02/11/2019 – Sister Schroeder's Mission Blog

“Now the question is… do I pee on the confetti or do I flush the confetti and then pee?”

This week was exciting because it was Sister Hart’s birthday on Saturday!! I’ve spent the past few weeks trying to plan something fun with the elders. That’s not an easy feat when you have to be within sight and sound of your companion 24/7. I awkwardly wrote out a note explaining what I wanted their help with and then sneaked it to them when she turned around for a second. Then they had to send cryptic texts that I would understand, but she would not. And the day before her birthday, there was a miscommunication so I spent 30 minutes mouthing things to the elders while they mouthed things back over her head. It wasn’t very successful because none of us can read lips so we ended up writing on sticky notes and making something up to throw Sister Hart off.

I’m super impressed that we managed to pull it off without her getting suspicious and guessing what was going on. I left the door unlocked in the morning when we left, and they came in and decorated it while we were gone. However, when we came back they hadn’t finished yet so we found them hiding on our balcony. They sung happy birthday with us and ate cake. I was so happy because they did a lot more than I expected. I thought they would hang a few streamers and write “Happy Birthday” on a piece of paper and put it on the wall, but they did a lot more than that. I’ve included pictures. The quote above came from Sister Hart when she needed to go to the bathroom, but the elders had had some fun in there and decided to put confetti and a balloon in the toilet. Then the STLs took us out for ice cream. Sister Hart said she had a great birthday so I count that as a success!

Not a whole lot else happened this week. We’ve been walking around a lot trying to find people that want to hear our message, but no dice most days. We do have a return appointment with someone on Friday though that we’re super stoked about! We had to stop teaching one of our people on Saturday and that made me sad.

I get frustrated when people say they don’t believe in The Book of Mormon when they haven’t read it. The only way to know if it is the word of God is to read from it and pray about it. That’s what I had to do. I’ve read the Book of Mormon multiple times and have prayed if it is true multiple times. I’ve never had an angel appear to me and no voice has ever said “Kyra it’s true”. I’ve simply felt the Spirit touch my heart. I’ve felt peace come into my life and hope come into my heart whenever I open its pages.

I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the events that happened in the Book of Mormon really did happen to real people. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Joseph Smith was led by God to find and translate the Book of Mormon. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that any problem in anyone’s life can be solved through the Book of Mormon. There is power that comes from reading it that I’ve barely began to discover. I love the Book of Mormon with all my heart and am so grateful that I have it and the gospel in my life. My mission has made it possible for me to discover that, and help others discover it as well.

There’s a song I love that says, “today is the day I will open my mouth. I will shout from the rooftops, the truth will come out and I’ll share in my soul with the words that I speak the love that has made me this way. Today is the day I proclaim what I believe”. That’s exactly how I feel about what I believe. This last week of my mission I am going to proclaim to everyone what I believe, because I want everyone to feel what I have felt.

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

We went to IHOP for lunch and I made them sing to her (she was so embarrassed!)