IT JUST GOT REAL!

Family I get to talk to you in like a week! So since you are all wondering I'll will start off with I got my flight plans Our first flight goes to LA and then we go to Hong Kong, and then we will be off to Cambodia! It's insane we leave on the 8th and we get there the 10th at like 10 or 11 in the morning in Cambodian time. So Sister Collins and I aren't even on the same flights until the last two hour one to Cambodia. She is with a bunch of the Elders from our district. Darn it, I really hoped we were going to be on the same flight, but my flight group is great too. I have some of the elders from my district and then the Sisters that are going to Cambodia. Anyways we get to go on the last flight together and that's what really counts right. I'm so excited though/ nervous/ feeling everything in between I can't believe we are actually leaving next week! I do get to write you again, and by then I'm sure I will freaking out quite a bit. It's so crazy I'm so crazy excited to go though!
So anyways that was my flight plans we got those on Friday at lunch. 

Flight Plans have arrived!

So as for the rest of the week, so we hosted on Wednesday! So crazy thing I hosted this girl her name is Tina... played basketball at... guess where... RIVERTON WYOMING?! I pretty much freaked out because the Coopers had told me about her, and it was crazy cool to meet her! She seems like she is going to be such a great missionary, I she is going to California! Yeah I though that was sweet! 

Also saw Chantelle White on Wednesday, that was sweet. Always good to see some Star Valley folk down here, and guess what I leave the same time as her! I'm finally the  same schedule as the English missionaries so how about that! I mean most of them leave on Monday and I leave on Tuesday but that's okay! It's so crazy! 

We had choir on that Tuesday and guess who I saw there?! Sofia Hoffman! You know Kalin and Tyler's friend and oh my goodness let me just tell ya, she is beautiful! She said Tyler was like a brother to her at school. Haha it was funny she was telling me all these stories about you two and the funny stuff that you would do, and just how sweet you were all of the time. So yeah I've been seeing her around and every time I do she just tells more reasons why she loves Tyler!

Sister White

On Saturday Sister Collins and I were teaching Narack we had been feeling pretty stuck on him, but we decided to re-teach Joseph Smith. Not going to lie it started off a little rough talking about the apostasy and stuff. But when we started talking about Joseph Smith we had him read the first vision, and after he read it he was in tears well... we were all in tears and he just said I know that this is true. He said the holy ghost had answered him and he knows that it was true. It was an awesome experience. You know we really aren't the teachers here, it really is the spirit and I know that the spirit is going to help us! The Cambodian language really is going to come, it's the language of the spirit that is going to be most important. Yeah the lesson was awesome though it just reminds you why you are out here and that yes you can do it... WITH the help of the spirit. Even though it was really just our Lookruu the investigators they are are based on real people so it was great!

We had the chance to talk to Brother Moon on Sunday about Cambodia. He said that a smile goes a long way in Cambodia. He said that even if you don't know the language you make huge relationships with your smile, he just said always always smile. Hey I can do that right?! So yeah that will be me the first months when I'm trying to get a swing on the language. Haha then he also said that the people there are really blunt like they will tell you of awful you are at the language, but we just have to keep smiling and let it roll off your back. He also said that using the members is so so important so that's going to be one of my goals is to use the members as much as I can when I get out there. Yeah Brother and Sister Moon are awesome though! I can't wait to get out there and go to the gospel to the people of Cambodia. 

New Sisters

We also got released as sister training leaders. It was kind of sad it has been really awesome but the two new sisters in are going to be so great! I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to be apart of it, and apart of such great sisters! 

New Sister Training Leaders

We also talked a lot this week about how right now we are on the front lines in the battle against Satan, and he doesn't want us to go. So all of those doubts that we are feeling right now they aren't true, they are from Satan... I think honestly that's how it is with life, whenever we are doubting our faith that's not true that's from Satan! Our Heavenly Father loves us so so much we weren't put on this earth to fail, it's called the plan of happiness we are here to be successful and return to him and our families again!

 
Okay and as for Tyler I am really glad he is okay, that's super scary but I know the lord looks out and blesses our family everyday. I put his name in the temple this morning and I'll be praying for him! I'm really really glad he is okay though! Love ya bro! Get feeling better!

And Sethy you are awesome keep up the good work bro! Keep killing it on the golf course dude! love ya!

Kalin you're awesome keep up the hard work of two jobs! Love ya!

Mom and dad you are seriously the best I don't know what I would do without you! I'm seriously blessed with the best family ever! 

I love you all so much have a great week!

Sister Schwab

TWO MORE WEEKS!

So can we just talk about how I only have two more weeks left in the MTC, and how I get my flight plans on Friday? I am so excited I'm pretty sure everyone here is getting cabin fever pretty bad, which is understandable when you've been here for 7 weeks going on 8. We will be out of here with the English missionaries so how about that?!

President Moon

So last Monday we did our "Skype" with a person in Cambodia. So turns out the internet doesn't really work very well over there so we tried and tried and finally Neakkru Tshida just told us to give the lesson over the phone. Oh my goodness... that was pretty difficult. We taught the lesson to Neakkru's old companion who is in Cambodia right now. We taught on charity and the pure love of Christ, and with the help of the spirit, my awesome companion, and the women we were teaching it went pretty well. She said that we speak "cebah" and "l?aa men ten" so clear and really good, but I think she was just being nice... haha. Yeah but overall it went really well and we are going to try to Skype again tonight so hopefully it will go well, and maybe we won't do it through the phone this time, still though it was good practice I guess!

Biking statue that'll be us soon, but through the rain... haha

​MTC life is tunnel life sometimes

Really there isn't really much this week... just another normal week at the MTC. We gave a lesson to Narack and I was talking about how we can receive answers from our prayers, and talked about the decision to serve a mission... he asked me what verse answered my prayer, and I shared one about how the gospel heals families and we can have salvation... Then I shared about Aunt Gloria well... at least I tried to in as much Cambodian as I could... Still started to bawl! Yeah I just feel super lucky to have the knowledge that we do, that we can live with our families through eternity. Everyone deserves to hear the message of the gospel. It really does heal families! That's why I want to share it because it has healed my family and I want it to heal others, every deserves to know about the pure love that Christ has for all of god's children!

So we ran into a Sister that served in Cambodia and a couple that served in Cambodia. They all just love it so so much. It is super comforting when you talk to people about Cambodia. They say you just have to chose to love it right off of the bat, and then you'll have the best mission everywhere. They are like oh they love Americans, but be ready to be laughed at with the language and everything! Count me in I'm ready to be laughed at... they say 3000 mistakes and you're fluent so I'll just keep adding those up haha. I'm really excited to get out there and meet the people, and just the culture and everything it's going to be awesome, and overwhelming!

We had new missionary orientation on Wednesday. We had 27 new Cantonese come in so that's pretty sweet. We had four new sisters come in as well! So yeah pretty much doubled the sister's in our branch. They all seem really great!!

So really nothing else I translated Ether 12:27 and I'm trying to memorize it, so far I have most of it down just need to memorize the last two lines. I will send a picture of it. Gosh that script is insane let me tell ya. I know with the Lords help though there's no worry about the language or reading because it will come. Brother Weaver talked about how we don't need to worry if we are going to fail or succeed. Heavenly Father already has it planed out who we are going to teach, when we will learn the language, all we need to do is work and do our best because he's got it all planned out. Just a good reminder because it really is easy to forget sometimes.

Okay, that was pretty much it for the MTC life, but can we just talk about Sethy for a second! Dude my brother is a flipping stud!!!!! Birdie win in a playoff, dude that's sweet! Not too bad getting first in the first tournament of the year! Keep it up Sethy that is so awesome! you're such a stud! Love ya little bro! Keep it up! Tyler, Kalin you're pretty cool too, haha kidding kidding love ya you're both awesome.

Mom and dad thanks for the packages!!! I love them they really make my day everytime, and thanks for the dear elders everyone! Mom could you send me my sunglasses, maybe some stickers and cards to give the people of Cambodia? I love you all so much and hope you have a great week! Next week when I write you I'll have my flight plans and one more week here! And I get to talk to you in two weeks like the real deal... on the phone!
Love you all, have a great week!
Sister Schwab

3 weeks to go!

Alright fam and friends

You know you've been here in the MTC for too long when the 6 weekers leave this week. Said goodbye to Johnny yesterday! Crazy it's gone by really fast though, we like get our flight plans next week! How crazy is that?! 9 weeks really is long... but short, it will be good I know I need these next couple of weeks to really improve and work at the language and everything. I'm crazy excited/ nervous. It's going to be so awesome though.

Goodbye Elder Drenth

Awkward handshake

Anyways so yes I got called out during the Nashville tribute band performance, and yes I was shocked when they called me out! Then I was like awe Uncle Danny, and then I thought you know i miss those guys... I really do have the best family ever!!!! Sorry everyone else but it's true. Yeah it was cool to get the shoutout though because when one missionary from the zone or district gets a shoutout we pretty much all get one because you know that's just how we work around here. Yeah thanks uncle danny for the shoutout love you too!! Love all of you!!! The performance itself was really awesome, I think it was so good for all the missionaries to just sit there relax and listen to the spirit through music you know. The MTC choir sang back up for I was Born, John, and we tried to sing along to the missionary tribute song.. key word there tried we were all crying... well at least the sisters were at least. I went up and talked to the singer who gave me the shout out and asked how he knew danny, he said he was going to be with him today so that's pretty neat. I feel super lucky to have been here when they performed because I don't know if that will ever happen again.

Bow

As for investigators we are just preparing Sophia for baptism on Saturday and Narack asked us " how do I become a member of the church?" and we were just like "well let us just tell ya" seriously the best question any person could ever ask ever! So this next week we will just prepare for his baptism date on next saturday and for those of you that don't know "investigators" they are just our lookkros so it's really just for practice, but still! Kind of neat!
We got to host on wednesday that was super fun to be on the other end of things. Although gosh all the sisters I helped were so gosh darn strong compared to how I was when I left you guys just trying to keep those tears inside as my throat burned. They were just chill with it! All the sisters I helped were really awesome, it's exciting to see all of these new missionaries that are going to go out and do such amazing things.

Temple Walk

TRC on saturday we taught the nicest old lady her name was Om Neak. She came here from Cambodia. She has three kids that have served one in south Carolina, one in Cambodia, and one in Korea. I mean come on how awesome of a family does she have. She told both of us to go and get her number from the front desk, and when we come back from Cambodia she is going to feed us all of this Cambodia food, and we have to come and visit her. She was seriously the sweetest then she gave us a group us before we left. Makes me excited to get out there, but goodness I wish I could understand more! I still have a lot that I need to learn first. The people from Cambodia are so humble and loving though. There's no where else I would rather be serving.
So remember Brother and Sister Moon the former presidents of Cambodia mission... Well guess who are new second counselor in the Branch Presidency is??? Yep you got it Brother Moon. How awesome is that?! We met them yesterday, they said that they really didn't want to leave Cambodia. Sister moon said " the first three month is like you hanging onto a bar going a round the world, and you feel like you are spinning super fast, and you just try to keep hanging on. Then after that you are still spinning just as fast it just doesn't feel that way. She said it really is the best, the people are humble, and need the gospel. She said just to take everything like an expierience with a really positive attitude. You can just tell how much her and her husband love love love the cambodian people and their mission. It's so great how they are going to be with us these next three weeks before we go.
Oh we also get to skype this today! Wish us luck... pray for us! Hopefully we will be able to understand, and teach with the spirit what they need to hear. It's pretty exciting though and pretty nerve racking. That's pretty much how i feel all of the time... it's awesome. I'm super grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary... I 'm really excited to see what the Lord has in store, I know it's going to be hard but I mean life is hard, everything is going to be worth it in the end, and I know the Lord is going to help us every step of the way! Well Love you everyone! So good to hear from you always!
Have a great week!
Love
Sister Schwab

Halfway to Cambodia

Family! Hey what's up?

