California is just down the road...

Couva is great! It's actually a ward, and from the mouth of our mission president, we have to best bishop in the whole mission and I confirm that statement! I have already met with Bishop "R" twice and he is incredible! He does so much and he is super smart! I am excited to serve with him we are going to get great things done! 

Elder Haderlie my companion is actually from Vista! We use to see each other at regional dances on occasion! He is in the Vista 10th ward back home. It is ironic that we are both from California and in our area is a place called California. So I have to make sure when I tell people where I am from I say "California in the states, not down the road" 

Elder Haderlie and I get along great! We have many of the same interests and work hard. He sure is a hard worker and we will have a great time here! Oh on another note abuot Elder Haderlie he went to seminary with Olivia .. it's a small world! 

My new apartment is great .. not quite like my last apartment but it is definitely one of the better ones in the mission! And I still have the weights from my last apartment... I will have to take plenty pictures this week so you can see where I am living and what I am doing. 

I do have a good story other than the usual .. So we were contacting in a relatively new area and we meet this very nice man. We are pretty sure he is Hindu because he has Hindu flags outside his house (i will also have to send pictures of that) Anyway he invites us into his gallery and gives us some juice (bajan cherry) One of the first things he says is "don't talk to me about God" .....Okay......... what do you expect me to talk about......... eventually We get him to talk  about God! haha but anyway just a couple minutes pass and he offers us some food. Of course I can't pass up the food so I say " yeah sure! that would be great" and he invites us in his house. As he is preparing food, we sit on the couch and talk more about his beliefs - Eventually,  the food is done and we sit down to eat. I will tell you that food was spicy! and on top of that every time you emptied your glass of juice, he would come back and fill it to the brim. So I had a full plate of food and about 3-4 glasses of juice. We finish the meal and now are going on our way so I get my shoes to put them on. As I am tying my shoes in the gallery, I suddenly stood up, (and quickly I might add) leaned over the rail to my left and proceeded to exhume the contents of my stomach, upper intestines, lower intestines, colon, I am pretty sure all the way down to my toes..... The strange thing is it didn't even hurt! It felt good... I am pretty sure I lost about 30 pounds in about 5 seconds..... just an exaggeration. I guess the food did not quite agree with me or something which is weird because I have eaten that hundred of times! Funny thing is, that the guy didn't even mind! He went off on some lecture about how it's good for you to do that on occasion.... haha! 

The rest of the week was just normal... just learning the area and stuff... I already know about half of the ward, so I did good in that regard! About 70 people attended church yesterday. 

Should get my travel itinerary this transfer. I will forward it to you when i get it..

Love,

Elder Schroeder 

pictures next week!

New area...Couva Trinidad!

Well I am being transferred to... Couva! with an Elder Haderly! Couva is just south of where I am .. it's about a half hour drive. I no longer have a car but I will be rolling around on bikes... miserable.... I just hope they have mud flaps and are in good operating order.. I will have to fix that if not. Apparently there are tons of Hindus down there and it is city like (very little bush) 

 

It is going to be fun for three months to have a little change of venue but I'm sure going to miss the members up here. All of them were saying "what you are leaving, but you have been here so long." 

I am pretty sure almost everyone said that. I really set up shop here it's like I was just part of the scenery. Good thing I have a great replacement! Elder Church - I have no doubt you will meet this guy later on! Definitely, one of my best buddies down here! 

 

I am also not a zone leader anymore, getting rid of the old ones, so they can call new ones. It has been a great and I was able to help a good amount of missionaries! I am glad I was ready to respond to the call. Now I have got a new one with Elder Haderly oh yeah I think he is also from California but I don't know what part, and he has only been out about 3 months! That will be quite the change... I hope he is a good teacher already..... 

 

President Mehr called and the first thing he said to me is, "you are coming to the end of your mission now" - it is very surreal that it all is coming to a close. It will be so weird to be a "returned missionary" 

 

I have got tons of work to go and many ways to do it .. this is the sprint time now!!!!!! 

