I'm Goin' to Midland!

Well, I was surprised to see that all of my family already knows the transfer news (Sister Ongert told Mom), but I'm being transferred to Midland. I will admit, I was surprised that I'm being transferred. Elder Reheis for the past couple weeks was telling everyone that he was sure he was leaving and I would stay and I started to believe him. Heh. I'm very excited though. I am white-washing Midland 2 with Elder Peterson. I haven't met Elder Peterson (I'm still in Spring Lake, leaving this afternoon) but he sounds great and I'm excited to work hard with him in Midland. From what I've heard Midland has two big wards with two sets of missionaries in each. That will be really cool I think, I'm stoked in general! It was tough to say goodbye to the people I've taught but now I am just way excited to get to my new area. I'm even packed up already (that sucked).

So, Tuesday we had half-mission training with Elder Golden of the 70. He was the greatest and his wife was really sweet. He blew everyone's mind talking about mission work and that was a really powerful experience. The Spirit was very strong. President Hess made an announcement early in the training that Spring Lake was going to become the new area for zone leaders and the Grand Rapids zone would be split. This was way exciting- Elder Reheis and I were sure that meant we would be adding two new missionaries into Spring Lake along with us. Now that I say this I'm surprised that I was suprised about the news.

Elder Reheis (pronounced Re-"hi"-sss) is staying in Spring Lake and is becoming a Zone leader. He is going to be zone-leader trained by Elder Larsen, who has one transfer left and he's leaving (he's been an AP for the past few months). I'm way excited for Reheis, and also really excited for Larsen because he was trained here like me. He's going to be born and "killed" in Spring Lake which is pretty unique and cool.

It was an amazing week other than all this stuff. Most importantly, Kilian Storm Daniel Jacobs got baptized on Saturday. There was an excellent turn-out and coolest of all, Hamish got to baptize Kilian. The first time Hamish said the prayer he forgot the "of's" and the second time he forgot to put his arm to the square. The third time was perfect. For all we know he could have messed up on purpose so he could immerse Kilian three times, which he did perfectly each time (heheh). But seriously, it was beautiful. I was very honored that Kilian asked me to do the confirmation the next day which was really nice. Man, I love the Jacobs and the Ongerts quite a lot. I'm going to miss them.

What else can I say? I'm excited.

For the next week or so send mail to:
 1400 Abbott road. ste. 310
 East lansing, MI
 48823

You're all great and I love you. I have to get going, not much time today.

-Elder Schmutz

Here's a picture of the district. 

In the front (L-R) is Elder English, Sister Procopio, Elder Gledhill, and myself.
Everyone else other than Elder Stoker (jumping in the back) (L-R) is Sister Young, Sister Pyper, Sister Braun, Elder Donofrio, Elder Reheis, Sister Harris, Elder Harris, and Sister Pierce.

A picture of me, Hamish, and Kilian at the baptism.