Letter #5

Aconteceu, havia um. And it came to pass, there was but one. Yes, Elder Knudson and Sister Gage boarded the plane this morning for Brazil. Out of the starting ten, it's just me left.

Last Tuesday I was told to report to the travel office, and I was literally jumping up and down. Everybody I know who goes to the travel office gets their visas. So I went, and they told me that I needed to fill out another form. Of fingerprints. So I had fingerprints taken for the fourth time, this time for the city of Provo. That was a huge letdown. Then Thursday the other two got their visas. And I'm glad for them. As much as I really want to get to Brazil, I have complete faith in the Lord and his plan. Even if I don't know what it is yet. It would be exciting to get called to Boston for a little.

The upside is, the teachers are hired, and are getting paid, so I'll be having one on one tutoring for the next two weeks, and they are amazing. For companions, I'll be with the Zone Leaders based out of Cape Verde, and they will be moving into my room. Elder Goodwin and Elder Leon are totally awesome. Elder Goodwin is from Layton, Utah, and Elder Leon is from Las Vegas.

Elder Knudson and I have been keeping our room insanely fresh this past week. It's been clean, but since we both enjoy cleanliness, it's been really great, especially since there has been only two people in the room. People come up sometimes just to see and smell it. Everything is clean, and we put dryer sheets in the vents, and the clean smell goes all over. So Elders Leon and Goodwin were actually pretty happy to move in. Our zone is down to nine people. It's me, and then the eight elders in zone c. Four are going to Cape Verde, and four are going to Mozambique. We're supposed to be getting new missionaries for our zone this week going to Mozambique, so that will be exciting. And two apparently are from Zambia. They have to fly here because the South African MTC doesn't teach Portuguese, and then fly back. So I'll never complain about flight lengths again. Also, there is two types of Portuguese. There is Continental, and Brazilian. Brazil speaks Brazilian, and everywhere else speaks Continental. I think Brazilian is easier and sounds better. 

Elder Knudson's older brother went to Vitoria and got back two months ago, so Elder Knudson shared some info about the place. Apparently it floods really bad, and the mosquitoes are awful. Like cover your feet at night awful.

So whenever I do get married, I'm having live music at the reception, and Elder Oviatt, Johnson, Pyne, and Knudson said they'd provide it. They all sing super good, and Elder Johnson and Oviatt play the piano really well. And now that they are all in Brazil, unless some of the new missionaries play the piano really good, I'll be playing sacrament meeting Sunday. About 1/2 of the missionaries here play the piano, but everyone in our zone who does has now left.

Rosemary Wixom and her husband Jackson spoke to us last Tuesday. Both talks were great, and for the closing song we sang the Primary song, "We'll Bring the World the Truth" which was wonderful.

Sunday, Lloyd Newell came and spoke. He is the host of Music and The Spoken Word. Apparently that is a calling which I didn't know. He said Pres. Hinckley set him apart in 1990, and told him it was 'until further notice.' Which apparently hasn't happened yet. We imitated Music and the Spoken Word. The MTC choir (roughly half the missionaries here, over 1000) sang a couple songs, and everybody sang a couple songs, in between parts of his talk. It actually turned out really good.

After that, we watched "Meet the Mormons." It was really good! And it's on Netflix and Amazon and everywhere else, so y'all should watch it for a movie night. I don't want to give everything away, but one of the people highlighted was saying goodbye to her son who was leaving to serve a mission. And the missionaries watching it, probably a couple hundred, were all thinking or saying, "too soon." And then at the end, people started breaking out into a spontaneous sing-a-long of David Archuleta's "Glorious." I really enjoyed it.

We had TRC this Friday again. From now on, it will be with people in Brazil via Skype. It was really cool. We read 3rd Nephi 17:5-10. It talks of Christ blessing the sick. We preface it by saying, the Lord isn't here tonight, but if he was, what would you ask of him? What do you need help with? What could be better in your life? The idea with TRC, is to have a spiritual experience with the volunteers, and find something in their lives to help them with. That's why we decided to use those verses, as it usually draws out their needs. This first person said he wanted to know how to better serve others, to serve them like Christ did. We anticipated that, but as we kept talking, he blew us away. He was doing home teaching, and had connected with the people he visited, he attended the temple regularly, etc. Honestly, I was stumped. So I gestured for my companions to take the lead, so I could think of some scripture or something to share. And after a minute or two, an idea hit me, which I shared with him. We kept talking, and it turns out he had been off his mission for only one month. I bore testimony, that a mission is fantastic, but he still has a responsibility to share the gospel. He committed to pray to think of one of his friends he could share it with. I really felt the Holy Ghost guiding my thoughts and speech that entire lesson. It was the best Portuguese I've ever spoken. And then, I saw him at the temple today so that was pretty cool.

