August

Hey family!

 

Thanks for sending the pictures from lake powell.  Looks like y'all had fun down there.  :)  and up running the snake river!  Tell all our cousins I say hey and I love them.  Hope y'alls week has been pretty good. 

 

 

Ooh some exciting news!  Last pday we were just at the office playing some board games with the Elders and President Hansen came walking in with a reporter from the newspaper down here.  He asked us all a couple questions and took pictures of us playing games too.  So maybe we'll be in the newspaper sometime soon!  Sister Mills said the religious section is every Saturday so we looked just the other day but nothing was in it yet.  So maybe it'll be there this coming weekend.  I'll keep y'all posted on that. 

 

 

It was kinda a slow week but a good one too I guess you could say. 

 

We taught Andrea H. the law of chastity and surprisingly it went really well.  Haha when we got there we pulled out the pamphlet and she just laughed and said, "Oh I know plenty about this."  The lesson went great though and we went over everything and at the end we told her that in order to get baptized she either had to marry her 'husband' or they'd have to move out.  We understand everything with loans and stuff for school so we just asked her to pray to know what to do.  Haha she said something like, "I know what the answer is gonna be.  The question is will I really do it."  Basically she's just afraid of marriage.  Which ya know, I don't blame her.  Freak I don't want to get married anytime soon.  But ya know, I think she's gonna get married.  :)  her 'husband' really wants to already plus she said her mom would like it too.  We'll see what happens though.  The best part of the whole lesson was the very end.  (we were two hours later than usually visiting her because our car wouldn't start and we missed the bus...long story.)  But anyways at the end her husband walked in the door and this was the first time we'd ever met him.  Right before he opened the door she turned to us and said, "Alright, no more talking about this."  He was really nice and brought in some laundry detergent that she needed, said hey, and then went into another room.  Then Andrea turns to us and says, "I didn't even have to remind him to bring some home!  Maybe I should marry him."  Aw man, I love her so much.

 

 

I shared my testimony yesterday during fast sunday.  Ahh it was my last fast sunday as a missionary.  It's so weird to think I'll be home in just a couple weeks.  I don't even know what to do with my life... I'm gonna miss it here so much. 

 

Anyways, here's another random funny story for y'all.  So we're at Sister Mills place and she randomly asks,

"Some people say right before you die there's this bright light.  Is that true?"  or she said something like that.

Sister King says, "I don't know.  I've never died before."

And Sister Mills goes, "Sister King!  I was being serious here.  Quit making jokes!"

Maybe y'all had to be there but it was funny cause Sister King was totally serious.  Aw man, Sister Mills I love her. 

 

 

Anyways, I can't really think of much else that went on this week.  I want to share a scripture with y'all real quick though.  This was when the Lord was talking to Enoch and telling him what to teach the people, "Choose ye this day, to serve the Lord God who made you.  Behold my Spirit is upon you.....and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me."  (Moses 6:33-34)  I love it because it's all up to our choices.  If we make the choice to serve God, then we have the promise that he'll walk with us always.  Of all the things I know about God, I know that He always keeps his promises, every single time.  I know that he's always there and walking with us if we simply choose to follow Him. 

 

I'll try to send y'all some pictures from the alligator farm. 

 

Love y'all so much!

 

Love Always, Sister Schmutz

Pioneer Day

Hey Family!

 

Sounds like y'all had a good time at Lake Powell.  Haha I'm glad y'all missed me too because I wanted to be there so bad.  Maybe we can take a quick trip before school starts.  ;)  that'd be pretty sweet.  

 

Aw man, Penny called you the other day!  Haha maybe they'll hire me back for three weeks before I gotta go up to school.  I miss that place and everyone there.  Do you know if Ryan is still manager at Prestige or did he leave?  And Sikander?  Where's Emily's new job at?

