Hello Mom :)

Have I ever told you that I love your emails? I love that they are long. Thank you so much for being on the ball with those. So I know that you are all curious with how Douala is... and I only have three words... HOT AS HECK. Elder Graham and I got on the bus in Yaoundé and it was supposed to be a VIP bus... haha. VIP my left eyebrow. The back window, that we were sitting next to, was an orange plastic shield thing that was glued to the body of the bus. It was starting to fall off, so, whenever a big semi drove by us, going the opposite way, the window went out big time and then came back and smacked the bus. If your head was there it could of easily knocked you out. The AC was crud too... It was like a little baby was trying to blow air on you. I was sitting next to an uneducated woman the whole time. There was one woman who had a window open because it was so hot inside and it felt great because there was a nice breeze that would come in... but then the stupid woman that I sat next to chewed this other woman out and told her to close the window because it was letting all the cold air out. I said to myself, "What the heck woman?! What cold air is there to let out?!" Needless to say, it was a long 4 hours. So we finally got to Douala, and Elder Nuttall came and picked us up and took us to his apartment. They have a rockin apartment with AC. It felt way good. We chilled there and waited for all the other missionaries to come and we had an awesome enchilada dinner and then we sat down to watch the movie "Amazing Grace" but it didn't work so we ended up playing four rounds of What-if. I love that game so much. Afterwards they took me to my apartment, and once there, I unpacked. The whole entire time I was unpacking I had sweat dripping from my forehead, nose, chin, arms, and adams apple. I don't even know how to describe the heat to you. Its miserable if you don't have a fan on you... at all times. At the end of the day my shirts are damp like they just came out of the washer. It is disgusting. My little handkerchief is soaking wet at the end of everyday. The first few nights here all the missionaries in the apartment slept in the living room and we had 4 rotating fans going on... if you don't have them, you die. So aside from the heat, I love Douala! It is flat and every morning when I go out I feel like I am in California... and then about 30 minutes later the humidity sets in and I realize that I am in hell again. The roads are nice and well kept. The branch is AWESOME! I am really excited to work here and see what the Lord has in store for me. To go into one part of our sector we have to jay walk a strait up freeway and it is the scariest thing in the world. You run across the freeway to the middle sidewalk thing... which is only about 2 feet wide, and you sit there and wait until the next side is free, then you dart across. It is freaky when you are standing on the median because these huge semis drive by you and you feel like you are going to fall over. As scary as it is, it is pretty cool... Its just another thing I get to add to my awesome mission story. Today we were with the Bonaberi elders and we needed to go to this casino grocery store, so we decided to call a taxi... for 8 people. Well, taxi men here won't deny more money so we found a taxi pretty quick and we all stuffed ourselves in. There were three of us in the front seat and five in the back seat. So picture the Allreds little orange car with 9people inside of it! The taxi man said that that was the very first time he had taken 8 people before. It was a proud moment for me. My new companion is Elder Spens. He is from Plain City, Utah and he is so goofy and funny. We are going to have so much fun together. He and I were in the MTC for 3 weeks together. He is one transfer ahead of me. I am really looking forward to working with him. I am with Elder Nash again and the other elder is Elder Thompson. He is 6'3 and super chill. I love being around the guy. We have a great apartment over here in Bali. So yeah, Dad wanted to know where exactly our apartment is. Go onto google maps and zoom into the area called Bali. You will find a thing called Brassiers du Cameroun. That is where Cameroon gets all their beer and drinks. I am pretty sure I spelled that wrong but you will find it easily. We have a gps at the apartment so next Monday I will try to send you coordinates so that you can see my exact location.

As for your questions, I wasn't able to say bye to everyone I wanted to, but that was alright. That would have been impossible. I am kinda glad it is over with though because I was kinda stressing out about it. I made sure to say goodbye to my closest friends. I got some pretty sweet gifts too! I got a legit bobo (African wear), a Casio g-shock frogman watch (from Jimmy), a belt, sandals, and a custom made African shirt. I will have to take pictures with them on and send them to you. I think you would get a kick out of my shirt... its legit!