I received a package from the Lozada's, which was much appreciated! The only other thing I need right now is a hug. So give a couple out for me, and I'd appreciate it!

For my mission scripture, I'll go with Isaiah 61:1. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me: because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound."

I took some pictures this week, but Elder Goodwin's card reader isn't letting me send them, so I'll send them next week. I'll just buy one here. I know Elder Knudson sent home a couple of us, if you want to try and get those.

I bring my journal to write my email, but I always forget my study journal!!!!! So, this will have to suffice. In Alma 4:19, it talks about Alma going and preaching "that he might pull down, by the word of God, all the pride and craftiness and all the contentions which were among his people seeing no way save it were in bearing down in pure testimony against them." And then Alma 5 is his preaching. I won't give everything away, but read Alma 5 for yourself and learn what pure testimony consists of. It was an eye opener for me.

And one more thought, I've been reading Exodus, and I love how in Chapter 1 verse 17 it says, 'the midwives feared God and did not as the King of Egypt commanded them" as he had commanded them to kill the Hebrew's children, and then they received blessings for their faithfulness, in verse 20 "Therefore God dealt well with the midwives" and in 21 it says they were blessed with descendants. I love how one person can influence the world's history. And how we are blessed for our faithfulness. And it doesn't matter our position. We can all play a part.

Love,

Elder Schenewark

With All My Love

Dear Boys,

The cinnamon roll fame has been resurrected. Mrs. Naegle made them for Fairland's first cross country home meet, and posted them on facebook as "Schenerolls." She said, "I just wanted you to know that today was the first home XC meet and you were remembered. Thank you for teaching me how to make Schenerolls!" Many posted such things as "Miss the Schenewarks and the Schenerolls!" Your XC coach Chuck Wentz said, "Thank you so much Catina and Amy Jo Schenewark for teaching her the art of Schene-rolling!!!! Miss many of you bunches!!!!!!"



It was a much lighter week in terms of sports activities: No football game Friday night, no tennis meet Thursday afternoon, and one less baseball practice because Miller had no ride; and no cub scouts, also no ride.

Your cousin Kaleb received his mission call the day he was home suffering from his wisdom teeth removal, and was called to the Anchorage Alaska Mission and reports October 28th. Unfortunately you will have just left! He has about a month to get ready, and everyone is SO excited for him!

After reading your last letter, Sis. Cummings said she's officially adopting you as "her" missionary for the next two years. Lucky you.

Dad went with your high school brothers to their open night. Porter's Calculus teacher was in awe of his skills and said he'd be dominating his class; Cooper's engineering teacher said he finishes everything he is given very quickly, and that he as a teacher will have to come up with new things so he can be challenged.

****Hunter, your Kindle password was a bust. Any other suggestions? We also need to know your favorite scripture for the stake center plaque!

Hunter, one final request. We also need you to borrow a suit, I know, so inconvenient, and take a full body shot against a white wall. Pretty please!!! We want you at the wedding. And Thanksgiving, and in our Christmas photo.

Tanner wanted you to know your website got over 100 hits the day he posted your letter on his Facebook page, and said you're already touching many lives.

This is a picture of the flooding in Olive Hill, KY, taken from the front porch of the Gees. So sad they've been flooded out of their home two times!

The fires are still raging in California...

Breyer and I still love to go to the city beach in the evenings. This week we went while waiting for Sawyer to finish his baseball practice.

Breyer overnight has figured out how to color. She does love and miss you both, and is growing up so quickly! We found a dead bird on our back porch, and she insisted she be the one to pick it up (with her hand in a bag). She really wanted a close up look at the beak! She taught her first family home evening lesson last night. She taught us how to stand for the right, at work or at play, by being true and choosing good movies, music, books, friends, words...very cute.

