Transfers - Staying in Bowie with Elder Kennedy!

District Picture



Me with our investigators

Hello again!

Man these weeks seem to go by faster and faster each time! Well it turns out that Elder Kennedy and I will both be staying here in Bowie for another 6 weeks! Ha, which is very unheard of in our mission, in fact I am almost sure that two people staying together for 3 transfers has not happened to anyone else since I have been out! We keep joking that we will have been companions for the whole entire summer, from Memorial Day to Labor Day haha! We are excited though, we have a lot of good things going on right now, and I think Pres. Matsumori is pleased with the progress that we are making with the ward! And our Ward Mission Leader told us that this is the biggest teaching pool the missionaries have had since like 2 or 3 years ago! So everything is going really well!

We were able to meet with a few new people this last week, I don't remember if I told you or not about the couple that was married the same day that Dani and Brad were, but she is a member of about 2 years now I think, and was baptized up near Baltimore. We were able to meet with her husband on Friday, and we had a really good visit with him! Hopefully we will start meeting with him a few times a week, things have just been hectic with them getting married and moving and stuff like that. Now things are starting to settle down though.

We went over to one of our investigator couple's home again yesterday, and it turns out that the wife is actually telling people about our church, and doing missionary work herself! Everybody in her church keeps asking her where she was the other week, and she has no problem telling them that she went to the Mormon church! Which is awesome, and although she wasn't at our church this last week, we aren't worried about it, because we know that she will be back, and we will continue to meet with her, there is a "Why I Believe" fireside this Sunday, hopefully they will be able to go to that, I think it would be great for them.

Good to hear from you guys! The Tour of Utah sounds fun! I can't believe that Connor Richards is home already! Crazy! Austin gets home in 6 weeks! Time is going so fast! Well, you guys are the best! I love you and hope you have an amazing week!!

--Elder Schaap

New Move-In Packets Work

Hello!

Wow... another week gone by, things are going super good for us! Unfortunately I think my time here in Bowie is getting short :( Everything is going really well though.

I had a sweet experience last week. So in the Bowie ward we go out on splits with the members 3 times a week, which is pretty unheard of in our mission, most wards are lucky to have splits once a week, but anyways, so in order for that to happen we kind of have to have a lot of things to do, so the Elder's Quorum came up with a sweet idea for when we don't have appointments or people to check on, they have what are called New Move-In Packets which is basically information about the area, kind of giving us a good way to break the ice. Well before last week I really hadn't had any success with them, and they have been doing these packets for about a year now, and they were considering not doing them any more because it just wasn't bearing any fruit. But last Wednesday, I was out with the Elder's Quorum President of all people, and the first person we talked to invited us right in and told us that he had been looking for a church, he has had a few family problems over the past few years and thinks that he needs to get back into it! He told us that he wouldn't be able to make it to church this last Sunday, but he will be for sure this next Sunday!

Oh, and we had the wife of one of our investigator couples at church this past Sunday, and the best part about it was that she went up and bore her testimony!!! It was so awesome, ever since then, when we have been at members' homes they keep asking us about her and saying "That was awesome!" So we are finally starting to get somewhere! Hopefully we will be able to go to the visitor's center with them sometime before I leave!

Well, that's about all I got for ya this week, but it sounds like you guys had a fun filled week! That's always good to hear! I love you guys! And I will talk to you next week!!! LOVE YOU!!

- Elder Schaap

Great Teaching Moments

Hello!!!

Good to hear from you guys! Things are going good for us! We had kind of a cool experience this last week, so one of the investigators that Elder Kennedy had worked with in his previous area (White Oak) actually moved to our area! He apparently has worked with the missionaries a couple different times over the past few years, he is a very knowledgeable guy that likes to talk haha we met with him yesterday for about 30 minutes, and I think Elder Kennedy and I got about 5 sentences in the whole time! So we are going to have to work on that a little bit, but he is a cool guy, and Elder Kennedy was very excited when he got the phone call.

