Week 53

Hola familia!!!

Dang, that's the second ward halloween party I missed! You know what that means? I won't be missing no more!!! Hehehehe wow that was a really trunky sentence! But anyways, dang! That looks so awesome! It's interesting that the tradition changed from Windsor to the church, but I think that's a good change! It makes it more of a ward activity... but that might just be my standpoint because I'm on a mission. You guys celebrated by doing all my favorite things?! Not fair! And don't talk to me about "Stranger Things"!!!

Anyways, this week was pretty normal. The biggest things that happened are the conference, the interviews, and Sunday,  so I guess I'll write about those!

Tuesday, all day we had our monthly conference with President! It was a very awesome conference. It was a bit different than normal. Usually, pres teaches us about something from Preach My Gospel, going into depth and changing our views of it a little, and helping us see how to use it to help us baptize. This conference was a little different. He starts by bearing his testimony of what it means to be a missionary who ''Fears no Man!'' Apparently, President Ferreira read the Ricciardi Letter. But it was a very profound testimony of what we can accomplish as missionaries, here in the north of Chile, if we adapted that attitude, and lost our fear! He then told us that he has received revelation, that his vision for this mission, and for every companionship, has changed. Before his goal for a companionship is that they baptized every month. Now, he wants us to baptize weekly! He says that with the tools that he is giving us, and with our testimonies, and with a better vision, we can accomplish this goal. He is expecting an example of all of his leaders. It was, to say the least, a very animated conference!! But it was great to learn from him, and to meet up with all the other missionaries too! I saw Elder Blanco again! He misses me haha, he misses the time when he didn't have to lead! I do too!

Thursday after, we had interviews with President. It was a very nerve-wracking day! I was thinking all day of what we were going to talk about. I had several things I wanted to talk with him about, several things with which I was stressing a lot, and I wanted his help with a lot of things. So I was occupied in my mind all day Thursday haha! Our interviews were set up for the same time as alwyas, 4:00 pm, which is right after his lunch. So he was late as usual hahaha. Elder Aparicio went first, and his interview was a bit longer than the allotted 10 minutes that we usually get. I was expecting it. He seems a little stressed out. I'm trying to help him out, but there were just a lot of things that he needed to talk with president about. Not so much worthiness, more stress. But then it was my turn, and we begin talking, and he just goes off, and gives some long speech of his vision for this mission and for everything, which ended up taking a good 20 minutes!! And then I finally got to talk about what I wanted to talk about! And we ended up having a very long interview haha! I got out, and the rest of my zone had arrived and were waiting to go in, and they all looked at me as if I just told president I wanted to go home or something! Jaja it was a good interview, but I still felt like there were things left unsaid and was dissatisfied, but I don't know what things! Jaja it's weird, but oh well!

So, Sunday comes around and we have a ton of people invited to come to church, and I'm feeling good! Then we go around to get all of them, and all of them cancel on us! So that was depressing. but I refused to be in a bad attitude! It's very awesome when you can get over that obstacle of everyone rejecting you, and you get over that desanimo (discouragement) and the world just gets better! That happened Sunday on the way to church, when I knew that I tried my best, and so I didn't care if the results weren't too good! But then, as we were walking down the street and I was belting 'Praise to the Man' at the top of my lungs, some man walks over to us, and stops us, and asks me, ''Do you know where I can find a Christian church? I want to go hear the word of God!'' Haha I just went right on ahead and said, ''Follow us!'' And we sang hymns with a random man that we did not know on the way to church! His name was Ziko, and was technically not from my sector, but oh well! And he didn't just stay for the first hour! He was there the whole church! Not even our investigators do that their first time! But also, when I get there, I look over at Rodrigo and Maria Jose, my recent converts who are good friends, and they have some random other guy with them, another ym! So I went over and talked and apparently they just went over and decided to invite their friend to church and he came! It was so cool! And then three more investigators came, but they're children of a mom who wants nothing to do with us, so we can't really do anything there. But it was just awesome because I had a good attitude, and I feel like God was blessing my efforst!

But anyways, that's basically all that's going on! To answer your question, mom, I didn't really celebrate at all for my year... I burned a shirt, but that's pretty much it. Elder Aparicio and I don't get along. We had to talk because he is trying to punish me and correct me for almost breaking rules... or, breaking rules that he has made up to keep him from breaking actual rules. It's like, spirit of the law versus letter of the law. He thinks I'm chueco, I think he's a pharisee. It's just basically two different styles of missionary. I'm not saying he needs to change! I feel like having different types of missionaries like that improves our effectiveness. But... we don't fall well together. And yes. I am a boss baker! I make my own bread now! 

Anways, hope you all have an awesome week! Don't do too many things without me! Stop stressing, mom!

Les amo a todos!

Elder Schmid

YEAR MARK Week 52

Hola familia! 

Wow, so much stuff going down for Caelan's wedding! Doesn't really make sense to me, because y'all are gonna wait till I come back to get marreid, right?! Jaja but that's good you got stuff done. Scary how close that day is getting, huh? And dad sent me all the pictures of your trip for church history, and it seemed really awesome! And yeah, about your experience at Pete's, I have one of those every week haha! It's awful, and it usually ends in them yelling at us and throwing liquor at us, but hey, all part of the experience! 

I was thinking of whether or not I wanted to write about my year mark this week, or next week, but seeing as how everyone commented this week, I'll just do it! Wednesday, October 25, 2017 will mark one year from the day I said goodbye to my family, home, and life in the airport in Arizona and embarked on the mission! I can't belive this point is here! I want to say it came quickly, but.... jajaja it's been hard! I am very, very grateful, however, that I did it. I have learned so much this year, and am excited to learn a lot more in this coming year. I can tell how much I'm growing, even though I couldn't before. I know now the difference, and I'm anxious to keep molding myself more and more to a worthy servant of God! This is a new beginning, a new chance to change things and improve myself yet again. My testimony is as strong as it's ever been and gets stronger every day! Here's to one year down, and one year left (just one year) to give it all to God! 

Well, this week was kind of slow. We've been working a lot with several awesome people. One family is progressing rapidly, we call them the ''familia grande.'' It's the family I talked about last week, Cyntia, Kimberly, María, and Ricardo. They alll have different last names. But they've been reading, praying, and Cyntia and Kimberly came to church! So we've been trying to progress further with them, but we still have to tackle a few commandments that they have trouble with. Cyntia, it seems, might be feeding us this week, seeing as how we are need of a new mamíta. That explains the question you were asking, mom. That stuff I was cooking was a 'baked tuna roll' from the recipe book given to me by the familia Konuiszy. It looked like garbage, but it tasted really good! I didn't understand exactly what to do, so was experimenting a bit, and I'm sure Hermana Konuiszy wouldn't recognize the dish from her own cookbook, but hey, it all worked out fine! We are also working a lot with a less active named Gabriel and his non member family. He came to church, but his family was working. But they are coming along, a little slowly, but that's ok! 

Elder Aparicio and I are coming along great. We had a very heated companionship inventory, but that was a good thing. 'Better out than in, I always say!' As soon as it was done, I felt a lot better, and just needed to talk with him. We are coming along really well as companions, and working a lot better together. He still needs a little training in some places, but he is so much better off than I was at the end of two cambios! I am proud of him.

We had an inter-cambio with the President's assitants on Thursday. It was interesting. It was very clear the vision they want for us on the mission, and how I haven't been exactly keeping up with that vision. We are working a lot with the talk by Alvin Dyer called 'A Challenging and Testifying Missionary,' or something like that, we have the spanish version. It's basically about going out and testifying to everyone of Christ and our church, and challenging immediately to be baptized  We set 13 baptismal dates that day! The old standard for the week was 6. So, we're going to see where this new vision takes us! I was with my old zone leader, Elder Lozano, who is now the president's assistant... something that surprised me haha but he's doing great. Now I just need to fit myself to the vision of this mission and help my district do the same.

Well, this week was kinda boring haha, but that's it! Today we watched Shrek as a zone and went to some other pension to cook. But, this week we are going to have a conference with Pres, and it will be the first time I've seen him since 'the accident!' But I'm excited. We'll see what changes Pres has made this time! But anyways, love you all! Hope you have an amazing week! You best celebrate on Wednesday!

Les amo a todos!

Elder Schmid

Week 51

Hola hola hola! 

Wow, very eventful week for everyone! That's so awesome that you all got to travel! Aiden's comment made me laugh so hard!!! He has no idea! Send him to the Atacama desert! Alto Hospicio! He thinks Mexico is ugly! Hah! I am very very grateful for the beautiful state we live in! We are truly truly blessed, and I hope Aiden doesn't forget that lesson! God has blessed us. And because he gave us so much, we must expect that he will require something big of us in his work! I loved that comment you made, mom, of how everyone in the past had their part in the restoration. I will add on to that. Has the restoration ended? Did it all end when the saints reached Salt Lake? NO! It is happening TODAY! We are a part of the Restoration of the True and Complete Gospel of Jesus Christ! We all have our very own parts! It's true we are not required to give nearly as much as the early saints, but God is requiring of us even today, and will until His church is established completely on the earth and everyone is a part of his fold! So we need to ask ourselves, what job does God have for me in order to help him restore his gospel?

