James letter 7-23-12

22 lessons! This last week was great, and Elder A and I both feel great after teaching that many lessons. I'm glad that we were able to do it, and that I could be a part of helping him achieve that.

We had such a great week. We taught a lot, and we were laughing and having a great time. Monday night we started out with two MRLs, one in each ward. We taught the J family at dinner, and when we challenged them to invite a friend to see their mormon.org profile, the mom went right over to her sons nonmember friend and gave him the passalong card, then she came back and asked for another, and told her family that they need to catch up. It was great. Right after that we went to the Torres family in Springville, and we taught them the Plan of Salvation. I used the cut outs that I made, and their little daughter loved it. When I pulled out the picture of Christ she said, "Silly Jesus". It was great.

Tuesday I was on an exchange with our zone leaders. I was with Elder P, and we had a great time together. We talked about the military, well more like he asked questions and I answered, but we got to know each other, and become better friends. We had a really neat experience during our day, we went by one of their potential investigators with a couple of recently returned missionaries from their ward, and we were able to have a lesson with her right then. The whole lesson was taught by the members in Chinese. I don't know what was said, but I could still feel the Spirit, which I thought was great. Turns out that she accepted a soft commitment to baptism. After the lesson we were looking in the trunk of their car, and we found a Chinese Book of Mormon, the only problem was it was traditional, instead of simplified. A few hours later as we were grabbing a Book of Mormon to start tracting, we found a simplified Chinese Book of Mormon. It was perfect. We had a great talk that night about how I think my mission is going, it was good to reflect a little, and evaluate what I've been doing, and how I can improve. I learned a lot from Elder P, and hope to be able to use those things in my work. The one thing that stood out the most was how many times he prays, for the Spirit, and the goals for that day. He reminded me of my exchange with Elder Pelham while I was in Hillsboro. Elder A taught two MRLs with ElderH.

Wednesday was a great day. We taught six lessons, and we even had one fall through. We had a less-active in Springville, a member present in Rock Creek, that gave us a new investigator, and three MRLs. We also tracted for a half hour, we only knocked about seven or eight doors, but one of those doors gave us a great potential investigator. A young woman named H answered, and we shared a brief message, and asked if she wanted to learn more, and she said yes. I then continued to teach about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, sharing with her the steps of the Gospel; faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. The Spirit was there, and she seemed really interested. We set up an appointment with her for the next day at 3pm. I came home that night full of thanks, and amazed by what God had helped us do.

Thursday we stopped by the less active member that the bishop in Rock Creek asked us to go see. We had a quick lesson with her and her nonmember husband. They were both there, and it qualified as a member present, but we taught more to her than we did to him, so we counted it as just a less active lesson. We have a return appoinment for this Tuesday, and if her husband shows real interest, then we will focus on him, and count it as a member present and a new investigator. I believe that there is potential there, but it may need to come about slowly. After that we stopped by Haylee to have our second lesson, where we would have counted her as a new investigator, but she didn't answer the door. I saw her inside, but she never answered. We stayed in the area, and tracted, stopping back occasionally, but we never got a hold of her. When we left I wrote a note and left it on her door with our phone number. We went back on Friday, and the note was gone, but we still haven't heard from her. We will keep trying this week, and hopefully we will be able to meet with her. We also had a lesson with K D, he didn't have a car, so he rode a scooter all the way from his house to the Church where we met. It showed a lot of dedication. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. After the lesson he told us that he had once had a dream where he was inside the Portland temple, and he told one of his mormon friends about it, who responded with, "yep, thats pretty much what it looks like." I asked him if he would like to see for himself, and explained that baptism was a neccesary step for that. We then set a date with him for August 25. We are taking him to the Visitors Center this Thursday.

Friday we taught four more MRLs, with the J, G, M, D from Springville. Leaving all of them with the challenge to 1. set up their mormon.org profile, 2.invite a friend to see it. We are helping our members to do missionary work, so they can help us find people to teach, and we will have fellowship already in place when we begin to teach them.

Saturday we spent the first half of the day at our Stake Pioneer Day. It was a lot of fun, and we were able to set up a few lessons with members, and get to know the people of our stake and wards a little better. A few members in our ward were able to bring nonmember friends. We have to lessons from anyone that came, but it shows that our members are willing and ready to invite their friends.

Sunday was a great day, we set up two lessons with nonmembers for the comming week, one with K E, and the other with D S. We will meet with them both on Thursday this week. We finished the night with three MRLs in Springville, with the P, H, and J.

I am super excited for this week. We have another 17 lessons set, and two of our investigators that have been on vacation are back in town, so we should be able to meet with them. I hope to be able to hit 20 lessons again this week, and hopefully every week this transfer. It feels so good to teach a lot like that. It builds confidence, and helps to motivate you, because once you've done it once, you know that you can do it again.

I'm doing great. I have been writing in my journal everyday, and really trying to improve my prayers, and my studies. I have had a couple really great personaly studies this last week. Elder A and I are still getting along great, and I look forward to spending another transfer with him. We have been doing better on the morning schedule. We played soccer as a zone this morning, and then had a zone breakfast. We said our goodbyes to the elders leaving, and had a great time. We are going to do a lot better this transfer, and we have already started it off good. We have three lessons set up for tonight, so it should be a great day today.

Actually I do know Elder M. He trained Elder H, who came out with me, and when he found out that I was related to J, I became his favorite elder. He is a cool guy. Thats all I have time for today, tell everyone I love them, and I say hi. I got Julie's package. It was full of jello. So ramdom, but I loved it. Love you guys.

Elder Schultz

james letter 7-16-12

This week has been pretty good, we were able to accomplish a lot, and this coming week looks fantastic. We have 17 lessons set for this week, and they are all solid, we should have no problem teaching 20+ lessons this week, which will be a first for this area.

Last Monday we went to dowtown Portland, which is, in case you didn't know, one of the strangest places on earth. It is a great place to just watch people, you can go there for just a couple hours, and literally see just about everything.

While we were there we went to Voodoo doughnut, which is a weird place in the first place, and there was a huge line of homeless people right around the corner. There were three of then standing right across the street, and one was yelling out "smack a punk for a dollar" He was trying very hard to get people to punch him in the face for a dollar. One man, who rode up on a bike in his underwear took up the offer. He then made fun of the "punk" for not having a real job. The "punk" responded with "I do this because I can do it no matter how drunk I am." That really puts a lot of confidence in the rising generation doesn't it?

I bought a dozen doughnuts from Voodoo, planning on having them with my breakfast for the next week or so, and so I took the box, rode home with it on the max, and then when we got our bikes, and proceeded to bike back to our house I made it ALMOST all the way back. About 2/3rds of the way there the wind caught the lid of the box, blew it open, and spilled my doughnuts all over the side of the road. It was very disappointing.

The rest of the week had a better ending than that. We were able to finally get in contact with one of our investigators, who is a really sweet kid, and who already knows a lot. He told us that he has already been mistaken for a mormon, and he is in all senses of the term a "dry mormon", meaning he just hasn't been baptized. We will hopefully change that soon.

We had our zone conference last week, and as always I learned a lot from it, some things for myself, and others for the work. I hope to be able to use all of the things I learned in this coming week.

Exciting news from the mission. We are having a mission tour, and Elder Lawrence E Corbridge of the 70 is coming. In addition to that, the week before that an member of the 12, or the first presidency is going to come, and meet all of the missionaries, and have a Q&A with us. Its going to be sweet.

Thats about all that I have for you guys. I havn't gotten a package from Julie yet, and I don't need a journal. Mine is still mostly unused, even with me writing in it every day. I wasn't very good at the beginning, but I have written in my journal everyday since December 27 2011.

Love you guys.

Elder Schultz.

