Great Week!!

5/30/16 

Hello there!

Wow! That looks like quite the schedule for school. I will be happy with whatever schedule you get me. I prefer on campus classes over online just so you know. Taking religion online is fine though....

Thank you for all that you are doing for me with school!

Lots of emails to write this week so I'm short on time. 

This week was great! We had 7 investigators at church! We are being blessed in the work and enjoying our time of service. 

Oh and by the way, I am going to be training a new missionary this next transfer. So Elder Hernandez is going to be transferred out this week. 

Lastly, we caught a rat, mouse, spider, and tuko (gecko) this week. The rat is a good story. The power went off at like 1am so our fans stopped working. Of course this made us all wake up because it was so hot. Then we heard something moving in the kitchen. So we got up and were running around the house trying to catch a rat at 1 am. We got it! Then went back to bed.

Love,

Elder Schroeder

 

                 spider that I caught

Here is a very interesting flower that we      found walking through the jungle,

A pet bird (wild) of some filipinos that they let Elder Hernandez hold. 

                             Gecko

This is where we held a sacrament meeting in a place called Malatgao (a future group that we are working on)

Witness of the Widow's Mite

5/23/16 

Hello!

This week was really good. We have caught a total of 7 mice in our house this week. And one rather large rat. We have been killing them in various humane ways. We caught all of them live with either a broom or sticky pads or other odd traps and things. It has been pretty fun chasing the mice around the house. We still have a rat in the house somewhere but he has not shown himself recently. We are working on catching him still. 

I like the idea of the exploring and stuff in Alaska. That would be a lot of fun. 

The work is going well! We had 6 investigators at church this week and 6 less active members go to church as well. It is great when we are able to help others to start making choices that bring themselves closer to God. We have a lot of people we are teaching and I am really enjoying it more than ever!

Here is my spiritual experience for the week. Three weeks ago, an older man maybe in his late 60's came up to Elder Hernandez and I and asked us to help him with something. He then took us into the library in the church. Then he took out his tithing slip and ten pisos and asked us to help him fill it out becausehe doesn't know how to read or write. I have been to this man's house and I know that they have nothing.  For his whole life he worked doing copra which is taking the husks of coconuts. He would get paid 200 pisos for every 1000 coconuts that he would husk. (He also let us try husking them which was pretty cool). I have witnessed the widow's mite in real life and it is defintinely true. 

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Schroeder

1. Lechon baboy (roasted pig) at a birthday party. 

2. Look closely at the cat's back near the edge of the drum

3. This guy, former Elder Martinez, was companions with Taylor when he was still a new missionary.

Opportunities, Learning and Practice

5/15/16

Thank you for starting all of this for me, especially for the semester override. That is really good! It is a possibility to get into Med school but there are some challenges I'll have to work out- First, taking all of the classes to get a BS in Psychology while also fulfilling requirements to get into medical school would require me to take an extra 20+ credits on top of my degree. Second, yes BYU provo has better credentials. I would like to go to a really nice medical school, so that I have more options for residencies once out of medical school. If I were to stay at BYU idaho I would probably switch my major to chemistry. I don't think BYU Idaho has a biochemistry major. Maybe minors in Bio and Chemistry? 

It is a hard decision.... I am not sure but I need to decide soon right... If I were to stay at Idaho, I could have a full tuition scholarship next semester, I am pretty sure... 

I will think about it this week and let you know what I want to do.

I am excited for going to Alaska! That sounds like a ton of fun! You have no idea how excited I am for that. 

The work is going well in the area. Elder Hernandez is doing well and we are working hard. We were able to get some investigators to church this week! We had 4 at church and 2 seem really interested. One of them is for sure going to be baptized. The problem is that she lives pretty far away from the church and it is hard to be able to get out there and teach her, but I think it should work out. We are just going to have to spend a lot of time out there and it should be really great! We have been seeing good success in some areas of the work but been having a hard time with the other areas. I think the branch missionaries were afraid of me at first because the branch president told them that I was a former assistant and they thought I would have a rather rigid personality... so they were afraid to work with us.... But I think they are finally starting to realize that I am not like that, and we have a few ward missionaries that are really enjoying working with us now. 

Oh on another side note, This week at church I got to confirm a sister who was baptized this last week which was a really great experience. I was also able to be the last minute concluding speaker becuase the speaker didn't show up. Then I got to teach gospel principles. I really got to participate in the Sunday meetings well this week. That was a great learning opportunity. I can see how the Lord is teaching me teaching skills and allowing me all the practice that I need. 

I am excited for the trek too! It should be lots of fun. I remember when we did trek. Can you believe that was 4 years ago already! Is it going to be at the same place? 

It was a really good opportunity to be able to confirm someone a member of the church and to give them the opportunity to receive the holy ghost. I could feel the spirit guide me and help me in the blessings that were given to her. The priesthood is real and the power guides and directs the work of salvation and exaltation in this Church

Love you!

Elder Schroeder

Here are some pictures. Teaching Elder Hernandez how to safely pick up a jellyfish, a coconut orchard, and the bat we caught in our house this week

Insight on Revelation

5/8/16

Hello Family!

Thank you for sending the pictures! Looks really good! You both look really good and young and all that. 

That is a strange coincidence that you wrote about the chairs that santa brought last year... I remembered them last night as I was praying. It is odd that you remembered them too and wrote about them. I will get to sit down on one of them again here in a few months. Are they holding up well still? 

I don't really know what to say today because we just spoke yesterday. And it was great to see you!! 

 I am doing well and enjoying the time I have to serve. It is great to feel the spirit in such great abundance every single day! I hope that I can always have the spirit with me every day for the rest of my life. It is hard even as a missionary sometimes. And it is even harder when not on a mission. I would challenge you always strive to have the spirit with you every single day.

This week my spiritual insight is about prophecy. From accounts dating back to the earlier days of the church, many people often recall members prophesying great things in meetings and gatherings. Sometimes I feel like the word prophecy scares us, like it is something reserved for only apostles and prophets. It is true that they all have the gift of revelation and prophecy, but as members of the restored church, we are also entitled to a certain amount of revelation and prophecy, within specific bounds. If you listen carefully in sacrament meetings and other gatherings, you will hear those that are spiritually mature deliver prophetic messages. By prophetic, I do not mean that they are prophets or entitled to become one, but prophecy and revelation are spiritual treasures that we can all receive. Listen carefully to those that are seasoned spiritually and you will hear it. You will feel that it is true. Because we always have a presiding authority (either a key holder or someone acting under the authority of such) at church meetings, we can rest assured that these spiritual promptings taught, will be correct and true, unless corrected by the presiding authority. We do need to be careful when delivering a message or testimony of this nature, but we do not need to be scared to do so. The spirit will always guide us and help us to know what is truth and what is not. 

I am very excited for the future of the church here in Palawan. I have served here for almost 10 months now and I have seen the church grow so much! I have seen groups start, a branch formed, a branch split, and the day is fast approaching for Puerto Princesa to become a stake. I have spoken to some of the very first members here on Palawan and helped baptize some of the newest. One individual that we baptized in my very first area is on a mission, and another individual that I interviewed for baptism left on her mission just last month. The church is growing fast here. I can see the day when there are branches and wards are scattered all throughout this island and penetrate the hundred of islands that have not yet even heard the gospel yet. It is great to be part of such a great and marvelous work!

I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Schroeder

Prayers...

May 1, 2016

This week has been another great week! Bad news though... Elder Hernandez has some sort of leprosy on his feet... So we have not been able to work. We actually don't know if it is leprosy. I was just saying that to scare you. He is taking antibiotics and is being taken care of well. His feet look a lot better than they did before so we should be able to start working this week. Your prayers for Elder Hernandez would be much appreciated so we can get out and start working. 

I have been able to work with the elders that are in our bordering area though which has been nice. I am really able to teach these Elders a lot. It is a great blessing to be able to help them to learn. The oldest missionary in our district excluding me has been out 9 months, and there is only one filipino. So they have a lot to learn still with the language and culture, but they are all great missionaries. We really enjoy being able to serve together. I may be conducting exchanges with the Rizal elders here in the next week or two. I am excited for that.

About the mothers day call. I will be calling on Sunday at about 1 or 2 our time. So you can expect a call around that time. We have permission to check out email on Friday if you need to change plans... and we can make the call any day on Saturday, Sunday or Monday here. So we are pretty flexible. We will check our email again on Friday to make sure everything is all good still, otherwise, just expect the call at that time. 

Interviews this week were really good. I got to teach the budgeting class to the narra zone and I think it will really help. I am also helping Elder Hernandez and the other Elders in our house to learn that better as well. It is going to help a lot. 

I am still praying for Joy's mom. It is really sad to hear that it may be that close. I hope she is taking it well. It is so great to have the gospel and to know the Plan of Salvation. I know that we will be able to see her again if we live faithful. 

For BYUI,  I cannot think of anything that you need to ask. Just be sure to mention that I am preparing to go into a bachelors degree program for Biochemistry. 

Sorry, this email was a lot longer.... but the computer lost internet connectivity and I lost about half the email. So I am all out of time. The draft that was saved did not return all the way. I had a cool spiritual insight on here but now it is gone and I have no time to rewrite it. 

For the school stuff. Just make sure that I get classes that will prepare me for biochem. Also bio 180 and chem 101 or 105 with a lab Is what I would like to take. Please do your best to make sure I get good professors. ratemyprofessor.com is what I use. Sid can help you out with this if you need help. Sorry this email is sort of lame... I wrote a lot more earlier but its gone now:/  have a great week!

Elder Schroeder

I love you! and thanks for the recipes!