Last Week in the MTC ... First Week in the Mission Field

August 29, 2016

Hey everyone, this has been one crazy week. Ok so first I'll report on the Tower challenge because I know you all have been dying to hear about it. So my district completed it. I eat 8 bowls of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Which was the most out of my district, so I'm pretty proud of myself ha-ha. Everyone felt horrible after it, cuz it started getting so gross and we eat so much.

So to kind of finish off what happened at the MTC, on Sunday my companion and I taught District meeting, we talked about how relying on the spirit is crucial to missionary work. That night for devotional the Nashville Tribute Band came, which was super cool. If you haven't ever listened to their music, you should look it up. The choir sang three songs with them they are called, “John’s Song", " I Was Born",  and " When the son of Man (Comes Again). Listening to the songs and reading the lyrics, testified to me how important music is to bringing the spirit. The last song of the night was "Hardest Thing I Ever Loved to do" it was referring to his mission. Such a cool song. (Mom fill free to send me some of their music ha-ha) after they left we got to watch two Joseph Smith videos about the translation of the Book of Mormon that have never been seen before outside of the visitor centers. I'm not sure which ones though. It was really cool to watch how Joseph smith and Oliver Cowdry were translating the Book of Mormon and then realized they haven't been baptized like they have been told to do so.

I'll just skip Monday, it was a good day, but nothing super exciting. On Tuesday the 4 Minnesota elders including me were the only ones left in our district, cuz everyone else left for Gilbert Arizona and West Virginia. It was cool cuz this district became a family. It was tough to say goodbye to everyone. Tuesday night we had a devotional by Juan A. Uceda of the Seventy, he talked about his conversion story it was really cool.

Wednesday morning, we got up at 3:50 and we left the MTC in a nice bus around 5. They dropped us off at the train station, and then we took two trains to the airport. At the airport we called home, and I also eat Cafe Rio since we don't have them here in Minnesota. Even though it was at like 8:00 in the morning. It was still worth it. We flew to Minneapolis, met President Forbes and his wife and then went to the mission office in Bloomington. We all met with him for about five minutes, ate lunch, did a little introduction, got our iPads, mountain bikes, and then our trainers/ companions. So my companion is Elder Wilson from Standsbury Park Utah, he has been serving for 6 months and this is his first time training. He is a cool guys. Our area is a small town called Aitkin. It's about 3 hours away from Minneapolis.  The Aitkin branch is a big area but it's a small area that we can actually work since we are limited on miles for the car.

These past few days we have been meeting with a lot of less actives since the branch consists of a few big families that had sons and daughters that have fallen away.  Sunday was the best day so far because I met the people in the branch, they are all really nice. They asked me to bear my testimony and then give the closing prayer during sacrament. We had our first lesson on Sunday with a 15 year old girl who is getting baptized at the end of September. We taught her the plan of salvation, she received it really well. It's sad though, cuz her dad is less active, and we don't know who will be baptizing her since he probably isn't in the position too at this time. Hopefully everything will all work out.

Adjusting to the field has been really tough for me. My MTC experience was great, I loved the spirit that I felt often, I gained a lot of really close friends, and everything was really up lifting. The field is a lot different, you only get one friend, the spirit depends on if you can invite it to the lesson, the people are pretty crazy, and it's hard to find my purpose being here.  I know it will just take time for me to adjust to this new environment.

I know this work is true, and that Jesus Christ is my Savior, and that He gives us strength to overcome these difficulties. Just like how Grandma Moore would say, "We can do hard things." This is that hardest thing that I have and ever will do. But I know it's the right thing for me to do. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

I miss you all,
Love Elder Schauers

P.s here are some pictures from the MTC. This is my district leader.
We got these sweet Momma boys shirts haha.

Cereal Tower Full

Cinnamon Toasters - his cereal of choice

So great to received this text taken at the SLC airport by someone obviously who

knows how much their momma's needed to receive it.

New arrivals to the MMM

    

Week 2 in the MTC

Hey everyone,

It’s been a really good week, I’m starting to get into the routine of things. My district is awesome, we have become a family. So too keep you up to date on our investigators. We only get four meetings with each of them. I learned so much from teaching Grace and Brice. On our last lesson with Brice, we were able to commit him to baptism (which was AWESOME)! So we are two for two right now, but who is keeping track ha-ha!! We got a new investigator named Jose, he is super cool and has some really deep questions. So that’s tough, but we feel that he wants to take the next step towards baptism. 

Something that everyone in my district is pumped up about is that we are going to do something called the Tower Challenge tomorrow morning. It’s when you eat this giant tower of cereal as a district. Everyone is getting excited about it and finding different tactics to succeed at it. I will send a picture next week of how much cereal we have to eat, and we have 12 people in the district. So keep us in your prayers to be able to accomplish this goal ha-ha.

Oh yeah I almost forgot, I brought my YOYO with me to the MTC. It’s been great. I’ve been trying to learn new tricks so if you get bored, go ahead and email me some tricks I can learn. That would be much appreciated. I named the YOYO "Lassie" because my companions told me to walk the dog with my yoyo. So since then, Lassie has become our district pet. Yes I understand that it’s weird, but the MTC will make you go crazy, so we have to find things to laugh about.

Ok bringing it back to a serious note, last night we had a devotional from Bonnie L. Oscarson. It was really good. She talked about how we don’t want to finish our mission with regrets. So don’t hold back, don’t slack off, cuz one day you will look back and be sad about the effort that you put into your mission. So that really stuck out to me and how I want to work as hard as I can so I don’t have any regrets. There is a picture in one of the MTC buildings with two missionaries kneeling at the bed side and you see their shoes, and how torn up they are because of the hard work they put in. That’s my goal.

