06/29/09 My Week in Nancy

Hey Everyone,

Things are going great here in Nancy France, we have seen a lot of miracles here. We are getting are new mission President this Wednesday, so it all should be very interesting.

Oh, so this past Sunday we went to this really cool Families house, the family cuche and he decided to film me, cause they are going to be in Utah in like 15 days, and they wanted to meet you, Mom and Dad. I think that would be really cool, they will be staying in Bountiful. They are seriously the coolest family in France 7 children and the mother is partially blind; that is impressive. You should look her up on youtube her name is Maria Christian, she is Irish and she is a really good singer. So they might give you a call or something. They wanted to show you that video they made.

In other news this past week I had the opportunity to go to Epinal on an exchange and do a baptismal interview for two young children. It was so much fun, and it was very good for me cause I asked the children the questions, and they answered them with ease. So I even threw a couple curve balls at them, and they answered them as well it helped me see that even young children can understand the gospel and have a testimony of it. It was a wonderful experience.

Right after the baptisms of the two children there was this ball for everyone, one like… huge dance. My companion Elder Lepretre and I were there cause invited some investigators to come and we were there to welcome them. It was this huge stake shin-dig. Anyways, it was funny cause their where a couple of girls, or I should say groups of girls hitting on us... weird I know, its France they don’t have a big selection, so they take what they can get it. We are like….. “Well look at the time, we better get going, see you later.” I just thought that was funny cause they where saying things like “le francaise est tres mauche le plus belle launge est englaise”, that just means French is ugly and English is the best language. I was like….Well, back home it’s the opposite; what an interesting night.

Oh, here is a really good story. We have been teaching this less active family and there is a man that was excommunicated right after his mission. Let me tell you, the first time we met with him, he wanted nothing to do with us. Since then, he has been coming to church, and almost cries during every lesson. We explained that although being excommunicated is a bad thing, it is also one step closer to returning back on to the path. I think that gave him comfort. He called us the other day and said,” I talked with the branch president about me being rebaptised, I need to figure out what I need to do”. I love seeing miracles. He knows that the church is true and he is fighting his way back.

I love having the opportunity to be apart of this great work. Well just know that I love you all, and that things are going great here.

Love
Elder Schmidt

06/22/09 I'm on the Lords Errand

Hey Everyone,

The yard looks fantastic! I don’t think that I will even be able to recognize it. Oh, and by the way, that was my first time seeing a picture of the fifth wheel; it looks really nice. I really like the mailbox, where did you find it, it looks so…. real almost like it was growing right out of the ground. I bet it cost a lot cause I have never seen a tree mailbox before ha….ha….. Just joking. But the new one looks really nice.

This week has been fantastic! We had the baptism of Catharine Villaume this past Saturday and our next one is on July 12, with a woman named Sylvie; she is really cool.

Oh, so we had the opportunity to go and help teach English at this High School again. It, was so funny because they whisper stuff to each other like... “I think he is cute”, and they don’t think that we can speak French. Then you start to speak French with them, and they blush ha…ha. Oh, and let me tell you why they don’t think that we are weird. They wont let us wear our tags, or a tie, so you can see why. Anyway it was really fun.

It is the end of the transfer and me and Elder Lepretre will stay together so it is really cool. They made our zone like twice as big, because the mission is getting much smaller; so, they had to close a couple of zones. It’s been really crazy.

What else….Oh Happy fathers day dad! Thanks for all that you do for me. You really are the best dad a kid could ask for; I have three sisters and a brother that will testify to that. Thanks for every thing.

What else….I had the opportunity to play a little tennis, and I was a little rusty, but I still got it ha…ha, just joking. I pretty much just have my serve.

Well I hope that you all have fun at the West Fest. Next year I will be there with you all, ok… I promise ha-ha. But for know, I am on the Lords errand, and I have to work hard to return thanks for the great family that I have.

Well, I better get going, I love you all.

Love Elder Schmidt

06/15/09 This past week I saw many Miracles...

Hey Everyone,
Things have been going fantastic here in Nancy. We fixed a another baptismal date and, we have the baptism of Catharine this weekend; it’s going to be fantastic. Then, we have another baptism the following weekend. Let’s, just say that we have a lot of things to do between know and then.

So I have had some funny experiences this week, and I will try to tell you one. It started off on an exchange, with Elder Nicholiason. We where contacting through the park and I saw this black man and felt like I should talk to him. So I started in French, then he said (In a Brittish accent) “Do you speak English, and I said yes. It as pretty weird cause he was like maybe you can help me. He started going off about a near death experience, then he said, after this experience, I renamed myself SOLAR ANGEL. Then he said, I think I’m in the middle of being an angel and a human, but I cant arrive to fly yet...(while he said that he was trying to flap wings on his back). A lot of what we believe, he believed, like living with god before and that after we go to a spirit world; it was interesting. So we decided to run back and get him a book of Mormon in English, since we weren’t far from the apartment.

On our walk back we walked passed a group of young adults, and then this girl was walking by my side. I would speed up, and then so would she. It was weird. Then, she said, “what are you doing here”? And I said, “I’m from America, and she flipped out, and yelled back to her friends. Then she said, “Will you take me home with you, I didn’t know what to say, so I said I have ten more months before I go back. Then she said will you come back and get me? Then, in a desperate attempt, I was like… “Well, I have someone already”. She said, “ Oh, ok”, and ran back with her friends. The Elder I was with was like “What did she say”, so I explained it to him. He thought it was funny. Anyway, all this happened within a half an hour, and I was thinking in my head “GOD BLESS AMERICA” ha ha.

On another note, in this same day, I had a Rendezvous with one of our amis, and we taught her that Gospel of Jesus Christ. She said, “When I was praying the other day, felt this peace come over me, and I felt like I needed to be baptized.” So we fixed a date, and its really good cause she has a friend who introduced her to the church, so she has a good support system. We fixed a baptismal date with her, and she was more than content. So many good things are happening; Ii love seeing the Lords hand in the work.

We also had a family that has been less active for like 20 years call us up and said we want to come back. When we arrived there was three less actives and an investigator, and they all want to learn. The investigator Jessie, is doing everything we are asking him. This work is great I know that it is the work of the Lord and that he is directing it.

I better get going. Just know that this past week was great, and that I saw many miracles. The church is true.

Love,
Elder Schmidt

06/08/09 This is really the work of the Lord, and we are really tools in his hands

Hey,
Things are going great here in Nancy. This week I had the opportunity to go to Geneva on Exchanges with the assistants, it was really good. We walked passed this one man and we decided to try and talk to him, he was catholic and he was preparing for his communion. We where talking about the plan of salvation to him, it didn’t really interest him, but for some reason right before we where about to say good bye, it popped into my mind to ask him if he heard about the Book of Mormon. He said, “yeah I have one. I was like “really”, have you read it? He said, “I’m half way through Mosiah”; I was shocked. Then I asked, “how did you obtain one”, and he said, “Well, like I said, “ I am in the middle of preparing for my communion, and I was walking through the park, and I saw this book sitting on a bench, so I picked it up and started to read about it. In the end he didn’t want to fix a rendezvous, but we both bore testimony that the book of Mormon was true, and that he should pray about it to know. This experience helped me see that this is really the work of the Lord, and we are really tools in his hands. Maybe we where just at that place to tell him that he needed to pray about it, to know if it was true; w gave him our card.

Another thing that was really cool was, this same day we where teaching a lesson and this lady had a problem with God having a body and also the creation Adam and Eve. When we where teaching her, a scripture popped into my head, and I said, “Read this chapter, it will give you your answer, and to tell you the truth I didn’t know that it would. So yesterday, I read that chapter, and it really did answer the questions she was asking. I am so thankful for the Holy Ghost, because let me tell you I am not the type of missionary that can tell you where to find everything in the book of Mormon, I wish I was. But, what I know is I was prompted to say something, and if she reads it, she will get her answer.

Well, I better get going, I love you all.

Love,
Elder Schmidt

06/02/09 Things are great in Nancy

Hey everyone,

How are things going back home, I hope fantastic. Things have been going great here in Nancy. We have four baptismal dates and we just came from a rendezvous; I taught the importance of prayer. It went really good and it was one of those times where some story from the bible pops into your head, for some unknown reason and I seems to just work out like that’s what they need.

I did have a terrible rendezvous this week. We where at members house, and we where teaching the last half of the plan of salvation, and we came to the kingdoms of glory. I had a thought or rather a prompting to teach this in the most simple way that I possible could, and I taught every thing like you would teach it to the kid. Then all of a sudden the good old member pops in, and says no joke “that’s not at all what its like”, and he said “they only told you three of them”, and then he went on to explain outer darkness. I was like… “Be quiet please”. He went into very specific detail, and I just wanted out. That was one of those lessons, but they happen.

What else happened… I didn’t really take a preparation day, and I really don’t like to do that cause then I get grumpy. All in all, it wasn’t too bad.

There isn’t really much to do here in Nancy. It’s an ok city as far as looks, and I am enjoying it. I will go to Genève tomorrow for our exchanges with the assistants, and I think it should be really good.

It sounds like things are still moving forward back home, and I wish I was there, but then again I bet you wish you where in France ha ha. Well, I don’t know what else to write, we don’t really have too much time ever, we are always moving. Just know I love you all, and I will write a letter on the train to Geneva.

Love,

Elder Schmidt

05/25/09 The Lord is really blessing people here

Hey Everyone,Things are going great here in Nancy. The Lord is really blessing the people here, and I am just thankful that I have the opportunity to be apart of it all. Elder Leprêtre and I have fixed two more baptismal dates, that brings the total to five baptismal dates, and three of them are strong. One thing that I notice everyday, is that it is not at all me in this work. In fact if it was left up to me and my ability the work would not progress. I do know that when we recognize our weaknesses, it is then, that the lord can help us. We can do things we never thought we could do by ourselves. We want to accomplish the task, but we need to ask our Heavenly Father for help, and then we can see its not by our own power, then we can return the thanks to our Heavenly Father. I can’t tell you all how many times I have felt inadequate to do a task that is given to me. I cant tell you how many times I have been able to accomplish it with the help of Heavenly Father. I love this work. I can say that I have done anything so difficult and time demanding as this work; sun up to sun down your on the clock. The other day I compared missions to escalators in terms of progressing, by going on a mission you take that first step onto the escalator, and just doing that will help us to progress. Then we have a choice to make, are we going to use the same amount of energy as not taking the stairs, and start to walk up the escalator, if you do this you will progress twice as quick. I want to be the missionary that puts forth the effort, even though it is harder than just standing there and progressing at a steady pace. I know that by doing this I will become stronger! Hopefully you understood that, it made sense to me at the time. I love you all so very much. Love,Elder Schmidt

05/18/09 Darn Busy!!!

Hey Everyone,How are you doing? So let me tell you, we have been so darn busy. There is so much stuff to do as a zone leader. So far we have 3 baptismal dates; one is really strong and one will probably fall, but we are going to fix a couple more next week. I have contacted two or three people this last week cause we have nothing but rendezvous. I feel like I’m in Mexico. Yesterday Elder Leprêtre and I gave talks in the branch here and we also gave a fireside afterward. I was so darn tired at the end of the day. The good news is one of the members gave a book of Mormon to his friend, and he has been reading it. He says that he feels something different when he reads it, and he said he wants to be baptized. So we are going to go out and teach him. I think I came from desolation, to the land of promise ha…ha. Oh let me tell you, my companion was baptized two 3 years ago, and he really knows how to teach; I am learning a lot. Well everyone, I love you all and I hope you have a fantastic week. LoveElder Schmidt

Nancy France

Here's where Nancy France is

05/11/09 Heading to Nancy France

Hey, it was great talking to you yesterday, it sounds like a lot is going on back home, and let me tell you, I miss it. Well, I guess I will just cut to the chase, I received my call from President today and it was pretty quick, he said that I will be going to Nancy; it’s in the north part of France. I will be serving with a Frenchy; his name is Elder Leprêtre, I hope that he is easy to get along with. The other thing is that I will be a zone leader, so that should be really interesting. I was just put as Sr. Companion and then he just bumped me up. So this should be a real challenge for me, and I need your prayers.

I will have the opportunity to do some exchanges in Luxembourg, so that should be really cool. I will have hit every country in the mission, maybe even Belgium; I hope so, that would be really cool.

So I leave this Wednesday. I’m not really too excited to go back to France, but what can you do. Anyway, today we are going to be going to Saleve, which is just a really high mountain---- laser tag------ and then to the United Nations. It should be really fun; don’t worry I will steal the pictures from Elder Assays’ camera, and put them on my card, so no need to worry.

Well, I love you all so very much, and I will work on becoming a better person so that you will all notice a difference in me. I don’t want to come back the same person as I was when I left. I love you, and sorry this is so short. I will try to write more next time.

Love
Elder Schmidt

05/04/09 Letter from Today + Pictures :)

Hey Everyone,
How is it going? This week went by really fast for me; I can’t even believe it. We had our interviews with our President and he basically told me I am going to be leaving Genève. So, that should be really interesting to see where I am going to go next. I really don’t even have a clue. Transfer calls are next Monday, and I have the opportunity to call you this Sunday; that should be really fun. We are planning on calling a round 18:00 or 6pm. I don’t know what time that is for you, I hope that is going to be ok. I will get back on the internet at the end of this week to confirm that with you.

This week we have been doing a lot of finding, Elder Laws and I have been trying to overcome our fears of contacting young adults. So we have been contacting in the park, and while we where there this passed week, I was looking around and we saw this girl with an accordion and another girl with a guitar. So I said, “ok elder laws lets go talk to them”, they where out in the grass. Elder Laws said, “ok but your flying solo”. I was like “ok”. So I went up to them and just starting talking to them about music, and how I used to play the guitar. The girl handed the guitar right over and said, play and so I played a little “Dust in the Wind” and pretty much the beginning of every song I could think of ha…ha ;since that’s all I know ha…ha. I even played La Bamba ha…ha. Then we turned that conversation into a contact, and although they weren’t all that interested, they sure talked to us more openly about what they believed; so that was really cool for me.

Other than that, we found a family while porting that I think is really interested. I said “I know that the family can be eternal", and then I asked him the question what is the most important thing in your life? He said, his family and I said me too. After we talked for a second, he said, “I don’t have time now, but if you can come back another day, that would be fine. Then we got his number. We knocked on least 150 doors and where rejected, at almost every one. But I know that since we did that, the Lord lead us to someone that was interested. Well, I can’t wait to talk to you on Sunday. I love you all, and here is a good quote “he is utterly incomparable in what he knows, what he is, and what he has accomplished, and what he has experienced, yet he calls us friends”. Neil A Maxwell."

Love

Elder Schmidt

04/27/2009 + Pictures!!!

Everyone
Things have been great this week! I have learned how important it is to have Charity when in the service of God; and I’m not talking about helping some one with their bags or holding a door open. I am talking about having that pure love of Christ, for those around us, all the time. When we have this love we will desire the salvation of others, but it doesn’t just come because we want it, it is a Gift we have to pray for.
I guess you could say that I had to learn this the hard way.

When I started this past transfer off, we didn’t have anyone to teach, and that really made it hard for me. The only thing that we could do is contact and port and start from scratch. I was running out of hope, and faith, since not one person would listen long enough to get a number. So, I took it upon myself to study charity, and faith, and hope, and as I was reading in the Doctrine and Covenants, I came across a verse that said if we desire to assist in the work of the Lord, we need to have faith hope and charity. I realized that I was not assisting in the work because I did not have charity or pure love for these people. So, I said a prayer, asking for this gift and really wanting to find someone to teach, and let’s just say that through the next couple of days people stopped and listened. Some just gave their numbers; one lady said I want you to come teach my children, because this is more important than "worldly things". The Lord really did help me learn this lesson.


