LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • July 25th, 2011

hey family!!!

oh man sorry i didnt write last week i was so stinkin sick!!! for real im not even gonna try to explain what i had but the good thing is the day after it was all gone. just an oober bad infection in the stomach.

so i only read the letter from you guys for this week but im gonna print the other one off just incase there was something important that i need to know haha. but yeah so i am no longer in saucillo. im in chihuahua again and im disrict leader and my area is super freaking awesome. its huge too. its the second biggest one in chihuahua. all the members are absolutely awesome here and we are have baptisms left and right for august we should have a baptism every weekend!!!!! how awesome!!! the Lord is really preparing the people here and it is so nice to be in a big town. i loved saucillo but i felt like every time i passed someone in the street it was someone i had already taught and didnt want to hear more haha and that was just with three months down there.

so ive been reading the talk from President Uchtdorf from the confrence in october about Pride and i love it. and im just starting 3 nefi in the book of mormon and in chapter 6 verses 13 to 18 (i think) talk about how all satan needs to start working in us is pride. and President Uchtdorf talked about how every single sin stems from Pride.

hahaha mom you would not believe how much patience i have learned on the mission and the funny thing is, is that im still super impacient!!!! that just goes to prove that the Lord does give us weaknesses so that we depend on Him because being impacient in the mission doesnt work very well.

My companion is another mexcian his name is Elder Hernandez Rìos and he is way cool. we are workin together really well already. he is super short and pretty dang funny haha

but yeah i`ve already got to go but i just hope you guys know i absolutely love the mission and The Lord definately is watching over me at all times.( that reminds me i have a super crazy story for you guys after the mission cuz i cant tell you it over internet...Mom would freak out haha) I love you guys so much and dont worry about a thing.

Con mucho amor,

Elder Nunley

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • July 25th, 2011

hey dad!

Question #1: Are you still playing the piano as needed or even just for fun?

I like to play the piano, but they have a pianist in this ward. I played for the baptism and things like that, for meetings sometimes. It is a good stress relief, if there is a piano, i like to play. There is one Elder that is phenominal at the piano! it is cool that he will share his talent with everyone!

Question #2: Do you miss driving a car or are you glad you don't need to drive?

Yea i miss driving a car, especially the scooter. They have so many motorcycles here and sometimes i just want to jump on one and ride. It is so nice to sit in cars too...doesn´t happen too often for us. it is either walking or the bus. but i never feel like i can sit down because there is always someone we should be talking with and there are always people that are older than us, and I think they should have the seats before me. I don´t think i would want to drive here...they are a little crazy...but safe...haha i don´t know how to explain it. they drive fast, but there aren´t a lot of accidents. but yes, we love the cars! :)

sounds great! what color is suede blue? haha like the flag of argentina ;) haha...for some reason perhaps i liked light blue for a reason.... jokes

always repairing everything! thanks!

I went to Martin´s cove with Heritage Tours! logan should totally do it! it is probably too late...but heritage tours was the best! seriously! it helped me understand so much more and have more gratitiude for the pioneers, joseph smith, and the gospel! that will be so great for the youth!!!

we are éxploding the area...it is good to see...and working hard. it is always interesting to find more people....but we haven´t been able to maintain them the best. the ward is great here and suporting the missionaries a ton! one recient convert recently got married in the temple, it was so great to see that the members supported her so much to travel to the other temple in paraguay (The temple here is under construcction, we don´t know when it will open again). so, it is great to see the support of the ward.

i can´t think of more to write.

love always,

hermanita schneider

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • July 25th, 2011

Beautiful mom. I have survived another week in this crazy jungle. =)

Yire will be calling you soon. They called me yesterday for the house number. So I gave them your number and the home phone.

This last week we got a miracle phone call. A less active lady that hasn't been to church for 7 years called us up on Monday night. Recently in her life she has been having a very hard time and hasn't known what to do. She has been praying and asking God what she should do and she got the answer that she should try and talk with the missionaries. Suddenly as she was praying she looked out the window and saw us both riding on our bikes. In her mind she knew that was her answer. She tried running outside to stop us but didn't reach us in time. Little later on she was thinking to her self on what she should do. She was wishing that somehow she had our number so that she could call us. As she was picking up the phone not knowing who to call.. Again suddenly she sees us ridding by on our bikes. She again didn't have time to come out and stop us. She was starting to feel a little hopeless but still she knew that her answer from god was that she needed to speak to us. At this time she had no idea who to call or know how to get a hold of us. So the day went on and she had no idea what she should. Then the very next day she goes to one of her friends house and see's a picture of Christ on the table. Hydie then asked her friend "where did you get that picture from." Her friend then replied " Oh, I got it from some of the Mormon boys that came by awhile ago." Hydie then asked "Does it have a number on the back of it?" Her friend looked at the card and said "I'm not sure I havent really looked at it. Why do you ask any ways?" Hydie then reached over and flipped over the card... and to her relief she see's a cell phone number on the back. God answered her prayers and guided her to us. God used something like a simple card to answer her. She later on that night called us and asked if she could speak with us. We then went over and learned what had happen and that she wanted to start coming back to church. We are now teaching her and her boyfriend and trying to help them over come some of there addictions. Its amazing how God is always watching over his children.

I love you beautiful mom. =)

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • July 25th, 2011

hey! so mom thanks for the package i got it, and it was so delightful!!! It was super nice of you! the toothpaste is some good stuff! thanks a ton!!!

Well thanks a ton for helping out on my schooling!

So this week was crazy! we are doing so well! We have alot of progressing investigators, one was supposed to get baptized in a week but he said he wanted to wait for a little time so that he could live the commandments for a little longer! His name is Sebaštjan, he is a super super cool! We got with him 4 times this week, and he came on other investigators lessons so that he could learn even more! good stuff is going on.

We are teaching a couple who absolutely love us! the husband is so nice, he came to church on Sunday and we got with him twice this week! And once this week we were talking about getting answers if the BOM is true and how we can recognize these answers and he turns to me and says, "i wanna find out if it true, and i will, dont worry about me elder schneider, i will find out if its true!" hahaha he is the nicest guy ever, he said he met missionaries before like 5 years ago but he said this time he isnt giving up, and that he really wants to find truth! Oh yeah and he said that my comp and I are so much better, he said last time they thought the missionaries were too business like. But things are going good!

So we were sitting on the bus this week going home and then i hear someone say, "brayn, brayn" (they were trying to say my name), so i turned around and it was a kid named matje, he is 18 and super cool. But i met this kid about a year ago and he still remembered me! So we started talking and then i brought up faith and stuff like that and he agreed to get with us the next day. Well he is super good, he really liked what we taught and wants to get together again tomorrow! i am super stoked, i really hope all goes well with him.

But that is about it for this week, today i will send home the receipt from the dentists!

hey tell logan happy birthday last week, i didnt forget i just cant use the computers every day!

you guys are the best!

staršina schneider

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • July 18th, 2011

Dear best mom.

I'm glad to hear that everyone got to meet Sosa. She is a wonderful lady and has taken very good care of me. Also I'm not sure if you have heard but Yire (Pronounced "G-ray") the lady that I baptized here in Lewiston has been trying to get a hold of you. She wants to meet the whole family very badly and she went down to Salt Lake a couple weeks ago kept calling the home phone and left messages but no one picked up or called back. I told them it might have been because you were very busy taking care of dad. However she is going down to Salt Lake again this week on Tuesday and she wants to meet the whole family very badly because they are not sure when they are going to ask her to go back to Mexico. So please look for her call sometime soon this week. She is one of the most spiritual girls that I have met. I know that you will love her. And this will be the last person to come and visit you from my mission for a while I promise. =)

But things here have been going great. Mission life is just one of a kind. One moment your tracting doors then the next moment your chasing animal... Who knows whats going to happen on one of your days on the mission.

