayed at the end of our lesson a few days ago and said, "thank you for answering my prayers and helping me to find the truth through these young men that you have sent to me." He was super prepared. The story of how we found them is pretty cool. We contacted a woman on the bus and she gave us a name and an address. It is really difficult to write on a bus and we were not able to understand what my companion wrote very well. Nevertheless, we went to the address that we thought that he wrote and it just so happened that there was a woman with the same name, even though it wasn't the same woman on the bus. She told us that even though she wasn't who we were looking for that she thought we must be there for a reason and so we started teaching them. It was a cool experience to see that the Lord puts prepared people in our path in mysterious ways. R. is still progressing really well and his mom is still coming to church even though she isn't convinced about baptism,  she told us that she doesn't think that she has ever made a mistake. We'll see what happens with her. We are also working with a 21 year old named E. and his mom B. They both came to church on Sunday and he changed his work schedule so that he doesn't work on Sundays. It was pretty cool when he told us that. The B. family canceled our latest visit, and we think that we are going to have to drop them. They really aren't that interested. We'll see if we can visit them this week though. We also started teaching an ex Jehovah's Witness this week. We taught him that Jehovah is Jesus with several different scriptures in the Bible and he was like,  "I've been lied to my whole life."   It was crazy that he actually accepted what we taught him. We feel that he will be baptized. My companion goes home next Tuesday. It's really wierd. I'll know who my new companion is on Sunday night. It should be a good change though. Well love you all. I hope you have a good week. Talk to you soon.

Elder Schow

July 21st 2014

July 21st 2014

 

It was good to hear from all of you as always!  Thanks for your constant letters and support.  Well, this week was pretty good.  We are slowly but surely building up a decent group of people to teach.  A couple of them are progressing very well and they are helping us to find other people to teach as well.  It's kind of awesome  We aren't teaching Angel right now because he began working a lot and we lost contact with him, but we are teaching about 9-10 of his extended family members and we are going to start teaching more this week.  It would be so sweet if basically this whole family got baptized.  Three of them came to church this week: I., T., and G.  They really liked it, but the problem is that they are really attached to the Christian church that they are attending right now.  In fact, the day before they came to church with us T. invited us to come to their church with them.  We weren't really sure what to say, but I think that we will try to go.  She also asked us what we would do if we got an answer that their church is true.  They could be a bit difficult, but they are really great people.  We actually had a great turnout at church this week.  We had 6 people that we are teaching show up and two others people that live in our area that showed up with members.  R. came again and is progressing really, really well.  We taught him again last night and boy is he convinced.  We are trying to prepare him for August 17th, but it is a bit complicated because like Ethan said, we have to teach the fifth lesson now before baptism.  It is a worldwide change.  Well that's about all that is new here.  Not much, huh?

I'm glad to hear that you all are doing well.  That's funny that Caitlin was the brave one mom.  How old are they again?  That's nuts about the rain too.  Hopefully the damage isn't too bad, but I can imagine that it is significant.  That's super cool about the new temple movie.  I'm excited to see the difference between the three of them.  I really miss going to the temple.  I am very excited to go again when I get home.  It is a very special place.  From the sound of it mom you and Maddie are like the exercise queens.  Keep it up.  I need to follow your example.  I understand exactly how you feel dad, that early morning exercise is tough.  Way to go!  2 weeks straight is great.  That's great that you were able to choose a counselor.  I have no clue who he is haha, but I hope that everything works out really well.  Well, love you all.  Talk to you in a week.

Elder Schow  

July 14, 2014

July 14, 2014

Hello everyone!

Well this week was pretty good. We saw a lot of successes in many areas of the work. We had a zone conference on Tuesday for about 5 hours.   (way too long) But at the same time it was nice for a change of pace. Sometimes it is easy to get a bit bogged down in the everyday routine of things so it is nice to change it up every once in a while. Otherwise one could feel like they are living out the plot of the movie grounhog day haha.

