Hey Mom :)

I just want to start off by telling you how much I love you and how
grateful I am for your awesome emails. I am so happy for Kamas and
Brie! Kamas is such a stud. I was laughing so hard when I read your
little comment about DJ. I have so much respect for him. Even if he
sends me questionable gifts. I look up to him so much. He has been
on my mind a lot lately... and now I think I know why. I am so happy for
Dallin!! It sounds like he is doing great! I sent him a little letter
today along with my memory cards. I copied all of my photos over on
another memory card in case these get "misplaced" but I doubt they
will. It sounds like you have already seen a lot of pictures from the
Thompsons and Jamesons blog so you will probably be seeing the same
pictures a couple of times. I'm sorry I can't email that many
pictures home. I am to obstinate to take pictures with a lower quality
setting so it takes forever to load. But if this mailing thing works out
that will be great. There are two memory cards in this envelope. When you
send them back try sending one in a letter to me and send another
one in a package. I'm curious to see if the one in the envelope will get
to me. Ashlyn is such a cutie. I was smiling when you were telling
me her little award that she received. I love my family so much. I hope
you know that. Have you received my letter yet?

So, this next paragraph is going to be all over the place. I wrote down things I wanted to tell you on a little piece of paper so everything that I am about to tell you will go in no order at all. Sorry :) So, this week I saw a silver mini cooper! It was so random but cool! It got me excited for when I get home cause I will be getting opas :) Elder Lamb and I went to this mans house to teach him the first lesson and when we got to the door there was this lady changing a child's
diaper on her lap and we asked her if the man was there and she said
that he just left, and then she looked at me and said "vous êtes mignon." (You're so cute) I didn't really know what she said so I said "quoi?" and I looked at Elder Lamb and he just gave a little smile and said "merci, votre bébé est mignon aussi." (Thanks, you're baby is cute too) When he said that I realized what she said. If was nice to hear someone say that I was cute but it was
totally weird at the same time. One of our investigators, Jimmy, introduced us to one of his customers at his garage and his name is Francois. Francois is so legit! We sat down with him for 15 minutes and talked to him about our missionary purpose and why we are here in
Cameroon and we invited him to baptism on December 3rd and he said
that he will be baptized! He told us that he wanted to be with us...
to have what we have. He is so awesome. On Sunday, we had a lesson with
all of our amis (friends) about the spirit world, taught by one of the branch
missionaries, and then it somehow turned into a discussion about
baptisms for the dead. Well, at the end, Francois turned to me and
explained how that lesson was so incredible and how it was an answer
to his prayers. Evidently, he had a son that passed away and he was
always nervous for him and he told me that all of his questions are
now answered and that he didn't worry anymore. I saw true happiness
and it was so incredible. We had a rendez-vous with this ami named
Nadaje and it was a very powerful lesson and at the end we asked if we
could sing a cantique (hymn), and as she was looking for a cantique to sing I
felt inspired to ask her to sing Cantique 65 "Va, ne crais pas" (Be
Still My Soul) and so we did and at the very end I watched Nadeje sing
the very last line and she sat there and and looked at that sentence
and then just started crying. I would try to translate it for you but
I am to lazy to get out my little cantique book and do it... sorry. It
was such a sweet moment and I know without a doubt that the Lord
inspired me to request that song. So, I was in a rendez-vous with Jimmy
and in the middle of the lesson he looked at my sandal and pointed out
that it was ripped so he told one of his employees to come over and he
took off my sandal and went and got it fixed and brought it back in
like 10 minutes. He didn't make me pay for it or anything. Jimmy is so
awesome. He is getting baptized on Saturday. He was the captain on
Cameroons rugby team. He is such a beast. His arm is like the size of
my neck...maybe even bigger. He could tear me apart if he wanted. He
is such a gentle giant. It is so incredible to see the change in his
life that has come because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I was
walking to a rendez-vous with Elder Lamb one night and these two girls
ran up to us and started walking with us. One of the girls was one of
the people that we were going to go teach and she was with here
friend. Well, her friend told me that her name was Natascha and I was
like "hey, that's my aunts name!" and I showed her a picture that I
have in my photobook of Tasha and I, and then she got really weird
after that. She started "brushing up" against me and tried to hold my
hand. It was super awkward. I started walking with my hands on my
backpack straps or on my head. So, here in Africa we have a problem...
We ask people to pray to know if what we are telling them is true and
they look at us and say, "I already know it is true! I don't need to
pray!" We have a hard time explaining to them why they really need to
pray. It is so cool to sit back and think about that problem. That is
such a cool problem to have! People here are so faithful. One
morning one of our amis called us and told us that they couldn't see
us so we spent 45 minutes calling around trying to fill that open slot
up but everyone was busy. We eventually gave up and just said, "God
will provide" and left it at that. Well, God definitely provided. We
went to Jimmy's garage to teach Jimmy but he wasn't there, but Francois
was, so, we decided to teach him and we had an incredible lesson with him.
His progression is on fire! By the way this man is progressing, he will
be a branch president in just a couple of weeks! So, one day I was
walking by this gas station and this little beggar kid came up to me
and started holding my hand and he held out his free hand in a cupping
shape begging for money. Well, it is against the rules as missionaries
to give money, so I told him no and kept on walking. He ran up to
me again and latched onto my legs and wouldn't let go, so I picked him
up and set him down and forcefully said no and ran across a busy
street with Elder Lamb to get a taxi. All the "tough" moto guys were
all giving me crap for not giving him money, but hey I can't break the
rules! Well, the next morning I was at Mosiah 4 in my personal study
and that chapter is all about giving to the poor and needy. I felt
like crap after reading that... Benjamin chastized me a little bit. I
mentally changed vs 24 to "I give not because I can not, but if I
could I would." That made me feel a little bit better. Hey, remember
when I was little you would comb my hair all nice and tell me how GQ I
look?? Well, I am sporting that look again :) I don't know why... I
just am. I am not cutting my hair until Christmas so it is going to
get nice and long. It is actually pretty long right now. So this lady
fed me one day and she kept on loading all these noodles onto my plate
and I easily had like 7 servings on my plate and when she finished
putting all that food on my plate I said under my breath "holy cow"
and right when I said that she looked at me and said "my last baby
could eat all of that!" If that is true, than her baby is a monster
cause that was so much food.

