Starting the New Transfer

Hey everyone!

It is always so good to hear from you all! Sounds like everyones week was pretty eventful to say the least! The same goes for me, actually this last week was pretty crazy and stressful for me because I am now the one that has to know the area, everyone in it, and pretty much everything about it! Things are going pretty well though, I wasn't feeling the greatest these past few days (I think a little bit of it was from the stress) but no worries, I am feeling better now! It is definitely a new challenge though to get used to a new companion, and taking over an area, because I was with Elder Walker for nearly 3 months, and over that time, we got used to how each other worked. Now everything has completely changed, don't get me wrong, Elder Johnson and I are working really well together, it just takes a little bit of time getting used to everything that is new. We have been working hard though, and it is going to take just that to keep up things going the way they were.

As for our investigators, Rob is doing really well, we were able to meet with him yesterday, and we talked about two of the more scary things that we have to teach people, the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Tithing, all of my worries were for nothing though because he was completely receptive and willing to follow both of them!!! Sweet! He is so awesome, unfortunately though, we weren't able to meet with his whole family because he hasn't been feeling the greatest and has had a ton of doctors appointments for his back and allergies. So we are hoping that we will be able to set up something so that us and Rob's family go to dinner at a member of our ward's house for dinner so that they can meet someone from the church before they actually attend.

And Donna is still doing well, but we actually haven't been able to meet with her for over a week, and she wasn't at church this week :( we don't know why, we haven't been able to contact her since then, so I hope she is still doing well!

Well I had a pretty funny experience this week with Elder Johnson, so on Halloween day, we were already over our miles for the month, and we had to do be in for the night right after dinner, so we had about 3 hours between church and dinner that we had to fill, but with out using any miles. So we decided to ride our bikes haha, at first I thought I was going to hate it, but it was actually way fun!! And my bike is sweet! We didn't go too far, maybe about 6 miles or so total, but it was still a lot of fun, and gave me at least a little bit of an idea of what it is like to do missionary work on a bike.

I hope everything is going well at home, that is insane that you guys have already had that much snow! We haven't even gotten rain here for quite a while, but it is starting to get a lot colder, yesterday it only got to the mid 50's. And that is crazy that Jake is already leaving, it feels like just yesterday that he told me he got his call, but I am glad I was able to help him! Dani - that is sweet that you went to the HOWL haha honestly I wouldn't have even remembered that if you hadn't have reminded me, but did you see any of my friends?! Mike was one of the DJ's!! Mom - haha sorry about your flight experience, it sounded pretty bad, how do you always get stuck next to those guys?! Dad - HOLY MACKRELL, what is it with our family and car batteries??? We pretty much have the worst luck with them! Well that is all I have for you this week, sorry no pictures :( I will try and send some next week though! Love you guys tons!!!

- Elder Schaap

Transfer #2 - Staying in Patuxent!

Hello Family!!

Good to hear from you all, and that you are doing well! That's crazy that you guys had snow this week, we haven't seen anything like that here, but I am sure we will soon enough. Well this week was really good for us! Donna came to church - for all 3 hours - and had a really good experience. We went over to her house the following day and asked her what she thought of the whole experience, and her response was really funny, it went something like "It was weird, I didn't think anyone was really that nice" haha so it went really well, and the Relief Society did a great job of introducing themselves to her and making her feel comfortable. The best part about that visit was that we gave her a Baptismal Date for Nov. 13th! We are really excited about it and so is she!!

As for Rob and his family, we weren't able to meet with them unfortunately, Rob and his son went on a camp out for scouts Friday - Sunday :( So consequently that means that he can no longer be baptized on the 6th because he has to come to church atleast twice before that can happen, I am not too worried about it though, because we are going to be meeting with him and hopefully his whole family this week and after that the plan is that they will all come to church and have a new baptismal date!

And for transfers...... I will be staying in Patuxent, but I have a new companion, Elder Johnson, it should be a pretty good transfer, it is definitely going to be different for me though, because I am now the one who has to know everything about the area since I have been here the longest. Elder Walker was sent to the Anacostia Central area which I hear is a pretty rough area, but I don't know a whole lot about it. I don't have a picture of me and Elder Johnson yet... maybe next week I will. It has been a pretty interesting day though, because Elder Walker and Elder Nowlin had to go up by themselves to Transfers because there was no way all 4 of us could have fit in the car with all their stuff, so my new companion and my other new roommate had to drive down here by themselves with only the GPS to tell them what to do haha it was a long trip, but they eventually made it. Other than that I really don't have a whole lot for you guys other than

Thanks for the package!! Just what I needed.... more candy haha seriously though I loved it, and the cookies are amazing! Funny story though, the camera you guys sent me is actually older than the one that I have haha the one that I have is 5.0 megapixels and the one you sent is only 4.0. Ha I guess I will just keep it as a back up unless you guys want me to send it back. It is good to hear that Brad got the whole 2 minutes - 2 minutes - 2 minutes - 2 minutes (with the hand motions.... of course) talk, you can't cook a steak any other way (unless of course they are really thick steaks, then it is 3 minutes - 3 minutes - 3 minutes - 3 minutes hahaha) But I love you guys!!! Glad to hear that you are all doing well! That's sweet that you got to go to a jazz game! And I am super bummed that I don't get to go to the USU basketball games this year :( haha I love you guys so much!!! And hope you have a wonderful week! And tell Grandpa to start feeling better!!

- Elder Schaap

Pic #1 - My District
Pic #2 - My Appartment