You may need to turn the volume up since I was sitting about 2/3 back in the chapel and just using my phone. :)
Like the Precious Gem
Why cry when you can laugh? That's all I'm saying.
Monday, March 24, 2014
Mission Homecoming talk
You may need to turn the volume up since I was sitting about 2/3 back in the chapel and just using my phone. :)
Monday, March 10, 2014
I'm coming home, coming home, tell the world I'm coming home!!
Oh man! My last week.... and it was a doozy! When we last heard from
Sister Schultz.... I was in Laoag. Turns out that I missed my bus back
to Ballesteros that day, so Sister Cabato and I had to spend the night
in Laoag again.... perfect.... we were supposed to have exchanges the
next day. Luckily there was a bus that was going to leave the next day
at 3AM... so we took it. Dropped off sister Cabato in Sanchez Mira and I
picked up Sister Purificacion and we made it back to my area around
9:00 Am. I took a quick shower and then it was off to work! Probably one
of the craziest exchanges that I have ever been on. We had sooo much to
do! We taught some lessons in the morning and then had to go to an
appointment that we had with the mayor for a wedding that we are
planning.... then we had to check on the apartments that we were
supposed to move in and drop off some mission mail to the district
president. We got back to the apartment a little after lunch..... so I
cooked and washed my laundry while she updated the area book (let me
just remind you that my whole mission has been washing laundry by hand)
at this point, my laundry doesn't get too dirty.... which is good,
because when I wash it, I don't think that it gets too clean:)
Back out to work. We taught all of our appointments but when we got to
our last appointment, with the Juan Family, the one that I love, Only
Christopher was there..... so we told him to call his brothers and
sister...... 30 seconds later we hear a stampede of people coming....
there was about 30 kids all between the ages of 5-18 that all wanted us
to teach them.... so we taught them all. Don't worry that whole area now
knows what tithing is, what the word of wisdom is, and they know how to
bear their testimony:)
Exchanges from day one... COMPLETE.
Next day I had to
wake up early to prepare a training hat I was supposed to be giving at
ZTM that morning. Crazy! They assigned me "a part" from the
training..... well I didn't actually label my noted from the training, so
I had no idea which part I was actually supposed to do.... but I was
pretty sure I knew, so I just planned something awesome.
ZTM. I was the first one to give my part of the training... oops...
I accidently summarized the whole training:) haha but luckily that part
that I went the most in to depth about was the part that I was supposed
to give:) hehe. After ZTM, Exchanges again:) This time with Sister
Shrack in Ballesteros, It was great! We taught the Juan families again:)
I love them so much! They at this point are preparing for baptism on
Saturday.
President calls that night. We have to go do paper work for the new
apartments.... sigh. Oh yeah, and we have to re-split the area with the
branch because they are adding elders to this area. Perfect. So we get a
hold of the landlady, all the paper work is done. Friday.
We start weekly planning and get through our other studies. Then
it's off to the church for a meeting with the Branch President. Got the
area split and it was back home. Did about 30 minutes more of weekly
planning and then we had to go out to work. Worked.... taught the Juan
family:) We watched the testaments:) They loved it!!!! I love them!!!
There again was about 50 people at their house for the movie:) Which is
good because we invited them all to the baptism on Saturday!
Saturday- Woke up early to finish weekly planning.... only I just
ended up packing and doing more laundry while my companion did something
else. We working in the morning and had some really great appointments.
The baptism is at five. SO we had studies and then went to go to the
church. Got almost all the way to the church when the office elders call
that they need to pick up my suit case. Back to the apartment. Get the
suitcase and we are back to the church. On the way there we saw... ELDER
REBER!!!! Yay! He is in my batch! I love seeing my batch!
