LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • October 10th, 2011

Hey mom who is my dearest beautiful mom =)

Well transfers came up and I will actually be staying here. The funny thing is though is that I will be training a new elder again but the Elder hurt him self in the mtc so now I will have to wait a week to receive my new companion. So for the next few days I will be in a trio companionship until next Monday. Also they are doing a new training program for missionaries so I will probably be in this area another 12 weeks. Unless god feels like throwing another curve ball at me.

Rich and Donna and Bruce are doing very well. They all came to general conference and Donna loved it... The other 2... well... they had a harder time trying to stay awake. But hey I was proud of them all for making it to 3 sessions of general conference. I'm sure they watched more of the conference then most of the members here. Most of the members that I talked to said "oh no we haven't watched it yet. We just saved it on our tvo so that we can watch it later." That tvo is a great blessing. But I can see it being a huge stumbling block to allot of the Church members. Because now it allows members to do what Lucifer would want them to do. And that would be too procrastinate there time of hearing or listening to a prophet or apostles of the lord. "Oh, I will watch it later when I have time" a member will say. However they will keep procrastinating there time until they only listen to a few talks here and there and at some point life goes on and slowly they give no thought on watching it and allow the world to take control. Now I'm not saying that all the members do this. But I have seen many fall into this procrastination of watching general conference. But I do have to say. I loved all of general conference. I know that they say not to have favorites but I do love Elder Uchtdorf... He's always the one that answers my prayers. Also during this general conference I have grown to love our beloved prophet so much more. He has such a wonderful sense of humor. I feel like he's changed allot from when he was first called to be a prophet. He just seems so much more relaxed. =)

Well I have a fun story to tell this time. So right after district meeting me and my companion were on our way to get some lunch down one of our main roads here. On our way we passed by this guy smoking a cigaret. When we passed him my companion told me he felt like we should go back. So we did. We started to peddle our bikes and stopped him in this small tiny parking lot. We both shook his hand and he told us his name was Cody. We then started to tell him a little about the church and about how there would be a prophet speaking to us this Saturday and Sunday. He surprisingly started to sound a little interested. I started to think wow this might be one of our new investigators. When suddenly I see this black figure at the corner of my left eye walking towards us. And to my surprise it was a police officer dressed in black. I then started to think "oh great is he going to get mad at us because were in the middle of a small parking lot?" He then said in a commanding voice "Put out your cigaret Cody." He then again said "Put out your" He then quickly grabbed Cody's arm and tries to twist it around him. But Cody was to fast. Cody then quickly twisted back ward and threw the cop on the ground. (this cop was big too.) Suddenly another undercover cop car comes out of no where and pulls right up by us and tried to get out of the car but barely missed him! Cody was flying like the wind down the streets (He was fast.. clearly he had practice.) The cops were quickly right behind him and slowly disappeared in the distance. We were then there by our selves with our bikes and a couple of running cop cars with no one inside of them. We sat there for a little while still trying to recollect what just happened. Then looked at each other... and just busted out laughing. But in other high lights... We helped chase down a dog.

Well I'm out of time. Beautiful mother I love you and miss you.

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • October 10th, 2011

Hey Dadio!

1- How would you define "Feasting on the word's of Christ".

Feasting on the words or Christ....requires a lot of preparation :)

haha, and we don´t enjoy it unless we partake of it. haha. diving

in, and enjoying it. we don´t really understand until we apply it.

2- Did you have your Ice cream party for having the most of "I forgot"

and if so did you enjoy the gathering?

I really love to be with the missionaries and to be a missionary! the

ice cream party was fun. I don´t know if i told you but we won

because my and my comp (long story short) brought a drunk guy to

church. i don´t remember if i told you the story. but yea, we

enjoyed the gathering. it is really fun and interesting to see the

elders play sports. I really think sports brings out the true

personalities in people. :) Our district is pretty tight because we

haven´t changed people for two transfers. I will have been in my area

for 6 months! that is a third of my mission!!! that is a lot of

time.

This sunday was hard because like none of our investigadors came to

church. we pretty much received a baptism. a member in another ward

gave us a reference. he´s been teaching him and everything. so we

passed by for this reference, and the first lesson he had already read

into alma!!! he stopped smoking, drinking, and everything 2 weeks

ago. he loves the gospel already! haha he is telling everyone about

the book of mormon. it is a miracle! he came to conference and

everything too! it is hard to visit him because we have to take two

buses and it is best to go with a member in this area. but yeah, we

are pretty stoked about it and hope to teach a lot of people in this

area. he just needs to come to church :) which is hard because he

needs to take 2 buses.

Also, we are teaching this guy who used to do a lot of drugs. some

people beat him up and he was in a coma for like a week. he is

relearning how to walk. i knew him before all of this happened, but

the change is incredible. you can see it in his eyes. we saw

another miracle in him. he has been going to a lot of churches...and

we passed by and visited him. it was so cool to see the spirit work

in him. he told us he had narrowed it down to 3 churches. he said he

would not go to church with us this sunday because he already told

this other lady he would go to her church. we continued to talk with

him, we started talking with him, and randomly he said, i think will

go to your church this sunday. i think this is the only church of

God. I just had this thought come to my mind that this is the church.

it was so crazy, and it had to have been the spirit working in him to

say it randomly, because we weren´t exactly talking about that. so,

he said he would come. (He didn´t end up coming, a member passed by

to get him in a car, and he was sleeping...i think they are going to

give him a blessing from what the member said.) but it was so crazy

and cool to see. it is almost like a story of Alma....the life

changes and he is so much more receptive to the gospel. he said he´d

get baptized, and we are still working on that. it is amazing ot see

the spirit teach. sometimes people understand everything we say, and

i know it is a miracle how fast they understand those things because

of the spirit. he came to the conference and said he felt the

spirit...like a warmth in his heart :) haha but we might have

problems with members, because of his reputation....they will have to

accept him...he has changed so much!

We also found this other joven, who said he wants to stop doing drugs

and said he´d come to church. he also dropped out of school so he

doesn´t really know how to read. i was so excited to teach him...he

told us that the elders have more fear of him than us. he said they

are always scared, but we actually talked to him. hahaha it made me

feel good. but yeah, he would help convert a lot of people if-when he

gets a testimoiny of the gospel. it is relatively new, but he is

smart and knows when the other churches are doing things falsely. so

we will see where we go with him, but he knows a lot of people and

siad hi to us with all his friends....which is something really cool.

we had a spring cleaning with our old investigadors and kinda started

new. it has been really good because we have opened our eyes to the

other people and have been able to find many people! it is awesome!

God still blesses me with tender mercies. i can´t tell you how many

times a soccer ball comes rolling my way, and just the opportunity to

kick it back makes me happy, and also, the kids love it that the girl

in the skirt is playing soccer with them. Also, there are these

little waterballs that i like. haha, a member gave me a package of

them. we have also received a lot of flowers and things from members

and stuff. they really love us. the members keep telling me they want

their son to find someone like me to marry. hahaa. it has been

really nice and the members are great. we were a little discouraged

that none of our new investigadors came to church, and all of them

only told us good things and how they were happy with our work and

that we have brought a lot of people to church! they weren´t even

mad....so at least that is good....

anyhow...this was very missionary-ish....

love you lots!

hermana schneider

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • October 10th, 2011

hey family,

so guess who got to go to the temple this week... woot woot oh man it was so awesome haha i have never learn more from a temple trip in my whole life it was absolutely awesome and i felt so stinkin good afterwards haha. so we went cuz my companion and me and like 8 other companionships got the goal of more than 10 investigators in the conference and the president was pumped and took us in his vans. oh man we went to the temple in ciudad juárez and it was sweet i hope i get to be there for a while but for now im super content with girasoles. life is just super good right now. and everything is going super amazingly awesome.

