Fun pictures - Sept. 25, 2017

Homeward Bound

In the quiet misty morning

When the moon has gone to bed,
When the sparrows stop their singing
And the sky is clear and red,
When the summer's ceased its gleaming
When the corn is past its prime,
When adventure's lost its meaning -
I'll be homeward bound in time
Bind me not to the pasture
Chain me not to the plow
Set me free to find my calling
And I'll return to you somehow
If you find it's me you're missing
If you're hoping I'll return,
To your thoughts I'll soon be listening,
And in the road I'll stop and turn
Then the wind will set me racing
As my journey nears its end
And the path I'll be retracing
When I'm homeward bound again
Bind me not to the pasture
Chain me not to the plow
Set me free to find my calling
And I'll return to you somehow
(louder)
Bind me not to the pasture
Chain me not to the plow
Set me free to find my calling
And I'll return to you somehow

"If You Find It's Me Your Missing"...Its Because I've Been Gone 15 Months

So my title has to do with the fact that we are obsessed with this song named Homeward Bound and it's by BYU Vocal Point. (I'll attach it to my email) It's a line they sing in the song, I just added my own lyrics to it for all y'all that have been missing me. :)

Well, we are going to be playing volleyball with the assistants and the zone leaders again today, so I don't have too much time.

Here are some prime moments of this missionary's life from the week:

We had zone conference, but this time it was different. We got to teach our segment on being exactly obedient and literally everyone was so pumped afterwards. #wearegoals AND THEN President took us all out to Clendenin to do SERVICE. THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN. My companion was interviewed and was on the news (and im in the back painting). If you want to look it up its on WXAZ channel 3: Flood Recovery Effort Continues In Clendenin. It was such a good uplift to my soul and to the community.

One day, I had to go the bathroom really bad, but we were tracting with no bathrooms nearby. We kept tracting of course, and just decided to ask someone if I could use their restroom. We knocked on the last door of the street and gave our spheil. She sadly declined. Then sister paulson asked "she really has to go the bathroom could she use yours real quick?" the lady gave us a smile said no and closed the door REAL quickly. #bless

We were tracting at another point of the week, not really having much success either, when we were standing at this door and Sister Paulson turned to me and said Have you..........met a lot of people out here that like Lady GaGa? haha, apparently in her mission shes met a lot of people who LOVE Lady GaGA, I have yet to meet any avid Lady GaGa lovers though.

At 8:45 pm one night, we were tracting, plans fell through. When we knocked on this one door, I had pointed out this GINORMOUS bee to Sister Paulson two seconds earlier when the lady answered the door and sister paulson said "hey i just want to point out that that is a ginormous bee" the lady wasnt too impressed with the bee but she did have mormon friends and she wants to learn more!!!

I hit my 15 months of being a missionary this past friday. Then yesterday we were at a members home for dinner and they asked me how long i'd been out so i said 15 months and they said really loudly WHOA and then they proceeded to stare at me for a little bit. And so it begins...

Our church got fleas AGAIN. We really need to get these fleas cleaned up, its getting really annoying haha.

We went on exchanges with the Parkersburg sisters. I was with Sister Rawlings. She is super cute. :) Stellar missionary for sure. We were heading back to exchange back to our normal companions when we were driving past this street with one of our investigators and the spirit told me to turn so I turned. We went and knocked on her door and we were able to teach her!

We were also trying to finish planning our zone conference segment when we were just stuck at a road block. We decided since we couldn't think of anything else, that the Lord probably didn't want us teaching that, so we said a prayer to open our minds and help us to start over with it. And then it flowed. It was truly amazing and the spirit was so strong guiding us to what we needed to do. Best segment yet.

Anyways, I'm happy and healthy! I love being a missionary!

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

Keep reading your Book or Mormon, going to church, and praying! It will keep you spiritually alive!

Sister Schoemig​

Pink, caterpillar and more - Sept. 18th, 2017

Gender Reveal from her sister

Its a girl!

Just Play Your Flute, Banjo!

Let's start with the big news. My older seester is having a baby GIRL! She is due the day I come home and I AM PUMPED. I've always wanted more girls in my family, and now its happening. 

Monday: We went and saw the Mouls. We talked about Jesus Christ coming to the Americas and we read a chapter from his ministry here. It was such a solid lesson. They are amazing! And then we saw Sister Andrews, we watched Finding Faith in Christ with her. She really loved it and couldn't understand why people would want to kill Jesus Christ. Like same sister, I don't understand. But it was a way good lesson as well!!

Tuesday: We saw Jessica Hensley, a lady my trainer found while she was in Charleston, we taught her the restoration and she said she knows what we teach is true! #miracles We are gonna be working with her closely, I hope! We saw Sister Payne, and we taught her about missionary work. :)  We also saw Wanda Gore again, and we are never going back. (if that tells you anything bout how the lesson went) We could literally feel the spirit leave us as soon as we entered her house. She just talked at us for an hour about how we needed to pray and ask God what was true and how she thinks everything we teach is not true. But we could barely get a word in edgewise, so we just bore our testimonies and left. My testimony was definitely strengthened by the fact that I felt such a difference when the spirit was with me and when it wasn't. It was seriously the weirdest feeling to not have it with me, I never ever want to go without it again. We taught Sis Gordon about keeping the sabbath day holy. And then we had extra time at the end of the night so we tracted a little and this lady answered the door and said "I never open the door for strangers this late, but come on in!" We hadnt even told her who we were...but we went in and sat down and I asked her about this basketball she had in a glass case and she told me all about how she knows Jerry West. I was like whoa. My little bros would love this. But we taught her about the restoration and she said she was actually going through something and she'd love to read the book of mormon, she handed us some muffins and cupcakes and sent us home. It was so cool!! 

Wednesday: SISTER PAULSON'S 20TH BIRTHDAY!!! We saw Elijah again!! We taught him about the plan of salvation and invited him to be baptized on October 28th! He said he would!! He is super awesome. :) He called us today and set up another appointment when he found out his work schedule, I'm excited!! basically everything fell through on us that day, but it was still a killer day! :) We taught Brother Carr about the gospel of Jesus Christ. His heart is definitely softening. IM SO EXCITED.

Thursday: Weekly planning. My favorite. Haha. We taught the stones about the plan of salvation. We ate dinner at the Jones. I LOVE THIS FAMILY. We had an amazing lesson with them where we talked about what they can do to help these potentials we have to learn about the gospel. They were like so excited to help us out and they are just the best. #goals We saw Sister Andrews again and we read from the book of mormon with her and talked about how she needs to start reading it. She knows she needs to. We taught Sister Minnich at the church about Spiritual CPR (church prayer reading). She is just soaking it all in! :) We tracted in the rain a little that night. 

Friday: We taught Sister Payne about service by reading in the book of mormon about Ammon and King Lamoni. I think she really liked it! It was different that what we had been doing with her, and she really learned a lot! We had district meeting. #awkwardasalways We saw Brother Cupit and we finished the plan of salvation. Super spiritual as always. He is just the coolest man ever. <3 We saw Sister Mullins and we talked about baptism and confirmation and she just loved it! We also saw Debra Jones, we talked about baptism and confirmation, and we put her on date for November 4th! :) She was so into that lesson, it was amazing!! 

