“Well you see, this is kind of awkward… you want to talk about Jesus and I have a beer in my hand.”

It’s funny the things you hear as a missionary. People come up with the best excuses and say some weird things. This guy didn’t want to have Jesus and beer happen in the same moment.

It’s interesting to me that people do things, even when they know deep down that it’s wrong. It’s the human in us, I guess. But at the same time, it’s the Spirit in us. I’ve talked a lot this week about how deep down, we know that we are more than this. Our purpose in life isn’t to come, live, then die. We came from somewhere, a place where we were surrounded by love and light and family. We are here on the earth to prepare to have that and so much more. We are truly sons and daughters of loving heavenly parents who want us to come home. We are divine beings that have the potential to have eternal life and exaltation.

I get so excited talking about this because it makes me feel bigger than I am. I’m not insignificant. I truly do have worth, and no matter how much I don’t believe that at times, or how far from God I feel I have traveled, or how much I feel I need to improve, that is an eternal truth that no one can change. I wish everyone could feel the power and love that comes from the statement “I am a child of God”.

Now for some exciting news: Steph, Persa, and Diego moved into my ward! If y’all don’t remember them, they’re my recent converts from back in February. I’m so excited to see them again and get to visit them! We had a funny moment the other day when we went to go visit Steph. We saw her and her friend Jake through the partially open blinds as we walked up to the door, but when we knocked on the door, Jake was the one who answered. We looked around and couldn’t see Steph so I said, “Hi! Is Steph here?” He gave a look down the hallway and Steph came around the corner and let us in. Later she told us that she had thought we were someone else so she quickly put her plate on the counter and ran to her bedroom. We laughed and told her that if she was going to run away from people, she should close the blinds. Jake said she deserved getting caught because she abandoned him. She’s so funny and I’m so glad I get to be around her again!

I think that is it for this week. We’ve been pounding the pavement, but so far we haven’t found anyone who wants to hear more. We were talking about it to one of the elders and he said “if they can’t handle the awesomeness of missionaries, they won’t be able to handle the awesomeness of the gospel!” True statement!

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

Someone wishing it was fall:

We didn’t close the freezer all the way so everything got frosted (yes that’s a lot of ice cream, but stress on the mission is a real thing)

We reached our goal of talking to 20 people one day this week (and no one yelled at us!)

I’m not sure what I’m doing in this picture, but that’s a big tree!

Here is another big tree and the reason people should cut dead leaves off their palm trees:

Someone had a school bus in their driveway and Sis Stockdale was very confused:

Pretty flowers we saw (there were many wasps so that picture was very risky to take)

I had a very interesting dinner this week. We went over to the Whitmores’ house, who are some of my favorite members, and had baked potatoes. But as exciting as that seems, it wasn’t the best part. We started talking about what they like to do and Sis Whitmore said she likes skulls. In response to our puzzled looks, she went into a room off the kitchen and brought out a dog’s skull. Apparently she was given a golden retriever’s full head in college and she had to boil the flesh off of it and get the skull out. It’s one of her favorite things to do. She also did that with a grizzly bear’s head as well. We passed the skulls around (except to Sis Stockdale) and got to look at them. My favorite was the crocodile skull. It was from the Nile River! My favorite quote from the night was when we were putting the skulls away and Sis Flitton was wiping down the table and said, “oh, I missed some bone over there.” Good times.

And it gets even better than that! The Whitmores have 10 pets snakes and brought some of them out to meet us. I got to hold snakes! It was one of the coolest experiences of my life! Sis Stockdale was not a fan and didn’t hold any, but the rest of us did. The ones they brought out were named Gracie, Miss Piggy, and Indy. My favorite one was Miss Piggy. She is a Hognose snake, which only grow to about 14″, and has a beautiful underside that looks like fancy marble. You might be able to see it in some of the pictures. Snake therapy is a real thing. Who knew that holding snakes could be so relaxing?! It was definitely one for the books.

We went over to Sis McCarty’s house this week and painted more canvases. I liked the other one I made, but the one from this week was my favorite. It has such pretty bright colors! Paint therapy is also a real thing. I was very blessed to have some relaxing time this week with members. Being a missionary is a lot of work so it’s nice when you find things to keep you sane.

We had lunch with Moises (the less-active member we’ve been teaching) on Saturday at Bakersfield Pizza. The pizza was good and the company was good. Moises still doesn’t have his hearing aid so he probably didn’t hear half of what we said, but we still had a good time. He makes me laugh and reminds me of Larry from Ridgecrest. Old men are so cute!

Well, that’s all there was this week. We starting teaching another member who wants to come back to church and were able to have a really spiritual lesson with her on Saturday about God’s love. She knows in her head that He loves her, but she’s having a hard time feeling it because she’s angry at Him for things that have happened. It was really cool to get to testify to her that He really does love all of His children (aka us) and that if she looks for it she will be able to see it, which is true for all of us.

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

The grizzly bear skull:

The crocodile skull:

All the skulls:

Gracie:

Miss Piggy:

More Miss Piggy:

Sis Williamson and Indy (don’t worry, Bro Whitmore didn’t let her die):

Lunch with Moises (my comp didn’t want to join the fun):

My newest art piece:

There’s a whole Colorado section where all the street names are cities from Colorado!