Week 58 - A Funeral, Some Brownies and the Temple

  I am going to have to share some lines from the email that Elder Schaff sent to me and some from the email that went to his Dad, because I didn't get much content this week. He continues to serve in the mission office and is doing well.

  "This week we went to the Temple, and had Zone Conferences. Elder Biggs and I attempted to make brownies from scratch one night because the senior couple left us a bunch of ingredients. I bit into one first, and started laughing. Elder Biggs refused to try it after that reaction. I finally got him to, and he laughed as well. They were terrible. They were a bit hard on the outside, and the inside still had hunks of cocoa powder--the texture inside was actually decent, but with hunks of powder everywhere, not so much. Nonetheless a moment to remember.

  A Hmong woman passed away, and as such, Elder Biggs brought me to a Hmong funeral, along with the other Hmong missionaries. I didn't understand anything! Here's the photos-"

Fresno Temple Trip

Elder B making brownies.

The senior missionary couple who occupied the apartment previously left a stocked pantry.

They looked better than they tasted. 

Hmong Funeral, Elder B speaks Hmong and was serving in the Hmong branch prior to being called to the office. 

And then from another email we got-

"Well the photos accurately describe the week, minus Zone Conference, which is not pictured. 

Thank you for all that you do Dad, and for writing. I always appreciate having emails from you. You're my greatest friend! I sent an email out to Mrs. Bastedo (a high school teacher) last week and she replied. It made me think of missionary work on the home front and how you and Brother Hunter would try to reach out to your friends at lunch. 

It seems like everyone's growing a lot while I'm gone! I'm so impressed with all that Maura is doing! I bet when I get home she's going to surprise me, she looks a lot older in the pictures. I wish I was there to go out and run with Maura. I always needed a buddy. You'll have to make up for me, plus it'll help you out!  

As for you teaching the youth, 2 things come to mind. Although they are both my missionary experiences, and I know sometimes people feel that these experiences happen just because we are missionaries, but anyways:

In March, the mission was a bit low on miles for the cars. Additionally, with 31 days in the month those miles really had to last. I was with Elder Lopez at the time and we had 1,600 miles to use. We reached 1,586 on the evening of March 29th. I was going to let it go over and justify that our area is huge, (which it was) but Elder Lopez said "It's alright Elder, we can just bike." I had not biked up to that point in my mission. I didn't think it would work with the size of the area, but Elder Lopez had great faith. We took the bikes to the church the next day and biked our area. It was hot and tiring, and it took a while to get places because they still were far! But along the way we met great people to teach, when we arrived to our appointments, the people were actually there, and everything seemed to fall into place. Though the work was physically demanding, the Lord provided for our needs and His work. Initially led by the faith of my companion, I came out of it with much faith, as well and a testimony that the Lord provides a way in the midst of trials, big or small.

Second, that last week in Parlier we had found nobody to teach. It had been a long week and we struggled. We were driving in a neighborhood where we had talked to many people, but they turned us away. I felt inspired to try the house of a potential investigator that we had "dropped." We tried it, not expecting much, as the house was dark. A child opened the door but said his parents weren't home--we couldn't enter. Well, right then his parents came home. The dad let us in and we taught the family the Restoration. At the end, the 13 year old son declared that he would read the Book of Mormon for the whole day tomorrow, his last day of summer. How grateful I was to have faith! We endured the challenge of a drought of finding people to teach.

I'm sure there are many more fitting stories, don't feel obligated to use these, but that's what I thought of. There's some good materials on lds.org too.

Thanks again dad! I don't have much more time to write Sydney or Maura, but let them know I hope they are doing well and I'm thinking of them!"

--Elder Schaff