Well if I'm being completely honest with you all this week was pretty rough. I mean it was a good week, but it was the halfway point where you realize oh crap I'm here for another month, or oh shoot I'm leaving in a month and I know nothing . . .I think the hardness of the week started off because we tried to read a verse from the Book of Mormon and gosh it felt impossible. Reading is just insane. Although, I'm just embracing the fact that I won't know anything when I get there anyways, but I'm still going to try!

Anyways as for our amazing speaker this last tuesday...drum roll please... President Nelson. Seriously was so awesome. It was crazy because right when he walked into the room to speak it was like boom insta-spirit. No for real though it was like a wave that just hits you. It was awesome. He talked about how we are preparing the world for the second coming. He also said something that was really cool to think about he said just imagine our homecoming, how happy everyone is going to be, and then just imagine when we die, and how amazing that homecoming is going to be! When we are reunited with our family and our father in heaven. Who has sent us here and is just waiting for us to return to him.It's insane we could've been listening to the future prophet! Crazy! Such an amazing experience.


So Sister Collins and I were walking to lunch and some Elders stopped us and in broken English asked if they could bare their testimonies to us. We were like oh yeah for sure. So one Elder was from Thailand and the other was from Korea, and they simply said I know we are children of god, christ is perfect, book of mormon true, and prophet true. They were the most simple testimonies ever, but I've never felt the spirit so strong. It's just a testimony to me that even though we may not be able to say everything, all we have to do is communicate through spirit so that the people can feel of christ's love for them! After they bore their testimonies we did ours in Cambodian it was a really neat experience.


Oh let me tell about Friday, so friday English fast. If you don't know what an english fast is it's where you just speak Cambodian all day. That was a rough day, I mean we all did pretty well, and we made it through the day, but it just made me realize how much I really don't know. Still though we made it through and I feel like we all learned a lot from it. It was a pretty quiet day with the entire district, and we were all really happy when we could speak english again haha. Yeah so we did that on friday.


On saturday we had our lesson for TRC and we were going to teach about obedience, but we went in there and Koontii just talked about how stressed she has been because of school and tests and everything so me and sister collins just looked and each other, and we had picked favorite scriptures from the beginning of the week, and just turns out that they were exactly what she needed to hear. We shared Alma 37:36-37 I think.... it's about counseling with the lord, and placing your trust in him. It was a good lesson though, and lead by the spirit which was awesome. I mean we still have so much to learn, but it was cool to see that sometimes what you plan isn't what they need and the spirit will help you when that happens.


So sunday I had an interview with Brother weaver okay brother weaver like nicest man ever, and his wife same thing they are so so incredible. Anyways he told me this story after I told him about language and stuff. He said that when they served in Washington they were sharing missionary moments in relief society and one women stood up and said well I'm not a member but I want to share my missionary moment. They said that they had just got done putting groceries in their house and they saw two sister's knocking on doors, she said that there was a light just surrounding the sisters. She said both her and her husband kneeled and prayed for those sisters to come to their house, and they were giddy that after knocking on the door across the street the sisters headed over to their house. She got baptized three weeks later. Brother weaver told me, he said "that family was converted before those sisters even said a word" I don't need to know the language perfectly I just need to bring that spirit and love. It was a really awesome story though, and was like bawling when he told me that. i was like " even though it doesn't look at it I promise I'm okay and I'm loving it." He just told me he's worried if sisters don't cry! Well no problems there right, I always cry in my interviews with Brother Weaver.


Then Sister Collins and I gave a lesson on the atonement. I gave that parable of the pushups story, and oh my gosh, I'm just glad I finished it. With me and Sister Collins team teaching you can almost guarantee there will be tears haha. The lesson went well though. I feel super lucky to have such a great companion. She's going to be so awesome out there.


Oh yeah and on Tuesday we taught boon sophia and offered if he wanted to get baptized and he accepted! Again, we were both crying at the end of the lesson, haha and he's not even a real investigator. Yeah, but it was awesome and the spirit was really strong. Overall it was a good week just kind of hard with the whole language/reading thing!


Thanks so much for the packages and the dear elders and everything though I love them so much. Dude mom those cinnamon rolls were so good, gosh I may get fat though! haha! They were delicious! Also you totally read my mind with those Kind granola bars, I could for sure use more of them! As for anything I'm craving... haha I don't know just surprise you're the best pretty sure you know what I want more then I do! I seriously love you all so much! I only have three more P-days after this one crazy right?! I can't wait and I'm also nervous! I'm excited to share this amazing gospel though! Love you all so much hope you have a great week


love,


Sister Schwab


ps-we get to sing with the national tribute band. It's going to be awesome they are like doing a little fireside concert for us. We are going to sing with them for like two songs...mtc choir is i mean.


pss we get to host t! So that'll be exciting!

Week #4 Halfway!

Well hey everyone!

How's it going in the real world? So first things first Sister Mon got her visa!! Yeah she left for Thailand she was so stinking excited! She was like "last week I could not smile, but now I cry and smile." She came and found Sister Collins and I to tell us first. Goodness she is going to be so amazing out there! yeah so now it's just the five of us in a room together... a very small room. Lucky everyone here is just awesome. Also the teacher's talked to Elder Rom and may send him out early because he is already fluent in the language. I don't know if they will or not, but they have talked to him about it.

We had new missionary orientation with the Thai's there were like 13 elders that came in. No sisters!! Seriously there are 75ish people in our zone and only 5 sisters. They need to get out here. Well I came into the MTC is was the first time ever the sisters out numbered the elders. Which is so awesome, but now there are way more elders then there are sisters. Yeah the new Thai district is pretty awesome though! Our zone is getting pretty big.






Anyways.... so as for teaching this week. It went really well we are getting better and better every lesson. It just really depends on how much we rely on the spirit when we teach. Some lessons are better than others. We taught about Adam and Eve... kind of hard to explain with our limited vocabulary, but then again that's why we are here to learn. Gotta learn everyday.



We taught our other investigator about Joseph Smith and it went so good! I love teaching about the restoration, and next we are going to teach him more about christ and how to follow his example. We are pretty excited to teach about that to. Hopefully it goes well. It's just hard when they ask questions and we have no idea what they ask which makes it hard. i mean usually we know what they ask but answering it is hard. We just have so much more to learn.
Lookkro Garlik, our teacher, was showing us some pictures of his mission, and then he bore his testimony, and he just started bawling. He just talked about how the lord is going to help us receive revelation for ourselves and for our investigators. He said he wishes he could switch us places and go back on his mission because he loved it so much. Some days more than others you can just feel the love of the people of Cambodia. That was for sure one of those days.
We got letters from the MTC presidents on thursday... or I think it was thursday. . . the days just blend together here. They just said that they already have pictures of us and can't wait for us to get down there. They love the people and the culture.




We did TRC on saturday and the first women we taught is from japan but went to Cambodia on her mission! How awesome is that. We taught her how to increase faith, and really she taught us and talked about how she learned faith and her faith grew while on her mission. Because you have to have faith that the lord is going to help you with the language the people just everything. Then we taught another women who came here from Cambodia and is going to school at BYU provo. She was awesome. Those children of god need the gospel.


Sheri Dew did the sunday devo yesterday and she was amazing! She's just amazing! you should read some of her stuff. Yeah we been talking about just in the pre mortal life the people of Cambodia or wherever we are going chose to come down to earth and be born in a family without the gospel, and how we promised them that we would come find them one day and share this message with them. So when the days are hard or long that's what you've got to remember. We don't go on missions for ourselves we go to show our love for heavenly father, and keep those promises we made long ago.


Anyways this week has been super good! I love you all so much!!! I hope you are having a great week. Thanks for the shoes and the shirts you're the best love ya! I miss and love all of you! Thanks for all the dear elders they make my day!
Love Sister Schwab