LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • May 31st, 2011

Dear mom who is way beautiful to me. =)

This week has been a little crazy. Elder Smith and I had to help some other missionary's with there companion ship inventory because of how bad they wanted to kill each other. So we ended up staying up till 1:00 trying to help them out. There is so many things that happen to you on a mission its quit funny. =)

The baptism went great. It was picture perfect the way everything went. There were a ton of families that came to support Suzette from the ward and also Audrey's baptism. I don't know if i told you but we were also teaching an inactive family that is now coming back to church and there daughter got baptized with Suzette. It was so cute how Audrey treated Suzette. She gave her the biggest hug and said to her " We are like sisters now." My experience with confirming her was amazing. Yes it was my second time confirming someone but this one was so much stronger. I got up to confirm her a member of the church and I wasn't really scared at all. But as I was giving the blessing and as i said "Receive the Holy Ghost" My whole body started to shake. It was amazing how everything was going through my mind. It really was blank and I felt like God helped me with every single word to say. I guess I can just say I wish you were there. But by the time I said Amen my whole body completely stopped shaking. It has been by far the strongest time I have ever felt the spirit during a blessing.

The ward has been going so wonderful. It is now actually one of the top teaching lessons in the mission. Also the highest finding. God has been blessing this area tremendously. The wards 1 year anniversary is today so we had the first baptism in this ward which was really amazing to us. I was grateful to be here.

But..... sadly once again..... I will be the one leaving again. I will be leaving to Idaho and going to Lewiston Tuesday morning. I'm going to be baby sitting an Elder so will see how it goes. I really didn't want to leave this area though. I still don't know why I'm always the one leaving. Elder Smith this whole week kept telling everyone that he was leaving and so he started saying good bye to everyone. So it gave me some hope that I might actually be staying. Then I started to joke around with others and saying "watch it will be the complete opposite and I will be the one leaving." A couple days ago Elder Smith asked me "Why don't you ever learn the street names?" I looked at him and said " Oh you will see why" He knew what I meant when I said that when I got the transfer call a couple days later. The whole ward was shocked that I was the one leaving and they put it all over face-book. I started to laugh when I heard that. I guess I'm just an area hopper. =) Things were so wonderful here though. I got a call last night from Suzette and she was just balling on the phone when she heard I was leaving. It was a hard phone call. She will be an amazing member though. Well hopefully one day I will understand why I get moved around so much. But until then I will just keep moving forward with confusion in my eye's. =)

Also I thought I would tell you that the letters that you sent to Suzette not only helped her but also touched her mothers heart when she read them and she is now sitting in on the lessons. So I thought I would just tell you guys that you did some missionary work by just sending those letters. Its astonishing how God works in so many different ways.

Well next time I will be emailing you I will be in Lewiston so I will be sure to tell you how I'm doing. I love you so so so much Mom and your still the very best mom ever made. =)

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • May 31st, 2011

(NOTE: It sounds like Sister Schneider tried to send pictures but they didn't come through in my email. Sorry!)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!!! LOVE YOU!!!! AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TAY TAY THE 19TH...A LITTLE BEHIND THE TIMES! LOVE YOU TOO! AND ANYONE ELSE I FORGET...SORRY!!! LOVE YOU TOO =0)

we kept trying to send pics, but it isn´t working....grrrr...i tried! and so did my comp! so sorry! and you probably wont get any letters...cuz we have to wait forever! and we don´t have time!

OKAY..THE pics worked

the first is of the asado we had with the member for me ¨going away¨and for his ¨birthday¨ . it was great! my companion put the candles in the wrong way....haha it was super funny. i didn´t know their candles were fireworks either!!!

the other pic is of the baptism of teh mother and of her daughter, who was baptized after her 2 weeks later.another pic is of the famous sebastien sires...it was raining after the baptism of Celeste....we are doing the ´copo´signs...we are cool....

1. Almost always i eat oatmeal and fruit

2. What principle...probably the atonement and faith! I liked Elder Nunley´s imput how we can never have enough faith and there is always room for improvement....i love missionaries!

haha....and my comp...is really good at english. she knows more english than i know spanish. and so she is speaking to me in english more than my other english/american comps. so now, i am speaking more english. haha...oh well. she is super sweet-hearted.

the ward here is amazing! they are so supportive of the missionaries and missionary work. it has been a change to feel okay that i don´t know spanish completely. it sounds like they have had a lot of missionaries here and the ward is really strong. the members brought like three people to church, which is super great! the bishop wants us to eat both lunch and dinner with members in the ward. there are so many part membered families that we can teach. he thinks if we eat with them, we will always bless their home. so...if i weight a lot when i get back, i hope you still love me even if i am a chunk. the area is a lot smaller too so we don´t walk as much.

ANOTHER PIC IS OF ME AND MY BEST FRIEND MISSIONARY (red head). we have been with each other from the beginning. she jokes that she is really fat and gained 20 pounds...so we had to take a picture of it. she is super funny, you will have to meet her!

sorry this is crazy. we wasted most of the time trying to work the camera. we are working hard to find new investigadors because we don´t really have any. previously, they told me they didn´t contact in this area much. they had baptisms, but didn´t contact many people. so, we had a gazillion contacts the other day, looking for more people to baptize and teach....hopefully more today...with people ready to hear the gospel! haha

love always,

hermana schneider

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • May 31st, 2011

so... good news Ljubo is getting baptised on the 11th of june! he is a super cool guy, we get with him 3 times a week! And a recent convert is going to baptise him!

So maybe you remember the personal english class idea that we had! well it was the first week that we tried it and..... it was AMAZING... i am so excited about it. we taught like 20 lessons!!! really good lessons!!!! oh man it was crazy, we had lesson after lesson after lesson. On wednesday i almost lost my voice!!!!!! we worked so hard and we got 3 soft baptismal dates this week!!!! cool huh? so i am 150% convienced that personal english class is the best finding tool that has ever came to slovenia!!!

Most of this week i was on an exchange with an elder from maribor! (ps.. i stayed here in ljubljana cause i didnt want to go up to maribor and get home sick for maribor again!) hahaha so i went with a younger missionary and he loved it! We had so much fun, ever day we just dominated! We were at the church teaching every day from 12-9:30 and most the time we didnt have time to get food! haha its ok though i am a little fatty anyways! haha

ok so this week we had a leadership training meeting... so, my comp and i had to teach part of the meeting! it was ok, i thought we did pretty good! We invited a couple members to talk about experiences they had with missionaries and other things! And we as did alot of encouraging. And... dad remember your conversion story, well i asked president hill if he would read it as part of our presentation. It was really good we talked about it and paid attention to who was involved with your conversion.... what kind of rule the holy ghost had in your conversion.... and how we always need to be missionaries when we go home... and some other things! it was really good!

things are good! i am thinking i need a vacation though....! haha

well love you guys!

ps... i forgot to tell you we went searching for an investigators cat this week! it was really fun but sad cause we didnt find it! The daughter in the family was crying for like 2 days straight!

pss... some mom and dad learning another language does not helping my dyslexia... its getting way worse! hahaha

psss... Thanks dad for getting that information on becoming a principal! that will be bomb!

pssss.. Oh and i need to go to the dentist??? should i pay with my debt card then you guys can pay me back or what.... its not my fault.... i brush and floss and use floriede daily! you just have bad luck sometimes!

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • May 23rd, 2011

1. What is your favorite thing to drink?

i like water. haha if it is cold and doesn´t taste weird. haha kinda boring i know

2. How safe do you feel as you proselyte?

i feel pretty safe prosleyting... we will see in my new area though. haha, the Lord keeps his promises. i am not sure how i would safe if i wasn´t a missionary. probably at least one person everyday tells us how dangerous an area is or where we are going.

so, we had transfers, and everything has changed like crazy!!!! it is pretty insane. the name of my new area is aldo bonzi. my companion is super sweet-hearted from Costa Rica named Hermana Alvarado. i am excited. i am in a different area. my comp from the MTC was here before me. it is so fun to have the district from the MTC here. when the missionaries reunite from the mtc, it is the best ever! it is fun to see how everyone has progressed in the language and their experiences. we are really good friends.

the last day in my last area was really good, and really really hard. i didn´t want to leave. it is hard for me to think that mostlikely i won´t see these people again. all these people that i have visited, spent time thinking and praying for, and the numerous and infinite amount of people that have helped me in some way, some form, i will never be able to repay.

the ward in Hurlingham is stepping it up. the last lunch we had with members, the couple (the man is the first counselor in the bishopric) told us how pleased he was with our hard work. he also said the bishop is super pleased too. in the meetings with the leaders and the missionaries (us) they are really starting to invite us to do stuff and to work as one with the ward and to have activities to help us with investigadores. It feels good to have more support from the ward. the first counselor has helped us a ton!!!! he is great and helped this lady in a wheel chair every sunday come to church. there are some really great members in Hurlingham!

Also, another member did a huge asado...kinda like a huge bbq for me leaving, and for his birthday. an asoda is where they cook all this meet and food. kinda like that place where they serve you hot meat on a stick....all you can eat, can´t think of the name of it...where Kevin, from teh colony, worked. he did that to say good-bye and also we had a cake for his birthday. it was really really nice.

we also had a baptism on sunday. the bishop changed the baptism from saturday to sunday because he wanted the ward to support the missionaries and the girl (named Celeste) to have the support of the ward. it was super neat to see! it was really hard to leave too. when we visited Celeste and Elvira, the two baptisms we´ve had, i cried a little bit in the prayer. they have changed so much and i hope they stay faithful in the church. they both love to learn and love the book of mormon. Elvira also cooked a pizza for us and ALWAYS thanks us for us visiting. a different change from before. i couldn´t tell them that i was leaving the next day. i don´t like good-byes. i hope they arent offended that i didn´t tell anyone or let my comp say anything about me leaving, i knew i would start crying if anyone said anything. it isn´t about me anyways, but the Lord. it was also hard to leave my comp. we had a really good last day together. probably the most perfect day in the mission! it is going to be hard without her.

Actually, the only person i could tell that i was leaving was Seba. we dont know who is going or staying until late saturday night. He baptized Celeste and i really wanted a picture with him cuz i didn´t have one with him. he has a lucky hat and doesn´t let anyone touch it...but he let me wear it! haha. i really hope he is able to leave on his mission soon. it is only because of him we found elvira and celeste. we also have two more baptismal dates for lucila and her brother ensol because of seba in a few weeks. they are going to have a ton of baptisms in the area soon!

so crazy! the one thing i dont like at all in the mission is having to leave.

wow, i wrote a lot!

love you!

hermana schneider

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • May 23rd, 2011

hello family. so i found out im a terrible father haha mi hijo already went home :( it was super rough he told me about how his parents forced him to come out here and then he got sick out here too so we couldnt leave the house for a couple days and yeah it was a real mess haha but im really actually proud of him because he had a whole lot going on that i cant really explain but im sure he is gonna come back out in the field if they let him.

but yeah so now i have another mexican companion... FINALLY!!!!! haha oh my gosh my spanish has been struggling with only americans haha cuz i cant ask questions about the grammar and what not. but yeah his name is Elder Zuvire. he is way cool and is really excited about the work. he is a newbie too he{s only got about 2 months in the mission.

but yeah i dont know why i havent told you guys about the Loya family but i just remembered and you guys gotta hear about them. so with Elder Hurtado here in Saucillo we went to get food from the street....cuz that is where the best stuff is at.. and we bought these burritos from this shack and Elder Hurtado got sick haha real bad like he went to the bathroom like 4 times that night and then another 3 in the morning haha but yeah so we were teaching a lesson and then he told me "we have got to go right now" haha so we booked it to the gas station and he went to the bathroom and while i was waiting outside one of the workers came over and threw something in the trash where i was at. and so i started talkin to him and stuff and then i put a date for when we could pass by his house haha. so we went over and his wife loves it all!! and the family lived in arizona for a while too so all the kids know english, the parents understand it but cant speak it, but yeah the kids are 19 17 14 and 10 years old and all of them have felt the spirit and everything. and one of the friends of one of the sons asked us (cuz he listens to the chats too) if he could serve a mission if he gets baptized haha how sweet!? this family is way cool and actually tomorrow we are gonna go and try to put a baptismal date for them, we already had one but they didnt go to church :( but yeah im super excited for them and the son is way cool thats my age i would totally hang out with him haha actually one of our pdays they invited us over for a bbq but there is not enough time during the day haha but yeah Mario is doing so good he is reading a ton and studying a bunch too. he is totally gonna be the next branch pres haha.

OHHH rachel and todd congratulations,, rachel if you keep the baby in just a little bit longer (about a year) i would really appreciate it haha i wanna see it the first day haha

actually the first full day me and Elder zuvire had together we were contacting in the street and i saw this lady carrying a ton of stuff so we went over and helped her and when we got to her house she invited us in to see her first grandchild haha so we went in and this kid was brand spankin new like i think 3 days out of the oven haha but what was super cool was to feel the spirit in that room just with all the love the mom and dad and grandma had for that baby and when we talked about the plan of salvation. for real we could have invited them to be baptized with out even teaching them anything haha and they would have accepted that is how strong the spirit was.. way cool!!!

but yeah the work here is great right now i am focusing on having more faith. that is what i love about the gospel, there is always room for improvement. we can never say ahhh ive got enough faith haha but we can increase our faith until we have enough that Jesus Christ Himself cant help but show himself to us like with the brother of Jared!! can you imagine?

well i love you guys all so much and thank you for all that you do. you should have someone translate the letter from the president and then follow what it says. it would help me out alot.

Thanks family, I Love you

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • May 23rd, 2011

hey i have a question... dad what do you know about being a principle of a high school. what kind of eduacation would i need? what do you know about principles in general? if you could help me out that would be great! cause i was thinking that maybe i would really like to be a principle!

ok so this week was really crazy... i dont think i have been so tired in my whole life! every time we road a bus i fell asleep! haha not even joking, oh man but wow time goes by fast.

ok so some really really really good stuff is going on... first off, we made a goal to double our baptisms in the mission and we need 20 by july.... in the last 10 days we heard about 13 people with baptismal dates!!! how cool is that! the mission is doing so well. SO we are super stoked about everything. You wannna know what the secret is--- its when we have success we tell everyone, and so then everyone gets super excited and wants to help out even more (and i spread the word that the mission is changing... and then i really does )! And we had a meeting with President Majc (branch president) and in the past we have had big problems with him not really liking missionaries. But at our meeting he said... "ok something is different, what are you zone leaders doing." So i am super excited about that, that is probably the best question to hear! He is getting excited!

ok then for english class we are doing it a little different... we are doing personal english class! we had 50 people show us for it and all of which are really really good! We are going to teach english and then just start teaching them as if they were an investigator! we have about 10 lessons a week becasue of that, and we are going to see some HUGE changes happen because of this! (ps.. i was the creater of the idea) hahaha so the mission is doing good!

ok so... we had a lesson with the most gangster kid i have ever met! He is black and from africa and is super cool, he owns a hip hop clothing store and is super funny! Previous missionaries got with him a couple times, and when we knocked on his door i am so suprised. (cause in slovenia you never see black people) and his shorts were PAST his ankles and his shirt was HUGE! It was really different teaching him.... hahahaha he just says so many gangster comments during the lesson. It is just way funny when he reads cause he reads like a gangster too! hahaha so i am super excited, he really liked me! (hopefully i can get some sweeet hip hop clothes before i go home!) haha jk Oh and he made us a rap about missionary work!!! hahahaha how cool is that!

Things are going good! you guys are the best!

ps.. the black guy said he is coming to church but he isnt going to wear some dumb white shirt! hahaha so i am excited to see him there!

ok wait... i have a really really really good exsperiance that i wanted to share this week! we got to teach president Juhart and his daughters (who are 8 and 10), and we talked about baptism... and about their mom. They really want to be baptisted but their mom wont allow it! So we asked the daughters if they would act on their faith and ask their mom, and if they would then i would call all the missionaries in slovenia and ask if they would pray for them and we would see miracles if its gods will! they were so so so so excited. Matijaž was also very excited! So we had an amazing lesson and prayed alot! I was so convinced that it was going to happen.... everyone was. But we recently heard that the mom wont allow it and that the mom wont talk to the missionaries either! I was so sad... it was really really not cool! But the lesson that we had was amazing! After the lesson the girls wouldnt let us leave.... they just held onto us and wouldnt let us move... hahaha it was really funny, so then i decieded to role play what they would say when they asked their mom.... it was so funny!!! oh good times! but i still think something big will happen in that family so that the daughters can be baptisted!!!!

love you guys!

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • May 17th, 2011

hey family!! haha so President Angulo wanted us to send you the letter that he wrote for us. luckily you have brother pitcher there and sister milller so they can help you translate it haha i still havent read what it says yet but i thought that was pretty cool that he would write you all a letter.

so yeah i recieved my son this week. haha thats what they say if you train someone. he is my son and i am his father. haha but yeah he is from centerville utah and he is way cool actually funny story when we were in the airport leaving the mtc and while we were in line his mom asked us where we were going and we told her chihuahua and so she went running and grabbed elder evans and intruduced us to him haha pretty crazy huh haha but yeah we had a baptism on saturday.. his name is Mario Guardiola. he is like a perfect convert he is so great like he absolutely changed his life around for the gospel and he is sticking to it too. haha it is so great.

sorry but today there really isnt a whole bunch of time to write so if it seems like im rushing through thats why haha. but that is so crazy that you all are going to be finishing school here so dang soon haha RIDICULOUS.

but way cool i cant believe how fast time goes by here on the mission. and i will be with elder evans for a the least 3 months and so when that three monthsis up i will have already had 9 months out on the mission... absolutely crazy. thats great that you got my letter finally haha HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM AND DAD haha still not mom but dad yes haha.... but what sort of crazy plans do you all have for the summer and vacations that im gonna be missin out on or what.

Saucillo is great the people here are excellent and the branch is nice. it is starting to get pretty dang hot here haha im still not ready for it haha but its all good. it was so good to talk to you all again last week i loved it. elder evans said that saturday night i woke him up because i was teaching about prayer haha so im still going strong with teaching in my sleep haha

so yeah the picture im sending is of me and mario and Elder Evans. Man i absolutely love the mission. i absolutely love how the Lord teaches us lessons. He always knows what is best for us and we just have to be humble enough to accept it. it blows my mind how much the mission has changed my life in just the past couple months.

WOW haha i love you guys so much. Keep on keepin on haha

Elder Nunley

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • May 16th, 2011

So this week was crazy... i say that ever week but we never have enough time.

So i have a couple of funny things to say.... so first off, sydney pace sent me an email of all the new stuff going on in American Fork, utah and she named off a huge list of friends that i had before the mission how are now all married!!!! hahahaha so remember collins girlfriend, well she got married to someone else. Hahahaha its really sad but really really funny also!

ok so we have someone with a baptismal date.... his name is Ljubo! he is a super cool guy. He is getting baptised on the 18th of June.

But on friday the branch had a picnic and it was the most fun i have had in a long long time! hahaha so we got to play volleyball and everyone was pretty good so it was super fun. Well we were playing for about an hour and the missionaries all played with there church clothes on. And.... i wriped my pants (the seam on the butt of my pants)... hahaha i know it stinks huh? ... it was like a three inch whole.... so i kept playing anyways cause it was too fun. But then they wriped really badly until i couldnt play anymore and i just had to sit down. hahaha it was super fun. good times.

more good news... so we got a new investigator this week and he is a way nice kid. And so we invited him to family night and he came. When we were walking to family night he asked if he could smoke, i said i didnt but he could if he wanted. Then we said hey guess what we have a program the helps people stop smoking! hahaha and he said cool lets do it tomorrow. SO we taught him the program and he has been a non smoker for 4 days so far! HE is really really good, he said in family night he wants to have a more meaningful life. So tonight we are going to talk about that with him!

Well thanks for everything! love you guys.

ps... congratulations rachel!

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • May 9th, 2011

It was super good to hear from you guys yesterday!

So i have some super super super good news.... well after i got off the phone i asked the president if i could have 5 minutes to call Sean, he thought about it and decieded it would be a good thing! (i am super lucky cause its not really allowed) hahaha so i was super excited and called but nobody answered so i called again and Seans mom answered! hahaha she was so happy to hear from me but she said he was at work and probably wouldnt be able to answer his phone! but i got his number and called him anyways... i called 4 times and nobody answered so i was kinda bumbed out. And right before we were about the leave the mission home Sean called back! hahaha it was so good to hear from him! oh man it was the best. But he said he is doing better, he just doesnt have much goin on, but he is going to church and i told him we have to baptise all of our friends when we get back and he was super excited! Oh mothers day is the best!

well we talked yesterday so there isnt much to say.

The zone meeting we had on thursday was super good, as zone leaders all the missionaries get together and we have a meeting and my comp and I had to teach.... I was pretty nervous for the first min that after that it went really well!

Well things are good!

love you guys!

ps... how is adri doing? was it super fun to talk to her?

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!

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! :)

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • April 11th, 2011

ok so i am not going to lie..... here in maribor we are dominating everything!!! so let me tell you a little bit about church. Well president fidler called us Sunday morning and said he was sick so he asked Andrej to lead the meeting. And Andrej has never led a meeting or anything, so he was really really nervous. Then to make the meeting even crazier we had 8 INVESTIGATORS COME!!!!!!!!!! yeah i know... it was crazy, we only had 8 members there, and then we had 5 investigators kids that decided to come. So i would have to say i dont think i have prayed so much in one meeting as i did in this one. Ever missionary had an investigator on both sides of them. Hahaha and it was a first time for alot of the investigators. So Andrej did really well, it was kinda wierd at some points but ever member was trying there best so there isnt much more you can do. One bad thing though, when franjo (the huge huge member that is super cool) went up to bless the sacrement his underwear was showing in the back, and it didnt have the best impression on the investigators. But he didnt mean to, he is just such a big guy.

But i love it here in maribor! We are finding alot of people right now! This week we had to do down to ljubljana for a meeting and so we took a train that was pretty much empty. While waiting to leave, we were sitting on the train and for some reason i threw my companion a coin, which took a wierd bounce and started rolling down the aisle. Then i guy (about 30 with tattoes) comes up to where we were sitting and gives me my penny back, and so i invited him to sit up with us. Well he ended up being super cool. I talked with him the whole ride down to Ljubljana (3 hours) and i taught him about the book of mormon, and after life, and he just had a bunch of questions so i would tell him where he could find answers to some of his questions in the BOM and he would look them up! He really really liked it. So hopefully something good will happen from it.

English class is going super well. And we are starting something new next transfer to even get more investigators. We are going to do seperate English classes, so pretty much one on one with the students. We have a ton of good ideas, and i am really excited!

WEll i got my package.... actaully 2 packages (thanks mom... thanks grandpa)! they were the best packages ever! Everything in them was in good shape. Well i am doing good. i really dont want to get transfered!!!! and transfers are coming up soon.... so i am really nervous!

Well hopefully we will be seeing some baptisms in maribor soon! love you guys!

ps... i almost forgot that we totally went door bell ditching twice this week! hahaha cool huh? There was a member that joined a different church that was thinking about coming back. But we knew she would feel a little dumb coming back because she would be worried everyone would hate her or be ashamed (which isnt true). So we got a couple people to write her cards then got her flowers and rang their door belll and ran. Well we ran hard and far so she wouldnt know who it was and its always more fun... but we forgot that her daughter (10 year old member) was a little beast and always has the most energy ever. So when we thought we were plenty far away we started walking then we heard...... "there they are" then we see the little girl pointing and running at us... so we run super super far this time over this mountain (slightly exagerating) and we look back and she was still coming! hahaha so we ended up running for like 10 mins. hahaha it was super fun!

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • April 11th, 2011

¡HHHHOOOLLLLAAA!

ya, i have gotten most of the dear elders...i love them! thanks! keep sending them this way!!!

your questions are kinda fun to answer, haha here we go.

1--my favorite food....i think i am always hungry and eat a ton.....i eat everything....i dont know....the meat here is really good and we actually dont eat much meat as i thought we would. the epinadas and milanesa is really good! everyting is either fried, baked, or cooked, so sometimes i crave the good old raw veggies and fruits which are hard to come by sometimes. everything is pretty similiar here though....so blessed!

2--Favorite gospel topic to teach: The ´Plan of Salvation! i love that plan and it makes everything else make sense...why do we what we do. i was thinking the other day and this life is really all about choices. so crazy...agency really us a gift.

WOW, i would love to play some soccer, but i dont think i will get to play much until after my mission. oh well though, that isn{t really my purpose right now....crazy to hear that from myself, but it is true.

and what happened....bryce, camon...since when did schneiders lose at anything?

well, i dont have much time today because i have been at this office place in order to live in argentina...se llama domicilio...haha i am sure that is no help to you!

love you!

hermana schneider

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • April 11th, 2011

sorry i couldnt write you all last week. i was in the hospital for conference :( what a bummer right? it was alright though cuz i was able to watch the talks later on the internet. but i think the one i liked the most was the one by Elder Scott. Man his talk was so personal! you could tell how much he loved his wife and how important love like that is for each and every one of us. haha it seems like the Lord really wants us to get married pretty fast huh after all of those talks haha.. i{ve still got a long while before i gotta think about that stuff though. but yeah there were so many talks that were so dang good i loved it. haha before conferences seemed so dang long but this time after two hours i was like ahh man its already done? haha for real i loved it so much.

