Dear Mère,

 

I love you. I'm so grateful for you and Dad and for all that you have done for me. I was looking through some pictures that you sent me the other night because I had some free time and every time I look at you I just realized how blessed and lucky I am. I must have done something right in the pre-earth life :)

 

Elder Christensen is doing a lot better. He got the watch that destroyed his elbow. I'll take a picture so that you can see it some time. His hair and blood is on it. That thing tore up his elbow.

 

As I was reading Dallin's email I said, "what the?!" out loud when he mentioned that he was going to do pole vaulting. Has any Schmid ever done that before? Good for him! He told me that he is taller than Kurt... that's just weird. He said that he might look at me in the eyes when I get home and I say nope. Not possible.

 

I can't believe that Kurt is home! It sounds like his talk was amazing! By chance was it recorded? If so I would love to hear it. I'm proud of my cousin. I love him. It was awesome being out here in the mission field with him. He is a great example to me and I can't wait to see him again.

 

We had two baptisms this week. Amour, who is the grandson of Jean Joseph, and Jean. Amour was baptized by Muriel, his uncle, and Muriel grabbed him by the neck and threw him into the water and then threw him out of the water. It was probably the fastest most violent baptism I have ever witnessed but hey it was done correctly and Amour had the biggest smile on his face. Jean, on the other hand, had to go under water 9 times. Poor guy... he was scared stiff when he had to go under. Right as his head would touch the water he would stiffen up and shoot up. The guy baptizing him just needed to shove him under the water but he was too nice. Finally, we got another guy to baptize him (he was already in his whites because he baptized a kid in the branch. After the 6th try with Jean we gave him a break and had this other guy baptize the kid) and he got it done in one shot. He SHOVED Jean in the water and was completely submerged by at least two feet. He stood no chance of struggling. After all was said and done he was baptized by someone holding the authority, au nom du Père et du Fils et du Saint-Esprit (in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit), and by immersion so it was accepted in heaven!

 

Here is a funny little experience. We were meeting this guy for the first time but we had no clue where he lived so we had this 11 year old member show us where he is at. We finally got there and he invited us into his house... we were hesitant because it was in the middle of the afternoon and when you go into houses you go into miserable heat boxes. But we didn't want to be rude so we went in... along with Ganish, the 11 year old kid. Right when Ganish sat down his shirt came off and he was whipping it around trying to fan himself off because we were all sweating almost immediately. It was pretty funny. We were trying to have a spiritual moment with Patrick, the new ami, and there was Ganish shirtless whipping Elder Davis with his shirt as he was trying to fan himself off. Later in the lesson I looked up and Ganish was there playing with his pudgy little stomach and then a little bit later I looked up at he was playing with his nipples. It was hard not to laugh out loud. I asked him to bear his testimony and he gave a sweet basic testimony and it made him happy that he was able to participate. I love the kids here in Africa. By the way, Patrick is awesome. He was at church for the first time last Sunday and he got a bunch of Liahonas and brochures and he spent his days reading them and having a huge spiritual feast. He is a boat captain that takes all the oil workers out to their rigs and he has two weeks of work and then he has two weeks off. He is off right now so he was able to come to church. He LOVES everything that he has learned. What he loves the most is how clear everything is. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he was stoked because he could finally read in Alma. He read some conference talk that cited Alma a lot and he wanted to read that book so bad. He goes back to work this Thursday so we'll try to see him a couple of times before he heads out.

 

Elder Davis turned 20 on the 16th so we went out to eat at our favorite restaurant, Le Grand Café. In order for the restaurant to sing happy birthday to him we had to buy a $24 cake... HAH!! I'm not that white!! So I just stood up after we all got our ice cream and I announced to the whole restaurant that it was Davis' birthday and I had them all sing Happy Birthday with us. It was awesome. Happy Birthday Elder Davis! He definitely got a little red after. Victory.

 

Yesterday was my four year anniversary of receiving my patriarchal blessing. That blessing has brought so much comfort and insight into my life, especially over these past 20 months. Every time I read it, my testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ grows. It may seem crazy... going into the house of a man that you have never met before in your life and then having him lay his hands upon your head and pronounce upon you one of the most intimate blessings you will ever receive. I'm so grateful that the Lord loves me. I know that He lives and that He is aware of each and every single one of us.

 

I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!

 

Je t'aime,

Elder Schmid