I have been having a difficult time with my email account, and Hayden's last email got sent to some random folder, hoping I can open it because he sent a long email, plus photos and videos too. I guess we will start with the shorter email to his Dad, then hope to load mine.
"
Hi Dad, how are things going for you?
I am doing better now. I'll be brief here, since I wrote a huge letter for everyone to Mom.
Thanks for watching out for me and for getting the USB and the music and all the stuff. I don't remember having "Christmas in Tahoe," which had Train and other stuff, so that was a nice bonus. For the record, the "Bachata" (I think that's how you spell it?) style of Burrito Sabanero has a guy sing it that gets way more into it, so not for my sake, but the sake of the family wondering why I wanted a little girl singing about a donkey ride to Bethlehem, that would be the fun version to get pumped up to. Thank you for getting that song for me though! Elder Morales, one of the Assistants, has that version, so I'll be able to get both.
I hope work continues to go well and that you survive all of the holiday events. There really is a ton that goes on this time of year! It's crazy.
I'm faring well and growing a lot with my new assignments, just as you are, I'm sure, with yours.
Know that you are in my thoughts and memories and I'm glad to have spent all that time with you. I really miss the magic of those Christmas mornings and being able to play all types of games with you. Whatever new toy we typically got for the Wii or whatever, and later all the board games and reading the rules while you took your Christmas nap. It really was fun to have you have enough time to explore those games with us! Just like the old days, which led me last year I believe to remember our Paper Mario adventures. Ha ha! Thank you for being at my side. Have a great Christmas Dad!!!"
--Elder Schaff
"Hi Mom!
The winter snow looks tantalizing. (I had sent him photos of the lake effect snow we got on December 7th)
After being gone for long enough, I've started to miss having it.
As for those things, yes, I got the new GPS and USB, all is up and running. Both of my cards came in, so that's fine too. (Mission and personal bank card) I submitted the paperwork to the DMV to get my license renewed with the fee waived, since I was a victim of theft. If it works out, a copy will get sent to the house. If not, I'm not sure what they'll tell us, and you may have to get it. Anyway, I'm not the designated driver for now.
(At this point, this really become story time for the family:)
There were some big happenings this week, which included an interview with President, teaching my first District Meeting, having another exchange, and "Fatal Hot Chocolate."
In my interview with President, he told me he was grateful for my service and that this would be my last transfer in the Mission Office. So on January 3rd I will return to the real deal and be back out in the world all day. I think it will be a tough transition at first, and then it will be good, but I really have it easy in the office. It takes a toll mentally, but not very much physically, which I've been grateful for, since I've been sick. President wanted me to train and be a District Leader right away, but I replied and said "I will be happy to do both, but unless you feel otherwise inspired, I'd like to serve one transfer out of the office before I train." (a new missionary.) He agreed that would be logical, since if I did train a new missionary, I would be learning an area and teaching how to do missionary work, and that's a little much for anyone. So we'll see about what is to come. I believe I'll miss the office, but it will be good to return to the more rigorous work. It's certainly not easy, but that's how I'll be going out. 2018 will be proselyting! That's that.
I taught the District about how the Book of Mormon is essential to the progression of our investigators. We discussed its power and studied some of Preach My Gospel together in Chapter 5, then proceeded to read a story on page 113 and have a role-play on using the Book of Mormon. We then met again and discussed what we learned and continued with why the Book of Mormon is important. I discussed how it allows us to have the Holy Ghost's interpretation of scriptures, thus fulfilling 2 Peter 1:19-21, and found a talk that allowed me to use Isaiah 29:1-6 as an example of how the Book of Mormon explains it clearly. So I went where no District Meeting has gone before: into Isaiah. The point of it being to establish that if the Book of Mormon helps us with something so complex, it will definitely be useful on a simpler scale. I testified of what I taught, gave a commitment, and concluded. Everyone said it was a great meeting and they felt the Spirit of it. It was a good start to teaching the meeting I guess. The Sisters in our district weren't there though, because Sister Mackay decided to round 'em all up for "a Sisters' retreat." Girls always have to do their cute stuff I guess. Sister Mackay later told us that the Sisters need that because they're social creatures...and Elders are not. We're work horses. XD Cool!
I won't bore you of a play-by-play of an exchange, especially since you're wondering about the last thing by now, but I did an exchange with a missionary that just arrived. It went nicely and allowed him to learn a lot about his abilities. He seemed to really grow from it and it was good.