Sawyer and Miller begin their fall baseball leagues this weekend. Miller was moved up into kid pitch, and is being used by his team; Sawyer thinks he's the only pitcher on his team. He too was bumped up a league, and is playing with 6th, 7th and 8th grade boys. They were both part of an entertaining discussion around the dinner table on this year's Halloween costumes. The A-team clearly was the resounding favor, even with plans to paint the van, except Breyer felt left out and your father was not convinced there would be no political ramifications if Porter made himself look like B.A. The Scooby Doo mystery van was a close second, but Sawyer did not want to be Velma. Breyer offered to be Tinker Bell, and asked for a Peter Pan, Captain Hook and a few pirates, but that was vetoed as well, so we'll be discussing our costumes again sometime soon.

Your father has been working hard on his Boston travel trip for work. Sometime when I remember, I'll email you his list of things he plans to do with his students. I know Hunter's old summer stomping grounds, Virgin Impulse, was on there!

I shared your letter with the young women I teach on Sunday. You could have heard a pin drop, although they really wanted to know why "yes" was his answer. They were placated with your thoughts. Elder Soares said, “The world can at times be a frightening place in which to live. The moral fabric of society seems to be unraveling at an alarming speed. None—whether young or old or in-between—is exempt from exposure to those things which have the potential to drag us down and destroy us. …But we need not despair. … We are waging a war with sin. … It is a war we can and will win. Our Father in Heaven has given us the tools we need in order to do so.” The lesson was on the commandments, which are one such tool.

We love you both dearly. Your brothers pray for you everyday. Be safe. Be kind. We love seeing your pictures - send more!

Love,

Mom

Bridal Veil Falls Hike

Getting Hitched is Getting Closer!

We're Official! 6 Granbury Pirates and 1 Lady Pirate

Letter #4

Dear Family and Friends,

And then there was three. Elder Pyne, Smith, and Johnson all got their visas, so they left this morning for Brazil. Those three are all from Texas. All went through the Houston Consulate, and all put their papers in just a few days before coming out. So out of the original ten, there's only three left; Elder Knudson, Sister Gage, and myself. As of now, we'll be a three person district, but if anybody else leaves, we'll probably join another district. 

Before they left, the branch president asked me to be district leader, so I'm that for now. When we got here, our branch, which is also our zone had seventy something missionaries, but now we are down to 15, and will be down to 11 next Monday. Apparently all the missionaries are getting their visas in time and going to the MTC in Brazil. We haven't had any new missionaries going to Brazil since we got here, and aren't expecting any this week either.

Last Wednesday, we were able to act as hosts for the new missionaries, and welcome them to the MTC and show them around. It was actually pretty fun getting to do that. And, as I showed up too late to be hosted myself, I kind of felt like I was getting the official welcome to the MTC. We're doing it again tomorrow, and probably will from now until we leave.

Our schedule has been pretty much the same as last week. Lots of Portuguese learning and teaching lessons. This last Friday evening we did do TRC for the first time, which is where we teach volunteers in Portuguese. I think it's harder than our regular teaching, because the volunteers are lay themselves. Basically, most of them are students at BYU, served a mission to Brazil and enjoy coming back to the MTC. The challenge is trying to help them as they are essentially doing everything right to begin with and it can be tough in rudimentary Portuguese to find a need and help them.

The letters and packages received this week were as always fantastic. I got the Merritt's package, and letters from Uncle Aaron, Uncle Rich, Mimi, and Tanner and Annemarie's wedding announcement. Which I don't think I'll make. It's been super busy, but I'm hoping this week I'll be able to have some time and write some handwritten letters to send out. I definitely appreciate all the support.

Cool story of the week: Our district takes a temple walk every Sunday, and as Elder Pyne and I were walking, we passed a blonde guy in a polo shirt and jeans sitting on a bench and looking at the temple. As soon as I saw him I had the impression to go over and talk to him and tell him the answer is "yes," but I thought it would be weird so I kept going. When I passed by him, the impression was so strong that I stopped for a moment before deciding to keep going. Then, as soon as we walked past him, Elder Pyne said out loud, "I had a strong impression to tell him the answer is yes." Holy cow! I told Elder Pyne I had the exact same impression, and we definitely needed to tell the person. So we went back over, said "Excuse me, we know this is weird, but we both had a very strong impression right when we saw you, that the answer is yes." He about jumped up, shook our hands, said thanks and left. I wish I knew what he had been pondering, but quite honestly, I decided it doesn't matter. Both Elder Pyne and I really wanted to know, but the important thing is that he received his answer. Because this is Provo, I would guess he's wondering whether or not to marry somebody. It was an awesome experience as it was totally unexpected, the impression was very strong, and the answer was very clear, the answer is Yes, not whether or not he needed anything.

