Hello Family!!

How is everyone doing? Sorry about the false alarm with the whole White House tour thing, there is a lady in our ward who works in the White House, and she was able to set up a tour for us... unfortunately President told us we weren't allowed to go. Maybe in the future though! Sounds like you guys have had a pretty eventful week! Mine was pretty good as well.

To give you an update on our investigators, the family we were teaching kind of fell off the map, and we haven't been able to get into their house since about two weeks ago... Another family is doing pretty good, we went with the Postmas over there on Monday, and had a really good visit, and they told us that they would come to the Visitor's Center with us on Friday, and come to a session of Conference! So that should be really good!! Not really any other major news right now. Elder Howard and I have found out that a lot of our investigators right now are not willing to progress or keep appointments, so we are trying to find new people that will hold appointments haha.

Well that's about all I have for you this week! Sorry it is so short, but I love you guys! Thanks for all that you do!! LOVE YOU!

- Elder Schaap

A sign we saw while knocking on doors. Good thing we're not Jehovah's Witnesses ... right??


Hey Everyone!!!

Thanks for the package that you sent!!! You guys are the best!! You know, on St. Patrick's Day, I couldn't help but think about that time that we were all in the kitchen, and Dad says, "Hey, hand me one of those green things in the drawer." hahaha I really hope you guys remember that story, because I laugh every time I think about it!!!

Well, things have been going pretty well here lately. Unfortunately, the family we've been teaching is not going to be able to be baptized this coming Sunday, in fact we haven't even been able to get inside of their house since we set a Baptismal date for them which was almost 2 weeks ago... We don't even really know what is going on, hopefully we will be able to find out soon though.

We have had some pretty cool experiences though, in these past couple of weeks, people have actually flagged us down to talk to us. 3 instances in about the last week and a half, the ironic part about it is that all 3 times, it was people that would attend the Singles ward here in D.C., and there are missionaries assigned to that ward, so we had to pass them on... kind of dissappointing, but they were cool experiences nonetheless.

The one that happened yesterday was really cool! We met a great guy, he was born in Vietnam, but moved here when he was 3 I think. He stopped us by asking us, "Hey, what school do you guys go to?" haha it was pretty interesting, so we got on the topic of religion (as we usually do... haha) and we figured out that he didn't really believe in God. The reason it was so cool was because Elder Howard and I were able to address his issue, and explain it to where he could understand it, and he said that he wants to meet with missionaries (which won't be us...) again, so it was a really cool experience!

Well, I love you guys, I hope everything is going well, your crazy road trip sounded like fun!! Sorry that USU lost (but not really?!) Did you guys get my letter??? I hope so... Well talk to you next week!!! LOVE YOU!!!

- Elder Schaap

More Flour War Pics - Thanks Sister Postma!!!!

There really are "angels among us!" Sister Postma sent me a few more pictures of the flour wars. Thanks so much, Sister Postma. You're the best, and we love you!

Marcie

New Baptismal Date and Audrey's Talk on Temples

Hello Family!

How is everyone?? Good I hope! Things here have been going pretty well for us! We had the oppurtunity to have one of the assistants with us on Friday last week and it went pretty well.

We have a new baptismal date for the family we've been teaching, I don't know if I have mentioned them before or not, we have kind of been working on and off with them for most of my time here, and they have actually been working on and off with missionaries for about 3 years now, but hopefully everything works out, their baptismal date is on March 27th, so just under two weeks from now! Other than that we have mostly been working on finding new people to teach, because a lot of the people we were formerly working with aren't willing to move forward with us.

As for the other couple we've been teaching, we had a pretty good lesson with them and the Postma's yesterday, we talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and church, and they told us that they would come to church this week! So that will be good! We actually met with another family yesterday as well with the Postma's, and we are actually seeing some progress in them too! So things are looking up!!

Another crazy experience that happened this week haha, so we were planning on going to visit with our cute new recent convert on Friday, and she calls us that day and tells us that one of the members of the bishopric had asked her to speak in church (3/13) and get this, the subject was Temples! She hasn't even been inside of the Temple before!! Ha we were all very surprised when we heard about that, so she wanted to meet us at the Visitor's Center and talk with us to get some ideas for her talk. We were a little nervous, but when she spoke, she talked about her journey to the temple, and how in 11 months, it will be her turn. She also talked about an experience she had many years ago when she was driving on the Beltway during the early morning, and when she came around the corner and saw the temple it just made her feel at peace, so it turned out great!

We had a combined Zone activity today haha and it was a Flour Bomb war.... pretty fun, I took a few pictures for you even!! I love you guys!!!! And I sent you a little letter this week, so be looking for it!!

- Elder Schaap

Tracting Works!

An ad in the metro - thought you'd get a kick out of it! haha

Hey everyone!

So good to hear from all of you! Things are going pretty well here! Elder Howard and I are getting along great! We have had kind of a slower week as far as working with investigators goes, we have been more in the finding mode.

We did have a pretty sweet experience yesterday though, so we picked this street to go tract, and we got there and realized that most of the street was commercial and not residential, but there were a few houses, so we figured we would knock on them anyways. There were 3 houses, and nobody answered at the first two. We get to the third one, and this guy answers, but he tells us he is not interested and just takes a card and sends us on our way. So we were walking away, and about 10 seconds after he had told us to leave, he yells to us, "Hey, what do you guys teach anyway?" That was the first time on my mission that anyone has called us back, and I talked to Elder Howard about it afterwards and he said that usually that means that they want to argue with you! But that wasn't the case this time.

So we walk back to the door and we get to talking, apparently he is taking care of his 93 year old mother and doesn't ever get out. As we got further into the conversation, he tells us that not 5 minutes before, he just started to pray that something would relieve him of all the stresses that he was going through with taking care of his mother, and apparently he is going through some court issues as well. He started to cry and told us that he didn't realize it at first, but we were the answer to his prayers! Unfortunately, he doesn't have a lot of free time, so he isn't able to meet with us very often, but we are going to make all the excuses we can to drop by his house a couple of times a week. It was sort of a crazy moment for me to realize that that is the reason we go out knocking all of these doors, and although it doesn't happen often, sometimes people are waiting for us to come to there house just so they can have someone to talk to, we asked him if there was anything that we could do to help him, and he told us that we had already done more than we knew we did. It is awesome to see that just by our example, people are touched, and hopefully we will be able to work with him more so that we can continue to help him in his situation.

Well thank you guys so much for everything, I am glad to hear all is going well. Dani, glad to hear that school has calmed down a bit, and I think you are CRAZY to miss a few days, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Or as you would say, "It iiiii what it iiiii" haha. Well that's all I got for ya, love you guys, talk to you next week!!

- Elder Schaap

New Companion & Alex Boye Concert

A doormat Elder Krugman and I saw that cracked us up!

Pictures of my District

Hello to everyone!

Well as I said last week, this week was transfers, it was sad to see Elder Krugman go, but it will be good to have a change. My new companion is Elder Howard, he has been out for two transfers longer than I have, he is from Rochester, Minnesota haha I don't know what other information you want about him, but he is a pretty cool guy, and I am looking forward to working with him this transfer!

It has been a pretty good week, a little slower just because Elder Krugman has had to pack and to say goodbye to all the people in our area, but the couple we've been teaching came to church on Sunday, it was awesome haha even though they slept in and showed up about an hour late, don't worry church starts at 1 p.m. haha, atleast they showed up right! But it went really well, and we are going to be meeting with them again this week!

We had another really cool experience too on Sunday, Alex Boye came to the Visitor's Center with the Mormon Choir of Washington D.C., and it was a really great performance, he also shared his conversion story, experiences on his mission and testimony, we had our cute new recent convert ladies there and they both enjoyed it a lot they told us. He puts on a pretty good show, and is an excellent entertainer. I wouldn't mind if you guys sent me some CD's by him... just sayin haha

Well, sorry this email is kind of short, but I don't really have a whole lot to report on, but hopefully I will next week. Love you guys a ton!! And have fun going to Blakely's Wedding.... Weird!! LOVE YOU!

- Elder Schaap