Hey there!

Wow, these past few days have been pretty crazy. Elder Lavering hasn't been feeling to good... not good at all, actually. He has been throwing up since yesterday morning beginning at 2 in the morning. I feel pretty bad for him... he has been in bed for basically the last 30 hours or so. We are over here at the Nuttalls just in case another wave comes... because there is a bathroom right by us.

I'm glad everyone had fun up at the cabin! I love that place so much. It is weird picturing Dallin running around and doing all that exercise... because before the mission those kinds of activities were non existent in his life. I am happy for him though! I am excited that he is taking initiative and having fun! I miss that kid.

Last Monday was so awesome! After we went and emailed, we came back to the apartment and were chilling and then I got a call from one of my converts back in Yaoundé... Yves! He told me that he was in Douala and that he wanted to come by and see me. I told him where our apartment was and he came! I was sooo happy to see him! This is the convert that I ordained an elder and gave him the Melchizedek Priesthood. It was so neat just sitting and talking about life. He asked me about you guys and Alex, so I went and got pictures of the family and of Alex, and we talked about you. He thinks Bronson is a stud. There was a moment where he just went off for 5 minutes or so telling me how grateful he was for the gospel in his life and for all that I had done for him. It meant so much to hear that from him. I took the opportunity to get personal with him and bear a really sincere testimony about how the mission has blessed my life and how I have grown so much because of what I have learned since being out here. I shared with him some scriptures and one of those was D&C 18:15-16 and I told him how happy I was that he was continuing to grow in the gospel and in the faith. He is such a great guy. We talked about trials and struggles and we read some scriptures together. Before he left he asked me to say a prayer so we stood up and prayed together. It was such a neat experience. I know that that scripture in D&C can be fulfilled in this life time. I was so happy. There is no other way to put it.

Elder Lavering arrived Tuesday evening over here in Douala. Before, I was kind of nervous. Change is always difficult to swallow. Especially when you were comfortable with your program before. But right when I saw him all of that worry went away. I knew that we would do big things together. He is from a town by Seattle, Washington and went to BYU. He loves to snowboard and is super chill and down to earth. It has been fun working with him this past week. Elder Lamb ran into Elder Laverings sister at the provo temple when doing baptisms... but at the time he had no clue who it was. Well, they were talking together and realized that her little brother was going to be trained by his trainee! How neat is that?

On Wednesday, Sister Nuttall came to the apartment to bring some goodies by and when we were all standing outside the apartment she accidentally dropped her keys and they fell in between the big sewage converings and into the sewage. We had absolutely no clue what to do. These converings are huge concrete blocks that weigh close to two hundred pounds and are set in place and never move. We couldn't reach our hands down because the crack was to small. We ended up getting a hanger from our apartment and untwisted it and I was fishing for about 30 seconds and finally the keys showed up on the hook!! We were so lucky. I got a picture. I will try to send it to you when I am done with this email.

I got two packages from Natasha and they were full of awesome snacks and dryer sheets!! My room has smelled sooo good for the past week and I haven't even opened the box. She also sent me some tide laundry detergent... the little single use packs and I did two loads and I have been in heaven! It smells so good in our apartment. For Christmas, if you want to send me anything I would be completely happy with tide laundry detergent. Those good smells have put me in such a good mood. Big shout out thanks to Tasha!!!

So, I want to talk a little about our investigator Chrispine. Thinks have been amazing with her. She loves to read the Book of Mormon and when she finishes whatever reading assignment she had to do she continues to read whatever she wants because she loves the book! What is even better is that she understands what she reads... you can tell that she is open to the promptings of the spirit when she reads. Her questions are always so deep and sincere. She has such a great desire to read and learn and be baptized. Now, like with every other investigator, we have hit a little road block. But this one isn't as bad. She lives over at PK 12 which translates to "way the heck out there" and it would be next to impossible for us to go out there and teach her... unless we only wanted to teach two or three lessons a day. The reason I am a little scared is that we have sooo many inactive members who live out there. But then again, some of the strongest members in the branch live even further than that. Travel is pretty difficult because it is a lot of money... so you need to have a lot of faith and a great desire to follow the Lord. I know she has that but in the back of my mind I am still a little scared. I am always reminded of the scripture 2 Nephi 31:14... I don't want to baptize someone to their own condemnation... if that makes sense. But then again, she has the choice. We just need to make it very clear what the consequences are when people don't follow through with their side of the covenant. She is awesome though... I don't know why I worry. But yeah, that is where we are at with Chrispine.

Last week at church, this random man showed up who's name is Sylvestre. We talked with him and fixed a rendezvous with him on Wednesday. It was Elder Laverings very first rendezvous in Africa and it was one of the most amazing rendezvous I have ever participated in. I guess Sylvestre used to work as a pousse-pousse, which is a man who has a cart kinda like a wheel barrow and loads it and takes it places for other people. Well, about a year ago he had a very heavy load and he was struggling a little and then a white man came and helped him. He was utterly confused as to why a young white man dressed in a white shirt and tie would help him but he was grateful for it and he got a Book of Mormon out of it. Well, he finally came to church and we met him! Elder Lavering invited him to be baptized and he accepted! He told us that about 11 years ago he was baptized into a church called "The True Church of God." Ha. He told us that he worked for about 5 years there and then he fell back into the world... so he needs to be baptized again! Well, sweet! We taught him again a few days later, and he had invited two friends who were so interested in our message, and he was so happy with what he was learning. People here in Africa make a clicking noise with their throats when they really agree with something... like when we nod our heads in agreement with something. Sylvestre was clicking away the whole rendezvous along with his two buddies. We were able to teach the whole first lesson in one meeting... it was so incredible. I love missionary work!

We were in a taxi a few days ago and there was this radio station that was on reporting some news. The anglophone version came on and this lady was talking about some theft that happened earlier in the day. She said that some men came and robbed a store but when they were caught they left the 'booty' and ran away. It had been a very long time since I had heard that word. I love Cameroonian english.

Well, that was my week! It was great and I am loving every single minute of what I am able to do. The Lord has blessed my life so much. I am living in a miracle. The field truly is white and ready to harvest.

Je t'aime maman,

Elder Schmid