Transferred baby!

June 26, 2016

My dad requested me to say these: shout out to Eli Connell and Jackie

sanders for surviving 4 hard years at UC high.

Also, shout out to Chris Boyd for dating a good looking yoga

instructor. You can do it man!

So, I'm sick of my mass email taking over half of my email time, so

I'm probably going to be keeping it a lot shorter from here on out.

So..... I finished training last Thursday and I actually got

transferred back to Sapporo. I spent my first 4 transfers in Sapporo,

3 in the countryside (if you can even call it that) and returned back

to a place called Higashi.

It's way sick out here all ready. Back when I was in shinoro (my

second area) I had the opportunity to go on splits in Higashi 3 times.

That being said, before I even transferred I knew a bit about the

area, I knew how to get to the apartment, what the apartment looks

like, etc... I'm pretty pumped to be back in Sapporo again.

My companion is Elder Schulze and I actually knew him a bit before I

got my transfer call. We were in the same district a couple months

back and we actually did splits together once about 3 months ago. I'm

pumped to be working hard with him and something interesting.... He is

now my 5th companion from Utah. I've only had 7 companions, so I think

that's pretty crazy.

Honestly, the work right now is hard. Idk what the missionaries did

before I got here, but from what my companion has told me is that not

a whole lot of missionary work was getting down in the last 1 or 2

transfer. Sounds like he had a pretty hard time last transfer. Right

now the ward doesn't have the best image of the elders (they love the

sisters), but I'm not letting that get me down. I'm going to change

that in the next 2-3 weeks for sure. I know that this call was

honestly just a test/trial from God and he wants to see how I can

handle it.

When I first came here there were basically 1 or 2 investigators and

basically about 3 lessons at most being taught a week. Like I said I'm

not sure what went on here recently, but not a whole ton. Elder

Schulze and I sat down at our first planning session and just decided

to really light this area up. We did a ton of housing already and we

already found 5 new people that seemed to have a good amount of

interest. We taught a good amount of lessons and the people we taught

seemed to be receptive to what we were saying, so we have lots of

faith right now.

Shoot for those of you that don't know, Sapporo temple is finished!

The temple open house is from July 8th to July 23rd and I'm not sure

if we are going to be going down there or not, but I assume we will be

helping out a bit with the temple tours and stuff. Super stoked about

that

Anyway, not much to report. Hope my bean is doing okay taking over the

area after I left, and I'm really excited to rely fully on the Spirit

and watch what can happen to an area by giving your all.

Hope you all have a great week.

敬具 (sincerely yours)

ー  シャイト長老 (Elder Scheidt)

[Eating with a less active a couple weeks back]

[Here's my new comp haha. I took the picture and he says "well, I can't show them my pretty side." Haha he's a goofy guy. Love him so much]

Transfer calls come tomorrow!

June 19, 2016

So first things first.... The shout outs.

Shout out to Anthony Gastello who is going to efy for the first time.

Enjoy all the environment of efy. I went to efy 3 times and it was a

blast every time I went.

Second. Happy Father's Day to my dad. You're the best dad in the whole

world. Kind of sucks that we can't call home on Father's Day. I feel

like all the dads in the world get jipped by having missionary sons,

but it's all good in the end.

Holy! This week a lot happened so I'll try to keep it short, but have

a lot I want to write about.

Let's break it down: actually I'll just talk about one experience dear

to my heart

Monday: for our district activity we went to the asahikawa zoo. It was

awesome and I got to spend most of the time talking to the

missionaries in my district that I wanted to talk to. The zoo is

really famous I'm Hokkaido, so it was definitely something I had to

try just in case I transfer out of this area this week. Yep, transfers

are this week!

Ok one quick thing story after our P day that was a mission changing

moment for me.

So our investigator tawaraya San got Sundays off work, is starting to

meet with us again, has the desire to get baptized, etc...

