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

A few pictures

Happy Day!

January 27th   2014

Hello, hello, everyone. I´m glad that you had a good stake conference, and that you learned a lot. It´s definately good advice to remember. I have learned a lot about similar things this week. I have really come to learn that we have to put our faith in the Savior, something that I have not been doing very well at at times. He is the only way that we can be saved and that we can improve our lives. I am really working to put my faith in him. I am also trying to be strictly obedient because I know that those small rules that sometimes don´t seem like a big deal can make a huge difference if we follow them. I like the analogy of the chick and the egg. It really makes sense. A lot of times we don´t want to do things because they seem hard, but in the end they will make us stronger. I´m glad that you basically have all of the ward reorganized dad. It sounds like it was a lot of work, but I think that it will be good in the end. That´s really funny about the cats too. I can really see them liking a lazer pointer. In fact I did see it in the videos that you sent. They´re funny. I´m glad that Watson is doing better too. We had a pretty decent week. We are still struggling to reach the norms of excellence, but we are working with the members more and we had 7 invstigators in sacrament meeting this weekend which was great. They all had a great experience and are anxious to return. We haven´t seen Brother G. since he started his new job so.....we don´t really know what´s going on. We talked to his family a couple of times, and they said they would see us in church but they didn´t come. There are a lot of people with problems here. We have been giving a lot of preisthood blessings lately. We had the opportunity to give a couple yesterday. They were both very good experiences. The one was very very powerful. I am working to set a lot of goals too dad. I am working on a 5 year plan in my ´spare time´ which isn´t much haha, but I felt that I needed to do it. I hope that it will be beneficial. Also, we get to have a conference with Dallin H. Oaks in 2 weeks which should be pretty sweet. Thanks for your prayers, and for the strength that you are to me. I´ll try to have a specific list of people to pray for next week. Have an awesome week!!!

Elder Schow

January 20, 2014

January 20, 2014

Hola! How is everyone? I'm really glad that I got to hear from you all. It really brightens my week. Wow those are some huge changes in the ward. I can imagine that it was probably a little bit sad for you guys. It sounds like it will be a lot of work for you to reorganize everything dad. Good luck! I think that it will be good in the long run though. I can imagine that you will miss some people. Oh and thanks for checking my bank account and such. Oh, and I got that card from the ward. Thanks! I have no idea who some of the people are but it was really nice to hear from everyone. The other letters from Maddie, Becky, and Susan never came though so maybe it isn't the best idea to send your patriarchal blessings at all. It's up to you guys. No biggie either way. Oh and will you tell Susan and Becky thank you please?

Oh that´s really cool that you are going to have FHE with the S. Did you invite them or did the Ms? This is one of the best ways to do missionary work. I really hope that it goes well once it happens. There are really great family. I glad that you like that Book Thief. I'm excited to see it eventually haha. Lauren and Cams new "baby" is really cute. (this is a kitty)  I'm glad that they were able to find a kitty. Oh I didn't even know that Mark and Tawny were going to have a baby. That's awesome though. I'm really happy for them. It's really hard to keep track of all of my cousins and their kids. There are so many now haha. I hope Grandma's surgery goes well. I feel bad I haven't had time to write them for a while. Please tell them and your parents that I love them.

Well we got permission to baptize B. G, buuuttttt he ended up getting a job in a different city like 20 minutes before we told him and so he had to report to work this weekend. He wants to have his baptism this coming Saturday, but he still hasn´t has his baptismal interview and so we don't know if it's going to happen. It´s great that he got a job because his family really needs that money but at the same time it really complicates things. We really hope that we don't lose him and his family. We had a good day yesterday. We were with a member of our ward for a while and she helped us find 6 new investigators. It was a miracle. We have several good investigators. The most difficult thing is getting them to come to church. We're still working on that. We have a good start to this week though and so things should go good.

Our new apartment is nice. We're still waiting for a fridge and an ironing board but it's okay. We eat a lot of ramen and tortillas haha. I'll send pictures.

 

Love Britton

P.S. can you please forward me Ethan´s emails?

