Hail to the Prophet!
I get to say hello from outside the mission today! Our p-day was moved to today because we are on our way to the Los Angeles temple! In my mission we get to go twice a year (unless we go with our recent converts) and I’m excited to get some spiritual uplift in my life. Missionaries need to come to Jesus too.
This week was a good week. An optional summer schedule came out for us and we were able to find 2 people when we used it! Usually we get up at 6:30 and exercise, eat breakfast, get ready, and study, then leave at 10, but with the new schedule we get up at 6:30 and quickly get ready, then leave at 7 and do all the other stuff when we get back around 10. It makes so much more sense to go out early in the morning because that’s when the people are out and about. No one but the missionaries are walking around at 3 in the afternoon in 104-degree heat. I’ve seen more people outside in the past few days than in the past few months.
The summer weather is finally starting to hit us. I thought the last few weeks when it was in the lower 90s was bad, but my perspective has definitely changed. You know it’s hot when you say “Oh good it’s only going to be 98 on Tuesday so it won’t be too bad.” I’m attaching a picture of the weather for this week. The fire of a thousand suns has come.
We got to spend time with some really fun people this week. One lady we talked to (who we’re meeting with again tonight!) gave us turtle brownies when we left and they were amazing. She does cake decorating and so they looked really fancy. We also met with our recent convert Arlone a few times this week. She cracks me up! She was talking about how she found $20 and she was so excited because she “gets to give Jesus $2!” She loves the gospel so much and always says “if Jesus could save me, he can save anyone!” She wants to go and talk to the hood kids to try and save them and give them a better life because she recognizes how much the gospel changes lives.
We got to meet with a less active member this week and we somehow ended up talking about the ghetto bird. The ghetto bird is a helicopter that flies around Bakersfield at night with a huge spotlight looking for criminals and fugitives. Kitty, the lady we were talking to, said that one time the ghetto bird came right over her house because they thought someone they were looking for ran into her back yard. She said she was inside and when she looked out the window “it was so bright I thought Jesus had come again!” Good times.
Today, June 27, is a pretty powerful day for me. For those of you who don’t know, “Hail to the Prophet” comes from a hymn called “Praise to the Man”, which is about Joseph Smith. June 27, 1844 was the day that Joseph and his brother Hyrum were martyred. They gave almost their whole lives to restoring Jesus Christ’s church to the earth. They were persecuted so much and I don’t think I would be strong enough to go through everything they went through, but I’m so so grateful that they were strong enough to do what needed to be done. It’s because of Joseph Smith that I have the happiness and peace I have today. I can’t wait to meet him and thank him for everything he did. I know that the church Joseph Smith restored is the Church of Jesus Christ. The doctrine it teaches is true and the joy it brings is real. I love singing “praise to his mem’ry, he died as a martyr; honored and blest be his ever great name! Long shall his blood, which was shed by assassins, plead unto heav’n while the earth lauds his fame.” A lot of people are skeptical about Joseph Smith, but I KNOW he was a prophet called by God and nothing will be able to make me doubt that.
Well, that’s all folks! Talk to y’all next week.
Ciao,
Sister Schroeder
I burned a shirt to celebrate my 9 month mark (I’m halfway there!)
Sis Desposorio falls asleep on the couch all the time (this is time 2 out of 6)
Selfie while waiting to pick up the other sisters:
That is 7:34pm by the way:
Triple digits all the way!
We went to Petsmart for our last few minutes of dinner one night and got to pet them through the glass:
