Arise and Shine Forth

Hey howdies hey!

Today finds me relatively well. This weekend was good; we had two baptisms! Woo!! And this weekend we have 3 planned with 5 more anticipated (what's the difference? A planned baptism is when someone has already had their baptismal interview and all is good to go. Anticipated is someone with the date but not the interview. And now you know.). The Tigre and Granda families will be getting baptized, as well as the Huerta family. The Huerta family was a less-active family that we're helping reactivate, and none of the children are baptized, but they're going to be baptized this weekend. We're pretty excited.

We were able to talk with the zone about obedience and working hard and everything. We put on a whiteboard all of the numbers of the zone, which weren't too bad when our numbers were up too. But when we erased our numbers, the zone could see that something was wrong. We then shared some scriptures in Helaman 4 and Mormon 2 that talked about what happens when a group of people are collectively disobedient. The assistants (President's assistants) were there too, and today Elder Lamprecht said that they had been preparing a "machete" to help refocus everyone, but when they saw what we shared, they felt it was stronger and more effective than what they were going to share. After we told them how things were, we shared with them a theme that our zone has adopted, and some of you will recognize it: "Arise and Shine Forth" (D&C 115:5, and it's also the 2012 Mutual theme). We told them that now is the time to "arise and shine forth", and that now is the time to show to all that we truly are representatives of Jesus Christ. And this week was better. The missionaries had a couple of baptisms, found some more people, and are being a bit more obedient. We're still not perfect, but the zone is trying now. It feels good to really help missionaries reach their potential.

You may wonder, "Why is Elder Schomburg playing a flute in that picture?" And the answer is: because the second counselor gave me that kena. Also, I don't play it because it's horribly difficult to play. I imagine it's like playing the flute because you don't just blow, you gotta get your ombechure [embouchure] all right and stuff (I've never tried to spell that word before, so if someone could help me out that'd be great). I can get three distinct notes out of it on a good day. It's crazy hard to play.

Today I've just spent writing informes (reports? Also, that's one of the few words that the computer says isn't misspelled...because the computer speaks Spanish, not English). That's about the only less-than-fun thing about being a zone leader.

Well...what more can I say? Oh hey, Elder Pande and Elder Papworth are both zone leaders now too! Elder Papworth was promoted the last change and Elder Pande today. Woo!! Elder Miranda is...struggling a bit in the obedience sector I believe, but two out of three isn't bad!

Some days I just really want my mission to be over with. I miss a lot of you a lot, and some more than others, and when nobody wants to listen and no one does what you say, it seems preferable to just dwell on the "what ifs...". Thoughts like "Is Michelle still there for me?", "Am I being sufficiently obedient?", and such frequently enter my mind. But then we teach someone. We talk to someone and make them smile, or I feel a prompting and act on it, and the day changes. The mission is definitely the craziest roller coaster that I've been on yet, but I definitely wouldn't change it for the world. It's wonderful.

I love you all and hope that all is going well with all. Keep on trying to grow closer to the Lord every day. If you haven't yet read the Book of Mormon with "real intent", I would invite you to do so, for "a man would grow closer to God by following its precepts than by any other book." I love you!

Love,

Elder Schomburg