On Tuesday, Elder Gerald Causse and his wife Valerie, came and spoke to us. It was fantastic!! What struck me most was our need as missionaries to be humble and teachable, and how Bishop Causse is amazed at the apostles humility. But then, at the end, he told us to be bold. And he said that he was working on being bold himself, and to illustrate his commitment, he bore his testimony, and said that he would play the closing song on the piano. So he came down off the podium and totally rocked a rendition of Come, Come, Ye Saints. He started off slow and quiet, but by the end his hands were absolutely flying. It might be the best piano playing I've ever seen.

Elder Johnson, was supposed to perform a musical number at one of these devotionals, but because he unexpectedly got his visa, he performed yesterday for all the new senior missionaries. He sang Cast your Burdens on the Lord. It was amazingly good! As his companions, me and Elder Knudson got to see it.

Well, I think that about wraps it up. I never remember to take my camera to anywhere but the temple, so that's what the pictures are again. I'll try and remember to take it to the classroom or somewhere new.

I'm almost out of time, so I'll wait until next week to share some lessons I've learned here studying the scriptures. But I think, these last couple weeks can in many ways be summed up by this sentence I wrote in my journal last night:

When I left for my mission, I was going to be the absolute best missionary I could be. Now, I am working hard to be the missionary the Lord wants me to be.

Love,

Elder Schenewark

Fall Ball - Baseball is Back!

With All My Love

Dear Elder Schenewark, and Tanner:

Dad and I were reminiscing about the 1980 Olympic hockey team. They were all considered amateurs and collegiate players, and were playing professionals, the most important and hardest win against the Soviet Union national team. This U.S. team was called the miracle team, as the day before the match, columnist Dave Anderson wrote in the New York Times, "Unless the ice melts, or unless the United States team or another team performs a miracle, the Russians are expected to easily win the Olympic gold medal for the sixth time in the last seven Olympic tournaments."

The U.S. and Soviet teams prepared for the medal round in different ways. The Soviet coach rested most of his best players, preferring to let them study plays rather than actually skate. The U.S. coach continued with his tough, confrontational style, skating hard practices and berating his players for perceived weaknesses and to build stamina, his goal to have his team be able to keep up with the Soviets through all three periods.

As missionaries you too are amateurs. You have no degree or formal training, as ministers, pastors, clergy, and priests have. And you're not paid. And you don't rest. And you have and will perform miracles.

What a beautiful week in Texas. Anytime it's below 90 it feels so cool and spring like! Perhaps our weather has turned, and beautiful fall weather will be here for us to enjoy. Unfortunately it won't be this week. We'll be back up to 97 degrees, but I'm convinced it's on the way. I mowed for a long time Friday morning, and although the grass was very wet with dew, and I had to raise the lawn mower level to prevent clogging and stalling, it wasn't hot! What else in yard work, since it's such an exciting topic? I've been having Cooper go out every day and help me cut branches off our trees that desperately need to be trimmed. When I'm mowing the grass under and near the trees I get attacked by prickly branches that need to go! Were the hummingbirds in town when you were here? We love watching for them, and will be sad when they migrate farther south for the winter.

Sawyer had the activity portion of our Family Home Evening last Monday, and spent a good portion of his Labor Day making a Jeopardy game tailored just for us. These were the categories: Baseball, Princesses, Random Reality, and Popular Mechanics. I've enclosed a sample question from each of his categories for you to answer:

Baseball: $400 In Sandlot the dog’s name was what?

Princess: $800 This is what Ariel combs her hair with.

Random Reality: $800 This ship has a monument so you can look under water to see it.

Popular Mechanics: $400 Humans have made a solar powered plane. True or False

(Hercules, fork, Arizona, true)

We heard through the Facebook vine this week that Coach Wilgus passed away Wednesday. Did you copy his address in your address book? If not, and you'd like to send a little note, it's listed below. He was a great man, loved you dearly, and impressed us with his interest in and care for you.

What else in the news? All Nippon Airways has a new ANA jet modeled after Star Wars' R2D2.

This week marked the 14th year since 9/11/2001. Your father used my account to post our twin towers picture from July 2001.

Over 350,000 refugees have crossed the Mediterranean in 2015, many on dangerously overcrowded boats with leaks and faulty motors; through extreme weather and total darkness; and under the threat of mysterious masked gunmen that appear to be targeting Syrian refugees fleeing war in their homeland.

Mountains of life jackets shed by refugees after making it to the Greek island of Lesvos. 

Syrians run after entering Hungary from Serbia through a barbed wire fence near Roszke,

Ending the news portion on good news, after the last two weekend wins, BYU is now 1 of 4 new teams in the Top 25.

News with your family? Porter played in this week's football game, finally! Eight or nine plays. Fun to see him on the field. Maybe next week they'll actually pass him the ball ;-) He also took his first ACT test. He acted like it was a piece of cake. It will be fun to see his scores.

Breyer's still playing with her little frogs. This week they went with her into a little baby swimming pool that was given to  us, I should write down more examples, but I'm convinced she has description dyslexia. I just made that up. She says things like, "Can I get a drink out of the waterfall?" instead of water fountain. Everyday she wants to know, because of the Dr. Seuss book, if it's Wacky Wednesday. And when it is, she spends the whole day trying to find wacky things. Marvelous Monday and Fabulous Friday just don't do it for her.

Monday being Labor Day means to honor the holiday you should labor. I wanted to mow but it wouldn't work. I googled "lawnmower won't start," watched a video on cleaning the carburetor, and proceeded to do just that. Dad and I had a marvelous Monday learning how to take apart and put together the lawn mower, dousing parts in WD-40, cleaning parts with wire, tweaking and twisting, and we got it all back together and it still didn't work. Even though I had changed the spark plug, filter and oil in July, Dad bought a new spark plug and that did it. Mowing an acre with a handheld is a lot of mowing, but we're getting better at taking care of the mower! We had so much fun you could have called it a date ;-)

Thursday seems to be our busy day of the week. Cooper plays his tennis meets then, and won singles AND doubles this week, 6-0. Porter's team dinner was down on the waterfront. Miller had baseball practice, and Cub Scouts is on Thursday as well. Dad had to do it all by himself. I was away in Burleson for some training, and couldn't help last week or this week. So, because he was running hither and thither he didn't have much time for pictures. We have yet to capture or even see Cooper play tennis. We just have to believe him when he says he won.

Last night Dad and I went to the adult session of stake conference down in the Weatherford stake center. I love going. And I like making your father laugh. And laughing with him. I just wish my bottom didn't get so sore from sitting so long!

Have a wonderful week. Know how much we love you!

Love,

Mom

P.S. Hunter, your Kindle clue for your password, is "Four elements." Any idea?

P.P.S. The stake is making a missionary plaque for the stake center and wanted to know your favorite scripture.

P.P.P.S. Wilgus, 262 Township Road 1107, Proctorville, OH 45669

Princess Photage

Letter #3

Dear Family and Friends,

Week two in the books. The big news is four visas came for our district, so Sister Doge, Elder Broyles, Elder Jones and my companion Elder Oviatt left for the Brazilian MTC this morning. So it's me, Elder Johnson, and Elder Knudson in a trio. Four gone, six left. I really feel like I'm supposed to be here though for now. Elder Johnson had been having a tough time, but got Uncle Aaron's letter, (thank you so much Uncle Aaron) and as a district we tried to help out a lot, and he's doing so much better now. 

On Sunday, we had a mission conference, and the President of the MTC, President Burgess was speaking, and asked that a couple missionaries come up and talk about how they know their Heavenly Father loves them, and Elder Johnson jumped up and bore powerful testimony in front of 2500 people, that was very spiritual to watch. I really do feel like I'm supposed to be here with him for a little longer. 

