Sister Schroeder's Mission Blog

One day we were biking to an appointment that was on the other side of our area (about 20-25 minutes away on bike). It was very hot that day, as most of them are, so I just asked God as I was biking to let some sprinklers shoot onto the sidewalk. Sometimes we’ll bike past when people are watering their lawns, and the sprinklers will rotate further than the grass, which means we can get our feet a little wet when we bike past. It’s even better when the spray goes up high enough that we get almost our whole calf wet!

Well, I’m here to tell you that God loves us and knows what we’re going through and He will answer our prayers. I was biking past some sprinklers and the timing and rotation was absolutely perfect. The sprinkler hit me full on, from my face all the way to my feet. And it wasn’t just a quick spray that’s more like a mist– it was at least 5 seconds of cold water soaking my clothes, skin, and hair. It was the most magical moment of my month. And if you think it was a coincidence, Sis Desposorio was a little bit behind me and she said she didn’t get hit at all because the sprinklers weren’t spraying on the sidewalk that much. I love that God cares enough about me to hit me in the face with a sprinkler on a hot summer day.

Someone that we had been teaching since I got here dropped us this week, which was sad. I was a little upset at first because he said that he hoped our eyes would one day be opened to the true gospel of Jesus Christ (implying that we had been deceived). It’s just hard when someone tells you that you are naive when you know what you’re saying is true because you’ve felt its power in your life. But Sis Desposorio helped me see that he just cared about us and was giving us advice in a loving way. I hope someday other missionaries will find him and his heart will be a little more open to the Spirit. We’ve talked to a lot of people this week and have several return appointments, which is awesome!

Our mission started doing this thing called OYM 10/20, which means Open Your Mouth: 10 people contacted per missionary and 20 people contacted per companionship. Something that President Ballard said about how missionaries aren’t talking to people really hit President Layton, and so this goal of talking to 20 new people a day is helping us get out and talk to people. It’s hard to do though, and Sis Desposorio and I haven’t reached our goal yet. However, we’ve had some really good conversations with people about the gospel, and it’s definitely pushed us to open our mouths more.

Elder Holland gave a really good talk about this idea called “We Are All Enlisted”. There are a few lines from it that really help inspire me to open my mouth. He says:

“Apparently [Satan’s] effort to stop the work will be reasonably well served if he can just bind the tongue of the faithful. If that is the case, I am looking tonight for [missionaries] young and old who care enough about this battle between good and evil to sign on and speak up. I am looking tonight for missionaries who will not voluntarily bind their tongues but will, with the Spirit of the Lord, open their mouths and speak miracles. I ask for a stronger and more devoted voice, a voice not only against evil and he who is the personification of it, but a voice for good, a voice for the gospel, a voice for God. [Missionaries] of all ages, unbind your tongues and watch your words work wonders in the lives of those ‘who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it.'”

Elder Holland speaks right to my soul and gets me more excited about missionary work and the gospel than anyone else. I just want to shout our good message from the rooftops, but since that isn’t a very dignified thing to do, I’ll content myself with going from person to person.

I think that is all for this week. We had dinner with some members this week, we were talking about the Plan of Salvation and why God created it and everything. Sis Weaver’s response was, “Well, why did you have children?” They both looked over at their son with puzzled looks and said, “that’s a good question. Why do we have Caleb?” It was a good look into the minds of parents. I hope y’all are having a fantastic summer!

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

We both got stuff in the mail!

My cute comp taking selfies on my phone:

Me getting misted with sprinklers at a stop light (the second most magical moment of my month)

“Dresses and bikes?…that’s total beach wear!”

This week I had an experience I never wish to have again. I am forever going to be traumatized. We were having a lesson with one of the people we’re teaching and because he’s a man, we have to meet outside. We had a great lesson and the Spirit was there, up until the biggest fly I have ever seen in my life decided to dive bomb my head. The problem for him was that if he wanted to get to my head, he had to go through my thick, long hair first. Unfortunately for him (and for me), he did not make it to my head. At this point in time, I didn’t know that he was a fly. All I heard was a loud buzzing sound right next to my ear. Like the rational person I am, I started screaming my head off. I thought that a bee was stuck in my hair and there was no way I was going to get stung by a bee in the middle of a lesson. Not today Satan!

Sis Desposorio asked me what was going on and all I could do was flip my hair in front of my face and scream, “somebody get it out!” The member who had come with us to the lesson (who was a man) started hitting my hair to try and help. He got it out of my hair and it fell onto the grass, where I maliciously squished it with my phone. When I looked up, John (the person we were teaching), was looking at me like I was the weirdest person he had ever seen. Oh well, sometimes you do what you gotta do.

This week was the 4th of July, as I’m sure you all were aware of. We had to be in by 8 because President didn’t want us around the crazies. It wasn’t even close to dark, so we didn’t see any fireworks when we were out, but Sis Desposorio and I turned off all the lights in our apartment and just watched the neighbors set off fireworks through the window. I didn’t feel like a creeper at all.

We had a “cottage meeting” this week, which is where you invite all the people you’re teaching (member or not) to a member’s house and have a big lesson all together. Sis Desposorio and I were the ones putting it on, and I think we did a fantastic job, even though only one person showed up. Her name was Sue and she was awesome, so I say we nailed it. I think the other sisters are going to do a cottage meeting next and hopefully more people will show!

That’s all for this week. Apparently the weather is just beginning to get hot so I’m excited for this next week. Gorgeous tan, here I come!

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

My bike and I have been at war since I first got here (bike 5, Sis Schroeder 0)

Sis Desposorio and I on the 4th (sitting outside an old folks home– we party hard)

I made crêpes this week for Sis Desposorio’s 6 months left mark (also known as 6 months to sexy)

This kid’s response made my day!

Well not much has happened since Wednesday. The temple was amazing, as always, and it gave me a much needed spiritual boost. I’m excited for when I get home and can go to the temple whenever I want!

I’m not sure what else to talk about because really not much has happened. Sis Desposorio is awesome and she makes me laugh. We made dinner for ourselves the other day and it was a lot of fun. I made the dinner part and she made dessert. We’re a good team!

I know I promised exciting things in this email, but life has chosen otherwise. I did watch a really good video the other day:

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-07-006-the-hope-of-gods-light

I love comparisons of light and darkness, so this video really touches me. I hope y’all watch it because it’s really good! I’ll have more stories of the missionary life in Laurel Glen next week. Have a happy 4th of July!

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

The gorgeous temple grounds:

The beautiful roses!

It was a very bright day:

Hail to the Prophet!

I get to say hello from outside the mission today! Our p-day was moved to today because we are on our way to the Los Angeles temple! In my mission we get to go twice a year (unless we go with our recent converts) and I’m excited to get some spiritual uplift in my life. Missionaries need to come to Jesus too.

This week was a good week. An optional summer schedule came out for us and we were able to find 2 people when we used it! Usually we get up at 6:30 and exercise, eat breakfast, get ready, and study, then leave at 10, but with the new schedule we get up at 6:30 and quickly get ready, then leave at 7 and do all the other stuff when we get back around 10. It makes so much more sense to go out early in the morning because that’s when the people are out and about. No one but the missionaries are walking around at 3 in the afternoon in 104-degree heat. I’ve seen more people outside in the past few days than in the past few months.

The summer weather is finally starting to hit us. I thought the last few weeks when it was in the lower 90s was bad, but my perspective has definitely changed. You know it’s hot when you say “Oh good it’s only going to be 98 on Tuesday so it won’t be too bad.” I’m attaching a picture of the weather for this week. The fire of a thousand suns has come.

We got to spend time with some really fun people this week. One lady we talked to (who we’re meeting with again tonight!) gave us turtle brownies when we left and they were amazing. She does cake decorating and so they looked really fancy. We also met with our recent convert Arlone a few times this week. She cracks me up! She was talking about how she found $20 and she was so excited because she “gets to give Jesus $2!” She loves the gospel so much and always says “if Jesus could save me, he can save anyone!” She wants to go and talk to the hood kids to try and save them and give them a better life because she recognizes how much the gospel changes lives.

We got to meet with a less active member this week and we somehow ended up talking about the ghetto bird. The ghetto bird is a helicopter that flies around Bakersfield at night with a huge spotlight looking for criminals and fugitives. Kitty, the lady we were talking to, said that one time the ghetto bird came right over her house because they thought someone they were looking for ran into her back yard. She said she was inside and when she looked out the window “it was so bright I thought Jesus had come again!” Good times.

