Dear Mom,

 

Dang, you already got my letters?! I sent those about three weeks ago! I thought for sure they would get to you in March. The Lord answers prayers. Those are there, in your hands, because you guilt tripped me on our amazing skype call on Christmas :)  Ravens, won... yay.  I could care less. I laughed when I read Dad's comments about Dallin trying to get you to let him watch it. What you guys did instead will have such a greater impact on the family. I can't wait to experience times like that with you guys again. One day when Dallin is serving the Lord full time he will understand. As for now, sucker!

 

I have a lot that I want to tell you so I am going to fly through this email. Please correct any spelling errors on my part.

 

We had a zone activity last Monday and we went to this super nice golf course and hit up the driving range. It had been almost a year since I had swung a golf club. I was cranking it! I was hitting it over 250 meters with the big driver. I don't know how far that is compared to people who actually play golf but it was cool watching the ball disappear. I almost nailed one of the ball fetchers way out in back of the range. He thought that he was out of my range... HAH! We also drove through the jungle and it was gorgeous. I took some awesome pictures and I'll try to email them to you soon. It was so beautiful. We went to a gorge that had beautiful red cliffs and over looked the ocean. That night we went to a members house to eat and I ate some animals intestines and it was so weird. It had fur stuff on it. It is definitely not one of my favorite things to eat.

 

One of our recent converts named Délaur has had a lot of personal problems lately. We have had a hard time seeing him and finally the opportunity came and we jumped on it. We had a long talk with him and he explained to us everything that was going down in his life. He was kicked out his house because he refused to deny the faith. He wanted to stay true to his testimony. His dad wanted him to leave his church and rejoin him in their little neighborhood assembly but Délaur basically said "heck no!" Délaur made it seem like it was such a simple choice for him. I was very proud of him when he told us that. He hasn't been to church in a few weeks because of major issues with the family but he will come back. We know that he has a testimony...after all he was kicked out of a nice house because of it.

 

We met this new investigator, and when we sat down, there was this young woman who had more than the gospel on her mind... that probably wasn't even close to what was on her mind. She was just staring at us as we would talk and she tried her best to do seductive looks. At the end of the lesson she asked me when I was going back home (to the states) and before I could answer she said, "You need to take me with you." I looked at her with my "get-out-of-here" face and said very bluntly, "My home is not your home." She hasn't said anything since.

 

Fugain is an amazing investigator who loves to read the Book of Mormon. He had had the book for a week and had already read to 2 Néphi 4. He always asks legit questions and understands so well. He will be getting baptized on February 16th.

 

We had another rendez-vous with this kid named Pierre. It was our first rendez-vous with him and we had to meet up at a school out in the quartier so he could show us where he lived. Right when he walked up to us he said "Bonjour" and immediately said, "So what do I need to do to get baptized?" Well Pierre, you are with the right people!! That happens a lot out here. But most of the time it was just to good to be true.

 

Over here everybody thinks that we are Jehovah's Witnesses. It is pretty annoying. In french they are called Témoins de Jehovah. You are guaranteed to have at least one person call you that as you are walking from rendez-vous to rendez-vous. One day we were walking and this younger lady walked by us and kind of said quietly but loud enough so that we could here, "Les témoins de Satan!" I just turned around and started laughing. She turned around as she was walking and smiled. Oh well.. if she associates the devil with them I won't change her mind.

 

Hey, just to let you know, I got Christmas letters from the Enghs, Grandma, and Oma and Opa. I loved them all so much!! I love hearing from my family. I have the best family in the world.

 

Here are some cool little Sunday facts. Fugain, our ami, hasn't missed church since he first came and he is now at 5 Sundays in a row. Amour, our other young ami who will also get baptized on the 16th is at 5 Sundays and hasn't missed one since he first came, and Daljus, who was baptized the week before I got here to Congo is at 22 Sundays in a row and hasn't missed since he was brought by a friend for the first time. We have awesome members and investigators here. We did weekly planning yesterday and we were planning for 33 people. We have so much work to do.

 

I love you all so much and I can't wait to hear from you again. I can't believe that Kurt is on his second to last week. Le temps passe vite! Have a good week!

 

Je t'aime,

Elder Schmid