Well we had several good things happen this week. We were able to find 11 new people to teach this week! Several of these 11 are part of families. It is sooo much better to teach families because they can support one another and help each other to remember to read, go to church etc. We feel that many of these people will progress really well. If you want to pray for them thier names are S, N, A, B, E, R, T, G, I, I (yes, like Nacho Libre), and S. It was a miracle that we were able to find so many.

We saw a lot of progress with R. this week. He came to church again with his mom E. They both really, really loved it. When we taught him last night we invited him to pray to know if what we had taught is true, and he told us that he didn`t need to pray because he already knew that was true because he had felt it. He is going to leave his work early a few times a week so that we can teach him and prepare him for baptism. He has been through a lot of hard things. His wife left him a while ago, and when that happened he let his house go to pot. We are going to organize a service project with the ward missionaries and the young men to help him to get everything back in order. We feel that it will be a nice surprise for him. He is a great guy. We are hoping that a few of our other investigators will start to progress like he is. A lot of them have kind of fallen off the face of the earth. Hopefully we don't lose them.

I'm glad that you guys had a good week. It doesn't sound like anything too exciting happened, but that's just the way it is sometimes haha. Have fun with your croquet set, and don't get too sunburned in all that heat. I'll try to send some rain your way because we have plenty haha. Love you all. Talk to you soon!

Elder Schow

July 7, 2014

July 7, 2014

Hello everyone!

Mom, tommorow it is your birthday. SO HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAHA. I hope that you do something really fun!!!! I know that you will have many many more to look forward to.

Thanks for all of your letter and emails and such everyone! It is always great to read them! I laughed quite a bit about that movie dad. I am intrigued to find out how Santa Clause defeated the martians when I get home haha. I`m almost 99% sure that it will go right up to the top spot in my top 10 list. Sorry for the confusion about my companion mom. Maybe I wrote it wrong, but he is from Baja California of i.e. Mexico. Thanks for the picture mom. You guys should send me more if you have time. I bet that you all are getting excited about the baby. I know that I am even though I won't see her for like a year! I'm glad that you had a decent fourth of July even if the fireworks were a bit lame. It sounds like you guys did some fun stuff. Pizza Pie Cafe...YUM! I like that place a lot. I have also heard that Captain America 2 is good from several people so we will have to watch it when I get home. Thank you for your testimonies, advice, and concern. I always appreciate it.

Well nothing overly noteworthy happened this week. We've reached the rainy season here in Mexico City and it rains every day...and hard haha. On saturday we were in the middle of a huge flight of steps when it started pouring. Walking down to the bottom was like walking down a mini waterfall. Needless to say we got soaked haha, but it didn't dampen our spirits too much, just all of our clothes. We're still struggling a bit to find a sufficient number of people to teach. We find some good people but they are tending to go cold quickly. We only have 4 people with baptismal dates now because basically no one is coming to church. Rafael and his mom Estella came though and another investigator named Manuel brought his wife- (they both came to church fasting even though we haven't taught them that yet. He also wants to pay tithing haha). The four of them are pretty great. The tricky thing is that they work a ton so it makes it difficult to teach them more than once a week. We will keep working with them though even if the progress is slow.

We have definitely found a lot of people this last week that need help. It is amazing to me how many downtrodden, sad, and bitter people there are in the world. It is easy to see that there is defintely the need for a Savior. I know that I need to do even more to lift up the heads that hang down and to strengthen the feeble knees. I am starting to see many of the people with more compassion. I just wish that there were more of them that would let us help them. I guess that the important thing to remember is that everyone has their agency to choose and all that we can do is our part and leave the rest up to them. My companion and I are excited to see what we can do this week to help bring about miracles. We are ready to keep working hard and giving it our all. Well I love you all! I hope that all is well!

