11/25/09

Hey Schmidt family

This week has been one not to forget ha…ha, Elder Whatcott and I had the opportunity to teach a couple members\investigators that where Spanish speaking it was fantastic. The first one was the family Rivero; they can’t speak French that well. So I had the opportunity to try out the Spanish that I learned in Geneva. it was so funny, I told Elder Whatcott that I was going to do it, and he was like “what-ever”, I said I had to do it everyday in Geneva; I’m just a little rusty. so we arrived and to start off the reunion, I said a prayer in Spanish nothing too fancy, but when I finished the prayer they where a little confused and looked at each other. Then Maria said to her husband “I understood; that was in Spanish”, then they both started laughing. It was cool because they were so much more open and friendly because I tried to speak their language ha…ha. It was rough, but fun.

The second opportunity was with a less active member from panama. We met her at the Gare, or train station. I gave the prayer in Spanish again, I was proud of myself cause I was saying the things that I didn’t know I could say. This also allowed here to open up to us more and we where able to have a fantastic lesson. I really believe that by small and simple things great things come to pass.

Ok so yesterday was filled with many events, we started if off by going to Lausanne for a district meeting; I was giving the lesson on how to work with members. I related it to Alma going back to the city of Amonihah to be received by Amulek. That it was like missionaries going and strengthening a member and then teaching with a member. I also showed them with this scripture that the more we sacrifice for the gospel, the more it means to us. It was good and I had a lot of participation. Right after this we had a little thanksgiving lunch it was sooo much fun, the sisters and I coordinated the food and everyone brought a little something; it was perfect we even went around the table and said what we where thankful for. I said I am thankful for the opportunity I have every day to testify to people of the things that I know to be true; I really am thankful for that.

Ok, now this is the funny part of the night; I will try to tell the story well. It was night time and we where frapping doors and it was freezing cold. We came up to this low lit house and it happened to be my turn to nock this door. We came up to the gate and I said "I hate gates like this, where they’re jerry rigged shut by bungee cords. Elder Whatcott then took them off and said "let’s go". Then I read this sign right next to the fence and it said chienne mechant. I said to Elder Whatcott, "I’m going to get my leg bit off by some dog. It said, Evil dog back there. He said, “Don’t worry they always put those up for Chihuahuas”. I said, “Guess we will see.”

So….. we are getting ready to climb this stair case and I see this huge dog poke it’s head out and stare at the wall, we both froze; then it looked left and saw us. Let’s just say it started peeling out after us. I felt like the kid on the Sandlot, the one being chased by the dog. I don’t know if it was just because I have more experience with this, but I took off running, while my companion was frozen. You should have seen me, I literally hurdled this fence not even touching it at all. I got out to the road and looked back. Elder Whatcott had a terrified look on his face as this dog was chasing him, nipping at his heels. He also hurdled the fence and kept on running. It kind of reminded me of Forest Gump; he ran all the way till the end of the road. I couldn’t help but laugh; it was so funny:)

Well, I hope you all have a fantastic week and a wonderful thanksgiving. We somehow worked three thanksgiving dinners into the week, one with an American family Quel bennidiction (what blessings). Well I love you all, don’t forget to write next week ok. I love the emails. ;)

Love
Elder Schmidt

11/18/09

Family,
Well this week has been really great, we started the week off by seeing a really cool castle its name is Châtueax de Chillon; it was really beautiful. It is right on the lake side and it was my first opportunity to use the camera that you sent me. It was sooooo much fun!

Elder Whatcott and I have been having a great time working here in Martigny. We decided to under go a little bit of member work, this is a little bit more intense then just hopping on a train and walking to their houses. For some reason the members here live in really extravagant places, like up on the top of a mountain. I guess I can’t really blame them, that’s where I would live if I moved here. So, needless to say, it takes a lot of time and a lot of trains, but it is really fun.

We have been making banana bread for everyone hoping that it will soften their hearts a little bit towards the missionaries. I really think that it’s by Member work that people need to be found. So I give you all a challenge to do something this week to bring someone closer to the waters of baptism. I Promise that the missionaries will love you and that is guaranteed way to feel the spirit more.
We had a really great rendez vous this week. We have a really sweet member here; her name is Addie and she is going the extra mile to share the gospel with her friends and even people that she doesn’t even know. We had the opportunity to teach one of her friends Julia about the plan of salvation; she was almost in tears at the end of the rendezvous. We invited her to pray to see if it was true that night, she did and when we called the next day she said that she got a great answer. She said she didn’t feel anything right after the prayer but while she was laying in bed thinking she said she had good experience. You never can know who will accept the gospel we just need to open our mouths and see.
We have also been teaching a 20 year old named Julio, it has been really great he is so very open and says that he feels that it is right. We were able to have a rendezvous with him with the presence of our branch president, it was great. I think that we all learned something from that lesson. I for one learned that I need to really prepare more diligently for the lesson. All in all, it was a good experience. We will be teaching him tonight as well!

Well, I don’t know what more to say. For some reason the weather has been really nice here. It hasn’t even snowed once. We can see it in the mountains though. We really feel like we are gaining good relationships with the members here and I think that it is only bound to get better. Oh and if you have any missionary experiences I would love to hear about them or the things that you are doing to prepare for when you have them.

I love being a missionary its Amazing to say the least. Well I love you all I hope that you have a fantastic week.

Love Elder Schmidt

11/11/09

Bonjour tout le Monde Hey, this week has been a great one. Elder Whatcott and I have been having a blast... where to start. Well, we went to that five star dinner thing with that member and hopefully a new ami, if we can meet again. It was really fun\really stressful because it’s like the good food and everything, but at the same time this professor is walking around yelling at the servers to make them better. We had the chance to talk about who we where, and why we are here, and to talk a little bit about the restoration. All in all it was really cool, and we fixed a time to come up and teach formally. They made Flambé à le crêpe and I swear the flame almost hit the roof it was the girls first time making it sooooo you can imagine.
We also had stake conference this week it was really cool because they held it at the same place as last year. It was kinda cool cause I remember last year thinking I have to really try to understand this, and now I can just understand with no effort. The lord really does bless us missionaries with the gift of tounges, there is no other way we could learn it this quick otherwise. I got to see a lot of members from Fribourg it was fun!!!
Last but not least we had a really crazy night last night. Elder Whatcott prayed to find a ville we should work in and we landed on this ville called Saxon. We have been going there for the past transfer and haven’t seen very much success there, although, we were determined to see one there. So, we went last night and we stared down this road and came to an apartment building. We went to the top and started then this lady opened the door and so I started talking to her. I soon figured out that she couldn’t speak French. After that I said, "Well is there anything that we can do to help you this night? She smiled and said “Come on in, I was so confused as what to do. So, I just went in and we sat down and she went and got us a couple of cokes. I was thinking I have no clue what to do. We can’t communicate. I figured out that they are from Iraq and they figured out we were Americans. Her son translated for his mom. She was saying that we have war together. It was intense and I didn’t know what to do. In the middle of all this we were watching Arab TV ha…ha. My companion was laughing the whole time, because it felt like we where just sitting with people in their house and couldn’t even communicate. Long story short we got out. I was thinking I am going to go outside and get my bearings back.

Then, we went to pass a family that told us to return, and the girls said to come back in 10 min. We said, “ok”, then we went to the building next to the family from Iraq and started the second door, this young kid opened up and I said something I don’t even remember what, and he said come on in. His name is Julio perrera, we taught a first lesson and he was sooooo interested and wanting to know more. We fixed a rendez vous for tomorrow and he was like “sure come on over; can I invite you to dinner”? I was like sure; I like food! Then he said, “I will really try to read this chapter that you gave me and finish it before you come back”..... It was a great experience for me and I know that the lord really lead us there that night.

We went to Saxon to see a Portuguese family, while waiting went into a building and had a crazy experience, so left the building and went to the one next to it where someone had been prepared to hear the message. I love being a missionary it is so rewarding; I get to see miracles every day. I made a goal to write down a miracle that I see every day, and by doing this I really can see that our Heavenly Father sends blessings always, even in those days that everything seems to go not quite right, but then you see that there was a reason in it all. Well I love you all soooo much.

Love
Elder Schmidt

11/04/09

Hey Everyone: Well, this week has been a little bit long, considering the whole preparation day change. We ran out of food yesterday, so it’s going to be nice to go shopping again. Today Elder Whatcott and I are heading to the top of a mountain for preparation day.

We have a member from California; she is up at this Hotel school. I’m not really sure what it is, I’m assuming it is the same type of school Benjamin from the ship must have went to. They teach you how to clean a room in no time flat and they have to learn how to cook and all at 5 star quality. She is cool because she is sharing the gospel with… like everyone there. So, we are receiving people to teach. She invited us with the investigator to go to a "5 star dinner". It’s where they have some of the students practicing all the stuff and we are like the test audience... I wouldn’t mind being the test audience every night should be really fun.
So things are really starting to cool down here, it has been really beautiful seeing the leaves change colors on the trees as well as the vineyards. Let’s just say for the past couple days it has been raining a lot, and turns out I have holes in my shoes who would have thought ha-ha it builds character right?!? I think they will make it to the end.

I love the Alps they are so pretty and I think even more when they have snow on them; the really big ones have snow already.:) yeee haaawww Bring on the winter
This week we had the opportunity to teach Julio, with his member girlfriend, it went great I loved it. We taught the word of wisdom, and let’s just say she testified very well as to why we don’t put bad things into our bodies. They also go to a hotel school and it is really impressive to see Addie and Kareen hold up there standards. Apparently they make them taste all the wines, so they know how to describe them to people, and they both said “no, we would rather fail”, and their teachers said we will just let you sniff it. Anyway at the end of the rendezvous he said he will obey it and he was all around just excited for the baptism. The Lord really is in this work.

My birthday went very well, we just went about the daily routine and went finding and knocked some doors and we taught a lesson. I think the coolest part of the night was just talking with some young adults. They where really cool they invited us to go get a beer. Ha-ha. We said no we don’t drink, they wanted us to hang out with them, but we couldn’t; obviously we where just able to teach them a couple principles.
Oh did you get the chocolate that I sent???? I really hope that you did. Well, l I hope that everyone has a fantastic week. I can’t wait to write again about next week. I love you all, and here is a cool quote. I like the spiritual spunk of a marine general, who on one of those rare occasions led a group of marines who where surrounded and embattled, instead if being discouraged, General Chastey Fuller said " At last, we’ve got the enemy just where we want him. We can fire in every direction.” “To you I say, we are surrounded by challenges, but we can serve in every direction.”

Love
Elder Schmidt

11/04/09**

oh wow it sounds like you have had a long fun\hectic week haha like we say in french comme dab witch means like habit or like usual haha life in the Schmidt home is a roller coaster haha. I have had great week and you sent a package:) sweeet!!!!!!! I love those things!!! well mom that was so sweet what you said about the song on Fival Goes West, and trust me that I have feel like that every night when we are walking around and its pitch black and we are walking down an alley and scared out of our minds haha well I better get to writing the long one for everyone I love you and im glad Dad had a great birthday