2013 Lovin'

We ended 2013 with two incredible babtisms! The first was Danny (on the right) from Venezuela. Honestly, he´s amazing! Completely changed his life 180 degrees and is just the best. 

Our other baptism service was for Olga! She is from Cuba and wonderful. She is super sassy and we love it. Her husband is not a member...yet. But comes to church EVERY sunday and is so supportive of her. He will have his moment when he is ready and until then we just love him too! Cannot wait to see them in the temple together someday. 

I love this work. I have had the best/hardest last few weeks, but it´s worth it. I am learning a lot about sacrificing (including a week withough a shower...oops)  and trusting in the Lord´s timing. 

The church is true. Families can be together forever. 

I love you all. Have a great week and an awesome start to 2014!!! 

"I know not by what methods rare

But this I know, God answers prayer 

I know that He has given His word 

Which tells me prayer is always heard

And will be answered, soon or late 

And so I pray and calmly wait 

I know not if the blessing sought 

Will come in just the way I thought;

But I leave my prayers with Him alone

Whose will is wiser than my own 

Assured that He will grant my quest 

Or send some answer far more blest"

-Eliza M Hickok

Love, 

Hermana Scheu

Christmas and New Years

Happy New Year!!!

Can you believe it? 2014 baby. It´s gonna be a good one.

It was soooo wonderful seeing my family this past week! I love you all and miss you all so much. Thank you for all the yummy treats and thoughtful gifts. I loved everything! This Christmas was very different, but one of the best I´ve ever had. Definitely one I will remember forever. 

Skyping with my family!!!!!

Christmas goodies!!!

Best Christmas Eve jammies ever!!! And the sweetest necklaces.

 Never thought I would be so excited to get a box of good ol mac n cheese. Thanks Dad! 

Time for new boots?

Skype date?

Familia! 

Welp, I pretty much sent all my exciting updates to mom, but I saved a few. 

1. Missionary Christmas concert tonight at temple square. I don´t sing. And it´s worse in Spanish. If you need me, I´ll be hiding in the back row mouthing "watermelon" the entire two hours. 

2. I never thought I´d ever say this, but I could probably die happy if I never had a cup of Hot Cocoa again. We walk the streets in the freezing cold and when we get invited in we are always, without fail, presented with a cup of hot chocolate. Okay, so I should probably clarify. When I say "hot chocolate" I am not talking about American Swiss Miss. I am talking about a glass of melted chocolate with a bit of milk splashed in. Super thick and super rich. Which would be wonderful if we didn´t have it 4 times in one night with a handful of cookies. Props to Santa because I struggle. 

3. I get to SKYPE in 8 days 9 hours and 24 minutes...not that I am counting. That means Dad, Mom, other Dad, Chase, Sky, Alison, and Allie May better be ready for me at 7am (California) 8am (Idaho). Cant wait to see your FACES. The christmas presents can wait :) 

 

Merry Christmas to all! Although I miss you all lots and lots, I am so excited to be here in Madrid. I am excited to celebrate a different kind of Christmas and seek Christ more than wrapping and tinsel. You will all be in my heart, but if you're wondering, I couldn´t feel more blessed to be here and I´ll be sending my love across the seas. 

We´ve been studying the Living Christ these past few weeks in preparation for a special mission Chirstmas Devotional. It´s incredible and perfect for Christmas Eve. Print it off and we´ll read it together. You in your home and me in my home away from home. Living Christ 

Love, 

Hermana Scheu 

New Address

P.S. My new address! You can send love letters directly here: 

Hermana Kinghorn (for packages it has to match my government ID) 

Calle Bravo Murillo, 69 3 IZQ

28003 Madrid Spain 

Moving Forward

Hi Family! 

It´s P-day...AGAIN. 

I don´t understand how the time goes by so fast. We are already almost halfway done with this transfer and I feel like I JUST got transferred. But hey, I guess time flies when your having fun. 

So, Christmas is soon...that´s wierd. It doesn´t feel much like Christmas here, but I am hoping to do a little cookie making and Christmas caroling to bring some holiday cheer. Also, we are planning some sweet Christmas lessons that we are excited to share with people. 

Things are still dreamy here in Madrid. I am still trying to get the hang of my new area and I am still working on meeting all the new people. Slowly but surely. It´s a little more difficult because I am gone one or two days out of the week on exchanges, but we´re making it work. 

Hermana Heims is still wonderful and our apartment is still freezing. Showers are still miserable (not much hot water and 3 minutes long) and my companion and I still laugh way too much. One thing that has changed, however, is that we have a new work out routine! We now race the other Hermanas (they live in a different apartment) a few times a week. We have a place that we race to in the mornings and whoever loses the most at the end of the week has to buy the other companionship McFlurries. It´s actually real serious. We had a trial run this morning and I almost died. We sprinted at full speed in the below freezing weather at 7am. I´m thinking that this actually might be a bad idea...I just hope no one gets sick. But it wakes us up and gets us going! 

