6MONTHS!!!

Mission time is so crazy! I can't believe, Elder Mitchell Schroeder has been out six months. It has gone by so fast & yet it also seems he has been gone forever! This is what I said to Mitch in his letter this week, this is his response & what he has been up to.

Yeah mission time is way crazy 1 day it feels like I've been here an eternity another it doesn´t. When I look at how much time has passed I'm like wow! Then I look at how much I have left and yeah you can guess what I think. haha.  I have been asked if I have met Sister Dumas but I haven´t. I know she went to bonneville, but I never knew her.  Parabens on the straight A´s girls, that is always good!  The amazing race sounds awesome I'm way bummed I can´t watch it.  oh well.  

 This week has been great.  We've found a lot of new people  to talk to, but none of them give us the right address or phone number.  Elder  Brown & I think that if people took as much effort in hearing what we´ve got ot say as they do lieing to us this entire country would be lds.  They are really good at telling us the right street, but the address doesn´t exist on that street, so i guess it doesn´t even necessarily mean it´s the right street now does it...

          We´ve got 1 investgator right now name Danielson.  He's from Cape verde and really wants to get baptized the only problem is that he doesn´t know for sure if he wants to marry his girlfriend Catia who just had a baby( named Clara)  and whom he currently lives with.  He´s marked for sunday, but we haven'tt been able to get in contact with him and are pretty sure he´s not married yet.  We are going by his house tommarrow so we´ll work it all out then.  

      We had district conference this week and a member of the 70 and President Fluckiger  gave talks.  I don´t remember the 70´s name so I can´t tell you sorry.  District conference is just like stake conference except we´re currently not big enough to be a stake so we´re a district.  We are next up to become a stake we  just need 24 more M priesthood holders.  Finding men is a bit difficult though, they are more closed then women.  So I can´t think of anything else this week really, no funny rejections, no one tried to rob us.  Oh, we did have a guy named Ishameal do something funny.  We rung his button for his apartment and when we said we are disciples of Jesus Christ and we are here to say a prayer to bless you and your family.  He promptly said "you´re lieing to me"  and hung up.  We didn´t know how to react, but then he actally came to the entrance of the apartment building and when we told him the same thing he said ok.  So hopefully he works out.

We had divisions this week.  I went to Faro A the other area in this city with Elder Fernades and taught 2 really awesome lessons with 2 of their investigators. That was fun!  Then, on Friday after zone conference. We had a division with the Assistant to the President..  I went with Elder Palmer and we found this 16 year old kid named Rui who´s way sick, we are going to try an pass him today.  Elder Palmer was my district leader for my 1st 2 transfers, don´t know if you remember me telling you about him.

Well that´s all, Love you mom, Have a great week!

We love him, we are so proud of him, & miss him so much!

Feel free to send prayers his way!

1st TRANSFER

This weeks letter brought the news of Elder Schroeder's first transfer. He left his last area with a bang! Last Sunday Sept 8th he & his companion had their first baptism. They worked with this investigator for many weeks, his mother insisted on feeding them almost daily, it was a great experience, ending in his baptism. Mitchell said it was the coolest baptism he has ever seen. They actually baptized him in the ocean, which is not very common, what a great blessing!
The previous Sunday...Mitchell & his comp got permission(I was relieved to find out) :) to get a ride home with three Brazilian investigators. He called them eternal investigators, because they come to church each week even though they are not members. On the way home they received a call & were invited to a birthday party, they said thank you, but no they could not attend because they had their maninos(little boys) with them. The hostess said to bring them along, so as Mitchell put it he & his comp were taken against their will to a birthday party where almost everyone was drunk. Luckily after about an hour they decided to take them home. They had made it almost home, when they pulled into a random corn field. The three women jumped out of the car, leaving the missionaries, and proceeded to grab as much corn as they could carry and ran back to the car. They tried to get away quickly but ran into a hole. Mitchell & his companion had no choice but to help them push the car out. They were so grateful, they insisted on fixing them dinner of Liver & (stolen)corn on the cob! Knowing my picky eater son, who hates most meat & corn on the cob, I asked if he actually ate it. He said he ate the liver but could not physically eat the corn! I told him he was crazy for being able to eat the liver but not the corn! He said the liver tasted like regular meat, to which I replied how on earth do you know what regular meat tastes like! He is definately learning some new eating habits! I am so proud! 
Emailing back & forth is the HIGHLIGHT of my week!
He was transferred to the southern tip of Portugal to a town called Faro, here are some pictures we downloaded. I will post some of his as soon as I get them. His companion is Elder Brown from SLC and he is quite tall. He seems excited for this new adventure!

