Week 41 - The Heat is on in Selma

  Since it was a holiday weekend and we were doing other things on Monday morning, I had a hard time sitting down to write to Hayden. When I finally did, I spent a much longer time that I usually do and typed up notes that I had taken during our recent stake conference with a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder D. Todd Christofferson. He wrote back a couple of paragraphs about the notes and then sent another email for the mission blog.

   I enjoyed your notes, I printed them off so I can go through them! It's always inspiring to hear the words of the living Apostles and church leaders. I've decided that the more we listen to their counsel, we open our hearts to God's counsel for us. We prepare ourselves to hear when the Lord calls.

   One of the greatest lessons I have learned on my mission, that relates to one of your points, is that Jesus Christ is all the difference. We would naturally be crushed by the demands of justice and receive a just reward--spirit prison. Fortunately, Christ's Atonement allows Him to offer conditions of mercy, through grace, because he paid those demands of justice. Although we are very much imperfect beings, it is by Jesus Christ that we can be made perfect everyday.   ----like a business partnership between a struggling company (us) and a company with infinite assets and power, (Christ) our use of repentance allows us to be joint heirs of that perfection. We don't own it, but we access it. It all comes down to that condition of repentance. If applied constantly, we will return to God's presence perfect. Teach everyone to repent and apply it yourself and you see miracles.

  "It's heating up here in Selma/Parlier, it has been 87-98 degrees all week, and it's only May! July is going to be brutal. Consequently, I have a bad missionary tan- super tan arms, face, and neck, but super white everywhere else. This area is on bikes and it's challenging in the heat.

  Investigators are making their way toward baptism, we had this guy, that knows the Bible super well, come to church. (Enrique) He is a talker. We had to show him a teaching record and explain that we needed to teach certain things, not just talk, and we finally got a lesson in and brought the spirit. He destroyed gospel principles class and did not like it. I was squirming in my seat, trying to keep the peace and the Spirit, because that teacher was clearly not taking it well.

  Then we got him to sacrament meeting and everything got better, so that was good. He wanted to come back at the end of it. (The Branch here does classes first and then sacrament meeting because the English Ward is in the chapel when we start.)

  Our Zone Leaders also did an awesome training about leaving behind all of our "nets" or the distractions of our past life; that really inspired me to go and do more! (see Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk...about Peter on the shores of Galilee after the crucifixion.) We were invited to write things down that we want to leave behind on that seashore, so that when we bare that final testimony in front of the mission, "we can be there without purse, nor scrip, nor a fishing net over our shoulder." -Elder Kennick, paraphrased  That really was inspiring to me. I set goals to leave those nets behind and had a better week. There were still trials, but I tried to learn from them!

  I'm blanking on what we did this week with the work! Well Betty has a baptism date set for June, but we were unable to contact her Thursday-Sunday. Hopefully nothing bad happened. As mentioned, Enrique came to church. We'll see how that unfolds. We're striving to teach people to repent more clearly, because there was a point about half-way through the week where we realized we had just taught about 4 "scripted messages" instead of teaching people. (Missionary principle: teach people, not lessons.)

  I've discovered recently that "The fundamentals of missionary work" that are taught to missionaries in the MTC book and "The District" movies are what help missionaries teach effectively. These are: Receiving revelation by: 1) The Holy Ghost 2) Prayer 3) Reading the Book of Mormon 4) Going to church. That's how people get answers!

  President Clark's Book of Mormon challenge has been great for me. (To read it and not leave a page until writing something that was learned.) It has been a slow read-through, but I have pulled more out of the first 4 chapters of 1 Nephi than I ever thought I could. Give it a shot if your read throughs are boring. There is also a talk by Elder David A. Bednar, I think it's "A Reservoir of Living Water," that explains how to effectively study the scriptures. It's a favorite of mine.

  That's all I've got! It's going good, but I intend to get it going great!

--Elder Schaff

Elder David A. Bednar, "A Reservoir of Living Water"

Week 40 - Ecstatic to Serve the Lord

  I had a difficult time even writing to Hayden this week because a horrible stomach virus plagued Michael and me all weekend. I could hardly concentrate to type to him, so he didn't get much from home this week, but this is what he sent for all of us. Enjoy!

  "We're striking the email time early today! The Zone is going to play volleyball and do some fun stuff later, hopefully it works out, but we're trying to do everything in the morning because of that!

    This week was awesome and spiritual, but also boring and annoying at some points.