Well, that was all I wanted to tell you. Sorry it was so scattered. I
can't believe that it has been 11 years since Grandpa has passed away.
He may physically be gone but spiritually he is with me every day. I
have felt his presence so much. He is helping me so much out here :)

I want you to send me a lot of pictures and a MEAD 5 star notebook
with 8.5x11 paper. I need more letter paper and the paper here
sucks. If you are ever curious with what to send, send me ties. Also, Don't
worry about Christmas and my birthday. Just put money or something in
my account so I will have a little for when I get home so I can have
some for school and what not.

My ankle is still swollen and it pops every time I move it a certain
way. Is that alright? It doesn't hurt at all.

Well, I hope all is well. I love you so much. Thanks for being so
great. I pray for you and the family every day. I love you mom :)

Avec amour,
Elder Schmid

Yaounde 10/24/11

Hey Mom :)

So I just want to let you know that I wrote you such a good letter
and it will be in the mail tomorrow :) If this letter doesn't make you
cry... then I have failed. This letter is legit. I loved writing this
letter. I love you so much :) There is one for Dad, too. I miss you all
so much!

So this past week was pretty good! It has been the slowest week out of
my stay here in Africa but it was still great! Elder Lamb and I have
such awesome investigators. We seriously bear testimony and people
just believe us. We left this one family with a commitment to read 3
Nephi 11 and they failed to do so, so we read it with them in our next
rendez-vous, and while we were reading it and explaining it, the Spirit
was so strong. And it was all in English :) At the end, we asked them
if they believed what they had just read and they looked at us like we
were stupid and said basically, "Yes! Of course we believe it! It's the
word of God!" Yup... only in Africa.

On Wednesday, we were at the church waiting for coordination meeting to start and we were talking to this young man named Junior and he was telling us how he was super
stressed with work and school and stuff and he asked us to give him a
blessing. He asked me to give the blessing, and I did. I have such
a firm testimony now that if you trust the Lord, He WILL put the words
in your head that you need to say. It felt so good. I love feeling the
Lords help so much. I love having the spirit!! I love my life!!! Oh,
and I met a guy named Carlos on Wednesday... that was random. We have
this awesome investigator named Nadeje and every time we leave her
with something to read, she reads all of it and when we meet with her
again she explains everything she read to us and gives us a very
detailed summary of what she read. She has so much faith and desire.
She is set to be baptized on November 5th. That is when we have our
next baptismal service. We have 3 set for that date and we have 5 set
for November 19th and we plan on adding 5 more for November 19th. Of
course, things never go as planned here, but we tend to stick to what
we have planned. I love this work so much!! On Saturday, we had our
"General Conference." Everyone went to the church and we watched the
Saturday sessions and then the men watched Priesthood. It was all in
French with no subtitles, so I understood barely anything. Aaand it
was in French French...not African French so that made it even more
difficult. So I just decided to write you and Dad letters. We get the
Liahona in a few weeks with all the talks and the Thompson's have it
downloaded on their computers so I am going to go over there and put
it on my iPod. The Thompson's are so awesome. They are such a blessing
to the missionaries here. I am soooo grateful for all that they do.
They really feel like my mom and dad out here. When MoTab was singing
everyone else would sing and it was pretty bad cause they totally sang
at different tempos... so the people here would finish one song and
the choir would still have like 2 measures left. And then there were
some key changes... that made things pretty funny. It was great
though! The people here have such an incredible spirit.

I saw some pretty crazy things on Saturday. We were driving home and we pulled up
into traffic and I was watching this lady walk by the car with this
huge bowl on her head when a car slammed into a parked car right next
to us! That lady was almost nailed! The car that was hit flew under a
truck and lifted the truck up... and I was right there! I was less
than 20 feet away! It was crazy! Right as I heard the noise I looked
at the car that crashed and I saw the guy bouncing around a little bit
in his front seat. Sucks for him. Then I saw a man walking down the
road and he had nothing on but a cloth covering his crotch... his butt
was in plain view. Oh Cameroon. And then we saw a man standing in a
sewer peeing... at least he didn't miss. And then Elder Lamb saw this
man changing and was completely naked. The guy thought he would change
behind a door...well the door had a fat window in it so the privacy
thing didn't work out too well.

On Sunday, we watched the Sunday sessions of Conference. It was great. I just finished your letter and the letter for Dad. We then went and taught this lady named Soeur Marthe. We actually call here Mama Marthe. She is so awesome. We were
so thirsty so we asked for some water because she has filtered water and
she didn't have any at the moment so she called for her daughter and
told her to go buy some. Elder Lamb tried to fight it and tell her to
not worry about it and to not buy things on Sunday and she turned to
him and said "I'm not baptized yet! I can buy water." It was pretty
funny. I quietly laughed... he then looked at me to back him up and I
said "Sorry bud, I am so thirsty right now" and then I smiled :) That
water was so refreshing. So that was my week!

I'm going to try to answer your questions. We had transfers 2 weeks
ago but nothing changed. All the new missionaries and their trainers
are on this new 12 week program that the big guys up top have come up
with. So I will definitely be with Elder Lamb my first two transfers
and hopefully for more. I love Elder Lamb so much. It is so easy for
me to open up with him and be myself. I am so blessed to have him as
my companion. No, no one has tried to pick pocket me yet. I don't
think I will run into problems with that. I don't carry my wallet on
me anyways or anything of great importance. Except for the Word of
God! And that will definitely benefit whomever steals it. So no worries
there.

I am so glad that Justin and Janalyn's baby is doing better. Poor
thing. They were in my prayers and still are. I hope Kurt feels
better. I'm scared to give advice because I don't want people thinking
"well you have it so much easier than he does because people just flock
to you in Africa." Whoever thinks that is wrong. No matter where you are you have so many struggles. They will all vary but we ALL have them. My advice for Kurt would be to always fall on
his testimony. The thing that picks me up when I am down is when I
think of eternal families. I always look at our family photos and that
always picks me up. I love bearing testimony that families can be
together forever. I haven't had the opportunity to read Kurt's email,
but that is what I would tell him. I'll see if I can shoot him a quick
email. I am so glad that he and I are out here together. I respect
him so much and really look up to him.

I can't wait to get the packages! I will probably wait to open them on
Christmas so I can actually have gifts! I can't believe that that is
two months away. Time goes by so fast! You should all send me letters
too :) Well that is about it for this week! I love you so much and I
pray for you everyday!

Love,
Elder Schmid

Yaounde 10/17/11

Hi Mom :)

This past week was so incredible! We had an awesome rendez-vous and
everything! We also had 3 baptisms! I haven't even been here a month
and a half and I already have 9 baptisms. The work here is so crazy. I
will probably never have the chance to go out and actually knock
doors. My entire day, besides morning studies, consists of lesson after
lesson. The only time we have to talk to people, who are not our
investigators, is when they call us over when we are walking down the
street. Many of them just say "Hey! I want you to preach to me!" So we
do... and we give them a Restoration brochure and bear our
testimonies. It is so incredible how much work there is here and how
busy we are. I am loving every single minute of it.

Something really special happened for me on Saturday. So, remember from
my first email when I told you about my very first baptismal
invitation? It was on my very first day that I worked... I believe it
was 9.08.2011. Well anywho, the young man who I extended the
invitation to is named Franky. Well, when I invited him to be baptized
he basically said "yes, this is something I have been waiting for my
whole life." So, I was just blown away... because that was my first day!
Well, we found out that he wasn't in our area... like 100 yards into
another sector, so we had to hand him over and we weren't able to
teach him. Well, he was baptized on Saturday and he asked me to
baptize him! It was so awesome! Right as he got out of his interviews
he came to me and said "Because I was the first person you invited to
baptism, I want you to baptize me." I was so touched that he
recognized that. He knew how much it meant to me. I am so blessed that
I had the opportunity to baptize him. It was incredible.

So, this weekend we had a surprise trip from the Jamesons! They came
Thursday night and they stayed until today! It was so awesome! We had a
zone conference at the Thompsons on Friday morning and it was great.
We went over this new program that all the new missionaries around the
world are using. We all have portable DVD players and we watch
training materials. We discussed how it was helping the companionships
with the work. I love it so much. We had tuna fish sandwiches with
cheese for lunch... and guess what? I ate it! My stomach is definitely
adjusting. The other day I was craving fish... that was a little
weird. That is something that has never occured in my life. So anywho,
the Jamesons... so yeah, they were here and Sister Jameson was able to
come to the baptism. We had 7 people baptized out of our zone on
Saturday. The next day we confirmed them in church and I confirmed
this young man we baptized whose name is Aimé. I was scared out of my
mind. I felt like my heart was going to beat right out of my chest and
land on his head as I was performing the ordinance. The Lord really
helped me out though with the French. I was actually really surprised
with how I did. The Lord has really blessed me this past week
with the language. I walked up to this man the other day and started
to have a strait up legit conversation about the spirit... and it was
all in French and I was basically understanding almost everything he
was saying! It was so incredible. President and Sister Jameson came up
to me after sacrament meeting and told me how impressed they were with
my French and they couldn't believe that that was my first
confirmation in French. It was all the Lord. This morning, President
came to our apartment to do interviews... I don't think our apartment
has ever gotten so clean so fast. I have so much respect for President
Jameson. He is such a spiritual giant.

