I will be looking for that bank info thing and I will send it back as soon as I can. Thanks for taking care of that for me. Thank you so much for getting me a calling card too. Brother Mangum is so awesome. I am so grateful that he was willing to get hold of you and give you some advice on that. I am so excited to see the videos of the family! Thank you so much for doing that! There is another memory card going to Alex that she will get tomorrow with a couple of videos for her, then she is going to bring it to you tomorrow night. I need you to copy everything off of that card and put it back in the mail for me Thursday morning so I can get it by Saturday cause Saturday will be the last day that I will receive any mail here at the MTC. I won't even be getting DearElders on Saturday, so if you want to send one of those, Friday at 11 your time is your deadline. Just a heads up. I finally got my travel plans!! here they are...
Delta Air Lines 86 LV: Salt Lake City 11:00 AM 9/05
AR: New York Kennedy 5:52 PM 9/05
Delta Air Lines 8557 LV: New York Kennedy 9:50 PM 9/05
AR: Paris, Chas De Gaulle 11:05 AM 9/06
Dela Air Lines 8556 LV: Paris, Chas De Gaulle 1:50 PM 9/06
AR: Douala, Cameroon 7:10 PM 9/06
Man, that sucked to type. So yeah there it is. I have no clue what the time difference is in those areas so figure it out and be expecting a call during that time! I can't wait to talk to all of you! I will definitely have a lot of time to talk so I am really stoked :)
I'm so glad that you had Alex over for dinner! Its so funny how all the kids act around her. She loves you guys so much. I'm glad you had a great stake conference! I have been able to listen to someone from the Seventy every week here at the MTC. We haven't had an apostle yet, and today is the last chance that I have to see an apostle here at the MTC so cross your fingers! Pres. Toone is such a spiritual giant. I love that man so much and I have so much respect for him. So Caelan was in the spot light the whole time?? I hope she didn't do anything embarrassing. The cameras here in the MTC are sometimes on the missionaries during the devotional and lots of missionaries act like immature kids when that happens and do really dumb things. You would think that being on a mission you would mature but nooooo. Not at all in a lot of cases. I have so many stories about that. I know that I am maturing. I can definitely see it. I am definitely thinking things through (There Caelan, I used the correct through) before I act or say things. When you mentioned the little language barrier an awesome quote came into my head that Frère Parsons told us before he left on his trip... "The language of the spirit is not curtailed by your own language." Something like that. But anywho, it is so true. Half the time in Sacrament meeting I have no clue what is being said but I can still feel the spirit. That is pretty funny what Elder Gavarret had so say about our stake. We are so blessed to be in the Mesa East Stake. Our stake rocks. I'm glad you guys had a good FHE. I am so sorry to hear about Jasmine and her baby. That has to be so rough. The beauty of our gospel though is that we have the knowledge of life after death, so it makes situations like that a little easier. And wow, I can't believe that someone died right there by the Turleys. I totally feel for Sister Durney and how that criminal is being memorialized for something bad. I would be very frustrated. I am getting upset right now just thinking and typing about it. Let the Durneys know that they are in my prayers. Wow, the dentist is raking in the dough from the Schmid family! What is happening! Why can't everyone be perfect with their teeth like me?! :)
So yes, I am totally ready to leave the MTC. You get to a point where you are just like "Alright, lets go. I'm done here." I love the MTC so much and I am so grateful for the experiences and lessons that I am having and learning here but I am ready to go to Africa and really start my mission. I don't really feel like I am on a mission yet. I am not nervous yet, but I am positive that I will be on Monday morning. All of the Congo elders fly together which is awesome! There is an elder going to Congo that leaves like 6 weeks after us and he has to fly alone... sucker. We have no clue where we are going yet. We will find out when we get there and the senior couple gives us our assignments. I can't believe Elder Palmer is already home. I remember looking at his blog for the first time and he had close to 6 months left. Time goes by so fast. I would love to have the companion who sings "In Our Lovely Deseret". I love that song so much. I love playing it on the piano when I have extra time after lunch or breakfast. My patriarchal blessing has helped me out so much. In some aspects, I would be so lost without it. That blessing always lets me know that the Lord knows ME. I have received so much comfort through that blessing.