Love, Elder Schow

June 30, 2014

June 30, 2014
Hey everyone! Well this last week was a good one. Elder Mendoza and I get along really well. He's a boss haha! It's kinda sucky that they transfered him to a new area his last transfer of the mission because he is completely lost, but it's been really good so far. He's a really hard worker which is also great! He's not trunky so we are working hard and taking names. He is planning to work really hard until the end of the mission and seems to be holding really strong so far. I am greatful for that because if he was trunky I can imagine that it would be really hard to focus. He has given me a lot of opportunities to grow this week. Even though he is the senior companion he is letting me take charge of basically everything so that I can be prepared for when he leaves. (I will most likely be in Independencia for at least one if not two more transfers after this one. My legs are crying in protest, but I am excited because we have seen a lot of growth in the area this week.) It has definitely taken me out of my comfort zone a lot, but it has been a great growing experience. He has helped me to increase my confidence a lot as well. He is always very good at emphasizing my good points and helping me to improve in the areas in which I need help. The language isn't too much of a barrier and we actually have a really good time together!

We have been working really hard this last week. We went from having 2 baptismal dates to 8. We have also found several new people to teach. About our biggest challenge is to help the investigators to get to church. It's a bit frustrating because we have some really spiritual lessons with them and them something comes up and they skip church. Oh well, haha gotta love them still. I have learned a lot these last couple of weeks about compassion. We have encountered some very humble people lately that are not exactly in the best place physically or mentally. I have learned a bit more about the love and concern that Jesus Christ feels for all of us. I would like to share an experience that we had yesterday with one of them. His name is R. We found him through his brother who contacted us in the street. We taught him a week ago and he started to cry at the end of the lesson. We weren't exactly sure why. We taught him again yesterday. He told us that the last time that we had come that he had felt something that he had never felt before in his life. We taught him about baptism and invited him to be baptized. He accepted immediately and told us that he will do whatever it takes (work less hours, come to church every Sunday, etc.) He knew and could feel that it was right. He re-emphasized to us once again that he had never felt that way before. The spirit was SUPER strong. It was an amazing experience that helped me to learn even more the importance of humility and submitting ourselves to the will of God.

I'm glad that the pageant was great. I'm excited to go and see it when I get home. That's awesome that the bishop helped you out so much. I hope that you have a great fourth of July and that you get to do something fun. I love you all so much!! Talk to you soon.

Elder Schow

June 23rd 2014

June 23, 2014
Good afternoon everyone!

Well yes we have transfers tomorrow...and the news is in.  I'm staying in Independencia 2, and I will be receiving Elder Mendoza from Baja California From what I have heard I am going to be killing him because he is apparently finishing his mission in 6 weeks. I'll know for sure tomorrow though. If that's the case though I will be staying in Independencia for at least 4 transfers so that I can teach someone the area after this transfer cycle. (3 more months of stairs haha) Elder Mendoza was the trainer of my last district leader and is apparently a really good missionary: hard working, obedient, etc. I was a little bummed that I am still junior companion, but I am also excited to be with someone that has so much time in the mission and that will be able to help me so much with my Spanish and my ability to teach. I will miss Elder Schofield. We have had a lot of fun together. I'll have to stay in touch with him. 

I'm glad that you all had fun in Sun Valley. It sounds like it was a very different ambiente, but it sounds like you were in a really nice place. I can also imagine that it was nice just to relax a bit more. I can't believe it's that time of year already. Like you said dad, summer will be over before we know it...It's almost July already. I hope that we continue to go when I get back. It's always a really fun time. That's funny about that croquet. It's a fun game. I'll have to challenge queen Madeline when I get home. Did you find a lot of gold at the Gold Mine or just a lot of fools gold?

Well, this week was pretty good. We found some really good people this week. Unfortunately several of them had to cancel the appointments that we had set, but we are going to try to find them this week. We actually had quite a few investigators turn up to church yesterday (8). Several of them were surprised. One of them is the 9 year old boy that is the brother of 2 girls that got baptized about a year ago. It was pretty apparent that he had not come by choice. He acted as if he were in a prison the whole time haha. I kinda got a kick out of it because we have tried to teach him a few times and he is a pill. Hopefully it didn´t torture him too bad haha.

We have several people progressing toward baptism right now. We just have to help them to understand a couple of principles better. We didn't have K's baptism. Her mom is giving us some trouble so stay tuned for that one. The names that we have been receiving from the members have started to peter out a bit. Hopefully they can start to think of more people for us to visit. It's been a little difficult to ask them for names because a few of them kinda fight us about it and claim that they know absolutely no one that isn't a member. We'll see how it goes with them this week. We have found a couple of good new people through the members though. We found Angel again this week! He is going to start listening to us again. We found out that he hadn't had time but now he is open to listen again. He came to church on Sunday again too which was pretty sweet. We are teaching some odd people right now. I'll have to tell you more about them in a week or so. They have really great hearts though.

Thanks for all that you do and for all of your advice and love. Thanks for checking my accounts etc. mom! Have fun in Manti!!! Love you guys.

Elder Schow

June 16, 2014
 Howdy everyone! Eight months as of today...can you believe it? Wow you're all in Sun Valley, eh? I can't believe it's already that time of year again. I hope that you guys have a great time! I always love the Sun Valley trip. Say "hi" to everyone for me and that I miss them all. Well, this week was a bit crazy, but it was really really good. We had a lot of really great experiences this week. As a mission we had the opportunity to have a conference with Elder Daniel L. Johnson of the quorum of the seventy. He is also the area president of Mexico. He came to help us to learn how we can start to reach the goals that we received at the beginning of this year. These goals are: to baptize every single week in every companionship, to teach between 40-60 lessons a week, and to find someone new to teach in every single lesson. These things have been giving most all of us a lot of difficulty. He shared something with us that impacted me a lot. He shared with us the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 88:73 which says for behold, I will hasten my work in it's time. He then said that President Monson has told us that that time has arrived. It did not begin with the first vision. It was not 10 years ago, and it will not be 10 years in the future. It is right now, and it began with the lowering of the missionary ages. We should have almost 100,000 full time missionaries within the next 2 or 3 months. We are ushering in this new era of missionary work; the hastening of the work. What a great time to be a full time missionary! The thing that I really learned is that we as missionaries cannot do this work alone. All President Monson said, ¨Now is the time that the members and the missionaries unite to work together in the vineyard of the Lord.    Elder Johnson gave us a promise. He said that we are in the land of the Book of Mormon - the land of the Lamanites. He said that in the last 50 years or so that we have seen great growth in the church in Mexico. However, he said that the promise given by Lehi to the posterity of Laman and Lemuel is only beginning to be fulfilled. He said that we can't even fathom the miracles and the growth that we will see in the church when the members overcome their fear to participate in the work of salvation (open their mouths) and work in complete harmony with the missionaries. This promise not only applies to the church here in Mexico, but in the whole world. The stone that was cut without hands is filling the earth, but the work is hastening. The second coming of the Savior is at the doors. I learned the vital role that all of us have to share the gospel. All that we have to do is open our mouths and invite and the Spirit will do the rest. If they aren't ready right now, it is okay because many are being prepared by the Lord because their hearts are open to receive his counsels. We don't have to prepare the people. We just have to invite.

Two days later he presided at our stake conference. He taught this exact thing to the members in the Saturday night session, and partly in the morning on Sunday. He said that as members they need to be prepared to give us names of people to visit. We are starting something new in Mexico. Every time that we visit a home, we teach at least one principle of the gospel, we testify, and then we ask who came to the minds of the members while we were sharing our message. He said that if we will have faith that the Holy Ghost will place names in our minds he will. He told them not to judge no matter how unlikely that they think it is that they will accept. He said that no matter who it is, that that name is there for a reason. We began this a few days ago. We have met with a bit of resistance and fear, but we have received 14 names with many more on the way (at least one in each house). The members and investigators are filling our schedules with names, and this is only the beginning! Through these names we will find more and more names.

