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

Awesome weeks and interesting eats!

To our family and friends: I'm a bit behind on updates, we are still out of town but I've found sometime between everything to blog. We have been enjoying our visit with my parents, nieces and Sidney and Scott for their graduation at BYUI, and having lots of fun! (bike riding, bridge jumping, river rafting, fishing, enjoying the outdoors) Enjoy! Robin 

7/15/13
For transfers this week (Wednesday) Elder Salima is going down south to a place called San Fernando and Elder Kramer -he is one of the zone leaders, is going to the south to a place called Couva (I have spent a lot of time with Elder Kramer and Whitlock, they always run out of water at their apartment so they come to ours, and we also spend every p-day together) I am staying in my area and my new companion will be Elder Jamison. He seems pretty cool. I was able to talk to him on the phone a little bit. Elder Whitlocks new companion will be Elder Hatch, he is the Elder I went on trade offs with the other week and I'm done with the 12 week training program!

Good work mom on the deck! I am impressed, that doesn't seem like very easy work! I also hope you guys have tons of fun in Idaho for pioneer day that sounds like a load of fun parades, fishing, shooting! All around patriotism and hearts of children turning to fathers.

Also, Sister Kelly sent some letters from the primary to me so expect some letters in the mailbox in the next couple weeks for the kids in the primary, and don't open the letters cause they are for the kids, you know how much they love opening letters. You can just ask Sister Kelly to give you the letters, after the primary is done reading them.

So far as the work here it is awesome! We should have some baptisms next transfer, and I will probably get to baptize them!!

Love,
Elder Schroeder

Also, don't forget to tell Sid and Scott congrats for me when they graduate! Love you guys !!


This is the national dish of Trinidad - called pelow or paylow
depending on who you ask


This is the American family that feeds us every Sunday and I skyped from their house on Mothers day, they will be in California soon.

7/22/13
This week has been awesome !!! My new companion, Elder Jamison is from Riverton, Utah and has been on his misison 15 months - about the same as Elder Salima. He is awesome! We are very similar, we have the same ideas, both not fans of EFY music, love classical music, love to work, and keep the apartment clean (which is extremely nice) The only difference between him and I, is he has experience. Elder Jamison is a genius when it comes to missionary work. Just in the short time that he has been here our missionary work has drastically changed. We already have all day Tuesday and Wednesday planned out with solid appointments and many other appointments for the following days. I have learned and am going to learn so much from him and at the end of this transfer. I am going to be more than prepared to be an awesome missionary. I am super excited to learn all I can from him, and let me tell you it's a tremendous amount.

This week was a little slow though because it was transfer week. However, we have found quite a few new investigators who seem very promising and awesome! I am excited to bring some of the members to go teach them. Basically, right now we are focusing on the investigators we already have and getting member work going here. We are trying to become the missionaries our mission president and Bishop want us to be, which feels good. You can tell that when you follow the structure outlined in preach my gospel the Lords hand is there behind you. I actually read a cool quote in the teachings of Lorenzo snow on Sunday, " The work in which you and I are engaged can only prosper and be forwarded through the blessings of God upon our faithful and honest exertions."

It definitely is true the work is in our hands to do, but the progression of it is in Gods hands. So all I can do as a missionary is work honestly and faithfully and hey according to Doctrine and Covenants 121: 20-21 He has to prosper the work. The same goes at home, I know if you guys at home try your hardest to bring souls unto Christ He will bless you and those whom you teach. Man I have begun to preach... haha

Anyway here is an update on "M" his birthday is today and he will be baptized on August third !!!!!! whoohoo!! He is awesome has a testimony of Jesus Christ, Joesph Smith, President Monson, and of everything we have taught! He has a bunch of friends at church! He is super excited to be baptized and his parents are very supportive of his decision.

"T" is basically at the same stage, (he needs to finish the legal paperwork and get married) the only thing now is we really want more members to befriend him so we are trying to take more members over to his house and get to know him.

Two of our other solid investigators "M and S" are out of the country :( they will be out of the country on vacation for about a month :( so that's kind of a bummer.

"J" is doing awesome (he is 11) only now his mother is very hesitant in allowing him to be baptized. His father is a member of the church but the mother is not, we feel that the mother is hesitant because she doesn't know who goes to the church or anything so we are making very strong efforts at bringing members by so she can meet people from the church. We would love to get her to come to church and we always invite her.

The work here is going awesome, no doubt with our work and faith, the work here in Port of Spain is going to explode! I am super excited to see it happen! It has already begun!!

I love you all so much have a great week, until next.

Love,
Elder Schroeder


Eating chicken foot


My new companion


More chicken foot and pigs tails (pig tail is actually very very good)
yum yum!! I can go without chickens foot...

Another great week!

Sweet to hear from guys! Sounds like you are as busy as ever and will be busier. You are already turning into traveling grandparents haha.. I hope you guys have fun river rafting and traveling all over. Tell Sidney congratulations for me, that is super exciting! Also, good luck. Lastly, the insects here aren't bad, when you get out of the town areas they get worse. As for now though there is no need for bug repellent which is nice. Having loads of arm hair helps too cause the mosquitoes can't bite you there. 

This week has been great! I got to go on trade offs to a new area.  It's fun to see how when you as a missionary are perfectly obedient and just work as hard as you can that fruits can't help but come. I will tell you there is a fine line between just working and giving it your all.  I look forward to the fruits of perfect obedience and spurring the work on. 

This week we were entrusted by the Lord with 2 awesome new investigators! One is a woman that Elder Salima contacted with Elder Contrerez when we were on trade offs. She loves Jesus Christ and loves the message we have about Him. When the spirit tells her that this is the truth, I have no doubt that she will follow. The second lady is the fruit of persistence. We have many people here, when we contact them they say, "oh I have my own religion and I will never change." Usually, when they say that we mostly just give up on them cause they aren't willing to listen. But when she said this I said,  as she was walking away." I know that the message we have can bless your life tremendously." She stopped and gave me her ear for just 30 seconds, it was long enough to make an impression.  It was awesome to see the change in someone just by bearing a quick testimony of the truth!! We have been able to teach her twice now!  Our testimony as missionaries is the strongest arrow in our quiver (that's a quote from James E Faust - I believe) 

"T" is doing great!  We finally helped him realize, what the answer the spirit gave him meant. He can answer all the baptismal questions now with a solid YES!!!! All he has to do now is finalize his divorce and get married. (all he is waiting for is his wife's signature) so that is awesome! 

"M" is also doing great, I believe we got over the hurdle with his dad. His dad now talks to us and jokes with us which is awesome!!! So now his parents will let him get baptized but there is only one problem... they basically think that he has to be perfect before he is baptized. Every time we talk to them about his baptism they say "oh yeah he can be baptized, he just has a few more things he has to work on." They are super supportive of him in all his actions, like going to church and stuff it's just that they won't allow him to be baptized yet.

This week was pretty sad too. Along with the success we had to drop a few investigators. They are just not keeping commitment and progressing, we have taught them for months now. It is super hard to tell people you have gotten to know so well, that you cannot come anymore. It comes to a point though when we have to. We cannot waste a minute of our time :/ it is so sad :( 

On a lighter note, I have seen many interesting things here in Trinidad. There is basically a vagrant that lives on every street - their minds have been fried by drugs. There aren't many dull moments here. The other day we saw one pooping in the middle of a field :O  I wasn't even surprised so, based off that you can tell there a many strange thing that happen here.

Well another great week! I love you guys and I will talk to you later.

Love,

Elder Schroeder (Sholda or Shoda) - as they say here

Cute Kid!!

We have been helping build this house.

 Sunset from an investigators house 

Teaching, Iguana & the Flu

Sounds like you guys had an awesome and exciting week and Dad probably had a relaxing one. Hearing about Catalina and the Del Mar fair makes me a little bit home sick. I think, if anything I miss the weather back home, those hot summer days back home would feel just marvelous as compared to the hot ones here.  I really have grown accustomed to the weather here, I don't even really sweat anymore unless I am walking or something.

It was super cool to hear the story about President Marler - you know as missionaries it is stories like that that make us excited haha.

So this week was a little different... It started off great! I feel like now I have really learned how to teach by the Spirit, it is amazing to share my testimony with the people here! This whole experience makes me think of the missionaries in the Book of Mormon and how they taught.  The majority of the teachings in the Book of Mormon are the testimonies of the prophets, they allowed the Spirit to guide them as they taught. The same should go for us as missionaries, there is a scripture in Doctrine & Covenants 68:4 "And whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the^aHoly Ghost shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the ^bpower of God unto salvation." 

Now about our investigators. Yes, we are still teaching "A" she has yet to come to church because she usually stays somewhere else, with some family for the weekend. "V" likely would have come to church again this last Sunday but we couldn't get a hold of him and arrange a ride for him this Sunday. It is so hard to get our investigators to church every week, we have so many solid investigator that want to come to church but something happens every time so that all of them cannot make it. However, there is good news, the church here in Port of Spain will be reopened on the 21st of July!!!! yay!! It should be easier for both investigators and member to come to church!

The beginning of the week went pretty well, teaching wise. Fridays and Saturdays are usually our best days and guess what happened Friday? Around lunch time, I got the Flu :( I just thought it was a bad stomach ache so I went out teaching, as the day went on it gradually got worse and worse. I started feeling hot, got a headache and got super weak. We headed back to the apartment (about two miles) -on foot, to change because there was a sports activity for investigators and members. We got changed and started walking to the church and it hit me like a brick, yep I threw up on the corner of the street... a lot ... we went to the activity cause we were pretty close to the church already and i just rested. I got a ride back to the apartment when it was over and proceeded to sleep from about 9:00 pm Friday to about 4:00 pm Saturday. I limped to a baptism then got home around 6 and slept from then till 10:30 Sunday morning and then went to church. Got home form church slept from 8:00 till around noon today and now I feel fine. I don't think i have ever felt so sick in my life. Now I am good though so no worries!

On a lighter note, I caught an Iguana on Thursday, Elder Salima and I were in Curepe (pronounced keerib) doing a baptismal interview and on the walk to the bus road I saw it and caught it. Everyone was super impressed haha!! - mostly the locals. I think that they think all we missionaries can do is teach the gospel.

Elder Schroeder's Iguana

Other than being sick, this week was great! The mission president came to our ward on Sunday. I got to talk to him a little bit, which was cool. It's always fun to get to know the mission president a little better.

I love you all, I hope you have a great week! Until, next week.

Love,
Elder Schroeder