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?