Week 87

Familia!

Wow, sounds like the Sierra Vista trip was a success! I'm glad everyone liked it so much. I'm gonna have to visit it when I get back, I never got the chance to before I left. It's interesting, the Gilbert temple, and everything it does with the Agave plant. Though if I am to be honest the first thing I think of when I think of Agave is that you make tequila with it! ;) And hey, happy birthday Aiden!! 15, you're so old! Haha I hope it went well for you! 

Well, this week was a pretty good week. People are progressing, missionaries are walking, all the good ol normal stuff. In terms of big things happening, nothing big really happened. Just tons of little things. But hey, that's good too!

I am stil in Vallenar, in the White Tower, and still chugging along with my man Elder Flores. We are getting some good work done here in our sector. We have been talking a lot with Maritza and Milan. Milan, her son, is progressing more rapidly than her, but she is progressing too. Milan came to church again fulfilling his requisite visits to church, and this Saturday, we are planning his baptism. Let's pray that everything goes smoothly! My leaders were a little mad that he didn't get baptized this past week. But this baptism will be all the better. But Maritza is also progressing, she just had something to do this Sunday. We are also talking a lot with our converts and a man named Alex, from Bolivia. He is a recent convert who recently moved here from another branch in Vallenar. He is becoming less and less active, but he is a stupendous person. The mother of his daughters died and he takes care of them now. He is so funny, and I love going over! But I'm scared because his ex girlfriend came from Bolivia to live with him... -_-

Things with Elder Flores are going well, as well. He is hilarious haha! We are always singing and always cracking jokes. His taste of music is peculiar to me... he really loves the mexican music we hear randomly on the radio, the kind that sounds like polka music, with accordians and tubas. He loves it! I like the lyrics, but the rest of it kind of makes me laugh! But we get along very well, which is always a relief còmo misionero. 

So, in fun news, I am going to be traveling a ton this week. Today at 10 in the night I have to go to Tur Bus and take a bus to Antofa. All the district leaders have been invited to the leadership conference in Antofa that happens mensualmente. It should be good to see all of my friends there. It'll be fun. Right after I get back, I have to hop on another bus and head on over to Copiapó. This week we have the zone conference with president there. It's the two zones of Vallenar and Copiapó. I'm pretty sure that it's going to be about the same things as the leadership conference, so basically this week I'm gonna be in a bus. 

Well, this 22nd I was celebrating a birthday all day, but unfortunatley it wasn't Aiden's. It was my comps. He turned 19 this past Friday. And since he has made such good friends with all the members here, everyone wanted to do something with him! We ate so much... we celebrated by going around with different families and eating. It was a good day. In the morning I made him pancakes and had him blow out a lighter as a candle. Then in the night there was actual cake and actual candles, but, I tried. It was a good day. 

Things keep moving forward. I'm making the most of my time in Vallenar. I like it here, it's so... tranquilo. The work of the Lord continues here, and I'm glad I can help Him in that. Lets keep going for this week!

Les amo a todos!

Elder Schmid

Week 86

Hola familia! 

Well, I'm glad y'all had a fantastic fathers day! The dinner looked absolutely fantastic! Dad sent me a picture, and it just made my mouth water. I miss bratwurst. And it's awesome that Christiaan had a good birthday! And a good gift, it looks like! A new bike! Happy Birthday Christiaan! I'm going to give the branch here that idea for the youth activity you threw together, mom! It sounded really awesome! Hopefull they can take it and make it work too. 

Things here are sailing smoothly. Slowly, yes, but smoothly. I got sent from what I thought was a slow sector to the slowest sector in the mission! I love it! But forgive me if I have trouble finding things to write about. The branch is doing great. The members who come here are really strong. There are basically two big families that make up majority of the ward. They come to every activity and help a ton. The members have a lot of animo to work with the missionaries, which is fantastic! I'm trying to work a lot with less actives and all that instead of trying to find lots of baptisms, so the zls are a little worried about us and want to have a lot of intercambios, but I'm enjoying the work. We are talking with several people that are super awesome! One of which is a sister named Maritza. She has a son, Milan, who is not a member, and she is starting to come back to everything. She is progressing well, and we had a very good visit with her the other day teaching about the Plan of Salvation. She said she didn't remember any of it at first, but as we taught, it all started coming back to her. She explained that she felt really good listening, and started to remember why she got baptized in the first place! So I felt really good, of course. She couldn't make it to church this week because she's out of town, but she will come next week.

Things with Elder Flores are fantastic. We get along super well. We sing. A lot. Hahaha he knows a lot of songs in english, but he doesn't know what the words mean. He says so many disparates it's hilarious! He has no idea what he's saying, but he sings it loud and proud in the middle of the street. Sometimes it's bad because the people here are really racist and don't like people speaking english, but we get along! Mexico is in the world cup right now, and they beat the world champions, Germany! So he is super ecstatic and won't be quiet about it haha! But he has a similar vision for his own mission, and loves how we are working right now, so we get along just fine. I don't feel guilty like I did with my other comps.

I am practicing so much ping pong. I play it so much. I'm still garbage at playing it, but we play it a ton! It's so fun! We play during the lunch hours right after eating in the church building, and when we need to go we are right there in our sector, and don't have to go down and back up again. Today we cooked lasaña, which turned out really good, actually! We don't exactly have the best quality ingredients, but we did good with what we had! Wes be chefs

Things here in Vallenar may be a little slower, but my testimony keeps growing more and more. Here I am learning different things than in my other sectors. I have to act differently with the people, get to know them more, be more personal. It is helping me a lot. I appreciate the chance God gave me in sending me here. I am here to invite everyone to come unto Christ, not just investigators, but members as well! I know this work is God's work, because I feel his love poured on the people I visit, as well as over me! I know now how much He really loves each of His children. He helps us, always. He knows us. He loves us. We can show a little of that love back to Him by serving. I hope we all can focus on that this week.

Les amo a todos,

Elder Schmid

Week 85

Hola mamá!

Wait wait wait wait... I'm happy everyone had a great week and all, but you said nothing about your birthday!!! June 7th, no?! Or am I crazy? I had it marked in my calendar and everything and was super excited to hear what y'all did! But oh well, Happy Birthday Mom!!! I can't say you are twenty nine, because that would mean you had me at 9 years old... i guess the best age would be 36. 36 never looked so good!!! I'm glad you all had a great week! I'm sad I missed such an epic dance off. Just hope you all know, had I been there, I would have won. 

Things here are going well! I really like my new sector! It's so different from the rest of the mission! It's the greenest part of the mission. My sector is really really really tranquilo. I feel like the rest of the mission doesn't pay attention to Vallenar because they don't baptize. It's different here, the people are all actually older, or really young. At least, that's how it seems. And everyone stays home and all shut up inside, and it's kind of hard to get the missionary work done the way the mission wants it. But... it fits perfectly with the way I've been changing my own vision! So I'm ecstatic! My companion is hilarious. He's from Zacatecas, and really really loves music. He is teaching me the guitar right now, actually! And I must say, I'm picking it up quite well! ;) The only problem is he doesn't know how to sing, or he doesn't have the best of voices... he's completely tone deaf! But he's hilarious! And if I sing loud I can drown out the wrong notes, and we basically sing full volume in the middle of the streets! It's awesome! I live outside my sector, so I have to climb for 40 minutes to get to the start of it. But there's a ton of awesome stuff in the camino, so I enjoy it. The grafiti here is interesting. It's not just stupid words or names, it's all paintings! I've been taking pictures and everything, trying to look super hipster and awesome. I'll send some. 

We had a baptism this past Saturday. We baptized a little 13 year old, Nacho. He's super funny! With whoever he's with, he feels completely comfortable like you were his best friend! His baptism went really well, and his mom came! That was a feat, because she has been really sick, lately. She has breast cancer, and has been struggling with that. The father, her husband, left them as soon as she got sick, and so she's been having to struggle alone. But she is a great person, and she got the strength enough to come and see him baptized!

Our branch is wonderful. It's the largest, I guess, of Vallenar, but it is still small. It's the smallest chapel I've ever been in. If you want to see it in Google earth, the direction is Compañía 2799... or something like that. It's small. But we have a ping pong table, and I'm getting good at that. Around 60 or 70 people assist church every week. The members seem really awesome. I think we are going to work really well with them. Our branch president is pretty young, around 33, and he is really excited with the missionaries right now. I feel like with him we can go far. I want to reactivate a lot here. I'm going to focus on basically just that. If I baptize, it will be because their family reacitvated. There are 636 members in this branch, only 70 come to church. We are going to change that! 

It's getting really cold here, and.... get this.... today, it RAINED!!!!!! It rained!! It was so crazy! It was so weird! I thought our roof was about to break down on top of us! It was amazing! And it wasn't just a little drizzle, it was real rain! So I enjoyed that a lot. But it is super cold here. Or maybe I'm just a baby. But I'm always cold here. It's definitely colder here than in Copiapó. My pension is fantastic! It's super open, with a big window and everything, and it's just us two that live here, so that will be interesting getting used to again. Luckily, I seem to get along with my comp. That will help. 

I feel like I am jumping all over the place with this email... I don't know what to say. This week was kind of slow in terms of work, I'm getting used to everything. But next week, my email will be better!

Les amo a todos!

Elder Schmid

Week 84

HOLA HOLA HOLA!

Wow, this has been a crazy week. For me, at least. For you guys, it looks like it was pretty slow.,.. oh well! Jaja I'm glad you enjoyed it so much! I can't wait to be able to go to the temples with you guys too! That's a good goal, to hit up all the temples in AZ. Not even I have done that! (Because one was dedicated while I was out here in the middle of Mars), but I will definitely be doing it when I return! I'm glad Darian enjoyed her trek experience, or at least, it seems like she did. I'm sure it's a lot like the mission, or anything hard. We don't really enjoy the working, but enjoy the results that come afterwards. Así es la vida! I noticed she didn't send me any emails, so I won't know how it went for her. (HINT HINT, Darian, send me emails and fotos). 

The week for me went really well, I must admit. However, it was very bittersweet. We received our cambios on Thursday, and I have been called to another place. I am now in Vallenar, the most southern city in my mission, and the most green place. I left today in the morning, and it only took a few hours to get here. I feel like I'm in Payson! It's so strange! Vallenar is smaller, not so much a city, rather a little town. There are not many missionaries here, and it's a district, not a stake, and thus it only has branches, not wards. My ward is called Torre Blanca (White Tower), and it's up top, the sector furthest south of the mission. I'm on the edge haha! I haven't exactly visited my sector yet, because our pension is in another sector. Vallenar is a hole, with a center down low and two different poblaciones (populations) up high, Torre Blanca being one of those. I am with an Elder from Mexico, Elder Flores! He seems pretty chill, and funny. It will be very different from Elder Carrasco, I feel. I feel like we are going to have fun together. Let's hope so!

The week, entonces, was a ton of saying goodbye. It was a little harder, I'll admit, to get things done, but I pushed through. It's harder after knowing you're not going to be there, because it stops mattering to you. The thoughts slip into your mind that say ''It doesn't matter if you contact this person, you'll never visit them.'' Or ''Why does it matter trying so much to get this investigator to church? You will never baptize them!'' They're awful thoughts, because it brings down the animo in the missionary work! But Elder Carrasco was always pushing me, and I had the determination to finish my time there strong. It wouldn't be fair to leave Elder Carrasco there with nothing, I've been in that situation before, and it's awful. I'm glad we pushed through, though, because we saw many good results. God blesses those who work, those who sacrifice. If we don't show God what we're made of, He won't show us what He's made of!

Sunday we saw those miracles coming. All of my time in El Palomar it's been really hard to get investigators to church. I don't think I've ever had more than 5 in church. However, this Sunday came, and people just started showing up! Jose Luis came, an awesome guy who's cleaning up his life major. So did a few family members of those who belong to the ward. In all, we had 8 invesigators in church, which was a major miracle! Elder Carrasco has a very big stock now to start working with. I'm happy for the sector. El Palomar has just begun doing ministering, and I feel like everything is going to pick up in the ward! Now I'm here, and I feel really excited to be able to help the Branch do the same. 

Sunday and Saturday basically I said goodbye to all my friends I made there in El Palomar. I feel like I had a lot of success there, because I had both converts and members who will miss me. It kinda sucks, honestly! Because the way you can tell best if you've had success as a missionary is if it hurts when you leave, both for you and for the people you've been with. And this hurt. It was the first time that has happened to me. I said my goodbye in sacrament meeting, and I testified of the change the atonement works in people. I know that we can all change, it is our great privelage, our great opportunity. Through Christ, we are perfected. Sometimes that processs of perfecting ourselves is long, sometimes it's short. Sometimes it hurts, sometimes it's pure joy. But the end result is always the same. We become one step closer to where our Saviour and God are. I feel like with my time in El Palomar, I became a lot closer to my God, and I will forever be grateful for that. I hope that here I can have the same success. 

But that's pretty much what is going on with me! Hope y'all have a great week!

Les amo a todos!

Elder Schmid