Alright, so I am going to try my best to answer all of your questions.
Sorry this email is so scattered... I get so stressed when I email
cause I have such little time and I have so much to tell you. I have
received both of Natascha's packages. The first one only cost me 1000
cfa and the second one didn't cost me anything. Elder Prince, who
lives in my apartment, has received 3 of those flat rate boxes that
you would send and 3 of those boxes cost him 18,000. So those
envelopes are the way to go. You can send me a lot :) I get mail
whenever the couple in Douala sends the packages and mail in a bus up
to Yaoundé or if they travel up here. So I have been lucky lately
because they sent a box, and then the Jamesons brought up a box with
them when they came. Yes, people just never smile when they are in
pictures. I don't know why... Yes, I have used my debit card here.
Only one though and that was when I went to the bank last Monday to
take out some money. I took out 40,000 cfa. I don't want to go to the
bank all the time because it is out of the way, so I pulled it out and I
keep it in my suitcase at the apartment. And about the stuff I want in
packages. Just send me whatever. I will eat anything... any kind of
food that is from America is better than anything I can buy here.

Well, I hope all is well. I am very excited for the baby! I can't
believe that you will be having the baby so soon! Holy cow! I really
hope you have it before Christmas so I can see him when I skype you. I
think I will be able to skype... I still have over two months to
figure that one out. Have you thought of any names? Well, time is up.
I pray for you every day. I hope every one is doing well. I love you
Mom :)

Avec amour,
Elder Schmid

Baptism in Yaounde 10/1/11

Christiaan with Prince (left) and Junior (right)
All got baptized on October 1, 2011

10/10/2011

Hey mom!

The internet at the Thompsons is not working right now so I am typing this up in Word and hopefully the internet will be on by the time I finish so I can send it to you. I can’t believe that it is already P-Day. Time goes by so fast. You are ALWAYS busy as a missionary so I guess that helps with having the time go by faster.

So I saw something crazy as I was walking over to the Thompsons. I heard all this squeaking like birds and I looked up and there were thousands of bats flying right above me. There were soooo many. There was like a river of bats stretching over this little part of town. It was just like those things you see on the geography channel. It was pretty cool. Tons of them were landing in this tree right next to me and hanging upside down. That is probably the wildest thing that I have seen here in Africa. Well, I also saw one of those tiny monkeys tied to a rope like on my first day here. Other than that I have seen nothing... just a lot of goats and dogs that look like they are about to die. It is the saddest thing. Haha wow, speaking of dogs... I totally forgot about Ruffles! How is that stupid dog doing? Is she ever going to have babies?

So this past week was a great week! Miracles are happening every day over here in Yaoundé. I am so blessed that the Lord has allowed me to be a part of his work over here at this time. The missionary work here in Africa is so incredible. We are always sooo busy. Our biggest problem is not having enough time to see all of our investigators. That is a good problem to have though I guess.

Monday was interesting. We had one of our investigators confess their love for Elder Lamb. That has been the culprit of many jokes this past week. All is well though. She is moving to Douala right after she will get baptized so we won't have to really worry about anything. We just don't teach her anymore. We gave here to some other missionaries because of the rules.

We have this family that we are trying so hard to get baptized and they were making good progress until they saw this stupid special on TV and it was all about polygamy and how Joseph Smith had more than one wife and how the Mormon church has two prophets right now... one of them being Warren Jeffs. That really made for an interesting rendez-vous. I had no clue what to say... Elder Lamb is such a stud. He can handle any situation. I am seriously so blessed to have him as my companion. I won't totally be down if I was the one to kill him (I know you probably don't know what that means. To kill a missionary means to be his last companion before he goes home). It is so neat that we are cousins too. We are such a solid companionship. I truly believe that Pres. Jameson received divine inspiration with putting us two together :) Elder Lamb is awesome. Well anywho, I had no clue what to say at that one rendez-vous so I started bearing my testimony of how families can be together forever and I busted out this photo book that I always carry with me with pictures of the family and friends. The mood totally changed that she loved hearing that families can be together forever. I love that so much about our gospel... that we have the knowledge that we will be together forever :) I love my family so much!

