LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • November 15th, 2010

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

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

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

elder schneider

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

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

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • November 9th, 2010

Subject: hola hola hola

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

love you guys,

Elder Nunley

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • November 8th, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

love,

elder schneider

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

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • November 3rd, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ps... dad get better!!!

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

PICTURES: Elder Schneider

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

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • October 25th, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

LETTER: Elder Jensen • October 16th, 2010

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

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

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

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