February 17, 2014

Hello everyone. Wow long letters this week from everyone. I really hope that I have time to respond to everything haha. Keep it up though. I love to hear from you all. Well, the news is in...............I´m staying here again. Same area, same companion. It´s like a record because It´s super rare for companions to be together for more then 12 weeks in this mission. We must be doing something right. They divided our area and our district and so Elder Patey is going to be the district leader for Cafetales and I'm going to be his companion for another 6 weeks at least. It should be good.   He's a really good elder and he has a really strong testimony and a strong desire to share it. This is a strong example to me. I really need to develop more love for the people here.

We lost a lot of our investigators because of the division. We only have like 9 that live in our area. We're going to have to do a lot of finding again to build up our pool of investigators. Especially if we are going to meet the goals for the month that the area presidency gave us. We need 40 lessons a week and we can only get like 30 max. We have more time now though because I finished my training and we can leave the apartment at 10:30 instead of 12. So that should be good. I'm not a fan of being cooped up in the apartment for half the day so I am excited to leave earlier. Party because it´s really cold inside haha. Oh and we have 2 baptisms this weekend. They are both named A. One of them is keeping her baptism a secret from her husband because she wants to surprise him. We going to have him come the baptismal service under the pretext that he is going to baptize A. when in reality he is going to baptize the other A., his wife. Hopefully that makes sense. It´ll be interesting to see how it works out. I think that it will be a very powerful spiritual experience for the both of them. We are really sad to lose one family (the C. family). We kinda found them by accident but they are so nice. They are some of the most Christlike people that I have ever met. They're investigators but they invited us to eat with them like 3 times and we have a standing invitition every single friday night. They have also given us rides before. They don't have a ton but they are willing and want to share all that they have. They wanted us to tell you guys that we are in good hands. I think we get to eat with them one more time and teach one more lesson. We´ll hopefully still get to see them on Sundays though because they live in our ward boundaries.

I'm glad that you all are doing well and that you had a good experience in your meetings mom and dad. And mom you don't need to apologize for anything. I´m that one that should be sorry. I'm very excited for when I can come home and build even stronger relationships with all of you guys because in reality I wasted a lot of time and I said a lot of thing and did a lot of things that I regret. I'm going to change all of that. Just look to the future. I'm very excited because the future is bright for all of us.

I'm really glad that grandmas surgery went well. Say "hi" to all of the grandparents for me and that I love them. I really do want to write them more but
It's really hard because we can only write for 1 hour if we want to be obedient. So pass my love along. I´m glad that you got to watch some of the olympics. That new sport sounds nuts. Backwards? That would be freaky haha. The olympics are always fun to watch. We were listening to my music this morning and the olympics theme song is on my ipod. We started laughing (We have 2 other missionaries with us right now for 2 nights because they changed their area to sister missionaries and they had nowhere to stay). Well that´s about it. You are all in my prayers. I love you all.

Elder Schow

February 10, 2014

Feb 10, 2014

Heyo. Happy Valentines day!

You guys went to Disneyland??? Wow, that came out of left field haha. Was it a surprise for Maddie? I hope it was because I can imagine that it can be hard at times for her to be the only kid at home. I'm glad that you guys had a lot of fun. It'll be really fun to go when we get back. What was your favorite thing? Is there anything new? Oh the olymipics started? I totally forgot about those.

Thanks for all of your advice and your love. I've been doing a lot better this week with not worrying as much. Your emails really helped give me confidence and hope too. Occasionally it creeps into my mind, but I am trying to get rid of these thoughts and to try to focus on what I am doing here. It's crazy. I'm like a 6th of the way done with my mission already. In some ways it has gone so fast and in other ways so slow. It will only get faster. I am learning that I can't waste any time because really when I look back on it afterward it will feel like it was just a blink of an eye.

It sounds like your ward conference was good. Thanks for sharing that story mom. It's true. There are things that we can learn in any situation if we really look and also there are always things that we can improve. The trick is just not getting discouraged if we can't do it all at once. This is something that I have to be careful of. I also need to take the advice of dad in his talk. I wish I could have heard it. It really is the simple things that make up the gospel. I'm sorry that Cam didn't get his job. I will keep praying for them and that he can find another that he likes better.

So we had a baptism this week! David was baptized this Saturday. Elder Patey got to baptize him and I got to confirm him the next day in sacrament meeting. We were very close to not being able to baptize him. He received a job the same day as his baptizm that would have made it so he had to work every Sunday. We found out 1 minute before we were going to start the baptismal service. He said a prayer and decided that even though he needed the job that his baptism was more important to him. He was so excited. We think that his mom is going to get baptized too but she doesn't live in our area. It felt good to see someone get baptized. We have 2 more investigators that are going to be baptized in 2 weeks but we have transfers in one week so who knows if we´ll be here or not. They're going to divide our area too so even if we do stay we might lose them to another companionship. Oh well, as long as they still get baptized that's all that matters.

The conference with Elder Oaks was really good. We had to get up at 5, but it was worth it. (Oh side note. I didn´t get the package. It's not a big deal really. If it got sent to the house of the mission president I won't get it. They can only be sent to the same address as before. I'm not worried about it though.) But yeah, it was really good. We all got to go and shake hands with him when he arrived. When it got to my turn he stopped me because his hand was tired and he had to shake it out. I got to stand by him for a minute or so while he rested his hand, It was kinda funny. I could really see and feel the power and authority that he carries with him. It's actually quite incredible. I really believe that he is a representative of Jesus Christ and that he was really called to be a leader in his chuch. His wife talked to us also about the quorum of the 12 and that they are not perfect but that they are completely dedicated in every aspect of their lives to serving Jesus Christ. I really felt the power of her words. He talked about how we should not waste one minute worrying about our families. I felt that this was very applicable. He said that through us that they would be blessed. He pronounced a special blessing upon us and our families at the end of his talk. He talked about how we have to be willing and ready to talk to people everywhere that we go and in every moment. He also talked about the importance of the sacrament. He said that only 20 % or Mexico goes to sacrament meeting and that even though there are a lot of new baptisms that that number is not changing. He said that we are not teaching the importance of sacrament meeting and the "why"of the sacrament to our investigators. He said that if it is importat for the prophet and the 12 apostles to take that sacrament that it should be very important for everyone else too. He talked about how the prophet and apostles have a sacrament meeting in the Salt Lake temple once and month because of how important it is. He also talked about improving our teaching and that if we are doing our best we will have the words to say. It was a really good experience and it was really fun to see all of the missionaries from my district in the mtc. I hope that you all are doing well. I love you all soooo much. Talk to you soon.

Elder Schow

February 3, 2014

Feb 3, 2014

 

I was so excited to hear from Lauren and Cam about their succeses this week!!! I hope Cam gets the job. .We did have a few good things happen this week. We found a couple of new people to teach this week. One of them is a family of 5. They all came to church on Sunday. The dad is super weird. He's a hair stylist and the second time we came to their house he had peacock colored hair, a leopard spotted shirt, and a pair of very distressed jeans. We also later found out that he believes a lot in energies and that he and his children have a tree that they hug and kiss occasionally because he wants to teach his kids love for living things. That day Elder Patey and I decided to hug a couple of trees...it's for fun. I´ll send pictures soon. I like their family though. We also are going to have a baptism this Saturday or the next. It´s actully a miracle. D. is going to be baptized. We invited him to be baptized like the first week we were here and he was kind of like heck no I want nothing to do with your church. But....we continued to visit him (he's 17) and we are actually really good friends with him. We had a talk with him a couple of days ago because we have seen great changes in him. He told us that he decided to change his life because of our example. Also, he really likes to work out and someone told him that he looks like superman. This also really motivated him. He decided to pray and he got and answer that the church is true, he is going to seminary and he has come to church like 4 weeks in a row. So anyway, we talked to him and he wants to be baptized for himself. We were so surprised and happy. It just shows that we really have to love the people that we are teaching and miracles can happen. He is a great example for me. Brother G. kinda fell of the face of the earth. We saw him a couple of days ago and he still wants to be baptized but he isn´t coming to chuch or anything. We´re not really sure what is going to happen. We've kind of been sick all week. Members keep giving us money to eat in the street. We don't know why no one will let us eat in their houses....Hmmm. It's okay though. Who doesn't love diarrhia all week haha? That's about all on this end. I'm glad that the changes in the ward are coming together well. Primary President eh? Wow good luck with everything! You´ve always been great with kids so I'm sure it will be a cinch. We saw signs about the super bowl. Big whoop haha. I heard it was a blowout. I really liked your comment dad about the future Bengal and how he was accustomed to losing so he should fit right in with the Bengals. I laughed really hard. I feel like it´s only a matter of time before they cut their football program. I will write you about the thing with Dallin H. Oaks for sure. I'm jealous that you get to hear from Elder Bednar. Oh we finally got a fridge today which was nice. We have yet to visit any historic sites. We need to though. Maybe next week. Miss you guys.

Love, Elder Schow