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!!!