Working the New Area

Jared and Elder Toala, (you might remember him from Albion ) He was Jared's first comp - Jared's second and current comp is pictured with him at the end of this post, a Brazilian, Elder Rabelo.
This is Caique, Jared's first baptism, last December


Well, this week has been good. I've learned a lot and things are getting better in our area. I'm still not diggin my comp that much but you just got to make the best of what you got and never judge anyone. 'Just stop it' (Pres. Utchdorf ... someone’s going to have to finish spelling that one for me) Conference was good but I only got to watch the two sessions on Sunday so if someone can send those when they come out that would be cool.

Anyways we were able to rent a van and bring two families with us to watch conference at our stake center (because our building doesn't have anything) and it was great. One family was a mom and four of her kids that we just started teaching this last week. The first time I talked to her she told me all the churches she had already attended and that she was attending one right now but just for now. Her son also told us that this is the first time he has understood anything about church stuff. I've got some high hopes for them. She also makes a really good cake and something they call rain balls. The other family is a mom and her daughter (I know I need to get some families with a father) She is trying to decide between our church and some TV guy from downtown Sao Paulo. She has already told me she knows the Book of Mormon is true. I don't know what's going on with them yet. We'll visit them this week and see what conference did for them.

The entire time I've been in this new area we haven't been having any success getting people to church. After a couple good talks with my comp I got him to fast with me for a van and people... and we ended up with two vans Sunday morning and two families. I would say that fasting works. We actually had way more people that were going to come but fell through.

Which brings me to our next change, we are cutting a bunch of people that my comp has been holding onto for over a month with no progress. I'm sick of say the same thing about this new area every week and acting like it’s a hard area. It’s not. It’s actually an area I think has a lot of potential and that's what I told my comp this week. It’s us not them. We are still missing some important things in our work. Also I’m sick of hearing the same excuse from people every week. One guy tells us how badly he wants to come to church and change his life but always has something to do at home. So he tells us his kids will come (they never do) and ends everyday with I could really use some supplies to finish building my house. I tell him everyday that we and some members will come any day to help him but we don’t have a lot we can just hand him. I know it sounds like I’m judging him but really he just wants some money and the more I talk to him the more I see it.

Right now my favorite thing to say is ‘melhor cada dia’ or just better everyday. Like Bob Marley once said ‘don't worry about a thing because every little things goin be alright’. I'm just trying to be better everyday and live in the moment - also take care of things way before they need to be done to avoid problems. This is something that Elder Rabelo and I are having problems with but I can’t really do to much about except to tell him a million times a day. I just want to be a senior soooooo bad but I know that first I have to speak better than I do. My Portuguese is alright but still needs a lot of work and my vocabulary needs to get a little bigger. I'm trying but I can’t help but think it just needs time.

Transfers are in like a week and I think I will have a new comp and I’m super excited. Also this Wednesday I will have 1/4 of my mission behind me. Crazzy! Hope everyone back in the United States heard David F. Evans talk Sunday and took notes... I will be waiting for the letters - haha.

Well I don’t know what else to say. I'm really wet and tired from our hike today to a waterfall. We got there and there was voodoo stuff all over the waterfall and it started raining like crazy so we just came home and got on email.

One thing I want is to just get more lost in this work. its been really hard and I don't feel like there is a missionary in my mission that is lost in the work. It’s just really different than I thought it would be. I’m excited to see what a fresh Mission President from the United States will bring. Still waiting to get news on him.

All and all life is good I'm learning how to manipulate my comp to do the things I want to do and we need to do and stay happy even when things are not perfect. Love y’all. I miss you a lot and also I miss music a lot but it’s weird because I didn’t think I would this much. Well rock on and just keep having fun. I don’t need to really tell you anymore than that after conference.

Elder Schmidt