The Christmas Flood

December 24, 2013

I will Skype and can do 11am Christmas day (my time) very easily. I am only allowed 45 minutes but that is more than enough time. I can't believe I have been out for over 8 months! It is going to be fun to talk to you!!

I am going to see what I can do to get it approved for me to speak to Connor.  I know he is going to start at 10:30 pm my time but I will talk to the mission president to see what I can do. So maybe I will surprise you and show up while you are talking to Connor Christmas Eve.

  
Just to give a little information about the week, I know I will get to talk to you guys soon but never the less.

We have a baptism coming up on January the 4th! and if I am not transferred I will get to be there. The only problem is that Zone conference will be in St. Vincent so I will be in St. Vincent from January 2-4th getting back around 4:30 on the 4th. I think it will all work out though. She got an answer to her prayer that she should be baptized on that day so the Lord will make it possible. She also chose me to baptize her so I hope I will be here to do that.

We have been seeing a lot of miracles here in Castries the numbers we are putting out wouldn't show any difference in our missionary work but we have been having loads of miracles. I am super excited for the future missionaries here, they have a lot of great people to work with! I hope I get to stay and see more of them progress towards baptism.

This week has been a great week and my mattress has finally broken in enough so now I am sleeping like a baby. (brand new mattresses here are stiffer than a board) once they break in though they are the best! 

Ahh.. we had a branch Christmas party this week and I have got some fun quotes for you guys.
"I'm sorry we don't usually start late" circa 8:00pm - supposed start time 7:00pm

"We asked Brother Felix to be Santa Claus but he couldn't make it so you are stuck with me" - Brother Marquis (in front of all the children)

It was a fun activity!

Well, I have got to go now I will talk to you tomorrow (or tonight) love you all!
Elder Schroeder


We had a wonderful Skype session with Elder Schroeder Christmas Eve for just a few minutes when he was trying to surprise his brother calling us from the Philippines. It was so nice that President Mehr approved such a late evening call 10:30pm Christmas eve when he thought Connor would be Skyping us so he could talk to his twin brother. The problem was that Connor was calling 1 hour and 45 min later @12:15pm. Which was pushing it to 12:15 am for Kyle so it didn't work out this time around. We will try again on Mother's day! Lots of family and friends were here  when the call came in, so he got to see many people who love and care about him.   FYI- The missionaries live in an apartment below the Church and they use the computers at the church so it was convenient to Skype at such a late hour when they are supposed to be home per mission rules. It was home:) The locals refer to them as the pastors that live below the church. haha... this is not very common.

We had 5 different locations on at the same time at one point during the call.

Technology is GREAT!!! 

December 30, 2013

Sounds like you guys have had a pretty fun week!

I am staying here is St. Lucia another transfer that will make it 6 months in St. Lucia crazy! We are going to St. Vincent for Zone conference on Thursday and will be back on Saturday then we will have a baptism! exciting! Her name is "S" and she is amazing, she understands the gospel so clearly and is so excited to get baptized. I am excited for her!

As you guys know this week was a little bit crazy with the Christmas storm and everything. (Google St Lucia Christmas Storm) The storm did however keep all the crazy parties form happening which was good. I heard a great quote form one of the members here at church on Sunday. To give you a little background for this quote: everyone here (the locals) after the storm has been saying that God sent the storm to warn us and to punish the people here for their wickedness. Sister Marquis turned it the other way, she said "maybe the Lord this season sent the storm to teach us what Christmas is really about, helping others" I just think of the great destruction that occurred and how many people were affected by the storm. The people here truly did have to reach out and help others; that is what Christmas is all about anyway. More miracles happened from the occurrence of the storm than would have ever happened without. What prompted her to say that is actually of some interest, she said that she learned that because she heard of four missionaries out in their shirts and ties on Christmas eve pushing cars out of the water and helping people. One of those missionaries was me... it is incredible to know that I was a tool in the hand of the Lord to teach, not by what I say but what I do.

President Mehr has asked that we all memorize one chapter from the Book of Mormon. Yet again... a ton of memorizing. I chose 3 Nephi 12 I really just love the teachings that come directly from Jesus Christ, you could write a book about any one principle Jesus Christ taught. I am excited to know those teachings by heart, great power comes from memorization. The reason President Mehr wants us to memorize such long scriptures is to strengthen us, he wants us to do things that are hard for us and to - in the future, be able to draw form the experiences we have had. That is what fasting does, memorizing scriptures, repenting all of these things are common in the fact that they strengthen us.

This week has truly been a great week, Elder Pierson and I are having more success than ever we really are teaching the people what they need, not singularly but in unity. It is amazing to see the power evident in two united missionaries. Elder Pierson is a great missionary and I am excited to serve with him for another transfer.

A shout out to all those who put up with me in my young age. I love you all and thank you for your diligence, you each truly were great tools in helping me become who I am. If you look back on the times you may remember the frustration but just know that I remember the great spirit and love I felt form each of you. Your example of unequivocal love taught me more than anything else. I am thankful for all you each have done for me.

Love,
Elder Schroeder

They had 4 missionaries who live somewhere else on the island and couldn't get back to their apartment because the storm came fast and hard with lots of flooding. Many people were stranded and couldn't get home. They had 8 Elders in the Apartment at the church for Christmas eve.

Great week!!

December 16, 2013

Bishop Dye asked  Kyle to write a paragraph or two to share his testimony of Christ for our Christmas church service today. This is what he wrote: 

Firstly, to the ward- Hello to Everyone!

Everything in this world is evidence that there is in fact a God, and every word that has reached us from him, points to the fact that there was to be and is a messiah or savior. That savior is Jesus the Christ or by other names Jehovah, Yahweh, that great I am, and the son of man it is the same. I know that this man and all the titles he is spoken of is a witness of who he truly is. He is the Savior of the world chosen by the father to be a sacrifice for the sins of the world. I know he came to the world not to destroy the law but to fulfill it in every wit and that through him the sting of death is swallowed up.

I am a personal witness that the power found within Jesus Christ is real. I know that through him we each can be changed, wrought upon by the power of the Holy Ghost and that we can become the sons of God through him. As we exert all effort to follow the commandments, even though we are not perfect, we in the end can become clean through the blood of Jesus Christ.
Elder Schroeder

This week has been great!
Baptism on Sunday morning I got to be a witness. Where the water was waist deep we couldn't stand cause the ground was covered in basketball sized rocks. We had to walk out to where there was sand, at one point I was up to my neck in water. It was fun!

We have had quite a good amount of success this week we had "S" and his daughter come to church, we have been working with them for almost two months now and I think they will come every week now. They really enjoyed church! We also got an investigator named "B" to come to church he hasn't come to church in over a month so that was good, he actually brought all his kids and they loved primary! I hope we can get him to come each week now.

We also had a very successful youth activity on Saturday, we played basketball with the youth. It was really sad because we weren't very good but it was fun none the less. That reminds me something interesting happened this week.  President Mehr recently authorized the branches to use missionaries to help with auxiliaries so the Branch President took that as "hey I can call a missionary to an auxiliary" so I am now the young mens president.  I know weird... it's pretty good though because we have a group of about 5 investigators that are all around 15 and they are great! So now I actually have authority to organize activities for all of them, so that will be fun! We still have to check with President Mehr to see if that's alright but for now I am the Young Mens Pres.

This week has been a fun week with a lot of really good spiritual lessons. I have been focusing recently at improving my knowledge of the Book of Mormon. The work here in Castries is really picking up. I hope I get to stay here next transfer, we have got a lot of very good investigators! I am loving the work!

Love,
Elder Schroeder

The pumpkin pie he made from
scratch starting with a fresh pumpkin.

yeah we barbecue                                                                 

with Sister Gubler in Soufriere

Eternal Perspective and Dengue Fever

Dec 1, 2013
I just got your Christmas card! I love you guys thank you so much for that!

I also just heard about Great Grandma it really is a great loss in our family, she was and is one of the progenitors of all of us. My Mom told me that she was a faithful follower of both Connor's and my blog, I had no idea, and I'm glad you forwarded my emails to her. It really makes me think about how much she really cares for all of us in her family, I know that she loved us and that she still loves us. To have that knowledge is the greatest gift God can give us, knowledge truly is power. Imagine what it  would be like, to not have the knowledge you each have of the plan of salvation. I am glad you do, as I am glad that I do! What would life be like without eternal perspective?

I know I can't really offer any help but I do love both of you! Thank you so much for all you have done for me and my family, it really is likely more than I can comprehend. I can tell you what has helped me through my small trials is the scriptures, above all else. Contained therein is the WORD OF GOD I know that they are true and it truly is sharper than a two edged sword. Just as it has fierce power to judge and conquer, it has power to comfort. As you study the scriptures your faith will grow (Romans 10:17) and with that your knowledge of the plan of salvation will grow! When your knowledge becomes sure - when anyone's knowledge becomes sure, we gain faith and hope for a greater world.

You got a missionary letter haha.. but I do know that the things I said are true and that the plan of salvation can bless both you and your sisters. Grandma and Grandpa Evans are together again.

Love you grandma and grandpa and I am thinking about you guys especially you grandma (no offense grandpa) have a great week and don't forget to "doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith"

Love,
Elder Schroeder

Here is a link to the Plan of Salvation. God's Plan For Your Life & Happiness | Mormon.org
The above email was to his Grandparents after his Great Grandma Evans passed away Nov. 30th, 2013. In addition, the letter below was sent also. 

Hi!
I sent an email to Grandma and a Grandpa now I don't have much time. Elder Pierson is really becoming a great teacher now, it's cool to see your trainee progress. We had a great Thanksgiving President Mehr actually paid for a Thanksgiving meal for every missionary in the mission. We had a turkey and the whole shabang it was super good. the pumpkin pie turned out great ! In spite of the fact you cant get any allspice here it still tasted like super good pumpkin pie though. I made two pumpkin pies and a strawberry pie .. I took pictures but I don't have my camera today.

Thanksgiving was not the highlight of the week though. We did it on Tuesday cause that's when it worked out best and then we went out proselyting around 6:00 that night I became a zombie! I felt like the walking dead, it was horrible! We kept going though, I thought it was just cause I ate a lot. When I got home that night and just fell on my bed and went to sleep. I then proceeded to sleep for about 3 days, I had dengue, a very mild case though. Dengue feels super weird, your skin is super sensitive, your not hungry, hot flashes and chills ugh and tired like there is no tomorrow. I still don't quite have my appetite back but I feel better other than that. That was the highlight of the week.

Yesterday President Mehr came to the island to set apart a new branch president and he decided to go out teaching with us. Oh goodness, President Mehr  did most of the teaching. It is awesome to hear him teach. We had quite a few lesson this week which was great! Something funny also happened in Priesthood,  President Mehr volunteered me to teach the plan of salvation to the priesthood quorum "alright i can do that"  I got up and start teaching by drawing on the board,  it was interesting. He had lots to add and I feel he was was instructing us missionaries more than anything else. ... fun week!  Sorry I have got to go.  I wish I could email more but I spent all my time writing to grandma.  I don't have much more to say about this week cause I was sick for most of it. I will send pictures next week.

Love, Elder Schroeder
Also, I will be sure to get some of those leaves and also before you plant them you are supposed to press them in a book until roots start coming out of the leaf and then you plant it. and you will probably have to water it twice a day ... I had to water it every day down here when i planted one here. 

Time is flying...

This week has been pretty great! We have 3 people that have a baptismal date for the 14th of December which is awesome. I feel that most of them will be ready by then, which is going to be awesome! The Lord has definitely blessed Elder Pierson and I with success here, we are so busy:) We don't have enough time to cover all of the people we are teaching,  it's crazy. I have even organized our days so we spend the whole day in one area, we have about 6-8 lessons set up everyday in a different area and at least three days in advance. It is stressful but at the same time its not, because we know what we are doing everyday, which is good!

I can't believe I have been out 7 months already! Time is really flying. I can assuredly see that I am out here to find those that will receive me, you can definitely waste a lot of time on people that don't really want to receive what you are saying. We had a man the other day,  try to spin a web around everything I said - and he was a smart guy, but the gospel is pure and simple,  doesn't lie and there are no holes in it! It was great to see just as Ammon and Alma were tested and tried by the judges that I can be tested and bear a simple testimony of truth to them!! It was really quite fun actually! haha

I love bearing my testimony it is the best! I also love teaching people no matter how intelligent they are.  It is great to see the light shine in their eyes as they learn the gospel,  no matter how simple the principle. The other day, yesterday in fact, Elder Pierson and I really didn't know what to teach this family (that loves us, but can just never remember what we teach) We decided to read the Book of Mormon with them and help them understand and the lesson went amazing! The Spirit took over and at the end, I bore witness that we (Elder Pierson and I were called by a prophet to come and teach them) and it finally clicked in their minds!!!! The people here are people of great faith! It is amazing to see the steps of faith they will take even though they have a lack of knowledge. It is also amazing to see once a person receives the gift of the Holy Ghost, how much they learn! The spirits job really is to teach you all things and to bring all things to your remembrance.

Well, I have to get going now. I love you mom and dad.  Thank you for all the support you have given me throughout my life - I know it wasn't always the easiest, and still may not be but I love you and thank you for everything.

Love,
Elder Schroeder

Opening a coconut, always happy and excited with a knife in hand.

still has all his fingers:)

Dream... and teaching!

11/4/13
For the Christmas package, it might be too late to throw this suggestion out but a collection of Mormon Tabernacle choir CD's would be the best, and not only the regular stuff like Consider the Lily's or Peace like a River the other good stuff too. They have CD's with songs like "Somewhere over the Rainbow" and the African songs in Lion King. Every companionship is given a CD player so I already have something to play it on. We are also allowed to listen to classical music - I am pretty sure dad has a pretty good taste in classical music so you should ask him about stuff - like Handel's Messiah and stuff. That's if you can fit those CD's in there. (I would rather have that than candy) Candy is pretty cheap here.

This week has been great! We have taught 26 lessons this week which is ridiculous in comparison to regular results. Elder Pierson and I have been all over the place teaching people, and amongst all of the lessons, we have some very solid people. One of them goes by "D". We met him while he was working in a house (doing construction) and we got his phone number and taught him later. He is great and he wants to be baptised, his understanding is strong and basically all he needs to do now is come to church.

I have one super cool story that I haven't told you guys yet.  Two weeks ago I woke up on Saturday morning and remembered a dream. I had a dream of a pretty beat up blue board house with a white door, one window on each side of the door and three decrepit concrete steps going up to the door. There was also a strange feeling associated with the dream as though I was going to be there that day, and because of this feeling,  I expected to find that house that day.  We had planned to go up into a new area that we had never been to before and about 3/4 of the way through the day I saw the same blue house so I called into the house. A person poked their head out a door along the side of the house and slammed the door shut as though they didn't want to see us. I was not going to take no for an answer though, this house had a shop along the side of it (just a little Mom and Pop shop) and I walked across the front yard and went into the shop and spoke to the guy in the shop.  His name is Mr."W" All we could do that day was give him a pamphlet and set up a return appointment. The return appointment was set up during Junior Creole and that day we got stuck at the branch Junior Creole party so we had to cancel. However, we got to teach him this week! The entire lesson wasn't going to well he just talked negatively about the "people who govern me (us missionaries)" He liked us but said he "didn't like our rulers." He kept saying this until we brought up Joseph Smith and the first Vision we also brought up how Joseph Smith was martyred many years later.  He felt the Holy Ghost as we taught him,  he is super excited to read the Book of Mormon and all the stuff we gave him! If I didn't have that dream earlier in the day, I would have definitely just left as soon as that door was slammed, its crazy and amazing how the Lord works!!

Anyway not much time left today. Love you all and thank you for all your support you have given me, and continue to give me.

Love,
Elder Schroeder

wait this is the last bit of info ... I went Zip lining today for P-day haha... who gets to do that on their mission?! 

11/11/13 

I am glad Connor is safe! Yes, I heard about the super typhoon.  Saw it on the news when I was at an investigators house. It seemed as though Connor was on the edge of the predicted path so I figured he would probably be alright,  good to hear he is!

As for the amount of missionaries on the island there are 6 missionaries in Castries and there are 4 in Vieux Fort.

We haven't been able to teach Mr. "W" again yet. He wants to read a good amount of the Book of Mormon before he meets with us again, but we do stop by about twice a week to keep him going. He seems very interested in all of our messages. We have another sweet investigator named "J", the way we met him is we ran into his cousin "A" on the street and started talking to him, we set an appointment with him and met him at his house this week.  When we started the lesson he invited his cousin to join in. We taught the restoration and these two guys had loads of questions and all of them were answered by the restoration, it was great!  At the end of the lesson of course we invited them to pray, to find out if Joseph Smith really was a prophet and then set up a return appointment. When we came back "J" told us his story of how he prayed and how he felt, he definitely felt the Holy Ghost! He still has some doubts but those will be solved as he learns more! I am excited for him! As far as "A" goes, he is also great. He has a little Rasta Ideology so he is a little close minded but hey, if he prays he can get an answer too. So that is definitely exciting for this week. We had 5 investigators at church yesterday and they all enjoyed it, which also is great.

I am getting really good at budgeting on my mission that's for sure. Also, I saw a man with elephantiasis for the first time this week, it definitely made me much more conscious about mosquito bites (I rarely ever get bitten, so that's good) I also have finally decided my favorite story in the Bible its the story of Queen Esther you guys should definitely read it together this week, and think about why it might be my favorite story.

Anyway this week was great! Another set of missionaries had a baptism on Friday a man named "R" He had to stop a serious drinking problem to be baptized so props for that! He is really cool, he gave me a huge hug afterwards cause he recognized me. (I got to go and teach him once)

Could you send a pumpkin pie recipe (preferably from scratch) cause you can't get the canned stuff here. I can already do the crust. I just need the filling,  you can also send a chocolate cream pie and lemon cream pie one if you want also :)

I love you guys and I am excited to see what's in this Christmas package!  We are having barbecue on the beach this p-day!

Love,
Elder Schroeder 

                                          

                                   

Scriptures... $... food... holiday...

Hi!
This week has been super good we have met a bunch of awesome people. When we went up into Bisee yesterday, we taught a guy named "R." He quoted scriptures from Aaron placing his hands on the head of the bullock all the way down to revelations where the two witnesses will lay in the streets dead. He asked me questions about all of these opaque scriptures and I could give him answers from the scriptures. It was a great test of my knowledge and I really have come to know that if you do know the Bible well enough you can prove anything you want. However, we also have the Book of Mormon! We went back and forth between his theology and the theology of the church for about 30 minutes and the Spirit definitely stopped my utterance because it was going nowhere. The Spirit then prompted me to put the Bible away and show him the Book of Mormon. He was very open to it, he is going to study it, and pray to know if its true. I am excited for him, I really hope he gets an answer, I trust he will.  At the beginning of my mission I thought to myself,  I want to be able to answer someone with the scriptures -for any question. I study everyday and have been blessed.
Do Mormons regard the Bible as Holy Scripture and the word of God?
What blessings can you receive from reading the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and other scriptures?

A mission is definitely a fun and carefree time. I love just having money appear in a bank account just for me to withdraw, buy food, and then eat the food. I am definitely glad I can cook, it would suck if I couldn't cook. I feel sorry for the missionaries that can't cook...

(As a side note, to clarify for those who don't know. Kyle worked very hard before his mission to save money.  A mission is self supporting by the missionary and/or his family and cost about $10,000 for 2 years. I would love to have money "appear in my bank account" too. haha... They do live on a budget and have a certain amount, depending on where they are serving. That set amount is re-loaded on a debit card to withdraw every 6 weeks for food and other expenses. I am still laughing... at the way he wrote this.  I'm sure he meant he has few worries and gets to concentrate on being a missionary. He is a good cook:) which I am thankful for, I don't have to worry about him eating well.) Robin

Anyway this weekend was a pretty fun one, it was a little slow in the appointment realm, there was a holiday down here called Junior Creole. It is basically a giant food fest/party where the people celebrate their Creole heritage. So the church had a big party at a members house and of course they invited the missionaries (because there were going to be nonmembers there) The church members down here really do know how to put on a pretty good (clean) party. I am pretty sure it's because they all used to party and now there is just no alcohol involved haha. There was a member in the ward who had a friend that could play the traditional creole style drum and basically everyone danced. (except us missionaries) It was super cool. If you could imagine one of those African dances around a fire with drums blaring that was it.

Love,
Elder Schroeder

P.S. Just some of the different foods we eat. The first are Jamaican bakes, I will have to make them for you when I get home. The latter is Chicken Alfredo (all homemade from scratch)

This is the scripture I memorized Ether 6: 3-12 President Mehr had everyone memorize 10 consecutive verses from the Book of Mormon wherever you wanted - I finished in 5 days. You guys should do it.

Cuisine, Climbing, Contacts, Conference

As for the cuisine here in St. Lucia basically there are only a few different traditional dishes that I know of. One is green fig and salt fish, they prepare salt fish in numerous different ways but generally they just boil the fish let it cool and then pull all the meat off and make some sort of fish version of chicken salad. We had a family in Soufriere prepare some for us and it was really good but I could definitely imagine it going terribly wrong and tasting absolutely horrible. The other dish they make is called bouillon, basically its just a chicken stew with green fig or plantain and macaroni noodles in it.

Sounds like you guys are having some great fun in Idaho! Has snow fallen yet ? I learned how to climb a coconut tree really good last Monday (don't worry... I didn't climb to the top, I only went up about 5 feet) If you want to know how to climb the a coconut tree look up a video of Samoans climbing coconut trees and you should find a video of how I climbed it.

This week as far as missionary work goes it started off slow but towards the end of the week we got this place rolling. We went to a new area called Bisee its just right outside of Castries and we taught two lessons and got many solid contacts, in about 3 hours. We will be spending lots of time there from now on.

We met a sweet lady named "D" who has been trying to quit smoking for a number of years now, she invited us in for a lesson but there was no man home so we sat on her steps outside and taught her. She is older probably around 60 or 70, she is super nice. She feels very hopeless - in regards to quitting smoking, so we shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with her and promised her that the gospel will help her. It was a very powerful lesson and we definitely left her with a little more hope. Today we are going to go by and give her a CD with church music on it to help her when she is tempted.

That also reminds me zone conference is on Tuesday here and St.Vincent missionaries are coming here. We will be housing 10 missionaries in the 3 apartments (that are already occupied) since Elder Pierson and I have the largest apartment in the best location we will be having 6 missionaries stay with us for one night and 8 with us the next night..... crazy... it is going to be fun and also we are going to start the week off with a bang since we will have 6 missionaries with us tonight, Elder Pierson will take three with him and I will take three with me to go teach lessons. We have 5 appointments set up for tonight so all the missionaries will be busy! If we had an army of missionaries like this all the time it would be great!

Well, I think that's it for the week, got to go...
Love,
Elder Schroeder

New Area and Training

10/7/13
Sounds like you guys are having more fun than ever with us being gone ;) haha looks like you had fun at the beach with Summer and family. The beach here is also super fun .. that's basically where all our p-day activities happen football, American football, Frisbee. Yeah, it's pretty fun! About me looking good in my pictures, I would have to say congratulations to you and dad you guys are both lookin' good!!! I think dad might have a six pack ;)

Anyway as for transfer calls, I was a little bit surprised .... Soufriere is being closed temporarily and I am moving up to Castries to open a new area there with a trainee named Elder Pierson. So I will be training and opening a different area. The area is basically going to be the town area of Castries surrounding the church. We will have members to work with now!!! YAY!!

It is really quite depressing actually (closing Soufriere that is) I believed there really was a lot of potential there. Sad day, we also just moved into a new apartment and signed a 6 month contract for it. The mission is going to have to pay for an empty apartment for 6 months. The trials of missionary work... oh well, it will reopen again someday and we planted some seeds:) Anyway, I am super excited to train a new missionary it is definitely going to help me be just a little more obedient.

Most of this week was absorbed with transfers. Transfers on an island with only one mission vehicle can be very difficult I have spent a lot of time driving around this week - not me driving, Elder Durphy the zone leader. ... just lots of logistics ...

This has been a fun week however Conference was great! We got to watch all sessions of conference and even the world report. It was good stuff, a very spiritual time for sure.

Love,
Elder Schroeder

10/14/13

Hi!
That is crazy to hear about Courtney!! super weird.... (It was a joke from a friend that posted a fake FB proposal from "BYUi do" and I sent him the picture. Ugh! not sure why? I don't think he caught the joke:/ I will clear it up next week.) Elder Palmer emailed me and he is also engaged he has only been home for two days! You should look him up and send him a small wedding gift for me :) (.223 ammo is what he would expect to get form me) just saying. You don't have to send one its just a thought. (maybe he is joking with me and I didn't get it either)

All those pictures you sent from Disneyland were awesome especially of Walker on the sword... that's a good one haha.

Anyway, Elder Pierson thinks on his feet well and picks things up pretty quick. I have no doubt he will be a great missionary! He is from Canada a place near the border called Lethbridge. It sounds like his mom is a lot like you. She is on the West Indies missionary moms thing so I don't know if you want to try and talk to her (probably already have) I forgot how much of a culture shock it really is to come here and it is bringing back a lot of memories from the beginning of my mission.

I am glad I have members in my area now and know it will help in the work. We have a lot of work to do, it's also nice to get fed every once in a while ;) as for investigators, its off to a slow start however we have met a pretty cool guy named "B." He is actually the brother of a member in Vieux Fort, he was a temporary missionary for about a month, I got to know him pretty well. "B" seems like a very good guy. This is going to be a great transfer we got a lot of great missionaries sent in so i am excited to see how much the work progresses.

That pretty much it for this week, it has been a great week!

Love you,
Elder Schroeder

Drool and Lemon Meringue Pie

Beautiful sunset in my area, Soufriere

As for here the work is going great! How you spoke about meeting some people that will hear something familiar when we teach, we have definitely found a couple of them. The most miraculous, is a lady named "S."

One day, we had a lesson at night up in a little area called Palmiste (its up on a hill) and we were walking through houses on the way down the hill. Usually, we don't talk to too many people at night because they don't normally like to be bothered (and half of them are drunk) but I saw two ladies sitting and talking to one another and I don't know what came over me but I just exclaimed HI! as we were walking by them, and that started the conversation. They were two nice older ladies by the name of "H" and "S". We just talked a little bit and set an appointment to come back and teach them. When we came back "S"explained to us that she has seen us pass her house often and whenever she saw us, she has wanted to talk to us but she was always to nervous to. She also mentioned that she wanted to do Bible studies with us ... so of course Elder Palmer and I forced our jaws closed and wiped the puddle of drool off the ground and taught her the restoration. She and her friend "H" loved it! We shared a lot of scriptures with them and every time we shared a new one they just exclaimed things like "wow! we have never heard that before" or "where was that scripture I have never heard of that" after the lesson we left a pamphlet with them, and invited them to pray and ask God if what we taught today was true.

We came back a few days later and had another lesson (just with "S" this time) and we asked her if her prayer had been answered and she said , "YES SHE KNOWS THAT JOSEPH SMITH WAS A PROPHET."....... wow............. more drool to clean up. Anyway she is super excited to be baptized into the church. She just has to come to church which is difficult since we aren't having church in Soufriere for another two weeks. I have no doubt she will be baptized though. This is just one story, we have quite a few others. This area could be GREAT!!

As for where Elder Palmer will be going home to, it is a little town attached to Logan, Utah. 

Yes, we do take a bus to Vieux Fort or Castries and we do have to stay for the weekend cause we can't get buses back on Sundays, it is impossible.

This week has been pretty great! Got to meet a lot of cool new people and get some good teaching done. Also, I taught the Hippolytes a member family that lives in Choiseul, how to make a lemon meringue pie - thanks to Grandma Schroeder I can do that (and yes the crust I make is very, very good)  

Also, this weekend I taught the branch presidents wife how to make pie, so the Branch President loves me now - he is a man that loves to eat.

Thank you guys for all your support and love.
Love,
Elder Schroeder

P.S. Here is a picture of the pie I made (that should make grandma proud - and yes the recipe came all out of my brain)

Guess who I saw?

Sounds like Grandmas birthday was super nice let her know that I love her!

Elder Palmer has been out just about two years now, he goes home on October 10th. I haven't gotten my package yet, they gave it to the Zone leaders and I will be getting it from them tomorrow at district meeting. You actually wouldn't believe this. Elder Palmer and I had an appointment with someone who lives right on the main road (here in Soufriere) and we took a shortcut to get to it and right as we turned right onto the main road a car honked at us and two people waved. (I didn't really see them) and then the car stopped about 15 yards behind us. Guess who got out? Aunt Rachelle and Trent ... super weird to see them.. they just took a picture with me then told me about the package and went on their way .... So you will have to grill her with all the questions... that I am sure, you now have.

Anyway this week was pretty good:) We had quite a few lessons with some very good people but the church attendance was pretty disappointing. We were supposed to have about 10 or 15 people there and the morning of, they all called and cancelled... we ended up having one older lady show up for church which was good but disappointing. We should be able to get these people to go in future weeks but Elder Palmer and I won't be here on Sunday for two weeks. Since Elder Palmer and I are in a group here in Soufriere we have to go to our branch once a month so we be in Vieux Fort next Sunday. Then the Sunday after, we will be up in Castries for General Conference because Elder Palmer leaves a few days after.

We haven't really meet anyone new and exciting this week but we did have some extremely good appointments with a guy named "D" who is a scuba instructor for a hotel. He is a very bright guy and whenever we go by to have lessons with him, it is usually just a short 30 minutes of teaching then leave an assignment for him. Which is really what we are supposed to do. Then when we come back, he has done the assignment and grown a lot spiritually. It really is great to see someone who has such great desires for spiritual things - you don't find that here too often.

"G" is still doing pretty good. However, he has lost some of his seriousness in regards to acting on the message we have shared with him. I feel like with a little more effort on our part we can likely engender that same zeal for the gospel he once had.

It really is exciting for Connor to be training and be a district leader haha fun stuff ... I hope his Tagalog is good enough.

Love,
Elder Schroeder

This is the son of a cool family, they are fun .. they are taking us craw fish hunting today (fresh water lobster basically) and bamboo bursting. It works like a potato cannon just made of bamboo.The craw fish hunting works a lot like noodling - the only thing we basically have to worry about is leeches ;)

FYI- for those who don't know, Rachelle is my sister who was in St Lucia with her husband Trent. They were on a cruise and in port for the day, on their Honeymoon. I haven't even talked to her yet as they are due home late tonight. I sent a package for Kyle with them to give to the missionaries who serve in the city where the ship docks. Kyle is serving about an hour south. I'm excited to talk to her and see the pictures. Robin

Meeting great people!

9/9/13
Wow you gave me a lot to respond to.. Firstly, Elder Palmer and I both have our pedigrees so we are going to have to check that out and yes he lived in Logan for a while. I wouldn't doubt if we were related we look pretty similar and he could basically have been the fourth member of Connor, Wes and my gang haha. Needless to say we get along super well. Elder Palmer and I have basically decided we are long lost brothers. We are pretty much exactly alike. We are also pretty sure we are related he says he is related to the lady in the movie 17 miracles who puts the two biscuits in the dutch oven and is able to feed her family. I just can quite recall if that happened to Patience, I am about 80% sure it is. Verification would be nice.

This week has been awesome! One cool story is that Elder Palmer and I went out one morning to walk around the point, to see if there are people living around the other side.  We started walking and decided its not a good use of time and that walking put us in a very strange area (strange meaning we never ever would have walked there by our own idea) and we started walking up a hill, we walked by a house and I felt prompted to call into this house. We called in and we met a guy named "G"! He is awesome! He is definitely the future branch president here in Soufriere. After we had an awesome lesson with him (and committed him to baptism on the 5th of October) We left and Elder Palmer said he also was urged/prompted to go call into this house. So that was awesome! He was the only one at church on Sunday.

Another cool story about simple service, it was night time and we walked by this house were a ~15 year old girl was washing, we offered to help. Usually everyone says no but she said yes.. we went to go help her, she only had one shirt to wash haha.  That got us talking to her parents and then her aunt and then her aunts son who's name is "K".  He is a guy we met our first day here in Soufriere and we couldn't get a hold of him, the Lord has really led us to these two men to start this area off!.. He didn't come to church (we don't know why yet) but he should also be baptized on October 5th along with "G" if we can get him to church.

About day to day living. It really is quite amazing how some people get by.. I just wonder to myself when I walk past a single mother on the street, who has about 4 mango's and a bag of mints for sale. One huge mango is about $2 (Eastern Caribbean) = (.74 US) and you can buy a mint for about 10 cents  (EC)= (.4 US) If she sold all that she had that day she would only make about $10 EC thats ($3.70 US) dollars.  Now a bag of flour that weighs about 3 pounds is about $6 (EC). I have no idea how some of these people make it, but they do. They definitely live from day to day.

Well, I think that is about it for the week. Having great fun here is Soufriere! We are going to Sugar Beach after we email and shop and things.

Love,
Elder Schroeder


9/16/13
To settle your thoughts in regards to nutrition... I have cooked 3 pies in the past 4 days haha! Actually Elder Palmer and I eat very well. Breakfast is usually either eggs and toast or pancakes or bacon/corned beef hash and lunch or dinner is anything form homemade mac and cheese to beef stroganoff ... We usually eat lots of rice. Rice is the best.

Also, that is exciting to hear that Aunt Rachelle and Trent are coming down to St. Lucia!  If you gave them a package it would definitely get to me. The entire island is one district so we go up there for trade offs pretty regularly.  I will make sure to let the zone leaders know, I actually might be doing a trade off in Castries with the district leader but it would be best if Aunt Rachelle just got a hold of the zone leaders, they would probably be more than willing to meet up with them .. Also, she could actually ask them where to go and what to do, so she doesn't get jipped off.

Well anyway, now for the important stuff... this week was a pretty trying week. Basically, throughout the week we had every day full of appointments and it just turned out that every single appointment (save a few) fell through. It also has rained consistently every day this week, and when an appointment falls through what we usually do is contact. We contacted for four hours one day and we literally got about 4 contacts and it was raining ... so that is basically was what our week was like - a lot of rejection. We did however have some good things happen, we met a boy named "D" - he is 15, and he is awesome. We taught him, his grandmother, and his older brother the restoration. You should have seen the way this kids eyes lit up when we talked about the first vision. After we taught him about that, we asked him what he was going to do and he just exclaimed, "we have to pray!" It was awesome to see a young man so excited for the things of God.

Sadly though we only had one person turn up at church this week, it was "D"! "G" however had a good excuse for not coming, he had a debate Saturday night up in Canneries or Dennery and he couldn't make it back in time to be there for church. (the buses here don't generally run on Sunday) We also had two other men that were going to come to church named "D2" and "M" as we were walking to pick them up for church, It began to rain and when we got to their house, they were nowhere to be found.

What you said about coming back in thirty years and being able to see the growth here makes me curious. It really would be exciting to see!

Oh yeah, today we climbed the Petit Piton it was super cool, and hot. It was definitely fun to get dirty again going hiking. It was a pretty ridiculous hike but I loved it! I also caught a big crab about halfway up the piton and I just happened to be a proper eagle scout, "be prepared!" I had the shoe laces from my old shoes in my backpack. So we tied the claws shut and threw it in a backpack. Let me tell you, this thing was strong, if it got a piece of you it for sure would have drawn blood and a lot of it. When we got to the bottom we walked past some shops and met someone we knew, so we traded the crab for 4 drinks. It was a pretty good trade if you ask me. Our original plan was to eat it but hey 4 drinks is enough for me. So that was fun!

P-Day Hiking Petit Piton

From the top, looking down on my area .... not too big...

Oh yes, we also moved our apartment today, it is a much better apartment bigger and better for sure, and the water doesn't taste weird.. I think... haha

Good week this week.

Love,

Elder Schroeder

New Area: Soufriere, St. Lucia

The past couple days have been crazy... I was supposed to leave Trinidad at 9:30 on Wednesday. I was getting ready in the morning to leave and we got a phone call that my flight was leaving at 8:30, we had to rush off.  I got to the airport,  rushed through security and I was on a plane 40 minutes later. We landed in St. Vincent got off for what was supposed to have been a three hour layover. I took Elder Jacobsen out tracting for his first time (he is a new missionary) and he loved it! Then I took him to get some food and checked back in through security for our flight. We ended up waiting four more hours for our flight. The plane got there around 7:30 and we were off the ground by 8:00pm. Keep in mind my flight was originally supposed to arrive at 11am in St. Lucia originally ... so the missionaries in St. Lucia spent all day waiting at the airport for us. That was crazy.

10 minutes from leaving the airport, I found myself at a branch beach party and I got to meet a lot of the members here. We spent the night in Dros Islet just north of Castries and then we were off to Soufriere in the morning. Got to Soufriere and went to the apartment with Elder and Sister Gartz, went to the store to get groceries, went back to the apartment finished building a bed for one of us to sleep on, cleaned the apartment up, went to an appointment at 4 to go look at another apartment. (we will probably be moving there in the next week or so) Needless to say this week has been absolutely crazy!!!!!

We are hoping we don't have church alone the first week. I don't think we will, there are a lot of cool people here is Soufriere. There are two members here in Soufriere just Elder Palmer and I.  We will work hard to get a teaching pool and hopefully change that. Elder Palmer requested a missionarry that works hard and I got sent here,  it's good to know that the mission president knows that I work hard :)

 That's a river going through town yes, I said town

Elder Palmer is the second on on my right

Also, they speak Patuá (French Creole) here and I can mostly understand it! It is quite funny because the people here if they don't want us to understand them, they will switch to it and I can understand them. Just with the little French background I have, I can catch about 80% of what they say. The word for white boys is boobla haha.. I'm sure you will get more of that in my other emails. Well it's about time to go, I wish I could type more but I don't have time.

Love,
Elder Schroeder

P.S. we will climb the petit piton one of these p-days so you should get some cool pictures... specifically of my area

For those who may not know what tracting is, it is door to door contacting. Those of you who are not members of our faith, if they knock on your door, please be kind to these nice young men and women. Please offer them a drink of water and know they are good people with mothers like me:) You can identify them by their name badge, it will say Elder or Sister, followed by their last name and under their name it says, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." They do service too, so if you have something that needs to be done, put them to work.  Robin

Transfers

Wow! Sounds like you've had a good and busy week! Thanks for the email:) and for sending Adam's email address. I didn't get an email from him today so, I will send him one.

It was stake conference this last Sunday for us too, and "M's" mom came to church and she loved it!!!!! We had a special meeting at 12:30 for new and returning members, it was a question and answer type setting. She made a few comments and was sitting right behind President and Sister Mehr. They talked to her after the meeting and they were so impressed with her .. So that was awesome!!!!!

For transfers ... I am getting transferred a little ways off to a little old island called Saint Lucia not too exciting or anything... Haha.. just kidding, I am super excited! The area I will be serving in is called Soufrière. This is the area that Elder Gutierrez (my MTC companion) opened up with his companion. Supposedly, it is basically in the bush and there are no members that live there so we will be having church in our apartment... crazy.. It will be way different than serving in the largest ward in the mission, but I am excited!! I leave Wednesday and my companion will be Elder Palmer. He is an ex military guy so we should get along haha. I don't know the mailing address for the area yet, but I am sure I will know soon.

That reminds me, I did get the package and the shoes seem like they should last real long and I do like the ironman sunglasses better, only cause I can take them through the wringer.

I am super bummed to be leaving... because of all the amazing people here, I have really come to love the them.  I am especially sad to leave the "M" family.  I have become part of their family... I am going to miss them a lot! Also, "S" and "R" they have just began to bloom and I wish I could stay and teach them .. but I know that they are all in good hands with Elder Jamison he is an amazing missionary. Wow! When I got into Port of Spain we had no good investigators .. and when I say no, I mean NO good investigators and now it is going really well. There is so much potential here... It is sad to leave knowing how much work you have put into the area..  I am super excited to hear about the success Elder Jamison will continue to have here.

Well, I think that's it for the week .. I spent my P-day today at the beach (Maracas) so that was nice. How many missionaries get to do that?

Love,
Elder Schroeder

Fishers of Men

8/12/13

Today for P-day I was able to do something relaxing.. Dad would have liked to do this, we went fishing!! We left in the morning and we hiked up and over a saddle and came down onto the cliffs on the north side of Trinidad. Instead of using poles we used a caster - just basically a plastic donut that you can hold your line on and get some leverage when you catch something. We didn't catch anything sadly :/ but it was super relaxing.

Trinidad Giant Snail

This week has been extremely successful! The Lord has definitely blessed us for our diligence. We went from having 0 baptismal dates set to 9! In one week:)

"M" should be baptised this Saturday, he seems like he really is doing very well and is very excited for his baptism... only thing now is for him to pick who baptises him ... so hopefully you will have some baptism picture next Monday and hopefully I will be dressed in white also ;)

"R" and his family didn't come to church on Sunday. They both got called into work at like 6 in the morning :( but they said they are off this Sunday so they will be coming. We have taught them the restoration for the past three lessons and now they are really beginning to understand! it is fun to see our investigators really become interested in the gospel and yearn after it!

That makes me think about the way we as missionaries have to teach here. Lets just say the peoples reasoning skills are not the best, when we teach we cannot afford to miss anything in our lessons. This is really is turning me into a great teacher (i think :/ ) haha..I can definitely see how I really have been called to seek out those who desire a testimony of Jesus Christ.

Well sorry, I wish I could write more but I have to go. I love you guys and I love hearing from you every week.

Love,
Elder Schroeder

This past week I got a call and email from a man who was on a business trip in Trinidad and he took his nephew along. His nephew was able to spend some time with Elder Schroeder and Elder Jamison.  He spoke highly of both missionaries, gave some nice compliments, and said it was a great experience for his nephew to get some missionary training. He also treated them to a traditional Trini meal of doubles.  Which I'm sure, Kyle loved!! It was so kind of him to contact us and let us know that Kyle is doing great!!  Robin

                                            
A small portion of his email: "Such a great time.  Poor kid--he was sweating like an animal as he was walking toward me.  His white shirt was saturated with his sweat." The Elders both commented that they loved having him along. They both treated him so well, and his testimony of missionary work was strengthened."

8/19/13
At the beginning of His mortal ministry, Jesus Christ walked along the shore of the sea of Galilee and called out to two fishermen, Peter and Andrew. “Follow me,” He said, “and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19; see also Mark 1:17). The Lord has also called you to His work, and He invites you to follow Him. The invitation to follow Christ is an invitation to follow His example and to become like Him.

We had a baptism this week !!!!!! booyah! "M" was able to be baptised on Saturday. It was actually quite a long story. He was prepared, passed his interview and received permission from both his Mom and Dad. Guess who got to baptise him ... yours truly! That was a great way to end the week. He was confirmed and got the priesthood on Sunday!





I was super excited to read about your missionary work at home! You guys are awesome! It makes me very happy to hear that you are making efforts such as those. You guys will definitely be blessed as you strive to seek out missionary opportunities. Keep it up !!!

About that special transfer, I believe that was because they got 10 new dutch speaking missionaries in the middle of this transfer. Their visas were approved.

Also, about the mosquito's I think I have found out the same bit of information that Connor did. We must both have a natural mosquito repellent cause some missionaries just get destroyed by bugs. I only get a few bites every once in a while, probably a bite or two a week or even less.

This week was an awesome week. We had zone conference which was amazing! President Mehr is a genius and a spiritual giant, we learned a lot, and I couldn't ever possibly explain it over an email. I really loved my opportunity to interview with President Mehr. It really is amazing that he remembers so much from our individual weekly emails. He is the best mission president!

We also were able to get 7 investigators to church this week! (we tried super hard to get them there and our efforts paid off) Only four of them were on time for Sacrament meeting though:/  Elder Jamison and I are really beginning to see the fruits of our diligence here in Port of Spain. There hasn't been a baptism here since October of last year! Elder Jamison and I broke the curse and we have about 5-6 people right now that are definitely entering the waters very soon!

Starting to see some great success here! I love you guys and look forward to hearing from you next week.

Love,
Elder Schroeder
and I will be able to pick the package up tomorrow. Exciting!

Lots of Teaching

7/29/13

Hi!
The video did work:) and when I saw it was very curious as to who was doing the jumping. I am impressed that you and Sid had the guts to do that.. very impressed. (video was of us bridge jumping)

The weather this week was pretty good, very little rain except Sunday. We had real rain Sunday (as they would say here in Trinidad) it started raining about halfway through our lunch in our apartment, so after lunch we waited about 30 minutes and it didn't look like it was going to stop so we went out anyway. We only had one umbrella so I let elder Jamison use it, he doesn't like getting wet. Lets just say the rain was torrential and that is to say the least. The sidewalks we usually walk on had turned into rivers so we were basically waking in the middle of the road cause everywhere else was flooded. It was insane! Basically after less than a minute outside I was soaked to the bone. It was really fun though, to get to see what the streets are like when it rains that much.

This email is probably going to be a little shorter this week I hurt my wrists today... its a long story, but to say the least it isn't the most comfortable to type.

We don't have too many really solid new investigators this week other than the ones you have heard of already. Elder Jamison and I have just been focusing on doing a lot of member work here, We have been going by to visit the members and do service for them to gain their trust. It is super fun to get to know all the members here, to come to church and feel at home. The members here are awesome they offer to feed us all the time and if they have time they love to go out and teach with us. They bring food to us for after church. It is awesome! A sandwich here is bread with mayonnaise and chicken gizzards, or sliced up hot dogs or something.

This week has been awesome! We taught about 20 lessons and hit most of our goals. It feels good to work hard, the Lord definitely fills you with energy you didn't know you had when you do his work.

For p-day today we went to an old satellite on the top of one of the mountains here and supposedly it is the first satellite to ever send and receive a radio signal or something. I would like to hear more about it so you should look it up for me ;)

Well it sounds like you are having a ton of fun and so am I, have a great week. Love you guys.

Love,
Elder Schroeder



rainbow boa I caught!


another picture of the boa


This is alled a chennette, they call them different things on different islands
they are amazing and they taste like candy just like the thing Connor talked about,
and I didn't catch the snake, it was a members haha

8/5/13
Well that's awesome it sounds like you guys are having loads of fun and that necklace you made is awesome and I have many other flowers that I plan on sending they have some cool flowers here. I just sent a cool leaf this last week from a wonder of the world plant. It is supposed to grow anywhere you plant it, so you guys can have a plant from my mission!

The pair of bass shoes I got for my mission will probably have a hole in the bottom in about a month. What lots of missionaries do is just buy some here ... but they are super expensive and they don't last long at all. The best shoes I have seen are the ones from missionary mall I think they just call them missionary shoes. anyway the missionaries that have them just use the one pair for their entire mission. Elder Kramer who is going home in about a month has used one pair of those shoes for his entire mission and they are still going strong so they are really good. Also sunglasses I would really appreciate a pair because my eyes are dying.. Lots of missionaries here use them just when we walk from place to place. So I don't know if you just want to send them with the shoes or send me money.. i don't know if the sunglasses here are any good. Well there is something for you to think about mom. (and I like aviator style the best ;)

Anyway this week was an awesome week sadly "M" was not Baptized this week because of some personal concerns however he still really wants to get baptized so we are helping him solve his concerns. I feel he will be baptized in about 2 weeks. So pray that he may be strengthened.

We taught a very interesting lesson .... let me just say ssssstttrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnngggggge!
(He relayed the experience, still a child of God but has some mental problems)

On a lighter note we taught a family of 4. They really are a sweet family and the Dad is a great father, you don't find that too often here. He actually rescued the woman (now his wife) from a very abusive relationship and took her and her kids in. He is awesome! We really hope to get them to church.

Another great story! My companion finally got to go out teaching with the Elders quorum president. He gets very excited when he teaches. He was a Pentecostal minister for 20 years so he preaches much like one. He kissed his Book of Mormon 6 times during the lesson haha! He is an awesome and super fun to go out with.

We got a ton of new investigators this week including a 3 woman named "D", "A", and "K" so maybe you will hear more about them in the future.

Next week I plan to give you guys a little more information on the slang they use here, it is definitely a whole new language.

Well another great week. Love you! Thank you for all your support and love!!!!

Love,
Elder Schroeder


Here is the necklace he was referring to that I made and love to wear!
It's two sided for both of my boys:)


Also, I think Kyle is so thoughtful:) He sent a letter to his Grandma with a small pressed flower enclosed she loved it! I am going to make a necklace for her with the flower in it.
A keepsake, it will be similar to these, so she can wear it.

Robin