Alright, now I am going to tell you about my week. So last Tuesday night I drank 32 oz. of Mtn Dew and I was so wired. I hadn't had caffeine in over a month and a half. It was incredible. So we all thought that for the devotional on Tuesday night there would be an apostle, so Elder Addington and I waited outside for an hour and a half to get goods seats. Well, an apostle didn't come so we were pretty bummed. It was still an awesome devotional though. Oh, and I found out that the little baby is going to be a boy!!! Awww yeah!! I am so excited for that!
Wednesday was good! For our service we hosted. Hosting is where you go and pick up the new missionaries when they are dropped off at the curb and you take them to get all their supplies and stuff. That was a lot of fun. I was playing basketball and I had to guard this elder that was at least 6'6 and I was playing awesome defense on him and even stuffing some of his shots :) That is such a good feeling! Especially when you see them get upset. When I was hosting I saw this elder get out of his car and he was wearing skating shoes and some "cool" sun glasses. He is in for a rude awakening. I played the piano for like an hour. One of the elders in my district, Elder Frazier, has the Jon Schmidt song book with "Onward Christian Soldiers" and he let me borrow it so I was playing that song over and over again. It was so awesome. And you and Dad celebrated your 21st wedding anniversary!! How does it feel?!
Thursday went very well. Sœur Cutler's half birthday was on Thursday so we decided to celebrate Christmas... no clue why. We just did and it was awesome! We even had Christmas lights hanging up on the wall and we sang Christmas hymns. I loved it so much. You will see some pictures on the memory card coming home. I got a lot of letters and DearElders on Thursday so that definitely made my day.
On Friday, we had In Field orientation. Basically an all day event where you go to classes and learn more about the mission field. All the missionaries that are leaving in the next week go to it. Well, since we were supposed to go on Monday we went to it and it was great. I learned a lot but I was so tired at the end of the day. I only wrote like 7 lines in my journal that night. I average like a page and a half everyday... I was so tired. Oh, and I got travel plans so that was so awesome cause I finally got the feeling of "Yes, I am finally going to Africa!!"
Saturday was awesome. I went to gym and played basketball. Everyday this week before I play basketball I get an ultrasound on my ankle and it feels so good cause it warms it up. I have this weird scar tissue build up though right on top of my ankle and it gets annoying when I bend it a certain way. I am hoping that it will go down while I am in Africa. I recorded a very long video for you guys so you will see that tomorrow.
Sunday was incredible. Sunday is always incredible here in the MTC. We had this awesome District President come and teach us. I took like 3 pages of notes just from him. He is such an awesome teacher. We had a special devotional for those that were departing this week and it was PACKED. The MTC president stood up and said that this was the largest group of missionaries to EVER leave the MTC. Over 530 of us. There are so many missionaries right now. I was also a part of the largest group to come into the MTC on June 29th. So that was cool. The real devotional that night was great. A counselor in the MTC presidency spoke about taking care of your self while on the mission. He said that whenever a missionary has a hernia in the mission field, it costs the church $15,000. So he was basically telling us to be careful and to not waste the churches money.
Monday was hard. Elders Arnold, Prows, Frazier, and Barney left. They have become such close friends. It was a bitter sweet time cause I was so happy that they were leaving on starting their missions but it was sad cause I wanted to go with them. We are all going to go to 6 flags together in the summer of 2013 :) It was weird going to class cause half of the class was gone. The only good thing was that Frère Parsons was back. I missed him so much. He is such an awesome teacher. We have all learned so much from him. An Elder in my district came to me at like 11 at night last night. He was knocking on my door and I almost didn't answer it cause I just wanted to finish writing in my journal. But I felt like I needed to and I am so glad I did. He came in and was so sad. He had just received news that a good friend of his just passed away in a car accident. His tire blew out and was ejected when it rolled. I felt so bad for him. I tried giving him the best advice I could. I am really grateful though that he came to me. He had 5 other guys to go to or he could not of told any one but he decided to come to me and talk to me about it. I see my patriarchal blessing coming to pass everyday here in the MTC. It was sad and I felt so bad for him but when we were done talking we both were feeling a lot better.
