July 11, 2011 E-Mail

I'm behind again.... sorry to those who read this!

Saturday night I got a phone call from Sister Pedersen in East Wenatchee telling me that the lady I had lived with, Sister Critchell was passing away. So I got to say goodbye to her. Then on Sunday morning Brother Pedersen called me and said he got permission from the Mission President for me to come to the funeral even though it's not in my zone. I was really excited about that and excited that I was going to get to go back for a day. Then last night I found out that I will be transferred back to East Wenatchee. So then I was really surprised. When I was there before I covered two wards, there are only three wards on that side of the river and now I will be working in the third ward. And that's transfers! I was also called to be a zone leader with and Elder named Elder Jones. He is a really good missionary and I'm excited to serve with him. But at the same time I'm sad I have to leave Mattawa. I can't felt like I would be leaving, I was just really surprised about where I'm going again. I've truly grown to love the people here and the hispanic culture since this whole place is basically spanish. I've also developed great relationships here with the people. So it will be hard to say goodbye to everyone and everything. But that's the way things work!

Really not that much happened this week. I spent quite a bit of time in Royal City. I went up there Tuesday night for an exchange and I was planning on coming back on Wednesday night. In order to be in our houses by 9:30 Wednesday night we would have had to leave Royal City at like 8:00. Well we got caught in a really rough lesson with some guys that just wanted to bash and we kept telling them we had to leave and the guy just kept going on and on and on. And by the time we got out it was like 9:00. So I ended up just spending the night in Royal City again. Then I went back up there on Friday to do our district meeting and I also had to do a baptismal interview. It was a really neat experience to see how prepared there investigator was. She is originally from Royal City but she moved to Texas after she graduated. Her boyfriend is from Royal and is now on a mission. Well in Texas someone sent the missionaries to visit her. She said she was to busy but she would call them when she was ready. 99.9% of the time you never receive a phone call in that situation. But about two months later she called them back. Then she decided she wanted to come back here for the summer and get baptized here since her boyfriends family is from here and also her family. So the missionaries have only been teaching her for like a week and she will be baptized next Saturday. She already has a strong testimony. So that was a neat experience.
We spent a lot of time in our own area trying to find new investigators. It was a little tough. We tried working with members and also knocking a lot of doors. It was just tough finding people. Right now is the busiest time for the hispanics to work because they are picking cherries and also thinning apples. But Saturday we were blessed to find a few new investigators who were really nice. We will see what comes of that. One of our investigators was going to Seattle this week to get his mexican ID so he could get a marriage license and get married. Well he got robbed and they took his birth certificate and all his paperwork that was needed to get the ID. It's going to be a big stumbling block for him.
That was our week. I'm so grateful for the gospel and the opportunity we have to live together as families with our Heavenly Father after this life. I'm so grateful for the scriptures and the teachings that have been given to us to help us progress. I know the church is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I also know that Thomas S. Monson is a living prophet of God. Thank you for all of your support! Have a great week.

Love Elder Schvaneveldt