“Do you want me to pass the gravy?”
“That’s applesauce.”

(The conversation that happened after Sis Flitton had already put it on her turkey and potatoes.)

Thanksgiving was good! There was so much amazing food and I ate way too much, which is how Thanksgiving should go. Sis Ottley was sick for 3 days, including Thanksgiving, but thankfully she was feeling well enough to eat most of it. Hope y’all had a fantastic day too!

I’m leaving! We got transfer calls on Saturday night and I’m going down to Lancaster. Sis Ottley is staying here and moving into the STLs apartment. They are closing our apartment, so we have to clean it and make it sell-able… maybe. The assistants haven’t confirmed what we need to do, so we might end up doing nothing right now. I’m excited to go back to Lancaster. I’ll be in the same district I was in before. The difference is that my comp, Sis Mounteer, and I will be the only sisters in Lancaster. I’ll be surrounded by elders. We’ll see how this goes.

We had two miracles this week, both with the same person. We’ve been teaching someone who is homeless and his name is Anthony. He used to live next to his mom’s house, but she asked him to leave early last week and we didn’t know where he went. We had set up an appointment for Friday, but when we got to the church building, he was nowhere to be seen. There wasn’t any way we could find him because he doesn’t have a phone, so we just said several prayers that we would find him again or other missionaries would in the future. Then on Saturday night we were walking to see someone else we’ve been teaching, and I looked up and there was Anthony! We ran over and talked to him and set up a place (Starbucks) we could meet for him to be picked up for church. We went Sunday morning and couldn’t find him. So we went to another Starbucks. And another one. Finally we decided it wasn’t meant to be, so we pulled out of the parking lot and were waiting to pull onto the mail street when we saw Anthony across the street! We pulled up by him and told him that God must be trying to tell him something because we found him twice in one week. What are the odds that we would find one homeless guy in a city full of homeless people. It shows that God really cares about His children and He doesn’t forget them. I told Sis Ottley to keep me updated on him.

Well, that’s all I have this week. We’ve got to go finish up packing and saying goodbye to people. Wish me luck!

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

Goodbye lunch with Moises:

The Bakersfield fog:

A joke Sis Ottley’s family sent her (we thought it was hilarious)

Our failed district photo (featuring Elder Christiansen, Elder Ortega, and Sis Ottley’s forehead)

A cute mother-daughter photo:

Pictures by a pretty tree (I was cold)

My cute comp:

Not sure what’s happening, but those leaves sure are pretty:

That’s better…

“So He’s keeping me alive longer to punish me for what I’ve done?”

We were talking with Moises (who has a lot of health issues) and telling him that he has long-life genes. When he said he was being punished, we asked what for and he just looked into the distance and smiled. Then he stopped smiling, looked back at us, and said “I’m never going to die!”

Carlos and Anthony came to church this week! It was super exciting! And they loved it! Can you tell I’m excited?! We gave them paper and pens to write down questions they had for us to answer after the service. We thought it was really smart, but they just wrote notes to each other the whole time. That’s ok– they still said it was really good.

That’s pretty much it for this week. I’ll have more to talk about next week; it’s just been a crazy busy day. Have a fantastic Thanksgiving!

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

Our adorable comp selfie:

Sis Ottley made me pesto past cause she’s the best!

My comp being Vanna White:

We love Jamba Juice:

Rock painting!

The rock I’m most proud of:

All the rocks we painted:

“But there’s shuffleboard!”

(Sis Flitton didn’t understand why Sis Ottley didn’t like being aboard the ship while she was on a cruise.)

Happy Veterans’ Day, everyone! We had an activity on Saturday where people in the ward who served in the military told about their service and then we made care packages for people who are deployed. It was a lot of fun and interesting to hear the stories.

The most exciting thing this week was Sis Ottley going to the hospital. We were walking around one night in a slightly sketchy area (which is honestly the majority of our area) when these guys started walking toward us. We decided not to talk to them because we’re two girls walking alone at night. We looked at the ground and walked past, but as we did so one of the guys grabbed Sis Ottley’s bag and started running. Well, her bag got caught on her arm so she started to get dragged along with the bag. She had to start running with him so that she didn’t fall, and of course I couldn’t just leave her so I ran after them. The other guy tried to stop me from chasing after them, but by some miracle he missed me and I didn’t trip. I grabbed one of Sis Ottley’s hands and planted my feet. The guy jerked back and tripped, which caused Sis Ottley and me to trip. He landed on Sis Ottley, and Sis Ottley landed on me. He then jumped up and ran off with his friend. I got up and helped Sis Ottley up. Her wrist was at a weird angle and definitely broken. We called President to tell him what happened and then called the nurse to know where to go to get Sis Ottley fixed up. It was a crazy night.

