Philippines= The Pearl of the Orient

March 28, 2016

Hello Family!

This week was all good here! We have had extra missionaries staying with us at our house this week on and off. i am learning a lot about selfless service and good things like that. 

Anyways, I am at a loss of words for this week and I am not really sure what it is that I should say in my email this week. We are teaching a lot of people and we had 20 new investigators this week. That means that we taught 20 new people for the first time this week. We have really been blessed to be able to find a lot of people to be able to teach this week. It is a great blessing to serve in a land where people are so willing to listen and to have time to learn from us. 

I am really enjoying the work here and having fun doing lots of different things. We finished another zone conference this week and everything went really well. We have the last zone conference this week and I am really excited for this last one to be over. We also have a batch of missionaries going home this week, we have a temple day, and we have exchanges this week. So we will be super busy this week like normal. 

Yes by the way, my plans are to go to a semester at BYU-I and then to transfer to Provo. (at least I am pretty sure).  Is that 1962 impala for me? haha... kidding. I hope you have a fun time up in Idaho. Don't freeze to death out there. 

This week, a spiritual experience comes from all the new investigators that we had this week. I remember something from our conference with Elder Maynes. He explained to the missionaries that if Elder Haynie and he were to go outside, that they could find someone to teach in 5 minutes. The faith and the power that those two men have made an impression on my mind. I always would think to myself or doubt, how receptive are the Filipino people? Is it really that easy to find a new person to teach. This week, we were able to have 20 new investigators. One week, several months ago, Elder Burgos and I were able to have 22 new investigators. My faith has grown immensely, and I can now also say, "give me 5 minutes, and I can find someone new to teach." The people here are so receptive to the gospel. I understand that not everyone will be prepared to accept the message and to really take it into their heart and mind. However, this Pearl of the Orient is a blessed land and prepared for missionaries and for this work to go forth with great power and great haste. It is such a blessing to have been chosen to serve here for a short period, and I pray that I can make the most of my time here. God has prepared these people to listen to the message of the restored gospel. 

As a side note, you may remember from an email of mine some time ago that the Philippines is referred to by the brethren as "The Pearl of the Orient." I learned this week that in the Philippine National anthem, they refer to the Philippines as "perlas ng silanganan" which means, pearl of the far east. I can testify, this is the pearl of the far east and is crucial to the preparation of missionary work in this part of the world. Great things will be brought to pass as the Philippines becomes and area of strength!

Thank you for all the prayers and emails!

I love you all!

Elder Schroeder

Easter Week

March 23, 2016

Hello family!

Well there are quite a few things that they do different here for Easter. There are a few places that do a few different things. One interesting one is that there is a place where some people actually volunteer to be "crucified" for a short period of time to represent what Jesus did for us. So there are literally people who are crucified for a few minutes with nails and everything. Another one thing that people do is really different is that there are some other people that beat themselves over their own backs with whips... then once it is all swollen and red and puffy, they cut themselves on their back (they do this so it draws a lot of blood to the skin, so when it is cut it bleeds a lot more than it normally would). So those are some pretty extreme things that they do here that are not really anywhere else. The Catholic days like Ash wednesday, palm sunday, and good friday are really the biggest focus here. Whereever you go in the Philippines there are thousands of people that go to church on these days. So it is interesting to see so many catholics go to church. All of the filipinos also buy little woven pieces of palm frongs and hang them up in their houses until they buy new ones on palm sunday the next year. So almost everyone has dried out woven pieces of palm frongs hung up in their house all year round. They also do something called the "Black Nazarene" (but they do this all year around regardless). They have a statue of Jesus bearing the cross (it is called black because his skin on the statue is black and he has curly hair) and then they lift up that statue and everyone worships it. I have a few videos of it, remind me and i will show you what that is like when i get home. So thats a few things that they do different here than in the states. 