On the flip side, I am definitely going to miss Elder Oviatt. We always had great study sessions, and liked a lot of the same things. Plu,s going to high school relatively close to each other. I'll also miss Elder Broyles. We've come really close this last week and were always laughing and smiling. Some people have big hearts, but Elder Broyles is all heart. He's awesome, and I'm definitely going to look him up after the mission. Just a great spirit. He's going to BYU-I. 

 

For now, there's only three people in our room, and we have so much space. I technically have three closets, but can't fill them so I just spread out all my stuff over them super spaced out and organized. Not that everybody wants to know that. I also made my bed six out of seven days. 

 

Last Tuesday, Elder Dallin H. Oaks came and spoke to us, which was fantastic. He spoke mostly about Preach my Gospel. His wife also spoke, and I really enjoyed her remarks as well.

But the speech of the week, goes to Elder David Bednar, for two straight weeks now. After Sunday devotional, we watch Sunday appropriate movies around the MTC campus. Week one I and Elder Oviatt watched him give a talk titled Character of Christ. I really can't do it justice. You just have to watch it. One little tidbit, and there was plenty, when bad things happen, the natural man turns in, and it becomes all about them, but Christ, always turned out to serve others. I've been working on making sure I turn out, not in.

Then this week, we were going to watch an Elder Jefferey R. Holland talk, and went to the room it was in, but I really had to got to the bathroom so we left, and when we came back, the seats were all filled, and there wasn't even room for standing. So we went and watched Elder Bednar's Recognizing the Spirit, which was another absolutely fantastic talk. They were both given at the MTC a few years ago so they are more informal than General Conference, but are insanely great. They have become landmark noteworthy talks in my life for sure. When it was over, Elder Oviatt looked over and was just like, "I'm so glad we didn't get seats in the other one." And I felt the same way. It was something I needed to hear.

Funny story time. So all these missionaries have memento type things that they give away right before they leave. Most of them are lame and get thrown away pretty quickly. So the older it is, the more famous it becomes, and those who are in possession of one such momento are accorded some degree of status. So the four people in my room, Elders Oviatt, Jones Johnson and I have received lots of stuff most of which we don't care about and get rid of. But The Milk is different. The Milk is a 3/4 filled bottle of milk which expired December 2014. The bottle is in a cardboard box which is taped shut. The people who have had possession of the milk write down their emails and when/if it explodes, the person who currently has it is supposed to send a mass email to let everybody know. So its been roughly nine months in existence now. There's also papers the holders are given which explain how to take care of it. You are supposed/ have to go outside, open the box up, and the milk and let out the gasses just to make sure it doesn't smell too bad. We opened the box to see if there was milk a couple nights after we got it. And there was. But we couldn't open up the actual bottle just because it smelled so bad. Even though I and Elder Johnson are still here we didn't want it any more. The box keeps the smells in, but for how long/ Plus if no one lets the gasses out, will it explode/ Basically it's the coolest game of hot potato I've heard of, but I'm happy to watch from the sidelines now.

Our branch presidency is super awesome. President Dansie and first counselor Platt both were mission presidents in Brazil. The second counselor Williams was a Delta pilot, but is now a life coach/motivational speaker. His son made it through the first stage American Ninja warrior finals in Las Vegas, and will be on again this week for stage two. Williams picks one thing every year he doesn't think he can do, and then does it. He's accomplished some pretty cool things, whether it's spiritual, physical or a mental goal for the year. He told us how he trained for climbing Mount Kilimanjaro by climbing Mount Timpanogos three times a week, Kilimanjaro was a totally different beast being like 8000 feet higher, but he made it to the top.

I received Aunt Jenny's letter, the Bach's package, and a package from Laura Lewis, So thank you all!!!! It was all wonderful and very useful. In terms of anything I need, right now there is nothing. The socks were a lifesaver. The missionaries going to Mozambique get rid of all their personal supplies before leaving due toweight limits, so I have plenty of shampoo, etc. For instance, I have four unopened bottles of aftershave. Crazy here.

The language is coming along, and I really feel pretty confident in talking and understanding native speakers of Portuguese, but I know my verb conjugation needs some work.

Well, time's up, and I think that covers this week pretty well. Thank you for the prayers. I have never felt this before coming here, but I literally feel buoyed up by prayers. And I'll be praying for you all. 

Love,

Elder Schenewark