Visailia here we come!

SO as you can tell from my subject line im getting transferred! My first 12 weeks are over and so now I'm officially done with being trained.. Thank goodness;) Haha im kidding! But I will be going to The Visalia 7th ward and guess what... It is another YSA! Haha i guess once a YSA missionary always a YSA missionary!

We had some awesome things happen this week! The biggest being we had the confirmation of our Baptism last week yesterday! Michael Moorland is now an official Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. And the other great part is we held another Baptism last night! His name is Titus and we have been teaching him for about 1 month and he has made a complete 180 degree turn around since we began teaching him! He has truly become a new and improved Titus!

We had 4 investigators at church and the Bob Marley shirt one came to the baptism and told us he was jealous so he wants to be baptized now. I head to Visalia on Wednesday morning and then I'm going to have to turn right around and come back on sunday to confirm Titus. But it is definitely worth it;) I have loved this area soooo much and have loved being with Elder Lord and will miss him a ton but I'm soooo pumped for this new area as well! I will be with Elder Reed who funny enough came here to Fresno with me on the same plane and we are both waiting for our Visas to Brazil. It will be better now because we will actually get to do language study;) I will be designated driver so I'm going to be printing off my driving record today and will hopefully be good to drive by Wednesday! Hope all is well in everyone's lives this week! My scripture study this week has been awesome! I have been reading in Alma and been reading about the Anti Nephi Lehis and burying our weapons of rebellion! been such a good reminder to really re-focus myself and cut all distractions and work harder than ever before! I invite you all to do the same! Any cool missionary moments for any of you this week?! Love You ALL SOOOOOO MUCH!

Great Week

Sorry not going to be a long one this week! Just running out of time! But had an amazing week! Had a surprise baptism yesterday! The only reason we say surprise is because We werent expecting our investigator to be able to do it on Sunday! But miracles do happen! We also had zone conference this past wednesday! President Gelwix is really a great speaker. He knows exactly what to say and truly does speak by the spirit! Any cool missionary opportunities or moments for anyone this week? Hope your week has been as good as mine! Love you all! Happy belated birthday Carley!

Sunday's baptism

My Study desk! Plus my sweet scripture case i mad out of a capn crunch box in the left corner!

Almost forgot to mention I went to the temple with my zone on friday! It was such an awesome experience! It is a tiny temple but the spirit sure was there just as strong as anywhere else;)

Sweet house! I could see carley living here;)

New shades! 5 dollars at walmart;) YSA ready!

Another Week Bites the Dust

So im not good at the whole clever subject lines like sestra schoen is but maybe because there are only so many you can do with "Fresno California".. haha.

But this week has been a fantastic one. (Courtney's note: clearly Elder Schoen doesn't understand that "bites the dust" means falling on one's face, and usually refers to things that aren't fantastic, considering "Another Week Bites the Dust" is his subject line of this e-mail...so cute)

We had three investigators at church with us this week and all are preparing to be baptized! We will see if i will be here when they are because transfers are in two weeks and i will most likely be headed out because i will be done being trained! But im still so pumped to be here in Fresno! Im just absolutely loving our area. Although many people arent very kind or inviting, there are quite a few that have interest!

one funny story that happened this week was i was on an exchange with our Zone leader and the day he came on was one where we had NO set appointments which means a lot of tracting. So we did that for like an hour and had NO success. So we prayed about what we should do with our time and i felt the need to go and see some of the potential investigators that we had in our area book. So for the next few hours we tried quite a few potentials and practically all of them invited us to come back. I really needed that because the day had started out really hard and I needed something to boost my spirits and honestly there is nothing better to boost a down spirit than to have someone invite you back.

I Saw the Lords hand work miracles this week, and surprisingly not even in my life. I saw him answer my prayers for others. It softens my heart to see the love God has for me because of his willingness to hear and answer ALL of my prayers. I absolutely love hearing all of your missionary moments, small or large! Pass along cards truly are miracle workers. They are free conversation starters! That is how we do most of our street contacting is just asking if they would like a picture of Jesus Christ! Also it is so easy to give them out. Just as you are checking out of walmart or a fast food just hand them one and share a simple testimony! (Courtney's note: I love his optimism..."it's really so easy"...uh huh, I wish I had his courage!) It goes a long way! Continue to help out the missionaries! We need all the help we can get! My favorite scripture this week comes at the very end of the Book Of Mormon: Moroni 10: 32 and 33.

32 Yea, ^acome unto Christ, and be ^bperfected in him, and ^cdeny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and ^dlove God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be ^eperfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

 33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye ^asanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the ^bblood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your ^csins, that ye become ^dholy, without spot.

Insert Courtney's note: Here is a video that goes along with this scripture

The best way to be perfected in Christ is baptism but considering we cant be baptized over and over, We get to take the Sacrament! What a blessing! I love you all!

Ate Mais,

Elder Schoen!

Great Start to the New Year

What a great week! Seen a ton of miracles this week! The biggest being we baptized a girl on Saturday and confirmed her on Sunday! Her name is "S"! The coolest part about it was that I got to baptize her and confirm her. She asked me to baptize and my companion was supposed to confirm her, but he was late because we did a split (missionaries occasionally "split" up for a few hours or a day, meaning they divide and conquer, but mission rules prohibit missionaries from being on their own, so when they split up, each missionary has another companion or companions, they can be members of the local ward or other missionaries) so he could go with a member to pick up an investigator and didn't get back in time so she asked me to confirm her also! What a cool experience! Very powerful moments both baptizing and also confirming!

I'm assuming this is "S" who was baptized, then on the right are Elder Lord and Elder Schoen. Not sure about the suit in the middle.

Haha so we are teaching an investigator right now that we met only a few days ago and as you know yesterday was testimony meeting (testimony meeting in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is associated with one Sunday every month where members are encouraged to fast, or go without food or drink for the duration of two meals, and on that Sunday, the first hour of church when we partake of the sacrament is dedicated to the members so they have personal time to take a few moments and either privately or publicly reflect on their own testimonies. Individuals are invited to come forward and witness their faith from the pulpit, children and adults alike), and so he leans over to me during the meeting and says "can i go up there?" and kind of reluctantly i said "Well yeah you can..." and so he hops up and walks on up there (and keep in mind he is a 25 year old man with dreads and was wearing a bob marley t shirt and jeans) but he gets up there and says "I have been baptized christian, and baptist but after seeing this church and reading from the Book of Mormon I am ready to be baptized Mormon." haha we were laughing so hard inside though... we were expecting something crazy but not that! So as soon as takes care of one necessary step, he will be baptized!

"Best poster ever, look at them all pointing to Jesus Christ!" Remember, Larry Gelwix (the coach this movie is based around, the real person not the actor) is Dallas' mission president

Elder Lord and Elder Schoen with President Gelwix on Christmas day

Elder Lord and Elder Schoen with Darth Vader on Christmas Day???? I don't get it.

We went to try and see someone we met a couple days ago that plays basketball for Fresno State, but he wasn't home but his roommate who is on the team as well was and so we taught him and his words were after we finished teaching were "this all makes sense." So, we invited him to be baptized and he accepted and we are shooting for the 2nd of February. Coolest thing about it was he says he would get us free tickets to the fresno state basketball games! haha and they are in the Mountain West so they play USU! haha we are going to see if we can go and support him ;) But it is soooo stinkin' cool to see and find all these people God has prepared to receive His message!

"This is a gift from a member of the Young Single Adult ward! How sweet is that?! I love it!"

 I'm so stinkin' proud to be a missionary here and now! We will continue to invite all men EVERYWHERE  to come unto Christ and be baptized! Sacrifice truly does bring forth the Blessings of Heaven! I love you all so much! I will continue to pray for each of you individually! Don't be shy, let me know what you need help with and I will DEFINITELY include it in my prayers! Keep up all the awesome work you all are doing!

Any cool missionary moments this week for any of you!? Love you all!

Christmas and New Years

Very good week this week! Not much to report on since i talked to you like 5 days ago but it was a solid week! Like i said i ate christmas eve dinner with president and his wife and family and a family from our ward which was awesome! and on christmas after i talked with yall we watched robin hood, the disney one! (The mission president, President Larry Gelwix, allowed the missionaries to watch G or PG rated Disney movies and the movie Forever Strong on Christmas day). Very fun!

We should have a baptism this saturday! commited our investigator named Stephanie to it! She is soo solid! Got teach another guy after playing another game of basketball against him. Unfortunatley we lost but he still listened because he liked our committment! haha 

 

Regarding the process on his Visa: Sent in the FBI fingerprint stuff so you should get the clearance in like a couple weeks so be looking for it and send that off with the address i sent to dad! 

 

Keep praying for our investigators please they need all the help they can get to make the necessary changes to get baptized! Thanks for all your love and support! TELL CALVIN TO EMAIL ME SO I CAN TALK TO HIM! SOMEONE TELL HIM! I'm working my hardest with the time I have here! I love it here and will be here as long as the Lord will allow! Love you all!

 

"Christmas wasn't too bad on the mission"

 

Waking up Christmas morning with Elder Lord

Picture of the beautiful countryside in CA

 

Trying to get something out of a tree at the Mission President's house

The night of Christmas dinner with the Mission Pres and a fellow ward family, apparently something was stuck in a tree and they were trying to hit it out???

Feliz Natal

You can call our cell phone on Wednesday at what looks to be like 11 my time. We have only 40 Minutes no longer! But we will use it no worries! When you call, if I can figure out the skype thing i will set it up on my end and see if i can get it working and then we will just use skype, but if not we can just call!

My parents and Cassidy talking to Dallas on Christmas day

If carley is calling at 11:15, when you call me you will have to tell me what account you want me to connect with and then you can use the other one for carley! that would be cool if we were on at the same time! Still call at 11:00 and if that doesnt work out we can hang up set a time later to talk and you can wait till carley is done and then after just call me back at the new time we set. But still call our cell phone at like 11 and we will move quickly to figure out logistics. Awesome week this week that i will tell you about in the call!

Found some new investigators and have really started gaining the trust of our ward members which is awesome! Like i said though is the call will be 40 minutes but cant go much longer because we need to be exactly obedient! I have been opening all the gifts and they are awesome! I have saved a ton for Christmas but have been opening the 12 days of Chirstmas ones! Love the tape recorder!

Make sure though if we end up skyping that you have solid internet connection because any lost time is still part of the 40 minutes. He (President Gelwix) says that is one of the bad parts of using skype. But we will see how it goes! Cant wait to talk! Love you all!!

We're Playing Basketball! Favorite Missionary Experience

What a week! SO i have officially been here a transfer as of Wednesday so i don't feel so green anymore;) But seriously this has been such an amazing experience! So i promised a long email about the week so here it goes! We have had some great experiences teaching this week! My favorite experience since being out....
ready?

Ok so we were tracting one night in an apartment complex for college students and when we got there we parked next to a basketball court and when we got out I had the feeling I needed to talk to the guys playing ball. I figured it was just me telling myself that, though, so we went on our way and went and talked to some people. During our talking, I kept feeling like we should talk to the guys playing basketball, but I kept letting it go. SO about an hour passed and as we came back to the car they were still playing so I got the message at this point and I walked up and asked if i could give them one of our pass along cards.

Elder Lord, Elder Schoen and President Gelwix

They said they would take one if we beat them in a game of basketball.... You can imagine my excitement... So before we played i compromised. I said that we would play only if they would hear our message after we won. They agreed and needless to say, I made sure we didn't lose. We won 11-0. Haha so afterwards we taught the three of them and we have met with them one more time and one of the three says that he will be baptized when he knows it's true! And I'm telling you he is solid. He came with a typed up list of questions. and he came telling us all about how he wants to research the right way so he used lds.org and mormon.org. He is really awesome!

We are still hoping our investigator "M" will make it to the 28th for baptism. We also have a girl named "S" who is planning on getting baptized but her dad hates the idea of her being a part of the church but she is such a solid investigator! I'm loving every second of being out here! My companion will now be the new DL over our district, so that should be fun. We are gaining the trust of our ward members which is really helpful in keeping the work going! I'm having to take time to fix some of the visa complications which is rather frustrating but everything will work out. I am putting all the home information as the primary info they need so you will be able to work out any further problems hopefully! SO the way the Christmas calling is working this year is you will call our cell phone on Christmas day and we will get to talk for 40 min. I will email you the time to call next week. Should be great! We had a huge Christmas zone conference which was amazing! Loved it!


President Gelwix talked about the nativity and went into depth about Matthew 1 and 2 and Luke 2 and 3. Very spiritual and uplifting. Got the packages from everyone and i am planning on opening most of them on Christmas day! Other than the 12 days of Christmas ones, which I have opened the first two! LOVE THE SOCKS!!! I'm wearing them right now for preparation day!

Dallas' Christmas socks.

And the subway gift card is greatly appreciated! Thank you soooo much for the love you send my way! The church is true and I'm soo grateful for Jesus Christ! He is the reason for this season! I love you all soooo much and look forward to talking to you all more both through email and talking on Christmas!

Elder Schoen!