April 24, 2017

New Area

Hey Hey Hey!!

Been a long but good week. I was so sad to leave the YSA. But I can't be in the most awesome area forever unfortunately. I will definitely miss all the people who have touched me so deeply.

This is the first time that I've been doubled into an area so it’s a new experience. I kind of feel like a chicken running around with its head cut off. Usually I have a companion that knows everybody already and can kind of lead out for a bit, but not here! But this is a good place to be doubled into. The sisters that were here before were great and worked hard, but the attitude was kind of stagnant so the wards were ready for change. They get all lit up and say, “oh wow we have Elders now!” So it’s just good for change every once in a while. 

As far as what we have been doing, simply just hitting the pavement. We got a box of 40 copies of the Book of Mormon on Thursday and we are trying to hand them all out by the end of next week. We are probably a third of the way in right now and we have been tracting so much. And we are just trying to get as much fire into both of the wards to be missionary minded. The third ward bishop is such a boss. Super funny and he has a fun little family. And he actually has a son out on a mission right now as well.  And there is like three people that come to the third ward regularly and are not members. I guess they have just been too stubborn in the past to get baptized or something like that. It will just take a lot of love and service to soften some hearts of these stubborn Wyomingites!! 

Well, for this week I think that’s all. Just work work work work! My companion has really impressed me. He's ready to go to work and so far he's been a great support and I have no complaints. We will have to see if he's willing to keep the pace we've been going at though, cause I'm gonna finish my mission strong that’s for sure! And this may be my last area so I have to go out with a bang. No regrets right? 

Last of all, know that I know that this is God’s work and he wants nothing more than to see it move forward. You can either hop on and be a part of it or watch it go by but either is going! I hope your week goes good for all of you. I love you all. 

     -Elder Schneider

Friendly neighborhood lab

 

Got to see Elder Darner at transfers

 

April 17, 2017

Transfer News: Wy-Oh-Ming

Well, 

Transfer news are you ready? I'm getting transferred down to Cody Wyoming! I'm gonna be with Elder Monroe. I don't know him real well but I have been around him a bit in great falls. I'm super sad to leave the YSA  but change is good. There is much more to come! Love you all!! 

     -Elder Schneider

Golfing in the rain

April 10, 2017

Miscommunication

Hey all, 

A slow but busy week. We for some reason didn't have much lessons but we did try to work and find a lot. 

A funny story that happened this week. So about 6 weeks ago a guy self-referred himself to the Bozeman 3rd Ward missionaries online. So the 3rd Ward Sisters gave him to us cause he is a YSA. So we go and contact him and tell him where our church is and when it starts and all of the little details. So when we told him where the church was we told him it's on the corner of south 5th and Grant. Well after that, 6 weeks goes by and we haven't been able to make contact with him again. We text him, knock on his door and call him. Nothing works. Finally this last Thursday he replies and is like who is this and why won't you leave me alone. And we're like, it's the missionaries that you wanted to meet with and come to church with. And he replies, what are you talking about I thought I joined you guys already? And we are like, what do you mean? And he's like I've been going to the building on the corner of south 5th and grant every week. And we sit there for a second and realize that right across the street (also the corner of south 5th and Grant) is a college fraternity house. So this awesome self-referral has been going to a frat house for 6 weeks and is now going to be joining them soon. He was like, I had no idea you guys had so much fun thank you so much. So we had to tell him the awkward info that we were the building on the other side of the corner. He texted us back and was like, so the organization I'm joining is not the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints? And we're like no. And then he wouldn't respond again so I think he decided he wanted to stay with the frat house instead. So yeah, we converted a self-referral guy to a college fraternity, that's some quality missionary work right there. This goes to show that we as members and missionaries need to be VERY specific with the little details when talking to non-members. Oops. 

On a brighter note, some awesome members that went to conference over the weekend brought us up some Chick-Fil-A on their way back. It was delightful. I feel the love. 

Over all, the life in the YSA is the best. Good people, good work, I'm gonna hate the day when I have to leave. So I'll make it count while I'm here. 

The church is true for sure. But more importantly, the church is true because God loves us and loves us. I hope you all feel that too. I love you all, have a good week! 

Me and Elder Rich in the Lutheran church to hear an Elder in our zone play their organ.

     -Elder Schneider

Me & Elder Rich

YSA Group pic

Sister Shingleton fed us dinner

April 3, 2017

I want it to be Summer already

Dearest People, 

It's been great. Partly because of general conference, which all of you know about already. I got a lot of strength from it and hopefully you did too. 

Not gonna lie these weekly emails are getting really hard to keep writing. I never know what to write if nothing out of the ordinary happened. 

The best thing that happened was our Investigator Emilio got interviewed by our mission president so he could be interviewed by a general authority to get baptized! He's so ready. 

As well with that, we had interviews with our mission president this last Friday. He told me my transfer news ahead of time so I already know it but I'm not at liberty to tell others haha. Anywho, it was good. I got a lot of great advice from him. 

That's all for this week. I hope your week goes well for you! Love you all!

     -Elder Schneider

This is Sam, he's a cool guy

 

March 27, 2017

The Spirit Works

Hey all, 

It's been a fantastic week. Lots of work. Our stake president has set a goal for each area of how many lessons he thinks is possible in a week and we got it this week so that felt good. And honestly, we could probably do even more than that if we tried a little harder. 

This week instead of writing out all of the little details I just want to write one story in detail. I think it's one worth writing out. I think it shows that the spirit of God is ALWAYS the the ultimate source of conversion. Nothing else can cause a change of heart in such a way. 

We have this certain investigator who has been coming to church for a while now. He comes with some of his close family that are YSA's and solid members of the church. He's been coming consistently for a few months now, and he fits right in. Wears a suit and everything. So we started meeting with him about 6 weeks ago to go through the lessons with him. When we met with him the first time he expressed his desire to find the right path for his life and to grow closer to God. He even expressed some desire to be baptized. We promised him that the message and the invitations we will give him with do just that for him. So, we have been meeting with him about twice a week up until this point. And through all of it we could see him grow. His confidence in making decisions and firmness in keeping the commandments is now very evident. And this last Saturday we had a lesson in which all of it came together in a powerful way. The lesson before Saturday he brought up his concern with Thomas S Monson being a prophet. He just wasn't sure if he was a prophet of God. His background is a little unique because he comes from a break off version of the LDS church so he believes in Joseph smith but after that is where he gets unsure. So we invited him to watch Dare to Stand Alone by President Monson and then to pray and ask God if he truly was a prophet. So here we are in the lesson on Saturday and we ask him how his experience went with the President Monsons talk. Right after we ask him he just gets a big smile on his face and the room just gets silent and reverent. And then his face got serious and then he continues to describe his experience he had while praying for the truth. He then starts to describe the feeling he had in his heart as he prayed. He said he had felt more peace and joy come into his heart than he had ever felt before. And in that moment he knew that all of the things he had being doing were pleasing to God and he felt a calm assurance that he was on the right path. He's now crying, as well as the rest of us. And then he told us that he knows without a doubt that this church is Gods church and he is so grateful to be a part of it. With many tears falling in the room we all sat there in silence for about 3 minutes. There was such a reverence and peace in the room. We didn't even try to teach much after that. We just talked about the priesthood for a few minutes and then realized that we were killing the spirit so we stopped. We just soaked in the spirit for like 5 minutes at the end. And then we set up our next appointment. So little was said in that lesson but we all learned so much. The simplicity and power of the spirit is more than enough to change lives. And that ultimately is the feelings of God’s love. It was such a good experience. And it taught me that sometimes we just need to simply and humbly ask God for truth. And with that, I invite you all to pray your questions to God so they can be answered at general conference. I promise they will be answered! 

I love you all! I hope you have a good week. 

     -Elder Schneider



Found some LARPer's

Dinner with Meg at institute



Meg's Southern Cookin

March 20, 2017

We survived Spring Break!

Another week down in the MBM. 

It was surprisingly good too. I thought it would suck cause it's spring break here so all of our investigators and members are gone, but it turned out well. We stayed pretty busy for the most part and had more lessons than we expected. 

One of the things that kept us pretty busy all week was exchanges. We went to every Elders area in the zone and blitzed their area. We just tried to find some new investigators and get some good things going to help out as much as possible. It was fun because the splits were only like 4 hours long so we just went hard for those 4 hours. We found some new investigators so that was good. 

Along with that we did Zone Training this last Friday. It was one of the better ones we've been a part of. I really felt the spirit in it. For me I really like the message of hope that it gave. We just have to trust in the Lord that there is people to be found. Sometimes we lose focus of that simple truth. 

The biggest news of this week was the baptism of Kelsie. It was one of the best baptisms I've been to. She was more than ready and she had so much support. I think there was around 55 people there. She had a bunch of family and friends come up from Utah to support her and her family from Hamilton came as well. And just some members from the Ward too. It was really well planned out so everything went really smoothly. Besides the fact that the font only filled up to about a foot and a half of water. But besides that it went really well. And her confirmation was great too. The whole day we were on a high. And she already has a meeting set up with the bishop so she can get a temple recommend. We are super happy for her! 

That's the main stuff from this week! I hope your week goes good too! Love you all! 

     -Elder Schneider



 

Kelsie on her baptism day

Boseman Zone YSA

Birthday Surprise from Zone Elders

 

March 13, 2017

Happy 20th Birthday Elder

Gina took Drew and Elder Tipetts out for lunch at a Hibachi Japanese Grill, made this mom heart so happy! They even sang him Happy Birthday!

March 13, 2017

Spring Break

Hey all, 

It's been a great week! It's been great for a couple of reasons. 

First of all, I'm just glad in general that I'm staying in the YSA. This place is too much of a blast to leave. There are lots of fun members and lots of good work that I love to death. It will be a sad day for when I have to leave. 

We did some new things this week. So because it's spring break our institute teacher was gone last Tuesday on vacation. So, we had to sub for him. Yes, we taught institute. In fact we taught it two weeks in a row. That stuff is scary! The first week we did it I almost threw up. But they all ended up being pretty good. They were by no means as deep as the normal teacher but the spirit was still there. So yeah, that was a new experience for me. 

We also did a lot of finding this week. It was very needed because we have been slacking. It's healthy to get out and tract and contact random people. We walked around downtown Bozeman for a bit and met some drunk people, a homeless guy with a Chihuahua, etc. 

Another new experience we had was an interview with someone from the grace bible church in town. This guy just walked into the institute and asked us if he could ask us some questions, so we sat down for an hour and answered a bunch of questions he asked us. I'm not quite sure of how I felt about it. But he was a nice guy so it was all good. I think we gave him some answers that he wasn't expecting so that was good. If anything came from it hopefully he has a little bit clearer of an understanding of what we believe. And he accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon as well so that was cool. 

As of right now we are just in anticipation of Kelsie's baptism on Saturday. She's so ready and we are pumped for it! This week is going to feel like forever! Anyways, I love you all and hope your week is good! 

     -Elder Schneider

 

 

 

March 6, 2017

Transfer News

Well we got transfer news. Another 6 weeks in the YSA! I'm super pumped about that. I will be staying with Elder Tippetts too. There is a lot going on right now so I'm glad to stay to see it all pan out. We have a baptism coming up on the 18 with Kelsie so that will be a super good experience. We also have a couple of other people who want to be baptized in the near future, hopefully within the next 2 months. 

Now with me staying in Bozeman for another transfer I will have been in the Bozeman zone for just under a year. If I stay for a fourth transfer in the YSA then it will be a year! 

This week had too much to write! But I will tag some pictures for y'all! Love you guys! 

     -Elder Schneider

 

February 27, 2017

5 days in a row

Hey all, 

It's been a really busy week. We had quite a few lessons and big meetings, it feels like there is too much to count. 

We had a super good zone conference this Tuesday. We were the host zone so we had to make sure the program was all put together and what not. It was a little stressful but not too bad. A ton of the training was on how right now in the world people ages 14-26 are most open to the gospel. And that got me pumped because that's who we cover! And it's true, there are so many people who are receptive. 

I also got to go on an exchange with an elder in my zone. His name is Elder Muhlestein. It was quite the party. We mostly did finding the whole time so it was kind of a grind but I need a good grind every once in a while. 

Our progressing investigator Kelsie is doing super good. She kept wanting to meet over and over so ended up having 5 lessons with her this week. Which I'm really happy about. And we are having another one tonight. She's a better member than me and she's not even a member yet! And she's visited the temple twice now. That's how many times I've seen the temple in a year and a half, so yeah I need to step up my game. 

I just love the YSA Ward here so much. They are all so awesome and they all do a ton of missionary work. It's the dream. I'm hoping I stay another transfer, but that usually means I'll leave. It sucks how that works.

And last of all, we did some fun service this week. We volunteer at a thrift store called sacks. It's a good time. You find some strange stuff let me tell ya! And they give us a 50% discount on everything so that's a bonus. But I like helping out anyways. 

So, that's my week. I hope yours was great and that this one is great too! I love you all! 

     -Elder Schneider

Us and Kelsie

 

Fun at the store

Chair we found on the side of road

First time riding a hoverboard

February 20, 2017

A Place of Love and Beauty

Dearest Family and Friends, 

It's been a stellar week. Pretty tiring but stellar. One of our recent converts, Meg, got to go to the temple for the first time on the Saturday before the last! It was a super great experience for her. I got a picture with her holding her temple recommend cause she was so pumped to go. She got to take some family names and do baptisms for them. She also went again this last Saturday because she loved it too much haha. And guess what? I got to go the temple that same day too! I finally got to go to the temple after 19 months! It was great! We didn't go with Meg, we had exchanges planned with the assistants so we could be able to make it to the endowment and sealing of a family that Elder Tippetts taught in one of his areas. So we just were at the temple at the same time as Meg. It was great. And that was the first time that I had ever been to a sealing too. Quite the experience, I really enjoyed it. As well as Meg being there, Kelsey came too. She is our investigator on date for baptism next month. She loved it and had a really special experience just waiting in the waiting room. We had a lesson with her last night and she can't wait to go in and do some work there.

Like I said earlier, we went on an exchange with the assistants in Billings. It was a good time. It was also like a reunion. Elder Pett and Hoschouer and us are in the same transfer group so it was a little too fun. We reminisced a lot and me and Elder Hoschouer and Tippetts were all in the same room in the MTC so we could talk for days. But we did get some stuff done at least. 

We tried to get more creative with our finding efforts this week as well. On Valentine's Day we did a "love" Survey lol. It was super cheesy but it was different. We just walked around campus and had a bunch of these slips of paper for random students to fill out. It just had 4 questions that talked about love and Gods love for us. Surprisingly 50% of the people didn't even believe in God. Usually in Montana everyone has a Christian background so I'm not used to the variety of a college. It's good for me though, it stretches my understanding of things. 

Besides that just a bunch of small miracles. It's hard to keep track. One of our investigators we met with this week expressed all the things he was struggling with. He needs different work and is having a lot of family struggles. Because of all of this he's trying to know if Christ is real so we've been working with him a ton on living the gospel to get a spiritual confirmation and an experience with the atonement. So we asked him to pray right there for help with us. Right after he finished the prayer one of his friends texted him with some temporary work that he had for him. Which is exactly what he was needing was a new job. Miracles do happen, don't deny them! 

