Wednesday, May 30, 2012

A Baptism Commitment and a New Companion

Hola Familia!

haha I feel like I start all my emails the exact same way, so I thought I would switch it up a bit. So good to hear from all of you though! It seems like you guys are going like 1000 mph with all the stuff you are doing at home! You are crazy! But I wouldn't have you any other way!

Anyways, things are going well for us here, the exciting news of the week is that one of our investigators committed to be baptized! He is scheduled to be baptized on June 24th (the day after Mom's Birthday!) So we are looking forward to that!! He came to a barbeque that the ward had on Monday for FHE and was able to get to know a few of our members! And hopefully we will be able to get him up to the Visitor's Center, and to church soon!

The other big news is that I have a new companion! Haha you are probably saying to yourself right now, but wait transfers aren't until next week, well you are right... but there was a missionary who got in an accident on his bike, and sprained his wrist, so he wasn't able to ride his bike anymore, so they sent him to a car with me! So my new companion is Elder Gumbi, who Grandpa Bob actually new from his ward in California! It has been pretty fun so far, but as for my last transfer, who knows what will happen now? Not me! But Elder Gumbi is from Zimbabwe, and so he is able to relate to the people from Africa that we are teaching, which is almost all of them!

So that is the big news from here! Sorry for being so short... and I don't have my camera with me today... so no pics... Sorry!

Thanks so much for everything that you guys do! You are the best family I could ever ask for! I Love you guys! Have a great week!

- Elder Schaap

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Hey Everyone!

That is so cool to hear about your race that you guys did!! I still can't really even imagine riding a bike for 100 miles! You guys are crazy!

Anyways, things here are good! We have been coming up with some good ideas as to how to work more efficiently in our ward, and things are starting to look up! We met a new guy this last week, he is a former investigator that had been working with the missionaries about a year ago, and he told us that there wasn't really any reason that they stopped visiting him, so we have another appointment with him this next week, and hopefully we will see him at church too!

Yesterday we also met with a new person, and things look promising with her! So hopefully I will have a lot of things to say about them next week!

It is crazy how many people are moving out of the ward! So we are praying a lot for new people to come in! Hopefully we will have some interns soon.... except they are usually here by now... haha so we will just keep praying I guess. Anyways, sorry I this is so short... But I love you guys! Talk to you next week!

-Elder Schaap

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Mother's Day

Hey everyone!

Man... it was soooo good to hear all your voices on Sunday! Crazy that that is my last phone call out here to you guys! Anyways, we had a pretty sweet week!

You will never guess what happened... So last Sunday one of the couselors in the bishopric came up to us and asked us if we knew of anyone that would be good to give a short 5 minute or so talk about Mothers. We couldn't really think of anyone at the time, so he told us to give him a call if we could think of anyone. So as we were thinking about it through the week, Elder Morris and I both got the feeling that we should ask our investigator if he would like to. So on Friday, when we had a meeting with him we asked him, and he didn't even hesitate to say yes! So we were like SWEET!

Meanwhile, as Sunday got closer and closer, we were wondering how it all would work out, but everything went fine! He actually prepared material to talk on, and he did great! He didn't even hardly seem nervous! And the coolest part about it was, his was totally the best talk out of all the people that spoke, he was very insightful! He talked about how a lot of times we think that mothers just favor their children because they are their children, but he says that that is just us not recognizing the potential in others, and that mothers are able to do that because of their great love for their children. Pretty interesting!

So that was the highlight of our week, it will be interesting to see what happens in these coming weeks, with graduation and all, we are not sure what is going to happen, if we are going to lose most of our ward or not, and if we will get interns. We shall see!

Anyways, Love you guys, hope you have a great week!!!

- Elder Schaap

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Elder Bednar Comes to DC!

Hello!

Wow, I can't believe that Dani is graduated.... that is unreal to me! Crazy! Nice going though Sis! Sounds like you all had a packed week! That is sweet!

My week was really good, Elder Bednar came and spoke to our mission at the Visitor's Center, and it was really neat! I thought it was going to be mostly in the format of him and those who accompanied him (Steven E. Snow, Bishop Causse, and Elder Girard) mostly just speaking, but when it was Elder Bednar's turn, he wanted everyone to be involved, so he let people ask him and those with him questions. I don't know, I feel like I can't really explain to you in an email what it was like, so I will just talk to you about it on Sunday! But it was an awesome experience! And I have a whole new respect for Elder Bednar! I also was able to watch the CES Fireside by Marlin K. Jensen, and we had one of our investigators there, and he said he liked it, and we are meeting with him this Friday!

Other than that, I have found out that finding YSA people to teach is HARD! Especially at this time when finals are happening, and school is about to get out! But we are doing our best, I am hoping to try and start tutoring people soon! Yikes! It was just an idea that we had, but of course it depends on how well I remember to do math and physics and stuff after 2 years of not doing it at all! So we will see...

Other than that, we had a zone activity today, it was penguin sports. If you don't know what that is, it is where you wrap your knees together and just play regular sports, it is pretty funny to watch! Can't wait to talk to you guys Sunday!!! I am PUMPED! Love you guys! and TALK with you soon!

- Elder Schaap










Pic 1 - So Elder Bednar actually spoke to the 3 missions here, and I ended up sitting right next to Elder Zach Paswaters... do you remember him? He and I played little league baseball together. So that was cool to see him! I think it has been like 10 years or something.










Pic 2 - Zone Activity

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Elder Bednar Coming to DC!

Hello!

Wow, seriously these weeks keep going by faster and faster! Anyways, things are good in my new area, and I can't believe I totally forgot to tell you about my new companion! His name is Elder Morris, he is from a town in New Mexico that only has like 200 people. This is his 4th transfer in his mission, and he this will be his 3rd transfer in the singles ward.

It is really interesting being in a singles ward, I'll be honest! I forgot about all of the random callings and things that they have like FHE Mom, and Institute Director haha. And we go to all of the activities, because that is where most people invite their non-member friends, so it is pretty sweet! Oh, and another weird thing is I kind of forgot what it was like to have drama hahaha... pretty funny. Overall though, I really like it, which is good, because I wasn't sure what it would be like starting off, but all of the members are really helpful. Geographically we cover 2 stakes (which probably doesn't seem like much in Utah, but our mission only covers 4 stakes), and there are only about 40 active members of our ward! Pretty interesting.

Well, I was only able to meet one of the investigators that we are teaching this week, and he is really cool. He has been meeting with the missionaries for a while now, and it was really strange to me the fact that he is doing everything that he needs to be. He has read all the way to Alma in the Book of Mormon, he is praying, he has come to church a bunch of times, and he has met a lot of the members of the ward, he even stopped drinking coffee! But he still doesn't feel as though he has received an answer that it is true or not, so I have been doing a lot of studying and praying about what I could do or say to him to help him get his answer, we should be meeting with him again soon! So hopefully it will go well!

Oh, I forgot to tell you last week, Elder Bednar is coming to our mission on Saturday! Should be pretty exciting! We were told to study two talks in preparation for him to address us if you guys want, you can look them up too! One is called "Ask in Faith" given by him in General Conference (I don't remember when) and the other is called "Seek Learning by Faith" which was a CES broadcast I believe in 2006. Anyways, can't wait to talk to you guys on Mother's Day next Sunday!!! [it's really on 5/13 - Marcie] When would be the best time for me to call? We have church from 12-3 so 2-5 your time, but as far as I know I am flexible after that, so let me know!! Love you guys! Have a good week!

- Elder Schaap