C'est comment ma mère! (Don't try to google translate that... that is bad African french)
I can't believe it! This time last year, I was freaking out because I only had four more days until I had to report to the MTC! Time has flown by so fast! Today is the one year anniversary of Aidens baptism!! That was such an awesome experience. Don't worry, I won't be burning or destroying anything this Friday. My ties are way to precious to me. And I think the pattern goes like this: 6 months - tie, 12 months - shirt, 18 months - pants, 24 months - suit coat. But no one does that over here. We are just going to go to this place called Chez Nora's and eat some nice fatty africanized american food. It will probably be just another day... nothing to special. I love the people where I am serving... you have to or you cannot be an effective missionary. But I will leave it at that... like that saying goes, love the sinner, hate the sin. I am surrounded by sin. If you and Dad came over here to pick me up you would be blown away. There are amazing people here, but the people in general, here in Cameroon, can't get away from the beer and they love their women. We had one guy in a taxi ask us how we like the women here in Cameroon and we quickly told him that we are not here for the women, but to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. He went on to say that even if you are married and away from your wives you need to be 'relieved' at least once a month. At about that moment, I started to ignore him and he went on for about 5 minutes until he arrived at his destination telling us about how he left to go to the Congo, and he was with women during all the free time he had, and when he came back he got on his knees and begged for forgiveness from his wife and he said that when his wife forgave he knew that his god forgave him. He told us that you just need to ask for forgiveness after you do something and it will be alright. Mangez, bouvez, réjouissez-vous, car demain nous mourrons. Doctrine of the devil!!! I love Cameroon though. This country has played a huge part in my maturing as a missionary.

That is so tragic... all those kids seeing our neighbor in all his saggy glory. Je suis désolé!! How was the week with Dumb and Dumber?? That cracked me up. I love Dad, and his cheesy humor. I totally take after him. I am sure Ashlyn had an awesome week with that little dog. I'm sure Aiden had a great birthday! 9 years old! Wow... I remember getting my Nintendo SP and I thought that was the most amazing thing in the world and now that is so obsolete and ghetto. I miss Sunsplash so much... well not just sunsplash, but pools in general. It is so hot over here with all the humidity and it would be such an awesome treat to jump in a pool for a little bit... but NOPE! ça va... one more year! And that means I will get my tan back too!! Awww yeah :) You are going to laugh big time when you see me. Good thing I am coming back in the summer time.

So, here is what went down this week over here in Douala. We are teaching this ami de l'église (investigator) named Albertine and it has been an interesting week. Every time we saw her we were with a member and the member and her or her husband ended up bible bashing and it was so annoying. She has hit a total brick wall in her progression. It is so annoying when you meet people and teach people and you know that they are tasting of the fruit and then Satan gets to them and they lose their desire to continue and they just ask stupid dumb questions... all which could be answered if they had a testimony of the Book of Mormon, but they are too lazy to read the Book of Mormon. It is annoying because it feels like we have wasted 6 weeks... just to go no where. I would rather get denied at the very beginning with a door slammed in my face then to go for a while and see their testimony grow and then to see them deny it and quit. Its sad. Work here in Douala is so much different than in Yaoundé. It's not easier in Yaoundé but it seems like there are just more people there who are willing to accept our message and change their lives for the better.

On a happier note our ami Paul has come around and we have fixed a baptismal date with him for the 21st of July. It was cool how that came about. We met with him and Serge at the church one night and we talked about the necessity of having the desire to change, and then to act on that desire... because faith without works is dead. That has been Pauls problem. He has all the desire in the world... but when temptation comes, he falls. Well, I should say that he fell. That night we fixed a goal and if that goal was accomplished there is a promise. We promised him that if he would come to church every Sunday for the next month (so 4 Sundays), he would receive all the help and power from the Lord to overcome his temptation to drink alcohol. The Spirit was really strong throughout the rendezvous and he knew that that promise could and would become reality if he put his faith to the test. So, he told us that night that he will no longer miss church and that he will be there for every Sunday from then on out. I know that the Lord will accord him the power necessary to overcome this trial as he puts his faith to the test. I love this work!