An excerpt sent to my friends in the field:

*******We had our 2nd to last Zone Conference with President Clark this week, he leaves June 29th...We send our mission President home on my birthday.... He was very excited to be with us again and taught us some incredible things from the heart. Our President is determined that "finding when you teach," (PMG chapter 9, 158) particularly with less-active members, is the greatest way to find "quality investigators," who would actually prepare for baptism. Our Assistants to President trained on this that they called "Baptizing in Bulk!" They just found two families with 4 and 6 unbaptized members through less-actives. They explained one of our goals as missionaries should be to establish the church (PMG page 10). Reactivating less-active members certainly accomplishes this. 

Our President also gave us this little gem:  

Allegory of the Olive Tree - Book of Mormon, Jacob Chapter 5 Definition of Terms:

1. The Vineyard - The world 
2. Master of the vineyard - Jesus Christ
3. Servant - The Lord’s prophets
4. Tame Olive tree - The house of Israel, the Lord’s covenant people
5. Wild Olive Tree - Gentiles, or non-Israel (later in the parable, wild branches are apostate Israel)
6. Branches - Groups of people

7. Roots of the tame olive tree - The gospel covenant and promises made by God that constantly give life and sustenance to the tree
8. Fruit of the Tree - The lives or works of men
9. Digging, pruning, fertilizing - The Lord’s work with his children, which seeks to persuade them to be obedient and produce good fruit 
10. Transplanting the various branches - The scattering of groups throughout the world, or restoring them to their 
original position
11. Grafting - The process of spiritual rebirth wherein one is joined to the covenant
12. Decaying branches - Wickedness and apostasy
13. Casting the branches into the fire - The judgment of God

Read Jacob 5 with that guide and it'll make more sense for sure!*******

I remember reading Jacob 5 as a kid in family scripture study and it was so boring! I was wondering why there was 70 verses talking about trees! Now it's a much more valuable chapter, especially as a missionary.

 Coming off of Zone Conference was a highlight of the week. At the end of it, every missionary was inspired to get out there and baptize some converts! As always with returning to reality, however, there is opposition to overcome before that success can be achieved. This week our area was  giving us a beat-down. We had almost no success and few lessons Tues-Fri. Saturday was also a bit slow, but we found an awesome investigator named Leo. He survived a bad car crash that put him into a coma. During his coma, he explained that he explained that he saw a beautiful place that looked like a paradise, full of happy people. He also saw a dreary, red place that seemed miserable. He described other things, and then said he woke up at that point. The doctor told him it was a miracle he was alive and that he'd been in a coma for 15 days. Since then Leo is trying to follow God and do what is right. He decided to begin a search for something greater because, as he put it: "My Catholic faith was good, but it wasn't enough for my questions." (-L Bautista, quote paraphrased and translated.)    He wanted to go to church but something held him up. Next week? We had a good day Sunday and met a less-active member family, "La familia Leonardo." They were super nice and got excited about starting a study of the Book of Mormon again! 

• Diligence seems to be a key to missionary work. Rejection is inevitable. Some people hear bad things, are misinformed, or plainly don't like us. It's their loss. 
• Nonetheless this is God's marvelous work and glory, bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man! 
• Surely His promises to the missionaries and the people we teach will be fulfilled!
• As long as we obey Him and do what He says, we have a promise of success. (D&C 82:10)

That mentality has kept me going this week. I know I'm pretty bad about remarking precisely what's going on in the area, so I'll try to make a summary:

The teaching pool:

Laura -- actually lives in Fresno, but works in Selma. Has family in Parlier

Betty -- Likes listening and understands doctrine super well, but isn't sure about going to church

Leo -- just told his story above

Domingo -- Can only visit on "Domingos," because that's his day off.

Angel -- Wants to find the true church, but has lost hope he could actually do it.

Bella & "Skip" -- Like the blessings of the message but don't like reading too much. Skip works on cars and has a lot of tattoos. If you search "crazy/happy hispano" in google he might come up.

There are others, but those are the ones that really have prospects of progressing. We'll see what happens.

The rest of the teachings of Zone Conference were inspiring. The Holy Ghost was tangible and potent. If there was footage of that room, it would have been a great example of "how different people feel the Holy Ghost," from the tears to the warm smiles, or others humbling staying reverent.

President Clark gave us some of his greatest and heartfelt counsel, as he will be leaving soon. He taught of being "agents unto ourselves," or in other words, using every moment of our lives wisely. He mentioned that this was how he became the CEO of his own company after only 2 years of work after college. He continued, saying that far greater than this was the impact it had on his spiritual life, bringing him closer to his Savior Jesus Christ.