I love the people we have been teaching. We dont have a ton of investigators, but we have been doing a lot of contacting. I am excited to see the work here progress. The few investigators that we do have are AMAZING. We have two baptisms coming up! There are so many people ready to hear the gospel. 

I love you all so much! I hope you´ve been enjoying lots of hot cocoa and warm fire places. I do miss Christmas in the States a lot, but I wouldn´t change where I am for a thing. I love what I am doing. The church is true. 

Thought of the Week: 

"As you and I come to understand and employ the enabling power of the Atonement in our personal lives, we will pray and seek for strength to change our circumstances rather that praying for our circumstances to be changed." 

- Elder Bednar 

Here is my favorite talk of the week. Life changing. 

Love, 

Hermana Scheu 

Have a great week! 

Not funny

Hi family,

I guess I´ll start with answering a few of mom´s most pressing questions:

     Dear Hermana Scheu,

     How do you like your new ward ? 

     Area? 

     Companion ? 

     Hope you are doing well.

Dear Mom and other loved ones,

Things are SOOOO good. Yup, I really like my new ward. It´s a bit smaller than my last one and it has a ton of people that speak English. We live in the very center of Madrid and really close to downtown, so that makes sense. It throws me off though. I don´t know how to have a normal conversation in English. My first week home will be great.

My area is HUGE. It takes us quite a bit of time to get to lessons and we spend a lot of time in the Metro. It gives us opportunities to contact, but less time to teach formal lessons. It´s all good though, we´re making it work. We have lots of fancy restaurants and a TON of stores. Which does nothing for us poor sister missionaries. However, guess what we discovered the other day?! Theee most delicious mexican burrito place. It´s a spanish Chilpotle and I am in love. The food is delicious. The people are great. And the interior decorator loves Pinterest. I´m sure of it. I´ve already eaten there 3 times. It´s a problem.

Moving on.

Hermana Heims. Yes, my companion is amazing. Of course. I always love my companion, but I am so grateful to be with someone I already knew before. For the past few transfers her companion and I were both sister training leaders in our zone so Hermana Heims and my companion were with eachother at least 2 a week. We all just became really good friends. It´s been quite convenient actually. I only have to worry about getting to know a new area :)

Anyway, Hermana Heims litterally rocks. We are both really easy going and it´s so easy to just focus on the work and not sweat the small stuff. The only problem with her, though, is that we laugh WAY TOO MUCH together. Don´t get me wrong, laughing is definitely necessary and needed in this work, but we actually have a legitimate problem. There have already been 3 serious ocasions when I´ve had to lean over, close my eyes, and offer a sincere prayer to keep me from not laughing at the most inappropriate times. We´ve made some goals and we are working on it. I´ll keep you updated. 

So, I´m happy. It has definitely been an adjustment (I barely got unpacked today) and I miss my old area a lotttt, but all is well. It´s just so nice to know that I don´t have to be in charge. I am exactly where the Lord needs me to be and I dont have to worry about the big decisions. I just do what I am asked and try my best. This work is amazing. I never want my time here to end. There is absolutely nothing that compares.

I´ll share a little piece of what I get to experience on a daily basis.

My very first night here in Barrio 5 Hermana Heims and I contacted a young family from Columbia. We introduced ourselves as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and began an easy conversation. Ten minutes later we were invited to share more and we set up an appointment for later that week.

Thursday night came and we were greeted at the door by this young mother and her sweet little girl and the most beautiful little boy I have ever seen. No joke. She invited us in and we started chatting while we waited for her husband to get home from work.  After a good ten minutes it looked like the husband was going to be late so we decided to start with a prayer and jump into the lesson.

The lesson began and the second we started testifying the most beautiful spirit filled the room. This young mother opened up to us and wept as we taught the Plan of Salvation and focused on the Atonement. We promised that she could be with her family forever and the emptiness inside her could be filled as she made steps towards repentance. We invited her to be baptized and finished by promising her that Heavenly Father´s plan is perfect.

I wish I could explain more of what happened during those short 45 minutes, but there are no words. It´s impossible to explain how fufilling this work is. I have never felt so complete and so content. Lessons like these make alll the hard times worth it a hundred times over. As Hermana Heims and I made our way home that night we couldn´t stop smiling. Then, right before we got home that night we received a text message "cordially" inviting us over for dinner the following afternoon. The next day we went and ate the most delicious Spanish meal ever and taught the whole family. The little girl prayed at the end and the husband was excited to have us over again later this week.

When I say things are good, I mean really good. I love my job! Paid in blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I hope you all had a wonderful day! I am thankful for the most amazing friends and family and all of your love.

Thought for the week:

"We need to bear in mind that people can change. They can put behind them the bad habits. They can repent from transgressions. We must develop the capacity to see men not as they are at present, but as they can become." 

-President Monson

Love you ALL. Make good decisions.

Love,

Hermana Scheu 

Love you most. See you in five.

Hi Family! 

Quick update:

So, the time has come. The time has come for me to leave my beloved Barrio 2 and move on to a new area. After serving over 6 months in the same ward I was transferred!!! 

Transfer calls came Saturday night and I have never been more anxious/stressed/excited/nervous all at the same time. I had a pretty good idea that I would be leaving, but I had no idea of where I would go. Well, turns out I just got transferred down the street and I am new companions with one my closest friends on the mission! I am not sure what I did to get so blessed, but I am not complaining. I am in a completely different zone, but I am still the Sister Training Leader so I´ll be able to go on exchanges with all the other Hermanas. I am excited to get to know them these next 6 weeks. 

I am now serving in Barrio 5 in the VERY CENTER of Madrid. I am really excited. We have been moving and traveling all day and have had absolutely no time to unpack. I do know, however, that our new apartment is FREEEZING. And by freezing I mainly mean that we can see our breath in the morning when we wake up and getting out the hot shower in the morning will make me want to cry. But hey, I will be thankful for cozy blankets and warm socks from Mamma Scheu. 

So far I´ve really loved my new area. I am getting used to living in the downtown city life. It´s growing on me, the whole city life thing, but I still dream of Idaho mountains. I´ll be serving with Hermana Heims from Reno, Nevada! She's awesome. We will do great things. I´ll be sure to send pictures next week! 

Meanwhile, I will be missing my home SO much! And my lovely companion, Hermana Snelson. Every night after "positive pillow talk" we would say the same thing. "Love you most. See you in five." Every time our head hits that pillow I swear the alarm goes off five minutes later. And we live the dream all over again. 

We were in love and I can´t wait to see her again in a few weeks. 

Also, fun fact: Our apartment Landlord and his wife named their baby girl after me (Sofia Ariel). Just saying. They have good taste ;) 

Thought of the week: "Many are on a giant rollercoaster of disaster, seeking the thrills of the moment while sacrificing the joys of eternity. Thus, we forfeit peace."

Welp, we have to go! I guess I should try to get somethings unpacked...

Love you all so much! Thank you for the email updates and all of the love! 

Have a great week and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Hermana Scheu

I live in Spain. This is a dream

So, last week we went to a little royal city outside of Spain for P-day. I wouldn´t mind being transferred there...I'm in love. 

Here is a little inside peek of a day in the life of a princess:

Segovia. Royal City. Castles on every corner.

Hermana Hone! Lacy Jane's cousin! What are the odds...also, look at that view :)

The Great Wall Of...Segovia. P.s. this is Hermana Snelson...aka, my beautiful companion.

 Exploring the castle. Please ignore the minor editing job. Love Elders.

 Loving it!!

Miracles

Hi Family! 

I am so sorry that I don´t have time today. I just wanted to include a bit from my weekly letter to the president! All is going so well and I am so happy. This work is amazing!!! Honestly, so wonderful. 

I hope all is well. Thank you for your emails! I am sorry that I wont be able to respond this week (Dad, Amy, and Skylee!) but I will next week. 

Have a great week! I hope you can feel my love and prayers. 

Love,

Hermana Scheu 

Happy Monday Presidente! 

I cannot believe that it is P-day again already. How fast time flies when you are having fun...and hard at work! 

Everything is going so well. This week was wonderful. So many miracles! In my nightly prayers I started praying for the ability to see the Lord´s hand more in His work. Let me tell you, President, my prayers were answered 10 fold. This week we were guided so much by the Spirit. Every step we took lead us to someone just waiting to hear the Gospel. We were lead to 5 new investigators who are so prepared! Last night we also had an amazing lesson with a part member family and we set a baptismal for their 12 year old little boy.  We have been so blessed here in Barrio 2! We have had so many incredible experiences. For example, just earlier today Hermana Snelson and I had a really neat experience. 

This morning we were on our way to Segovia and we missed the bus by 2 minutes! So, we had to wait another 30 minutes for the next one. While waiting we decided to take a walk around the city and after 15 minutes we were lead to a little watch kiosk just above the metro station. While standing there I noticed the owner of the kiosk whisper something to her husband about how we were Mormon missionaries. Of course, I knew that was my cue.  I asked her what she knew about our church and how she knew we were missionaries. She told us that her entire family back in Bolivia are members and that she herself has done a lot of investigating. She has not only read the Book of Mormon, but also the Docrtine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price. She went on and on about the church, but when I asked her if she has ever been taught by missionaries she told me no. She told me that she has been waiting for us.  We then were able to take down her number and she introduced us to her husband. We sat and talked with him a little bit about the Book of Mormon and we gave him his own copy. After testifying and inviting him to read the Introduction, we said our goodbyes. As we turned to walk away I looked back and this woman had giant tears rolling down her eyes. I ran back to her and gave her a big hug, squeezed her hands, and told her how much our Heavenly Father loves her. 

