LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • March 28th, 2011

Dear mother who wrote me 6 letters who I love. =)

Things here are still going wonderful and the work is moving on. I'm so grateful for all of your prayers and I feel them every day that I go out. The trust with the members here has grown so much. Its such an amazing feeling being a tool in the hands of the Lord.

This week was fast Sunday (which me and Elder Smith totally forgot) and as we were sitting down Elder Smith leaned over and said " Hey have you bore your testimony in this ward yet?" I looked at him and said no. He replied " Hmm you should go up then." So I looked back at the front and got that shaky feeling. I knew he was right. I started to pray and ask God if he really wanted me to go up and if I did what I should say. As I did memories started to shoot through my mind about how I decided to go on a mission and on how I got converted to know the church was true. So then I knew I had to go up and I knew what I needed to share. But then you know when you start getting those second thoughts? Well ya that was going through my mind. My heart was pumping 110 beats a second and my hand was shaking like it was negative forty degree's outside. I started to contemplate on everything again. And I started to pray and ask god that he would be with me and that he would give me the strength to stand up in front of these people. As I did these things I started to receive my answer and started to have things go through my mind like " Why are you on a mission" " I chose you to be my mouth piece and I will give you the things to say and the time that they need to be spoken" So I slowly started to pump my self to go up when finally I just stood straight up and started to walk toward the front. I got up to the podium and started to bare my testimony of the church and how I found out this church to be true.

I promise you the Lord gives you the things that you need to say when you need to say them. I know that the Holy Ghost is real and that he testifies of truth to everyone that hears. I know that he did that for me as I stood up and bore my testimony. After the church service I had so many come up to me and thanking me for what I shared. We had so many members come up to us and asked us how they could help us out with missionary work. We finally got some member excitement going strong for us. I know that the Holy Ghost was with me as I was up there. I am so weak with out Him Mom. And in your letter you said you were going through some hard times. I promise you if you pray and ask for help he will help you just as much as he has helped me. I know that he can give you strength in your time of need. And that he will help you over come the trials that you are going through right now. I have learned that he will never take away any trials until we learn the thing that he is trying to teach us from it. A lot of times as I have prayed and asked for help for my trials I kind of expect him to take that trial away. But I realized God doesn't work that way. He has given me that trial for a reason. And there's something to be learned from it. And until I learn what he's trying to teach me he will not take it away.

Well I'm out of time again. I love you so much mom and thank your for all of your emails. =)

PICTURES: Elder Nunley

Below is a picture of Elder Nunley's office. Pretty sweet!

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This is a picture of everything that i bought for one week of food. 5 things of oreos. cheetos, two bags of cinnamon rolls, orange juice, nutella, goober, and lots, lots more! haha not really but it was sweet i miss living with elder martinez he is so cool!!!! Love you tons family!!! just think though i have only got like 19 more months left!! isnt that crazy

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • March 28th, 2011

Hello Family!!!

How are you all doing?! Sounds like everything is going way good up there. Sounds like you got some sweet missionaries up there. You gotta have Conrad over more so they can teach him. for real if the missionaries are good workers you gotta put em to work on the people who are already ready to listen... like Conrad!! haha for real if there are good missionaries when Spencer Lemer gets back send the missionaries over there right away.. Spencer is totally ready ahh man i think about him all the time and how if i woulda done what i was supposed to he could be out here on a mission right now in the Lord's church! at first i'll be honest i was a little selfish and wanted to wait to teach him until i got home but send the missionaries over there right away!!! haha

oh my gosh the field is so awesome and so are the offices haha. ok so yesterday i woke up at 4:40 and dropped some elders off at the bus station came back and studied and then President came and we had companionship study with him haha it was sweet but then right after that at like 10 i started working on the computer and i didnt finish until 9 o'clock at night haha and then after planning from 9 to 930 i had to make a bunch of phone calls haha it was super stressful yesterday though because the elders that we took to the bus station had to go Juarez and they got checked and they didnt have their stuff with them because we had to send it to mexico city to get it all updated... so they told the american that he had to go back to the united states haha oh man it was so crazy we were all over the place!!

haha but i took a picture of my office i'll upload it with this email. but the sad thing is is that i had to change rooms the President wants my office as a training room so i moved in to a smaller room haha but its still sweet.

ok so i have to tell you some sweet stories about the gift of tounges for real it is ridiculous 2 things ok so the first happened last week when we were contacting in the church and the hermana asked us where we were from and elder soffe said utah and i said the united states too.... but she didnt believe me!!!! haha she thought i was from Mexico!!!! haha how sweet!!?? and then the other one happened a while back we went to lunch with a family i hadnt met and they were getting to know us a bit and they asked me how long i had been in the mission. and i asked them what they thought.. and the hermano said well with your spanish and all i'd say 16 months haha i swear they are hearing things that i am not saying because when i hear myself it doesnt sound that good haha and that is where the gift of tounges comes in.

but lets see what else...... oh i am super pumped to watch conference!! i think im gonna give in and watch it in english though because i want to understand all of it to feel the spirit really strong. Elder Johnson is the Seventy that is in charge of our mission and that would be so sweet if he gave a talk. he is from casas grandes and speaks spanish and english perfectly haha.

i miss delicias so much though it really was like my home away from home. all the cool missionaries and people there...plus i could work outside all day haha but its all good here. i am learing so much so fast. the only bummer is that everyone here in the offices speaks english and they all speak it too much, me included. i gotta start working on only spanish!!

but yeah thanks for the letters and everything Love yall muchisimo!!! alright i have a little bit more time while the foto is loading. but im trying right now to write you all letters but i was only able to get one written this week haha with all the stuff we have been doing but just to let you know im trying. haha but yeah the picture is done i hope you like it haha i sure did!!!!

Cuidense Mucho!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • March 28th, 2011

1- How long do I pray? haha i never stop praying :) jk. well, sometimes i feel like a sinner cuz i will wake up in the middle of the night and my comp is still on her knees. she is good at praying. but in the morning we have 30 minutes set aside to exercise (630-700), but we pray together as comps and....well, sometimes, we aren´t able to exercise more than ten minutes because we pray so long.....but we pray together as comps in the mornings right when we wake up and my comp likes to pray for a long time....not gonna lie, kinda like in the mornings in highschool when we were all ¨´reading the scriptures´´ together as a family

2- there are a lot of things that make me laugh. this last week, i probably laughed the hardest (inside) when the daughter of the only investigador we have brought to church was wacked in the head with the sacrament tray. serious. the first time at the church and the members are hitting our investigadors with the sacrament tray.

our investigador brought her grandchild she takes care of because the mom works like 2 jobs and barely sleeps 4 hours a night. (we teach all of them). the little girl is like 4 years old and absolutely loves me. they were passing the sacrament, the adult passing handed her the cup and helped her and it was really cute. he came over to me (i was more in the middle isle of the church) and the little girl was watching me take the cup. she was leaning really far and the adult passing turned and wacked her in the head with the sacrament tray. luckily she didn´t cry, and it probably shouldn´t have been funny, but it was. the guy passing is way cool and reminds me of camon. he gave the little girl a peice of candy and it was totally fine cuz it wasn´t that bad. i don´t know if it is bad that i was trying not to laugh.

ANOTHER FUNNY STORY:

we had this old man that likes to eat peaches with the missionaries. i guess it is a traditions and after he always gives us these lady fingers cookies things. well, we went to his house and after we had a meeting at the church. i dídn´t have room in my bag for the cookies, so i kinda put them under my jacket thing and the strap of my bag was keeping them up. we had the meeting, after i went to shake hands and the cookies fell out. it was really funny cuz i was like trying to hide them, and then they fell out and everyone was laughing really hard. of course i turned red and then we were all laughing harder. the funny thing is that i asked my comp before what we should do and we both wanted to eat them. MORAL OF THE STORY: IF YOU HAVE COOKIES, SHARE THEM!!!

MIRACLES:

we found this lady, named Graciela, who is mMARRIED!!! WITH 9 KIDS!!! (that is two miracles right there) she has come to church and is reading the book of mormon.(miracles 3 and 4). it is a miracle we found her...well actually she kinda found us. but we were working with her and the district leaders wanted to meet her. the only thing is that her husband is attending another church.

well, long story short, the elders came with us to her house, and her husband got really offended that so many people came and we didn´t ask or warn them about it. he told us not to come back and we were devastated. luckily, we wrote a note to ask for forgiveness because it would be so great to have a family! i want to baptize a family so bad!!!! anyhow, the miracle is that we ended up running into the mom a few hours later, and she felt bad for how everything went. she also thanked us for the note and said no other church would have done that. she also said her husband felt bad for his words, (miracles 5, 6, 7,8) .

