Hey hey hey!!

 

This week flew by! Je n'ai pas beaucoup de temps (I do not have much time) but I'll try my best to write you a good email. Caelan mentioned in her email that I will by skyping you for only 20 minutes... false. Don't worry, I will get my full 40 minutes. I have another blog for you to add... missioninthecongo.blogspot.com ... that is the Wheatley's blog (he obviously hasn't noticed that their blog address has been on his blog since he has been in Congo). Over here it is just hot... it has been hot since I have been here. I like it though because it reminds me of home. I have a pretty wicked farmers tan now, so it will be funny when I get home and go swimming with you guys. We may have to wait a week or two before we go to sunsplash.
 

This week was another great week over here. We had President Jameson come over and we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional together, which was AWESOME, and then we had a little zone conference. I love it so much when President is in town. We were at the Wheatley's and right at the end, I went outside and I noticed that there was a big dump truck out in front of their gate... I went and looked to find that the road, the only way to get out of that quartier where they are at, was completely covered by rock and sand. The people that did it saw that the "white people" were upset and they high tailed it out of there. We had some other guy walk up to us and say, "If there are the possibilities me and my guys could help you." As he said that he was rubbing his fingers together... so we just got our own shovels and moved the dirt ourselves. It took a while and I think every single one of us got blisters but we made it possible for the Wheatley's to get their car out. It was actually pretty fun.
 

 

We have been having a lot of success with finding new people to teach. One of them is Jean. At this moment I don't know exactly what to think of him... He comes to church though, and loves to learn but when we teach him it is hard for him to focus. Every time we are with him he gives us a ton of fruit (pineapple, papaya, mangoes), and one pineapple he gave us was much, much bigger than my head. I forgot to get a picture of it. It was massive! Last time we were with him there was a huge funeral going on right down the road and there were a bunch of crazy women jumping and chanting and in the middle of the mosh pit was the casket with an old woman in it. When we left we followed Jean and he decided to take us right through the funeral celebrations. I'll just say that we quickly got the attention... of everyone. It was pretty funny to see.

 

There is some success with Trésor. He will be losing his house soon and so Cecilia will be going down to Brazzaville to stay with her family and so her and Trésor will not be living with each other, thus fulfilling the requirement for baptism. We have nailed it to Trésor the importance of keeping the law of chastity when he once gets a house again and he knows that he can't live with her until they are married and he understands and wants to get baptized. So, finally I feel like we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Well, sorry this is so short but just know that I love you... sooo much. I can't wait to talk to you on Christmas! Hey, that is when we can take our family picture!! We will all be together :) Have a great week!

 

Je t'aime,

Elder Schmid

Dear Mom,

 

Today will be a little short because we don't have that much time. Oh well...I'm glad Caelan, Dallin, and Aiden are doing well in choir and orchestra. Remember when I did orchestra... yeah, that was bad. Remember Tanner Ellsworth? He played the cello and he was dang good. It sounds like you all had a blast with DeAnn over. So Aaron is already home?? Dang... I think I'm the last one out of all my friends.

 

This week was great. We have been dropping a lot of investigators because they were just not progressing. It was a little sad but they have their own free agency. We can't force our message on them. We have had faith though, that the Lord will help us find others who are wanting to change their lives RIGHT NOW. That is our trial over here but it is an awesome one. People progress... but not fast enough, so we have to move on. It's an awesome problem but stressful at the same time. Some people like to take their time and we just don't have time for that. This week, however, we have received some awesome coordonnées (referrals) and they seem promising.

 

Oh by the way, I got the letter that DeAnn sent. My first letter here in Congo! I loved it too! Thank you Kettenring's!!

 

We are still teaching a lot of lessons and helping people get closer and closer to the waters of baptism. Our golden ami right now is Jean Joseph. He loves to study and learn. He was at church a couple of weeks ago and the EQ President gave him the conference Liahona from May, and so I gave him Elder Hollands talk to read and he read it three times because he wanted to understand everything about it. He is married enough so he will be getting baptized here on the 29th.

 

Trésor is not having any luck with finding a new house, so on the 17th he and his family will be kicked out of the house that they have now and Cecilia and his daughter will go to Brazza to stay with her family and Trésor will stay here with his brother, Préferna, and try to find a place to stay. But because of this, Trésor will probably be able to get baptized because he will not be living with his fiancée. We need to nail the law of chastity with him though and really make sure that when he does find a house that she won't come back and live with him because that would be a big no no. Trésor knows that he can get baptized now and is stoked.

 

Chloe and I, this is Tresor's daughter who is one month older then Bronson

 

On a more sad note. Remember me talking about Divin? the person we just baptized a few weeks into my stay here in Congo? Well he has completely fallen of the face of the planet. We haven't seen him since the beginning of November. He found a job and it has taken over his life. It's sad... he knows that he needs to be at church but he just doesn't have enough faith to go. I called him yesterday to see what's up and he was just annoyed that we were calling him so much. We are worried about him. What makes things worse is that he didn't give us the correct information for his baptismal recommendation (spelling?) and we had to fill it out twice... and it still doesn't have all the right stuff so we need to fill out yet another one but we can't see him so his records will never get sent to Kinshasa. Its a mess and it is pretty depressing. He has completely changed. I was just sitting there on the couch yesterday with my head in my hands wondering what on earth has happened. It's sad...