Saturday: We found a cute old man named Raymond. He had lots of good questions and was excited for us to come back! We taught Sister Scott, and based on that lesson, decided that we'd give her a scripture to read and when she has finished it told her to call us. We arent sure she's ready to come back to church yet. So we are leaving it all up to her. We taught Sister New about baptism and confirmation. :) 

Sunday: Church!!! It was full of people giving us food, the elders pretending to be baby ducks, and President telling us goodbye by saying "SEE YA LATER MORMONS!" it was funny! I <3 this ward. We really got down and dirty when planning our zone conference. It was so cool. We had planned this whole segment, but something wasn't sitting right with me. So we took a water break and then prayed for our minds to be opened to what we actually needed to do. And as soon we did that, the ideas started flowing! I'm super excited for this segment we will teach! :) Its gonna be great! #exactobedience We taught the Mouls! We talked about the spirit with them and how we get answers and what it feels like. We asked them what they feel like when they are at church and when we come over and they both said calm and happy. :) They are getting there!! PROGRESS. Felicia read all the way up to 2nd Nephi, and Nathan read some of 3rd Nephi! :) We also contacted this referral from the zone leaders. It was way in the holler but we met this cute little Vietnamese lady and she told us to come back in the daytime! It was super awesome but kinda sketch. :)

Today we took naps to start our P-day off. #blessed

So this week me and sister paulson were talking about how it would be really funny to name one of her kids Banjo, but how much more funny it would be if he was an avid flute player. We talked about how funny that conversation would go....

Human: Whoa, your name is Banjo? Do you play the Banjo?

Banjo: I PLAY THE FLUTE, NOT THE BANJO.

Human: Just play your flute, Banjo!!

Well, I am just LOVING Charleston so much! I love Sister Paulson. I love my family. I love this Gospel. I love the Lord. I LOVE EVERYTHING. 

till next week,

I LOVE YOU ALL TO THE MOON AND BACK. 

Sister Schoemig​

New companion, wart - Sept. 11, 2017

Hands down, coolest guy yet.

So many MIRACLES and BLESSINGS poured out upon me this week. I am such a blessed soul.

 I AM SO HAPPY TO BE IN CHARLESTON WEST VIRGINIA AT THIS EXACT MOMENT. <3

Wednesday: Me and Sis Sorenson went to say goodbye to Sis Morgan, that was really sad. Nothing else really happened that night besides Sis Sorenson packed some more. :) 

Thursday: So we got up, packed up three sisters luggage in our tiny little corolla and headed to transfers! I dropped off Sis Sorenson and met my new companion Sister Paulson!! Sooo she is like the coolest and we are exactly the same. SHES A RED HEAD. She is from Saratoga Springs UTAH! She hasn't gone to school yet. She loves EXACTLY the same things I do. It's seriously so weird but so awesome!! <3

We left transfers and went to Sister Paynes house. :) I love that lady. We talked about missionary work and how it blesses us as families and individuals. We weekly planned. I had to explain everything that was going on in our area, ward, zone, mission, world, universe. It was a lot. My mouth was very dry! We went and taught Shirley about the plan of salvation. She has so much potential!! I love her. WE TAUGHT THE MOULS. It's literally been fiveever since we've taught them but we had a killer lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ and baptism is coming for them! This is for real.  

Friday: This was like a teaching and preaching day!! SO many killer lessons taught! But more importantly...I WENT TO THE WART DOCTOR. This was like the weirdest experience. First off, this man was like amazed that I was from Utah. We went in and the doctors there were THE NICEST PEOPLE I'VE EVER MET. They were so kind and made sure I was happy and comfortable. They gave me three options for my wart. 1. plainly just chop it off 2. get some weird african beetle juice stuff to put on it 3. numb it, chop it off, freeze it, and then get this more normal paste stuff to put on it. I asked which one would get rid of it fastest and he said the last one so we went with it. It hurt to be numbed on my hand but then i didnt even notice when they chopped it off! It hurt throughout the day though...im just glad its gone!! 

We taught Bro Carr about the plan of salvation, We taught Debra Jones bout the 10 commandments, we taught Sis Scott about service (she asked us to find a reference in the Bible about iron floating), we taught Sis Minnich about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (this was an amazing lesson!!!), and we tried some potentials! It was such a good day!

Saturday: So we drove up to Sissionville and waited for it. ELDER COOK. This was truly one of the best meetings EVER. He walked in and then President Lindhardt got up and said Elders and Sisters Elder Cook wants to greet each one of you. SO I GOT TO SHAKE HANDS WITH AN APOSTLE OF THE LORD AND TWO SEVENTIES. #solucky 

notes from the first meeting:

-urgency in the work

-life is a learning laboratory! 

-we ALL work together; members and missionaries

-we NEED to be prepared

-fix it now and stay the course and become the missionary the Lord needs you to be

-"If they have more faith, they will see more success." President Hinkley

-there are no perfect investigators

-when you teach by the spirit they will always remember

-connect: be authentic

-we dont care if we are rejected or not, we are here to find the elect

-how do we know what to teach? we listen.

-be ready to open your mouth at any second

-Do you have your jersey on? "a more effective team"

-Our responsibility: be a witness of Jesus Christ

 

that was only a few of the things I really loved from this meeting with him. It was amazing. <3 #handsdowncoolestguyyet

We taught Sis Mullins, Sis Jarvis, and we saw a miracle. 

The other day Sister Paulson and I were going to go visit a referral by the church building. We noticed that there was a young man chilling on the church grounds and we were really confused by it. When the referral fell through we decided we were going to go talk to him since HE WAS LITERALLY AT THE CHURCH AND HE HAD TO HAVE BEEN GUIDED THERE FOR A REASON. He kind of avoided us at first but once we got talking he opened up and started crying telling us about how he was going through a really hard time and didn't have a place to go that night. We weren't sure how to help him, but we started talking to him about the gospel and he was really really interested. We sat down in the parking lot with him and taught him the restoration, and about the atonement of Jesus Christ- how he can be cleansed from sin and become new. He was so much happier when we left him and we set up to visit with him there again this week. Miracles!!!

Sunday: We had stake conference with Elder Cook! 

notes from stake conference:

-we have the advantage of knowing what exactly is happening

-in the end be in tune with the spirit and it all works out

-if we only touch one person, we are successful

-we always continue preaching the gospel, no matter where we are in the plan

-can you see them as i see them? Heavenly Father

-faith=move your own mountains

-become the child of God he wants you to be

-build zion in our hearts and in our homes

-homes are and should be safe havens

-when people know who we are, they help us live our faith

-no matter WHO we are, we have a responsibility to take the gospel to the world

-if the saints would honor the sabbath, many problems would be resolved (THIS IS A PROMISE DIRECTLY FROM THE LORD)

-do things that are precious but make them enjoyable

-when you want the blessings of the temple for you and everyone else, everything else falls into place *hint hint: eternal perspective*

-when the Lord wants his will to be known, we are SURE witnesses of him and his will

THEN afterwards we wanted to get another handshake from him so we went and waited. AND HE TOOK A SECOND TO TALK TO US. He asked us where we were from and we said Utah and he said where so we told him and he said oh utah county girls. Well thank you for your service. ALL THE WHILE HE WAS HOLDING MY HAND TALKING TO US. 

I am a blessed soul.

Then President Lindhardt approved for the missionaries who drove themselves up to stake conference to go to a members house for lunch altogether. That was crazy stuff, but really fun! We split up elders and sisters but it was fun to get to sit with the sisters and talk to them. :) 

We went out that day and taught Sis Gordon, we saw the stones, sis morgan set up a time with us to come back, and we tracted some in the dark! It was fun! (we found out we both REALLY love Gilmore Girls so we were freaking out about that the whole night)

To explain my email title: we were tracting and someone was trying to bash Joseph Smith but we all know that he is HANDS DOWN, THE COOLEST GUY EVER, so we didnt let it get to us. :) 

Then today, we've just went to a creperi and went shopping at Target. :)

But im so good here in Charleston. Me and Sister Paulson have been talking a lot about things we really want to achieve this transfer and how we want to push ourselves. We want to "be comfortable being uncomfortable". WE ARE GOING TO SEE MIRACLES. Im so excited!!!

I LOVE YOU ALL TO THE MOON AND BACK!

Sister Schoemig

ps. get ready for some wart pics

Volleyball, praying and more Sept. 6, 2017