On Tuesday morning Elder Lamb and I didn't know what to do for study for companionship study so I started flipping through my Preach My Gospel (for all you soon to be missionaries... STUDY PREACH MY GOSPEL!!) and I was thinking in my head "hmmm... what does the Lord want me to learn today?" and I randomly stopped on a page and it was the page about family history. So we studied that section and man was I blown away. I can't believe how lazy I was before my mission. I am just starting to scratch the surface of why temple work is so important. I am finally realizing what the Spirit of Elijah is and why it is so important. I had some in depth studies of D& C 138 too... and after studying those I was so embarrassed... I was so lazy growing up. Our ancestors' salvation hangs in the balance... they are waiting for us to complete their work cause they don't have bodies. THEIR SALVATION!! I treasure the temple so much more now... It's sad to think that I won't be able to go visit one for another 21 months. I guess I will be that much more grateful for it though when I get back. So anyway... we studied the family history part and decided we were going to use it when we had a chance to contact. We prayed for the opportunity to share what we had learned and the Lord answered our prayer just about 3 hours later. We were walking down the street and this Anglophone man called us over and said "Hey come preach to me!" So we did. Elder Lamb right away started talking about family history and genealogy and then we started talking about eternal families. We asked this man "Did you know that you can be with your family forever? Even after death?" And when we said that he went "Really?! That is so
amazing!!" He was soooo excited to hear that! I have never seen so much excitement coming out of someone after hearing something like that. It was so incredible and sweet. He began to tell us how much he loves his family and how he wants to be with them forever. We went on to tell him how he can and we gave him a brochure on the Plan du Salut and we bore our testimonies and went on our way. It was so incredible. That man was a civil engineer by the way. He was working on the sewers that lined the road we were walking on.

So when it rains in Africa, it POURS. And it always rains when we don't have an umbrella. Whenever we think it will rain, it doesn't. There was one night were I was walking through a river of muddy water in my sandals. I was sooo wet. But we made it to our rendez-vous and taught an awesome lesson! And then went right back out into the rain. The sewers on the sides of the roads turn into raging rivers whenever it rains. It is actually pretty cool.

Well this week I was able to go on splits with a couple of missionaries. Do you remember when you mentioned how Elder Palmers last companion always sang "In Our Lovely Deseret?" Well, that is Elder Wagman and we are in the same apartment. I mentioned that to him and right away he started singing it in French. He is an awesome guy. I went on a split with him and then right after I went on another
split with Elder Tingey. He works over in Bastos... over by the palace. Elder Tingey is so awesome. I had the most amazing personal study over at the Bastos apartment where I slept over. I had a D&C study manual and I used that and studied D& C 137-138. Those sections are so full of incredible doctrine. I love studying the scriptures so much!! Elder Tingey has a great uncle who lives in the same ward as
Pres. and Sis. Jameson over in Tempe... Would we know him? I believe his name is Sherman Tingey. Not quite sure. I wrote it down in my other planner and forgot to bring it with me.

On Sunday Cameroon had their elections... or "come and vote, and no matter who you vote for Paul Biya will be president" day. All the missionaries were told to not proselyte so I studied a whole lot and wrote a much needed letter. It was a very nice and relaxing day.

Well that is about it. I love my life. There is nowhere else I would rather be right now... well maybe the Celestial Kingdom. That would be pretty cool. I love you and I hope you are having fun up at Mt. Graham. I love you Mom :)

Love,
Elder Schmid

Yaounde 10/3/11

So I have no time to read what you put in this email and there is so much I want to tell you so I have just been taking pictures of everybody's emails and I will read them tonight when I am back at the apartment.

So...TEMPLE COMING TO KINSHASA!!! I am so excited for those people!! That actually doesn't affect anyone here in Cameroon. It will be cheaper for them to go the the temple in Nigeria... the only problem there is that it is an English temple. But none the less, I am so stoked! Everyone started screaming when they announced it! I actually missed the announcement. Elder Lamb and I were at this families house. We had just baptized the Mom and two sons and they invited us over for some food and we felt like we should be there, so we went.

