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

Transferred to DC 3rd Ward!

Hey Everyone!!

Man this week has been really crazy, but I guess I will start off with the Festival of Lights. Elder Johnson and I were able to go up 2 times this past week (Fri and Sat) and it was really cool! They have different musical events going on at the visitors center every night until New Years! We saw the Chapel Ringers and a Flute Ensemble, really cool to see. We went the first night with a recent convert in our ward who is an awesome guy, very solid in the gospel. Saturday night we actually went with two different less active families in the ward, and we had a good time with them. Then on Sunday, we went over to a member's house for dinner and to teach his kind of daughter in law (long story) anyways, it went really well, she has been going through some hard times in her life and is now looking for something new to give her hope, so hopefully she will be able to find it with the church!

Well, as it sounds like you already heard from a couple of different sources, I did get transferred :( it was sad to leave, but it is good at the same time. I am going to miss that ward down in Patuxent, but I am looking forward to meeting this new one. So the area I am in now is the D.C. 3rd North area, and my companion is Elder Krugman. I am really excited for this transfer, Elder Krugman is a really cool guy, and I am looking forward to working with him! Should be pretty fun!

Everything is very different here though, I will no longer be getting fed every single night (DANGIT!) probably only about two times a week or so, and the work is much different here, the area is a lot smaller than what I came from, but it will be good and will hopefully help me become a better missionary!

Well I have to go now, but Dani, I got your letter, I don't have time to reply to it today, but I promise I will next P-day! And THANKS FOR THE PACKAGE!!!!!! I am way pumped to have a bunch of music now!!!!!! I love you guys sooooo much, and I hope you have a wonderful week!

- Elder Schaap

P.S. Some pics for ya! Most of them of the Temple and Lights and such...

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

First Transfer Day!

Well let me fill you in a little bit on how crazy my week was.... It started off on Thursday morning, the LP elders got a call from Pres Matsumori himself telling Elder Deklerk, who was the DL, that he was being emergency transfered out that day! The call came at around 8 in the morning and we all had to leave at 1! Pretty crazy!! Well the consequence of that happening was that there was only 3 of us left in our appartment.... so we have been a trio for the last week and covering both LP and Patuxent haha and we have been scrambling to figure out and juggle both of our schedules, because we both had appointments and things like that, but we had to compensate on some things, so both us and Elder Nowlin had to cancel some of our appointments. Needless to say it was quite an eventful week, but we made it through with out too many bumps in the road ;) Some of the time it was actually kind of nice though, because we always had appointments, whether they were in our area or LP so we did a lot more teaching and a lot less finding, which is nice! Also, LP has some cool people in there ward, Monday night we got to eat at a 4-star restaurant.... for free! haha it was so awesome! Dani, you should definitely be jealous! I was so full afterwards though, let me tell ya, it might have been worse than thanksgiving!

Other than that though, our investigators are doing well, I just wish they would progress a little faster, things keep coming up, like someone gets sick, or a relative dies, things like that keep preventing us from meeting with them and teaching. It's a little frustrating, but theres not much anyone can do about it so we just have to keep our heads up. As for transfers.... It was about as uneventful as it could have been hahaha I am staying in the same area with the same companion, pretty much the only thing that didn't stay the same was that I now have a new roommate, Elder Opeda who is Elder Nowlin's new companion, but we knew he was going to get a new companion anyways, so pretty much nothing exciting happened haha. We did drive up to the temple today though.... we didn't go inside, that is just where transfers are, but I did get to see it!

Other than that though, not much is going on, hopefully this week will be a little less hectic, and we can actually get some good work done. It is really good to hear from you guys though, sounds like things are busy as usual! Thanks for the Package! I picked it up today! Oh, and I have a question for you, are you trying to make me gain weight or what? You guys keep stuffing these packages full of candy haha I mean don't get me wrong, I love it! Also, it is probably going to take me the entire transfer to do that "Light Reading" that was in the package, but I appreaciate it haha and tell Jord he needs to step it up, I don't even remember the last time I weighed more than him! Dad, all I have to say is, you should probably practice your golf game a little bit, come on -5? haha Dani- not gonna lie, it was pretty weird to see that pic of you and Brad... I don't know, but to me it still seems like he is not home, but I am glad to hear about your school and that you are doing well! I knew you would! Well, thats about all I have for you this week fam! I love you guys!!!! And until next week...

- Elder Schaap

P.S.
Pic #1 is: Elder Nowlin, Elder Deklerk, Me, and Elder Walker when we dropped off Deklerk to go be trained a ZL, and it was taken by Pres M!!
Pic's #2 and #3 are just proving that I still got it!