December 28, 2010

Mom,
Happy New Year!
I was so excited to get to talk with you on Christmas! I hope you write me and tell me how everything went, preferably a dearelder so it doesn’t take forever for me to read. Thanks for the Skiing Santa ornament. It reminds me of home. I miss skiing, but there is no snow here, so not much of a chance. I’m glad to see that you got to go as a family! That is awesome! I wish I could have been there. That is my favorite Christmas tradition.
I have only received two of your packages, but I did receive one from Grandma Schenk. Tell her thank you for me. I got it in district meeting from the Zone Leaders, and the candy didn’t make home. But it was really good! The sweet hot mustard is amazing! l love it! So thank you Grandma! Also tell her I am praying for her.
I have been to the hospital 3 times in the last 3 days. The hospital is about 45 min away. My companion has an infection in his toe and needed surgery. We tried the ER Monday, but they couldn’t do it. So yesterday we went to the clinic and set an appointment for today. And then this morning he got half his toenail chopped off. Success! We get to go back Saturday and Tuesday for a check up and to get the bandage changed.
I was thinking about President Monson's call for more missionaries in General Conference and decided that I have the ability to help that call and to do more. Would you please donate the money I have in savings to the missionary fund for me? I don’t know how much is in there, so just leave enough that I can buy a few things here and there on my mission. I’ll try not to spend over my limit that they give me and only spend it on personal items. The money isn’t doing me any good here and if I could help just one more missionary, I would be satisfied. I was talking to the mission president’s wife today while Elder Felipe was in surgery and she talked about the importance of one missionary. If one missionary gets sent home, it has a huge impact. The area they are in gets closed and the work there stops. They want to open up some new areas here in our mission, but don’t have the missionaries until mid next year, and if anyone gets sent home then that will be bumped back and the Lords work stops moving forward there. One missionary is SO important. Try to get everyone on a mission you can. The Lord needs us right now. Christ cannot come until we prepare the people. So let’s get to work!
We have one investigator right now who is doing great! His original baptismal date was for Christmas day, but we were not able to teach him everything before then. So he got bumped back to the 8th of January. He was disappointed. He came to church this last week alone even though his member sister did not. That was a huge success as well. He always is prepared to learn. So many people here finish what they are doing before we can teach them. The missionaries really aren’t that special to them. But Restley drops whatever he is doing, grabs his Book of Mormon and is ready to learn. It is AWESOME! He is going to be a great member! I am excited!
Other than that our investigators are:
Kokoy (Restley’s brother)
Johnley
Leah
Noey
Macmac
They could use all the prayers we can give them.
Thanks for all you are doing. I love you all!
Love,
Elder Schenk