OH man that is so cool how many people got their mission calls!!! haha i honestly thought about Jacob Howell the other day and when he was gonna be coming out here. That is so cool that he is going to Buenos Aires!! i cant wait to make fun of his spanish when he gets back!!! haha (just kiddin jake haha) but yeah life here in the offices has changed a bit since i last wrote. my companion slash trainer is already gone!!! haha and i dont know anything still!! haha oh my gosh there is so much stuff to do!!! but at first i was like worrying about it the whole day like even when we were out working with the people. but now its just like after we leave the offices i dont even think about that stuff. i love being able to do that now haha cuz honestly i get so stressed out about this stuff with alll the visas and fm3´s and stuff like that. cuz if the elders dont have em they cant live here and in some cases we would have to send them back to the united states like right away and that would cost the church a bunch haha and to be honest i dont want to have to deal with that haha. but now im starting to get it all down. im starting to organize everything a lot more and slowly but surely it is getting better. im learing a ton from the president though that is way cool.

oh in this conference the 1st counselor of President Angulo got called to be a 70!!! haha i just ate in his house the other week! haha oh my gosh his wife is such a good cook. honestly the best desert i{ve had since i{ve been here in méxico. but yeah his name is President... well Eder Valenzuela haha but yeah look for him in the ensign when it comes out he is a way nice guy and he actually lived in minnesota for a while.

yeah i did get the letter from you last week it was just with conference and being in the hospital and all i couldnt write and honestly up till yesterday it has been so crazy in the offices. but that is way cool that krabby and greg came over to the house haha. thats so cool that spencer is loving the mission so much. you shouldve sent the missionaries over there while he was packing so he can start preparing to serve a mission in this church!!!! haha oh man i so regret not teaching all my friends but when i get back im all over that!!! haha but lets see oh yeah i got one package from you with the one shoe!! thanks!! those mcdonalds shoes just keep getting uglier and uglier haha oh well at least they are comfortable!!

oh so i have been studying charity a whole lot lately and jsut studying it makes my life better haha im able to deal a whole lot better with elders used to get on my nerves and now its just like i can honestly laugh it off. it is really neat. The Lord is so awesome. He has been helping me out so stinkin much here on the mission. like for real ive realized finally that He wants me to depend on Him. obviously i{ve gotta do the work but He wants me to depend on Him for help strength courage faith whatever it be. He even blessses us with awesome investigators even when we have to spend a ton of the day here in the offices. like we have found families that are jsut straight up waiting to hear from us. The Lord truely has His hand in this work.

right now my favorite scriptures are alma 7:23-24. there are 13ish charachteristics (pretty sure thats way off... but its better than braydens spelling haha LOVE YOU BRAYDEN!!!!) that alma tells us that we should have IN 2 Verses!!! way cool

oh i loved the pictures that you sent with the shoe haha thanks a lot. oh and the fruit snacks too!!!! OH MY GOSH. haha and the jerky!! Thanks grandma and grandpa!!! thanks to everyone who has been writing me!! haha honestly even though i dont have time to write back i still appreciate them a bunch.

oh so i will finally tell you i was in teh hospital for another elder haha im totally fine haha it was jsut a mini april fools joke i guess haha i just had to baby sit him for a while :) haha

love you so much

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • April 11th, 2011

Dear favorite mom.

I'm glad Baby Creed was blessed last Sunday and that so many family members showed up. =) Its amazing what God blesses us with isn't it?

Well alot has happened this week. But I feel like I should write a little bit what happen a couple weeks ago. I didn't want to share it before but now that I have been seeing gods hands in things that have happen I feel like I should share whats going on. Alright a couple weeks ago I had a very hard time with some of the things that were going on and things are going to sound a little dark when I say them at first but in the end you see gods hands come into play. It was a beautiful day outside at about 5:00 Sunday. We decided that we were going to go and see this lady named Tina who hasn't gone to church for a couple years. We have had a couple other appointments with her before but none like this one. So we knock on her door and her son lets us in and we meet her older son and older daughter for this first time and everything was going well. They then went down stairs and we started to talk with Tina a little bit about her patriartical blessing because we had an ex-patriarch with us. But as we were talking I kept hearing all this noise coming from down stairs. (Such as banging against the wall, glass breaking and the F word 100 times) I finally couldn't handle it anymore and said Tina I think you should make sure everything is going OK downstairs? (I guess she couldn't really hear anything but I'm still not sure if she was acting like it.) So she went down stairs and we just started to hear all this yelling and a couple other words. Finally the daughter came back upstairs and went into her room and Tina came in a little up set. I stood up and looked at straight in the eye's and asked if everything was OK. She looked at me and was nodding yes but then started to get teary eyed. So we all set back down and she started to talk to us a little bit again and we could tell that her son was being abusive by that time because of how she was acting and I started to ask if this stuff happen all the time and she just said it did sometimes. We then started to hear more crying and could tell that the son was by her daughter again and the daughter kept whispering please stop, please stop you have to be quite. The son continued to be angry and outraged. The patriarch was totally calm during this time and I'm not sure if it was because of his old age or what and then out of the blue the patriarch asked "Well Tina is there a time that we can set that we can come back" And oh man was I mad! Right when he said that I cut him off and said "No! Tina are you OK right now?" and continued to talk with her and was just mad that the patriarchs biggest worry right then was another appointment. . . A few seconds later we heard another glass break and Tina said I'll be right back and walked off again. I felt like he was being abusive to the daughter again and I couldn't handle it anymore. My heart started to pump my blood started to flow my hand started to squeeze tighter and tighter. . . That's when I stood up and said " I'm sick of this." I was going to kill the kid. I started to walk around the table (My companion later on told me that my chest was pumped way out too) and I started to walk towards the door when I heard the most piercing "ELDER!" that I have ever heard on my mission. I heard it so strong that I literally stopped right where I was and looked back thinking my companion said that but when I looked back at him he looked all puzzled like as if to say "Why did you stop? Lets go kill this guy." Then I looked at the patriarch and he was just moving up and down on his rocking chair so I know he didn't say it. I then sat back down wanting so badly to go get that guy. A little bit later she came out and I asked if I could go talk with her and she told me no not right now. So we left and it was just in my mind all day. I didn't know what to do. I felt like this biggest wimp and felt like I did the wrong things. I kept thinking why did I not go and stop this. I later on asked my companion why he yelled at me and told me to stop when he said "Elder" To my surprise he said that he never said anything. He then told me a little on his view and he said that he was confused when I turned around like I did. But he never heard anyone say "Elder!" I feel like now that the Holy Ghost for what ever reason didn't want me to go over there. But your never going to believe what happen in a few weeks =)

Part 2. A few weeks later we decided to go back again and to our surprise Tina was very very happy. We started to talk with her and she said that her prayers were answered. (So were ours) But she told us that her son moved out because he finally was able to get a job as being a chef and her daughter moved out to her new apartment. So now its just her and her 10 year old son and they are just loving life and we are now able to have lessons with her when ever we want. God pretty much just said " OK here you go. I took them out so that they will now be able to be taught." We are always able to feel the spirit there every time we go. We love those guys =) It took me so long to get over what happen too. I felt like for so long that I made the wrong choice by not going and stopping them. I don't know what would have happen. But after hearing this things went so much better for me. I wish I could have gone into more detail but I have to go.

I love you my mom =)

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • April 4th, 2011

1- Im not sure who i have learned from the most thus far. I have started to get to know my mission president a litte bit better and he is amazing! I cant even explain it! Serious! His example. Can you imagine bein in charge of over 100 missionaries? And...missions are hard times for these people too....? And, he remembers everything we write, our investigadors, a Father of gazillions of people! He is a great example and very confident!

2- Sunday activities: Wake up 630, shower, go to a meeting with the ward if we have one, pick up investigadors, go to church, eat lunch (hopefully a member remembers they are feeding us :), then go do lessons, contacts, etc. Everyday is Sunday to a missionary, except Preparation Day....haha it is great!

im sad to hear about camon and logans injuries....no bueno! Tell camon to do a handstand the whole time and play! jk...love you camon! I was actually thinking about camon the other day! love you!

So...can you tell me a summary of how the priesthood session went? I would like to know if you have a little bit of time! i love conference! Also, did they say much about missionaries? i only got to watch 2 sessions in english. i love conference!!!!!!!!

That is awesome how Taryn is getting involved and helping you out and stuff! Glad the UVU team is getting involved too! how do they look this year? i think Camel is a senior! so crazy! i love that girl!

oh i think it is someones birthday today, on your side of the family....gma? i can{t remember but tell them happy birthday :)

lovelovelovelovelovelove love you!

hermanita schneider (ps no one can say my name here...me included...way funny)