April 26, 2011

Family,
I had a great week here. We had a lot of success, and met all of our mission standards and got more I2L's (Inviting people To Learn) than I have ever gotten or even heard of. The Mission standard is 140 and we got 209! That was sweet. My companion is great. He has been in the area for 2 transfers now (3 months). Our area is really small. It’s about a 10 min drive on the highway from one end to the other, and we only have one side of the street. We ride motorcycles almost all the time, there really isn’t any other form of transportation but walking when you get away from the highway. We have 2 really good progressing investigators who both attended church last week. One is for sure going to be baptized. She is an older woman, Susan, who really wants it. Her baptism is in 2 weeks. The other is Zenida Algabre who has bounced around from church to church and finally decided she likes this one. She was finally able to come to church last week because her husband let her. That was a great success. She really wants to be able to pay tithing and fast. She understands the principles and blessings behind them. Her only concern, which is one I am really grateful for, is that when you get baptized you make a covenant to the Lord. In other churches there is no covenant. So she knows that if she joins, she has to be 100% for the rest of her life. That is HUGE here. So many people don’t understand that and end up going inactive. I am confident she will be baptized. We also have 3 sisters, the Pador family, who know the church is true, and are willing to accept baptism, but socially are afraid to leave their church. They have a lot of neighbors and relatives telling them things. They don’t want to have to sacrifice. They could use some prayers. Also May-ann. we taught her last week for the first time in almost 2 months. She needs some strength.
Yes dad we do have a shower, but it is kind of lame. It’s alright though.
Mom, Sounds like you had a good time on the cruse. It looks really beautiful there. The problem with the ocean here is that it is really dirty. Lots of trash. I’m glad you had a fun time. I have met quite a few Filipinos who work on cruise ships. That would be a fun job, travel the world.
Take care, Love you all!
Elder Schenk

ERIC!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY my BIGGER than me little brother!!! I can’t believe I forgot to email you last week. I think I remembered on Friday. I’d send you a package, but it would probably cost about 4 times as much as the gift just to get it to America. I hope you know how proud I am of you. You are such a great kid. What kind of cake did you have for your birthday? Rhubarb or chocolate chip apple sauce? I can’t tell from the picture. And when I get home you are going to have to teach me how to Jimmer. That sounds like fun. I loved hearing about your soccer game against Squalicum how your goalie scored. That’s just sweet.
Take care buddy. I think about you all the time. Keep up the good work.
Love always,
Eld er Schenk

Mom, Please send this to Brother Bingham. I wrote one by hand but don’t have time to snail mail it to him. I wrote this really fast so there might be some errors. I forgot the original copy and I don’t have an English Book of Mormon so you might double check the quotes for accuracy. Thank you so much. Love you Mom!

A mission is one of the greatest things in the world. There is no other way to learn the lessons like you do while serving for two years as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. I would not trade the knowledge I have learned and the testimony I have gained of my Savior Jesus Christ for all the wealth in the world. It has helped me see the Lords plan for me and find direction in my life. I am learning how to truly be happy and have the opportunity to share that message with so many people. There is no greater joy than working in the Lord's vineyard.
So how do we prepare for a mission? That is a question that I asked myself many times before my mission. One of the best pieces of advice came from a friend of mine who had recently returned from his mission. He said to "Get to know the Book of Mormon before your mission." The Book of Mormon is another witness of Jesus Christ. The purpose of missionaries is to "Invite others to come unto Christ... (Preach My Gospel)" There is no greater tool to help you fulfill your purpose as a missionary than the Book of Mormon. We cannot teach powerfully about Jesus Christ until we ourselves have gained a strong testimony of Him. Nothing will help you gain that testimony more than reading, studying, and pondering the teachings and stories in the Book of Mormon each day. When you gain that testimony, you too can teach with the "power and authority of God" like Alma and Amulek, Nephi the son of Helaman, and Ammon and the sons of Mosiah. President Gordon B. Hinckley challenged us all to read the Book of Mormon more. President Ezra Taft Benson taught that he had a vision of missionaries entering the mission field with hundreds of scriptures memorized from the Book of Mormon ("Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon"). That is my challenge to each of you. Read from the Book of Mormon daily. Study it. Learn the stories. Liken the scriptures to yourself and learn to live a Christ like life. Begin now to memorize scriptures so that the spirit can "give you in the very moment what ye shall say. (D&C 84:85)" If you will do that now, my promise to you as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, is that you will teach with the Power and Authority of God.
Nasayud ko nga tinuod ang Basahon Ni Mormon. Kining basahon makatabang kaninyo sa inyong mga kinabuhia. Kon magkat-on mo karon gikan sa Basahon ni Mormon, mohimong mo andam sa pagface sa mga pagusay sa kinabuhi, ug magduol mo ni Jesukristo. Mohimong mo successful mga missionario. Sa pangalan ni Jesukristo, Amen.

Elder Schenk
Philippines Cebu Mission
Cebuano Language.

April 19, 2011

Family, Good news! I love my new area and new companion and new district! I am learning a lot here. Consolation 2 is in the same zone as Carmen, my second area, and today we played basketball as a zone so I got to see some of the members I used to play basketball with. They remembered me so that was fun. We used to do a lot of stuff with them, even though they were in Danao area. We spent a lot of p-days there.

There are about 100 active members in my new ward. The bishop is a very nice guy. He laughs a lot. Each Saturday we have a community service project and he is always there. Then after, he works with the missionaries. That is great. Then on Sunday we brought a new investigator to church and He greeted her, we sat her down with the old relief society pres who is also her neighbor, and then the bishop welcomed her by name in sacrament meeting. That was good for her. She really liked the service.

It is different being the senior companion. I feel that the Lord has blessed me with the ability to better fill the position. The week before transfers I felt an increase in my ability to teach clearly and discern the needs of the investigators. Now that I am in my new area with Elder Plania I can see that the areas that he struggles in have become my strengths, and he definitely has strengths that I don't have. He doesn't have a lot of class and flare when he teaches, but he is so humble and has some great Christ-like attributes that I need to learn from. We are so strong as a companionship.

I hope your cruise went well mom. I’m sure it was nice to relax for a few days. I just hope you took President Uchtdorf’s advice and ate all the food that was included instead of powdered drink mix and canned beans and crackers. The buffet is much more delicious.

Sorry for emailing early, no time for you all to write. Next week. Salamat kaayo sa inyong nindot nga mga examples. I’ll give you a word for the week to practice. It is one of the hardest sounds to make for Americans. Ngit-ngit. Ask Bro Baring how to pronounce it. Good luck!
Take care! Love you all,
Elder Schenk

April 14, 2011

Dad and Eric,
Thank you so much for your emails. It is great to see how well you are doing. Dad talks about how good Eric is and Eric talks about how good Dad is and you both talked about how good conference was. I’ll be the echo from the other side of the world that you are both great! I can see improvement in both of you. Eric said that, “I really love our Dad. I can feel so much he cares about each and every one of us. It's great to have a dad like him who is so involved in just being a good guy." It’s true. You are a great guy and a great example to me, Eric, and all of the young men in the ward. You always strive to do what is right. And Dad said that, "Speaking of Eric...He played the best that I have ever seen him play. He was really playing hard and got a lot of touches on the ball. As hard as he plays he works even harder to be like his older brother which is a great priesthood holder. You can be proud of your younger brother." Keep going Eric. Become the best that you can be. Do like President Uchtdorf said and become an expert at what you do. But even more, to become an expert on the doctrine of the gospel, especially the priesthood. Knowledge is so important. The more we know, the more the Lord can use us to help others. Thanks for your good examples.

Yesterday I transferred to Consolation 2 and my new companion is Elder Plania. He is a good missionary. He has been out a little over six months and I am the senior companion. That is the first time there. It will be a good learning experience to lead again. It has been almost a year since I was a leader. He is really humble and willing to learn all he can about the gospel and apply it in his life. I think we are going to have a great transfer. Consolation is a bigger area than I was just in. It is just outside of the biggest city on Cebu. I think we are going to have a lot of success. We have some good investigators and I don’t think we will have a hard time finding more. There are a lot of people here. The Lord will lead us to them, or them to us. I am really excited to see how things turn out.

Conference was amazing! I started ranking talks from one to five so that I would know which ones to read first when they came out in the Liahona. I marked a lot of 5's, but then the talks started getting better and better. So I had some 6's and 6+'s until we hit some really good ones that ranked a 200% number 10! Needless to say, I absolutely loved conference. I realized how much more I need to be doing to become what the Lord wants me to be. And like Eric said, everyone learns and notices different things. That is the Lords way of helping each of us specifically.

Thank you both so much for all you do. I miss spending time with the two of you. Take care! Love you tons! Good work Eric on praying for missionary experiences. Don’t be afraid of the questions. They are a blessing that could one day become the biggest blessing in the life of one of your friends. Send my love to Grandma Schenk. I’m sure George is watching over her night and day, as are hosts of other angels.

Love always,
Elder Schenk

April 6, 2011

Wow today was a great week of emails! So many! Everyone wrote this week! Thanks for that, but pday is over and I only have 7 min to write. So I'll make it fast.
I was so excited to hear about General Conference. We were eating dinner at a member’s house on Sunday and he was watching General Conference on his computer, so I got to see just a tiny bit. I am super excited! And to think that I might see Eric on TV on the other side of the world is great!

Mom, hope you have a good time on your trip.

All I can think to say is just keep going. Each of you are doing well in your lives and I am so grateful to hear about all of your successes. Eric is preparing for a mission, Dad shares experiences with the Young Men, Diane is going to the temple more with Dennis, Katie is doing great with her new baby and Josh is successful too. I just love hearing how everyone is so successful. Mom just writes about how happy she is for her family. Thank you all for that. Keep going with the missionary work. Sounds like President Monson hit that one again in conference. Brother Bingham emailed asking me if I could send a short letter about missionary work for the youth conference. Everything now is about sharing the gospel, and that’s my passion. I get to do it 24 X 7. It’s AWESOME! This week I have found great strength through reading the Book of Mormon. I love to read it. If I have the time I read chapter after chapter. Sunday I think I read 5 or 6 chapters in 3 Nephi. The stories are so amazing. You begin to see how great the prophets in the Book of Mormon really are.

I think I am going to be transferring next week, but I won’t know until next Wednesday.

Love you all! Take care. Hope you all enjoyed the pictures!
Love,
Elder Schenk

Katie,
It’s good to hear from you! I haven't gotten the pictures of Eleanor yet, but knowing that they are on their way is exciting! Sounds like she is a little bundle of fun to go shopping with. Just keep going. Someday she may be changing your diapers. :)

I’m excited for Josh. Sounds like he is doing well with work and is really motivated and efficient with his time. That's awesome! When I get home I’ll have to take a trip to Wisconsin and try some of the cheese and frankfurters.

Take care! Love you,
Elder Schenk