Hey Mom!

 

I'm glad you all had a great week! I'm jealous that you were able to hear from Elder Holland.  He came to our mission a few weeks ago but only the missionaries in Brazzaville and Kinshasa were able to meet with him. They flew all of the branch presidents from Yaoundé, Douala, and Pointe Noire over to Kinshasa so that they could get trained by him. You win some and you lose some in this mission. I heard that it was remarkable though.

 

I'm glad Bronson is doing alright. Parents from the States would have one heart attack after another after seeing how children are raised over here. I'm not even going to try to explain it... just believe it.

 

Obama is president again. I don't have much to say about that one. I like what you said though about it. I had the exact same feelings as I was pondering the circumstance that America is in. I am so grateful that we have a prophet who is chosen by God to lead His children today and I am even more grateful to have that testimony and assurance.

 

This week was a crazy one. We were only able to teach 5 out of 7 days, but we were able to get 30 lessons taught. Over the past 3 weeks we have been able to teach 90 lessons and I am pretty sure that we will have over 180 taught by the end of this transfer. We are always up and moving and staying busy and I love it so much.

 

When we went to the beach last week we were able to play football and it was so much fun. We were lucky that the beach was huge because there was an oil spill and wherever the water reached it was black. A few times the ball bounced into that area and it became all slippery and your hands got black. It was sad to actually see it in real life. But that didn't prevent us from having a good time. Sister Wheatley prepared an awesome dinner and we all ate together and enjoyed each others company. I got some sweet pictures too.

 

This week we had to drop a few investigators. It is always a bummer but right as we lose some we find some. There are always people to teach over here. The real tricky thing over here is choosing those who want it more. We could teach every hour of the day and not progress with anyone. Everyone here likes to hear about Jesus Christ but so many of them do nothing when they receive our message.They just tell us that it is good and that they love Jesus Christ and then they move on with their lives and don't even think twice about it. So, we have to really rely on the Spirit to recognize those who really want it and those who don't. It's a fun work.

We had the opportunity to finally watch General Conference over here in Congo and it was great. It was sure nice being in an air conditioned church on nice soft chairs. It was a little too comfortable for a lot of people. There were a lot of bobbing heads through out the sessions. People here loved Elder Holland's talk and Elder Bednar's. You know when they like it because you will start hearing a bunch of mmhmm's and amen's. I was able to understand everything in french too. This time last year I was completely lost. I was writing letters to everyone. But this time around I was able to follow along and learn. We got our own personal ensigns too and I have been studying those. We have the DVD's, and so I watched the Relief Society broadcast and it was great! I loved those talks. I love our Church.

 

We have an ami de l'église named Délaur. We met him at church when I first got here and he told us to come to his house after church and so we followed him. We didn't realize that it would take us over an hour to get there. Right away we thought, "Okay, we're never going to be able to teach this guy... he lives way too far out." We had a sweet lesson with him and told him that he needs to come to church and when he is there then we can plan what we want to do. He happily agreed. Well, he comes every Sunday and he loves it! He loved conference too! He has a baptismal date set for December 1st and he is so excited for it.

 

One night we were with one of our investigators and he started talking to us about "his problem." He likes to get around with women and has children with two different mothers. He is now realizing that he needs to change his life and was explaining to us all of his issues. He went over a lot of scenarios and what would happen if he did this or did that. In the end, he wanted us to tell him basically that it is okay to marry both of the women. But the commandments of God don't change for certain situations! He kept on going on and on and on and then he said, "Now here is the real problem..." I cut him off there and I said, "No, in your life there are a lot of problems and there is only one solution..." and then we went on to explain why we have the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we talked about the Atonement and all that. It turned into a good lesson. He definitely has a lot of things to work out though.

 

So, that is a little about my life over here in Congo. I love the work and I am so grateful that I am here. I can't believe that Thanksgiving is just around the corner! We aren't sure yet what we will be doing. President Jameson will be here next Tuesday and I can't wait to see him. We will have interviews. I love talking with President Jameson. I love you and I hope you have a great week!

 

Je t'aime maman,

Elder Schmid