July 28, 2014 - Compton, Escargot and MLC.

Hello Family! 

Wow, this week was insane. This week was just jammed packed with so much going on and happening it's hard to look back at it all. But let's just dive in. 

Monday and Tuesday were pretty rough, we had a lesson with Jackie, and she is progressing SOO well, as you already know. Doing everything she can to live the gospel. We went over to her house to confirm for her baptism, but she told us some bad news. It says in Preach My Gospel that we cannot baptize someone if they do not have the consent of the spouse. Jackie told us that her husband was against it and thinks it will be hard for the family. It was super hard for her to tell us that and for us to hear. We kept our heads high, this stuff happens in missionary work all the time. So we were bummed but for just a second, we realized that things in life are on God's time, not ours. We talked to her about fasting, she was soooo on board, so this Sunday we fasted with her so that her husband's heart can be opened up! All the members are there for her, and so much good is going to come, I can feel it. I was really excited to work with the situation at hand next transfer...but something changed. haha

Thursday morning, right before district meeting Pres. Tew calls me, and asked what my schedule was like for later that day. I had a set after weekly planning and he told me to come to the office after the set. We went there and I talked for a bit, Pres Tew called me to be a Zone Leader down in the Long Beach North Zone, or in other words... the city of Compton and downtown LB. So yeah, I was caught off guard by that. I look at Zone Leaders as elders that just "get it," I look up to them a lot and they help me! So I feel a little inadequate, but that's ok. I know the Lord does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called. So we shall see, I leave on Tuesday morning over there. I'm sad and happy, I love this area and the really, really hard work that we have done. This district is the best, I love all the elders in it so much! But I know that Elder Beyer will do great to take it over, I've been with that elder for 3 transfers, I loved every moment. It'll be weird saying goodbye, but that's the life of a missionary. 

Elder Beyer is training!!! I'm so excited for him! I loved training and he will be a great paps to a little greenie. 

Friday, Pres asked me to come to MLC, or missionary leadership council and that was a great time there. It's cool to council with the mission leadership and see what we can do to edify and strengthen the mission as a whole together. I LOVE Pres Tew. That man is inspired. 

Saturday night, a member found out I am leaving so she took us to the nicest place in town as a goodbye dinner for me and another elder. It's called Del Rae...haha I thought it was fun, it was made in the 50's and is run by the gangs around here, and let me tell you...it is HIGH class..haha. We got Escargot and that super unique. haha 

Sunday, Jackie came to church again. the whole ward just loves her. She will be a great member and even though I won't be here to see her baptized, I know that it will be wonderful! Sunday I got to say goodbye to everyone and it was very nice. I love this ward and I'm going to miss the Bishop so much, he is a powerful leader and I try to follow and take his example. We go see him tonight, he invited us over to have a cake before I leave. Awesome. Score. 

Family I love you all, 

KAITLYN!!! It's your bday coming up, know that I love you and all that you are. You are one of the most important people in my life and I'm so grateful to have you as a sister. I love you and I'll see you soon! 

Have a safe week y'all! 

Elder Schooff

July 21, 2014 - Mexico, Temples, El Libro de Mormon and Dogs.

Hey family! 

This week was great and man I have a lot to say but not too much time to say it. So let's start out.

One, I have realized that my Spanish is Mexican Spanish...aka the best. Haha I'm sure many will disagree with that but man I love to learn all the words I possibly can from Mexico, after all it is like a short short drive down to TJ, everyone is from Mexico here. And I love it. 

We started out the week so well with a great first night, we have been really trying super hard to implement what it says in Preach My Gospel to invite all those that are around to come hear you and your message. We are doing a Pre-how to begin teaching. Ask them questions of their expectations of us, ask them, if we can remove any distractions in the house (like a TV or a radio or algo) and then ask for every one to come in and listen, then pray to bless "every aspect of their lives." Well we have been going ham on that y man we had a great miracle. We contacted this women, and she allowed us to come into her house and talk for a bit. Well we entered and she had 4 children all in the house playing some video game, the whole house was noisy and it was obvious that the Spirit of God would have a hard time to dwell and whisper to the family that what we say is true. So we did the Pre-how to begin teaching really well, it's always hard to get you know, kids away from their Video Games and some people could take it as rude to ask, but we had faith that the Spirit would touch their hearts. We did ask, and the whole family came and listened and man are they prepared! It was a super powerful lesson and the mother is so excited to have us back. I have seen that on my mission, we will always have room to grow. There is a quote that goes like so, 

"I think some of the most miserable people I have ever met, are people that say they are fine with who they are and their flaws and don't want to change, people who settle."

So true, life is meant for progression, every day we need to improve, like simple little stuff to master how to turn off a TV or just smiling or anything, we should be constantly looking for correction that is love-inspired and seeking to change ourselves. 

We had another lesson with Jackie this week about the temple, man it was a hoot. She is so prepared. We watched in the lesson a video of the temple from lds.org. and in it, she was so touched. After the video, she told us. She gets it all now. She said, "You guys do everything that is asked to do, like the prophet it says we need to have a prophet in the bible, it talks about temples in the bible, this must be the church of Christ." So cool huh! She came to church with us this week and man I'm so grateful to be teaching someone so prepared. I love my mission. 

I did it, yes, I did it. haha I finished the Book of Mormon is Spanish this morning, I have a strong testimony of that Book, I know it is a book from God to us, when ever I get doubtful or discouraged, I read. And every time, and I really do mean every time, it leaves me more strengthened then before. I encourage you all to read it. 

This week I have also realized I'm getting old...haha mission-age wise. I got tons of wedding invitations from friends at home or missionaries that I knew from the mission. Weird. haha 

We were walking down the street this week and usually dogs love to bark at us NONSTOP...so yeah, sometimes it gets annoying. We saw a dog this week that was barking at us but made no sound...trippy. I dunno, I thought is was semi-rewarding. 

Transfers are coming up in one week, it comes and goes so fast. man, way too fast. Time flies. I'll let y'all know what happens soon!


Have a great week! 
Elder Schooff

July 14, 2014 - Coffee, Jerseys and Mom.

Hello Family, 

This week was a great week and man was it packed with fun, we had a great time overall just working hard with the members and our investigators. 

This week we had a great, fantastic, amazing, awesome, baffling, just what ever great positive adjective you can think of lesson with Jackie!  

We went over to her house to teach the Word of Wisdom, which we knew she had a problem with, cause she loves coffee and teas. She is an all natural eater. Which is super good, but not with coffee. haha

So we were praying our hearts out trying to figure out how we can get her to want to stop and we made a super solid lesson plan, we felt ready. 

Jackie had been taught everything about the gospel and she is so ready and she really does believe in Joseph Smith so we focused on him and the Word of Wisdom. So we go over there and start explaining to her the blessings of eating healthy and then we say the things that we need to stay away from.  Alcohol, Smoking of any type, Illegal Drugs and addictive substances, tea and....coffee. When we said coffee, she looked at us, kinda in a feeling of, "Oh man I don't want to give that up." But she sat quiet for a second, then looked at us and said, "Ok, if it's from God and a Prophet, I am done with Coffee, no more for me!" How cool is that!! The Lord is so cool, to prepare people that much. We decided that she doesn't need to do it alone so we told her that we are going to go hard on being healthy too! Elder Beyer and I committed to Run a 25 minute run every morning and then do 100 sit ups too. And man it's awesome! So cool! You just feel better being healthy. We text her every morning that we did it and held up our end, and every morning she does too. This morning she said this, "All good things are coming with just letting go of coffee, I look forward to staying strong." How cool is that, man I love this gospel, Jackie is an answer to our prayers! Everyone pray that she will get baptized on the 27th!  

This week all the whole world knows, the World Cup ended, and it was madness here, but know due to that, every garage sale is selling all these jerseys for so cheap! Haha we got 8 free jerseys from this person one day just because we have the name of Christ on our tag. I felt to bad, so we used them for a good cause and I gave one to each elder in my district and now we all these cool matching jerseys. I'm telling you this district is so close it's so cool! I'm grateful to be in it! 

We had a Zone Conference this week too, and man did I learn a lot from it. Pres Tew is an inspired man, he said this, "If you DO what you can to BE, you will BECOME.

Simple but beautiful, it shows the beauty of the gospel and how we don't need to be perfect, we just need to do what we can at our 100 best! Cool! I love the gospel. 

This week as well, we had a great lesson with Alfredo our investigator. He is doing good too! And he asked us how he can share the gospel with his neighbors and friends, how cool it that! Like to see someone that has only talked to us no more that 4 to 5 times and already wants to share the gospel, that just shows that all us members should never have any fear to share the gospel. We can do it, so do it! haha.

A lot is happening in the ward right now, so many people are leaving the ward and we did the math, there are only 35 active people who live within the ward boundaries and 52 out of it, and 87 that are less active that live in the boundaries, the bishop asked us to help bring those less actives back in, because "a lot is about to change" in his words, so we are doing just that. 

I had a unique moment this week that made me really appreciate every mom out there, especially mine, Sometimes not having a mom can be hard and you forget what it feels like to have a mom, we have this woman we teach now named Irma, she is an angel and so nice and we found her this week. She was so nice to us and basically, treated us like her kids, you could tell that she was such a good mother and loving person that just loves God. It reminded me of my mom! I love my mom and my testimony of the Plan of Salvation was strengthened this week a lot, to know that I'll have wonderful moments like so again with my mom! 

I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Elder Schooff

July 8, 2014 - Prophets, Fireworks and Temples

HELLO FAMILY!

Hello all, this week was packed since last Monday and today we just got
back from the temple, aka the best place on earth. Cool.


Well, let's just dive in.

I went on three exchanges this week, Mon-Tue, Tue-Wed, then Thursday to
Friday. I was out of my area a TON but man it was good. I really enjoy
being with the elders that I get to serve, I have learned so much from all
of them! And on one of the exchanges, I saw some horses and some riders, so
naturally Becky I thought of you. I got a pic, sorta.

One day this week, we had an awesome lesson with our investigator Jackie, she is the
best! She is so prepared by God to live the gospel! When we had a lesson
with her this week, we talked about Prophets and about who Thomas S. Monson
is, we asked at the end of the lesson if she had any questions. She asked,
"How will I know he is a prophet of God". She said she had watched the TV
before and seen lots of people "claim" they are the true prophet of God,
and from what she had seen she was not convinced...in fact felt a STRONG
feeling that the other men on the TV were not of God, she had a really hard
time understanding why people are that way. She saw some things and some
people on TV that have claimed to be "other" prophets of "other LDS faiths"
so she was confused....we really tried hard to answer the question best,
with out putting anyone else down. So we asked her why does she keep
inviting us over, she replied because when we talk to her, the things she
hears and feels are what she needs. We explained to her that if she goes on
LDS.org and watched some videos of Thomas S. Monson, just the first one she
sees, will be the things that she needs to hear and she will feel the
Spirit as he speaks. We committed her to do as so and we ended the lesson.
Some days later we came back and before we started the lesson on Tithing with
her (which was also AWESOME) we asked her if she got to look up the Prophet
and she was excited that we asked! She had a really cool spiritual moment
as she watched the video. She explained that the day she looked it up, she
was stressed, sick, congested, her eyes were burning and the kids were
running around all crazy. But she grabbed her iPad and looked him up. And
clicked on the first video she saw. Well, as she was watching (it was a 32
min video) she said her eyes were still burning so she closed them and
listened purely to the voice of the prophet, as she did so, she explained
that her mind became focused and she was "zoomed in and spiritually attracted
to the voice". While listening she told us that her congestion went away,
the headache she had stopped, and somehow the kids stopped running around
and fell asleep. She was able to listen to the prophet fully. Everything
she heard was what she needed to, She said that, "he addressed every point I
needed to hear for my family and that I felt like he was personally talking
to me." She felt as if she was there in the room alone. Cool huh! Like wow! 
She recognized the difference and she now knows that there is a true
prophet of God!

Soccer is going crazy here, everyone and their dog is watching it or
playing it, and the district is too! Every pday, that's us! I love soccer,
it's fun to see all the little chamacitos outside kicking the ball around
and stuff, haha I love the hispanic culture!

4th of July here was great, the day for the most part was normal with some
service at the beginning of the day and later with a cool night of
fireworks with our recent converts, it was a great day and I'm blessed to
have so many loved ones near me now!

The week was overall busy and great, I love my mission and I love the
atonement and that we have aSavior, this world moves too fast. It was so
good to take a day and go to the temple, there we find peace. There, we
find our true meaning.

I love you all family and thank you for all that you do! I'll see y'all
later.

Elder Schooff