We were able to talk to Stephen I mean Elder Schmidt on Sunday. It was so good to hear his voice. He sounds so happy and he is doing great.
He did get transferred to Lake forest. He said the area is not very big but a lot of people, it is by Orange County. He said a lot of gated communities. Makes tracting hard. Alot of apartment complexes. But everyone thinks they are soliciting. So they get kicked out of the apartment complexes also.
He told us this story.. The Mission Office told them that someone at a Veterans Hospital had requested a blessing so they went and had a hard time finding him but gave him a blessing. When they got home the Mission Office was contacting them again to go give the blessing to the man in the hospital. So they went again and found out they had given the blessing to the wrong person. But he must of had a lot of faith because he was doing really well after their blessing. So now they have two people to visit and teach at the Veterans Hospital. ha ha.
He said it is really warm. But every time they get super hot and thirsty people stop and give them bottles of water. Most of the time these people are not LDS. He said a lot of members stop them on the street and give them food. They always say I have a family member serving somewhere so I have to feed you guys so someone will feed my brother or whoever.
He said his new companion is from Lindon and he doesn't like to jog in the mornings this was the best news for Stephen. Riding his bike all day is enough exercise for him. He said he is happy to do some sit ups and push ups in the morning and save his cardio for his bike.
He said he is learning a lot and enjoying meeting new people all the time. He said he has learned how to say "Whats your name ?" in Spanish. alot of Spanish speaking people in his area and a different language I had never heard of it sounds like a combination of English and Chinese.
Alyssa and Wes were visiting while he called and Alyssa was able to give him a hard time for not writing her. He said that the one letter he sends a week to mom answers every bodies questions. Stephen is not a big talker. But he did say he is getting packages from people but they do take a while to get to him. Everything goes through the mission office, and there are 200 missionaries in his mission so it takes a while for his mail to get to him.
We asked him if there was anything he needed and his said new music and he also wanted conference on CD so he could listen to it. He has a Del Taco close by and a Walmart. He asked me to send him some cold cereal. The members are feeding them great. The boy that they baptized in his last area cooked the Elders a special meal the night before his baptism. It was a fish. His companion got the head and Stephen got the tail. He was so glad he got the tail. He said he didn't care that he had to pick out all the bones he was just so glad he didn't have to eat the head.
Its was amazing to all of us how mature and grown up he sounded. It was evident that he has a testimony of the restored gospel and relys heavily on inspiration from the Lord in his day. He feels guided and directed to teach people. He is still very up beat and is loving his mission.
It was so good to hear his voice and know that he is doing good but made me miss him. I know he is in the best place for Stephen and I am so proud of him. Well this week we should have another great letter.