I would encourage you all to ask for the Gift of charity, every night when you pray, cause without it we are nothing! "The degree of our love for the Lord, for the Gospel, and for our fellow man can be measured by what we are willing to sacrifice for them" M Russell Ballard. I really liked that quote!

Things have been going great and I am looking forward to this last year of my mission; it’s going to be great! Here is another quote that a really liked “How difficult it must be for Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, to see so many needlessly suffer because his Gift of repentance was ignored. It must pain him deeply to see the pointless agony both in this life, and beyond the veil, that accompany the unrepentant sinner. After all he did, so that we would not suffer. Richard G Scott.

I really am so thankful for the gift of repentance and the Miracle that forgiveness is for us, cause it is through this gift that we can become perfect and return home to God our Father. I love you all and I am so thankful for all that you do for me!!


Elder Schmidt

Sending a letter

Thank you for your prayers and support. Just in case you want to write....Bronson's address is:

Elder Schmidt
5 Ave DeMiremont
CH-1206 Geneve
Switzerland

It cost 0.94 to send a letter!! And he LOVES THEM!!

04/21/09 I love the Gospel its Wonderful!!

Everyone,
How are you all doing? I hope all is going well. I was sad to hear about Monique’s child, I will be sure to keep them in my prayers. I am glad to hear that everything is fine with baby Bronson. I looked up the meaning of Bronson and I found “Fierce Strong One”, so I’m sure he is fierce and strong :) The other definition that I found was “Brown Mans Son”, and I don’t know about that… ha ha.

So, in other news… everything has been going great here! My Companion Elder Laws and I have been really trying to find someone to teach. We found a lady at the door that said, "Sorry I am going through a really hard time right now, my father just passed away". We quickly bore testimony that we can be with our families forever, and that she could see her father again, thanks to the gospel of Jesus Christ. She then said to us, “I am really busy for the next five days, but I would like you both to come back". We left her a plan of salvation brochure. Hopefully we will be able to share with this young daughter of God, how she can eventually return home with him, and have an opportunity to be with her father again. It was really nice to see how her attitude changed, when we shared this with her.

We had the opportunity this week to teach a Portuguese couple, and they really loved the idea of being able to be together forever. She had read from the book of Mormon, and he had checked out the sited from the church. I am just hoping that they will have a voice whisper to them that they need more then what they already have.

The other companionship had a baptism yesterday, and it was someone that I had the opportunity to teach, when I was in that companionship. It was really nice, after the whole thing she (Ridenise) thanked me for all the help I had given her. I was thinking to myself, thank you for searching for the truth. She met the church through a less active member, imagine that. She said a prayer during class, and she said this during the prayer “I want you to know that I made this choice to be baptized by my own will, even when my family didn’t want me too, because I know its right". It was a very sincere prayer, and now we have a new member in the church, and another lost sheep found!!!

I am so very thankful to be a missionary. I have the opportunity to help my brothers and sisters find the path that leads back home. The more time I spend out here, I think I am beginning to realize better the reason we are here. It is to become like our father, and not let anything stop us from doing that. We have the responsibility to help those around us do the same thing.

I am so excited for the second year that I have left to do my best. I am now reading the Miracle of Forgiveness, and let me tell you all if you haven’t read that book, read it now. I have almost finished it in two weeks so no excuses ;) ha ha It has really helped me understand repentance more clearly, and also realize some things that I need to change.

OK, Well I better get going. I just want you all to know that I love you, and that I know that this church is true. I am thankful for everyday that I wear this name on my plaque and also the name of Jesus Christ. I love the gospel, its wonderful!

Love
Elder Schmidt

04/14/09 Easter

Hey Everyone,
I hope that you all had a fantastic Easter Sunday, I know I did. I had the opportunity to do a lot of finding, and trying to invite people to listen to a message about the Savior Jesus Christ. It was pretty interesting, because we tried to focus on just talking about Christ, thinking that this would be a wonderful time to share this type of message, but we couldn’t get one person to stop and talk to us. We even had someone say no thanks; I’m catholic; which made little sense… but whatever.

We decided to do some door to door, with the objective to show the film “Finding Faith in Christ”. We thought that maybe someone would want a nice message on Easter, but no one would accept us. We even had one lady say to us “why are you disrupting everyone on Easter”, I said to her “it is not a bad thing that we are doing. We are trying to share a message about Christ"; she slammed the door right after that. What was going through my head was "did you not know that the reason you have work off is because of Christ".

Soon, we had a family invite us in, and then the husband walked in behind us, and kicked us out as his 10 year old kid was begging that we stay. Personally I think he should have listened to his kid! It was a great learning experience and I felt very sorry for these people that feel that there is nothing more that they can have. My companion put it perfect, he said, “how can they think that they have the whole truth, if they did, they wouldn’t be so sad and angry all the time" I thought that’s true.

Pray for those who don’t know the gospel, they need our prayers. Pray for those that won’t accept our message, they need them too. Sorry this isn’t too long; just know that I love you all, and that things are going great! Tell Ty thanks for the letter; that was very nice of him. Search for ways to share the Gospel…ok? Great happiness comes from it.

Love

Elder Schmidt!

04/06/09 I'm grateful

Hey Everyone,

I hope that everything is going great back home. I imagine that conference went very well, since I know that it did for me; it was just what I needed.

Being senior companion is a lot of responsibility; I had no idea. Instead of being able to say “we will do what ever you think is best, you’re the senior companion”. Now I have someone telling me that same thing. But all in all, it’s pretty good, I’m learning a lot. This past week we have been doing a lot of inviting; inviting people to conference. They made papers that we where supposed to hand out, and assigned us a place to pass them out. The zone leaders where like… this is going to be so much fun! My companion and I were like…maybe it will be. So we tried it and it was very difficult. I handed out like ten and my companion Elder Laws, came up and said, “I haven’t given one out yet; what are you doing”? I said, just saying “I am here to invite you to hear the word of God, through his prophets and apostles; I hope to see you there”. Followed by, “I know that God has called a prophet to help us”. Some people took them, I even went out into the grass to talk to a couple groups of people, and invited them to come. I walked off and I think I heard one of them call me “Satan”. Don’t worry, it made me laugh. Elder Laws kept saying, “This isn’t fun at all”. It was a good experience in the end.

We are basically starting off with nothing in our Equipe, no Amis, no reliable formers, and the area book we have is filled with Spanish speakers, so we are back to finding full time. On the other hand, I can do a contact in Spanish now, and I have received a couple numbers for the other elders when knocking doors.

We had one person let us in this week that we tried to teach but I think the Lord was just testing us with him; he was someone who liked to argue.

I think every time that I watch conference it makes me miss home a bit, cause I see down town, and places I have been. I love just being able to sit their, and just learn, I love it; they say nothing but truths. Thanks for writing me Mom, and I love a good e-mail.

What else has happened this week... not too much really, just a lot of walking around, trying to find the ones that the lord has prepared. I’m sure that we will find someone to teach this week. I am so grateful for you all, and I love you all so much; your in my prayers.

Love Elder Schmidt

03/30/09 Transfers

Hey,
How is it going this week? Thanks so much for the invitation to Grandma's 50 years in America! I hope that everything went off without a hitch.

Sorry I couldn’t get a e-mail off last week. I actually wrote a huge one, and it just would not let me send it. I wish that I could have at least sent pictures, but don’t worry this week went really well. We fixed a baptismal date, but I won’t get to be the one who has the opportunity to teach her anymore. We received transfer calls today; it turns out that I am staying in Geneva, but no longer Spanish speaking, thank heavens!! ha ha That was a little much for me.

I will be (DRUM ROLL!!!!) A Senior companion to Elder Laws. This is going to be really interesting. Now, I have the old equipe in which I just came from, that had no Amis. I know that we will find someone to help bring closer to their Heavenly Father. So, in other words I am going to need your prayers this transfer, because I am going to have to be the one who teaches a lot of the lessons. So, pray for me to be able to speak clearly to the people that they might understand!

Oh, I forgot to tell you my debit card is not working still I think it’s because there is a very large scratch in the little band thing.

This past week has been a week of Spanish Rendezvous and let me tell you, its so hard when you want to participate, but you can’t. All in all it was fantastic; I learned a lot!

This past Thursday, we went down to the driving place to get a permi de conduire (Swiss drivers license-good for life) because the mission office asked us too; not really sure why. The cost of it was 100 Swiss francs; they try to justify it by saying that that’s as much as we would have spent on a bike if we had one. Hopefully, that didn’t shock you too much mom and dad when you saw that transaction.

I also had the opportunity to do an exchange with one of the office Elders, it was great! We where supposed to teach some Muslim man in English, I think they chose me to go because of my great knowledge of teaching Muslim people from St. Etienne ha ha. It turns out the address was bad, so we ended up doing some porting!

Then, we started up a little Saturday ping pong with some amies and some recent converts and they couldn’t believe how good I was at Babyfoot (AKA foose ball). I kept telling them I had never played before, it was fun! Then, we played a game of pool, and it was one of those shots where you have to jump a couple of balls to get it in. I approached the table with the presents that I was good but in a joking way. I did the jump shot, and some how it actually worked, and then right after that I went to hit another ball into the corner pocket and then a chain reaction happened and hit like four other of my balls in. I was thinking in my head, did that just happen? They thought I was amazing! It just reminded me when of when I would play pool with dad and be like “six ball corner pocket”, and the six would go around the table about six times before arriving at a corner pocket. Then when it went in, I would act like I meant to do that. Well sorry for that little tangent ha ha it was fun.

This next part might really interest Shane a lot!!! Today for preparation day we went to see this huge Particle Excellerator; it’s the largest in the world. It is really deep in the ground, and they run Protons into each other. The name of the place was called CERN (European center for Nuclear Research). It’s about a mile around, but in the earth. I saw it on the Discovery Channel once. Let’s just put it this way, they where talking…. and not one of us understood what the heck they where talking about. Elder Griffin looked at me and said, “This must be what its like when we teach people the first lesson”. The lady was talking in the back round about matter, and dark matter, and Dark energy. Elder Griffin was whispering to me words like Apostasy, Restoration, Holy Ghost. Then, he said, “Seriously, think about it, all this stuff makes complete sense to her, and we just shake our heads up and down trying not to feel stupid.” He said, it’s the same with our investigators, that’s why we need to teach simply. I said, “I know, we need the milk before the meat” ha ha. He was making me laugh so hard.

Oh, and the best part was a senior couple (I swear they must be from the Harmon ward), he posed the question, “does this line of work make scientist think that there is no God?” Then he said, that Joseph Smith said 200 years ago that all things revolve around a center. Then (this is the best part), he said, "I’m just glad to see that your just starting to catch up with us, we will give you a brochure after". Every single missionary was like…”what are you doing? But it’s ok, he had the best of intensions.

Other than that, not much has been going on here. I am starting to get excited for General Conference. I can’t wait… its going to be great! Word of the Prophet and his Apostles, is like candy to my ears; I love it! We listen to at least three or so conference talks a week, and I learn new things every time. I am really nervous for this coming transfer, cause I don’t know how to be a SR Companion yet. So, once again, pray for me! I love you all so very much; you’re the best support team a missionary could ask for.

Love
Elder Schmidt

03/16/09 This week was amazing...

Hey Everyone,
Let me tell you what just happened. We are doing our e-mails and we just found out that one of the Elder’s is leaving Miremont. So, I am going to be in a three some companionship, which is going to be really weird, cause I don’t know how to speak Spanish (one lick). So, I will probably have a lot of time to ponder around here ha ha. No more cantiques, we are going to be singing Himnos ha ha. So, that was some crazy news that we just received.

This week was amazing. Last preparation day was awesome, at the car show, I think there was every cool car that you could possibly think of, including, the Lamborghini, which had a model lady to stand next to it. I thought to myself, that car is beautiful enough, do you mind taking a step aside so I can get a picture of the car by itself ha ha.

So, that’s really cool to hear that Vic is getting scuba certified. I am beginning to see Sebastian’s point of view when he sang UNDER THE SEA. I am pretty sure that should be the theme song for any scuba diver.

My Companion Elder Asay and I have seriously contacted everyone on the road, even so much that we have contact them twice. I figure why not give them another chance to accept, right? We had 50 finding lessons this week, and the average for a missionary is 8-10. We did however; find someone really cool to teach. His name is Virgillian. He let us in, and we taught him the restoration. Then he told us to come back in three days, so that his wife could be there with him, it was awesome. They asked a lot of good questions. I think they are going to love the plan of salvation. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be with there spouse for eternity.

It has been a great week, and the weather is really starting to warm up. I can’t wait till summer, cause its the last one here ha ha. Might as well make the best of it!

I have been reading my book of Mormon every day and I love it I seriously learn something new every time; I cant even explain. I think my companion is getting a bit irritated, when we have comp studies, cause I just lay everything out there, and I get so excited that I forget to let him talk. I read in Alma in ch 17:12 et 13, it talks about their desire to share the gospel, and in 17:21-25, it says that his only desire was to serve the king. In verse 29, he finds a way to share the gospel through his service. Then, in Alma 26: 22, they where able to bring thousands of souls unto repentance. The point I wanted to get across, is it started with the desire to share the gospel, and he found a way to share it, through service. So I bet you cant guess what I’m going to ask you to do.... Look for ways to serve others so that you might find a way to share the gospel, and bring one soul that is so precious to repentance and then to the waters of Baptism.

I love this work, I love every opportunity the Lord gives me to help others, and in so doing, I am following the example of my Savior Jesus-Christ. Hopefully, I will help someone come closer to their Heavenly Father. I love you all so much. I pray for you all, and I am thankful that I have wonderful family and friends who love me.

Love Elder Schmidt

03/09/09 Letter inside mailbox from family... Priceless!!

Family,
Hey Mom,I got both of your letters that you sent this week; it was a great surprise! It doesn’t matter that they where a bit late. I was thinking about making a commercial like the church makes that says "mail box 32.00 dollars... key for mailbox 2.00 dollars, letter inside mailbox from family,priceless! Isn’t it about time you send your missionary mail? This message was brought to you from the missionaries of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints" ha ha Mom, you are doing pretty good, two letters in one day. I almost didn’t want to open both of them in the same day. Thanks mom I really enjoyed the stories.
This week has been great, but hard at the same time. We have had some great experiences. This past Tuesday we had this mission couple come to our apartment and they arranged a ton of stuff and made us throw a lot of stuff away. We didn’t have any way to dispose of it at all. So, they asked us to go to the mission home, and ask if we could use the Traffic, which is this big white van; so we did. Let’s just say that we didn’t have a license to drive it, but it was a great adventure. I was the one that got to drive, and let me tell you there are some weird traffic laws here. What made it even better is it was a stick. Elder Asay and I, lets just say, had the times of our lives. I took some pictures.
Another weird thing that happened is we where just sitting at the tram stop just Elder Asay and I, and this man just pops out of no where with this news video camera and just starts filming us. So we didn’t know what to do, so I thought to myself, might as well get some free advertisement. I made me tag very visible and turned Le Livre de Mormon so that it could be read, than he just took off; it was pretty funny!
We had the opportunity to have an area 70 come to our zone conference. His name is Elder Paya, he is French. It was cool cause half of it was in English and half was in French, and I could understand them both very easily. I even answered in French, and gave the opening prayer it was great! I love when our Heavenly Father gives us challenging situations, cause that just means that he is helping us grow stronger. A rock must have pressure, before it can become a diamond.
Oh, and this passed Sunday I had the opportunity to get up and talk about the spirit, for five min or so, in sacrament; it was great. What else has been happening, the work here is kind of going slow; we still only have one ami. However, this week, we decided we are going to get 40 finding lessons. That’s when we teach a principle, bear testimony, and then invite to act. I know the Lord will bless us with someone to teach, if we work diligently, have faith and rely on his timing.
Today we are going to go and do something great.....lets just say Dad, Vic, Dallas, and Kent, and Frank, will all be jealous. I am going to one of the world famous Car shows here in Geneva, don’t worry I will take a lot of pictures and hopefully, I can sit in a Lambo or something, maybe a Miclearin F1 (I probably spelled that wrong; sorry. It’s all coming together…. my Mission President was inspired sending me here… ha..ha I’m just kidding! Its going to be sweet! I swear this transfer is going by way to quickly, its already half over, wow. Well, I better get going, I love you all; cant wait to hear from you!!!!

