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