Week 63 - Happy Halloween

  On Friday evening I received a text from a woman in CA. She sent me a photo of Elder Schaff with his companions at a Halloween party at church. They did not have costumes, but they switched name tags as part of the fun. He has had another good week and is busy as usual. Here is his email-

Halloween party with Elders Benson, Noyes and Schaff

  "Hey everyone, it's Elder Schaff here, live from the Peach & Nees Stake Center. The Youth here are performing a musical: "Warriors of Light." First showing is at 3:00 and we're destined to be in attendance. It's a pity that we haven't been able to find any investigators, because a musical about the gospel that members of our church actually wrote up would be helpful to them I imagine.

  The valiant Fresno North Stake apparently does a musical every three years and we just happened to be serving here when it's happening. The youth have been practicing this thing since the start of September, so kudos to them for their dedication. That's quite the event that came out of a quorum or class meeting or something, eh?

  Life is pretty much the same in the office here. The work of organizing and continuing to support our missionaries continues. We have a lot of baptisms coming in. We might actually reach our goal for baptisms this month! (I feel like we never reach the goal, we always get so close, but it would be good for the morale of the troops to make a goal every now and then.) I feel like our area is still dead-weight when it comes to baptisms. It's a weird feeling of perspective that I take out of it, because on one hand, I understand that our capability of finding people at night in an affluent neighborhood is slim, but I also believe that those people can be found. I just don't know how we could find them yet... Surely ours is a unique call.

  This week the spreadsheet was totally completed. I distributed it to the Zone Leaders and everything worked out. The supply requests came in and we ordered everything, so that we could distribute items at Zone Conferences. The most popular item is...Book of Mormon stories!!!  Apparently the mission is doing good at teaching families, since they ordered 60 copies of Book of Mormon Stories. Being grateful is also popular too, the runner-up was thank-you notes.

  The best part about this week was going on an exchange with Elder Taylor, the district leader. We were blessed to teach two investigators and help them in their progression. Both of these men are desirous to be baptized. I was really touched by the Spirit as we taught the first, Anthony. He had a friend named "C" that introduced him to the gospel. He moved away from "C", but remembered what he had been taught. He ended up sharing a lot of his story with us. He expressed struggles with anger, among other things, and I felt that I related to him and the trials he has passed through. He also expressed a sincere desire to change. He had some questions on the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, and we answered them for him. He also asked about Joseph reaching Utah, and we explained his martyrdom. He began to cry upon hearing this notion and what the Saints of the gospel of Jesus Christ stood for. The Holy Ghost was present and it was powerful. It felt good to share the gospel once more with those who are willing to act upon it and let it change their lives.

  Elder Benson joined us this week as a special assignment from President Mackay. Elder Benson's body has been giving him a rough time, frequently rejecting food and depriving him of physical energy. He was in a Spanish biking area, and President decided to have him join us in the office and an English area, to promote rest and recovery, and eliminate the stress of language learning. Not much recovery has taken place though. He is an awesome missionary. Just worn out. We'll see what happens.

  The story of Brother K:  Last week I was unable to recall the story of a member I met on an exchange in my area with the Zone Leaders. This man was an interesting case to grow my testimony... simply put, he was a very active member once with many callings, and he served a full-time mission. Now he is inactive and doesn't believe God is real anymore. The spirit testified to me that that is why you say daily prayers and read the scriptures. You never know what you might do without the Spirit....

  I was also blessed to read Doctrine & Covenants 98:11-16 this morning. I got this out of it: we need to do what is right with the things we receive of God, (mainly spiritual knowledge and understanding) that we pass his "proving and trying" of us. Doing so allows the Lord to grant us more and continue our growing process. I testify that the process of growing and becoming more is one of the greatest sources of spiritual joy.

Have a great week everyone!​

-Elder Schaff