I will be honest. When we first received these goals for this year I thought that they were impossible to achieve and I was very frustrated. Ever since the conference on Thursday I have been thinking, and I have come to the conclusion that if the Lord really gave us these goals and trusts us to complete them, then how can we fail?   My faith has grown a lot in the last several days, and I know that it will continue to grow.

How are you guys doing with sharing the gospel? I know that it is a little bit more difficult in the United States especially where there are more members, but I know that it is possible. Are you reading preach my gospel as a family or personally as we were instructed to do in Generel Conference? I realize that you all have a lot to do, but I also know that it will bless your lives. If not I would invite you to do so even if it is like one page a day. I know that the gospel changes lives and that we have the power to influence others. I love you all and pray for you every day.

Love Elder Schow

June 9, 2014

June 9, 2014

Well hey there everyone. Well it has been another exciting week in Mexico. There were several cool things that happened during the week. Number one, we were looking for someone to teach one day and a man yelled at us and ran up to us. We were just going to ignore him because usually when people yell at us it's because they don't like us. We ended up stopping though and he caught up to us. His name is R. We ended up teaching him this week and he is super prepared. He is having family problems, and he wants to change his life so that he can reunite his family. He told us that he is prepared to do anything to change. He has really shown us that this week. He has read everything that we told him to read, he even wrote down questions and then the answers that he found in the scriptures. He even came to church. Unless something unexpected happens we believe that he will progress really quickly. We also had a really good lesson with A. this week. He really, really wants to be baptized.   He is a really really great person. He is getting along really well with the ward members too. He is also fulfilling his commitments.

So we didn't have K.'s baptism. We are going to have to postpone it for 2 weeks. There is a problem with the plumbing in the church, and when the ward mission leader went to fill the baptismal font he found that it had backed up with sewer water. It smelled BAD. And I mean BAD. The water from the bathrooms and the street are draining into it. It will have to be completely fixed before we have the baptism. She took it really well though. We also found a new person on Sunday. Well we taught him for the first time. He is named W. and is from Venezuela. He has lived all over South America and in the U.S. too. He has quite a bit of interest. Oh and R. got kicked out of his house by his 'girlfriend' and has nowhere to live and doesn't have a steady job. Hopefully he can find somewhere to live. It really might be the last time that we see him though… :( Well that´s about it for this week on my end. I'm glad that girl's camp was a success Maddie! I'm glad that you got to go for a little bit mom and dad. It sounds like a fun place. I'm sure that it would work great for the reunion. What was formerly the red room looks great. I really like it and am excited to see it in person. You are quite the remodel crew. Thanks for your advice mom. I read that talk this week too, and I really enjoyed it. It was good to reflect a little bit on the loads that have helped me to have the necessary traction to arrive where I am right now. I love you all. Thank you for your support and prayers. Talk to you soon.

Elder Schow

June 2, 2014

June 2, 2014

Hola!

Well I am glad to hear that everyone is doing well. It sounds like you were able to do several fun things over the last week! That Wellness Center sounds pretty cool! Is it going to be a public thing, or is it a private entity? More tennis courts, eh? :) That`s funny about the moose mom. It's crazy that it got down so far. That's also really cool about Audrey. You`ll have to tell her congrats for me. Have you met her fiance? That's funny about the campout dad. It sounds EXACTLY the same as when Ethan and I used to go. I can`t believe that he is still in the same calling. I starting to think that he`ll be in charge of the 11 year old scouts until he dies. Don't worry about last week, as far as I can tell things have gotten better. Thanks for sending the stamps and the memory card mom. I will let you know when they arrive. I don`t think that you need to send me shirts. Some of them have a couple of little stains and such, but nothing major so I think that unless something drastic happens I should be good for at least another 4-6 months or so. Thanks for offering to send some more though. The one thing that I might need is a pair of suit pants. I have no clue how, but mine got some bleach stains on them? Super random. I have a couple of other pairs from J C Penney that look practically identical but that are starting to wear out. It might be hard to match them so if it impossible don`t worry about it and I will see what I can do here.

