August 1, 2016

Dear you,
Time flies.

We get transfer calls next Sunday! Holy crap! I can barely even remember what happened this week. But I remember a few things so here's the first thing. We had zone training, and it was great. The spirit was super strong and I felt like it touched everyone. It's good to get with the whole zone because we don't get to see them as much because we don't have enough miles to drive to billings very often. And one of our zone leaders in going home soon so I got to say bye to him, I'm excited to see who our new zone leader will be to replace him.

Also, we had a baptism this week. This is the guy that our branch mission leader taught so we didn't do anything but we still counted it haha. His name is Carl. He's a stud. He's doing great. He was super ready. It's great how well he already fits in the branch. He will do well. I see a lifetime of activity from him.

We also found a sweet new investigator named Jim. His been married twice and one of his previous wives was LDS so he has good feelings towards the church. He really wants to learn and be more a part of it. When we taught the restoration he really seemed to grasp it. He was like, "your church is the only church with the name Church of Jesus Christ", I never noticed that until now.  We are meeting with him tonight and we should be able to put him on date for baptism. We will see.
The other lady we are teaching (Sabina) is doing great. She's reading the scriptures and coming to sacrament. She's really warming up. We suspect she will be baptized in August as well. With her we just have to work around her husband’s busy schedule to find a day when he can come to her baptism. He's a member and is really supportive of it all.

Our fun adventure of this week was that we got to go over the Beartooth pass. The members that we live with were happy to take us. It's a pretty popular road to go on because it has a bunch of switchbacks up the side of the mountain all the way to the top, which is just about 11,000 feet. It's just tundra at the top, which I've never seen before, no trees can grow, just grass and small bushes. And we took some pictures at around the halfway mark where it was really pretty. It was a well worth it trip. That's all for this week, if you want more info on anything just email me. Thanks love you all!

         -Elder Schneider

July 25, 2016

Chillin n Grillin

Yet another week. Can't remember half of it so I'm thinking that means it was good. Sometimes we just gotta stop and look around and see where we are at.

We were able to do some good things this week. We have been on foot more because the mission is really cracking down on miles. It's been good for us. We meet way more people on foot than in the truck going from person to person. Although, we did walk ourself into an awkward situation, I accidentally knocked on the door of a crazy lady that we were told not to go visit. Oops. Once she invited us in it was too late. She immediately started asking for a bunch of things she wanted the church to do for her. Paint her house, move furniture, etc. and she's missing and eye, which kind of makes it like the perfect crazy lady story. And to make it worse she came to church and was asking the branch president for all this stuff and eating food out of the fridge. Yeah we felt kind of bad. We try to be nice and accept her but apparently she's got problems that no one in the church can help her with so there isn't much we can do for her. Good things Christs atonement covers all of our imperfections.

We were also in Redlodge a bit more than normal this week. It's difficult to get stuff going in that busy little town. It seems like everyone who lives there tries to get away from the ruckus and then when there isn't anything going on they want you to leave them alone. For example, there was a car show this week. Like a million old restored cars show up from nowhere (Although I can't complain about a car show). But it just gives the town a buzz when social stuff like that is going on. It's just not the best for missionary work. But hey, we tried our best.

With the whole miles situation we are in we have been trying to find another place to stay in Columbus or Absarokee for half of the week. It eats up our miles to drive 80 miles to go to Absarokee and back. If we could stay for a few days at a time we could save hundreds of miles. But it's looking pretty unlikely that we will find a place. We have pretty much exhausted all other possibilities besides getting another apartment, which is very unlikely to happen. Me and my companion were thinking about investing in an RV. We think it would be the best of both worlds, don't you think? Haha that would be the dream, we will live with what we've got now.

The work is also picking up. We have a baptism this Saturday actually. His name is Carl. I don't really feel like it's our baptism because it's not our baptism haha. Our branch mission leader found and taught this guy and got him all ready to where he only had to pass the interview. And we have to put him in our records because future missionaries still need to know about him. So it looks and counts as if we did everything but we didn't. I'll still pretend like I was a part of it though ;) and besides that we are also teaching another family that is progressing really well. A less active guy in the ward recently got married to a nonmember so he wanted to start to bringing the gospel back into the picture. So we have been teaching her and her daughter. It's going well. They are recognizing the blessings of living the gospel. We are hoping they will be ready for early August, or August at all.

I'm learning a lot in this area. This is the first time being in a branch, well, two branches. It's been a great learning experience. It's making me stronger, which is what I need. :)

         -Elder Schneider

Cool Car Show

Great Falls Zone

Comps

Funny Sign

July 18, 2016

Hey everybody,

Another week on the mish, always new things happening, lots of driving too. We did quite a bit of finding this week. That's always a blast. Well, if you let it. We've been trying to do more stuff in the town of Redlodge, but there is little success that comes from it. It's a tough town to work in because it's mostly just tourists, so most of our success is coming from the surrounding towns. For example, Redlodge had a motorcycle rally this weekend. That's not good for missionary work haha. I've never seen so many motorcycles in a small town. It was pretty cool to see though. We had a lady invite us to dinner that we had never met before. She is member that's a snow bird so she just comes here for the summer. Anyway, so we go to this ladies house we've never met. Holy cow they had some deep pockets. These people had a 1.2 million dollar home on the side of the mountain. That's not cheap. But they were super cool. Her husband is actually not a member but loves the missionaries. Not interested though, kinda weird. But it was super fun. She made us some quality Mexican food. Man, I miss good Mexican food. So it was a really fun night at some rich people's house.

