Dear Mom,

 

“So, the investigator that you were hoping to baptize on your birthday, she is married to a man with multiple wives? How old is this girl, because you mention that she is fitting in with the Young Women? How exactly is she apart of polygamy?” So, I am going to respond to this little confusion. Aimée is the investigator that we were planning on baptizing on June 15th, but due to lack of conversion and other little things we are going to postpone the date to July 20th. We have a little over 700 members of the Church over here in Yaoundé and only 53% are active. So we don’t want to add to that already pretty low number. A lot of missionaries in the past only had one thing on their mind “BAPTIZE! BAPTIZE! BAPTIZE!” and because of that we are now working with a ton of inactive members. At this moment we see Aimée becoming one of those “inactives” and we don’t want that to happen. That does nothing for the struggling church here. She always tells us that she is ready, but as missionaries we are blessed with the gift of discernment and it is obvious to us that she is not quite ready. It was a bummer because that would have been my last baptism, but this isn’t my work. It’s the Lord’s and we try our best to do it His way.

 

Now, Lydie is another investigator who is 17 years old. Her mother is involved in an unofficial polygamist relationship. I say unofficial because she is not technically married to the man. In fact, he isn’t married to any of the four women. We still put it under the category of polygamy because it is so close to the line. The only thing that says it’s not polygamy is that the marriage certificate is not there. But, on the other hand, he pays for all the houses that the women live in. He frequently visits them and does his thing. He pays for the children and their schooling. He is recognized as the father of all the children even though he isn’t Lydie’s birth father. I could go on and on. I talked to President Jameson about it because, like I said, it technically isn’t polygamy due to the lack of an official marriage certificate, but Elder Johnston and I were just not sure as to what to do. President Jameson even went to his leader down in South Africa, who is in the 70, and he gave the final decision, which I completely agree with. Lydie cannot be baptized because she is living in a household where polygamy is practiced. It was sad telling her that, and her mom got upset and I quickly turned to her mom and let her know why she couldn’t get baptized and called her to repentance. The mother understands that what she is doing is wrong. She has told us that many times, but then she always says after that, “but life is hard!” So we are kind of at a standstill with Lydie. I hope that clears things up a little bit. I just dropped a lot of info.

 

The other day we were at Aimée’s house and it started to rain. Here in Cameroon during the month of June, when it rains it will rain strait for hours… no joke. Well, we had a pretty packed schedule for the day, and so we went out and walked in the rain for about 45 minutes. We don’t have umbrellas. I don’t know why… we were in the quartier, as well, so there was mud all over the place and everyone was slipping and sliding. I almost walked all the way without getting any mud on my pants, but then, towards the end, somehow I splashed it up. Once that happens I just throw my care out the window and just walk. You get so dirty over here. We were drenched but it felt good. It gets pretty warm over here. Later on that day, we were at an inactives house and there is this pretty steep hill right by her house and we were watching people try to walk up the hill and it was very amusing because it was very muddy and people were falling and slipping all over. There was one guy that was carrying about 50 lbs. of water on his head and he eventually lost his sandals and was barefoot sliding down the hill while balancing all that water on his head. It was pretty impressive. In the end, water splashed over the edge twice, but it was probably no more than a cup. I wanted to applaud when he finally got up but then I realized that I was still in a lesson.

 

I want to thank you so much for sending me “As A Man Thinketh.” I was so surprised to get it. I had no clue that it was coming. I read it in one day and I’m reading it again right now. James Allen has incredible insight. Knowing what I have gone through over the past two years of my life I can testify that things truly do start in the mind and once you can master what takes place in your mind, it is at that moment when change and self mastery come. I want to go out into the jungle and have my study journal and that book and my scriptures and just ponder on that stuff all day and write down my thoughts.

 

We had our last zone conference with President Jameson and I also had my exit interview with him. Normally, missionaries have that the night before they leave, but we don’t have that blessing over here because he is over in Kinshasa. That interview was probably one of the most monumental moments of my mission. I would write about it but I would rather talk to you about it. I have a new temple recommend and it is good for three months. It was a powerful moment for me… testifying of my worthiness. I’m grateful for what the Lord has helped me become over the past two years. I am definitely a better person.

 

Saying good bye to President and Sister Jameson. 
They entered the mission and will leavethe mission the same time as Elder Schmid.

Last zone dinner with the Jamesons.

Missionaries of Yaounde

 

 A few weeks back I ordered 14 pairs of garments that I will bring home with me. Why 14 pairs? Because they are very cheap over here. Church materials are sold at a smaller price here in Africa. I got all 14 pairs for under $10. Awww yeah. We had no water for a few days and all my white shirts were dirty, as well as my garments, so I opened up a new pair of garments and it felt so good putting them on. I have gone two years with the same garments and they are pretty worn out.

 

Well, that’s about it for this week. It sounds like you had a great birthday! On June 23rd I will be exactly as old as you were when you gave birth to me. Now, THAT is weird!! I did the math for dad as well and I won’t be hitting that mark until September 2019. I was doing numbers last night and I figured out that when I see Tyler on the 29th I will not have seen him for 1,144 days… a little over 163 weeks. That’s nuts. I miss that kid. I miss you all and I can’t wait to see you here in just a few short weeks!

 

Je t’aime maman,

Elder Schmid