Well this week was a little bit better than the last week in terms of numbers etc. We were actually able to teach more lessons and find a few new people to teach. The thing that is giving us the biggest problem right now is that we have appointments every hour, but half of the people aren't home when we go to teach them. We need to work on making sure that they are going to for sure be there so that we don't waste a bunch of time for nothing. We found a new investigator this week named M. that we taught once and that seems really interested. I contacted him while we were waiting to talk to a doctor in our area that gives us references sometimes. He is catholic but has a lot of doubts about the Catholic church so we think that we can really help him. I am starting to try to contact more. It is really difficult sometimes, but the more that we do it the more confidence that we gain. Also, sometimes we can find some really good people through contacts. We just have to have the courage to open our mouths. I've also been trying to do better at exercising this week. It`s been killing me haha. I've been walking around like an old man all week. I'm really trying to get into a pattern so that I have more energy etc during the day. I think that it will be great in the long run. So we should be having K.'s baptism this Sunday. She is super excited. Her mom is also coming back to church again and the two of them brought another family to church with them this Sunday that aren't members. They're totally killiing it. We also had another investigator that came to church this week for the first time and loved it. His name is A. R. didn't come. We taught him the night before and he was super down. The more we get to know him the more that we think something is a bit off with him. We feel like he should go to a doctor, but I don't think that he has money. We offered him a blessing the last time we saw him and he was going to think about it. I feel like if we give him one that it will really help him. We'll that's about all from here in stairs land. Love you all. Stay safe.

Elder Schow

May 26, 2014

May 26, 2014
Hey everyone,

      I'm glad to hear that it was a good week for everyone. I'm glad that you had fun on your trip mom and dad. I can imagine that it was nice to get away, eat a bit of junk food, shop around, etc. I know that I always like to do that kind of stuff. That's so crazy that Stu is back. It seems like it went pretty fast. It sounds like you've got a busy month coming up with Sun Valley and all that good stuff. I always did like the Sun Valley trip. I hope that you all have a fun time and that you can find a lot of cool things to do there. That´s crazy that the Johnsons are moving. I´m glad to know that you would tell me if you were going to move though haha. That would be quite the surprise though. Like dad said though, the house might be a bit different when I get back. The open house sounds like a good idea. Hopefully you guys can bring it to life.

 

      We did have a few good things happen this week though. I don't know if you remember the family that we contacted a while ago in a taxi. The mom has been coming for a while now, but they all came to church this last week and they said that they are going to start coming to church together every week. They all have baptismal dates too. We also had another cool experience. There is a recent convert in our ward that is 14. She stopped coming to church for quite a while. We visited her and just asked her flat out what happened. She said that she likes going to parties and that she doesn´t want to miss out on all of the fun. We told her that that sort of stuff doensn't bring us happiness and that we had seen the effect that it could have on people. We were very honest with her. We didn't really feel like it sunk in though. We went to visit her a few days later and boy had she changed. She was actually happy and smiling, she had her young womens medalion on, she told us she was reading and praying and was going to talk to the bishop. It was a complete 180 degree change. Now she is coming with us and her sister to visit people on Sunday afternoons. It was a pretty cool experience. We still don't know R. very well. He is like an onion that you have to peel back a layer at a time. We don't know what to believe of what he tells us. I'll let you know when I know more though. He is a VERY humble man though. Oh and this area is super wierd. We've seen 2 Ferraris and several Lamborghinis here. This area isn't rich either. It's super wierd...maybe a lot of drug trafficers. Well that's about it for this week. Love you all. Thanks for all your advice. }

