August 26, 2013

 

As of this past Wednesday, several sisters serving at the Portland Oregon Temple Visitor's Center can now tell their posterity that they talked to Elder Holland there and shook his hand. Not many can say, like Sister Priday and I can, that they were 30 minutes short of talking to Elder Holland and shaking his hand! No one was forewarned of his coming except the VC directors who kept it a secret, and he wasn't coming during our shift.  But Sister Priday and I had to grab something from there, so we came just after he left. We could  still feel a special spirit of an apostle around the visitors center after he left. It made me think that I want to be such a dedicated disciple of Jesus Christ that people feel differently when I'm there.

 

 

 

 I love the visitors center. I haven't been talking about it much because it has been closed for the past three weeks except for temple tours on Sundays. It opened up again this week though!

 

I have had a realization. I wanted to go on a mission largely because I saw in the returned sister missionaries  I knew this confidence in themselves and the Lord that I wanted to have for myself. My realization has been that I'm not automatically entitled to that kind of character by virtue of signing up to leave on a mission for 18 months. No! Missions (and discipleship in general) can be as taxing as you want them to be; it all depends on how far up the path of discipleship you are willing to go. And if you really are committed to following Jesus Christ, it will be an uphill slope.  Missionaries who don't have the spirit or have that dedication don't usually realize it! They just notice less success and less happiness on their mission. Elder Maxwell said that the higher we go on the path, the greater our capacity is to even feel joy. I thought that was neat.

 

Answer to your question: Sister Priday and I have a car and ....yours truly... is the driver. Yes, Mom, I was trying to keep this from you in an effort to protect you, but... there it is. We've gotten in 0 (zero) accidents though!

 

At the visitors center, it's an interesting kind of missionary work, because it's all about starting conversations or tours and moving people into deeper spiritual things, all the while trying to discern their needs and figure out the videos and things that would be good for them. When you're tired and you've gotten "rejected" it's natural to not want to work as hard to engage in those deeper conversations and really help them, so it's a choice to be seeking the Spirit! It's a choice to merely chit-chat with people and just show them the displays versus actively trying to help them through doing those things, though it may appear the same practice to the outside observer.  But the results are drastically different! When you talk to someone, you can rationalize, "They're a member, they look fine, they don't really need my help."  But, when you really work at the conversation, you'll eventually find out their problems (because EVERYONE has them). It has made me look at people differently. Everyone, regardless of what they look like, has problems and needs greater connection with the atonement to cope with those problems.

 

Well, I love you!! I love hearing from you. 

Sister Schmutz

August 19, 2013

We had a member of the Seventy come speak to our stake yesterday for stake conference and he focused it entirely on member missionary work and on the broadcast "Hastening the Work of Salvation." More and more, missionary work is becoming something that members and full-time missionaries need to do together. There is an increasing divide between righteous and wicked. I think that has made tracting an increasingly less-fruitful way of doing things because most people are hardened to it.

When members continue to become better representatives of Jesus Christ and bring the spirit into their home and then people into their lives and homes, that is the beginning of the best kind of missionary work! It has been eye-opening for me to go into so many very different homes and feel and see the dramatic differences between them based upon how righteously they are living their lives. When it is a house like Ravings where your temple covenants are kept and lived and where there is daily family scripture study and prayer and obedience to the commandments, it is a spiritual uplift for me. I go away reboosted. The difference is poignant not just in the way the home feels, but the way the family is. We met with two families this week that showed me a contrast.  One was the _________ family.  We had dinner at their home last night. Brother _____ is a member of the high council. They and their family are about the same age as this other family except that their children are obedient and calmer. The Spirit was in their home and being there and seeing their family was such an uplift. They are a busy couple but they seemed also more in control, worked together in taking care of their kids, and, like their kids, were calmer and happier-- because the Spirit was there and they were living the Gospel! Such a difference.

I love families. I love the Gospel. I love our family! I think about you guys every day--all that I've gained from each of you and especially from growing up in our home. I'm realizing how priceless that is.

We met an 82-year-old Greek Orthodox man named Thor who is half-black and half-Cherokee and teaches salsa dancing on Tuesday. We talked with him, he talked to us and gave us words of wisdom for a while on his doorstep. We weren't getting anywhere and we were about to leave when Sister Priday asked if we could sing him a song. We sang "Nearer My God to Thee." Thor said he sang that as a child and hummed along. When we had finished, his countenance had changed. He asked if he could come to our church! He gave us his number so that we could send him the address. He said "You two are a part of my life now. I want you to know that. If you ever need anything just let me know. I better here from you again!" Ah, the power of song.  (Ended up he couldn't come this week, but next--?)

