A Wonderful Week!

Hello Everybody!

i hope you all had a wonderful week, and a fantastic Thanksgiving! I know we did here in Blanding! Thanksgiving sure was a good day for us, except for the fact that we told everybody we would come over to eat so we ended up eating three Thanksgiving dinners that day! We were stuffed by the end of the day. then sister Langston wanted us to come over for pie so we ended up finishing then night off with more pie. I don't think I have ever eaten so much pie in a single day. But it was really good. We are so grateful for all the people that feed us and take care of us. We get well taken care of here in Blanding.

So we have a Baptism coming up this week! We are really excited about it, because we haven't had one here in Blanding yet. It is down on the rez. for a girl named Adrianna. Their family is pretty awesome. It is one of those situations where she really should have been baptised a long time ago but because their was only one set of missionaries for the entire county they couldn't get down there and teach. So since they now have two sets of elders here we are able to make it down there once a week. Our teaching pool is getting pretty big down there now. We are getting to the point where we need to go on splits down there in order to see everybody the day that we are there. We are excited about that because it is showing how the branch is getting involved in the work. We are hoping that this or the next transfer we will get a set of elders to cover the Montezuma Creek branch and the bluff branch don on the rez. We are also hoping that in the near future Mexican Hat will get a set of Elders because they haven't had any in a long time and the other elders up here cover it and don't have the time to go down there. They haven't been down there in at least five months. We are getting a lot more missionaries, in the next two transfers we are getting nine more companionship's meaning that nine new areas will be opened. So we are hoping that we get some more here in Utah! But our goal between the other elders and us is to have a baptism every week to the end of the year. We got started two weeks ago. The past two weeks that other elders have had baptisms and this week we do. And then the weeks that they don't have any planned we do. So we are praying that we will be able to accomplish that goal. President wants us to baptise every week, so that what we are going for. It seems like we get so much pressure sometimes to baptise sometimes that the people that are getting baptised are not ready. I think that's my problem I want to make sure they are converted and are going to continue in the faith rather then getting them baptised to baptise them and hoping things work out. But we are getting on it so we are excited for that.

This week we have zone conference so that will be exciting. It is going to be in Durango again, so that means we will have to leave Wednesday night to go to Cortez and spend the night with the ZL's. Which is unfortunate because our nights are when we are the busiest, but nit is good to get the training. We are having to go on splits at least two nights a week here in Blanding and then when we are down in M.C. which is good for a few reasons. The work is moving forward and we are busy and it gets the people from the wards out seeing who we are working with so their is someone else to fellowship them when they come to church.

This week we found and awesome new investigator. His name is Sean Murphy. He has grown up here in Blanding and Monticello but his whole family is non-members. He said his family were the ones to have a binders full of anti stuff and that they would just bash with the missionaries. He told us we deserve more respect then that ans he has already made up his mind and he wants to be baptised. He already new that he needs to quit smoking and drinking coffee and has already stoped doing that, so it is pretty awesome. We are excited to have found him. It helps that his wife is a member but has been really less active for a long time. But they made up their mind that they want a better life and know where to find it. So they are doing what they know to be best. Let me tell you they chose a pretty good path to go down. They are just an awesome family though.

We had a pretty neat experience last night. We had an appointment with this less active family that we are working with. We got their and only the dad and mom where in the room talking with us. We were bummed because we wanted to meet with one of their daughters and her boy friend who lost a baby about four months ago and are havine a really hard time with it. So we were talking with the mom and dad when the boyfriend came in and just broke down and started balling. we didn't know what to do and so the dad kind of told us what was going on and how he was still having a hard time and that they had been getting in fights and it had been kind of rough. So the girl fiend came in and they asked for blessings. They asked me if I would do it and I gladly accepted. I can truly tell you those blessings came straight from Heavenly Father. I don't think I have have really had the spirit work in me like that for some time. I don't remember exactly what I said but I know what was said is what they needed to hear. It was amazing. I have not been in a lesson on my mission where so many tears were shed. It was a very spiritual experience.

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

Love,

Elder Schmidt

Blanding District

 Sister Langston's home we decorated for Christmas!

Elder Schmidt's Halloween pumpkin! 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Hello everybody!

So how was everybody's week? We had a pretty good week here in Blanding. We are making a lot of progress with some of the Less actives we are working with and with investigators. Their is two less active families inparticular tha we are working with that came to church and stayed for all three hours. It is truly amazing too see the Lord at work. They haven't really been to church in a long time. One family,, the Randals, have just really come a ong way the past few weeks. We got really worried about them because we heard from the mom's boss, who is a member we work with, that one of her close friends and co-workers was really throwing anti stuff at her. Then after we heard that they missed the appointment that we had, so then we really began to worry. Bt last week we stopped by and had a really good visit with them. They had had some things happen in life and were just kind of down so we shared some scriptures and just talked about what was going on and turning to the Lord. We went back a couple days later and the dad told us that he quit smoking and that by the end of next year he wants to take his family to the temple. Two suprisies to us. We didn't know he smoked, and he sat down and picked a date himself that he wanted to go to the temple. That was pretty awesome! They came to schurch and stayed for all three hours, which was amazing. We didn't get to go to priesthood with him because we had to teach the young men and women, but we talked to the ward mission leader after and it sounded like he just fealt really comfortable and the quorum welcomed him. So that was pretty awesome. The other family hasn't been to church since they moved here which was like two years ago. We have been working with them for quit a while now and they are finally making some progress. We like going to see them because the dad is from Samoa and makes really good Samoan food. But they came to church and stayed for all three hours too. So it was really good.

We have a baptism coming up next week. It is a little girl who lives down on the rez in Aneth. It was suppose to be this week but we were unable to teach her a couple weeks ago so we need to teach her one more of the lessons. It stinks because we are only able to make it down to the rez only once a week. So we can't get all of the work done that we would like too. We are really pushing to get a set of missionaries down there because their is a lot of work to be done there. In January their will be nine new areas opened up because their are 18 extra missionaries coming in. So hopefully we can talk President into it. Sometimes it seems like everybody forgets about us out here in Utah. We are the farest north west corner of the mission. But the rez really could use its own set of missionaries.

It will be interesting to see how this week goes. It seems like a lot of people are going out of town, so the work could be kind of slow. It's not like anybody wants family to come here because their is nothing here. We here about it all the time, but the city won't let anything come here either. This place could really use a pizza place but the city won't let any kind of food place or anything in. But we do have quit a few people that have invited us over for Thanksgiving. I guess everybody that is staying has invited us over. They have a community dinner and i'm pretty sure we are going to stop by there because they have a lot of non-members that sow up to that. Then we are just going to have to stagger times so we stop by some when the are not eating. Well I hope you all keep in mind the true meaning of the season! I have so much to be thankful for. I am thankful for my loving family and all they do for me! I am thankful for this wonderful opportunity that I have to be serving the Lord! I have truly come closer to my Father in Heaven and his son Jesus. I am so thankful for this gospel and the joy and happiness that it brings into my life. I hope you all have a wonderful week and keep in mind the many things that we have to give thanks for. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Trevor Schmidt

Hello everybody!

Well it has been a wonderful week here in Blanding! We nare emailng a little early because we have a mission wide Temple day today. Everybody in the mission is going to the Temple. It is pretty awesome. We just found out about it last week. It is pretty exciting. Everybody in the mission will be going through in three sessions. So it will be pretty busy. It will be kind of fun to see some of the other Elders that I haven't been able to see in a while. So that is what we are doing for p-day today. It will be a wonderful day. There is no better place then the Temple.

So yesterday we had a missionary fireside for the stake with Brad Wilcox as a special guest speaker. I was asked to conduct which was a bit frightening because the entire stake center was full; all the way to the back of the gym. I have gotten better with my public speaking skills since I have been on my mission but not that public. It was good because we had such a great turn out but I wasn't to fond of speaking in front of that many people. To make matters worse us four elders had to sing a song, and well you can imagine how that went. Especially since one of the other two sings about like me. So i hope nobody went deaf. But over all I think it went well and Brad did a really good job. I had never heard of him untill we got to putting this on but apparently a lot of people do, and I think thats why we had so many people there.

It was a very good week of missionary work as well. We taught the most lessons I have ever taught in a week on my mission. We had to go on splits two nights which is so wonderful. We were suppose to go on splits down on the rez on thursday but the branch president waited untill that day to try and get someone, and everybody said it was too short of a notice. It was kind of dissapointing because we didn't get to see everybody that we wanted to, and I would have thaught that if people down ther would have had the opportunity to go out with the missionaries they would take advantage of it. So hopefully this week we can get that set up down there. But we are so thankful for those that did come out with us. We have some real amazing ward mission leaders and ward missionaries that are a huge help to us.

Well I better get going we don't want to be late. I hope you all have a wondefrful week. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Schmidt

Hello everybody!

Well the weather sure has changed here as well. It has been cold this past week, and has snowed the past couple of days. It sure turned rather quickly. As soon as we hit November it decided to get cold. It seems like over night the whole weather just changed, it is defiantly winter now.
We had a pretty cool experience this week. A couple of weeks ago we got a referral for a family but we were unable to find where they live. So we tried going back to the people that gave it to us but whenever we went over there they weren't home. So the other night we were at dinner with a family and asked them who we could go see and they gave us that same family. We told them how we had received their name but we couldn't find them. They were able to give us better directions so right after we got done with them we went to go and see if we could find them. We were able to find them with their directions, and it was pretty awesome the way things unfolded. The family we ate with told us it might be kind of hard to get in because the mom is kind of reserved , so they said just be patient with them. So we were expecting to just visit with them on the porch and set a time where we could come back. But that is not how it happened. They invited us right in. they are a very nice family they have three girls and then there is the mom and dad. So after we got in we figured we wouldn't be in very long, but we all started talking and getting to know each other. Then the next thing we know we had almost been there an hour and had to get going. The interesting thing was that we both felt that we shouldn't share a message or really talk about the gospel a whole lot just whatever they would bring up. But we found the real amazing part out two days later when we were at church. We talked to the family that gave us the referral and told them how it went. The dad told us that we should go talk to the bishop because he found something out. So we went and talked to the bishop and were really surprised at what he had "found out." We weren't sure if the dad was a member or not. But i guess that after we left there the dad went to the bishops house and told him how we had come and visited them. I guess it was just perfect the way things went. He told bishop that he wanted to get baptized and that we were welcome there any time. Bishop told us that it is just going to be one of those slow moving situation and not to push anything on them since the family is less active. Sometimes the Lord works in mysterious ways. We are excited to start working with them!
We set three baptism dates this week!! We are way excited about them because it has been way too long since there has been a baptism in this area. One is for the 26 of this month with a girl we are working with down on the rez. She is really awesome so we are excited for that. Then two are from one ward here in Blanding. One is for December 3 but we might have to push that one back a week or two them the other is just before Christmas. She is living here with her aunt and uncle and could be baptized today but she wants her family to be here. So she will get baptized and that is what is awesome.
Well I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all! Stay safe!
Love,
Elder Schmidt