As you have read in my past emails, there are waaayyyy to many inactives here in Douala. We got an updated member record sheet from September 2011 and there are over 300 members on that list... we have like a 65% inactivity rate here. So, with that nasty statistic we have really been focusing on our inactives. Elder Nuttall ordered GPS units for each companionship here in Douala, and with that we try to find every member and get their coordanates because addresses don't really exist here. We are trying to find all the members telephone numbers and what not so that we can get into contact with every single one and work with them to try and find out what happened. There are sooo many that we still need to find. It will be a hard, long work but it will be worth it. We have already found success and we had 4 or 5 inactives at church yesterday so I am happy! The worth of souls is great in the sight of God. We received a coordonnée from this amazing family in our branch and she is from the tribe of Douala. I swear that is one of the lost tribes of Israel. The strongest people in our branch all coindedentally come from the tribe of Douala. So anywho, we got a coordonnée and we met her and she took us to her house to meet her whole family, and as she was walking, she kept on telling us this, "Parmi les hommes je suis pauvre, mais selon l'évangile de Jésus-Christ je suis riche." When we got to her house we knew exactly what she was talking about. She was in one of the most rundown shacks I have been to since arriving here to Africa in September 2011. And yet, her family was so happy to have us there and they were so excited to learn about our message. They now have 4 Books of Mormon floating around that house with a lot of brochures and they are all reading! I am really excited to teach this family. I love teaching families! The Gospel is all about families and I know that this family will be one of the richest families in the eternities if they but accept our message.

There was this pretty sweet fight in this area called Cité-sic. There were these two kids who were about 10 years old. One was a boy and the other a girl. They were pushing each other around and yelling and getting into each others faces and then the boy made a very bad mistake... he took a swing at the girl. She went OFF on him and nailed him with punch after punch and body slammed him and tackled him and punched him some more. The boy was furious because he was just getting whooped on. People came and broke it up but he insisted on continuing, and with every approach he was humiliated even more. Eventually this boys mom came and guess what she did... she continued to beat him! She was slapping him and threw him against a wall... she was angry because he was fighting a girl. Poor kid... his ego took a huge hit that day. Beat up by two women.

I finished reading "Believing Christ" and it was such an incredible book. Thank you so much for sending that to me! I learned so much and I can't wait to go through it again to really dive into it and read all the references and what not. I had one of the most amazing studies of my mission on the 23rd and I only read four verses... Mosiah 15:8-11. It was neat just putting things together and understanding things and pondering in detail certain principles and doctrines found in those verses. I am trying to write about it all in my study journal and I have about a two and a half pages written so far. I think if I finish by next week I will email it to you. We'll see. Well, life is great over here! I hope you all know that I am loving my mission and I am growing so much. I hope these emails are not boring to read... I feel like I am so boring when I write. It is so hard to explain to you even a fraction of what goes down over here... not only am I on a mission but I am in a completely different world. I love my mission :)

Je t'aime, maman,
Elder Schmid

Dear Mom,

Let me answer your questions right off the bat. The part I appreciated is when you were talking about the memories you had of when I was born. Did you honestly think I would appreciate the title greeting over that?? I printed off your email and I wrote that memory part in my journal so I can read it whenever I want :) My birthday was honestly just another day. The only time that it really felt like it was my birthday was when I opened your package. Other than that, it was just another day, going out and teaching our Heavenly Father's children. We had an amazing rendezvous on the 15th that I will write about later in the email. I loved your package so much! Thank you for the gifts! I love the ties so much! And thanks for the Gillette razor! I have that sweet norelco but it just sucks here in Douala because it is so humid and it just tugs on my skin, but back in Yaoundé that was the only thing I used. I love that book you sent me. I have been able to translate part of it and incorporate it into my lessons! The beef jerky is amazing... yes, there is actually some left. I have managed to ration out my jerky so it lasts a little longer. The pictures were by far my favorite part!! I love my family so much and I am so happy that I have some more pictures of you all! Keep them coming :) Especially the ones you just emailed to me. About those pictures, what's up with Dallins hair? Its long!! It is so weird seeing how much he is changing!! And you sent me a picture of Caelan kissing some guy on the cheek... who the heck is that? She is too young for that!! :) Caelan is gorgeous! And so is Darian and Ashlyn. I really like the outfits that Darian has! She seems much older than her age. The temple looks amazing! Any news yet on when it will be finished? Will I be home before the dedication? Bronson is HUGE!!! There are little children around here who are almost twice his age and he can sit on them and squash them... and its not because they are not fed or malnourished... they are just small! Thank you for the picture of you, Bronson, and Louise. I am going to go show that to her brother, Abega. I know he will really like that. He is struggling right now with marriage. Things aren't working like he thought they would so he could use some cheering up. So yeah, my birthday package was awesome! It was opened before I got to it, but I don't know if anything was taken. I sure was happy though, with what I got :)

So I got a hair cut by Elder Thibault a few hours ago... I am now rolling with a #2 buzz cut :) It feels niiiiice.

Here is a little update with Serge. He is still struggling with friends and work and finding time to meet with us. But I know that all the prayers are being answered. He knows that our message is true and I know that he has felt the spirit push him to continue with us... but that is as far as our prayers can go. He still has his free agency and lately he hasn't been using that in the best way... well, you know what I mean. But we are still with him trying to help him as much as we can. This past week I have had some really neat experiences with recognizing the promptings of the spirit. I was meeting with this less active member and we were discussing some of her problems and I read a scripture in Moroni, and as she was reading that scripture, I had the distinct impression to ask her what struggles she is facing in her life at the moment. I was kind of puzzled with why I had that impression, but after being a missionary for almost a year, you learn to just act... so I did. She came out with some major problems and now we are really helping her build her faith to overcome all of her trials and temptations. It was neat how the lesson totally changed direction and it was completely guided by the spirit. A few days later I was teaching, and as I was teaching, I had this weird sensation come over me and it was like a voice in my head telling me to stop talking... so I did. And almost immediately, Elder Thibault came in and nailed our investigator with some amazing teaching. It wasn't because I was talking, so much, but that I needed to let Elder Thibault take the lead because what he had to say was more important for the investigator than what I had to say. It was neat seeing how the spirit works with us missionaries throughout our lessons.

We have a member who lives out in an area called cité-sic and lately he has been off work and he told us that if he is not working he wants to spend his time serving the Lord. So, we had taught 8 lessons this week with him helping us and it was only two days that he was with us. I love this mans faith and desire to go out and serve and fulfill his responsibilities as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We had an investigator named Shella that we contacted about 10 weeks ago and she is officially dropped. She knows... she knows that our message is true but she doesn't want to change her church. I had her pray right there in the middle of the rendezvous and ask the Lord if we (Elder Thibault and I) were telling the truth about the gospel of Jesus Christ. So after what seemed to be like a 5 minute silence, she said that she knows that she needs to continue. So we started talking about her church attendance and how, in order to progress with where she is at, she really needs to go to church because she had received almost all of the lessons we have to offer as missionaries. Her parents are really anti American and think that Elder Thibault and I are possessed with the devil, and over the past month they have been really getting into Shellas head and now she totally believes her parents and she doesn't want to go to church where the devil is. Her story is so weird because she knows our message is true but she thinks we are possessed by the devil. In the end we told her that we can't continue with her if she was not willing to continue progressing with us and she seemed totally okay with that. I looked at her in the eyes and told her something that went along the lines of this, "Shella, listen very carefully to what I am about to tell you. I know with all my heart The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Kingdom of God here on earth. I know that through the ordinances done in this church you can actually receive eternal life and exaltation. I know and I testify to you with everything that I have that our message is true and that you need it. Always remember what I just said and don't let it stand against you in the end." Thinking back it was pretty bold and harsh, but after testifying like that I felt relieved because I know I had done all that I needed to as a missionary and that I won't get in trouble in the future because of my lack of effort. So, its sad that she is gone but I am glad that Elder Thibault and I can move on and help other people.

