Elder Trevor Schmidt: 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