Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you’re all having the best day of the year (cause that’s what Christmas is!)

I don’t remember a lot of what happened this last week because my brain is fully on Christmas today and the fact that I get to talk to my family!! I’m probably going to cry, but I’ve accepted it and am going to bring a box of tissues with me.

Sis Taylor and I spent a lot of time ding-dong ditching people this week….in a good way. Who doesn’t like finding nativity pieces or cookies on their porch? Sis Taylor is so cute and goes all out when we did it (jeans/tights and basketball shorts, tennis shoes, jacket scrunched around her face) so I decided to go all out as well on Saturday night. We delivered cookies for 2.5 hours to 13 different people! It was so much fun and some of the houses were really intense because we could see people inside through the glass in the door and so they might be able to see us. We were both in jeans and jackets though so I don’t think they really would’ve recognized us anyways. The only awkward part was we left cookies and one member’s house and he didn’t answer, but we decided to leave them there because it was still fairly early in the evening so he might just be getting home late. Then I remembered at 9:30 that he’s in Chicago and won’t be back until like the 2nd week in January… and we haven’t gone back and grabbed the cookies again. They honestly might just sit there until he gets back because we keep forgetting to get them. Oh well!

The other most awesome day this week was Thursday. We had an eveningside with President and Sister Layton and it was a blast! We got to watch “It’s A Wonderful Life”, which Sis Taylor had never seen before, and then we opened presents and had dinner. Sis Taylor’s present was a hygiene kit (toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, body wash, deodorant) and she was like “is someone hinting at something here?!” The presents were random though so I don’t think there was any hinting (well, at least not from the people down here…) Dinner was at a place called Gape Leaf and both Sis Taylor and I got super full super fast. I finished most of my dinner, but she couldn’t even eat more than half and I had to take it away from her so she didn’t throw up from eating too much (she didn’t want to be rude since Pres had been so nice to buy dinner for us). It was really good food though, and it came with the announcement that the California Bakersfield Mission is getting smartphones!! It will be exciting to be working in the digital age again and not the 1800s. We are supposed to get them sometime in the next month-ish so we’ll see what happens.

Sunday night we got to go to the McFarlanes’ house and open presents. They got us chapstick, water bottles, chocolate, raman (for me cause Amy heard that I eat it raw), sticky notes, and mac ‘n cheese cups for lunches. We got them beef jerky (from Texas, where Sis Taylor is from) and tea (from Celestial Seasonings, cause the plant is in Boulder). It was fun to just sit with them and chat for Christmas Eve.

I will give you all news about Christmas next week, but first I have to go live it!

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

Photos…

We found a smoothie place (it’s all healthy so it reminds me of Colorado):

Sis Taylor going all out for ding-dong ditching (she only tripped once, which was super hilarious):

The suckers they gave us at the eveningside were very colorful (my lips, teeth, and tongue were dark dark blue for almost 2 hours):

Our last district meeting with these peeps:

John 15:13-14 – “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.”

This week was a weird week, but good.

On Tuesday, we went and decorated the 1st sisters’ door with Christmas stuff. We just bought some stuff from Dollar Tree (cause we’re poor missionaries), but it looked pretty darn good! We didn’t put our names on the door or say anything, but they knew it was us anyways (probably cause elders wouldn’t’ve made it that awesome). We also went and got frozen yogurt with some members that night and food is always appreciated as a missionary so we enjoyed that.

Wednesday was the temple trip! We left at 6 in the morning and didn’t get back until 6 in the evening (our mission temple is the Los Angeles Temple). I love the temple. It’s so peaceful and I can just let myself relax and spiritually recharge. The only downer was that I started feeling really sick toward the end and all the way home. But….I got to see Sis Jackman!!! It’s been awhile since I’ve talked about her because I haven’t seen her since the MTC 3 months ago. We talked for almost 45 minutes and it was so fun to catch up. She was emergency transferred (which means she switched companions sooner than 6 weeks, which is unusual) and is now in Lancaster, which is why I got to see her at the temple. I didn’t get to see Sis Sandorf because Bakersfield’s temple trip was on Thursday. Sis Jackman really makes me laugh and I was sad to see her go, but I know I’ll see her again someday so it all works out.

