Third area...Third state!

Hello everybody!!

Well I am in Utah. That is for sure. It was like culture shock comeing here. Everything is so different then the rez. I see people...white people...and lots of them. That is the biggest difference. Not to mention the fact that we cover half of a stake. We cover 4 wards and a branch on the Ute reservatrion and a branch on the Navajo reservation. So i still get some oof the rez! Which I am extremely glad about because I did not want to leave, but it takes about an hour to get there so we only get to go down once a week. Which is unfortunate because their is a lot of work to be done downn there. It recently got changed from a ward to a branch, so that is not good news.

I am getting asjusted to being here though. I am starting to like it more. One thing that is nice is that we pretty much don't do any knocking doors. the ward mission leaders do all the finding then get the people ready for us to ge see. It's kind of nice, but way different then I am use to because in my last area we didn't even have a branch mission leader. Hopefully I can get it figured out on how to work with them. It is hard because they all want to come out with us but we hardly have the time to give everybody their own night, so in that way it is kind of a struggle. So my new companion's name is Elder Nelson. This is his second transfer so I guess I am step training him which means we have an additional 60 minutes of companionship study everyday where we use the preach my gospel dvd's and this circulem that came out. So it is fun we are learning lots together and having fun. He is from Philidalipha. So a long ways from home. But he is a really good servant. Hopefully we can get some baptisims this transfer since he didn't get any last transfer. We have some investigators that we are working with so hopefully some will be prepared we have plans to really help them progress. So we are working hard and hopefully the Lord will bless us!

Sorry we usually end up emailing earlier but President and Sister Jones were in town today to renew their drivers license since they have utah license so we ended up having interviews with President this morning. It was good to sit down and talk because we haven't had interviews in a couple of months.

So yes mom and dad you pretty much could yell across the river to me for my birthday. One of the branchs that the other elders cover is called Mexican Hat and it covers Navajo mountain. So pretty much our area borders, well it does boarder the lake. That sounds like a fun trip. You guys should enjoy it. So I do get to listen to conference on my birthday. That will be fun to "relax" and listen to the prophet. Before priesthood we are going to this less active family we started working with this week for dinner. The dad is from Samoa so he is going to make some native food which we are excited about. It sounds really good! We just met them this past week and it was really good because they have a son who had said he was prepareing to go on a mission but mom stoped going to church so the kids did as well. They hadn't been in about four months so he was kind of slipping away but they came to church yesterday which was really good and so hopefully we can keep working with him and prepare him.

Well I better get going. I hope you all have a wonderful week. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Schmidt

Moving again...

Yaateeh!

Well, Bummer but I am headed to Blanding Utah. I really wish I was staying here in Crownpoint, but the Lord has other plans for me I guess. I have really come to love this area and the people that I have met. I guess it is true you come to love every area and hate to leave. So I look forward to getting to know the people and the area in Blanding. My new companions name is Elder Nelson. I go from Neilson to Nelson hopefully I don't get confused. I hate to leave but look forward to the new opportunities and people to work with. It is a bummer we are making such good progress here in this area and have changed a lot of things. We have a baptisim this week and we have so many people that we are working with that are doing so good. This week we had 10 new investigators. We found a family that is really awesome. They want to keep learning more and asked if we could come back the next day.

This week we had to do two funerals! You already know about the one on Monday, then we had to do one on Saturday as well. For some reason they seem to take up all day. I think it is because they only use shovels to bury the people. So it takes them like over an hour to do instead of using a backhoe. But this one wasn't so weird they were members so they did it normal and not the traditional way. But it was good. After we got done with it we went to this memorial bull riding. Some people that we have been working with were putting it on in rememberance of their dad. It was a lot of fun. We were going to help but they said they had it all under control so we just went to support. They had a few different catagories of riders. One group was thee 50+ riders. Their was some old guys out their and they had some of the best ride's. It was pretty cool.

We have a baptism this week( here in Crownpoint). It is a bummer that I will be missing it. We have really been working hard to get her to progress. Her name is Corletta. She had been meeting with the missionaries before but they would just come every once in a month or so, and didn't really teach and leave committments. Something we did was just invite her to come to church and set timesto meet. Thats what your suppose to be doing anyways. But it's weird when you actually do what your suppose to the blessings come from it.

Well I better get going. Kind of short this week but next week I will have a new place to talk about. I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Schmidt

6 months tie burning

 Distric in Crownpoint, NM

Jaylynn's Baptism 

 

 

Hello everybody!