 

Love,

Elder Schroeder

 

1- this morning with hopkins church and beck (not in that order)

2- studies at the beach this morning after a run! 

3- no explaination needed

Still have lots of work to do...

Hard to believe he will be home in 3 months 4 days... But whose counting? 

Mom is:) 

12/25/14

We love our Chrisrmas Skype call with Elder Schroeder!! He was thrilled to see the big brother shirt his nephew was wearing to announce another neice or nephew coming in July. He has not been feeling well all week:( Chickengunya was the culprit. Despite that, as you can see by the picture he looked good and was in good spirits. Love my son!

Robin

12/29/14

Wow! I didn't know everyone was going up to Idaho!!! That is super fun! They have already got a million feet of snow!!!!! Jealous....... Kelly Canyon should be fun! I have never been there. That seems like one of the greatest family parties on the face of the earth! 

 

Well, honestly I don't have much to say this week. Christmas was awesome! Although I wasn't feeling so well.... In fact the next two days after we didn't even go out. Well, we went out at night on Saturday. We couldn't handle being couped up for so long! I feel loads better now though I think I may be able to work out tomorrow for the first time after this Gunya thing. 

 

We did have one investigator at church but she won't be baptised for awhile though. The parents think she isn't ready so we are just waiting on the parents approval... 

 

I will probably be leaving Diego this next transfer.. I am excited to see where my last area will be! 

 

I will be doing some souvenir shopping today. You guys will like the things I am going to get but do you guys have any suggestions for things you want from Trinidad?

Love,

Elder Schroeder

 

1 and 2 - a member bought us all new ties in our favortie colors! Super nice! 

3- picture of me opening my gift from you guys! Love you!!! 

1/5/15

Wow! He really did a good job .. I bet that was fun! I'm sure it put a little damper on the night but I am glad everyone is okay!  

 

It seems you all had quite the adventure on the mountain! haha! Hearing all your stories is hilarious! I can only imagine!!!! Those stories will forever be engraven in my mind! haha!  I just wonder how everyone reacted when you went off the road. I bet Connor said something like, "well that sucks" I know that what I would have said anyway. 

 

This week was a good one! You can ask Diane how my new years was! I wrote her about it. We had 14 new investigators this week and we weren't even really tring for that. We were actually trying to not get so many new ones this week cause we already had so many to work with. But I guess the Lord had plans for us! 

 

We taught last night and it was pretty interesting. He is a great guy and wants to turn his life around, he has been involved in quite a lot. His sins are definietely begingning to be purged from him! 

 

I don't remember if I told you about this other investigator, he is a super humble guy who is very wealthy. On Saturday we had a lesson with him, he took us in his jeep up a mountain and we had a lesson up there. He said if he found out the Book of Mormon was true he would be baptised, and we didn't even ask him to be baptized yet! So that is cool! He would be a great strength to the church in Trinidad! I hope he has faith and finds out this is true! That would definietely be one of the wildest stories of my mission. Baptising a millionaire...... 

 

Well, I don't think I have much else to say .. transfer calls are on Saturday so you will hear where I will finish my mission next week! ..crazy that it is all coming to a close... interesting fact- I have baptised 20+ people on my mission .. I still have three months left, lots of work to do and tons of people to baptize! 

 

Love,

Elder Schroeder

 

ps.thanks for the pictures keep em' coming! I will try and have some next week!

Catch up post!! :)

 

Ugh!! Sorry everyone:/ I'm a little behind with posting for Elder Schroeder. This will be a long one... Robin

11/25/14

You will be surprised to know that Elder Beck and I when we went to the mall to get something were interviewed by a couple people about Christmas in Trinidad and we made it on their video.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/izZsFRnMMqE?wmode=transparent&enablejsapi=1&autoplay=1&origin=http://www.lizbliz.com/home/

Pictures of a meeting with all the zone leaders in the mission! You should be able to find me, if you look hard enough.

Sorry, I have neglected to give advice to the young men!  It has slipped my mind each time I email. 

So here it is:

Just go and just love it! It's not hard to go and it's not hard to stay! If you know the Restored Gospel is true, then do your best and serve the Lord! If you do not know its true, do you best find out because the greatest thing that will ever happen to you is knowing the gospel is true. A mission simply provides an incubator, you will grow and develop in ways you never even imagined! Never even imagined!

Now to you guys! 

We finally got moved into our new apartment.. we still don't have all the furniture yet but we should be receiving it shortly! During the moving of the apartment, I got to drive the mission van! One of the wishes of my mission!!! It's a 15 passenger Nissan, right hand drive with a standard transmission. I mostly just wanted to drive a right hand drive stick! I thought that was fun! Sadly, I didn't get a picture of me driving it, oh well! 

We also had Thabksgiving  yesterday at the mission home! Thats why I didn't get to email cause we had to get to the mission home early and didn't have time to email. As part of our thanksgiving we also went to a local food court and sang Christmas hymns. We gathered quite the attention (40+ white missionaries) Elder Beck and I were also invited to the Wilkes for Thanksgiving on Saturday. They are an American couple who live in our ward, they are great! 

We did have a great lesson with "K"and her family! We taught the plan of Salvation and did not get past the fall of Adam and eve since they had so many questions! They were loving it! We just have to get them to church!!!!! They will come, I know it! 

Transfers is next week I really hope I get to stay one more, but I don't think it is likely.

1) my closet (elder beck has his own too) 

2) bathroom walk in shower and unlimited hot water!!!!!

                  Caroling at the mall

12/01/14

Congratulations Sidney!!!!!!!! I am glad all went well! I had a little apprehension about that. I just wonder how I am going to feel when it is my own wife and child. I will probably die of nervousness. 

 

Papa Scott and Mama Sid! wow.. they will be grandparents soon...haha

 

My week down here was great!  Probably not as great as yours .. it is hard to trump a new baby! 

 

Another moment you have all been waiting for....... I am being transfered to ........... nowhere.

 

I get to stay in Diego Martin for one more at least! Booyah! Christmas in Trinidad! I am excited especially since I know all the members so well down here. We have already got 3 appointment lined up for Christmas! haha... can you believe that? Talk about planning ahead.

 

Another interesting thing. As of now, I will be the oldest Zone leader in Trinidad.... Wow! That is weird to think. Everyone is counting down my days... I don't even have to do it, cause everyone is doing it for me. 

 

Some great experiences this week though.

 

A family I am super excited for the mother and father are already married and strong in the Christianity. The mother doesn't  really feel the spirit at the church she is now attending so she is looking for a little bit more. She has encountered a great deal of skepticism. It seems that the negativity has made her more curious. She has tons of questions, sadly the man of the house is a little more elusive but he apparently is really interested also. We have only been able to teach him once, we will pin him down one of these days. 

 

I forgot to menion about this last Saturday (the thanksgiving at the american couples house) it turns out that they basically invited everyone from the ward to their house. Well, not quite the whole ward but alot. There was at least 30 people there so we had a real thanksgiving with kids running around and everything! It was great and the food was spectacular!!! 

 

We also had an great success this friday. We travelled with a young man, well not so young ~30, to the sports night we have at the church every friday night. He really enjoyed it and made some good friends at church. So hopefully you hear more about "S", in the time to come! 

 

That is about all for the week! We have got some great plans for Christmas sodon't  worry about that, it should be great! 

 

Love

Elder Schroeder

 

ps. If you really do want to send a christmas package the only thing I can think of, is black or grey nike socks (mid calf)

12/08/14

Wow he is tiny!!!!! 

 

The house is going to be totally different when i get home.

 

I will really have to check out a nativity set made here .. they had them in St. Lucia but I didn't think to get one.

 

This week was really great! We had a sweet lesson with the "F" family (an awesome recent convert family with super strong testimonies!) We taught them about the 5 different temple coventants and they loved it. Bro "F" had about a 30 minute lecture on chastity and virtue, it was incredible! It is awesome to see people embrace the gospel so fully! To come out of such darkness and to behold such light! 

 

Right now, the mission is focusing on Balanced Effort Real Growth, so Elder Beck and I are teaching the Zone about that tomorrow, should be fun. I really love teaching missionaries, it is so much easier! 

 

Church was great on Sunday, there were about a million return missionaries there because they were having a return missionary conference. The self reliancy people (I don't know what you would call them) from the church held a seminar for the return missionaries on being self reliant. It is really cool that the church is reaching out to the countries where that kind of training is not available. There will definitely be many more successful members because of this. 

 

I don't really have much else to say about the week. Except that Elder Church one of the new missionaries in the Zone is awesome an you will probably hear more about him! He will probably replace me in Diego since he was already a zone leader. 

 

Hope you each have a great week! I love you all! This holiday season I am reminded of you.. to think it has nearly been two years since I have seen you.. wow .. 

 

the zone .. i wish i had time to give you everyones name

 

oh yeah it is trinidadian but they say "trini" usually 

 

Love,

Elder Schroeder

 

P.S about the skyping home thing .. We can probably do it pretty much any time .. I will talk to the members about it tonight and see what time works best for them. Let me know next week what time would work best for you guys, and we will see what we can do!

12/15/14 Exciting News!!! 

Chrstmas will be good down here! I will be skyping you between 1-4 my time ... our location has yet to be determined that's why we can't  give a definite time but it should be around then. too bad the Todds won't t be there for it... 

 

Some exciting news though... here is a quote form my mission president the assistants called us this week with the exciting news and President emailed us today about it. 

 

"Dear Elders and Sisters,

I have been authorized to announce by the First Presidency that as of July 1, 2015 the West Indies Mission will be split. The new missions will be named Trinidad Port of Spain Mission and the Barbados Bridgetown Mission. 

The Trinidad Mission will consist of Trinidad, Suriname, Guyana and the ABC islands off the coast of Venezuela.

The Barbados Mission will consist of the Islands north of Trinidad already in the mission including French Guiana that is part of the Guadeloupe District.

I will received from the missionary department further instruction on what to do to prepare for these changes and I will let you know as soon as I do.

Please continue to work as you would normally do. 

I sure love you all,

President Mehr"

 

So that wont effect me, but it is exciting nonetheless... I will have served in an extinct mission! Happens to tons of people though. Connor should try and serve in the barbados mission ;) 

 

The baptisms we have set for December have all pretty much fallen through, so that is sad we just continue to work hard. 

 

Love,

Elder Schroeder

 

12/22/14

I am excited to talk to you guys! 

 

Today is going to be a sweet day! We are going to a mall to do caroling and then off the the mission home for dinner after that. We are also going to a senior couples house for a movie. We chose to watch frozen. 

 

Christmas should also be good!! Christmas eve we have a dinner appointment with Donna a recent convert. Then we are going over for smores at another converts house. They have never had smores, so it should be awesome! 

 

Christmas day we already have 4 meal appointments .... I plan on gaining about 10 pounds that day! I also have 2 workout sessions planned that day, so I can be as hungry as possible! 

 

I will be keeping my eyes peeled for a natvity ... I haven't seen one yet :/ I really would like to get one... Thank you so much to everyone who sent me money! I am most appreciative! You all might get some souvenirs also! I will definitely be bringing some traditional trini foods to make for you when I get home. Curry, Mauby, Malta! It will be fun for you guys ... You can taste what I have been eating for the past two years! You might also be able to experience the other end of the business, if you know what i mean..... 

 

This last week was great, we had zone conference and the missionaires are hard at work. We have been having almost every appointment for the past three days fall through, as Christmas is drawing near. The Trinis really celebrate Christmas well! I was surprised to see how many people have trees and lights and stuff! It is really cool. Christmas here is definitely better than St. Lucia. It actually kind of feels like Christmas. Especially since I am used to a warm Christmas. 

 

The baptismal dates we have had set have been falling through.. I think cause everyone is so busy during Christmas! 

 

We should be doing some Christmas souvenir shopping next monday! Hopefully, there are alot of things on sale after Christmas! 

 

I think that's it from me this week.. 

 

Love,

Elder Schroeder

 

Talk to youThursday!!! 

 

PS the call will probably come closer to 2-3 my time on thursday

Heart attack...disappointments and miracles

11/3/14

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

Transfers

Well this transfer has turned out to be great! Elder Beck is from Boise and is a hard worker! He just came from Barbados and has been out for just over 14 months, he was previously stationed in the area adjacent to Port of Spain so he is vaguely familiar with its environs. Elder Babb on the other hand went down south to an area called Point Fortin that is basically the southernmost part of the Island. 

This last transfer was quite the pivotal transfer everyone (or the missionaries anyway are all beginning to tell me that I am dying soon... 6 months goes by so fast... I am not taking them on though I have still got plenty of time left!

This week has proved to be a great week! We have finally been able to get out and find a few more people! I am excited to see which ones of them will act on our message. 

We met a new guy this week named "C" We talked to him for about 5 minutes and had a nice impromptu lesson with him. He comprehended well the truths of the restoration, he did not get to make it to church on Sunday cause he was out of town but he should be there next week! We also set a baptismal date with him lets see is he makes it!

We also have found a good deal of success with two younger girls 17 and13 they are both related to a strong member so they have got great support there. We set a date with one of them for the 15th of Nov but the other girl wasn't there when we extended the date, so she did not end up with one. 

We taught a great kid last night, he is only 15 but this boy understands! He is going to do well...

This week has been a great week and I am looking forward to the transfer to come! I hope I get to stay in Diego for at least one more that would make it a year living in port of spain!!! haha! I do not now how likely that is but hey.. the end of this transfer will make it 10 1/2 months total in Port of Spain. I think I know the people here just about as good as the people in our ward back home! Maybe even better I do not even know the bishop back home.... 

Well, I love you guys .. sorry I have not taken any pictures this week .. you will get some next week of my companion and stuff. 

Love,

Elder Schroeder

Ward Activities...

I am glad grandma got the flowers HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

By the way Mom, that is a terrifying little countdown you have got going there. A very exciting one nonetheless. First grandchild baptized! First baby from Squidly and then me :/ haha!

This week was a pretty great week! Two baptismal dates 32 lessons and an investigator at church.

Before I go on to that, I was on Family Search the other day, showing someone how to do family history and I notice that Magee (my great-great grandfather on dads side) has not been sealed to his wife and that you mom have it reserved. I don't know if you guys know about that or if there are any restrictions on that ordinance but you guys should do it.

Back to what I was saying. Elder Babb and I have specifically been focusing on a young man named "R" We have fasted specifically for him on 3 occasions and we finally set a date with him!!!!!! yay!!! We hope all will go well with that.

We had a family fun activity on Wednesday at the park with the "S" family. You already got some pictures of that but I will send some more along with this email.

There was also an activity at church on Wednesday "family fun day" it was a great activity held at the Chapel on Wednesday. Great attendance!
Elder Babb and I didn't really anticipate playing too many games while there, but sure enough the missionaries were called in for assistance. 5 hours later and about 20 pounds of sweat we missionaries were looking pretty ragged.... haha it was fun though.

I don't remember if I told you this in the past but we play basketball or football every Friday night. It's  a ward activity.

All the activities the ward has are great. It's a missionaries dream! We have so many chances to get our investigators fellow shipped. I hope that these activities continue.

Well, not too much more for this week. I love you all!

Love,
Elder Schroeder


getting some golf in! I got third place...