New member and nice weather Feb. 27, 2017

This Weather Tho

First off, it's like 70 degrees here every day and everyone is FREAKING OUT. No one likes the warm weather and they all keep telling us that we should not be happy for this weather. But Im gonna keep praying for good weather because it makes missionary work that much easier! :)

Story time: Remember that one time I served in Blacksburg, VA in the YSA ward and one Sunday there was a chinese kid that walked in named KJ, he was actually supposed to meet his friend at the baptist church next door but he walked into our church instead...well we started teaching him the gospel and he gained his own testimony. And on Saturday, HE GOT BAPTIZED. And guess who got to be there? ME!! President Salisbury allowed me to travel to Blacksburg to see him enter the water! THIRD BEST DAY OF MY LIFE. It was SO good to see all the people I grew so close to in Blacksburg. Bishop and Sister Passic basically almost started crying when they saw me. They are like my grandparents out here, they asked me how long I'd been out and when I told them eight  months, they both started freaking out. It was so cute! The YSA members stuck to me like glue at the baptism and they updated me on what had happened since I left. Man, it was so good to be there. :) It reminded me though of the things I missed about Roanoke. I never thought it was possible to love two places that much, but guess what, it is. Missions are weird because you just end up just loving EVERYTHING so much. 

We got a call this week from the Relief Society presidency asking us to teach the class, well that was actually pretty fun! I thought I would be super nervous but I loved it a lot! I think teaching the gospel all day, every day has made me a lot less nervous to teach. 

We've been tracting pretty much all week, trying to find. It's been pretty fun. We found a lady named Elisabeth who has talked with missionaries a little bit before when she lived in Botetourt (BO-TE-TOT) and we taught her a little bit of the restoration. I felt prompted to tell her ALL of the first vision, and after I recited all of it I asked her if she thought that could happen and she said definitely. We then commited her to read from the Book of Mormon and pray about it and promised her she would recieve an answer. She told us we could come back Wednesday so I am super pumped about Wednesday! 

We  have Mission Leadership Council tomorrow so I will traveling, early in the morning, to Charleston and back. But I am so excited to learn from President Salisbury once again! :)

Anyways, I LOVE YOU ALL TO THE MOON AND BACK!

LOVE, Sister Schoemig​

Fun pictures Feb. 20, 2017

Who Knew Beds Were So Hard To Get?

Happy eight months to me. (On Wednesday) :)

Well, don't I have a story for you? To start off, the zone leaders I'm working with are great, but bless their hearts, they struggle sometimes! We, as sister training leaders, have been asked to bring both sisters from the companionship to work in our area for the day. So we asked the zone leaders to get us beds from storage so these sisters dont have to sleep on the floor! Well, it was a week long ordeal. The zone leaders accidentily broke the key to the storage unit, lost their phone, and ran overtime in a lesson (each of these things happened on different days) when they were supposed to bring us these beds! And when we finally got all of us together to get the beds, it took several trips to get them there, never did I think it would take a week to get us TWO BEDS! haha, well its a story to laugh about! 

We met with Theresa again this week and wow, she has so many good questions! We explained more about the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith and answered the questions sh had about them, we ended up going overtime but the spirit was so strong there and we all just got along so well that time just flew when we were teaching her! I am so excited to get to see her again this week, she said she has loved meeting with us and wants her family and friends to meet with us, so we might have a crowd we are teaching this wednesday! :)

We had a fireside yesterday, but after some cancelations for musical numbers, the missionaries in the Roanoke ward decided they were going to sing a musical number! Oh how awesome was that choice. We all got together saturday night at the YSA building with Brother Winkler, one of the ward missionaries, to try to choose a song to sing and practice it. Let's just say... that didnt work out so well. haha, as a group we just didnt sound good. It ended up being that the elders decided they were going to sing a duet and they did pretty good. But the fireside was so good! While we didnt have many people there, the spirit was there and we got many good compliments so it ended up being a success in a different way! 

We went on exchanges with the Salem sisters this weekend. I was with Sister Cook. She is so adorable and we both are very similar with the things we've struggled with so we got along so well! I had a cool moment in church the other day where I was thinking about my mission and all the cool people i've become friends with and the things i've seen and I was just so full of gratitude that my Heavenly Father has put me in the spot that I need to be. I am gaining so many lifelong friends and I'm so grateful. :)

We had a baptism in the Salem, VA ward that I was able to attend, but while I was there... a missionary I came out with, Sister Condie (she took my place in Blacksburg), got to come with her companions, Sister Nelson and Sister Ried (they are in a tripanionship due to circumstances) and it was so good to see them both and catch up! But I found out that a young man, named KJ, I found and taught in Blacksburg is getting baptized! So I got permission from President Salisbury to go back and watch him enter the water! IM GOING BACK TO BLACKSBURG. I've never been so excited in my life! :)

A mission is so worth it. 

Share your testimony with someone this week! ;)

I love you all to the moon and back! 

Sister Schoemig​

Roasting marshmallow...Feb. 13, 2017

Last picture with Sis. Rowley before she came home to Utah.  Welcome home Sis. Rowley!

Let's Go Be Awkward

I think I need to start every email with "We have been tracting a lot this week" because thats what we do..we tract. We were out this one day and before we got out of the car Sister Huntington said...Lets Go Be Awkward. and I just about died! Because, as missionaries, we just kinda are awkward human beings who talk about Christ so much that we kinda forget how to talk about other things. So I just had to tell y'all about this moment cause I thought it was hilarious!

The Schwendiman family invited us over last night for a "campfire" dinner. And it was super fun! The Schwendimans are a family here in Roanoke that live in our area. They are an interesting family that doesnt open up a lot UNTIL I got Sister Schwendiman to open up a lot and start talking to us about a whole lotta things last night and the kids were having a blast with roasting their marshmallows and it reminded me of home a lot when we used to roast marshmallows often and just hang out. I roasted a marshmallow that was basically perfect in every way. I think being a missionary has elevated my roasting skills. I don't know if i can afford to lose my roasting skills so I may not be coming home. haha ;) 

We had an AWESOME lesson last night with a new investigator named Theresa. She grew up Roman Catholic and they teach that you can NEVER doubt what you are taught and NEVER learn about any other faiths. She left the Roman Catholics when she was a teen because of that but she has held to her beliefs. My prayers were answered with her. She told us that she had been praying for help and for answers to her questions and THAT SAME DAY we came to the door and told her about the Book of Mormon. She started reading it when we left and she had so many questions! We came back last night and she immediately let us in and asked us a lot of questions as we taught her the restoration and she asked us what we wanted her to do and simply we told her that we wanted her to find out for herself and told her if she sincerly wanted to know, God would tell her. She committed to read and pray daily about the things she was reading and the things we taught. I know she will get an answer from God and I am so excited for her.

We knocked on a ministers door this week and he told us very kindly that we were going to have terrible lives for following the Book of Mormon. I bore my testimony to him and even though we all have differences God wants us to love everyone and he said "Thats nice". Then a couple doors down there were some kids up in a tree that we didn't see that started screaming intruder when we crossed onto their driveway..needless to say we still went to talk to their mom, and then the next couple doors down someone told he was a "Bible Loving Christian". Thats was one of the funnest street to tract! :)

We had Stake Conference yesterday. (I've been really lucky with getting stake conferences on my mission, Sister Huntingtons only had one and shes been out a year!) Elder Sinclair and President and Sister Salisbury were there and boy, it was so good! Elder Sinclair was the last speaker and he talked about being a servant to all and how we need to be obedient to the commandments of the Lord. He was really cool to hear from! 

This week I have zone conference on Wednesday and exchanges with the Salem Sisters! The sisters in the zone have pretty much stayed the same..

Salem-Sister Nyborg and Sister Cook (Sister Cook is still in training)

Cotton Hill-Sister Campbell and Sister Zaugg (Sister Zaugg is still in training)

Martinsville-Sister Callister and Sister Rodabough (Sister Rodabough just started training)

Roanoke YSA-Sister Mortensen and Sister Lee (Sister Lee came from Charleston as a Sister Training Leader and boy, do I just love her! Me and her have gotten along so easily since she got down here! I'm so excited to serve with her!)

BTdubs..everyone needs to go try a cream slush from Sonic. #sogood

I hope you all have an amazing week and you can all feel how much I love you and how much God loves you. 

I LOVE YOU ALL TO THE MOON AND BACK!

Sister Schoemig

Hike to the star! Pictures Feb. 8, 2017

This is the Santa hat we send her last Christmas, she loves Avengers.

The last picture together before Sis. Rowley comes home to Utah.

Are You Door To Door Ministers?

To start off, I have to explain my email title. We were visiting an investigator who we've had struggles keeping in contact with because he's been sick. We were outside his house talking when we see from the corners of our eyes this lady, her hood over her head with the drawstrings tied and she has her shades on, walk past us and then wait at the corner, just waiting. We finish up talking to him and start walking the other way cause she was giving us weird vibes when we hear "ARE YOU DOOR TO DOOR MINISTERS?" we slowly turned around and she had FOLLOWED US a couple hundred feet and so we started talking to her and she said I just love when y'all come to my house because I love asking you all questions. She asked us what we believed and we told her and she went "No offense, I love you both but I strongly disagree with your religion" and she decided it would be a good idea to tell us everything that was wrong with our religion. You could feel the spirit leave so fast and you can ALWAYS tell when its not there. Sister Huntington was trying to tell her well its okay we have differences, we just have to ask God what's true because he's the only one that knows and she just kept bashing us back. So finally I looked at my watch and we said we have to go but it was good to meet you. We said goodbyes and walked away. It was a very interesting experience and it testified to me that people are out there and they are TRULY prepared. Sometimes before you get to the diamond, you gotta put a little pressure!

We knocked on a door of a former this week and instead of looking at us to see who we were before answering she just yelled "Is that the stripper I just ordered?" Me and Sister Huntington could not stop laughing because we were the COMPLETE opposite of what she wanted. Ah, the awkward weird moments of a mission. Gotta love it.

We got a call from the Cotton Hill ward Sisters asking us to go visit a Deaf Less Active that was actually in the Elders area. So me being me...got really nervous. I haven't signed in 7 and 1/2 months and here we were being assigned to go talk to this lady. We called the elders and got permission to go out of area to see this lady and when we went I couldn't stop shaking. Man, the sign language lingo out here is STRANGE. She was really nice and we got some things situated so that she could start coming to church! There actually used to be sign language missionaries in this mission for Roanoke, thats how many deaf people there are here! I know that I was supposed to come to Roanoke for MANY reasons. Heavenly Father is definitely aware of us! But I REALLY need to brush up on my sign, cause boy, it was a STRUGGLE!

I love the WVCM. I love Virginia. I love being a Sister Training Leader Just sayin. 

We went on a hike today to the Roanoke Star. It was super cool! It's just this giant star that you can see all over the mountains here! I'll send some pics with this email. 

For transfer news: Im staying in Roanoke with Sister Huntington! Not much is changing here but its good! We have good things going on here!

I had interviews with President Salisbury that were good. He is just so amazing and is so in tune with the spirit always. 

Anyways, it was a good week! I love you all to the moon and back! Have an awesome week! and don't forget to CPR!! (Church, Pray, Read!!!)

LOVE, SISTER SCHOEMIG

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