Hill told me in an email that she hopes I'm not missing my "hammock time" too much and that they're not working me too hard.  Had to laugh about that. Probably the number one thing I have learned on my mission so far is patience. I just want to get going!! Sister Priday is the same. We have morning recitations for our mish and we like marching around and almost shouting them when we say them. Sister Priday told me on Thursday that her dream is to have the Spirit at one point tell her to boldly call someone to repentance like Abinadi would. She's funny. So, we're way fired up still and time is flying by. I love you all! The Church is true!

August 12, 2013

Oh poor Stephen, that would be hard.  He is quite the hero though! Will you tell him from me: Hi, and I hope he's doing well and think he's awesome and that missionaries throughout my mission have been speaking about him? He is quite the legend--the humble one, I am sure.

Speaking of humility, I have learned quite a bit about that this past little while. Appx two weeks ago was the Saturday before transfers. Everyone was panicking because they were all waiting to get calls on whether they would be 1) training 2) leaving their area or 3) both. When President Morby called and told me I was doing #3 and splitting a new area, all of the sisters came and congratulated me. After they had left, Sister Palmer, a Canadian sister who has been out about a year gave me a lingering and intense stare and said quietly "Sister Schmutz. You will be humbled." and left. I uneasily dismissed her thought--she was from Canada after all, right? But, Sister Palmer's prophecy was fulfilled! I have been humbled a lot. To humble yourself and turn towards God is a choice, but I know that we are definitely blessed when we do that.  The golden phrase there is "my grace is sufficient for all those who come unto me." Every morning while exercising, I've started thinking about Jesus Christ--whether it's things He did or said in His life or aspects of the atonement or just my personal relationship with Him. It has made every day better. We will never do anything to hurt anyone if we remember Him.  I love that remembering Him is the covenant we make in baptism. It covers so much.

Missionary work is changing. As shown in the broadcast of about two months ago "Hastening the Work of Salvation" (Have you seen it? WILL YOU if you haven't? T'anks.), it is now crucial to have members and missionaries work together. Sister Priday and I have changed our strategy to an emphasis on Member Referral Lessons--which would be meeting with a member or family of members, sharing a mini-lesson and then (sneakily and slyly) asking for referrals. It is very effective!  And we're making a lot of new friends. I love home wards. I'm starting to really become friends/family with the people in my wards, we're slowly (I hope) becoming a team. Our goal this week is to have every lesson attended by a member and a referral from every lesson. It has been happening so far!

Oregon is awesome. It is sooo beautiful; huge green trees everywhere, everything is green here in the "city." There are little art statues on every corner here. The people are really friendly (even though street contact is pretty useless. People will have a conversation but most (at least here), when you bring up religion, immediately shut off and get out of there. But, that's ok. I probably would too. It's just a cool place.

Our ward mission leader is great. He is this fired up businessman-type whose field is over auntrapraneurship (pretty sure I butchered that.) Systematics? Something like that. Doing things out of the ordinary.  He has a slightly New Yorker accent and is always ready to get things done. He says phrases like "here's the scoop" and "I want you to get the jump on this."

Welp, that's pretty much it! I love the Gospel! I love how much it makes sense.  I love being a disciple of Jesus Christ. I heard a talk from Elder Holland where he says (roughly) "from the moment you joined this church you, like Christ's apostles, have left your nets never to return to them, but to continue a life of discipleship forever!" Obviously, we need to continue to support ourselves and live in the world, but the principle is the same. We are, above all, all followers and disciples of Jesus Christ.

I love you!! I hope you have a good week!

