September 29, 2014 - Busy, Busy and Baptisms

Hello Family! 

This week was one of the busiest weeks ever! I feel like sometimes we have to fight to do the actual missionary work. With all the meetings we have, planning, training's and things we have to resolve; it makes you grateful for the times when your just hitting the grime and going out at it teaching! 

As y'all know it was Monday we went to Catalina Island and this past Sunday (yesterday) President Tew went over there to check it out as well. He said he loved it and we will work to see what we can do for the island. 

This week with MLC, Stake coordination, Zone Meeting, Exchanges and offices trips. It's been gnarly. But they say, "Business is Godliness". So I believe that to be sooo true. Even though it was super busy I was super happy the whole week. It's funny how that happens. 

In MLC this week we really focused on being bold. Boldness and what that means. We talked about how to be bold but bold with ourselves. It was a great training. Like what they say, "It takes a true man to do what they ought to do whether they want to or not." Those who seek happiness as their chief objective are bound to fail, because happiness is not so much a goal rather a byproduct itself. 

I believe that to be true. John Bytheway said, "What is progression?...overcoming struggles." Life is meant to have progression. We are meant to feel uncomfortable. Being bold is meant to get us out of our comfort zone. My first ever zone leader told me this, "Stay sanctified, get out of your comfort zone." We have to be bold with ourselves, because that is when we progress! It's so important! Sorry my thoughts are all over the place! haha

Well, this week our investigator Bianca turned into a recent convert and man she is sooo solid! She is from Honduras (the one I emailed about like 4 weeks ago). She has had so many struggles but the ward did so good to fellowship her and just be her friend. There were even some instances this last bit that she was with members so much going all around town with them that she had to cancel lessons with us! It was picture perfect for the way that some of the members helped. Some members here in this ward get it and they do what the prophet asks. I am grateful for the members that go out and follow the prophets call. Cool! Bianca just texted us this morning and said this, "Estoy muy bien. Gracias a Dios estoy bien. Me siento gozosa y muy feliz por el regalo de ayer que fue mi bautismo." Which means..."I am very good, thank you to God I am good now, I feel so joyful and very happy for the gift I got yesterday which was my baptism." How cool is that! Now we just need to get her a calling and she will be good! I am grateful we had the opportunity to help her get where she is. She really was just a miracle for us. 

This week was good and this next week will be better. I love you all and I'll see you all soon. 

Thanks for all the support, 

Elder Schooff 

September 23, 2014 - 10Ks, Culture Activities and Opening Catalina Island

Hello Family! 

    

This week was one of the most eventful of my mission, wow I cannot get over how amazing it was! I love my mission so much. I love all that I have learned. 

Well I have a lot to say with not a lot of time, so I'm going to just get right to it.

I love to run, I have grown a love for it, and I know it was a weak thing and now it's something that has become a true love and a "strength" for me. I went on an exchange this week and we ran a 10k just for fun in the morning down to downtown LB. haha I love my mission. 

     

Later in the week we had a great Culture Night activity in the ward and it was one of the funnest activities I have been to on my mission. There were so many different countries there and it was just a ball! I loved it and we got a lot of our INVs to come to and participate! I loved it! I love some members so much, they are so nice and will do anything for anyone! 

    

Ok, so about 2 weeks ago our Mission President called us and told us to, "investigate and get some info about the Island of Catalina," 26 miles off the coast of Long-beach. Missionaries have not been over there for over 2.5 years and there is a little group of members there. (When I say group I say 2 active members with no priesthood holders on the island. Two service couple missionaries have to come over on Sundays to bless the sacrament making the grand total of church attendance of 4. Church is held on the 2nd floor of the local bank, the only bank on the island.)  So for the last little bit we have been talking to everyone over here on the main land trying to figure out some info of the island, when and who were the last people talked to by the elders, less active members and just something we could have to work with! Finally after a while we got our hands on a list of the active members and the less active. The less active list was pretty good and had about 12 names on the list, I believe. We started to call everyone we could but really found no success. We sat down with the senior couple service missionaries that go over there once a week and told us all the info they had and it helped a lot. We were finding out more. Somehow along the way we found out, it was illegal to proselyte on the island, so we couldn't talk to anyone that didn't want to talk to us, or spot anyone. Members only...that was lame to hear...haha.

We eventually talked to the coolest member I have ever met on my mission, Sister Bray. She is awesome! Literally the strongest member I have ever met. If all members were like her, the work would progress so much faster. She is super well-known through out the whole island and has lived there for 12 years and a while back (2 years) she came back into activity. She has a rock solid testimony. We talked to her, figured out a day we could come over and do some work "cleaning up the island". She offered to drive us around all day in her golf cart and to go out with us all day. So we show President all our info and boom, we get our tickets and go. 