Oh yes we went to Palawan this last week. I forgot to tell you that we were going. It was good. We got fed by the Branch President in Santa Monica. They always make fun of me because of how many times I have come back there. Idon't  know if they will ever forget me out there. I have been back there so many times now. haha. I don't know if I will ever get to go back though. That was probably my last time. But I actually do not know yet. It is not for sure yet but I think that I will be transferred this next upcoming transfer. Hopefully, if I do,  I will get to train. That would be a great blessing. 

I remembered this week that you had your anniversary. I hope it was nice! 32 is a lot! I am afraid to say that you are getting "old." No no I am just kidding, give it one more year.

I am really looking forward to driving Dad's car. It looks great!!! 

It is weird everyone I know seems to be getting married or finding someone to get married to.

Anyways, here is my spiritual thing for the week!

One spiritual experience for this week comes from my study of the scriptures. I was reviewing a story that I enjoy in the Old Testament as I was contemplating one of our investigators struggling with a law of chastity problem that he has. I was reading the story of Jephthah the Gileadite. He was the captain of the armies of Israel and had made a promise to God. If he would be made successful in the upcoming battle, he would sacrifice unto God the first thing that came out of his house upon his return. These are his words:

 " 30 And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands,

 31 Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering."

He was blessed by the Lord according to his promise as recorded in verse 32, "¶So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the Lord delivered them into his hands." At this point he returns to his home and "his daughter came out to meet him ... and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.

 35 And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back." 

Jephthah made a specific promise unto the Lord, and he knew with all of his heart that he needed to fulfill the promise that he had made. Despite how hard it must have been and despite the pain that he felt after a short period of lamentation, Jephthah fulfilled his promise made unto the Lord. The scpriture states, "39 And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed." 

As I was reading this, I thought to myself, "what am I willing to sacrifice in order to fulfill MY promises unto God?" As members, we have all made certain sacred promises with God. He expects us to keep them. There are no loop-holes, no ways around it, no alternative terms by which we can satisfy those promises, except by the way He has set and through His son. We must be willing to sacrifice all disobedience and show him that we truly love him. 

The spirit often points things out to me that I need to sacrifice and give up to be obedient and fulfill my promises. It is a wonderful gift to have that guidance and to seek to magnify it always. I invite you to do the same.

Well, that is all I have got for this week.

I love you all! 

Elder Schroeder

Eternal Families is the Goal...

March 14, 2016

I looked at the picture with my face in the background and that is really funny!!  I am glad that I was able to be there with a smiling face and all. I am glad that the wedding went well and everything was all fun and stuff. Kyle seems like he is really happy. It is still super weird to think that he has a wife now. But hey that's great! I am super super happy for them. Hopefully, they have a fun honeymoon. After their honeymoon they are going straight up to school right?

Look just over Perry's shoulder and you'll see a special guest at the wedding. We laughed when we noticed we caught this on camera. We had a stand in for Elder Schroeder at his twin brothers wedding at the San DiegoTemple. 

Anyways, I forget all of the other stories that I was going to share with you this week. We didn't have as many investigators at sacrament this week as we had hoped. Only 3. The mission is doing super well though! We have had the missions highest number of oyms in the history of manila mission ever! 15071 oyms! That means that the 200 missionaries in our mission talked to and invited over 15000 people to come unto Christ. It is so amazing to see how great of an influence that we can have upon people. Only 509 of them even gave time to allow the missionaries to share a message with them. It gives me great joy to see how the efforts of so few missionaries can help so many people. So that others can eventually experience what Kyle and Cathy experienced as they knelt at the altar and were sealed for all eternity. That's really what the end goal is.  Every single person of the 15000 individuals that our missionaries talked to here in this mission is loved by God. And God wanted each and every one of them to be able to receive the ordinances that they need to have eternal families and have the opportunity for eternal progression with our Father in Heaven. The gift has been given, and the price paid. All we need to do is follow Him and change our lives to be in harmony with his commandments, and we will receive greater happiness than we can imagine. 

I love you all family!

Elder Schroeder

 Elder Schroeder's twin brother- Kyle and his beautiful bride Catherine 3/12/16

Detour, ticket and pictures...

