Week 74

Hola mamá!

Well... this week has been alright! Kind of slow, to be perfectly honest... but I think that that's just a part of being in Copiapó, or more specifically, in the zone Atacama. It's a slow zone, never having more than 8 baptisms (until this month woot woot). But wow, that's awesome to hear about the temple there in Mesa being used so well! It's hard here talking about a temple to the people, and having to explain the closest one is so far away. We are really blessed to have a temple so close to us in Mesa! And yes, I am excited for conference too! All of Copiapó is going to the stake center to watch it, and all the gringo missionaries from the two zones will be in the gringo room!! I'm excited. Gringo room is the best.

Well, as I said, this week was slow. Almost every appointment we set this week fell through, and it was a lot of walking, and a lot of contacting. At times, won't lie, I was super disanimated. It's hard to just keep trudging on when it seems like nothing is coming of it. But we did! And for that I am grateful. Elder Carrasco is good becasue he is so new still, and has a lot more of that new missionary energy than I do, and he helps me keep going. Which is good!

We are working with a few familias menos activas, especially one in particular. We were walking around with a list of the ward members here in El Palomar, and we knocked on doors of those we did not know. We found this family that way, Nicole and Constanza. They are two girls who got baptized a few years back, and were super active! In fact, Nicole was the joven adulto soltero president! But then, all of their friends in church began to disactivate from the church and everything, and they began to as well, until they became inactive for a long time. But they are super awesome! They are listening, and had a really good relationship with the missionaries before, and so now they let us in happily and we are sharing with them and their family, their mom and dad (the dad is not a member). But we are also working a lot with Barbara and Michelle. Their appointment with us almost fell through because she has so much work and was really tired, but she let us come Saturday, and we taught them about the restoration. And they came again Sunday! In Princliples of the Gospel, we taught about the atonement of Christ, and it was very good because Barbara was there and had a few questions, and the teacher happened to be Carlos, our mission leader, who is amazing at teaching the class. So it was a good day, and Barbara is progressing! 

The conference with President was very good! I loved it! We talked a ton about the Book of Mormon, and what it teaches us about the atonement of Christ. It was an interesting conference, and didn't focus so much on pure baptism (which I liked). We listed and talked about all the scriptures we knew about the atonement of Christ, and basically had a companionship study, but one that lasted a lot longer. It was awesome to hear about everyone's testimony and got to know some scriptures I was not too familiar with. We talked about the Book of Mormon, with its various functions, the function most important was the testimony it brings of the atonement of Christ. I loved talking about it and hearing from President his testimony. That man has a very powerful testimony.

But anyways, that's pretty much it. Today we aren't doing anything, we just played a few rounds of Cover Your Assets, and cleaned a little (just me) and now we're here, writing. But thanks for the email! Hope you all have a great week! And Happy Birthday Dad! Haha I had your birthday written in my agenda! Hope it was... relaxed haha!

Les amo a todos!

Elder Schmid

Week 73

Hey mom!

What happened this week! This week was pretty good! I was getting a lot done trying to get used with the new companion! He's great! He has about 6 months on the mission, and is still learning how to dominate all the lessons, but he is good at teaching what he does know. And he has a good work ethic, which is the most I could ask for, honestly. He can keep up! ;) But I can tell we are going to see a lot of success this cambio. In fact, we are already seeing a few miracles from God´s own hand as well!

For example, Sunday. We had two investigators in church, Barbara and Michelle. I have never met either of them. What happened was that all that week, we were working our butts off trying to get our stock back up and get things moving again here in El Palomar. It has been tough! Real tough! Finding new people, bringing back old investigators, working a ton with inactive members, all of it! And then, after all of our efforts, Saturday we went around trying to verify that everything was alright for Sunday. Every single one of our investigators fell through, saying they weren't coming to church tomorrow. It was awful. I got super angry. However, there was one part family who told us that they were still going to come, and that they were definitely going to come, without doubt. They didn't come. But Sunday came, and we were waiting there, a little sad and everything, and a member walks up and tells us ''Hey, I have a friend coming with her daughter. She works with me. Her uncle just died, who was a member of another ward. She is curious about mormons.'' Then Barbara and Michelle came! Barbara is a single mother living with her 3 kids. She was devestated with the death of her uncle, because they were so close. She's also been having a real tough time with three difficult kids in their teens, and she was feeling super alone, really depressed, and trapped, and frustrated, and everything! We went after church to her house and she told us all this. We went straight to the plan of salvation, and helped her realize a little more of her purpose. Her daughter, Michelle, saw a baptism that the deceased uncle did a little while ago, and she wants nothing more than to be baptized. After the lesson, her mom as well had that desire. I am so grateful to be able to be a tool in helping this good sister! The miracle is being able to witness the change that the gospel has in people's lives. I still haven't seen the complete change, but even after just one lesson, there was a difference in the attitude of Barbara! I can't wait to see how this turns out. Another awesome thing, she lives in an apartment complex that I've always wanted to enter but never could because the guard doesn't let us. But we finally got in! Woo!

That pretty much explains my whole week... today we saw Coco as a zone and played a little soccer and a game with water balloons. It was aight. Pretty normal pday. We have conference with President tomorrow. I'm pretty excited. Uhm... that's pretty much it on my side of the world. Not too much, but... it's my life haha! Anyways, Happy Brithday Ashlyn!!! I had it written in my agenda once I realized what day it was haha! 12 years old! Congratulations! I can't wait to hear how it is being in young women program. I know it's lame I can't get you anything, but... Feliz Cumpleaños! 

Les amo a todos!

Elder Schmid

Week 72

Hola familia!

Wow, crazy week, I guess, being radioactive! Haha, and I know you are glad that you can still drink mountain dew... something I haven't tasted in a very long time. The stuff looks like it makes you even more radioactive! And that's funny with Ruffles. I'm surprised she's still alive. How old is she again? I forgot in what year we got her. And how exciting for Ashlyn's last big birthday! Haha yeah, I do know the feeling of people being gone on vacations at that time... though I think it's probably worse for Ashlyn, because more people go out for spring break than for winter break... maybe. And of course CONGRATULATIONS CHARLIE ON THE CALIFORNIA REDLANDS MISSION!!!!! That is so awesome! The last in the group! Started from the bottom, now we here! I am so proud of him, and so happy for him. Redlands... so, like, So Cal! Dude... right on (in a finding nemo turtle voice)

Anyways, this week was pretty good! The biggest thing is that the cambios came! Elder Bravo, my dear Peruvian, is gone. He left to a coastal town actually in the same stake, a little place called Caldera, and I stayed here! And my new companion is... wait for it.... another Peruvian!!! Hahaha three straight Peruvians... his name is Elder Carrasco. Actually, when I started training, the comp who left, Elder Blanco (don't know if you remember much about him, the Argentinian) also started training, and he trained Elder Carrasco. So it's all one big circle haha! But he is coming from pretty far away, more or less, from Calama, and so he won't be here until late. I'm currently in a trio with my zone leaders -_-. It's been... an interesting day. I made them clean the apartment. And I learned, as they were cleaning, that they have no idea how to clean!!!! Their poor wives! These kids have no idea what to do! I was trying to guide them to show them how to clean well, but they just did not get it... I'm pretty sure the dishes came out dirtier than they were before, after he washed them. One kid just dumped a bunch of water everywhere, and said ''it needs to soak.'' Well, it did soak, right into our wooden base boards! And the floor didn't get any cleaner, becasue he forgot to sweep before mopping... oh mother, I almost lost it. I was freaking out. But when they go to work today, ima let the new kid get unpacked, and we gon clean. Sorry Elder Carrasco.

Uhm, the rest of the week was pretty alright. I guess. Just trying to get some eternal investigators to make more commitment. WE are always finding new people, but, none are progressing after the first contact, and that's always frustrating. But oh well! Lets see if maybe Elder Carrasco is super good with people or something! ;) I am still going to be the District Leader of the Hermanas here, so thats... fun, I guess. And now they're a little depressed because one of them who has been here a ton of time got transfered to literally the sector right next to them, and then another hermana with a reputation of being difficult came to replace her, and so they were already complaining, a little before the cambio started, to me... so this will be fun! But at the end, we are just going to get work done, and I'll make'em have fun, even if they hate it haha!

The last few days were super juicy! I loved them! WE just went around saying goodbye for Elder Bravo at members houses, and eating their food, and just having a good time! It was suuuuuper relaxing, and fun, and now I have to get back to work. Woo. And I said my last goodbyes to Elder Barney. He officially went home to California! He gon!

Uhmmmmm.... there's really not any more going on. Lo siento. But I hope y'all have an amazing week! 

Les amo a todos!

Elder Schmid

Week 71

Mamá!

It looks like it was kind of slow for the both of us... but oh well! If we didn't have slow weeks, we wouldn't be able to properly enjoy the awesome weeks, right? I'm happy, though, that things are going to start picking back up again here in Copiapó. School finally started here, and everyone is back home, so we can actually visit them! Which is awesome. It was weird, because on Domingo we had so many people in church! Last week, everyone was gone, and we had record low assistance to church, but yesterday it was so opposite! El Palomar, my ward, has the highest assistance of Copiapó, and the most I have seen in Chile. Their goal is to get enough priesthood holders to pay tithing so that they can split the ward. 

Everyone here is getting excited for the temples! There is a temple trip coming up for the ward and they are all going down to Santiago, but that comes in June, and I probably won't be here. But also the dates came out for the open house and dedication of the new temple in Concepción, more to the south in Chile. It's going to be in May, and lots of members here are making plans to go, and everyone is getting hyped about the temple work here. It's pretty awesome to see!

In terms of the work this last week.... pretty much the same. We really didn't meet any new promising people. Our Haitian, Jonas, kind of fell through, we haven't seen him since that Sunday last week. Yesterday at church, we may have had record assistance, but none of the people there were investigators, and that was a little disanimating. But we're just going to work hard for the next week! It was really hard because there were three families that told us that they were going to come without doubt, sí o sí they were coming. ......They didn't come. But at least I know that I did what I needed to to bring them and invite them. It was a happy day when I truly realized that I have no contol over the agency of others, and that they may do as they please, and I can't be mad or frustrated at them for making certain choices, I can only love them and show them how to do things differently... it helps to relax a ton more on your mission while still keeping your work ethic up. Another thing I learned here.... how to have a work ethic haha!

The apartment didn't exactly stay as clean as I wanted it to, which is super frustrating. Nobody does the chores, nobody wants to clean, and I'm always washing everyone's dishes and putting everyone's stuff away and cleaning the kitchen and everything... I prefer to just use this to the maximum to learn how I need to not treat my wife when I'm with her and we have a house to clean constantly. Let's just hope that the teachings stick, no? ;)

Well............ that's pretty much it haha! I'm sorry for such a boring week, but that's all I got. I've learned the third page finally to Clair de Lune, and it's getting real fun to play, I'll have to record it for you guys. My comp is good. Funny as ever. We gon' get some work done this week!

Les amo a todos!

Elder Schmid