18 months pictures - Dec. 26, 2017

18 Months Later

Hey fam bam and friends. :)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!

MONDAY: We went and tried a referral that we got that same day. We gave him a Book of Mormon and set up an appointment for the next day. We tried some less actives and investigators. Then we went and saw Cheryl. :)

TUESDAY: We tried lots of peeps...lots of potentials from other missionaries that didn't exist anymore...so that was fun. We went back to try that referral from Monday, and he didn't show. :( We ate dinner with Sister Markworth and her son. :)

WEDNESDAY: We tried MORE peeps in Cross Lanes. We met with Barbara and Joanne. Joanne LOVES the Book or Mormon and the concept of eternal families, but it's gonna be hard to put her on date because of her mom...she's very baptist and loves to sit in our lessons. So this is gonna be interesting. :) I'm excited!

THURSDAY: We weekly planned. Yay. Then we went out.... BUT WE HAD A CRAZY MOMENT. So we went to this government housing place but we just felt like we needed to leave. So I was driving (AGAIN, I AM ALWAYS DRIVING lol), Sister Jefferies was backing me, and suddenly she stopped me. A black Audi pulled up RIGHT NEXT TO US on the passenger side, so we backed real quickly and she hopped in the car. I pulled away, then then pulled away....we drove to the main road and they were still behind us! (this doesnt sound too crazy, but it was!) When all the sudden, we heard yelling, I looked in my side mirror just in time to see the black audi take off to the left of us INTO TRAFFIC while they have a man running after them yelling "Thats my car!!!" So we are watching them go up and down the hills of West Virginia when a cop pulls out of nowhere! THERE'S A HIGH SPEED CHASE IN CROSS LANES. So this other guy comes up to our car (we are still sitting at this stop sign cause of traffic) and tells us all about how that car has been missing for a week and that the guy probably wasn't getting his car back. So we were like Oh thanks for telling us that. So we started driving in the same direction as the black audi, talking about how crazy it was when we saw cops lights again, this time they were stopped. The black audi had turned and crashed into a random brick wall that west virginia has and the cops had the two guys in handcuffs sitting on the ground and on top of the hood of the car. IT WAS CRAZY. Sister Jefferies just kept saying "we started that! they followed us!" lol. We then ate dinner with Sister Pierce, and we taught Jonathan!! We had a super killer lesson, and we took the Tooleys with us. We taught about the rich young ruler and how sometimes that can be us, we were really bold and straight up with him as we talked about his commitment keeping. Twas a way good lesson.

FRIDAY: MY EIGHTEENTH CLICK DAY. #what. We had district meeting. The sisters talked about our mission vision and what we wanted to become. And because the Tooleys had come with us to our lesson, they went on and on about how awesome we were and eventually....well I guess you'll have to look in my pictures. ;) We then went ON MY LAST EXCHANGE. I was with Sister Paulson in South Charleston. It was the best exchange ever. <3 It made my heart so happy to be in my old area. To see my peeps. We saw Sister New, Nathan and Felicia (for a sec), Sister Payne, Sister Minnich, Sister Deborah Jones, and we also saw Cheryl. :) We ate at Olive Garden as all four of us, because it was mine and Sister Stettlers 18th click day and we got to celebrate together! THEN a nonmember paid for OUR WHOLE MEAL because she had a member friend. YAY! :)

SATURDAY: We ended exchanges. We went to the Suttles family christmas party for dinner. Then we had Daizy's baptism!! :) It was actually really rough but it was really good because she had tons of nonmember family come!

SUNDAY: CHRISTMAS EVE! :) We went to church at Teays Valley. We got to sing in the program with the primary kids. We also spent time with Cheryl playing are you smarter than a fifth grader....evidently none of us were smarter than fifth graders. lol. We went to the Ruffells (like my FAVORITE family in Teays Valley. And we went to the morgans in the second ward! It was really fun! We got to roast smores and had a good dinner with them and their kids. Their two kids took us out to go tour the lights as they took us home, it was AMAZING. 

MONDAY: CHRISTMASSSS!!! <3 We went and hung out at the Haupts. It was fun and chill, exactly what I needed. We went to the Schaefers for dinner, we had hawaiian haystacks. :) we played Clue for a little bit, then we skyped home. :)

I LOVE MY FAMILY. Whenever I skype home it just makes me more excited to work. It reminds me of how much I love my family and want to be with them forever, and how much I truly want that for others. That is why I'm on a mission. For the Lord and for them.