So in my email today I just want to share why I love my mission. One of the reasons is all the random stuff that happens. For example a couple of days ago we went out tracting doors and we ran in to this older guy with a sweet handle bar mustache. As we were talking with him we hear some older lady across the road yell "Help! My goat is loose!" So us being courageous missionary's over their with our suit and ties chasing around a goat for 20 minutes around her garden. Finally it was caught and we tied a rope around its neck and brought it back in the cage. We asked if we could give the lady a card but she said "no that's ok" and walked off. Right after she started walking off another guy came to us and asked if we could help him pour some gas in his moving truck. During that time we were already late for dinner with one of our members but us being kind missionaries not knowing how to say no to someone said "Yes we can help you out." So for half an hour we tried pouring gas in side his truck through a man made funnel that he created. During the time we taught him the restoration and he said that we could come back and share more some time. Right after that we had to run to our bikes and we booked it to the members home that was cooking us some dinner and also some of our investigators. But when we showed up we were just drenched in sweat and we just smelt like we went swimming in gasoline. But we had a nice dinner with the families and taught them about faith with faith paper and then it was about time to go home. All of that happen in about 3 hours time. Sometimes the mission is just to much fun. =) Just a couple days again I was having problems with my bike and we ended up pulling up on the side of the road. No longer then 5 minutes with us on the road a cop pulls up. In my head I was like " Oh, great now this cop is going to think we have been up to something because we were standing right next to a burnt down Grace Harvest Church. But when the cop pulled up I soon realized that it was Bro. Reese in our first ward. So we ended up talking with him for a couple minutes and randomly another family shows up that was walking by named the Godfree's. We pretty soon had a whole group of Mormons talking about there missions. After that the Godfree's went and grabbed there truck and pulled it over to throw our bikes in. Then the police officer led us to his home so that I could borrow his bike for a time. We then through his bike in the back of the truck and they took us home. In that moment I realized how much I love this church. Members are willing to sacrifice so much sometimes. I really feel like this church is just one big happy family. So just know that I am getting taken care of out here. =)

Well I wish I could write more but I have to get going.

I love you so very much mom. =)

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • July 18th, 2011

hey mom and dad thanks a TON for helpin with schooling!!!

ok well my comp and I are teaching alot! listen to this, we got 4 new investigators and they are all progressing! We are just destroying! its just so much fun, we are calling down the powers of heaven to help us out with this! Ever time we pray we pray for legions of angles to help us and to prepare people in Slovenia! its really really fun! time goes by so much faster when all you do is teach and have success!!!!

ok so we had one of the funnest experiences the other day! We had one member who is 17, and from Croatia stay at our place over night because he was going to EFY the next day (he is the only active aronic priesthood holder in Croatia). Well so we planned lessons and stuff so that he could be a missionary for a day and we had so much fun!!! it was a blast, and then we also got another EFY student later on and she came and taught with us! And it was so fun cause they loved being around us, and at one lesson we had 5 members on the lesson! And we just talked about how bomb they are and how they are going to have a HUGE impact on the church and we just got them excited about being members and stuff! But it was just fun cause neither of them have had an experiences with missionary work.

But when we were with them we were waiting for our bus and then it came so i stepped onto the entrance of the bus and then i turn around and the 2 EFY students were gone, so my companion (who was about to get on the bus) turns around to look where they went and then the bus driver shuts the doors and takes off... hahaha so i just start laughing cause i thought i was the only one on the bus, then i turn aroun to start walking to the back of the bus and the 2 EFY students were already on the bus. (they entered thru the exit of the bus), so i just start laughing even harder!! So it was us three on the bus and my companion at the last bus stop so he starts chasing the bus. hahahahaha (it feels so much better to watch your companion run to catch the bus, rather then if i was with him!) hahaha So he ran pretty far and then took a short cut to meet up with our bus! well he barely made it, but oh man that was just too funny!

Well this week was good, we are working hard and see success!!!

love elder schneider

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • July 11th, 2011

Dear dang amazing mom. =)

Miracles have been happening a ton here lately.

Miracle # 1 is that I am actually staying here. My new companions name is Elder Walker so will see how things go with him.

Miracle # 2 This area has been blessed so much by God. Every night for the past few weeks I have been praying that he would make me so busy with people to see that I would be overwhelmed and that I wouldn't know what to do with my time. Well he's been answering my prayer.. We have been cutting down our lunches and dinners and some days we don't even eat dinner till we get home at 9:00-9:30 And the hardest rule for us to keep right now is being in before 9:30 with how much work is going on. We have been seeing so many people the past few weeks. We found 8 new investigators last week. 6 new investigators this week. Have had a couple less active families starting to come back to church. Have been having plenty of lessons to teach to people. Started bringing the youth out with us and they now love to come out so they have actually been setting weekly times that they can go tracting with us. (I love the youth of our church by the way) We have been having a ton of investigators and less actives coming to play basket ball with us on Mondays. Its been amazing with how many things are going on in this area. I'm loving it. I can honestly tell you I almost have no time to really even think by my self with all of the phone calls and getting lessons ready etc... I've been so grateful for how busy the lord has been making us.

Miracle # 3 I really do just love my mission. Last night we were tracting with one of the youth and he looks at me and says " Man every time i have gone tracting I have never gotten in to one of the houses. We have just always talked on the door step." So I looked at him and said " Well we are going to get one today then" A couple houses down we knock on this ladies door. She is probably in her late 50's I would say but she answers the door and says "Guys I'm Lutheran and there's no way that I'm going to join your church." So I smiled and said " Well I promise we don't try to take away from your faith at all. We really just go around and try to strengthen others faith in Christ in these hard times." She looks at me and replied " Oh I already have a very strong faith in Christ and I'm doing just fine. Well I'm going to have to go put away these dogs. Thank you for stopping by." after that I hurried and finished another sentence saying " Well can we give you a pamphlet to read?" She replied quickly and said "Nope." So i looked at her again and asked "Well can we give you a card?" She looked at me again and gave the same repeating answer. So I looked around at her yard and then asked well is there any service we can do for you? She then gave the amazing same answer. "No thanks I'm doing great.I did hurt my arm a little while ago though." She was slowly starting to lighten up to us a little bit after that. I was about to give up and just head off so I said " Well can we just give you are number and if you ever need help with your yard or anything you can just give us a call." She looked at me and finally decided to say sure I'll take your number" So I smiled and said great. After that I started to pull out a card and she stopped me and said " You know what..... You guys can just come in." Wow!! her whole countenance just changed in a blink of an eye. We got on there and just started talking with her and she opened up to us very fast. If there is one thing I have learned from that lesson was that "People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." I know that she could feel the love we had for her. At the end of us speaking with her we found out that her husband was the one that broke her arm and that she was going through alot of other things during the time. Then at the very end she took the Book a Mormon. After that I promised her that each time she was feeling alone or burdened that if she would pick up the Book of Mormon she would be able to feel it all be lifted up. and that would be her witness that the Book of Mormon is true.

Well i got to go. I love you. =)

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • July 11th, 2011

HOLA DAD!

FAVORITE person... Ammon! he is great! seriously my favorite. I

think we should be companionns...but i don´t think president Carter

will permit that.... there is the scripture about captain moroni that

if all were like him the hells would shake (or something like that...i

can´t remember...) if you keep reading...it talkes about how his

example is AMMON! Plus he sounds like a hunk :) haha...

I feel the most joy......haha when people come to church and when i

feel the spirit .... when i laugh a real laugh and feel like i´ve

known these people forever! I really like to understand people.

thanks for your story! i love it! we want to do a Lehis vision

scenario with a family. something fun and applicable!

we had 9 of our investigadors come to church!! we have had so many

miracles this week! it has been just great! a lot of the inactives

that we have been teaching came this sunday too. it has been nice and

my mini missionary is just great! we both work hard....haha...she was

sick at the end fo this week. i dont´know if i push people too hard

too fast becaue all of my companions have been sick by the end of the

first week. guess they aren´t used to working like

schneiders...hahahaha...jokes, but seriously. she is great and

miracles are happening! the ward is happy with us and everything!

i will try to write you more! but for some reason i didn´t like to

hear that camon is leaving for five months! don´t let him go! :) I

don´t want either of them to go. can they avoid it?

love you DAD,

hermana schneider

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • July 11th, 2011

hey family.

that is way cool that you are all helping out with all the floodings and stuff. there was a talk in this last conference about a family whose city flooded and even before going to their house they went and helped others.... and then when they went to their own house it wasnt even there and so they went straight to the bishop to ask for other members who needed help. i think the story is something like that but that is so cool that you are all helping out so much.

amoray... the fruit here is absolutely declicious... and cheap you can buy a watermelon for less than a buck and you can buy 5 cantelopes for just a little bit more than 2 bucks!!!!

haha so i havent really told you any of the stories that i have had with dogs yet but this week i almost died haha so i figured i´d tell you a little about this experiece haha. so most of the time the dogs chase us on the bikes and stuff but i realized they just chase us for fun they aren´t out to kill haha and so there is a street that we pass everyday that we have to take to get to the house and there is a big black dog that chases us every stinkin day haha but never does anything so we passed this street about 2 days ago and this dog had a friend who was out to kill haha (i dont know what it is about me but the dogs love chasing me over my companions haha i think it might be the sweet paisley ties that i have though haha) so the big black one came running at us from 9 oclock and i wasnt to worried about it But i wasnt focusing, i had to much confidence and took my eyes off of what was in front of me haha and this devil dog came running at me from 11 oclock and literaly jumped waist high to take me down!!!!! haha i was so stinking scared!!! two inches from death for sure!!!! haha well that is the story about my dog chasings and i hope you can give it more justice than i did.

but this week has been absolutley awesome. that study that i told you about last week helped me out so stinking much and my faith increased so much and when my faith increased everything went better. we had so many more lessons more people in church more help from the members and well yeah everything just is so much better when you apply your faith and the prayer. i feel like when i work with alot more faith i work with a lot more heart. i think that Diligence is more than 100% effort, i believe its 100% effort with 100% heart as well. I love how much space the Lord leaves for improvement in every single one of us. the Lord has blessed me so dang much in the mission and i absolutely love something that President told us. he said that the mission is what is going to prepare me for life. To actually realize how much He can do for me. and then when i leave the mission if i stop depending on Him or stop serving Him as much i have let Him down. He is giving me all of these amazing experiences to show me how much He wants to help me and how much He can help me.. haha for real look at what he as done with my life in just 2 short years and even in this last 8 months.

I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father and for the love the He demonstrates every single day for me. King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon wrote that he desires that all of us ask Him to help us realize His Greatness, His Misericordia (i dont know what that word is in english haha sorry) and His patience with us in our prayers. I loved that part and i try to always pray and ask for that and He helps me realize it more and more.

Thank you for all of your examples and all ofyour help. I stinkin love the mission!!

Elder Noonlay (thats how they pronounce it here haha)

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • July 11th, 2011

This week was pretty exciting! Well i got to go an exchanges for a whole day with our branch president! that was so much fun he really liked it! He is really liking missionaries more and more!

Ok so i have some bad news... well satan is trying super hard to stop us. Because tuesday we had english class sign ups. And i was the only missionary in slovenia because the other missionaries where in croatia and i got a call for the district president and he said he cant have english class. He said that a news artical went out that mourning saying that our english class was working/part of the black market. And so the state said he have to stop!! So we still had the sign ups, and we just got everyones information and said we will call them back when the problem gets fixed. So half way thru the sign ups an inspector came in and check everything out and asked questions and stuff.... it was pretty crazy. So for right now we have to stop... but its ok because i will just find a different way to find tons of people! And the people that came were just amazing!! One guy walked in and said i was wonduring if i could come to english class and we said yes and then he said, "i dont really care for the english i was just wonduring if we could talk about this... and he pulled out of BOM." hahaha Its just amazing what can happen we have faith to find!

So i have a new companion again.... Something happened and we had an emergancy transfer. Its pretty exciting though!

So i am super super pumped, we have zone conferance and we have been thinking about what our zone needs and we are going to talk about calling down the powers of heaven!!!!! that sounds super cool huh? we figured if the prophet Elisha can call down fire from heaven to show a bunch of false prophets that god exists. Then i figure God would do the same if we ask and have the faith!!!!! So we arent going to ask to send down fire, but we are going to ask for more miracles then Slovenia as EVER seen! I am really really excited though the mission is changing and its changing fast... We just have to make sure all the missionaries are holding on!

The new president is a way good guy!

At church we had a family come (the dad, Igor is 25 and his wife 19 with a baby boy who is 3 months) and my favorite inverigator, her name is Eva she is 22 and bomb, and she is progressing super fast!!! its was so cool, the members did a really good job talking to our investigators also!!!!

love you guys!!!!!

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • July 4th, 2011

hey family,

sounds like everyone is doin way good haha i love reading all your letters every monday to answer some of your questions. Mario is doing awesome he was the first person i baptized and i already sent you the picture of that and he is still 100 percent sober and actually last week he went to 7 lessons with us!!!!! that was so cool we had ten lessons with members last week.

on p days there is not time for anything,, haha and thats how the president likes it. here in Saucillo the last time i saw other missionarys was the big conference we had last week but other than that the whole month of June we didnt leave haha.

this week was a little rough and i know you asked to hear about the rough times on the mission but i`d rather wait to tell you the bad stuff after the mission.

two things from the bible that helped me a ton this week is the story about the young man who had a ton of money and was doing all the things Jesus said and then when this young man asked what else he could do Jesus told him to give all his money to the poor then He said.... Come, Follow me. . and then the young man got sad and well yeah. so i thought about that a lot and questioned myself what am i NOT willing to give to the Savior (be it a rule that the president has, or any little thing that might take me just a little bit away from the Savior) so i have been working on that this week on making sure that there isnt anything that i am not willing to do for the Savior. I thought about that a lot and there are things that i want to change thati know will bring me closer to Him. Also the story of Peter walking on the water and how when he began to doubt, after doubting he sank and then and i love how it says it in the Bible. Jesus IMMEDIATLY extended His hand to help Peter. I loved that and it gives me a ton of confidence to know that.

Ok so this week i got super sick from the heat haha one of the days we went with mario guardiola he took one bike and then me and elder zuvire had the other and we have got pegs so i was on back. so i got super sick and went to the bathroom 4 times that morning and then well yeah i didnt feel good haha but we kept on teaching and at like 4 when the sun is really just doin work we taught a lesson (and by that time the sun had really given it to me haha) so we taught the lesson and to keep myself awake i had to slap myself in the face with my hymn book haha i was so out of it though that it just seemed normal haha but Mario just busted up laughing haha it was great. mario is like 36 years old and when we teach with him or whatever he is just like an awesome friend that i have. (actually let me look up the scripture that reminds me of him after i finish this story) but yeah so we taught the lesson and then after the lesson i was on the pegs of the bike and i fell asleep!!!!! haha oh my gosh it was so ridiculous but yeah so i called the Hermana Angulo and told me to stay home for the rest of the day haha but yaeh she is so awesome and she absolutely loves me too haha. she was like call me for any little thing that you need, even if it is just to talk haha she is way cool.

but yeah OHHH YEAHHHH haha i just remembered so they cut our electricity this week and we didnt have power for 3 days haha that was an experience.

Our investigators that we have now our way cool i will tell you more about them next week but i was thinking about cool things that we could do here in the branch to be more united or unified (idk haha forgive my english) haha but yeah and i remembered when we went to a branch in ND and all of them ate together after church and elder zuvire said he saw that in oaxaca mexico too so we are gonna talk to the branch president about that. but yeah i hope that we can do that.

Alll is well here and i love you guys so stinking much.

Elder Nunley