LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • October 10th, 2011

Hey mom who is my dearest beautiful mom =)

Well transfers came up and I will actually be staying here. The funny thing is though is that I will be training a new elder again but the Elder hurt him self in the mtc so now I will have to wait a week to receive my new companion. So for the next few days I will be in a trio companionship until next Monday. Also they are doing a new training program for missionaries so I will probably be in this area another 12 weeks. Unless god feels like throwing another curve ball at me.

Rich and Donna and Bruce are doing very well. They all came to general conference and Donna loved it... The other 2... well... they had a harder time trying to stay awake. But hey I was proud of them all for making it to 3 sessions of general conference. I'm sure they watched more of the conference then most of the members here. Most of the members that I talked to said "oh no we haven't watched it yet. We just saved it on our tvo so that we can watch it later." That tvo is a great blessing. But I can see it being a huge stumbling block to allot of the Church members. Because now it allows members to do what Lucifer would want them to do. And that would be too procrastinate there time of hearing or listening to a prophet or apostles of the lord. "Oh, I will watch it later when I have time" a member will say. However they will keep procrastinating there time until they only listen to a few talks here and there and at some point life goes on and slowly they give no thought on watching it and allow the world to take control. Now I'm not saying that all the members do this. But I have seen many fall into this procrastination of watching general conference. But I do have to say. I loved all of general conference. I know that they say not to have favorites but I do love Elder Uchtdorf... He's always the one that answers my prayers. Also during this general conference I have grown to love our beloved prophet so much more. He has such a wonderful sense of humor. I feel like he's changed allot from when he was first called to be a prophet. He just seems so much more relaxed. =)

Well I have a fun story to tell this time. So right after district meeting me and my companion were on our way to get some lunch down one of our main roads here. On our way we passed by this guy smoking a cigaret. When we passed him my companion told me he felt like we should go back. So we did. We started to peddle our bikes and stopped him in this small tiny parking lot. We both shook his hand and he told us his name was Cody. We then started to tell him a little about the church and about how there would be a prophet speaking to us this Saturday and Sunday. He surprisingly started to sound a little interested. I started to think wow this might be one of our new investigators. When suddenly I see this black figure at the corner of my left eye walking towards us. And to my surprise it was a police officer dressed in black. I then started to think "oh great is he going to get mad at us because were in the middle of a small parking lot?" He then said in a commanding voice "Put out your cigaret Cody." He then again said "Put out your" He then quickly grabbed Cody's arm and tries to twist it around him. But Cody was to fast. Cody then quickly twisted back ward and threw the cop on the ground. (this cop was big too.) Suddenly another undercover cop car comes out of no where and pulls right up by us and tried to get out of the car but barely missed him! Cody was flying like the wind down the streets (He was fast.. clearly he had practice.) The cops were quickly right behind him and slowly disappeared in the distance. We were then there by our selves with our bikes and a couple of running cop cars with no one inside of them. We sat there for a little while still trying to recollect what just happened. Then looked at each other... and just busted out laughing. But in other high lights... We helped chase down a dog.

Well I'm out of time. Beautiful mother I love you and miss you.

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • October 10th, 2011

Hey Dadio!

1- How would you define "Feasting on the word's of Christ".

Feasting on the words or Christ....requires a lot of preparation :)

haha, and we don´t enjoy it unless we partake of it. haha. diving

in, and enjoying it. we don´t really understand until we apply it.

2- Did you have your Ice cream party for having the most of "I forgot"

and if so did you enjoy the gathering?

I really love to be with the missionaries and to be a missionary! the

ice cream party was fun. I don´t know if i told you but we won

because my and my comp (long story short) brought a drunk guy to

church. i don´t remember if i told you the story. but yea, we

enjoyed the gathering. it is really fun and interesting to see the

elders play sports. I really think sports brings out the true

personalities in people. :) Our district is pretty tight because we

haven´t changed people for two transfers. I will have been in my area

for 6 months! that is a third of my mission!!! that is a lot of

time.

This sunday was hard because like none of our investigadors came to

church. we pretty much received a baptism. a member in another ward

gave us a reference. he´s been teaching him and everything. so we

passed by for this reference, and the first lesson he had already read

into alma!!! he stopped smoking, drinking, and everything 2 weeks

ago. he loves the gospel already! haha he is telling everyone about

the book of mormon. it is a miracle! he came to conference and

everything too! it is hard to visit him because we have to take two

buses and it is best to go with a member in this area. but yeah, we

are pretty stoked about it and hope to teach a lot of people in this

area. he just needs to come to church :) which is hard because he

needs to take 2 buses.

Also, we are teaching this guy who used to do a lot of drugs. some

people beat him up and he was in a coma for like a week. he is

relearning how to walk. i knew him before all of this happened, but

the change is incredible. you can see it in his eyes. we saw

another miracle in him. he has been going to a lot of churches...and

we passed by and visited him. it was so cool to see the spirit work

in him. he told us he had narrowed it down to 3 churches. he said he

would not go to church with us this sunday because he already told

this other lady he would go to her church. we continued to talk with

him, we started talking with him, and randomly he said, i think will

go to your church this sunday. i think this is the only church of

God. I just had this thought come to my mind that this is the church.

it was so crazy, and it had to have been the spirit working in him to

say it randomly, because we weren´t exactly talking about that. so,

he said he would come. (He didn´t end up coming, a member passed by

to get him in a car, and he was sleeping...i think they are going to

give him a blessing from what the member said.) but it was so crazy

and cool to see. it is almost like a story of Alma....the life

changes and he is so much more receptive to the gospel. he said he´d

get baptized, and we are still working on that. it is amazing ot see

the spirit teach. sometimes people understand everything we say, and

i know it is a miracle how fast they understand those things because

of the spirit. he came to the conference and said he felt the

spirit...like a warmth in his heart :) haha but we might have

problems with members, because of his reputation....they will have to

accept him...he has changed so much!

We also found this other joven, who said he wants to stop doing drugs

and said he´d come to church. he also dropped out of school so he

doesn´t really know how to read. i was so excited to teach him...he

told us that the elders have more fear of him than us. he said they

are always scared, but we actually talked to him. hahaha it made me

feel good. but yeah, he would help convert a lot of people if-when he

gets a testimoiny of the gospel. it is relatively new, but he is

smart and knows when the other churches are doing things falsely. so

we will see where we go with him, but he knows a lot of people and

siad hi to us with all his friends....which is something really cool.

we had a spring cleaning with our old investigadors and kinda started

new. it has been really good because we have opened our eyes to the

other people and have been able to find many people! it is awesome!

God still blesses me with tender mercies. i can´t tell you how many

times a soccer ball comes rolling my way, and just the opportunity to

kick it back makes me happy, and also, the kids love it that the girl

in the skirt is playing soccer with them. Also, there are these

little waterballs that i like. haha, a member gave me a package of

them. we have also received a lot of flowers and things from members

and stuff. they really love us. the members keep telling me they want

their son to find someone like me to marry. hahaa. it has been

really nice and the members are great. we were a little discouraged

that none of our new investigadors came to church, and all of them

only told us good things and how they were happy with our work and

that we have brought a lot of people to church! they weren´t even

mad....so at least that is good....

anyhow...this was very missionary-ish....

love you lots!

hermana schneider

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • October 10th, 2011

hey family,

so guess who got to go to the temple this week... woot woot oh man it was so awesome haha i have never learn more from a temple trip in my whole life it was absolutely awesome and i felt so stinkin good afterwards haha. so we went cuz my companion and me and like 8 other companionships got the goal of more than 10 investigators in the conference and the president was pumped and took us in his vans. oh man we went to the temple in ciudad juárez and it was sweet i hope i get to be there for a while but for now im super content with girasoles. life is just super good right now. and everything is going super amazingly awesome.

i really dont have much to say this week but i hope all is super well at home. oh amoray who is mrs. key? her name doesnt even sound familiar haha but dont tell her i said that. hows seminary going with ya´ll? it is starting to get cold her already and just the smell of chihuahua changes and now im starting to think more and more about when i started in delicias. it is super crazy to think about how much i have changed since then haha oh i thought of your homework assignment that i want ya to do haha since its cold here already the people are starting to make this food called tamales.... oh my gosh they are so stinkin good and so your homework is to learn how to make em so that when i get home you can teach me haha nah jk i just want you to eat the amazingly delicious food that we´ve got down here.

my body is super tired, straight up exhausted but for real my spirit just keeps me going and its super crazy to see the spirit do so much work. actually president had us study the talk by president eyring about how we gotta work more than when people would normally take a break. i liked that a lot and in dyc 84 in the juramento y convenio del sacerdocio se habla de cómo si nosotros magnificamos el llamamiento del sacerdocio y si somos fieles al convenio vamos a ser santificados por el espíritu para la renovación de nuestros cuerpos (DyC 84:33) sorry i had to write that in spanish i dont know how to express it in english haha but yeah i loved that part. christine i hope you get better!!!

Thanks for everything to everyone.

Elder Nunley

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • October 10th, 2011

hahaha it is so good to hear about whats going on at home! haha i miss you guys!

That is way cool you have met Tina's family! I heard Russian this week and i understand some, probably about 30% so that would be way cool if i learned a little more and could speak with Tina's brother!

well this week i have a cool story, so the mission president stayed at my apartment and slept over! hahaha it was so fun, he is the coolest guy! It was the first time he has slept over with missionaries and it was way fun! He is an amazing teacher, we had this lesson with a couple and they are super elect, it was our second lesson and the mission president committed them to be baptised! it was a way cool lesson... the lesson was also in Spanish because the dad is from Peru, and luckily the president knows Spanish. It was amazing to see that the one night that he sleeps over we have a lesson that really needed to be in Spanish!!! It is amazing to see how the Lord works, he leads his prepared children to his prepared servants. Our president really does help us out alot! THe couple is doing very well, they didnt come to church and they said they would be we went and visited them yesterday and we also will be getting with them on wednesday! lots of fun stuff!

Good things are going on here in Slovenia! So remember ksenja, well we taught her and she was baptized about 1 month ago, and her daughter texted her this week and told her also that she wants to be baptized so we will soon be teaching her also! Also a recent convert brought her sister to the baptism on Saturday and the sister is way nice we got to walk them home and talk about the Book of Mormon and also the Church. Good stuff is going on!

well that is it for this week! mom and dad i dont want to get you guys trunky or anything but i have like 13 weeks or something like that left! So be prepared for another person at home!

pss.. dont worry i am not trunky, i am working super super hard!

psss.. I heard from Sean and he is the coolest kid ever! i miss that kid a ton!! so dad if you see Sean tell him hi!

love you guys!

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • October 3rd, 2011

Subject: Re: Dad's Pregnant!!! (He thinks my "subjects" are stupid, so he told me to put that there!)

hey family,

you are soo right conference this weekend was super awesome

so the people i said were gonna go didnt all go but we did have 13 people who went !!! and in our district we had 56 and the members brought 14 people and in the zone we had 92 investigators in conference and members brought 29 in total!!! that was super awesome and all of ours that went loved it and said they will be waiting for us in the house haha cuz they wanna hear more. i think my absolute favorite talk was by the elder that talked about the need of the book of mormon haha wow that talk was so awesome for investigators.

oh so normally in the mission we have about 300 investigators in church every sunday but this weekend we had about 650 in conference!!!! so the president is super stoked and acutally he is getting all of us together today at 11 and he told us not to bring any books just a bag of sports clothes....... miracles do happen haha for real this is something suuuuper strange but im pumped.

oh at conference i saw a family from my first ward in the mission in delicias and it was way good to see them haha they actually told me of the nick name that the ward gave me that i didnt know about when i was there. they said they all called me Sonrisa Colgate haha which is colgate smile.. they called me that cuz they said i was always super quiet and when they would talk to me all i would do is smile haha (thats cuz i didnt understand much haha) but i was glad to know that i still smiled alot haha.

i had a list of 7 questions for this conference and every single one was answered. i loved the talk by barbara thompson and i am super stoked to read the liahona and study it up!! my life is so awesome and i am so extremely blessed. coming on the mission is the absolute best thing that i have or will ever do in my life. thanks to everyone who was an example to me and for grandmas and grandpas who stayed firm in the faith so that i could have this blessing in my life. i love this gospel so stinkin much and it is absolutely ridiculous that i have 11 months out here today.

haha i love you all so much and i hope you know i am better than ok here.

Elder Nunley

colgate sonrisa

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • October 3rd, 2011

conferance was so good!! i loved it!

This week i was with a Croatian elder, it was way cool. He is a younger missionary, he has been out for 4 months. Its amazing to see how much i have changed since the time i came on my mission. hahahahaha i just laugh when i think of how different i do missionary work. hahaha good times.

Well we almost got a baptismal date for sebaštjan this week, he is so so so close he is just having some troubles, but he said he will be baptised, he just wouldnt commit to a date. My companion asked him to be baptised so that was cool.

This week was way good, i heard from matt meyers!! i miss that kid!

So... i dont know really what so say, we worked hard and tried some new finding ideas, taught some really good lessons, and learned alot! haha that is about it. oh we taught this lady that believed in India stuff like cow gods and weird stuff like that. hahaha

Also we went to go visit an investigator and one of his uncles was at his house and his uncle was like, "i have to show you guys something" and he showed us this youtube video and it talked about how we dont need god to forgive us, but we just need to forgive ourselves. hahahaha it was really funny, i told him that is not the case and that repentance doesnt work like that. And i never argue when people want to argue i just give them a chance to accept truth. Well i showed him that it just doesnt work like that and the mom was listening in on the conversation and she was like literally cheering us on, cause she knew that the uncles ideas were totally wrong. hahaha it was a very interesting exspeciance. haha

Love you family!

ps..Tell andrew i miss the little guy! And then when i get home he has to hang out with me!

pss.. mom i remembered it was your birthday i PROMISE! I just forgot to tell you!

psss.. mom that would be way cool if you made me a Care bear outfit!

pssss.. Jessie thanks for the letter!

psssss.. My companion learned, "love story" by taylor swift on the piano and it is a way way hard song but i love it so much that i am going to spend my pdays learning to play that song! it is way cool. I sent it to jessie!

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • October 3rd, 2011

hey mom!

conference was an experience! haha, we haven´t had many people come to church, but we have been working really hard and 6 investigadors came to church! which is just amazing! we have been working and talking with about 1000 people every week!!!!

we really did see a lot of miracles. it is interesting to see people more receptive to the gospel when things in their life change. one investigador was beaten up and was in a coma. he is learning to re-walk and everything. but he came to church and really liked it. without that experience, there is no way he would have ever come to church. then, two mothers came to church with their kids. i felt bad because one of the moms left early because her kids were loud and running around. for me, i understand the kids...two hours of sitting in a seat listening to öld men talk....haha i just tried to let her know it is normal. she left early ;( but i hope the members aren´t upset and accept her.

we also brought a young man that is studying with the jehovah´s witnesses. i am almost certain he knows the church is true, but he won´t change...and i don´t know why yet. one of the members that is just amazing, came up to him and said...if you invite me to your house, i will go! haha (We have been trying to get lessons with members...it has been so hard because we can´t the members to come with us). this member is amazing!

then, we had an investigador come, the elders talked with him, but didn´t tell us that he is in our ward, so we weren´t able to get to know him. but they said he came and said he wants to get baptized!!!! yeay!!! we called him, and will try to pass by him.

also, we have received a ton of referencias from members....which i have never received so many references...i think it means that the ward trusts us and knows we are working....which is many blessings!!!!

i love conference! i love the prophet and his apostles!!! i didn´t get to hear much cuz we were always with investigadors and their kids....we tried to play with their kids so the parents could listen. the relief society was great! i loved elder uchtdorf´s talk! i love conference! i never really realized how awesome it is that we have a prophet. i love the prophets! i really love conference!!!!!

yea, not sure what to write!

love you lots,

hermana schneider

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • September 26th, 2011

Hey mom who is so beautiful. Its me your one curly haired son. =)

More miracles have happen this week. God is still alive. What a surprise! =)

But first I want to start off on how happy I was on Tuesday this week. We went to a fire side with Rich and Danna who will both be getting baptized soon. But before the fire side We were talking with Donna and she kept having all these questions about the Book of Mormon and baptisms for the dead. Well we already got done answering allot of her questions and we then asked her to come to a fire side on Tuesday. When we asked her I felt prompted to promise her and promised her that if she prayed and asked God the questions she wanted to answered that it would be answered at the fire side (Which was for investigators and recent converts). I was a little hesitant at first to promise this because the fire side was going to be on the restoration and the Book of Mormon. And I knew that her question was going to be on the baptisms for the dead. But I felt prompted to say it so I did. Well we went to the fire side and the spirit there was great. We had another quorum of the 70 come down to our mission. (Our mission has been a hot spot lately.) But slowly after awhile the time kept going by and by and no answer or explanation was going on about baptisms for the dead. I was sitting in my chair starting to get worried and started thinking to my self "man why did I promise that... now she's going to start wondering if our promises even come true. What am I going to say after this?" Then he decided to do a question and answer section for everyone to ask him questions but there was only 20 minutes left. Question after question was coming up and no one was talking about baptisms for the dead. The 20 minutes went by very quickly and there was one final question and then he was going to be done. This lady raises her hand... She got the micro phone and asked..... " doesn't the bible say there should be nothing added to it? Doesn't the Book of Mormon count as adding to the bible?" Noooo! my promise was false. I then began to start thinking about what I would say to her. What should I do... Should I tell her "Well Donna... clearly I wasn't speaking from the spirit... or maybe I could say Blah blah blah! I had no idea what I was going to do." Finally he got done answering that question. But... All of a sudden he allowed one more lady to ask a question. The microphone got to the lady and she asked "Why is it that your church does baptisms for the dead?" Yesss! Thank you. A huge relief went over me. I had to thank God for teasing me and acting like he wasn't going to answer my prayer. The Elder explained it in such away that Donna was finally able to get over that hurdle and decided to move forward with her baptism.

A couple of days ago we taught Rich about The Word of Wisdom. We were a little scared about bringing it up because we knew that he liked to smoke allot. But we learned that he has tried to quit multiple times and has never been able too. And he told us that he would love to try and quit again. After we promised him that he would be able to quit. I told him "Rich if you do this stop smoking program that we have and you follow all the steps I promise you as being a Representative of Jesus Christ that this addiction will go away." He looked at us and he said he would do it. We then asked him if we could give him a priesthood blessing and we explained to him what it was. We then proceeded to give him the blessing and after words on the drive home he said. "You know I really felt something during that blessing. I had so much on my shoulders during the time and during the blessing it felt like all of my burdens were taken off of my shoulders. I'm not sure what it really was" We then explained to him that it was the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost is so real its beautiful. =) I feel like I finally some what understand the feeling of the Holy Ghost. When it comes it allows me to speak boldly. It allows me to speak things that I wouldn't normally say to people. It allows me to feel if someone is bearing a true testimony or not. ( Which I'm not going to lie it helped allot this week. I will have to tell you some more stories when I get home.)

Also I want to mention that after the fire side I got to see some of the people that I taught in Moran Perry (My second area) I saw Sosa there as well as Linda. But as I was talking to them I felt a little tap on the back of my shoulder. I turned around and it was Mark Johnson! (The greatest black man in Spokane) I Was so happy to see him. He gave me big hug and really just made my whole day being able to see him and hear about him and Vickie's baptism. Even before that I got to see Susan this other lady I taught when I was in Moran Perry. She is the gal in one of my my videos on the 2nd SD card I believe before I was sent to Moscow. It was so great being able to see them all again. I was also able to see Elder Smith and Elder Bernard and other great friends that I love. It felt like a piece of heaven and it gave me a reminder of why I was out here. If I was that happy to see them I cant imagine how happy I will be when I see you guys.

Well the time has come to close again. Just know that I am doing well and that I love you. I hope things are going well back home. I miss and love you. I saw one of the young men picking on their mom at church and it made me miss you. I thought to myself " Oh I remember the good times that I got to hug and pick on my mom" So just know that right now you get a short break. When I get back I will be picking on you again. I love you so much.

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • September 26th, 2011

sorry not much time!

Question 1 - What is funniest thing that happened to you this week or you saw this week?

oh man, did i tell you a bird pooped on my head, then my shoe broke, then my shoe fell in the train tracks, then a woman yelled at my comp, and then i opened a bag of cereal that spilled all over the floor. it is just funny cuz it happened the same day. we did laugh at all of it too...it was one thing after another.

Question 2 - Has it been hard to get along with your companion this transfer?

yes, it has been hard, because she is new and adjusting to the mission, she is a little homesick, physical sickness, the schedule getting up early,, beign with someone all of the time, the strength to be a missionary (walking a lot), and things like that. but overall, we get along good. but she is doing better and we laugh together, which is important :)

sorry! i got to go!

love you lots,

hermana schneider

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • September 19th, 2011

wow i love giving you all homework cuz you guys teach me so much every week. thanks for all your advice. this week my letter is super short cuz i had to mail an email to like 30 members and it took a while to enter in all their email addresses. but im mailing you the invitation that we are mailing out to all the members and the members are gonna email them or print them out and send them to their friends or something but yeah i am so oooberly stoked for this conference something big is gonna happen.. oh yeah your homework this week haha read what president uchtdorf told us to do in this liahona about preparing ourselves for conference haha. i love you guys.. oh mom if you could send me my black dress shoes that i had before the mission and my english hymn book (the small one) that would be awesome..

i love you THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSS much :)

Elder Nunley

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • September 19th, 2011

Dear Beautiful Mom that is mine.

We have had a couple miracles this week so I would call this week a pretty good week. =) We are also probably going to be having a baptism this Saturday. Her name is Danna Zietlow and the reason I say that she will "probably" be baptized is because she has been very sick for the past few days and also she has been having alot of hearing problems. But that's also one of the miracles that has happened this week. She asked us to give her a blessing after church yesterday so of course we did so. But during the blessing we told her to be healed according to her faith. When this happen she said that all of a sudden her ears starting cracking inside and her ears were cleared and she was able to hear normally again. After the blessing she was just smiling not really sure of what to say. It was great testimony builder for all of us of the priesthood power of God.

We will also be teaching a couple of new high schoolers this week as well. There names are Robb (boy) and Taylor (girl) that are dating each other. Taylor is a member that is having some trouble with her testimony right now and Robb is not a member but is willing to listen. Well we met the two kids at dinner yesterday at the Welch's and after dinner we usually have a 5-10 minute thought and leave. But not after this dinner... Sister Welch decided that she wanted to do the spiritual thought that day (Which is no problem at all unless they start doing what I'm about to tell that she did.) So we all sit down in this living room and watch this 8 minute video that was made probably "25 years ago" on the plan of salvation. I felt so sorry for Robb. I just wanted to scream and tell him " No Robb are church is not that cheesy and we don't watch these old movies any more" So the whole movie I was just praying that the holy ghost would still be there and that he might feel something. After the video she decided that she wanted to share the whole plan of salvation. So she grabbed a marker board and started to draw Pre- Earth life and started talking about the counsels in heaven in very deep detail. We would try to put a word in every now and then but there was no hope. She was on the loose and she was going to be doing the teaching. She then started talking about a heavenly father and a heavenly mother. After that she started talking about the Law of Chastity with everyone around. I was just praying that god would keep the spirit there over and over again. Each time we would try to keep the lesson on course or change it she would just cut us off over and over again. I honestly don't know how she did it but some how she started talking about the 9 different levels of heaven and how that if you are at the very bottom you can progress up wards. And that if you want to make babies you will be in the Celestial kingdom but if you don't that's ok because god has these other levels where you will just be single. I tried to tell her that that was false doctrine but each time I spat out a word she would go louder and louder. (She was on a rage of some sort. There was nothing stopping this woman.) So I just had to sit quit. She then started talking about how we can become Gods and that we can create worlds and that his baptism didn't count. After that I think she fit in a 30 second story of the first vision. Then some how back to the word of wisdom. The only thing that wasn't mentioned in that whole lesson was the Holy Ghost. ( I think the holy ghost made sure he wasn't apart of any of this.) So instead of trying to explain to him all of the things that she went over I just decided to ask them to come to one of our lessons on Wednesday. Surprisingly they said yes. After something like that I didn't think that could happen. =)