On my birthday we went and met with a man named Etienne. He told us to be at his house at a certain time and so we were but he wasn't there yet, but his older brother gladly let us come in and he told us to sit down. After seeing his smirk, his huge picture of him on the wall dressed in his pastor robes, and the certificate claiming ecclesiastical authority, but reeking of apostasy on the wall behind us, I knew exactly why he had invited us in. He immediately told us to preach. So I started talking about our message of the Restoration and once I started talking about the Book of Mormon he rudely cut me off and told me that he didn't want me to ever talk about the Book of Mormon again. He then went on to prove his stupidity because he had the guts (I should really say immaturity) to pull out Revelations 22:18-19 and said that no one can add to the bible. Rookie mistake! This pastor, who kept on pointing to the certificate, who kept on telling us that he went to so many years of pastor school, didn't even understand how the bible came to be the bible. I could have bible bashed with him so easily but I kept my mouth shut. We showed to him our dignity and let him try to tell us how we are young and naive and how we have been led away by our foolish parents. Etienne finally showed up and invited us to come outside and so as we got up, I looked at that big jabba the hut on his couch and said, "I know with all of my heart that the Book of Mormon is true and that it contains la plenitude de l'évangile éternelle." He can never bible bash my testimony. Take that. We had an amazing rendezvous with Etienne!! I invited him to go to the church with us so we could do the rendezvous there because I didn't want to be around his brother and he gladly accepted. We had a whole 45 minute lesson on the Book of Mormon and it was the best Book of Mormon lesson I have ever been a part of. Etienne knows that the Book of Mormon is true and is so excited to have it. We talked about the church and priesthood authority and he asked if he would need to change his church if he was to meet with us. I went on to explain that we are not here to say that all the other churches are false but we know that if you continue with us with receiving these lessons and you continue to read in the Book of Mormon, a desire will grow from within you. A desire to be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He totally agreed and told us right then and there that he knows that our church is true and that he would be there on Sunday (which he was) and that he will go there for the rest of his life. It was awesome to hear that, but after being here in Africa for almost 10 months we'll see how serious he was. I have so much faith in this man. Etienne is awesome!

I got into a bible bash yesterday and made a man look like a fool... well really he made himself look like a fool. He tried discrediting our message by saying that there is no man in between Jesus and us, so therefore prophets are fake and we should not follow them. I then had him read Amos 3:7 and asked him to explain what that verse meant. He couldn't. He tried, but failed miserably. He contradicted himself so much throughout the little discussion. In the end he was telling us that we were prophets and that he was a prophet and that everyone is a prophet. It was so wack. He is the husband of one of our investigators and he wouldn't let his wife come to church. I called him out and said, "So, what? You are God now? You can make the choices for your wife? God gave everyone free agency and that is something that no one can take away. God won't even make a choice for someone because that would go against himself. We are here to choose and through our choices we can make it back to our Heavenly Father. You have no right whatsoever, even as a husband, to tell your wife where she can and cannot go to church." He tried to fight back but his words were choking in his throat. Victory. Even after that, we finished with a prayer and we were laughing before we left. I love Africans.

So that was my week! I love my mission and I am learning and growing every single day. I hope all is well for you back home!! I love you! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AIDEN!!! I can't believe that it has basically been a year since him and I were in the baptismal font over in the stake center. Time flies. I love you bud!

Je t'aime,
Elder Schmid

Escargot! This stuff wasn't actually that bad... 

but I wouldn't order it for dinner.

Nice moto accident. That is our apartment in the background.

Sœur Jeanne d'Arc is baptized! She is the one with the pink shirt.

Your son with a member of the 70 :)

The Douala zone with the mission president and Elder Renlund!

My generation all back together again almost a year later!

Bonjour ma mère!