Today, June 27, is a pretty powerful day for me. For those of you who don’t know, “Hail to the Prophet” comes from a hymn called “Praise to the Man”, which is about Joseph Smith. June 27, 1844 was the day that Joseph and his brother Hyrum were martyred. They gave almost their whole lives to restoring Jesus Christ’s church to the earth. They were persecuted so much and I don’t think I would be strong enough to go through everything they went through, but I’m so so grateful that they were strong enough to do what needed to be done. It’s because of Joseph Smith that I have the happiness and peace I have today. I can’t wait to meet him and thank him for everything he did. I know that the church Joseph Smith restored is the Church of Jesus Christ. The doctrine it teaches is true and the joy it brings is real. I love singing “praise to his mem’ry, he died as a martyr; honored and blest be his ever great name! Long shall his blood, which was shed by assassins, plead unto heav’n while the earth lauds his fame.” A lot of people are skeptical about Joseph Smith, but I KNOW he was a prophet called by God and nothing will be able to make me doubt that.

Well, that’s all folks! Talk to y’all next week.

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

I burned a shirt to celebrate my 9 month mark (I’m halfway there!)

Sis Desposorio falls asleep on the couch all the time (this is time 2 out of 6)

Selfie while waiting to pick up the other sisters:

That is 7:34pm by the way:

Triple digits all the way!

We went to Petsmart for our last few minutes of dinner one night and got to pet them through the glass:

The feel of the wind in my skirt…

I’m saying hi from Bakersfield this week! I’ve been in the Laurel Glen ward for 6 days and I like it here a lot. My companion, Sis Desposorio, is awesome, and when I got here I got the good news that we aren’t walking! We are on bikes, which doesn’t sound much better, but trust me, it is. We walked the first day because we had to get one of the bikes fixed before we could ride it, and it was 103 degrees. I felt like I was sweating lava. With the bikes, you have wind blowing on you, which keeps you a lot cooler. But the wind creates other problems. Bike+wind+skirts=not good. I’ve already accepted that I’m going to be a hot sweaty mess this summer so now I’m just working on accepting the fact that I’ll be a hot sweaty mess that flashes people. But I can now put “riding bike in a skirt” on my talents list! And we get a car 2 days a week (we share with the other sisters in our ward) which gives us a nice break.

It was hard to say goodbye to everyone in the AV, especially Sis Williams and Mckenzie. They’ve become some of my best friends and I’m really going to miss seeing them. But I know God will take care of them for me. Good-byes aren’t forever!

I don’t have much else to add. This week’s just been full of biking and getting used to my new surroundings. We have a lot of good stuff planned for this week so I’ll tell you all about it next week!

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

Sis Williams getting her hair cut in the parking lot (don’t ask)

Helping out at FHE with Mckenzie:

Last supper with Mckenzie:

Me and my new comp Sis Desposorio:

Our usual attire:

Popsicles on a hot day:

Sing we now at partying

This week was transfer calls. The zone leaders started out the call by saying “sisters, we’re about to ruin your night. Completely demolish it.” My first thought was “we’re both getting transferred, which means we have to pack and clean everything.” I was partially right. Both Sis Williams and I are leaving the AV and they are shutting down the sisters area for our ward, but we don’t have to super clean the apartment because the elders might move in here. I’m not sure if I’m impressed or sad that I’ve managed to drive the sisters out of 2 areas now. When I left Berkshire the sisters were taken out and elders were put in and this time they just dropped the sisters with no replacement. The next ward I’m going to (Laurel Glen in Bakes) has 2 sets of missionaries as well. I’m thinking I should call ahead and warn them.

On Friday we got to do some service (2 weeks in a row!) where we helped someone move. It was us, the elders, and two other people helping, and we got a lot done. We started helping at 8 and then ran home and changed so we were dressed for district meeting at 10:30. We looked and smelled amazing (there was no time to shower) so it’s a good thing we’re all friends. I’m going to miss this district. I’ve had so much fun down here in the AV. If my next district isn’t as fun I’ll just have to bring it.

That’s really all I have to report this week. I’m sad to leave this area and Sis Williams. She has become one of my best friends and I love her so much. She’s going up to Ridgecrest in my first ward!! She is going to LOVE it! But because she’s in Ridgecrest (aka isolation from the rest of the mission) I won’t see her for a while. I was going to put “sing we now at parting” for my subject line, but it auto corrected to “sing we now at partying” and I think that fits us much better. There was never a dull moment with Sis Williams and Mckenzie.