I cannot tell you how hard we all prayed that somehow in just one day we could have success. This island is so getting ready for miracles and something greater! With a SOLID member pioneering the way for the island (Sister Bray), service missionaries going over there recently and a cool miracle of the Stake President going over there 3 weeks earlier, praying in sacrament that the island would soften their hearts, we packed up and went relying on God only. 

It was a unique feeling going to the harbor and checking in, just like an airport....weird! Haha, but we check in at 5 am and get to the island at 8am. We saw the most beautiful sunrise in the morning. We were so grateful for the trust that out President had in us to go and be the first missionaries over there in 2.5 years.

We get off the boat at Avalon Port and Sister Bray picks us up in her golf cart. The island is too small to have a lot of cars on it, so yeah. It's a ton of golf carts. We go to Sister Bray's house and make a game plan of what to do. We ate with her and studied with her until we were aloud to go out. As we were studying she told us the best news ever that changed the day! She said that old silly rumor of no preaching on the island is NOT true, she has never heard of anything about that being said. Other religions do it all the time, so we called someone up over in the goverment offices and asked...they said there is nothing wrong with it. COOL!  Sister Bray did the coolest thing ever.  She is VERY well known on the island and has a Facebook of all the full time residence as friends. Right before we went out, she took a pic of us and posted it on Facebook and said, "Hey Avalon, the Mormon missionaries are here on the island today, if anyone has questions of what WE believe let us know and we will be happy to stop by!" How cool is that, if we all did that...man. She deserves to be in a General Conference story.  Well for the morning we went out. We split up (we had 4 missionaries go, 2 Spanish and 2 English) I went with Elder Roe. He is a Boss. We split up and covered the east side of the island.  We talked to EVERYONE we saw. And we had a good lesson with a person and picked her up as an investigator and invited them to church. Our main purpose was to let people know that the church was on the island and it was on Sunday! 

This is the coolest miracles ever.....

Elder Roe and I had no idea what to do. It for a second got the best of us and we felt tiny on a small island. We were walking and I suggested that we stop and ask God where He wants us to go. We stopped under a tree and Elder Roe offered the most simple, beautiful prayer. Saying "Father, we only have one day on the island, we need you to guide us to where to go, lead us to someone we can talk to. We want a miracle." He finished the prayer and we started to walk. We looked at this alleyway, where all the back houses meet and where the trash car comes and picks up the trash, where no one walks...ever. We were about to pass it but I felt a super strong impression to go down the alley. I look around me and see tons of other people to contact, but it came again to go to the alley and walk down it. I look at Elder Roe and he looks at me and we both mutually say..."Let's go down that alley." So we start walking and it felt like the island became desolate with no one around. Just walking, snapping pictures and we walk for a while, all the way almost to the very end of the alley. We were still curious of why the Spirit lead us here...right before we get to the end, at the T-corner of the alley and the street a little Hispanic lady walks up and we contact her with two huge smiles. We talk and offer a picture of Jesus. We ask if we can come and say a prayer to bless her house, she says..."Why not!" We are speaking in Spanish so Elder Roe can't understand anything. But we speak and walk to her house, pull out some chairs and had a good lesson. But that's not all...we get to talking and she explains how much she misses the missionaries, and how she loved them talking with her. We were confused and amazed as she told us that she was baptized in the church on the island 8 years ago, but 6 years ago after the missionaries moved off the island and the old service missionary couple left, the little church group stopped. And for a long time she wanted to go but could find anyone to contact. So eventually she just stopped trying but always kept praying. We invited her to church and also set up another appointment with her later that day because she had to run to work. Later in the day with Sister Bray with us, she told us that she recognized us right away and got super excited to see us again after 6 years...but was afraid to contact us at the moment and was going to walk on by, she said it was an answer to her prayer that we stopped her and talked. Sister Bray and her know each other too and she is so excited to go back to church. On top of that, she was NOT one of the less active members we had on the list. God led us to her, what a miracle. On top of that she learned English in the last 6 years to be able to go to church. Wow. God answers prayers, I know it. 

Many, many miracles happened in the day and at the end we had a handful of new investigators with a list full of less active members found or refound and tons of public feedback on Facebook. Our mission president will go over there on Sunday to speak with his wife at the meeting they hold. The Lord cares about all the part of his vineyard. Even the ones that are hard to reach with thistles and thorns, He goes the extra effort to rescue us all. I am grateful I was able to be that trusted instrument in His hands. 

So we shall see what happens, I grew a huge love for that little island of miracles and totally want to return and go back. I love my mission and I love you all. Have a great week! 

Elder Schooff 

September 15, 2014 - Converts, Gangsters and "Special Calls"

Hello family. 

This has been a wonder week. And we had a lot to do. Long Beach is getting wilder everyday. But yeah. This transfer we have a ton of new faces that are here in LBN and a some new District Leaders over here too. So we decided before anything else, that we needed to sit down with them and make sure we set an awesome zone Vision. But we wanted the DLs to do it, because they are the ones in charge. We all got together and discussed how we can keep LBN strong. They came up with the theme of Luke 22:42. "Not my will, but thine be done." It's a great zone vision and it includes a lot of charity that we need to gain, also we need to really do what we are ought to do, even if we dont want to. Like what President Faust said, "It takes a true man to do what they ought to do whether they want to or not." We do the Lord's will, not our own. We align our will with the will of God. That's when work starts to get done. Sick! 

I have learned that God really does care about us, a lot. I have really, really learned on my mission that he gives us trials so that we can grow. "God cares more about your progression than he does your comfort." I feel that is a truth. God knows we need to pass through some trials in order to learn a bit. How hard would it be to be God and look at us passing through trials and knowing that they are hard, and not wanting us to "suffer" but still knowing it's right for us. I love this gospel. In Isaiah 50:5 it says,"The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away my back."

Cool huh! So know that we have a choice to accept God, to not be rebellious but to accept His will and do it! 

We had a cool miracle this week, well one of the coolest things that could ever happened did. We has a lessson with our INV Bianca and she is sooo awesome (she came to church with us as well and loved it!) The lesson started and we brought an Hermana with us from the church who is older in age and she and Bianca just love each other. Well we get there and we sit outside while sit in. There is a rule in the mission where there has to be 3 men in a house to enter or we can not go in. So like 2 missionaries and one more guy. (It pushes the priesthood holders to come out with us.) We pulled our chairs outside at the doorfront and out of nowhere some Gansgsta looking guy pops his head out of the back room and mean mugs us. to say the least it was...startling. hah. He pops his head back out another time and mean mugs us again, so naturally as missionaries we ask Bianca to ask if he would like to sit down with us and talk! (preach my gospel-talk to everyone) haha. She explains to us that she has no idea who the man is, he is just visiting her mother in law...so that made the situation even weirder...but she did it anyways and asked him to come sit down. About 5 min later he comes in the room staring at us and "shakes our hands". This guy is tatted up, with a shirt that is covered in weed leafs and looks like he is about ready to kill us and has been up to some gnarly stuff before hand. On top of that, the lesson we prepared to teach was...The Word of Wisdom! Well we felt like it was worthy to teach so we pressed on ahead. Since this was his first time talking to us, we started to explain beforehand who we are and what the Book of Mormon is. My Companion asked the simple question, "Do you know what the Book of Mormon is?" The Man, sat there paused...and looked us and said...."I know the Book or Mormon is scripture of God and that this church is the church of God, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet..I KNOW that with out a doubt."....um....um.....WHAT??? It was the most shocking answer to hear ever. I was expecting a no or "oh like the play???" It turns out he was baptized in the 90s with his family and later fell away due to heavy gang influence. He looked at our INV and just bore a pure testimony. It was so awesome, he said that we were an answer to his prayer and he really wants to come back. He lives in Texas so we will be sending his info over! Cool huh! 

At the beginning of the week we got a really really really cool call from my Mission President. I can't disclose too much info for what will be happening, just know that I will not be emailing this next week on Monday! It will be on Tuesday. Cool! I'm so excited. Cool! 

Well family I love you all so much and I'll see y'all soon! 

Elder Schooff 

September 8, 2014 - Baptisms, Ghetto Birds and Last Testimony

Hello Family! 

This week was super eventful and there is a lot to explain, so I'll just get right to it. We had a great time working with all the other elders in the Zone this week and getting to see them work hard.

At the beginning of the week one of our members invited us over to go pick guavas out of her tree. It was a unique experience, that's why I love California. Growing up in Colorado you don't get to see too many fruit trees, it's cool to have all these mini blessings when you're walking and hungry...go up to a guava tree and eat up. Cool. Hope I'm not stealing?? haha jk. 

This week we also have been working really hard to "clean out" the area. We have about 7 active members and over 70 less active/inactive members in our area. So yeah. We have been brushing up, the problem is that that a lot of that cleaning up is not our job. That's the job or the visiting and home teachers. We understand that and the ward has been kinda slacking on that part. We got to sit down with the Relief Society President and talk with her about a game plan and see that we can do as the missionaries to help them fufill their callings. It was very successful, many lass actives came to church and we just had some active members go by. And bonus, I got to have some watermelon while making the plans. Cool! 

Later in the week we had one of the most powerful Zone Meetings ever! It was so spiritual and moving. We have an Elder in our Zone that will be going home tomorrow to finish his mission and he gave a "final Testimony" to the zone. As he stood up there you just saw a glow to him, and I really respected this elder, he was an all around amazing elder. As he cried the first words he said were, "I love my mission". I LOVE those 4 words. And I can really relate to this elder. I do as well love my mission and love being here. It gave me a motivation and a reminder to push a little hard and work hard! I love my mission. 

