LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • May 3rd, 2011

so... i am really confused now.... mom, how did you know i was zone leader already?

ok so i guess you already heard but i am not in maribor anymore.... sad huh? i really really really wanted to stay.

Well now i am zone leader. Yeah when i heard i was being transfered i almost said no. hahaha i really didnt want to go. We were totally dominating and now i am in the worst area in the worst appartment! oh well. When i heard i was being transfered for a whole day i was just as sad as they get! but then i figured i could go and be a bomb zone leader or i could just be a little baby about it! so i decieded to just be a bomb zone leader.

well some good news is i got some gifts from a black guy!!!! we were walking down the street and black people dont live in slovenia so of course we had to talk to him! well he said he was from some place in Africa and kept saying, "i love yur peple" and then i kept giving us stuff! hahaha it was super cool. He was a super funny guy!

Ok besides that this week was crazy they put a new set of elders in maribor and it was a sad day leaving that place. I gave away like all my ties and books too. (ps mom maybe you remember a book with a bunch of paintings of Jesus.... well it is Andrejs now! hahaha)

But we had to end our english classes this week and a student went to the store and bought me a 75 dollar book so that i can keep up my slovene! its really nice, it had pictures of all the churches in slovenia!

So yeah i got alot of gifts when i left. :) but yeah things are going to be good here!

love you guys!

ps... cause today is tuesday i didnt have time to take that test mom. But i will sometime! :)

pss.... good thing i didnt forget to tell you how to get a hold of me for sunday! i have 1 hour and you guys can call me at 6 oclock pm. (my time 6 o clock) so i dont know what time you guys call but if you could just figure out what the time zones are that would be great. So you guys will be calling me thru skyp! do you guys know what that is? i hope so... because we can video chat! neat huh? well that is the good news. The bad news is i am not really sure how skyp works but my comp says that i will be calling you! so i am hoping everything will work out! :) Wait do you guys have skyp???? if so send me your address! :) ok can wait to hear you guys!

PICTURES: Elder Schneider

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • April 26th, 2011

Hey, so i am writing on tuesday because yesterday everything was closed!

ok so i attached some new pictures that a member took.

We had 27 people at church! its was super cool! it was a record of members for us!

So... good news... i went bowling yesterday for p-day and also last p-day (its so fun cause its a euro an hour). Well i think i have a secret talent for bowling. Both times i have had the high score of like 170 or 180. So i came up with a new goal... i decided that if i can bowl a 170 without playing very often and just teaching myself and not having a very good bowling ball. Then I bet if i went home and worked on getting good at bowling (and got my own ball) then i could bowl a 300! so that is my new goal. When i go home i am going to practice and bowl a 300! You guys probably think i am joking but i am totally going to!

I had a super cool experience this week. We did alot of service for a couple of members. We did service for one member named Andrej....Ok so some background info on andrej, well andrej is about 5 foot 10, and weighs about 130 pounds! Well when he meet the missionaries 5 years ago he was a wreck, he could barely stand without shaking and had such bad confidence issues that he was having a hard time finding reasons to live. He has a great family but all of them are in-active except for him. Well when he meet the missionaries he felt something different and came to church ever single week after he met them! Something super cool about andrej is he doesnt study unnecessary doctrine. He studies the basics over and over and over, but he knows more doctrine then an member i have met! He really understands the basics and he applies them! He is a really good guy and doing well, but he just needed some help around the house, and he needs to feel special and wanted. Well when we went to do service we also invited franjo to come along and help... (but he ended up just sleeping for 3 hours in andrejs house) but i guess its the thought that counts! haha Well he was very thankful and then later in the week.

Well later in the week when we had a lesson with him, we taught him about missionary work and how members are missionaries! it was a really good lesson, and we were talking about sharing the gospel with our friends and he just looked up and said he cant really do that cause he doesnt have friends, he said that he had a lot of friends but they are super bad and tempt him to break the word of wisdom so he doesnt hang out with them anymore. And if he would hang out with them then he would teach them about the word of wisdom. Then he said, but its ok because i have better friends now, i have you guys!!!! hahaha i love that guy! And then he talked about how the gospel has really helped him in his life.

Another cool thing is my hands are hammerd!!! we did some service for a single lady member from ljubljana! And I used a giant mower thing that cuts the grass (she took some pictures for you) but it pretty heavy and i was cutting the grass on a huge hill! Well needless to say, that he was so thankful and she was so suprised that i didnt need to take a break! (i really misssss doing hard physical work, so i worked super hard). Well i did all her grass plus the bottom part. And now i have about 10 blisters!!!! but its ok its totally cool! And other good news is i am super tan! hahaha i got burt then it taned up!

well everything is good over here!

transfers this week!

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • April 25th, 2011

padre!

The baptism went great! haha and Elvira was super happy which was good to see. i loved the confirmation this sunday too! (did you get confirmed in front of the whole ward?) that was the bes thing to seet! she was definitely elect and loves to learn about the gospel. we pretty much gave her the folletos and she read and understood! the ward helped us a lot!!!

how exciting your stories! Thanks for sharing!!!!! how neat! i love love love love general conference and prophets! (Elder Uchtdorf is one of my favorites...do you know German in your dreams?) oh and i just tell people grandpa schneider came from Germany...partly because i don´t know or remember the word for Great Grandpa) i didn´t realize how big it is that we have a prophet to guide us in these last days! It is so awesome and i don´t know how people do it without the guide of the prophet, scriptures, prayer, and holy ghost! I am sure your lesson was great!

Question #1 for you: Currently what is your favorite scripture?

I think I will always love my mission scripture DyC 84:88 or maybe it is 88:84...haha is it still my favorite if i can´t remember the reference? :) i can find it if i need it and that is what counts. It talks about Angels. <3

I also love the scripture that talks about how Jesus suffered all of our afflictions, temptations, and everything so he would know how to succor us. i think it is 3 Ne 9. (As you can tell, i am really bad with memorizing the references, but i usually can find the scripture when the time comes because of my colors in my scrips...haah)

Question #2 for you: Are there any Easter Celebrations or rituals they have in Argentina?

They have a gazzilion holidays in Argentina ;) all of the shops were closed from thursday until saturday and we didn´t know about it. it makes it hard, but easier all the same. hard that we don´t know and everything is closed, easier in that people are in their houses with their families. They have a lot of eggs around, like chocolate eggs and stuff, but other than that i don´t really know. they have a lot of a holidays for all teh different ¨saints¨. it would be more interesting if i could talk to people about these saints, but then they question our beliefs...haha....

i cant think of more!

oh and i am not sure how the phone call will work...i will have to look into it!

love you!

hermana schneider

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • April 16th, 2011

hey family!!! oh man i can´t tell you how good it is to hear from all of you for real. i feel like im at home or something when i read the emails haha its good to hear everyones sense of humor haha. so to be honest this week has been pretty rough and its hard to explain why but i´ve learned a ton of way good lessons this week too. i studied DyC 46 for about 2 hours today and it was absolutely awesome. i love how in the scriptures you can read something one day and then a couple months later its like a completely different scripture haha.

OHHHHH so guess what talk President has us studying... the talk by Elder Holland,, but the one he gave in the MTC when i was there!!!! haha for real!! because i´ve seriously been thinking about having trevor paskett talk to someone at the mtc to get the talk written out or something because i figured that talk would only be in the mtc but when president played it i was so pumped and the spirit was just as strong. I love the scriptures so much. they are seriously like your amigo fiel.. faithful friend. they are always there for ya haha you just gotta start the talking and then they will cure just about everything.

so i´m pretty sure the president is gonna kick me out of the offices already haha i am so not an office person. I think that the Lord wanted me to realize that and never forget it haha. but i love it when we can go out and teach.

so yesterday i went out with an elder lopez and he´s a newbie and we went to visit this guy who lives in a house smaller than amorays room. and we went in and started talking to him and read 5 verses from 3 nefi 27 and then he commited to baptism!!! woot woot!!! it was way cool the spirit was way strong and he is totally stoked too. we alread talked to him about how he has to get married first (because he lives with his girlfriend) and he´s like yeah i can totally take care of that in two weeks. But yeah oh my gosh teaching and doing the work with the people is the best!! i love it so much.

i appreciate my calling here in the offices because i know the Lord has something for me to learn here but.......................................... im ready to have an area, a companion, study time, a house where there is only one bathroom haha, i wanna live the missionary life haha!!! but for real i really want to be able to "meditate and ponder" over scriptural things haha like i really want to develop that talent i would absolutely love that.

but yeah isnt that absolutely crazy that i´ve almost been out here for six months haha i cant believe it. thats cool that you all are gonna go to dennys in the morning every six months haha im gonna be sporting a new pair of garments every six months haha SOOOOOO pumped for that haha. oh i got the other shoe today... so i{m pretty sure you ordered them from Sister missionary mall haha either that McDonalds standers just keep getting lower and lower haha. but yeah for real it is way good to read what you all have to say haha dayton im so proud of you that you could clog 4 toilets in one week. that is absolutely amazing!!! so my new bishop here honsetly looks like jaba the hut from star wars haha i kid you not. but yeah everything here is way good. im loving the mission.

well i gotta go haha but yeah sigan con ganas especially you dad haha that stinks what you are going through right now. i hope things start going better for you. i love you all so much. talk to ya shortly!! who knows maybe i´ll write you monday from my new area haha if the president kicks me out of here haha BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • April 18th, 2011

¿QUE TAL?

so, thanks so much for the pics! it was fun to see! mom, you are so pretty, dad why aren´t you in any pics (?) and andrew...i miss you little nogan...and the rest...jk...love you all! how fun to be together for the break! i am missing all the flowers and jealous of your blossoms. me and my comp had a cold this week and it has been hard recooperating cuz NO, we dont really get naps. it rained so much on sunday and i was drenched even though i had an umbrella. silently, i enjoyed the rain....but my comp didn´t too much. Those situations are funny because you really can´t do a lot about it so i just laugh inside. If i laugh out loud my comp gets really mad sometimes...haha oh well

We do have a baptisim this week! yaya...this investigadora es awesome and super great! she pretty much taught herself...i just gave her the pamphlets to read. She even came to church and just always has a desire to do good! it has been great! i am excited for her! i hope she has a spectacular experience getting baptized....i don´t really remember mine...

in reality, i did stress this week...haha i like to be good at things...all the time. especially cuz i do feel the responsibility to teach, but then i cant think of things to say or cant say it, or i speak ¨¨good¨¨ spanish for me, and they dont understand me. haha that is the worst....but i am learning a lot...of patience......yuck..... :)))) i think there are difference kinds of patience. besides, you dont need patience when you are good at everything (and super humble too)

one thing i have really come to appreciate is the GRACE of God. it is the purifying power to be perfected and to learn. Christ learned grace by grace, so i guess i will have to as well.

i also didn´t ever realize how much the scriptures talked about JOY and REJOICING. Those prophets are quite phenominal to have so much joy in so much dificitulties and in their labors. i love the book of mormon...ammon is a hunk, alma the stud, and nefi the first, seriously though, they are pretty amazing! Really the only way to have this joy is to live the gospel.

And don´t you worry, i am really lucky that people always take care of me. I am super watched over and sometimes I don´t know why (maybe others prayers-thanks). i don´t know how it happens but someone always comes along to help me. i am so blessed. I didn´t laugh that much this last week, and my body was very stressed, but with Seba and another recent members we were visiting, I got my laugh back. I think i am receiving all the help i am trying to be giving. i want to take a picture with this couple that i was laughing with. they are recent members and probably in their 50s. i can´t even explain their personalities to you....they are graciela and hugo. haha

answers:

1) favorite site:

I really enjoy taking the train and seeing all the places we have walked that day. It isn´t necesarily a beautiful sight but more the feeling you get of accomplishment... when you are so exhausted and to see all those people and place you have been--it is fulfilling. Also, there is a military place with nice grass and an airport for the military base when we travel. Similar story, when we are driving back on the bus and get to see the sunset-sunrise in this area, it is gorgeous. I love the sun and all the flowers, they have every kind of plant here. Probably the best are the sunrises and sunsets. It is too impossible to pick only one.....

2) habit to adjust to:

mealtimes : The habit of only two meals a day has been different for me. Well, lets just say i eat a lot!!!! we get a breakfast around 7 and then usually a lunch (if/when the members feed us...yum yum) around 1. other than that, we are walking around outside all day. I have started eating at like 10 at night because that is when we get back and have time to eat. People here often eat their dinners around 9 or ten too...so i am becomin very Argentine! so fine! (thats a rhyme) jajaja

glad to hear everyone is good and alive!!! yayaya!

love you!

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • April 18th, 2011

So... i am still in maribor but we havent had transfers yet!

ok so i had a bad bad bad nightmare last night! i dreamt that i went back to the MTC, hahahaha it was terrible! hahaha i am glad that is a one in a life time experience.

this week was good! it went by super fast. We had alot of lessons and English class is still going really well.

So what is my favorite food here in Slovenia.... probably a kebab! they are super delightful! its huge meat sandwhich made kinda like a taco! cool huh?

hahahaha the second question is funny, what is the strangest site in maribor! hahaha ok this one is really really weird, in the center of maribor they put up a huge TP made of metal (about 10 meters high), then they had a projector that would light up the TP and play weird music with weird lights! hahaha yeah i get confused just trying to tell you about it. hahaha Slovenians are definetly different people!

On Wednesday we went to visit one of our members (Andrej Draškovič) and while we were there another member called and asked for a blessing for health. So we went to visit the other member and brother Draškovič came with. And we asked him if he would give the blessing, and he has only given one blessing before this one and his last one he just said the blessing words and then closed in the name of Christ. And we didn't have much time to teach him about how to give blessing but we did our best. We told him to say the words that are needed then give a really good prayer (because the way he prays is amazing) And it was an awesome blessing, he did so well, it was really fun to see that! Then i had a meeting in Ljubljana.

yeah that's about it, we had a busy week, But not too many crazy stories.

Well thanks family for everything! :)