Speaking of legit, there is a kid here named Jacques. He has been an investigator for over 4 years. He is completely active and goes to every meeting there is and is even a branch missionary and comes out and serves with us. His father won't let him get baptized, but that doesn't stop him. He still comes and does everything. We have a baptismal date set for some time in April because he is now of age to make his own decision. He had a hard time saying Schmid, and since I kept on saying legit to him one night, he now calls me Elder Legit and I call him Frère Legit. I love that kid. He is such an inspiration. I am not yet with any native missionaries. Right when I left Yaoundé, 3 came so I barely missed them. Witchcraft definitely exists over here... it gets pretty annoying. I ran into it a lot over in Yaoundé. I am curious to see if it is any different over here in Douala. You can still use the same address to mail me things... and I will get them right when they arrive in Douala so that will be super nice. Whenever you send me packages, make sure you send them in those envelopes (Ready Post Bubble Mailer) that you have been sending because then they don't want to go through the hassle of cutting up all the tape and opening them up. That will always be your safest bet. As far as the memory cards go, I have 4 empty 8gb, so no worries yet on that.

I love you all so much and I can't wait to hear from you next week!

Love,
Elder Schmid

Hey Dad!

Thank you so much from your email. I love hearing from you so much. I am glad that you got my letter. You were on my mind a lot that weekend so I thought I would put a few of my thoughts onto paper and send it your way. So, thank you for responding! I will start off by answering questions...

As for the memory cards that I sent home, I believe there was about 12gb of photos and videos. There was also a letter for every person in the family, except for Bronson. I have over 16 memory cards so every time I send memory cards home I back up all my photos on the spare memory cards that I have. So I have everything still and I wait for the word that you have received everything and saved it then I delete it all so I can use them. Elder Pister has been answering a lot of questions about Douala and from what he said mailing things out of Douala is more difficult than here in Yaoundé. That doesn't really make sense but the guy spent 14 months in Douala so I trust what he says. I guess he sent home 3 or 4 letters and none of them have made it to their destinations, so we'll see what will happen with sending pictures and what not back home. I need to find a way to minimize my photos so that when I send them to you they will go a lot faster but I don't want the actual file to be smaller. Can you help me on that? I have lost all of my computer skills over the past 9 months. Wait on sending more memory cards. I'll let you know if I ever need more. Make sure that all those photos I send home WILL NOT GET LOST. Those memories are so precious to me... especially because its not probable that I will be coming back to Cameroon. It would kill me to find out a computer crashed and everything was lost. There is an Elder flying home to Utah on Saturday and I am thinking of giving him the backup photos so that when he gets home he can put them in the mail. I think that would be the best bet. I just hope and pray that these ones won't get lost cause I have no way of backing these ones up... the Thompsons have left.

So, lets see what went down this week... on Tuesday, the medical advisor for the region I am in flew up with his wife from South Africa. They are in charge of 12 missions and all the missionaries. They have their work cut out for them. They showed us some pretty gnarly photos of worms and stuff... I definitely don't want to get those things. When every missionary leaves to go home they receive this de-worming medicine that takes everything out of you. So I guess I don't have anything to worry about.

This week I got a letter from Dewey Ray and he said something that made me laugh. He said that back in the day Grandpa and his team would always whoop on him in softball, but that their team would whoop on Grandpa in basketball. I love hearing about Grandpa... I miss that man. I have received so much help from him though out here. I know that he is there!

This past week we did splits and I was able to work in Ekounou 2 for two days. It was a nice break from Ekounou 1. Its surprising how much the terrain changes within only 5 km. This past week has been by far my hottest week out here on the mission and those two days I did the most walking I have ever done on my mission... My shirts were disgusting at the end of the day. We went to one little concrete apartment and a sister was cooking a meal over a fire inside... so we basically walked into an oven. More sweat came out of me within those 30 minutes than in the week before that. I guess the Lord is trying to prepare me a little for what I have coming for me in Douala. There was one rendezvous that we had with this recent convert. She has 7 kids and the oldest is 11 and the youngest is 2... HOLY COW!! If that was us Bronson would be turning 11 this year! I was also able to meet with Ernestine, my first baptism. She is such a great example to me. The week after her baptism she woke up one morning and half of her face was paralyzed and she was super weak. Her face is finally normal again, but she is still super weak and has basically been sick for the past 6 months. But every time I see her she tells me how happy she is and how much she loves the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She bore her testimony about how we are a big family at the church and how she is so grateful for that. She said something that I loved so much... "Une famille noble est une grande bénédiction." (A noble family is a great blessing) Amen!

One of my recent converts is having a really hard time. He is about to lose his little apartment... for the second time. He has already been kicked out of one apartment and the jerks who were in charge locked his door and wouldn't let him get anything out. And to add to that, his father has disowned him and won't have any affiliation with him unless he denounces his religion and says that he no longer is a
member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Well, because of his situation he has really been considering the last option. He says that he will still come to church once or twice a month, but he needs help from his father so that he can keep his apartment. His father has offered to pay for everything but he has
set the conditions as well... and because his father is possessed by the devil those conditions go against the very covenant that this guy made at baptism. We talked with him and we were very firm with him when we told him what he needed to do. It hurts me to see my friends struggle like this... especially with their faith.

We had a baptism this past Saturday and 7 amis were baptized in our zone. One of our amis that we have been working with for over 3 months was finally able to be baptized. She was actually interviewed by President Jameson himself and he gave the go ahead so we got her in the water as soon as possible. It was so awesome to see her joy and happiness throughout that service. She knows that the church is true
and she is so ready to do everything she can so that she can receive all of the blessings that the Lord has for us. After the baptism we went to a little after party thing and we ate cow skin and mashed boiled vegetables and fufu... not the best meal that I have ever had. Cow skin and pig skin is pretty gross. You would be impressed with how I have eaten everything I have been served out here. I remember Mom being so worried about that... worried that I was going to offend everyone over here.

So, the Thompsons are in Canada now. It was a pretty sad farewell. I love the Thompsons so much. They have done so much for the saints here in Yaoundé. Its weird knowing that we are basically all alone over here. The next couple will be here on June 1st but they will only be here for 3 or 4 months... and then they return home. If we ever do a family trip up to Canada I would love to visit the Thompsons!

Hey guess what, Elder Pister and I helped this family do their laundry all by hand. My gratitude for a washing machine grew so much that night. It wasn't difficult, just tiring. Talk about an arm work out. Go wash laundry by hand for an hour everyday and you will have the arms of a professional baseball player.

Have you ever seen the church film "Special Witnesses" ? It is incredible!! The Spirit that flows from that film has touched the hearts of so many this past week. If you are ever struggling with any investigator, just watch "Special Witnesses" with them and they will come to their senses.

The other night we saw this tv show and it was this guy doing a bunch of funny pranks. There was one where this guy was walking by a little town lake and he had a cat and there was this couple sitting on a bench and he offered them the cat but they refused so he put the cat in a bag and walked away and as he was walking away one of his buddies came and switched bags with him and gave him another bag that looked the exact same. Then the guy turned around and walked back by the couple and pointed to the bag and asked if they wanted the cat and again they shook their heads no so then he tossed the bag into the lake and walked away!! The couple freaked out and one person dove into the lake and retrieved the bag and when they got it and opened it there was a funny little stuffed animal. Classic!

We have a new district now and the members of the district presidency were pulled from 3 branches. There were vacancies in the branch presidencies of two branches and they replaced those two vacancies with recent converts who haven't even been members for 4 months!! How awesome is that?!

Yesterday, Elder Pister and I sang in church. I think that was the first time I have ever sang in church like that. I was so nervous but it turned out really well. We sang 'A Child's Prayer'. The first 2 verses were in French and then we sang the duet in English. I got goosebumps as we were singing. The spirit was so strong. I love
singing so much. I want to take voice lessons when I get back.

We went to Palais des Congres this weekend for a wedding... but because everyone here in Africa is late we weren't able to party with everyone. We chilled and talked with a member from Douala and we walked around the property and then we headed home. Elder Pister and I were there on time, but the party started 3 and a half hours later.

So, that was my week. Everything is going well over here! My next email to you will be from Douala! I am excited! I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!

Je vous aime,
Elder Schmid

Mom!