March 14, 2016 

Hello Family! 

This week went by fast! I cannot believe Kyle is married now. I hope they have a fun honeymoon. It will be weird when I get back I will be the only unmarried one in the family. 

We have a lot of stories from this week. First off, we accidentally drove to cavite this week. We were going to attend a meeting in the vary southernmost part of our mission called paranaque. And we missed a turn. We ended up on the highway (with no exits) that goes all the way down to cavite. So we crossed the mission boundaries by quite a bit. Good news is, we still made it to the meeting on time. 

We conducted exchanges with the Paranaque West zone leaders. And then the next day we conducted exchanges with the paranaque zone leaders. Elder Whittle committed a traffic violation while driving. (which was really not a violation) and we got pulled over. He ended up paying off the traffic enforcer with 2000 pisos. So thats how it goes here. But it was all okay and we made it to where we needed to go. 

The week went by super fast because we were super busy the whole week conducting exchanges. But I got to work with two really great missionaries and I learned a lot from them both. 

I will send another email shortly. I am just sending this one with pictures so the file won't be to large. 

The first three are pictures of palawan and luzon from the air. The last one is the view from the window of our apartment, and inside our apartment

 

Absent best man toast...

March 7, 2016 

Oh! One more thing. I guess Casey can read this for me at the wedding reception to honor the bride and groom. Since I'm not there and I'm the best man.  It's off the cuff, just now- so it may not be any good. 

I remember just before I went out on my mission, Kyle had just gotten back from his and we were sitting in church waiting for interviews with President Wilkenson. I saw Catherine in the hallway, we exchanged a few words and that was it. I told her that I was Connor and Kyle was the one that had just gotten back from his mission, who was in his interview with president at the moment. I don't think she quite knew who was who yet. Then I had my interview with President and we went home. Later that day, our mom asked Kyle if he would like to go on a date with anyone and he said that he saw a "beautiful young lady" while waiting for his interview with President. He described her to us because he didn't know her name at that time. Turns out that was Catherine. I saw our mom get excited and say, "I think I have her number!! You should call her." Using all the fresh missionary skills that Kyle had just acquired, he called her and asked her if she would like to go on a date. 

We ended up going on a double date together at a trampoline park. I remember Catherine trying to make jokes and flirt with Kyle, but as a fresh returned missionary, his flirting skills were pretty rusty. Actually, really rusty. I guess things improved and Catherine still liked him enough to give him a second chance. Kyle kept his eye on her and the rest is history. I pray that my children one day will not beat up your children too bad. I wish you two, Kyle and Catherine, an eternity of happiness together as husband and wife, and I know that you will be blessed with a great life together. I love you so much and I am excited for the years to come. May God bless you with a loving family and a home that will be a refuge unto all. 

Gaining more understanding, love and appreciation...

March 7, 2016 

Hello Family!

This week went by super fast like normal. First off, I cannot believe that Kyle is going to be married this week. It is strange to think that he will be sealed in the temple forever! You all better send me a ton of pictures. Or put them on dropdox or something so that I can view them. 

I am really excited for them!! I am sure they are both excited and nervous a little bit. It sounds like you are all super busy and having fun preparing for the wedding. Are you going to be happy when it is all over? Then you will just have one more left to do (thats IF I can find someone that will want to marry me). haha. Don't get too stressed though. It will all be over in just a couple more days.

 

I am having fun here. We had a busy week with MLC and exchanges with the Puerto Princesa zone leaders. We have 2 more exchanges planned this week and we are going to be in full swing with preparing for Zone conferences that start here in the middle of the month. The zone conferences are going to be great! I am really looking forward to all of them. We have three in total and we are in charge of making sure every single thing at the zone conferences goes smoothly. It is quite a task but we have all of the organizational items all figured out. We just need to develop the training with president. We have a meeting with him in just a few minutes actually to come up with all of the training and other things that need to be taken care of before the conferences begin. It reminds me of you making plans for youth conferences and things like that in the past. I understand much better now what amount of preparation needs to be put into large activities like this. So good work mom and dad! You really taught me a lot about these sort of things and it really helps me a lot. I am really grateful for that. 