Today has been great! I went to the temple for the last time for 22 months. It was very special. I love going to the temple. When I get back from my mission it will be my goal to go at least once a week. Going once a week has blessed my life so much over the past couple of months. There are feelings that I have in the temple that I don't think I could feel anywhere else. It is so incredible.
So yeah that is how my week has been. Its crazy to think that the next time I email you I will be in Africa!! I can't wait!! I love you all so much and pray for you everyday!
Je t'aime beaucoup,
Elder Schmid
Delta Air Lines 86 LV: Salt Lake City 11:00 AM 9/05
AR: New York Kennedy 5:52 PM 9/05
Delta Air Lines 8557 LV: New York Kennedy 9:50 PM 9/05
AR: Paris, Chas De Gaulle 11:05 AM 9/06
Dela Air Lines 8556 LV: Paris, Chas De Gaulle 1:50 PM 9/06
AR: Douala, Cameroon 7:10 PM 9/06
Man, that sucked to type. So yeah there it is. I have no clue what the time difference is in those areas so figure it out and be expecting a call during that time! I can't wait to talk to all of you! I will definitely have a lot of time to talk so I am really stoked :)
I'm so glad that you had Alex over for dinner! Its so funny how all the kids act around her. She loves you guys so much. I'm glad you had a great stake conference! I have been able to listen to someone from the Seventy every week here at the MTC. We haven't had an apostle yet, and today is the last chance that I have to see an apostle here at the MTC so cross your fingers! Pres. Toone is such a spiritual giant. I love that man so much and I have so much respect for him. So Caelan was in the spot light the whole time?? I hope she didn't do anything embarrassing. The cameras here in the MTC are sometimes on the missionaries during the devotional and lots of missionaries act like immature kids when that happens and do really dumb things. You would think that being on a mission you would mature but nooooo. Not at all in a lot of cases. I have so many stories about that. I know that I am maturing. I can definitely see it. I am definitely thinking things through (There Caelan, I used the correct through) before I act or say things. When you mentioned the little language barrier an awesome quote came into my head that Frère Parsons told us before he left on his trip... "The language of the spirit is not curtailed by your own language." Something like that. But anywho, it is so true. Half the time in Sacrament meeting I have no clue what is being said but I can still feel the spirit. That is pretty funny what Elder Gavarret had so say about our stake. We are so blessed to be in the Mesa East Stake. Our stake rocks. I'm glad you guys had a good FHE. I am so sorry to hear about Jasmine and her baby. That has to be so rough. The beauty of our gospel though is that we have the knowledge of life after death, so it makes situations like that a little easier. And wow, I can't believe that someone died right there by the Turleys. I totally feel for Sister Durney and how that criminal is being memorialized for something bad. I would be very frustrated. I am getting upset right now just thinking and typing about it. Let the Durneys know that they are in my prayers. Wow, the dentist is raking in the dough from the Schmid family! What is happening! Why can't everyone be perfect with their teeth like me?! :)
So yes, I am totally ready to leave the MTC. You get to a point where you are just like "Alright, lets go. I'm done here." I love the MTC so much and I am so grateful for the experiences and lessons that I am having and learning here but I am ready to go to Africa and really start my mission. I don't really feel like I am on a mission yet. I am not nervous yet, but I am positive that I will be on Monday morning. All of the Congo elders fly together which is awesome! There is an elder going to Congo that leaves like 6 weeks after us and he has to fly alone... sucker. We have no clue where we are going yet. We will find out when we get there and the senior couple gives us our assignments. I can't believe Elder Palmer is already home. I remember looking at his blog for the first time and he had close to 6 months left. Time goes by so fast. I would love to have the companion who sings "In Our Lovely Deseret". I love that song so much. I love playing it on the piano when I have extra time after lunch or breakfast. My patriarchal blessing has helped me out so much. In some aspects, I would be so lost without it. That blessing always lets me know that the Lord knows ME. I have received so much comfort through that blessing.
Alright, now I am going to tell you about my week. So last Tuesday night I drank 32 oz. of Mtn Dew and I was so wired. I hadn't had caffeine in over a month and a half. It was incredible. So we all thought that for the devotional on Tuesday night there would be an apostle, so Elder Addington and I waited outside for an hour and a half to get goods seats. Well, an apostle didn't come so we were pretty bummed. It was still an awesome devotional though. Oh, and I found out that the little baby is going to be a boy!!! Awww yeah!! I am so excited for that!
