Thursday, December 31, 2015

Christmas...

12/27/15

Here are some pictures from our Christmas skype with our son Elder Schroeder!!  It was awesome to see him and chat. He is still his our sweet, and funny boy! 
Robin

Worn out shoes...
New socks though!! 

And insoles...

He's not worn out though! Continues to SERVE ONWARD!!! 

He is healthy and happy!! 


Hello Family! 
This week has been great! I am enjoying the work like always and having fun in my area and my stewardship. 
So are you all getting ready for wedding plans? There is only a few more months then you will only have one left that's not married. 

Santa was really nice to you all this year! I found a filipino nativity here and some other cool things that I will probably be getting for the each family.

I don't really feel like I have much to say because I just talked to you all just a few days ago. 

We don't really have time to go to the temple here. We are supposed to have a temple day tomorrow but I don't think it is going to work out. I think we are just going to have district meeting.
I'm glad you are staying busy with everything in the temple. That sure is a lot of marriages to handle in one day. It is probably fun to be able to help out so many brides. 
It is still weird go me thinking that Kyle is going to be getting married. 

This week Elder Burgos and I got rejected a ton. It was hard in the moment for the few hours. It seemed like it was just back to back. I have never experienced Filipinos being so rude before. I had to hold my tongue a few times... But later that day we were blessed greatly because of the trials and persecution that we faced. We found two part member families that we didn't even know about and were not on our cmis. So we have some great potential with those two families. We also have one child from different part member family. We have to be really careful with baptizing kids here because a lot go less active if they don't have really strong member support. 

I am looking forward to new years and the crazy firework here. I just hope it isn't too loud so that I can still get some sleep that night. But we will be going home an extra 2 hours early that night so I should be able to catch up on some other assignments that we have as well as my journal writing. I am planning to teach Elder Burgos how to make baked mac and cheese,  and ham as well. So he will enjoy that. He told me this week that when I made the bread pudding that it was the first time that he has ever seen anyone use and oven in his whole life. 

oh and I ate shark fin this week. Just to let you know, it tasted like shark. Also talked to a guy this week that kept trying to tell us that Jesus' real name was Patrick. He was nuts-o
also I heard that Philippines won Miss universe and that there was some kind of huge mistake or something. 

Well for my spiritual insight I would like to share a story from James Rasband BYU

The Analogy of the Forgiving Landlord

To help explain the two sides of the Atonement, let me try a rather homely analogy. Like most analogies and metaphors, it is not perfect in all respects. I hope, though, that it can aid understanding. Suppose I find myself in a home built for me by a very generous landlord. It is a nice home. He encourages me to maintain and improve the home and gives me a number of instructions for making the home a nice place to live. 

Over the years I sometimes improve the home, but other times, through my negligence, I make it worse. One time I flood the home when I fail to set the faucets to drip during a freeze. Another time my kitchen catches fire because I fail to turn off a burner on the stove. A couple of times I lose my temper and put my fist through a wall. In each instance the landlord forgives me and encourages me to pay a little closer attention to my home and to his instructions for making the home a joyful place to live. He does not charge me for the damage caused by my mistakes. Instead, sometimes he is patient while I figure out how to fix things on my own; sometimes he sends someone over to fix the problem; and sometimes I wake up and things are fixed in ways I don’t quite understand.

This same landlord happens to have a son who is quite wayward. The son is always up to no good, and I don’t particularly like or respect him. One night the landlord’s son, as a prank, sets fire to the shed attached to the back of my house. The fire gets out of control, and the entire house burns down. I lose the home. I lose all of my possessions, including some particularly valuable possessions that I can’t replace, such as photos and heirlooms. I’m angry and distraught. I want the no-good son to pay. I want him to fix things and to make me whole. A part of me knows he can’t really make it better. He may not have the resources to rebuild the house, and, even if he could rebuild the house, he can’t retrieve the photos and heirlooms. And that makes me even angrier. As I sit in anger, the landlord comes to visit me. He reminds me that he has promised to take care of me. He promises me that he is willing to rebuild my house. In fact, he says that he will do more than that: he will replace my house with a castle and then give me all that he himself has. He says that this might take a while, but he promises it will happen.

