Hello,

Well this has been kind of a crazy week. We have done a lot of service and helping people out this week. We helped a family in Sawmill build a brick wall and we have been helping with a lot of gardens as well. It seems that most people have put it off for as long as they could and now they are suppose to be getting ready to plant so everyone is trying to get their soil together last minute. The people putting it together gave a calender with a schedule but didn't stick to the plan.

We had a couple of baptisms suppose to happen this week with Joseph and Joanne but we talked about the Word of Wisdom and they are still getting over that and we found out that they have peyote meeting's at their home, so it might take a little longer then we expected. But they are still doing really good.

Last Tuesday we did have a really awesome meeting with Elder C. Scott Grow and President Jones. They talked a lot about our numbers as missionaries and what we have to do in order to obtain those numbers. We have what are called Standards of Excellence which are based on week by week and month by month. They compiled the numbers of the mission for the last little while and demonstrated how we reach our baptism goals. He talked about setting our baptism goal first and looking at what we need to do in order to obtain that goal. It really is not very hard to reach those goals if you are obedient. Obedience brings blessings beyond belief. There seems to be quite a few Elder's that have a difficult time with obeying the rules and doing what needs to be done and their numbers reflect that. Clearly they do not recognize that they are on the Lord's time and not their own. There is no reason why we can not put ourselves aside for two years and truly dedicate that time to the Lord. We talk about our time here on Earth compared to eternity and it is not very much and if we compare two years on Earth compared to eternity it is even less! It reminds me of the story about President Hinkley when his father wrote to him and said forget yourself and go to work. Something we all need to heed to.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Schmidt