LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • December 30th, 2010

hola familia!

so, christmas was great! i really wanted to talk to brayden...(elder schneider) and get some funny ideas on things you can do with your companion...but i think i came up with some on my own ;)

i love being a missionary adn christmas was awesome! i definitely used teh carebear outfit and brightened many 'home-sick' hermanas' days! many of their compaions were like, 'thank you!' because they coudln't do much with their companion being so homesick! elder nelson spoke to us and he is sooo stinkin smart! he is really funny too...nice to know you can be yourself and still work hard and know a lot of things! there was a talent show from the mtc and there are some incredible talents here! my companion sang...she is a music major....she is amazing! seriously though, so much talent here!

the language is coming...surely but slowly....we supposedly know a lot because we are the 'oldest' district in our zone right now.....some of the other elders are pretty much fluent! haha but it is fun! i get to say a lot of funny things and make up words in spanish, and people seem to understand what i am saying...most of the time! it is fun talking to the natives, they can correct my spanish all the time ;)

elder nunley...yaya i love that elder! my favorite here! ( i can say that to family...) but i was able to talk with him and he doesn't have his VISA yet, so he will be reassigned for a bit...probably in utah... most likely provo ;) no joking either. i was almost rolling on the floor (camon: ROFLOLOLOL). but hopefully his visa comes soon. he has a chance of going to Vegas as well, so we should know by next week. they want to keep him close so they dont' have to send him too far back when his visa gets here.

i feel like i have so much to say but then i get to the computer and can't think of much! ah well! i am working hard! the spirit is so strong and it is so fun to bear your testimony all the time, especially around teh Chrismas season! i invite all of you who read this to bear your testimony about Jesus Christ to someone....TODAY! i love talking about Jesus Christ!

i can't think of much else to say, but i will write soon enough!

oh y a... Elder Nelson said we would be blessed if we wrote our families every week...so i am going to try to...(so i can be blessed ;) haha jk...so YOU can be blessed by hearing from me ;)

love always and forever,

hermana schneider

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • December 30th, 2010

Subject: buenos dias

hey gracias for sending the lyrics to that song i didn't even realize how awesome they were i just had a couple parts stuck in my mind. and since its about the Lord i figured it was ok for you to send me the lyrics. so i dont find out until Next wednesday thursday or friday where i'm going so you can still do the dearelder this monday :) oh man i hope so much i go far away from utah :) jaja but i know its up to The Man Upstairs not me. i just wanna go where ever i can help out. so lately i've been wondering how i can teach so that the investigators will listen and actually care. cuz lets be honest who is really gonna care about a 14 year old kid who claims to have found a bunch of gold plates that have the true teachings of Jesus Christ and that he also saw Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. also all the other lessons who cares?!?! i know that having the spirit with me when i teach is sumamente (extremely) important cuz the Spirit is the real teacher not us so i've been workin on having that with me more when i teach but my question was what can i do to get them to listen. i love teaching like i've got a big smile on my face and on the egde of my seat and everything but that really doesn't matter to people. so i asked a teacher in our zone to help me out and this guy is awesome he is such a good teacher and he's very blunt and bold too so he talked about how we can do this. it was awesome!! he asked us... y, que tiene que ver conmigo? which means translated And what does that have to do with me? or basically So what?! so basically the lesson was we make it interesting to them by making it about them. there are two things which help people remember things well.. the first is if it is important to people (so like for me when i listen to bands i like to know everything about them, where they are from when they started all that stuff and its really easy for me to remember those things) and the second way people will remember things is if it is repeated over and over and over. but as a missionary we will not be able to teach someone the same thing over and over and over we just dont have time for that. so we got to make it interesting to them. which i've been trying to do cuz obviously we dont want to teach a lesson we want to teach the people but i guess i just learned how to do it a lot better than i was! jaja he told us we gotta ask ourselves all the questions we think they will ask and then go and answer them. one thing he said that i really liked was "It's ok to ask questions! We are in the truth and the answers are there!!" i loved it!! cuz it's so true! we are in the true church but we cant just accept things we gotta know why they are the way they are! so this week with these extra days i'll have here without a teacher i will be figuring out some of those questions so i'm super stoked for that. we tought a lesson like this last night and the teacher was our investigator and we were talking about the importance of Jesus Christs life and the whole time he was just like asking all these questions and being like well i pray everynight i do good things i follow Christ cuz i'm doing those things right? jaja it was ridiculous!! but then we taught him how we gotta use the atonement to feel the love and cleansing effect of it in our lives which finally got him to realize he could do something more in his life which was good. but yeah it was a great thing to learn before getting out in the field. ahh man i'm so excited to find out where i'm going next week!! PLEASE BE SOMEWHERE COOL jaja well love you family hope everything is going well and who knows maybe i'll come serve up in north dakota for a while :) ay ay ay i hope not jaja but thank you for your prayers the Lord is definately helping me out here. LOVE YOU ALL

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • December 28th, 2010

From Digi:

Here is Colton's latest email. It was so good to talk to him today for 5 minutes (it was legal)on the phone. He sounded very good! I guess he'll also get to call us when he knows where he is headed. They told him he could call to let us know his visa didn't come through. He was mixing spanish and english in just about every sentence! He sounds SO good though. Thanks for your prayers in his behalf. Digi

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Letter from Elder Nunley

Subject: HOLA!!

jaja so i was actually expecting to get the answering machine when i called you but being able to talk to you was just as good maybe even a little better!! but yeah please pray that where the Lord wants me to go is not here in Utah jaja i would totally still go there and everything but i would much rather go somewhere else. i have a feeling its gonna be Las Vegas!! that would be cool! but yeah they told us that they didnt get our permisos for mexico and that the apostles are on break right now and one of them have to approve of our temp assignment. also the mexican consolate ( or however you spell it) is on a break right now too so basically my temp assingment will be for a while jaja but that is totally cool i wanna get out there and Do Work Son!! Christmas was awesome!! i got to shake Elder Nelsons hand because he was our speaker christmas day and the day after and he gave the talk during a special preisthood meeting and elder cluff was giving the opening prayer so me being his companion got to sit up on the stage with him like 10 feet away from Elder Nelson!!! he is sucha genius!! our opening song was elders of Israel and he talked for 50 minutes about the covenant that the Lord made with Abraham and how its everywhere!!! The Bible the BoM and DyC tambien!! and he'd read one scripture and then be like oh that reminds me of this scripture! and the best part is that he made it awesome it wasn't oober boring! he has so much energy for how old he is jaja he like i dont even know he's just so awesome jaja. but yeah so christmas morning all the elders in our zone came into elder cluffs and my room and we all opened presents together! it was soo cool!!! i'm a little dissappointed in you family cuz you didn't even wake up til 9!!! unreal i would never have allowed that!!! :) but im glad you all had a good one! thank you for the gifts!!! all of them are aweome!! those are definately ties i will wear jaja. oh i told demory i dont know if she told you pero estoy engordando aqui ay ay ay ( im getting fat here) i am sneakin up on 160 now jaja its terrible! but esta bien. hopefully i will be out somewhere tracting (maybe in english EWWW) by the end of next week and that would be so nice!! thats another thing please pray that i am going spanish speaking still jaja we've had to teach in english once or twice here and it is so wierd i dont like it as much as spanish at all!! i just wanna go use my espanol!! OH TIM TAM SLAMS are soo soo soo soo soo soo soo soo good!!! i think suzie showed us tim tams before but we didnt do the tim tam slam its so delish. tim tams are like cookies from australia and they are kinda like oreos in not so many ways jaja but i've got little time to describe. so you bite off two opposite corners and then drink hot cocoa through it and right when you can taste the hot cocoa you throw the cookie in your mouth and it is so delish!!! oh mom you talked about symbolism in the BoM there is one crazy scripture its 2 Nefi 12:2 So read it and its talking about utah right? and the last part is talkin about when the olypics were here! and then in the 2nd 3rd 4th and 5th lines if you look kinda on the right side of the lines if you look at it like a cross word puzzle it spells utah in a straight line down!! so crazy!!! i know its not doctrine or anything or a message from nefi but its still was cool. but still see if you can find it. demory i loved you picture book i thought it was hilarious when you drew how you went to go give mom a hug and totally avoided dad because he knew you were totally over reacting jaja dad i'm diggin the richard idea for the golf store jaja oh one random favor from ya'll could you send me the lyrics to the song All Creatures by Josh Garrells (i'm not quite sure on the spelling for his last name) but it is an awesome song about how we all are creatures of God and we need to praise him i've been thinkin about that song a ton lately yet i dont know all the words!! so i dont have much time left but i will probably write you during laudry or something i gotta get rid of my stamps :) Dad totally take daytn to the windrivers and Peru i enjoyed both so much and i think it his time that he proves himself as a man. especially since he cant prove it in the weight room ;) Amoray thanks for the picture!!!! and thanks to all the presents from everyone!!! i love this work!!