We also found this woman who has been to church before and is so great! she has a daughter and we were able to find them. it was a miracle we found them (actually some elders found her and just told us where she lives generally) she lives in a villa and it is hard to find people sometimes because they don´t have numbers or anything. but we taught her the other day and it was great!!!

one things we are devastated about is we seba (our amulek) because he didn´t come to church this sunday....so many members are wondering and asking about him. we would like to find more males with the priesthood and missionaries too. he fits both those categories and he has such a good influence on so many people....

daddio thanks for your support and everything! please thank bishop chamberlain and the stake president for everything too and the ward for all their help! please allow people to help if they would like to as well! it is so awesome to be a missionary!!!

love you!

hermana schneider

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • March 28th, 2011

A ton happened this week!!! it was pretty crazy.... so i gave a member a book (that journal that mom sent me) hahaha i gave it to Andrej (Andrej is a super good member but was having a really hard time) and wrote a little message about how he is the best! He loved it so much! And when i gave him the book i didnt have any wrapping paper or anything so i wraped it in tin foil! i would highly suggest tin foil for wrapping any presents!! hahaha but the next day he was talking to president Fidler about how the missionaries are the best, and then after the meeting he told me he cried it ment so much to him! so mom if you have any extra notebooks then send them my way! hahaha jk

ok so we probably did about 20 hours of service this week. It was warm and everyone was asking for service.... but we also taught 18 lessons and got 2 new investigators!!! so it was a super busy week, we had to leave the appartment early every day. And i have alot of blisters!!! We went and did service at president fidlers dads house, and we had to move a huge pile of dirt up the hill with a wheel barrel. It was the best, i got super sun burned! but oh man it sounds weird but i really really miss working like that.

So church was crazy..... we had like 40 people there!! hahaha but its because we had 20 visitors for Austria, it was really interesting getting everything set up. But wow it was sooo cool to see more then a couple people show up to church. I think it gives other members hope. But sveto showed up at the end of the meeting.. and i was talking to him and his wife started going crazy! like really crazy, it was bad she started yelling and so we had to take her into the other room, and she will only listen to sveto so he calmed her down. Then later she went crazy again but sveto was having a meeting with president fidler and all the members didnt know what to do so luckily she listened to me, i tried to take her on a walk but she wouldnt she just kept yelling like really really really weird stuff, so i kinda just carried her to the other room and then she calmed down, and i turned on Noahs Ark (its the only movie we had in Slovene) hahaha but yeah it was a really good sunday but a little exciting!

Also our english classes are so so good! we have tons of students and one lady asked if she could borrow the book of mormon! haha but then she was extra excited when i said she can have it! haha but she is going to be learning more this week!

Ps... i am really good sewer mom! just so you know. i sewed up my pants and bag! It took about 2 hours though!

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • March 14th, 2011

Dearest Mom that is mine.

That's amazing that you had a dream like that. Looks like one of your spiritual gifts are like Lehi's when he had a dream of the destruction of Jerusalem.

My move went well. I do miss some of the families back in my other area. The missionaries here lost all the trust with the members so its mine and Elders Smiths job to gain it back. We are tracting a ton right now and we are both very tired in just this week.

The mission president called Elder Smith before I got here and told him that he had never felt so strong about putting missionaries together then as me and Elder Smith. And my new companion is way amazing and is a really hard worker. He actually knows Kade Moss if you remember that family that use to be in our ward. We have found alot of people to start teaching since we have been here. We will be doing a bible study with a group of moms that will let us in on Wednesday. We will slowly slide in the book of Mormon with them as well. =) We have also been meeting with a man who was Excommunicated from the church who is trying to come back. This man is a very smart man in everything that he does. But the reason I'm sharing this about him is because of what he said when we asked him this question. "So have you been able to feel any different when you lost the companionship of the Holy Ghost" His reply was " Oh Ya...You don't even know. This whole time I felt like it was myself that was so educated and smart. But when I lost the Holy Ghost... it felt like the only thing I could do now was make an educated guess." I think sometimes we all take the holy ghost for granted and we become so use to it as members of the church that we start to forget that it really does help us with everything that we do. I guess the saying you don't realize what you have until you lose it comes into play here.

Man there's so much I want to tell you but they just give us so little time so I will have to make some of these other stories shorter because I want to be able to remember them when I get home. Alright a couple nights ago we met with this lady named Tina who has been a less active for a couple years now I'm guessing. When we met her she let us right in and told us that there is no way that she was going to be coming back to church and said that she already haves home teachers that come over every month and they have not been able to change my mind. So we started talking with her and asking a few simple questions and then asked when was the point when you just decided no more. She stated that she had a real hard time with us not letting in gays because she deals with so much of them everyday and tries to help them through all the hard ships. So we started telling her why we believed what we did and then I shared when I had a hard time before I left on my mission when our church wouldn't let blacks have the priesthood. I started telling her what I did and how I got my answer and asked her to do the same. And in the end she loved us and wanted us to come back again so that we could talk with her and also said that she didn't know that our church let us study other religions. So I had to make that so short but I'm almost out of time.

Well i am in Spokane again so my crazy stories will be coming back. One of the crazy guys we met here said that our bible says that black people come from another planet. We were trying to explain to him what we believed and why about black people. But in the end he really couldn't tell us where black people come from. I think people fail to realize that what we know about black people are true. No one else can really explain where black people began to be. It was Adam and Eve. Not Adam and Eve and Tyrone...

I love you the mom. =)

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • March 21st, 2011

hey family!

so this week was different! I think i met the craziest lady this week. Well we have a member that just moved back to maribor and he is super cool. And we went over to his house to try and have a lesson with Ivan outside but this lady was outside and she was trying to give us some money, but we wouldnt take it, so she would say really really random stuff and then start crying and then be ok, so we decieded it would be better if we just kind of ignore her and just hurry with the lesson... so when we wouldnt listen she would get like 2 inches from our face and talk crazy to us.... its really hard to have a lesson in this situation. haha but everything ended up working out! And the member was really patient with her, which was super good.

OK so at church we had 22 people!!!! that is tons!!!!!! it was crazy, a non active dad that we have been working with brought his family and we are teaching his family with the sisters!

So we have english class this week, we have 70 students sign up!!! we had about twice as many as last time, so we are having 2 of every class. And english class is the funnest and by far the most effective thing we have found. I am super stoked! i love maribor! my district is doing super cool! we got with alot of members this week.

well thats all, we are going hiking and i dont really feel like writing!!! i wanna go climb a castle or something! :)

love you family!

ps.. SO remember that lady i met last week, well i am sending her a BOM as soon as possible... i got permission! :)

ps.. Mark that is ok if you use my story about that lady!

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • March 19th, 2011

hey family!!!

Sounds like things are going way good! haha sounds like everyone there is just as busy as the missionary life here haha.

so first i wanna tell you something way cool that happened here this week. so we had another training meeting with the President and he told us that along with contacting in grocery stores we should have open houses of the church. he said he wants us to open up the doors and then just invite the people that walk by if they want to come in... this idea was not just off the top of his head... This was true inspiration i kid you not!! so we went Elder Soffe and i and the first lady we contacted BOOM came in with her kid. told us things about how she doesnt think its right to baptized kids and how everyone in the world is catholic because they can drink and smoke and everything! haha she said that not us. but yeah ASKED us for a Book of Mormon so that she could read it. and we taught her about baptism right next to the baptismal font haha OH MY GOSH IT WAS SO SUAVE!!! haha

so the second lady we contacted came in and loved it. she really liked the chaple and the pictures and then we showed her the baptismal font and invited her to come to church on sunday. she was like of course. what time do you start haha oh my gosh so cool. so we are gonna pick her AND her family up before church and bring em with us. and then after a while of nothing the sister missionaries decided they were gonnna leave and so we were walking out with them and this man walked by and we started talking to him and he came into the chaple and he also loved it! he was asking all these awesome questions. and after we showed him the baptismal font and taught a little bit about baptism he straight up asked us What can i do to be baptized in your church? I kid you not!!! we set a baptismal date with him already!! haha but yeah this experience was so dang cool. we sang a hymn with him and everything!! HE SANG WITH US!! this guy is so ready..... Oh my gosh i hope you see how much the Lord helped us out there.. Someone who was totally ready and waiting to hear the restored gospel CAME to the chaple (not coincidence) later he felt the spirit in the chaple, later he felt the spirit when we taught him about baptism, then he straight up asked us what he can do? that is not something that just happens everyday!! i know that cuz we are trying to be 100 percent obedient everyday the Lord blesses us with experiences like that one..

but yeah i loved contacting in front of the church. the chaple is like an orb of the spirit and the people who are already prepared just flock to us haha. also its way better cuz the church is our turf. whereas when we are contacting door to door we are on their turf and they feel comfortable saying not so nice things to us haha but when its in front of the church they feel more obligated to listen to us almost haha it is so awesome.

but for real until yesterday i never realized how strong the spirit is in the chaple. cuz like i have felt that spirit in every chaple i{ve been to but i didnt realize how strong it was until we were showing others when it was nice and quiet. Try going into the chaple when its quiet and try to recognize that spirit... it is so awesome.!!