August 5, 2013

Funny thing with Sister Priday. As noted from my last email, we are very similar. So similar that we really started getting on each others nerves this past week after our crazy happy first two-ish days. We both like being leaders where we kind of tell the other person what to do and don't like being told what to do. I'm learning a lot. I have been praying really, really hard every day to be meek and charitable because, obviously, none of this is just her. It's been a really good learning experience. Thursday, we did the dreaded "companionship inventory" and talked about this tangible but unspoken annoyed feelings we have been having and weird sensitive stress moments that I don't catch on to at first and don't understand, so we decided that we need to become more "chill." We sat on the floor in our apartment for almost an hour, just sitting there and trying to figure out how to do it. We made sticky notes in our apartment all over that say stuff like "don't stress." "be chill" "'Ere you left your room this morning, did you think to be chill?" "got chill?" etc. We even got a form of companionship counseling from the other sisters--Sister Brandt (MTC companion) and Sister Palmer, who we get along really well with. They told us we needed to be more humble. So true. Anyway, I've been learning to just tone it down and be relaxed and real. It has been good--always a work in progress, though.

 

Sister Priday and I have been using a great tool to teach--singing. We have sung at the end of all of our appointments and awesome things have happened! We helped a less-active in the ward go visit teach her less-active teachee and sang at the end. Without us having alluded at all to missionary work, the teachee leaned over to her teacher and said "we need to introduce these sisters to ____ and _____," (two of their non-member neighbors!) "but I don't know how to do it." We brainstormed ideas of how with her and then roleplayed with her how she would go about it. Sooo awesome.

Our neighbor, _____, introduced himself to us this week. He looks like a big bull-dog, complete with shaved off head, stocky figure, "arms like tree trunks," and even a New Juhsey accent. From the start, he said "Hey, if you guhls (I mean sistehs) need any help, if you need me to go beat someone up for yuh, you just cawl me. I'm your guy for da job." then he gave this big, crooked-toothed smile. It was great!

 

We've been busy dividing up the area book and having companionship inventory this week, in addition to a couple of training meetings and things, so we haven't done a whole lot of teaching. We helped an older lady clean out her house this past week. She admits to both having ADD and being a compulsive buyer, and, after we had finished cleaning out her home for about an hour we spent the next half hour with her unloading a bunch of stuff to us: blenders, fresh vegetables, cans of probably expired foods, surprisingly really cute youthful new clothes from Forever 21 and a bunch of other stuff. It was so nice! We could use a lot of it.

 

Thanks for keeping in touch!

 

Love, Sister Schmutz

 

July 31, 2013

That was Stephen Ward?????? I was talking about that with my companions two days ago and had no idea! I wasn't able to watch your link because that site isn't mission-approved, but I can imagine it. He's great. 

 

I swear on my honor that I will not put my hair in a ponytail until it looks decently. No nubs. Agreed.

 

Biggest news-- I'M TRAINING! (Even though I've only been through 6 weeks of the 12 week training program.) And white-wash splitting an area! "What does that second part mean?" you ask. Whitewashing happens when a companionship enters an area and neither companion has been in the area before. The other sisters that were in the area before are staying and we are becoming the second set, so we will be working with them to split the area and create a brand-new area book for what is now my companion and my area.   Sister Poulson and I did this same thing. It takes a whole lot of time and coordinating to build up to any teaching time, but it is good!

 

I love love love my trainee, Sister Priday. I will call her a kindred spirit, a bosom friend.  We started calling each other our eternal companion on day one. We just hug and laugh and tell each other we love each other all the time. The other missionaries have been calling us twins and saying that President Morby really was receiving revelation when he set up our companionship. Sister Priday is in love with life, energetic, kind, super spiritual, social, funny, and engaging. One day you will meet her, especially since she attends BYU! She is just great.

 

Me and Sister Priday

 When I saw how pumped she was on transfer day about whitewash splitting an area and being a missionary in general, my motherly heart swelled as I saw those traits in my missionary child that I had exuded in her shoes six weeks ago. We are pumped. We're making a lot of plans on how to get the ward going on missionary work and on dividing up our area.

 

Like with Sister Poulson, we were given a really nice apartment that has never been used by the church before and was brand new. 

 

I WANT PICTURES from you! Do you love me? Do you care? Please, please, please send pictures.  I'm going into virtual hysterics. I really really want pictures from you. It's my dying wish. Hard copy ones that you can hold in your hand. I need. I need.

 

I love you all so much!

 

Love, Sister Schmutz

July 22, 2013

You said you wanted the good the bad and ugly... Well, this week was a little ugly.  ALL of our appointments fell through.  I'm in charge of our area now that Sister Poulson is gone in addition to having to work with my new companions' (who struggle with obedience) area and...it's just been busy.  Definitely been a week of growth. I've grown in patience, especially.

