Last email. Elder S is coming home!

Elder Schroath returns home this Friday.  It has been a joy sharing his letters/emails with each of you.  Thank you for your love and support during the last two years.

Elder Schroath will speak in church this coming Sunday, May 31st at 9 am.

We will have a 'drop in' Open House from 7-9 pm Sunday evening for anyone that would like to come by and welcome him home.

Here are his last emails:
5.25.2015

Dear Mom,

So yeah it won't be a long email, but I just want to share how much of an impact my mission has made on me. It has been an amazing 2 years, and I have learned so much from it. Honestly, I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I started, but I knew it was the right thing to do. And I stuck to it and tried hard because I knew this was going to change my life. I was kind of nervous about changing...I didn't really want to.

But now I understand the change it puts you through. It isn't changing who you are or changing what you like or want to do, but it changes perspective. I can't even describe how open my eyes have been to the larger perspective of life. Things of the world don't really matter much at all, as before I thought it meant everything. I have an amazing appreciation for the gospel and the plan of happiness.

I understand my purpose and it gives me the motivation to want to go out and do the Lord's work. It is really hard to express my testimony in words, but just know that my testimony has grown incredibly. I still can't believe it went by that fast...and I don't know how the Lord worked so many incredible miracles through me but I wouldn't trade it for anything. And even though I will be so heart broken leaving this place, I know the Lord has more in store for me.

And this place will always hold a huge place in my heart. I love this place so much, and I'm so so grateful the Lord called me here because I grew so much and learned a ton that I am not sure I could have learned anywhere else. I love you mom, thank you for all the encouragement you
have given me, and I can't wait to see you:)

Elder Schroath

Dear Dad,

My last email time. Thank you for writing every week, I hope I lived up to what I was directed to do in writing family every week, I did my best! I still remember the exactly obedient talks you gave me in my youth, and I am incredibly thankful for them. It has helped me grow as a missionary and a person. I didn't just learn to be a missionary here, but also to be a better person.

I listened to a talk by Jeffrey R. Holland the other day (from a MTC devotional) and it talked about Peter after the Savior went back to his Father. And that Peter wasn't really sure what to do, so he went back to fishing. Like it was over. And Elder Holland explained in really good context about what really happened, how Jesus Christ was there on the shore and called them over and asked Peter if he really loved him. And three times he said yes, and three times the Lord said feed my sheep. It wasn't just while he was with Christ that he will do Christ's work, but for the rest of his life. That's what happens when we are changed by the Savior, we are part of the work and we can't deny our testimonies but continually be representatives of the Savior.

If you haven't already heard that talk, I want us to listen to it as a family I think, I really like it. So yeah like you said, I should embrace the opportunities to do service in my life, cuz it is still my calling. Well, I love you dad, I'll see you on Friday!

Elder Schroath

MTC 2 years ago

Sharing final testimony on his mission.

quick email

05.18.2015

Hey! so i do not have a lot of time because the internet has been going super slow so hopefully i can get this off. We are doing super good and now we have a new (kind of) comp Elder B! he is back in Chuuk and since i leave a couple days before the transfer he will be with Elder Robinson the rest. It will be good for Elder Robinson to have a new missionary to lead. Hopefully we can do a lot of splits with Priesthood this week. I love you all!

Elder Schroath

We had a wonderful talk with Elder Schroath on Mother's Day.  Although we could see and hear him, he could only hear us.  The three phones were our other three children and spouses listening in on the conversation long distance!

Elder Schroath will return home May 29th, just in time for Amanda's high school graduation the following day!  He will speak in church on May 31st at 9 am.  We will have an Open House that same evening from 7-9 pm if anyone in town would like to drop by and say hello!

Finding and Rats

04.26.2015

Hello again!

This was another solid week, first week of the transfer so we tried to go out and work. I felt that all the areas in our district were struggling with new investigators so I did a training on finding and I think it worked because the area that was struggling the most found 7 solid new investigators. Elder Robinson and I have also found a ton of potential investigators.

2 of our new investigators are Sanome and Kitson. Sanome is actually like Chuuk-famous for singing, and has lots of CDs, she mainly does religious music. But yeah it's pretty cool. I guess she used to come to church Mormon all the time, but hasn't for a few years. And now she is married and they both really want to learn more. After our most recent lesson, our member present told us that Sanome told her that Kitson has already decided he wants to be a member of our church. Which is a total miracle! I am super excited for them, They live quite a ways from the church, but they're young, they can walk:) haha.

We also have another investigator, Antura, who is on track to be baptized on May 9th. She really wants to be baptized and has already come to church twice. I am excited for her as well. We are going to do some more finding this week, and contact a lot of people we talked to this last week. I am excited. We also have District Conference this week so that will be super exciting, I love District Conferences.

For mother's day, I will call probably next week about when we will skype/talk, it will depend on if the internet is working or not. But I'll plan it for when you guys are home. I am excited to talk to you guys, even though it seems like I just did! haha. Love you guys, thanks for the update! This church is true, and the principles it teaches us leads us to an eternal happiness, I love being able to
spread this happy news! What a great day!

Elder Schroath

(email to Dad)

Hey dad!

So the typhoon recovery is still moving slowly but surely. Not really sure what the government is doing, they have been giving out rice and stuff. They did ask Pohnpei to come help them with the power lines, so hopefully that starts moving faster. It has been a month and we still don't have power yet.

which reminds me, I woke up last night to something crawling on my back, so I shook it off and grabbed my light and turns out it was a nice fat rat haha probably the size of a size 8 shoe and so me and my companion spent the next half hour tracking it down and killing it with a machete, quite the experience. Stupid rats ha

The new elder is actually from Samoa, he is gonna be a good addition because he is already trying super hard to learn the language, I think he will learn fast. I mean, he is starting in Udot so he has gotta be a good missionary.

thanks for the update! love you dad!

Teaching Efforts

4.19.2015

Hey dad!

This week was super good. We went all out in our teaching efforts. The reason we were so focused on teaching this week is because all the typhoon recovery efforts are kind of at a pause, the government hasn't provided any real help yet (a little) and so no one really has supplies to rebuild houses or cookhouses or get chainsaws to cut the big trees to clean their yards. So even if we offer our time for service, no one is really working and we don't want to do their work

for them, we want to do it with them. We did have 2 baptisms on Saturday for Santir and Ripo, it was a super good experience. AD, the kid we taught in Mwan was also baptized so we had a combined baptism that we did in the ocean because the water pump to the church is broken.

We had transfers yesterday as well, but pretty much everything stayed the same so that was nice. We are down to like 66 elders in the mission, really low. So hopefully we get a lot more over the summer, Chuuk needs it. Elder Robinson has been doing a lot better with the language, especially pronunciation. It has been fun helping him, and seeing the success he is having. The goal is to get him to the point where he could be senior companion if called upon, which he is pretty much there. He is very obedient, and is definitely helping me to stay

focused on the work.

I know it is my last transfer, but like you said I have learned so much and now is the time to use it to be the most effective. And I really want to be an example to all the other missionaries of how a missionary should be their whole mission so I will be trying really hard. We have quite a few possibilities for baptisms this May, so I know it will be a month of miracles.

thanks for all the updates with the NBA and missionaries and stuff, let me know when some of the other guys are getting home so I know! 

I love you dad!

Elder Schroath

Ha mom, you are crazy! I don't need shoes haha but maybe the new guy from Papua New Guinea will fit in those shoes...haha but thanks for taking care of me :)  

I love you mom!

Elder Schroath

Yes I have shoes

4.12.2015

[note: I noticed in some pictures I've seen of Elder Schroath I never see him wearing shoes so I asked him if he needed some.  That's what he's referring to in the first paragraph]

Hey!

I have been hearing lots of help coming from families in the states so thank all you guys for everything you do! It is definitely needed here. Mom, yes I do have shoes haha just no work shoes so I choose the flip flops haha (well sometimes barefoot works too) when we were in the typhoon, we were in the zone leaders house which is right next to the church, so that's why we were so close to the church. I took some videos and pictures so you can see.

Church went super well, we had a huge attendance at church mainly because we helped distribute food and so every inactive member just came out of the woodworks haha everyone wants their share. But hey they came to church so they were exposed to the spirit again and now we know a lot of less actives!

So us missionaries have no problem with food or anything, all the stores are back open and we still get money ha it is really just chuukese families struggling with food since a lot of them live off the land and most of the trees broke or at least all the fruit fell. So yeah I am good I don't really need food to survive ha just send me good American food:) ha. We have service planned almost every day this week so as long as the weather stays good we will have another service week. We also have a baptism planned for Saturday for Santir and Ripo, sons of a less active mother.

I love being here in Chuuk! These people are just so grateful all the time and so loving and willing to help out. I never thought a mission could be so fun! We don't have power back in the house yet and that is terrible while sleeping in a cement house with no fans or AC ha so we have been sleeping in the ZLs house. I think that is about it, I love you!

Elder Schroath

Typhoon Clean Up

4.8.2015

Well so this is the first time I have written since the Typhoon Maysak hit Chuuk! All I have been doing since then is cutting trees in half and carrying bags of rice! I'm gonna get jacked!!

But yeah so March 29th we had a typhoon hit, me and my comp drove over
to the church in the morning (it looked gloomy) and only 4 people showed up to church. Pako was one of them who is recently reactivated ha he is the man. But it was getting super windy and the power got knocked out so we did sacrament then just went in the house cuz we were on "lockdown". no one really knew how big the typhoon would be since there hasn't been a real typhoon in chuuk since 1990. But anyways for a couple hours we sat in the house and it didn't seem too bad, some tin roofs were getting pulled off and a couple tall trees fell but not too bad. The senior couple went up to Wichap for church and a tree blocked the road so they asked us to come get them. So it
cleared up and we drove up there (had to cut a couple trees up) and we got them. We passed the district President on the way down and he told us to hurry...that we were only in the eye of the storm!!

So yeah we rushed back and he was right. It came with full force and water was coming from under the door and trees were falling and the winds just got stronger and stronger. We had to go open the church for some members who wanted to wait it out in the church, scared their homes would be destroyed so that was crazy in itself having to run across the basketball court with rain and stuff all around us. The waves got super big and high too, they pushed boats on to land and broke a lot of them. Our house didn't take damage, except a little
leaking in one corner and a door broke in and got water and dirt all over. The udot house got destroyed:( the missionaries had to wait it out in the members house and a lot of their stuff got ruined cuz they ditched in the house. All of the houses/churches that were made by the church were practically undamaged. The typhoon stopped for the most part around 2 or 3. Monday morning we went around to members houses to check on them, some of them were just destroyed. Mama Merty, whose house is this tiny wood and tin house right next to the ocean didn't get damaged at all!! She is old and has a hard time walking and is just so strong in the church so obviously her faith protected her
house!

So yeah every day until today we have been clearing roads and helping
members build houses and carrying shipments of rice and ramen and tools into the church and distributing them to the branches. Lots of work. I am super sore haha. It has been really fun. What is cool about it all is that no one is really distraught, even though everyone's gardens are destroyed and that's a lot of what people eat from, everyone is just thankful no one was hurt or killed in the event and everyone is really turning to God during this all. It's so cool.

Well, that was about it for the past couple weeks. I did get the box you sent Mom! Thank you ha we were actually running low on food so thank you. I love you all!

Elder Schroath

These pictures were taken by one of the senior couple missionaries, The Martins.

Typhoon Update

4.5.2015

It's been a week since Typhoon Maysak went right through Chuuk State where Elder Schroath is serving his mission.  There has been a lot of information shared on a Facebook group I am a part of for parents of missionaries in Cam's mission.  I wanted to share some of the information from the group with everyone and most especially from a missionary currently serving there, an Elder Bloxham.  Elder Bloxham was in Chuuk during the typhoon and just recently returned home because of illness (not due to the typhoon) and will return to Chuuk when recovered.  He has been a blessing to the parents of missionaries there because of his first hand experience, pictures and videos he took.

Elder Bloxham has set up a "gofundme" page to raise funds to help with the recovery effort in Chuuk.  http://www.gofundme.com/qzjnzc
If you are able we encourage you to donate and share this link with others but please do not share this blog, as it is private.

We also received a very quick email from Elder Schroath just a couple of days ago!

4.3.2015 - email from Elder Schroath
hey  mom just wanted to shoot you a quick email! We are here at the
senior couples house and they were nice enough to let us shoot an
email, not many places with internet/power in chuuk haha. But yeah we
are all safe, doing lots of service! I might not email monday because
pday might be switched to thursday! Love you mom:)

These next two emails are from the Senior Couple serving in Chuuk, the Hardy's:

4.2.2015
We are safe and blessed! We got our power back on but haven't been able to retrieve our truck from the trap of giant trees, we were in Wechap to Sunday services when it hit!  Elder Schroath is doing great , no major damages! He lives in a sturdy cement home , I don't know when you will get this or if you will! Lots of love

Elder Schroath is doing great! He keeps singing what a great day to make us laugh so we won't cry! You know he came to rescue us when we had to walk home and leave our truck stranded between 2 giant trees! We just barely got home before the other half the bigger part of the typhoon! We are all so blessed and the elders are going about like the Armies of Helaman helping those in need! Got to hurry before power goes off , I will update you soon , your young son you sent out to join Gods Army has become a strong, valiant man full of love and compassion for his fellow men! love sister. Hardy! my heart breaks to think of him leaving in May but I know you will be rejoicing to have your son back home! I hope to meet the great parents that raised such a wonderful man!

FSM UPDATES new story: You can follow this link to read about the Typhoon
http://myfsm.blogspot.in/2015/04/maysak-distroys-too-much-in-chuuk-and.html

Video of Typhoon taken by Elder Bloxham.  He was on the main island in one of the church's in his area.

Information from Elder Bloxham April 3, 2015
He talks about many different islands that are all a part of the Chuuk islands.  Weno is the main island and Moen is the main city there:

From what I've heard from other elders, outer islands were hit pretty hard. From what I saw in Weno, I can only imagine what the other islands look like. All elder's were still on their islands when the typhoon hit. Elder H and few others who's houses were destroyed came in on Tuesday. The plan was to get everyone in Weno in the next few days.

The Udot and Pata homes were destroyed so those elders went to Romanum for a few days then were brought to Moen.  [Udot is the first island Elder Schroath served on.  The home he lived in there is the one referenced above].

Romanum was not destroyed, sorry if my last post made it sound that way. Romanum is where the elders were sent who's homes were destroyed until the zone leaders could come get them on Tuesday. I know the elders in Udot and Pata lost a lot of stuff, if the house has open windows it is very possible lots of stuff got wet. That was the case with the Mechitiw house.

The Mechitiw home is still standing. The roof started to come up and lots of water and debris got inside but it's fine. The missionary house and the church in Mechitiw were some of the only structures still standing in that area. The members are living in the church now.

As of Tuesday the plan was to get all outer islands in Weno in the next day. I am not sure if that was suppose to be long term or not however. If their home is ok, they may have just been coming in to get food and water and then head back out to help on their islands.

Many trees have been destroyed including the breadfruit, banana, and coconut trees local people rely on for food. They've been able to gather all the fruit that fell, but after a few days it's all going to go bad. Water tanks have also been badly damaged. Only 1 of the 8 water tanks in Mechitiw (area on the main isalnd) were still functioning when I left. The system that collects the rain water had also been destroyed. The church had sent a pallet of food and water on Wednesday, but they are going to need everything they can get. Many people will starve if more help does not arrive soon. When it comes to the missionaries, I'm sure the church will make sure they are well taken care of. The zone leaders were able to acquire some boxes of ramen, clean water, rice, and propane and were taking it to every area they could get to.

We had heard from local's the day before that a typhoon was coming, but Saturday night the baptist radio was saying the typhoon was not going to hit Chuuk. We were not notified from the church (zone leaders) until the first part of the storm was already starting to hit. They texted everyone and told us to stay in our houses. Luckily, the worst of the storm didn't hit until after the eye went through, so everyone was expecting it at that point.

Outer Islands were hit pretty hard. Because the living conditions are so primitive, most structures were destroyed. The Uman house is ok. From what I heard from Elder Smith this morning, Uman and Fono came in for a day this week to get food and do laundry then went back to their islands to help out.

Elder Schroath told me their house is fine. They live in a very large, well built house. Neaoa was not the worst hit on the island. We met him and his companion on the road to Mechitiw Monday morning, they were clearing the road trying to get to us after they heard how hard our area was hit.

The church has sent 250 bags of rice for the members, but that it will only last a short while because of the high demand for food right now. One of the Elder's is really worried there is no long term solution, and wanted me to ask as many people as possible to help send food for the members. He wanted to be clear that the food is needed for the locals, not the missionaries.

Really it means a lot to see so many families rallying around the people of Chuuk. These islands so often seem to be neglected by the rest of the world so when stuff like this happens, there is little hope for outside assistance. Elder H told me on the phone last night that they do not believe the U.S will be helping with relief efforts. The people of Chuuk are so good to us missionaries and are always willing to give, even when they have nothing. Even this past week, when they didn't know where they were going to find their next meal, they were so anxious to share what little they had with us. We had to explain to them over and over that they needed that food more than us.

Information from the Mission President.  After the typhoon hit the Chuuk islands it proceeded on to another island state called Yap which is many hundred miles away from Chuuk:

As you know, last week was extremely full. We had two islands hit by a typhoon, and relief efforts are proceeding through LDS Church humanitarian resources, Red Cross, and other programs. Our hearts reach out to the people on Chuuk and the outer Islands of Yap.
Our missionaries have been involved with much of the clean up of roads, distributing food, and other essentials as needs arise. They are a wonderful army of young men on Chuuk, and young men and women on Yap. It is gratifying to see them working selflessly to assist these people.
In the mean time the missionary work on the other islands continues. We had two zone conferences, and a Mission Leadership Council.
I don't wish to push the humanitarian efforts in the background, as this will be ongoing. (It is my understanding that a special cargo plane loaded with supplies will be leaving Guam tomorrow morning (Monday). It has pallets of supplies donated by the Church, and assembled by missionaries serving in Guam.)

Sister Zarbock and I will be personally visiting our eastern islands of Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Chuuk this week, to see first hand some needs and identify things we as a mission can do, and assist where we can.
Our missionaries have been instructed to reach out to all of the people, and assist them in the rebuilding and clean up process where they can as well.
May God continue to bless these great missionaries in their efforts as well.
President Zarbock

The following are pictures from Elder Bloxham. He has given permission to share them:

"We found Elder Schroath and Elder Robinson helping clear the road, trying to reach us with the Hardy's truck" -- Elder Bloxham

"Trying to make our way to Nantaku Monday morning.
This is the main road from Mechitiw to Nantaku." - Elder Bloxham (main island)

I believe this is the church where Elder Bloxham was when he took the video of the typhoon.

Mwan Church Building - main island

The Senior Missionaries (The Hardys) truck

Branch Presidents Office

Our family is so thankful for the Lord's watchful eye over the missionaries and people of Chuuk.  Although there have been five deaths, it could have been higher especially since they had very little notice ahead of time to prepare.  We continue to pray for the Chuukese people and ask that you add your prayers with ours that they will have the food, shelter, water, and help they need to recover over the coming months.  Please donate if you are able.