Elder Schow

May 19, 2014

May 19, 2014

Hey ya'll, sorry I'm writing so late. I had to go to immigration today for fingerprints and I just got back. Kind of a sucky preparation day haha, but it's all good. Well this week was loooong, but good. A few good things happened. We have a baptism coming up on Sunday for a 12 year old girl named K. We are working to reactivate her mom, and we are teaching her 10 year old brother a little bit. We are also teaching someone called R. He is one of the weirdest people in the world, but he has a really sincere heart. He did tell us in our first lesson that he had wanted to kill someone that same day so that sketched us out a little bit. He's a good guy though. He just needs a lot of help. We had a woman that contacted us in the street this weekend that seems to be really interested. We have an appointment with her on Tuesday. We'll see how it goes. We are also working with a couple of other references and contacts. We'll see how they pan out. Angel sort of dropped us this week. He told his friend that is a member that he doesn't have much time and that he feels like we are perfect. It's a bit of a bummer. We're going to try to get a hold of him this week and see if we can talk a little bit. That´s about all that's new here.

So Lauren and Cam moved eh? Sorry about that mom, dad, and Maddie. Like you all said though I'm sure that it'll be good for them in the end. Hopefully it works out really well. I'm really glad that I got to talk to you all too and to remember that you really exist haha. It was a little surreal to talk. I'm glad that you had a good Stake conference. It sounds like they talked about some important stuff. That´s nice that the school year is winding down too. Did you finish with your job mom? That's crazy that Stu gets home this week. Out of all of my friends it feels like his mission went the slowest, but it still went fast. If you see him you'll have to tell him hi for me. Well that´s about all for today. Love you all a ton.

Elder Schow

May 5, 2014

Heyo ya'll,

How are you all doing? Nope I didn't have to have my appendix removed thank goodness. I ended up going to a urologist because the medicine wasn't working at all. He just said that my intestines are really inflamed so I am taking the same medication and I am going to be taking another too if it ever gets to the pharmacy. I still feel a little sore at times but I am starting to feel quite a lot better so hopefully that is the end of that. Okay I will be ready to Skype at 6 my time 5 your time. Maybe get on a few minutes early too just in case. I'm soooo beyond excited to talk to you all!!!!!!! Oh and yeah the package got here last Monday night. Thanks so much!!! It had some really great stuff. I really like the ties!!!! Especially the checkered one.

Well this last week was a bit crazy. It was definitely a test of patience. We ended up moving to our new house on Tuesday which is actually really nice by the way. After we moved in we had to buy all of our dishes etc. and we got lost going to the house where we all ate lunch so we didn't get to teach any lessons, basically the same thing happened the next day because we were at the doctor like all day, and then this weekend like everyone was gone. Friday we looked and looked for people to teach all day: in-actives, less actives, actives, street contacts, etc. We walked all day and didn't teach one single lesson. It was crazy no one was home. Saturday was basically the same. However, on Saturday night we had our first lesson with a new investigator that we received as a reference from a member. His name is Angel. He has a lot of changes to make but he has come to church twice and he seems to really like it. I think that with time he will end up getting baptized. He was kind of the bright spot of our whole week. However, despite all of the challenges we have stayed positive and are trying to look at it as a test of patience. We are also preparing to do everything possible to finish this last week of the transfer strong. I'm guessing that Elder Schofield and I will both end up staying here, but I have been wrong before so we'll see what happens.

Thanks for your advice about getting people to come to church. Basically that's what we are doing, but it hasn't worked too well. We need to get the members more excited about missionary work It's like you said dad, it all starts with the ward council. We've only havd ward council once in the five weeks that I've been here, and I'm not sure if they have a ward mission plan either. We'll have to look into it a little bit more. Thanks for sharing that talk with me mom. I think that it really applies to this week. I especially like the part about the kite. It really is true. We'll that´s about all from my end. Have a good week and try not to do too much yard work dad hahaha.

Con amor,

Elder Schow