Baptisms and Service!

5/12/14

                           Mother's Day skype was AWESOME!!!

It sure was great that you could meet some of the members in the ward during our call. I actually invited them to come meet you guys, that was nice! "S" and" S" love going out with the missionaries! Also Brother "N.B." I am glad you guys got to meet some of them.

We have 6 missionaries serving in the Sangre Grande ward. Elder Montgomery, Hernandez, Fiame, Sister Hendricks, Sister Herrick, and myself. It is a pretty good bunch!

I am glad your range of motion is increasing! That is great you will be back to normal in no time!
Hoping Connor can get that externship! I guess I am always thirsting for knowledge, externship\internship, whats the difference? I can throw out a good guess but still I would like to know more. Oh and I have got to see a picture of that bike, sounds sweet!

Anyway, as far as the work this week I received some great news from Elder Fiame my new companion, he just came form St. Lucia. Of course I asked him how it is over there. He was just ecstatic! I do not know if you remember me writing home about a brother "P".  He is a man who only has one leg due to diabetes that I contacted and began teaching him about 3 weeks before I left. He is now baptized! Also the "A" family which includes "D" "V" and "O" are all baptized! Apparently, "O" is the best, he is a great fellow shipper for investigators and he has already given talks and everything at church. "S" I also heard is doing great! She is a great institute teacher and she has a weekly house meeting with 40+ people in attendance!!!! There also is another investigator named "J" who is being baptized soon. Elder Fiame tells me that they all love me a lot and they always ask about me. It is a great feeling! 5 more souls!

I also found out from Elder Fiame that in the mission, my nickname among the missionaries is "Elder Dictionary" pretty funny!

We did have something pretty sad happen this week a member that feeds us every Sunday after church. His brother passed away, he is not of our faith, we went to part of the wake for him. We were just there for a couple of hours. We visited with the minister, it was quite interesting to see how they handle funerals, he asked us if we had any questions it was fun to pick his brain a little bit and see how they approach the death. We sure are blessed with the plan of salvation... 

I have really discovered how much service plays into missionary work. Often I find myself throwing everything to the side so I can help out a brother or sister. There is not enough of that in the world!
This week Elder Fiame cut up about a million pimento peppers for someone. I hoed a large patch of grass while Elder Fiame taught a lady, it was great! This makes me remember when I was on a trade off a while back. I called into a house and the lady just poked her head out and said, "not interested" and then I said back "can I leave you with something to read?" she said, "Yes" as I walked up to give her the book and I could tell she was still very sheepish, if not a little perturbed. As I was writing down our name and number on the back of a pamphlet, I noticed she had been doing some yard work and the sidewalk needed sweeping. I offered to sweep and she said no (of course) with a little convincing I got a hold of a broom and started sweeping, about 5 seconds in she started laughing out of sheer shock. As I continued sweeping we talked energetically and she actually ran inside to get a camera to take a picture of the momentous event! I finished sweeping and we spoke to her very candidly about what we do as missionaries. We left the house with a great return appointment! Great stuff!
Well, I think that is it for the week. Love you all!
Elder Schroeder

This computer isn't letting me send pictures, sorry:/


5/19/14

First off I have to say... the fires over there looked ridiculous, I am glad you are all safe!

That's funny to hear about Pops being called that also haha. I did learn from you mom, how to work hard though!! You're always going. I am glad I inherited that from you.

"S" (the young man you met) came to church and got the priesthood. He is also coming out teaching with us on Tuesday! He is good and has a very powerful testimony.

A little about this week, I had to stop driving the car on Wednesday because of the work permit issue so Elder Fiame and I were on bike's for two days and guess what? I crashed twice .. once for each day... I guess Connor and I mountain biked a little too much, I tried doing some tricks and yeah it didn't end well haha.. anyway we are back in the car now, that's a whole different story though. We just sent one of our missionaries home... He has got to go home to get surgery on his knees. Anyway we inherited his companion - Elder Montgomery, so now we have a designated driver... kind of terrifying at first but, I trust him with the car now.

So right now the three of us are covering two full areas, we are doing pretty good and doing lots of service.  Elder Fiame and Montgomery are two very energetic guys, they go a million miles and hour and crash at the end of the day. They are great missionaries, hard workers, firm testimonies, great attitudes. What more could you want?

My time is almost up, I had a lot of emails to read today.

Excited for the next 10 months! Keep plugging along at home you guys should try reading the Book of Mormon in 90 days, reading the same assignment everyday and then come together and talk about it at the end of the day. I think that would be great! You can see how much you each learn!

Love you guys!
Love,
Elder Schroeder

1- Two of the best dogs ever
2- Cayman I caught (just kidding, my investigator had it)
3- Me and Elder Fiame

                           

 

Good stuff!! Fun stuff!! Experience of a Lifetime...

4/28/14
Hi!

I know Sid is definitely the perfect material to be a teacher. I am excited for her! It is quite the adventure I am sure. That really is a huge responsibility she holds in her hands teaching the future generation. If she fails... uhh ohh... I know she won't though.

This week really has been a great week. Elder Brown and I have met a good amount of very prepared people! The first being "B" .. we brought a member out teaching with us, he is about 30 and it turns out that he and the woman we went to see knew each other when they were little kids ... they were neighbors and played with each other and everything! Perfect fellow-shipper! Anyway we continued teaching her about the Book of Mormon (we taught the restoration the time before) and she is very serious about it. She is already very active in another faith but she said that she will follow, if she finds that what we teach is true. Quite the faith I have to say! She said, "this is my salvation,  I must find out if this is true" that's the best!

Another person we met is from Jamaica and wow this blew me out of the water; when we brought up the Book of Mormon she said, "I have always wondered, if God spoke to the people in the East, then why don't we have a record of him speaking to the people in the West?" What great joy it brings to know that Elder Brown and I were ready and willing to declare these great truths to our sister! and cause her to rejoice! Good stuff!

Here is one interesting story, last night Elder Brown and I went to an investigators house and they were having a big block party. A Caribbean block party... needless to say there was a lot of alcohol involved .. but everyone here loves ministers so we walk to our investigator and he invites us to stay for food.  Free food! Of course we are staying. We decide though since the food is not ready, to leave and come back. We left then came back and a super drunk guy nicknamed "C" hooked us up with the food. Two ministers just sitting in the middle of a bunch of drunk people that absolutely love us, it was strange, but funny.

Two other people that were just super prepared for us "S" and "K"... they are awesome! We are actually helping "K" do a fundraiser for her child he has got a heart problem where his heart keeps enlarging, eventually it will basically blow up because the walls of his heart can't keep up with the expansion and they get too thin. I can't remember what the name is .. but we are helping her raise money for the flight up to the states.

This week has been pretty good. We have been making some good efforts at reaching out to the members here as well, so we are excited to see the fruits of our labors.

Love you guys so much have a great week!
Elder Schroeder



5/5/14
First and foremost above all things I am super excited for Sid! That is very exciting I hope she handles pregnancy well. I am also excited that I get to be there to see his early life! That's the best! It is strange how much growth in family, makes us happy, I guess it is just inside all of us! We love life!

Now for transfer calls... drum roll please! I am going nowhere! I am enthralled to be here yet again, I love Valencia! Elder Brown however is leaving :( sad day .. he is going to Guyana. My new companion will be Elder Fiame. If you go back on the pictures of us zip lining in St. Lucia, he is the only Polynesian in the pictures. That is who I will be serving with. He is also from California, I think San Jose if I remember correctly. So that change will be fun.

Also, getting a license here doesn't really mean much of anything for transfers in the mission, we just need to get them to drive while we are here. I personally think I will probably be here the rest of my mission though. It seems to work like that. but hey who knows. I am super happy with that though I love Trinidad!!  Not a whole lot of sites to see but the people are the best! I guess the people are the best everywhere though huh??

Oh, I just remembered... I forgot to tell you last p-day we had a zone activity where the entire zone went turtle watching. The beach we went to is Grande Riviere and apparently it is the most concentrated leather back turtle nesting site in the entire world. These turtles are ridiculous! They are huge!!!! I even kissed one! yeah beat that Connor! I kissed an animal that perhaps could go extinct in our lifetime. I hope not... they are mighty cool.
My little nerdy insides were drooling when I heard we got to go see them. We got back from seeing them at 2 in the morning ... and yes we were expected to proselyte just like regular that day.. fun stuff!! We were all super tired  but definitely the experience of a lifetime. Sadly, I only have some poor pictures because flash photography is not allowed at this site. You guys could look up pictures though I am sure. We got to see them lay eggs and everything. Some people even ate some of the eggs that had been dug up... gross.

We finally had an investigator come to church!!!!! yay! His name is "D" he is the 15 year old son of the a great member family, their son has just not been baptized. We challenged him to set his own baptismal date so hopefully this week he will decide what day he wants to be baptized.

Other than that we did have one quite miraculous miracle this week (what else would it be) we went finding down this road 'pro pouche' rd. (oro pooch) and we taught a young man named "K" at the end of his lesson we asked if his mom would be interested in what we have to share. He very enthusiastically said, "yes!"  So we were pretty excited to come back and meet her. A couple days later, we went to see them and we met his mother, and guess what? She is a long lost member!!!! booyah! Her son was right, she would be interested in what we have to say, in fact she is so interested she is already a member! That was the best!  Now we have one more family to work with here in Valencia! Good stuff!

Well, I think that is it for the week! Still having a great time ... I realized this week that this mission  actually does come to an end and it is approaching quickly... I only have bout 11 months left ahhhhh! anyway...

Love all of you tons have a great week!
Elder Schroeder

Should be able to Skype you  for mothers day... About 6pm my time :)

This computer is acting funny I think it might have a virus, I will see if I can get on another computer really fast and send some pictures.