Hello everybody!

So yes I did get a new companion this week. his name is Elder Nielson. He has been out for five months and he is from Edmonton Canada. His dad is a doctor but had a hobby of horses. I guess it started out with 5 and has now grown to more then 120. So his hobby turned into a job for his kids. But anyways I am glad to have him as a companion. He really wants to work as do I. this week it seems like we did more work then all of last transfer combined, it is sad to say. But we are really enjoying the blessings of our hard work. This week we had three new investigators and have a whole bunch of potentials. Two of our new investigators actually came to us. They showed up to church so we talked to them for a little while and they stayed for sacrament and sunday school but had to leave because they had a baby at home they needed to get home to. They have four children that we are going to meet with as well. We are excited for the work that is going on now. When you work the work goes on.

Tomorrow we have Zone Conference. It seems like we just had zone conference. I guess it is going to be aq combined conference with the zone i used to be i, and it's going to be more like a training meeting. It should be fun to get to see some more of the elder's again. We might go to Gallup today and thn spend the night with the zone leaders because we don't have miles to go back and forth today and tomorrow.

Well it sounds like the beach house was fun again. Did anybody get hurt? We are so blessed to have a close family and be able to spend time together. Yesterday we were talking to one of the members here. She was saying how she didn't see either of her daughters for three years. One lives just in Farmington which is about an hour away from here, but they never had time to meet up. Don't take your family for granted. It is one of the greatest blessings Heavenly Father has given us!

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

Love,

Elder Schmidt

Yaateeh everybody!

Well first thing I am stying here in Crownpoint. I am glad! I have really come to love the people here and there is a lot of work that needs to be done. Elder Akaka is going to Durango, and I am getting Elder Nelson. I don't know anything about him but tomorrow is transfers so we will get to know eachother then. I am really starting to like Crownpoint their are a lot of really nice people here, and it is a nice area. Some of the things that we struggle with are some of the thing's that are a huge blesing as well. They are a very humble people. One thing that is difficult is they are just real easy going and real patient. The bad part about that is for some reason it is difficult to get them to church, but the good part is they are always willing to talk and to listen. I really like it because I like to just talk to people and get to know them and build their trust before we start teaching. Everybody around here is into rodeo and has animals so that is something that I can really connect with the people about. Crownpoint is the steer wrestling capital of the Navajo Nation. Some people have suggested wanting me to try it and get into it. So it is fun to connect with the people and get to know them in that way.

Thank you for all of the letters from the beach house! It sounds like you guys are having an amazing time. Dad last week you asked if sending the Pacific Showcase would make me home sick and I thought that hearing about the beach house would to,but it doesn't. I love it out here. I wish I could be there but this is where I need to be. I love my mission! I love the area! I love serving with the laminite people! I can truely say I have come to love them. It sounds like the beach is still the same fun place. It is really nice to just take some time and relax. It was so good to get a little note from everybody! Thank you very much for those, it was so good to hear from everybody and how you are doing. It sounds like you guys are having a blast! Be safe! No trips to the hospital:) Have a wonderful week! I love you all!

Love Elder Schmidt

a few pictures from the back of our trailer & a family we've met who live here in the summer and in Phoenix during the rest of the year

6 Months???

Yaateeh everybody!

I guess time really does fly when your having fun. It does not seem possible that I could already be 1/4 of the with my mission. We were talking about it last night with some members. It seems like just last week that I went into the MTC. It does not seem possible that these past six months are already over. I have heard that time only seems to go by faster and faster. I hope that is not entirely true. I hope I am serving the Lord to the best of my ability because I don't want to look back and regret anything.

Well this is the last week of the transfer. It is hard to believe! It seems like I just got here. Were pretty sure Elder Akaka is going to be transferred. he has been here for about five months, but you never know. We were suppose to have a baptism this week. By they didn't come to church yesterday so we have to push it back. It is so frustrating when it seems like you do all you can to help others come unto Christ but they don't keep their commitment's. I guess we really just have to evaluate ourselves and identify what we are doing wrong and how we can become better.

So the res. is broken up into, what they call agencies. I believe their are six of them, and Crownpoint is the head quarters of the Eastern Navajo Agency. So this week they had the Eastern Navajo Agency Fair and Rodeo going on. It seemed as if everyone put their life on old for a few days, it made work kind of slow this week. Everybody had their "cousin-brother's" or whoever staying with them or they were doing something in the fair. So it was hard to get into some doors. This should be a good week though.

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all! Take care!

Love,

Elder Schmidt

Yaateeh shi'qee (my family)

Well how was everyone's week? Our was pretty good here in wonderful Crownpoint! Last week I had to speak at that funeral. They had a man talk on the Plan of Salvation in Navajo so I had no clue what he said. They asked me to just give some words of encouragement, whatever that means. So I shared a scripture from Alma chapter 40 that talks about the spirit word, and how one day we will all be reunited. I hope I didn't repeat anything that the man said. For the part about comforting and encouragment I just talked about how we have memories and we should cherish them and remember those that past on, but be comforted to know we will see them again. Speaking of funerals, we had dinner with some members the other night then on Saturday night the branch President called to ask us is we could speak. He old us that the daughter-in-law of the poeple we ate with, she was actually their and ate with us got in a car accident and passed away. We couldn't believe it we had just eaten dinner with this lady and now she was gone. It just goes to show youi never know what will happen and something takes you life, so are you living everyday so that you can return to live with Hevenly Father?

