8 months!

Hello Friends and Family!

Can you believe that I am almost at 8 months in the mission?! Time flies, I guess! If you don't know by now, I have stayed in Orem and I am training Hermana Beltran. She's super great and we get along amazingly! The temperatures have begun to drop and we even had a couple of snowflakes yesterday. We have started to bundle up in our jackets with ear warmers, gloves, scarves, etc. We are still on bikes and will be probably for forever. But that's okay because the work is hastening. We attended a stake conference this past weekend for one of our stakes and our mission president was present and was on the agenda to speak. He introduced the four missionaries for the stake and gave a quick introduction on us. This stake conference was all about missionary work and how we, as members, can hasten the work. He made a really good point. He said, "These are your temporary full-time missionaries. You are the PERMANENT full-time missionaries and now we need to get to work." He spoke with so much power and boldness. He urged the congregation to open their mouths and to be not afraid to spread the Gospel. This is our purpose here as humans. We are to bring others unto Christ. Our mission president gave many statistics too! Last year at this time, our mission had 18 sisters. This year, we have 265 missionaries and 110 of those are sisters! Last week, as a mission, we taught 2,547 lessons and 1,300 of those lessons were to less-actives. 12 missionaries finished their missions last week and went home. Those 12 missionaries participated in 465 convert baptisms. The work is growing so much here in Utah and Elder Tom Perry is urging us to double it! We can do this! I am so excited for the work to come in the next 10 months.

         This week we got to spend time with our district on Halloween! Since we cannot proselyte on Halloween, the mission president has us get together as districts and we are allowed a movie to watch. This holiday we watched Ephraim's Rescue, which I have no idea what it's about because we talked the entire movie haha but I hear for Christmas we may watch the Saratov Approach or Up. But who knows!! For Halloween we ate pizza, and carved pumpkins together!  We didn't dress up but we had the amazing opportunity to wear jeans. I have forgotten how amazing they feel to wear and how much more you can do in jeans than in a skirt. So anyways, after the Halloween party, my companion and I went home and dressed up to keep the Halloween spirit going. We dressed up as Israelites. I will attach the picture! I hope you have a good laugh because we enjoyed it very much.

       Sad news. One of my former companion's mother died this week. She has been so strong. She has gone home for a couple of weeks but will be returning to finish her mission. The point of this moment to tell you have grateful I am for each and every one of you in my life. My companion and I were talking that night and realized just how blessed we actually are for our families, our friends, our mission, and so much more! There is so much I have in my life that others do not. I am healthy, on a mission, have a loving family, and amazing friends. Most of all, I have this Gospel and a loving Heavenly Father! I have so much and am very thankful!

      For Thanksgiving, my companion and I have decided to cook our own dinner and to celebrate with the nearby sisters. We are going full out! If there are any recipes that you have that are very special or typical Thanksgiving, please share!!!! :)

I love you all very very much and look forward to your emails every week!!

Love,

Sister Maren Schultz