So, this past week it seems like every woman has decided to expose themselves and feed their kids. Up until this week I was fortunate enough to have not been around that... then BAM!! It hit... It is so disgusting... and awkward... and weird... It was weird when I was around ladies in the states and they had a blanket over them. Over here they just pull down their shirt and let it hang.

There was also one day where Elder Lamb and I got in a taxi and it was just us and then, one by one, people kept on getting in until there were 9 of us stuffed into this little taxi. It was so cramped! I took a little picture. I'll see if I can send it home when I get the next opportunity.

Alright, so we had four baptisms this week! We baptized this man named Yves and this Mother (Soeur Kemlé) and her two children, Junior and Prince. It was so awesome! I was able to baptize Yves and Soeur Kemlé. I wasn't originally planning on baptizing her until the day of, when she came to me and said that I was going to baptize her. She then went on to tell me about a dream she had had about a year ago of her baptism and she said that I was the one baptizing her. Cool huh?! She is a very large lady... So I was kind nervous about the baptism. I didn't want to look like a fool. The Lord definitely helped me out though. I guess she is super scared of water. The first time I went to dunk her she shot right out of the water before her head went under... so then I did it again and she shot out again... so on the third time I totally shoved her under water because my arms were getting tired. It worked! She shot right out again but it was after she was completely immersed! Oh, and her full name has like 6 names... it was ridiculous. So that was my interesting baptism. Yves went down with out a hitch which was nice.

I finished reading "Our Search for Happiness" this week in personal study and after reading that I am so much more grateful for the power of the priesthood. Looking back in life, some of my happiest moments have been with the family. I am so grateful that we are all sealed together for all time and eternity. I really wish I could say more but I am so rushed with this email... one hour isn't enough for me. I have started reading "Jesus the Christ". I read the first page and that man made me feel like I don't know English. He uses very big words... haha. I love it though. I love the doctrines that he talks about and the detail he goes into.

So after the Kemlé's baptisms they invited us over to their house for some dinner. We felt like we needed to be there so we decided to go, even though we knew that we would miss the beginning of Conference. Well, I was very lucky cause they served........ fish. Whole fish. With the eyeballs. I ate it though... but it was hard. They have this super super super spicy stuff here called Pima and she put a huge spoon full on my plate (this stuff is spicier than sambal). I picked up a fried plantain off of my plate and checked it to make sure there wasn't that much pima on it and I shoved it in my mouth. Well, stupid me forgot to check the bottom. The whole bottom was covered in pima. Like enough pima for 3 people... and I ate it in one bite. After that bite I was done with dinner. It felt like my mouth was literally on fire... and they didn't have any water. So it was pretty bad. But, I just want you to know that I haven't refused any food here. I have eaten everything. Be proud :)

I just want you to know that I love you so much and I am so grateful for all that you do and for all your prayers. I really need them, and I have really been noticing answers to my prayers and yours. I hope all is well. I can't wait to read this whole email tonight!

Je t'aime,
Elder Schmid

PS - so I was scrolling down the email and I saw that you were saying something about Grandpa. I haven't read what you wrote but I just want you to know that I have been listening to "Onward Christian Soldiers" every single night and every time that song comes on I stop what I am doing and close my eyes and listen... and every time I do I can honestly feel Grandpas presence and a feeling that he is proud of me. There are some nights where I honestly believe that he is there with his hands on my shoulders. It is so incredible. I KNOW that he has helped me out so much out here.

10/01/2011 Temple in Kinshasa

In the first session of the October 2011 General Conference, President Monson announced new temples to be built around the world...with on of them to be built in Kinshasa, DR Congo! I can only imagine how exciting this news is to the members in that area; I can only imagine the excitement of the missionaries as they heard this news! We were told the missionaries will be at the senior couples apartments to see the first two sessions of conference, I really hope that was the case, that they were able to hear this direct from President Monson...what a tremendous spiritual boost to the church and missionary work there! We will post Elder Schmid's email when we receive it. Can't wait to hear about the reaction in Africa!

Emile Schmid (dad)