“What’s the catch?” I say.

“Here are the conditions,” he says. “First, you need to put your faith in me and trust that I really will build you that castle and restore all that you have lost. Second, you need to continue to work on implementing the instructions I gave you about keeping up your house. Finally, you need to forgive my arsonist son, just as I have forgiven you all these many years.”

We are commanded to forgive all men, without condition. And as we do that we will be forgiven and receive a greater gift than we ever deserve. We need generously forgive all those who have wronged us and be willing to move on. With the new year, let us forgive anyone and everyone that has wronged us, move on, and receive the blessings of forgiveness in our own lives.
I love you all and I hope you have a great new year!

Hoping it rains,
Elder Schroeder

1. Bread Pudding
2. Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce



Another Great Week!!

12/20/15 
Hello Family! 
Wow you guys had quite a week! Busy busy!! We have been busy here too of course. I will be calling about 1-1:30 on  Christmas day here. I will be doing it from the office but there isn't going to be anyone here in the office because it will be closed. It should be really nice though. The internet here should be good and fast, so it seems like it will be good. 
I am thinking about maybe trying to make bread pudding this week or next but I dont know if I will have enough time. Could you send me the recipe for that? then I will see if it is possible. 
Yeah I don't have any pictures of myself in that suit.. I am going to ask around... I think Elder Burgos has it so I will get it from him. Sister Ostler loved it haha. President Ostler was willing haha... but he just said that you do whatever your wife wants you to do. Haha I could tell that he was happy to get out of that santa costume though. 
That story with the Lopez kids is great! It is really good that they were able to earn some money, good experience for them. 
This week was great! It seems like the Christmas  party was already two weeks ago. We also had to do some emergency pick ups for some choir performances near my old area in Makati on Wednesday night.
We got to work a lot this week! It was super great! After having the mission tour and being on Palawan and all of that, it was great to just feel a little bit like a normal missionary for a while. One day this week was super different though.... a big storm came through and it rained all day long on Saturday... and our area flooded in a lot of spots. We really tried hard not to walk in water that was above our ankles but there was one spot that we had to cross that was just a few inches past our ankles. 
Sorry, I replied earlier to everyone else's emails. Elder Burgos had a doctors appointment that we needed to go to. Then we had a meeting in the office right when we got back... and  I  had to translate for an interview with President Duford. 

We just found out a few minutes ago actually. President Hiatt, the former 1st counselor to President Stucki and Ostler. He was called as a mission president. And his assignment is Cauayan mission! Where Taylor served. He is coming here in July or someting like that! And I might get to see him!

Well, I am all out of time. Lots to do, so I will have to cut out my spiritual insight for the week. 
Oh and our baptismal candidate is not ready for baptism yet, so we moved him to January. He is getting really really close though. 

Love you all and I am excited to see you!

Elder Schroeder




Mission tour and Palawan Christmas

12/13/15
Hello Family!

This was one busy week! I am glad that the missionaries are able to come over to our house for Christmas. It is nice to have somewhere to go for Christmas. We had a Christmas party this week on Palawan which was really good. And we have another one tomorrow. I will be sending you pictures of that this week I am sure. You will probably get a laugh out of it... I won't explain why though. Let's just say that Santa Claus is President Ostler... and even in the mission he still has his little helper elves.... 

Sounds like your week is rearing up to be super busy. Well at least you get to warm up for your next wedding by being a part of Brian's wedding. Oh and if you could wrap up Kyle and cathy's gifts for me that would be great. They are both in separate boxes so you can just wrap them up. Be sure to send s thank you note to the Wakes, They are super nice people and Elder Wake and I are pretty good friends. I will email them as well telling them thanks.

Oh, one question I have that Dad may be able to help me with. It is about the Melchizedek priesthood that Moses got. So he received it under the hand of Jethro, his father in law, a Midianite. He was a priest of Midian. And the midianites come from a branch of Abraham (but not the house of Israel. Midian is one of the descendants of Abraham through his third wife Keturah. Which is not part of the covenant house under Abraham. So my question is... How and why did God chose to pass the Melchizedek priesthood through the Midianites instead of the Covenant House of Israel? My research resources are limited.... so if you could try to figure out the answer to this, I would appreciate it. 

