happy 4th!

Hey Family!

So the news is... I get to stay in Baton Rouge for my last transfer!!  Sister Wolf is getting transferred though which I'm really sad about.  I really hoped we'd be staying together but that's alright.  I'm gonna miss her so much.  Man, I have to say that Sister Wolf has taught me a lot.  And by a lot I mean a lot.  She's awesome and I love her so much!   

Goodness, I feel so bad for the poor soul that gets to be my companion for this transfer.  I feel so bad because she only gets six weeks to learn how to get around in the crazy city of Baton Rouge and learn how to use the bus system and everything.  Goodness, keep her in y'alls prayers.  I only know Baton Rouge so well because I've been here forever but she only gets six weeks to learn it.  I'll have to teach her all that I know! 

We met President and Sister Hansen this last week.  It's weird...I don't like getting new mission presidents.  You expect them to just automatically know you already and all this stuff but they don't.  It's just hard because President Hansen came and he wants to change so many things.  My personal opinion is he shouldn't be changing anything quite yet cause he just got here and he doesn't know anything about Louisiana!  Louisiana is a special place I tell ya.  You can't just do things the normal way down here.  I mean, I love this place like crazy but some things should just be left the way they are.  I mean, we aren't in Idaho anymore.  Other than that though they're pretty cool. 

Ooh so the exciting news!  Geneva and Johnathan got baptized and confirmed on Saturday.  I just have to say it was one of the best baptisms I've been to too.  :)  First let me tell ya.  On Thursday we go over to their house and Geneva comes out crying saying she doesn't want to get baptized on Saturday.  We were kinda freaking out too because she wouldn't even watch her mom get baptized.  And we had no clue what was gonna happen at the baptism.  But Saturday came along and Amy's husband, Jonathan did a really good job with them.  Geneva got straight in the water and was really calm and only had to get baptized once.  It was super sweet.  Haha and then Johnathan wouldn't plug his nose so he had to get baptized twice because his knees kept coming out of the water.  I'm so happy Amy and her family got to come down.  I think it helped calm everyone's nerves and make everything go a lot better.  Oh and the best part.  After their interviews, Elder Navitikula kept saying how strong of a testimony Geneva has.  He said he couldn't really understand her but the spirit was there really strong.  So cool and I'm so happy for them.  :) 

Sounds like y'alls 4th of July was pretty good.  Since it was our p-day we switched our proselyting time to the morning so we had the whole evening to do whatever we wanted.  Our district had a BBQ at the zone leaders apartment.  And then us, the office elders, and the north elders went and got snoballs.  (Snoballs are the greatest invention ever.  It's a snowcone but it has ice cream in the middle and lots of flavors)  And then we went downtown and walked around the city.  And got to watch the fireworks on the levee.  It was a really good day.  Man, I love the elders so much! 

That's so sweet that y'all got to see Sister Calderwood!  I haven't heard from her forever and was thinking about her the other day. 

Anyways, I'm gonna cut this email short so I can send y'all some pictures. 

Love y'all so much!!

Love Always, Sister Schmutz 

4th of July

Hey Family!

Sorry I don't got a lot of time to email today... I'll type as fast as I can.  Our pday is actually on Friday this week but we're emailing today because the library will be closed.  With President Hansen coming in yesterday he's doing zone conferences all week to get to know everyone so our pday got switched later in the week. 

Anyways, ooh the exciting news is that Geneva and Johnathan are getting baptized this Saturday!  Chandra's friends from South Carolina is coming down for the baptism too.  It should be real nice.  :)  I'm super excited for them too.  I'll be sure to send y'all some pictures. 

It sounds like y'all are having a pretty great summer.  Be sure to tell Austin I say hey! 

We've been doing real great here too.  :)  ooh here's a cool story for y'all.  So on Saturday we're going to contact this media referral we got and we walk all the way there but she ain't home and her husband is getting ready to leave to work real quick so we just drop off the bible and keep walking. 

Sister Wolf asks, "where we headed to?" 

And I say, "the bus stop on Prescott."

"Why don't we turn around and go the way we came from?"

"Umm I think this way is shorter.."  You have to keep in mind it's burning hot out and we're already dripping in sweat.

So we turn the corner and there's this girl holding this little toddler and trying to carry a giant thing of laundry. 

So Sister Wolf asks, "Can we help you carry it?" cause she kept stopping every couple steps.

"Umm..Yeah!" 

While we're walking we get talking a little.

"What's the little guys name?"

"Aiden"

"Aw he's cute.  Is he your little brother?"

"No.  He's my son."

"Oh..Cool"

"What y'all doing out here?"
"We're missionaries from our church."

"So are y'all out here trying to get people to come to church?"

"Kinda...and teach them about Jesus."

I can't really remember the rest of the details but we gave her a Book of Mormon and she asked if we could come back and teach her.  Her name's Keaina and she's super sweet.  She just lives in a little apartment by herself.  She looks like she's twelve but she's probably seventeen or so.  She's quite but real nice.  I'm real excited to go back.  The experience was sweet because it shows that God wanted us to meet her that day.  If we didn't have plans to go see the referral we'd never be over there.  And if the referral wasn't home we'd never had kept walking which means we wouldn't have turned the corner and seen her right when she needed help.  It was just a sweet little miracle!

