It’s been almost a year and a half since we welcomed Alex back from his mission to Peru. And today we had the same opportunity to welcome Kyra back from California, as she finished her mission in Bakersfield.

We piled into the van and headed to the airport. In the parking lot we found one of those luggage carts, so we decided to hijack it. I pushed Zaque about halfway to the terminal (of the half-mile walk we did from long-term parking) and then he took a turn pushing me.

Then we positioned ourselves in the terminal where the trains empty, since that’s the closest we could get to the gate. While waiting, Zaque and I noticed a big bronze statue of some aviator dude. His shoes were very shiny, and I figured it was because countless people rub his shoes for good luck. We figured it wouldn’t hurt to get a little of the luck for ourselves.

A short while later, there she was!

Not surprisingly, there were hugs and laughing and tears. Laralee got a hug that seemed like it lasted forever, while the rest of us stood around awkwardly waiting for our turns. Then again, moms probably miss their missionaries more than others.

We posed by some DIA construction sign, together again for the first time in over three and a half years.

After a stop for lunch, we came back home to a big banner:

And that’s all she wrote! Eighteen months of service, hard work, and tremendous sacrifice, in the record books. I’m so proud of Kyra and her decision to serve a mission. And I’m so glad to have her back!

“Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people that they might have everlasting life.” -3 Nephi 5:13

This is it. My last email as a missionary. It doesn’t feel real that I will be back in Colorado in 2 days. Wow, time really does fly! I’m sad to leave California and everything that it means to me, but I’m excited to see my family and take a nap.

Not much happened this week that I want to write about, so instead I’m going to seize this opportunity to bear my testimony. I have grown so much spiritually while I’ve been on my mission. Before I came out, I believed in God and Jesus Christ and felt like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was true, but I didn’t do a whole lot about it. I would pray and go to church and read the scriptures just to check it off the list. I was becoming spiritually apathetic, but I cared enough to want to do something about it. So on a mission I went.

Now I KNOW that God and Jesus Christ are real and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ’s church restored to the earth. I’ve learned how important praying is, and how much closer it brings us to God. I’ve learned that the scriptures have power, and church is not just something to suffer through. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and he translated The Book of Mormon through the power of God. I know that President Russell M Nelson is the Lord’s prophet on the earth today and he receives revelation from Him to lead us. I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ makes it possible for us to return to live with our Father in Heaven. Because of Jesus Christ we can be forgiven of every mistake we have made. We can find peace in hard times because He knows everything we go through and He knows how to help us. Because of Him, death is not the end and we will all be resurrected and have perfect bodies one day. I love my Savior and am so grateful for him. I’m so grateful I had this opportunity to give up 17 months and one week of my life to Him. My mission has been so hard, but so worth it.

Well folks, thank you so much for all the love you’ve sent me and prayers you’ve said for me. If you’ve gotten anything out of my emails I hope it’s that I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and missions can be fun. I will see you all soon!

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

Valentine’s Day selfie:

Seeing Sister Flitton at the departing missionary temple trip (we decided we’ll be temporary comps tomorrow before we go home)

A pretty rainbow we saw:

Saying goodbye to one of my favorite members:

One of the people we’re teaching who’s from Syria made us baklava:

A member we said goodbye to has lightsabers!

I slammed my toe into my suitcase… twice (it looks worse in person)

“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!)

What a cute birthday girl!

Her reaction to seeing what the elders did:

Us cleaning up the confetti that was all over the floor (the vacuum just chopped it up so we had to sweep the carpet)

The elders left their sunglasses in the apartment so we had to take a picture of course:

The cutest sisters in the Caster at lunch:

Awkward zone photo:

The elders’ decorating job:

It has been so rainy in the Caster the past week! It’ll rain for a while, then the sun will come out for about an hour and then it’ll go back to raining. It’s the weirdest rain I’ve ever seen. Sister Hart and I had to take a picture, of course.

On Tuesday we had exchanges with the Palmdale STLs and I got to be with Sister Jackman! I haven’t been her comp since the MTC so it was tons of fun to be with her more than a year later. We’ve both changed a lot in good ways, but we’re still homies. I love her so much and appreciate all she does for me. We laughed and cried and contacted people. It was very good for my soul.

We had a funny moment on Saturday this week. We ordered a pizza, but then got a phone call from a member in distress so we went to go help her. Problem: our pizza was supposed to be there in about 15 minutes. So we called the elders and they drove over to our apartment and waited for the pizza guy. It was a little crazy for a minute, but the pizza was delivered safely so all was well. We have such awesome elders in our zone!

The only other thing that happened this week was we saw a lady named Ana. She speaks mostly Arabic and only a little English. She can really feel the Spirit when she talks to missionaries, so we’re just waiting for a pamphlet and a Book of Mormon in Arabic. It’s been interesting to talk to her thus far, because she doesn’t really understand what we’ve said, so we’ll see how interested she is in our message when she actually knows what we’re talking about.

I hope y’all had a good Groundhog Day and have a fantastic week!

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

We acted out a Book of Mormon story and it was so much fun!

Comp selfie in the rain:

The elders did our dishes when they grabbed our pizza for us!

I was overcome with stress one day and sat by the door like that for a minute… but it’s all good now