See you next week!

Hello Family!

Happy Independence Day!! 

Well this is strange. I think I might be able to email again next week but I dont know. So how it works is that I fly out early of monday morning from Puerto at like 6 am to Manila. So Sunday I will make my way to Puerto and spend the night there. Then to Manila. Monday, I think I will be in the office the most of the day, so I may be able to email there. Then departing actvities on Tuesday and Wednesday I fly out. It is weird how close this all is, and it is weird that I have been to so many departing activities before, but now it is my turn.... weird to think about. 

So this weeks spiritual insight has to do with the teachings of the Savior. I have a personal goal to finish every single study activity in preach my gospel, because people never do them (I only have 2 left).... So this insight comes from one of these activities. What you have to do is read Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and 3rd Nephi. And you have to write down all of the questions that Jesus asks while he is teaching. It is amazing to look at the angle of His teaching in this way. It gave me a new perspective on the way Jesus Christ teach. As reading it, it seems like the answer is always so simple. When we ask questions, are the answers simple? Despite the answers being simple, they provoke deep thought and pondering. Many were amazed at the questions and parables that he gave. Do our questions provoke meaningful thought, or do they leave others confused? In other instances you see the question of the Savior entice judgement. For example, when being judged before Pilate, he asks a witness if he witnesses these things of himself, or if others told him to say these things. Regardless of the answer, self inspection on the side of the witnessing party and the accusing party would result. It is amazing, despite the simpleness of His questions, how thoroughly they were able to cause others to ponder their own salvation, their own sins, and what it is they should do to follow the commandments of God. It makes me think of how I teach, how often I ask questions, how I respond to others questions, and how easy my questions are to answer. I think it would be of great worth to all of us if we were to take a moment before we were to ask a question to ponder what we would feel like if we were asked the same question. 

Anyways, it is cool to look at the way the Savior teaches. One cool thing the church is doing right now is they have a new program to help teachers called "teaching in the saviors way." I want to read it. 

Sorry, I am all out of time to email. i love you all! Have a great week! I will see you next week!

Elder Schroeder

Tears of Joy!

6/26/16

Hello Family!

Things are going well here. Yes, president came this week and was able to visit with all of us. They went to thebaptism that   happened in the branch this Saturday. Elder Crowder and Elder Beltran were really happy that President was able to attend their baptism. It is interesting, I noticed this time how much differently people act in front of President. So many people wanted to take pictures with them... it was pretty funny. I told them they are like movie stars when they come out to visit in places like this. 

We have zone conference this week. We are going to be leaving today to go to puerto so that will be a good time. 

We are excited to be able to see the training and everything that is happening. It is going to be interesting to go to zone conference and not have to do the training. I am looking forward to it all! 

Having a senior couple here is such a great blessing they bring in a great spirit into the lessons. Here is an experience from this week.

We had a great experience this week with the Atkinson's. Elder and Sister went with us to a few appointments the other night, and we were able to teach this one family. The father is less active, his wife goes to church on and off, and they have a daughter that we are helping to get to baptism. Their daughter has been very close to being ready several times but has never had the support of her father. The Atkinson's had a good discussion with him, the problem was his work. At the end of the lesson, he said he would ask his boss for the day off because it was his birthday. At about 9:10 just before sacrament was about to start, we saw his wife and kids walking in and thought, oh no! He did not come. Just a few seconds later, we saw him walk in as well. I looked at the Atkinson's with a big smile, and they were filled with such great joy (they were both crying). I felt the spirit so strongly. This family has been prepared for the Atkinson's to really help them prepare to go to the temple. He used to never be willing to come out when the missionaries were there. Things are going really well with this family and we are hoping that this brother will be prepared soon to baptize his daughter. 

Heavenly Father prepares people in very interesting ways. He blesses us as we work together in love and unity. He is vitally concerned with the work of every single member of this church as we strive to accomplish the work of Salvation and Exaltation. 

The closer it gets to going home that weirder and weirder that I feel. It has gone by very fast. 

Love,

Elder Schroeder

Enjoying the work!!

6/19/16

Hello Family!

Wow! Lots of news this week in the email. That is great that Joy and her family were able the ride for Julie.  If you didn't hear, one of the counselors of President Ostler had to go home early because he found out that he had prostate cancer, but when he got to the states, it has since spread. Apparently his operation is happening really soon. Anyways, I would really like to visit him when I get back. They live in Utah so maybe on my way up to school I could stop there or something if it is not to much of a hassle.

About food when coming home. Something mexican possibly. Or steak. Steak is good. With all that good stuff. BBQ'd corn. Mashed potatoes. Stuff like that, or mexican food.

I have been enjjoying the work here a lot. Unfortunately, I got really sick this week. It took us out of the work for a whole day. I was super sick, but I am all better now and full of baptizing energy. So things are going well again. 

President Ostler is actually coming to Quezon this weekend.  He probably wants to help out the branch here because we have a lot of YSA preparing to serve missions. They just need some extra strength right now and a little push to get them out on missions. I think this is going to be the extra push. It will work too. Our branch is very excited! We are going to spend all day today cleaning our apartment so that things will be in tip top shape if our house gets checked this week. 

Some good news as well with the work here is that we got the senior couple moved here. The Atkinsons are now here in Quezon 24/7. This is going to be a really big help and strengthen a lot of members out here. We had 5 investigators at sacrament again this week and our 2 baptismal candidates are still eligible so we are praying hard for them. We are encountering some other problems here but we can work through all of them. 

Have a great week!

Love you all!

Elder Schroeder

Blessed in Quezon District!

6/12/16

Hello Family!

Thank you for registering for my classes! The schedule looks like it works out pretty well. Thanks for putting all the effort into that. 

This week was really great! I think as a district we had the best work that quezon district has had in the past year or more. We have been blessed with some very hard working missionaries here. In our area, we are working with a few people very closely as they get ready for baptism. We have 2 investigators that can probably be baptized before I go home. There are lot of others but they have more complex problems that still need to be worked out and it will probably take a little more time in order to do so. But the work is exciting here and we are able to always teach a ton of lessons. 

My companion is from a place called Tarlac (I am not sure on the spelling). It is on Luzon and is Tagalog, Ilocano and several other languages but he only speaks Tagalog. Yeah that is too bad that I was not able to have dinner with the Haynie's... there really isn't too much time for things like that as a missionary. 

I wish I could be there to see the bike ride for cancer thing. Way to go with the preparation for trek! You were not sore the next day? Hiking around Daley Ranch is always fun. 

I cannot believe all I have left is a month. I am trying not to count down but it is really hard not to when it is so close. Anyways, I try not to think about it. It is funny actually... my companion actually talks about what his plans are when he goes home a lot more than I do. It amuses me since he is still in his first area. 

Excited for the Padres game! That will be a lot of fun. Who are they playing?

Kyle isn't going to be able to come down for my homecoming is he? He told me that he probably couldn't come and with school or something, that it proabably will not be able to work out. I think they have finals that week or something. 

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Schroeder

New companion and training

6/6/16 

Hello po family!

I am slowly turning more filipino. 

I speak tagalog 24/7. I am teaching my companion how to cook filipino food and stuff like that. It is fun to train a Filipino when I can actually understand the language and everything else. It is a good relief. My companion's name is Elder Santos. I sent a picture earlier with some other ones. 

It is weird because is seems like I am going to be home in no time at all basically. 

This week was really good. We spent a lot of time waiting for our companions to come from the mainland. So we got to go to Puerto and spend a whole day there. I got to go by and see all the members in Santa Monica which was super great!! The District President said that he would feed me before I went home. So maybe the night that I am in puerto before I fly into the mainland, they might be able to feed me one last time. 

It is really great to serve the Lord. Everyone keeps joking about how close I am to dieing and how long I have been in the mission. I just remembered actually, since last transfer, I am the only person in the mission that even has met president Stucki before. 

It has taken a long time to finish off what I started but it has been worth every moment. 

I am all out of time for email this week. Sorry president had a ton of questions for me this week so it took me a long time to answer all of them in my weekly report. 

I love you all!

Elder Schroeder

P.S. I am super excited for trek!! 

Here are some pictures. 

Elder Santos and I 

The truck we took to get home from district conference. 

All of us in the back of the truck 

Sunset from our house

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.