 

Thursday I felt a little stressed and discourged, so I went in to the bathroom of the visitor's center and started praying. A little later, I decided to read my Book of Mormon and got good advice, but nothing really seemed to help. I realized that the only thing that would really help was if I could stop focusing on myself and start focusing on other people. Right after that, I got the chance to talk with and help three women, all members, all coming at different times and with different needs.  (The principles in "How to Win Friends and Influence People" are spot on!)  After starting up a conversation, I hardly said a word to any of these three women. They talked! I realized that it is much better to allow for pauses without interrupting with a question or comment (however relevant). People are thinking and will voice their own thoughts without you guiding them to whatever you think they would or should say. Like I said, I hardly said anything but all three of them (after only about ten minutes) gave me at least one big hug saying their "thank you"s and their desire to come back and see me and left with tears in their eyes. All of them had shared deep and personal spiritual experiences and one when she hugged me said "thank you for letting me share my testimony." That just cheered me up! That was a tender mercy from Heavenly Father.

 

I became friends with the members of the ward council pretty quickly! I wrote down their names the first week and worked to remember them. I really feel part of the ward. Also, the ward mission process is really coming together. Yesterday, no time was wasted--Bishop went right into people they should and have contacted and were making plans for contacting people and helping with those we were contacting with we missionaries having to say hardly a thing.

 

Big news........... After ten long years together, I have parted with ten inches of the lovely locks of hair that you my familia have all known and grown to love. They are now waiting somewhere in the Portland "Great Clips," likely preparing to be given to some little child with cancer (or to be put on one of those hair elastics that's covered in real hair.) I'm sorry Mom! I know you didn't want me to. But, it was time. And it will grow back.

 

Funny thing: I was giving a temple tour yesterday and was expounding on my knowledge on the Southwest corner of the temple, pointing up at different engravings and things while walking, when I turned a bit and smacked right into a concrete bench. It hurt. I buckled a little bit but regained my cool and kept going. No one said anything. Probably because they had massive amounts of respect for me and were very interested in what I had just pointed out, or because they were families with a bunch of crazy little kids. Regardless, I'll try to be more careful next time.

 

Love,

Sister Carly

Outside the Great Clips just before cutting it all off.

 

July 14, 2013

Sister Poulson, an investigator, Sister Schmutz

Today is weird and sad because my lovely companion, Sister Poulson, flies home tomorrow! You are only allowed to extend for a month so she leaves two weeks before transfers end. I'll be going into a trio with the other set of VC sisters in our ward for those two weeks. Sister Poulson has not been trunky at all, which is a very impressive thing. She is awesome. It has been great being companions with her. She will be missed.

_____'s brother came into town and a guy quit from work, so he had to fill his shift on Sunday and has been too busy with his brother to meet with us... but we came to 7-11 to visit him and he still wants to be taught. 

_____ knows the Book of Mormon is true and is now in Jacob but says he feels unworthy to be baptized... We hooked library guy up with the missionaries in his neighborhood. We got three new investigators this past week! Let me tell you about them:

Sally [not her real name], crazy, crazy Sally. Met her Wednesday. She saw us from the window and said "come on around back!" She lives in this odd looking little lopsided bungalow that is PACKED sky high with stuff inside and out back. She is a mix of black, native american and white and is proud of it. She is practically broke but has written several books, specializes in patent law and owns the rights to the name "prose warrior." (We saw all the documents that support this, so know it's true.) She calls us "babies," kept inviting her to come with her and all her friends to the best bars in town and showed us her newest idea-- adult, washable diapers with frills and lace on them so that "a person can be incontinent and feel sexy."

She got hit by a semi-truck and broke her back (showed us the scar. That was a little awkward!) So we helped her clean up her house and then taught her a lesson on the Restoration. She came to church with us on Sunday and has absolutely no need for fellowshipping--she fellowshipped the ward! She commented in all the classes (including the one where we talked about the millenium. "That makes sense," she said afterwards) and went around glad-handing everyone after each class. She said "Amen, amen!" or "Here, here!" several times in all of the meetings. Awesome. She's going to get baptized.

___: This modern awesome Mom who believes all these odd things about meditation and the great spirit and things, so who knows if we'll ever connect there. But we have an appointment next week! ____:  Best seventeen-year-old boy out there. His grandma is a member and took him to church with her once. He started coming on his own after that. He is very sincere in his spirituality and wants to learn more. We taught him yesterday and he has agreed to be baptized!