Elder Schmidt

03/02/09 An instrument in the Lord's Hands

JOAN MARIA'S BAPTISM DAY!!!

"Now this is the commandment: Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless before me at the last day. Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel....."
3 Nephi 27: 20-21

Family,
This week has been so great! I received a call from St.Etienne, and it was Jean Maria, he said “I want to be baptized and I want you to do it”. I told him that I would be honored. He had already spoke with my mission President and got permission for me. I took a 3 hour ride to St.Etienne, with one of the assistants, it was great. When I arrived he gave me a big hug, and said, “Thanks for this gift that you have given me, I know that it is a fit from God, but thanks so much for talking to me that night on the road, for bringing me this great message.” At this time I was thinking, “Wow, God really does guide the work”, cause we where just out that night because we felt like we should stay out a bit longer contacting.
This was such a great experience for me cause I feel like we just taught him principles to his mind, and the spirit is the one that carried this message to his heart. it is wonderful this feeling of being an instrument in the Lords hands. I can’t tell you how many times I say stuff, that has nothing to do with the subject that we are talking about, but I just feel like I have to say it. I know that there is power in callings, cause I could do this no other way than with the help of the Lord.
I am so grateful to be a missionary in the Lords vineyard at this time, cause I know that he truly is directing the work here, and all across the world. I love this church, I know it is true, and I love sharing this great message.
The baptism went great. I had the opportunity to do the baptism in French. I was going to do it in Spanish, cause that is his native tongue, but there was only one witness who was familiar with Spanish. The hot water was not working in the font, but that didn’t stop us... it was freezing. I mean I was shivering, but in the words of Jean Maria, “it was "PERFECT". I think I would have to agree; it was perfect. Cold water cant stop anyone from making a covenant with their Heavenly Father.
I will try to write a hand written letter, sorry this is so short but I had to retype it, cause it was erased for some reason. I love you all. Things are going great here in Geneva. My companion is hilarious; I love it. Thanks for all your love and support. Try to share your testimony with someone this week.

Love Elder Schmidt

Joan Maria has Chosen

to be BAPTIZED!!! We're so excited for him! He has asked Bronson to do the baptism! My Mom recieved a letter from Joan Maria, here it is...

Dears Brother Victor and Sister Rebecca,
The time is arrived, I asked to my brothers my desire of be Baptised....
We have all ready, Bronson is coming from Geneva; He is who will give it to me. I asked because, He was the first Brother who was taking care of me, and with him God's grace came, and He (after was added to the team Brother Hamilton) whose Friendship and thirsty of Truth and God wisdom they stole my heart...
Now all is ready to true this Saturday at 5pm FT and, Sunday 11am confirmation...
I have big confidence on you!
Please, be closer in your prayers... I know, the distance is big but, even with that I feel you very close, so, please, I beg your prayers! On the Heart of Jesus we will be one at that time...
Ut unum sint -Jn 17-
Joan Maria

GOING PRIVATE

After debating we've decided it would be best to make this blog private. However if you would still like to read the blog please leave me a comment with your email address or send me an email with your email address and let me know you want to still have access to the blog. My email is ashlee3@hotmail.com put in the subject line Bronson's blog so I will be sure not to miss it!! This will allow me to give you access you'll just have to log in when you want to visit! So its one extra step but it will make this safer!! I will be making this private as of APRIL 1ST so please make sure to email me!! We welcome anyone who is following Bronson's mission!! Thanks so much for your help

02/24/09 Back in Switzerland!

Hey Everyone,
So much has happened the passed week, so, I’ll try to get it all down so that you can understand it. My mission president called me up on transfers and told me that I was going to be serving with the previous assistant Elder Kimble, “How’s your Spanish”. I said, “I don’t know any Spanish. The only thought that came to mind was I could order a burrito from Baracoa in Spanish, but that’s about it ha ha. So anyway, about a day goes by, and I receive another call from President Peterson, saying that I was going to be serving with Elder Asay. So, I was like great, still in a Spanish companion ship.

So it has been really stressful cause this whole week I have been trying to learn Spanish. I can almost say a simple prayer, but that’s it. We went to church, and it’s basically a Spanish ward. Half of the talks where in Spanish, and surprisingly enough I got the just of it. We also had class in Spanish. Wow… go missions, they really push you to your limits.

Then, in church I saw my mission president and he told me he wants me to focus more on French, and have Spanish come after. So that was some weight lifted from my shoulders; thank goodness. However, we still have rendezvous in Spanish, and pretty much search for Spanish people to talk to. I am the designated listen for Spanish; when I hear it, I call the other elders over to talk to them, that’s my job ha ha. Along the way I get to speak French.

My companion is way tranquil, and way funny. We where porting, and I saw the name José, and I said, “Are you ready for this, in a movie advertisement voice, and he said "Bring it on José"; it was so funny. In that same building we where taking the elevator up to the top floor, but the door would not open. Then, it started going down again, and there was a guy standing there. He said to us, "you guys came back". We went back and talked to him a bit and fixed a time to go back to his house to talk. Then, the man went into his apartment. Elder Asay was like, "that was a MIRACLE"! He is really cool, I look forward to serving with him. He is from Dallas Texas, but he isn’t a hick at all.

We also had the chance to play soccer with the Spanish guys here. The field got so muddy cause we all had cleats. We where all sliding around and were all muddy. I stayed up the longest without falling, and then I really biffed it, like you would see in the movies, where they slip and fall face first into mud and get it everywhere. Then I heard my companion yell "the king has fallen", I just laughed.

It is really different being in Geneva, because it is so dang big. I have had the opportunity to talk with Americans; it’s so good to hear an American accent.

What else has been going on... we don’t really have any Amis right now, but we have faith that we will find some pretty soon.

Oh I forgot to tell you, I am in a one room apartment with four elders. It’s so dang small, but I must admit, it is very fun. I still think the mission is like a rollercoaster and I am on one of those 90 degrees drops right now, but in a good way like ahhhhhhhh…… I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m going to do it anyways, kind of drops. I really don’t know what my President is thinking right now, because all the other Elders in the apartment have to leave next transfer. So, I think that he is going to be taking one Spanish companionship out of there. I don’t think I am staying more that one transfer, but we will see.

He says that I will be going senior companion soon, I don’t even think that I am ready for that. The good thing about being a Jr. Companion is if anything bad happens, you can blame it on the Sr. Companion ha…ha. When good stuff happens, you can take credit for it.

Well, I better get going. I love you all so very much. I wish I could tell you all in words, how great the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. It’s everything, its perfect; I love it, and I am so thankful to be a member of his church. I love having the opportunity to share this message that has blessed my life so very much, and then watch it bless and change the lives of others. You know that song count your many blessings. I love taking a step back and just really being able to see how the Lord has blessed me; you should try it.

