December 30, 2013

Hello! 

Well hello my good family! This has been such a good week and guess what it was CHRISTMAS! And it was 75 out for Christmas, a wonderful day! 

We started out the day and went over a member's house who invited us over for breakfast and then went straight to SKYPE! That is right, we got to Skype and I saw all the wonderful faces of my families! That was at Mariana's house and it was so nice of her and her brothers to let us use their computers. 

After we went to the stake center and watched a movie we got to watch Ephriam's Rescue and that was fun, (suckers I already saw it) haha. But yeah, so there at the stake center it was the funnest time ever! We opened all the presents there and it was a blast! 

I need to say thank you all so much for all that you have sent me! I am so loved and have such a wonderful family! 

Well yes, I will all be writing you all soon! So thank you! 

After Christmas was Thursday and it was fun, a weird last weekly planning we didn't really know what to do! haha, but it was good! Just prepared the area book for the elders of Anaheim! They will do great! 

So this week was very hard for the one reason, but a good hard and it made my testimony grow. we were supposed to have 3 baptisms this week,  yesterday on Sunday. We had a lesson with the three kids that were going to get baptized and they were so pumped and the mom was so happy to see them getting baptized! She approved and all that! Anyways we finish up teaching them everything and then we asked if we could talk to their mom so plan  the baptism, so the kids go and get her and she comes out. She tells us, yeah do the baptism and we asked if 4pm on this Sunday was good. Then the bad news... She said "Oh well actually I'm going to Vegas this week and won't be home until Tuesday. Maybe we can do it next week!"

 

It was so hard for us to hear, so yeah. As everyone knows we are both closing this area and it going to Anaheim, and they will be getting baptized next week! It's hard because I have seen the whole family be taught! BUT BUT BUT, I realized something that night. That it doesn't matter, I was sad but still super happy! Because they are still getting baptized! Like how cool! We are all on the same team and I am so happy that we get to leave the area set up for success! I love the work of the Lord and I'm so happy to see and know that the area will be in good hands. 

I was asked to speak in church yesterday too to say goodbye! It was fun and our mission president was there too to talk! I got to talk to him a little after! 

Ok so I'm guessing you wanna know where I am going, you will literally NEVER guess!! NEVER......Cerritos! Yup, that's right I am going back to the same area I started my mission! Haha One Ways here I come! Man I'm so pumped! Now that I know Spanish I can actually do something! haha. Also I got called to be the District Leader, my District is huge 10 people. haha And also a call to train! So White Washing, training, and District Leader...what am I doing!! haha, but yeah. But news also, I was supposed to train but...BUT the trainee that I was supposed to train got sent home from the MTC...haha so yeah. Um, now I am with Elder BROCK! Yay! We get to stay together, how cool is that! 

I'm excited! It will be good, I just cant believe it! I dunno how to be a DL too, I'm not too good at that stuff but right on! 

Well I love you all! Have a good week and I will write you all soon! 

Elder Schoofff 

December 23, 2013

Hello, well this week has been so fun, and I love my mission! This week has been super good. 

Well so start out this Wednesday is..CHRISTMAS! Yay! haha I love this time of the year so much and I would be nowhere else but right here in CA enjoying the 74 degree weather. :) haha. Man it's just tooo good here! I love it! We are all excited to see what happens that day, and we even get to talk to y'all family!! I can't wait. I'll let you know when I can call and talk. 

 So this week, we again really focused on members coming out with us. We had a member with us last Tuesday night but last minute he canceled. But for the lesson we had set we NEEDED a member! So we were calling EVERYONE! But no one could go short notice, we at least called 20 people or more. But no one could, then we thought of a convert that is the brother-in-law of the familia Sepulveda! We bring Hmo Sepulveda out with us all the time and he is SOO good to bring out with us, he could go out that night but we decided to ask Martin the son-in-law. He was baptized three years ago and told us he only went out with missionaries once before and that was three years ago! So we had to bring him out! The lesson we went to was PERFECT! He was just the man to come! haha, And after he asked for pamphlets of the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation to share with his family! How cool is that!! He is the best member missionary ever! 

On another note...we had a baptism this week! Yay! haha, It was a blast. He name is Viri, she was a member referral from a recent convert. She is actually a miracle, we invited Gena, the recent convert, to a member with us to a lesson and she by chance brought Viri. The lesson fell through but we just decided to have a little lesson with them and to see how they are doing. We committed them to pray. 2 days later Gena texted us saying that Viri did it and now she wants to talk to us. We had another lesson with her and it was powerful. We started teaching her on the 7th of December, and I was on splits with Elder Wilson that day as we started to teach her. That day we committed her to baptism on the 21st. We KNEW that day was for her. We got to meet with them a lot in between and near the end she told us that she wasn't ready or was scared to be baptized. They also told us that they are going out of town on the 22nd, until the 2nd of January. We leave the 31st of this month. We were super bummed because we KNEW that the 21st was her day. So during weekly planning this last Thursday we decided to call and set up an appointment to just say our goodbyes I guess you could say. But on the phone we felt inspired to say, "So Viri you ready for your baptism this Saturday?" and what do you know, after some talking she told us, Ok! So we had the last lesson with her and then the interview and she was baptized on the 21st and confirmed yesterday and yes!! It's so cool! It was awesome. As some of you know, the 21st of December is a very significant day for me, well one I went through the temple one year ago on that date, and also mom passed away on the day in 2001. How great the Lord is to me to bless me with joyous memories on that day to look back on. Knowing that I got to see a baptism happen and someone make that eternal convent with God! How awesome! I love my mission! I know this work is true and I love my mission, it's a ball. I know this work is true. The Lord is so good to me. I hope you can all remember the true meaning of Christmas: that we do have a Savior and He loves us! 

Elder Schooff 
 Merry Christmas

December 16, 2013

Hello Family! 

OK well, what is up with all of you today this fine Monday morning? 

Let me just first out say, happy birthday to my sister that will have a birthday in three days! Woot woot! I love you so much Ash and I hope you have a great bday! I love youuu. 

Ok well this last week has flown by and wow, I feel like I just wrote home yesterday to y'all. Where does time go on a mission? 

Also, I am in the Cerritos library right now, where I started my mission because the internet was down in Cypruss so we had to come here. Man the memories are flooding in! No joke! ahhh, I love my mission!

But anyways like I was saying yes, this week went by too fast, and know I only have two more here in Cypruss with the BP3rd ward! Ahh so sad. This ward is like my family! I love them all so much. 

We had the opportunity to just have a good talk with bishop this last week and man do I have the most upright respect for Obispo Becerra. He is the bomb. I love the guy so much, he is sooo sad to see the ward have to split the split and see LB leave the ward. He just told us how proud of us he was, he really is a great bishop and runs the ward so smoothly. You know you have a good bishop when the ward is doing its job, when people are home teaching, when callings are being fulfilled and the ward is overall excited! Man he is the best.

We had some really cool things happen this last week with some really powerful lessons, we had a lesson with one of our investigators this week that was a member referral. Y we have been teaching her a lot! We committed her to pray about baptism and she told us her answer the next lesson. She told she was nervous to be baptized and didn't know 100 percent if or when, but when she did pray she felt and "weird but good feeling". So we were in the church building and we asked if you would pray and feel that feeling again with the question of should I get baptized, would she do it?? She told yes if I felt the same way, so we told her to pray right then and there. To go into the chapel and pray and she did! She came out and told us, "I know I need to be baptized, I just don't know when." It was sooo cool to hear her say that! I was sooo happy! No joke! So now we are working with her on the date! Coool! 

We have a whole family that is investigating the church right now and the whole family has come to church for the last two weeks! They are so prepared and I love them all so much, the wife told us she wants the Holy Ghost with her forever to protect her family! We are working sooo hard to help them.

So yesterday we met with the Anaheim mission. That's right Caden, I met your Mission President and a bunch of your future Zone Leaders! haha But we met with them with all of our mission presidency and the APs, and also us. We helped them rearrange the borders of the areas showed them the area book and told them basically just about the whole area. It was fun! Our area will actually stay the exact same, pretty cool. This meeting helped a lot to let me know the area will be well taken care of! The elders seemed like really good workers who will take over the area. We even get to go on splits with them when we want to so we can show them the area. It's pretty sweet. Going on splits with someone from another mission! haha Cool. 

We have a ward Christmas party this week and a zone Christmas meeting! 

Well I love you all soo much I know this work is true, I also know we cant do it with out LOVE. It's the thing that makes missionaries keep going, LOVE is necessary. I love that, I love my mission, I love the Lord and I love my family! Ok bye!!! 

Elder Schooff

December 9, 2013

FAM FAM! 

Hello all, this is has been a wonderful week of wonderful experiences and I love it! It's been a great week full of personal revelation! Coooool! 

So let's see, we are still working super hard this time of year with member, and one of my personal revelations was that I am sick of riding my bike at nighttime the the freezing cold weather. No I'm just joking. But really, so we decided to have members out with us EVERY NIGHT! Set appointments or not. From usually 6:30 to 8:30 we get members to drive us around and not just members but less actives too! It has had HUGE success! Like no joke, every night we have had SO many lessons. It's funny to see the Lord has..like...pity on us when the members are with us! They are really having tons of spiritual experiences!  On top of that we asked the members to share their experience with the Priesthood on Sundays, that was super successful too! 

Like one of the members we brought out was actually really cool. He is named Roberto and he is from Cuba, I LOVE this guy! The English elders knocked into the house he lives in. He rents out a room from a lady named Loordes. We can't go into the house cause Loordes does not like any type of religion so we sat outside with him. The reason she like no churches is because her son was very religious and he died 15 years ago and then 2 years ago her husband died too, so she was left alone. She does not believe that God would allow someone to be "alone". But we talked with Roberto  So we went by on Saturday and it turns out He was baptized 20 years ago and hasn't been to church for about 5 years. He came to church on Sunday and we asked if he would want to come out with us on the next Saturday and he said Claro!! haha So we met at the church and we went out for 2 hours with him and all of our appointments fell through that WE had planned, but the Lord had a different plan for us! We went by the Family Luna, out recent converts and talked to them and had a really spiritual lesson about the Spirit. Hma Luna told us some SUPER cool stuff and it made Roberto bear his testimony about the church. We left, and as we were driving in his car with him back to the church we told us that he hasn't felt the spirit is so long and he was "eternally" grateful to the church and us for bringing him out. The next day at church he acted on his prompting and brought the lady (Loordes) that he rents the room out to church with him and she LOVED it! So now we are teaching her and about eternal families! So cool, member work is the best! I love it! I need to write this is my journal! haha, Don't worry I write in my journal all the time! 

The members with us brought a ton of success! And the result was 10 people at church this last week! Man, that's a lot in this mission! Is was so glorious to see so! I love it!

My companion is the best and I love him to death, everyday I am learning new things from him. 

I love my mission and I love to see the man I am becoming in the day and age. I love this place so much! 

Well family I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week! 

Elder Schooff 

December 2, 2013

Hello Family. 

This was one of the weirdest weeks of my whole mission! Without a doubt, but so cool. 

Well let me explain to you why. haha, This week my sister (Ashley Elizabeth Webster Schooff) was here in my mission, not just in my mission but in my Area, for a good 2 days I believe, I really don't know but yeah. haha. It was truly one of the funniest things ever though, because we were all over my area this week and always near Knotts Berry Farm. We have a member who works there and he saw Ashley and Bryson too. haha, So then Sunday comes and my recent convert texts us and says, "I'm seeing you sister today after church." haha I was like what?? So Ashley went over there and then ate some nice pancakes and stuff, and she left and 20 minutes later I was there to pick up the nice stuff Ash left for me! Haha, thanks ash! I was like a good 2 minutes away from my sister at points, knowing that she was at the house! haha So weird but so cool! I'm so happy my recent convert got to meet my family! How great that is! Ash thanks for the food :) 

But anyways, this week also was...El Dia de accion de Gracias or... El Dia de Pavo! haha Thanksgiving! Sick! It was sooooo fun! We were able to have as many dinners as we wanted that day! 

We started out with Sister Newman. She is an English member that we know pretty well, don't ask me how I know so many English members. She invited us and some English elders to Seal Beach to do some service. So we got permission to do it! In all it was 10 elders going to a place called Leisure Land. The gnarliest place I have ever been! It's an older retirement CITY! Yes people a retirement CITY! It was HUGE and truly straight out of the 60s! It was weird, and we served a bunch of turkey to some older people that served in the WW2! It was soooo fun! haha, A good experience!

After we went to the family Luna, out recent converts! And man, it was good with some good ol' Fried shrimp! Then after we went to Marianas house with some Carneasada and after we went to the Family Pablo y had Pozole! So so good!  It was the best, and at the Pablo's house we played the thanks game! Where we go around the circle and say what we are grateful for in our lives! There was the 6 elders there and the 6 of the pablos! So fun and it was a blast! 

Thanks family for all your packages and lovely mail! I love you all so much. 

We had a super cool miracle happen this week! We got a referral from the English elders and man was it BOMB! We got a set lesson with them and we had a lesson about the Restoration and we were talking about Prophets and the example of Moses and how he guided the people. Our investigator asked us why don't we have that today? Like this world is more corrupt  and we need that! Lo and behold we talked about a living prophet today! So cool! At the end of the lesson all he said was, 

"Estoy de acuerdo" Which means, I agree! haha It was soo cool! The Lord has prepared them to hear our message! 

Well family! I love you all so much have a great week and I'll talk to you on the phone soon! Will we do like a big conference call again?! cool 

Elder Schooff