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