Moments like these make everything worth it. All of the hard work, rejections, lack of sleep, and STRESS. I am so happy! I love this work so much. I have no doubt in my mind that the Lord prepares souls for us to find. If we look and seek guidance from the Spirit, miracles are found. 

Also, I had the opportunity to have intercambios with Hermana Norton. Thank you so much for the opportunity to meet with other Sisters. I really do love my assignment. Hermana Norton is doing great. I know they are having a little bit of trouble finding work, but I hope that the things we discussed and the ideas that we talked about will help a bit.

Oh, and I also wanted to include my letter from last week that I wasn´t able to send. 

Monday November 4: 

Hi President! 

We had another wonderful week here in Barrio 2. Hermana Snelson and I still love eachother and I am so grateful for her example. She really is an amazing missionary. 

Miguel´s baptism was such as sweet miracle. Thank you so much for coming! It was great to see you and Hermana Jackson. 

This past week we have been learning a lot about Humility and how we can improve in our ability to teach in unity. I love teaching with Hermana Snelson and we do work well together as a team, but there is always room for improvement. 

I also had the opportunity to have intercambios with Hermana Stepp. I LOVE meeting with the other sisters. Thank you for this opportunity. I always learn so much and I am always reminded of how much I love these Sisters. Hermana Stepp is doing really well. She is so sweet and has such an impressive knoweldge of the Doctrine. Epecially the Bible! She tells the best Bible stories. 

She has mentioned to me, however, that she is really worried about coming to the end of her mission. She worries quite a bit about going back to school and having to "start over." I have been praying for some way that I can comfort her. 

All is well! I could say more, but I know you have a lot to do and my fingers might just freeze off. I´ll see you tomorrow at the leadership meeting. Thank you for everything! 

Love, Hermana Scheu 

Making things happen

Hello Wonderful Family! 

Welp, I have no time. BUT we had a pretty exciting/crazy/stressful/miracle-happening week. 

First and foremost, Miguel GOT BAPTIZED! His baptism was amazing. He´s amazing. This work is amazing. Everything is just amazing. I wish I knew more words that could adequately describe the warm fuzzy feelings in my heart :) 

I would love to tell you more, but I have been sitting here in this freezing little cyber cafe for wayyy too long. My little fingers are going to fall off and I can´t feel my toes. Also, I am starving. 

Speaking of being hungry. Real quick, can I just say how thankful I am for having the best mom ever. Oh, how I have learned SO much from that beautiful woman. 

During these past two weeks Hermana Snelson and I had ZERO money to buy food. Something happend with our reembursements. We decided to put our faith in action and practice a little humility. We ended up eating everything and anything that we found in our apartment. Honestly, I am very impressed with what we came up with. We were able to throw together comeplete meals made out of almost nothing. I wont go into detail about exactly what we ate, but we survived! I somehow remembered little tips and tricks my mom would use to throw together meals when we swore there was "nothing to eat". 

These past two weeks we have learned that it really doesn´t take much to see all the many blessings the Lord´s blesses us with. 

Love you all! Have a great week! 

Happy Halloween from Spain

You win some, you lose some

Hello Loved Ones,

 

Ehem. This was quite the week. Well, every week is¨"quite the week." Here are a few fun updates of what has been going down in the life of a Sister Missionary:

 

1. First of all, Hermana Snelson and I still love eachother. Suprising? Nah, she´s the best. At times, however, we have days that are just a little bit off. Days where we cant seem to get on the same page as the Spirit and we end up being all the way over "here" when we should be way over "there." Wednesday was one of those days. It was raining. A lot. We didn´t have umbrellas. I was wearing sandles aka my toes were frozen. And we couldn´t find ANYONE to meet with. Everyone failed us and we couldn´t figure out where we needed to be.

 

So, there we were sitting on a bench on the side of one of the busiest streets in Madrid making calls and trying to find someone who needed us. In that moment we looked up and an old man came up and grabbed my cheeks, told us how cute we were, and then held out his hand to offer us a fist full of candy and (by candy I mostly mean a fist full of smeared colors all sweated into his palm). We were kinda just too shocked or frightened to say anything or decline his offer and then he just chuckled and went on his merry way. We of course then looked at eachother, died laughing, and then looked to see where he went. Welp, our mystery candy man had vanished!

 

 From that moment on things came together and we ended up having an awesome night. Later than day we were talking about how odd this little encounter was and we came to the conclusion that this old man was one of the 3 Nephites sent to cheer us up a bit :) Funny how Heavenly Father always knows just what we need. Oh, and Mom, just so you know, we didn´t eat the candy...

