09/08/09 I'm here doing the lords work in the lords way....

Hey Schmidt Family
Hey, all is well here. I got my new companion! It was a weird day we went really early to the gare to drop Elder Orourke off at the gare. I helped him get his bags on the train, then I gave him a hand shake, and said it was good working with you. The train started to pull away, and I realized that I still had his backpack on. So, I was running along the side of the train, and opened the door and threw it to him. I swear it was just like the movies. Anyways, I got stuck by my self waiting for Elder Chapman (for like a half an hour). It was really weird to be by myself. The zone leaders eventually came and got me. We waited for like two hours or so, for Elder Chapman to come in.

Let me tell you a little about Elder Chapman. He is a fellow Arizonan, and his favorite place to eat is…. you guessed it Matta’s. We have a lot in common. He is a hard working Elder, but relaxed at the same time. We have gotten along really well these passed four days. It’s pretty sad, when missionaries find it fun to sing Saturdays warriors songs, while walking down the street. He kinda reminds me of the Jared, from the subway commercials, you will see what I mean when I send a picture of him. He is cool, his family lives in Mesa, pretty cool.

Well this week has been hard for me because I am the one that knows the area better, and the members, and the investigators. So, I am like the leader... in a way. I have not got us lost yet. I hope that it keeps going good. Oh and I have to speak French a lot more, because I know the people better. So, I have to ask them how they are doing, and keep the conversation going. Let’s just say I have received a lot of help from the Lord. This lady that we have been meeting with for the passed couple weeks, complimented how fast I am progressing. It was nice to get a compliment. Today we are just going to kinda hang out and shoot the breeze for p day and write some letters home. Well it’s good to hear all is going well back home.

Oh, I have a pretty cool story we where just walking to the church, and this man came up to us and ask if he could have a discussion with him. He was like the Muslim leader for Fribourg. We where like, yeah… we have some time. Then, he took us to his little church thing, and we had to take off our shoes, and we went and sat down at this table. Then, he busts out this Video camera and starts to film our conversation. I felt like I was on the religion channel... late night with Mohamed letterman ha ha. We had a pretty good conversation but we lost him when we started talking about prophets on the earth today. It was kind of interesting.

Oh and yesterday we had this man that totally gave us every word in the book (in English), and then he said, “quit trying to act important and go back home”. I just thought to myself, I’m not important one bit, but this message that I share, is salvation. It’s experiences like these that build my testimony stronger, because I know that nobody can ever shake my testimony. I know that we are here, doing the lords work, in the lords way. So anything they say against that, is not true. I am really learning to just love this work, there is no other chance or gift a 19 year old kid could have, that would make him stronger than this. Well, I better get going, I love you all, I hope you have the best week.

Love,

Elder Schmidt