November 24, 2014

Hey everyone!

This was a good week. I don't have much time because I have a lot of time because we're going to the Kalamazoo air-zoo later today! I also need to go do my laundry for more trade-offs! We do a total of 6 in the transfer so if we're not busy enough in our own area we're driving around to others.

Last Monday evening we drove to St. Joe for trade-offs in the middle of a severe winter storm, so that was pretty cool. The next day, campus was closed so myself and Elder Giar had to reschedule our day since no one was on campus. We still taught a lot and contacted some sweet people! We also went to Olive Garden since it was Elder Giar's birthday. I think everyone in the restaurant thought we were on a date...

Wednesday was incredible. We had a joint-zone conference with Meridian. Elder Nash unfortunately was called away on an emergency assignment from the brethren so we had a non-G.A. conference. It was super super good, and we were pumped to go out afterwards! We didn't get back to our area until around 7:30 but when we got back to K-zoo we skipped dinner and went out to find. We picked up two new investigators that evening.

Thursday and Friday were also good days. Did a lot of finding in between our appointments. We have seen a big change with our investigator Jeremy. His heart is being softened by the Spirit for sure. He came to the Saturday and Sunday session of stake conference and enjoyed both. He is seriously considering being baptized on December 13 which is just unreal to think about if you had been to our first meetings. At first he seemed to have no real intent, possibly just wanted to investigate to prove LDS doctrine wrong. I don't think that's the case anymore. 

Saturday. Walked everywhere. Talked to everyone. Had some more hilarious contacts. The usual day in the life of Elder Schmutz. Before the Saturday session of conference our mission president put it on myself and Elder Mac to put together a flash-mob. In the middle of his talk we stood up, hummed the tune "Called to Serve" as we made our way to the front, then all burst into singing once all the missionaries were in place. It went over surprisingly well! The humming was totally sketch but the singing was good. 

That's about it for the week! Have a great Thanksgiving. I'm so so grateful for each of you and for the impact you have had on my life. 

-Elder Schmutz

17 November 2014

Hey everyone!

Things are still going well here. It is getting pretty cold though; it makes for a fun challenge to try and stop kids on campus to talk to them about the Gospel. :)

We had a sick finding miracle this week! I told you last week about the new rule change, we don't drive cars anymore on Saturday. Well, the first day we went to campus to do our regular thing not realizing that NO ONE would be there. In the past we've doorknocked on Saturday to mix it up. It seemed campus was dead for finding opportunities. After walking around for a good half-hour, we saw one girl walking somewhat in our direction. We basically stalked her and stopped her to talk. After talking for a couple minutes, she said she was willing to hear our message. We taught her last Friday and she accepted the invitation to church, pray, read, and be baptized. It was pretty sweet. We've only taught her once, but she is already reading the Book of Mormon and enjoys it. Her name is Kya, pray for her that she will stay super solid! She admitted she was super weirded out when we stopped her (we were too), but it was a tender mercy nonetheless. 

Other than finding Kya, this was sort of a rough week. We got dropped by some of our top progressing investigators and we dropped/got dropped by all of our investigators marked for baptism. On the bright side, we set a date with Jeremy Evans even though he is still skeptical of the things we've taught him. We are working hard to help him lean less on physical evidence and more of spiritual evidence. As Elder Anderson said last conference, "Spiritual questions deserve Spiritual answers." 

I think God thought it would be really entertaining to put me on campus because I do some pretty weird stuff just about daily. I was on trade-offs the other day and in two separate instances I ran into people I thought were current investigators. I basically yelled at this girl, "HEY! How've you been?! Don't remind me, I remember your name....." I paused for a solid 4 seconds until she was like, "I've never met you before, I'm Claire". It made for a super good contact (not). We were in the library not 10 minutes later when I thought I saw Connor, a now former investigator. I clapped at him to get his attention since he had headphones on, but when I got closer I saw it was definitely not Connor. I disappointedly said, "Oh, you're not Connor." He replied, "I could pretend to be Connor  if you wanted me to." I walked off full of shame.

Love you all! Keep being great member missionaries as I hear you are and as I know you are!

-Elder Schmutz

November 3, 2014

I can't believe it's November already. The end of the year is just around the corner, and once Halloween was over we brought out the Christmas music. 

This week was good! Some people said I didn't send an email last week, and I don't remember and can't find one from "Sent Mail" so I'll update you on the past two weeks. 

Since the beginning of the transfer, we've been working on building up our teaching pool. We personal contact on campus a lot and hand out questionnaires. We have seen a lot of success and have found many new people to teach. Many have committed to be baptized- we will see who continues to progress as the next weeks go on.

Earlier in the week we did trade-offs with the assistants and I went to MSU again, this time with the new assistant, Elder Green. He's way sweet! If I got a picture I'll send it. We also did trade-offs with Elder Paulson and his trainee (I replaced him here at WMU). He got to come back and we had a great day full of teaching. We also got taken to Coldstone's by Long Chen.

Marquiese and Jim are still doing well, they were set apart in callings last Sunday. Marquiese is a ward missionary and goes out teaching with us just about every day and Jim is the official branch greeter. They'll do a good job. 

Not much time this week, sorry. Things are well here. Love you all! 

-Elder Schmutz