Dear Mom,
I'm glad everyone is doing well back home! I'm excited for Grandma. Both her and Oma and Opa will be in new homes when I get home. Our week was a very good week which ended with an awesome baptism. Jean Joseph got baptized. More on that in a second. As for the man who
called us over last week on the side of the street, we haven't been able to see him because his phone was not working. We talked about it last night in weekly planning and we will be walking by this week to see if he is still there. Working with inactives is always difficult because you could have an awesome week and they'll be at church and then the very next week they disappear again. As of right now there is definite progress, but it is sloooow. As far as the strength of the branch, there are the super strong members and then the members who just come to church because that's what they do on Sundays, they just go to church. Jean Joseph, though, will definitely be a strong member.
So Jean Joseph was baptized by his son on Saturday and it was great. It took six tries. Imagine me trying to baptize Fezik the Giant on Princess Bride. When he would go under water, his legs would come up and his whole body would just float and that made things very difficult for Muriel, his son. Finally, we got him kneeling down and even that took two tries. But in the end Jean Joseph received the one true baptism that exists here on earth. Muriel was a little embarrassed, but he was happy. Jean Joseph brought his grandkids and they couldn't stop laughing as their grandpa was floating there in water. Like all problems in Africa it became a public ordeal and soon we had five or six people surrounding the font telling Muriel how to do things. It wasn't the most spiritual moment, but hey, nothing is perfect in life.
I had an incredible experience with him after Sacrament meeting. I wrote about two pages in my journal about it last night. I'm not going to go into details because it was something very special and dear to me. It was nothing crazy or mind blowing... just special. I will tell you this though. He had a dream Saturday night in which Christ came to him and told him that his baptism was accepted and successful. He was really feeling the power of the Holy Ghost this weekend. I will always remember this weekend.
Elder Davis and I have been praying a lot lately for help with finding new investigators, and the Lord, like always, hears and answers are prayers. Three Sundays ago there was a man who showed up for the first time in a shirt and tie and no one knew who he was. We went up and talked to him and got his name and number. His name is Fugain (foo gah) and he works over by the church and one day he walked by and saw the church and was a little curious and walked up and found somebody there and talked to them and they invited him to come. Ever since then he has been to church. We have had a couple of rendez-vous with him and have taught the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. He is a quiet guy but he has a great desire to just know and understand to change his life. I have a lot of faith in him because he is always at church. So we'll see what happens with him.
I was able to go on splits with Elder Addington in his sector because I had to do a couple of baptism interviews. We had a neat experience. We were with a somewhat inactive member named Moise and it started raining so we went under this covered area and continued our lesson. There was a group of young punks who started talking about us in their native dialect throughout the rest of the rendez-vous and it was getting pretty distracting. At the end of the rendez-vous Moise wanted to sing a hymn and he chose "We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet". I was kind of hesitant at first because there were a lot of people around us but I just went with it and in the middle of that song my pride left me and I was really singing with my heart. I am so grateful for Thomas S. Monson and for his example. I am so grateful to know that there is a prophet of God here on earth today who receives revelation directly from God and communicates that to us so that we can understand the will of God.
It has been super hot lately. I wish you all could experience the Congo sun. Temperature wise Mesa is a lot hotter but the sun just doesn't beat on you like it does over here. Everyday I come home and my clothes are super damp. It's pretty gross. I walk around with a water bottle in my backpack all day. I would die without that water. My face and my forearms have a sweet tan...
The other day we were walking down the road and there was this celebration thing and there was a long line of cars driving by and on one of the cars there was a band playing some music... yes, I said ON the car. They were on the hood and on the roof and on the trunk. There were guys playing the huge drums and the trumpets and everything. It was nuts. That car probably had over 12 people in it and on it. Try finding that in the States. We were also walking deep in the quartier where all the houses are made of scrap wood and tin and what not and where the floors are just sand and dirt and in the distance I heard a familiar voice... Katy Perry. America gets everywhere. Even in the almost-villages of Congo.
I love my life and I love my mission. I am loving every second of what I am doing. I am so grateful that I still have time left. These past 18 and a half months have been incredible. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!