PS. Transfers are next Monday, and who knows whats going to happen, so if I don't write on Monday you know someone got transferred. I don't think either one of us will, but you never know, and Elder Awtry thinks he is going, and he does want to move on to bigger and better areas. We'll see how it goes.

james letter 7-9-12

Well the 4th out here was an interesting, but enlightening experience. For missionary work there was absolutely nothing accomplished. We aren't allowed to proselyte on holidays, so we spent the day with members. We had a really good BBQ with a member family, the Js, they have a son ready to leave on his mission in 2 weeks. He is going to Australia. We also got to go and watch a fireworks display at the local park. It was a very good show, and it made me think and realize how much this country means to me, and how much I love it here. They played the Army song, and I started to miss home a little. I can't wait to serve.

We were able to go to the temple on Thursday, which was a great experience as usuall. I love the peace and quiet of the temple, and how you can always have a better day after going. It has a great Spirit, and it was good to recharge. I wish we could go more often, but I'll have to wait for that too.

Friday I had an interesting experience. We had dinner with a young family, and afterwards we went to see some members close by. One of the families we saw was an older couple with no children. She is apparently less active, and is antagonistic against the Church. She told us how she would be embarrassed to bring a friend to Church because of how noisy it is with the children. She then started to say how corrupt everyone is, and how she would give up her membership in a heartbeat if it wasn't for her husband. She told me that I only "knew" because I have been raised in it, and didn't have enough life experience to know better. I was able to bear my testimony to her of how I knew, and what it meant to me, I told her that she didn't know what I had been through, and while I may not have as much experience as others, my experience has comfirmed the truth to me over and over. At the begining of our conversation I shared Jacob 6:12, and how its important to do what we know to be right, and "be wise". Looking back I'm sure that I was led by the Spirit to share that, and hopefully it will do some good. Its sad to see people like that that let others imperfections destroy their testimony.

Sunday was a long day, but I learned a few cool things. One is that when adversity comes we need to have already decided how we would handle it. Just like the decision to not smoke needs to be made long before you are offered a cigarrete, the decision to be happy in trials needs to be made long before the trials come. When the time for decision is come, the time for preparation is over.

We also talked about Alma 22-25, and the people of Ammon burrying their weapons of war, and how we need to apply that to ourselves by burying all of the things that keep us from our Heavenly Father, and lead us to sin. Sometimes its easier said that done, but when its out of sight and out of mind, then we will be far less likely to fall into bad habits.

Reverence was the last topic. We discussed the purpose of a white shirt and tie, and how it shows respect, and reverence. The bishop mentioned that if we ever have a question of what we should wear we should look at the prophet, and follow his example.

I'm doing good. I spent $95 at Columbia. I bought a new jacket, and some rain pants, so when it starts to rain again I will be prepared. Right now summer has finally come. We have had blue skies all week, and 80-90s too. Its been nice. They say that it lasts about a month, and then it starts to rain.....until next July.

Thats all. Love you.

Elder Schultz

James letter 7-2-12

Well I don't have much time this week, we are going shopping, and then to the Columbia store. But I wanted to share with you something that I learned form the scriptures. Turn to 1 Nephi 8:21-24. Read through those verses. Now, as we are born into this life we are all started on a path back to our Heavenly Father. Everyone here is making their way towards the tree. In this life however there are trial, temptations, and afflictions. Everyone experiences these. Even those who are able to cling hold of the rod, by following Jesus Christ, and feasting upon his word go through the mists of darkness. Clinging to the rod doesn't eradicate the mists, but instead it provides us a way to get through the tough times in life. As we follow Jesus Christ, we are led through the mists, not around, and we will eventually come out of them and partake of the fruit. Think of those that don't have the rod to cling to, and how they wander and are lost. We have the rod, let us each reach out to them and bring them to it, so that they can have a way though.

I did get your package, and I loved the ties. Its neat to have something of his that I can wear out here to keep him involved in the missionary effort on this side, I'm sure he is swimming in it on the other side. I thought about something this week that I should have asked for in the package, Emily's flag tie. Its the 4th this week, and it would have been cool to wear. Maybe next year. The allergies are still bad, but with the extra supplement its mostly bearable. Pocket kleenex are great.

Love

Elder Schultz