Well this week was really busy with the mission tour and flying to Palawan... So we met with President the day before mission tour and talked about some things. We decided who would be interviewed, what apartments we would go check etc. And since I didn't know how to get to one of the apartments that we would go to check, President suggested that Elder Burgos and I go and drive the route early Tuesday morning. So we woke up at 4am to go and drive all around Manila to figure out the best route to drive to get there... it sure helped a lot. I knew right where I was going when I had to drive around the car with a General Authority and President in the car... I was very happy when that was over with. And then we got to go to palawan for two nights which was really good. Elder Burgos and I got to work in our old area which was a lot of fun. We got back Friday night late. Good news is that we got drive through McDonalds twice this week. 

Anyways, so here is a good spiritual insight for the day. This comes from Elder Bowen. In 1954 (i think, just going off of memory), a medical student named Roger Banister set off to break a record that was thought impossible. At that time, the world thought it was impossible for a human to run a mile in under 4 minutes. On May 6th, 1954 Roger Banister broke this barrier that all thought impossible. The next year, 5 other countries had runners that also broke the 4 minute mile mark. 
Sometimes, we set false limitations for ourselves. We tell ourselves that we cant do something because it hasn't been done before. If we can break a barrier or false expectations that have been set, then others will follow after the example we have set. The same is true with the gospel. Do we ever think, it is impossible to love all the people around me? Or do we ever think that it is impossible to reach out to those we are assigned to home/visit teach because they dont like the church. We can overcome these things if we get it with a new cause and with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I love you all! Thank you for all the emails!

Elder Schroeder

1. Lechon Baboy (BBQ pig)
2. Elder Burgos and I with the Elder and Sister Bowen



Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Delayed email...

12/6/15
Hello there Family!

Sorry, i just got super busy, got distracted and I forgot to send last weeks. And I don't  think  ever finished typing the email.... so I will send you that one as well this week... busy busy week we are having a mision tour and Elder Burgos and I are in charge of pretty much everything... Or at least a lot of it. phew... just have to stop and take a breath sometimes. It's is all going well though! 

11/29/15
Yeah thats what I was guessing with Arthur's parents. So that is good to get a confirmation on that. 

Driving in Manila is pretty good. Not as hard as I thought it would be.... but it is kind of like playing go karts just in a giant van. The LTO (equivalent of DMV) was not that bad actually... but we got there early so that the line wouldnt be as long. One problem was that their machine that prints off the licenses was broken so we had to go back a few hours later and pick up the copy when the machine was fixed. But we got to go to taco bell while waiting which was super good. 

I am trying to make some arrangements right now to get the gifts I got for Kyle and Cathy back to the states. I have two options. Either I can send it with Elder Wake's parents or I can send them with Elder Johnson who will be seeing Jericho Handy at some point. Then he can just give them to him. 

Yes, by the way I got the package. It was in really great shape when it arrived. I opened it and got the book out, which I figured would be on the bottom, and re-closed it. So I need to look at the rest of the package. But it worked out really well i think. just curious, how much did it cost to send that via slow boat?

Elder Burgos has been out 22 months, but he extended for 30 days.. well actually, he was extended by president without telling him, haha. So actually the same thing that happened with me pretty much. Except when I came in the second time they had already extended my going home date. So he is going home in the middle of February. 

I just watched that video! I can't believe the volkswagen is working!! Is there any thing else that he needs to finish/fix??? Kyle isn't allowed to drive it before me...
It looks really really good! I am excited to drive it!!!

(this us where it ended from my email from last week, another one coming in a few minutes. You'll get 2 this week:)  

Love you!
Elder Schroeder 

1-2 view  from our apartment. that is the pasig river... you can't tell in the picture but that water looks a lot thicker than it should....
3- mini cooper at our apartment complex (there are also a few of these in our area)