i really dont have much to say this week but i hope all is super well at home. oh amoray who is mrs. key? her name doesnt even sound familiar haha but dont tell her i said that. hows seminary going with ya´ll? it is starting to get cold her already and just the smell of chihuahua changes and now im starting to think more and more about when i started in delicias. it is super crazy to think about how much i have changed since then haha oh i thought of your homework assignment that i want ya to do haha since its cold here already the people are starting to make this food called tamales.... oh my gosh they are so stinkin good and so your homework is to learn how to make em so that when i get home you can teach me haha nah jk i just want you to eat the amazingly delicious food that we´ve got down here.

my body is super tired, straight up exhausted but for real my spirit just keeps me going and its super crazy to see the spirit do so much work. actually president had us study the talk by president eyring about how we gotta work more than when people would normally take a break. i liked that a lot and in dyc 84 in the juramento y convenio del sacerdocio se habla de cómo si nosotros magnificamos el llamamiento del sacerdocio y si somos fieles al convenio vamos a ser santificados por el espíritu para la renovación de nuestros cuerpos (DyC 84:33) sorry i had to write that in spanish i dont know how to express it in english haha but yeah i loved that part. christine i hope you get better!!!

Thanks for everything to everyone.

Elder Nunley

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • October 10th, 2011

hahaha it is so good to hear about whats going on at home! haha i miss you guys!

That is way cool you have met Tina's family! I heard Russian this week and i understand some, probably about 30% so that would be way cool if i learned a little more and could speak with Tina's brother!

well this week i have a cool story, so the mission president stayed at my apartment and slept over! hahaha it was so fun, he is the coolest guy! It was the first time he has slept over with missionaries and it was way fun! He is an amazing teacher, we had this lesson with a couple and they are super elect, it was our second lesson and the mission president committed them to be baptised! it was a way cool lesson... the lesson was also in Spanish because the dad is from Peru, and luckily the president knows Spanish. It was amazing to see that the one night that he sleeps over we have a lesson that really needed to be in Spanish!!! It is amazing to see how the Lord works, he leads his prepared children to his prepared servants. Our president really does help us out alot! THe couple is doing very well, they didnt come to church and they said they would be we went and visited them yesterday and we also will be getting with them on wednesday! lots of fun stuff!

Good things are going on here in Slovenia! So remember ksenja, well we taught her and she was baptized about 1 month ago, and her daughter texted her this week and told her also that she wants to be baptized so we will soon be teaching her also! Also a recent convert brought her sister to the baptism on Saturday and the sister is way nice we got to walk them home and talk about the Book of Mormon and also the Church. Good stuff is going on!

well that is it for this week! mom and dad i dont want to get you guys trunky or anything but i have like 13 weeks or something like that left! So be prepared for another person at home!

pss.. dont worry i am not trunky, i am working super super hard!

psss.. I heard from Sean and he is the coolest kid ever! i miss that kid a ton!! so dad if you see Sean tell him hi!

love you guys!

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • October 3rd, 2011

Subject: Re: Dad's Pregnant!!! (He thinks my "subjects" are stupid, so he told me to put that there!)

hey family,

you are soo right conference this weekend was super awesome

so the people i said were gonna go didnt all go but we did have 13 people who went !!! and in our district we had 56 and the members brought 14 people and in the zone we had 92 investigators in conference and members brought 29 in total!!! that was super awesome and all of ours that went loved it and said they will be waiting for us in the house haha cuz they wanna hear more. i think my absolute favorite talk was by the elder that talked about the need of the book of mormon haha wow that talk was so awesome for investigators.

oh so normally in the mission we have about 300 investigators in church every sunday but this weekend we had about 650 in conference!!!! so the president is super stoked and acutally he is getting all of us together today at 11 and he told us not to bring any books just a bag of sports clothes....... miracles do happen haha for real this is something suuuuper strange but im pumped.

oh at conference i saw a family from my first ward in the mission in delicias and it was way good to see them haha they actually told me of the nick name that the ward gave me that i didnt know about when i was there. they said they all called me Sonrisa Colgate haha which is colgate smile.. they called me that cuz they said i was always super quiet and when they would talk to me all i would do is smile haha (thats cuz i didnt understand much haha) but i was glad to know that i still smiled alot haha.

i had a list of 7 questions for this conference and every single one was answered. i loved the talk by barbara thompson and i am super stoked to read the liahona and study it up!! my life is so awesome and i am so extremely blessed. coming on the mission is the absolute best thing that i have or will ever do in my life. thanks to everyone who was an example to me and for grandmas and grandpas who stayed firm in the faith so that i could have this blessing in my life. i love this gospel so stinkin much and it is absolutely ridiculous that i have 11 months out here today.

haha i love you all so much and i hope you know i am better than ok here.

