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