August 17, 2015

August 17, 2015

Hey there everyone,

Well it is official, I am finishing my mission in Jardines de Iztapalapa…unless something crazy happens.  I am still going to be with Elder Bojorquez as well.  The problematic Elder got changed so that was a bit of a relief.  I can´t believe that it is my last transfer….It is a bit surreal.  I am excited in many ways and a bit sad in others.  I do know that I want to finish well…not trunky haha.  My companion made me breakfast on my birthday which was nice of him.  The other Elders also brought me a cake at like 6:00am on Saturday morning which was pretty cool.  The four of us ate it all in one day and then they told us that that particular cake is intended to be eaten by 21 people.  Can you say eating a heart attack?  I hope that you had a good day on Dad´s birthday as well.  Big shout out to you dad. 

We had some success this week.  We have been finding new investigators like mad.  (like 50 in two transfer cycles).  None have progressed too well so far though.  Please keep the T. family in your prayers- that their financial difficulties will not prevent them from progressing in the church.  I´m glad that Ethan gets home this week.  It will be really awesome for you to see him.  That´s cool about Brigham Larsen´s talk.  I could see a lot of applications in it to me personally.  I love you all.  Have a good one.

Elder Schow

July 13, 2015

July 13, 2015

Hey there everyone!

It´s good to be able to write you a Little bit once again.  Well we had transfers on Tuesday morning.  Much to my chagrín I am training again.  It was the one thing that I didn't want to do, but I guess the Lord has a sense of humor so that's what I am doing.  My new companion is named Elder Bojorquez.  He is from Meriada, Yucatan (Southern Mexico), and he is a convert of about a year and a half.  He is a great guy.  He has taught me some good things so far though.  I guess we will see if I ´´die´´ training him next transfer or not.  That's crazy that you have Ethan's itinerary.  If I remember correctly you should have mine in about 2 or 3 weeks.  Crazy, huh?  Well overall we are still having a bit of trouble generating work in our area.  For one reason or another it has been a bit difficult lately.  Church went alright yesterday.  The Rodriguez family that we have been teaching finally came to church yesterday.  Every week they have said that they are going to come, but they never showed up.  This time they finally did.  We also had several less active families come that we have been working with.  It is surprising to me how fast the new converts here can fall.  We went to visit one of them this week that was baptized about two months ago.  She didn´t realize that it was us and she opened the door smoking…she about had a heart attack when she realized that it was us.  We didn't say anything to her about it, but we can't get her to church anymore.  It has happened sooo many times in my mission.  I wish it was not that way.  I'm glad that you guys had a good week and that you were able to visit Lauren's exhibit.  That's really cool!  Sorry that the Minions movie was kind of a bust.  I've seen posters for it here and there, but I wasn't sure what to think.  I'm glad that things are going well.  I love you guys a lot.

Elder Schow

June 8, 2015

Hey there everyone,

Well it sounds like a pretty eventful week even though everyone told me that nothing happened haha.  I´m really sorry about your eye mom.  I hope that you recover soon.  It´s good that it didn´t do more damage to your actual eye.  Yeah dad, the Lord of the Rings movies are always worth a watching.  I will definitely watch them with you guys when I get home.

Well to be honest sometimes I feel like I run out of new things to say.  We had a decent week this week.  We were able to find a few new people to teach and put some goals with some of the people that we have been teaching.  Unfortunately nobody came to church for the second week in a row so we have some work to do in that department this week.  We have been able to stay fairly dry this week which has been nice.  It has been raining a lot, but more in the morning and at night.  I did break down and buy a larger umbrella though that isn´t riddled with holes haha.  I was a bit tired of getting wet.  We have actually had quite a bit of heat lately.  The area here is flat and it is probably one of the smallest wards in geographical area that I have had.  It is nice because we don´t use like any money for busses etc. so we can buy a bit more food.  We had interchanges with the zone leaders this week.  It was interesting.  For being good missionaries they are not very clean missionaries.  I was however able to learn some good lessons about how to contact in the street more effectively which was great because it is something that we need to do a lot. 

I read a talk this week that really had an impact on me.  It is called the fourth missionary.  It talks about how there are four types of missionaries, but that only the fourth type really grows on his mission and changes.  The others just kind of go through the motions and don´t really take advantage of the whole experience.  It motivated me to be better and to really just give these last few months my all.  Maybe I haven´t been the perfect missionary, but it is a process and I know that I need to be the best that I can be especially as I am finishing up. 

Thanks for all of your support and love.  It means a lot to me.  I know that you guys are always praying for me and I really appreciate it. 

Love,

Elder Schow

January 23 and 30, 2015

January 30, 2015

Hi everyone.

I´m glad to hear that you all are doing well.  It is crazy that it´s almost February isn't it?  Like you guys, I can´t believe it either.  I think that the older you get the faster time goes.  It sounds like you all have been staying busy with Maddie having the ACT, painting the house, Lauren with Ella, Cam with work, etc.  It sounds pretty good to me.  I´m sorry to hear about Andrew and Naomi.  I´ll be sure to keep them in my prayers.  Hopefully everything turns out okay. 

