James Letter 10-7-13, This is the final one.

This has been a pretty good week. It started off about the same as normal, on Tuesday we had two appointments cancel, but as we tracted we knocked into a young man named Joshua, who accepted a Book of Mormon, and accepted a return appointment. We saw him again on Friday, and were able to teach him a brief message about the restoration, and then set up an appointment to teach him and the rest of his family on Monday night. It was pretty awesome. That night we met with Jeremy W, who is a less-active member that asked us to come by and teach him. We had a good visit with him, and then we went to see Mindy Jo. Our visit with her was a little strange. Branndin D, the one who wanted to be baptized so bad, wasn't there. We visited for a while, mostly just getting to know her and her husband. The home felt like a much better place than it had previously. We were also there Wednesday night, and while there she mentioned her daughters birthday party that was scheduled for Friday, and how she didn't have any money for it. Her daughter wanted pizza and cake. Earlier that day a member had given us two pizza, so we were able to give those to her, and also we had a member make a cake for her as well. She was very grateful for the help. We still haven't taught Branndin.

Our lesson with Joey fell through, and we haven't been able to set anything up. I am a little worried that her fiance talked her out of it. She knows its true, and wants to do it, but she may have gotten dissuaded by him. Thursday we had more lessons fall through, but we were able to have a good lesson with Don D. We taught him about repentance through the story of the people of Ammon. We saw Dirk M, and his wife with their new baby. They were excited to see us, and in a week or so we should be able to start teaching them.

Conference this weekend was especially meaningful to me. I have been thinking a lot about what I am going to do when I get home. Whether or not I want to listen to my old music, and things like that. I have been worried that if I go back to some of that stuff that I will fall right back into bad habits. I don't want to go there, so the answer of what to do seems simple, but its never that way. Anyway, as I watched Conference, there were about three themes for me; repentance, to love and trust God, and to live it even when its hard. It was confirming the answer that I already knew, but it provided specific thoughts and impressions to help me to apply those things. I have a lot of notes that have nothing to do with what the speaker was talking about. I just wrote what the Spirit told me. It was neat.

Thats all that I can think of to say. Its strange to think that this is the last email that I am going to write as a missionary. Its been an incredible experience. See you next week!

Love Elder Schultz

James Letter 9-30-13

This week was a little depressing with the seeming lack of appointments, and the torrential amounts of rain. We still taught quite a few lessons, but it just seemed different. I do have a couple of really awesome things to report though, on Thursday we had a lesson with Joey, and we taught her the Plan of Salvation. She asked a bunch of good questions, and we were able to help her understand. She readily accepted everything once she understood. We asked her if she would be willing to be baptized, and not only did she say yes, but she asked what she would need to do before it happened. Right now, her only hold up is that she is not married. They have plans to marry, but were waiting on her divorce to finalize, that's now done, and now they are talking about a date. Once we get a date for marriage, we can set a date for baptism.

Friday night we met with the Smiths, and had another great lesson with them. We taught the Restoration, which is always a little tough for kids, we repeated a lot, and kept it simple. To illustrate the apostasy, and the need for restoration we played the restoration game. The kids and the parents loved it. We had great participation in the lesson.

Saturday night I had a cool experience. I won't go into detail, because it is pretty special, but the basis of it is I have a stronger testimony. It was an experience where I poured out my soul in prayer, and He poured out His Spirit upon me. Sunday as I fasted, I felt especially close to the Spirit. That day, we went out with brother Blanchard, to see Mindy Jo. Apparently she has someone living in her home that wants to be baptized. As we met with her, she told us the background information, and you could feel the darkness come into the room. He thinks that he is possessed, and that the demon that is with him is trying to kill Mindy. He wants to be baptized as soon as possible so that he can get it out of his life. I'm not sure whether he is really possessed or not, but the three of us agreed when we left that there is definitely a darkness in the home. The only ray of light is the children there, whenever they came into the room, the whole place lightened up. Hopefully we can help to bring the Spirit into the home. I have a strange feeling about the situation though...We are going to talk with our bishop tonight, because apparently there is some background information that may be helpful in dealing with the situation. We will seek his guidance and counsel about how to proceed.

Have you gotten any word on what my topic is?

Homemade pizza sounds good. 

Thats all I have for this week, love you.

Elder Schultz