At the very end, the sister missionaries went with Sister Clark and the Elders stayed with President Clark. President taught us many great and marvelous things during this time, and gave us a charge to magnify our Priesthood authority to bless others and follow Christ. He gave us this medallion with Christ on it, and a scene of "The Good Samaritan" on the back. He then charged us to keep that medallion in our pockets EVERY DAY OF OUR LIVES FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES, as a reminder of what we have accomplished together in the great California Fresno Mission, and that he will always be our friend. I'm not sure that I could get a greater worldly possession than that! That was my week! 

--Elder Schaff! Ecstatic to serve the Lord.

Week 39 - Mother's Day Call Home

  This last Sunday was wonderful, because it was one of only two days a year that Elder Schaff can call home. He was able to Skype with us for 40 minutes around 7:00 pm here in New York. He looked and sounded great, was happy and smiling. Emails are okay each week, but it was great to be face to face with him again. This is what he wrote home on Monday-

  "I always feel tired at the end of preparation day! Also, in the California, Fresno Mission, the use of many slang or abbreviation words is "apostate." The abbreviation of preparation day is one of these things. Hence, I have not used it! Other missionaries may find that strange, but if anything, this mission nets it's success largely from the sheer discipline and obedience the missionaries exert each day. President Clark has constantly commended us on these efforts, but also pleads with us often to not settle where we are but go even further!

   If you ever wonder why we're so focused in this mission that would be it. Exact Obedience brings miracles. We seek miracles. Speaking of miracles, as I briefly mentioned, those two Honduran youth that were at church yesterday were very desirous to progress towards baptism, we anticipate that the Selma Spanish branch will shortly be growing. Elder Ennis and I are seeking to do the best we can to follow suit. We need to shape some investigators into progressing investigators this week.

  I'm going to pause then come back."

  "The events of this week: May 8th to May 14th.  

Tuesday: Elder Ennis wakes up and informs me he didn't sleep. He threw up a lot at 1:00 AM. Stomach problems continued for him that morning, he called in, and was told to spend the day in bed. So as he slept, I spent my time studying and reading everything that sometimes gets neglected. I am well pleased to report I read a lot of "True to the Faith," the entirety of "Our Heritage," organized and updated the entire area book, read about 20 chapters of scripture, and a lot of the Bible Dictionary. I watched all 104 or something Bible Videos. I marked all our investigators on our map. Made some good food. Elder Ennis was incapacitated the majority of this time.

  I was rather surprised about how spiritual and powerful "Our Heritage" was. It particularly strengthened my faith in the principles of revelation and a living prophet in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. My testimony of Joseph Smith was also largely enhanced. I would recommend that book to really anyone that either 1) wants to learn more about "Mormons" or 2) Is a member seeking to strengthen their conversion.

 

Wednesday: Long day. Investigators were taught lessons, but several of them didn't seem to process the teachings too well. We are teaching an elderly gentleman named "G", and he really wants to learn, but he can hardly read and is sick a lot, so he never seems to keep commitments or learn anything for himself. It's hard to watch because he is really kept from the gospel because of his old age and physical limitations....

  

  This day we did find an interesting couple named Bella and Skip and taught them the Restoration. They thought it was possible it could be true and accepted to pray....

 Thursday: Went on exchange with "Selma Spanish" Elders. Worked most of the day in their area. Taught a man named Ralph before going to their area. He loved the Restoration until we got to the part about Joseph Smith getting the Priesthood authority--he misunderstood and thought we put Joseph Smith above God or Jesus Christ and didn't take the rest of the lesson too well. We explained to him that Joseph Smith was an important prophet, but could never be greater than God or Christ but he wasn't having it.

  During the exchange Elder Nielsen and I taught a group of 5 kids just about to light up some cigarettes of marijuana. They knew several Mormons and asked many questions and were sad when we told them we were out of time. Haha, the most interested people are found in the strangest of conditions.

Friday: Personal study was amazing. Read "Rise to Your Call" by President Henry B. Eyring and "The Greatest Among You" by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. Changed my entire perception of my mission and greatly increased my desire to be much more humble. Anyone looking to serve God more effectively will get something out of that!  We taught a follow-up lesson with Bella and Skip. They didn't read or pray, so we had to read the intro to the Book of Mormon with them. We'll see what happens with them. They like the message, but aren't acting!

Saturday: Struck out all day until "the eleventh hour." (As Christ might say.) At 8:44 PM we ran into Maria and Alfredo, and they accepted our message and became new investigators.

Sunday: Mother's day call. We had to travel far to do the call, and returned to the area at 6:00 PM. All appointments crashed and we street contacted!  

  And that was Elder Schaff's week!

  I really enjoyed studying the doctrine of true discipleship this week. Suddenly, as we all strive to live our missionary purpose here in Selma the time is passing incredibly fast! That's the mission for you--it starts really long and then it goes by so fast that you can't believe it ended and want more. Two years is a short term of service to get acquainted with the God of this world."

--Elder Schaff

Link to "Rise to Your Call" by President Henry B. Eyring

Link to "The Greatest Among You" by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Link to "Our Heritage"

Link to "True to the Faith"

Week 38 - Heating up in Parlier

  Since I take our dog on a long morning walk each day, I am in the habit of checking the weather app on my phone to see what the temperature is, then I know how to dress for the weather. I have started looking at Hayden's weather in CA some days and couldn't believe that his area was expected to have high temperatures between 95-99 degrees late last week. We have been stuck in a rainy pattern and it is cold and grey and last week our high's were only in the 40's. So, I asked Hayden about the heat, and this is what he wrote back. Then I will paste his main email.
  We were also able to coordinate his Mother's Day call, I am looking forward to hearing his voice on Sunday and hoping that he will be able to Skype or FaceTime so that we can see him too!

  "Biking has been nice some days but Wednesday and Thursday were miserable. At one o'clock the sun was relentless, and I was completely wet/damp from sweat until 3 or so..... on the flip side, time passes so quickly on a bike. The weeks go by faster than ever!"

  "Well this area is great. But there is much to do, so I'm really trying to improve my skills. Elder Ennis and I are working together on how we can improve our teaching to our investigators. We found another 6 investigators this week. Ask the Orchard Park Missionaries how many they find each week, usually 6 is pretty high! So Parlier is indeed a fruitful field. However, we suffer because we only have a branch. There are not many available members for member-present lessons, which truly do make the difference if an investigator progresses or not!

  Our Zone Leaders gave us a talk last week which Elder Ennis and I have labeled "condensed awesome," but would be called a "Fire!" talk as the kids say these days. It's a general authority visiting a mission and giving them advice. He explains several ways that we can improve our teachings.

  I really don't know what to write. This week has been a lot of focus on improving my abilities! The time goes by so fast on bikes! Elder Ennis has led the charge to stop literally anyone we see on the streets, and I've joined with him on that mentality. We usually make 2 appointments for the next few days just biking to our next lesson! Talking with so many people makes the time fly.

  We had interviews with President Clark this week. He didn't say a whole lot in our interview. He just told me to keep being a good missionary and asked if I missed Echo. I hadn't really thought about it until he mentioned it! I'm focused on Parlier now!

  He trained us that we need to visit Less-Active church members and help them come back, and by doing so they will lead us to their friends who are prepared to receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. That was a training he got last week from Elder Nelson, the one in charge of the executive missionary council!!!

  I pondered about Joseph Smith this week and all of his life, what he did to restore the true church, following revelations from God. Finally, he gave his life for the cause, sealing his testimony with his blood. I read Doctrine & Covenants 135 and then the hymn "Praise to the Man" and teared up with the great sacrifices he made. 

  To the family---what is the movie that shows his martyrdom? It ends playing "Praise to the Man" as he runs for the window and gets shot. If it's a short clip, we might show it to select members we teach...

--Elder Schaff, with time up!

  

Week 37 - New Area and New Companion

  Last week Hayden told us that he was going to a new area, but he didn't know anything about it. At that point, it was just the name of a town. This week he had more information to share and also told us about his new companion, Elder Ennis. They seem to be doing okay and I am relieved about that, because change can be bad or good.

  Unfortunately, we have had a very difficult week at home. Hayden's dad came down with pneumonia last week and although the antibiotics and steroids are helping him to heal and to breathe easier, he has been completely exhausted and sleeps most of the time. This has put a lot of stress on the rest of us. Hayden's grandfather, John, was diagnosed with cancer last week. It started as skin cancer, but has spread to his nervous system. He had to undergo surgery last week and starts radiation for 6 weeks this coming Friday. So unfortunately, Hayden was reading about all of this yesterday and taking it in. I never like to write him with bad news, but we feel that it is better that he knows what is happening while he serves, so that we can all be on the same page and pray for each other. Life certainly delivers highs and lows.

  I decided to look up the towns that Hayden mentioned last week, Selma, Kingsburg and Parlier and give him some facts. It helps me to know where he is at. So, I will copy and paste that and then cut and paste several emails from Hayden together for the blog entry for the week-

    I know you are always crazy busy and have no down time, so I thought I would share a few fun facts about the towns of Selma, Kingsburg and Parlier. I hope that you will be able to go and take some pictures of their quirky landmarks on P days.

  Selma, CA has a population of about 24,000 and it is called the "Raisin Capital of the World." The town is about 207 miles north of Los Angeles and 209 miles south of San Francisco. The original crop grown in the area was wheat, but then they started planting peach orchards, but finally grapes/raisins became the main crop.

  Kingsburg, CA- This little town really intrigues me Hayden. It has a population of about 12,000 and was established as a railroad town by Swedish natives. Back in 1921, 94% of the town was Swedish-American! This month, about the third weekend of May, they will hold a huge annual Swedish Festival. I wonder if you can walk it?

  This city is home to the headquarters of Sun Maid Raisins. That is my favorite brand of raisins that comes in a red box. In fact, the engineering students at Cal State University Fresno built the world's largest box of raisins and it is on display outside their headquarters! Talk about photo opp for you and your new companion, btw, who is it!?

  Also, the town's water tower is shaped liked an antique Swedish coffee pot. That is another photo opportunity son.

  Parlier, CA- Population of about 14,000. This city has one of the highest percentages of Latinos in the entire state of CA, so you should have plenty of people to speak to in Spanish. A large majority of the population are seasonal migrant laborers who work the fields. This was also a former railroad town that first grew wheat, then stone fruit crops and finally grapes for raisins.

  So, there you go, fun facts about your new area. You should have lots of grapes and raisins available over the summer! (written by Jen)

  "We cover mostly just Parlier. We have a car but use it solely to travel to Parlier, then we get out on the bikes! Our apartment is 6 minutes into Selma from Parlier.

 

  Our area covers: Selma, Kingsburg, Parlier, Fowler, Caruthers,and Raisin City. Apparently we never visit those other places because there aren't very many Spanish-speakers and even though we cover all that we have the lowest miles you can have in a car: 750. Everyone says we cover that space to visit any members that live there, because that is the extent of the branch right now. So we either need more miles, or more members and more church buildings.

    Anyway, I'm loving Parlier! As you said, there are many Latinos. About 95% of the people speak Spanish anyway, regardless of race. We have been finding people to teach like crazy! It's been fantastic!"

-Elder Schaff

  "Meet Elder Ennis!!!

Elder Schaff's third companion, Elder Ennis

   Elder Ennis has been in Parlier all his mission and came out two transfers after me, in that December 14th transfer. So he has been in Parlier since I've been with Elder Lopez. This Elder is crazy!!! If anyone has mentioned to you about eating a horse or an elephant, hire Elder Ennis. I've never seen somebody eat so much! He says he used to be a food challenge competitor. The first day of the transfer, a member fed us, and we had caldo de res (beef stew). I, and the other 2 Elders had one bowl and one plate of rice. (It was a big bowl too!) Elder Ennis had 4 bowls, 5 plates of rice, and 5 cups of Kool-aid. He's always hungry I guess! He's gained a lot of weight in the mission he says.....

    As naturally expected, being in a small town with a lot of Spanish people Elder Ennis has become quite accomplished at "finding." This is the art of talking to people and actually convincing them to stop whatever it is they were doing in their daily life so they can hear the message of the gospel. Elder Ennis, to be honest, is LEGENDARY at finding. Anything that breathes gets talked to by him! At one point, we were getting in our car to go somewhere, (it was night, and sometimes we get off the bikes and drive at night) and then he saw someone turn the corner behind us. He said, "Elder, it's a beautiful night for that lady to get the gospel." Without further remark, we were out of the car and talking to her about how the teachings of Jesus Christ would bless her life. Just yesterday we talked with our investigators and were heading to the car to go home. Elder Ennis pilots himself into a random driveway, knocks on the door, and suddenly we have an appointment for Tuesday at 7:00!

    So what do I have to offer him? He is still working on his Spanish and his teaching. The first night, Tuesday, we taught our first lesson as a companionship. As we finished I asked how he thought we did, and he just stared at me wide-eyed and said: "Elder I want to punch you right now! Your Spanish is so good! I'm so jealous!" I laughed a little but we set a goal to speak more Spanish so we could improve together. I took it for granted all that time with Elder Lopez, but when I was with Elder Lopez we had some really unified and powerful lessons, and the language was never a problem or a barrier.

   So it appears strengths are complementing weaknesses in this companionship this transfer. Hopefully by the end of it we'll both be effective at the big three: Finding, teaching, and language speaking! We've also bonded very quickly. We established day 1 that we like to sing and belt out "how firm a foundation" with all our might, so we have been singing in the apartment shamelessly. We're loving the work and all is going well. So I guess that's as good as it gets for a new companion I wasn't too sure about!!!"

-Elder Schaff

  "Things are going great in the new area. I hope all is going well in my old area though. We had some people getting ready to be baptized. This new area I'm in is called Parlier, it's a small little Mexican town that touches a city called Selma, 45 minutes away from Fresno. 95% of the people we talk with here speak Spanish, so I'm in Heaven. I can approach anyone and have a potential investigator or even an appointment for the future. It's fantastic. Unfortunately we are only a branch out here. The building is nice though because an English ward also uses it. The Branch goal is to become a ward by 2018. We just need to get some people baptized! We found so many people this week that don't even have religion and want it in their lives! We'll see how it goes, you know it always is harder than it starts off!

    My companion is LEGENDARY at finding. If he sees anything that breathes he talks to it. Sometimes we're just riding our bikes and he'll turn into a driveway and knock the door and suddenly we have an appointment for tomorrow night at 7. His Spanish isn't the best, so I guess that's why I'm here. I didn't realize how good my Spanish has gotten until I lost my native speaking companion.

    We've taught some FIRE lessons and even got a man that proclaimed he was a Catholic and unchanging at the beginning of the lesson to read the Book of Mormon. We found an 82 year old man named "E" that said it was too late for him and all that was left for him to do in life was to waste away and probably end up in hell when he died. We told him he could still change his life by repentance. He asked how he could do that, we explained the process, and he asked: "Can I do that right now?" and he did, and prayed with some soul. Pretty sweet week.

  Hopefully between all the stuff I've sent you, you can make a good blog post! I finally got a virus-free computer and can send some photos! Hope everything will be well at home next week, and that some people still get something out of the blog! Till next week!"

Elder Lopez and Elder Schaff at transfers, you can see Hayden's red bike and his blue luggage.

These two were a great companionship, they spent nearly 5 months together in Fresno.

--Elder Schaff

 

Week 36 - First Transfer

  Well, this week will present many changes for Elder Schaff. He has been transfered to a new area, his first transfer since arriving in Fresno. He has been asked to serve south of Fresno in the towns of Selma, Parlier, and Kingsburg. Elder Lopez will be staying in Fresno, so they will both have new companions, but Hayden forgot to mention who he has been teamed up with, so hopefully he will tell us next week. This is what he wrote this week-

Google Map of Selma, CA

  "Alright, so if you told me any other week that I would be going to a new area, I would tackle that challenge with determination and excitement. However, I have been told I'm going to another area this week. I still have excitement, but I guess it took hearing the words, "Elder Schaff, you're being transferred" to remember all the good things that have happened to me in this area, or at least be thankful for all the trials and challenges that have refined me.

  So honestly, I am a little bit nervous to enter a new area and have a new companion because I now realize how great a blessing it has been to be serving with Elder Lopez. We've been working hard and had an "up and up" attitude where we have striven to lift each other up and help each other improve without tearing each other down.

  It's sad to say good-bye to all my investigators and less-actives I've worked with. It's strange, I always felt that I didn't really have much of a significance to them, because I'm not Hispanic or anything, but as soon as they heard the news, everybody is thanking me for what I've taught them. I guess here everyone remembers at the last moments how great things have been! (Myself included!)

  I've heard that my new area is a small town with a majority population of Spanish speakers. We will see if that is true. It's been crazy to pack everything up!

 Hey, if you're looking for spiritual insights, read Alma 38:5,10-12,14 (This is a Book of Mormon reference) really struck me. Give it a read.

  I said I'd talk about Sabbath day...... well we've had great success applying those blessing in Leviticus. It is a diamond in the rough, those scriptures. Leviticus, if you are familiar with the Bible, is mainly a "how-to" live the Law of Moses (Which has been fulfilled, so that's not particularly useful). But Leviticus chapter 26 explains the blessings of living this day. The promised blessings are archaic, so you need to "liken" the scriptures to yourself as the prophets have invited you to do, to see the power of the blessings. (Unless you are a farmer.)

  We are promised we will have "rain in the due season.....and that the storehouse will be filled until the sowing time." That is a promise that we will be economically secure. It continues that we will have peace in the land. Additionally, it promises that the beasts of the land will not harm us. Maybe not lions in the streets these days, but certainly Satan's spiritual beasts of temptations and sins can be avoided if we guard the Sabbath Day. And it says we'll chase our enemies away. So keep the Sabbath day holy and get those blessings!"

This has been Elder Schaff!

Week 35 - Happy Easter

  I have been working in three different Niagara Chocolate stores the last three weeks. Elder Schaff likes orange milk chocolate sponge candy, and I knew that he would not be able to find any in CA, so a couple of weeks ago, I mailed him a package with sponge candy, jelly beans and milk chocolate foiled eggs. So, he and Elder Lopez should have had plenty of Easter treats. However fun it is to have candy and dye eggs and participate in egg hunts and Easter baskets, the true meaning of Easter should revolve around our Savior, Jesus Christ. The fact that we can have peace and happiness in our own lives, if we come to know Him, believe in His gospel and try to live in a way that would be pleasing to Him is amazing to me. I hope that all of you had a wonderful Easter celebration, and that at some point, you were able to reflect on our Savior, and remember that he died for each of us, so that we can live. I am so proud of Hayden for choosing to serve a mission, and for wanting to bring people to a knowledge of Jesus Christ, so they can find peace and joy as well. If you click on the link below, you can watch a two minute Easter video about the Savior. I hope that you enjoy it. This is what Elder Schaff wrote home this week-

Prince of Peace Video

  "This week has been a roller coaster. It was terrible and then fantastic, and I went through several phases of joy and frustration. In the end the good outweighed the bad, but I'm working to overcome that. I can't seem to get it together, to be consistently happy. I always want more, more investigators, blessings, or praise, but like Alma: "I am a man and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things the Lord hath allotted unto me."

  Nonetheless, I'm going to focus on the positive, because sitting in the negative profits nothing!    (We usually don't use the faces but I needed it! Smiling now.)

  So Mon-Fri was very slow, but Fri-Sunday gave us miracles yet again. I learned an important lesson of truly having faith in the Lord's promises and his support. (Even though I've said I've learned that the last few weeks, at least in my journal.)

  Elder Lopez and I are doing good, sometimes he corrects me on what I should do better and usually misses an ideal time or way to say it, but I know he just wants me to be a good missionary, so I try not to be annoyed. 

I've been feeling well, I'm trying to remove any clouds of doubt from my life that are slowing me down! Life, and the mission, are significantly better and more fulfilling when you reflect on the positive. I spent a bit too much time for my liking this week being upset or disappointed in some small things. One of such was that "Ana's" mom got sick, and she could not attend church, so we had to push back her baptism date. And I got myself all sad in my mind because transfers are the 23rd or the 24th and I probably will not be in town....but I remembered that it shouldn't matter to me: she's getting baptized regardless of if I'm there or not, and that's my purpose. So sometimes I'm making this harder than it should be because I'm seeking personal praise. I decided yesterday that God knows what I'm doing. So even if crazy things like that happen and all my baptisms happen when I leave, I can be super positive and have joy!

  Alright, so things from the week, "Ana" is getting reading for baptism at the end of April. She couldn't come to church this week because her mother was sick, but felt bad about it, and asked if she can still prepare for baptism. She really wants this.

  Leaving her apartment from one of our lessons, I slipped and rolled my ankle into the curb. The ankle came off uninjured, but I splashed some murky water onto my suit pants. It smelled like manure, so worse than murky! I'll need a dry cleaner now. That's just a laughable experience looking back.

  We did not have any new investigators when Friday began. We decided that if our appointments cancelled, we would just walk around and talk to people. When we did that, we found 4 people by the end of the week who were interested in the gospel! Our goal was 4! The Lord does provide for His children if they will only have faith in Him and His promises.

  President Clark held a mission-wide conference call on Saturday, and he explained that we have had a statistical dip in baptisms ever since we stopped challenging people on the first lesson. So he invited us to more closely follow the Spirit. (We changed in February because the missionary broadcast said to try it in the context of the plan of salvation.) We might try the first lesson method again.

  More importantly, he taught us about how to teach the Sabbath Day, he said he felt the Lord has revealed to him through our report numbers that this mission will be blessed by clearly teaching the Sabbath day. I'd love to elaborate on this, but I am running low in time. I will definitely type it all up next time, but I will give the list of scriptures he guided us to. He discussed with us that we must see the Sabbath Day more as an opportunity to come closer to Christ instead of solely thinking about going to church. That is very true.

