03/19/2018 – Sister Schroeder's Mission Blog

Leaving the ‘Shire

This week was an awesomely crazy week!

As Sis Evans and I were walking down a random street on Tuesday, a ward member drove by and stopped to tell us that the girl who has been living with her had been asking a lot of questions about how she can be baptized! She had been taught before, and Sis Evans said she has changed a lot and completely given her life to God. She said that God has given her everything good in her life so the least she can do is to do what He asks of her and be baptized and follow Him. It was really cool and inspiring. That’s someone who has had a “mighty change of heart”.

The second cool thing that happened the same day was we went to see a part-member family who the missionaries had been teaching. The man is a member and his wife had gotten interested in the church, but then stopped talking to the missionaries. We went over and she was outside, and we talked with her for a little bit and then asked if there was anything we could do for her. She asked us to come have a lesson with her! It was really cool and really unexpected.

And then, we got a referral for someone that wanted a Bible and said they would accept a Book of Mormon, so we went to see her Saturday afternoon. We gave her a Book of Mormon and started telling her about the Restoration of the gospel and when we told her about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appearing to Joseph Smith, she said she felt something she’d never felt before that went from her head to her toes. As we continued and talked about what the Book of Mormon was, she said she had the same feeling in her heart and her gut. We told her that it was the Holy Ghost testifying to her that what we were saying was true. And then when we hugged her goodbye, she said she got chills. It was such an amazing experience! It really strengthened my testimony of how true the gospel is and that Joseph Smith really did see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and he was called to be a prophet. It was a really great way to end my time here in Bakersfield.

Yep, I’m leaving. I’m going to Lancaster and I’m going to be in a YSA ward (Young Single Adults, ages 18-30). And the crazy thing is that Sis Evans is leaving too! She’s going to Palmdale, which is right next door to me. We are getting blue washed, which means that they’re taking out the sisters in our ward and putting in elders! There are going to be 2 sets of elders in Berkshire now. Some of the members were really upset because they’re single ladies, so elders can’t come visit them unless they have a woman with them, which means they can’t do random stop bys; they have to set up appointments. I’m not sure how the elders are going to do it, but I hope they can work it out so they can see everyone who needs them. Sis Evans and I have been packing like crazy and cleaning our apartment and writing down everything that the elders need to know about our area. It’s pretty stressful when there’s a completely new set of missionaries coming in. But I’m sure it’ll be great!

Well, I’m off to pack my life up and play games with my district!

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

Photos…

Gorgeous sky: