Email 7/26/11

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