I love you all,
Love Elder Schmidt

Cotton Candy

We recieved this from an "Ami" that Bronson is teaching! Thought we'd share!

02/16/09 On to Geneva Switzerland!!!

Dear Missionaries,

What a wonderful meeting with Elder and Sister Bednar! It was a truly a privilege to be thaught by an apostle and his wife who were being led and directed by Heavenly Father through the Holy Ghost. Sister Peterson and I felt that there were many things that they said that were directed right at us. We are so grateful for an apostle who was so in tune with the Spirit to say exactly what we needed to hear. He answered our questions, calmed our fears, and reminded us that it is the Savior who directs this work. We couldn't have been more pleased (there are those who don't think we should say 'proud') with the reverential way with which you conducted yourselves. Our guests were duly impressed with the wonderful missionaries in this mission. As I said, you are the greatest.

We have six weeks left in the quarter. We already have had 17 baptisms and we currently have 29 baptismal dates. I appreciated Elder Bednar's use of Nephi and the three attempts to get the brass plates. As we have talked before, we will reach our goal.

This was the email sent to us by our mission president. We had the wonderful opportunity of learning from an Apostle of the lord and let me just testify to you that he is, he carried the spirit with him I have not felt anything like the spirit in which I felt, it was like being in the Temple, he taught us about….. well you probably could guess it the spirit. He taught us in such a way that he wasn’t talking at us he was talking with us, I even got to talk a little bit. He answered every question with a scripture and it was a perfect response to the question, he said I DO NOT want you writing down what I say, when he said this I was like why not you are an Apostle, then he said I am not the teacher here the SPIRIT is the teacher; so I suggest that you split your paper into two sections one side being the doctrine and the other side being the spiritual impressions that we received it was really a good experience to have the opportunity to do this because as he talk the spirit was doing his job and giving me answers to all the questions that I had. He said sometimes we as members listen so much to the words that they speak that they don’t even listen to the spirit, I was like that is true cause I used to do that all the time just write down the words and not the spiritual impressions. Elder Bednar did not once chastise us, and I think he knows that he doesn’t have to because I am pretty sure that we all received our fare share from the spirit. The spirit will truly help us know all things that we should do. It was just a huge spiritual experience for me and I will never forget it, he talked about how we teach he says if we aren’t teaching by the spirit we are practicing witch craft that really shocked me, but it makes sense because we are then teaching them from our own knowledge and not turning them to their father in heaven. He is an Apostle of the Lord, I had the opportunity to shake his hand, Elder Kapishka was present as well it was one fantastic spirit filled day.

So anyways we got our transfer calls this morning and it looks like I will be going to Geneva, I will be serving with a former Assistant that should be interesting, president said on the phone, how is your Spanish Elder Schmidt ha ha because I will be in a Spanish equipe, that doesn’t mean I am going to learn Spanish but its going to be interesting to say the least I am pretty excited? Our mission is cutting back in size over the next six months we will loose 30 missionairres and so now that makes our mission really old, everyone is almost over a year. Back to Switzerland yay no more gloomy ST. Etienne. I leave this Wednesday I am scared to serve with a former assistant, does that mean I am a bad missionary ha, hopefully not. Elder Hamilton has to encourage a missionary that is coming here cause he really wants to go home in fact his grandma lives here so Elder Hamilton is going to have his work cut out for him. So we had a pretty sweet miracle this Sunday we had SIX amis at church it was amazing our x monk brought a muslim girl to church and she loved it when she was watching finding faith in Christ and she cried she said she really felt something then we went over to a memebers house to eat with them after and we had her read the promise in moroni 10 and she read It and looked up and said ma Coeur est chaude in other words my heart is warm right now, we explained to her that this was the spirit It was her first time in a christean church and she said I have never felt that before. All of our chineese members invited people to church so all I all it was really sweet.*

Well I love you all and my heart is warm also cause the spirit makes known to me every day that The Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints is the one and only True church upon the face of the earth. I pray for you all please pray for me to be able to do the work of the lord here in Europe the way the lord would have it done. Love Elder Schmidt

02/09/09 The Gospel of Jesus Christ is Wonderfully simple, and simply Wonderful

Hey Mom,

How has your week been? So, I am in Lyon today to go and look at a castle. It’s going to be fun and we are also going to go and do some shopping. Hopefully, I can find some cool ties that are cheap that would be great. I am still wearing pretty much the same ties I left with. It’s because I am a tight wad with money.

So, this week has been really good, we have had many opportunities to teach this week. It's really crazy cause they have switched the way that we do everything. Like working with members, the way we contact people on the road, I mean we have to stop them, and before we introduce ourselves, we have to share a principle and testify and ask a question, it’s really really hard.

Right now we have some pretty solid amis and they are really searching for the truth. The man we just barely set a baptismal date with, just fell through, because his mother died, and he has to return to Cambodia.

I love it because I am learning a lot, and I love inviting others to learn more about God and their Savior. It’s just sad most of all, when they don’t except what we have to say, because you know that its true.

Well I love you all, and once again I want you all to know that the gospel is wonderful and perfect. I forget who said it, but it’s like this… the gospel of Jesus Christ is wonderfully simple, and simply wonderful. Share it at any opportunity that you have. It is something not to be kept. I love you all so much. Have a great week!

Love

Elder Schmidt

02/02/09 Best P-Day Ever!

Sorry I am late today!

We had a lot of stuff going on, and we got back about 3 hours later than we had planned, so I have to get this off a lot later than I had hoped. I hope I didn't scare anyone! lol.

So today was a pretty sweet day. Our Catholic Monk ami took us out to his monastery, where he lived for 4 years to meet all of his other monk friends. I thought that there were only going to be a few, but there turned out to be over 100 of them! It was really cool, and one of the best preparation days of my mission. But I will get to all that later, I will tell you about my week for the time being.

So, last Monday we had an RDV with a man named Prince. He is from some small African country that I have never heard of. We contacted him a while ago, and he said that he was living in Lyon, and that he wouldn't mind meeting with the missionaries there. He seemed really cool, and interested, so I was kinda bummed to have to pass him on, but oh well. When the elders in Lyon called him, he said that he had just decided to move to St Etienne permanently, and that he wouldn't mind meeting with the missionaries here (us). We didn't have a lot of time for the RDV, because we had to get back to the church for soiree familiale, but the RDV we were able to have, was SWEET! We explained about the great apostasy and about the restoration a bit, and he asked some really REALLY good questions. He wanted to know what was the difference between our church, and his. So he can be aware of all that before he starts coming to our church regularly. It was a really good RDV, but he hasn't had time to see us since then. We were supposed to see him on Saturday, but he didn't have the time, so we should be seeing him on Wednesday. Hopefully, I will be able to give you some more positive news!

On Tuesday we had a meeting in Lyon with our whole zone about the lessons that we are trying to have with our members, to build their faith. It is SUCH a hard and overwhelming task. I have honestly been stressing out about it, and trying to figure out how it is going to work. The GREAT news is that we had a sweet meeting with the Bishop and our DMP on Wednesday morning, and he is WAY excited about missionary work this year.

We had an idea to do a puzzle thing with the ward for our ward mission plan, where members of the ward have to complete small goals in order to put pieces of the puzzle together. The Bishop wanted to take it one step farther, and have each family have their own personal little puzzle, that they fix goals for and put together as they accomplish, and then the one at the ward house gets put together as the families complete their own puzzles. I don't know that I am explaining this very well. The only problem was that he wanted to start this right now, which wouldn't work with the 5 lessons that we've been asked to have with each member, to strengthen their faith. So, what we decided is that we, the missionaries, will have 5 months to visit all 5 active families and individuals, and meet with them 5 times. Then at the last RDV we will give them their puzzle, and set goals with them. Then, once the entire ward has their puzzle, we are going to get it moving at a ward level. I was thinking about it earlier today, and I think that we may give them the puzzle in the first RDV, and then they get to check it off as they complete the different engagements that we will be giving them over the next little while. I don't know exactly how it will work out.

Our DMP seemed less than excited during this RDV and seemed to disagree with a lot of the ideas that we were sharing. The good news is that on Thursday night we were able to go over to his house and figure out what was up. I guess that he has been getting really depressed lately as we weren't able to meet the goals that the ward set for last year, and he was getting down on himself because he felt like they had really tried and they had set a goal of 6 baptisms, but they only had 3 here. We were able to talk to him for a while and then he REALLY opened up to us, We were able to solve a lot of his concerns, I think, and we have seen him twice since then and it's almost like a complete 180 degree turn around (for instance, during DMP meeting on Sunday, the Bishop was there, and our DMP was suggesting that we go and pick up some of the people that haven't been to church in a long time to see if we can give them that desire to come again). It was REALLY good.

We also had a RDV on Friday night with one of our amis, Florent, who is from Cambodia, and it went really well. We read 2 Nephi 31 in English, then French, then Cambodian to help him understand. We tried to figure out why he hadn't been able to come to church yet, and it's because he works some really odd hours, and he thought church was at 9 pm instead of 9 am. Hopefully he will be able to come on Sunday, as he doesn't work. He is SO SWEET, and I think that he has a lot of potential to be baptized this quarter.

A quick update on the mission, while I am thinking about it, we have already had 10 baptisms this year, which is GREAT! That's a lot better than any of the first months of the quarters last year, so 2009 is off to a great start!

On Saturday morning, Jean Marie (the monk) came to church to teach us some Tai-Chi. It was really fun. We had a couple of members here with us, and we learned how to get ourselves all relaxed, and do a couple of simple moves. It was really relaxing, and got me into a nice mindset, but I would never EVER do it in front of anyone. Awkward! He then showed us some practices that he does using a wooden katana sword. This guy is so cool, I can hardly believe it! It was a lot of fun, and it was great to have an ami to come to Samedi sportif, especially, when it was him who taught it!

Sunday was actually a good day at church, as it was fast and testimony meeting. All three members of the bishopric bore their testimonies about missionary work, and I think that this ward is starting to get itself ready to get some stuff going! The only sad thing is that we will be instituting the big plan right before I leave, so I won't be able to see it all in action. But that doesn't really matter. What matters is that things here change for the better, and that stuff starts moving in the right direction!

So that brings us to today. Jean Marie came and picked us up at the church a little after 8:30 and we drove out to the monastery. It is about a 40 minute drive from here. He took us around and showed us what was going on there, all the chapels and everything. There were monks and nuns running around everywhere, and it was really cool. I felt like I was in the Sound of Music! We were there with the zone leaders, who came in last night, and it was sooo much fun! We saw where they study, where they eat, etc. They are at this place for about 4 years, and they learn philosophy and theology, and then they leave to go to another place for a year to learn something else, and then they start going on 3 year missions for the rest of their lives. It is a lifetime commitment, unless you ask to leave, or they ask you to leave.

Today was the day that they celebrated the presentation of Jesus at the temple, when Simeon and Anne both saw him and rejoiced. We had a candle lighting ceremony, and then we went into the chapel and they had some other ceremony followed by a mass. It was my first full on Catholic mass, and I must admit that it was a bit weird. It was cool though, and I liked it.

After that we went and had lunch with the monks. Normally they don't talk when they eat, so the room was just clinking silverware through the salad. Then, one of the head people got up and said that because it was a feast day, they would be aloud to speak. Everyone cheered, and then all the monks started asking us questions. They were from all over the world, including at least four Americans! It was SOOOO cool! Some African monks played some drums and stuff while we ate. It wasn't until after the meal that I realized that we were the only non-monks in the room! Apparently it is a real honor to be invited to eat with them! They all chatted with us about what we believe, and two elders taught them a first lesson. They were SOO respectful though! Man it was cool.

After the meal, some of the monks wanted to drink some coffee with us, but we told them we don't drink it. Then they wanted to drink tea, we don't drink it. They were like, “What do these Mormons drink”! They're lives are harder than ours! They found some orange juice, and we went into some other room and chatted with about 4 of them for a good hour and a half. It was soooo much fun, and they were so nice. We took a TON of pictures; it was such a great day!

After we left, we went and Jean Marie took us and showed us some pretty sights including a castle that is in the middle of a river. It was sweet, and we got a lot of sweet pictures with that too. Basically, today was an AMAZING preparation day, and the work is going really well, and the ward is preparing to do missionary work, and Elder Schmidt is really loving his life! YAY!

I bought a sweet little bead things that the monks use. They have little beads and a cross, just for a souvenir it was sweet. So needless to say, you can only serve your mission once, so I might as well see how they do it here. I could never be a monk, its too intense and involves never being able to be married~ what a bummer, I could never do that. But they where all really nice to us and I had the opportunity to teach four monks by myself about the book of Mormon. When we where eating lunch together it was sweet and I got to talk to an American monk, he was Chinese, it was sweet he asked us soo many questions; it was so cool. At the beginning we weren’t able to speak to anyone, but then they rang this bell and all the monks started chatting with us. What a sweet day, the young guys are just like us, we passed some time together and we where joking and playing around. All in all it was the best p day ever!

I love you all, and I hope that you have an awesome week! Talk to you again soon!

Love, Elder Schmidt

01/26/09 Exchanges

Hey Everyone!
Things are going pretty good here. Let me just tell you that missions are crazy, the things that we see, the people we hear. For example we tried to contact this guy the other day and he said get out of here are you guys the police we said no we are missionaries, when her heard that lets just say his vocabulary was a little bit more colorful. Once again I find myself learning words I can't use ha ha but it's OK because it doesn't affect me at all because there is no emotional attachment to the words they use.
This week I went to Lyon for an exchange and the kid I did the exchange with... lets just say I could have called him Elder Brady because I felt like I was in an episode of the Brady bunch. He uses words like super and swell. Even when we would talk in french he would say vous et formidable Elder Schmidt vous avez expliquez le plan du salut trés bien. ( translation your formidable Elder Schmidt you explained the plan of salvation very well) maybe he came out from a fall out shelter before his mission like that show blast from the past.
Any ways on other news we are helping a man quit smoking he gave us all his cigarettes ands cigars and we broke them up and threw them all away he hasn't done it for five days now pretty cool. We don't have a lot of amis here but the ones we have are great. None of them however are french so that's probably why ha ha! I have to learn to love these people some how, there is specific french people that I love but as a people they are rude. The Swiss side of our mission received more baptisms than the French side and the Swiss side is like five times smaller. We are trying to work with our members because that is the better way to do missionary work. It's really hard here because the members here if they don't want to do it they just toss it to the missionaries so by the end of everything we feel like we have everything. no joke i almost feel like i have to prepare a discourse for every Sunday because if someone doesn't show up to give their discourse it somehow falls on us!
I have received one referral since I have been here and it was from another mission ha ha. I guess you have to love the members here that think if they have invited us over for a manger vous that they are doing missionary work. we have stood up and said that that's like the last thing we want them to do. Oh and our DMP told my comp to print out the ward mission plan that we made because he dumped it on us and distribute it. So I gave it to all the members and he said to me ca marche pas come ca ice Elder which means it doesn't work like that here Elder, i almost said ça marche pas de tout ici, wich means it doesn't work at all here, followed by oui ca march come ca chez moi et il y a boucoup des membres qui est active which means it works this way back home and there is many members active. but as a missionary we say desolé frére Professo c'est ma faut---- sorry brother professo its my fault. Being a missionary teaches patients that's for sure. hopefully our working with members helps them have the desire to share what has been given to them. I always tell them on peu pas garder l'évangile pour nous méme il faut que nous partager cette grande message---- the gospel is not ours to keep its necessary to share this great message. I swear its getting harder to spell English.
So on another note we are having Elder Bednar come to the mission and speak to us. We are preparing our selves for a verbal chastisement ha ha it should be good. I'm pretty intimidated by him because he tells it like it is. So all in all its going great here I'm loving it and growing a lot along the way.
I love you all so very much I love sharing this message because I know who ever will listen and follow their lives will change for the better. For me the gospel is the only thing that's ever consistent, something we can always hold on to and gain support with, second to this is our families.
I love you all so very much you're in my prayers

01/19/2009 A ton has happened this week

Hey everyone!
A ton has happened this week. I will start out with the weird stuff that happened. We were on a tram and we saw this muslim kid just throw up everywhere all over everything NASTY and we also went to jewish synogog and they almost didnt let us in because we weren't part of the community, and we told them we are American mormons and one of the guys said no joke, "Well anyone can act like an american mormon and not be one, we have to consult the Rabbi." Anyways they finally let us in and we where with our jewish friend ELVIS! Cool name huh he loves Eminem. They let us in before him and he is jewish we wore jewish yamikas and the servive was wierd you sing a crazy launguage stand up face the back do that a couple times and then say shalom at the end, in between all this to get our paper yamikas to stay on our head. what else we met with our christian munk. He is like a Mother Theresa munk that helped aides kids, he showed us pictures, crazy.
There has been a lot of good things happen this week. We got a less active to come to church and found some other less actives, that actually seem promising that they will return if we work with them a bit. I swear the mission is so up and down but I think we only grow when its like that we just need to learn to laugh at the bad stuff and shake it off.
I love you all so very much. Things are going great here for now. We are getting ready to go to Lyon and play some American Football and do some soldes shopping. Soldes is a sale that happens 2 times a year where stuff goes up to like 75 percent off so thats cool.
Oh I forgot to tell you all that we went on an exchange to Clarmont Ferrand and we stayed in bed the whole time because we where sick. You might ask what kind of sick... lets just say I lost six pounds and was dehydrated, I will leave it at that. Don't eat the meatball sandwich at subway now i know how JARED lost so much weight off the subway diet ha ha well
I love you all. If there is anything I can do for anyone just let me know!
Love Elder Schmidt

Oh and I am following up on my commitment did anyone have an opportunity to share the gospel with anyone the past week?

01/12/09 St. Etienne

Well everything is going really well here in St. Etienne. I'm not going to lie, it's not my favorite place in the world but I will still try my best. The hardest thing for me is the dang French it's so hard. I mean trying to do missionary things is hard enough but when you have to do it all in another launguage its hard. And to sit there and have a conversation about how your going to help the work is very difficult, I only imagine that it gets worse the older I get as a missionary. Like I really don't think I am even close to being a Senior Companion because I feel so inadiquite. I wonder if anyother missionaries feel this way.

As far as the appartment here, it's pretty good but its still a missionary appartment AKA filthy but I try to clean it up little by little!

I dont think the ward here should be classified as a ward because there is like thirty-five people including kids there. In priestood it was me and my comp an one other guy in the congregation.... can i even call that a congregation??? Lets just say the church is so far from being strong here and it has soooo much to do with no member support no help from the members, I mean we go months without referrals. I remember in a conference they said that the church would grow in Europe twice as big in ten years if they had enough faith.... now there is less active members then when that was said. It can't be the missionaries because we always change but there is the members who stay consistant.

My comp is pretty cool, I mean he has his things but I think that everyone does, he is an older missionary so he is pretty much set in his ways meaning he is feels like he has a hang of it, im not sure i will ever get that way because I feel like I have way too much to learn. And as far as the door to door contacting we do it all the time when you can find a building that is unlocked sometimes you get kicked out by the concierge or they will threaten to call the police... I kinda feel like a little kid getting my ear pulled out of a building but not litterally. So that does mean alot of street contacting. I wish I knew how to speak aribic ha ha.

We saw this huge crowed striking against the jews, you guessed it, it was all the muslims that hate jews. There had to be about 2000 people walking down the road, but this is normal it happens like every week. GO FRANCE to me this isnt a place to be desired the people are so hard. oh well though its our job to make them soft right! The thing I really dont like is the church is not strong they are scared to spread a great message they want to make the church grow by having kids and letting it slowly grow but thats not the way it should be invite you friends to know about this... so my invitation to you all is to talk with one of your friends about the gospel and bear a simple testimony, that felt good to give you all that commitment cause i know that you will really do it and you probably already have the person in your heads that you want to share it with. I promise nothing will make you happier than sharing the gospel with friends and those you love. Give them a chance to accept maybe something you say will change thier lives. I think that god gives us our friends and puts people in our paths so that we can help them get on the right path too. The gospel is great and perfect in every form, I love it! It's what gives me strength when I am at my lowest points and builds anyone up who is willing to work for it and makes them stronger. (The gospel is not something to be kept and stored away it needs to be shared, i thinks Gordon B Hinckley said that)

Well I love you all so very much your constantly in my prayers, and I thank you so much for your prayers for me.

LOVE ELDER SCHMIDT

One more email

I recieved this email from Bronson.. thought I'd post it on here as well!!

Holy cow Ash that's no good, stay in that bed k.
Sorry you didn't get to go to the wedding, but either did I, and I wish I could be on bed rest! You know that song (I would walk ten thousand miles and I would walk ten thousand more just to be the man who walked ten thousand miles and winde up at your door? ) Well I think it was a couple of missionaries who wrote it like this (I would walk ten thousand miles and I would walk ten thousand more just to be the missionary to wind up porting at your door) anyways something like that because I swear we walk a ton.
Ash I love you and will pray for you! Thanks for all the love and support you give me.

Love
Elder Schmidt

01/05/09 Email from Bronson

I can’t believe that Breanna is a married woman. It was so weird for me to get that wedding announcement... oh well as long as she is a happy camper, I guess that’s all that matters.

The baptism with Shuyang didn’t go through; he wasn’t ready. I am fine with that, cause I want to baptize only those who have a testimony of it, and know that they are making a covenant with their Heavenly Father. We will keep working with him. I am sure he will receive his answer.

Our Zone leaders gave us the goal to get twenty finding lessons this week, and let me tell you, we talk to everyone we passed. It was the last day Sunday night, and we had two more to get. But there was nobody on the roads.

We passed a Muslim kid who we stopped, he was actually pretty cool. We talk to him about why we believe that Christ was the son of god and not just a prophet.

Then, we kept walking and we saw this guy holding some bags, and what looked to be a Samari sword. We approached him, and he said to us very clearly “your the Mormons right”?... (in English)? We replied… yup. We gave him a finding lesson and tried to arrange a return appointment. He said, “Do you want to come over and talk now”, we replied “yes”.

He began to tell us that he was previously a monk, and how he has always been searching for the truth. We shared with him the restoration, and he said, “Well it looks like we should learn the truth together”. Gave us all his information (when we didn’t even ask), and said, “if this book is true, then I’m in trouble, cause then, I’m going to have to change”. Then, he said, “But if its not... your in trouble”. We said, “Exactly”! Followed by the testimony that it’s true, and he can know it!

It was really cold by the time we left his apartment, and we needed to get home because it was almost nine. We still needed one more finding lesson, so as we walked the rest of the way to the tram, there was one Chinese man walking. So I stopped him, we gave him a finding lesson, and figured out that he has the same last name as a recent Chinese convert in our ward, both from China. We got his name and number and met the goal. I know this could be done in no other way than with the help of the Lord. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be on his errand!

I love you all so much and I hope you had a great new years.

Love Elder Schmidt


*The significance of a man is not in what he attains, but in what he longs to attain."

Kahil Labran