It was definitely weird to end the call by saying...See ya in three weeks though. Lol. :)

Thank you for all the love and support. What a mile marker for me. EIGHTEEN MONTHS DOWN. What a blessing. What an adventure. What a time to be alive.

I LOVE YOU ALL TO THE MOON AND BACK. 

Sister Schoemig​

More pictures - Dec. 18th, 2017

The Road to Buffalo

HEY HEY HEY. 

ONE WEEK TILL CHRISTMAS. CAN YOU TELL I'M REALLY REALLY EXCITED?

We've had a hoot and a holler of a week! Sister Jefferies and I have many a story for ya this week. 

MONDAY: We tried some peeps, no one answered. :( BUT we saw Cheryl! She's the highlight of my mondays. :) We talked about enduring to the end. She has really taken the gospel into her and changed so much. I love love love her. 

TUESDAY: We tried to find some members in Poca to contact but addresses around here have a hard time, to say the least. #thatWVlife We got to see Kim and Jeff, she again wasn't feeling too good because of her migraines but she let us stay and talk for a little bit. I shared my all time fav scripture with them and talked about how that started me on my path to where I am and how it has blessed my life. And right after we committed them to read! Kim was like "I will definitely read, I have no excuses this week!" :) So we'll find out tomorrow if they kept their commitment. We taught Brenda Anderson, the less active we found, the plan of salvation, man she remembered everything and had such good questions! It was an AMAZING lesson!! She is awesome. We went to the relief society activity for the Teays Valley ward. We had a christmas gift exchange and I got a fake candle! Haha. 

Shout out to the deaf branch for giving me a present that made me cry so hard. Thank you. <3 (pics in the email)

WEDNESDAY: We went and saw Pat in Eleanor. She's funny. :) We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and she's a bit confused on priesthood authority...so we are gonna have a stellar priesthood/restoration lesson with her next time. :) We saw Sister Sawyer for a few minutes. She's going through a tough time with her daughter so we were there to offer solace and guidance. She softened her heart towards us coming back a lot. She actually got our number so she could text us soon to get us over for dinner! SCORE. We went and tried Mark, that one guy who told us that we could come back, his wife answered the door and went all anti on us, but I think she felt bad when we left because when we were at the Haupts (Mark knows them; they are neighbors) Mark came over and apologized to her and told us that he's still like to meet sometime, who knows when though? We'll have to work with the Haupts with that one. 

THURSDAY: We weekly planned. And I was SO not feeling good, so we stayed in most the day, except to go to dinner/lunch with Sister Pierce. :) 

FRIDAY: We had district meeting. And we did a white christmas. I had Elder Tooley, the mission office car guy. :) So I got him a toy car and a certificate for being the best car guy ever. He has been telling everyone that he's finally official because he's been approved by me and sis jefferies. :) Sister Paulson, my old companion had me, and oh man, I love her. She got me lotion and chapstick from Burts Bees and wrote on it. You'll have to look at the pictures. lol. My district was laughing so hard.  We saw Cheryl and Charles. And we tried some formers that let us right in and then set up a return appointment with us like immediately. It was a true miracle!! We taught the gills son, Godric, he has fragile x and we are helping him be ready for baptism. :) And we read from the book of mormon with Cheryl. 

SATURDAY: We had to drive to Buffalo...which is on the edge of our area for a referral. But at least we got some good pics out of it! :) We went to both the first wards christmas party and the teays valley ward christmas party, we were all partied out by the end of the night. 

SUNDAY: We went to the second ward for the first time! Everyone was pumped to have us there!!! We gave our talks and I would just like to brag about my companion for a bit because she did sooooo good! :) We spent the day in second ward, and we also taught the gills again, and as a reward for him being good in our lesson we played the wii for him a bit! So fun!!

Today we went bowling as a district. :) 

IM SUPER STOKED TO TALK TO MY FAMILY NEXT WEEK. I am only allowed 40 minutes this time, so family be sure to have some killer questions lined up! But don't waste them all, because well, we'll want some for when I get home. ;)

Rock on family and friends. The Savior is the reason for the season. I am so happy I get to be a full time servant of the Lord for this Christmas season. I know he lives and loves us. I know the Book of Mormon to be true. I know this to be Jesus Christ's church once again on the earth. 

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

ps my pday will be on tuesday next week​

New companion - 12/11/17

Dec. 11, 2017 Weekly report

HEY HEY everyone! This week was a super busy week and on top of that IT SNOWED. 

