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