That's just a small little snapshot of the week, there's too much to write down. When you pay attention to the small things you don't have enough time or room to even write it all down! This is Gods work, this is his church and I know it. Hope you all have a good week! Enjoy the little things! Love you all :)

     -Elder Schneider



Meg with her recommend

February 13, 2017

Can’t Complain

I hope your week was good! 

We have had some really good things happen this week. A bunch of the other missionaries in our zone keep giving us referrals because they keep coming across YSA people. So we have some really good things going. We have 3 people on date for baptism. The first is Alex, she's been working with the missionaries for a while now we just finally got her to commit. She's awesome and comes to church every week. The second is a girl named Kelsie. She was found in Belgrade and is a total miracle. She is already in Alma 3 and super into it and feels the spirit. She also has two friends on a mission which were really good examples for her too. And the last is Amelie. He's a man from Mexico that has a bunch of family in the Ward. So he's been coming to church for a while now and we had our first lesson with him last week and he said he knows this is the church he wants to stay with because of the way he feels. He also has accepted a baptismal commitment but he may take some more time to get that done because of some of his history. 

We also had Meg, our recent convert from Georgia go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead for the first time. She said it was such a good experience and she was like glowing. So that was also a huge miracle. She's on fire, she already has a calling and everything! 

Besides that, just staying busy. The members here help out so much. It's the dream really. Couldn't ask for a better situation. Just gotta take advantage of it while I got it! Thanks love you :)

     -Elder Schneider

 

February 6, 2017

Ups and Downs

Hey hey! 

It's been a great two weeks. So much had happened I can't even remember half of it. But that's a good thing though right? 

So me and Elder Tippetts have really been getting into the swing of things. We know what each of us wants and are setting goals and working together well to help our area and the zone. We also meet with our stake president once a month to talk about his vision. We met with him yesterday to talk about how we can work together. It seems to look pretty good. He's got a lot of drive, which is what we need. 

The daily life of being a YSA missionary is always changing! That’s the best part about it. You never know what you're going to get, it's a thrill. But as a part of that, you get lots of ups and downs. We found a super sweet guy named Philip this week that was sooo interested and wanted to learn so bad. We had a great first lesson with him and he ate it up. Then two days later he dropped us. It was such a sad day. And there was nothing we can do about it besides try to stay in contact. And he totally felt the spirit in that lesson. So that sucked. But we also have a sweet girl named Kelsie that got referred to us. She's great and is preparing to be baptized at the beginning of next month. So that's an up. Super grateful for her. All around our teaching pool is expanding, it just has a lot of people come on and off of it. But that's kind of the culture of young adults. Still love it and wouldn't want it any other way here. 

It's been a blur over all. Me and Elder Tippetts are just getting a handle on the ropes. We did a zone training on Friday that was a good learning experience. When all eyes are on you, things can seem a little dicey, but you get a lot of help from above as well. Plus our zone is awesome so I really love being around them. 

I think the thing that's been on my mind over all is how small and simple things brings about greater things. The little daily stretches of faith and all the change leads to great results. Both in me and in others. You just never fully know what your efforts are doing. Sometimes miracles happen and you never even know it! That's why you just keep going and the big picture starts to come together over time. 

Missionary work is blast. Never a boring day! I hope your week goes great as well. Love you all and miss you.

     -Elder Schneider

Bozeman Zone

January 23, 2017

Work

So it's warmed up a little bit here! I'm very happy about that. Since it snowed in November it hasn't melted so I haven’t even seen the ground for 2 months, so it's nice to see what grass looks like again. 

We've had a super busy week, it was nice. Lots of lessons with investigators and less actives. The members are really great about reaching out to their friends. Makes life good as a missionary. 

Transfer news. Elder Dougherty is being transferred out and my new companion is Elder Tippitts. He came out with me and we actually were in the same MTC room. He's a good guy and he's pretty fun. The YSA will love him. 