January 13th 2014

January 13th 2014

Hola from Mexico. So yeah we found an apartment and are no longer living on the floor. CELEBRATION!!!!! We're living in the Beverly Hills of Mexico. It's a really nice area with guards and everything. I'm going to try to send a couple of pictures today. The only problem is we don't have a fridge for like a week so our food options are pretty slim for a while haha. Oh and it turns out that it´s a lot further away from our work than the other apartment. Oh well, we're hoping that they'll divide the area soon and put sister missionaries in the apartment that we are living in. And it's okay because it's a lot easier to focus in an apartment that only has 2 elders versus one that has 4. They changed the standards of excellence for our mission this last week. Well, actually the area presidency did. We have to teach between 40 and 60 lessions every week, have 15-20 investigators in sacrament meeting, and every companionship is supposed to baptize every week. It is a lot of work. We tried really, really hard to meet these goals this week, but we fell short. It's okay though. We are trying our hardest. We are supposed to have a baptism this week for Brother G, but he didn't come to church this week. We talked to the zone leaders and they said that we should still baptize him because he has come 4 times and his reason for not coming was legitimate. We have to call the mission president though and ask for his counsel so it's still kind of up in the air. We want him to get baptized, but we want him to understand the covenant that he is going to make first. So at the start of this year I decided that I wasn't going to speak English for the whole year...other than with you guys of course. It´s going pretty well. It's really hard at times but I am learning how to speak in Spanish a lot better. Now it's just a matter of understanding spanish. It will come though. I've only slipped and used English a couple of times. I'm interested to hear what changes that they make in your stake. I saw a poster for the Book Thief movie yesterday. I hope it's good because the book was pretty good. I have a favor to ask. Can you please check my bank accounts periodically?     I have used my Well's Fargo card twice. One in the the temple shop and once in the Bodega Aurrera. If anything is different please let me know and the bank as well. I haven't used the other card at all. Also, I don't know if you guys would be comfortable with this but I was wondering if you and dad could possibly email me a copy of your patriarchal blessings to read. If not it's totally okay. They're very personal. I just thought it would be strengthening to see which promises had come to pass in your lives. Like I said if not don't worry. I can't believe Curtis left already. That's crazy. Please continue to pray for the G. family. We have like 25 investigators but I don't have time to list them all. Love you all.

Elder Schow

 

 

January 6th 2014

January 6th 2014

Hola familia y otros personas que posible van a leer esto!

We get to write today because I guess transfers are in Tuesdays. Butttt...I´m not transferring!!! I'm staying in Cafetales with Elder Patey for at least one more transfer. I'm excited to continue to work here with him.   I think that we have a lot to learn from each other, and we have a ton of work to do. Incidentally we had a killer week this week; we led the zone in lessons, new investigators, baptismal dates, etc! We had kind of been struggling for a while, but we really tried to change our prayers this week and poof, we received success out of nowhere. This really taught us a lesson. If our prayers are not as sincere as they should be we will not receive help in our work. It was kind of a bummer though, we had 21 people that committed to come to sacrament meeting and not a one came :( We even called everyone to confirm that they were coming. We were pretty sad because the Gonzales family didn't come and their baptismal dates fell. We will get them all to come this week though. Our district leader gave us a lot of tips and we are in good spirits. :) I think we have a baptism in 2 weeks for Brother Gonzales.. We also still have several other people with baptismal dates too, and we are going to work really hard to help them to meet their goal. I am really starting to see how the gospel can change lives. I have seen it start to change the lives of many people. I am glad to be a part of it. I made several New Years resolutions. One of them is to exercise every morning. It is sooo hard to get up haha, but I just need to force myself to do it. We get beds soon too which is a great blessing. We are going to move into an apartment on top of the mansion of one of the members of our ward. There is an amazing view up there. It's pretty sweet. This family is awesome, they wanted to let us use their apartment for free, but because the church has to pay them they are going to give the money to the church missionary fund. They are so giving. We just need to find a member that has a vehicle large enough to bring beds, etc. from the mission office. Hopefully this week. That was nice of Elder Johnson's mom. He´s a great missionary and his Spanish is amazing for how little time he has here. He'll be a trainer or something for sure. Thank you for your prayers. You're all in my prayers too. It's so good to hear from you all. You are a huge strength to me. If you want to you can pray for the Gonzales family, the Carmona Family, and the Rodriguez family. Talk to you soon. Oh, and good luck with your goal to do missionary work. My advice is work with the missionaries in your ward or stake. They can really help you and you can really help them, even if all you can do is go to a lesson with them or something. The missionaries need the help of members. This is a huge problem in many places, especially here. The members don't realize we need their help and can't do this alone. Good luck. Let me know how it goes.

Elder Schow.