We had Zone Conference this past week. It was really good. President Jones came and interviewed us here on Wednesday then the conference was in Gallup on Thursday. We had a good interview he talked to me about how I can help my companion. I have coe to find out that the Polynesian people are kind of slow moving. He also told me he looked up where I live on the internet. He said he wanted to see where I raised my animals at. We talked about the animals and I told him how that was one thing I miss about home, but I was like they will be there when I get back. He jokeingly said he didn't feel bad because he has been waiting 17 years to get back to his animals. When he was called to the seventy he had to walk away from it. But our conferene was really good. We talked alot about finding. Which is something that we really need to work on so it was really good. We compared our mission numbers to the other southwest mission's and the rest of the missions in the United States. We were alot better in some and a lot worse in others.

Dad you asked about any Pioneer celebrations. Their are not any here in Crownpoint, but there is a big one down in Ramah which is near the Zuni reservation. They have a rodeo and big parade and everything. Then their is another one down by Grants but not here.

Well I hope you all have a wonderful week! Take care! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Schmidt

Yaateeh,

Well it has been a pretty quick week! Sorry i am emailing so late. We had to be at a funeral this morning and then had to go and dedicate the grave , so they wanted us to eat lunch as well. It took a really long time because they didn't have a backhoe so they had to use shovels to bury the guy. It took awhile. The lady that was kind of putting the funeral service together came to church yesterday and asked if one of us could speak. Elder Akaka didn't really want to so I told them I would. It was kind of weird not knowing anybody and not knowing what to talk on. She just told me to talk for like ten minutes. I hope I did a good job and brought some comfort to the family.

We had a pretty good week but still a lot of progress to be made. There is like 1100 names on the branch list. It is good to see some of the people we are working with come to church. We had one of our investigators their, which made us really happy because we were told she was in Albuquerque. So we should have a baptism coming up. So we are excited about that!

We have Zone Conference this week. I am excited what President has to talk to us about this time and what we need to improve on. President Jones is stopping here on his way down for interviews. We have them on Wednesday morning. It should be a good week!

I hope you all have a wonderful week. I love you all! Talk to you soon!

Love,

Elder Schmidt

Hello everybody,

Well this week seemed to go by pretty fast. It seems like it was just the 4th, but it was a pretty good week. We went around and I got to know a lot more of our investigators and see more of our area. This area is a lot bigger then my last area. There are some people that literally live in the middle of now where. It takes quite some time to get out to see them, so we don't get to see them as often as we would like. There was a lot more people at church yesterday. We meet in a pretty nice building for having such a small branch. We still have the same problems here as we did in my last area. We are suppose to have a baptism coming up but people are not coming to church. We have a lot of work to do with people to get their perceived value of church up, and why church is so important. These people come up with every excuses you could think of for not coming, but their is no excuse for putting off God. The Branch list is 40 pages long of names and we only get about 40 people per week coming to church, so their is a lot of work to be done. Elder Akaka and I get along really well;; we have fun together and work really good as a companionship. Sometimes I just need to get him more excited and out working. He has been here for about 4 1/2 months now and is kind of slacking, but the work needs to be done. In the words of President Jones "knock their door until they are baptized." If you have knocked it once knock it again. That is something I'm trying to help him understand.

Today we are going into Gallup for a zone activity. Most of the zone usually gets together in Gallup on P-day's but we are so far out here we don't have enough miles to go every week. I was closer to Gallup in my last area then i am now. We are just over an hour away and in my last area we were about twenty minutes. We are going to play basketball and games. It will be good to get to know some more Elders, and we have sisters in our zone.

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

Love,

Elder Schmidt

Happy Fourth of July!

Hello Everybody!!!

Well Crownpoint is much smaller then St. Michaels and Window Rock. Yes Natalie it is very brown, not to many people. However, there is still a lot of work to be done because when Sacrament started yesterday there was only like ten people there, and that was including us and the branch President. More people did show up after we started but not everybody in town that is for sure. Most of the people here have been baptized at some point in their life but have fallen away for one reason or another. it is pretty common with these people. Yesterday in Priesthood we were talking with one of the counselors in the Branch Presidency and he was telling us about his conversion and some of the things that he thinks need to be talked about with the people to get them back to church. It was really good it gave me some ideas on things we need to talk to people about. It was really good to get the perspective of someone like that.

I didn't want to leave St. Michaels but this is where the Lord has called me to serve so I will go forward faithfully and serve the best I can. I guess I must be doing something right because there were many members that said they were sad to see me leave and Joanne even cried when we went to say good bye to her. I hope she continues. I was really worried to leave the area because Elder Smith had a real hard time remembering people and where they live, so I am keeping in touch with them to make sure he is still going to see certain people. Elder Akaka has been out less time then I have. We get along pretty good. He is kind of shy as well but we work well together. I was ready for a new companion. We are going to work hard together.

Well I better get going. I hope you all have a wonderful week. I love you all. Have a happy fourth of july!!! We are going to have a bbq with some members and they have some fireworks so we can watch.

Love,

Elder Schmidt