MONDAY: We went down to South Charleston for our p-day and we seriously had so much time on our hands, after getting everything done, it was freaking us out! So we went and got some cute WV necklaces and basically went window shopping a lot. :) Then we got to help out with the first wards "Nativities around the World". It was super fun!! :)

TUESDAY: We met with Brenda Anderson, that less active we randomly found last week, she is super sweet! She remembers everything so clearly and loves the Book of Mormon! We also ate dinner with the suttles, we challenged them to hand out a Book of Mormon and they were a little leary about it but were up for the challenge! We saw Linda and we watched the restoration video with her! She is slow progressing but she's progressing. We can tell she feels something different when we come over but we don't think she can nail down what it is yet. Then we went over to Cheryls. We talked about baptism and confirmation with her and we showed her Elder Bednars videos about the spirit and she really really liked it. Funny moment, I asked Cheryl if she had any cute skirts I could have because I had a big day tomorrow and she goes "YOU HAVE A DATE?" and we just busted up laughing and I told her no, but that tomorrow was my last zone conference as a missionary and I wanted a new skirt for it. We found one thankfully after some trial and error. lol.

WEDNESDAY: Zone Conference day!!! My last one. Me and Sister Stettler sat by each other and basically just cried the entire time. We learned a lot about the Book of Mormon and how it should be our main tool in finding people to teach. President gave us some time to play games so we played a Mormon game with the sisters and then we played Jenga with some of the elders! Way fun!!! President had me get up and give my departing testimony as well. We had dinner and coordination at the Haupts that day too. :) 

THURSDAY: We weekly planned! (Side note: I only have like three or four of those left! YESSS!) We went and tried some investigators and potentials, and we ended up teaching a man named Charlie. We were just gonna do a quick restoration lesson with him but he ended up having such good questions that we were there for a little bit! We also taught Jonathan! We got him back on date and we taught him about the word of wisdom and law of chastity! He actually accepted it all really well and he understood the why behind it! He was explaining the why for it all to us during the lesson, it was awesome! :) The spirit always is so strong there, the next thing we need to figure out is how to help him recognize that. :)

FRIDAY: We had district meeting, it was kinda a crazy one because we had lots of new senior couples in the office. We went and stopped by Sister Calhoons. She didnt look very happy to see us, but she softened her heart while we talked to her and she ended up being very happy that we came over! We had dinner at the Kellers home. And we went and taught Daizy! We went over the baptismal questions with her and set up an interview time! She is so ready for baptism. She knows what everything is! I'm so excited for her!! Then we also went and helped out with the "Nativites around the World" again!

SATURDAY: So this day started out really stressful and not very good...but it ended up being awesome! We were in the South Charleston parade with the first ward and it was SO MUCH FUN! We handed out so many Light The World cards, it was awesome!! We went and tried some potentials, investigators, and formers in the second ward area, not much luck. But we saw the Groses for a little bit and it was really really good! :) We got to serve them a little bit and lighten their load in this Christmas season. We met an investigator that the elders had been mistakenly been teaching in our area and, then while we were at the second ward christmas party, we got handed another investigator that they had been teaching as well! The Lord is blessing us in finding other ways! :) (THIS IS THE DAY IT SNOWED.)

SUNDAY: We went to church at the first ward, and man it is always so good to go back to that ward! We also had Daizy's baptismal interview and she PASSED! So we are having another baptism!!!! :) She will be getting baptized on the 23rd of December. :) She is so so excited and so are we! I got a blessing from the Sissonville elders for healing (because i've been sick), and I got promised some really cool blessings, especially in this transition period that I'm in. It always amazes me with priesthood blessings how these men who carry the priesthood have no idea what is going on in my head or anything like that but always through the spirit tell me what God needs me to know. What a blessing it is to have the priesthood so close around me, and in my own family.  After that, Sister Jefferies made me go home and rest.

Sorry we have been super super bad at taking pictures! We have a new resolve to take more, I promise!! 

We got chased by a couple dogs. If you know me, you know that that was super fun for me. 

Anyways, I'm super stoked for the week ahead and for the blessings and miracles we will recieve as we change and become more like our Saviour!

I have a testimony of the Book of Mormon and the truthfulness of its divine message. I have a testimony of the Lord's true church and gospel and I love sharing the good news ALL DAY LONG. 

I LOVE YOU ALL TO THE MOON AND BACK! 

Sister Schoemig

Sis. Coombs and new and last companion - 12/4/17

You Wanna Race?

The Lord knows me.

