Had a super busy preparation day so I will have to catch it
all up next week! I'm getting transferred to Red Lodge Montana! I'll tell you
all about it next week!
-Elder Schneider
Red Lodge Montana
June 21, 2016
Heyo!
A busy and great week.
First off, we had exchanges. I went up to Greybull with my
district leader, Elder Berrett. It was fun. We taught a less active lady and
helped her with some concerns she had. It was a really spiritual experience.
She shed a few tears.
We also found a new investigator last week that came to church. So we had someone new come to church this week. Her name is Christine. She asked some really good questions and seemed to enjoy it. We have another lesson with her tomorrow so it will be good. If she has sincerely been reading the BOM I have no doubts that she is progressing. We were just out driving when we thought to stop at a house, and hey, she was there. I'm grateful for the help of the Holy Ghost in this work.
We have Jason ready to be baptized for next Saturday. If I get transferred I'll miss it. But that's ok, as long as he is ready to be baptized. But he's doing really great. Keeping all of his commitments and is excited. He listens to the BOM on dvd on his way to work and his drive is like an hour so he's getting a lot of that!
The highlight of the week was the mission tour we went to yesterday. We drove up to Billings and heard from the general authority Elder Anderson. It was was really inspiring. I was pumped to go work afterwards. One of my favorite parts what the Q&A he did at the end. He answered a lot of questions. And some missionaries got stuffed with their questions haha. But it was all great. It's always interesting to be around big groups of missionaries. You see the love each missionary has for each other. It's a great feeling. You also see how people act differently in groups. It's makes you think, am I the same no matter who I'm around? And president Wadsworth is so awesome too. I loved seeing him. We have interviews with him on Thursday so I'm thinking that maybe I will get a hint of what's going to happen to me for next transfer. Well, I hope I get a hit at least!
Anyways, that's all for this week. I love you all!
-Elder Schneider
 |
| Apple Juice |
June 13, 2016
This week has been great. Lots of finding and honestly not a
whole lot of results. But I feel results in myself. There is lessons being learned
everywhere I go! I wish I could write every little experience down but that
would be impossible. I appreciate your efforts to keep me updated. Because just
like you, I want to hear everything that's going on and see a million pictures!
So what you do send me means a lot. Thanks for being steadfast in that :) I emailed dad and told him that I
wanted to hear one lesson he learns from daily life that has meaning and to
send it to me once a week and I will do the same. I'm hoping this will let me hear more personal things from him more often. He's got
good things to share, he just needs to share it! So if gets lax on that you can
kick him in the butt.
Like I said we did lots of finding this week. It really brought to my attention of how much I've let myself get lazy these last few weeks. Because for the last little while we have people handed to us to teach and we hardly did any finding because we had lesson after lesson. So now that I'm out and about its good to put me in uncomfortable positions again where I have to be brave and talk to strangers regardless of how scary they look. I'm still learning just as much when I first came out! I'm really trying to make each thing I do meaningful. Because we do so many things that I often do just because I'm supposed to. Now, that's not always bad, but there is a much better way. And that's to understand the point or principle that Christ is teaching us. It's for our own good. I mean, how often do we stop and say, why am I praying for this meal? Or do we ask ourselves, if Christ was with me in this moment, how would he make it meaningful? There is so many things that I do just out of habit from growing up in the church that I almost miss the whole point! So I'm really trying to understand the many "why"s in life. Why do I hold this door open for this lady? Why do I judge someone with an imperfection? Why do I serve on my mission? The list goes on and on. But it's been really helping me get the bigger picture so that I can understand things to be able to help others understand for themselves. And in my patriarchal blessing it tells me how I will be able to teach with great clarity and understanding. I'm still hoping that will come!
I've had lots of time to think as you can tell. I've been out enough to think a lot. I think of you guys a lot and I hope that my mission will bless each of your lives while I'm gone and when I come home. Time really doesn't matter to me at this point because I see how much I have to grow so I might as well get used to the idea if staying out here forever! Or maybe I shouldn't? Maybe it's better to know that I'm on limited time? Yeah, I like that better haha. Anyways, know that I pray for you guys every night! You guys impact me in every way. So thank you, I hope your week is good! I love you!
Like I said we did lots of finding this week. It really brought to my attention of how much I've let myself get lazy these last few weeks. Because for the last little while we have people handed to us to teach and we hardly did any finding because we had lesson after lesson. So now that I'm out and about its good to put me in uncomfortable positions again where I have to be brave and talk to strangers regardless of how scary they look. I'm still learning just as much when I first came out! I'm really trying to make each thing I do meaningful. Because we do so many things that I often do just because I'm supposed to. Now, that's not always bad, but there is a much better way. And that's to understand the point or principle that Christ is teaching us. It's for our own good. I mean, how often do we stop and say, why am I praying for this meal? Or do we ask ourselves, if Christ was with me in this moment, how would he make it meaningful? There is so many things that I do just out of habit from growing up in the church that I almost miss the whole point! So I'm really trying to understand the many "why"s in life. Why do I hold this door open for this lady? Why do I judge someone with an imperfection? Why do I serve on my mission? The list goes on and on. But it's been really helping me get the bigger picture so that I can understand things to be able to help others understand for themselves. And in my patriarchal blessing it tells me how I will be able to teach with great clarity and understanding. I'm still hoping that will come!
I've had lots of time to think as you can tell. I've been out enough to think a lot. I think of you guys a lot and I hope that my mission will bless each of your lives while I'm gone and when I come home. Time really doesn't matter to me at this point because I see how much I have to grow so I might as well get used to the idea if staying out here forever! Or maybe I shouldn't? Maybe it's better to know that I'm on limited time? Yeah, I like that better haha. Anyways, know that I pray for you guys every night! You guys impact me in every way. So thank you, I hope your week is good! I love you!
-Elder Schneider
June 6, 2016
Glad to be back
So I finally got better this week! It's about time! I'm so
sick of sleeping. But now I'm better and we've been out so it feels good.
This week we were able to put Jason on date for the 25th of this month, we are really excited for him. We will finally get to baptize a guy lol. But he's doing really good. He's made some really incredible changes and he has the desire. We have a lesson with him tonight so that will be good. He surprises us with how much he knows. He told us how he agreed with the churches new statement on how children raised in a gay household can't get baptized until 18. We were surprised how he was so up to date and current with the church without us even having to say anything.
We've been on our bikes more lately which has really helped. It's good to get some exercise in. There is nothing greater than being on a bike when you are trying to talk to as many people as possible. You have a quick travel and you can stop on a dime to talk to anyone. It's been good.
Most of what we've been doing this week has been finding. There is not much to report on when we do finding. But we did get the chance to use the priesthood on several occasions these last few weeks. It always pays to be ready to give a blessing whenever someone needs one. It feels good.
Not much more to write about this week. Sometimes all we can do is just work and that's all there is too it. But we see small miracles here and there every day. The work is satisfying.
I know this is Gods church and gospel on the earth today. I've come to know that through the spirit. Love you all! Have a good week!
This week we were able to put Jason on date for the 25th of this month, we are really excited for him. We will finally get to baptize a guy lol. But he's doing really good. He's made some really incredible changes and he has the desire. We have a lesson with him tonight so that will be good. He surprises us with how much he knows. He told us how he agreed with the churches new statement on how children raised in a gay household can't get baptized until 18. We were surprised how he was so up to date and current with the church without us even having to say anything.
We've been on our bikes more lately which has really helped. It's good to get some exercise in. There is nothing greater than being on a bike when you are trying to talk to as many people as possible. You have a quick travel and you can stop on a dime to talk to anyone. It's been good.
Most of what we've been doing this week has been finding. There is not much to report on when we do finding. But we did get the chance to use the priesthood on several occasions these last few weeks. It always pays to be ready to give a blessing whenever someone needs one. It feels good.
Not much more to write about this week. Sometimes all we can do is just work and that's all there is too it. But we see small miracles here and there every day. The work is satisfying.
I know this is Gods church and gospel on the earth today. I've come to know that through the spirit. Love you all! Have a good week!
-Elder Schneider
May 30, 2016
Sick
Hey everybody,
Soooo I've been sick all week and have been laying around
most of the week so there isn't a whole to report on. Being sick sucks. But I
got a blessing and a member from our Ward loaded me up on pills to get better.
I'm almost over it now.
But, to add something interesting into this email, we had a random guy call us this week and invite us over for dinner. We were kind of nervous about it at first but it turns out this guy is ready to get baptized. He has an LDS girlfriend that lives out of town that has been a really good influence on him so he's been pretty much living the gospel but Unbaptized. So we set up expectations and told him how he would get baptized and it all went smooth. That was very much a blessing from the lord! We are meeting with him again on Wednesday, we are excited for that!
We also helped the Ward in being a part of the 5th Sunday program. This Ward is making me get used to speak in front of them all! But the theme of the meeting was our Ward mission plan. So we had several people get up and say a few things and so on. It went good. I was afraid I was going to hack up a lung on the audience cause I have a raging cough but I did pretty good. It was a double thumbs up.
There really isn't much more to say honestly. I've been laying around all week trying to get better. It really has been hard not to be able to do anything. I feel terrible about it but nobody likes a sick missionary. It will be good to get back to work!
-Elder Schneider
May 23, 2016
Stresses
Dear Readers,
It's been an eventful week. Lots of stress! But it's good for me to have that every once in a while.
We were in charge of the Ward activity this month. We had it last Friday. So me and elder Palmer and Brother Stewart did the whole thing. And none of us had ever done anything like that before!! We didn't realize how much we had to do until a few days before and we were scrambling everything together!! But it actually went pretty good. We had a good number of people show up and our activity went good. We had a barbecue and then we gave each household a BOM to write their testimony in and then we had a camera set up in the foyer to take a picture of them to put in the BOM. And we got hold of a Polaroid so we could instantly get the pictures to stick in their BOM. It was fun, I think they enjoyed it! But oh man, was I sooooo stressed the whole time! I barely ate that night because I had to do all of the scary things like explain what was going on to everybody and run the show. Elder Palmer was being a baby in the back helping barbecue and was to shy to do any of that stuff. And brother Stewart was too shy too! It kind of made me mad but I got over it haha. But hey, now I know how to run a Ward party when I get into another area.
And then to add to that stressful Friday night I got sick. I woke up i0n the middle of the night with chills and a fever. It sucked. I'm still getting better now. It wasn't too bad fortunately. Although in church I got a heat flash and starting sweating like crazy! You could see it on my face, it looked like I had just rand in 110 degrees in my suit. Oh well haha.
We also taught seminary this morning. Sister Maddock called us on Friday night to see if we would be willing to teach the class s0omething since the old testament course is over. She has to keep seminary going until school is out so she called us haha. But we taught how we need to prepare ourselves spiritually for summertime and put on the armor of God. It went fairly well. As good as a couple of sick missionaries could do haha.
We've been finding a few more people to teach now that the people we were teaching earlier either got baptized or dropped. We have a less active guy returning to activity that has a sister that is interested, so we are excited to see where that goes. She's our most promising prospect right now. The rest of the people we are teaching probably w0on't get baptized this transfer. We are teaching a couple that is ready they just have to get married and they won't be getting married until September so we can't get them baptized till after that. But they are awesome. They're making some really good changes.
That's all I've got to report on for now. Just know that I love God and his children. It's always an adventure out here and I know this is where I'm supposed to be right now. The scriptures and words of prophets bring new meaning into my life that I could get nowhere else. I've learned to enjoy the ride instead of worry about my inadequacies, it's a lot better that way. The church is true! I love
you all!
May 16, 2016
Always and Adventure
A less active man that is coming back to the church is bringing his non member
sister. We have met with her once and actually got the chance to sit down and
get to know her. She has had a very interesting life. She was a professional
butler for many years and has met a lot of important people. But her humility
and desire to do good is something to be admired. She recognizes what's really
important in life and wants to see if we can help her with some questions she's
had. She just kind of wonders what this whole life thing is for! And we were
like, we would love to tell you! But she's a great lady. I think the coolest
part about it all though was how we even got to that point to where she could
open up to us. For the first 30 min we were just getting to know her and tell
her who we were and without us even having to bring it up she just got onto a
gospel subject and ended up spilling out all of her feeling to us and seeing
what we could do to help. And it just really showed me of how when people are
ready for something more they will recognize the opportunity. We read to her
Alma 16:16-17 and explained to her how the lord has been a part of her life for
a long time to help her find the truth. And that she would know it when she
found it. It was really neat to see it work out that way.
Another fun thing that happened was a random blessing from God. So last week we
were just walking through the store to get food and some random lady walks up
to us super happy to see us. She then explained how she was a very devout
Catholic but had some good friends from Arizona that were LDS. Those friends
told her that whenever she sees the missionaries they need to invite them out
for a home cooked meal. So that's what she did for us! And so we went and had a
very lovely lunch at this nice old couple’s house and got to make some new
friends! She was a nun for 30 years and had had some similar experiences as us
missionaries so it was cool to see her life experiences in serving. Anyways, we
took a picture with them at the end of lunch for fun and continued on our way!
It was fun :)
We also had stake conference this week which was really great. Our area
seventy, Elder Hintze, came and spoke to us. I really like what he had to say.
Because most of what was talked about was missionary work so he then explain
how we must always remember that we are not in control but rather the lord is.
We can't stop his work but we sure can make it go faster! It was really
comforting to hear. It also made me realize that I'm not responsible for how
well someone else receives the gospel. I just do what the spirit says and live
them and leave the rest to God and that individual. It made me feel good.
We also are teaching a lady named Helene right now. She just moved here from
California and had taken many lessons from the missionary's in the past and
wanted to continue learning. We've been working with her in a member’s home
which has helped a lot. We will see where she goes! I think it will go great.
I would just like to end my email with a part of my testimony that's been on my
mind a lot lately. And that's enduring to the end. I like to call it enjoying
to the end. We sometimes feel that the gospel is a stressor rather than a
reliever. And it was not intended to be that way. It's to give us a peace of
conscience and greater understanding to enhance our ability to feel joy. I
mean, if we are not comfortable with the gospel here than why would it be
comfortable in heaven with our Heavenly Father?? So my point is, take the
gospel for what it is. It's a guide to happiness and nothing else! And I say
that in the name of Jesus Christ amen! :)
-Elder Schneider
A less active man that is coming back to the church is bringing his non member sister. We have met with her once and actually got the chance to sit down and get to know her. She has had a very interesting life. She was a professional butler for many years and has met a lot of important people. But her humility and desire to do good is something to be admired. She recognizes what's really important in life and wants to see if we can help her with some questions she's had. She just kind of wonders what this whole life thing is for! And we were like, we would love to tell you! But she's a great lady. I think the coolest part about it all though was how we even got to that point to where she could open up to us. For the first 30 min we were just getting to know her and tell her who we were and without us even having to bring it up she just got onto a gospel subject and ended up spilling out all of her feeling to us and seeing what we could do to help. And it just really showed me of how when people are ready for something more they will recognize the opportunity. We read to her Alma 16:16-17 and explained to her how the lord has been a part of her life for a long time to help her find the truth. And that she would know it when she found it. It was really neat to see it work out that way.
Another fun thing that happened was a random blessing from God. So last week we were just walking through the store to get food and some random lady walks up to us super happy to see us. She then explained how she was a very devout Catholic but had some good friends from Arizona that were LDS. Those friends told her that whenever she sees the missionaries they need to invite them out for a home cooked meal. So that's what she did for us! And so we went and had a very lovely lunch at this nice old couple’s house and got to make some new friends! She was a nun for 30 years and had had some similar experiences as us missionaries so it was cool to see her life experiences in serving. Anyways, we took a picture with them at the end of lunch for fun and continued on our way! It was fun :)
We also had stake conference this week which was really great. Our area seventy, Elder Hintze, came and spoke to us. I really like what he had to say. Because most of what was talked about was missionary work so he then explain how we must always remember that we are not in control but rather the lord is. We can't stop his work but we sure can make it go faster! It was really comforting to hear. It also made me realize that I'm not responsible for how well someone else receives the gospel. I just do what the spirit says and live them and leave the rest to God and that individual. It made me feel good.
We also are teaching a lady named Helene right now. She just moved here from California and had taken many lessons from the missionary's in the past and wanted to continue learning. We've been working with her in a member’s home which has helped a lot. We will see where she goes! I think it will go great.
I would just like to end my email with a part of my testimony that's been on my mind a lot lately. And that's enduring to the end. I like to call it enjoying to the end. We sometimes feel that the gospel is a stressor rather than a reliever. And it was not intended to be that way. It's to give us a peace of conscience and greater understanding to enhance our ability to feel joy. I mean, if we are not comfortable with the gospel here than why would it be comfortable in heaven with our Heavenly Father?? So my point is, take the gospel for what it is. It's a guide to happiness and nothing else! And I say that in the name of Jesus Christ amen! :)
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