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • December 23rd, 2010

nice work on talking padre! how awesome!

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!!

so, i have actually lost weight here in the MTC ;( crazy! haha cuz it means i have lost muscle and it is all fat ;( oh well...over it! well, we wont' be leaving anytime too soon for argentina, but we all got our visas so we won't be kept any longer or sent out to a different mission before! i am scheduled to leave jan. 17 with all my hermanas he hermano in my district ;) kinda lucky we are all serving in the exact same mission cuz we will always have at least 4 other people we know! so exciting and crazy at the same time!

sorry so short! thanks for everything and supporting me on the mission! i taught a mexican and he is the only person in his family that is a member ! he has only been a member just over a year...i just can't imagine! he is learning english too! how impressive!

love you!

hermana schneider!

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • December 21st, 2010

Subject: estaré in chihuahua en menos que dos semanas....esperó jaja

hola!!! ah man im so excited for this christmas!! its gonna be so much fun. but that christmas tree is bomb thanks so much jaja me and elder cluff made a rule that whoever knocks it over first has to buy the other a soda (cuz we have it sitting in the middle of the room) any way so i hope you got my letter with our chirstmas picture in it jaja that was fun to take. it snowed a ton here the past couple days so it finally feels like christmas!! lets see so this week elder cluff was asked to give the prayer for a special preisthood meeting on christmas day so that means we have to sit on the stage jaja but hopefully since its a (special) preisthood meeting that there will be an apostle that is talking and i´ll see if i cant give him a hug jaja that would be awesome!! oh so right before i came up to the computer lab to email me and elder cluff were picking up his packages that he got in the mail room and he saw one of his buddies and asked elder cluff where he was headed and when he said chihuahua this elder standing by us was like woah wait where?! jaja he said chihuahua again and he was like im from there!! so today is his pday also and he has laundry during about the same time as us so he's gonna tell us some stories jaja and by the look on his face i can tell i will be satisfied jaja i cant wait!! oh I HAD BETOS the other night!!! it was so awesome!! so one of my buddies from spanish fork that i went to betos with all the time lives on the same floor as me and my room is right by the vending machines and microwaves and he walked over and told me he had a surprise and BOOM betos!!! oh it was so good!!! jaja so his companions mom sent him 4 burritos in and cooler fulll of ice jaja ingenious!! lets see hermana schneider set teh new record for juggling a soccer ball for girls....770 something times!!! ridiculous jaja she is so good. those argentinens are gonna love her. i cant wait to get down there and have all the little niños just absolutely kick my trash jaja so matt worked in the mtc this week and i gave him some of the extra stuff i brought that i dont need. Dayton and dad the Volcom tie is for you to Borrow until i get back jaja i know you'll enjoy that. demory and amoray and mom if you want also there is a MTC sweatshirt that i found in the free bin jaja i know whos it was and he just got rid of it cuz he was leaving for peru and needed more room so i snagged it up. Dad you gotta wear the tie at least once to church and if you do i promise you wont get called to be the next stake president jaja. i cant tell you how excited i am to talk to elder martinez about mexico!!! lets see so i was incredibly humbled again in my spanish this week when i made a friend who was native and she came up to me and started talking and i had absolutely no idea what she was saying jaja it was terribly funny! ohh so i met this elder from england going to italy and he is in teh room next to us adn he is way funny i talk to him in spanish and then he'll tell me to knock off that dirty spanish so i start talking to him in a oober heavy english accent jaja i think he likes the spanish bettter. oh my glasses broke this week jaja i got kneed in the eye! its actually a pretty funny story but i dont have time. they were bent pretty bad and so i spent one day just bending them back and they were almost perfect and then the lense popped out!! jaja but luckily an elder in my district had every tool in teh book and so i was able to get the lense back in and the glasses look not half bad now. well i really hope all of you have a wonderful christmas and im extremely grateful for the gifts and candy you have sent. thanks so much.

Alma 26:12 is awesome

Elder Nunley

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • December 20th, 2010

oh my i had the best week!!! i was loving life when i got a package from you mom and dad! and thanks stillmans, greg davidson, and jessie for writing me!! Serious though the package was perfect! and it made it here in way good contion. Thanks tons!

ok so i have a little different story this week, so we did something called (the maribor raid) and all 14 missionairs in slovenia came up to my city and we just destoryed it!! we visit a ton of formers and less actives and contacted a bunch! So we got new companions for a day and i got Elder Nelson and just so you have an idea about Nelson he is about 5,5, he likes magic tricks, has a comb over, and wears his pants high, and wont ever wear a belt! hahaha he is a pretty funny kid though, he does everything oppisite of everyone else, which i like that about him.

But me and him got along way well. So at first we were assigned to stay in center and contact for about 1.5 hours. it was good, but we tried something new (cause Nelson is alot like me). We tried contacting in English so that more kids would stop, well the first 2 kids we stopped were 18 and pretty cool kids. Then i was talking to one kid about snowboarding and 5 of his girlsfriends came up (probably cause they thought i was cute! :) haha) so we started teaching about the BOM, then 5 more kids came up, then 5 more, pretty soon me and Nelson had like 20 teenagers asking us random questions about our faith. It was so cool, Nelson was way funny. But it was so so funny cause when they wanted to keep something a secret they would talk in slovenian, (cause they thought we only spoke English) and we could understand everything so it was just too fun.

Well what ending up happening is we gave alot of the kids BOMs and got some numbers. One kid really liked it and just hung out with me for pretty much the whole time! But i was like a dream come true, you know the pictures of the missionaries standing on a box preaching to like 20 people... well it was kinda like that... but cooler!

But we had a christmas concert this week, it went good. But i will tell you guys more this week!

Merry Christmas!! and cant wait to talk to you!

ps... something random for you, so Franjo (my favorite member) went to the store and bought me and my comp a little bottle of axe deoterant. hahaha yeah we were a bit confused too, haha he is such a funny guy!

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • December 16th, 2010

okay...can i get the list for you next week? that would be awesome! i haven't made one for thsi p-day and they aren't taking anything after the 22...which is next week...so we can just wait until i leave for argentina! which just blows my mind that i am going! nervous-excitement! i can't believe hwo strong the spirit is! we pretty much taught our last lesson completely in spanish to some investigators. i don't understtand exactly what they say...but you just need teh jist of it! i think i may have you get some good shampoo and conditioner to take to the mtc down there too witha squishy thing when you shower.

funny story...my roommates got me a razor ;) they were cheap but they got it as a joke. i was going to wait until someone said something....i shaved one leg and kept the other one hairy....just to see if anyone would notice. no one said anything for four weeks! but sunday came and i decided to shave since they got me a razor!

i am glad to hear about mikelle and mike! that was so neat for them to come and for chelsea to come as well! so fun!

and i didn't even know about Derek...i have heard he was dating...but i didn't know he asked for her hand!!!! how exciting!!!! yay!!!! please lmk how it goes!!!! i love derek! thatis neat about their movie too! bravo!

spanish is coming. most of the teachers comment on my spanish accent that it is really good...but i don't knwo fi that is because my congigation (spelling...sorry?) is so horrible that is the only compliment they can think of :) haha but it makes me feel good none the less. i told myself from the beginning i wasn't going to get discouraged about spanish....i think i have done pretty good. i have tried really hard not to complain on what i don't know and to concentrate on what i do. hermanas get way too stressed here! it is like when you get stressed mom, your stress brushes off on me....and so does the other hermana's stress.

i am signign 'silent night' with my deaf friend in the talent show. haha, i think i am learning sign language faster than spanish ;) but iti s fun! i love it!

p.s. i think my companion has the 'gift of tongues' because she can talk and talk and talk ;) haha so funny (i have to keep telling myself that! ;)

love you!

love always,

hermana schneider

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • December 14th, 2010

Subject: Elevad hacia mi todo pensamiento; no dedeis no temais.

hola familia!!

so this week has been super cool already i gotta tell you first off about this experience i had on our temple walk we take on sundays. so we always go walking to the temple on sundays and we were just hanging out with our zone and elder shaw and me saw this guy playing with his kid up on the hill above us and we were like lets go talk to him. so we went over and elder cluff came along too and we started talking to him. when he saw our name tags and that they were spanish he busted out in spanish so fast jaja( apparently they do jaja instead of haha in mexico haha i mean jaja) but it was so awesome because i understood like 75 % of it and i could answer him back with a little help. but it was so amazingly awesome because when he told us that the kid was his son you could tell just by how he called him his son that this man would do absolutely anything in the world for this little boy. the kids name was samuel but i didnt get the fathers name jaja que triste! but we talked to him for a while and he told us about his life. we found out he is a mexican he jsut moved to america like 12 years ago and that he served a mission in mexico as well. he told us something pretty funny jaja he said that in mexico there is a tradition that you cant turn down a glass of water even to your worst enemys jaja so he said that when him and his companion would see people starting to close their doors when they would walk up they would ask for a glass of water and then they would always let them in jaja how crazy!! so im definately gonna remember that one. so this man has had a crazy tough life but it was still so evident that he would do absolutley anything in the world for his hijo. so i've heard that mexicans are all about family and this jsut made me so excited to go to a place where familys are so important because the plan of happiness can bring so much well happiness to their lives. i was actually reading in moroni 7 (best chapter in all the scriptures in the world!!!!!!!!!!) jaja and there is one verse that says something like "they would be better off if there had been no redemption made" How unbelievable scary?!! no atonement no repentence NOTHING. i got to thinking about how terrible life would be if i didnt know that i could repent and be cleansed and how comforting it is to know that the Savior not only took upon Him all the sins of the world but all the pains sorrows and everthing else. he knows EXACTLY what i've been through because he's already been through it. whenever something is tough here like i have to work on patience or something with someone i like to think of how much more pain the Savior suffered and then it makes me feel like a fool and totally selfish because i know most of the things i will go through in this life will not even be a fraction of what he went through!! but then i realized most people dont know that theey dont realize how much the atonement can comfort them. so that scripture and this man ( el Padre de Samuel jaja) made me wanna work so much harder this week because i have only 3 weeks left in the mtc! oh yeah thats the other thing the mexico visas are so much better now. we had missionaries leave before they were supposed to last week!! that was the first time mexico missionarys have left on time in 9 months!!! how awesome!! but yeah i am gonna write you during my laundry today

love ya oh the subject is a scripture from D y C try to figure out which one it is.. it is awesome!!!!!!

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • December 13th, 2010

ok so... guess who got an ENSIGN story for you!!! woot woot, its such a classical mission story! ok so on Sunday we were at church. And the sisters have an investigator that they have been teaching for about 2 months, and she is 23 and loves everything about the church and is getting baptisted next month. So she is pretty much the most elect girl i have ever seen. So i was sitting on a couch with Franjo and she walked in, and it was her first time at church in Maribor (my city) cause she usually goes to the Celje church (which is 1 hour away). So Franjo starts talking to her and asked about school, and stuff. Then she tells him about her baptismal date, and how excited she is. Then he says,"so how did you meet the missionaries." and she says actually him.... and she pointed to me!!!!!! I was like what??? are you sure?? haha then she tells me the story about three months ago she was walking down the street and me and my comp tried contacting her. She said, i asked her what is the purpose in life? (which is one of my favorite questions, i like asking deep question so if they dont stop then they will think about it) hahaha and she said she just walked past and told us she didnt have time!! haha (which is the usually answer).

So then later that day she went to lunch with some kid from Celje, and he is one of our stongest members. And she was like hey, " some Mormons talked to me today and they asked what the purpose of life is, and i have been thinking about it." hahaha so the member did a dang good job and taught her about the BOM and life and then she went to institute and loves everything. And now on January 23 she is getting baptisted!

haha then she admitted that she was sorry she didnt stop. hahaha i just laughed, and asked her if the question got her thinking!!! haha she admitted that she thought about the question alot. So i was pretty happy to hear the story, its just amazing how organized God is, and how he knows who he wants in his church!!

So score one for the Elders!!!

So i was pumped i got me an ensign story.

So things are good, kinda looking forward to transfers. hahaha, oh hey mom guess what?? so this week is my 1year mark and guess who wrote in their journal every single day!!!!!! yeah me!!! i know you should be proud, but now i got to get me a new journal to start this years. Well love you family!!!

ps... good work derek davidson!!

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • December 9th, 2010

hola,

mom and dad i send you diff emails...but it doesn't matter who reads it between the two of you. not sure how best it is to email people!

it is great! working hard! it feels like i have been in the MTC forever! i ti shard to see everyone leave the MTC before you....but then it is nerve-racking to think i am a third way done before i am going to need to be fluent in spanish and talking with local argentinians!

i have a friend who si deaf and i 'sign to him' haha...he is patient with me and awesome!!!

oh dad....i want that conversion story too! i read that from brayden and it sounds awesome! also...can i get a picture of the family possible sometime....elders laminated their picture and i think it will be so stinkin fun to show people what my family is like...haha people think it is crazy about our family!

GMA AND GPA: thanks so much for the christmas package! haha so fun! me and my roommates (and companion) were so excited about everything! especially the tree! haha it was sooo fun to have it! it all made our days!!!!

lestie----thanks so much for the letters! i got them! i wanted to write you but i only have a few minutes left! i love them and have used them a lot! same with my roommates who love them too! (yep...i share ;) love you!

bryce: of course i prank the elders ;) jk...they are really good to me...i barely touch the doors they are always holding it open!

lauren bangerter: your gold fish 'were' awesome ;) haha it was so clever and fun! thank you so much!

Matt: love to hear from you and your letters! iw ant to send you a personal one too! sometime ;) hopefully soon! and hermano millet ( who we went to hike with colton and everything...A.J. i think was his name) is my tutor! haha he is great and it is way funny he is our tutor! love to hear about what you are doing!

oh...p.s. i want an update on derek davidson too ;) what is going on there?!

missions are great!@

love you,

hermana schneider

LETTER: Elder Schneider • December 6th, 2010

so... i have bad news, the family.... we went to get with them but they said they had someone over, so we couldnt get with them. But next week hopefully they will!!!

ok, so wanna know something funny, well.. i still dont have my visa yet!!! i know crazy huh, so i am hoping the cops catch me and move me down to Bosnia cause i wanna serve there so bad! I was supposed to get my visa within the first three months of my mission. haha oh well.

So, this week was different. My comp went down to Croatia for a meeting so i went to Celje with a different missionary! it was way fun, we taught English class and i got to meet some of his investigators! it was fun to have a change cause in maribor we are so far away from everyone, i can only talk to my comp so its kinda boring!

Ok so another thing, we went in the moutains and cut us down a Chirstmas tree!! hahaha i know its against the rules, haha but the tree was just so pretty! haha we had so much fun. But it snowed all week and we have like 1 foot of snow and in Slovenia they dont shovel there sidewalks so it not the funnest to walk around!

The best thing happened this week though!!!!! so we have the draškovič family that has been inactive for like 1.5, but we still have family night with them. (this is the family i play risk with) well the dad is the best member we have and comes to the church ever week and cleans it. And the only thing he wants in his life is for his family to become active and go to the temple! so we have been getting with all the members in the family. Well... nothing has worked, but we just try random projects and stuff to try to get them reading. Well it worked, the family is reading.... and for the first time in like a year the whole family came to chruch!!! oh man when Adrej (the dad) walked into church he was just smiling so big, i would have thought he won a car or something! but he was so happy. I was one of the best memories i have had on the mission just to see him so happy! well we are going to keep working with the family and one of their sons, Žan cause he is 17 and so hopefully we can get him going on a misison!

well thanks for everything family!!! but i have a couple of questions

1. whats the word on derek davidson? (concerning marriage)

2. Dad, i just thought of this but next letter will you send me a message on how you were baptisted and stuff. (what was hard, why, what blessings have you seen, and what you thought about the wierd mormons before you were baptisted) ok thanks everyone!!

elder schneider

ps.. make sure you write Adri and Coltin, becasue the MTC is just toooo much fun!!! hahaha good times!

LETTER: Elder Jensen • December 5th, 2010

Hello beautiful mom. =) Yes things are going great still. Next week is are next transfers so I guess will see if I take of the area or not. I hope not though. Elder Soderberg is a great companion. I also have lots of new pictures and videos that I will try to get to you by christmas but im not making any promises. And Jordan is going to get baptized this saturday so I cant wait for that either. She is wonderful! =) Anyways our week went pretty great and we went to a couple churches yesterday. It was very very interesting. We first got up and went to the cathlic mass at 8:00. I felt like everyone was looking at us that whole time it was wierd. Well anyways we walk into the building and were the only ones dressed with a suit and tie so that was pretty much a dead give away there that that was our first time. Then everyone starts to go into the chapel and starts sitting down. We walked right in and sat down on one of the back benches of the room. The room was kinda like a U shape and everyone could see each other. So everyone was kinda looking at us as we just walked in and sat down. A few seconds later we notice others walking passed us and kneeling by the bench before they walked in and sat down. And they also did the cross thing with there hands when they entered the room. But hey how were we suppose to know that we had to do all that. Then after awhile the thing started and everyone started to go up for the sacrament but we weren't baptized so we had to move out of everyones way so that they could get passed us. So we had a full line of people walking passed us as we just stood there in the back having everyone taking turns looking at us. And man some of the things they teach there are just wierd. The priest gets up and starts doing is christmas talk. And he starts to talk about family and friends and so forth. " My brothers and sisters. Christmas times is coming around and it is a time Etc... And you dont have to love your friends. And you dont have to love your family. You dont even have to like them. You just have to respect them and be gentle with them..." Where in the world did you get that doctrine from priest man??! I can see why it is so important for this work to move on alot more after going to all these diffrent churches that day. We also went to some spiritual church right after and one of the parts we did some meditation. So during our awsome meditation with everyone in there being perfectly silent you could hear a pin drop. Our phone alarm started to go off... And hey they couldn't be mad at us we were the new guys. =) After being there a little while longer we had to leave so that we could make it to the next church meeting so we had to stand up from the front of the room and walk passed everyone to get out. I wish I could have gone invisable. But sadly the holy ghost didn't give me that power. So we then went to some christian church and that one was ok. It was a little bit more normal then all the other ones haha. But there was one thing in common from all of those churches that suprised me though. Everysingle one of them had Coffee and donuts at the end of church. I have now found out the way of there succses. Coffee and donuts! So we decided that our church should do the same thing, except were going to have some amizing hot chocolate and donutes. Will see how it works ;) But ya i'm running out of time now but things are going great mom and i'm glad brooklying and kambrea and the new comer Creed are doing so well and cute =) I will be calling creed "Jr." for now on though. I love you most greatest strongest mom in the world. =)

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • December 2nd, 2010

hola family and friends,

crazy here and can't believe i have been here for two weeks. i am now not speaking one language competely, but more like 1/3 fo each and it is very confusing to everyone i speak with ;) hagha! spanish, german, and english....for some reason the german keeps sneaking into my spanish and i get weird looks ;) but it is crazy! it is so fun to meet so many different people!

oh and p.s. i haven't gained any weight...yet...i think i have lost it if anything (more like my strong muscles...no worries, still pretty buff)

haha, i lost my voice and everyone makes fun of me. so i just started signing to people. i guess ia m not use to talking so much and teaching so much! so funny! so to the new sisters i pretended i could sign and got a pretty good laugh from it. it was interesting to see how a deaf person might feel! i actually did try signing to a deaf elder and he was super nice. pretty much all i could ask was if he knew sing language...oh well! it is great!

thanks so much for all the letters! it is so fun to hear from everyone! sorry i don't have everyone's emails yet: hope this is okay: (dad i assume you have them...and if you know them you should pass on the love ;) pay it forward ;)

dad: sorry about your teeth, i am sure your wisdom is still in there somewhere. i was thinking you have had some hard times lately, being so sick earlier and now your teeth! you are brave for going to the dentist! yuck yuck yuck! bleh bleh bleh!

megan--thanks for your letter ;)

whitney fuller--congrats on the wedding! ( i don't think you are married yet...i meant announcment!) i think that seriously was the cutest announcement i have ever seen! and i love your hair dark! that was so thoughtful to send it to me!

emilie wright: haha i see your sister here, i had no idea she was coming (i can't remember her first name..."betsy" always comes to mind...LOL) but i can call her hermana wright so i am okay. but thanks for your dear elder letter ;) haha....so funny!

lauren bangerter: keep going to the temple ;) it is a good place to be!

melissa palmer: that is so exciting about you serving a mission! do it! but make sure you WANT to do it before! for sisters, no one is making you be here, if you choose to come before, it will be so much better! it is the best thing ever though! i am so happy! thanks so much for you letter! so awesome! you will be great and let me know what you decide!

GILLET FAMILY: THANKS SO MUCH for the package! so so so awesome! it was the best timing! i hadn't eaten for two meals because my comanion had some health problems and i had to go with her to the health place. long story short i was sooo hungry! but i was able to pick up the package on the way...what a great 'care'

package that really took care of me!

all you young men...you want to and should serve a mission! DO IT! ;)

loves, gots to go

hermana schneider

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • November 29th, 2010

Yay! The first letter from Hermana Schneider! She sounds so good!

hola familia!

crazy...both p-days have been taken from us...but all is well ;) and i have snuck in a few letters but will have to catch up by typing like a cheetah

congrats to camon and the frisbee team (i assume BAKA) for winning the championship! that is how we work ;)

and i broke the soccer juggling record 777 juggles. and guess who had the record before me? haha none other than priscilla stewart (she is going to germany...and i played celtic soccer with her...just in case you forgot ;) and i missed gym on saturday when trevor was working because my district thoubht it was at another time...haha so funny.

i felt like i had a lot to write, but can't really think of it...guess i type too fast and my brain can't keep up! spanish is hard and i am probably the worst in my class...but i actually am starting to say things better and somewhat understand. being a missionary is so neat! the devotionals are wonderful! elder holland came and spoke to us today for thanksgiving! he is definitely one of my favorite!

i am sorry to single people out, but i have to cuz i won't have time to write letters: before I forget:

matt: thanks for your dear elder letters! love to get them! i know there were some questions but i can't think of what they are! i am so stoked for you to be done teaching! bueno bueno!

nicole: yes, i got a camera, gracias for the letter!

megan: thanks for coming with me and my wonderful family to the mtc...hope you got home safely ;) lol you are great and i love you! you are such a good friend!

shaniqua! you have been awesome and you can write me everyday you need to! seriously! il ove to hear from you! and you didn't fail anything! keep being the best and i will try to get you a letter! i absolutely love to hear from you! i hope you can give me your email and address so i can write you! and the sisters think i get a ton of mail because of you! they are jealous! you are so awesome and have TRULY helped me! Shaniqua, you got the first letter! thanks so much! the first day was not my favorite, but your letter made it one of my favorite!

(mom and dad you may have to facebook her ('Shaniqua' Alison Clark on facebook....minus the 'shaniqua part cuz she doesn't have it public on facebook) ...have jessie do it if you need....to get her information if you could ;) she has seriously written me every day!

lauren: thanks so much for your letter! you are amazing and such a good friend and example! i can always think of waht you would do in situations...and i know it would be right!

bryce: sounds awesome about you decorating rochelle's car. so fun! keep me informed!

thanks so much again for letters...i am sorry if i forgot to answer any of your specific questions....i tried!

everyone else...write me now ;) lol jk. i am not the best with letters but love to hear what is going on!

BEING A MISSIONARY IS EVEN BETTER AND MORE EXCITING THAN EVER! I LOVE THE SPIRIT AND THE STRENGTH IN MISSIONARY WORK! I NEVER THOUGHT IT WOULD BE THIS IMPORTANT TO ME AND TO EVERYONE AROUND ME! THIS IS WHERE I AM SUPPOSED TO BE AND WHERE I WANT TO BE!

My district is the best! Elders are great...they keep me laughing that is for sure! haha i can't imagine what it would be like if we had all of these indiivudals together and we could do whatever we wanted! party and fun! but that is not our purpose...there are so many good people and we stay pretty focused.

It seems like i know everyone here and it is so neat! I am working hard and have been getting up at 5:30 before everyone to try and get some exercise and sweat down my back so i can sleep well at night from fatigue and concentrate in class without too much A.D.D ;) it is just too hard to explain in words how awesome it is hear and the importance of eternal family!

i am so grateful my family is so awesome! i am so glad we know we can be together forever. i am so blessed to know what is like to have a family that loves me! thanks family! love you a ton! I am so grateful for you! ALL!

Elder Nunley is always a treat for me to see ! haha he hasn't 'good-gamed' me haha cuz it would be bad news! but it is at treat to see him! i can't wait until my spanish is good enough to talk with him in complete spanish!

sorry this is so spurratic!

love you! listen and follow the spirit!,

hermana schneider

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • November 29th, 2010

Hi family!!! i love the pictures!! thanks, first off... dad i am sorry about your face! haha i hated getting out my wisdom teeth, but thats good you got them out at such a young age!!!! hahaha oh man, second off... i finelly got the package!!! haha good choice of candy, but i should have takin a picture of the package when i got it! i was in 2 pieces and held together by tape! hahaha it looked like you guys left it in the rain for 2 days then thru it in a fire and decided to throw it against the cement a couple times! haha but everything servived and i loved it. So thanks!! third off, i am not sure what we are doing for phone calls this year, i will keep you posted! fourth off, dad you can just send me adris emails and i should have time to read them! thanks.

so.... i could hardly wait to tell you the great news!!!!! so guess who found a FAMILY of 5!!! woot woot!! not even kidding, its so exciting cause it is my first family i have ever taught. Cause in Slovenia almost nobody gets married and if they get married they dont have kids and if by some chance they get married and have kids then they dont want religion!!!! haha so its a totally miracle that we have a chance with a family! well its amazing how it worked out, cause we were lost trying to find their house and so we walked around in a snowy storm for like 45 mins. And a lady says, hey are you guys looking for the andrej family! and we were like yes!!!!! hahaha so we had a lesson with them and they are so good, the dad is normal and has a good job (which is way wierd in slovenia) then we were just talking to him and his family and he was like... welll i want to follow Christ but i think the doctrines have been changed!!! and we were like yess..... its because they were changed but god restored his truth!!! he loved it!!! he said he will read the whole book of mormon and whats to keep getting with us!!! oh man it was so exciting!!!

ok well funny story for you, well this week we had thanksgiving and me and my comp were trying to buy a turkey! haha well we go to the store and we finelly found a turkey but the lables were in german... but it was like 25 bucks and it was really small! but since we are dumb and wanted a turkey, we bought it! so we didnt know how to cook a turkey but we tried. So everything was good but after it was cook we started to slice and cut it! And the meat was black... not because we burnt it but because it was actually a goose. So we actually got punkd (ps. dad and mom if you dont know what punkd means, its means you got tricked) and bought a 25 dollar skinny goose and we didnt know cause the lables were in German. It actually wasnt too bad, it was just a little greesier and not as favorful. But all is good and thanks for everything.

love you family!!!

pss. thanks celeste for the emails and for the letter you sent in moms and dads package!!

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • November 22nd, 2010

Thanks family for writing.... oh hey and one other thing, Fanjo (a cool member) wanted to me friends with me on facebook, so i gave him my password, so he could add me. Cause he said he wanted to see my pictures. Just so you know.

oh yeah and he said he added some family members, i think jessie or dad. just in case you get a friend request, you wont think its some crazy slovenain or something.

ok so this week was good, we worked mostly with members, we gave one member a date to stop smoking, and are working with 2 other members to come back to church.

ok so cool story for the week, so Franjo (he used to be almost in-acctive until he baptisted sveto) well he is almost the most active member. He is so funny, he calls us like 2 times a week to get together cause he loves the church so much. But this week he decided to make us some good food... (cause he is a huge guy) and we baked some noodles and just joked around and stuff. I had so much fun, he is super cool and he has crazy stories cause he lived during communism and also lived in Iraq! But he thinks i am like the coolest missionary ever. Hahaha ever time i see him he says (Number one) or (easy rider) in a super crappy Slovenian accent cause he doesnt know English. haha and i asked him why he calls me easy rider and he just says its slang. hahaha he is too funny.

Its getting cold over here, so its not to much fun contacting anymore! haha

But thats about it, nothing too crazy just a good week!

Love elder schneider

ps... Oh forgot, we played risk again with the draskovič family... and i won!! woot woot! haha

pss. i got some really cool pixs at the last castle i went to, so i will send them next week! WAY cool PiCS

Awww.. adri is on her mission now, i think i will send her a letter.

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • November 22nd, 2010

Subject: hoof hearted?

hey family thanks for that super long letter it is always nice to have lots to read i loved it. so i get to see another apostle again today. i really hope it is jeffery r holland he is such a powerful speaker! it feels like i've talked to you guys about everything already though because every night when i write in my journal i pretend like im writing to mom so i feel like you already know everything that's going on haha. i think i'll just stick to writing letters because i really have no idea what to talk about. oh i've been sick for like the past week but i've still been like following the schedule and stuff like when to wake up and all that stuff but my teacher said that if i am really as sick as i look all the time i need to get some more rest. and i really didnt feel like i was that sick but my companion and some of the other elders in my district said it looks like im half alive haha so i wasn't gonna not take adavantage of my teachers advice on getting more sleep so this morning i slept in all the way til 7:30!!!!! hahah it actually felt so good and it seemed more like i slept in til noonoclock. but yeah they have stressed so much on us about obedience with exactness that i just felt like i had to be to class no matter what. but since it's thanksgiving this weekend both of our normal teachers are leaving to see family so we get my two favorite teachers hermano dela cruz and hermano escobar both of them are super awesome and they like only talk spanish with us so we have to learn really fast and they both teach with the spirit SO strongly!! i love it especially hermano dela cruz. he was the one who because his last name sounds native he got put into his spanish speaking mission only three weeks after the mtc haha and he only knew as much spanish as me . so i think he is so hard because he knows we can do it. and he relys on teaching with the spirit so much because he had to when he was on his mission but they are both awesome i love all my teachers they're all cool. i learned this week that in chihuahua they pronounce the ch like a sh so i've been workin on that. well i've got 22 seconds left and nothing else to say. love you elder nunley

LETTER: Elder Jensen • November 21st, 2010

Sorry for that way long letter last time. I will try and keep them shorter for now on but there just so much more going on now in my mission. But anyways Remember Sosa the lady I was talking about that said that I am one of her new sons now? Well she is so funny and such a sweet lady. She still has that wicked awesome accent too. But anyways she just put me on here life insuarance this week. Then she made us some necklaces. And now she want to take us shopping so she can buy all the food for us. I have never met such a nice lady in my life. But anyways this week has been great. We have another investigator on date. The lord has blessed this area so so much. We missonarys do nothing except show up and finish the last steps of what god has already done and prepared. And mom you should never ever worry about me because I promise god is always with me in everything that i'm doing I can feel it. Well to tell you the truth sometimes I cant feel it. But I get reminded of others that I do have him with me. Reason I say this is because we went on exchanges this week and we went and had dinner with the Spencers and at the very end when we were about to leave brother spencer came up to me and said "there's something about you... You just have a real special spirit about you. And i'm not just saying to be nice i'm be seriuse. Just keep doing what ever your doing." And that right there just remindeds me on who's side i'm on and who I am working for even though sometimes I forget. But I know that he's with me. I'm loving this work more and more everyday. Well to tell you some of the things that have happen to me this week. I have poped my tire twice in one day. No joke it was horrable. I poped the tire so i went and got some patches for it then a little bit later when the patches got wet they stoped working so we had to go back to the apartment again. Then went back to the tire shop and bought a new tire and put it on the bike. Then we went back out for tracting again and no joke 20 minutes later it poped again so we had to go back a 3rd time and bought another tire. Mom there's so many other things going on here to but they just dont give us enough time to write it all it bugs me so much. But to make things fast we put others on date and met with more crazy people and some really awesome people. Well thats how things are going here. And are thanksgiving we will be doing more work haha. The president just doesn't like to give us a break. But hey were not here for breaks =) And things with my companion are going great he's a real good guy. And we are having tons of succes. I love you most best mom in the world XoXoXo =)

PICTURES: Elder Nunley

Check out Elder Nunley's missionary pictures.

I love them!

His personality just shines right through.

(P.S. Notice the ankle socks? Classic!)

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • November 16th, 2010

ok so first off funny story... me and elder cluff had to get to know people in spanish for 15 minutes and then teach them a lesson in english for 30 minutes and the lady we taught was awesome!!! we were getting to know her and just asking questions about her family and stuff like that and then she asked us where we were going on our mission and we told her mexico. and she said " oh dormi con un mexicano" and she went on about other stuff like that. k so dormir is the verb for To Sleep and so i thought she said she's slept in mexico but then she said it again and i realized it was the past tense.. so what she actually said was i've slept with a mexican!! hahaha i started laughing so hard when i realized that and then she asked me what was so funny and i told her that i thought of something earlier that day hahaha it was so funny though and then she talked about how when she used to live in california all she used to do was party and drink and do drugs hahah now remember all of this is in spanish and we havent exactly gone over drugs and alchohol and sleeping with mexicans yet hahha so all i could think of to say was "Viva la vida" haha she just looked at me and laughed and agreed hahah she was awesome though. so after teaching her in spanish we gave her the first lesson in english and when we talked about baptism she brought up the point about how most mexicans ( the catholics we will teach down there) will already be baptized and she asked us what we would say to them when they told us that( this was her not being a fake investigator any more jsut a loving hermana) and i said well we gotta let them know that our church has the authority from God to baptize whereas other churches dont in a friendly way. and the whole time i was saying that she was jsut shaking her head and she said congragulate them on their coming unto Christ but let them know they can come closer! so that was very important for me to learn i hadnt even thought about that!

well i love you guys!

dayton happy birthday!

i've got less than 20 seconds on teh computer!!! gotta go !