I also went on another exchange back to Belgrade with Elder Lester. I got to go see Jennifer Jones and get a nice up date. She's doing great, it was good to see! Nothing better than seeing old friends doing well. 

Not a whole lot to report on this week. I love you all. The church is true. More fun to come!

We had a little dinner get together at Megan's house. And then we had another one at another family's house. YSA life. 

Meg just got baptized!

     -Elder Schneider

January 16, 2017

Hey all, That was fast!

It's been an eventful week! 3 main big things happened. 

First off, we had a zone conference in Butte. That was fun. We went up the night before so we could avoid waking up early to drive in the morning. We met there with the Butte and Helena Zones and learned quite a bit from our mission president and the assistants. It was also good to see some familiar faces. But the thing that scared me the most was the fact that I'm now an older missionary. There is only 3 missionaries that have been out longer than my group in the entire mission. Gotta keep my mind focused!

As for zone conference, we had interviews on Friday. President came through and gave us all and interview to see how we are doing. He's going to be doing that once a transfer now. But I really like meeting with President, it’s always a strengthening experience. He also told me of some things that could potentially be happening next transfer of which I'm not at liberty to tell anyone yet. Just regular mission stuff. But I got a blessing from him cause I thought it would be helpful for the work. I'm so glad I asked because I hadn't realized that it's been a year and a half since I've had a blessing so it was really needed. And plus mission presidents are super spiritual so he said some really amazing things. I truly am grateful for the mission president we have. 

And the last important thing that happened this week was a baptism! We didn't even expect to have one! Her name is Meg haha. Kind of funny because the last girl we baptized was named Megan. Anyway, she was gone over the break and just got back on Tuesday. So we met with her on Thursday and we just talked about where she is at since she left and then she asked us, can I get baptized on Saturday? Our eyes got huge and we were like, yeah, I think we can make that happen. So we set up a baptismal interview for Friday and had her baptized on Saturday. I have to say that two days to prepare isn't much time but she is getting married next week so she wanted to be baptized before they get married. She had taken all of the lessons before she left and has been to church several times so she was completely worthy and qualified, it just went so fast you couldn't even enjoy it hardly! But as long as she is happy that's all that matters right? I barely even knew her so it was like a flash and now she's gone and getting married and going into a family ward. Just like that!

I think that’s all that's worth mentioning for now. But I know that this work is real and that God is behind it. The church is true and the message we share changes lives. I've seen it! Hope your week goes well. I miss you all so much!

     -Elder Schneider

 

January 9, 2017

Back in Business

So.. It's been a pretty slow week to be honest. Elder Dougherty and another Elder have been sick most of the week so there has been a lot of switching around to accommodate for the sick people. But we still managed to get some things done!

You know what I'm most excited about? The fact that the YSA is all coming back! I feel like there is so much to do now that we have our area back. And we also had a meeting with President Repsher who is our stake president, and it went really well. We talked about the stake goals and what we need to accomplish, it makes the future look bright.

While I was on an exchange with another Elder we got the chance to work at the community cafe. It's a pay what you can cafe so homeless and less fortunate people can come and get a hot dinner. I worked there once when I was in Belgrade and so it was fun to be back. We got the job of being platers, which means we put the food on people's plates for them. Quite the blast.

Some more service we did was move a family into one of the Bozeman wards. They lived in a really beautiful spot, I was a little jealous. But we moved a whole trailer load of stuff into their house in about 2 hours. Not a bad pace if you ask me!

So not much happened this week. Like I said, a bunch of sick people around so I've been trying to stay busy but there is only so much I can do. Sometimes you just have a week like that I guess. But there will be more good stuff to come. I love you all and I hope you have a great Week!

     -Elder Schneider

Pictures of me and Elder Stout at the community cafe

Medieval replica stuff from a strange family from Snowflake