Rich Fraley will also be getting baptized on October 15th. We met him from street contacting a couple of weeks ago and I cant remember if I told you a little about him or not. But he is doing great right now. He went to his first Sunday yesterday and he liked it alot. (Even though they talked about baptisms for the dead and family history + temple work at the very end which made him have some questions) But a couple days ago we decided to ask him why he was being so open/accepting with everything. Reason we asked was because when you usually tell anybody about the Plan of salvation they either have problems with The pre-Earth life or the 3 kingdoms of heaven. But as we taught him he would always tell us " hmmm Well that makes sense." or he would say "ya I believe that to" So we finally asked him " Well Rich... Why do you keep coming to these lessons?" He looked at us and said " I had a friend a couple years ago who I have always looked up too. He never went to anyone's church at all but he would always study the bible and knew it very well. One day I asked him what he thought about the LDS church and when I asked that he told me... Rich that church has a key to heaven. Out of all of the churches in the world that church is the most correct. If you ever get a chance to speak with them make sure you give them a chance and listen to them." So about 10 years later we saw him on the side of the street and started to speak with him about the church and asked if we could take him on a church tour and it just went on from there. Its amazing how god works. His friend moved away though but I wish we could speak with him as well.

Well that's how things are going on here. I love you most beautiful mom =)

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • September 19th, 2011

That is exciting that i will be coming home Jan 2, 2012, i thought about extending even if i just stayed here in Slovenia just because it would be good but its too late. Its ok though, i will be very happy to come home.

This week was very very good. We went and visited with the Priest guy, he had big meetings every time that we came over so we didnt have a chance to get together with him.

We had a baptism this week, ksenja was baptized, it was so much fun to teach her! She a very excited person and is just a nice lady! The best news about that is members did the baptizing and the comformation! Its good to see that the branch is growing.

Another investigator is coming very very very close to baptism also, the Lord has just been blessing us, we had 3 investagtors at church and we have 2 investigators with a date! I think we have figured ALOT of things about missionary work and the Lord has been blessing us!

This week was very good, i love my mission, but then every once in a while a car will drive by with REAL music and i just want to run next to the car so i can keep listening... lets just say after 2 years of MOTAB i think it is time for an upgrade when i get home! hahaha but dont worry i am suprised i am not too trunky, i am working harder and more smart then i ever have!

love you family!

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • September 12th, 2011

wow, we have worked really hard this week. We watched finding faith in christ with a lady and her kids, and she absolutely lvoed it! She really doesn´t believe that God loves her. Every time we teach her, teh spirit is so strong, and the spirit really brings the peace. It is crazy! Sorry this is so short! i was looking at pics for most of the time from the wedding!

I love the opportunity to share with people my testimony. I love when I can feel the Spirit and that the Lord loves us, individually. It is good to share that this life is preparing us to meet our Heavenly Father and to develop those attributes of Jesus Christ. He is super mazing! I love what Faith can do! There are so many good things in this world! The gospel is really the only way we can have true happiness, in this life, and forever!!! love you family!

love you!

hermana schneider

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • September 12th, 2011

hey family, wow thank you so much for sharing your experiences with luke 15 that really meant a lot to me. its amazing cuz i was totally expecting different answers and the ones that you guys gave me are the answers that i really needed to hear.

so i have been reading alot in the bible and something that has really gotten to me are the fariseos (haha i dont remember how to spell it in english) the orthodox jews that always tried prooving Jesus wrong. for example healing on the sabbath or just about any other little thing. They did know the teachings of the gospel very well, they did have all the rules down, they memorized just about everything but they were missing something.. they didnt apply it in their lives, they didnt understand the reasoning behind all of it. for example ¿why do we have the sabbath day? obviously to worship the Lord, do good for others, renew our covenants all that stuff. but when Jesus healed a man who had a limp hand on the sabbath they all freaked out. but why?

something else i love in the bible is chapter 22 of matthew when Christ talks about the Great Commandment. Elder Wirthlin gave an awesome talk about that in october 2007 that one of my ex companions gave me and i read it this week and absolutely loved it. i´m really really striving to apply that and Moroni 7:45 in my life as a missionary. its not easy but for real its so much better. im finally starting to think before saying things haha and i think ¿how am i showing charity for this person? haha its not easy and to be honest sometimes i feel like a goon trying to be overly nice haha but just in this week i`ve seen a change in my life haha. and since you guys loved the homework i gave you last week haha im gonna give you some more. in the last conference there was a 70 that gave a talk about ¿what type of men and women should we be? I say unto you even as I am. i think his name is elder Robin but his talk is absolutely awesome and talks about how we Being and Doing. so i want you to read it and then help me understand what i should do as a missionary. I really really want to be obedient in everything but i dont want to be a fariseo telling everyone else what is it that they are doing wrong haha i hope you understand that. so please give me some tips.

oh so this week one of rey davids friends saw us in the street and came running up to us (he was drunk too so it was pretty funny seeing him run haha) but yeah he came up to us and wanted to talk to us. he saw the huge change that Rey david made in his life and he wants to change too but he had lost hope a long time ago cuz of all the problems he has had. but after he saw everything that david did he has faith again and wants us to help him!!! how awesome!! and he says that his mom and sister and aunt and cousins wanna learn too haha so im super pumped about all that.

but yeah i love yall so much. cuìdense mucho, les amo

Elder Nunley

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • September 12th, 2011

i enjoyed those pictures so much! Bryces suit looks way cool, Camon looked was good (Tina looks was nice), Andrew looks like a stud (i love that kid), and Jessie looks OLD, that was crazy i thought she was a senior in High school for sure, I honestly didnt recognize her!!!! And of course mom and dad you guys looked good! also the Billman Family looked way good, I really really miss koda!

ok this is going to be the best email that i have ever sent you guys, so i want to prepare you for it!!!

OK well lets just say that this week i went on an exchange with an elder from Finland and not even kidding every single hour we had a HUGE miracle happen, not like little miracles but HUGE miralces, this week was something that has never ever happened during my time as a missionary. We seriously never had time to eat or sit down, and any time we sat down its cause we were teaching and all we did is teach. not kidding if i counted the crazy things that happened it would be around 25! So i will just tell you some of them!

Ok well on friday we went to visit a pontenial, named Augustin, and i called him and he said we could meet in center, so we did then we sat down and talked for about 5 mins (he is a former priest, and has a huge background with religion), then he said i want you to meet some of my friends... So i was like cool lets go! So we get up and went to this huge catholic church and he asked, "do you have extra BOMs", and we did and so he walked into the church and starts walking up these stairs and in some hallways and he starts rings some bells and stuff, (we were just like really confused cause we just barely met this guy) Well anyways he finely finds this door and he opens it, and in the room was a secretary and Augustin says, "i brought some friends, these mormons have truth and they are from America and Finland." and we were like.... ya that is us, hahaha! Then Augustin says he want to meet with the high priest, (we later figure out he is the 2nd highest priest in Slovenia) and his secretary was like... we will see if he has time. Then he comes back and was like, yes he does have time. So we walk in and talk to this Priest and he was super nice and he actually had alot of questions for us! It was so much fun to get to know him.

Then after we get to know him, i get this idea that we should teach him... but i was like no.... he is a priest, he has his faith, he is a very powerful man in his church..... but then i hurried and repented and said sorry for thinkin that i shouldnt teach him, and that he needs the truth just like everyone else!!! so i tell him we brought a present, and we gave him a book of Mormon. He said he had never seen one before and we started talking about it and bearing strong testimony. Then we taught him about the apostasy and the restoration, and how God and Jesus came to Joseph Smith and restored the truth.... it was a very powerful lesson, he was intensely listening, then we invited him to read 3 Nefi 11, from the BOM and pray about it! It was the coolest thing that ever happened. we werent nervous we were just there to do what we needed to do! At the end he asked my companion to pray!

So this week we will go over and bring him a picture of Christ and ask if he had read the book of Mormon. Or another thing i was thinking if we get to become really good friends it would be fun to study together, we would study about prophets and baptism and lots of good stuff!! Well i was very very thankful for the opportunity to teach him and hope its not the end of that one!

So you have to admit you only hear about stories like that in the movies! hahaha ok well another one for you, well after we went to the priest Augustin was like, wow that was good lets go teach some more, and he says, "i have alot of friends for you guys" so we go to the and get 10 BOMs and we start meeting his friends, he knows EVERYONE, and we gave away all 10 books and got some phone numbers. It was kinda awkward but we survived, he would walk up to everyone and say, " hey (name) these are the mormons missionaries they have truth and he would give them a BOM and tell them to read it, and then we would testify or teach them or get there number. It was so much fun.

SO next thing, well we got with Augustin today, and we were teaching him and he says he knows the BOM is true and so we talked about what that means if the BOM is true!! And we asked him to follow the example of Christ and be baptized, and he agreed. So we gave him a date Oct. 22! And he promised us he will be baptized on that date! Then he asked if he can have some BOMs to give to his friends!

Also this week we have a baptism, her name is Ksenja! We asked her to choose only members to baptise her. She is and is very very excited. She had a problem this week but it got all cleared up and we are very excited!

Also, we have been teaching this kid named Sebaštjan for along time, and he would never agree to be baptized so we talked about why he wouldnt be baptized and it took a 2 hour lesson but we figured out why he didnt want to get baptized, it was something to do with the Law of Chasity and so the next day we taught the law of Chasity and he agreed to live by it!!!! it was amazing the spirit was so strong that Sebaštjen changed his mind and said he wants to change and will do that! So he will hopefully get a baptismal date this week!

Also, Samo has a baptismal date, he improved so much this week!!!!!!!!!!! it is a miracle that he is changing so fast!!!!! he is getting baptized on Oct 15! he also came to chruch!

I could go for about another hour telling you about 2 more stories!

Also we taught 24 lessons, and 3 people at church! THe Lord really did watch over us last week i am still recovering from running everywhere but i think i will survive!

well thanks family!

mom you asked if i need anything for my birthday, i am good, unless.... at Zumies in the mall there is a blue watch with green numbers, i really want it, the only reason i know is cause my comp has one that is white and he said there is the same one but blue and green! hahaha love you family!

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • September 5th, 2011

dang i love that picture of Adri and I so much! that is the coolest thing ever!

ok so you guys are lucky i never write for a long time but this time is way good!!!!!

This week we had miracles like i have never seen before. So i will tell you a cool story well we have an investigator and has a baptismal date next week and last week we were really worried because she hasnt been understanding a couple of key doctines she didnt understand 3 things. 1st.... she has a hard time believing that christ suffered for every single person. 2nd.... that the book of mormon is 100% true (she knows its true but she thinks there is a couple of fairytales in it) 3rd... the restoration of the priesthood! So we planned a really really good lesson and she came and sat down and then she just started crying..... And we hadnt even started the lesson and she just started telling us what was wrong, well she said she drank a cup of coffee and she was trying so hard not to. And just some other things werent going very well. Well anyways we just showed her some encouraging scriptures and stuff and we werent able to teach her the lesson we planned... But after about 30 minutes of just straight listening to her out of nowhere she said, you know what the book of mormon is 100% true and there arent any fairytales in it!! (i was like wow that was really random.... but keep talking) and then out of nowhere about 2 minutes later she said, its amazing that christ suffered for all of us and including me!!! when i heard that i about dropped my book, i was like we havent even taught you the lesson, and all we have done is listened and the holy ghost was there literally teaching her!!! it was an amazing thing! And then we taught her about the restoration of the priesthood and gave her a blessing!!! it was so amazing the lord was humbling her so that she would be ready for her baptismal date! It was definetly one of the biggest miracles i have seen on my mission!

ok now i will tell you the BIGGEST MIRACLE i have seen on my mission. Well we had to go up to Maribor on wednesday for a baptismal interview and while we were up there i got a call for this guy saying that he tried coming into the church but the church was closed, so i told him we dont live in the church and that we would love to get will him tommorow. Well he was like, "i want to change my life, my life sucks and its cause i dont have god" and i was like... ok your right, well what about if we get together tommorow at 11. So we get together with him the next day and he walked in and he looked like a mess, not to be mean but he look like he had devil inside of him, i have never seen anyone so sad and hopeless. Then he said well i just wanted to show up and now i am going. But we were like no... come sit down and we can talk. Well we talked and he was really messed up, he was the saddest i have ever seen anyone and the most lonely and deep into alot of sin. And so we start talking and the whole time he never looked up at us once, just his whole accountance was depressing to see. Well we talked to him and gained his trust and then talked about christ. And he said the reason he hates life is because of all the sinning he does, and we said that chirst invites everyone to repent and that he isnt lost. Well when we said he wasnt lost he looked up and said i hope what you guys are telling me is true, becasue i used to go to church but i stopped because the priest there told me i am going to hell and there is no point in trying. So we said that isnt true and he still has a chance and it will take effort on his side. And we gave him a Book of Mormon and asked if we could get together the next day. He later told us that it took him 7 tries to get to the chruch and that if the church was 1 meter father he would have made it cause he was trying to do what is right but i honestly think the devil was working on him more then normal.

So the next day comes and he shows up to the church when i saw him i honestly didnt recognize him!!!!!!! I saw him he was looking me in the eyes and was holding himself like he had respect for himself and other. And we started the lesson i was just shocked.... and i asked him, what is different today, you are totally different? what is it? and he opens his book of Mormon to 3 Nefi 11 and slightly stooked the page, and said, "this is what changed me!" He read about jesus christ and then he said, "why wouldnt i be happy i am not lost i still have a chance and Christ suffered for me!" i was just in shock... literaly in 24 hours it changed his life, he loved it so much he slept next to the book. He said there is so much power in this book! And he said he had been praying like crazy. Well we asked him if he would start preparing for baptism and he will be baptized on Oct 15! We are going to be working with him alot before then!

Well he ended up coming to church. He actually called me and 4 in the mourning on sunday and asked if i would call him at 8 oclock becasue he had a feeling that he might sleep in and he really really really wanted to come. He came and he loved it!!!

This week was full of miracles!

good stuff!

also we were with the president and i said.. president i heard a rumor that you are going to send your Slovenia Zone leaders down to Bosnia. he just laughed and then i asked him how close it was to being opened he said it will be very soon. Then i said well i know of a missionary that has wished his whole mission to serve there, and that he would extend 6 months if he had the chance to serve there... He just laughed again and said that is good to know. So start praying that the lord will send me there! the good thing is i am on presidents good side! (i also send this letter to him) hahaha

Well love you family!!

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • September 5th, 2011

hey family.. i love you guys a bunch.

so this week has been super crazy. i didnt feel like eating tuesday night and i wanted to do a little bit of soul searching and so after planning with elder hernandez and reading a talk from the conference i went outside and just started thinking about everything that the Lord has done for me in so little time it was way cool i had i think about 4 minutes of just thinking and then i got a call from the zone leaders and they told me that my companion and i had transfers...but we both werent going anywhere haha i just laughed and asked him what he needed but he was like no for real. so now there are 4 missionaries here in girasoles(thats my ward) and my new/old companion from the offices(elder quintero) and i are now the zone leaders.. our zone is huge and it includes the missionaries that are all the way out in the mountains but so far its been sweet and we had a conference with the president thursday from 9am to 8pm haha him and all the zone liders haha but yeah so thats new

and today for the first time i played a sport here in mexico..cuz the president has our p days super short but we played basketball and it felt SOOOOOOOO good to run and all that stuff oh my gosh my body just feels so dang good right now haha

but the baptism for rey david was amazing. so so so spiritual. he let me do the honor of baptizing him and i still say that hearing the testimonies of my investigators after their baptism is the absolute best part of the mission. he is such a huge example for me and i know with out a doubt he wil stay strong in the church his whole life.. we still dont have a bishop but our old bishop saw david sunday and came up to us and was congratulated us with our success with him because the bishop knew everything about his life beforehand but yeah an awesome baptism.

so in the scriptures i am studying a ton in mosiah 1 - 5 cuz it talks all about the atonement of Christ. i really want to be able to understand it better. and today i learned alot about the change of heart that we have to have to be able to be called His sons and daughters. i found some awesome scriptures in the book of mormon and in the bible that i liked a lot helaman 14 30 and Ezekiel 11 19 i think but helaman 14 30 is way cool because it is so clear and the Lord straight up tells us I gave you My Son, He suffered for Your sins and if you want to live with Me again Choose the Right!!! haha it doesnt say it like that but when i read that verse thats what i imagine Heavenly Father saying.

So the president has been doing and changing a lot of things so that we can have 100% concentration in the mission and now we have a schedule for that and haha it is definately a schedule that makes us concentrate haha there is hardly anytime for anything else it is so awesome im gonna come back home a complete ñoño (nerd) haha im reading so much and i am totally gonna keep that habit up when i go home.

so i read luke 15 this week and if you all could for family night or something i`d like hear your thoughts about those parables becuase i learned some great principles from them. but i wanna read your comments this next week.

I love you guys so much,

Elder Nunley

oh i got your package THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • August 29th, 2011

Dear Mom who I still love and will always love.

Things here in my new area are going great. Its always a little more stressful trying to learn everyone's names again but I feel like I'm getting really good at that by now. I still haven't seen the lake here yet but maybe I will go see it today for P-day and see what it looks like. I hear the lake here is very beautiful. So if its good enough maybe will have to come visit up here some time. Will see though

My new companions name is Elder Pierson. (not Kierson) The zone leaders told me the wrong name last time. He has broken about 8 different things on his bike since I have been here. Its has been pretty funny. We have been working hard though. This last week we have been helping a lot of people move so just so you know when I get back I am pretty much a licensed mover now with all the people that I have had to help move since I have been out.

Well we are living in a pretty nice apartment. Its the biggest apartment that I have stayed in so far so it has been very nice. We have no AC again though so I always have to be next to a fan or I just start to swim in my own sweat. And thank you for that birthday money. It actually was spent to fix up a part of my bike. So I have been living off of peanut butter and eggs and reeses for the past week. I no longer like eggs or reeses any more. Its ok though we are finally getting our next payment on Wednesday so that I can start eating something more healthy. I have been getting lots of protein though so I think that's good. Man I love my mission.

Well hopefully this week we will have more people that we will be committing to baptism. Its so weird how different each area feels. I love so many families here already though. I feel like this is going to be a really good area.

Well I love you my most beautiful mom

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • August 29th, 2011

hey family hows it going??? everything is so dang good here in chihuahua!!!

we had stake conference this week and our bishop is now the 2nd counseler of the President and my district had 26 investigators in the sunday morning meeting!!!!! that was super cool and we talked to all the investigators after and they all talked about how when President angulo talked he has a voice that you just straight up cant ignore haha i told them that i had many opportunities to get chewed out by him when i was in the offices haha jk but yeah President talked about the definition of condemnation and in the scriptures it talks about how its a state of no progress. i liked that a lot and he talked about how if we are not progressing or preparing ourselves everyday...which is our purpose in life, alma 34:32....we are in the state of condemnation. How direct? there are so many things that we NEED to do everyday to help us prepare for the eternal life. for example reading the scriptures daily or praying, family prayers and personal. soo soo soo many things, little things but escencial that we have to do.

its amazing to see how much the gospel has changed my life here in the mission. haha i lucked out so much to come here to chihuahua. this gospel can do that for absolutely anyone too. and actually this week we are gonna have a baptism for someone that is proof of that.. his name is rey david (king david haha) and he used to live in arizona and was a cholo (thug) he dealed with all that kinda stuff and got sent back here to mexico. he continued living his life like that for a while here and his wife is a member less active. one day he just decided to change completely... we got a call from his wife and we went to go talk to him... something suupper crazy happened that week but i´ll have to wait til after the mission to tell you about that haha but yeah now he is soo soo active in the church. he doesnt have work right now and so we taught him about fasting and he was like yeah man lets do it haha he still has the cholo accent haha but he has such a strong testimony. he is one of the biggest examples of faith that i have in my life. he believes 110 percent that if he puts the things of the Lord first in his life the Lord will bless him. he is doing absolutely everything that we ask him and we actually had a miracle and one of our other investigators said in his work they need some more people but we are gonna find out today if David got it or not.

hahah dayton i think you´ve gotten funnier and i loved your letter you sent this week i laughed so hard. haha i hope everything is going super duper well !! can you believe that general conference is in like 5 weeks???!!!??? how awesome. but yeah so we are gonna baptize david this week and we are super pumped i´ll send a picture of him to you after the baptism he is so awesome.

Love you so much,

Elder Nunley

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • August 29th, 2011

That is super cool to hear about Tina deffering from her mission call! sounds like love is in the air!

mom that is cool to talked to elder hadley... i never met him cause he was from Croatia... and i am in Slovenia. But that is super cool!

You guys are not going to believe this but this week the sisters in our district had a baptism and guess how many investigators/non members showed up? 25!!!!! it was amazing and we had like 18 members there. I was loving it after the baptism cause we had a chance to talk to all the non members and get some phone numbers! Also the branch president asked my comp and i to give a first lesson for one of the baptismal talks. I was kinda nervous cause i we were in a tiny room and there were so many non members that we were praying really hard for the spirit! it was great though, we challenage everyone there to read the BOM and ask god, and everyone took a BOM after the baptism! Also last week we got two new investigators!

So yeah it was a good week president said we need to work on inviting so i have started to. We were on the train going to visit a member and someone invited me to sit by them, we talked for a while and i decieded to practice inviting so i invited him to prepare himself for baptism. He said yes! hahaha so that was a cool exsperiance, but the only problem is, is that he didnt have a phone so he said "i will call you next week" so i will pray for him that he will call!

oh yeah we had some nice visitors from some spanish speaking country and they didnt know any english or slovene, so i "pretended" for about 20 mins that i knew what they were saying... man spanish is so easy though, i was having so much fun though talking to them! It was really weird to meet nice people though, because in slovenia the culture is so different, and it was weird to talk to people that are exciting to talk to, slovenians are quiet, shy and not really open or outgoing. It was just really different.

One lady we are teaching accepted a baptsimal date for september 17! So also gave a BOM to her mother this week!

Well things are good!

ps... i will send some pictures home sometime...... sorry i always forget.

pss.. Do you guys want anything from Slovenia?

psss.. i have a feeling missionaries are going to Bosnia soon!!!! president said something about it on our meeting. Pray that he will choose me, i would even stay an extra 6 months if i could serve there!!!

one other thing, i was laughing so hard when i read adris email about how the ZOne leaders always focus on baptisms and stuff and that her distict leader is like way cool! hahahahahaha its funny cause it seems like that is the same everywhere ZL are always the bad guys! hahahaha (i am a zone leader) oh man that is funny stuff!