Simply put, he was ready for baptism and we decided to teach him law

of tithing when we met him on Monday. He got way pissed and started

yelling and me and my comp. saying that if he paid his tithing he

wouldn't be able to live. Apparently he is more poor than he comes

across to be. My comp is still a trainee, so he didn't know anything

that was going on, but basically the investigator was just roasting me

for not teaching that lesson the first time I met him. There's a lot

of detail I won't put, and my thoughts are all over the place, but to

be short he was not happy with me at all. We spent a good amount of

time talking things out and things didn't really get better at all.

My companion never really talks a whole ton when we go over, so he

didn't really have those anger feelings toward him but, He made me

feel really awful and the meeting went really downhill. He said "I'm

not paying tithing so, I'm not getting baptized, not coming to church,

and I don't want to visit you guys anymore." It was brutal and to be

honest I went back to the apartment and cried hard that night. It was

the first real time I recognized how much I love the people I am

teaching. It was crazy how the lesson went from a way high to a way

low in the blink of an eye. Before we started teaching tithing, we

were talking about when he can get baptized and how the commandments,

Book of Mormon, etch...... Are going. Everything was fine and that's

why we decided to finish the lessons and get things rolling. We went

from looking at a calendar together talking about his schedule to him

raising his voice and point his finger at me in 5 minutes.

I feel like I need to explain the reason for me breaking down like a 3 year old.

I cried for two reasons.

One: I felt like I ruined this guy's salvation by not receiving the

revelation for teaching tithing earlier than we chose to. He kept

telling me it was my fault and I've always been the guy to be pretty

hard on myself. Bad combo. Being in the area longer, being senior

companion, and having a solid relationship with tawaraysan basically

made me take the whole hit. I've been the missionary that has taught

him the longest since he has been found, so My companion was a little

sad, but didn't really understand the whole talk and hasn't taught him

too much since he has come to Japan. The whole hour walk back to the

apartment was dead silent. It was a way rough night for me

Two: my love for him has grown so much over the last 18 weeks. I have

seen him feel the spirit countless times, and to have him reject

everything over one small commandment crushed me. When I told him that

we loved him he told us that he didn't care and wanted us to not visit

anymore. It took a lot of talking to get through to him to finally get

to a point where we can visit again. He had a tough week before that

visit, so I can't blame him kind of letting everything out, but that

doesn't mean I felt super happy after we left.

He had lots of sad things occur earlier in the week and I think that

had the biggest impact on this outburst, but it is okay.

I'm okay now and I will not give up on him. I love him to much to just

leave if he tells me too. You can never be too bold to the people you

teach as long as you have love.

I learned a lot from this experience, but this email is already way

freaking long with almost less than half of what really happened.

Sorry it will half to due.

Hope everyone has an awesome week. This church is true everyone!

敬具 (sincerely yours)

ー  シャイト長老 (Elder Scheidt)


[Last night one of investigators came to church to invite us over for a meal. They bought me a cake and sang to me. My birthday was over a moth and a half ago, but the mom felt bad for not doing anything haha. I love them so much. Didn't have time to right about that whole story either. Sorry]

[I love them. We grilled meat together for dinner.]

 [My comp. got his haircut again by kitami San. Chilliest investigator ever. Strong faith in Christ]

 [The zoo was sick] 

Hey hey hey

June 12, 2016

First thing is first. Shout out to Lizzy Mitchell from my home ward

giving her farewell this next week! Kill it and enjoy the MTC!

I don't know how to describe this week, but we had a zone conference

where the mission president, his wife, and his two assistants gave

workshops to us. I learned a lot and am pumped to go out and apply

what I learned.

I'm way low on time right now, but want to write about our

investigator tawaraya San. He's had a baptismal date 2 or 3 times now,

but because of his job on Sundays, he can't come to Church and just

has a low desire to come unto Christ. I've experience this situation

twice on my mission now and both times we try many things.