Now, Fatal Hot Chocolate:
<<Southern story teller voice: [ON] OFF>>
T'was the 6th day of the 12th month. The #LighttheWorld Christmas video was about not judgin' and was funny. Trainer-Trainee was being held at the office, and we helped to coordinate everything so it ran smoothly for President. Nothing went wrong while everyone was here with us. We had pizza for lunch, but it wasn't very hot and it made some of us feel kinda weird. So we thought maybe it wasn't the best pizza, but we kept 'n going and doing what we had to do. Then later, e'ryone's leavin' an' w're try'n to help 'em get them their supplies they need before they leave the Mission Office fer a while. We finish that. Then Elder Noyes comes up to me and says: "Elder Schaff, do ya want some hot chocolate?" and I said: "Do ya have hot chocolate?" and he say: "Yeh, I'll make ya some güd hot chocolate." Then I say "A'right!"
Well he brought me some hot chocolate. And I drank it and it was delicious. We went on just fine until 5:00 when we leave the office. We went home since we didn't have a dinner and we cooked some Jambalaya, 'cause Elder Noyes likes that stuff. Anyway, we cooked it, but our bellies started hurtin' and we didn't know why. I ate only a little bit 'cause I wasn't feelin' too swell at that point.
We went out and proselyted and visited people, but our stomachs really hurt and we didn't know why. We met with the Ward Mission Leader to correlate a bit too. Then we went home and the bot' of us just jumped right on into bed and tried to get warm, 'cause we were feelin' real bad by now. I just curled up and tried to get warm. Elder Noyes took some medicine that probably saved him. We planned for the next day, and then I was getting real sleepy, so Elder Noyes turned out the light at about 9:49. Right when he did that, I felt somethin' real awful and rushed over to the bathroom. Then I broke a promise that I've kept for about 13 years.
<<Southern story teller voice: ON [OFF]>>
That promise of course, was the promise I made my six-year-old self when this last happened. When I had to stay up with Dad at 2am at night watching Winnie the Pooh Bear. So I flung the bathroom door open and did an epic rock-star power-slide right up to the edge of the porcelain throne, and I bowed myself down and vomited. It was a rather unfortunate experience. It didn't come all at once and so I had 5 painful waves of orange sludge. Right as I was power sliding though, we got a text from the Ward Mission Leader (that we had just visited) and it read: "One of you guys pukin' over there?" Well that incapacitated Elder Noyes, and so he's just laughing and I'm dying. It was about a 40 second battle and then I won. I had to brush my teeth for about 5 minutes after cleaning up to get rid of the acidic and awful taste of it. I saw my lunch and dinner, so I knew I had no energy left in my body. I hurt a lot the next morning when I woke up.
But the story continues. I proceeded to have not the best day, but I recovered and got better. Elder Noyes however, still had the beast trapped in him. After using the bathroom in the morning he seemed to recover and we went to the Mission Office.
Now every scientist worth their salt knows you have to have a few tests to see if your data was accurate. Elder Noyes reached the conclusion that the hot chocolate was the problem, and made himself another cup as an experiment. Sure enough, he got a stomach ache and threw up at about 12:00. It was indeed the hot chocolate. Oddly enough it wasn't expired. We have no idea to this day what the heck was wrong with it. So, look up what can go wrong with hot chocolate or something for us.
FIN
So that was my week. I'm finally feeling better. I still have a lingering cough, but hopefully I won't have any weak muscles or random chills. I'm continuing the work and trying to help President find a successor for me. We have the Christmas Zone Conferences next week on Wednesday and Thursday. I'll attend the Wednesday one. We'll be helping the senior couple, the Tardiff's, box supplies on Monday and Tuesday to prepare for that. Time seems to pass so slowly when reflecting, but it just slips right by looking forward. I'm excited to enjoy Christmas time with a good Ward and have a good holiday, and then I'll be back out into the reality of the work. I did it before right!?
I hope everyone has a good week and gets a laugh out of my story. Hopefully I wrote it well enough that Sydney or someone can make a good voice for it. I'm glad to hear how things are and hope that your holidays aren't too crazy. Enjoy Light the World too! Go out and find someone to bless! We had a Ward member just get back from a senior couple mission, and he did the math with the statistics that the church reports, which is if you talk to 1000 random people about the Gospel, one of them will accept it. If everyone in an average Ward would talk to 2 random people a day, there could be a baptism every week. If they talked to 2 random people every week there could be a baptism every 2 months and 10 days. I thought that was cool. Of course, statistics lie a lot, but that just means it could be better right? Anyway, 'tis the season, and hearts are glowing. Shine your lights and have a Merry Christmas family!"
--Elder Schaff