 

The heat and the humidity have definitely settled in this week so it looks like it's gonna be boiling hot from here on out.  Man, it's just my favorite thing to be dripping in sweat all day long.  Just kidding.  Nah, it's bad but the good thing is the bus is always blasting the air conditioning.  So if you're dying of heat you just gotta jump on the closest bus.  Hey..I guess that's one good reason for coming home...no humidity!  Nah, I'm happy to see y'all too.  I just love this place and the people so much.  It's gonna be sad to leave. 

 

We had our annual ward Pioneer Day BBQ on saturday.  I just have to say, the best part of it is there's these little fish ponds and you can catch the fish and then release em.  But I guess since it was a cold winter or something all the fish were too small this year to catch.  Such a bummer I tell ya.  I was really looking forward to it.  Our investigator, Andrea came though and she seemed to really enjoy it!  And she came to church yesterday too.  We're gonna teach her the law of chastity this week so please keep her in all y'alls prayers.  :)  she's awesome though so I ain't worried too much about her.  

 

I can't really remember much else of what we did this past week.  Oh yeah!  The alligator farm last monday.  It was weird but really cool.  I'd send y'all pictures but there's this sign right in front of my computer that says you're only allowed to plug in headphones and flash drives to the computer.  So...I'll try to be obedient.  Haha I'll try to send some next week though.  Alligators are giant though and really lazy.  The tour guide guy went close to them and fed them and what not.  They're just weird creature, that's all I gotta say.  

 

Anyways, I finished reading the Book of Mormon this morning and I wanted to share just a couple scripture I liked with y'all.  First being Moroni 9:25 "My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his suffering and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever."  Mormon was telling his son, Moroni this because the people were so wicked and there were all these terrible things happening.  But I think it can relate to anybody really.  For example, "My daughter, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which you are going through grieve thee, to weigh thee down in sorrow; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his suffering and death, and the showing his body unto our father, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever."  I know it's true.  If we are faithful in Christ then everything will be different.  I have to say, while on my mission I've been able to see that.  It's hard to describe but I know that if you're striving to to always remember Christ you will truly be happy and everything will go better.  It's as simple as that.  If you want to be happy, do everything you can to gain a personal relationship with God and Jesus Christ.  

 

Second scripture being Moroni 10:32 "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God."  Pretty sure it's the youth theme for this year.  I don't know it's just a cool scripture.   

 

The computers being all dumb and keeps kicking me off.  Hope y'all have a good week.  :)  love y'all!

 

Love Always, Sister Schmutz

oh man

Hey Family!

Aw man, y'all are going to Lake Powell this week.  You lucky ducks.  :)  I wish I could be there with y'all. 

Oh my goodness, did Sarah tell you?!  Yesterday Sarah, Nik, and Elise were skyping with Sister Mills and she called me.  Haha I could hear their voices through the phone!  We probably aren't allowed to do that but it was pretty cool nonetheless.  It made Sister Mills day too, so thank y'all for doing that.  Oh hey were you in Rexburg when it got all flooded out the other day?  Elder Steele showed me some videos of all the water everywhere and it was crazy!!   

Haha and here's the story of Elder Rothschild emailing you, Emily.  The elders and us always have this joke going around of who we're going to marry.  So long story short I said, "you should write my sister, Elder Rothschild!  Not my twin sister, she's got a boyfriend.  But my little sister."  and then I showed him some pictures and gave him your email.  And low and behold he actually did email you.  And that's about it.  :)  you should email him back though.  He's a pretty cool guy. 

Anyways, here's the crazy story from this week.  So remember last weeks story about BJ and Melissa?  Oh man, so we text him on Saturday to make sure they're still coming to church on sunday and here's how it goes.  I'll just type out our messages so it will make more sense. 

"Hey BJ are y'all still coming to church tomorrow?"

"yea of course ..."

"Sweet we'll be saving y'all a seat.  It starts at 9am.  May we come and teach y'all more tomorrow evening too?"

"Sure.  Can I tell you something ..."

"hello"

"Yeah what is it?" in the meantime I'm just thinkin aw man, what's he gonna tell us.  And then he says,

"I'm kinda have a crush on you, I think your really really cute"

Aw man, it's the worst when that happens!  Way to ruin everything.  We just texted him back and told him our purpose for being here and what not.  Man, I was so excited for the both of them because they were so sweet.  And he said he was gonna come to church tomorrow but they didn't show up.  We stopped by their place later since sunday is their only off day but they didn't answer.  Maybe we'll just pass them over to the elders to teach.  The thing that bugs me about the whole thing is he has a stinkin girlfriend and they were both really interested in learning more about the gospel.  I mean, things like that happen all the time but not when the people are actually interested.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. 

Oh but there is some exciting news from the week!  Andrea came to church yesterday for the first time and really liked it!  Not the Brazilian Andrea, the Andrea that lives next to the Dixon's.  Aw man, she's so sweet.  We taught her on Thursday too and she really wants to get baptized.  She has a date set for Aug 3 but that ain't gonna happen.  Just minor details, ya know.  The other day we were visiting her and asked her how long she's been married to her husband for.  And she said they actually aren't married yet because if she gets married she won't get any grants or loans to keep going to school.  So basically she said she'll get married to him in four years or so.  But hey we haven't taught her the law of chastity yet so when we do we'll commit her to pray about what to do.  And in the meantime hopefully keep coming to church.  She's awesome though.  Sister Poole was able to bring her because Andrea owes some money on her truck so she can't drive it right now, so that was super nice.  I was freaking out during church too because the lessons weren't all that good and the talks were on the temple and she probably had no clue what anybody was talking about.  But hey the spirit must've touched her heart because she said she's excited to come back next week.

That's about our whole week right there.  Pretty good one to say the least.  Haha wait here's one more weird story.  So we're walking down the street and this guy rides up on his bike.  We wave to him and ask him how he is.  He gets off his bike and pretty sure he's drunk or something.  But he says, "Who?!"  and says it a couple more times.  We were just a tad bit confused so we said, "Who what?"  To which he replies, or at least this is what I heard, but he could've said something different.  "Whose a possessed black nigger?"  I replied, "Um..nobody."  and that happened a couple more times, and then he said, "Whose bullet proof?"  same thing, "Nobody."  In the meantime he was getting up way close.  And he says, "I'm bullet proof!" he said a couple more random things repeatedly and then I said, "Can we give you a picture of Jesus?"  Haha and I think it freaked him out because he started backing away.  Then we said, "Alright.  Have a good day Sir." and walked away.  Really weird.

Hey before I go here's a quick scripture to think about.  4 Nephi 1:38 "And it came to pass that they who rejected the gospelwere called Lamanites, and Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites; and they did not dwindle in unbelief, but they did wilfully rebelagainst the gospel of Christ; and they did teach their children that they should not believe, even as their fathers, from thebeginning, did dwindle."  The key is they didn't dwindle in unbelief, but they chose to rebel.  Everything always turns back to our agency.  So the question to think about is, how are your choices affecting you? 

I just want to say real quick that I love y'all so much.  And I have a testimony that the gospel of Jesus Christ will bless your life more than anything else.  I've seen it countless and countless times.  The secret to it though is you have to live the gospel of Christ everyday the very best you can.  And look back on all your blessings.  After all, your blessings grow when you count them.  Christ lives and God loves us.  I know it's true.  

Love Always, Sister Schmutz

p.s. Missy convinced me the other day to move back out here.  I'll clean out one of her rooms and live at her place for free.  And since I've mastered the bus system I'll ride the bus and go to school at LSU.  Sounds pretty good to me.  What do y'all think?  :)  

p.s.s. or p.p.s?  Anyways, our district is going to an alligator farm over in Hammond today.  So if you never hear from me again it's probably cause I got eaten by a gator.  But know that I love y'all anyway.  :)  I'll send pictures next week!