April 1 & 2, 2013

Hi Dad,

I'm doing really good. I'm getting excited for what we are going to start doing more in the work. The missionaries in our ward are going to start working more with the youth and we are going to try to help the ward in that way. One training video we saw in the MTC said that in every single area we go to, we should leave the ward or branch better than we found it. And recently we had mission conference and the trainer said that we need to develop super trust with our ward. It's kind of what you are talking about. As missionaries we are taught a lot about how we need to earn the trust of the members so we can work more effectively through them. That's how 70% of the baptisms in the world happen! What they told us is that the members already trust us because we are missionaries. What we need to earn is Super Trust! So we were planning on starting activities like mutual every week for the youth to really get involved in and enjoy. I got really excited for this because I feel like I still belong in mutual and I know how to run a good mutual program. I would just do what you do. Then we learned that the youth already sort of have a mutual. It's just not really well established I think. So we are going to go to that and help the YM and YW presidents what we can do to make it awesome. I feel like working with the youth is a good way for us anyway. Elder Rose and I are good at sports and meeting people that way. Parents are always working and finding them is really hard. But if we can get their children interested in the Gospel, the parents can get involved that way, and then we have found a family. We are going to try to help get the mutual activities really consistent and fun so we can invite kids on the street there. I also want to start finding out what the youth in the ward like to do, then go do that with them and their friends. It seems so simple and really fun. So right now my enthusiasm is for the future work we will be doing.
This week Elder Rose and I have done a lot of sports proselyting. We met a young man who is a potential investigator and plays handball, so we went to one of the parks nearby twice this week to play with him. The first time he wasn't there, but we met some other people. We are starting to get to know some neighborhood kids.

If you haven't sent my package yet, it would be nice to have 2 more pairs of athletic socks and another pair of jeans along with my either one of my pairs of nike shoes. If you have already sent it its no problem.

Thanks for the Email Dad, I hope the transition to the new software goes well, and thanks for the advice with working with the members. Love you! and I'll work on having my best week yet.

Love,

Elder Schenk

 

April 2, 2013

Okay, I'm back on. We just email at the library and we get two half hour sessions a day with our library card. I almost had enough time yesterday to finish, but then we had to run.

Easter went well, we took the sacrament to a someone's parents who are sick and need to stay at home. They gave us chips and snacks so we could break our fast, so that was good. Their son is 18 or 19 I think and we are working on getting him to plan on a mission. We play a lot of handball with him and he's the best player I've seen. I guess the way handball goes here sometimes is if you beat everyone at a park, the park is considered yours. So he owns a park somewhere in town. It's really fun playing on his team because when people play handball they almost always look really casual. Everyone just wears jeans and normal shoes. And he plays just the same. He plays well enough to beat people but doesn't show everything. Then at the end he started spinning around and hitting the ball behind the back and the people watching were like "that guy's actually pretty good!" Then he played the game point one on one with each of the other players and dominated them. It was fun to watch. Especially because beforehand he told me how he beats people then I saw him do it perfectly.

I've started playing more basketball and I'm getting a bit better. I think Elder Rose and I are going to start playing more basketball in the mornings. He is really good and wants to walk on at UVU. His uncle is BYU's head mens basketball coach and his other Uncle works at nike and gets him a ton of really nice nike gear, so he's got a good setup. He used to help at the BYU summer basketball camps all the time, so I'll have him teach me how to play.

I saw the spelling error on the placque, but everything else looks great. Also, could you put the byu frisbee in the package? I realize I've asked for a bunch of things so don't stress about it all because I'm doing pretty good without it so far. Priority items would probably be a frisbee, baseball glove/ ball, and shoes. We have a bat here and the other things I've asked for would be nice but not absolutely necessary.

I'm excercising by playing a lot of sports during the day when we try to meat with potential investigators. Our investigators are Ignacio, Augustine, the Nietos. Brother Herrera, hopefully Max, and there are some others that we just can't really get a hold of.

Today, Tuesday, we had transfer meeting. I didn't have one when I got here so it was good to see how it usually works. I made my first tie trade! It's not a big deal here though. Not many Elders trade ties a ton. But I did get a posterity tie from Elder Rose, and he got it in the Dominican Republic, so that's exotic. I was wearing the tie Devin gave me from the Philippines and Elder Matthews, one of my zone leaders who is going home asked if he could trade for my tie. I guess he really likes blue ties. He had a couple in his backpack so I traded for one, and at first I was hesitant to part with my tie, but it's fun and I think this new tie looks really good. I'll get a picture of it. Yesterday afternoon another companionship drove us to Rego Park, the main city part of Queens with Queens Center Mall, etc and we shopped at Aldies. Its my second favorite grocery store after Costco. Aldies just makes a copy of the namebrand of everything and copies it as closely as possible. The boxes look the same, most of the food tastes the same, a lot of the names of the food are really similar to the food names on the name brand. But it's all a lot cheaper. It's great!

Then we went to Brooklyn to meet up with a different companionship and play basketball with one of their investigators who is going to get baptized and wanted to meet some other missionaries. We played and met some other people at the basketball court, and then went to the investigators house and taught him a quick lesson, then his mom made us this great drink called morir sonando. It's a specialty from the Dominican Republic (they are Dominican). Morir Sonando means to die dreaming, and that's kind of what it tastes like. It's delicious! It's like a sweet milk and orange citrusy combo. Elder Rose really enjoyed it and being at their house and talking to the investigators mom because he served for 7 months in the Dominican Republic until he had to get surgery on his knee. And we hardly ever get to teach dominicans because whenever we meet them, they almost always live in Corona or somewhere in Brooklyn. Corona is the district in Queens that has mostly hispanics. Thanks a lot for the Easter package, I ate a lot of the candy way too fast. I guess I have a lot less resistance to sweets on my mission. But I'm working on it. I moved the candy off my desk so that was a big step in the right direction.

Thanks for the Emails,

Love,

Elder Schenk

P.S. I wouldn't mind a few letters from my fan base back home ;) . Thanks Katie and Grandma Schenk for sending some, I'll write back soon!