This week was excellent. We are starting to get our groove, Elder Aparicio and I. He has remembered almost everything from being a missionary before, and it's great. He is a solid teacher. We are just working on our contacts. From the raised standards, it is obvious that President wants us to set a baptismal date in every contact. So we are working hard on that, but he still struggles with it a little. Haha his people skills are different, but it's fun! We're getting better! We found a few awesome new people! Like an excellent family with 5 generations all living together! That's insane, huh? But they are so golden! The grandma (Jaja I say grandma when she only is mom's age) is super awesome! She drunk in every word we were saying. When we asked her ''Will you read the Book of Mormon?'' She said ''Yes!! I'm gonna start right after you leave and read every night!'' Haha it was fantastic! But listen! After, we asked, ''Will you pray to know if it's true?'' and she said, ''Yes, I will pray, and I will keep praying, every day until I receive an answer!'' That's called a sincere heart!!! It was fantastic! And so we are going back tomorrow to see what happens! 

María José got baptized!!! WUT WUT! It was such a great ordinance! We held it at 7:00! (So in reality, it started at 7:45) We had an excellent assistance of so many ward members! It was the biggest assistance of any baptism I've had! So that was super awesome to see. María José was super excited! She asked me to baptize her, and right before we got into the font, she started freaking out a little, trying to back out, but then we got in, and it was calm, peaceful, and very spiritual! As she came out of the water, I could see the change on her face! It was really amazing to see! Her mom tried to take a video, even after the bishop told her to put her phone away jaja, but she ended up listening and just watched. She also gave the last prayer in the service, and was freaking out! Jaja she told me if I put her name down, she would leave the building and not come back until it was over. But I put it anyways. It was an awesome prayer, probably my favorite part of the service other than the baptism!

We're still struggling with two things, leaving with members and bringing investigators to church. I think the two are actually very connected. So during the first hour of Sunday school, I made a calender, and the next hour I passed it around to all the priesthood so that they could set up a day to come out with us and teach! I didn't think too many would sign up, but a ton did! And a lot of jóvenes (young boys)! So we are going to start flying in terms of lessons with members haha! But I am also super excited to be able to introduce more members to investigators and really ignite the missionary work here in Caliche. We are going to fill our chapel until we need to stand in sacrament meeting because there are not enough seats! 

Anyways, again not too much happened this week. The stuff that did happen was big and awesome, and now it's hard to remember the rest! Dang it! But I'm happy for the email! Take care, everyone! 

Les amo a todos!

Elder Schmid

Week 50

Hola mamá!

Well, short but sweet email this week from you guys haha! But that's ok. I'm sorry I missed that concert of Darian's, I'm sure it sounded fantastic! Chamber orchestra always really impressed me! Almost as much as Encore! ;) And that's cool that the kids are going to Rocky Point! What are they going to do there? 

Anyways, this week was pretty normal for me here in Antofagasta. I'm just getting used to the things here with the new companion. Elder Aparicio is a really awesome elder! He loves the work and has an awesome testimony. He's a convert from 9 years old, but then went inactive, then reactivated and came out to the mission. And while he was out on the mission, his whole family reactivated and now have callings in the church! He is very different from Elder Blanco in the way he works. He loves to plan everything out to the T! It's kind of crazy, honestly. Sometimes we crash together on that because I don't like planning my lessons as much. The most I plan is saying we are going to teach lesson 3 or something, but he plans what we're going to say, when we are going to say it, how much time we need to take saying it, word for word answers, possible questions that they will ask, scriptures, everything! I just kind of watch him go at it while we are planning, not participating too much. He also gets mad when lessons don't go to plan. Not a single lesson has gone to plan haha! I guess I just need to teach him to loosen up a little! ;) He has a little problem with talking to new people, especially on the street. So I'm working a lot with that, trying to get him more comfortable with just conversing. Elder Barney trained me well in contacting, and I hope I can do the same with this kid. 

The work is progressing here. We are finding new people and teaching a lot. Maria Jose is going to get baptized this weekend, and I'm stoked for that. Hopefully she can be a solid anchor for her family and help them back. Other than her, we don't really have too many really strong investigators. we need to renew our stock, and so we are going to be contacting a lot more. We are working with a lot of less active people, trying to get them back to church. We found an awesome brother named Gabriel who is 18 and got baptized when he was 9 and then basically immediately went inactive. But we are teaching him, and he's basically a golden investigator, but already baptized! Now he is the key to baptizing the rest of the family!

