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