We had an interesting experience on Thursday. We had an appointment set up with someone we met last week and she had told us she couldn’t do Fridays because her boyfriend was around then and he didn’t want anything to do with the church. However, he was there when we went on Thursday. We hadn’t texted and reminded her because when we do that people sometimes cancel and we really wanted to met with her. We knocked on the door and when no one answered we rang the doorbell. We heard voices inside, one of which was male, and figured her boyfriend might be over but we had an appointment so we decided to knock again. The we heard quite clearly and angrily, “And now they’re knocking!” We decided to scram before we got yelled at so we booked it to the car. Everyday you hope that random people you’ve never met don’t yell at you just because you wear a name tag with Jesus Christ written on it. Ah, the glorious life of a missionary!

Friday was pretty low-key. We made sugar scrub with a member and then went around to some of the youth in the ward who were speaking in church and asked them to invite a friend to come hear them speak. I was so proud of them because at least two of them invited friends who came and there were probably more who I just didn’t see. One kid even said he’d invite his friend next week because he couldn’t come this week! And then we had tons of ward members bring friends to the inter-faith nativity night. It started at 6 and went until 9, but Sis Taylor and I only stayed until about 7:45. In the gym there were over 150 nativity scenes set up and everyone could walk around and look at them all. It was fun because Sis Hawkins (the lady in charge of the activity) came up with a scavenger hunt, which made looking at the nativities that much more interesting. I didn’t know there were so many different types of nativities! Some were on ornaments, some were etched in glass, one was Native American themed and had a tepee, several had a propeller on top and would spin as you blew on it, one was rubber ducks, and so many more! It was a fun night and the Spirit was so strong and the whole room just felt peaceful.

Sis Gillespie got sick on Saturday so we did emergency exchanges and I stayed with Sis Gillespie in the morning while Sis Taylor and Sis Parcell went out to teach lessons. Sis Taylor and I were back in our area for the afternoon and dinner, but we did exchanges again that night so I could go teach with Sis Parcell. And then transfer calls happened!! We were with the 1st sisters when Elder Pitcher called so we all got our news together. Sadly Sis Parcell is leaving, but happily Sis Gillespie is staying! And as you might recall, my last transfer call with Sis Sandorf was quite traumatic so I was pretty nervous for this one, but also calmer. It’s hard to describe transfer calls because there are very mixed emotions happening. So Sis Taylor and I… are staying together!!! I’m so excited cause I love her so much and we only had 5 weeks together (it was a weird transfer). We’re the only companionship in Ridgecrest that’s staying together and it might honestly be because President knew I might run away from the mission if he did something crazy again.

My favorite thing that was said this week was when Sis Taylor and I were doing the 12 days of Christmas one day. She goes all out with jeans and her jacket cinched around her face and tennis shoes and so she asked me if I had any gloves with me. I told her I didn’t and her response was “Do you think they’ll recognize my hands?!”

That’s a wrap for this week. Everyone have an awesome and magical Christmas!

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

Photos:

Our beautiful door decorating skillz:

Sis Taylor and me being proud of our decorating skillz:

Sis Taylor’s attitude at 7 in the morning:

Diana’s attitude at 7 in the morning (Fallgatter and her drove us to the temple– Diana does not do mornings):

LA traffic:

How close the fire got to the highway:

The LA temple:

The temple grounds:

My adorable companion:

Me and Sister Jackman!

Me and Sister Taylor:

Our Chick-fil-a lunch (or as Diana calls it “Fickin’-Chickin'”):

Our amazing stop at Bed, Bath, & Beyond on the way home:

Laughter is medicine for the soul

This week started out with Sis Taylor and I hanging up Christmas lights (YAY!) and doing exchanges with the other sisters. We did some missionary work and then went shopping for our companions (if you want to buy something for your companion you have to do it on exchanges cause otherwise you’re stuck together like velcro). Sis Gillespie spent too much time trying to decide what to get our companions, but it’s ok cause we found a new investigator earlier that day! Her name is Vicki and her ex-husband is LDS, but she doesn’t have any bad feeling toward the church. She was on pain meds cause she just had surgery, but she was definitely lucid enough to know what she was getting into, I promise!

We went out to lunch with Larry on Wednesday ($1 tacos at the Mexican restaurant!) and he shaved his beard off so it was kinda weird. Now he just looks like an old man and not a happy troll. It’s ok though cause he’s still funny! We went to the McFarlanes for dinner tonight and Anish (a convert of about 2 yrs) was there too and Sis Taylor and I practiced teaching them the Restoration of the Gospel. They said it was good and gave us some things to work on. The best part was when Tim pulled out his mission stuff from Germany and taught us the Gospel of Jesus Christ in German!

On Thursday we saw Larry again, and Diana came with us. They spent a lot of the time talking about the “good ol’ days” when Diana used to run a racetrack with her husband. Our lesson with Larry was on the Atonement and they both said they’re very grateful for it because a lot of their fun in those days needed repenting of. They both make me laugh!

Something really cool happened on Friday in District Meeting. We were talking about people we (the missionaries) are teaching, and who could use some extra prayers, and a man walked in. The room we were in is connected to the gym so we could hear his footsteps echoing across the gym as he walked toward us, so by the time he walked in the door we were all staring at the doorway. We asked if we could help him with anything and he asked if we could pray for him. Elder Pitcher (our zone/district leader) handled it very well and we said a prayer for him and learned that he was a member who hadn’t been to church in about 10 years. Since we had all the missionaries in Ridgecrest in one room we were able to set up an appointment for some of the elders to go see him and help him out. It was so weird and so cool that someone walked into the room needing a prayer right as we talked about prayers. God knows what he’s doing.

We also had a cool experience Saturday night. Sis Taylor and I have both been struggling a little and so has the missionary work in our area so we asked one of our members to give us a blessing. He said yes and asked why we wanted a blessing. We told him we felt like we were struggling and stuff and he ended up giving us a 20 minute pep talk about missionary work and how awesome we are. It was really cool and Sis Taylor and I both felt better after that. The best part though was when I got the actual blessing. It definitely strengthened my testimony of the power of the priesthood because I felt the Spirit so strongly. I started to cry as Bro Rosser spoke because it didn’t feel like it was him talking to me. I could tell that he was saying what Heavenly Father wanted me to know and it felt as though Heavenly Father was speaking directly to me. I am so grateful to be a part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

I’m going to end my email today with a few funny things that happened this week:

1) We were at the bishop’s house and we were going to watch day 9 of the #LightTheWorld campaign with him and his family when a Lindsey Stirling video popped up on YouTube. Sis Taylor got super excited because she LOVES Lindsey Stirling, so the bishop played the video for us (I’m not sure if that’s really kosher so please note we did not ask him to). Disappointingly, Lindsey was not dressed modestly. It was so awkward so sit there with the bishop and his whole family (including teenage sons and a 4 yr old daughter) not sure if it was ok that we were watching it while Lindsey danced across the screen in a leotard. It wouldn’t have been so awkward if Sis Washburn hadn’t looked so disappointed and slightly horrified. We texted them later to apologize. They just laughed it off and said it was fine, but it was probably the most awkward 3 minutes in my whole mission.

2) We were at a member’s house and he asked me how I said my name (people always have trouble with Schroeder). When I told him he said “Ah, Jews and their weird pronunciations of stuff” so I said “Actually it’s German”. His response was “Well I was on the wrong end of that joke!”