I’m totally kidding though. Sis Ottley just thought she had pinkeye and the nurse wanted us to go see a doctor.

We went and had lunch with Moises this week and it was a lot of fun. It didn’t end very happy, though. Moises reminds me of Larry, who was a member from Ridgecrest. He was the one I always used to say looked like a happy troll. Well I looked up a picture of him on Facebook to show Larry, and I found out that he passed away recently. I’m not sure when, because I only saw a few posts from the 5th and another from the 31st, but I just handed my phone to Sis Ottley and started crying. I never had a chance to say goodbye because he had to be emergency transferred to a hospital in another part of California. I was excited to see him again when I visited my mission, but I guess I’ll have to wait a little longer.

That was pretty much it for this week. I hope y’all have a fantastic almost Thanksgiving week!

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

Our selfie from today:

We rode bikes for a day for fun:

Lunch with Moises:

The Whitmores showed their snakes to Sis Ottley and this is Ginger (she’s 12 feet long)

At the hospital:

My açai bowl breakfast:

The Christmas ornament I made:

“Out of everything she makes what’s your favorite?”

“… Babies”

We were at dinner one night with this older couple in our ward and we were talking about their daughter, who’s a baker, and this was the husband’s response. We laughed so hard because it was so unexpected! They love their grandbabies.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween! We planned our week, ate too much candy, and talked in British accents while laughing hysterically. That’s what happens when you buy candy for kids and then none come to your door. Sis Ottley was very disappointed. I’m pretty sure the kids only trick-or-treat in the fancy neighborhoods to get the good stuff because hardly anyone we talked to had trick-or-treaters. We ended up taking our candy to our Friday morning meeting and the elders helped us get rid of it.

Last Monday we went hiking as a zone. We drove about an hour to get to the trail and I said at least 5 times “I feel like we’re lost. Did we miss a turn somewhere?” But it’s okay because we made it. The hike was fun, but pretty short, so we ended up sitting on logs and talking for about an hour. Everyone told some embarrassing missionary stories that were really funny. It’s nice to see that all missionaries have awkward moments and it’s not just me. TOAST! (thrive on awkward situations today)

The next most exciting thing that happened was Sis Ottley made dinner for us in the Insta-pot her mom sent her. We had spaghetti and the sauce she made was amazing! And it made our apartment smell good, so it was a win-win. We’re booked on dinners this week, which is awesome, but Sis Ottley loves to cook so she’s a little disappointed. She said she’ll make us breakfast instead. We’re going to need to start working out really hard this week.

As far as missionary work goes, it’s been the same old same old. We’ve had a few lessons and then have just been out talking to everyone. I’ve been working on explaining The Book of Mormon better because most people don’t know what it is. Even people that say they know really don’t. They think it’s our Bible, or that Joseph Smith wrote it, or that it’s about Joseph Smith. Even if people don’t want to listen to our message, I like helping people actually know what The Book of Mormon is so that they understand The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A lot of people don’t like our church because they don’t understand correctly what we believe. I feel good helping people understand, and sharing with them what we actually believe. It makes me laugh a little when someone says they don’t want to join our church because they’re Christian. I always say “us too!” Jesus Christ is the head of our church and His name is in our church’s name (because it’s His church) and it’s the second biggest thing on our name tags. A member pointed out that it’s a little sad people don’t know that the members of Christ’s church are Christian. That’s why I’m out here telling people!

I hope the rest of everyone’s week is filled with fun!

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

My cute comp:

Candid shot:

Sisters selfie:

Mother daughter photo:

Elder Herring photo-bombing in the back:

Our Halloween costumes! (Sis Ottley was a flower bouquet and I was a patch of flowers):

We made the flower headbands ourselves and are very proud of them

Our zone leaders also dressed up for Halloween: