February 8, 2016

Dropping like Flies

Hey everybody,

It's seems like every time I start to write my week I don't know what to say all of a sudden. Maybe it's because I experience so much and it's a blur. But there is always something to write about.

So, to start I'd just like to say that I know God answers prayers and that the atonement of Jesus Christ is REAL. This week was so up and down emotionally for me. I've really been trying to keep a consistent positive attitude lately. And I tell you what it's hard. I've been struggling with taking things too personally. Like if I get rejected or I fail at something then I just feel like there is no use in trying anymore. And this week was especially tough because pretty much all of our investigators we had high hopes for have been dropped or have dropped us. And I was just pouting about it. And I just kept getting this negative feeling like no matter what I do, things don't work out. Which is wrong of course, but I really did feel this way. So I knew that the only person who knows what I'm going through is Christ. So I turned to him and asked him what was wrong. And I got the simplest and clearest answer. Have faith in me dummy! That was not the answer I was expecting. I thought I had faith. I mean, we go out every day and face rejection because I have faith that someone is ready. I really do. But there is faith that goes beyond that. So I realized that it wasn't the lack of effort on my part, it was the lack of trust. And I guess I was trying to control the outcomes of the people we were teaching. I came to the realization that whether someone progresses or not is completely out of my control. The only thing I can do is teach and testify as clear as I can and provide a means of support and trust. But the response to this however, is not up to me at all. And I realized this in district meeting. One of the sisters talked about the prophet Nephi from the Book of Mormon. And this is the Nephi towards the end, not the Nephi in the beginning. Anyways, she read Helaman 10:3-5. And this was exactly what I needed to hear. It says, "

Helaman 10: 3 And it came to pass as he was thus pondering--being much cast down because of the wickedness of the people of the Nephites, their secret works of darkness, and their murderings, and their plunderings, and all manner of iniquities--and it came to pass as he was thus pondering in his heart, behold, a voice came unto him saying: 

4 Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.

5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.

Oh man that struck me so hard. Because I was so worried and concerned about the bad choices of others that I was doubting. And I realized that all I can do is my own part. And the Lord will do the rest. And in return he will bless me. It just gave me so much peace from that moment on. And now I was trusting in the Lord and being patient and submissive to whatever the outcome of our efforts was. It made the work more enjoyable. And the next day a member calls us to invite us to do service with a non-member who he wants us to teach! So that was an immediate testimony to me that God answers prayers and that he knows what we need. And to put the icing on the cake, we taught about agency in our gospel principles class which really helped me understand that the choices of others doesn't have to affect me. It was just great, I loved it.

So that's what's been on my mind lately and I just thought I would write it. In terms of things we actually did, I don't have a whole lot. We just worked and worked. We talked to everyone we could and looked to help and teach from every opportunity and it has paid off. Even if our people our dropping like flies, that's ok, because I have faith that it will all turn out alright.

And I would just like to add as well that God expects every one of you to spread this message of love. I'm learning that for every testimony that is made there is also someone who needs to hear that testimony. Don't play on the Devils side and keep your mouth shut. If it wasn't for an amazing Ward we have and for the missionary minded people that they are, we would probably have very few people to teach. It means so much to missionaries when a Ward is there to help them in this work and to sacrifice their pride and time to reach out. But more important than what I or other missionaries think, it's what the Lord thinks. So go do it! But anyways, I love you all! I think about you and pray for you guys all the time! Keep being awesome :)

I don't have pics this week, sorry mom!

     -Elder Schneider

 

February 29, 2016

Blessings

Dear Friends and Family,

It's been a great week. I love all the blessing we've been receiving lately. It makes me feel spoiled. Alma 26:10-12 is exactly how I felt at the end of the week. It's says,

“10: And it came to pass that when Ammon had said these words, his brother Aaron rebuked him, saying: Ammon, I fear that thy joy doth carry thee away unto boasting.

11: But Ammon said unto him: I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God.

12: Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever."

We've seriously been handed so many prepared people in this short two weeks that I've been with Elder Palmer. The members here are really awesome so they just keep inviting their friends and are like, here, teach my friend. I honestly don't know what it was that made this happen all of sudden but I'll take it!

So we have three people that are committed to baptism right now. Two of them are on date and one is praying for a date. But the first one is a girl named Michelle. She's a 13 year old that a member brought to church. So we asked the member if we could teach Michelle in her home, and she said she would ask her. And it worked out perfectly. We've taught the first three lessons and some commandments since then and she will be baptized on the 10th of March and confirmed on the 13th. We taught her the Plan of salvation and at the end of the lesson we asked her if she believed that what we taught her was God’s plan. And she said, "It’s a good plan, in fact, it's the only plan". Man that was sweet to hear. And then we have another girl that is 17 who is the one who is praying for a date to be baptized. Her name is Kaylee. She was a referral from one of the youth of the Ward. So we've been teaching her too. We've taught her the first two lessons. But the coolest part was when we taught the Restoration. At the end of the lesson she told us that there have been a lot of things that have led up to her being there for that lesson and she knows that this is something she needs to do and be a part of. So that was another blessing. And the third person is a young kid named Jaydon who's 14 and he was also a referral from one of our youth! (Our youth here is awesome) he agreed to take the lessons in the members home and now he's committed to be baptized on the 26 of March. We taught him the first lesson and then we followed up our commitment we gave him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon in the second lesson. We asked him how he felt when he read it and this was his answer, "I got this warm bubbly feeling in my stomach and chest. I can't explain it. Maybe it was the coffee I drank earlier?" Haha then I asked him if he felt that way before he read and he said no. Then we taught him that it was the Holy Ghost and how it was working on him. It was pretty funny. But he says he gets that same feeling during church and other lessons so he's solid. But that's the focus people we are teaching right now. We have other people we are hoping will turn out but we will see.

I'm really loving this town!! I love this area and my companion and how everything is going right now. I know it's not going to be this great and fluffy forever but I'm just going to savor it while it lasts! I also learned that this town has a buffalo pasture, pretty cool huh? Who needs Yellowstone? Not us!

We also had some troubles with our bikes this week. So we just got them out since its warm enough to ride now right? So we get them up to par and patch any holes and get the brakes all good so we can hit the streets. Well did all of this on Saturday and were super pumped to go out and talk to people on our bikes. Well we get hardly 3 blocks and Elder Palmers back tire goes flat. We're like ahhhh man. We look at it and it had a bull head that punctured it. So I'm like, I better look at my tires. And we both look at all of our wheels and there was bull heads all up in the wheels. I pull one out of the front tire and it goes pssshhhh and start losing air. So we're like crap and ride home really fast with what air we have left in our tires and by the time we get back, all 4 tires are flat. Like nothin in them. So we will have to do some patching or buy some new tubes. Super lame. But that was our random adventure of the week.

I think that's all for this week. I hope you guys are doing good and loving the Lord. I miss all of you and want to hear what's happening in your life. Keep me updated! Love you guys!

   -Elder Schneider

Still goofy

Posted this one on his FB page with an invite to come play dodgeball

February 22, 2015

Thermopolis

Hey Everybody,

How are you all? That's good. There's not a whole lot to tell about this week. We got transfers and now I'm with Elder Palmer. We get along great so far and we both want the same things. So it's been fun so far.

We actually had a really good week for only having 4 days to work. We have been blessed a lot lately and I don't know what I did to deserve random blessings but I'll take it! We have 2 people we are teaching that are referrals from members and will most likely get baptized in this coming month. Which I'm pretty excited about because it's been a while since we've found someone who is really interested. I'm just thankful for our Ward at this point. Man they are awesome. They are always giving us people to teach and letting us teach them in their home. I've got to use them to my best while I'm here!

I also got to go on an exchange with one of our zone leaders which was super fun. He's awesome. Very humble and likes to have fun. He's from Preston Idaho, which is the school that Napoleon Dynomite was filmed at. And I found out that we actually played against him at the SUU football camp. Small world!

A lesson I learned this week is to be myself. Preach my gospel is a book of principles that allows us as missionaries to declare the gospel but also to be our own individual selves and go by the spirit. I'm learning this more and more as I get more comfortable teaching. There is something unique each of us members and missionaries has to offer when teaching the gospel. So I really have been trying to just
be myself more. Who am I helping when I hold back my personality? No one, so that's been one of my bigger focuses of this week. I'm really loving it. Just go by the spirit and be yourself.

That's all I've got for this week! I don't have a lot of time but at least it's something. Let me know how you are all doing! Love you and miss you all.

      -Elder Schneider

Goodbye Elder Peterson

Hello Elder Palmer

February 15, 2016

Transfers!

Hey everybody! We got transfer news this week. Elder Peterson is getting transferred to Stevensville Montana and I'm getting a new companion named Elder Palmer. I'm gonna be the senior companion again. I almost want to be the junior companion at this point so I can learn from him lol. I thought at this point in my mission I would have had things down and I would just be getting baptisms like crazy because I started well with a baptism and trained early on. But I still know so little! I was only trained for 6 weeks so I've been just figuring things out since then. I look at some of the Elders around me that came out with me or are younger than me and I'm like, how do you have this whole missionary thing down?? But that's the way I am, I make it harder than it is. 

We did some really good work this week. We taught a bunch of random lessons but the people we have a hard time consistently teaching is the ones that we are focusing on! The people who are actually interested are the hardest to keep teaching. Satan works so hard on these people. We had a lesson with an awesome potential earlier this week. Man there was so many things that were getting in the way. He got 7 phone calls in our lesson and then the next day we were supposed to go on a church tour and he got a toothache that kept him home. The opposition is relentless! But we just have to fight back at is as well. For every bad thing that happens to them I believe that we should be able to provide a good spiritual thing. That's why we keep daily contact with our investigators and less actives. There is too much wickedness and temptation to not teach them as much as we can! It’s a real struggle.

We had one of our eternal investigators walk up to us and say, I want to be baptized. This sounds cool right? Well we're not so sure if she’s serious or she just wants the attention of going through the whole process again. We had dropped her because she didn't want to commit to anything and now when she tells us this we don't know how to feel. So we decided if she’s serious shell make the changes necessary, because there isn't anything we can do more for her. She knows what we believe and believes its true she just doesn't want to commit. So we will see if she’s serious or not!

My random adventure of the week was that I tazed my leg. Haha yeah we went to a members house and they were showing us their cool new flashlight that has a built in stun gun built in. And the dad was like, I’ll do it if you do it. So we somehow got talked into tazing our leg. We just did it for a second but it still gave you a pretty good zap! I never would have thought that I would have done that on my mission. Although we probably should have had a little more dignity than to do that and play around but I guess we fell into peer pressure. Sorry, I’ll be better.

But to keep it on the more spiritual note, I love this gospel. Man I don't always get it fully but I know it’s true. There is no way I could deny it. I just need to express it to others better now. I'm learning more and more who I want to be. And that's a truly converted disciple of Jesus Christ. I'm always pondering in my mind of how I can teach better and bring more power with my words. It just takes time and understanding, which I sometimes feel like I don't have at all. But I always am comforted to know what I'm doing is spreading a true message. It will all turn out alright right? Ok good. That’s all I can do is hope!

I love you all! Keep being awesome. Just be you. 

      -Elder Schneider

I got all of your stuff, I loved it, Thanks!

February 1, 2016

Adventures

 

Hello,

It seems like there is always something new and different happening here. So much randomness for a small town. But I'm loving it here. This week was much better compared to the last couple of weeks. We did more to talk to everybody and stay focused. We had to tell ourselves to do that because we were missing so many teaching opportunities. So we had a lot more lessons and we found more people.

The people here are so frustrating! I feel like a babysitter for our investigators. It seems like they are always up and down with how they are feeling so we always unsure with where at are at. And I guess I shouldn't say that they are annoying, I should say that Satan is annoying. One minute they are ready for baptism and to read the Book of Mormon and the next they are anti. I'm like, how do they change so fast? Satan is good at his job, but God is better. We are going to have to step up our game with the way Satan is playing!

We had the opportunity to give two blessing this week. They were both on the same day so Elder Peterson was spiritually exhausted, or at least that's what he told me. But I love giving blessings, it's the coolest. There is always that close connection to God when you're taking part in a blessing. And the people who receive the blessing seem to have more of a connection with you too.

We helped another family move this week too. I swear I will have moved about 100 people by the end of my mission! But I don't mind it at all. Service is my favorite thing to do. And the people here are humble so they actually let you help them unlike some places. Our neighbor is a sweet Indian lady from Malaysia who is super nice and funny. One day she knocked on our door and was like, here are some egg rolls I just made. And so we had some yummy egg rolls. It was super funny to me to eat a random egg roll, Elder Wylie would have thought it was funny too. But that's just how it is here. The people actually serve and then let others serve them!

Elder Peterson and I gave talks this Sunday. That was my first talk I've given as a missionary. We talked on missionary work, fitting huh? But it went well. I felt like we did a good job. It always feels good to give a talk anyways. And right after that we taught the gospel principles class. It was like a super spiritual Sunday for us.

Elder Peterson turned 19 this week. We had some cake at a members house and hung out for a bit to celebrate. It's weird that I'm only 18. Sometimes I feel older than that and sometimes I feel like I'm 16 still. But I think it's sweet that we get to come out so early to get ahead on life. People are always surprised when I tell them I'm 18, they usually think I'm 12.

But to actually talk about the work here, it's going good. We are finding success when we stay focused and be obedient. Which is sometimes hard to do. We have a few people who are so close to baptism! We just need to keep the spirit with them as much as possible. The members here are awesome at doing missionary work. The give us referrals and come teaching with us quite often. It's every missionaries dream to have a good Ward. If we could keep improving our teaching and finding then we could have plenty of people convert here. Everyone in this town has a connection with someone else. We just have to get it going!

That's most of what I have to write about this week. I'm sending pictures in another email. Love you guys!

     -Elder Schneider

 

Some pics with the local wildlife

January 25, 2016

A Strange Week.

Hey Everybody,

So, this week flew by! It had some goods and bads. But overall it’s always good to be out here. We had so much random stuff happen this week! I guess maybe it was just to change things up? 

So we did a ton of service this week. We helped a less active guy shingle his house. I learned to shingle a roof, I was pumped! We did his whole roof. Just us two and him, proud of me Dad? Haha it was awesome though. I took some before and after pictures. And we were like, Brad (the less active guy), you better come to church! And he did, which was good because we would have killed him if he didn't. Along with that, we helped an active couple move. And that only took like 2 hours but it was worth mentioning. Sometimes I wish I could just do service all day every day! 

We also had another new experience this week. So last week we tracted into this old guy who invited us to his bible study class that he does in his house. He said it was non-denominational so we didn't need to worry about bashing or anything like that. He was like, we would love to have you there! So we thought about it a bit and decided to go. I guess we thought we could learn something there or maybe sneak in some true doctrine that would convert these preachers from other religions. So we show up, and walk in. The room was plumb full of pastors and preachers! There was probably 9 of them in his tiny living room. He had a fold out table with some chairs around it. They were like, Gentlemen welcome! Pull up a chair and take out your bible! So of course we sat down and got comfy and what not. And they're like, were in Mark chapter somethin. So we go there and just start reading the Bible. And I was like hey, this is kind of good! Because they were just reading through and explaining the story line and talking about Christ. So I had no complaints for like the first half hour. But then after we finished reading and discussing the story line then they asked, so what are we learning here? And that's when it got not so fun anymore. They all started going off the traditional Christian beliefs. By grace we are saved!! And some of the guys made some comments that were directed towards our church but just without saying the name of the church. They were like, Some religions believe that they can work or earn their way into heaven, which you can’t do! And me and Elder Peterson knew they were talking about the LDS church. But we didn't say anything we just threw in our two cents here and there. So we suffered through that for a bit and then they closed with a prayer. And as we were leaving they were all like, thanks for coming it was a pleasure to meet you, please come again! And we were like, huh yeah sure. But they were all genuine good guys. They truly believed in Christ and cared for me and my companion they just didn't like the church we go to. And after we got home we discussed what they were saying and we said all the things we wish we could've said there and vented for a bit. But I was glad I went. I learned how true the gospel is from it. So I guess I did learn something from it! The gospel is true!

We also had some experiences with one of our more strange investigators. We have this investigator that has been taught forever and doesn't progress. She has some really strange ideas and has some really strange stories that she claims to be true. And she’s a person with really good intentions but kind of misses the whole point of what we are doing! Shas like, I love god and want to serve him and I know your message is true. But she doesn't change a thing. She kind of misses the whole process of repentance and changing your life to live his gospel! So she thinks she knows God perfectly and that she has perfect faith. And the reason why I'm telling you this is because we just started teaching her boyfriend. And he is the nicest and coolest guy ever. He’s so humble and laid back. But when we teach him she messes it all up! She'll start going off on how she can heal people and stuff like that and it freaks him out. He’s like, honey, I don't like when you talk like that. And we just want to say, look into our eyes Mike and ignore her, she’s crazy. But we can't do that of course. So it’s really making it hard to be able to teach him the truth and bring the spirit when his girlfriend is freaking him out with stuff that is weird and not doctrinal. So it’s a real struggle we have right now! We are praying that what she tells him doesn't mess up what we are teaching him. He’s so prime and we don't want to lose him! But his girlfriend actually came to church though. And that really caught us off guard because she normally doesn't keep commitments and we were kind of scared that she would say something sketchy in church! But she didn't, it all went well and we are hoping that she keeps coming so that maybe the spirit will change her mind on some things. 

Those are the two major things that happened this week that I wanted to tell you all. Besides that it was another ordinary week. Almost everything we set up fell through but the Lord provided ways for us to stay busy and do good things. We gave two blessings which always give us a spiritual boost when we need it. There is almost always something we can do! And I'm thankful he is watching out for me and taking care of us. I know this Gospel is true. I know God lives. I know that Christ is our savior and that it is ONLY through him and living his gospel that we can receive a fullness of joy. It’s all complete and beautiful. I love the Gospel! I love you guys and wish you luck until next week!

          -Elder Schneider

Roof Before

Roof after