Park Rock? What a week!

Man what a week... Last Thursday, during the early morning, me, Elder Walker, and the Lexington Park Elders all went to do some service by helping set up some big canopy tents for an event called "Park Rock," it is a concert like Warped tour except not as big of bands. Anyways, we did this and in return we wanted to be able to have a booth at the concert so that we could talk to people about the gospel, well we eventually figured out that about 90% of the audience would be teenagers that came for the music, and the rest would be security guards, not very good odds of finding new investigators... But it was still fun, and they bought us Breakfast and Lunch, so we didn't make it out of there too bad haha. Also, that night we had a lesson with Sara, I don't know if I have told you about her or not before, but she is in her late 40's/ early 50's, and she retired so that she could take care of her mom full time. She was raised Catholic, but is open to the idea that there could be prophets in the America's, she has been meeting with missionaries for about 4 months, but she can't ever come to church because she is always taking care of her mom. Me and Elder Walker took about an hour that day to prepare a lesson for Sara about prayer, because in the Catholic church, most of their prayers are just recited and not very meaningful. One of the biggest things we try and get people to do is read the Book of Mormon and pray about it to know if it is true. Sara had been doing the reading part, but not the prayer part, so we did a pretty neat scripture chase with her and made her understand the importance of prayer. It was awesome to see how she started to understand what we were saying, we pretty much laid it all down for her and told her that if the Book of Mormon was true, then that means that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet, which means that our church is true. She took it very well and told us that she would put it too the test! So that was very cool, unfortunately she can't meet with us this week, so we are going to have to wait until next week to see how it all goes, hopefully I am still in this area!!

Lexington Park had a baptism this last Saturday, and it was a very neat experience! It all went really really well, Elder Deklerk performed the baptism, and it was so cool to see how happy Marsha was after it was all said and done. I don't remember if I told you guys, but she quit drinking and smoking all within about 3 weeks, she is such an awesome lady! Unfortunately the Brennan's were not there... in fact we couldn't even get a hold of them, but I know he is busy, he is an attorney and has about 5 active cases right now I think, plus he was going out of town this weekend too. I am not too worried about them, we have another appointment with them next week, and I am excited to see how they are doing! A really good thing happened this week though, we had a Less-Active, Part-Member Family at church on Sunday! They had a decent time I think, I guess we will find out when we go and see them later this week though.

I had my first exchange this Monday with Elder Deklerk, it was way sweet, he is the DL, and a very good missionary. It was good for me to see how someone else does things. Well transfers are next week, I can't even believe I have been here 5 weeks already, it doesn't even feel like it has been half that yet, but they have a saying here, Hours feel like Weeks and Weeks feel like Hours, I probably wouldn't even have a clue what that means unless I was out here, but it really is true, the last 5 weeks have absolutely flown by. The good news is that it is more than likely that I will be staying here for next transfer, so hopefully I won't have to get used to another area all over again. Well I love you guys!!! It's always good to hear from you!! And as always, I miss you!!

- Elder Schaap

Wow! My first transfer is going by way too quick!

This week has been a really good one for me, we still have tons of appointments cancelling, but I guess that is just how it is. I kind of lived the good life my first week here, we had one appointment my first day and three the next and all of them held and seemed promising, not so much now, but that's just how it goes. Well I love hearing from you guys about everything that is going on back home. Sounds like things have been crazy as usual haha I have heard about the hurricanes, but just from members in our ward, I am sure if it is going to be bad that the mission home will tell us, but as of right now, we haven't heard anything from them. I had my first Zone Activity today, it was pretty sweet, we played volleyball, ultimate frisbee, and basketball, and I played all three haha we played 5 games of basketball after we ate... I was pooped, I need to get back into shape.

Well for my story I have for you this week, we taught a whole family, the Brennan's, and they are very receptive! They were asking us about what our favorite stories were in the Book of Mormon, and asking how they could become involved and come to know for themselves if what we were saying was true. The father has looked into religion his whole life, he was born into the Catholic church, but doesn't really believe all of it's teachings, he has read the Koran, and all of the different versions of the Bible, pretty crazy stuff, and he told us that he would have the whole Book of Mormon read by our next appointment! He said he prays every night, so we told him to pray about his readings and to ask if they were true. It is very uncommmon to find a family like this, where both the husband and the wife are open to hearing our message, so we have to do everything we can to help them! Also, the Lexington Park elders (the ones we live with) have a baptism this week and the father told us he would come to that, SWEET! I have heard that investigators that come to baptisms are way more likely to be baptized themselves, so hopefully it happens!

It was a pretty funny day yesterday too, we started off not very good, we had 2 appointments just not show up, then we went and tracted an entire street and not even one person answered the door. As we were walking down the street we saw this lady in her front yard with her dog, as soon as she saw us, she jetted into her house, 2 minutes later we go knock on her door... no answer, haha people are interesting, but what can you do right?

Other than that, we are still working with the excommunicated member I told you about last week, he is doing so well!! The only thing that is holding him back is the paper work that has to go through church headquarters, hopefully in the next month he will be able to be baptized, because he is ready!

It has been 90's here this week, not as humid though, either that or I am just getting used to it haha. Well I love you guys!! Glad to hear things at home are going well, minus the fence haha that is pretty funny though, maybe you should put a gate on there that works this time...... just sayin haha. Dani, I know how you feel, kind of, this is definitely the busiest I have ever been, just keep going though, I know you can do it, oh yeah... and it is worth it!! Mom, not really any requests for the package, but I don't know if zucchini bread would still be good once it got here. Dad, dinner with members is great!! They feed us pretty well, I am not really losing weight, but I'm not gaining it either, so thats good, according to the scale we have in our appartement, I am between 200-205.

Sorry if I missed anything, but you guys are so awesome! And if you write me letters, I could probably respond to them better because I can read those all during the week, and reply anytime on P-day, we only have about 30 - 45 minutes on the computers, but definitely keep me up to date on everything, Love you!

- -Elder Schaap

P.S. The Pictures:

#1 - Dani this is for you, I knew you would like it haha, there is a street down here that I am pretty sure Shrek says the Muffin man lives on hahaha hopefully I will be able to get a picture of that one too
#2 - A way funny sign when you first cross the bridge
#3 and #4 - These are just pictures from the bridge that we have to cross, pretty sweet. The other night, we crossed it at sunset and I was so mad that I didn't have my camera!!! I will get one of that soon though