So I’ve been studying Alma, which is awesome cuz there are a bunch of wars and Alma is a stud. I just really like it cuz God blesses those who obeys His commandments. He gives strength to those who listen and has faith in Jesus Christ. That’s how a mission kind of is, if you have faith, study, work, obey all his commandments with exactness then everything will work out and you will have success. It doesn't mean that it won’t be hard, but you will have the strength to get through the hard times cuz you rely on the Lord. I have seen this in my life so far here in the MTC. Another thing that I enjoy doing during my studies is I’m able to watch Book of Mormon stories videos. Which it explains the Book of Mormon from beginning to end. But it simplifies it and focuses on the main points from each story. It’s animated and it’s made for little kids, but I think it’s great to help me understand the stories a little bit better so I can teach them better.

For all of my friends that are going in to the MTC soon, just know you eat a ton of food. I have gained 2 pounds last time I checked. One person in my district gained 10 pounds, he eats for like three people every time we go into the cafeteria. Also bring something like a toy that will keep you entertained at night. The devotionals are the best part, and then also sing in the choir. It’s really fun, the conductor is hilarious and super talented.  You get to eat dinner earlier and the songs come out super well. We just sang "Josephs First Prayer" I’ve learned that the music invites the spirit way more than any other way. Also when you sing hymns, look for what the lyrics mean and how they tell such a wonderfully well thought out story. That’s what I enjoy the most because I miss music a lot. 

Well I’m getting of now, I love and miss all of you, thanks for all the support to my family and I as we are all making this transition in life.  Here’s a picture that one of my companions took, but it is terrible quality.

Love,

The Real Elder Schauers

P.S. yes Brandon this refers to you.​

Companions .... Roomies ... Friends

Paytyn Laker who works at the MTC Mailroom made a special visit in to get this picture for us.

First Week in the MTC

Hey everyone,

The MTC is way different than what I expected. But it’s great. I don’t love the MTC, but I don’t dislike it. I came into the MTC with 823 missionaries. It’s very busy. Everyone tells the new missionaries, “Just to make it to Sunday, then it will get better. So the first few days felt like weeks. But since Sunday until today (Wednesday) the week has flown by. I love my district. Four of the Elders are going to the same mission as me. The others are going to West Virginia, and Arizona. My companion is pretty cool. He is from Orem Utah, and we get along very well, his name is Elder Hickman. My teachers are Sister Hoyt and Sister Miller. They both act as investigators too for us to teach.

We do something here called TRC which is when you get to meet with investigators that are either members or nonmembers. My companion and I think that one investigator named Grace is a nonmember and the other named Brice who we think is a member. So our first lesson with Brice didn’t go well. We didn’t focus the lesson on Christ enough and we just couldn’t get him to recognize the spirit. So after that lesson I was discouraged about my teaching skills, even though it was my first lesson. I just thought I would have done better. So I took it as motivation to make me study the lesson more and focus the lesson more on Christ. Cuz when you do that, it brings the spirit more. So later that evening we had our first lesson with Grace.  It went amazing, she was able to feel the spirit and she wanted to be able to feel it more in her life. So we invited her to get baptized and she said, "YES"!! We were so excited. And she has set up a date to get baptized on the 27 of this month. It’s awesome, we both were able to see how much a lesson can change and feel if you just listen to the spirit while teaching.

I can honestly say that being here is hard, but I can testify that my testimony has strengthened tremendously. I also can say that I have probably double the amount of knowledge I have about the gospel.

Today is p-day, so we went to the temple and I was able to do a session with my district. It was awesome cuz the film was my mom favorite film. I felt like she was there with me. It was awesome.

So everyone always talks about the food here, and they say it’s bad. But I love it. It’s really good. I’m kind of sad though cuz I thought I was gaining weight, but when I weighed in I was the same. So I guess I need to eat more if I’m going to prepare myself for the cold winters of Minnesota ha-ha. Also, in my district some people get callings and I have been called to be the online coordinator. Which is super funny cuz I’m am the worst at computers. God definitely has a sense of humor.

So yesterday we had a devotional from one of the Twelve. It was Elder Neil L. Anderson. It was so cool to see the spirit that HE BRINGS when he walks in the door. It’s an experience that I will never forget. He said, "Miracles must be a part of missions," which I think is so true. The Lord works in mysterious ways. Also my whole district has joined choir so we were able to all sing for him. It was very neat.

The other cool thing that I’m pretty sure all missionaries in the MTC are able to watch, is a video of Elder Bednar and its titled Characters of Christ. It is amazing. I’m definitely going to watch it again. So what he focused the talk about was how Christ always turned outwards when the natural man would want to turn inwards. Meaning that when something during Christ’s ministry was hard, he would go and help others instead of doing something for himself like we all would have. That is a goal of mine for my mission. It is to help others when my lie gets tough. Also Bednar taught about how we need to not only have a testimony, but become truly converted.

Well I will just end with my testimony. I know that this church is true, I know that God loves and knows each one of us individually. I know that there isn’t any better place for me to be right now than here. Eventhough it’s hard, tiring, and I want to be with my family and friends, this is the place for me. I know that we have the restored gospel on the earth today and that Joseph Smith translated the book of Mormon through the power that God gave him.

I love you all and miss you. I’m so excited to hear from some of you, and I have loved all the letters I have gotten.

Love, 

Elder Schauers

P.S. Having a name tag is pretty sweet!!​