Monte de Caparica

Great way to start a new Area!

Wow! Time goes so fast...it is a blessing! Mitchell is now serving in Monte de Caparica, across the river from Lisbon. He transferred there on September 29th, his comp was Elder Luebke from Orem Utah. They got along great! Two boys from Utah how could they not! They only had one quick transfer together. Elder Luebke is now in Madeira the southern most island in Portugal.

Mitchell is staying in Monte de Caparica, his new comp Elder Burt is from St. George. Mitchell is nervous to be a District Leader again and a trainer, Elder Burt is a greenie straight from the MTC.
Mitch says Elder Burt is much bigger than he imagined & way cool. He is fresh out of high school and knows a ton of music & movies that Mitch has never heard of! :) Elder Burt has also seen an Xbox 1 so his life is complete! Mitch saw his 1st playstation 4 yesterday, it blew his mind that they actually do exist! Haha

Mitchell was most excited that Elder Burt got to have Elder Quinten L. Cook visit their mission on his second day in the mission field! His favorite part was when Elder Cook gave a blessing to all of the missionaries families. The spirit was at it's strongest! He also gave a message about being who the Lord needs you to be, not who you are. It really made him think!

He says he misses snow so much, but it's all good rain is ok! He said he spent the vast majority of his last week with the elders in Costa de Caparica & slept on the ground. It was good, not too many spiders! HaHa! He and Elder Burt spent his first night on the Elder's couches so they would not be late to see Elder Cook!

They are excited to be in Monte most of the time this week & are excited for an awesome week!

What an example this kid is to me! I learn so much from his positive attitude! When I mentioned in my letter how nervous I was about the primary program, he plainly said it will all work out! He also basically said if I can do this for two years & eat octopus, you can make it through! He was right!

A friend of mine has a daughter serving in Spain...she is returning home in 21days! She has had an incredible mission! My friend found out yesterday, that her missionary had been hit by a car! THANKFULLY she is doing WELL. She amazingly has no broken bones, but did get pretty bruised & a nice blood clot under her skull that they are monitoring. She has the option to come home now, but is planning on staying the full 21days.

How BLESSED I feel as a missionary mom for my son's SAFETY & HEALTH!
I can also testify to all of you that as a missionary mom we feel your prayers & are so thankful for them!

THE AZORES ARE BEAUTIFUL!

I am sure you already know that the Azore Islands are beautiful, but Elder Schroeder doesn't get to enjoy the scenery that often. He is busy with district leader duties & helping out a lot acting as first counselor to the branch president. He avoids talking about the fact that he is coming up on his 6mths left mark. He still has work to do & time is going so fast! He is growing a ton through his challenges with others not liking his leadership style & his companion right now. However, he is as positive as always! (not sure where he got that, sadly not from me! :) They finally have a very strong investigator & hoping his baptism will happen this week! 
Mitchell has been so blessed his whole mission with good health! What a comfort this is to me! He did however have to go to the dentist! That was nerve racking for me, I am nervous about dentist visits here! But it turned out to be a small cavity & a simple fix $85 Euros later... to avoid the lecture, He assured me he is brushing his teeth twice a day many days 3 times and even more when he eats octopus!
Thank you again so much for your thoughts & prayers! 

WE LOVE THE THUMBS UP!

HE IS COOKING MEAT!

Check out the carb ratio! :)

District leader...we are proud!

Love that SMILE!

KID MAGNETS!

BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO SERVE THE LORD!!!

OFF to COLLEGE!!!

So we took Maridee up to BYUI on Friday! We had a great time & the process was so easy! Not what I remember when I went to the financial aid office, scholarship office & book store! She got moved into her new apartment, & met her cute roommates (no crazy or scary ones to my relief)! She also signed up for a choir audition! After the parent orientation she sent us on our way because she had plans with her roommates! Saturday Morning she had her choir audition & immediately got a second audition with the director. Her second audition when excellent & she made it into the choir! We are so EXCITED for her & PROUD!

So Ready!

Trunk Already Full!

20ish cars waiting to exit the Freeway!

1 yEaR mArK...tHe ISLAND AWAITS!!!

So on April 3rd Elder Mitchell Schroeder reached his year mark! When I commented that his hump day was bitter sweet, he respond..."yeah I don´t know if I say bitter sweet or just fast as crap. haha  the day rolled around and litterally I thought  Já!!!!!!  (already?) " 
We are so grateful that he is enjoying his mission & not ready to come home. However, grateful that the last year flew by! :)
We are so PROUD of his POSITIVE attitude. He did send an email a few weeks ago that was showing a little struggle here is a blurb...
Sometimes it´s hard to be a missionary. Conference was EPIC Elder Hollands talk was pumping and chiea de faca (Full of knife or telling you what you´re doing wrong) and preparation. so good!  Even with it freezing every couple of minutes and taking twice as long to watch, while also helping the members figure out why the satélite transmission wasn´t working and resorting to using the branch president's CP it´s was good and the spirt filled our little chaple to the brim.