Well this week was pretty cool.  We had a lot of success finding new people to teach.  We were guided to a lot of prepared people.  We are teaching various members of three new families.  They want us to meet the rest of their families too so that should be pretty cool.  I wish that we had more time to teach.  It is difficult to have time to visit everyone that we need to see.  There is always something complicated that comes up too that takes away more of our time.  It will be good preparation for going back to school though.  I feel like I will be a lot more organized and that I will really take advantage of my time. 

We had a zone conference yesterday.  The church that it was held in is in my first area.  It was cool to get to go back there again even if I was just passing through.  Our president spoke.  I´m sad that he is leaving pretty soon.  It is strange that we will have a new president in like five months.  He is from Utah and his name is president Meacham.  If I am still here I will have to help him out a lot which would be cool. 

Well that´s about all that is new here.  I hope you all have a great week.  Keep doing what you know you should be doing and you will be happy.

Elder Schow  

Jan 23, 2015

Hey there everyone!  How are you all?  Well this week has been pretty good.  I´m glad to hear that you had a great week.  I´m also glad that grandpa and grandma´s anniversary went well!  It sounds like there were a ton of people there.  60 years is a ton of time.  That´s awesome! 

We found a super great family this week- the G. L. family.  We contacted the father In his taxi.  He felt impressed to pass for where we were waiting.  We were also going to use another taxi that we had flagged down, but there was a bit of confusion between us and another woman that was waiting on the side of the road and that taxi driver ended up leaving.  The next taxi that came up to us was the taxi of Brother G.  He has a wife and two kids.  He even came to church last week before we visited them.  Not too much has changed in the area other than finding them.  We've had very scarce time this week.  We have had to go to the airport several times, transfers, new missionaries, etc.  It has been crazy.  It has been fun though.  I am also glad that we get the opportunity to teach still too even if it isn't a ton.  I am also starting to feel a bit more comfortable in the offices which has been a relief.

Well that´s about all that is new.  I hope that you all are doing well.  I love you all.

Elder Schow 

January 16, 2015

January 16, 2015

Howdy everyone,

Well my new p-day is Friday, not Tuesday.  Sorry for the confusion.  I guess I get a double p-day this week because my companion hasn't had one yet.  From what they have told me I won't really have p-day anyway because we are always busy and whatnot, but it's alright- it should be pretty chill.  

So, from what I have seen so far we are in the offices from 10 to about 2:30 every day except Saturday and Sunday.  However, there are some crazy days when new missionaries arrive and the old ones leave.  I guess we are in the airport like all day because we have to pay for luggage, taxi's etc.  It should be a pretty fun assignment though.  My temporary companion is super awesome- Elder James.  I should be with him for about 3 to 4 weeks so that I can learn everything that I need to know.  He is a ton like Taylor so we get along really really well.  I'll be sad when we have to change.  When I finish my training I think that my new companion will be Elder Flores, the president's secretary that is in charge of vistas, passports, etc.  He lives with us right now and he seems like a pretty nice guy.  The mission home is super nice.  There are 7 of us living there right now.  It's huge.  I'll have to try to send some pics soon of the house, area, etc.    

Our area seems like it will be pretty good.  We are only able to be there like 4-5 hours on a normal day, but that still gives us a decent amount of time to teach 5 lessons or so.  Our ward is really big, but the large part of it is in a super-rich area so we are hardly ever there.  We ate in an enormous house on Wednesday.  I guess we eat there every Wednesday and they call it rich lady Wednesday haha.  We are usually in a colony called Santo Domingo that is a lot like my other areas.  Supposedly it is very dangerous, but it seems super tranquil.  I think that the bad stuff must happen later at night when we have left the area.  We should be able to teach some great people there.  Well that´s about all that´s new here.  I hope you all have a great week.  Talk to you next Friday. 

Love, Elder Schow  

January 12, 2015

Hey everyone!  I hope that you all are doing well.  It has been a good week this week.  We changed the way that we have been planning, and we were able to have a lot more lessons this week.  We also were able to find several new people to teach.  It is interesting to see that as we teach more lessons that we find more new people.  It shows that there really is a strong need in the mission for hard work.  It really was an awesome week. 

Sadly, I have special transfers tomorrow though so I will not be able to see them progress.  I hope that I get to say goodbye to some of the people here.  I am going to be the mission financial secretary so I will be changing to a new area tomorrow.  I am very excited for the new experience though.  I think that it will be very interesting to be able to help in the work in a different way.  I know that I will learn many new things.  I will also still be able to teach which will be really nice. 

I am grateful for this work and for the way that it is changing my life in so many ways.  I am grateful for Jesus Christ and for his atonement.  I know that he lives and that he loves us.  I love you all.  Thanks so much for your support.  

Elder Schow   

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