Fresh Off the Boat!...Or Plane.

   It's official; Parker Schnepf became an Elder on the night of Monday, January 4, 2015 at 8:30 PM. Then, on the very early morning of Tuesday, January 5, 2015, our Schnepf clan woke up at the holy grail-forsaken hour of 4:30 AM to drop our brand new Elder at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.

   As we headed out, we tried to savor our last hours we had with him before we dropped him off for the next two years (but it was really early- I may or may not have passed out in the car ride there and back). When we finally arrived at the airport we cracked some jokes, helped carry luggage, hugged a lot, our parents shed some tears, and tons of pictures were taken. Then, as we all walked him to the security check point, my sisters and I all held on to some part of Parker as we escorted him to his new adventure.

   It wasn’t until he actually walked into the security check point that we all looked at each other and thought what now? Well, I will tell you what we did: we waited.

   My father sat at his computer all day tracking his flights that started at 8 AM. Elder Schnepf flew to Salt Lake City, Utah, awaited his next flight to Atlanta,Georgia, then finally headed to Johannesburg, South Africa on a seventeen hour flight (and that doesn’t even include his connecting flights!). When he finally arrived in South Africa, it was about 5:30 PM there on Wednesday, January 6, 2016; meaning it was 8:30 AM in good ‘ole Arizona. There is a 9 hour time difference, if you hadn’t already guessed that. Elder Schnepf was super jet-legged and had a hard time sleeping on the cramped plane. Here is one of the first emails he sent us upon his arrival:

This is my second group email, and it won't be my last. The amount of flat balls down here is too many. Bad news is I've lost all skill to shoot a hoop. Good news is I am the king of defense down here! Basketball is the Elders game and boy are the competitive! I now know what the term "Church Ball" means.

As I write this I get pulled away and received some shots. Hepatitis is apparently a big deal and they gave me both a and b.

ANYWAY, this picture was of me and Elder Veney on the plane ride over. I got lucky and I got to sit next to one of the Elders!

The food is good and American so far, but give it a week and we'll see. 

Timestamp, it is 11:40 am and it's like early morning for y'all.

The showers are nice here. I was a lobster coming out. Dad, you should invest in these kind of water heaters. THEY WORK.

It seems that everyone here is so friendly and at the same time I feel like these jocks are really friendly like all the way. Most of us are in the city, but the rest are going up north to Zambia. Three Sister Missionaries are going there along with a third of our group. It's so weird to think that in two weeks, on Jan 19th, I will be a Missionary that is out preaching and teaching. I can not wait to do the Lord's work.

I will not come home early, this I promise to all of you. My mission will be hard and it will test my faith, but as I said before I left:

"What have I to fear when righteously serving My God?"

If you want to quote me on anything, quote me on that. Doubt not, fear not.

Next Thursday is my P Day in the MTC. Expect to hear from me again then.

-Elder Schnepf

And there you have it; our Elder is doing great and loving every minute of the MTC so far! Here is a group picture of all the Elders and Sisters that just arrived at the South Africa MTC:

Stay tuned for another update on our Elder next week! For those of you who would like to email Elder Schnepf, his email is parker.schnepf@myldsmail.net .