More News of Devin

I got this text from Devin's cousin Brittney today:
I just saw Devin again.  I've seen him a few times but today will be the last time before he leaves.  He sounds super excited.  It sounds like he has had a great teacher who loved his mission and so Devin is so excited to finally get out and experience all that his teacher has been telling him about.  It made me laugh how exctied and pumped up he is about his mission.  You can tell he is ready!

Week 7 Begins Today!

Hello! How are you all!

Thank you for you mail and for the packages. Diane, the cupcakes are amazing! Thank you! Mom, Dad, Eric, that package will probably keep me full for the next three weeks! Thank you so much. I have run out of the NeilMed Flushing packets. Could you send some please. My nose is drying up without them.

This week has been exciting health wise! Elder Allen had physical therapy for his knee for 2 hours last week, and has another check up today. Elder Seupule Has had an X-ray and 2 checkups and had shoulder surgery yesterday. That was a fun 5 hours. So I have already left the mtc 3 times and will again today and again next monday. It isnt as fun as I thought it would be. It is kind of a waste of time. It is really hard to study in doctors offices. Elder Seupule Spent the night sleeping and today is in the heath office, again sleeping. He is usually so wired and energetic, it is weird to see him barely able to move. He struggles to sit up in bed even. We have been pushing him around in a wheel chair. I got to help him put on his underwear and spoon feed him pudding! The exciting moments at the MTC! He is going to be able to leave with us in 3 weeks. Hopefully he is feeling well.

Yesterday I somehow lost 2 dear elders, so if you are not mom, or if mom sent me two, and you sent me one yesterday, I didnt get it.

We get 4 more Cebuano speakers in the MTC today! That is exciting! We have been the only 6 for 4 weeks.
I love you all. Thanks for everything!
Love,
Elder Schenk

There has been a sighting of Elder Schenk in the Provo Area

This afternoon I got a text from Brittney, my niece, it said "I just saw your son.  He looks good and happy!  He's at my clinic with his companions.  I actually didn't see him at first but I recognized his companions from the pictures on his blog and then I looked harder and found him!"

I wrote back "So glad!  Snap his picture quick!  Tell him to write us!"  (We didn't get our usual email from him on Wednesday this week).

She said " OK, he just went back to the doc with his companions and I will get it on his way out."

I wrote "Did he see you?  Tell him hi from us.  We're on our way to the temple for him."

A few minutes later Brittney said " I went and said hi and asked if he needed anything and he said Cream Cheese Cupcakes, so Diane will make those for him :)"

I said "Cool!  Give him a hug from mom and dad!"

And then I get the inevitable "Am I allowed to?"

"Well, he is your cousin"

"OK, I will give him a huge hug from everyone!"

"Yes!  Thanks Brittney!  And thanks for telling us you saw him.  This was a tender mercy for us today!"

So then Keith and I did a session at the temple, thinking a lot about Devin and how well he's doing and how happy we are that he's on his mission, and when we got back to the car, we had this picture waiting for us.

With this message,

"Your missionary!! He says he loves you!"

Then when we got home, there was a letter in the mailbox from Devin.  It was the questionairre I sent him last week with all the answers filled in. 

Here are a few of the questions and answers:

Tell us more about your companions.  Elder Allen is from Cache Valley Utah.  He worked on a dairy farm and loves hunting/hiking more than anything. Elder Sepule was on the Samoan National Rugby team and won the championship 2 weeks before his mission.

Favorite P-Day activity? Going to the temple.

What would you like to receive in a package? Something to fill you up after 5 hours of not eating before bed.  Chips, jerky, cookies are good but get smashed in the mail.

Do you listen to the music you took?  No, we can't listen to music in the MTC.

What is the coolest thing that happened this week? I cleaned the temple.  We cleaned the women's initiatory with industrial strength toothbrushes, Q-tips, and toothpicks then wiped down walls with rags and cleaned hundreds of chairs, each one gold plated.  It was really amazing.

You are free to write anything else we should know.  I am only supposed to write on P-Day.  But I think I can still fill out surveys.  Next Thursday we have to teach the first lesson in Cebuano to investigators.  That will be...interesting.

First Pictures from Elder Schenk

We just got pictures in the mail today.  This is Devin with his two companions, Elder Allen, senior companion, and Elder Seupule from Samoa.  What a fine looking trio!

And here is their District.  This group of 6 are now the only missionaries at the MTC speaking Cebuano.

Kamusta everyone!

June 30, 2010

Kamusta everyone! I still love it here at the MTC. I am learning so much. I found out one of my teachers is quitting though. That is sad, he is our favorite. He tells stories about him and his mission all of the time. And he takes us on walks outside so that we can get outside. It is really nice to get out of the classroom. The mission presidents conference this weekend was exciting. I didnt see the prophet. But on saturday we had Dallin H. Oaks speak to us. There were 9 general authorities on the stand. They bring a strong spirit. Last night we had Elane S. Dalton, the young woman general president speak to us with her husband. Brother Dalton said that when he was on his mission that he had two companions that were amazing. They both had a baptism a week for 16 weeks straight! That is amazing! I want to be like that! I want to have that kind of faith and to have the spirit with me that strong. I am learning a lot from being the district leader. I though I knew how to lead, but I was wrong. I have had situations where what I thought would work definately does not. We have leadership training twice a week, on Sunday and Tuesday nights. That is really helpful. Mom and Eric, Ayo Ayo is how they say goodbye. and Ayo is how they get your attention, like when you are at someones door. I didnt understand most of what you said, but i got the just of it. Cebuano isnt a writen language. They dont have a standard for spelling. They dont teach it in school like we do english, they just learn it from their parents. So some of the things you said were spelt different than i have ever seen, but its not wrong. :) oh and when you send me DearElder's every time you put an apostrophy like in "Dad's" they always come out as question marks like "Dad?s" so you can just leave out all mid sentance punctuation. it is less confusing that way. There is an awesome scripture on faith. It is Ether 12.. It says the word faith 33 times in one chapter! it talks about the different stories of faith in the Book of Mormon. Another really good verse is Moroni 10:32. That one says to come unto Christ and be perfected in Him. Deny yourselves of all ungodliness. Try to do that.. It is hard, but amazing! Can i get Shane and Keegans mission addresses? I want to write them! I love you all! Write back! You are in my prayers. Googma ko kanimo! Ayo ayo!
Elder Schenk

Kamusta ang akong pamilia!

June 23, 2010
Kamusta ang akong pamilia! - Hello family! Sorry if this email is a little jumbled. some of my keys don't work and some others work too well. ther is no enter and a double period if i dont remember to erase one.. :) How are you all? I am doing great here. It has its ups and downs, but over all I am learning a ton and the hard times make me grow a lot. This week the devotional was from Elder Snow from the second quorum of the seventy and his wi.. It was so good! I took 4 pages of notes. He talked about how we cannot teach without the spirit. He was a mission president and with all of his missions combined he has served for 10 years! So he really knows. This weekend is mission presidents weekend. All of the new mission presidents (132 of them and thier wives) are going to be here as well as every member of the first presidency and all 12 apostles! There will be lots of other church leaders too. Hopefully we will be able to hear from some of them. Maybe Ill see a general authority! I am excited! The weather here is hot. its in the 80's a lot. maybe even 90's. I dont know for sure, I am just glad I dont have to wear a suit coat in the Philippines. I have been getting all of your packages and postal mail. I just haden't recieved any dear elders. I now have a big pile. Thank you for that. The food is good. If you dont like one of their 3 main dishes you can go get left overs or a salad or a wrap. and of corse they have pp&j and cerial. I stuff myself almost every meal. Things have improved since you have been here Dad! I am glad. Bro Latimer, my teacher who was gone in the Philippines when we first got here has been back for a week and a half and is awesome! we all love him. He tells us all about the culture and food. He served in Cebu as well. He says balut (the 18 day old duck egg) is really good. He would eat one every week because he liked them so much. The blood soup isnt verry good though. He said the worst was octopus inc. Gross! but other than that he liked it. He loves their food and culture. My branch presidency is awesome too. President Johnson is a really loving guy and is always excited and happy to help. I love him. President Jensen has served as mission president and as bishop twice and as a stake president. Amazing. and President Tyler has been a bishop, stake president, mission president, and was over one third of the worlds church education! He was over Central America and one third of the US. He, in President Johnsons words, "Has the standard works memorized." and thats not too far from the truth. I love you all and hope you are doing well. Ayo Ayo! Elder Schenk My testimony in Cebuano. Nasayud ako nga tinuod and simbahan. Nasayud ako nga tinuod sa propeta ni Joseph Smith. Nasayud ako nga tinuod ang Basahon ni Mormon. Nasayud ako nga tinuod ang simbahan. Nasayud ako nga tinuod sa manluluwas ni JesuKristo. Sa ngalan ni JesuKristo.. Amen..

A Little Note from Mom

We have been writing to Devin using dearelder.com. But apparantly I didn't read the instructions very thoroughly. We were accidentally sending the letters to the Philippines instead of the MTC. BIG OOPS! I was so heart broken when I found out that Devin hadn't received our many letters last week and instead thought we just didn't write to him! Ouch, that hurts! We did our best to make up for it today when this letter showed up. We sent new long letters and re-sent the other letters. And even though a box of cookies was sent his way last week, it didn't sound like he had received those either, so we sent a care package through dearelder.com of yummy cinnamon rolls. We can only hope that he actually got everything today and that it helps make up for a week without!
Sorry Devin, we love you!

2 Weeks!

Hey Family!
I still love it here.  the language is hard, but I am learning a lot.  The older cebuano district is leaving next week so there will only be 6 of us that speak it until some more show up.  cebu is the only mission that speaks Cebuano so there aren't much of us.  The other companionship in my district got called to be the Zone Leaders.  I told you last week about dearelder.com but I havent heard from you since then.  You can email me and I will get it that day.  They print it out and put it in my mailbox.  DearElder.com.  And getting mail is really exciting, so that is a good way to go.

I havent figured out how to send pictures yet.  i cant load them on the computer.  Maybe ill print them out for you. 

We have class twice a day, except for sunday and p-day.  I can email during laundry.  That is from 8:30 to 9:30 on wednesdays.  I get to go to the temple today.  It will be closed for weeks after today.  My district got selected to help clean it on the 30th!  That will be fun.

I love you all.  Write back soon!  have a great day.

Elder Schenk

Our First Letter from Elder Schenk emailed June 9, 2010

So there is some good news. You can email me at dearelder.com and they will print it out and put it in my mailbox every day. That way I get to read it that day! And I only have half an hour to email before it kicks me off so I wont be spending my time reading emails. You can give that address to everyone. That way everyone can email me in the mtc. It wont work in the mission field tho.

So news. I am district leader! My district has 5 Elders and one Sister. I have two companions, Elder Allen, my senior companion, and Elder Seupule from Samoa. He speaks English, Samoan, Tongan, and is learning Cebuano! The language is comming well. We learn really fast! On saturday in two hours we learned how to conjegate verbs. That would take anyone else in the world days, if not weeks to understand! The gift of toungs is real! Learning by the spirit is real. We are encouraged to SYL speak your language. So we try substituting cebuano words for english words when we learn them. There is an older cebuano group that has 3 Elders and 4 Sisters in it. They have been here for 7 weeks and know a lot of Cebuano. One of them speaks it all of the time. and when we dont understand (all of the time) he translates for us. It is really fun to learn so fast!
Sundays we have firesides. they had members of the facutly give talks. And then tuesday nights we have devotionals. Last night Robert D. Hales spoke! It was really good. It was really neat to have a General Authority speak specifically to you as missionaries instead of a world wide church. After we had a district discussion on it. The Jensons, one of the members of the branch presidency and his wife, led the discussion. It was really good. The spirit was so strong. Almost noting can beat that, except the temple. The teachers are so good here. We only have two, but one is on vacation in the Philippines until thursday. So we have been having subs. In the six teachers we have, 5 of them are my favorite! they bring the spirit so strong. I love it here so much. I have grown so much already. If I went home now after just one week, I would come home a changed man. Tell everyone about the Gospel! It is to amazing to keep to ourselves! Everyone wants to be more happy. They would love to live with their family together. They would be so much happier if they had someithing good to work towards. The Gospel can bring them all of that. It will change anyone who sincerely tries. I cannot wait to get to the Philippines so that I can help the missionary work there. Because of the temple open house alone, 1400 people have reffered themselves to the missonaries to learn about the Church. I want to help them. I just cant talk to them yet. But I will!
I love you all! I hope you are all doing well. Write often. I love hearing from you!
Love,
Elder Schenk

Devin has changed his residence to the MTC!

We had to come early to get pictures.

The drop off came later, but it was quick. 

No time for standing around taking pictures!

Devin is sporting a new tie from the Missionary Mall.

He also met a couple heading to the Philippines Cebu

mission to run the office while shopping for ties there. 

They promised me they'd take good care of Elder Schenk!

A bittersweet time for father and son. 

We're sure proud of this boy.

Good Luck Devin!  We know you'll be a great missionary!

In Utah!

Devin, Diane, Mom and Dad did a session in the

Salt Lake Temple.  It was so beautiful, and very

memorable.  It was amazing to see the

work of the pioneers, and no surprise that it  took

40 years to build.  A wonderful experience.

Next, we took the opportunity to see once again the movie,

Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the Restoration.

So inspiring!

A wonderful day in Salt Lake City, but we sure missed

Katie, Josh and Dennis that day.

And now for the Pre-MTC breakfast of choice.  Could have had the

free IHOP breakfast for missionaries. 

Nope. 

Could've had the amazing

all you can eat french toast at Kneaders.

Nope.

Had to have homemade blueberry buttermilk pancakes with bacon.

Nothin better!

Preparation time...

Any experienced missionary mom knows, and now I know, that

a great deal of time and energy goes into shopping for two years

 worth of clothing and supplies.  Most of that was accomplished

here at home.  Medical supplies, perscriptions, toiletries and

electronics were mostly purchased at Wal Mart by Devin. 

That included his two year supply of Gold Bond medicated powder,

which was mandatory on his list, and interestingly enough,

unavailable to buy in the Philippines! 

Then came the 10 white shirts.  Devin heard about

the best shirt for his mission, available at  Eddie Bauer.

Luckily, we have an in there too, and DeAnn Findlay scoured

the whole Northwest part of the state to keep us informed

when new supplies showed up in Devin's size.

Suits, you say?  Well, sure, for the MTC.  But once you're

in the Philippines, NOT.  The plane ride over and back are the

only times he'll need a jacket over there. 

Some things just begged to be bought in Utah, and

 no missionary will want to miss the experience of shopping

at the Missionary Mall.  It seems so practical.  Grab your list, walk

in the door and just take one of each item as you head down the isle.

It's handy because there are so few decisions to make.

One brand, one size of most items on the list. Easy!

Devin already had all that stuff, but it was still fun

to see it all in one place, ready to go.

Ties, now that's important.  Here at the Missionary Mall

they have a wall of washable ties.  Devin picked up two here.

Speaking of ties, while choosing between green plaid or

green checked, we just happened to meet the missionary

couple who are going to the Cebu mission to run the

Mission office!  They'll be watching for Devin to arrive,

and will be counting on him to help them learn the language.

The biggest shopping challenge, we learned, was shoes.

We checked every store for just the right style and fit.

After all, missionaries spend alot of time on their feet.

And once again, we ran into people who had served

recently in the Philippines and had great suggestions about

the type of shoe he'd want in hot, wet, muddy terrain.

The most fun challenge of all, fit all of that stuff into two

suitcases!  No small feat!