3) We asked Elder Pitcher to tell us a joke: “What did the wasabi say to the bee?” “Wasabee!”

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

Photos…

Me and Sis Gillespie shopping:

Sis Gillespie being a little baby crazy:

Diana being upset that I didn’t have a picture of Sis Sandorf and I with her:

The great goose gathering in La Mirage:

Our Sunday night surprise from the 1st sisters and 3rd elders:

1st sister’s note:

3rd elder’s note:

Our Christmas tree!

Our other Christmas lights:

Awkward and Onward

We started our week off in an interesting way.

On Monday night we went over to give a less-active member a priesthood blessing. We were in the sketchier part of town and were a few minutes early, but we didn’t want to stand outside in the dark and the cold while we waited for Tim and Bro Perry so show up to give the blessing. So, Sis Taylor and I parked a little ways down the street (we also didn’t want them to see or hear us coming, because they have a habit of seeing us out the window and not answering the door) and turned off all the lights. We just sat in the dark watching their house for about 5 minutes. We didn’t feel like creepy stalkers at all… hehe. I have to say that missionary life is not what I thought it would be like at all.

On Tuesday we got to help some members of the ward paint their new house. They just moved in so they don’t even have carpet yet and they’re living out of boxes. We painted their baseboards and door jambs. It was exciting stuff, as you can probably imagine. We then had a lesson with one of our investigators named Inabeth and we brought a recent convert named Jason with us. He is super awesome and probably one of the most prepared people I have seen in my life. He knows so much about the church and his testimony is so deep, even though he’s only been a member for less than a month. The Spirit was really strong as he was talking to Ina about how he felt when he was baptized. She finally started to get why being baptized with someone holding the priesthood authority of God was so important. Jason used to be a Baptist minister before he became LDS, and Ina is a Baptist so it was really cool to have him testify to her about Christ’s restored gospel. Tuesday night we also got to spend time with Bro and Sister Sturgeon (the cutest old couple I’ve ever seen) and spend time studying the New Testament with them. I love them so much and it was really cool to talk about Christ and his life with them.

Wednesday we went over to the Chandler’s to help them sand some things they 3D printed for the interfaith nativity night that we’re doing in a few weeks. We’re just so popular! Serving the members is one of my favorite things to do because it makes me feel useful and we get to know the ward members better.

Friday was zone conference! President and Sister Layton came over to Ridgecrest and talked to us about members and missionaries working together. It was pretty awesome and got us all excited about working with members. One of my favorite parts was when President wanted someone to read a quote by Thomas S Monson (the president and prophet of the church) in their best Thomas S Monson impression and one of the elders nailed it! He sounded like the guy that did the “apostles and peanut butter cups” video (if you don’t know what that is you can look it up on YouTube). President was so impressed he asked him to do it again. After zone conference we had interviews with President, which is when he checks in with us to see how we are doing. I cried in my interview with him and he told me that I was going to give him a bad rep when everyone saw that I’d been crying. It was a really good interview and helped me feel so much peace and comfort about being a trainer in my second transfer. He is so in tune with the Spirit and I know that he was called of God. We then jetted over to our ward party and spent most of the time setting stuff up and cleaning. Amy was so appreciative of us because she is pregnant and had to be on her feet for so long and we made the process go much faster. It felt good.

Saturday and Sunday was stake conference and we had a member of the Seventy come (Elder Acosta). President and Sister Layton also got to speak and I was so proud that they were my mission leaders. All of the talks were awesome and I really felt the Spirit.

That’s all I have for this week. We’ll be doing a lot of tracting this upcoming week so my next email will either be really exciting or really boring (just like missionary life).

Ciao
Sister Schroeder

Photos:

Sis Taylor and I with our reindeer antlers (it was a struggle to keep that piece of candy in my mouth):

Sis Parcell and I climbing at the Pinnacles:

Our Sister Missionary picture (the one without our hair in our faces– it was really windy):

Me and my adorable companion: