John 2/14/2011

First of I hope you all looked at the subject of the email. I thought it was pretty creative/humorous. Anyway... Thank you for all the happy birthday's and good wishes I really appreciate it.



Well I'll try to answer the questions I got. I haven't gotten my packages yet but they're in the office. I would've gotten them Friday at Zone Conference but when they came to the office I was still in Susquehanna so they labeled them to the the Scranton Zone and now I'm in the Valley Forge zone so my packages are there but I don't have them yet and I don't know when I'll get them. Hopefully soon. OH YEAH. I forgot. I was going to say this first but my clever subject line distracted me. This is to Austin. The dance and day activity only count as one date, uno, 1, un (or however you say it in french). I'm sorry but they have to be with different people for it to count as more than one. I'm sorry. If you honestly try your hardest and you can only get 4 then you can count it as two but if you're really trying then you'll get a lot more than 5.


So for future reference if I write UD I mean Upper Darby so don't be confused. So I like it up here in UD. It is an interesting place. There are lots of people and I've gotten a lot better at street contacting. Up in Susq. there weren't any people on the streets to contact so we never did it, but now I've gotten a lot better. I don't quite know my way around but I'm getting the hang of it. Public transportation is kind of slow and can be a hassle but it's not too bad.


We had a decent week this week. We went and saw some investigators... duh, but the one worth mentioning is a lady named Suzanne. She has a bap. date for 3/6/11! She is solid. It's awesome to have an investigator who is doing as well as she is. Especially because we don't have very many other investigators. She is awesome. She's come to church two weeks in a row and she has had lots of the lessons. The only foreseeable problem is if she can't quit smoking but we have a program that really helps people quit and it's based around Christ so it works really well, or at least so I'm told. I've never done it but I know missionaries who have and said it's worked pretty much all the time. I'm excited. I hope we can help her quit smoking and to continue to make good decisions.


We also went on exchanges with the assistants this week as well. It was really cool. It was neat being with a missionary like E. Bergloff, that was his name. He is a super good missionary. In 3 hours we had 30 contacts a couple lessons and a new investigator. It was really cool. It helped me see more of what I can do to improve.


We had a zone conference on Friday. It was a really good one. We learned a lot about receiving revelation through church attendance, scripture study, and reading scriptures and how our investigators need to do those things to become converted. It was a really good meeting. I don't have time to go into it but let it suffice to say that it was really really good. I also learned that sister missionaries are better than elders. Up in Scranton there aren't any sister missionaries but down here in valley forge zone there are multiple and when we did role plays whenever they talked it was just a lot better then when us elders spoke.


I also had a really good experience last night. We were teaching a recent convert guy and then our ward mission leader showed up. I wont go into details but basically one of the people there has a tooth that needs to be pulled but couldn't afford it so the ward gave him some money. The mission leader shared with us a few verses from King Benjamin's sermon. The "Are we not all beggars" section. It was really powerful and you could tell the recipient was very grateful.


I heard Saturday that Sloan resigned. Does anyone know why? I'm not happy about it but at least I'm on my mission where I wont have to worry about it for the rest of this season and the next as well.


Dad- That guy got baptized!? That's awesome. I never met the guy. I wasn't at Goblin Valley but I remember you talking about them. That's awesome!


Natasha- I haven't gotten it yet but I look forward to your squishy thingy.


Austin- THANK YOU FOR FINALLY WRITING ME!!! Please contiune to do so, but I'm sorry. It's has to be different girls. It can be the same girl with a different girl in between but other than that it has to be different girls. I'm sorry.


Dances aren't all bad. They're not as awkward as you'd think but they can be fun if you make them that way. I'm glad you had fun. Thank you for making me feel bad about not being able to watch Jimmer. Jerk. Just kidding. I've come to terms to the fact that I'm missing it. There's nothing I can really do about it without being disobedient.


Well now that I just got a few more minutes I'll share with you another cool experience... if I can remember it. I just blanked. So maybe nevermind. Well darn I've spent a few more miuntes and still can't think of it. I guess it's not to be. I'll probably remember as soon as I walk out of the library. Oh well.


I love you all thank you for all the good wishes and the prayers. I hope you can handle my birthday without me. :)


Love,
Elder Schouten