Dear Mom,

 

Wow, I can't believe how much Dallin is changing! It is going to be so weird when I see him again in real life because he will be so much bigger. I don't care how big he gets... but he CANNOT be taller than me. So do whatever you can to keep him from passing 6'3. K, thanks!

 

I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing alright. I love your emails. I am always laughing and showing Elder Lavering some of the things you say. To clarify your question about that picture of me at PK12... the kids name is Kevin. Sylvestre lives about 2 hours away right next to the water. The picture I sent you last week of me right next to the filthy water is where Sylvestre lives. So, it was just a little typo I guess.

 

I know I don't respond to everything in your email but I am so grateful for all the detail you put into your emails... please continue!! There is just so much that I want to tell you about what's happening over here, so I don't focus much on 'responding' to your email... if you know what I mean. I love your emails though :) You and Dad made me laugh a lot as I was reading your emails. I love you guys!

 

So, I want to tell you a little about Alex... my investigator, not the gorgeous one over in New York under the title of Sister Adams. This week we saw him every single day and he progressed so much!! We taught him the lesson on respecting the Sabbath day. We taught that one early because a lot of security guards have problems with that one because they work everyday. He is a man who is driven by his faith in Jesus Christ and his potential, and his knowledge of his potential, has grown so much this last week. He understood that he shouldn't work on Sunday and that he needs to come to church. So, right after our rendez-vous he went and talked to his boss and requested to have his jour de repos (rest day) on Sunday. He explained that he is a religious man and that he needs to respect what he believes. Well, his boss told him that he couldn't change it this Sunday but starting on the 2nd of September he will be free every Sunday!!! How awesome is that! We gave him a blessing this week... right after we taught him about the Sabbath day and in that blessing he was promised that the Lord would provide a way for him to respect the commandments if he continues to show his faith and follow the commandments. We stopped by on Sunday after church to see how he was doing and he was a little sick but we were able to teach him about why he is here on earth and we gave a little intro into the word of wisdom and afterwards he started testifying to us that he knew that Joseph Smith was a true prophet and that he knew that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It was so neat to hear him say that... and he said it on his own. We weren't asking him if he believed. He loves to learn and he loves to share what he learns. We were with him one evening and one of his security guard buddies came by and starting talking poorly about the Book of Mormon and Alex set him strait and almost converted him to the Book of Mormon. He has such a powerful testimony. He will probably be baptized on October 6th.

 

We were teaching Matthieu this week and he told us about a dream he had. He said that in this dream he was running on water trying to escape and he just ran and ran and ran and couldn't escape the water. That was his whole dream. He asked me what it meant and I had absolutely no clue, so I told him that it was probably just a dream. He then said, "Is it just a dream when you are wide awake in the middle of the day and all of the sudden you are vividly seeing your dream just as you dreamt it only a few hours earlier? I don't think this is 'just a dream'." I had some thoughts pop into my head and I just started telling him about his dream. I said, "Maybe the water represents danger and you are running on water... which means you are playing with something that shouldn't be played with and you want to escape the danger but yet you still find your self right there. God is right there to help you but he won't help when you still don't fully have the desire to change. Maybe that is what it means." He looked at me almost as if in shock... he then said, "It's not 'maybe'... that is EXACTLY what the dream means. Wow Elder Schmid... you have a gift." I was just saying what came to my head but after he said that I know that the Lord put into my head what I needed to say. I just thought that was a neat little missionary experience and I wanted to share it with you. I am not a dream interpreter but I am a missionary for Jesus Christ and I know that He will always help us further the work... in all aspects.

 

So, this past week I finished my third journal. I am not even 14 months into my mission and I have already filled out three big journals. I love writing in my journal so much and it is so neat going back a year ago and reading about what went down that day. I am constantly reminded of how fast the time flies as a missionary.

 

The other day, Elder Lavering and I decided to go running in the morning and as I was getting ready to go running I kept on having this thought in my head that I needed to say a prayer before we left the apartment to run. I kept on telling myself, "No, you don't need to... you never have before." Well, I decided to and we left the apartment and started our run. We had ran about a half a mile and I was looking down at my feet and I randomly looked up and I saw this red car coming right towards me going pretty fast. It seemed like the person who was driving lost control. I jumped sideways and the car violently swerved the other way and kept on driving. I just kept on running like nothing happened but inside I couldn't believe what had happened. I think I know now why I felt impressed to say a prayer.

 

A few days ago we were at the church and we saw one of the members I helped reacivate... Barthélemy. He was chilling out back reading some church material. He is about 18 years old. We went and sat next to him because we had a little time before our next rendez -vous and we talked about what he was studying and how his life was and everything and about his sister, Marie Agnes. He is a branch missionary but he never comes to our meetings and never helps us and for our next rendez-vous we didn't have a member coming so I smiled and looked at him and said, "Barthélemy, do you want to fulfill your responsibilities as a branch missionary and help us out in 5 minutes?" I got him! It was impossible for him to say no. He smiled because he knew he was 'caught' and he started packing up his things so he could come and help us. As he was packing he looked up and all excitedly asked, "C'est une sœur??" (Is it a sister?) We just smiled and said nope! He is a goofy kid.

 

I can't believe that you and Dad have already been married 22 years! That is awesome! I hope you had a fun time! It's weird to think that 22 years ago you were younger than me getting married. I don't know if that makes any sense but it does to me and it is so weird thinking about it like that. Anywho, félicitations (congratulations)!

 

A person here wants to get a CTR ring like mine and I told him I would help him get one if he gave me money... he gave me money, so now I was wondering if you could help me out a little. You can take the money out of my account but go and get a CLB ring size 8.5 and get the large one like I have. Just throw it into your next package you send me. If it will take you forever to get one in french you can get it in English because I don't want you to get it and then I won't be here in Douala when the package comes. Thank you so much! You should also send a frisbee over here!

 

I love you all so much and I am so glad that everyone is doing well. I belong to the most amazing family in the world. Thank you so much for all that you do for me. I love you, Mom :)

 

Ik hou van je (trying to be tricky in Dutch...I love you),

Elder Schmid

 

PS - I met a dutch man who works for an American company over here and I told him the two words I know in dutch... the one that means tasty and the one that everyone else says when they are upset... well, he laughed when I said that and said, "Don't say that too much because you will get your butt whipped kicked."