Thanksgiving Dinner

11.24.2014

Hey! So not a long email again this week, all the islands were in so we could celebrate Thanksgiving! When we came back from Guam at the beginning of the month, we brought back to big turkeys and the Hardy's (Senior missionary Couple)made a wonderful meal for us. Half of our zone isn't from America
though, but it was fun getting together and having a meal anyway.

This week was good! Not as good as last week, we had more problems we
ran into. We have awesome investigators though, we just haven't seen them at church yet! But we are getting ready for the District Conference where we have already invited and re-invited every investigator like ten times haha so hopefully they show up! They get a free taxi ride too!

Sunday we got to have our first Branch Council Meeting in our branch and it was very successful. We got a few of them offering help in missionary work, because they have friends we can teach, and they offered their house to teach them in! So I am excited for that, because we can get strong member presents in a spirit-filled home.

This week we go to Guam again, and I think we will be reporting to a really good month in Chuuk. Right now we are at 25 baptisms in Chuuk, with one week left. It is looking to be a big week too so hopefully all goes right. The numbers have increased significantly as well for church attendance and lessons taught. It should be a fun mission leader council.

Hey mom Elder Rainey emailed me and said this girl he knows just got called to the Boise Idaho mission so if one of the sisters at our house is from Tennessee then ask if she knows my "mission pops"!!

Well, I love you all! I am thankful for all your prayers and encouragement!!

Love, Elder Schroath

Elder Schroath & companion Elder Paulis

30 lessons

11.16.2014

Hey mom!

This was a really good week for the Zone. And especially for us as Zone Leaders. Elder Paulis and I planned to explode this week and go for 30 lessons. The most lessons I had had as a Zone Leader so far in a week was 13...so I thought it was a stretch. But we went out and did it! Ended with exactly 30. We found 11 new investigators as well, 8 of them who are on baptismal dates and 6 are progressing well. One his name is Pito, he was taught by missionaries in 2010 and was almost baptized but then he moved to an outer island. Now he is back and we found him just by going to a house where we knew there were members...didn't really have anyone specific to teach but then it all just worked out!

We are also working with this Pohnpeian guy who went to High School with Elder Paulis in Pohnpei! He doesn't know Chuukese really, haha so Elder Paulis teaches him in Pohnpeian and I say some stuff in English. His name is Sanjer. and his dad is a less active who was in Elder Paulis branch back in Pohnpei! So we are working to reactivate him.

Another person we are working with is Erki, and her husband Nakich. They were taught a lot in Tonoas, but then moved to Weno and no missionaries ever taught them. So we found them and they are progressing really well! they just live far from the church so that will be the biggest problem.

Well, I am loving it here in Chuuk. Not too much snow here haha but that is alright. For my box, by junk food i just mean like oreos or cookies or chips or whatever haha but not like any of that hard candy haha or stuff like that. K i love you!

Elder Schroath

Happy birthday dad!!!

Cool story, the District President, President Wainis, also had his birthday today. He is 46! So since I can't really be with you for yours this time, I can try and make his birthday special and it will just remind me of you! So this week was good, we had 6 baptisms this week, 3 of them from my old area of Neao. Elder Garae is doing really good work as a trainer there! Considering when I got there with him he hardly knew any Chuukese or had never really taught anyone a lesson, he has improved a lot! He is the man. That brings us to a total of 20 baptisms so far this month, with two weeks to go. So I think we will be able to hit our goal! The goal we brought to Guam was 30 but we set it at 40 here in Chuuk. This week was stellar for numbers, where our zone averaged 33 total lessons and 20.8 average member present lessons. Super good, our goal we put was 30 lessons and 20 of them member presents! Our zone is doing work right now! I am so excited to become a stake. Elder Plocher and Barrus (the Assistants) came today
so it is cool to be able to work with them for a couple of days while getting ready for the District Conference. I hope you had an awesome birthday! I love you dad!

Elder Schroath

New Companion

11.10.2014

hey mom i don't have a ton of time today to email so i apologize, but
first to answer questions, yes i did get the box! And a box from
Grandma and Grandpa Pace so thank you and tell them thank you!! It
was like an early Christmas!

This week went super good, we had training on monday which I did by
myself, but it went really well and I think it was really effective
based on this weeks numbers. I got my new companion on Thursday, it is
Elder Paulis! We were in the MTC together, but he goes home the
transfer before me due to the fact he went in the MTC a month before
me. But we came to guam together and he was called to Saipan first and
after a year came to Chuuk and now he is zone leader here with me. He
is Pohnpeian, the neighboring island in Micronesia. He thinks he is
the first ever pohnpeian zl in Chuuk or anywhere actually haha.

We had almost 700 people in church in all of chuuk on sunday, which is
double what it was in July! So everything is keeping on the up and up.
This next week we are looking at 10-13 baptisms! I am excited to get
at least one of the new trucks tomorrow! I love you!

Elder Schroath

This week was amazing

11.2.2014

This week was amazing.

Well let's see first of all I did an exchange in Neao, with Elder Joseph Smith (from England) back in my old area! I was so eager to teach that we didn't have one moment where we were not teaching or walking to an appointment to teach. Elder Smith just kept saying that those two days went by super fast...I just told him that that is how hard work is! There shouldn't be any day not like that! Pretty much
what we did is we went and saw every progressing investigator and every less active family we could, mainly looking for potential Melchizedek Priesthood holders. And it was amazing how many miracles we saw and just seeing how the Lord is preparing Chuuk to become a stake. I have a list of 20 names written down for Elder Garae to start working with, and even I can work with them since it is the same branch!

We did some baptismal interviews on some islands of Friday, going to Uman, Tonoas, and Fono. I love being able to go to the islands and meet so many members. It really puts everything into perspective when I get to see the whole picture.

We have been having more truck problems, found out one ran out of oil and ruined the engine and now one had the front left suspension break. So those two are unusable now. And one has like no brakes...we are eagerly expecting those new trucks!

On Friday night, Elder Plocher got a call from the Assistants and turns out Elder Plocher will be transferred to Guam to be the new Assistant to the President. I will really miss him because we pushed each other to be the best missionaries we could be and really saw a lot of success. But I guess that is why he is in the position he is now! I will find out my companion on Wednesday night! Also meaning I have to do the Zone training by myself tonight because after mission
leadership council in Guam Elder Plocher just stayed in Guam!

Saturday though we had the baptism for Mienta, she chose me to baptize her so that was a cool experience! She was super prepared, and will be able to endure for sure. She goes to Seminary every day and is doing very well in high school where several of her friends (member friends) have dropped out. So keep praying for her she will be an amazing enduring member and go on a mission!

Which brings us to Mission Leadership Council in Guam, the meetings and trainings were awesome. We went in thinking we were going to get chewed out because chuuk only had 8 baptisms in October, lowest for a long time. But turns out the entire MISSION only got 20 baptisms total, the next closest zone to us with 4. Haha a bad month, but we were actually getting praised for it a little...but that is not the attitude I will bring back to Chuuk, because I know we can all work a little harder and plus I know we have a huge November set up. All of our numbers actually went up in October, besides baptisms and I know that these are all the blessings from exact obedience. It is working miracles. and we are seeing big steps on our way to becoming a stake. I am so excited to keep our zone going with obedience and with our goals. I could talk about this for an hour ha but I'll leave it at that!

To answer questions, Mito is like 30 probably, haven't had time to meet with him since last Sunday. Sammy and his family are members, just really less active. [Sammy is the boat driver that takes him to all of the islands] The new Book of Mormons we will be able to get to the members, I'm sure it will be really easy access to get them. I have not gotten the box yet, but we haven't checked since Friday so maybe it is here today. Well, I love you mom! And I love you dad! And I love you all! Miracles happen every day due to exact obedience to God's commandments. I realize it more now than ever!

Elder Schroath