January 13, 2014

Helloooooo family!

This week was crazy. It was fun, and I learned a lot, but so many
things happened. I'm pretty sure Monday and Tuesday went fairly normal
(it feels like it was a long time ago). Those days were really cold!
But nobody got frostbite so it was fine. The craziness started
Wednesday. We woke up and it was freezing! I was going to kneel on the
ground to say my prayer, but here was no way I was going to kneel on
our freezing cold floor! So I climbed back in bed on the top bunk to
pray. A while later Elder Sua'ava and I decided to brave the cold and
see if our heater was working at all. It wasn't. We had no heat that
day. We didn't have hot water either. That day was our deep clean day
to really clean every bit of the apartment. So for our studies we wore
our jackets and everything that we had pretty much, and then we got
cleaning. The apartment looks pretty nice now, the bathroom is much
cleaner. But while I was cleaning the bathroom it got cold enough that
I could see my breath inside! Luckily we were moving around and didn't
get too cold. Towards the end we wanted to bake something to help warm
up the house, but the oven didn't work! The code on it said something
had shorted. So that evening we moved in with other Elders in our
district. Then the next day we got home really late and our things
were at the other Elders' apartment, so we had to go back and didn't
have time to go home and see if the heat had turned back on. The next
day we had an exchange with the elders that we were with, so that
morning one of them (Elder A) came with me to my apartment to do
studies and everything. Then finally that night Elder Sua'ava and I
were both back home (this was Friday night). Saturday went pretty
well. We played soccer at a park in the morning (a lot of missionaries
showed up and only like three other people showed up, but it will get
better. There is a member here who played professional soccer in
Honduras. I invited him and am excited to see him play.) That night we
had a visit with our investigator V L to see how he was
doing and feeling before his baptism and reviewed how to do it. It was
so great to talk to him and feel the Spirit there. Elder Sua'ava and I
were feeling so good after that! Then we stopped by a recent
convert/part member house and had a great visit there. We hadn't been
able to see them for a really long time.
When we got home, we couldn't find our keys! We couldn't get into our
house or building (breaking into your own house/apartment makes you a
lot more self-conscious in New York than it would in Burlington) so we
spent the night with the other elders in our district (by other I mean
OTHER other elders, since there are three companionships of elders in
our branch. So Wednesday and Thursday night we spent with Elder A
and Elder F. Saturday night was with Elder  and Elder
P, we decided to get some variety and visit them that time - I
also made the connection a little while back between Elder P's
last name and P bay!)
Sunday morning the elders that work at the mission office brought us
our spare key so we could go home and get our suits for church. Church
on Sunday was good, I didn't really know what to do for V's
baptism because I had never had a baptism, but everything that was
necessary got done. The baptism was a double baptism. Elder J and
P's investigator got baptized as well as V. He had been
investigating for two years and finally felt sure about making the
covenant with God. The branch just gained two good men and the leaders
are excited about it. We are getting closer to being a ward.

I like what you said about it's our job to love the people. I have
been working on it a lot recently and praying to develop charity.

Love you so much! Have a good week
Elder Schenk

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