Heyyyyy,
Here are some things that I could use that would come in handy big time. A bleach pen for my white shirts. Like a couple. Especially for my collars. I could use a lint roller. Especially with the black dockers that I have. And that is about all I need. OH!! I still need pictures of the family!! I want those new family pictures maintenaint!! (not sure of the spelling on that one)
So this week has been awesome, just like all the others. I still have those days where I just get stressed to the max, but whenever I do I turn to prayer or the scriptures and it helps me out every single time. :) The scriptures are so amazing. I am so mad at myself that it has taken me so long to have that desire and drive to read everyday from them. I am learning so much from them. This past Sunday I read over 10% of the Book of Mormon. That study sesh was incredible!! I think I will tell you about my teacher. Frère Parsons is the best teacher around. He returned home from his mission from the Congo about 7 months ago!! So he has so many stories and experiences that are so awesome to listen to! I get so excited whenever he talks about his mission cause I know that I will be experiencing the same things! Aside from that, he is an incredible teacher. I have learned so much from him. I feel like I am listening to an old wise man whenever he teaches, and then I go "Oh, wait! He is only 21!" He is very powerful when he teaches and when he bears his testimony. As a teacher he is supposed to interview us individually and when he interviewed me it was probably on one of my lowest days, confidence wise, with the language. He told me to not even worry about the French! Its not the French that will be converting people but the Spirit! He said to be more focused on building my testimony and learning more doctrine and what not. That advice has helped out so much. My other teacher is Soeur Cutler and she is way awesome. She returned from the Geneva, Switzerland mission about 2 or 3 months ago. She is so smart when it comes to French! When she got here to the MTC about 2 years ago she only had to stay 3 weeks cause she could already speak the language... lucky. She has helped me out so much with learning the language. She is way chill too. So yeah, my teachers are incredible! They are helping me learn so much!
Here is a "small world" story. So the 2nd counselor in my Branch presidency is Brother Mangum. He gave an awesome talk about repentance on Sundy, by the way. So after I went up to him to thank him for his talk and before I could say anything He was like "So, you're from Mesa right?" and I said "yyyyuup!" and then he went on to tell me that his son and daughter (one of those is an in-law but I can't remember) were down in Mesa visiting some family who aren't LDS and they decided to randomly go to a ward. Guess what ward they went to?? They were at my farewell!!! So when they got back up here to Utah they were asking Bro. Mangum if he knew an Elder Schmid and he said "this one?" and showed them a picture of me and they said yes! So yeah, when he told me that I thought it was way cool.
Well, I hate emailing in the MTC. I can't wait until I am in Africa because then I will have 2 hours to email :) I love you guys and I pray for you every night! DearElder me and send me pictures!
Je t'aime,
Elder Schmid
Bringing the Gospel to Yaounde, Cameroon
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Email 7/19/11
Dang sorry about that.... I thought there was a 13 ounce rule and I assumed my mail didn't weight that much. I will do that for now on then! Desolé! (the family was having to pay for postage to receive his letters because he was stuffing them with several cards and letters and only putting one stamp on the envelope) I'm glad you were able to go up to Ken and Kims cabin! I am excited to see it! It sounds HUGE!!! compared to the green cabin. It doesn't take much though, to be bigger than the green cabin. I'm glad that fire is finally taken care of. (AZ largest fire that was just put out, the Wallow Fire) Man it burned so much!! 550,000 acres? Holy crap.
I'm glad you enjoyed my pictures and videos :) We definitely have fun in the MTC, but don't worry we are always working our butts off. We are stuffed in our classrooms for 10 hours throughout the day. It sucks big time but at the same time it is really good because we are all learning a lot. My French is definitely seeing improvement. Yesterday Elder Addington and I taught one of our progressive investigators and instead of him giving majority of the lesson it was about 50/50! So that is amazing! I know I am praying big time for the Lord to help me but I can tell others are praying. There is no way I could of done what I did yesterday, the day before. So thank you everyone for you prayers!! They are definitely helping :) Elder Addington and I are feeling the Spirit everyday and growing spiritually together. So all is well.
I hope this new schedule for Dad works out (His dad just shifted to a four day work week). That would be tough having longer days but maybe in the long run it will be better that he has Friday off? Time will tell. I can't believe that all his medical expenses billed up to that much!! (His dad also had a major heart attack three weeks before Christiaan left for his mission, he is doing remarkably well now). When I read that, I told my district that was sitting all around me in the laundry room. I hate laundry by the way. Thank you so much mom for spoiling me growing up.
I did get your package of letters. Thank you so much for those! I loved them so much! Especially Aidens (little 8 year old brother). Everytime I read a letter from him I laugh out loud! Thank you everyone for the letters and notes! You have no idea how much I look forward to hearing from the family. You should send me pictures of the family and stuff :) and like a photobook or something because the one I bought here at the bookstore is already full. I got a SWEET package from Tasha yesterday! She put a rubiks cube in and it is the best rubiks cube that I have ever used...sooo smooth. Just fyi the whole DearElder thing is amazing. When you guys DearElder me I get it the same day at around 6 in the evening. If I get a DearElder I promise to respond and have your letter in the mail the next day :) Communication will go a lot faster that way.
Other than that, the MTC is going well! I am loving every minute of it, even if every other minute of it I am stressed to the max. It is such an incredible experience. This Sunday was an answer to my prayers. I prayed and asked the Lord to 1) help me stay awake. Its so hard to do that. 2) Let me have a spiritual experience. 3) Bless me to learn more doctrine and have some of my personal questions answered. He definitely answered my prayers. Last Sunday was one of the most profound and spiritual experiences I have ever had on a Sunday. I had a huge doctrinal question answered. One that has been on my mind for months. I was wide awake the whole day and I felt the spirit the whole day. The Lord really does want to bless you when you follow the commandments and what not. I am definitely receiving answers to my prayers. This mission experience has been incredible. I love it!!
Je t'aime
Elder Schmid
I'm glad you enjoyed my pictures and videos :) We definitely have fun in the MTC, but don't worry we are always working our butts off. We are stuffed in our classrooms for 10 hours throughout the day. It sucks big time but at the same time it is really good because we are all learning a lot. My French is definitely seeing improvement. Yesterday Elder Addington and I taught one of our progressive investigators and instead of him giving majority of the lesson it was about 50/50! So that is amazing! I know I am praying big time for the Lord to help me but I can tell others are praying. There is no way I could of done what I did yesterday, the day before. So thank you everyone for you prayers!! They are definitely helping :) Elder Addington and I are feeling the Spirit everyday and growing spiritually together. So all is well.
I hope this new schedule for Dad works out (His dad just shifted to a four day work week). That would be tough having longer days but maybe in the long run it will be better that he has Friday off? Time will tell. I can't believe that all his medical expenses billed up to that much!! (His dad also had a major heart attack three weeks before Christiaan left for his mission, he is doing remarkably well now). When I read that, I told my district that was sitting all around me in the laundry room. I hate laundry by the way. Thank you so much mom for spoiling me growing up.
I did get your package of letters. Thank you so much for those! I loved them so much! Especially Aidens (little 8 year old brother). Everytime I read a letter from him I laugh out loud! Thank you everyone for the letters and notes! You have no idea how much I look forward to hearing from the family. You should send me pictures of the family and stuff :) and like a photobook or something because the one I bought here at the bookstore is already full. I got a SWEET package from Tasha yesterday! She put a rubiks cube in and it is the best rubiks cube that I have ever used...sooo smooth. Just fyi the whole DearElder thing is amazing. When you guys DearElder me I get it the same day at around 6 in the evening. If I get a DearElder I promise to respond and have your letter in the mail the next day :) Communication will go a lot faster that way.
Other than that, the MTC is going well! I am loving every minute of it, even if every other minute of it I am stressed to the max. It is such an incredible experience. This Sunday was an answer to my prayers. I prayed and asked the Lord to 1) help me stay awake. Its so hard to do that. 2) Let me have a spiritual experience. 3) Bless me to learn more doctrine and have some of my personal questions answered. He definitely answered my prayers. Last Sunday was one of the most profound and spiritual experiences I have ever had on a Sunday. I had a huge doctrinal question answered. One that has been on my mind for months. I was wide awake the whole day and I felt the spirit the whole day. The Lord really does want to bless you when you follow the commandments and what not. I am definitely receiving answers to my prayers. This mission experience has been incredible. I love it!!
