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