I've learned a lot this week about how to be a better teacher and companion. I have been humbled. Its been a little rough for Sister Poulson and I to teach together and because I didn't feel frustrated like Sister Poulson did, I thought that meant I wasn't really at fault. Not so! I think it's human nature to think everyone else is in the wrong but us. I've been working on letting Sister Poulson lead in discussions and really following the Spirit. Its easy to think that you have the best things to say, but its the Spirit that does and following the Spirit requires slowing down and really listening to it. 

I've learned how to be a better companion from Sister Poulson: to not criticize or take offense at things that really aren't a big deal, because that's what she does. These are good lessons for all of us I think! It just makes life harder when we don't do them. 

We had this old woman open the door with only a kind of loose towel on when we were tracting Wednesday. She said "Sorry girls, I'm kind of busy, I've got to get in the shower." She saw our surprised faces and said casually, as if to explain "I wouldn't have opened the door except I knew you were girls." Oh, ok.

Last thing: the pure love of Christ, charity, is absolutely a real thing. I've been praying for it and this past week have noticed it very distinctly. We met a woman who is in her mid-fifties, retired, really friendly, invited us in and then prepared to pounce. We talked a little bit about the spiritual experiences we've had and the reality of God when, out of nowhere, she interrupted us and said "You're wrong. There is no Heavenly Father, there is only Christ. Then, she whipped out her Bible and had us turn to reference after reference of these obscure, complex scriptures in the Bible that talk about God. She wouldn't say anything but "Uh-huh!" between each one and, when we said we had to go to a dinner appointment or would be late she said "No! Just sit here and give me five more minutes." All this time when she was going a little crazy and trying to tear down our beliefs, I just had this deep feeling of love for her! I wasn't bugged and just wanted to help her. It was really cool. We gladly set up a return appointment and I'm excited to meet with her again.

Hermana Schmutz

July 8, 2013

Misty Mayfield and her family (from the home ward in Bountiful) stopped at the Visitors Center on the way back from a trip--and guess who she saw there!

Most of the time, we are not in the visitors center, but are out proselyting.  Right now I am in a beautiful area where a lot of wealthy people have summer homes. It is your ideal paradise, full of greenery, surrounded by huge trees on all sides which deaden the outside sounds so you can't hear any cars or other city-like noises. Oh, I can't get enough. But we don't get very much success there.

One thing I am learning about a lot here is the need for extending bold commitments and then following up. The basic, crucial way we fulfill our Purpose as missionaries is by calling people to repentence. I think the best definition of repentence is change--opening your heart more to the Savior and allowing Him to fill it with His light through obedience to him. No one likes change and people rarely are going to do it unless they are told clearly and repeatedly that they need to take certain specific steps--like prayer, scripture study and baptism, in order to progress! We can't convert them; they convert themselves as they act.

We had a non-member guy come with his member friends to the Visitors Center Saturday night. He proudly told us that he was taking lessons from his fourth set of missionaries without being baptized because God had told him he just was not supposed to be baptized yet. We testified, showed some displays and had them watch the Joseph Smith movie. Sister Poulson, my companion, told me right before it was finished "ok, you're going to commit him to baptism." So, I did it. He said he was unsure. We commited him to study the Book of Mormon that night, pray to ask if it was true and fast about it. We followed up with him the next day and he said he had read the whole first book of Nephi, which he had never done before!

Funny/awkward/pretty embarassing story (I think I have one every week, lucky for you.) :

We knocked a door and waited a minute or two with no one answering. I said to Sister Poulson, "We never take pictures.  We should take more." "Ok, lets take one right now, they're not home!" She put her camera on a convenient ledge so it was facing us and put it on timer. Then, we positioned ourselves at the door fists up, as if we were both about to knock. Right then, an old woman stuck her head out of the door and said "Whatdya want?"

Us, quickly putting out fists down, flustered, and mentally praying that the camera wouldn't go off "Oh um, we're missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.."

*FLASH* from the camera.

"Ok, what's going on here?!!"

Sister Poulson: "Oh, um, uh.."

Me: "We thought no one was home! We're sorry! We'll delete the picture, we swear!"

She slammed the door.