We also got to celebrate Elder Lankfords soon to come birthday. There are some members from his last area that were passing through so they brought him some cake and sang a song really quick. It was fun, he enjoyed it.

We also got to do some pretty good service this week. Service feels good. We do service at the Redlodge wildlife sanctuary and they always have plenty for us to do. Last week we cleaned out the bear cage. And this week they were putting in a new fence. And so we dug fence post holes for a while. I got a couple of nasty blisters from it. I was very proud of those blisters though. My hands have gotten to soft.

That's all for this week, I'm starting to lose track of all that happens. I should just write it in my iPad at the end of the day. Then I have it all. Love you guys :)

       -Elder Schneider

Legit Blisters
Note from Mom: Amazon Prime Package in the background, good to see he gets them.

July 11, 2016

It's pretty here!

Hey everybody,

How are you all doing? Good, that's good to hear. This week has gone fairly well. We've done some good things. On Tuesday we had a really good district meeting that got us a pretty excited to do some missionary work. We all prayed about and asked God how many people he wanted us baptize this coming transfer to set a goal. So we did. My companion and I came up with a pretty high number, considering that the area hasn't had anything like that in a while. And I was kind of surprised but excited. But then I also looked to my companion and was like, you know we are going to have to shape up if this is going to happen. So he's been improving on his desire to work in the Lords way. It always starts in the studies though. If we don't study out of Preach my Gospel then we won't be the missionaries the Lord wants us to be. I'm pretty sure that when the church made preach my gospel it was to be applied to every missionary, unless there are certain circumstances that wouldn't permit that kind of missionary work. So yeah, I'm working on having us both do better on knowing how to be the best missionaries. We've got a goal to reach!

We have had some pretty cool little miracles though. I think the whole process of finding is like one big miracle. We just start from nowhere and go by the spirit and find people that are being prepared. Out of thousands of people we have to find the prepared. It always makes me smile. But anyway, we were visiting a part member family and after we finished hat we decided to go knock on their neighbors across the street that looked like they had a family. A lady answered the door and let us right in, which doesn't happen normally. So we get to talking and she's an older less active member of the church that has her grandson and his wife living with her. He thought he was baptized but when he told us how he was baptized we realized that he wasn't baptized into the Mormon Church because his story sounded super weird. But they ended up being open to letting us come over and go through the lessons with them. The grandma didn't have her records in the area so she was just under the radar for a long time. But she really has a desire to come back and to get her grandkids in it as well. It was pretty sweet. We will see if they continue to pull through with it all.

We also went to a little town event called Nye goes nuts. Nye is a little tiny town like an hour away that we cover. But this place is beautiful! And they were having like a little festival or carnival thing that we decided to go to. It was really fun. We had a random lady come and invite us to sit with her family, which I don't think were members, but they acted like them. They live in Nevada and were just visiting family and knew who the missionaries were, so they came and snagged us. We got to know them a bit and they were really cool. It made me want to be like them when I am in their shoes and I see the missionaries looking awkward at a festival, haha.

This week was also the first time that I went to the Red Lodge branch. We switch branches each week. Red lodge branch is a little bigger than Absarokee. It's growing a little more. But the people there were awesome. I really enjoyed them. It's kind of funny though because most of the members that go don't even live in Red Lodge itself, they come from the surrounding towns. This is a lot of driving for everyone, especially us. We will easily drive over 100 miles in a day. Which I'm not used to, it feels like I'm wasting time but it's what we have to do if we want to cover the all the area. It's rarely a short trip to go to someone's house. And I have to learn so many roads! There is like a million back roads that go through the country from town to town and farm to farm. You could get lost if you don't know what you're doing. It's kind of a fun challenge though.

I'm glad to be out here and doing what the Lord wants me to do. It's crazy that I've been out a year, I still feel like a child. It's going to be really, really weird when I'm 20 because I won't be a teenager anymore. But I've still got a while to be 19. I will enjoy it while it lasts. The mission is good for me, I'm grateful to get the chance to grow up a little. I love you all, have a good week!

          -Elder Schneider

Our district with cups of dirt

Oustside of Scoops Waiting for Gina & Kenny

Enjoying some ice cream

Kenny & Gina

July 4, 2016

Well, I'm in Red Lodge! 

It's a beautiful area! But holy crap we cover a lot of land. It takes us nearly an hour to get to the Absarokee branch building. So we use a LOT of miles. I'm with Elder Lankford right now, he's been here for a transfer already. It helps to have someone who knows the area. It's a lot to learn. We cover 8 towns but we really only get to work in 3 of them regularly. It's going to take some time to learn all of this. We live members. Their name is the Fowlers. Brother Fowler is actually our branch mission leader, he's a stud. He does great missionary work.

The work in this area is a little sad to be honest with you guys. The two branches are small and dwindling. There is this feeling of no hope kinda. Especially in missionary work. My companion has been out for around 7 1/2 months and he kind of thinks he's tried everything. Which he hasn't. No one has tried everything. It's a work in progress.Leaving Thermopolis was so hard! Saying goodbye to all of the people sucked. I got some pictures with them though, that makes it better right? It was like leaving home again. But there are lots of good things going on there. Elder Palmer has some good things lined up so I have no worries.

All I can say for my area right now is that it has huge potential. I just have to get me and my companion on the same page. Some TLC should do the trick. And that may be harder than I'm imagining but it wouldn't be as much of a reward if it didn't make me stretch. Hopefully there will be some good things coming in the future emails! Every day is new day. The lord is watching over me! I love you all, enjoy your week!

               

              -Elder Schneider

Goodbye Elder Palmer

Dog Selfie

Elder Lankfort new Comp

June 27, 2016

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

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