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