We hoped that didn't give her a bad impression of the church, which it probably did.... but we laughed about it the rest of the day.

Life is good. I've realized that everything I can think of that is really good and satisfying has to be worked for: loving relationships, testimony, virtues, talents, you name it. But, the work is worth it!

What??? We're in the library writing. A latino man just sat down in front of the computer next to me. I got the little prompting "Give him an invite to the visitor's center." So, I did. Didn't even say anything except "Would you like to come see the visitor's center?" He looked and said "Can I have this?" "Yes. We're missionaries for this church. Would you like us to come and teach you more about it?" "Yes, can I give you my phone number?" "...Yes." We're teaching him this Friday at four! Wow.

  

We have a Christus in the VC that's the first thing you see right when you walk in. Like the one in SLC, it has a really good narration of scriptures Christ said that's given with a person with this deep, Christ-like voice and subtle background music. But, we had some technical difficulties this past week and the narration broke. So, they asked us to memorize that and say it for people when they come in. It's kind of intimidating because you're in front of a group anywhere between 1 and 50 people and shouting at them the words of Christ as they all stare at you. It's also powerful though, because the words are true and even saying them with no extra sounds or anything brings the Spirit. I'm definitely learning to get out of my shell though!

LOVE, Sister Schmutz

June 30, 2013

 Following promptings--on Wednesday, we were looking over the ward list for people we could visit and this woman's name twice caught my eye. She is a less-active and is 85. The previous sisters had written that they hadn't been able to contact her. "moved/died?" was what they wrote. It seemed like contacting her would be a pretty fruitless effort. But, though the little prompting to contact her was very subtle, we decided to follow it. We called her, she answered and gladly accepted a lesson from us! We are going over on Wednesday.

We experienced a miracle this past week with the Bishop. When we first met with him he was very reluctant about any ward mission work. After the mission broadcast last week, he had a change of heart! He got the ward mission process going in ward council and choked up talking about missionary work at the end of it. He dedicated the 5th Sunday meeting to missionary work.  We sang, Sister Poulson bore her testimony, and Brother Tom Cottle this awesome old guy who has served seven missions spoke. He declared solid doctrine, shook his finger and said "Repent!" Ya!! He's awesome.  Bishop spoke at the end and went ten minutes over talking again about the importance of ward missionary work, choking up this time as well.  Both times he quoted the scripture in Alma "oh that I were an angel and could have the wish of mine heart, preaching repentance to every people." (or however that one goes). The atonement has wrought upon him and our prayers have been answered. Cool huh?

I have learned that people--ESPECIALLY less actives--do not think that they have a problem or they are doing anything wrong. Human nature. We taught lessons to four less actives this past week, including Brother ____ and the_____s.  All of them said that they knew God was there and loved him! They say they still follow the Spirit and God definitely blesses their lives. The _____s said, "Yeah, we're not really interested in that. But we're really grateful for him and all that. And we love having you come over!" Sister _____, an older, really fashionable and friendly woman expressed deep spirituality and testimony, nodding at everything we said and saying "Oh yeah. So true. Oh yeah." She said she would love to come to church but was just too busy. We asked if she wanted a calling--since she said she wanted to do service--and she said "You know, that's not really my thing." Brother ______ was even more interesting. He said he will put his family before God any day, but almost all of his family attend church! He teared up when sharing spiritual experiences, but said "God just hasn't prompted me to go back yet." But, he said he will "for you two girls." So... hm. I think he will come back though!

Something funny happened at the visitor's center this past week. I went over to talk to these two women--a Jewish woman and her member friend who said they had been given a tour and were about to leave. I wanted to leave a quick little bit of my testimony, so I looked at the displays, thinking of one I could testify of. The one on Christ's life caught my eye, so I just said "I love the display on Jesus Christ's life because it reminds me that, regardless of our faith, we all believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior." ..... [in my head] "oh! You fool! Noooo we don't!!" I looked at them, the nice Jewish ladies face had kind of flattened and her friend looked nervous. I tried to fix it by saying "....Belief in God and his goodness!" They were nice and even both accepted referral (or "guest") cards and the Jewish woman seemed to express genuine interest in filling it out. Then they left.

We were locked out of our apartment the other day because the other sisters accidentally took our keys and our neighbor passed us, talked with us for a minute, and then invited us over to her place. We are teaching her! She is awesome.