When we told Mckenzie we were both leaving she said “we were just having too much fun”. I know I’ll see Sis Williams in a few months though, so I’m not too sad yet. I’ll probably bawl at transfers, but I know the Lord has a plan for everyone. If I trust anyone it’s God. Out of all of us, He’s the only one who knows what’s going on. He probably feels like He’s herding cats most of the time!

I hope y’all have a fantastic week and show your dads how much you appreciate them next Sunday!

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

There was a fire close by:

Selfie after moving:

Playing phase 10 with Sis Williams:

Dinner at Applebees:

My delicious chicken dinner:

The physical representation of the past few days:

The elders… enough said:

We all decided to match at church because it was our last week:

Let’s start off with probably the most exciting thing this week… service at a horse ranch! We went with the zone leaders, and we dumped out and filled up water buckets, which was as glamorous as it sounds. The water pressure was strong, so sometimes the hose would shoot out of the bucket and scare the horses. I made sure that didn’t happen when any of them were in the pen with the horses though. I’m not that mean.

We learned that Elder Pixton is kinda prissy because he didn’t like the animals, and it made us all laugh when the donkey started walking toward him and he jumped the fence in one jump to get away from it. The lady who owns the ranch was like “Oh a city boy!” I hope we get to go back and help out more because I had a lot of fun. It reminded me of my days with the goats.

A sad part of this week was when Mckenzie’s cat died. He got hit by a car, so we went over and helped her bury him, and then we ate cake. Mckenzie LOVES cake with a passion so we brought her a tres leches cake that was really good. We got it all over our faces!

That was pretty much it for the week. It hit 100 degrees and we’ve been walking around a lot so there have been a lot of prayers said for shade. I have never sweated this much in my life!

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

Selfie with a horse!

He liked Sis Williams better

Keely graduated high school!

Sis Williams likes to sleep on my legs

Our cake faces (mine ended up inside my nose)

Well folks, the email this week is going to be a short one. We had big things planned, and then life got in the way.

Missionaries in a YSA ward can only teach people who are 18-30 so it’s very hard to find people to teach by just walking around, but since we don’t have anything else to fill our time, we walk around. If we talk to anyone outside that age range we have to give them to other missionaries, but we’re hoping that karma will come around and other missionaries will give us people to teach that are 18-30. We’ve found a few people that we’ve passed off to other missionaries and karma must be working its magic because the zone leaders gave us a few people to teach. If it wasn’t for the zone leaders, we wouldn’t have anyone to teach.

The reason our week was thrown off was Sis Williams. She is just a problem child that I have to deal with. Naw I’m kidding she’s the best! But she was the reason. She may have internal bleeding and colon problems, so we spent many hours in the hospital and at doctor’s offices. On Saturday we waited for one doctor for 3 hours; she yelled at us and basically said we were dumb for waiting so long to go to a doctor (we went right away so I don’t know what she was talking about) and for not going to the ER. So we went to the ER and waited for 6 hours for them to do some blood tests and then tell us to go back to the first doctor we talked to. We didn’t get home until 12:30, but the zone leaders brought us ice cream because they’re the best. I don’t think anyone really knew what they were talking about.

We’re going to go down to see another doctor in Santa Clarita this week and a real adult is going to come with us to make sure the doctor does what she’s supposed to do. I’m buckling up for another exciting, crazy week! And the best part was when Sis Williams had to do an ultrasound and drink 32oz of water and hold it for an hour (she does not hold her bladder well) and she was practically dying so we drove to the place and I had to talk for her because she was just in so much pain. The lady told her to go to the bathroom and then start over. While she was gone the lady came over to me and whispered “is she special needs?” I told her no, and she gave me paperwork for her to fill out. I thought it was so funny and when I told Sis Williams she was very offended.

The summer weather (average of 108 degrees) hasn’t arrived yet so I will live another week! I’ll end with some food for thought that I heard in district meeting this week: “a person all wrapped up in themselves is a very small package”.

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

* A member was appalled that I had never had a banana split before, so she made me one and then everyone watched while I took my first bite

* I had a really bad headache so my awesome companion hung up a blanket with tape to block the light (it fell down rather quickly, but it’s the thought that counts)

* When you feel sad so you stuff your face with froyo and jam out to the radio

* We like to spice things up when we video chat Mckenzie and read scriptures

* About 10:30 pm in the ER waiting room

* We finally got called… so we could wait in the sketchy curtained room that allowed you to hear all the moaning and screaming of other people

* A few selfies of us at district meeting

* A few selfies of us with Mckenzie 🙂

* Me enjoying myself at Olive Garden

This week was full of missionary work. Who’d’ve thunk?!

