What matters most...

Yeah Courtney is just about to go home. Time sure does go by fast! Her friend actually got dengue two weeks ago if you didn't  know that. So they have been in the hospital. But she seems like she is having fun on her mission. I know a couple of the going home missionaries in our zone here pretty well so it is going to be sad to see all of them go this next transfer... including my companion. I hope I get to see him after my mission. He is such a great missionary and I don't know if I will ever even get to see him after he goes home, but it will all be good. 

Wow! That is super good that you were able to go and help the Roper's out. I guess they are probably going to be moving pretty soon or going to a home or something like that. They have been really good neighbors... never had to worry about loud parties with them haha. 

That is great that Kyle e was able to speak in Bear Valley ward this week. I am sure he did a great job. 

I will have to think of what it is that I am going to send home in the next few weeks. It will have to be soon because otherwise I won't be able to get it to her in time....

So for my spiritual insight for the week. I just have one small quote from M. Russel Ballard. He said, "What matters most is what lasts the longest." We can use this simple quote to prioritize the things we do in life. For example, playing a video game gives you enjoyment only during the moment in which you are playing. And quickly leaves when the game is done. Playing basketball gives enjoyment during the game, and can give enjoyment afterwards as you enjoy better health. Being baptized can provide a lifetime of enjoyment through the Gift of the Holy Ghost and further blessings in the life to come. Being married in a temple of God for eternity makes an eternity of enjoyment possible. If we think about our actions and ask ourselves, "How long will this last?" we can kow what is of no worth, what is important, and what is absolutely necessary in our lives. And if we make a priority those things that last for eternity, then we will receive blessings that will likewise last for eternity.

I love you all!

Thank you for all that you do!

Elder Schroeder

1. philippine flag at the american war memorial cemetery

2. a picture of some writing on a wall

P.S. this is where Elder Hinckley dedicated the Philippines for missionary work.

Here is a short excerpt from a talk I found on it. from augusto a. lim in 1992 general conference

I would like to express my love and appreciation to my eternal companion for the support and love that she has completely extended to me through all these years of membership in this Church. I suppose many of you already know I came from the Philippines, home to close to 67 million people, the Pearl of the Orient, but now a land devastated by earthquakes, typhoons, floods, and even volcanic eruptions. But I will not, however, talk about the calamities that have caused much hardship and tested the faith of our people, but I would rather talk about the great spiritual blessings that have been experienced in abundance as the gospel is spread in the land.

The restored gospel was first introduced by Latter-day Saint servicemen and women while serving in the Philippines near the end of World War II, but missionary work officially started in the Philippines (from the records of the Southern Far East Mission) on April 28, 1961, when Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, then a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, met with a small group of members at the American War Memorial Cemetery in the suburbs of Manila to offer a prayer invoking the blessing of the Lord on the missionary work in the Philippines.

Before giving his prayer, President Hinckley, in a brief talk, made this prophetic statement: “What we begin here will affect the lives of thousands upon thousands of people in this island republic, and its effects will go from generation to generation for great and everlasting good.” (Philippine Islands Area Conference, Aug. 1975, p. 20.)

After his brief remarks, President Hinckley offered a prayer in which he said:

“We invoke Thy blessing, Father dear, upon the missionaries who shall come here, that Thy Spirit may touch their hearts, that their lives may be clean and virtuous, that their examples may be marvelous before the people, that they may be blessed, as it were, with the ‘gift of tongues,’ that they shall speak the language of the people, that they shall work with singleness of purpose to Thy name’s honor and glory, that they shall go forth without fear, that none shall stay them, and that they shall declare with teaching and testimony, the restoration of Thy holy work for the blessing of Thy children. Father, give them joy and courage and faith and satisfaction in their labors, and make them fruitful.

“We invoke Thy blessings upon the people of this land, that they shall be friendly and hospitable and kind and gracious to those who shall come here, and that many, yea Lord, we pray that there shall be many thousands who shall receive this message and be blessed thereby. Wilt Thou bless them with receptive minds and understanding hearts, and with faith to receive, and with courage to live the principles of the gospel, and with a desire to share with others the blessings which they shall receive. We pray that there shall be many men—faithful, good, virtuous, true men—who shall join the Church and who shall receive the blessings of the priesthood, and who shall accept and grow in leadership, that Thy work here shall be handled largely by local brethren, under the direction of those who hold the keys in this day and time, according to the law and order of Thy church.” (Gordon B. Hinkley, “Commencement of Missionary Work in the Philippines.”)

A few days after that historic meeting, the first four full-time missionaries arrived from the Southern Far East Mission based in Hong Kong. From a handful of members in 1961, the Church in the Philippines has since grown at a remarkable rate, now increasing by more than two thousand members per month. As a result of close correlation by the full-time missionaries and members, membership is now three hundred thousand distributed in forty-eight stakes, sixty-five districts, and thirteen missions. Five of the thirteen mission presidents and all the eight regional representatives, all stake and district presidents are now native Latter-day Saints. Sixty to 70 percent of the more than two thousand full-time missionaries now laboring in the field are also native Latter-day Saints. And now, standing majestically in an elevated grounds overlooking a valley where hundreds of thousands live in the heart of Metro Manila, is the Manila Philippines Temple.

Hope you enjoyed it. It is really great to stand in the same spot in which missionary work started in the whole Philippines! and to know that it was dedicated at that very spot

love you all!

Busy week and enjoying it!!

1/10/16

Hello Family!

This week is going to be a busy one. I am doing really well and feeling a lot more comfortable with my leadership responsibilities. So that is good. I can't believe that I have been here for about 8 weeks now. It is weird how fast time flies when you are always busy and have no spare time. I am going to be happy when I don't have to look at my watch every 10 minutes. We are always squeezing our time to get the most out of it. 

I am enjoying the work a ton! We found out this week that one of the families that Elder Burgos reactivated just got sealed in the temple. And my trainer, Elder Avila, just got married in the Manila temple on Saturday! I cannot believe it! He got married to the girl that he would always tell me about way back even in our first areas. That was over 2 and a half years ago!

And then Kyle is also getting married. Everyone I know seems to be getting married. And that is a big focus we have here in the mission too. Temple sealings are the goal here for this mission. We have pictures up here in the office for all the return missionaries that are married and all of the families (recent converts and returned members) that have been sealed in the temple. Every week the board gets more and more full with pictures of families at temples. It is a really great blessing to see and experience as I am working here to do the same. 

I can't believe that President Koster is going to be assigned bordering our mission! I don't know if i will get to see him or not though. That is really cool though. I will know three of the mission presidents here, and all but one of the area presidency. 

Anyways.... I am pretty much out of time.... 

oh on a side note, our battery died in our car yesterday. So we got a new one today. so thats that. They use no maintenance batteries here in the mission so they tend to go bad every now and then. 

Ah we had MLC this week which was really good. Second MLC down and everything went really well. It was different this time because president gave Elder Burgos and I about three hours of the whole meeting to present training and to practice teaching with the whole MLC. We set up the whole meeting and selected topics that we thought the mission needed with President approval So it was really interesting to really make everything and get everything ready for a meeting like that. I only have one more with elder Burgos and then I will have my new companion. Then if anything ever goes wrong then it will be my fault. I am nervous but feeling pretty good. My companion will be great whoever it is.

And the work is going well. We had 3 investigators at church this week... highest since elder burgos and I have been here. And we are looking to have 5 next week, or more. We are going to be super busy and not get as much time to work this week though so we need your prayers. We taught a lot of really good lessons this week and have a few people that are getting ready for making some covenants. It has been a great few weeks to be able to work a lot and take a small rest for New Years from having such an intense schedule. I am excited to welcome in these new missionaries onWednesday though... and to say farewell to the departing ones. It is so interesting to see the old ones go and the new ones to come in. You can just see how much a mission changes a person. It is hard to explain. You can just see it in their countenance and in the spirit that they carry with them.

Well, I am sorry I am really out of time.

I love you all!

Elder Schroeder

here is a picture of a baptism that we had in our ward, not ours but we had an investigator be able to attend  

Check out the Manila Philippines Mission blog! The Ostler's update it often. As a mom, I sure appreciate all they do for the missionaries under their care!! I love every post and to watch for pictures of my boy! http://thephilippinesmanilamission.blogspot.com/?m=1

Happy New year!

1/3/16

Hello Family!

Our mission had 76 baptisms in December. Highest month out of the whole year. Our goal this year is to have 100 baptisms a month. We have 10 zones so each zone is responsible for 10 baptisms a month, it is definitely possible and I am excited to work on reaching this goal. 

Oh so I have one question. Or I guess an assignment for you mom. So My phlebotomy certification expires in october for the state of california. My national certification has already expired. Could you please check and see what I need to do to renew my certification. I want how long it will take to process everything in order to renew. I am a little concerned with the timing and when I get home.. So could you do that for me?

Sounds like you had a fun trip up to rexburg.... beach theme reception is a pretty cool theme for the wedding.  Kyle could wear an eyepatch. That would look good. Haha..

Our baked mac and cheese was okay.... The middle of it got a little burnt on the bottom because the oven had a big flame burner at the bottom... but it still tasted good... it was expensive because we bought real cheese. And the ham was good. I managed to make a glaze for it which was really good. I think the elders liked it. Then we ordered 4 pizzas which is always good, and we made deep fried oreos. It was a pretty good new year. I didn't  take many pictures... and I don't think I got any pictures of the fireworks because there weren't meny before 10:30... at mid-night the noise woke me up so I peeked out the window from my bed for about 5 seconds then went back to sleep. The fireworks weren't that crazy though this year I heard because it was raining super hard aparently at 12. How was your new years? You didn't have to go to the youth dance this year, a first for you for lots of years. 

It is strange that you are all doing wedding plans now and that Kyle and Cathy are doing engagement pictures on saturday. 

Elder Burgos and I had a good week teaching a lot of people and inviting a lot of people to come closer to Christ. It was a great week and we were able to teach quite a few lessons. Saturday was a super hard day. It was the first saturday I think in my whole mission that I was not able to teach a lesson. We were walking around all day long and didn't get to teach a single lesson. But we got to talk to a TON of people about the gospel and we got a lot of return appointments. Elder Burgos and I think it is because a lot of people were hungover and resting from the last few days of partying that they had. We are having a hard time getting investigators to come to church so we are really working on improving that. We feel like we are doing everything we can but they just aren't going to church. So we are going to work on that. We had one come this week but not any of the ones that we were actually planning for...

And as for my spiritual insight for this week, I just want to share my testimony with you all. I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father. He wants to bless us, and His only desire is for us to be happy. I know that we have a Savior who has experienced all of our pains and afflictions. Whatever it is that we have done wrong, we can repent. I know that The Book of Mormon is the word of God. If we read it, ponder it, and pray about the truthfulness of it, we will know it is from God. I know that Joseph Smith was called as a prophet of God and was made an instrument in the hands of God to restore the Church of Jesus Christ to this earth. I know that we have a living prophet of God, Thomas S. Monson, who leads and guides the church through prophecy and revelation, and that he holds all priesthood keys necessary for the salvation of man. I know and proclaim all these things to be true in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I love you all!

Elder Schroeder

here are pictures of all our food for New Years.

more food and my kabahy (people that live in the same apartment with me).

left to right: Elder Burgos, Packard, and Ballif

oh and by the way i cut the ham with a machete because all of our other knives are dull and we dont have a sharpening  stone.  

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

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)