We also had the chance to help a part member family in the ward move (to a place that is still in the ward) but they actually got married on the same day Dani and Brad did, and things have been kind of stressful for them, but hopefully now that they are moved, everything will settle down, and we will be able to start working with them more often!

Another cool experience we had this past week, we went over to check on a less-active, part-member family and we asked him what his feelings were toward the church, and he told us that he knows that it is something that he should be doing, and also that he should be getting his kids involved as well! So we have an appointment with them tonight, hopefully they will be coming to church this Sunday!

That's about all I got for ya this week though, I hope everything is going well for you guys! Oh, and by the way, you think the weather is rough over there haha just wait until you come out here next Summer!!! haha you think 50-60% humidity is bad?? Love you guys!!!!


- Elder Schaap



Pic - haha Here is what the thermometer said when we got in our car one time!

A Baptism!

Our Baptism


At the Baptism


Happy "Hump Day"

Hello Family!!!

Man, this week was sweet! And crazy, but still sweet! Our young man that we've been teaching was baptized on Saturday and it was amazing, his mother and grandparents, who are all non members, were at the baptism! It was such a cool experience though, because his dad had a lot of "firsts," he gave his first talk on baptism, he performed the actual ordinance of baptism for the first time, and he gave his first priesthood blessing! And all of them were for his son, which made it that much cooler! Both the son and the dad had very spiritual experiences! Hopefully the rest of their family did too!

As for our other investigators, we are still working with the young lady we've been teaching, and she actually came to the baptism! She is just having a harder time accepting the gospel, she says that she feels it is true, but there are a few other things that she is getting hung up on, we had a good meeting with her yesterday though, and we will be going by tomorrow as well, not too much new going on with her right now though.

Last week we actually went to dinner with a couple we've been teaching, they took us out for Sushi!! It was good, I don't know if it was as good as Tokai, but since we are in Maryland, they have real crab in their sushi, not imitation! haha but they are doing good, still moving pretty slow, but she asks a lot of good questions, we are hopefully going to get them up to the Visitor's Center soon, I will let you know how that goes. We did meet with another couple, it was interesting, it turned out to be more of an informational visit with them rather than spiritual unfortunately, but hopefully we will be able to take some members over there, and they will change their minds!

Well, I love you guys!!! I hope you have a wonderful week! Talk to you next week!

- Elder Schaap

The Importance of a Testimony

Hello Family!!!

So good to hear from you guys! Things are still going really well for us here! The young man we've been teaching is getting baptized this week on Saturday the 23rd actually instead of the 24th, so that is going to be sweet! Our other investigator, however will not be getting baptized... this week, she no longer has a date set, but I will talk about that later. So we had a good meeting with our baptism candidate yesterday, we went over kind of some of the logistics of the service and things like that, and he is ready to go! We did have kind of a speed bump with his mom last night, but we got everything smoothed out, and his dad told us that some of their family is coming into town for the baptism, but they will only be here on Saturday, so we are going to see if we can do the confirmation on Saturday as well!! (His family are not members just FYI) So that is going to be pretty sweet!

As for the young lady we've been teaching, she is still doing good, and we will be meeting with her tomorrow, she kind of realized that she wasn't ready to be baptized this week, but the reason she wasn't ready was because she hadn't been doing some of the things that we had been asking her to do. So we are going to try again to set a goal for her to be baptized, and I will let you know how that goes next week!

We also went to the home of the couple we've been teaching again yesterday, it went really well, she is still asking us all sorts of questions, and I think that she is starting to realize that her beliefs are very similar to ours (if not the same). I feel like she is overlooking what matters most, yes it is good to know the doctrine of the church, but I still don't even understand all of the minute details of the gospel. What is important though, is that I have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true, and that Joseph Smith was called as a prophet and to restore the gospel, as long as I know that, the rest will come with time. I just wish we could get that across to her.

We had another cool experience yesterday as well, Elder Kennedy and I were checking on a less-active member, and we decided that we would go try and talk to a lady that we saw walk into her house, it turns out that they had met with the missionaries from this ward only about 5 or 6 months ago, and that the only reason they stopped is because they moved and lost contact! They have a 13 month old baby, and he teaches Physics at a private college, we didn't get to talk to them for too long, but we are going back next week, so ask me about it then!

Well, I think this might be the longest email I have sent so far on my mission! haha! I hope that you guys have a great week, and it was good to hear from you! Love you!

- Elder Schaap

P.S. Sorry, don't have my camera with me, I will send pics next week though!

It's been a year! Plus...Baptisms!

Hello Family!!

Things are continuing to go well for us! We are still working a lot with the young man and young lady we've been teaching. He is still doing well, we were a little concerned about how his mother was feeling about us coming over so frequently, so we decided that we had to sit down with her for a bit and lay everything out so that she didn't feel like we were hiding anything from her. It turned out that she was fine with it, her only concern was when she didn't know beforehand that we would be coming over to their house so everything is good there! Now Elder Kennedy and I just have to get everything planned out for the baptism on the 24th!

She is still doing good, I don't know if I told you guys or not, but she takes care of her mother full time, and so this last week her mother went to the hospital and she couldn't make it to church again, but she is still planning on the 24th as well! We have had a few good meetings with both of them this past week, and they are moving right along!

Also, we went over to the home of the couple we've been teaching yesterday again to help them with their yard, and it was sweet! She is starting to ask more and more questions! This past week at her Bible study class that she goes to, she asked the people their if it would be ok if she invited us to come with, and they were fine at first... until they found out that we were "mormon missionaries" which she didn't take to well, so she is becoming more and more interested about our beliefs, hopefully we will be going to the Visitor's Center with them soon!

Well that's all I got for ya this week, Love you guys and hope to hear from you soon!!

- Elder Schaap

Helping Neighbors

Pic 1 - District Picture



Pic 2 - A ghetto house... the picture doesn't really do it justice though.

Hello Family!

Good to hear from you guys as always!! Things are continuing to go well for us here, and we found out a few nights ago that both Elder Kennedy and I will be staying here in Bowie for another 6 weeks!! So we are excited!

We had a good week this week, I don't think I told you about the couple we've been meeting with last week. They are neighbors of one of the members in our ward, and he recently shattered both of his heels (long story) and so he is pretty much out of commission as far as any real physical work goes, so we went over there and mowed their lawn, and their neighbor told us that his lawn is usually pristine, and he takes really good care of it, so Elder Kennedy and I were thinking that we had to be on the top of our game. So afterward we asked the wife how we did, and she told us that the lawn was the best she had ever seen it! And then as we were leaving, we ended up talking for like 40 minutes or so about the restoration of the gospel, and she is really interested now!

As for the young man we've been teaching, he is doing well, we met with him twice this last week, and we are meeting with later on today! He is doing really good, and he is now scheduled to be baptized on the 24th of this month, and things are getting better all the time!

And with the young lady we've been teaching, we were able to go to the Visitor's Center with her on Saturday, which went really well, and she asked a lot of really good questions. She was supposed to come to church on Sunday, and then feed us after, but she called right near the beginning of church telling us that her mother went into the hospital the night before, and that she wasn't going to be able to make it, so we will be meeting with her later this week.

Other than that, not much to report, the 4th of July here was pretty uneventful for us because we had to be in our apartments by 9 o'clock haha so not much happened... we heard some of it though! So mom, the same happened to me, the 4th of July didn't really feel like the 4th of July. Oh, and I did get my package! Thank you!! Everything was in pretty good condition...some of the candies fell out, nothing was melted though! haha so that is good! But I love you guys, and have a good week!!


- Elder Schaap