Yaateeh my family!

That transfer went by way to quickly! It does not see, like i have been here in Blanding for six weeks already. I guess time flies when you are working hard. I am staying here and so is Elder Nelson. we are working with some really good people right now and should be setting a couple of baptism dates this week. We are excited for that because it has been a couple of months since their have been any baptisms here in this area. We were really progressing with some investigators but then we had some set backs and it was really just bringing us down and we were beginning to wonder what was wrong. But, the past couple of weeks we have found some really awesome investigators. We were talking with one of our assistant ward mission leaders yesterday and he was telling us how on his mission he found that if you just continue to work real hard these awesome investigators will just come to you. I believe that to be really true. We have some we are working with that are slowly progressing and some that are just really grabbing a hold of the message and progressing rather quickly.

So mom that guy who called you on Saturday, his name is Kelly. He is one of our really solid investigators but has a long ways to go. He is a smoker but he has really come a long way with it. We have a goal to have him quit by the 25 of November, so we are taking steps to obtain that goal. He is set on it so we are really trying to get that done. He not only wants to do it because it is a commandment but he really needs to for his health as well. Just a side note he only has one eye and no teeth, he is proud of it too. He is a really good guy and really wants to do what is right, so we are working really hard to get him baptized. I am going to do it! He also has to get married to the lady he lives with, who is a member but is extremely stubborn. But before we can get them married we have to get them both divorced. So it is a big challenge but were working hard to over come them. Last night we were over visiting them and they got a call from her son who was over at her parents who live just next door. I guess her dad is having health problems and fainted and hit his head really hard so we went down to help them out and they asked us to give him a blessing. I love being able to exercise the power of God and being worthy to bring his blessings to his children. They took him to the hosiptal so hopefully he is ok.

So we got a text from the zone leaders today informing us that we have to be in by 7 tonight. That doesn't leave much room for doing much since on P-day we are suppose to be out at 6. So it should be a fun night i guess. We were going to go to the other elders house but they are leaving because one of them is getting transfered so hopefully we can find something to do.

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all! Be safe and be smart!

Have a wonderful HALLOWEEN!!

Love,

Elder Schmidt

Hello everybody!

I can't believe it is the last week of the transfer. Time has absolutely flown by it does not seem like I have been here in Blanding for nearly six weeks already. We have had some great success and some upsetting set backs. But our obedience and hard work is seeming to pay off. This week we found two new investigators that are just awesome. One is an 18 year old girl that is living with her aunt and uncle here. We thought she was already a member because she goes to church every week, but we found out that her dad for some reason or another does not like the church; ever though he is a member. She told us I'm 18 now so i can do it if I want. So we are excited she will be baptized in no time. The other is a man named Colemen. He was actually at one of our dinner appointments and asked us if we could come over and teach him. So we gladly accepted and had a really good lesson with him. We actually have a lesson with him this morning, so we are enjoying some success here. We also found out that one of our investigators who the missionary's have been working with for a long time asked somebody to baptize him. We were so excited to find that out because we didn't get to meet with him this week because he has been sick.

This week we went on exchanges with the zone leaders. It was a little different so it wasn't really like exchanges. The zone leaders are in Cortez which is about and hour and a half away from here so they both just stayed and one went with us and the other went with the other elders. So Elder Sharp came with us. It was kind of fun to spend a couple days with him and talk about Window Rock and the people we worked with there and share stories. He was excited because we went down to the rez on Thursday and he hasn't been able to serve their since he left Window Rock. I sure do miss the rez too. Everybody here thinks that I am crazy because I want to go back, but I love it there. And it is hard to tell the people why I miss it so much because it's something that they can't understand. I love the native people and working with them. That's something I couldn't understand until I experienced it for my self. All my life I have grown up listening to people talk about coming to love the people. I always wondered what people meant by that and said to myself that wasn't possible, but now I know! I truly love the Native people and sharing the gospel with them! We had a pretty neat experience this week. We are working with a Navajo girl that is living with some members here because she got kicked out of her house. It;s kind of a sad situation. But she has grown up traditional and with no real belief in God or Jesus Christ. So we have to take things real slow with her. So when we began to talk about the Book of Mormon I asked her where her people came from. She kind of gave me an answer but wasn't too positive. So as we asked her to read the introduction page of the Book of Mormon I asked her to pick something that really stands out to her. When she finished she immediately said we are descendants of the Laminates and this is a record of them. It was so neat to see her make that connection and be excited about it. She thought it was so cool. In our next appointment with her we asked what she had remembered. She remembered everything about that and about the Priesthood and Joseph Smith. It was really awesome to see the spirit work and teach her, and take those things to her memory when she has had no real religious background.

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

Love,

Elder Schmidt

Hello my loved ones!

How has every body's week been? I hope it was wonderful! We had a pretty good week here in Blanding. It seems like they could always be better, but when we step back and look at it it could always be worse. So I like to look at the bright side and count our blessings and just think how wonderful it has been. We had a very good zone training meeting on Thursday. It was is Durango which is about 2 and a half hours away from here. So we drove to the zone leaders in Cortez on Wednesday night so we didn't have so much driving Thursday morning. It was a very good meeting. President Jones primarily talked on the Ward Mission Process. It was really good to have him present it to us; especially since he has worked with the quorum of the twelve and had a little more in depth understanding about it. It is amazing and I love having a mission President that has been a general authority before. He shares some amazing stories and experiences from meeting's that he has had with the First Presidency and with the apostles. It is amazing. But, back to the ward mission process. It is something that is so effective if understood and used properly. From what I learned I don't think everybody has the complete understanding of it. I haven't been able to really use it in the other area's on my mission because we didn't even have a ward mission leader. But, in this area it could be used so effectively. Everybody thinks that everybody is members but there are a lot that are not but we rely on the members to find them because it is hard to do by knocking doors. Just like Elder Holland has said the most effective way of finding is through referrals and not knocking doors. So it is something that we as missionaries have discussed and next week in our stake correlation meeting we want to talk about it. But it was a very nice meeting. I had never been to Durango, but to put it in your words dad "it was beautiful!" At this time of the year with all the trees changing colors and being up in the mountain's it was beautiful. I'm glad I wasn't the one driving.

Well tomorrow we are moving out of where we are living. We are moving into a three bedroom three bathroom house by ourselves. It is a pretty unique situation. It is a less active lady that is letting us stay in the house that she has, and all we have to pay is utilities. We meet with her on Saturday and she was going to get keys made and then she was going to drop them off to the lady that we are currently living with. We weren't there but Sister Langston, the lady we live with right now, told us about the visit that they had with each other. Sister Langston told her about how she came to have the elders stay with her and how it was at a very hard time in life when she really needed something and the Lord sent the elders to live with her and now it has been going on for almost five years. It is similar with sister Bayless the lady who is letting us have the house. She hasn't been to church in years and is having a lot of trials right now. So the deal with letting us have the house is that we work with her and her son and get them re-activated. So we are so grateful for them and excited to get the back into church.

I am so glad to hear that you had the missionaries over to teach a lesson mom and dad. Their is no greater joy to a missionary then when members open up their doors and let people be taught in their home. It helps so much and it makes it easier for those people to come to church when they know somebody. They feel more comfortable and have someone to fellowship them. President Hinkley said one of the three most important things that every recent convert needs is a friend. Missionaries come and go but the members need to be there to support and befriend those that the missionaries are teaching. So keep it up!!! I challenge you all to invite somebody into your home this week and have the missionaries teach them! We all need to better fulfill our calling as member missionaries!

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all! Be safe and be smart!

Love,

Elder Trevor Schmidt

Yaateeh!

It seems like this transfer is just flying by!!! It does not seem like we are already half way through the transfer. I guess that is what hard work does to you. It makes the time fly by!!!! We are working hard but we wish we could have had more success this week. It was kind of a bummer week for us. We were suppose to have three baptisms this week but they moved out of our area and into the other elders area. Then we had another investigator move into their area as well. The real upsetting part is that the three investigators was a mom and her two kids and they moved into the mom's boyfriends house. So that was a real set back so they won't be getting baptized this week. We did set another date this week for down on the rez. It is a boy named Michael he is really awesome. We found him by knocking doors a last week and found out he had been meeting with missionaries before. So we are excited to work with him. We have some other people we are working with down there that we will probably set a date for the same day as him. So the work is still going forward even though sometimes it seems like you get really set back. We wish we could spend more time down there because their is a lot of work to be done, but it takes about an hour to get there. So we don't have the time or the miles to get there as often as we would like.
This week we have a zone training meeting. It should be really good. I always learn lots from them and try to apply them into our work. It really frustrates me when i hear other Elders say that can't stand them or the view them as useless. They are so beneficial, and there is always so much that we need to learn. Sometimes it seems like repetition, but that must be because it is important and we need to progress in that area! So I look forward to what it is President Jones has to say to us this week.
Well last night we drove into Cortez for P-day. The zone leaders decided that they wanted to have a zone activity since we haven't had one yet. Elder Sharp is my zone leader now so it is kind of fun to get to talk with him again. I'm not sure what we are planning on doing but it should be fun there are 10 companionship's in the zone.
Well I hope you all have a wonderful week! I pray for you all! Be safe and be smart I love you!

Love,
Elder Schmidt

Wonderful Weekend!!!

Yaateeh everybody!

What a wonderful week we had here in Blanding! We were so busy, it was amazing. Their is a lot of work going on but a lot more to be done. We set three baptism dates this week for the 15! It is a mom and her two kids. Their name's are Geri, and here kids Vance and Marissa Paulson. Geri has taken the lessons twice before but was unable to get baptized because she was on probation. Now she is off so we are so excited to work toward the 15! We are very excited to finally get the baptism's going again. In our interview with president last week he expressed his feeling's of wanting us baptizing every week. So hopefully we can begin to get back on track.

So I don't know about all of you but conference was amazing! I loved it so much! It seemed like there was a lot of focus on missionary work, which I loved along with the talks about the Book of Mormon! My top two favorite talks were Elder Callister's talk on the Book of Mormon on Sunday morning and like always Elder Holland's talk on missionary work and preparing during the Priesthood Session. Those were such wonderful talks that everybody in the world needs to hear! If that were to happen what a wonderful world we would live in. I also really enjoyed Elder Packer's talk on Saturday. Those were probably my top one's but the entire conference as a whole was extremely good. I loved it! It was such a nice was to spend my birthday! It is weird I do not feel like I am 20! But I could not think of a better way to spend the day then being spiritually fed by the words of our prophets and apostles. It was a spiritual feast! We went to dinner with the less active family that I told you about and they made some really good Samoan food. We actually watched the last session of conference with them as well, and they have a big theater room with a projection screen and lazy-boys it was rather relaxing... We watched Sunday morning with one of or investigators which was really good. On Saturday we watched the first session with the lady that we live with then went to the stake center to watch the afternoon session.

Man I am spoiled. I got Lot's of packages with lots of food to share with my companions. their is four of us that live together but we are looking for another place to live. But we will work it all off, we work out in the morning's with a member that is a professional UFC fighter. So he tends to think we are paying him sometimes and comes up with some ridiculous work out's!

Well thank you everybody for everything! I love you all so much and pray for you every day! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Schmidt