Dear Mom,

 

What the heck?!?! Kurt is engaged?! Tell that fool to write me! I haven't heard anything from him ever since he got back home to everyday p-day land. He has no excuses! As for me, I have many. This week’s emails were full of surprises... Oma’s surgery, Kurt's eternal progression, Jackson and Talia back in 61st, Amazing Delia leaving to serve the Lord, etc. I am very happy right now. Thanks for all the good news! Except for Oma's surgery.  I hope she gets better!
 

I have been thinking of Caelan a lot lately. I am so proud of her and I still can't believe that she has graduated from high school and that she'll be attending the fall semester at BYU. Natascha sent me some of her graduation photos and she looked stunning. I am still blown away by how much everyone is changing. There was one picture of Darian and she looked so beautiful! But she always has :) It will be neat to see what happens in Caelan’s life over the next couple of years.

 

This week was a pretty good one. We have had some intense rain storms come through Yaoundé. One came in the middle of the night last night, and we were all awoken by slamming doors because we have all the windows open so we can get a nice cool breeze while we sleep. Well, that little breeze turned into a little tornado. I don’t think I have ever witnessed rain fall as hard as it fell last night. I had to quickly jump out of bed to close the windows and there were already big puddles on our floors. It was nuts. For a while I just sat there, on my top bunk, looking out the window and our road that turned into a raging river. I wish you all could experience a rainstorm over here in Africa. A couple of days before that we were with one of our inactive members and it started to pour. When it stopped we left and found that there was water everywhere. We had to have good hops and good balance to stay dry and not get mud on our clothes. I succeeded :)

 

We have an investigator named Aimée. She reminds me a lot of Kendi. It is really fun to teach her because she is just a fun person… and a drama queen. She has been with the missionaries for a while and actually when I first got here we almost dropped her because she wasn’t progressing at all and not coming to church. Well now she has been to church the last five Sunday’s. She likes to feed us and it always looks like something that came out of a horses rear end… I’ll try sending you a picture of it this week. It isn’t good, but it isn’t bad either.

 

We have been working with a man named Ebenezer. I think I have told you about him already. He is an inactive member, but soon that will change. He has made it to church the last two Sundays and it has been incredible to see his spirituality change over the past couple of weeks. He is doing great.  We promised him that the Lord would bless him with big blessings and direction in his life if he recommitted to come to church and renew his covenants with the Lord. Well, just a few days after attending sacrament meeting his wife gave birth to a beautiful little girl with a full head of hair. We were talking to him the day after and made sure to make him aware that the Lord placed this blessing at this time in his life because of his faithfulness. He got emotional as we were talking with him about his responsibility to make sure that this little girl grows up knowing what a true priesthood holder of the Lord is and how a man should treat a woman. He is stepping it up and I hope and pray that he can stay strong and endure to the end.

 

We have two inactive men in the branch that we have been working with ever since I have been here, and both of them this Sunday advanced in the priesthood! One was ordained a priest and the other one received the Melchizedek priesthood and was ordained an elder. That was exciting news. Now when I write I say ‘inactive’ but they are definitely active now… they’ve changed, but now our goal is to help them continue with this change and progress towards the ultimate blessing.

 

Here is something funny that happened on Sunday. There were the two priesthood ordinations and for one they called up his older brother to do the ordination. This older brother had never done something like that before so he was completely lost. Our branch president was there right at his side telling him word for word what he needed to say. Then it came where he needed to give a blessing. President Luc told him what to say… “And now we would like to give you a blessing…” and then he backed away. The guy said it and then sat there not knowing what to do and then simply said, “and we give you this blessing in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.” It was pretty funny. President Luc couldn’t help but smile and pat the kid on his back.

 

Well, that’s about it for this week. My asthma is still going. I have it everyday and even with the new inhaler it comes. I have been sleeping better, but last night I woke up with tight lungs. The Lord is blessing me with patience, though, so I know that I will be able to last and then we’ll see what’s up when I get home. I’ll take your advice and get a blessing this week. I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!

 

Je t’aime maman,

Elder Schmid

 

 

Marina, Odette, Elder Johnston, and I.
They are inactive members that we are working with.

We are trying to teach Odette how to read and write.

Me and one of my eternal investigators in Douala.

We became really good friends during those 7 months.

The Gailey's and Me

A guy in our branch wears these wherever he goes.