       

I love this Zone too, we wanted to go big and show how unified we are, so we made Strong Beach Brown Shirts, the whole zone pitched in. They are sick! It's a picture of the Stripling Warriors with missionaries. I'll send pics so you see. To top it off we put the LB symbol on the back. 

     

We had a funny lesson this week. We met with our investigator in a park and as we drive there TONs and TONs of streets were closed all around the park. We get to the park finally with cops running all around us and the helicopter (or in other words the Ghetto Bird) flying around and screaming out of the megaphone, "Get down!!!" haha. Yeah, we had a member with us that was older in age and she was scared to death. At one point in the lesson, the Helicopter shined the searchlight on us and we all freaked out. But hey, our investigator accepted a baptism date. Pretty much one of the craziest lessons I have ever had. I felt completely protected though. 

      

We found a miracle this week too with our new investigator and man she is a tough woman! She has so much faith, she recently moved here for some CRAZY reasons that are just to insane to say over an email from her country. She literally has no one with her here. And still with all the madness going on in her life, she still knows that God loves her. We had a lesson with her the other night and she was so sad, crying and just seeing someone going through so, so much difficulty, feeling so alone was so hard to see. But thats why I LOVE the gospel because truly we are never alone. I don't just mean God is there, but I mean his followers are there too. We had a lesson with our investigator right before our baptism and she was at her lowest of lows, and we wanted to show her that a family, a church family of pure love is here  for her and we invited her to the baptism and she came! She LOVED the baptism and I have never been so proud of some members to help someone out. Everyone was just caring and nurturing her so much, so much love and joy was in that church building! After, members invited her to go eat at their house. Later that night she texted us, saying how happy she is and she is so grateful for her new friends at the church. She is in a good progress to get baptized in the next month! I love miracles and how the gospel is a big family and how we should never feel alone if we are part of it. 

     

We had a baptism this week with our INV Chico, the one who prayed about tithing. HE was a miracle for us, he went from not knowing who Jesus was to now wanting to serve a mission. The Lord blesses so much. 

   

This next week starts a new Transfer and I'm excited, I'm staying here with my companion Elder Calle again. I love that! And it's a 5 week transfer! So lots to do with not to much time! Have a great week y'all! I love you all so much 

Elder Schooff 

September 1, 2014 - Diezmo, Prayer and Answers

Hello family! 

Let me just start out by saying, I have like no time this week to email. We have like 40 elders that need to use 7 computers in 2 zones. Ok. I'll go fast! 

So this week we had A LOT of spiritual experiences, some of the most powerful moments of my mission. We also had some great lessons as well. 

We had a lesson with our Inv Freddy, and we brought a return missionary out with us, he served en Uruguay and he has awesome Spanish. You could tell this guy was just an amazing elder. He really loved his mission and I looked up to him a lot and was looking to learn a lot from him. Well, we had our lesson and it was great, very powerful and I thought this guy was a super good teacher. We walk out of the lesson and he looked so "distraught." This was the first time since his mission that he went out with missionaries in Spanish, the language he taught in during his mission. We ask him how the lesson went and he says super good but he said this, "Man, it's so true, the missionaries are the teachers, I'm not a missionary anymore; I don't have the authority to do this anymore. You elders really are ordained and set apart to do this." It hit me so hard, that I am ordained of God to do this, like only for 2 years. ONLY for 2 years. That's it. Then it's done and no more. It made me want to push harder in these last 4 months. I'm going hard! 

Later in the week we had MLC, it was such a powerful MLC, and I learned sooo much from our Mission President and other leaders of the mission. I loved it so much. We talked about prayer and the Book of Mormon. I LOVE the Book of Mormon, and I love to pray. The training that went on really taught me that prayer shouldn't be something "half-hearted" or do it just because we have to. We need to pray with our whole hearts. I love that. We really are trying to implement the power of prayer in all that we do. 

This week I really had a strong conviction that Jesus is Our Savior. I know that is true. 

We had a cool lesson with our Inv Chico. He was a person that didn't even know who Christ was 4 weeks ago and the other night he prayed that we could find a job so he can start to pay tithing. Cool. The gospel changes people.

Transfers are up this next week and we find out whats happening on Friday, another MLC. I love having such a small mission that cool meeting are so easy to have. We for sure are putting more elders in the ward, up to 12 in the ward again. So it's time to draw up new boundaries and see whats going to happen. 

Sorry again I don't have to much to write because I have no time! I love you all and I will talk to you next week. 

I know this church has the full truth. 

Elder Schooff