But how is Hermana Schneider doing???? i cant wait to make fun of her spanish when we get back haha there is an elder here from argentina and it is way different haha but yeah everything here in the offices is way good. I hope you all know how awesome the life of a missionary is haha i love it so much!!

Family i miss you too but its way better that im here right? (You all better say yes to that haha)

Love you all so much,

Elder Nunley

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • March 17th, 2011

Subject: Guess who is breaking the rules and emailing his family on a saturday!!!!

hahah so remember how i said last week that Presidente Angulo wants the missionaries to stay in their area for about six months and how i said i thought i would be in delicias for a good while yet because everything was going way good with me and Elder Martinez haha well thursday morning i got a call saying that i had transfers haha yeah so i had no idea where i was headed or anything they just told me to pack my bags and come to Chihuahua for a training (we have them pretty frequently its awesome, President teaches us exactly what he expects from us) but yeah so after the training he was sending my district back home to delicias and he told me to stay and then he put the companion of Elder Espana in my place and delicias and then me and elder espana were like no way you have got to be kidding me how sweet would that be.

haha so president told both of us to come back to his offices with him. (The offices is where the president has his office and the two assistants and the financial secretary and then the secretary to the president) but yeah so i was totally expecting to be elder espanas companion but everyone left except for me and the secretaries here at the offices haha and then the president called me into the office and asked me if i knew where i was going and if anyone had told me haha i laughed and said no one knows haha he laughed and then i asked him if he knew where i was going and then he was like yeah yeah i think i do. you're gonna stay here in the offices and be my secretary haha.

so yeah now im here in chihuahua and i help president with everything! it is so sweet. ill be doing like paper work and stuff up until lunch and then i get to go out and do work for the rest of the day.... sometimes, haha the president will have us come with him to trainings and stuff in other parts of the mission but its so cool. at first like before i got called to serve in the offices i really did not want to have to do this but now im actually super pumped. right now the old secretary is still here and he will be training me for about 8 weeks but then after that i have to know spanish and everything else haha i have so much to learn.

but my companion is way cool his name is Elder Soffe and when i first arrived here like in january we both looked really familiar to each other and we couldnt figure out from where and so i told him.... welp that means we are gonna be companions in the future haha BOOM guessed it haha.

but yeah im so pumped to be working with the president so much. He said he has us in the office so he can train us really well and have us do things the way he wants them done so when we go out after the offices we can be good leaders and stuff like that. but since im the new secretary now i more than likely be here for a good 6 months just because of all the training and stuff that comes along with this. but yeah so he told us that our p day is saturday because like all the other people that work for the church they work monday through friday so he wants us to start doin that while we are here. im seriously so pumped to learn so much from president himself and i work with the hermana Angulo also a lot and she is soo cool. but yeah so from now on until i leave the offices my p day will be saturdays.

oh i recieved packages today!! haha thanks for the valentines day stuff! i like how you wrote the other kiss was for Elder Burgener and i have had two companions since him haha but thanks so much for the fruit snacks oh my gosh i am so excited for them haha.

But yeah there is so many things i have to learn and fast too haha but im super pumped haha oh yeah i have my own stinkin office haha it is ridiculously big too. like the size of the theatre room in our house haha. oh yeah the house we live in here is like a castle haha not even kidding we live in the neighborhood with all the rich people. but there are 5 of us that live here right now and then the presidents office, my office, then if there are missionaries that get sick or something come and live here for a while. but for real its ginormous haha i find i new bathroom everyday!! haha jk. but yeah just so you know i will be having my pdays on saturdays so i dont know when you are gonna write me but i wont be able to read your letter until next saturday but its all good i got your letters and packages and stuff. Thanks to everyone who sent something!!! oh my gosh im gonna get so fat while im here though for real i predict im gonna gain 15 pounds in the offices not even kidding im gonna try not to of course buti really think its gonna happen. but president wants us to do contacting in groceries stores and stuff now haha because he says people arent in their turf in grocery stores and they cant hide from us haha tons of elders have had success doing that already. but an other elder and i went last night and we didnt find any "chosen ones" haha but its all good Elder Soffe and i are gonna do work in our new area. but i actually gotta go now there is exchanges and i gotta go pick em up and stuff haha

love you tons!

Elder Nunley

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • March 14th, 2011

haha, ya i wish i could speak spanish...i don{t really know what i say most of the time....it is funny. not sure if i make sense either. some people just laugh at me....sometimes i just laugh too, but others it is way frustrating. but oh well, it is all good. every day is different, i never know what to expect. it is kinda amusing actually. oh i am forgetting how to spell english words too. so sorry.

no worries about the package! thanks for thinking of me!!! and tell sara hi for me. glad the recital went well.

tell camon i{m glad he thinks i am home when he sees my car! haha! i think of funny things he would do to be able to talk to people. camon has a gift with opening people up with one sentence or the first time he meets people... or by doing something funny to relate with people. haha

i am focused here...the little kids really love me, some adults too....haha. when people have time to listen to me, they seem to be touched. other times they just laugh at me. one man in the ward reminds me of grandpa. we talked to him and his family...cuz they fed us lunch--i started to share the scripture and he just got teary-eyed and was touched and i didn{t really say anything but the scripture.

it has been a turn-around with a new comp. i realized everything we were doing wrong.....haha it is so nice to be working though and to get down to business. it is amazing how different people are, i just can{t explain it. i have no idea what kind of person i would want to get married to...for forever!!! haha. the days seem to go sooooo slow, but the weeks pass so fast. almost two months in argentina already!!!! i can{t believe. i though i would be able to speak better, but it is all good.

we probably will have to drop the little boy leonel (the one that gave me a little kiss) because we have been working with him for such a long time and he doesn{t have a way to get to church on his own.....and the ward has tried to help and they are kinda frustrated. it is hard ! the bishop doesn{t want us to baptize all these little kids (there are so many kids that want to get baptized) that don{t have a way to make it to church without the missionaries. it makes sense, but is hard!

my companion is from idaho, moscow and she went to byu. she has 8 months in the mission. we both like to eat ...a lot! haha so it is nice cuz we both can eat anything and love fruit. we walk everywhere too which is so nice!

i dont think she understands all the spanish sometimes, so i am like (oh no! i won{t be fluent in time!) haha but God knows it is part of the process. I will just have to count on him and the Spirit...seriously! she likes to sit and ponder and plan and sit and ponder and plan, and it is hard for me cuz i just want to get out and go. so, it is funny, cuz i am not able to get out and go cuz i can{t really speak spanish and don{t know what is going on. people think differently and it is funny to see how things work out. i didn{t realize how little my trainer trained me. haha cuz i didn{t know a lot of things.

i have been having crazy crazy dreams though....so weird. i am constantly thinkin of the people here and have dreams with the people here. random story.

it has been hard too cuz our amulek (sebastian) that has been going with us everywhere and making sure we are safe and teaching, has been having a hard time and hasn{t really come with us. it is so hard cuz he feels like my brother and i know something isn{t right but i can{t ask him. saturday night he just told us he wasn{t going to go to church. so weird. he wants to serve a mission but doesn{t have support really anywhere. and, he says he has been having a lot of anxiety from being off drugs. so sad. i think he doesn{t want to learn more because he was talking about how the more you know, the greater condemnation, so i think he doesn{t want to learn more in case he falls. hopefully we can get to him, he has kinda withdrawn from us....so sad!!! we will see he has been hard to get ahold of...

anyhow, life is great!!!!! i can{t believe everything that is going on! love you mom! love you mom! thanks for the support in the mission and raising me and helping me! i love to hear from the familiy! not that i am getting distracted, but it is just a boost for the week! i am so glad p days are on mondays!

oh, and everyone loves my name....schneider! i get asked always....like the beer...schneider? and people ask me if i am from germany all the time too. i tell them grandpa is, but i don{t know how true that is, i just don{t know how to say great grandpa too. haha but grandpa use to be able to speak german right? haha, i always just laugh and say my name is the same as the beer, but we don{t drink in our religion...but if you think of a good way to tie it into conversation, i am all ears....

i love to hear about the family and everything! i heard there was a huge tsunami or something too...so crazy! i didn{t realize how little worldly news we hear down here without a tv or anything. we are just so focused on the work. it is good though!!!

love you!

hermana schneider

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • March 14th, 2011

NO NO NO NO NO NO... dang it... i already wrote this whole email but when i went to send it the computer went all crappy! well i guess i get to write it twice for you!

so some really cool stuff happened this week!

well on wednesday we had a activity at the church and we got 15 peoplle there!! which is super cool, i think only 4 members were present the rest were investigators or friends! so that was cool. Also at the activity one member invited us to go play soccer with his non member friend... but we got this new rule that we arent allowed to play against slovenians in sports anymore (probably cause i always win when i play them) haha so we told them we cant, but they really wanted us to come so they said we would just shot around and "not play a game". Well we showed up and started kicking a soccer ball around... and then we just ended up playing a game cause it got boring! hahaha all i can say is the next 2 to 3 days i could hardly walk! i was so so so sore!!! hahaha i know it sounds pretty wimpy but it was so much fun... now i know how missionaries in brazil and mexico like their missions so much cause all they have to do is play soccer with people!! :)

Well we went to Ljubljana this week to go see some horses do some cool stuff... but first let me tell you a little bit about these horses! well my whole mission i have heard about thesee horses and that they are world famous, i heard they ! well, i heard some things like they can dance and do tricks... and i even heard they could do backflips! sounds pretty cool huh?

So we went and it was terrible, hahahaha these horses just walked around (with style) and ran around!! haha thats about as exciting as it comes here in slovenia!! haha but it was fun to be around all the other missionaries!

ok so... now i have some really really exciting news. Well on the way back from Ljubljana we have to take a 3 hour train and we had assigned seating so i sat across from this 27 year old lady and my district sat a couple rows back! so of course i brought myself some good reading material (and my ipod.... no joking about the ipod) and i was reading then i got a feeling to talk to this lady that was across from me about the gospel. So i am usually super good at stuff like that, but this time the situation was super awkward, cause its was like 9 in the mourning and everyone was sleeping, and so the train was completly quiet... so i just said... hey i have something for you to read... hahaha cleaver huh? hahahahaha then i gave her a General Conference magazine and she surprisingly accepted it... but she just skimmed right thur it then handed it back and said in Macedonian that she doesnt understand. But luckly she spoke English perfectly.. so i talked to her for the whole rest of the ride. And dont worry of course i talked about the gospel and the book of Mormon! well this was a little different then normal for a couple reason... because when i showed he the book of Mormon she got excited... and when i was talking to her i told her that Christ visited the American Con. She was super interested. But she lives in Macedonia and unfortunately i didnt have an english book of Mormon with me so i got her number and address. So i was going to ask for permission for the mission pres, to send her some material. Cause right now they dont have missionaries in her country.

But she is really something special... this was her first time out of her country and she happens to get seated next to a missionary.... i think there was some planning on gods side!

So i will keep you updated on what happens, maybe missionaries could teach her over the internet.

thanks family for eveything! love the letters

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • March 10th, 2011

ah logan...what a hunk!!! that looks so fun! i hope he had fun!!!!

so, thanks so much for the dear elders from the other missionaries! it was the best!!!! it is good to hear stories from everyone! seriously, that made my day to hear about elder jensen, nunley, and schneider!!!! it is also funny cuz elder nunley said he was starting to speak and could speak in the mtc...but it is totally different out here. people don´t understand what i say all the time. colton could speak really well in the mtc too....haha me, not so much, but it is all good......working on it....

one guy i spoke with, i was speaking spanish, and he said in spanish, "i don´t speak your language¨" haha i just laughed, what more could i do....there was a lot of noise cuz it was a busy road...but still.....

thanks for everything! can´t think of more to write....chau

hermana schneider

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • March 7th, 2011

oh man those pictures of logan are so cool! hahaha that is so awesome, he looks like he had tons of fun!

ok so on monday i went bowling, and i am not going to lie, i think i have a talent for bowling.... i bowled a 194!! hahaha but i still have never got 3 strikes in a row!!!!! and i made some super crapy mistakes, in the first 9 frames i had 6 strikes! hahaha yeah miracles do happen!

So this week we passed out flyers for our english class which i am super stoked about.

Also, a member moved into maribor (Ivan fortun) and he loves the church, and it is so nice to have one more member. He was one of the first members ever to be baptisted in the church, but he moved outside of maribor and couldnt ever travel or get rides. And he loves being able to come back to church!

This week we had 19 PEOPLE AT CHURCH! it felt awesome, i think almost ever member came to church that is active!

The members are doing super good!

So this week me and a member are going to get home teaching started, i talked to the branch president and he was super excited, so this week me and a member are going to be working out who is going with who. And my comp and I are going to have members to visit also, so it will be like splits except members will know that they are going to be teaching lots of the lesson!

So president hill came down to maribor with someone from salt lake city that wanted to interview a couple members, and i got to go and translated!!! that was so fun/funny, its harder then it looks cause things just translate different in english! but i had tons of fun with that!

well love you family!

ps... i have to thank jessie for being a faithful writer to me! :) she always writes!

pss... i thought i would let you know i think i am going to school at weber studing in their pre dental program.... and i will be starting school in January... and i should be getting back from the mission about dec 28... so that will be pretty exciting! just so you know mom and dad! :)

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • March 7th, 2011

Dearest Beautiful Mom-

Well remember how I said in my last letter that I didn't want to get transferred? Well what do you think happen? I'm sure you can guess.... I'm getting transferred "again." I have been transferred so much. This will be my fourth area in 6 months... That Isn't normal at all. Elder Young one of my MTC buddies here is getting transferred to his 2nd area finally. I didn't want to leave this place so badly. I was actually praying during sacrament that I would not get transferred.. That's how much I wanted to stay. Things here were going so well. We were starting to have so many lessons and set appointments then from when I first got here. Also me and this kid named Ryan who was 17 were great friends. He wasn't planning on serving a mission or anything but he and I really just became great friends that he was always wanting to come out to lessons with us when ever we had them. I started playing basket ball with him too every Monday and he was actually inviting all of his friends to listen to the missionary lessons. We were having so many great things starting. I honestly feel like this was not a right decision to move me out of here. But if I believe this church is true then that means I should have trust in my mission president but still... I really really wanted to stay. But really fast before I have to get off and pack I just want to say that I have a testimony that the Holy Ghost really does give you the things that you need to say when you need to say it. We were teaching this guy named John who has been going to church for 2 years but wont get baptized. When we were talking with him he would always go off topic and talk about something else. Well last time as we were talking with him he started to talk about his students and how they were all different. He started to talk about this student he had that would always come to school but was always really lazy with the homework. He started to ask us why do the young men come to school and not do everything they are asked so that they can get good grades? There the ones that signed them selves up for it. So I looked at John and asked him " Well can"t that go both ways? Why would you keep some of the commandments of God and not all of them like being baptized?" He started to think about it and tried to reply back but then just stopped and said " Well... honestly I don't know. I'll get back to you on that question later." It keeps going on from there but I don't have much time. Mom, I really do love you and I hope things keep going great back home. I'm glad to hear that your going to be a lead teacher soon too. Oh, I almost forgot to say that I'm getting transferred back to Spokane but now I'll be in North Spokane instead and my new companions name is going to be Elder Smith. I'll be sure to tell you how he is next week and how my new area is.

Love you gorgeous mom of all moms.

-Elder Jensen

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • March 7th, 2011

for real D&C 122 is my favorite section in the D&C because it helps me remember how much Jesus Christ suffered for me personally and i can and should always live in a grateful manner to him.

ok so i dont know why some people are getting their letters to me sent back to them cuz i received like 4 this week. but there is a postal code that you can put that elder burgener didnt tell me about and you put it after chihuahua chihuahua méxico its #31020. so im probably just go ahead and guess that i am not gonna see this first package that you all sent to me haha but its all good. oh Presidente Angulo told us something way cool. the prophet wants the mission presidents to keep their missionaries in their areas for at least 6 months so that they can do work. like for real do work and know the area and all that. and presidente said that of course he is gonna move missionaries around if there are problems with companions or whatever but everything here with elder martinez is way good so im thinking that i will be here in delicias for a while yet.. WOOT WOOT oh man we get to watch conference in less than a month!! im so pumped !! haha sometimes i like thinking about how much i{ve changed in just like 6 months haha i cant even imagine after the mission a whopping 2 years. but yeah with my spanish when i first arrived i would just listen to people and for certain words that i recognized but now im starting to hear everyword and understand so much more!! its way cool. umm oh so today i was mopping in our study room and the mop string caught on to one of the legs on our table that we have all of our stuff and when i pulled the mop back(not knowing it was caught) haha the whole table fell down along with all of our things haha ahh it was such a mess but we just busted up laughing. oh i finally have music!! one of the other wards went to the temple in ciudad juarez and i gave a family money to buy me some hymns and they bought all the spanish hymns for 14 bucks!!! woot woot haha but yeah i dont think im gonna be able to write anyone letters back but i will be emailing every monday haha but tell anyone who writes thanks so much. the work here is so stinking good elder martinez and i doing work and hopefully we can for another couple months. but i gotta go times up!!

Cuidense mucho!!

Elder Nunley