Try to get them to quit or talk to their boss

Pray for guidance

Share with the investigator 1nephi3:7 and promise them if they commit

to come God will make things work out

Etc.....

The first time I experienced this situation with an investigator not

being able to come to church, nothing  really came from what we tried.

Who knows why? Maybe it wasn't the Lord's timing, but that is okay.

This time we shared that scripture and promised tawaraya San that God

will help him if he shows faith.

Then.... He got way sick! We tried to meet him and he wouldn't answer

our calls, reply to our texts, if we want to his house he would open

the door and say "not today, go away" and close the door. We got

worried and honestly, we haven't met with him for over 55 days now.

But....He recovered (still a bit sick, but)... He came to church

yesterday and explained to me that he got a promotion in his job. Not

only will he be getting more money, but that adjusted his schedule

from 2 days off a week to 3 days off a week. Can anyone guess what the

third day he just got off is? Yep, that's right! It's Sunday! He

showed up and surprised both me and my companion and now I really

really really think he has the possibility of being baptized.

He does have some other problems that might be a process to help fix,

but besides that his desire is strong and he came to church by

himself! I was so pumped. We get transfer calls next Tuesday and one

of us is leaving for sure, and before I was more leaning to wanting to

transfer, but now that we have 1 investigator progressing I would be

stoked to get that call that I'm staying. Awesome experience!

Testimony builder for sure!

Hope everyone has a great week. Sorry my thoughts are all over the

place. Typing way faster than my head can think.

Love you

敬具 (sincerely yours)

ー  シャイト長老 (Elder Scheidt)

[Our zone!]

[This meal with members from last week]

Couldn't get aHEAD

June 5, 2016

First off, it's my mom's birthday on the 10th so shout out to her.

You're the best mom! I love you so much. Also my buddy Dallin hits his

year mark on the 10th, so shout out to him too!

If anyone else wants a shout out just let me know.

Honestly I don't have a ton to email about this week because I had a

migraine that didn't go away for about 4 or 5 days. It started earlier

in the week and I didn't really say anything about it to my companion

and kind of pushed through that day, but I went back that night in so

much pain. I was basically in constant pain until I fell asleep and

then when I woke up it was back. It was a really hard week for me

physically.

Some days I had to push through just to get to the appointments and

then once we got back my head hit the pillow faster than the time it

took for my companion to close the door behind us and walk in the

apartment.

Butttttttttt don't worry because the week ended pretty good with one

of the best experiences I have had yet in Japan. One of my favorite

investigators cut my hair. He is such a G! He cut my companion's hair

a couple weeks back and it just made me want the experience so bad! I

learned how to cut my own hair pretty decent while being out on the

mission, but this experience was something that I recommend to

everyone.

In Japan they not only cut your hair, but shave your face, massage

your face, massage your back, shave your neck, etc... It's amazing.

I'll send lots of pictures.

We then taught him a lot about Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon.

His name is kitami San (北見さん) and he converted to Protestantism a

while back, but thinks we are trying to get rid of his bible and throw

in a Book of Mormon. We taught him about how it is ANOTHER testament

of Christ and how we study both together to complement each other. We

said the same thing in the past, but I think he was actually listening

this time because he seemed to really understand what we were saying

and also committed to read from the Book of Mormon. After all, reading

from the Book of Mormon does bring us closer to Christ. We know he

loves Christ so during our companion study hour we prayed and searched

for scriptures that he would like relating to Christ. We then wrote

them on a piece of paper and handed it to him. He seemed pumped, so

hopefully things will starting speeding up from here.

Grateful to be out here and devoting two years of my life. Some might

see it as a burden to leave everything for 2 whole years, but the

longer I'm here the more I see it as a privilege to give back to our

loving Heavenly Father and his Beloved Son Jesus Christ. Love you all

bye bye

敬具 (sincerely yours)

ー  シャイト長老 (Elder Scheidt)