Sabbath Day Observance scriptures for your study and learning:
Genesis 2:2,3
Exodus 20: 8-11
Leviticus 26:2,4-7
Ezekiel 20:20
Deuteronomy 32:13,14
Exodus 31:13
Doctrine & Covenants 59:16-21
"The Sabbath is a Delight", Russell M Nelson, April 2015 General Conference
Moroni 4:3
Moroni 5:2
"This Do in Remembrance of Me", Jeffrey R Holland, October 1995 General Conference
Mosiah 5:8
Doctrine & Covenants 18:24

    

  Additionally, something I completely forgot from Zone Conference was this talk from a BYU Devotional that President showed us, Craig Manning on mind mapping. I'd invite you all to find this talk and check it out.

There is something about saying "Today is my day!" in an Australian accent that just motivates you to be as awesome as you can be for the following moments.

The Power of Your Words (Excerpt) - by Craig L. Manning:
BYU Speeches, January, 2017
FAITH BEGINS WITH HOW YOU TALK TO YOURSELF
What is potentially the greatest lesson the Lord has taught me is that faith begins with how you talk to yourself.

From the Lectures on Faith we read:

It is by words . . . with which every being works when he works by faith. God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.” Joshua spake, and the great lights which God had created stood still. Elijah commanded, and the heavens were stayed for the space of three years and six months, so that it did not rain. . . . All this was done by faith. . . . Faith, then, works by words; and with these [words] its mightiest works have been, and will be, performed. [61 (7.3)]

As I continued my education, my passion for wanting to understand the application of true principles and facts continued to grow. I was fortunate that BYU hired me as the women’s head tennis coach, and I worked hard to apply what I was being taught. As the time arrived to do my dissertation, I wanted to study how attentional control, or focus, impacted human performance. While working on my dissertation, I would awake early in the morning and pray for guidance from the Lord. It was a draining experience; having a full-time job, four kids, and a dissertation to write did not come easy for me. I will forever be indebted to my wife’s sacrifices during this period of time.

Out of this experience the Lord taught me how to take principles, facts, or ideas and break them down into actionable knowledge. This process is called MIND MAPPING or coding the mind, turning knowledge into an action or a skill, and it applies not only to physical skills but to mental skills. MIND MAPPING is accomplished through the creation of RELEVANT CUES. A RELEVANT CUE is two to three actionable words that act as triggers and that are exact enough to HOLD AN INDIVIDUAL'S ATTENTION UNDER EXTREME PRESSURE OR EXTREME BOREDOM. These CUES enable an individual to direct his or her attention to very specific actions, rapidly creating relevant skills.

I applied this process to my coaching and was amazed by the dramatic increase in performance from the tennis players I was working with. Prior to using relevant cues, I would work hard during a one-hour tennis lesson to have the athlete hitting the ball well by the end of the hour, only to have the athlete return for the next lesson and have to spend the first twenty to thirty minutes going back over what we had last worked on. Retention was not where it needed to be.

When we used relevant cues, the athlete’s ­retention increased to the point that it would take a maximum of only five minutes to review the skills the athlete had learned in the ­previous ­lesson, as the skills had been retained. This increased retention allowed for rapid progression to the next skill. I started applying this process to other sports and then to business, then to music, and now to addiction recovery.

One athlete I worked with using this method was a U.S. Olympic mogul skier who, seven months prior to the Vancouver Olympics, was on the C team and was not ranked very high. Her coach approached me and asked me to work with her with the hope that she might be ready to compete at the Sochi Olympics four and a half years down the road. I remember the conversation. The coach wanted to test the effectiveness of mental strength training. He said to me that this particular athlete would do what I asked and that she was my guinea pig.

The athlete worked hard on training her thoughts to be positive and proactive and on using relevant cues to purify her thought patterns. She did everything I asked. On November 19 she called me in tears. She had just made the last discretionary position on the World Cup tour. This was a subjective coaches’ decision to bring someone onto the World Cup team who had minimal professional experience.

As the season progressed through the early winter months, this athlete continued to develop her skills rapidly to the point that, by the time the World Cup at Deer Valley came around at the end of January, she was sitting in tenth place on the tour. She had achieved several fourth-place finishes to get to tenth in the world, but she had never finished on the podium.

One of the tools I like the athletes I work with to have is a POWER STATEMENT. A POWER STATEMENT is a tool (CAN BE A RELEVANT CUE) to use when doubt comes at critical moments. It floods the mind with positive, strong thoughts and instantly squeezes out any negative thoughts and emotions.

  Check that out, it can bless your life! The more you do for the Lord, the more blessed you will feel by His hand. That's how I'm feeling this week.

  I'm really seeking to do His will, and not mine at all times, because that is what brings the perfect joy from the Holy Ghost."

--Elder Schaff