This week went by so fast! I love it when the weeks go by fast because that means I am that much closer to seeing you. Don't get me wrong... I love the mission, but I am away from my eternal family. I am so grateful for what my mission has done for me and for what it will still do for me over the next year, but I can't wait to be back with my family again. I was thinking about my patriarchal blessing and what it says about you and Dad, and every time I do, I am overcome with this feeling of love for you and Dad. You two are my heroes and I am so grateful for all that you do for me :)

I hope you had an awesome birthday! I was writing in my journal and it was so weird thinking that 20 years ago on your birthday you were super pregnant with me. I am sure that was a pleasant birthday ;) I love you, Mom!

I will try to answer your questions from this week... yeah, its kinda tripping me out that I will be twenty this week. Actually, the fact that I will be 20 doesn't really phase me... it's just when I start thinking about things that took place 10+ years ago. I remember right when I turned 10, we had our home teachers over and one of them was Skylar Marin and he said something like this, "Wow, you are already in the double digits!" and it's trippy thinking that that was already 10 years ago. Time goes by so fast. I think I say that in every email... sorry. Yes, I do remember the Standifirds. I hope Jacob does well and its good to hear about Jared. That would be such a cool place to serve a mission. (Jacob was married this week and Jarod is serving in Peru.)

This past week was a pretty busy week and I will start with the highlight of the week... zone conference! We had all the missionaries from Yaoundé come down and President Jameson came with his wife and with Elder Renlund of the 70 and his wife. It was such a sweet conference! I love learning from them so much. This has been my second time now, learning from Elder Renlund, and he has helped me understand certain small principles so much better. He is a very smart man and you can tell that he truly is an especial witness of our Savior Jesus Christ. I love it so much when President Jameson is in town. He always makes you feel so loved and special. It is always a treat because he is so far away, so it is difficult for him to be here with us frequently. He always knows what to say and what to teach. I have so much respect for that man. I know that he was called by God to serve as a mission president here in this area, and I know that I was called by God to work under his direction. I love President Jameson.

We had 4 of the Yaoundé elders stay in our apartment and it was a party! There were some interesting debates about Joseph Smith and the Masons between the Africans and one of the elders from Yaoundé. It is funny to watch how they conduct themselves when they 'debate' or 'share information and beliefs'. The Africans get so riled up and loud voiced and everything and this one kid was completely chill and calm the whole time. Speaking of people getting riled up... this is random, but who cares... there was another accident in that carrefour right by our apartment, and this taxi man took out a moto with an old woman as a passenger. No worries... they are completely fine. The grandma was pretty upset, though. Well, about 20 minutes later, this random guy showed up and he started arguing about what happened and he was putting blame on someone. He wasn't even there!!! That is how it always is here... there is an accident and everyone swarms around and starts testifying what they saw or how they think it happened and they will scream at you and fling their arms all over the place. I got it on camera a few weeks ago but the video is too big to send home so you will see it when you get the memory card.

We had to do some splits this week and Elder Thibault worked with another kid, who arrived when he did, and they were alone in Cameroon with their french, but they actually made it by and did a great job! I was working with Elder Nash and we went to see Frère Abega (Sœur Louise's brother) and we had such an awesome rendezvous. He is progressing with his marriage which means he is progressing with his baptism! He promised us that he will be baptized no later than July 15th! So, I am really hoping that that promise will come to pass. It is cool thinking about how he saved his sisters life and now she has helped him save his own. I am so grateful that I am able to play a little role in his progression. Every time we do splits we do it so that I will be able to go see him. He has so much faith. He almost lost it all because of the trials he was having but a miracle happened and his attitude totally changed. When we ask him what he has been studying he always goes into D&C and starts reading about the deep doctrine stuff. I love him and his family so much. Have you been able to send Sœur Louise the photo of Abega's family, Elder Nash, and I? I told him that I would give that to her.