Write me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • November 15th, 2010

that is so cool that grandpa saw sister justice at kohlers!!! hahahaha that was so funny to me. what i small world!!! ok so this letter is going to be a bit shorter cause i dont have much time cause the weather is amazing right now, so we are going to travel and see a castle and our bus leaves soon!

But listen to this story, this is probably my favorite story on the mission so far!!
so it was saturday at like 7:30, and in Slovenia, Slovenians shut down at like 5 or 6 so there wasnt anybody outside..... at all! so we were pretty far away from home and we were trying to find a blok ( appratment complex) that actually had people awake in them! so finelly we found a completely random blok that had about10 out of 40 lights on, so we go into it and take the elevator to the top, well we start get nothing and then we tract this door, and this kid about 11 or so, answers and so we ask for his dad or mom. So he yells to his mom, Well his mom come to the door with the 11 year old still there listening and we say something like we have more about jesus, and showed her the book of morman. And she says, "i am only visting and no no no i dont want religion", and tries to shut the door.... but the 11 year old boy stops the door and says, "i want to learn more about chirst, and god." but the mom interupts and says," no you have the bible." So then i try giving the kid the book of mormon before the mom could shut the door! But she just gets mad and shuts the door.... ANd that just hurt to see, so i was like well if they are just visiting they should be leaving soon, so i thought how i could get the kid the book of mormon, so i thought, (what would he look at when he left and hopeful his mom wouldnt notice) so in the hallway there was a little red box/shelf thing, that was about his hight. So i set the book of mormon on the box/shelf thing and just prayed (in my head) that the kid would find the book, and his mom would let him keep it, or his mom would notice!

So then we just kept going, then go to the next floor and we only did like 3 doors then i hear the kids voice up on the higher floor and then i heard them get into the elavator. So i like run up to see if he took it and sure enough, he did!!! It was so tight, and when we finished to blok we looked it the outside garbage to see if the mom throw it away or anything... but nope!! i was so pumped, it made me realize how planned out the lord is! and he know all that would happen. It was super cool to be a part of it, and i got to admit i was pretty sneaky! haha but now i got to go dominate a castle! thanks for the love!!!

elder schneider

ps... i havent gotten the package yet, but its ok, i am sure they will come!

hahaha pss... i just thought of something funny, one elders grandma sent him (fresh) apples so 3 weeks later when he got the package... they looked like up dog! haha well love you, and dont send any apples!!!

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • November 9th, 2010

Subject: hola hola hola

hey thank you for the email. it was awesome seeing matt. so i absolutely love it here. it is so cool to be in tuned to the spirit 24/7 and i was blessed with an awesome companion and an amazing district. so i havent said an english prayer since friday and they are teaching us so much so fast it is amazing. it feels like i've already written to you guys because whenever i write in my journal i write as if it is a letter to mom and so once i fill up that journal i will have to mail it to you guys so you can read it if you want. i know you will mom cuz i know you wont be satisfied with short emails. but really it is amazing here i love it so much. i feel blessed that the Lord considers me worthy as a tool in his hands. my companions name is Elder Cluff and we gave our first lesson yesterday to a pretend investigator and it was crazy because the first 15 minutes had to be in only spanish!!! Que deficil! just so you know i wrote you guys a letter this morning because i have limited time on the computer. the days go by so slow here and it just takes forever but it feels like i've already been here for a month which is weird but yeah i said a lot more in my letter so yeah. oh dan walker told me something that i really liked the morning i came into the mtc he said remember two things on my mission... Love and Obedience... i liked that so much and i try to live by it. also we had sheri dew and some other speakers come talk to us and one of them said: "There is absolutely no reason at any point in time that we shouldn't feel grateful." i liked that one muy mucho. oh on the back of my letter i wrote to you guys two other quotes i really liked one in spanish and one in english. just so you know the spanish one ISN'T a translation of the first one you guys have to figure out what it means. i think that the spanish one is something you can really visualize in your mind. oh as i was walkin out of the temple today ammon miller came up to me and said hello Elder Nunley!! it was so crazy!!!! haha i loved talking to him he is such a great kid!! i told him to give you guys hugs for me whenever he comes home so if he doesn't tell him he will receive less blessings because i am a missionary and i can determine how many people get haha but yeah love all you guys and you guys should check out dearelder.com that way i can get mail from you guys any day of the week.

love you guys,

Elder Nunley

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • November 8th, 2010

hahahaha ok today i have 2 stories for you!!!

hahaha ok so first off, the member that baptisted Sveto, (our baptism) his name is Franjo, and he is going so good. He has been a member for about a year and he was only about half active... but now he is the most active member! He calls us like 3 times a week and wants to come on lessons and visit other members. He is doing so good, he is preparing for the temple now. The baptism changed his life and i have a feeling pretty soon we will have a new counsilor in the Maribor Branch.

Oh one other thing, i am not sure if i told you but Sveto is doing way good, he isnt in the Maribor branch cause he had to move for winter, but he is going way good. And we have members calling him and helping him stay active and to strengthen relationships!

Ok so this is a cool story for you! so we had a training meeting with president and he said as missionaries we need to be bolder we need to really let people know, what we believe. Then he focused on the fact that as missionaires we have the right to go and share the gospel to everyone, and that when someone tells us to leave the block (its like a bunch of appartment buildings) that we need to be respectfull but we need to keep going, we need to keep doing what we are here to do.

So we were tracting and thats exactly what we did! haha so we were tracting this blok and we were having good success, then we knocked on this mans door (and the man had the smell of beer in his breath, but he wasnt too drunk) and he said no i am not interested and to go away. So we did, and we just went to the next door... Then he comes out and says LEAVE, and we were very respectfull and said we had to knock ever door and that we wont bug him. Then he gets man and starts yelling and swearing at us for like 2 mins ( atleast i think he was swearing cause i couldnt understand those words) hahaha and then grabs my companion and pushes/throws him and then grabs me, and i was pretty calm and told me we have atthority to be here and he can call the cops or do what he needs but that we needed to finish.

But this didnt make him happy so he starts trying to throw us out literaly, and while he was grabbing/pushing us, he stole my comps white hand book and wouldnt give it back. So then i just told my comp to forget about his white hand book and we will just keep going. So i start walking to the next floor and he grabs me and tries throwing me back, and this time he was but wripped my shirt and i turn around and that was just too much for me and was mad so i shoved him hard and he almost fell over... but then i kept my cool and he gets in my face like he wanted to fight, but i wasnt going to start anything, but that i needed to protect myself! i thought he was going to punch me cause he was so mad, but then his wife shows up and tells him to knock it off and so he leaves and his wife gets the our white hand book from him and gives it to us, so then we just go to the next floor and continue.

THEN... 5 mins later he comes down and tells us alot of bad things! (and he said he called the cops but the cops said that we were ok, so he was mad) haha and we just keep tracting and he just followed us to ever single door telling us we suck and that nobody likes us, hahaha and every time he would tell us we sucked i would just smile cause it was just funny to me, which would just make me even mader. But the good news is we did finish the whole blok and he just walked around with us for like 20 mins.

So everything turned out good, except my shirt, i ended up throwing it away cause it was wripped, but we went to the next blok after that guy and we actually met a guy and had a lesson and he is super super elect, and became a new investigator!!

but other then that everything is going good and thanks for everything!!! ps... i am 20!!!! i am soooo old!

love,

elder schneider

PS.. i saw a picture of andrew and he looks so different!! he is so cool!!! And jessie with her new earings!!!

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • November 3rd, 2010

I didnt get the package yet... but it will come, and when we get mail they send it up to maribor the next time some missionaries come up, so we get maill about once every 1 or 2 weeks! Thanks!

ok so... remember the ping pong guy, i won!! of course, hahaha

So this week was alot of tracting and contacting, haha thats about it. We lost most of our investigators. The weather started to get a little colder, and for Slovenians thats not a good thing, because they base their attitude on how the weather is.

