Back in Business

Hello everyone! So my email last week was a little crazy considering I was super sick at the time while trying to write it. My companion ended up finishing it for me while I curled up in a ball on the floor. My efforts to not throw up didn't work however :/ Anyway I am doing much better now! I have had a few followup appointments and everything seems to be fine. The cysts should hopefully go away over time and I'm praying it doesn't happen again. The branch president's wife compared the pain to having children! (and she had one of her children naturally!) I've had a few others tell me its comparable pain to child birth as well so that's really crazy to think. So thank you everyone for your concern and prayers. I honestly don't think the pain was as bad as it could of been because of all the prayers in my behalf. I also think because I'm a missionary that I was "protected," if you will, a little more. I also received a blessing from the wonderful elders in my district too so that was really awesome. I am doing much better now though! And can I just say, I have LOVED the MTC. The spirit here is so amazing and it's super hard work, but it's all worth it.

 

I am on the West Campus. Not gonna lie, I'm glad to be over here where there isn't as many people and stuff. However, yesterday we went to the main campus to go to in-field orientation and we got to eat two meals there. THE FOOD THERE IS SO GOOD. I began to be jealous then that I wasn't able to eat all my meals there. West Campus isn't like that AT ALL. But, all in all, it's still good :) It's so crazy to think, but I have learned so much and it feels like I've been here for years. Yet, at the same time I can't believe I leave for Arizona on Tuesday. It went by fast! The first few days were seriously so lonnnnnnnnng. It felt like the time between each meal was like a week. But after Sunday, the time has just FLOWN.

 

So, I absolutely LOVE my companion.  She is super cool and  I'm positive our friendship will last long past our missions. She is truly amazing and I'm hoping we can become companions at some point in the mission field again. It would be super cool to begin and end my mission with her. We have learned so much together and we have truly had some amazing experiences with our investigators. We have had some super cool moments when we know God is speaking to us and that he has told us what we need to teach each person. It is so amazing and I've never had God speak to me so strongly. Well, maybe I have, but I just didn't know how to recognize it/I doubted if it was just my own thoughts. I've learned that it is easy to doubt those promptings from the spirit because we think it's ourselves. However, God knows us better than we know ourselves and so of course he is going to speak to us in ways that we can understand and in ways that relate to us. So ya, it's going to feel natural and like it's coming from ourselves because that is the way God knows we will be able to understand it!

 

So Elder Oaks gave the devotional on Tuesday! Our zone got to ride up to main campus and be in the same room as he was :) It was really cool and he explained why our church is the only true church on earth.. There are a few things that distinguish our church that no one else has. It was kind of like a lesson on the restoration. We had just taught that to one of our investigators that day so it was really cool to see that we had basically taught the same things to our investigator. Speaking of which, our investigator is sooooo cool. She is the sweetest old lady and she has taught me so much. She has insights into the Book of Mormon that I have never even thought of and by talking about some of those things together, we were able to have some amazing spiritual discussions. She is such an amazing women and I literally cried when we had our last lesson. It's so amazing how much the love of God has been given to me. I know it's just the tiniest taste of what God feels, but I'm able to love people in such a short time that I never thought was possible. It truly is amazing. My companion and I also had a cool experience teaching her the other day. We had prayed and prayed to know what we should teach our investigator and we were inspired to plan a certain lesson. However, once we got into the lesson, we knew that wasn't the direction we needed to take it. We instead taught something completely different. It was something that we hadn't experienced doing yet but I'm really glad we recognized the promptings of the Spirit to take the discussion a different direction. At our last lesson, this investigator committed to think about getting baptized. She has felt the spirit in her life, but she doesn't want to do this without her husband. She also made great progress and prayed in front of us! It was so cute and so special! She calls us "her mormons." So she would pray and say, " Please bless my mormons etc." She is so cute.

Our other investigator is a man. (He is just one of our teachers who role plays someone from his mission). Just a little side note, I hate role playing, but you seriously do it ALL THE TIME. And you continue to do it all throughout your mission. Anyway he has committed to be baptized and is working towards that goal! Super cool, and he is teaching his family about the things we teach him as well. He has made some really good progress and we have our last lesson with him on Monday. I absolutely love teaching and I can already recognize that I can't do it alone. The spirit has helped me to know what to say and how to say it. I know this because our first investigator has asked us some REALLY hard questions. My heart seriously has dropped with some of the questions she has asked because they are so hard and I don't know how to answer them! But through the spirit, we have been able to answer them and help her understand. It's truly amazing.

I haven't had an MTC breakdown yet, but there a few more days for that to happen. My companion and I kind of had a rough day the other day with feeling pretty down and such. It was silly because there was no reason for it. However, trying to always have the spirit there and be listening for God's promptings really is spiritually draining and HARD work. So I think that was just hitting us a little bit, not to mention we are SO tired. The MTC schedul is super silly and only gives us 15 minutes to get ready and head to breakfast so we have to wake up early so we have time to shower and such. Hopefully in the field they give us that half hour to get ready. We live with the only other girls in our district. They are super cool as well and we have all become really good friends. I absolutely love my district and zone as well. That is super crazy too because I basically just love this huge, diverse group in such a short time. We had a cool experience the other day. Our zone was supposed to be studying and somehow we all got together without really meaning too and we started to watch some Bible videos and share our feelings and thoughts. It started out with just something to do and kind of enjoying the down time but still being spiritual. However, as the night went on, it became this super amazing spiritual opportunity. There weren't teachers, it was just our zone. Many people shared their testimonies and we watched a super awesome video on the atonement. I don't think there were very many dry eyes that night. It was really cool because I think we all needed that spiritual boost in a way where we didn't feel too overwhelmed by all the things we were learning and such. It was so cool and I'm so glad we got to have that unplanned, yet totally needed experience.

There are so many other things I wanted to say, but I'm running out of time. Can I just say, the spirit rocks! I totally know this church is true and I'm so glad I made the decision to be out here! I was really nervous, but I wouldn't change it for the world. It has already been so amazing, and I'm just beginning. I just wish everyone could experience this. I just want to cram all the things that I've learned into everyone's heads because it has been so amazing and has changed the way I think about life and the gospel. I feel like I hardly know anything. I've already grown so much and I can't believe that I'll be heading to Arizona on Tuesday! The time as flown. I can't wait to get out there and start finding the people that God has prepared!

Love Sister Schroeder

My Mission President and His Wife

 First day in Arizona! The Arrival Group...