August 26

We have been meeting with some awesome families. We have been talking more to Nicole's mom, who isn't a member, and she is so awesome. Her brother-in-law, Brother Yellowhair, is in the bishopric of our ward and his family is super great too. The other picture is of us and Stevie after she was confirmed at the church with most of the Mason family, but her husband isn't in the picture because he is still up in Chicago for his Naval training. The Masons, her in-laws, are members of the ward and they are really great. Sister Mason is really funny and Brother Mason helps me with my Navajo (and tries to keep himself from laughing when I mispronounce things). They've got two sons who served missions. Sometimes I forget what I have already told you guys and so I don't know what else to say. We are working with these two boys named Lynol and Lyman whose grandma is a member of the ward and they are really funny.

The mission will be having a temple trip at the end of September. One half goes to Monticello and the other half goes to Snowflake, it will be great, I'm sure!

I love and miss you guys! I'm glad everything is going well at home. I look forward to hearing from all of you as always and hope Aimee's birthday is fun!

Regards and love,

Elder Schaelling

Farewell photos

Here are a few photos I took at Matt's farewell. Thanks to all who came to support him!

August 19

Mom,

I have moved to Kirtland now so it is a 30 minute drive to and from Shiprock everyday, so that cuts a little into our proselyting time which is unfortunate. But we live with the zone leaders...

We taught seminary every day for the past week! It was a lot of fun, but the senior couple is here now and they are teaching this week and for the rest of the year. There are only three kids in the class right now, but there are 1-3 kids who are trying to get signed up. It was way cool to teach and all the kids are super awesome and I hope they learn to love the gospel and allow it to work in their life throughout this year of seminary!

We get fed dinner 2-4 times a week usually, so pretty good! There are a lot of really awesome families in the ward that are really nice to us. 

This week we had two baptisms! One was of this little girl who is 8 years old and her name is Nicole. Neither of her parents are members, but her older sister was baptized a few years ago and a few people in her extended family are members of the ward. She is such a funny girl and I'll send you a picture of her and her sister and mom if I have time! We have been teaching a girl named Stevie also. She married an RM and then started to become interested in the church and she is going to be such a solid member! We have seriously taught her everything we possibly can: patriarchal blessing, temples, etc. She was baptized by her husband up in Chicago (he is there for a few months because of the Navy) but will be confirmed in our ward next Sunday.

Aimee should be expecting a surprise in the mail sometime this week or next! Thank you so much Aimee for diligently writing me letters every week, I love getting to read them! I'm glad you're having a fun time :)

I have been eating a lot of fry bread and tortillas (Navajo tortillas are different from Mexican tortillas, they are more thick) and some lamb and mutton stews. I actually has menudo with tripe (stomach) this past week.

Regards and love,

Elder Schaelling

August 6

Overall there is one set of missionaries per unit (ward/branch) but we have two sets here in Shiprock since there are so many missionaries in our mission.

Yes, I am in a Chevy 4x4! They are good trucks. There are a few Nissan Frontiers and Tacomas. The Navajo tacos are pretty much the same as the ones as Navajo Hogan! The fry bread is really good down here. Kirtland has five wards and we are in the Kirtland Stake, there are lots of members over there. I couldn't tell you percentages or anything though. We just wear our suit to church or meetings. Between the two conferences we don't have to wear our suit and if it's over 70 degrees we don't have to.

Last week I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders so I spent the day in Kirtland with one of the zone leaders who is from Farmington, UT. It was a lot of fun and had some funny stories in connection to it. We wrestled a ram at a farm and it got pretty intense, we vacuumed up a bunch of wasps (about 30 of them!) outside of their house. We also found a horned toad, those are good luck and protection in the Navajo culture.

I've got to get off but I love you guys and I hope you're all having a wonderful time!

Love and regards,
Elder Schaelling

July 29

Ya'at'eeh!

Shiprock is still going well! I am meeting lots of people and the ward is really nice. There are some awesome families in the ward that have had us over for dinner, which is really nice. That Pioneer Day celebration in Kirtland was really fun, we rode on the ward float and helped the ward make frybread for the Navajo Tacos at the celebration afterwards! It was really fun to hang out with members of the ward and work and joke with them in that more casual environment. While we were at the Pioneer Day parade it felt like we were back in Utah in Mormonville, which was nice and funny at the same time. It was really nice to see grass again, haha, it's pretty brown here in Shiprock. I have been getting to know the other Elders in Shiprock better and I get along with them really well too, which is fun. We play basketball all together sometimes and I plan on getting decently good at it while being on the mission. People on the rez love basketball, so we have a sports night every and invite ward members and investigators to come play ball with the missionaries at the church. We stay pretty busy every day, which is nice, but I don't always know what parts to tell you! We teach about 15-20 lessons a week, about half less active members or recent converts and half investigators.

I love you all very much and miss you!!!

Regards and love,

Elder Schaelling

July 22

Mom,

Since I didn't check my email last week there were tons of emails to read so I only have 10 minutes to write this email. Tell everyone I love them and sorry if I didn't email back. I can write more easily than email, but I hope to respond more next week. I couldn't read all of your emails.

I am in Shiprock, NM! It is on the reservation, but it is called "city-rez" because it is established and whatnot. But I use the term city loosely, because by this standard Brigham City would be a metropolis. My companion is Elder Miller. He is a nice guy from Florida and has been in the area for 4 months and has been on the mission for 18 months. We live in a trailer behind the seminary building by the high school, but it is a really nice one because usually the senior couple who teaches seminary lives here, but we have it since school isn't in session. We'll have to move next month though, but I think we'll be teaching seminary for a couple of weeks until the couple gets here!

The flight here was good, but a bunch of baggage was misplaced and one of my bags was included. They had them rushed that day and we got them in the evening, so it didn't cause any serious problem... I really like President and Sister Batt, they are super nice and I get along with them well. I had more of an opportunity to talk to Sister Batt because President was busy interviewing everyone.

Shiprock is interesting. I have learned some Navajo and have done a lot of service already. I have been doing "man work" rather than "mind work" which is fun: we built a shed, worked on the ward float for the Pioneer Day parade in Kirtland last weekend and chopped down some trees with more service coming up this week! The ward is good, but pretty small. About 100 people come every week but there are over a thousand members on record. A lot of people were baptized without being properly converted or were baptized on the placement program.

We are tracting more than one would think. Dad will probably think that's funny.

20 seconds left, maybe I'll write you a letter too!

Love,
Elder Schaelling

July 9

Mom (and family),

Thanks for all the letters! I got Aimee's letter today and I got your Dear Elder a few days ago and the package on Saturday (but I didn't pick it up until Monday because the package center closed). I got the ID just fine and all is good!

Like I said in my postcard, I am district leader (my whole district is my same mission, along with two other districts I haven't met) and my companion is great... I don't feel too nervous when teaching, but I am still learning what I need to do to really teach the individual better. This time in the MTC has been awesome spiritually. The first full day, Thursday, I had a bit of a hard time understanding what my purpose as a missionary is. The missionary purpose is to "[i]nvite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in jesus Christ and His Atonmenet, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." That makes sense well, but in my class they were telling us that we shouldn't be afraid to invite investigators to be baptized in our first lesson, but that didn't really make sense to me because, first, I was worried about being abrasive and, second, I couldn't really understand why we wouldn't begin working on faith and repentance before inviting them to baptism. However, on Friday morning as I pondered this, the spirit revealed unto me a more full understanding of covenants. I understood that while faith and repentance can help us become good people, we are limited in eternal progression until we establish a relationship with God and become covenant people. This first step is baptism. As I learned this, I wanted to go to the temple immediately to ponder further but the Provo temple is closed! How unfortunate.

Today is my P-day for the MTC, but that is only for this week since we leave next Monday...

The food is great for being mass produced. I am sleeping alright, but we have 6:30 AM breakfast (the earliest breakfast) so I have to wake up at 5:45 and we usually don't get in bed until 10:30 or soon after, so I have been pretty tired, especially because we have long days just sitting in a classroom being taught or studying. They are keeping us pretty busy.

Tell people that I love getting mail, especially here in the MTC! I only will be here until Sunday essentially, so send it soon and Dear Elder is great too! Hope I didn't forget too much more. I have grown a lot in the short time I have been here already.

Love,
Elder Schaelling