HOMECOMING 2013

GETTING BEAUTIFUL!

WATCH OUT SHE HAS A PIN!

MEJIA & MARIDEE

HOMECOMING ROCKS!!!

BEAUTIFUL GIRLS, BEAUTIFUL FRIENDS!

It Can't All Be About the Missionary :)

Maridee's Dances her Junior Year 2012-2013

Homecoming with Alec Allman

How do I do this?

Maridee & Amanda!

Getting Ready for SWeetHearts<3 font="">

PROM!!!

How? What? Why?

Maridee & Kyler Allred

6 WEEKS!

I know it doesn't seem possible but today was Mitchell's 7th P-Day since arriving in Portugal! He did not get transferred last week, but he did get a new companion. He said he got to sit in the train station all day waiting for him. We didn't get our email from him until 7:30pm his time...that was a long day! :) 

His new companion is Elder Cunningham from Nampa  Idaho. I asked how long he has been out, but got no answer yet. He shared in his letter last week that the Church got the final approval to move meetings to a building closer to the city. The current one is about an hour outside the city, so many of the members are inactive, as most of them do not have cars. They are so excited and hoping that this will help their work immensly! 
He also shared a story, that he and his companion Elder Ricks were walking past a car that they thought was empty, when a guy yelled, "voces tem um livro para mim? Which means you have a book for me? They looked at each other, after being scared out of their wits and said, "sim nos temos!" Which means yes we have. They got his address and are going to get to his small town as soon as they can. This is proving difficult since they have to walk every where, they can't just quickly run over there....this would drive me crazy! We can pray that things will work out for all of them!
He also talked about one investigator that they are trying to help stop smoking & drinking. It is difficult. He said that they bought him some oranges & taped  scriptures on them. I guess they heard that if you are feeling the urge to smoke and eat an orange it will help. But, their investigator left the oranges in the cafe. :(
Wow, as a mom it is difficult not to get discouraged for him!
I am so proud of him! I know I am suppose to be ever positive, but I miss him so much!
We think of him & pray for him continually!!! We appreciate any prayers sent his way!1

If anyone seeing this wants to write him a letter ...
 Elder Mitchell James Schroeder
 Portugal Lisbon Mission
 Apartoda 40054
 1500 Lisbon
 Portugal

Here are some pictures he sent...

Torres Vedras the city where he is living

The building where they hold Church Meetings

His companion Elder Ricks & his Kitchen!

His Zone in the MTC 12 of the 53 missionaries to arrive in Portugal the same day (2 elders are missing) :)

We got our weekly letter from Mitchell. He ate cod & said it wasn't too bad! I think he is going to be ok! He says they mostly eat rice, cereal & bread! This is shocking for my carb eater.:) they also have a Pizza Hut & a McDonalds in their small town! He said his 1 bedroom appartment is about the size of Rylee & mad's bedroom. He has a washer, but no dryer. He is still adjusting to all of the walking. He also says it is difficult to get people to talk them. Feel free to send prayers his way!

1st week

Finally got an email from Mitchell! He did actually make it there safely. He said that traveling there was the longest experience of his life, but it went well.
Since there were 41missionaries from Provo & 15 from Spain they could not go to the mission home. They spent the first night in a hotel, fun fact about that it was the first place church was held in all of Portugal!
He then said after a NOT so GOOD tasting dinner & breakfast they found out where they would serve & who their companions are. He is in an area called Torres Verdrus. It is a small town outside Lisbon, and about 5 miles from the coast. His companion is Elder Ricks.
He cut his email short because the place was closing.
It was a short letter but full of fun stuff! We are so excited to hear from him. We love him so much & are so proud!
For those of you who don't know & want to check it out he has a Mormon.org profile.

MTC 2013

We took Mitchell to the MTC on Wednesday, April 3rd & we are so PROUD & will miss him!

THEY WILL NOT MISS EACH OTHER AT ALL!!!

OUR FAVORITE MISSIONARY!!!

He got to see four of his friends when he arrived. Elder Matt Taylor, Elder Mark Taylor, Elder Drake Larsen, and Elder Colten Maughn

SO EXCITED !!!

DEEP BREATH!!!

CHOOSE THE RIGHT!