Got to the church and there was a ton!! of people there! and
probably 20 of them were investigators!!! The baptism was AMAZING! It
was so great! I'm so thankful that I stayed the extra 3 months to see my
family get baptized! I love this family so much! I cried like a little
baby when they were baptized and then when I bore my testimony at the
end:) And then again when they bore their testimony:) Tears of Joy:)
Finally Sunday- The day of rest..... or so you thought. Sunday was
a great day! They were all confirmed and because the newest best
members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! Right after
church Sister Cabato hopped on top of a jeepney and rode to
Camalanuigan:) Surprise! President let us ride on top of the Jeep and go
to visit my Recent converts in Cam! I didn't get to see them all, So I
was really sad:( There was four that I didn't get to see, But I did get
to see little Julia Hazel:) She's so adorable! WE stayed for a total of
one hour and then it was back to Ballesteros! Slept for one hour in the
van that we were in, and then went straight to work when we got back to
Ballesteros. Taught and then had accountability:) Sigh.... breathe for
one second, then back to packing... brown out... no lights. UGH!!!!
Today- Woke up early, packed, the Elders came and we moved into our
new apartment. It's now 3:30 and we have an activity at the church at
5.... Maybe I'll just sleep on the plane....
Thursday, March 6, 2014
A lovely run and some dating advice
This week... this week I went on exchanges with sister Mckim! She is from Australia and I love her so much! She is so great! This week we
had three of our baptismal candidates move their dates to later, but I'm
okay with it, because the Juan family is still getting baptized! They
are so cute I love them so much! The branch loves them so much too
because they live so far away and are so poor that they cant afford the
tryce to come to church and so every week they walk to church even
though it takes like fifty minutes and it is burning hot. On fast Sunday
the members all got up to bear their testimonies and they were all just
crying because they were so inspired by the Juan family! Then we had an
fhe at their house and a whole bunch of people came and the father
finally joined in! He had such a good time he was just laughing and he
loved it! He said that we could start teaching them:) I'm just so happy!
This week we also had mlc. It's always stressful when you have to travel
to Laoag, but this time stress was gone. After five hours of trainings
in the morning... or four... idk basta its really really long, we got to
go and have games at the local stadium... where there was a track....
so I may have gotten to run a full mile:) all by myself:) it was so
great! granted I'm a little fatty and it was really hard for me haha but
it still felt so good! yes! Then we had a crazy what the heck is this
moment at fhe that night.... the APs gave us a training on.... "how to have
a quality date"... like an hour long training. It was so weird... but
very amusing. one week till may day! I love you all!
Monday, February 24, 2014
The miracles of the mission
This is going to be a pretty detailed pretty great blog, so read
closely. (it's detailed because I didn't have any time this week to write
in my journal, so now you get the FULL story:)
Pres: Hello Sister Schultz! How are you? Are you on exchanges right now?
P: Do you have exchanges tomorrow?
P:Yes, we have a problem with the visas and so you will travel here early in the morning tomorrow.
Me. No.... (bawling) president... no,,,,
P: Sister Schultz listen; okay you will take the bus tomorrow to Laoag and then you will meet Sister Woahn, Elder Taukei, and Elder KNowles and you will all be flying out of Laoag to Manilla tomorrow.
President: Laughing- you're okay Sister Schultz okay? I'll call you later.
When we last left off I was feeling a little bit down about my baptisms
being cancelled and moved until after I leave. So let's continue from
there. So on Monday
we went to an FHE at the Sengson Family's house. I love that family
they are so great! It's a single mother with 15 children!! Holy Smokes
she is so great.... and they are all active. Anyways we were playing
games and Sister Cabato kept getting texts during the lesson. I tried to
read her emotion to see what was happening and I couldn't really
tell.... then we leave the fhe and all that she says to me is, "Sister
you have to jump up and down okay?" me being the obedient missionary
that I am just started jumping up and down and then I said, "Wait, why
am I jumping up and down?" And then she said that Rubelita can still get
baptized!!! she's the one who said that her parents thought that she
was investigating a different church and so she couldn't get baptized....
it turns out that her parents were just kidding.... actually they are
members, and she really could get baptized:) I was so happy!!!
Tuesday:
I had exchanges with Sister Storey-who I love by the way- she is from
Kaysville and she is just soo funny. Anyways we had a really great day
of teaching and came home from lunch. While I was cooking lunch, we got a
phone call. It was President Barrientos, I'll just write you a little
bit of how the conversation went.
Me: Hello Po President!
Pres: Hello Sister Schultz! How are you? Are you on exchanges right now?
Me: Opo (yes) President.
P: Do you have exchanges tomorrow?
Me: Hindi po (no) President
P: Okay that's good. So, Sister Schultz, tomorrow, you will need to come to Laoag. You will be flying out tomorrow.
Me: (Automatic tears) What?
P:Yes, we have a problem with the visas and so you will travel here early in the morning tomorrow.
Me. No.... (bawling) president... no,,,,
P: Sister Schultz listen; okay you will take the bus tomorrow to Laoag and then you will meet Sister Woahn, Elder Taukei, and Elder KNowles and you will all be flying out of Laoag to Manilla tomorrow.
me: (Still crying) But president... we have baptisms...
President:
Listen Sister I'm not done yet. You will be flying to Manilla, but you
will only be staying for two days and then you will return here to
Laoag. Don't worry you're not going home yet.
Me: Alah! (there's no translation for that) President!
President: Laughing- you're okay Sister Schultz okay? I'll call you later.
WORST. FEELING. EVER!!!
It was at that moment that i am really grateful for my real release date:) And that I'm not going home yet:)
Needless
to say, it wasn't the best day for exchanges that I have had. Then that
night I packed really quick and in the morning I took the early bus
traveling to Laoag (5:30 AM)
I had to travel by myself which at first I was like Aw! Sweet! I'm
traveling by myself! By then after like 5 minutes I got really really
bored.... and I had no one to talk to. couldn't sleep, even though I was
way tired. We made one stop about an hour away from Laoag (it's a five
hour bus ride) and when we started again I Was out! The bus driver had
to wake me up in Laoag. I got off of the bus and was very disoriented...
and I had no companion. I have been to Laoag very few times in my
mission, so I was really unfamiliar with everything. Luckily you can
just jump in a tryce and tell them where you want to go and they will
take you there. I went to the mission office and then just waited and
waited and waited for 3 hours! Until they finally told me to go and
meet Sister Woahn at some taco place in Laoag. Meanwhile Sister Woahn
has been waiting at the taco place for a while now and decides to come
to the mission home. We missed each other. Haha
Turns out that my tryce driver didn't know where the taco place
was, so he just stopped at a tryce terminal. The other drivers swarmed
my tryce and I was surrounded by a bunch of men talking to me.... uh...
help! I called the office and they told me how to get to the taco place
and then the driver took me to.... not the taco place. I was done being
with him though, so i just got out.
I walked to a security guard and just ask him "uh... do you know
where the tacos are?" Stupid question in English, it sounds a lot less
dumb in Tagalog, but it was effective:) He took me to the taco place!
only... no Sister Woahn. I decided to just wait. I waited for about 15
minutes when sister Woahn came:) I love Sister Woahn. We ate and then
just talked for ever, and finally at 6:30 we all met up at the office.
No one seemed to know what we were supposed to do so they just said.
Here's your ticket just take a tryce to the airport.... by ourselves
again! Get to the airport. Get on the airplane and it's off to Manilla!
Go off the airplane, and.... no one was waiting for us (what? What are
we even doing here) Sat around for like 20 minutes and then finally
found our driver. He took us to the hotel airport (which is where I
stayed when we came in) and had a really nice dinner at like 11PM
and then took hot showers (that was nice) and slept on real mattresses
in an aircon room:) (that was also nice:)) in the morning we got up
really early and took a van to the embassy. We got there.... no one was
waiting for us again. (what is this?) haha so we just grabbed some forms
that we thought looked right and filled out the paper work and got our
pictures taken and stuff. Then we called President and we were like....
uh.... is this what we are supposed to be doing? There is no one here.
He called his people and someone came over. Turns out that we never had
to do any of that stuff.... just get fingerprinted and sign some
forms.... then we were done. 7 hours before our flight was supposed to
leave!!!
The driver didn't want to take us to the temple, but it's closed when we actually go home, so we bribed him to take us... as in.... we paid him a lot to take us.... then we couldn't stay long, but we took some pictures and then left, stopping to get some krispy kreme donuts:) Gotta love Manilla! got to the airport....waited....flew back to laoag:) no one was waiting for us.... so we took a sketchy bus to the mission home.... no one was there. At this point we have no money at all because it's close to the end of the month and since we were all leaving, our support got cut. So we couldn't even afford to go home. SO we found a mango tree and had mangos for dinner:) Elder Knowles sat down to eat his mango and completely ripped his pants! It was hilarious!!! Sister Woahn and I saw the whole thing happen and we were just dying with laughter! About five seconds after they ripped, in pulls President Barrientos:) Oh priceless:) Stayed the night over in laoag (Another Hot Shower) and in the morning had interviews.
I told President Barrientos about the Juan Family and how we had to move their baptismal date to the week after I leave because of word of wisdom problems... I may have cried... and he said, "Sister Schultz are they ready?' "opo President."
Rode back home by myself:) It was freezing cold and my window was broken:) Got home and now we are back in business:)
Love you all! I will see you all in 17 days!
The driver didn't want to take us to the temple, but it's closed when we actually go home, so we bribed him to take us... as in.... we paid him a lot to take us.... then we couldn't stay long, but we took some pictures and then left, stopping to get some krispy kreme donuts:) Gotta love Manilla! got to the airport....waited....flew back to laoag:) no one was waiting for us.... so we took a sketchy bus to the mission home.... no one was there. At this point we have no money at all because it's close to the end of the month and since we were all leaving, our support got cut. So we couldn't even afford to go home. SO we found a mango tree and had mangos for dinner:) Elder Knowles sat down to eat his mango and completely ripped his pants! It was hilarious!!! Sister Woahn and I saw the whole thing happen and we were just dying with laughter! About five seconds after they ripped, in pulls President Barrientos:) Oh priceless:) Stayed the night over in laoag (Another Hot Shower) and in the morning had interviews.
I told President Barrientos about the Juan Family and how we had to move their baptismal date to the week after I leave because of word of wisdom problems... I may have cried... and he said, "Sister Schultz are they ready?' "opo President."
"Okay" He said, "they can get baptized right before you go home:)" I
was sooo happy! And thus we see that the Lord works in mysterious but
marvelous ways!!!
Rode back home by myself:) It was freezing cold and my window was broken:) Got home and now we are back in business:)
This week... TIN TIN came to church! Tin Tin is our
investigator that is in a wheelchair, she has hypocephalus and NEVER
leaves the house. We have been trying to pick her up for the last month
and she finally was able to come today!!! I was so happy! The branch
basically attacked her with hugs and love!!!:) I'm so happy:) We had 20
investigators at church today:) if one bad week can bring that many
blessings then I guess that enduring is definitely worth it!
Love you all! I will see you all in 17 days!
I forgot to bring my camera today.... so no pictures. Maybe next week... or you can just look at Sister Woahn's Blog.
Monday, February 17, 2014
Just push him in
Well, well, well... which would you like me to start with, the good news?
Or the bad news? Well I will start with the bad news so that we end on a
happy note. So we had a ton of baptisms lined up for before I left, and
I LOVE them all so much! I'm so attached to them all. Well, six of the
11 that we have were a family... and they are all over 12 and the other
day we taught them again about the Word of Wisdom....kill me now. :'(
5 out of the 6 of them have participated in some sort of word of wisdom issue in the last week (Coffee, cigarettes, or alcohol.) I was heart broken.... because it means that we have to push their baptism to the week after I leave instead of the week before:( I cried like a baby. As in the whole rest of the night :( They are still excited to get baptized, and they are preparing themselves better now, so I know that it is good for them, I'm just very sad:( Then our baptismal candidate for next week was all ready, then her parents magically figures out that it was the LDS church.... how they missed out on this through the whole process is a little beyond me, but they have forbidden her the get baptized. I kind of feel like, "What the? Why!?! Satan hates me!" It's so unfair! I worked so hard and I was so obedient. My heart is broken.
In kind of better news though! Spencer was baptized! He was the one that was deathly afraid of Elder Seumanutafa.
Well we were really nervous about the actual ordinance of baptism because he is soo shy. But he went straight into the water with a big smile on his face. ITS A MIRACLE!!! I said, then he got baptized... yes!!! BUT!!! his dad said the wrong words.... and his hand didn't go under.... NOOO!!!!! They told him that he had to do it again and he just started bawling and ran out of the font. Then the dad was ticked and he left the church all together. Meanwhile in the bathroom, Sister Cabato, Spencer's mom and I are all trying to convince Spencer that it's not his fault and that they just have to go one more time.... now he's screaming that he doesn't want to go again.
Both his parents are members so his mom said that he had to go again. We had the other baptizer waiting in the freezing cold water and got Spencer to the stairs of the font.... still kicking and screaming. The baptizer is bobbing up and down in the water to try and help Spencer see that it's not so bad and that he can do it. But he still doesn't want to. (Oh by this time we also cleared all of the people out of the room so that it was just the two witnesses and his family) and the mom finally just says to the baptizer, just grab him and do it or he'll be really upset and never get baptized. I felt sick! I didn't know what to do:( He was clearly ready and wanted to, but he was just so shy. Finally they got him into the water and baptized and when he came out he was completely fine and happy. It was a little reassuring, but I still felt like I was forcing someone to get baptized. The next day at his confirmation though, he was fine and just as happy as could be. I think maybe I have an ulcer now. Haha well, maybe not yet.... but another baptism like that and I just might.
ps. I just fund out that my very first RC just got his mission call:)
5 out of the 6 of them have participated in some sort of word of wisdom issue in the last week (Coffee, cigarettes, or alcohol.) I was heart broken.... because it means that we have to push their baptism to the week after I leave instead of the week before:( I cried like a baby. As in the whole rest of the night :( They are still excited to get baptized, and they are preparing themselves better now, so I know that it is good for them, I'm just very sad:( Then our baptismal candidate for next week was all ready, then her parents magically figures out that it was the LDS church.... how they missed out on this through the whole process is a little beyond me, but they have forbidden her the get baptized. I kind of feel like, "What the? Why!?! Satan hates me!" It's so unfair! I worked so hard and I was so obedient. My heart is broken.
In kind of better news though! Spencer was baptized! He was the one that was deathly afraid of Elder Seumanutafa.
Well we were really nervous about the actual ordinance of baptism because he is soo shy. But he went straight into the water with a big smile on his face. ITS A MIRACLE!!! I said, then he got baptized... yes!!! BUT!!! his dad said the wrong words.... and his hand didn't go under.... NOOO!!!!! They told him that he had to do it again and he just started bawling and ran out of the font. Then the dad was ticked and he left the church all together. Meanwhile in the bathroom, Sister Cabato, Spencer's mom and I are all trying to convince Spencer that it's not his fault and that they just have to go one more time.... now he's screaming that he doesn't want to go again.
Both his parents are members so his mom said that he had to go again. We had the other baptizer waiting in the freezing cold water and got Spencer to the stairs of the font.... still kicking and screaming. The baptizer is bobbing up and down in the water to try and help Spencer see that it's not so bad and that he can do it. But he still doesn't want to. (Oh by this time we also cleared all of the people out of the room so that it was just the two witnesses and his family) and the mom finally just says to the baptizer, just grab him and do it or he'll be really upset and never get baptized. I felt sick! I didn't know what to do:( He was clearly ready and wanted to, but he was just so shy. Finally they got him into the water and baptized and when he came out he was completely fine and happy. It was a little reassuring, but I still felt like I was forcing someone to get baptized. The next day at his confirmation though, he was fine and just as happy as could be. I think maybe I have an ulcer now. Haha well, maybe not yet.... but another baptism like that and I just might.
ps. I just fund out that my very first RC just got his mission call:)
Monday, February 10, 2014
Just keep praying
So this week has been a really great week:) I was able to go
on exchanges with Sister Copeland:) She is from Tennessee and she is so
great! It was probably the least stressful exchange that I have ever
been on before:) And also.... I LOVE my area:) Every appointment is the
greatest ever! My stress levels right now are way up.... but not because
we cant find people to teach.... its because we can't find enough time
to teach all of the people that we are supposed to get them ready for
baptism:) We have investigators that have come enough times to church
and are keeping their commitments, but we haven't taught them all the
lessons yet.... as a consequence, right now March 8
is looking pretty stressful.... we have 1 wedding and 9 baptisms
planned for that day.... just keep swimming:) the water is looking
pretty good after all.
On that note, we have a baptism coming up this Saturday and it was by far "THE MOST STRESSFUL INTERVIEW EVER!" Spencer is a 9 year old part member who has the gospel down solid. the problem? When he first meets someone, he WILL NOT TALK to them. We reviewed the baptismal interview questions with him and he was set to go, but once he got into the Interview with Elder Seumanutafa, he just froze.... he wouldn't talk.... then he hid in his shirt and started crying. Elder Seu.... called us in to talk to him and it took us an hour of teaching and running around and bribing until we finally got him to pray in the hallway while Elder Seu... sneakily listened in. His mom had to pray first in Ilocano, then I had to pray in English, Then Sister Canato had to pray in chubakano, then he prayed in Tagalog..... there was a lot of praying. After his prayer, Sister Cabato and I had to do the interview questions while Elder Seu... still hiding around the corner just listened in:) He passed!
On that note, we have a baptism coming up this Saturday and it was by far "THE MOST STRESSFUL INTERVIEW EVER!" Spencer is a 9 year old part member who has the gospel down solid. the problem? When he first meets someone, he WILL NOT TALK to them. We reviewed the baptismal interview questions with him and he was set to go, but once he got into the Interview with Elder Seumanutafa, he just froze.... he wouldn't talk.... then he hid in his shirt and started crying. Elder Seu.... called us in to talk to him and it took us an hour of teaching and running around and bribing until we finally got him to pray in the hallway while Elder Seu... sneakily listened in. His mom had to pray first in Ilocano, then I had to pray in English, Then Sister Canato had to pray in chubakano, then he prayed in Tagalog..... there was a lot of praying. After his prayer, Sister Cabato and I had to do the interview questions while Elder Seu... still hiding around the corner just listened in:) He passed!
Monday, February 3, 2014
Schultzy Gmae
okay sorry this is going to be a super rushed one! Nothing too great
happened this week! Except we had 10 investigators at church. It is
great to come into an area and have none and get it up so high. Our
biggest problem right now is trying to find enough time to teach all
of the people that want to get baptized! Hopefully they all get
baptized before I go home:) In other news:) I only have 38 days left
until I come home. "someday" is finally here! It's a lot different than
what I thought that it would be, but this version is WAY better! :)
And in final news Did you know that in the amount of 19 months you can
have 2 babies? I did it:) haha not literally:) but another baby was
named after me this week:) Her name is Schultzy Gmae:) Pictures to
come when I'm not using caveman computer:) Love you all!
happened this week! Except we had 10 investigators at church. It is
great to come into an area and have none and get it up so high. Our
biggest problem right now is trying to find enough time to teach all
of the people that want to get baptized! Hopefully they all get
baptized before I go home:) In other news:) I only have 38 days left
until I come home. "someday" is finally here! It's a lot different than
what I thought that it would be, but this version is WAY better! :)
And in final news Did you know that in the amount of 19 months you can
have 2 babies? I did it:) haha not literally:) but another baby was
named after me this week:) Her name is Schultzy Gmae:) Pictures to
come when I'm not using caveman computer:) Love you all!
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