Well, sounds like a lot is happening back home! Yeah, it really surprises me when people have a responsibility, like a calling to work in the temple, and then just don't show up, and don't inform anyone or get a replacement. That actually happened this week in church. But I'll explain later. I didn't know Abbey wanted to serve a mission? But awesome! It sounded like she gave a really good talk! Sorry I missed it. Oh well. Haha Stephen always made me laugh with random things he said. But that's funny. And dang, I'm super jealous! Just talking about the Bradford's food makes me hungry, even though I just ate! But oh well...Jared has his release date?!? That is so crazy!!! I still remember the day he left! Sounds like he will be released on the same day. That's cool! Exactly two years! I'm not sure if I will get that. And what?! Daniel extended his mission?! That's really weird... but cool! Maybe Braden will too, and we'll get home at the same time! ;) I'm sure Darian's concert was really good! I do miss doing those concerts! I wonder where Darian will go with her Viola talent. She is super good, and it seems like a waste to just have it during high school... don't want her to end up like dad, now do we? ;)
Anyways, this week was pretty crazy, in regards to the work. Or rather, the amount of work we did. I guess we start Monday. PDAy was pretty great, because we went to the beach.
But then we got to work that night and just decided to start the week off by hitting it hard! So we did, and went crazy with talking to people and what not.
The next day I had an inter-cambio with another elder in Alto Hospicio. (sorry if i don't use caps. the shift key is sticky.) but anyways, we had 3 members lined up to leave with us that day, which never happens, so i was super excited! the mission standard for lessons with a member present is 14 a week, and we have yet to get that. so i decided to just milk these members for all their worth haha! we talked to everyone!!! it was awesome! and super super tiring, too. but we had several lessons, several news, and several baptismal dates lined up. then, the next day, we were in pica, which is always super super slow, but we got to teach a lesson there, and a less active member was there, which is still a member, so that was cool. but the night was kinda crazy because we had several things to do. then thursday we had another inter-cambio, this time with our zone leaders. I was with elder Lozano, a Peruvian. He is just insane. He legit talks to every person immediately about baptism. We had several more lessons with members, and several more dates! and lots of new invesigators. On friday, we had a little zone training in Alto Hospicio.
There, the assistants called us for our transfers, and we ended up just putting them on speaker phone so that everyone can hear. I am going tooooo... drum role please.... stay. I am going to stay here. Again. With Elder Barney. But that's ok, I guess. I was kind of bummed to hear that I still wasn't going to be transferred out of my first area, but that's ok. Elder Barney is still super awesome, and we are going to have success. And besides, if I preach here, or somewhere else, it's honestly all the same. The work is the same. But then we went back and just hit it hard again at work, meeting new people and what not for the rest of the week! Saturday was insane, and we worked a lot more than usual. But we went to visit everyone we knew and had dates for baptism with to invite them to church. It was a crazy amount of people and lessons, and we scored a lot more with members, too. And at the end of it all, we were excited to see what happened sunday.
Then Sunday came. We get up in the morning and get ready for church and everything, and leave to wake a few people up. We call a lot of people to wake them up too and see if they're still going to church. A lot didn't answer, but a lot also said that they were going to go, so I was excited. The mission standard is to have 6 investigators in church. So we go to the chapel to set everything up, and wait for some members that were going to help us pick people up. I left with Ivan, our branch secretary. We go to the investigators, and they open the door, and he's still in his pj's! Without a shirt! I'm like, 'Uhhh, are you guys coming to church?' Keep in mind, we had already called and they had told us that they were ready. He told me that they needed to shower first, but church at this point was in 15 minutes, and they live super far without a car! But he told me he was going to come, and so I left them to shower. Everyone else we went by did not open the door. We get to church, and there was basically nobody there. Not even the members! Church started, and there were only 20 people in church! We had two investigators show up. We had 17 tell us the day before that they were going. I was a little frustrateded, to say the least. A few more members wandered in through the meeting, but no more investigators. By the end, there were only 38 people in church in Pozo. 7 of which were our recent converts and investigators. That was frustrating. What's more, the teachers didn't show up, nor did they call anyone to replace them. We had to teach the sunday school class, and the primary, which technically was not allowed, but there was nobody else who could. The rest of the day kind of followed suit. We wandered around all day basically without teaching. It was a stressful day. Honestly the worst day I've had out here in terms of work, and one of the worst in terms of stress. It was definitely a lesson to me, though. We had our best day on my mission, and the very next day, my worst. But that's ok, because no matter what happens, the next day is brand new, and you just need to make the best of it.
But today, we were watching the other elders write here in the ciber, and they were on the website, the mission blog, and we saw the picture with the missionaries with the highest standards, or in other words, with the most success, and guess who was in place number one!!! That's right!! This guy!!! Elder Barney and I had the highest standards of the mission!
It was super awesome to see! Last night, Elder Barney and I were talking about how good the week was and how much success we had, and we were getting a little prideful. But then we came to the realization that all of that came from God. What we put in, that comes from us. What we get out of it, that comes from God. He gave us the success, the good feelings, everything, and all of it because we put in our best. Lesson=learned. But still, it felt really good to see our faces up there on the blog.
But that was my week. I know I wrote more narratively than spiritually, but oh well. Deal with it! ;) I am glad you are all having a good week! I love hearing all the good news!!! I'm uploading photos now! Take care everyone!
Les amo a todos!
Elder Schmid
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