So today, president wanted to play soccer with us, and we tried to go to the court in the regional stadium here, but it was busy, and so we ended up going to some dirt and gravel field a few miles away. President really likes playing soccer, and is not a bad player, and so he gets right in the thick of it with all the elders. So I find myself going up against president, who has the ball, and I try to take it from him, and I end up getting in between him and the ball. He then trips on my leg, grabs hold of me, trips again, and we both go down. Now, this field was a really bad field. The gravel made it really rough to fall on. So basically what happens is President's face goes into the ground and slides a bit. And he just lays there. And I start to freak out. I tripped President! In front of everyone! And then he slowly sits up, and his face is bleeding! His nose and face are cut up! So basically I jacked up President's face and he went home...and that was interesting. 

Well, not too much is happening here either. I can't really think of anything more! I hope you all have a fantastic week! Take care!

Les amo a todos!

Elder Schmid

Week 49

Hola familia!!!

Well, this week was kinda crazy! Haha, super slow in terms of work, because we could only work two days of the week, but really good for several other things! First things first, of course, Wednesday my hijito came! I am now companions of Elder Aparicio, from Arequipa Peru! He's a crazy awesome Elder! He had served a part of his mission in Columbia, but had to come here for health reasons. So basically I'm not really training a new missionary. But that's ok! We are going to fly here in Caliche! Elder Aparicio is very capo (hood, cool)! He's basically training me jaja! He is really good with getting people to commit to things, and his spanish is a lot more clear and better than mine or Elder Blanco's jaja! Funny story, I decided to go to an old investigators house our first day, and they got to talking, and they knew each other! It was with José and Mayori, a couple from before, that I haven't visited in a long time. Coincidently, Mayori comes from Elder Aparicio's branch over in Arequipa! Small world! So we are going to use that now to try to get them married!

The days leading up to the cambio were very slow, because we had citas with almost everyone in the ward so Elder Blanco could say goodbye. That was basically all we were doing for those days. Everyone was writing in his notebook and him in theirs. But that's ok, everyone gave us a lot of good food! And we did end up being able to teach Maria Jose and Marianela, who are steadily progressing. They came to general conference this weekend!

Which leads me to the next big thing of this week, conference! Oh man, it was so fantastic! I loved it! I don't know if I explained before, but all the gringos in the zone always meet up to watch conference in English! And everyone buys a jack-ton of food and soda and everything to share and feast while we watch! But it is still super spiritual because everyone listens so intently. It is funny though, because all the elders that get together have a weird mentality of conference. We cheer whenever there comes an apostle to talk, we sing at the top of our lungs all the songs we know with the choirs, and whenever something awesome is said, everyone freaks out and starts doing the finger clap thing and everything! It's awesome!

I loved the first session of conference! They started out with pure fire! I absolutely loved the talk from Dallin H. Oaks, when he talked about the family proclomation of the world! He said it as it is, layed down the law, and it gave me goosebumps! I also loved the talk from Elder Russel M Nelson on the Book of Mormon. I don't have my notes with me, but I think he had a quote that made all the missionaries freak out and cheer, ''The full gospel of Jesus Christ is found in the Book of Mormon. Period!'' Jaja it was funny to see everyone's reactions to that! Actually, I found that that was one of the repeated themes of conference this year! A lot of people talked about the prophet's challenge of the Book of Mormon, and how they accepted it, and what happened, giving us as well the same challenge. It was very interesting to see the emphasis of that challenge, no? Must mean that it's something important... family, have you read the Book of Mormon every day? Personally? If not... DO IT! As Anderson said, we have to pay attention to the prophet's challenges! They're not from him, but are revelation from God for the world! (Was it Anderson? No lo sé...) Also, it was repeated several times the equality of all men, despite race, money, social status, and even spirituality!  Everyone is equal to God, be it the atheist at the end of the street or the Prophet! I loved, as well, Elder Holland's talk talking about how everyone tries to be perfect, especially because it is a commandment, but how everyone comes short. It was also repeated a lot how we need to trust in who the Lord has called as leaders in his church, despite their faults. Those are just a few of many that I can remember off the top of my head. All in all, it was an excellent conference! You had to be actively trying to not feel the spirit during those hours with the prophets. 

So this week was like that. Slow, but awesome. I am very excited to work with Elder Aparicio. We are going to slay it this cambio. I hope you all have an awesome week! Take care!

Les amo a todos!

Elder Schmid

Leather Winter gloves. Both reese's pieces and cups, I love both and so whichever that you send I'm fine. Eso no más?