One day we were biking to an appointment that was on the other side of our area (about 20-25 minutes away on bike). It was very hot that day, as most of them are, so I just asked God as I was biking to let some sprinklers shoot onto the sidewalk. Sometimes we’ll bike past when people are watering their lawns, and the sprinklers will rotate further than the grass, which means we can get our feet a little wet when we bike past. It’s even better when the spray goes up high enough that we get almost our whole calf wet!

Well, I’m here to tell you that God loves us and knows what we’re going through and He will answer our prayers. I was biking past some sprinklers and the timing and rotation was absolutely perfect. The sprinkler hit me full on, from my face all the way to my feet. And it wasn’t just a quick spray that’s more like a mist– it was at least 5 seconds of cold water soaking my clothes, skin, and hair. It was the most magical moment of my month. And if you think it was a coincidence, Sis Desposorio was a little bit behind me and she said she didn’t get hit at all because the sprinklers weren’t spraying on the sidewalk that much. I love that God cares enough about me to hit me in the face with a sprinkler on a hot summer day.

Someone that we had been teaching since I got here dropped us this week, which was sad. I was a little upset at first because he said that he hoped our eyes would one day be opened to the true gospel of Jesus Christ (implying that we had been deceived). It’s just hard when someone tells you that you are naive when you know what you’re saying is true because you’ve felt its power in your life. But Sis Desposorio helped me see that he just cared about us and was giving us advice in a loving way. I hope someday other missionaries will find him and his heart will be a little more open to the Spirit. We’ve talked to a lot of people this week and have several return appointments, which is awesome!

Our mission started doing this thing called OYM 10/20, which means Open Your Mouth: 10 people contacted per missionary and 20 people contacted per companionship. Something that President Ballard said about how missionaries aren’t talking to people really hit President Layton, and so this goal of talking to 20 new people a day is helping us get out and talk to people. It’s hard to do though, and Sis Desposorio and I haven’t reached our goal yet. However, we’ve had some really good conversations with people about the gospel, and it’s definitely pushed us to open our mouths more.

Elder Holland gave a really good talk about this idea called “We Are All Enlisted”. There are a few lines from it that really help inspire me to open my mouth. He says:

“Apparently [Satan’s] effort to stop the work will be reasonably well served if he can just bind the tongue of the faithful. If that is the case, I am looking tonight for [missionaries] young and old who care enough about this battle between good and evil to sign on and speak up. I am looking tonight for missionaries who will not voluntarily bind their tongues but will, with the Spirit of the Lord, open their mouths and speak miracles. I ask for a stronger and more devoted voice, a voice not only against evil and he who is the personification of it, but a voice for good, a voice for the gospel, a voice for God. [Missionaries] of all ages, unbind your tongues and watch your words work wonders in the lives of those ‘who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it.'”

Elder Holland speaks right to my soul and gets me more excited about missionary work and the gospel than anyone else. I just want to shout our good message from the rooftops, but since that isn’t a very dignified thing to do, I’ll content myself with going from person to person.

I think that is all for this week. We had dinner with some members this week, we were talking about the Plan of Salvation and why God created it and everything. Sis Weaver’s response was, “Well, why did you have children?” They both looked over at their son with puzzled looks and said, “that’s a good question. Why do we have Caleb?” It was a good look into the minds of parents. I hope y’all are having a fantastic summer!

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

We both got stuff in the mail!

My cute comp taking selfies on my phone:

Me getting misted with sprinklers at a stop light (the second most magical moment of my month)