Hermana Carly

June 23, 2013

My companion Sister Poulson and I on a P-day

My companion and I became the second set of sisters in this ward (so there are now 4 sisters here). This past week, we broke up the area into two halves, with them keeping their old investigators and with us starting fresh. We met with our ward mission leader and bishop this past week, both of whom expressed excitement for my greenie "fire," but who said that the ward mission process just doesn't work and that the ward isn't functioning very well as far as missionary work goes. So, we took the names of people they told us to visit plus the old potential investigators written in our area book (not many) and went to work seeking them out. Our area is one of the wealthiest in the nation and, perhaps partially because of that, are NOT very receptive.

Because we had some less-than warm encounters, it was a little intimidating to go talk to people after a bit. We were walking up to a house and Sister Poulson said, "Ok, this time you testify of the Book of Mormon" which was in my hand. He didn't really want to talk to us, but I still held up the Book and said that I knew that it was another testimony of Jesus Christ and the cornerstone of our religion, and that he could get closer to God by reading it than by any other book. Something like that. He didn't want to talk to us and I don't think I changed his life. In a way, that's what was powerful for me: his level of interest or receptiveness didn't change my testimony or the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. It was great.

I studied about patience and charity for personal study the next morning, because I realized that is something I kind of needed if I wanted to develop happy friendly relationships within the ward. We almost cornered the elders quorum president, Brother Wall that day, and he threw out the name of a family who hadn't been to church in years, the _____. They were well known in the community because he was a loved ____, so his sudden somewhat antagonistic feelings towards the church is still surprising to a lot of people. Right after talking with Brother Wall, we called him up. They invited us over!

Also, Brother Bartelt, our ward mission leader, half-heartedly said to visit Brother _____ and his family, the previous ward missionary who also suddenly stopped going to church. We called him and he invited us over! We announced this in PEC yesterday and I think everyone was pretty surprised. Brother Bartelt told us that after PEC, the bishop cornered him and said, "We've got to get the ward mission process amped up for those girls!" The big broadcast was all about that, so that further motivated Brother Bartelt. We met with him again and he is ready to go. He's still not really sure how to go about it, but we have more names and are moving forward!

The Sunday broadcast was all about the above ward mission involvement. If I do not go home with anything else from my mission, I will come home being a good ward missionary! Having members who invite their friends to hear the message changes everything and is so much more effective. Member involvement is crucial. Get working on the people you know who are not members or less active!

We gave a tour to a Young Women's group last week. It was so fun. We had them with us for about an hour and had had no time to plan or anything, but the Spirit just takes over and works through us, gives us the things we should say right when we need it, like it says in the Doctrine and Covenants.  I just have learned to be worthy and prepared to have the Spirit by doing everything I should, and then Heavenly Father does the rest. Plus, we have a lot of good displays and little film clips.

Life is good. Some of us VC Sisters went to the coast and shopping today for pday. It was so weird being at the mall! I really had to control myself from dancing to the music they play haha. It was a weird feeling.

Love,

Seester Shmoots

June 18, 2013 Oregono

Well, I love it here. I think I fit the stereotypical definition of a missionary "greenie" pretty well. We got off the plane and my eyes were wide open. I had just arrived in real, non-LDS society! And this is MY mission!! And I'm going to convert EVERYTHING that breathes!!! I couldn't stop smiling. Then, the APs came to pick us up and I started feeling a little bit like a child, like the greenie I was. Our new group (32 new missionaries, a record number for the mission) with our new companions sat behind the stand to get assigned to an area.

When I got assigned to my area as with when I got my companion, I was a little awkward and unsure, like the other new missionaries. Then, we stood up and said the mission themes and sang the song with such gusto, and President Morby stood up and spoke with such vigor, that I started getting pretty enthusiastic. I had arrived with approximately four hours of sleep from the night before, so I was pretty tired. Also, I've almost completely lost my voice. Despite those physical ailments, after the meeting, I just wanted to get to work and work as hard as I could. My mission companion, Sister Paulson (she's awesome!) extended her mission and actually leaves in 30 days, so we're going to make a big bucket-list goal sheet of what she wants to accomplish for her final days. She has stoutly said that she will not get trunky, something I really admire her for. She's a go-getter. She's cool. 

My companion and I have been assigned to a ward that is already occupied by another group of visitor center sisters, so we're meeting up with the ward mission leader tonight to divide up the area and figure out how all this will work out. 

We had a weird scheduling thing yesterday and today, so, long story short, I have not yet been tracting but have spent all my time at the visitors center. The center is tiny and way high-tec. There's the Christus and a bunch of video display things and a mini theater that you take people on a tour of. It's an interesting form of missionary work, because people come to you and your missionary tools are the videos and thing in the center. It is a really great way to do missionary work! 

Another thing I like about the visitors center is the sense of family you have with the other visitors center sisters and senior couples. They are like secondary parents or grandparents! And such good missionaries, all of them. 

A lot of people here are ready for the gospel.  One woman who came up to two visitors center sisters and the first thing she said to them was, "Can I join your church?" She heard about the church from member friends who are now excommunicated member friends, so she heard all of these misconceptions, but she still received all the lessons and is being baptized Saturday!  I met her yesterday.  She is in her late twenties or thirties, Korean, working woman, pretty brusque, but the Spirit was there with her. Definitely genuine about the Church.

So, that's a miracle I've seen since coming here. Another miracle is the energy I've gotten since coming! I'm still tired, but I'm able to do more and I'm definitely more motivated to act than I think I ever have been before. 

I LOOOVEEEE YOUUUUUU!!!!!

Hermana Carlos Schmutz

June 14, 2013

Leaving the Provo Temple with my group of sisters (below) when I hear "CARLY!"  There was my cousin Colby (above--who is headed to Paraguay next month) and Aunt Karen and Uncle John.  They took these photos.

Late getting this blog up--we'll skip to the end of the MTC period:

June 14, 2013:  So, I fly out on Monday! We fly out from SLC at 8:30.  I'm so excited to go! Every day, I gain a greater testimony for God's work. He is in it and it is for the salvation of His children. Because I've enjoyed all the blessings of the Gospel, I've never really thought much about them.  Did you know that we are supposed to invite a person to baptism on the first lesson? Because I'm at a visitors center, that could be after talking to someone after 15 minutes. I thought that was completely ridiculous at first, but their really is wisdom behind it. Our purpose is to invite others to baptism. All of the other factors involved (faith, repentance, gospel principles and lessons) are meant to lead to that. Baptism is the gate.

 

This week, we have started visitors center training!! There are three aspects to my mission: visitors center, in-field/tracting, and online referral center. We went to Temple Square this week and go again tomorrow for tours. Yesterday, we just walked. Tomorrow, we will help conduct!! It's awesome because as a visitors center sister, you are in somewhat of a holy place and all you have to do is add to, and not detract from, the Spirit that is already there and help the people there feel that Spirit. It is wonderful. My favorite thing though has been working at the referral center.  You do get some weird contacts. Our first night my friends got online chatted with this girl who was scared about her honeymoon night and was going into really awkward detail (when she wouldn't go into gospel topics with them, they just had to tell her to talk with another adult parental or counselor figure).  Another group got this way antagonistic bible basher, and we got some boy who really wanted help stopping his girlfriend from going on a mission. I guess that's similar to what you get on the streets. But, in a referral center, the "golden contacts" come to you online or over the phone frequently!  The first night we had a less than fruitful chatting session with the boyfriend guy, but the second day, we had two contacts who believed in God and were genuinely interested in the church. BOTH TIMES the chatting session deleted out on its own in the middle of a good conversation. So, Satan is still trying to exert his power here as well.

What I have learned in all of my mtc experiences is that you set up the atmosphere at the beginning with a spiritual feeling that's geared towards Jesus Christ from the beginning. All conversation is geared towards our Purpose, and we start with questions and comments that help accomplish that.

We went to the temple on Tuesday and I was in my temple clothes, no badge, waiting for my companion. A sister working there asked, "Are you a missionary?" I said yes and asked how she knew. She said, "You just look like one. You have a feel like you are." I was so proud! That has been a goal of mine.

I love you soooooooo much! The church is true! I'm learning every day to be more unselfish. It's a blessing to be consecrated to the Lord and set apart in this way. It's been hard at times, but has taught me a lot about the atonement. Repentance is meant to be a daily thing (Preach My Gospel section on baptism in lesson 3) and everything we do points towards that.  Repentance is simply turning ourselves increasingly outward towards God and others.

Hermana Schmutz :)