Sister missionaries 1/30/17

Hola

This week has been #awesome. We have been working so hard and with these new changes that have been implemented, I feel really good. :) 

So to start off we picked up some new investigators and they are super awesome. Yolonda is taking care of her paralyzed nephew and she has been wondering if God exists. Tori has had some recent big changes in her life and she needs help. And Kishona has also had BIG changes in her life and she really needs help getting through the tough times.

We have recently met this family of four. Al is the dad and Michelle is the Mom and Alelie is 18 and Ashley is 13. They are super awesome and they are super prepared to receive the gospel. We asked them to be baptized last night and they accepted! So they are on date for March 4th! Al was looking some scriptures up on his Ipad, he already has gospel library installed on it and  Ashley has been marking scriptures in her Book of Mormon, they read and pray as a family and man, the whole family is just doing so well! I love them!

So something really cool JUST happened. My mission president emailed me last week and gave me a quote about always having our line in the water like a fisherman, and I've been focusing on that this week. So I've been doing the little things that really make a difference a lot more and I have a testimony of those little things now and how our Heavenly Father rewards us for those things. We are sitting in the library emailing family and such when a lady in a wheelchair wheeled up to us and asked us if we were Jehovah's Witnesses. I responded and told her we were Mormons and she said Oh, right and she asked if we read the Bible and I told her yes but we also read from the Book of Mormon and I explained it to her and asked if we could give her one and she wanted one and I gave her our number and a Restoration pamphlet. Miracles happen every day!!

We went on exchanges with the Martinsville sisters, Sister Callister and Sister Overly, this week and we brought them both to our area to proselyte and we saw miracles!  Sister Huntington and Sister Overly taught a lot of lessons and me and Sister Callister found a lot of humans who are interested and are ready to recieve the gospel. It was a really cool exchange.

I taught at my first Zone Meeting as a Sister Training Leader and it went really well except for the zone leaders, Elder Lawrence and Elder Stoneberg, were supposed to set up the TV for us before the meeting and they didn't so the TV wasn't working for the videos we were trying to share so we had to interrupt the zone leaders in their role play and ask for their help. But in the end it was just really funny and it's a story to tell from my first zone meeting here. 

I dont really know what other stories to tell... EXCEPT THIS ONE!

The other day we were walking back to our car and Sister Huntington was like we cant go this way, I just saw a really big dog and I am not going to go be attacked. So as we turned the corner I looked to see how big the dog was and THE DOG WAS TINY! I couldn't help but laugh for the next ten minutes because she thought that tiny dog was huge! It was really funny!

Well, to answer all the questions I've been getting about the new missionary schedule. I absolutely love it! It's supposed to help missionaries make more decisions and to eventually help us transition back to home life easier. I know it was something definitely guided by God! 

I have interviews with President Salisbury tomorrow that I'm really excited about! I always love getting to talk to him! :)

Well, I love you all TO THE MOON AND BACK. And I'll talk to you all next Wednesday (because of transfers) I'm probably staying in Roanoke so no worries about me.

LOVE, SISTER SCHOEMIG

More fun pictures....Jan. 23, 2017

ASL sign for 7 for seven months out in the mission field!

MLC and Exchanges with Mama Rowley

Tuesday we traveled up to Mission Leadership Council that's in Charleston, West Virginia. It was probably the longest day of my entire life. We were in the car for 7 hours and in a meeting for another 7 hours. We had to get up at 4:50 in the morning to get ready and go and I've never been more tired in my life. I learned so much from President Salisbury and the other leaders though. I started applying the things I learned right after and I feel like I've grown more in this last week than I have in the past seven months. Heavenly Father really wants me to be something and he is definitely helping me get there. 

I hit my seven months yesterday and I think I'm gonna say this every time but holy cow, its gone so fast. I start crying every time I think of how much I love my mission. This was the best decision I've ever made in my whole life. I want to work hard. I want to serve the Lord. I want to change. You are probably gonna hear the same thing from me over and over again but I hope you all can see that I love my mission and I love the Lord. I am grateful for the hard things he gives me and for the miracles he helps me see. 

I went on exchanges with Sister Rowley this last week. Her last exchange got to be with her trainee. I hope I'm doing her proud. It was good to be with her and have one last catch up before she leaves the mission soon. She is an amazing example to me. She is the strongest person I know. She has been through so much in her life and I hope one day I can be like Sister Megan Rowley. 

If everyone that reads this, could do me a favor and send her welcome home letters for when she gets home on February 10th. I just love her so much and she deserves the best welcome home she could ever get. It would mean so much to me. (Mom's note:  I took out the address on this blog for security reason.  If you want to send it out, please email me and I will give you the address.  Thank you.)

Yesterday it started raining so hard that me and my companion were so drenched. The rain here is nothing like Utah but somehow it always smells like Utah Lake when it rains, its really strange.

I dont know what else to say, as always. But I love y'all to the moon and back. 

Serve the Lord with all your HEART, MIGHT, MIND, and STRENGTH.

Love, Sister Schoemig​

Silly faces??? Jan. 16, 2017

Sis Huntington, Sis Salisbury (mission president's wife) and Sis Schoemig
Love that Sis Salisbury can be silly with the girls.

The Week of Learning....

I title it that this week because my Heavenly Father REALLY likes to humble me, in a good way. To be honest, the thing I learned the most this week is how many weaknesses I have. And for any normal person, that's pretty hard to admit, so this is gonna be a really honest email about who I am and the things I really learned this week. 

I am a perfectionist, I learned that mostly from dance, from always checking my lines and making sure I was on the right count in the right place at all times, and that can be good and bad. In missionary life, its not the best to be a perfectionist... haha. So Heavenly Father taught me this week, through many ways, that I dont need to be perfect. I just need to be learning how to become better. I'm so grateful for the atonement. 

This week we had an exchange (which means that us and another set of sisters switch places for the day to learn from each other) and so me and this other sister came back to my area for the exchange and i've only been here for three weeks so i dont know ANYTHING about the area still. And we have a mileage limitation of how far we can go so we have to make sure we arent using the car too much and we normally only go like 20 miles in a day and we just walk a lot. BUT THAT DAY I USED 71 MILES! That is way too much! So that was my weekend, it was pretty crazy!

We met an awesome family last night that is so prepared to recieve the gospel. And we have been teaching some awesome less actives. I love the family ward life, its different than the YSA life but its been good to me so far.

Well anyways. I LOVE YOU ALL TO THE MOON AND BACK. 

Have a fantabulous week! And change one thing this week to come closer to God.

Love, Sister Schoemig

Snow and car - Jan. 9, 2017

That Sister Training Leader Life

I don't think I've ever been this busy in my ENTIRE LIFE. But its a good busy, its a bringing humans to Christ busy so I am happy with it! :)

This week I really grew in my confidence as a missionary. I've been wondering why the Lord would call me to be a Sister Training Leader, after all I've only been on my mission for six months, but as I went on exchanges and had Sister Huntington rely on me more this week, I had the spirit confirm to me many times that I do know what I'm doing and as I serve the Lord he is going to qualify me. It was a good realization for me this week. 

We found SEVEN new investigators this week! It was so cool. They range from a young man in college to an older woman with two cats that are freaking gorgeous cats. We've been teaching the restoration a lot this week and it made me think of last year at Snow when I asked this good friend I have to help me prepare for a mission and he told me that if I knew the restoration than I would see success. I have never been more grateful for that advice. When you know the restoration and have a testimony of it, people can feel it the truth of it and they will want to change. So shout out to my homie for helping me learn something this week even though he's 2000 miles away.

I went on my first exchange as a sister training leader and IT WAS SO FUN. I went with Sister Nyborg and she has been out three months and is now training a new missionary. It was so fun and it started snowing on the exchange so we kinda freaked out a little bit together! :)

They cancelled church AND school here for 3 inches of snow but thats Virginia for ya.

I wish I had more time to email, but that's about the gist of my week here in the 'Noke. 

I LOVE YOU ALL TO THE MOON AND BACK!

Sister Schoemig​

From the old to the new area and bowling - Jan. 3, 2017

She was luck that she had a companion that was an expert in packing.

Her new companion Sis. Hungtinton

The 'Noke'

What an awesome welcome to the 'Noke! 

On thursday I left Sister Sackett and rode the transfer train down to Roanoke and turns out 1/2 the sisters I am over were on the train too! So I got to meet most the sisters I will be working with on the transfer train, they were so cute and they were so excited to have me as their new sister training leader! It was really comforting to see and hear them be excited. I was really nervous about that. It's gonna be a good transfer in Roanoke and me and Sister Huntington have been making changes all around the board. The 'Noke is gonna become the most hoppin' ward you've ever seen. I'm so excited to be here and to work hard and see these amazing miracles happen!

Let me tell ya about the sisters here... Sister Campbell and Sister Zaugg are in Cotton Hill and Sister Zaugg is in training. Sister Nyborg and Sister Cook are in Salem and Sister Cook is in training as well. Sister Callister and Sister Overly are in Martinsville and they recently took elders out of Martinsville so they are taking over two areas. Sister Rowley and Sister Mortensen are in Roanoke YSA and they are working on building up their investigators and they are killin' it.

THEY ARE ALL STELLAR MISSIONARIES.

The ward in Roanoke isn't very missionary minded so thats one of our New Years goals is to work with them on that. My own personal goal is to work on is giving solid commitments to investigators and less actives and setting solid return appointments with each of them! What are your goals?

I can't even believe that I am in the position I am now. I am a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I've already had one area, two companions, been through the MTC, had two baptisms, been made a sister training leader, helped one less active get back to church, and that's all from the mission part of the year. I loved 2016 but I'm ready to serve the Lord for all of 2017!

I love Sister Huntington so much! She's really quiet except when it comes to missionary work, which is awesome, I love that about her! She has her priorities straight and it makes it much easier to do missionary work if you are both on the same page! I'm excited to spend this transfer with her!

I just wanted to end with a few quick thoughts, remember that everyone has their own choices and we cannot try to fix all the wrong doings that happen all around us. As a missionary, I see people whose lives have been taken down the beaten path and I see the effect it has on them, that alone is enough consequence of living with that guilt and shame. Why do we so easily judge them and try to make everything perfect? We arent perfect, no one around you will be too. Don't be quick to judge and quick to fix. Let God's plan take the wheel and be patient. You don't know what's up ahead but He does. Let him fix it and let him have the final judgment. Love one another like he loves them and you will be blessed. I testify of it to you and to all, Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world and he will come again. 

Love you all to the moon and back!

Sister Schoemig​