Elder Nunley

colgate sonrisa

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • October 3rd, 2011

conferance was so good!! i loved it!

This week i was with a Croatian elder, it was way cool. He is a younger missionary, he has been out for 4 months. Its amazing to see how much i have changed since the time i came on my mission. hahahahaha i just laugh when i think of how different i do missionary work. hahaha good times.

Well we almost got a baptismal date for sebaštjan this week, he is so so so close he is just having some troubles, but he said he will be baptised, he just wouldnt commit to a date. My companion asked him to be baptised so that was cool.

This week was way good, i heard from matt meyers!! i miss that kid!

So... i dont know really what so say, we worked hard and tried some new finding ideas, taught some really good lessons, and learned alot! haha that is about it. oh we taught this lady that believed in India stuff like cow gods and weird stuff like that. hahaha

Also we went to go visit an investigator and one of his uncles was at his house and his uncle was like, "i have to show you guys something" and he showed us this youtube video and it talked about how we dont need god to forgive us, but we just need to forgive ourselves. hahahaha it was really funny, i told him that is not the case and that repentance doesnt work like that. And i never argue when people want to argue i just give them a chance to accept truth. Well i showed him that it just doesnt work like that and the mom was listening in on the conversation and she was like literally cheering us on, cause she knew that the uncles ideas were totally wrong. hahaha it was a very interesting exspeciance. haha

Love you family!

ps..Tell andrew i miss the little guy! And then when i get home he has to hang out with me!

pss.. mom i remembered it was your birthday i PROMISE! I just forgot to tell you!

psss.. mom that would be way cool if you made me a Care bear outfit!

pssss.. Jessie thanks for the letter!

psssss.. My companion learned, "love story" by taylor swift on the piano and it is a way way hard song but i love it so much that i am going to spend my pdays learning to play that song! it is way cool. I sent it to jessie!

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • October 3rd, 2011

hey mom!

conference was an experience! haha, we haven´t had many people come to church, but we have been working really hard and 6 investigadors came to church! which is just amazing! we have been working and talking with about 1000 people every week!!!!

we really did see a lot of miracles. it is interesting to see people more receptive to the gospel when things in their life change. one investigador was beaten up and was in a coma. he is learning to re-walk and everything. but he came to church and really liked it. without that experience, there is no way he would have ever come to church. then, two mothers came to church with their kids. i felt bad because one of the moms left early because her kids were loud and running around. for me, i understand the kids...two hours of sitting in a seat listening to öld men talk....haha i just tried to let her know it is normal. she left early ;( but i hope the members aren´t upset and accept her.

we also brought a young man that is studying with the jehovah´s witnesses. i am almost certain he knows the church is true, but he won´t change...and i don´t know why yet. one of the members that is just amazing, came up to him and said...if you invite me to your house, i will go! haha (We have been trying to get lessons with members...it has been so hard because we can´t the members to come with us). this member is amazing!

then, we had an investigador come, the elders talked with him, but didn´t tell us that he is in our ward, so we weren´t able to get to know him. but they said he came and said he wants to get baptized!!!! yeay!!! we called him, and will try to pass by him.

also, we have received a ton of referencias from members....which i have never received so many references...i think it means that the ward trusts us and knows we are working....which is many blessings!!!!

i love conference! i love the prophet and his apostles!!! i didn´t get to hear much cuz we were always with investigadors and their kids....we tried to play with their kids so the parents could listen. the relief society was great! i loved elder uchtdorf´s talk! i love conference! i never really realized how awesome it is that we have a prophet. i love the prophets! i really love conference!!!!!

yea, not sure what to write!

love you lots,

hermana schneider