I'm Alive, and they have rootbeer here!

Yes Sir, I was a happy camper. But I'll get to that.

First, on Saturday I was on an exchange with the Zone leader and we get a call from Brother Pise. He tells us that his wife's relative has asked for a blessing and wants to investigate the church. We head on over there immediately. She is from Zim., and she said she wants a blessing and to know more about the church. She picks me to give the blessing, and the reason she wants this blessing is because she just had brain surgery to remove a tumor and now she can't see. She picks me to do the blessing and Elder Ratsibmzafy to anoint. After he anointed, I began the blessing  and I can not tell you the words that came out of my mouth. The Spirit put the words into my mouth, and I told her she would be fully healed, that she would be able to find the church in her home, and a great many other things that I can't say. After the blessing, she told me it was as if I knew her and told her exactly what She needed to hear. There was power in that blessing, and the Spirit is the one who gave it. I was just the mouth.

I can not begin to explain to say how much I love being here. I truly was called by a Prophet of God to come to this blessed land of many colours. It's amazing what a mission can do for you. Some days are hard, that's a given, but most days are hard work that I love to do. The Spirit is my guide, Christ is my Master, and Heavenly Father has shown His love to His people and I get the opportunity to be one of the ways He shows it.

Elder Campbell is a Cali boy and I'm learning alot from this Elder. I truly am loving mission, and I can't wait to get home to be able to share with all of you the experiences that I am having.

For now though, I want to tell you this country is still pretty awesome. I'm blessed to learn a different culture and to get to bring some of it home with me to show all of you that as well.

Here's some pictures of Cow head, my companion, and us being goofy. Love all of you guys. Stay safe and well!

-Elder Parker T Schnepf

 Descendant of H. Burke Peterson

Forgive me, there was a bear.

Not really, I'm kidding. This email shop does not have the best computers, so I need to keep this really short, sadly. 

So the power cut during emailing yesterday, thus why I'm sending this today. And I'm still alive and well (at least I think I'd now if I'm  alive.... I think).

So Just to summarize this week:

-I see my breath when I wake up in the morning

-We are now covering three areas... We got this

-My companion is now the District leader, I'll explain next week

-My pictures are awesome buy this computer.....

-I had cow head and tongue: wasn't bad.

I'm alive. I'm well. I got an awesome story to tell you guys next week.

-Elder Schnepf

 

The Lord has blessed me this Mission

My companions have been getting more and more obedient. My current one is named Elder Campbell. He has already white-washed 2 areas, opened 2 areas, and re-trained an elder. He's 9 months on mission. this guy is powerful. The area we are currently in is a place called Florida. It's a town and it's actually the MTC/Mission Office Area. I'm at the mission office almost every day now. It's nice, but people are stubborn here. There's Jehovah's Witnesses, and they just scare everyone off. But we get fed almost every day here... Looks like it's back to the pushups every morn with the Sit-ups.

So I came in with a baptism that was way prepared for this previous sunday. It went pretty swell and it was awesome because the Kid's name is Bless and he was baptized by his uncle who was baptized himself in Feb. It was truly a "Bless"ing to see the looks on their faces.

Also, this place has a ward and a branch which we cover both. In other words, that's 5 hours of church on Sunday. To my loving brother and sisters: I will Sjambok you if I hear you complain about church again. Go look it up. it's not pleasant. 

So that aside, I really do love going and meeting two different units. The people are super nice, but I still miss Etwatwa. That's were I was born a missionary. It's such a nice place. But Florida is powerful and I look forwards to teaching here. Also; they don't have Kota here. Praise the sun, thank Heavens, or how ever you want to say it. That means my face wont get any fatter.

Sorry I have no pictures this week: nextweek for sure.

Stay safe everyone.

-Elder Schnepf

PS

I did make enchiladas with a package I got from home. It was amazing. Send more cream of mushroom soup. Elder Shamanga loved them so much as well.

and i'm out of jolly ranchers. Just saying. Love to everyone!

Shout out to Wesley Castro. just because. 

So I'm going to Florida.....

It's an area called Florida, not the State. It's a town and I'm super not excited for it. Towns are hard for missionaries... and have dogs... But I guess that's where I'm needed or that's where I need to learn something. either or, that's what's next for this Elder.

So Last P-day was super interesting... we went to a ghetto snake park... yebo, it's quite.... questionable. But hey, I got to have an anaconda nearly choke me to death! (kidding, don't come here mom, I'm fine). It was pretty awesome zone activity, mainly because I got to go to a super nice checkers (basically Target, because forget walmart).

This last week was awesome at finding investigators, and getting them to Church. It was an awesome week! ...and I have to leave such an awesome place... as a Missionary I was born here in Etwatwa and I don't want to leave it. It was so hard, but I was able to get a bunch of pictures with the people. I also was able to get the super special people sign a journal I bought so I will never forget them. I definitely wouldn't mind coming back to South Africa even just to visit this one township I've grown to call home.

Anyhow, it was super cool to drive around because I know this area like the back of my hand... that being said I just found a scar on there I don't know how it got there either... 