Je t'aime
Elder Schmid
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Email 7/12/11
So I am kinda super jealous that you were able to go on that trip!(Mom got to go on a last minute trip to the Pacific Northwest) I have always wanted to go there cause it is soooo pretty! I was looking at those pictures that Caelan sent me of the dust storm... HOLY CRAP!!! I am so bummed I missed that!! I love storms like that! That looked so intense! Was there a lot of lightning and thunder? I love Arizona monsoons. Please please please send me pictures that I can have. Like pictures of everyone and everything. Emailing pictures is fine but I can't get them. If I want to print them, 5 minutes is taken off of my email timer soooo I would like to have them sent on paper :)
This week has been one filled with happiness, sorrow, frustration, madness, and love. The MTC does some weird things to you. The French is coming along. "Better slow than never" copyright Elder Van De Graaff. I can now hold a very very simple conversation, bear my testimony, and pray. I received some great advice from one of my branch presidency members. He said to look 1 day ahead and 2 weeks behind. That way you don't get overwelmed with what you need to do and you can also see all the progress you have made over the past two weeks. Looking back two weeks, I knew squat. So I think I am doing alright. So I have some big news. One of the Elders in my district went home because of seperation anxiety, so for a while we had 2 threesomes. They now split the threesomes and now there are 3 companionships. My companion is Elder Addington, which I am very happy about. Elder LaFleur is now with our DL Elder Frazier. Oh by the way, I sent a letter yesterday and in it is my memory card. I haven't even been here 2 weeks and I have almost filled a 4gb memory card. You're welcome. We have sooo much fun in the MTC and you will definitely see that in some of the videos :) Like getting shot by a bouncy ball, and after doing that math we figured out that it is going as fast as a paintball. Soooo fun. Don't ask me why. Je ne sais pas! It is way fun being here with Elder Arnold. Make sure you tell that to Bro and Sis Allred so they can tell Elder Allred. I bet he would be super stoked about that. I got a sweeeet package from Aunt Tasha yesterday!! I have such an awesome snack drawer right now. Whenever people want to write me have them use DearElder.com. Today I had like 17 emails and it's hard to get to every single one. So I just take pictures of the emails and write letters when I get back to my rez.
Well I will write you a letter with more info. Feel free to put the letters on the blog. They will have a lot of info that people may want to know. I just want you all to know that my testimony is growing stronger and stronger every single day. I KNOW that Jesus Christ lives. I KNOW that the Book of Mormon is true and that it is for us in the latter days. I know that the power of prayer is real. My prayers are answered everyday. It is so incredible to see how much the Lord loves me. I am so glad I am on a mission serving the Lord. This is where I need to be. C'est la vie!!
Je t'aime,
Elder Schmid
This week has been one filled with happiness, sorrow, frustration, madness, and love. The MTC does some weird things to you. The French is coming along. "Better slow than never" copyright Elder Van De Graaff. I can now hold a very very simple conversation, bear my testimony, and pray. I received some great advice from one of my branch presidency members. He said to look 1 day ahead and 2 weeks behind. That way you don't get overwelmed with what you need to do and you can also see all the progress you have made over the past two weeks. Looking back two weeks, I knew squat. So I think I am doing alright. So I have some big news. One of the Elders in my district went home because of seperation anxiety, so for a while we had 2 threesomes. They now split the threesomes and now there are 3 companionships. My companion is Elder Addington, which I am very happy about. Elder LaFleur is now with our DL Elder Frazier. Oh by the way, I sent a letter yesterday and in it is my memory card. I haven't even been here 2 weeks and I have almost filled a 4gb memory card. You're welcome. We have sooo much fun in the MTC and you will definitely see that in some of the videos :) Like getting shot by a bouncy ball, and after doing that math we figured out that it is going as fast as a paintball. Soooo fun. Don't ask me why. Je ne sais pas! It is way fun being here with Elder Arnold. Make sure you tell that to Bro and Sis Allred so they can tell Elder Allred. I bet he would be super stoked about that. I got a sweeeet package from Aunt Tasha yesterday!! I have such an awesome snack drawer right now. Whenever people want to write me have them use DearElder.com. Today I had like 17 emails and it's hard to get to every single one. So I just take pictures of the emails and write letters when I get back to my rez.
Well I will write you a letter with more info. Feel free to put the letters on the blog. They will have a lot of info that people may want to know. I just want you all to know that my testimony is growing stronger and stronger every single day. I KNOW that Jesus Christ lives. I KNOW that the Book of Mormon is true and that it is for us in the latter days. I know that the power of prayer is real. My prayers are answered everyday. It is so incredible to see how much the Lord loves me. I am so glad I am on a mission serving the Lord. This is where I need to be. C'est la vie!!
Je t'aime,
Elder Schmid
Sunday, July 10, 2011
HOLY CRAP!!! The MTC is nuts!! My first full day (Thursday) I was teaching an 'investigator' completely in French. Well I wasn't. I had no clue what was going on but my two companions can speak French pretty well so they pretty much carried the whole conversation. I am a part of this new Pilot program that the church is about to start using throughout all the MTC's in the world. Full submersion in the language. It is so hard. This is going to be sooo much harder than what I thought it would be like.
So my first day I asked Aunt DeAnn to drop me off early. I was with this early arrival group and we had lunch and a little introduction to what will be happening and stuff. I sat next to this kid from Chico, CA who knew Clayton Reidhead... random. I was then taken to my room and all my books and stuff were given to me and I met my companions. Elder LaFeur and Elder Addington. They are both way cool. My district is way cool. It has only been a week and I feel like I have known these guys for so long. Elder Arnold is in my district. He was in my EFY group 3 years ago when I was with Elder Allred. So it is cool being with him again. The days here are crazy. We sit in classrooms for HOURS. The first few days were soooo long but now it is just becoming routine. French is coming very slowly. I just look at the Elders who have been here 6 weeks and are speaking French and think to myself "that will be me in 6 weeks." Telling that to myself makes me feel better. Satan has been trying harder than ever to make me want to go home, but like before, every time he gets into my head I just say a prayer to our Heavenly Father asking to feel his love and his comfort and I can just sense him grabbing Satan by the neck and throwing him out. It is so awesome. I have never had such a desire to pray all day, everyday. I look forward to getting on my knees at night and thanking the Lord for the amazing experience that I am having right now. I am so grateful for so much. I have the most incredible family in the world and the best friends in the world. Anyways. So there are 5 guys including myself in my district that are going to Congo. Elder Hoiland, Nash, LaFleur, Addington, and moi. It will be awesome having people to travel across the world with. The rest of the Elders are going to France and one is going to the West Indies. Our teacher, Frère Parsons, went to the DRC mission. He was actually companions with Elder Palmer for a while. He was with Elder Palmer when that infamous pick pocket incident occurred. We sat in our classroom for about an hour yesterday and he was just telling us stories. It gets me so excited to go to Africa and to teach the Lords children!!
I hope all is well at home. I haven't really gotten homesick yet, but I am sure I will experience a little bit soon.. I just love you so much and I know that this is where I am supposed to be. The Church is true! Jesus Christ lived, died, and lives again! My testimony is growing by leaps and bounds everyday! It's incredible. Well I received like 20 emails and I only have 9 minutes left before it kicks me off. Expect a letter soon answering more questions. I put all the thank you notes in a couple envelopes and sent them home yesterday. You're in my prayers every night. I love you!
Je t'aime,
Elder Schmid
So my first day I asked Aunt DeAnn to drop me off early. I was with this early arrival group and we had lunch and a little introduction to what will be happening and stuff. I sat next to this kid from Chico, CA who knew Clayton Reidhead... random. I was then taken to my room and all my books and stuff were given to me and I met my companions. Elder LaFeur and Elder Addington. They are both way cool. My district is way cool. It has only been a week and I feel like I have known these guys for so long. Elder Arnold is in my district. He was in my EFY group 3 years ago when I was with Elder Allred. So it is cool being with him again. The days here are crazy. We sit in classrooms for HOURS. The first few days were soooo long but now it is just becoming routine. French is coming very slowly. I just look at the Elders who have been here 6 weeks and are speaking French and think to myself "that will be me in 6 weeks." Telling that to myself makes me feel better. Satan has been trying harder than ever to make me want to go home, but like before, every time he gets into my head I just say a prayer to our Heavenly Father asking to feel his love and his comfort and I can just sense him grabbing Satan by the neck and throwing him out. It is so awesome. I have never had such a desire to pray all day, everyday. I look forward to getting on my knees at night and thanking the Lord for the amazing experience that I am having right now. I am so grateful for so much. I have the most incredible family in the world and the best friends in the world. Anyways. So there are 5 guys including myself in my district that are going to Congo. Elder Hoiland, Nash, LaFleur, Addington, and moi. It will be awesome having people to travel across the world with. The rest of the Elders are going to France and one is going to the West Indies. Our teacher, Frère Parsons, went to the DRC mission. He was actually companions with Elder Palmer for a while. He was with Elder Palmer when that infamous pick pocket incident occurred. We sat in our classroom for about an hour yesterday and he was just telling us stories. It gets me so excited to go to Africa and to teach the Lords children!!
I hope all is well at home. I haven't really gotten homesick yet, but I am sure I will experience a little bit soon.. I just love you so much and I know that this is where I am supposed to be. The Church is true! Jesus Christ lived, died, and lives again! My testimony is growing by leaps and bounds everyday! It's incredible. Well I received like 20 emails and I only have 9 minutes left before it kicks me off. Expect a letter soon answering more questions. I put all the thank you notes in a couple envelopes and sent them home yesterday. You're in my prayers every night. I love you!
Je t'aime,
Elder Schmid
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