It started out with us not being able to leave our car one night. We have a 2017 Malibu and it has a button to turn on the engine. We were all ready to get out, and Sis Williams turned off the car and it said something about it not being able to detect the key. We then realized the engine was still on. Sis Williams started the car up and tried again with the same results. We called the zone leaders (because they also have a Malibu) and asked how to turn off the car. Thankfully Elder Kraft had had this happen to him before so he knew exactly what to do: put the key in the bottom of the middle console and then turn off the car. Sis Williams and I were skeptical, but we tried it, and lo and behold it worked. Thank goodness for the zone leaders or we would’ve been there all night!

The only other exciting thing that happened was we got to play volleyball on Saturday. We were supposed to play softball, but there were some do-gooder Scouts doing a blood drive or something on the softball field, so we just moved indoors. I didn’t really want to play at first, but Sis Williams convinced me and I had a lot of fun. We played king of the court for a little while and my team did pretty well. We came, we won, we left. We weren’t the annoying people that no one could beat, but we held our own. After the games we went to a baptism. Mckenzie and her mom both came and said that it was really peaceful and calm, which is 100% true. If you ever want to feel peace, go to a Mormon baptism.

That was mostly it for the week. There were ups and downs, but c’est la vie so I’m just keeping it going. I’m just trying to enjoy the low 80s weather before the fire of a thousand suns rains down on me. Good times are ahead!

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

At zone conference (feat. Sis Jones)

When the car kidnapped us:

When you make your companion laugh so hard doing squats that she falls over:

My strange companion hugging my legs during planning:

Sis Williams’ excitement for volleyball:

This week was awesome for 2 reasons: we got to go to the temple and it was Mother’s Day!

We worked with Keely for several hours this week so that she could get family names to take to the temple. She took 5 names and one of them was her great-great grandmother who she’s heard a lot about. She was nervous to go, but the temple worker was so nice and everyone was so helpful. Keely said she had an amazing time. We also go to take Mckenzie with us. She’s totally cool with doing her own thing so while we all went inside she walked around the temple and took pictures and then went to the visitors center and fell asleep in a booth that talked about the Book of Mormon. I love her! It was really great to get to go to the temple because that’s the time that I get to spiritually recharge. There is just such peace at the temple and I know it’s a peace that can only come through God. The temple is His house on earth and I’m very grateful to live in a time where we have almost 200 temples on the earth. I’m thankful that I have the gospel in my life and I can feel the peace that comes from God not only at the temple, but every day as I try to become more like Jesus Christ.

Mother’s Day was exciting because I love my mom and it was my 8 month mark (shout out to myself for making it!) Oh yeah, and I got to talk to my family! My family is the best and I miss them a lot. I’m was surprised because this call was better than the last one. Not that the last one was bad, but I didn’t feel as sad when we hung up this time. I really miss my family, but I know that I’m getting blessed and they’re getting blessed while I’m out here on a mission. And I have the rest of my life to be with those weird goofballs so what’s 9 more months?

We also had exchanges this week with Sis McMinn and Sis Parcell. Sis McMinn and I were really struggling with what to do because it was so hot outside so we decided to test our faith and pray to find someone specific. I was the one who said the prayer and felt impressed to pray that we would find someone wearing man flip-flops (the ones that are made with dark brown fabric and the straps are thick and kinda torn looking). It was such a weird thing to pray to find someone wearing “man flip-flops” and we both laughed every time we prayed, but we were able to find someone who wanted to learn more because we went to talk to a guy wearing flip-flops. It was a good experience because it showed my that the Lord really is aware of us and He has a sense of humor.

Well, those were the most exciting things in my week. Chick-fil-A did bad things to us on Tuesday so we just felt sick all week. It was such a great time! It can be summed up in a statement from Sis Williams who said, “between me and you, we’re destroying this toilet.” I’m so glad I have her in my life. She makes me laugh so much!

I hope y’all had an amazing Mother’s Day and showed your moms or mother figures how much you appreciate all that they’ve done for you!

Ciao,
Sister Schroeder

All my favorite people at the temple:

Me and my adorable comp:

The snail we see on our morning walks (we haven’t named him yet so we’re open to suggestions):

The reason I’m going to die in the summer:

What we did while Sis Williams was dying:

Sis Williams got blisters:

Jamba Juice after exchanges: