Wow, sounds like a fun week over there! It also sounds like a fun couple weeks to come!!
Ideas for a Christmas gift... all I have to say is if you are planning on sending a package don't send candy, we have got too much of that here in Trinidad and it is all dirt cheap. There are a couple souvenirs that would be good.. some of them can be quite pricey though. I do want to buy an Indian style shirt they call it a Kurta (i don't know if I spelled it correctly) and it comes with pants too. Other than that I don't really know. I am good on pretty much everything.
I have got one interesting story this week for you guys.
Elder Beck and I just drove up a large hill (very large hill) to go teach a young man and when we parked and got out of the car. An older man was sitting down in the shade he asked us for a ride down the hill into St. James (it's about a 10-15 minute drive from there) We quickly said sorry we can not, he responded short of breath telling us he recently has had two heart attacks and he is experiencing shortness of breath. He said he feels like he is dying and he wants a ride to the hospital. We asked is he has called an ambulance yet? He said, he did but they can't send one because they are all occupied. While we are talking to him I could hear wheezing in his speech and breath he called the ambulance again and they said they will send one as soon as they get one. Since we couldn't take him he said "are you just going to leave me here to die?" We didn't want to break the rules so we quietly waited with him for a couple minutes and then decided to call President Mehr. President asked a couple questions after we told him the situation and he said go ahead take him, we can't leave him there to die. So we got him in the car and drove him to the hospital... that 's a little different than the regular everyday missionary experience.
I have got another story but I think I will wait to tell you that one until I get home. I wrote it in my journal so don't worry about me forgetting it.
I told you I would have pictures this week but I didn't take any pictures. Elder Beck took some pictures though I will see if I can get them from him!
Love,
Elder Schroeder
11/10/14
I am excited for Sidney and Scott and for their baby to come! I better get pictures the moment you see it.. I know I don't have to worry about that though.
This last week has been the best! we have set 9 baptismal dates! Most of them are really solid too. Some may have to be pushed back later on but most will get baptised.
I am very excited for one family!! They should be getting married and baptized on December 6th! I really hope I will be here for that! They are great! They have two children who are not quite baptism age, but one day they will be right. The parents have been progressing greatly towards baptism.. they do family home evening more often than the average Mormon family they will be a great strength to the Ward!
Another person I am excited for. I believe I wrote about last week is a 13 year old boy. Extremely prepared!!! He has already read almost to the end of 1 Nephi and he understands it super well! This last Sunday he traveled to church but got lost along the way so he obviously didn't make it .... We will be traveling with him to church to show him the way next time.. which should be interesting because we don't even know how to travel to church! (taxis)
We met a guy this week and you should have heard him. We asked him about his view on religion and he went off on a huge tangent about the great apostasy. How none of the churches on the earth are true right now, and that he is waiting for God to call a prophet so the truth can be brought back! Needless to say we shared our message with him... He should be baptised in the coming months...
It has been a great week and I am excited to see the fruits coming up! Sorry, I didn't take any pictures this week... I have been slacking on that...I will carry my camera around this week.
Love,
Elder Schroeder
P.S. we may be moving into a new apartment... and that reminds me you will get some pictures of my current apartment next week! (where i have been living the past 6 months) and possibly pictures of the new apartment.
11/17/14
Sounds like exciting times back home!!
The week went by very fast in a slow way. Tuesday and Wednesday was occupied with meetings. We had MLC - Mission Leadership Conference and all of the Zone leaders in the whole mission were present. We also had to house a few missionaries, that was pretty fun. We got to house a missionary that I was around in St. Lucia. I don't know if you remember me telling you about Elder Larson. He is just about my favorite missionary in the whole mission, so that was fun!
This week we also had to coordinate the logistics of moving apartments. It is much more difficult to move apartments in Trinidad than in St. Lucia... I can only imagine the logistical nightmare of moving houses... I look forward to that day... kinda. We should be moving over the space of tuesday-wednesday. Our new apartment is very nice... And when I say very, I mean very very nice. You guys will get pictures of the move next week. Too bad, I won't be able to benefit from it for to long (probably)
With a combination of those two things this week was a pretty slow teaching week. I do have to say that we did experience one of the greatest miracles of my mission this week! If you can remember a couple weeks ago I spoke of The 13 year old boy, well we went to teach him on Thursday and his parents said that we can no longer teach him... sad day:( That was a bit depressing and Elder Beck and I expected he would be baptized. A couple days we really wanted to teach and prepare someone for baptism in November, later we took out a Priest age young man to go teaching and as we were speaking to him we got on the topic of a girl who recently started showing up at church with a member family. I had met her a year and a half ago when I was first in Port of Spain and she used to attend regularly so I thought to myself that she was a member. Elder Beck however asked if she was baptized... Nope was the response. When we heard that you should have seen the look on our faces haha!! We both just looked at each other in awe. With a little more investigation we found out that she has never even been taught by the missionaries! We went by her house that night had a great member lesson and she is going to be baptized on the 29 of November! She already knows everything is true and loves the church. Great stuff!
That was the miracle for the week, that we found someone prepared for baptism.
Another great thing (not so missionary related) that happened this week is that we got to go to a five star restaurant again. The one owned by the Cofones. Idon't know if you remember me telling you about that a long time ago. So that was nice! 3 course meal of Calamari appetizer, Some pasta (I don't remember the name) and HagenDaz Ice cream to finish it off. yes ma'am!
It was a great week, and another great one to come.
Love,
Elder Schroeder
