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