Hello Mom!

So, myldsmail.net isn't working for me right now so I am on my gmail. I have no clue what's up... the past two weeks it has been acting up on me. So I haven't read your email yet. I am going to write out everything and try to check to see if the other email will open and read your email and answer questions... Allors je suis désolé! (Therefore, I'm sad)

This past week has been awesome! I love working with Elder Pister so much. This kid is so awesome! We are always laughing and having a good time... and working hard, of course. This past week though has been a bummer. It has been a week of ratévous ... Even with all the ratévous we were still able to pull off 21 lessons, so I am not too bummed.

So, here are some funny things that have happened in the last week. Elder Pister and I were with this family and they invited me to say the closing prayer and as I was praying, one of the women, who is about 30 years old, farted sooo loud! I almost busted up laughing in the middle of the prayer, so I had to pause for a couple of seconds to regain my composure and then continue. I am just super happy that we were able to finish and get out of there before the smell wreaked havoc. I was walking back from the Thompsons with Elder Pister and I started talking to these little kids that we were passing... just saying the 'good evenings' and what not and then I continued walking this older girl said hi to me and then said in her Cameroonian English, "I like your height." I didn't really know what to say, so I just said thank you and kept on walking. I guess it's nice to know someone likes my height over here. I feel like a giant sometimes.

Something terrible happened on Thursday... Elder Pister and I were waiting by the taxi trying to get across town and as I was standing there we heard all of this screaming and so we looked over and there was this HUGE mob and in the front was this man walking shirtless and he was all bloodied up. People were throwing huge rocks at his head and body and they were kicking him in the face... basically killing him. A taxi quickly pulled up and picked us up right as the group got to us... I was so traumatized. They were basically killing a man right in front of my eyes. Here in Cameroon, well actually in a lot of African countries, if they catch a thief they will beat him and sometimes kill him. In Douala, sometimes they stone them with huge cinder blocks and other times they will throw them in a huge stack of tires and light them on fire... It is so sad. Every time we talk to people about it they always say it's better that way. Basically, the thief learns his lesson... or dies. It is such a different world over here. It was so scary. It was right in front of the prison and the guards did absolutely nothing. I don't ever want to see that again... it is so different when you see violence like that in real life. I am fine though... nothing happened. It was just hard emotionally to swallow that.

Alright, so my email is working now let's see if there are any questions I can answer... alright so about the water and electricity question. We run out of water almost every week. When that does happen we have four bidos that we have our guardian fill up and we use that for showers and whatever else... but we try to avoid using it a lot because it is not filtered... straight from a well or something. And those are very dirty here. The power doesn't go out that often, but when it does it sucks. We have candles that we light... romantic. When the power is out, the water doesn't get pumped up to the apartment so it's a double blow. Usually it isn't out for that long. The longest has been about 4 hours, I think. It really doesn't bother me though. We can flush the toilets with the extra water that we have, but that's the thing... after showers we don't have any. We have had some pretty ripe situations... you all have it so nice at home.

Today was AWESOME!! We went to the golf course at the base of Mt. Fébé and hit up the driving range. It felt so good to hit a golf ball again. I was SMASHING these balls. I had no clue what was up with me. I had never hit that good in my life. I was using #3 driver and I was hitting it out of the driving range and into the bush/jungle at the end of the range. The guy had to take away some of my clubs because I was losing their balls... Over here they don't have a ball machine to go around and pick up the balls... well, take that back, they do... it is a man walking around with an orange shirt with absolutely no protection. CRAZY! He was at the very end of the range and I turned to Elder Pister and said, "Hey, I'm taking him out." and I swung and I had one of the most beautiful hits... it soared... directly towards the guy! I was scared because I actually thought I was going to nail him! Luckily I missed him by no more than 10 feet. It was nuts... he was probably a little over 300 yards away and I only missed him by 10 feet. Talk about luck... there is no way I could have been that accurate with next 100 shots. The best thing is that I got it on film... awww yeah! You will be able to check it out when I come home. I might send home my memory card again. After I copy everything over to another card just in case the one I send gets stolen. Speaking of stolen, I got a letter from the Kettenrings and I guess they put money in the letter but the money never got to me. So, for all those who would like to send money... just tell them to put it in my bank account or something... or not even send it and save their money. I would much rather get a letter. And as for packages... never send them in a box because they ALWAYS open up the boxed ones. None of my envelope packages have been opened so I think that would be the way to go to make sure nothing gets taken. And when you send back the memory cards hide them very well. Even if it is in an envelope package... I just don't want to take the chances. And get creative with how you hide them.

So, we had zone conference this week and it was incredible!! Elder Renlund from the 70 and his wife were here along with President and Sister Jameson. It was such a powerful conference and I could feel the spirit so strong throughout the whole thing. It was awesome being able to talk to Elder Renlund, one on one, about the gospel. That man is a genius! Him and his wife busted out iPads... it was weird seeing those. You should send me one :) I loved talking with President Jameson, as well. It's hard only seeing him only once every 2 months...and when we do, it is only for like 6 hours. I don't complain though...that man has a very time consuming and difficult job. I am so in awe over all that he accomplishes. I know that he cares for me and wants the best for me and that is all that matters. I was talking to Sister Renlund and she couldn't believe that I have only been a missionary for 6 months. I guess she thought my little insights and thoughts throughout the conference were very wise and profound... It really made me happy to hear that.

Hmmm... I don't know what else to tell you. I haven't read your email all the way through yet. I just searched the question marks so I could answer your questions. I am going to try to do better with that. I love you so much and I hope that all is well back home! Thank you for sending pictures of Bronson! That kid is cute! I wish I could hold him... I love being with children right after they are born... that way they can't leave you and fight you when you try to hold them. Until next week!!

Je t'aime,
Elder Schmid