 

The baptism of Anna and Divin

I need to know what you guys want to do for skype on Christmas. I can either do it Christmas Eve or Christmas day. I would prefer Christmas day. Just let me know about your schedule. I can't wait to see you all!

 

I love you so much and I hope you have a great week!

 

Je vous aime,

Elder Schmid

 

Elder Thibault tried to cut my hair

Can we get as high as Elder Schmid?

Luckily Elder Schmid doesn't need a jacket in Congo...



The Elders taking in a beautiful sunset!

The Pointe Noire chapel

A pousse-pousse, an African wheel barrow

 

Dear Mom,

Can you believe that it is already December? This time last year I was still with Elder Lamb and loving the work over there in Ekounou. I am always blown away by how fast the time goes by. It doesn't really feel like Christmas is just around the corner. The only thing that even hints that it is Christmas time is the kid that stands in the middle of the street over here trying to sell lit up Christmas lights that are all wrapped around his body. He doesn't find much success because he stands in the middle of the road and tries to sell them to people that are stuck in traffic. Don't ask me why... We have been listening to a lot of Christmas music in the apartment and it has been amazing.  I love Christmas music so much. Josh Groban and Faith Hill sing a SWEET duo.

It sounds like you all had a fun time setting up lights :) Poor little innocent Ashlyn. I wish I could have been there with you all. What I love most about Christmas is the time we spent together as a family.  I'm going to be honest though... that is a love I discovered after being away from the family. I was such a punk before the mission. I'm so sorry, Mom. But, with that said, you are still sooo lucky that you have... I'm not going to finish that sentence but you know exactly what I would say :)

This week was an awesome week and we had another 30+ lesson week. I know it's not all about numbers but it just feels good knowing that you are out there teaching as many people as you can and literally exhausting yourself doing the work that you have been called to do.  There would be days where we would crank out 10 lessons. This transfer we totaled 185 lessons. We have had to drop a lot of people too due to lack of progression but I know that the Lord will help us find new amis who are ready to accept the gospel as long as we are diligent and obedient.

Délaur got baptized and the kid that baptized him almost went under himself. It was pretty funny to watch. He was so happy to be baptized!! We walked up to the church an hour and a half early and he was sitting there under a tree just studying his Book of Mormon. He had a huge smile on his face the whole entire time and it was so contagious. He asked me to confirm him and so I did and that went well. I know that he will be an awesome member over here in Pointe Noire. At the baptism one of the amies from another missionary companionship was there and some of the missionaries here have suffer a little from jungle fever and she was swarmed by missionaries and all the young men in the branch. But guess who was the only one who had the guts to get her number? Délaur! Atta kid!

Whenever we go out into the sector we are known to the Congolese community as Moudele. That means "white man" in their dialect. You will have a bunch of little kids running up to you screaming "moudele!! moudele!!" and then they will hug you or shake your hand or just talk to you. I learned how to say "I'm going to eat you!" in their dialect, "Mouke dia ngue" and so sometimes when they run up to me I get my scary voice going and I scream that and then they about crap their pants and do the fast 180 degree turn you will ever see and take off the other direction. I would then chase after them and pick them up and put them on my shoulders and just play with them for a little bit so they knew that I was just joking around. It is a lot of fun. I love the little children here. I will try to get a video of it one time. You would love it so much.

They have officially started building an outdoor basketball court at the church!! It is semi professional size too! I am so stoked for it to be finished. They are also repainting the whole building and fixing it up so it will look very nice. So in about two weeks the whole place will look brand new. Even the landscaping. The church building here is so beautiful. I would love for you to come here and see it. But what is more beautiful are the members who are in it. The Congolese people are such an incredible people. They are always so happy and they love... they just love. Yes of course there are the little problems here and there but those exist in every branch or ward of the church. But they just smile and everything is better. I love where I am and I love what I am experiencing. I am so blessed to be here in Africa. I love being able to grow with my brothers and sisters over here. Going on a mission you just realize that you have a family everywhere in the world. We are a part of something so magnificent.

I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. I know that out of His infinite love for us He volunteered Himself to come down here to earth to be sacrificed so that all the children of Heavenly Father can return and live with Him for eternity. C'est deja faite alors maintenant tous ce que nous devons faire et d'agir. Montrons a Dieu que nous l'aimons par notre obéissance and notre charité. J'aime l'évangile de Jésus-Christ et je sais que si nous le mettons on practique nous pouvouns recevoir la vie éternelle... don qui est le plus grand de tous les dons de Dieu.  (It is already done, so now all what we need to do is to act. Show to God that we love Him by our obedience and our charity . I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and I know that if we ? we will receive eternal life ... which is the greatest of all the gifts of God.)

Je t'aime Maman,
Elder Schmid