I'm glad everyone is doing well back home! I'm excited for Grandma. Both her and Oma and Opa will be in new homes when I get home. Our week was a very good week which ended with an awesome baptism. Jean Joseph got baptized. More on that in a second. As for the man who
called us over last week on the side of the street, we haven't been able to see him because his phone was not working. We talked about it last night in weekly planning and we will be walking by this week to see if he is still there. Working with inactives is always difficult because you could have an awesome week and they'll be at church and then the very next week they disappear again. As of right now there is definite progress, but it is sloooow. As far as the strength of the branch, there are the super strong members and then the members who just come to church because that's what they do on Sundays, they just go to church. Jean Joseph, though, will definitely be a strong member.
So Jean Joseph was baptized by his son on Saturday and it was great. It took six tries. Imagine me trying to baptize Fezik the Giant on Princess Bride. When he would go under water, his legs would come up and his whole body would just float and that made things very difficult for Muriel, his son. Finally, we got him kneeling down and even that took two tries. But in the end Jean Joseph received the one true baptism that exists here on earth. Muriel was a little embarrassed, but he was happy. Jean Joseph brought his grandkids and they couldn't stop laughing as their grandpa was floating there in water. Like all problems in Africa it became a public ordeal and soon we had five or six people surrounding the font telling Muriel how to do things. It wasn't the most spiritual moment, but hey, nothing is perfect in life.
I had an incredible experience with him after Sacrament meeting. I wrote about two pages in my journal about it last night. I'm not going to go into details because it was something very special and dear to me. It was nothing crazy or mind blowing... just special. I will tell you this though. He had a dream Saturday night in which Christ came to him and told him that his baptism was accepted and successful. He was really feeling the power of the Holy Ghost this weekend. I will always remember this weekend.
Elder Davis and I have been praying a lot lately for help with finding new investigators, and the Lord, like always, hears and answers are prayers. Three Sundays ago there was a man who showed up for the first time in a shirt and tie and no one knew who he was. We went up and talked to him and got his name and number. His name is Fugain (foo gah) and he works over by the church and one day he walked by and saw the church and was a little curious and walked up and found somebody there and talked to them and they invited him to come. Ever since then he has been to church. We have had a couple of rendez-vous with him and have taught the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. He is a quiet guy but he has a great desire to just know and understand to change his life. I have a lot of faith in him because he is always at church. So we'll see what happens with him.
I was able to go on splits with Elder Addington in his sector because I had to do a couple of baptism interviews. We had a neat experience. We were with a somewhat inactive member named Moise and it started raining so we went under this covered area and continued our lesson. There was a group of young punks who started talking about us in their native dialect throughout the rest of the rendez-vous and it was getting pretty distracting. At the end of the rendez-vous Moise wanted to sing a hymn and he chose "We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet". I was kind of hesitant at first because there were a lot of people around us but I just went with it and in the middle of that song my pride left me and I was really singing with my heart. I am so grateful for Thomas S. Monson and for his example. I am so grateful to know that there is a prophet of God here on earth today who receives revelation directly from God and communicates that to us so that we can understand the will of God.
It has been super hot lately. I wish you all could experience the Congo sun. Temperature wise Mesa is a lot hotter but the sun just doesn't beat on you like it does over here. Everyday I come home and my clothes are super damp. It's pretty gross. I walk around with a water bottle in my backpack all day. I would die without that water. My face and my forearms have a sweet tan...
The other day we were walking down the road and there was this celebration thing and there was a long line of cars driving by and on one of the cars there was a band playing some music... yes, I said ON the car. They were on the hood and on the roof and on the trunk. There were guys playing the huge drums and the trumpets and everything. It was nuts. That car probably had over 12 people in it and on it. Try finding that in the States. We were also walking deep in the quartier where all the houses are made of scrap wood and tin and what not and where the floors are just sand and dirt and in the distance I heard a familiar voice... Katy Perry. America gets everywhere. Even in the almost-villages of Congo.
I love my life and I love my mission. I am loving every second of what I am doing. I am so grateful that I still have time left. These past 18 and a half months have been incredible. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!
Je t'aime Maman,
Elder Schmid
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