We got transfer information, and Elder Nash's companion will be going back to Kinshasa because there are 9 missionaries leaving and only one coming. There have been visa problems, so we don't have that many missionaries coming for the moment. They have had to shut down 7 sectors throughout Kinshasa and Brazzaville. No worries though... I am pretty sure they will open right back up again when we start getting over this visa problem. So Elder Nash's new companion will be Elder Addington! Yep, I will be back with my MTC companion... well, in the same apartment. I love Elder Addington. I am super excited to have an all American apartment too... because that means CLEAN!!! I love Elder Kazadi, but he made a lot of messes and didn't do to good of a job cleaning them up. There will be a missionary from Madagascar who will be replacing Elder Addington in Bonaberi.

Here is a funny story and I think I will finish the email with this one. When Elder Nash and I were on splits, we were way the heck out in the middle of no where because that is where Abega lives. When we were returning home we got into a taxi and I sat down next to this older woman. I said hello to her and asked her how she was doing and she said that she was doing alright and then she asked me the same and I said, "I just ate fufu and vegitables... I am doing VERY good!" She laughed and she thought it was funny that a white boy was eating african food. We started talking about the African dishes that I love like Sanga and l'okok avec sucre et manyoke and she was blown away that I knew about all these foods. I somehow transitioned the conversation into one about the church and I presented to her our message and gave her a family brochure and told her to come to church. Well, that night she called me and asked for directions to the church because she really wanted to come, and then, the next morning, we got a call from her because she couldn't find the church.  So, we went out and found her and brought her to the church and she loved it! She was introduced to the Book of Mormon and she really wants a copy. Unfortunately, we didn't have one with us but we will be at her house on Wednesday to teach her about the Restoration and Joseph Smith! This all started because I told her I was super good because I ate fufu and mashed up boiled vegitables. I love missionary work!

Your stories about the family this week cracked me up! I am more than willing to accept that calling you have already given to me for when I get home. I would love to do that. (Teach his younger siblings how to play softball)  I am very excited for Dallin to get his patriarchal blessing! That will be such a neat experience. I hope all else is going well. I love you, Mom. What you said at the beginning of your email really touched me. You are an angel :) Have a great week!

Je t'aime,

Elder Schmid

Playing a game

Hey Mom!

OK, I'm not going to lie... this email produced some tears. That is probably some of the most heart wrenching news I have received on the mission. (A couple, Floyd and Karen Wells, formerly from our ward, recently passed in an auto accident).  I love those two people so much. I loved going to their house to collect fast offerings because they would always invite us into their house and talk with us and visit. I think it is a blessing, though, that they went together. It's funny how death always affects us like that, yet we have the greatest knowledge anyone can have... the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. I will definitely keep their family in my prayers. Families are forever :)

Thanks for helping me out with those photos. I know she will really appreciate that. What you and Sister Thompson is doing is genius.  (We, more Sister Thompson, set up a bulletin board at church that has self addressed envelopes and pictures of each of our missionaries.) I love letters :) I feel bad though because it is so hard for me to write some and respond because mailing stuff here is so risky. I am slowly writing some, and then when someone goes back to the states I will give them all of my letters so they can send them from U.S. soil. I trust USPS more than Cameroon.

So, here is some stuff that I wrote down that I wanted to throw in my email this week. Last Monday, we had family home evening over at this family's house. They had us help them prepare the dinner. I made french fries in a fryer! It was awesome! I felt so out of place using that fryer in Africa. Well, as we were preparing the dinner we were waiting for two young men to arrive because they were going to eat with us, one of them being Frère Legit. Well, they arrived and as they were getting out of the taxi Frère Legit opened his door right as a nice Mercedes was driving by and totally messed up the whole side of the car. Crazy drama followed and I am not going to even attempt to try to explain to you what happened. But I will tell you this because it is pretty funny, Frère Legit only knows like 10 English words and whenever I ask him how he is doing he always says that he is, "very so happy good!" Well, when he arrived that night I asked him how he was doing and he said, "Oh, Elder Legit, I am very so happy bad..." It made me laugh. I love that kid. I don't know if I told you or not but he asked me to ordain him a Priest and confer upon him the Aaronic Priesthood. It was a pretty neat experience. Later that night Jacques (Legit) had us do the hokey-pokey and the tooty-ta. It is so much fun playing stupid games like that with Africans here because they just don't care about how you look or how silly things are... its all about having fun and spreading happiness.

So, in the Missionary White Handbook it tells us missionaries to call each other by our appropriate titles... so Elder Thibault and I have come up with 'appropriate titles' for each other and they are quite funny. Here is how a normal conversation starts... Elder Thibault - "Hey, all powerful, master, district leader, trainer, senior companion, Elder Schmid?" Moi - "Yes, padawan, trainee, junior companion, not all so powerful, greeny, Elder Thibault? Pretty clever, huh?

We had a baptism this weekend! Sœur Jeanne d'Arc entered the waters of baptism on Saturday and was baptized by Elder Thibault! It is his first baptism on his mission! It was neat because he was asked to do the baptism. Then on Sunday we laid our hands on her head and I was voice in conferring her a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was a really neat experience but what was even neater was seeing the joy and excitement coming from her after church. She knows that she just made the best decision of her life up to that point. We were supposed to do the baptism at our church but when we got there, there was no water... the water wasn't pumping for some reason. So there we were with no idea what to do. The Nuttalls told us to join the other baptism over at Bonaberi... the only problem was that that baptism service was to start at 2:30... four hours later. So Jeanne d'Arc, Maman Françoise, and Papa Bell went over to the Nuttalls apartment and watched 17 miracles and I was able to watch some of it. HOLY COW!!! That movie is so sad/happy/amazing/heart wrenching/depressing/joyful thing ever created. I really want to watch the whole thing. Their story is amazing. I ask myself sometimes if I have enough faith right now to do what they did back then. That would be so hard. I am so grateful for our amazing ancestors and pioneers.

As we were going to Bonaberi, we ran into some traffic on the bridge... like always. Except this time it was due to something pretty bizarre. The train that goes down the middle of the bridge hit a big dump truck and drug it for a little bit. Don't worry, no one died and there was no crazy damage, just a lot of traffic. Once we got past the traffic we were finally going pretty fast again until we found road construction. There wasn't really anywhere to go... so what does the taxi driver do? He just goes up on the sidewalk! It was awesome! I am pretty sure we could have never gotten away with that back in the States. Elder Nuttall ended up doing that when he was taking us all back to our part of Douala later that day. I love my mission.

Last night we ate an amazing roast. We have a crock pot over here and we busted it out last night and broke our fast by eating one of the most amazing dinners I have had on my mission. There was one problem though... I ate wayyy too much. You know how I am with mashed potatoes. I had two ginormous plate fulls and 1.5 liters of water sitting in my stomach in a matter of 10 minutes. I hurt afterwards. I couldn't lay down or even stand up strait. I was walking around the apartment for about 15 minutes hunching because that was the only way to not feel the pain of an overloaded stomach. I decided to take a shower because there was nothing else I could do. I felt like an old man...

I wish you could all come over here and experience an African testimony meeting. Yesterday we had this one guy tell a 12 minute story about how he lost his watch and how he prayed and prayed and he found it in his pants pocket.  We had a man from Lyon, France visiting our branch. He is down here for work and I sat next to him in Sacrament meeting. It was neat listening to him speak. He got up and bore his testimony and I was so happy because I could basically understand everything he was saying. African french is so much different than french french. He spoke awesome English too. During the Sacrament he whipped out his iPad and read some talks in the May 2012 Ensign... I miss technology. There is a good chance he knows some of my buds from the MTC who went to Lyon for their mission. He gave me his contact and I will be emailing him and updating him on where my friends are and what their names are.

Well, this past week was great! I love missionary work and I love learning and growing. There is no where else I would rather be. Things are going well. I love you all so much and I can't wait to see you again :)

Je vous aime,

All powerful, master, district leader, trainer, senior companion,
Elder Schmid


* I will be with Elder Thibault for at least 8 more weeks but I think we will be together for 14 more... its all up to the Lord. And a replacement has not been found yet for Yaoundé. We have a senior couple there right now who transferred from Lubumbashi, DR Congo to finish their mission. They will be gone towards the end of July, I think but I am not sure.