blonde hair and blue eyes

Hey Family!

Aw man, I'm so happy y'all got to meet the Walls at their homecoming.  They're awesome people.  :) and I miss them so much!  Y'all could just send a CD with the recordings on it if you want.     

Oh hey and those Book of Mormon notes that I sent home are for Emily.  I didn't have time to write a note in with the package but it was part of our challenge together.  We agreed to read the Book of Mormon by the time school got out and with every chapter write down something we learned.  So that's mine for ya.  Where's your end of the deal, Emily?  ;) 

So yeah, I got a new companion!  Her name is Sister King and she's from Phoenix, Arizona.  She's been on her mission for six months and she's really nice.  Haha I don't know what else to tell y'all about her.  And Sister Wolf got transferred up to Marksville.  I miss her but know she's doing good.  Ya know, at first I really didn't want to get a new companion for my last transfer but now I'm really liking it.  It's weird, new companions help you to grow in different ways.  I actually think I was more trunky last transfer than this one.  Aw man, look at me.  Only trunky people talk about not being trunky.  Haha just kidding I want and need to work real hard the last little bit to help Sister King get to know the area and the people.  Plus I love the people here so much I can't just leave em hanging.  I think my goal this transfer is get members present at as many investigator lessons as possible.  Honestly I just forget to call and invite them so we hardly get any members coming out with us.  But we have so many sweet investigators that sincerely want to learn more and the members could really help. 

Hey!  When are y'all gonna come to Louisiana so you can meet all these cool people?  Here's a great idea!  Let's just all move to Baton Rouge.  Aw man, dream come true.  I've even adopted two children while on my mission so we already got family here!  Haha I'll explain.  At church Heather-Marie and Alasia like to call me mama for some strange random reason and drag me around everywhere with them.  It's hilarious!  I'd tell ya a funny story but you'd have to be there otherwise it'd make no sense.  It's funny, half the people in the ward know I go home pretty soon and the other half think I have a while left.  I love this place so much.       

Anyways, oh my here's the sweetest miracle.  I like to call it our transfer miracle because if we hadn't gone to transfers we wouldn't have ever met this couple.  Here's the background.  So Wednesday we go to transfers and what not and on the way home I think, "Hey we should go to walmart!"  because we haven't been grocery shopping in weeks and I don't want to starve my poor companion.  So fast forward to the end of shopping.  We're using the self check out machine to get our stuff and this couple squeezes past us to get behind us in line. 

They turn to us and say, "Are y'all Mormons?"

So of course we say, "Yeah!" 

"Oh cool!  We saw y'alls name tags and figured you were."

"Have y'all ever talked to missionaries before?"

"No.."

"Can we give y'all a Book of Mormon?"

"Yeah, we'd love one."  And we explain a little about it and how it's another testament of Christ.

"Aw sweet!  We'll go read it tonight!"

"Can we come by and teach you more about it?"

"Yeah.  Can y'all come over tomorrow?"

And then we get their info and what not and that was about it.  We called them the next day but they were at work.  So we went back on Sunday and were able to teach them the restoration.  It was a real good lesson too and I think they understood everything too!  Aw man, they related to Joseph Smith because they've been to so many different churches and have seen how they all teach kinda the same things but they're all different.  They're really interested and want to find out the truth for themselves so it's just really cool.  We didn't even get the chance to invite them to church, Melissa just turned to BJ during the lesson and asked, "You want to go to their church this sunday?"  Aw man, so cool!  I'm so excited for them.  It's so sweet because I've never taught a couple that are both interested.  haha and the funniest part of the lesson.  Melissa says, "In the Baptist church they believe Jesus had blonde hair and blue eyes.  In y'alls pamphlet his hair looks blonde!"  Super random and funny.  We just said, "oooh we've never noticed that before."  And moved on.

Before I got to go I just want to share a quick scripture with y'all.  1 John 3:18 "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth."  Always remember, actions speak louder than words.  The scripture makes me think about something we were discussing in ward council yesterday.  Our ward has a big problem with transportation issues and getting people to church.  We were talking about how we need to assign certain people to pick up others, and yes it can be frustrating at times because we'll get there and they won't be ready or don't want to come.  But we just have to keep doing it until they do come.  Brother Richardson from the high council was there (he's one of my favorite person in the stake) and he reminded us of the covenants we made to consecrate all we have to the Lord.  I don't know, he went into more detail but it's too much to write.  It's so true though.  Our actions speak volumes more than our words.  We have to quit sitting around and expecting others to do things and go do the things Christ would want us to do.  After all, we already promised Him that we would.  

Love y'all so much!  Enjoy your last soccer tournament.  And good luck with finals, Sarah!

Love Always, Sister Schmutz

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?