 

2. We had an awesome lesson with some Jehova Witnesses. Honestly, thee most intense lesson I have ever been in. It was in Bulgarian and in Spanish and I was scared. haha It was pretty crazy and I had to keep my little companion from having a  complete laughing attack. We couldn´t even figure out how we ended up in an hour long discussion in Bulgarian (with two of our investigators present) about Adam and Eve and the "incomplete" Plan of Salvation. I am just so thankful for the fullness of the Gospel and knowledge that we have.

 

3. Speaking of laugh attacks...I am not really sure what came over Hermana Snelson and I, but we had a complete DISASTER of a lesson with our sweet little Ana (investigator) the other day. We finished watching a little audio video clip and we started off trying to talk about it and give our testimonies when all of the sudden we started laughing and could NOT stop. It was real bad. Reaaallly rough. The lesson started out rough because Ana is from Poland and has the thickest accent when speaking spanish. She is not fluent. Neither are we. And trying to communicate is..fun. I think everything just kind of built up inside and we just lost it about half way through. I ended up having to leave the room, prayed for forgiveness and help from the Spirit, and then came back about 10 minutes later to wrap up the lesson. Hermana Snelson and I couldn´t even look at each other for fear of losing it again. HOWEVER, at the end of the lesson Ana prayed. In her prayer she thanked our Heavenly Father for the laughter of the sister missionaries to brighten up her day... Oh man. What a sweetie. I still felt terrible.

 

Okay, moving on.

 

4. Last night we set a baptism date for a FAMILY!!! They are wonderful.  The mom and dad were meeting with the missionaries 8 years ago and were set to get baptized, but 4 days before something went down and it didn´t end up happening. Since then they had lost contact with the Elders and now almost a decade later we found the Husband in the metro and asked if we could visit with him and his family.  

 

They have three kids. All over the age of 8. And also we have been teaching their aunt as well! They´re great. Last night we extended the invitation, they accepted, and we are excited to have a giant baptismal service at the end of November! Pray that I stay in this area just one more transfer...

 

5. Oh, and also we have no money (for some reason we didn´t receive our monthly allowance) and we have been surviving off of, well, not much. We´ve been humbled and we are learning that it really doesn´t take much to survive as sister missionaries. We are secretly hoping to eat something other than milk, cereal, and bread later this week! Got to love missionary life :)

 

I love you all! Life is good. I love being a missionary. I am learning so much! I cant imagine not being here on the mission. I´m loving every second because I know I´ll run out of them before I know it. If you hear of anything thinking about going on a mission, tell them to GO! There is nothing in this life that compares.

 

Have a great week! Enjoy Halloween!!!

 

Loves and hugs, 

Hermana Scheu 

P.S. We rocked the bowling alley today. Bowling in Spain is just as great :) 

Simply the best!

Hey All, 

What a wonderful week. We worked hard. We worked hard and the Lord blessed us. We are just loving life, loving this work, and loving everyone in between. 

We had theee most beautiful baptism this weekend. I have never had to work so hard for a baptism, but it was all the well worth it. David got baptized!!! His service was amazing. The most spiritual and perfect baptismal service. Everything went so smooth and he was so happy. We were so excited!!! 

We really have been so blessed, Hermana Snelson and I. We have been blessed with a lot of work and many miracles. We have another baptism coming up next weekend and a couple of new beautiful families to teach. Also, we have had so much help and support from our ward. This work really is moving forward and the Lord is working right along with us. I love being a missionary. 

Here are a few pictures from this weekend. I love you all! Have a great week. 

Besitos, 

Hermana Scheu 

p.s. Lovin´the little angel child in the middle? Yup, we do too. Especially in lessons with his family ;) 

Here are a few pictures of our adventures in the rain

 We all know how much I love the rain. Turns out my companion is a big fan too. We're in love.

Just hangin' out in the POURING rain. Forgot our umbrellas. Turns out the storm hadn't passes and we got caught in the middle of it. We showed up to a wedding shower soaking wet. No pasa nada.  

Time flies when you're having fun

Hi Family, 

Well, I took wayyy to long to answer individual emails today, but I wanted to make sure I got a little update sent out. 

Things are going so well. Today is the first day of a new transfer!!! We got transfer calls on Saturday night and Hermana Snelson and I will be together here in my same area. I am so happy! I really didn´t want to leave. We have some big plans coming up and we´ve been seeing miracles. Hermana Snelson is amazing. We work so well together and we are good at keeping eachother in line. 

For example: Last week we started a new work out routine and the first couple of days I honestly thought my legs were going to fall right off. I was SO SORE. haha It really wasn´t the smartest thing. However, we are starting to see some results and we have so much more energy during the day. It´s awesome. We are good at keeping eachother accountable and sticking with our goals. It´s so fun. 

Also, remember Ricardo? He´s the less active guy we met in the metro? Well, he is still doing so well. He is SO excited to learn. It´s been amazing to see such a change in his life and the Spirit working within him. 

Everyone else is doing so well too! Hermana Snelson rocks and we (mainly her) set another baptismal date with one of our investigators. He´s amazing. We are so excited to see some real progression these next several weeks. 

ALSO, I just realized the other day that after this transfer I will be half way  done with my mission. CRAZY. I counted and recounted about 10 times because I couldn´t beleive it. Time flies, people. I never want this experience to end. 

I love you all! Miss you lots. I hope you can feel my prayers. The church is true. I love the Book of Mormon. I am reading in Alma right now and this morning I read for an hour and just couldn´t put it down. It´s so good! I was actually thinking about if the Book of Mormon were made into a movie...how incredible it would be. 

Have an awesome week! Enjoy these last couple days of warmth...my toes can feel the cold coming!!! I should probably start looking for some serious boots...

Love, 

Hermana Scheu 

Raining on Sunday

So, let´s just start with how amazing this weekend was. And by amazing I simple mean that it was probably the best weekend of my mission. I am 110% positive I wont be able to properly put into words the feeling of love and joy that was felt during those hours of listening to the Prophet, Apostles, and other leaders of the Lord. I´ll do my best to share with you part of what a sweet experience I had. 

Hermana Snelson and I were fortunate to attend all of the sessions and we were blessed with a great turn out of investigators and less active members that came to accompany us! It was a ton of work organizing how to get everyone there, but worth it 100 times over. At the end of the Sunday morning session after President Monson spoke and as I listened to the chior sing, I began to notice the soft tears rolling down my cheeks. I remember looking over at one of our investigators (David, his baptism is this weekend!) and we both just sat there   soaking up the feeling. The feeling of the pure love of Christ that made it´s way in and settled into our hearts. The feeling that somehow drives you to be better, to love more, to work harder, and to appreciate all that our Heavenly Father has given us. It´s a special kind of Spirit-to-spirit connection that is impossible to deny. 

I could tell you over and over again how grateful I am to be here and how incredible this work is, but I could never find the words to adequately express just how special this experience is. I´ve seen miracles. I´ve seen the lives of Heavenly Father´s children change completely and I´ve seen even the hardest hearts open up as I am given the gift to testify. The Church of Jesus Christ is again here on the earth. I love testifying each and every day and I love seeing the light enter into people´s eyes as they accept the Gospel. 

I have another really neat story that I wanted to share, but I am running out of time. I´ll hopefully be able to share more next week. This week I gained a testimony that The Lord really does care for His sheep. He is SO aware of each and every one of us. Those who have fallen away from the church for some reason or another, He´s aware of them. We found Ricardo this past week and honestly his story is such a testimony to me. He was baptized when he was 8 years old, but has been inactive for most of his life. He was living in Southern Spain until about 2 months ago and up until this point he had no interest in ever returning to the church. 

We crossed paths on Thursday afternoon and I know that God´s hand had a role in our meeting. He told me yesterday, after conference, that a new light had entered into his life that day in the Metro. He told me that before he moved here, many missionaries had passed him in the street and he would always tell him that he wasn´t interested and that they were wasting their time. But now? The Lord had prepared him to meet Hermana Snelson and I. He told us that in these past couple of days he has a new determination to come back to church and he is excited to start over. Also, he has invited us into his home to teach more of his family who are not yet members of the church. 

Oh, I wish I had the words. It´s impossible to describe, but just know that I have a testimony of missionary work. I know that Heavenly Father is aware of each and every one of His children. He knows what we need to return to Him again. It´s our decision whether or not to accept His blessings. He is waiting to recieve us, we just need to let Him in. If any of you or loved ones that we know are struggling, turn to prayer and you will be guided to the truth. I´ve seen it. The power of our Heavenly Father. Every day. 

I´m sorry, I have to go! We have an awesome lesson planned with Pablo! But I love you all so much! I´m always sending you my love from Spain. Thank you for the letters of love and support, I have been so blessed! 

Missed part of General Conference? Watch it here :) Oh, and by the way, I definitely watched all of Conference in Spanish. Yup, Spanish rules. I´m loving it.

 Here's Hermana Snelson and I with Ricardo! 

This is Nicole (the cutest future missionary) and I and some Elders from our zone. Missionaries are theee best. 

Love,

Hermana Scheu 

The pursuit of easy things make men weak

Hellooo Family, 

Yes, I am alive. I know you all were soooo worried ;) 

Hermana Snelson couldn´t get into her email account on Monday, but it is fixed now and we have a few minutes before we have to head off to a lesson. I hope you feel special because I am sacrificing me eating today to send you some lovin´! Don´t worry, I am sure someone tonight will be sure to offer us a nice tall glass of neon orange soda! 

