Dear Mom,

 

Time keeps going by at a faster and faster rate. This week went by way fast. It was a good week too. Elder Johnston and I are getting used to our new sector and finding our way around. We have an awesome member who has worked with us three times already. We don’t have a lot of investigators, so we have been focusing a lot on inactive members. We went to our branch president’s house and talked to him about our goal of working with non actives and he changed his clothes and went out with us and took us around to the houses of inactive members in his area, and this week we will start visiting them and helping them out. We have a special training program for the new missionaries that we call the 12 week program, and week to week we study about certain principles of missionary work. This week we studied the importance of working with members, so, we are trying to improve the member/missionary relationship and gain their trust. Things are looking good.

 

This weekend we were able to watch General Conference at the church with the church members and it was incredible. I have never been so concentrated on conference talks before. The four general conferences that have gone down since being on my mission have done so much for me. Before the mission I was excited for conference because that meant I could lay down on the comfortable couches and relax and sleep. But now those 10 hours are so precious to me. I loved Elder Craig A. Cardon’s talk on the Atonement and forgiveness. I love it when people get fired up and raise their voices a little. That’s why I love to listen to Elder Holland so much. Elder Cardon nailed some basic principles that can make all of our lives so much better if they are put into effect in our personal lives. I also really enjoyed Sister Dalton’s talk. That was powerful. She will be missed. I always love it when speakers talk about families and marriage. I really enjoyed Elder Clayton’s talk on eternal marriage. I loved how he used the phrase “watch and learn.” I have the perfect examples to watch and learn from… thank you Mom and Dad.

 

We have an awesome kid that we are working with named George. He is an inactive member who is coming back because he misses what he once had. His story is pretty interesting. He went to Equitorial Guinea following soccer dreams and false hopes, and one day when he was down there reality hit him and he realized that he was distancing himself from the Lord. He made some big mistakes over there and, with the help of his mother, got the courage to come back and straighten things out. He is a young kid, I think around my age. So these past few weeks Elder Johnston and I have been teaching him the Plan of Salvation. I love teaching him because he loves learning everything about every principle, so that allows us to go into deeper things that we don’t talk about too often or things that are not often understood by individuals who don’t have a deep conversion in the true gospel of Jesus Christ. This week he was telling us about one of his friends who would always tease him because of his religion. He would get picked on because he would wear his white shirt and tie every Sunday. He would get picked on because he is such a minority here in Cameroon. He would never let that get to him though. He said that it was difficult but he let it go and didn’t worry about it. He was still a friend to the other kid. The other day this one kid’s mother passed away unexpectedly. It has been a difficult trial for this one kid and also for George because George was often there with that family. So as we were in our lesson with George, he said, “I have been thinking a lot about what I could do for my friend. I want to go over to his house and share with him the message of the Restoration and talk to him about the Book of Mormon. I think right now would be a great opportunity to do that. Do you think that that would be okay?” Ummm YES!!! I was so proud of George. Here is someone working to find again his testimony and through the process he wants to lift others with him. We told him that that would be a great thing to do and also mentioned to him how much the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation could help that grieving family at this moment. He was so excited. I look forward to hearing about how things turned out. We have a Book of Mormon and Plan of Salvation brochure that we will be giving to George tomorrow so that he can give those to his friend. Missionary work rocks.

 

I’m going to tell you about something that happens quite often in one way or another over here in Cameroon. Elder Johnston and I were leaving our apartment and we were walking up a big hill to go to the main road to get a taxi. As we were walking, there was this man who passed us going the other way. So, like we normally do, we said “bonjour” and kept on walking. He responded with a cheerful greeting and continued his way. We got to a gas station at the top of the hill and before we crossed the road this man that we passed a minute before had caught up to us. He started talking to us… small talk stuff. And we said, “weren’t you going the other way?” and he simply said, “I was trying to but some energy kept on pulling me toward you guys and finally I turned around and ran back up to catch up to you.” We basically said, “Well, that energy wants you to learn something very special and this is what it is…” and we gave him a Restoration brochure and we exchanged contacts. For me it was just another run in here in Cameroon. I looked over at Elder Johnston just a few minutes ago and asked him what he is going to write about in his emails and he mentioned this little run in with this man named Rod. It kind of helped me remember of the little miracles that happen every day in the life of missionaries.

 

Next week is going to be an interesting week for us. On Thursday, all of the missionaries here in Yaoundé will be taking the bus and going down to Douala for a big zone conference with President Jameson. We will be there until Saturday. Friday, President will be doing interviews for the Yaoundé elders and depending on the schedule of President Jameson that could be my final interview with him… my exit interview. That seems somewhat surreal. On Saturday, we will have the actual conference and right after that we will head back up to Yaoundé. Then, on Sunday,  we will be skyping our families!! So, I will be able to see you guys! I am so excited! It doesn’t seem like it has already been over four months since I have seen you guys and heard all of your voices.

 

Well, I gotta go. I love you so much and I hope you have a great week! Mom, always remember that tu as de la chance de m’avoir comme ton fils! (You are lucky to have me as a son!)

 

Je t’aime,

Elder Schmid

 

Cleaning my aprartment

Storm coming into Yaounde