I love your emails so much. It's like I can hear you speaking through
the way you write. There really isn't a difference. I miss you! So
questions, my weekend was awesome! I will tell you more about it
throughout the email. It was awesome having President and Sister
Jameson with us. We are so blessed that we have a district here now.
Before we would have to wait for President to come down and fulfill
responsibilities that only he could do but now that we have a District
President the progress of the church can go a little smoother and
quicker. So we are very happy to have a district here now. Members
have been waiting for almost 19 years... the first branch was created
here when I was just a little baby... and they finally became a
district. Its cool knowing that the church here has grown up with me.
I am feeling a whole lot better. I am almost 100% now. I still have a
little bit of gunk in my throat but its all good. I am just glad that
I can sing again. I love to sing. Elder Pister and I might sing in
church this Sunday because this will be my last Sunday here in Ekounou
1. Yep, I will be transferred on the 22nd down to Douala. This will be
the first time I have to pack up my bags in over 6 months. It will be
kind of bitter sweet. I love it so much here in Ekounou but I am ready
to try something new and meet new challenges in a new atmosphere. The
only time I have been to Douala was when I landed here in Africa and
the very first thing I noticed was the humidity. It is so hot over
there. When I got to the senior couples house in Douala I was sweating
through my suit coat that I had. So I am curious to see how I handle
the heat. I love heat... but I only grew up with dry heat. This is a
whole new thing.

So I will tell you a little about the new district presidency. I know
that it will probably mean nothing to you because you won't know any of
them... but here it goes anyway. The first District President here in
Cameroon is President Bala. He was one of the four branch presidents
that are here in Yaoundé. His first counselor was President Tchapnda.
President Tchapnda was the first counselor in my branch. Elder Pister
and I were surprised when he was announced as the first counselor
because just the Sunday before he was telling the priesthood body in
Ekounou that in order to give a blessing you HAVE to call the branch
president in order to get permission because he is the appointed judge
of Israel in that area... he said that you have to have his
authorization. He said that if you don't call him you can still do the
blessing but the doors of heaven that let the blessings through won't
be completely open. Ummm NO! He also taught that there NEEDS to be 2
or 3 people in the circle when you do the blessing... He then asked
the group of men why and Elder Pister and I were so confused. We had
no clue what he was talking about. One man eventually said that they
were there to stand as witnesses and he went on to teach that there
has to be witnesses with every blessing. So yeah, THAT man was just
called to be the 1st counselor in the district presidency. The 2nd
counselor is President Olinga. He worked with President and Sister
Jameson when they were in the Lubumbashi mission. He is a very young
guy... he told me that he was 25. He is so successful though. He went
from absolutely nothing to being one of the most successful members
here in Yaoundé. I love that man. I am so excited for him to be where
he is at. So yeah, that is the new district presidency!

So this past weekend we had our zone conference and it was AWESOME. We
went to the Thompsons on Sunday and President Jameson interviewed us
all and it was great. It stinks having him so far away. You really
cherish the little one on one time that you have with him. So when
interviews come around all of us are so excited to be with him. I
don't think I have ever been so excited for an interview in my life. I
have so much respect for President Jameson. That man is so wise. I
love receiving counsel and advice from him. He truly is helping me
become a better missionary and son of God. I am so lucky that he lives
only 10 minutes from us back in Arizona. It will be fun visiting with him
every once and a while after the mission. The day after we did
interviews, we had our actual zone conference. It was really laid back
and chill. We received some sad news. One of the North American elders
serving here had to be sent home. He was Elder Lambs companion over
there in Congo. I feel bad for Elder Lamb, he has been through so much
lately. President really spoke from the heart and basically pleaded
for us to follow the white handbook with exactness. It really is a
book of protection. There were also 4 other missionaries from
Madagascar who were serving in Kinshasa that went home on their own
will because the conditions were too hard for them. President tried
his best to help them change their prospective and what not with
transfers and companions and what not, but in the end they said they
wanted to go. Its a sad thing whenever something like this happens...
President also went on to tell us about a HUGE explosion that happened
in Brazzaville. I guess there is an ammunition dump and whenever they
receive ammunition they have to destroy it immediately. Well instead,
the smart people over there decided to not do anything and let it sit
and pile up. Well something happened and it all exploded and leveled
the area all around it. The media says that over 200 were killed but
after talking with the members and people over there they say that
over 1000 were killed and hundreds more injured. So Brazzaville is the
capital of the Republic of Congo and is on the Congo river and
Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is directly
across on the other side of the river. So they are pretty close to
each other... but the river is HUGE. Anywho, Kinshasa thought that
Brazzaville was trying to start something so they sent their armies to
the beach and started firing their weapons across the river over at
Brazzaville, and then Brazzaville realized what they were doing and
they went to their beach and started doing the same thing. They aren't
really smart though... the river is so big that none of their bullets
could reach the other side. Then they all realized that is was an
accident and it kind of cooled down a little. A few big windows on the
floor just above the mission offices were blown out due to the
explosion... so that testifies on the intensity of the explosion.
Crazy stuff. I want to go over there so bad! President then went on to
give us a little lesson and we read and studied John 13-16. Those
chapters are so awesome. I can't wait to go in a study in detail those
chapters for my self. After zone conference, President announced the
transfer information. Everything is getting switched up over here in
Yaoundé. I am going to Douala and Elder Kasaka is replacing me. We are
receiving three Africans. I am really looking forward to working in
Douala. It will be fun experiencing a new environment and work area...
even if I will be sweating bullets every minute throughout the day.
The Thompsons will be going home this Friday! I can't believe it...
that is so soon. It will be sad to see them leave. It has been so much
fun having them here. They have taken such good care of us. I am
really looking forward to working with the Nuttals. They are the
senior couple down in Douala. Elder Pister only has good things to say
about them... he is always telling me how much I am going to love
them. Speaking of senior couples... Yaoundé has still not been
assigned a senior couple yet but there will be a couple coming in on
June 1st to finish there mission here. They will be here for 3 months.
They are currently working in the Lubumbashi mission right now and
have accepted to come over and help with the vacancy here in Yaoundé.
So that will be nice. Tell the Bradfords that they should sign up for
a mission and express desire to serve here in Yaoundé :) So that was
my weekend with the Jamesons. Awesome.

The missionary work is going fine over here. We are working hard every
day and we are always finding success. I love being a part of the work
here in this part of Africa. There is so much work to be done here...
and only 8 missionaries. It is hard but it is so rewarding. I love you! Thank you so much for the awesome emails. I hope everyone gets better... I hate being sick. Tell Isaiah congratulations for me! I am so excited for him! What a neat opportunity for Dennis. Keep me updated with all my friends getting married and what not! I love to hear about everyone. I love you all so much and you are always in my prayers.

Je t'aime,
Elder Schmid

Bonjour ma mère,

First of all, awesome email! I love your emails! I will try my best to
answer all of your questions... there were a lot of them this week. My
week was very good. You will hear more about it in a moment. As for
the Gladiator music, can you please send me that cd... and also the
music for the Last of the Mohican's. I love that music so much. I
listened to it a lot today when I was cleaning the kitchen. BTW, I am
going to rock the kitchen when I get home and clean it. Yes, you did
send me with mucus relief and I used it but it didn't do anything...
that was probably the case because I only used it wrong. Don't get mad
at me :) And the doctor I went to is legit. He is actually a recent
convert in our branch. He works at one of the main hospitals here in
Yaoundé and will be going to Paris soon to finish his studies. The
Thompsons always go to him when one of their missionaries has
problems. So no worries there. It would be cool to go to a witch
doctor... If I find one I might hit them up. And concerning the
steak... it is rum steak. Its way good. Okay, I think I got all of
your questions.

Just a heads up... my next pday will be on Tuesday because we are
going to have a zone conference with President Jameson on Monday. So,
don't freak out when you don't get an email from me on Monday. Also, I
really want to vote in this next election... what can I do? Is there a
way that you can send me a ballot when the time comes, and hopefully I
can fill it out and send it back in time? I hear Romney is rockin it.
Do you know what today is? It is my one year anniversary of going
through the temple. Can you believe that it has already been one
year?! Its crazy! Time goes by so fast. Yesterday was my one year
anniversary of opening my mission call... I can't believe it. That was
already a year ago. Crazy!!

We have this ami named Marcel and he is awesome. The other day he went
onto Mormon.org and was on there for 4 hours because he couldn't get
off! He said that he was trapped in and was so interested! He has a
baptismal date set for the 17th of this month. I am way excited for
him. We met him when we were teaching one of our other amis, Jean
Pierre, and I am hoping that Marcel can help Jean Pierre progress.
Jean Pierre knows that our message is true and he knows that the Book
of Mormon is true... he just wants to wait so he knows more before he
commits to going to church. He doesn't realize that he won't really
learn more until he goes to church. So we are hoping that Marcel will
help him out with that. They are good friends. Marcel loves going to
church so he can put a good word in to Jean Pierre.

So, by now you know a little bit about Remy. Here is something
funny/crazy that happened this week. We went to his house and like
always he has a bunch of questions cause he studies studies studies!
He was going through his questions and we followed him through 1
Samuel, Isaiah, Alma, Revelations, and we even went into the Pearl of
Great Price and he had already read Abraham and Moses and had it all
marked up! We have never mentioned the Book of Abraham to him and yet
he found it and studied it and marked it all up. I am always so
impressed with Remy! He was ordained a Priest yesterday and received
the Aaronic Priesthood. Our recent converts are so awesome!
The other day Elder Pister and I grilled up some hamburgers and
they were AMAZING! Everything tastes so much better now, now that we
have a grill. The grill sucks... it is African home made coal with
half of a tire rim. So it takes a long time to do it, but it gets done
and it tastes good.

Speaking of food, we went to the baptismal services this Saturday and
Maman Lucille invited us over to her house to eat and celebrate her
baptism (if you remember Franky, Maman Lucille is his mother. She used
to be a prophetess... but now she knows whats up) and they had a bunch
of meat on the table. I grabbed a lot of meat and started eating. I
picked up one meat chunk and when I picked it up I poked myself.
I flipped it over and I realized that I was holding half of a
porcupine head in my hand. They cut it in half and so I had half of
the teeth and ear and all that. There was an eye ball too... and I ate
it. Not the tastiest thing... but edible. I also ate some crazy lizard
stuff. I am pretty sure I broke the law by eating it. There was a lot
of bush meat on that table. Its okay though because it was good :)
Except the porcupine... I don't recommend it.

Yesterday, Elder Pister and I were at the church and it started to
POUR. There was so much rain and wind, as well. There are a lot of
mango trees by the church and because of the wind a whole bunch of
mangoes became flying projectiles and were taking out roofs and stuff.
It was crazy! They sounded like little bombs when they hit the roof.
They are not ripe yet so they are super hard. There are so many
mangoes here... I can't wait until its mango season so I can chow down
and stuff myself with that heavenly fruit.

So Caelan is 17... holy cow! I was sitting there on the night of March
2nd and I couldn't believe that she was 17. She is growing up way to
fast. She will be 18 when I come home and be a graduate of Mountain View
High School! I can't think about that... its just too weird. When you
told me about her seeing those kid history guys I was confused. I had
no clue who they were... but then it hit me. I remember watching those
videos with Aiden! Those guys are awesome! Are they Mormon? And why
were they at Mountain View?

So there is a song on the tv right now called Titanium and it is
awesome! Tell Caelan to make an awesome playlist for me while I am
gone so when I get home and I can have all the awesome music that I
missed. I don't really hear much over here... only Rhianna. I don't
know why they all love her so much over here.

Elder Pister and I now play catch with a baseball every morning in
front of our apartment. It feels so good to throw a ball again. You
have to be careful to not miss the ball because if you do it will do
downhill until it hits a sewage pile... that may have happened once or
twice. Sick. There is this one moto guy that comes now and plays with
us. He had never thrown a baseball before and one day he came and
Elder Pister gave him his glove and he started throwing with me. I was
so impressed! He was throwing the balls to my chest and some were
pretty fast throws. I thought I would give him some of my
fastballs...and surprisingly, he caught them! He looked like a doofus
in the process but in the end the ball was in his glove.

Here is a funny story... we met a guy at church 8 days ago and I got
his number and I told him I would call him. Well, our week was pretty
busy and I wasn't able to call him and then I saw him again at church
and I went up to him and said, "Eric, I tried calling you all week and
your phone wasn't passing!" and then he said, "I know I know! I am so
sorry! Someone took it, so I have been without a phone this past week."
haha boy was I lucky!

We have this member family that we go and visit once a week and they
live way the heck out there. One night we finally got to their house
and one of their sons saw me and started sprinting to me when I was
still about 50 yards away screaming "Elder Schmid! Elder Schmid!" and
they he almost tackled me and gave me the biggest hug. I love moments
like that as a missionary. It makes everything worth it.

Well, that was my week! All is well over here in Yaoundé! HOLY COW! I
almost forgot! Cameroon has been approved to get a District!! So,
President Jameson is coming this week and will organize it on Sunday!
Members have been waiting for this moment for years and now it is
finally happening and I get to be here when it happens. The members
here are so excited. Welp, I have to go! I love you!

Je t'aime,
Elder Schmid

Hellooo!

I can't believe its Monday already! Time goes by so fast out here. I
think I tell you that in every email... but its true!! This past week
was amazing! I am excited to tell you about it. Nothing crazy
happened... it was just a very successful week. But first, I will
answer your questions.

I'm doing good. A lot better than last Monday, but I am still sick.
This past week was nuts. My voice was gone for 3 days so that sucked
when I tried to teach. I was coughing up that nasty super green mucus
all week long and it felt like I had asthma all day every day. It was
like a little hell... but I had a good attitude about it and the Lord
really helped me out. I can't even complain... no one can when they
see the diseases and the sicknesses that are over here. So really I
got off lucky. I went and saw a doctor Saturday morning and he
prescribed me a bunch of drugs. I probably look like a drug addict
every morning and night as I am popping all of my pills. They are
working though... my throat is finally clearing up. Earlier in the
week, I had members give me strait up ginger to eat and garlic as well.
That stuff was intense! Have you eaten strait garlic or ginger? That
will poke at your throat a little. I still have that green goodness
chillin in there.

I am honestly not sure whats going to go down with the transfers. We
will find out in 2 and a half weeks. I have the same thoughts as
you... I think I will stay because I know the area very well. I mean, I
have only been here for 6 months.

As for asthma... don't worry about sending more over. I have so much.
I am still using the same one I started using in the MTC. So I will
have a lot when I come home.

And for your comment about me holding out on you and not telling you
the worst... that might be true. There is so much good that happens
that it takes up all my time to tell you about it... You will find out
about the "bad" things when I get home. You will have fun reading my
journal :)

Alright so this week... first off I will tell you a little about Remy.
He has now been an official member for the church for 8 days. His
testimony grows day after day. It is incredible. The Sunday he was
confirmed, he received a bunch of church materials and the next day, when we
saw him, all of his books were open on his couch and he was sooo tired.
He told us that he was up until 4 in the morning reading. He told us
that it was impossible for him to stop! I love seeing that faith and
desire in my amis. Remy is an incredible example to me. He really has
that hunger to know more. We can all learn so much from him.
So, this week was crazy for Elder Pister and I because every single day
we had women coming to us telling us that they want us and they want
to marry us. People are so desperate here. It gets really annoying
after a while... people asking for money and everything. The only
reason they ask us is because we are white... and according to them
EVERY single white person is filthy rich.

This week Elder Pister and I bought a bbq grill thing... if we can
even call it that. You will understand when you see pictures of it.
But anywho, the most important thing is that we can now bbq our
steaks!! We had an amazing meal the other day. I miss steak so much.
That was the best steak that I have had in 8 months. We are definitely
going to hit up Logan's Roadhouse right when I get back from the mish.
16 months!

Our other recent convert, Emmanuel, is a spiritual giant as well. He
said something pretty funny this week. We showed up to his office and
played minesweeper on the computers as we were waiting for him and he
finally came out of this meeting and came straight to us and shook our
hands and said, "The Lord will always make sure that his Saints are
not poor!!!" Now, I don't exactly agree with what he said, but Elder
Pister and I let it slide. I guess he had just closed on an amazing
deal and he was about to receive a lot of money. He is such a funny
guy. When we first started teaching him, the whole reason he wanted to
join the church was to receive blessings for his business so that it
would be a very prosperous business. We were able to rearrange his
"sights" and focus on the real goal... but I think he still has a
little tiny bit of his old mentality still embedded somewhere in his
brain.

We have an investigator named Elie. I think I may have talked about
him before. He is progressing very well as of this week. Before, he
wouldn't really read or do his 'homework' and so the progression was
very slow. One day, we basically laid it on the line and told him that
if he didn't start doing what he needed to do we were going to drop
him. Well, I am very pleased to say that he got the picture. The next
day we met with him and he couldn't stop talking for a good 20 minutes
because he was telling us about the first 8 chapters in Nephi and about
every little detail! It was incredible! He told us that he only meant
to read 1 chapter and when he finished the first chapter he had to
keep on reading! He couldn't stop! I know that the Book of Mormon has
a real power! And, its incredible to see that power working on our
investigators. I know that that book contains the words of the Lord. I
love the Book of Mormon :) In my personal study I finished reading the
Book of Mormon in english and I started reading it in french for my
personal study and I am almost done with 1 Nephi. I love reading in
french so much. It is awesome reading in a different language... its
the same story but sometimes I feel like it provides a different
prospective.

There is another new ami whose name is Marcel. We just started
teaching him last week. He came to church yesterday and we just
finished a rendezvous with him before we came over here to do the
email. He pulled out his notebook and he wrote 12 pages of notes from
what he had read! He only read the title page, introduction, the
testimonies, and the info about the Book of Mormon. This man is legit!
He is so excited to learn more! We finished Le Rétablissement de
L'Évangile de Jésus-Christ aujourd'hui. I am really looking forward to
teaching him le Plad du Salut this week. That is such an awesome
lesson to teach... especially when your investigators finally
understand that there is a reason why they are here on earth and that
they were with God before this life.

The other night, Elder Pister and I finished an AWESOME day and so we
wanted to celebrate. So, we went to an outdoor bar and bought some
fanta's and watched soccer, I mean, we stared at some trees that were
in the distance right next to the screen.. It was legit.

We have these members that we went and visited the other night. They
are loin (french)!! We talked to them and shared a nice message and
then they walked us back to where we could get a taxi. I am glad they
walked with us because we were out in the middle of no where and it was
way dark. Not the best situation to be in when you are white and you
are wearing white shirts and ties. You stand out like zit on prom
night. Anywho, I was talking with the father, Frère Essoko, and he as
telling me about something that went down a few years ago. A
non-active member in the branch passed away but before he passed away
he told his non member brother that he wanted "the mormons" to take
care of his burial. So, when he passed away his brother went to the
church and told the leaders of his brothers last wish. So, the Elders
Quorum got together and went out into the pouring rain with their
white shirts and ties and dug a grave and held the funeral service for
their deceased brother. How awesome is that? I loved hearing that
story.

We have a family that we teach over where we live. They are just like
Elie, well, like how he was. They don't read or do their 'devoirs'.
Well, Elder Pister laid into them and told them that they need to
pick it up. He totally called them out and it was awesome because, at the
end, they understood that we don't play like that. He called out the
father too and told him he wasn't fulfilling his responsibilities as a
father to guide his children and help them progress. It was HOT in
that room. I didn't say anything really. I didn't dare. I was
completely fine with letting Elder Pister take care of it... and he
did. Afterwards the father felt guilty and gave us a ride in his
Mercedes all the way to the church... it was nice :)

The Thompsons will be leaving us on the 16th of March. It is sad...
I love the Thompsons so much! They have done so much good for the
Saints here in Yaoundé. As of right now, there has not been found a
replacement couple. So in your prayers pray and ask that a couple can
be selected and that they will accept their calling. We had our last
district meeting with them last night and it was awesome. They shared
their last "words of wisdom." I look up to them so much. They have
really taken care of us over here.

I got a package from Natascha this week and a letter from Kurt and
Aiden. Aiden cracks me up. I love the picture that he sent me! Thank
Sister Tenney for me.

That was my week! I love my life so much. I know that the Lord is
there and is helping me every foot of the way. I love you and pray for
you every day. Au revoir!

Je t'aime,
Elder Schmid