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