Wednesday was good! For our service we hosted. Hosting is where you go and pick up the new missionaries when they are dropped off at the curb and you take them to get all their supplies and stuff. That was a lot of fun. I was playing basketball and I had to guard this elder that was at least 6'6 and I was playing awesome defense on him and even stuffing some of his shots :) That is such a good feeling! Especially when you see them get upset. When I was hosting I saw this elder get out of his car and he was wearing skating shoes and some "cool" sun glasses. He is in for a rude awakening. I played the piano for like an hour. One of the elders in my district, Elder Frazier, has the Jon Schmidt song book with "Onward Christian Soldiers" and he let me borrow it so I was playing that song over and over again. It was so awesome. And you and Dad celebrated your 21st wedding anniversary!! How does it feel?!
Thursday went very well. Sœur Cutler's half birthday was on Thursday so we decided to celebrate Christmas... no clue why. We just did and it was awesome! We even had Christmas lights hanging up on the wall and we sang Christmas hymns. I loved it so much. You will see some pictures on the memory card coming home. I got a lot of letters and DearElders on Thursday so that definitely made my day.
On Friday, we had In Field orientation. Basically an all day event where you go to classes and learn more about the mission field. All the missionaries that are leaving in the next week go to it. Well, since we were supposed to go on Monday we went to it and it was great. I learned a lot but I was so tired at the end of the day. I only wrote like 7 lines in my journal that night. I average like a page and a half everyday... I was so tired. Oh, and I got travel plans so that was so awesome cause I finally got the feeling of "Yes, I am finally going to Africa!!"
Saturday was awesome. I went to gym and played basketball. Everyday this week before I play basketball I get an ultrasound on my ankle and it feels so good cause it warms it up. I have this weird scar tissue build up though right on top of my ankle and it gets annoying when I bend it a certain way. I am hoping that it will go down while I am in Africa. I recorded a very long video for you guys so you will see that tomorrow.
Sunday was incredible. Sunday is always incredible here in the MTC. We had this awesome District President come and teach us. I took like 3 pages of notes just from him. He is such an awesome teacher. We had a special devotional for those that were departing this week and it was PACKED. The MTC president stood up and said that this was the largest group of missionaries to EVER leave the MTC. Over 530 of us. There are so many missionaries right now. I was also a part of the largest group to come into the MTC on June 29th. So that was cool. The real devotional that night was great. A counselor in the MTC presidency spoke about taking care of your self while on the mission. He said that whenever a missionary has a hernia in the mission field, it costs the church $15,000. So he was basically telling us to be careful and to not waste the churches money.
Monday was hard. Elders Arnold, Prows, Frazier, and Barney left. They have become such close friends. It was a bitter sweet time cause I was so happy that they were leaving on starting their missions but it was sad cause I wanted to go with them. We are all going to go to 6 flags together in the summer of 2013 :) It was weird going to class cause half of the class was gone. The only good thing was that Frère Parsons was back. I missed him so much. He is such an awesome teacher. We have all learned so much from him. An Elder in my district came to me at like 11 at night last night. He was knocking on my door and I almost didn't answer it cause I just wanted to finish writing in my journal. But I felt like I needed to and I am so glad I did. He came in and was so sad. He had just received news that a good friend of his just passed away in a car accident. His tire blew out and was ejected when it rolled. I felt so bad for him. I tried giving him the best advice I could. I am really grateful though that he came to me. He had 5 other guys to go to or he could not of told any one but he decided to come to me and talk to me about it. I see my patriarchal blessing coming to pass everyday here in the MTC. It was sad and I felt so bad for him but when we were done talking we both were feeling a lot better.
Today has been great! I went to the temple for the last time for 22 months. It was very special. I love going to the temple. When I get back from my mission it will be my goal to go at least once a week. Going once a week has blessed my life so much over the past couple of months. There are feelings that I have in the temple that I don't think I could feel anywhere else. It is so incredible.
So yeah that is how my week has been. Its crazy to think that the next time I email you I will be in Africa!! I can't wait!! I love you all so much and pray for you everyday!
Je t'aime beaucoup,
Elder Schmid
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