We were tracting this week and we knocked on this ladies door and she actually had a full on moustache! it was kinda weird, hahaha it was huge, my comp just stared at her and didnt say much. it was super weird. Then her neighbor was even crazier, we rang her doorbell and she told us to leave her alone then she followed us down the hallway and just kept yelling and saying weird things at us. hahaha it was kinda funny, she did it for about 15 mins while we finished doing all the apparments! Then she said she called the cops but they cops probably thought she was too crazy to do anything.

Well i have been with my comp for almost 4 months.... that is a long time to be with another guy non-stop and i still have 1 more month with him, at the least! haha oh well.

Sorry i wrote you back today, cause monday it was closed because they had a holiday.

Oh so something cool happened well in Slovenia they have a day called (the day of the dead) And at night everyone get candles and puts them on grave sites, well we went to visit this event cause we thought it would be cool/effective to contact people there. It was just to wierd to contact people, so we could only walk thru, but they had thousands of candles. On almost every grave site they had about 10 or more big candles... It was super cool looking, but... i forgot my camera again!

Thanks for everything, and next week i will write on monday again!!! :)

ps... dad get better!!!

pss.. TELL ANDREW SCHNEIDER HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! AND THAT HE IS THE TIGHTEST KID EVER!!!

PICTURES: Elder Schneider

Elder Schneider, his Companion, Franjo (a member) who baptized Sveto (far right)

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • October 25th, 2010

Ok i dont know if Bryce told you but he said he heard a Elder from Slovenia speak.... and i totally know him! his name is Elvi! hahaha and i dont even try to spell his last name cause its super tough! But that is just crazy... Bryce said he talked to him, and Elvi told him i look exactly like him! hahaha

So this week was a little different.... we went Bowling... hahahaha it was so fun. The members organized a day to go. And its super cheap here, only $2 for unlimited bowling for 2 hours. So we played like 4 games. And of course i won!!! :) And another excited thing happened this week, on monday (our p-day) we climbed to a castle, and he had to climb up this huge rock wall, kinda dangerous but i survived! haha (ps... dont tell my president).

But this week we actually did about 15 hours of service, it was way fun. We helped a non active member build a patio for his garage. (when i worked building pools it was alot of that kind of work) So it was super good cause i knew how to do it, and because my companion and the non-active member arent the most cordinated... i pretty much build most of it! haha but it was great i loved it, its nice doing physical work!

Ok one other story... so you probable think all we do over here is play but we dont. haha Cause we got a new investigator this week, and when he came to church he saw we had a ping pong table, and he was like, "i am so good at ping pong" hahaha and so of course i challenged him to a match! hahahaha i was super suprised, cause i played really good, BUT this guy plays weekly with his friends and pretty much practicing ever day! hahahaha good news though, at the end of the game i had him running around, he was sweating like crazy, i thought he was going to have to take half time or something! hahaha good times!!!

ps.... got you some pictures!!! woot woot!

But Sveto was also confirmed this week in sacrament meeting, and it was great to see that we will have more preistood in the branch! Oh one other thing about Sveto, so he is actually moving to kopper for the winter, cause he was building his house in maribor, but because of the winter he has to stop building until next spring! So he actually drove about 3 hours to church, but said he is going to start going to Ljubljana church for the winter then come back up to Maribor. He is such a good guy, he told me thanks for teaching him and that he will help try and build up the church where he lives!

LETTER: Elder Jensen • October 16th, 2010

Dear most wonderful beautiful mom in the whole world/galaxy/universe. =)

Things are going wonderful here. I get more use to this stuff everyday. We are have a little trouble with finding some good investigators but still find some potentials. I have still been learning so so much since I have been here. I have been getting better at contacting people now too. Its weird to feel how much I have changed since I first got here. At first I was freaked out to even say hello to someone and almost couldn't even keep a conversation with some people. Also when I first got here I was so scared to knock on someones door that when I knocked on a door i kept thinking to my self " Please dont answer the door Please dont answer the door" But now it just feels so natural. I am now able to testify of what I know to be true also.

I had to speak in sacrament today too for 1st ward about missonary work. I feel like time like that is when I feel the Holy ghost working through me the most. I really felt like I could talk in front of thousands of people and be able to testify of jesus christ and his atonement. That how much I felt the spirit. After my talk I sat down and just felt great. Afterwards I had some people come up to me and say thank you so much for your talk and then they started telling me a little about what was going on in the lives at that time. I know the Holy ghost was working through me at that time. There were so many other things that happen too. It was just wonderful. =)

But anyways things are going better for me more and more everyday. We moved out of the hickmans place and are now in our new place for about a month then we are going to move again. I can feel a change in me alot this week. I feel like I have the Holy Ghost working through me so much more now. So please what ever you guys are doing please keep doing it. I pray for you everyday. And I love you so much mom. And i'm glad everything is still going well. You keep teaching those kids well. And before you know it I will be home and will be giving you the biggest hug in the world. But before that I have some people to testify too ;)

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • October 18th, 2010

Ok good that makes me feel better that you didnt send a big package! its so not worth it, one sister got a $90 package.

So Vegas sounded fun! how were grandpa and grandma doing? I thought about it, and grandma and grandpa need to know how important the Jesus Christ is! so we need to baptise them!! (haha i hope they read this) :)

Ok so.... my first baptism went so well!! Franjo (a member) baptisted him. I have a picture of me trying on his pants that i need to send you! We had to get his pants specialy made. He is a huge guy! But we practice the baptism prayer with him about 1000 times, he would always mix up the words, but during the baptism he did perfect! So Sveto (our new member now) did so good. After the baptism he shared his testimony, and said he had been looking for the Christs church for 35 years and he knows he found it! And listen to this, so every time he came to church he would wear sandles and army pants, but he showed up in a nice suit! He is such a good guy, he said now that he is a member he needs to starts looking like one! But he is going to help out the church tons.

So we had to set up the pool and warm it up and take it down! it was so fun, i will have pictures for you next week! I am sorry i totally forgot to bring my camera.

Sorry it is a shorter email this week. Everything is good though!

ps... dad you she maribor is near austria, yes it is very close we can actually take a bus to austria. And yes, they dont speak the best slovenian! haha they add german words, and croatians words all the time! i know how to say "time" in 4 different laungauges!

PICTURES: Elder Jensen

Hey Family!

So Courtney has been doing an awesome job at keeping Elder Jensen's facebook profile up-to-date with information and pictures.

Check it out here and take a look at some pictures from the first several weeks of his mission.

THANKS COURTNEY!!!

P.S. I have attached a few pictures below for your viewing pleasure.

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • October 11th, 2010

Hey family, if you havent sent the package for my birthday dont send it!!!! it like 40 bucks (or more) for a little package to be sent here! its really ok if you dont i promise! you already do plenty for me! thanks

So i met 2 ladies this week from Utah, one lived in sandy, and the other in Lehi, hahaha funny huh, the lady from Lehi told me where her house is, and its right across the street for wal mart! hahaha small world!

Ok so are you ready for this crazy information!!! so everything went good this week, Sveto is getting baptisted on the 15 (this friday) and we are so stoked! He is doing way good, but.... random problems keep coming up (the devil works on investigators pretty bad), but everything will work out! so we figured out who is baptising him! his name is Franjo, he is the biggest guy i have ever seen, he is so cool though! hahaha he calls me "easy rider" hahaha not really sure why. (probably cause thats about all he can say in English) but we are working on getting him some white pants, its going to be hard cause his pant size 66 (in american its 54) haha so hopefully we will get them all ready! its going to be great because he has been a member for only 1 year, and he needs some branch support so its going to be so good for him! When i talked to him about it he was so happy! Sveto is as studdly as always, he fasted this sunday! oh man he is just to good.

Um... and also a different member is going to give him the holy ghost, his name is Samir, and he has been a member for like 1.5 years! so we are super stoked for everyone.

Ok cool story time, so this week we did a service project with are branch president and his family! hahahahaha it was so fun, so we show up at his moms house with his whole family and we picked grapes on a massive hill. It sounds pretty boring but the hill was super steep, and the grass was wet, hahaha and my comps shoes had no traction! haha oh man i was laughing like the whole time, cause we would be picking some grapes and then out of nowhere someone would just fall down the hill! hahaha (mostly my branch president and my comp) just cause it was so hard to stay up there. So we picked grapes for like 4 hours and had dinner with the family/extended family. And they were so funny and nice (they didnt really act like slovenians) haha but then we were about to go and they made us stay so we could see them press the grapes and make........ juice, hahahaha but it was crazy because they press the grapes like they did in the oldin days, it was fun! but...... i forgot my camera, i was so mad! I drew a pix in my journal though! well thats was the highlight of my mission, i had to much fun!

Thanks for everything, and all the letters! love

ME!

ps.... tell Andrew Schneider i miss the little guy!!!! thanks!

LETTER: Elder Jensen • October 4th, 2010

Dear beautiful mom who I love so much. =)

Please tell Crystal and josh and lindsay and brett that I love them. And please tell them how I am doing. I would Write each person But as I said before. They only give us 1 hour to write anything and I only have about 6 hours on P-Day to do everything I need to do. I wish I could tell you all more on the things that have been happening here but ill just have to write a summary on what has been going on.

Things here have been going so much better then when I first arrived. I was so overwhelmed and had no idea how i could even come close to lasting 2 years and doing all this stuff. I didn't like knocking on random doors, I didn't like talking to random people, I didn't like having no time at all with how busy I was. But now i'm really getting use to it. I dont mind knocking on doors any more and I dont mind talking to people i dont know. I'm actually feeling very comfortable just starting conversations with everyone. I'm starting to get all the lessons down too and learning how to better teach them to there understandings. I'm still not use to the waking up at 6:30 though. I wouldn't mind more sleep =) But I know god is helping me do what I need to do. And i'm really glad to have met all the families here that I have. There so many people here in this poor town that need help and only a few will let us help them. There's so many drunks and drugy's and parents that dont know what to do with there children. Many divorces and addictions to all sorts of things. There are some that look at us like a living devil. And there are some that look at us as people that can help them. There are so many that could just use this gospel in there life's. But ya Andrew is getting baptized this friday so that should be exciting. This guy is really just ment for the gospel. He shared his testimony with us yesterday and he said the reason he even decided to learn more about the gospel was because he saw how happy the Mormon familys were with each other at a party and he saw that no one was drunk or fighting. Sadly that is/was what he was use too. That just shows how much people really do watch Mormon families though. So make sure you guys are always happy =)

I love you Beautiful mom and I miss you.

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • October 4th, 2010

Oh man i am jealous that everyone went to lake powell! ok so mom said to tell her what candy i wanted.... ok so if any of these are possible, buggles, candy corn, startburst jelly beans (those are dang good) um... yeah otherwise we have most candy over here.

Ok so, conferance was way good, we watched 6 hours straight (its way to long to sit there, especially after a 3 hour train ride... and reading subtitles and stuff) haha but it was good.

So hopefully you remember Sveto, well listen to this, he was on vacation this week but then we told him about conferance.... so he decieded to come home early so that he could come to conferance! So he came to church and watched the 7 hours with us!!! hahaha i dont think any members even stayed for that long. But after 6 hours (cause he didnt bring any food) i told him like he didnt need to feel obligated to stay for like 10 hours. Then he just said, "i love this, this to me is so beautiful!" its kinda of a wierd translation, but i was so amazing. So he stayed and just loved ever min.

So he is still doing amazing, he finished the Book of Mormon this week (its only been less then 2 months) and said he knows its true! So October 15 at 6, he is for sure getting baptisted!

So me and sveto are like super close, and i wanted to baptise him super bad, but me and my comp are trying to get a kinda new convert on his lessons and really encourage that members baptise members, so that members will have a better relationship with other members. Its hard though cause just when i think of missionaries baptising investigators, but because maribor only has 8 active members we really need them to stay close and stronger!

But we have a new investigator, he is actually an former investigator. But we went and visited him and he said missionaries havent visited him for about 2 or 3 years... But he is way good, he said he reads and knows the Book of Mormon is true and he said i want to be baptisted! (another miracle) haha but then he said his dad wont let him. (p.s... this guy is 40 years old) then i just told him he was 40 years old and he needs to start making his own decisions in life! he loved it, then he decieded to talk to his dad about it and his dad said he wants to meet with me and my comp, so this week we have a meeting with him and his dad (to see if we are trust-worthy kids). So i am super excited, cause if his dad says yes then we will get another baptism in Maribor!

But one of our baptismal dates didnt show up, Žan, we think he started smoking again and is ashamed so doesnt want to get with us.. and he wont answer our calls!

Well thanks for the emails, and love you!

LETTER: Elder Schneider • September 27th, 2010

AWWWW!!! so sveto is still dominating it up!! he is so cool, he was taught the word of wisdom, and he said, " well i dont drink to much but me and my friends go out and drink, so next time i will just tell them i cant drink, or just not go with them anymore!!! talk about a humble guy! he is so cool. He is still going strong!

ok so.... only good news this week! well i own in risk again (without cheating)!! haha and so remember how nelson came to Slovenia and blessed it saying the people will listen and bless the people! well i have to tell a secret... i knew it would help out the country but i thought over time we would see a little seccuss!! but that was FALSE!! we are seeing miracles every single day now! every day! I thought we would slowly start growing the church but no... its going to be growing so fast because of that blessing.

We have 3 investigators with a baptismal date! with more to come, and 3 other investigators,

So i will list a couple miracles real quick... one lady that called us last night, drive 2 hours to us, and then couldnt find our church and so she walked around until 8:40, she ended up finding the church and luckily we were there, came in and said she wants more about christ. and set up with us again this week.

Žan a 18 year old kid, siad oh man... i need to be baptisted! haha so we talked about the word of wisdom and we have this "stop smoking program" he said he wants to stop smoking so he can be worthy to live with god. Well we planned on teaching him the program, but yesterday he showed up to the lesson and said i am 3 days without smoking, and i dont need that program! hahaha we were pumped.

We met this guy and he said... you guys talk about god right, sweet can we get together. (which maybe that happens in america but never in slovenia!) haha

Another kid that is 18 walked into church, during sacrament. (he hasnt ever met anyone from the church, he just thought he would stop by!) and so we talked to him after and had a lesson... new investigator. And the best part, is it seems like we are only doing like 100 hours of contacting now rather then 500! haha just cause it seems the investigators are coming to us, wanted this church!

Oh man the mission is alot of fun when you have investigators! haha but besides that i am good, i love maribor, but.... i was missin my friends this week, alot! but everything is good and love you guys!!

ps.. mom happy birthday again, i sent you a little letter this week! :)

pss.. i am going bowling today, and i will dominate! hahaha i am so stoked!

psss... hey dad i will send my memory card home this week or if not, next week! i have another card so i will do that! thanks dad for everything!

LETTER: Elder Schneider • September 20th, 2010

HEY tell mom happy birthday for me!!!! So this week was good! we kept meeting with sveto (our baptismal date) oh man he is a stud! He is so cool. He wanted us to come to his house this week (which is like a hour drive away) and he drove and picked us up. But his house is in the middle of nowhere. We had a lesson with him and at the end he prayed for understanding. But he is still coming to church and still doing way good! oh and i forgot to tell you, but he is almost finished with the BOM, he reads like 2 hours every single mourning, and loves it! so Oct. 15th he is forsure getting baptisted..... but there is only one bad thing.... his wife is crazy, 100% crazy, she came to church and stood up and started yelling crazy things, and waving her arms around! yeah it wasnt good, but Sveto is way patient with her and we as misisonairs cant teach her cause she is crazy. Oh yeah one more thing about her, so we had a lesson after church and she walked into the room when we were starting and starred yelling the wierdest stuff.. again.

But ok i have the funny story, so we went over to a family and had family home evening with them. And then they wanted to play Risk again, hahahaha oh man it was to fun. So i didnt want to lose this game so.... i had to cheat! haha Žan, (he is like 16) i needed a card he had, and he needed one i had so we switched! then i made a truths with my comp and told him i would leave him alone.. hahahahahaha, so then i needed another card and so my comp gave me on of his. Then i totally just destroyed my comp when my turn came! hahahahaha oh man i was laughing so hard cause every time he had to role he would get so mad at me! well i ended up killing my comp, and he was so mad he just didnt talk the rest of the night, and every time i laughed he just told me i was gay! hahahahahahaha but i ended up dominating everyone!

well we met another kid this week, he is 18 and he is super elect! we had a visit with him and he talked about the plan of salvation, and he loved it! he said he wants to live with god, and he will do anything! so we talked about baptism and stuff, and he said... crap..... i havent been baptisted! haha so we said well lets set a date, so Oct 23, he said he will be baptisted! he is good but he is going to be alot of work! but he met with him again and talked about what baptism is. it was good, and he is still on tract for being baptized!

Oh another thing, me and my comp took a bus out of the city cause we were supposed to visit someone and we got losted, we ended up walking 3 hours back home cause no buses were coming for like 2 days... it sucked! hahaha well glad all is good with the family! love you and have a good week!