Week Four

Hola familia!

Oh boy, what a week! Usually here, when I get to this point in PDay, I feel like I don't have a single thing to say! But this time... this time is different, so prepare yourself! ;)

So last week I told about how I had that musical number coming up, and I was kinda scared. It got worse the closer I got, because mis maestros simply would not let me practice! "If it's not on the schedule, then it's not happening," they told me! And so I had to shave time off my meals to go to the only building in this place, with any pianos, and basically had a couple minutes to play through the music once. Basically, Sunday night came, and it was my turn to go and do my thing, I was relying on 25 minutes of practice and the Spirit... I was scared. I was praying. A lot. But then I got up there, and I began playing, and I just lost my self in the song, but more importantly, the spirit of the song! If You Could Hie to Kolob is easily my favorite. And as I was playing, I just let all of my stress and worry just flow out of me, and focused solely on how I was feeling while playing. It was amazing! By the time I finished, I realized that it was the best I have ever played that piece! I didn't make any mistakes, but actually played it super well! My prayers were definitely answered! That is probably the time, out of all 5 (4) weeks that I've been here, that I have felt the spirit most! I definitely will not forget it. 

So there I am in my room later that night, basically just lounging in pure relief that I was done with that whole thing, when an Hermana walks in with some sheet music in her hand, and I just think to myself..."Uh oh...." Sure enough, she heads straight to me and begins to tell me that she loved the song, and she actually brought her violin with her, and wanted to do a duet with me of that same song, the Marshall McDonald version of Kolob! Of course I couldn't say no, there was no reason to, and everyone was right there staring me in the face. So I said yes, and she gives me the accompaniment version to the song. It was so different! There were no similarities in the right hand, and the left vaguely compared to my version! I started to freak out. Again. And so we audition two days later, and again I couldn't practice at all, so my audition also just so happened to be my first time running through it at all. So after we finish, the lady in charge, Hermana Eves, looks at me and asks if I believe I can be ready to play it by that night! And so I'm sitting there like "No way!!!", but oh lucky me, I had the girl there to answer for me! She says of course we can! So there I was, this basically brand new song in my hand, with a performance of sorts that night in front of several hundred kids my age and an area seventy......... I was stressed. Luckily though, I convinced my teachers to let me practice, and I got a bit more in. That night when we played it wasn't too bad. It wasn't like Sunday, though, and I felt really bad for the girl who asked me to play. She really wanted it to be perfect and I just couldn't. But oh well, people still say it sounded really good.

I don't really remember anything that happened on Monday or Wednesday, but I definitely remember Thursday, and will always remember it! Thanksgiving was fantastic! So it started off as any other normal day here, with morning classes and whatnot, until 10:30. We then went to a devotional that was broadcasted live from the Provo MTC. Niel L. Anderson spoke to us and talked about Thanksgiving and everything, and it was a super good talk! (He also sufficiently rubbed it in that he would be playing and watching football while we were not...). But after that we had a few more  classes and then lunch. Lunch was AMAZING!!! Imagine eating stuff that never tastes better than mediocre while simultaniously destroying your entire digestive tract, and going straight from that to an authentic, well made, all-American, delicious turkey Thanksgiving meal!!! I think I started to cry, to be perfectly honest! They even had root beer!!!! It tasted like Shasta brand, but it was root beer!!! There was Turkey (actually really well cooked, and obviously not sitting in the bottom of a deep freeze for a couple years (I'm looking at you mom), they had mashed potatoes (more like liquified, but still tasted good), they had corn on the cob (delicious), rolls (kinda weird, but i'll explain later), and actually ice cream and apple pie!!!! Like, what?!?! I was so happy! The rolls, though, were super strange. Somehow, they were able to inject butter into the rolls. Like, there weren't any holes where the butter could've gotten in. And it was not spread out, either. There was just a random massive chunk of straight butter just chilling in the middle of the roll. So we ate with caution, but once you found it and took it out, the rolls were perfect. 

Thanksgiving feast: Before

Thanksgiving feast: After

So after the awesome lunch we were lucky enough to have gym time right then! The night before, we grabbed a roll of toilet paper, and bought some clear tape and wrapped it all up. We drew some laces on it and BOOM, football! We had our official turkey bowl (Or toilet bowl, depending on how you wanted to look at it) during gym time that day! It was so fun! One of my roomies is actually a really good QB and was looking at Division 1 schools before coming here, and so he could place it real well, and it was just super fun! After a while, some guys came out who had an actual football, and so we joined with them! It's actually a rule though not to play football, I guess, and so some guy came and took it away... but we just whipped out our toilet paper and kept going! (Yo sé, es pecado, pero... no nos importa!) (I know it's a sin...but we do not care!) The rest of the day we just retained that aura of just being happy, and it was great! Thanksgiving was awesome! At the end of the night, though, my district decided to do something special. We invited the rest of our zone, and everyone else in the building there with us, to come into our room and have a "potluck feast". Everyone brought food, be it from the tienda (store), or from packages we received from home. It was a legit feast of just crap food. This time I'm sure I cried. Hahaha but we started off with a prayer (of course. We're not pecadores (sinners)) and with a "celebratory pop-off". Some kid got martinelli's from a package (take note, mom! ;)) and shook one up and popped off the lid! Haha it really looked like champagne! He stuck it in his mouth, chugged the bottle, and we began to dig in!!! It was the perfect way to end the day! We also had a devotional of sorts, and I took your advice, mom! I told everyone what we did at home every night before family prayer, and we went around and all said one thing we're grateful for! We did kind of have to do it quickly though, and say a one word answer, because there were at least 60 to 70 of us, but it was definitely awesome!

The potluck feast

Distrito 12-C

But that's been my week, basically. It was a great week! Definitely better than last week. I was so glad to read your email mom! And all your letters! Yes, I did get them! The letters which you sent a while ago finally got to me! But this was after they went first to another district... some kids in district 15 came up to me and told asked me if my family found a turkey at the bottom of their freezer, and so I was like, what the crap, how do you know that? Apparently, once they saw "Elder Schmid" at the top of the letter, they decided to read the letter out loud because I guess you guys are funny writers! They were laughing pretty hard! But I eventually got all the letters and packages! It made Thanksgiving that much better! I think one of the problems was the mail lady took a day off. And so everything was super backed up and she had to catch up. But she did. :) Thanksgiving sounds like it went well up there in AZ! I'm sad I couldn't be there, but I'd probably be kicked out of my room and bed anyways because of Caelan and Lydia, so oh well! 

Todos les amo!!! 

Elder Schmid

(Next week, Elder Schmid's p-day is on Wednesday, November 30, if you would like to get an email to him)

These are my roomies.  On the bed is Elder Hickson and Elder Call is on the chair

Drew this when I was bored :)

This is what my desk pretty much looks like every day.
It's what my life has been for the past four weeks.