Yes mom I am fine! Sorry we had to do a funeral yesterday which ended up taking all DAY! We got to the church early to set up chairs and make sure everything was cleaned up, and so that the church would be opened. Its a good thing that we were there, because family started showing up about an hour early and nobody else was there to open the building. It was a pretty good service, but it was a little different. It was for a lady that married a Laguna Indian man, so they did a more traditional Laguna type funeral. So first of all that entails that they don't use a casket, they just wrap the body in a blanket and put it on a board. That was different to be sitting on the stand with a body just laying on the floor in front of us. Then when the service was over before they took the body out they spun it around in a circle four times. Not quite sure what it was symbolic of, but they messed all the chairs up in the process so we had to fix all of them. Then they sprinkled some weird stuff on the ground in front of her so we had to vacuume as well. It was a little different but it was a good service. The reason it was so long was because the Husband talked for over an hour, then they had to dig the hole by hand and bury her by hand so the grave site service took over two hours alone then we had lunch after so by the time it was all over the library was closed so we couldn't email. So that is the story of how we spent our P-day. But we met some really nice people and some that we might begin to work with.

So we had a very good week though. This past weekend we had stake conference. There were some very good talks given. I really enjoyed the talk by the member of the Temple presidency and his wife. Obviously they both talk about the temple but their were some very good comments given. I really like the sister talked about how if everybody in the world worthy held a temple recommend how the whole world would be a better place. She said wives would not weep, children would not shed tears and their would be no room for misery. I really like that line because I find it to be so true. As the scriptures say "wickedness never was happiness" the blessings that come through attending the temple far out way the misery and temporal joy that Satan thinks he can bring to us. I wish I could not go two years without attending the temple. Seven months seems long enough. In the last zone conference we were talking about temples and the only ones that were answering the questions were the greenies that just came out. The temple president (I think he was the president) made a very powerful comment that really hit me. He said "salvation is a personal matter, exaltation is a family matter." he talked about how the temple is the only place and where the only men hold the keys to seal families for all eternity. What a great blessing that is! To know that we can all live together in the life to come where the greatest happiness is. President Redhair of the mission presidency also spoke. To be honest I had no clue as to who he was untill this past weekend. But, he spoke on preach my gospel. He said every family should have a preach my gospel in their home, and should not only read but study chapters 8 and 13. I really liked his talk, he talked to the members about their role in missionary work. He said to many times we see new converts become converted to a missionary and when they bring them to church member don't welcome them or befriend them. then when the missionary leaves so does the new member. that is true all to often that happens. He gave some ideas on what to do as a member. So I challenge you all to take that challenge if you don't have a preach my gospel get one, and then study it. It is Preach my Gospel. We all have that responsibility, not just the full time missionaries.

We had another really good week of missionary work here in Crownpoint as well. We found four new investigators this week. We knocked into a family that is really nice. Their last name is Sam, and they are awesome. They have a son who's ten years old. He rides steers, and seems to be pretty good just before we met them he broke his arm but won some money. After he got off the steer steped on his arm and broke it, but he must have got some money because he had just bought some chaps and they were pretty nice. we are excited to work with them. They were all very excepting and understanding. Their is a little word of wisdom issue but nothing that the spirit won't be able to take care of.

It is hard to believe that this is week 6 of the transfer already. From the sounds of things, I might be getting transfered or we will both be staying. I hope we both stay. We are making such good progress and I really want to see some of these people progress. This week we set a date for the 22 with a really awesom investigator. Her name is Corletta and she is ready to be baptized today. We are excited for that. Then we have a baptisim this week for a little girl named Jalin. So the work is definatly picking up and we are so excited to see it. Our work is paying off.

  Well I better get going. I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Schmidt

 

Baptism of Sister Cowboy September 2011

 

Happy Labor Day!

Well this will be short. The library is closed so this very nice member let us use their computer but elder nielson already emailed for over an hour so i feel bad taking to much time.

however we did have a pretty awesome week here in Crownpoint! We did baptize Candace on Friday! It was a really good day and we were so excited to see her finally step into the waters of baptisim. She asked me to baptize her so that was really neat as well. We have a baptism next week as well, but it is for a child of record, a little girl named Jalin. So we are excited to finally have the font getting wet here in Crownpoint. We didn't know how to set up for a baptisim so it took a couple of times of rearranging things anf figuring out to get it all set up the right way. We also found out that the font leaks pretty fast. We had filled it up and then when we were about to start we looked and almost half of it had drained out, so we had to turn it back on for a little while before we started the service. So it was a good experience, and now we know for the future!

We had another good attendance at sacrament meeting this week. We had two investigators their. Corletta thompson and Lawanda came. Corletta brough her sister who we had not been meeting with and Lawanda brought her two daughters. It was nice to see them excited to feel the spirit and want to share it even more with their family. This week we will be setting dates with the both of them so we are excited! We also found two new investigators this week as well. They seeem really interested and understand alot. One is a man named Myron who is the husband of a lady we met a couple weeks ago but he has never been home, so know we are setting times where we can meet with the both of them.

Well i have more to say but i better get going. Everybody have a wonderful weel! I love you all! I will write more later!

Love,

elder schmidt