There were a lot of other things that happened this week but I just can't remember all of them. Elder Whittle and I are having a of fun together. He always talks about cows, but it is really cool because now I get to learn a lot about cows, which I never thought I would on my mission. 

The work is going super well in our area. We are really trying to push a few people for baptism, but there are a lot of other things that need to be worked out with all of our investigators. The great thing though is that we have really been blessed with a lot of really great investigators. There is this one lady in the ward here that I was able to help reactivate when I was still pretty new in the area, and every time that I see her and teach her I just feel so grateful to have been a part of her life and the huge changes that she has made. She also has child with some disabilities, and every time he sees me he just yells, "Elder!" with a big smile (since he does not know how to say my last name)... When I first met him he wouldn't even look at me and was very very shy. He is 16 years old, and we were able to actually teach him this last week. It was only a ten minute lesson, but it is a huge milestone for him. Now we are preparing him to get ready to receive the aaronic priesthood and pass the sacrament. Being able to work with you mom at school has helped me gain a better appreciation and love for people with disabilities. 

So I am all out of time here for emailing. I tile a break in emailing for a bit, we just finished our meeting with President. We are getting into the full swing of preparation for zone conferences. It is going to be great! 

Here is my spiritual insight for the week: and experience that I wanted to share. The people that it is about, read my blog so please don't put it up on blog until I ask them in the future and see if it alright to post.  I'll write it in my journal and share it at a later time after I get permission from my friends. 

I love you all! Have a great week and have fun at the wedding!

Elder Schroeder

Stand up... Have courage!

2/29/16

Hello Family!

Yes, I got the birthday package this morning when I was in our meeting with President.  I just ate a snickerdoodle muffin. Super good!! Thank you mama! I will enjoy everything in it. Sorry my email today is a little late. We promised some of our investigators that we would play basketball with them today so we had to go and do that. We got everything else done today and had time to play basketball for a few hours.... I haven't ran around like that for a while. I will probably feel it tomorrow which should be good. I need to practice more... but I wasn't that bad. I had lots of steals and rebounds which was good. Still need practice though. 

Anyways, I am pretty short on time this week because of the basketball.

Elder Whittle and I are going home the same transfer, so it's July 13th as well. 

It is weird to think that Kyle will be married here in just two weeks. Is he ready? I wish him the best of luck. 

I haven't seen the Haynie's again for a while. They are actually going to Palawan I think next week with the Ostlers but we really aren't a part of that. They told me that they would like to get together some time and see me again before I leave but I think they are too busy and we are too busy... but it may work hopefully. 

I would love to be an uncle on the trek!  It will be a lot of fun to participate and help out having come fresh off the plane. 

I haven't gotten the invitation yet this week. The office elders are making a mail run later this week so I should get it later on this week. MLC is coming up so we are super busy again. 

Oh yes for that video haha... I remember seeeing Sister Mortimer videoing all of us. That is the assigned seat for the assistants becuase we run all the projectors and powerpoints and everything.

We had 8 investigators at church this week! that is a high note of the week. WE also got to accept the new missionaries into the field and say goodbye to the old ones going home. It was a super busy week. We also had exchanges with some zone leaders which was really fun. 

Sorry I am all out of time. Here is a quick spiritual insight. 

We will all face fear, experience ridicule, and meet opposition. Let us—all of us—have the courage to defy the consensus, the courage to stand for principle. Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God’s approval. Courage becomes a living and an attractive virtue when it is regarded not only as a willingness to die manfully but also as the determination to live decently. As we move forward, striving to live as we should, we will surely receive help from the Lord and can find comfort in His words.”3

We need to always stand up for what we believe in, even if we do not have the courage to do so. And as we do that, we will receive the smile of God's approval and receive strength as we stand up for what we know is true.

I love you all!

Elder Schroeder