I am so lucky to be spending my last transfer with an amazing missionary. Sister Jefferies. :) She is from Grantsville, Utah. She has been out on her mission for 11 months! She's from a family of four and she is the oldest. It's gonna be great!!

This week was kinda a trying week for me. My patience was being worn thin.  But thankfully the Lord pulled through for me. Lemme tell you about my week.

MONDAY: We went out and tried to contact some less actives and potentials, no one answered. :( But we got to teach Cheryl!! :) We talked about repentance and how it's a positive change, and how we don't have to do it alone, that's why we have Jesus Christ!!

TUESDAY: (Happy Birthday Dad!!! :) You are so amazing and I love you so much!!)

We went out and tried some more less actives. We had a set appointment with this one potential but when we went to go to our appointment, we got out of our car, and (she has a blue ford fusion and she drove on past her house because she saw us walking to our appointment with her) we knocked on her door, then went and tried some potentials, and then as we were walking back to our car she drove past us AGAIN and then drove into her driveway. Lesson learned (again): If I am not interested, just be honest. We spent some time in Poca seeing Maxine, and Kim and Jeff so Sister Coombs could say goodbye. We ate dinner in our car; the life of Cross Lanes. And then went and saw this less active man and his family! And saw some more peeps for Sister Coombs.

WEDNESDAY: We had our last district meeting together. We took some sweet Polaroids. :) We had lunch at the mission office and also comp study! Then we went and saw Pat and committed her to put the book of mormon in a place that she could see so she could remember to read and also to read this week! We tried some peeps in an apartment complex as well. We went to the Haupts!!! :) Had a good last dinner and coordination with Sister Condie. :) I miss her already!! And then we found out where Sister Coombs was going (Lewisburg, West Virginia) and who was coming to me!!

THURSDAY: We did mormon.org time then ate our last meal together for lunch, then we went to Linda and Ada's and when we got there she was like You are just in time for lunch!! (OH BOY!) And you cannot say no to those two. ;) We had a really awesome lesson with Roy! I had a cool moment while I was watching and listening to Sister Coombs teach. She has grown SO much, and while she was teaching and using some of the skills that I've helped her develop. The Lord told me that she was ready to go be on her own. I did what he needed me to do with her. I absolutely hated to see her go but she doesn't need me anymore. What a blessing to have that spiritual confirmation during such an amazing lesson. Roy was putting all the pieces of the restoration together himself!! We ate dinner at the Framptons. Me and Sister Frampton are gonna sign a song at the first ward christmas party hopefully! It's gonna be awesome!! :) We also had a lesson (finally!!) with Jonathan. We talked about some of the things he needed to start doing, seriously we can be so bold with him because he is so sincere! its awesome. He did ask us about our views on partying and relationships and such, and we didn't have time so I told him that we would talk about it next time. haha! 

FRIDAY: Transfer day. I dropped off Sister Coombs and picked up Sister Jefferies! We weekly planned and had dinner with the Suttles! It was way fun! We went out and tried some potentials and stuff as well in Nitro, no such luck. :( 

SATURDAY: to be short and sweet, lots of potential but the best things that happened were we met Daniel Carter (an awesome former in Hometown) and met Mark Sangent, a potential that lives next to the Haupts! We taught Sister Slater about the plan of salvation, turns out she's read 4 chapters of the Book of Mormon this week and she's been trying to find mormon movies to watch! #what?? We also saw Cheryl and read from Alma 36 with her. Super amazing spiritual lesson. 

SUNDAY: We went to church at the Teays Valley ward. :) I met a lot of people I hadn't before!! We FINALLY MET APRIL. She is a less active that the ward has given us a bajillion referrals for AND WE HAD THE RIGHT TIMING. She gave us plants and she was super happy to see us!! We also ran into another less active that is not on the records anywhere! We have appointments with both of them this week! :) We also watched the Christmas devotional. SO GOOD. I loved the overall theme of love and how we need to be willing to show it to ALL. <3 before the devotional we had a bit of time so me and Sister Jefferies raced. :) Haha I won. ;)

It is so so so so so so so cool how the Lord knows us. He knows what I feel each day, trying to accept the fact that I won't be a missionary forever is quite tough, but I have been blessed SO MUCH here on my mission for the Lord. I cannot wait to see the miracles and fun times he has ahead of us this week. :) 

Remember the reason for the season. #LightTheWorld 

I LOVE YOU ALL TO THE MOON AND BACK. 

Sister Schoemig