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