And actually, before I forget, one family threw me a going away party basically. Yo it was super sad, and they all wanted to hug me. The Elder hand-shake was all I could give, because... well not gonna lie I don't like hugs to begin with and it's against the white bible. It was super cool though!

It seems that I really have a big heart, because I'm gonna miss these families. I just want two weeks to pass already so I can love the people in my next area already... Oh, and me and Elder Reid are finally going to be leaving the same district.

One powerful thing that one of the members told me to do before I leave is to read Alma 48:17 and to replace Moroni's name with my name and read it. I'd suggest all of you do the same.

Anyway, here's enough pictures to last you a transfer... Kidding. (Macy don't kill me). These are the people I've grown to love and here's be and a snake.

Can't wait to write you next week. PEACE!!!!!

-Elder Schnepf

The Hardest thing about being an Elder...

Is leaving the people you've come to love. I don't want to leave Etwatwa yet, but it's about time for me to head out and to another area.... Transfers are next tuesday yet I can already feel it in my gut that this is the time for me to leave... and it sucks. 

Me and Elder Shamanga have been going out tracking last week and apparently we had some of the highest lessons in the whole mission last week... We've been working hard to build up our teaching pool so that we can start teaching some serious investigators. I love this work. I love showing people the Gospel. I hate when they reject it because I know how it will bless their lives and hey wont even give it a chance.... The hardest thing about being a missionary is having your heart broken by people you've come to love.

On to a happier note, I gave a powerful talk on Sunday about hope. I was told to pick a topic on what to talk about, and sure enough after some prayer the word Hope came to my mind. I gave scripture after scripture about what hope is and how hope works. I ended by sharing with the Branch 2 Nephi 31:20. This summed up every point of my talk into one nice wrap. Apparently everyone likes my talks: must be that I have something in my teeth they laugh at.

It seems that the longer you are on mission the shorter the days get. Missionaries talk about the dead missionaries, the bad ones, the ugly ones, or the crazy ones. Everyone seems to forget to mention the best ones. With that logic in place, I guess I want to be the best kind of missionary: missionaries wont remember me, but the people will and that's what matters.

Also, this picture is of the morning of the Sabbath. The fog was so thick over Etwatwa that I was driving at 20 k's. That's super slow for you Americans. (I know I'm a American, sue me.) It was a pretty legit day.

Keep on praying. Keep on reading. If you don't, is it too late to start?

-Elder Schnepf 

This Week on SAJM: Elder Schnepf Edition....

SO Yesterday it rained, and it rained, and It rained. That's what really happened. I got to wear the beenie that my loving sister said I needed, and I love it so much.

Maria was able to be confirmed yesterday, which brought so much relaxation to my tense spirit. Anyway, there are some pictures this email about what I'm looking like right now. Also, there's my awesome keyboard I'm using to teach my self Piano... again.

So as I'm here I learn more and more each day about what it's like to be an Elder. It's pretty awesome at times to see people's lives get so much better because of the Gospel. And at other times you watch your heart break as people come so far and then just forsake everything and avoid you... A Missionary experiences the joy that no one else on this earth can ever know, but that goes for the sorrows as well. Reminds me that Christ was nothing but full of Love for others and Lived a very Sorrow filled life. Everyone hits low points... everyone.

Sorry for the sad email this week, but my ugly mug should make y'all laugh and cheer you up.

Stay safe everyone.

Elder Schnepf

So This Was A Nice Week

Look how cute he is!!!! We love getting pictures from our Elder!!!

So this week we got to do something called the Mormon helping hands... In other words we did service this week and I can not tell you how much I miss sneakers. These shoes are some of the greatest things on earth!

So what We did was we were cleaning a fire station here in Etwatwa. It was really fun to be able to go out and do those things. We picked up trash, swept all the dirt, and even got some awesome pictures like I added below. It was super fun to hang out with the awesome members of the first branch and it was super cool to were P day clothes for 3 hours! It was really nice.

So besides that, I was also super sad. Only one of the people Baptized last week was confirmed this week because the other was late to sacrament meeting. She'll be confirmed next week, but if she's late again... we'll lets just hope she's not for everyone's sake. Seriously, when it comes to missionary work I am my mother: I do not take no for an answer and I bug them every single day till it happens. You have no Idea how much I bugged the branch for them to get the home teaching list done. I'm a nice person if I say so myself, but I have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to Missionary work. If it's not done right, it needs to be fixed. Period. No exception. I'm a pain in the butt for the branch and I am not sorry for it. That's how work gets done.

Also added below is a Picture of Sister Maebela. She's a super sweet Gogo (grandma) and she loves Missionaries. It's super fun to share a message with here and a meal too.

Mothers day was nice. It was super awesome to call home.... and the time went way too quick. Like, it flew by. Christmas is gonna be just around the corner because I've got a lot of work to do. I can't wait. Fun fact, Missionaries get the whole day off too. It's gonna be fun, but there's alot of work to do first.

To my fellow Missionaries, I hope you enjoyed calling home. To all the families at home, I hope you enjoyed talking with your missionaries. To the Jones Family: I got your mail and I loved it.

"Keep your knees polished in prayer."

-Elder Schnepf