Oh and here's one more sweet miracle before I gotta go.  So way back a couple weeks ago we're visiting the Dixon's and teaching them on their porch.  Their house is one of those that's connected to another one so their neighbor is sitting on her porch and listened in on the lesson a little bit.  At the end she asked, "Where's y'all church located?"  We said, "Up on Winbourne across from the golf course."  And she said, "Cool.  I'll have to come sometime soon."  And that was it.  Then fast forward a couple weeks and our district has this challenge to give out lots of copies of the Book of Mormon.  So we're thinking and decided we should give one to her!  We give her one and she said she'd love to read it and we could come back later to talk about it.  Then fast forward to last week and we stop by to see her.  She's busy but says to come back the next day.  So we got back and she read a little of the Book of Mormon.  Had lots of questions.  And we got to teach her the restoration.  She related a lot to Joseph Smith wondering which church to go and knows God will answer her.  Aw man, she's so awesome and I'm so excited for her.  Oh yeah, and her name's Andrea.  We have two investigators named Andrea now but they're both pronounced differently.  :)

Anyways, that was about our whole week right there for ya.  Hope y'all are doing well. 

Hey and a quick scripture before I leave.  "Peace, peace be unto you, because of your faith in my Well Beloved, who was from the foundation of the world." (Helaman 5:47) It's as simple as that.  If you want peace then you got to turn to Christ.  When you learn of him you can receive his peace and rest. 

Love y'all so much!  Have a great week.  

Love Always, Sister Schmutz

p.s. transfers is next week!  What do y'all think will be happening? 

the final ride

Hey Family!

Aw man, thanks so much for the birthday wishes.  I'd say it was definitely a good one, specifically for three main reasons.  Alright so here they are:

First being, no one at church knew it was my birthday.  I just didn't tell anyone, plain as that.  So in ward council after church Brother LaBorde turns to the Elders and says, "Well, are y'all gonna tell everyone else the news?"  (the real news was that Elder Gillen is being transferred this week which is two weeks before transfers)  But one of the Elders says, "Oh yeah!  It's Sister Schmutz's birthday!!"  Then everyone turns to me and asks me if it's really my birthday.  So I say yes and the whole ward council starts singing happy birthday to me.  Aw man, it was priceless.

The second being, we had this appointment with the LSU Sisters to meet this potential investigator they want to give to us.  So we get there and the lady isn't home.  You have to understand we're in the ghetto and the LSU sisters don't go to the ghetto very often and from past conversations you can tell they're kinda freaked out about it.  So Sister Wolf turns to me and says, "Let's go contact those two guys." (two black guys.  maybe in their twenties or so.  just chilling on the ground.) while the Sisters are getting back in their car to drive away.  Haha I think she wanted to kinda show off to the Sisters.  But I was like, "hey!  might as well."  So we just go up and talk to them and they're super funny.  They said we were brave for just coming up like that and talking to them and what not.  Oh my and here's the best part.  They're talking about how God is like a gangster for all these silly things.  And one of them turns to me and says, "You're a gangster.  You can see it in your eyes."  And then he turns to Sister Wolf and says, "You aren't one quite yet.  You've got a little more to learn."  Haha oh man.  It made my day.  Dream come true to be called a gangster by some ghetto black guys. 

Third reason being, the office elders came over for dinner.  We can't go in their apartment and they can't come in ours so we were just eating on the porch when low and behold it just started pouring.  Haha just being funny I said, "We should all go stand in the rain and get drenched."  So yep, you guessed it.  We all went and stood in the rain and played around in the giant puddles.  The spanish elders drove up too so we convinced them to come join us.  Aw man it was too good.  Definitely a good birthday.  :)

Thanks for the package too!  The skirt and one of the shirts is too small though, so do you want me to send those back to you? 

Oh my goodness.  Before I forget here's the absolute best moment from the whole week.  Wednesday we were at bible study and Elder Gillen and Elder Navitikula were teaching about Faith.  So Elder Gillen turns to Johnathan and asks, "how can you increase your faith?"  To which he replies, "keep the law of chastity!"  Oh my, it was the best moment ever.  We all just busted up laughing.  And then Elder Gillen says, "Well, we know what the Sisters have been teaching you lately."  Oh man, we taught him the law of chastity last week.  And Chandra said ever since then he mentions it everyday.  Eleven year olds say the best things.

Anyways, I'm gonna keep this email short so I can send y'all some pictures.  :)  the bike ride today was awesome.  Well...we were all supposed to ride as a district on the levee but half of them were really late and lots of confusion.  But still it was very fun.  We ended up just riding around with half our district and half the spanish district.  And then we all went to get some pizza.  The weather was perfect today too. :)  Oh and the t-shirts say "the final ride"  on the front.  And "bringing hope to the world one mile at a time"  on the back.  Just incase you couldn't read it. 

Love y'all so much!!

Love Always, Sister Schmutz