This week was fun. It´s always fun with Hermana Snelson. Also, she is such a stud. Yesterday, I had to travel to a small little city about an hour outside of Madrid and I left my baby companion all by herself in our area with a bajillion lessons to handle. She was with an other Hermana who only has one more transfer than she does and guess what, they rocked it. haha I love her so much. She is awesome and I love that I can leave her with all of our investigators for an entire day and not have to worry at all. She´s a natural. 

We have a few new investigators who are SO awesome! We met a girl last week from Peru named Kathy. She is 32 (looks 23) and will be baptized before the end of the transfer. She came to church on Sunday and always has really good questions when we meet with her. Her questions are always trying and a bit difficult to answer, but we love it because it means that she is progressing and her testimony is growing more and more each day. She has also been helping us come up with good ideas for our English classes! These next few weekends are gonna be sweeeeet. 

We also have a family! They are theeee best. Probably because they are from Ecuador and feed us yummy Ecuadorian food. Hermana Snelson and I love them. On Sunday we brought them each their own Book of Mormon with a hand written note and our favorite scriptures inside. After we ate dinner we sat down on the floor of their tiny living room and we watched the Restauration video together. 

I remember sitting there in the dark next to Hermana Snelson and at one point I look over at our family. I nudged my companion´s arm and whispered,  "Look."  What we saw melted my heart. We could see the outline of our little family of 5 all huddled together on an old tattered couch. They were all paying close attention and seemed to be hanging onto every word as the short video continued on. I just remembering the most beautiful feeling come over me and in that moment as I quietly testified  to Hermana Snelson, "This is what it means to be a missionary. These are the moments that make it all worth it."   

After the video ended, we did our best to maintain the spirit that was present. We testified of what we know is true and how from this day on their lives will be different.  As we knelt down together the oldest daughter (15) closed with a prayer and we headed home for the night. 

I am so thankful for moments like these. Moments when our Heavenly Father gives us a little celestial peek into the futures of our investigators. Moments when I can picture them in white standing outside of the temple or at the stairs of a baptismal font. There is honestly nothing better. I am so grateful to be here. I cant imagine being any where else!

I love you all so much! Oh, and I wanted to attached this talk that I friend sent to me last week. He told me that I might like it and he was right! I loved it. It´s by President Monson and it´s called Finishers Wanted.  It´s super good! This week my companion and I have a goal to be "Finishers" and to make a concious effort to do things that bring us outside of our comfort zone. We made a discovery that the easy road in life doesn´t get you anywhere! So, to my beloved friends and family, make it a goal this week to do at least one thing every day that makes you feel uncomfortable. Let me know how it goes :) I promise you that you´ll see miracles. 

Have a great week! I dont have any more time to answer emails BUT I love you all to Spain and back! 

Love, 

Hermana Scheu 

p.s. here's a few photos :)

Here is a photo of the little city I traveled to yesterday. There were MOUNTAINS!!! I was so stoked. It was definitely a little piece of heaven. 

 I also came across this little gem. You should have seen the smile that came across my face. Idaho, how I miss you <3

The happiest missionary you'll ever meet

I HAVE THE BEST FAMILY EVER. 

Ehem. This morning my companion and I (yup, I only have one now. I´ll tell you about that later) went on an exciting quest across town to go get my long awaited birthday package. My package arrived here in Spain about a week and a half ago, but it got stuck at the airport in customs (of course). It was quite the process. Lot of people telling me what I needed to do and where I needed to go, and a lot of me smiling and pretending like I knew what they were saying. Needless to say, it was a bit of an adventure, but 5 government bulidings later and plenty of help from lovely strangers, I finally got it :)  And let me tell you, it was SO worth the wait.

I loved EVERYTHING. Especially the millions of glitter and sparkles that decorated my lap when I opened my letter from Allie May. Thank you all! 

Anyways, now that I can´t stop smiling, let me tell you about my awesome week. 

First of all, we had some crazy changes go down Wednesday night. President called us after planning at like 11:00pm. Every time I see his number pop up on our caller ID my heart drops, because I know something is ALWAYS up. I feel like we are always the "go to" missionaries when he´s stuck in a pickle and needs an out haha It´s great though, I wouldn´t have it any other way.

 So he was calling us to let us know that a sister was sick an needed to go back to the states for more medical help (she´s fine. no worries)  and that we needed to have emergency transfers. He decided to have Sister Norton move out of our area to be with the other sister and that Hermana Snelson and I would stay in Barrio 2 and serve together. We´re not really sure why things ended up the way they did and how Hermana Snelson and I ended up being companions, but we are not going to question it because we are STOKED. I am so excited to be her trainer and work with her these next several weeks. She is so great and so far we have been working really well together. She is such a hard worker and every day we come up with more and more ways to improve. It´s the best!  Also, I know I´ve mentioned this before, but she is hilarious. I never stop laughing.

Welp, things are just going wonderfully and I couldn´t be more content. We have A LOT of new investigators and we are really excited for all the new people we have been blessed with. Our other investigators are theee best and we had an awesome turn out at church on Sunday, which by the way was SUCH a great day. 

We´ve still got so much more to learn, but every day we get a little closer to figuring out this whole missionary work :) I love it. This Gospel is so incredible and SO true! Oh, and by the way, just a quick side note. Guess who stopped by to speak to us on Saturday morning?? ELDER BALLARD!!! We are so incredibly blessed! I love the apostles. I love them so much! He had beautiful spirit wih him that left all 150 of us recharged and spiritually strengthened. 

A few quotes from Elder Ballard: 

 “Your success is directly proportionate to your desire.” If our desires are righteous, The Lord will give us success in His work.’

Elder Ballard said, “Your success is directly proportional to 

your desire.”

Then, he asked, “How much do you love The Lord? You might say that you love Him enough to die for him. But do you 

 

love Him enough to get up on time, to get out on time, and to reach out to the people you pass by on the street every day?"

He said that this had been a very busy trip for him. Then 

 said, “Frankly, I’m tired. Sometimes I ask myself, “What is 

an old 85 year old doing running around like this?” He then said that s

 ometimes he is tempted to get discouraged. When he 

does, he pulls out a small picture of the Savior that he 

always travels with, and looks into His eyes and says that 

 

he keeps going because he understands Gethsemane.”

All is well. My singing skills are improving, in case any one was worried. The church is true. I love Elder Ballard. My companion is the best thing that´s ever happened to me. Spanish is awesome. I have the best family ever. I played two hours of tag and hide and seek the other day and I can´t remember having so much fun in my life. Enjoy the pictures. Missionary work is THEEE best. 

Con mucho Amor, 

Hermana Scheu 

Birthday week

Hi Family! 

Just another week here in beautiful Spain! No big deal. Just loving my life. 

I had an awesome week! Seriously the best week. Would you like to know why? Well, I´ll give you a few examples: 

1) Tuesday, Hermana Norton and I got a new comanion!! We were supposed to get two, but my companion is still waiting for her visa in the States and we don´t have any idea when she will be arriving. Until then, I will be enjoying every second with Hermana Snelson because she is THEE BEST. She came straight from the MTC here in Spain, but is already such a pro. She´s pretty much training me. She is from Valencia California and I am so thankful for the new energy and faith she brings to our companionship. And she also has beautiful red hair and it reminds me of my mamma :) 

2) We have seen SO many tender mercies this week. We´ve met some of the coolest people and we have had some of the most spiritual lessons. We have decided as a companionship to work harder to invite the spirit in our lessons and we have seen such a change. Our investigators are progressing so much and we have two more with baptism dates! We also had the most incredible lesson with a couple from Ecuador at the temple. They are both young and are thinking abou getting married in the near future. We had a temple tour with them and at the end we had Carlos pray and at the end of his prayer we were all in tears. It was such a cool experience. I wish I could put it in words! I am really excited to see them progress. 

Carlos and Sarah!

3) Thursday, as some of you may know, was my birthday. This alone pretty much made my entire week. I was out of Madrid most of the day, so I didn´t get to spend a lot of time with investigators or my companions, but we partied the next day too! I had the opportunity to go to the mission home for a leadership meeting with all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training leaders from every area in our mission. It was an awesome meeting and I learned A TON. We talked about the needs of our mission and what we could do to improve. It lasted almost all day, but of course I loved every second. We have some pretty amazing missionaries in our mission and our mission President is so great. And his wife is the best cook (second best, mom) ever! I left so full of delicious food and full of the Spirit and news ideas of how to improve! 

4) Friday we had a zone meeting and Hermana Caballero (other sister training leader) and I gave a quick talk on a few things we talked about in our meeting. Real quick thing about Hermana Caballero. She is the best! I am sooo lucky to be working with her. She is from Spain and she teaches me fun Spanish songs and how to dance like a Spanard haha It´s the best. 

Oh, I could go on and on but I am running out of time. Just know that I am so happy and I love being a missionary! Also, I laughed harder this week than I ever have in my entire life. Okay, maybe not, but Hermana Snelson is just really funny. And something else that was great about this week is the amount of ice cream I ate. SO MUCH ICE CREAM haha Every one wanted to buy me ice cream for my birthday (i guess thats a thing here) and of course I couldn´t say no...so I ate a ton and I loved it all. We have a frozen yogurt place right near our house and it is SOO good. 

YUMMMMMM 

SO much chocolate and a cute new backpack from our recent convert! He is theee sweetest.

Today we went to a awesome park and climbed up on this crazy trapeez thing. Good times

I love you all sooooo much!!!! The church is true. We are seeing so many great things happen. Have an amazing week and know that all of you are in my thoughts and prayers. 

Love, 

Hermana Scheu