Things with my comp still get heated at times kus our personalities just don´t mesh that well, but I´m working on not sweating the little things.. like him putting brocoli in everything and not liking the fact that I don´t like brocoli in everything. haha  also everyday we get more and more rules, but being obidient brings blessings even when you don´t understand why Disney music is band. haha  It's wonderful!

Two Elders from Cape Verde Africa

Hmm Food?

PIZZA & PEPSI!!!

Mountains Castelo Branco

The Island Awaits!!!

New Island Apartment

Ignoring that his bed is not made! :)

What a Blessing!!!

On April !4th he got transferred to the Azores. He is in a city called Ribeira Grande on the island of Sao Miguel. He says so far in his city Island life & the food is much the same as it was in Portugal.

We are so excited for him to have this opportunity. We miss him, but we are so proud of him!

We love this missionary so much! Thank you for your prayers!

Almost HALF Way!

Due to the Holidays, then our computer crashing, my update on Elder Schroeder is way over due!

Since he is coming up on his Half Way mark in 24days I should probably get on it!

So Elder Schroeder seemed to Really like Faro. They had an actual ward building that hosted many of the surrounding missionaries, so anytime there were baptisms Mitchell & his companion got to attend & often got to fill the font. They also get to help at the chapel when they have relief society, or Young men & Young Women activities. He enjoyed the primary program. He said it was just like home except it was in Portuguese & there were 5 primary kids.When we google mapped his apartment, we were able to virtually walk from the church building to his front door of the apartment! AMAZING!!!
He also got to go on splits with the zone leaders and several other missionaries. He even got to see his companion from the MTC, since he was in the neighbor area about 15mins away. They also got to go on splits with members which was fun & reminded him of home. The young men in Portugal also get to serve a mini mission in Portugal before leaving on their actual mission. It is a great training for both them & the full time missionaries.  Mitchell had the opportunity to sit in the hospital for a few day while his companion  battled some stomach issues. He also got to sit with his zone leader Elder Phillips for a couple of days while he was sick. The other missionaries passed up this opportunity due to boredom, but Mitchell said they took advantage to read, relax & study. He seems to find a way to put a positive outlook on every thing! WE ARE SO PROUD! We also feel so blessed that Mitchell has had really no illness while he has been out!
During these winter months it has rained a lot! I think Mitch would prefer snow. He sent us a 29 sec video showing the rain & his rain soaked pants, that were wet from the ground up to the top of his thigh! He also sent a pic of his soaked feet that had turned black because of his soaking wet black socks & shoes. However, he never complains...he just wonders how the population of Portugal are able to hide out inside ALL THE TIME, when it is raining! :)
Also while in Faro, they played Futball(soccer) every monday with some members & investigators. 
Due to my slacking there are too many stories of investigators to share. They did have a chance to teach a man from the Czech Republic english. He did teach a friend of one member that does not live in Faro. Mitch said he was one of the most humble men he has ever met, they gave him a book of mormon.  The week before Christmas he taught a Mom & her kids. The son plays many of the same video games that Mitch does. As he was showing Mitch all the new games he had just bought, Mitch said his Heart hurt a little! :) (this is most likely what He would have gotten for Christmas if he were not a missionary!) The boy invited him to come play on the weekend or on Christmas, when he & is mother found out that missionaries do not play video games & don't get weekend or Christmas off, they told them that is not right & they were going to die! :)
Him & his comp had a baptism on the saturday before transfers. He said it was bitter sweet. The baptism was incredible, but then all the missionaries in faro were being transferred on monday. The new sister missionaries would take over. The ward members had a huge party for all of them!
On January 20, Mitchell was transferred to Castelo Branco. It is in the center of Portugal, very close to the border of Spain. He is in the mountains. He still has not seen snow, but can see it in the snow capped mountains. He says it reminds him of home. His new comp was from Cape Verde Africa, and his native language is portuguese. Mitch says they still make fun of his accent, but he feels pretty comfortable with the language. His first P-day after transfers he traveled 4hours to Viseu to be comps with elder Harris while his comp went to Lisbon for district leader training. 
Castelo is remote, so they travel a lot. They travelled three hours to Combria for Stake conference, then they got to travel to Covilha where they got to attend a baptism of two young men. There is no font, so they baptized them in the river. He said it was very cool & cold! :)Unfortunately, Mitch's camera battery was dead, so he could not send pictures.
His birthday was February 8th. He celebrated his 20th birthday, the usual missionary way, by knocking doors! :) No cake, but we did send him Reeses Peanut butter cups because he can't get them in Portugal!
He informed us yesterday that Castelo was divided into two areas so he has a new comp Elder Barros.  
Not sure where he is from, but we are eager to hear about their great adventures!

Ward building in FARO

Mac & Cheese!!!

Futball!

Baptism In Faro

GoodBye Party Faro

Good Bye Party Faro!

Castelo Branco

View from Apartment Castelo Branco

We LOVE this guy SO MUCH!!!

Tracting in the RAIN!

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!