Lots of Snow in DC...and a Baptism Date!

On the bus....not moving!

We got like a Book of Mormon of snow! haha, oh man, I hope you think that's as funny as I do!

Notice there are only a few car lights on the left. Our bldg was the only one with lights - we got lucky!

All of our wet stuff out to dry

Heyy!!!

Sorry I couldn't email you guys yesterday, things were crazy here in D.C.!!! Like I said, I think we got about 8 inches or so of snow, and we were down by the Capitol when it started to come down! So we had to take the bus back to our appartment, we got on the bus just after 6:30, well by 8:30 we were still about 10 blocks away from our appartment, and the road was more of a parking lot than anything else, so we decided that we would just get off and walk home. While we were on our way back, we noticed that a lot of people were having trouble getting their cars moving with all the snow (because NO ONE has 4 wheel drive out here haha) so we thought we would try to help people get their cars going. It was pretty funny actually, because we were jogging most of the way, only stopping to help people get their cars unstuck, I bet people who saw us were like "Who are these guys?!" haha. And then as soon as we got back home, I didn't have enough time to email, so that is the story of yesterday.

Other than that though, things are continuing to go well, we were able to go to the Visitor's Center with our cute member and his sister this past Thursday, and it went really well. She was so happy just to get out of the house with her brother, she said that since he came home from the hospital that they haven't been able to do that. Now she has a baptismal date for Feb. 6th (I believe something else is happening on that date right? ;) ) [Steve's b-day] and she is really excited for it! They were also able to come to church!! And there were so many people that wanted to sit next to them that there wasn't room for either Elder Krugman or me, so she is pretty much already a part of the ward, now she just needs to get baptized!

We also had the opportunity to go to the Visitor's Center with another one of our investigators, who we have had a hard time finding what is holding her back, but the sisters at the VC were able to, at least a little bit, find out what is was, now it is up to us to keep working on that.

Well, it sound like you guys are doing great! Thanks for the package by the way!!! I was dying when I read the little letter inside! haha you guys are the best! And thanks for the updates! Keep them coming! I love you guys, and I will talk to you again next week!

- Elder Schaap

Merry Christmas!!!!

Wow, this last week has just flown by, in fact, this transfer is going by way too quick, but that is a good thing right? Anyways, so good to hear from you guys! Things are going pretty good here, busy as usual, Elder Krugman and I were able to go to the Visitor's Center 3 times this week!! And we saw Jenny Oaks Baker (violin player) and Sandra Turley (broadway singer) perform, which were both really good performances, and both times the theater was filled to capacity.

We had an interesting day on Sunday haha, so to start off, the missionaries covering the South/East area have been teaching this lady who kept claiming that she had been baptized into our church before, but her records couldn't be found, so she just decided that she was ok with that, and she would just get baptized again. So Elder Krugman and I go to her house on Friday for the baptismal interview and he finds out that there is an issue that has to be taken to Pres. M in order for her to be cleared to be baptized, so we call President, and he says that he will just be there at our church on Sunday and talk to her before the meetings start. Well church here starts at 1:00, and 1:10 rolls around, finally she shows up after President had been there for almost a half hour. So they talk, and she is cleared to be baptized, so Elder Krugman and I start filling up the font so that it will be ready, we called the missionary that was in the area previously so that he could come and perform the ordinance. Needless to say it was a very stressful day at church because me and my companion were in charge of most of the logistics of the whole thing.

And then.... about 30 minutes before the baptism is supposed to happen, this guy in the ward comes up to us and hands us a paper that says they found her records, and that she no longer needs to be baptized hahaha man it was frustrating. After all that work to make sure that the baptism happened on time and that everything was going to go perfectly, we find out that none of it was needed. I liked the way a member of the ward put it, they said it was just a "really intense reactivation" haha that pretty much sums it up perfectly.

Well I hate to throw a wrench in your guys' plans, but we have been lucky enough to receive the opportunity to do parking for the Visitor's Center on Christmas day!! So I really can't give you a better time frame of when I will be calling than 2:00-6:00 my time, 12:00 - 4:00 your time, and even that is not set in stone.... Sorry, but we really haven't been very informed of what we need to do for parking that day, but not to worry, I will get to call sometime! Even if I have to fight for it! haha hopefully I won't though.

I love you guys so much though!! And I can't wait to talk to you on Saturday!!! I will answer your questions that you asked then!!! LOVE YOU TONS!!!

- Elder Schaap
P.S.
Pic #1 - SNOW!
Pic #2 - Me (and my sweet hat!!!) and Elder Krugman all geared up to go out in the cold!
Pic #3 - At the Visitor's Center with our investigators (funniest little old lady ever!!!)

Pics #4-6 -We went to the National Air and Space Museum today, along with the Capitol Building, and we walked across that frozen pond haha it was sweet!!!

Baptism on Nov. 6!

Hey Hey Hey!!

So good to hear from you guys! Things are going really well here! We have a new baptismal date!! Our investigators name is Rob, and he is scheduled to be baptized on Nov. 6th! I am pretty excited about it, especially because he has a sweet story, here it is: So his mom is catholic and his dad is southern baptist, and he remembers one time as a little kid when the missionaries came to his door and told he and his dad that if they read from the Book of Mormon and prayed to ask to know if it was true, that God would answer their prayers. Well since his dad is Baptist, he wouldn't let Rob read from it and hid it from him, but this always sparked his interest and apparently has been wanting to meet with missionaries again so that he could get his hands on one of these books. Fast Forward to about 1 month before we met him, Rob and his wife were recently talking about what church they and their two kids were going to start attending, and then what happens, we show up on his door step! Such a cool story! And we are way excited for it, so hopefully I am still here when it all goes down! Transfers are on the 26th this month (Yes I know that is a tuesday, but pres matsumori has meetings that he has to be at on Wed, Thurs, and Fri, that means P-day will be that day as well) I really think that I will stay though, so I am pumped!! The best part about the whole thing is that if he gets baptized, it is almost guaranteed that his whole family will as well!! We are very excited for that!

Other than that, we had a mission conference this last friday, and Elder Gibbons from I believe the 2nd quorum of the seventy came and spoke to us. It was a very good meeting, the main focus of it was how we can more effectively work with members, and he gave us a few interesting stats, 65% of all recent converts are referalls from members, and 80% of all recent converts knew members before they were baptized, so it goes to show us that if we are working with our members, our chance of success is much better!! Pretty sweet stuff! So we are going to try and do just that!

Well that is about all I have for you guys this week!! Keep the updates coming, that is sweet that you met a missionaries that lived in Austin's area! 3 baptisms in 3 weeks?!?! There is a member in the ward here that served in the Salt Lake City South Mission, and he said that there is roughly 180 baptisms a month in that mission! Dinner with the Robbs' sounds fun too! I haven't gotten the packages yet, everything goes to the mission office before it actually makes it to me, so things generally take around 7-8 days to make it here, but I am excited!! And don't worry about another coat, its not a huge deal. Glad everything is going well! Everything here is still good! I love you guys a ton, and thanks for everything!!!

- Elder Schaap